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NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
DO NOT USE (00:03:17) Shot of tv Studio where Lehrer sits at desk in front of a large monitor bearing a hearings coverage logo, he introduces and summarizes the day's testimony which he says is the stuff of spy novels, it has been the questioning of CIA director Colby mainly about the CIA's possession of two containers of shellfish toxin and cobra venom which contain poison enough to kill thousands of people - the sound is somewhat muffled - the image skips a bit during this segment (00:04:30) Lehrer introduces panel, DAVID WISE , a journalistic expert on the CIA, DAVID PHILLIPS, a CIA agent and former director of covert operations in Latin America
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:05:17) Paul Duke gives more summary of the day's hearing, he says the committee is there to put in check "a rogue elephant" that has gone out of control, he also mentions that the public seems much less interested in these hearings, that nothing can shock them anymore after Watergate hearings two years ago.
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
DO NOT USE (00:06:30) Lehrer segues to the hearings
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:06:38) Shot opens to close up of Colby testifying to the committee, he gives a detailed history of what lead up to the investigation of the toxins, in this history he says that the existence of the toxins came to his attention when earlier in the year he issued a request for any illegal practices within the CIA to be brought to his attention, also in this history he mentions different delivery systems designed in conjuction with the toxin, including dart firing fountain pen, Colby claims the only time the toxins went out on a mission was in the form of a suicide pill for the U2 pilot, FRANCIS GARY POWERS, spying on the Soviet Union, Colby ends by saying the toxin was found in a relatively unused vault and that it was kept after orders for its destruction were issued because of the cost of the destruction and the claim that it was irreplaceable (00:10:34) Church gives statistics as to the number of people that could be killed by the CIA toxins and asks why the CIA ever created the toxins, especially the great amount, in the first place (even before they were declared illegal by NIXON's passage of a ban on chemical and biological weapons)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:12:09) Colby responds that the toxin was developed to replace the L-Pill, a cyanide suicide capsule, with a more efficient alternative, he also admitts it was developed with the army as a weapon and that the CIA should not have held on to the amount it did (00:13:16) Church points out that the discovery of various poison delivery devices found in the CIA lab, including a dart gun, implicate the toxin's intended use was also as an offensive weapon, he asks Colby to present some of the delivery devices that were designed for this purpose (00:15:30) Church is presented with the dart gun, a modified 45 with a scope, and container of the ammunition - Colby gives the weopan specifics including the fact that ammunition was designed that would hit the victim without notice, Church: "As a murder weapon that's about as efficient as you can get" - Colby :"It is a very serious weopan" (00:17:30) ****Some good footage of senators with weapons as the pistol is passed down the committee line for investigation, Senator BARRY GOLDWATER holds it up and takes aim with the scope, this is met with chuckles by those eagerly clustered around him
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
DO NOT USE (00:18:09) Lehrer consults the panel about the testimony just shown, he asks Phillips if CIA agents ever sat around debating the pros and cons of switching from the L-pill to shellfish toxin - Lehrer then asks Wise about the U2 mission use of the poison, Wise reports there are differention contentions about what sort of poison was carried by Powers - finally Lehrer asks both men what they thought about Colby's presentation of the dart gun - Phillips thinks it was a mistake to make public agency weapons and that the international community will take a keen interest and Wise says he thinks it's all part of the stage show aspect of the hearings enjoyed by both senators and the CIA (00:24:18) Lehrer segues to more hearings footage
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:24:40) Shot opens to Senator WALTER MONDALE who states "the record's a mess", that the CIA has has no system of accountability within it and how this was exposed by the shellfish toxin - there were no orders issued for its destruction and it seems it was chance that its existence was brought to official attention (00:26:21) Senator HOWARD BAKER asks Colby about the destruction of documents surrounding the shellfish toxin that perhaps give the purpose of its use and reason for its storage by a Mr. GOTLEIB (00:28:00) Baker asks Colby to define the doctrine of "plausible deniability" and to tell the committee if this was the excuse by which the CIA operated in its hiding the existence and purpose of the shellfish toxin - Colby defines plausible deniability as a way in which the U.S. could deny responsibility for anything that it was potentially feasible that they could not have done, he says that it strictly a doctrine used for international affairs and that where as the CIA might have hidden their domestic operations under it before they no longer do so now (the image blinks black for a second during this segment and the color comes back in radioactive light/white tones - bright and greenish)
