Political Surveillance Quotes
He lists a number of employees including his own wife. The foundation was the L. Ron Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation Inc. In this case a religious leader was asking the government for assistance in determining who was and was not fit to be a member and an associate of his organization. The FBI apparently ignored his accusations, and there was no government action though he continued to accuse associates throughout his life. The FBI agent who met with Hubbard to investigate his charges wrote “mental case” on the file.
At the time the USSR was our ally. Neither the military or the state department focused in gaining intelligence on any ally and J. Edgar Hoover had for years focused on intelligence about communists in the United States but not in Russia and the rest of the world. These other agencies treated Souers with disdain or ignored him, but this memo showed the importance of Truman’s idea of having an independent intelligence agency to inform the President.
There was a military coup in 1973 which was supported by the United States -- {640618} . Many Chilean left wingers were tortured, murdered or disappeared. Also, two American citizens in Chile were murdered at the time. This case finally brought the murderers of the Americans from the military junta to account. However, it turned out that the murders of the Americans was part of a conspiracy between the Chilean junta and United States military / intelligence officers in Santiago at the time. The American murder victims were fingered by an American Naval Captain, Ray E. Davis, as leftists and they too were killed. Captain Davis had been indicted with the two Chileans, but he died before the trial. The Chilean judge was not able to indicate how high up the decision by the American officers to have the Chileans kill leftist Americans went. One important historical aspect of this case was meaningful because when the trial was finally conducted, there was a major policy debate in the United States over the right of the American government to kill American citizens abroad and under what circumstances with most people thinking that this was a new policy issue brought about by the development of drone technology and the War on Terror. However, this judge’s release of the information showed that Americans had been previously killed before drones. One major difference is that in the War on Terror case the President, Attorney General and other officials were the major decision makers while in the 1973 case in Chile, it may have been limited to a few rabid, over-zealous, mid-level officers, acting on their own. Or perhaps the kill decision went further. The documents relating to the murders are highly classified and the government has not yet released them at the time of this quotation.