NPACT coverage of Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:29:52) Senator WALTER HUDDLESTON refers to a memorandum from Dr.CAREMISSINUS (?) to the then director of the CIA, RICHARD HELMS, which Helms claims he never recieved, this document is to notify the CIA of the need, under presential decree, to destroy their stock of chemical and biological weapons held at Army base Fort Deitrich, it lists the then current stock of such things that need to be destroyed and this list does not include the shellfish toxin, the document also suggests that the CIA could if chosen by Helms continue with it's use of these weapons - Huddleston confirms with Colby the implications of all this (00:33:19) Senator GARY HART asks if Colby can vouch that there are no other chemical or biolgical poisons stored elsewhere within the country - Colby cannot - Hart then asks Colby to define the term compartmentization - Colby defines it as the keeping of sensitive information to a limited circle of CIA employees - Hart asks if the director of the CIA has limited access to compartmentalized information - Colby says no
JFK Assassination HSCA Hearings
Old House Caucus Room in the U.S. Capitol Building, text on screen reads “House Select Committee on Assassinations, John F. Kennedy December 29, 1978." Press members gathered in hearing room; adult African-American man sets up chalkboard. Commentator Paul Duke introduces the subject of today’s hearings. Duke says Committee will hear new evidence from scientific report that claims four shots were fired on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, not three shots as experts have said. This report raises the conspiracy that shooter Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone and that another gunman shot from the Grassy Knoll. Duke says the Warren Commission originally concluded three shots were fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Duke says Committee will hear this new conflict in evidence. A group of acoustical experts including Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschenasy of Queens College New York City will be testifying. Dr. James Barger also will testify.
JFK Assassination Hearings - E. Aschkenasy & Mark Weiss (Part III)
(01:09:03) Weiss explains further that they know that the wave pattern corresponds to a gun shot because of the uniqueness of its echo pattern, Weiss then goes on to explain in detail a unique attribute of the gun shot waves which was due to the fact that the initial sound was obstructed from reaching the microphone by the motorcycle windshield (01:16:07) Chairman LOUIS STOKES tells Weiss and Aschkenasy the "historical importance" of their testimony in stating that there was a shot fired from the grassy knoll and therefore a second shooter and likely a conspiracy, Stokes then asks what sort of scrutiny will Weiss and Aschkenasy's work come under - Weiss gives a long response, listing all the factors that he and Aschkenasy took into account when conducting their analysis, Weiss feels confident they left nothing out (01:22:12) Stokes confirms with Weiss that the two men have determined that 4 shots were fired in Dealey Plaza (01:23:23) Stokes asks if Weiss and Aschkenasy did anything in their tests that could not have been done in 1963 - Weiss responds no (01:25:00) Stokes asks why Dr. JAMES BARGER did not come to the same conclusions as Weiss and Aschkenasy - Weiss explains that his tests left him with a significantly larger margin of error (01:28:31) Stokes recognizes Representative RICHARDSON PREYER who first confirms that the acoustic tests performed by the two men are objective science, and then asks if the what Weiss has identified as a bullet shot could not have been a motorcycle back-firing - Weiss said it could have been, but that it would have to have been a motorcycle up on the grassy knoll, this receives much laughter from the gallery (01:33:00) Preyer asks about the number of peaks above the noise level Weiss affiliated with the gun shots - Weiss explains the peaks and their relation to his calculations
JFK Assassination Hearings - E. Aschkenasy & Mark Weiss (Part III)
(01:34:20) Stokes recognizes Representative SAMUEL DEVINE , Devine asks about the differences between Bargers test and conclusions and those of Weiss and Aschkenasy - Weiss explains how their conclusions were merely a progression from Barger's (01:37:00) Devine asks about the different sounds of gun shot blips on a version of the tape of the JFK assassination and then asks whether or not Weiss could know the trajectory or target of the bullet - Weiss responds he has not heard the tape that Devine references nor can he tell the committee where the knoll shot would have been aimed (01:39:15) Weiss answers a local paper's editorial charge that acoustics is an arcane science (01:39:49) Stokes recognizes Delegate WALTER FAUNTROY who confirms with Weiss that the noise he identified as coming from the grassy knoll could not have been an engine back-fire, Stokes then asks Weiss if he could say if the shot fired from the knoll came from a pistol - Weiss responds that all he knows is that the shot was super-sonic and that as far as he knows pistols do not fire at such high velocities (01:42:25) Fauntroy asks the committee itself, what information they have about a person who supposedly was on the grassy knoll, claimed he was a secret service agent and flashed identification - Blakey responds that a police officer on the knoll encountered such a person but that the person was not identified and no more information was available about him (01:44:08) Stokes recognizes Representative CHRISTOPHER DODD, Dodd asks if any of the techniques used by Aschkenasy and Weiss and Barger were not available 15 years ago - Weiss responds no other than an inconsequential test of Barger's (01:45:50) Dodd and Weiss discuss and discount the possibilities of what other noises could have caused the sound wave pattern that has been identified as the knoll gun shot (01:47:38) Dodd, Weiss and Aschkenasy have a long discussion about the sound of a bell which is heard on the police tape - Weiss and Aschkenasy say it most likely came from another radio at another location sharing the transmission band, the two men then go on though to explain why this still does not allow for the possibility that the sound waves they identified as gun shots could have come from anywhere other than Dealey Plaza (01:55:06) Representative FLOYD FITHIAN confirms with Weiss and Aschkenasy that they entered their analysis without preconceptions about what they would find and that they had no outside influences pushing them in any particular direction, Fithian then asks the two men about the use of acoustical analysis in criminal cases - they both say that the use of the science in criminal cases is new but the science itself is old and always abides by the same rules regardless of the context of its application (02:01:40) Fithian wants to differentiate between Barger's tests and those of Aschkenasy and Weiss - Aschkenasy's response is cut short by the end of the tape
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Church Committee Hearings - Senate Hearings on Intelligence Activities - Tom Charles Huston, Nixon White House Aid - Houston Plan Senate Caucus Room, Washington DC
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
DO NOT USE NPACT Logo (National Public Affairs Center for Television)
Church Committee Hearings - Tom Charles Huston
Testimony of Tom Charles Huston, Nixon White House Aid, who says that he was concerned with bombers, assassins and snipers and he took responsibility for the White House's dealings with them
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:04:38) Opens to testimony of CIA Director WILLIAM COLBY who is explaining for Senator WALTER HUDDLESTON why the CIA was working with shellfish toxins (00:05:36) Senator BARRY GOLDWATER makes a statement to the committee that there is a danger in the Senate investigation of going to far in exposing secret operations and ruining the agencies involved, he goes on to say he is proud of the CIA and praises its representatives that have testified and recommends the intelligence agencies as a good place of employment for the nation's youth - Colby thanks Goldwater for the pat on the back (00:07:23) Goldwater and Colby discuss surveilance and defense against foreign chemical and biological weapons programs (00:08:43) Senator MORGAN gives a long winded statement as to why the nation continues to need the CIA to preserve the national security, he then asks Colby if it's possible that the shellfish toxins were not destroyed because they were part of the nation's defense program against biological or chemical attack - Colby responds that this is a weak defense, especially considering the amount of shellfish toxin the CIA had in its possession
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:11:34) Morgan and Colby discuss Colby's position in the CIA at the time the shellfish toxin's were to have been destroyed and the existence of foreign chemical and biological weapons programs (00:13:27) Committee Chairman FRANK CHURCH recognizes Senator CHARLES MATHIAS, Mathias and Colby discuss the relationship between CIA operations and the Constitution, MATHIAS states there is a need to define the relationship between the constitutional process and the operations of the CIA - Colby responds that the CIA is already responsible to report to six different government committees, including a congressional one, all thier domestic intelligence operations - Mathias in turn responds that he knows many congressional members who have shyed away from attending such committees, saying they "don't want to know" (00:19:35) Church pipes in that he agrees with Mathias about congressional reponsibility to survey the CIA but he stresses that the CIA needs to do a better job of surveying itself and knowing what is going on within it, that its policy of excessive secrecy is keeping improper activities alive
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:21:04) Church recognizes Senator GARY HART, Hart asks if Colby can vouch that there are no other chemical or biological poisons stored elsewhere within the country - Colby cannot - Hart then asks Colby to define the term compartmentization - Colby defines it as the keeping of sensitive information to a limited circle of CIA employees - Hart asks if the director of the CIA has limited access to compartmentalized information - Colby says no (00:23:22) Hart and Colby discuss the possibility of improper activities continuing within the CIA and staying concealed under the veil of compartmentization - Colby says that new structures of organization have been implemented to prevent this but that it still could happen, Colby adds that outside supervision (e.g. Congressional) will only help to increase internal supervision (00:27:40) Hart and Colby discuss the CIA's relationship to vulnerability tests that were conducted to see how easily susceptible the U.S. was to a chemical or biological attack - Colby says the CIA was informed about the results of the tests and says with the exception of LSD tests conducted on unwitting subjects no one was harmed in these tests
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:30:30) Church recognizes Senator SCHWEIKER (?), Schweiker wants to know why there's a discrepancy in different reports issued at different times between the amounts of shellfish toxin found in CIA possession, when Colby cannot give an explanation Schweiker says this implicates the Army in trying to hold on to its supply of the toxin, Schweiker then asks Colby about codes affiliated with the toxin (00:37:10) Schweiker and Colby discuss other toxins found in CIA possession, whether or not they fall under a clause in the Presidential order to get rid of all chemical and biological weapons that allows for the possession of such weapons for the purpose of defense research, Schweiker also asks Colby about being approached by someone wanting to use the toxins for CIA operations
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:39:30) Finally Schweiker asks about a carbon copy of a memorandum issued within the CIA requesting that the toxins be moved from Army base Fort Deitrich to another location in Baltimore (00:41:11) Church puts it to Colby about the above mentioned memorandum, in this memorandum, directed to the then director of the CIA RICHARD HELMS, the Presidential order of destruction of chemical and biological weapons is addressed with regard to the CIA's stock of such weapons, the memorandum gives the option of moving toxins from Fort Deitrich to a private storage lab in Baltimore with the expressed intent of by-passing the Presidential directive, Church then wants to know why a written order was not authored within the CIA to destroy these toxins - Colby says assumptions were made that the destuction would just happen, Colby adds he intends to run a tighter ship
Church Committee Hearings - CIA Director William Colby
(00:47:36) Church and Colby discuss the original reasoning of the National Security Council's legal authorization of the CIA to develop and possess chemical weapons such as the toxins, Colby explains that such toxins were to be used in "covert actions" such as paramilitary operations abroad, Colby concedes however that the quantity of toxins in CIA possession was excessive (00:52:30) Senator JOHN TOWER asks how prevalent insubordination is in the CIA such as that revealed in the shellfish toxin case and what is going to be done about it - Colby responds that the discipline is tight in the CIA and that this incident was an exception (00:55:03) Tower and Colby discuss the effectiveness of oral orders versus written ones then move on to when National Security Council authorization was needed with regard to use of chemical weapons
Small Fry in Sports: Soap Box Derby
Parade of many children. Young boys wearing patriotic outfits prepare their vehicles for the race. (Their cars seem to have the names of local newspapers on them.) The little cars get weighed. The race begins, with some mechanism releasing to allow the cars to start downhill and these kids are racing in front of huge crowds! Winner poses with man and woman, woman (mom) kisses him; CU the teenaged winner.
Reagan Press Conference - Oct 1, 1981
See also catalog # 524499 Video trouble throughout the tape. There is a fair amount of microphone feed back as press ask questions, not during Reagan's response. Audio of Reagan is OK Reagan Press Conference - Oct 1, 1981. The President's fourth news conference began at 2 p.m. in the East Room at the White House. It was broadcast live on radio and television. White House Press Room, Washington, DC
Reagan Press Conference - Oct 1, 1981
Opens to press packed White House Press Room, press form a large audience all of which sit in folding chairs surrounding and facing an empty podium on which appears the presidential seal - camera pans the room with a long shot from different angles. The president of the U.S. is announced, everyone stands as RONALD REAGAN makes his entry smiling and nodding down one of the aisles and up to the podium.