Audio countermeasures support to the Secret Service

Active: 1960 to 1973

Declassified

Editorial summary

CIA Technical Services Staff had spent two decades building expertise in covert audio devices: bugs, taps, and the equipment to plant and remove them. Through the 1960s and into the early 1970s, the agency loaned that expertise to the Secret Service, which protects the president and other senior officials.

Before presidential and vice-presidential trips abroad, CIA technicians would sweep hotel rooms, meeting halls, and motorcade routes for hidden listening devices. The Family Jewels memorandum, compiled in 1973, treats this support as ongoing and routine. Item number seven on Howard Osborn's catalogue of admissions lists "Audio Countermeasures Support to the United States Secret Service."

The work was technically domestic in part. Some of the sweeps took place inside the United States, including at advance sites for the President's domestic travel. The 1947 National Security Act prohibits the CIA from conducting internal security functions on American soil. Osborn included the program on his list because he expected congressional investigators might consider domestic sweeps a violation of that charter, even when the purpose was protecting the president.

The Church Committee, in its 1975 report, treated CIA support to the Secret Service as a less serious example of charter ambiguity. The committee found no evidence the agency had used the access to do anything beyond what the Secret Service requested. But the support relationship was a clear example of how the wall between foreign intelligence and domestic law-enforcement work, which the 1947 law tried to build, had become porous in practice.

The Rockefeller Commission described the activity as proper in intent but irregular in legal posture. The Family Jewels acknowledgment was the first time the agency itself put its participation in writing.

Editorial summary by govweird, grounded in the declassified record and the Church Committee public hearings.

Originating agency

Central Intelligence Agency

Activity period

1960 to 1973

Source document

CIA Family Jewels (702 pp.)

Public release

June 25, 2007

Originating directive

Schlesinger memo, May 1973

Source page range

p. 416, p. 489, p. 663

Topics

Government Conspiracies

Original document, embedded

The full 702-page Family Jewels document is hosted by govweird. The embedded viewer above is anchored to the relevant pages (p. 416, p. 489, p. 663); scroll within the frame to browse adjacent material. Mirror copies are at the National Security Archive and the CIA reading room.

Transcript (OCR)

OCR-extracted text from the source pages

--- PAGE 416 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 SECRET MEMORANDUM TO : Executive Secretary CIA Management Committee SUBJECT : Loan of Television System to Secret Service for Use at Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1972 OKO 1. The attached/summary reports the loan of television equipment by the Agency to the Secret Service for use during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions last year. The equipment was for use in helicopter aerial surveillance, primarily for crowd control. The assumption is that it was used for that purpose. The equipment was recovered in November 1972. 2. The transaction seems a straightforward arrangement, related to the legal responsibility of the Secret Service. However, the fact that the Agency provided the equipment for use in a domestic political situation could be presented in a different light. WVB 00412 [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 489 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 components were missing when it was returned. These components were the handle, tripod and electrical adapter. Later the missing components were returned to us by the Secret Service. 4. A few months ago, Mr. [REDACTED] called me about this equipment and said that SGT would like to get the equipment from its books since none of it would be needed in the future by SGT. He offered to transfer the equipment at no cost to [REDACTED] Branch. A short time later the necessary paper work was performed to reflect the receipt of this equipment into the [REDACTED] Branch inventory. [REDACTED] Chief, [REDACTED] Branch Special Operations Division [REDACTED stamp/watermark] DECLASSIFYING SECRET 00480 [vision-ocr] --- PAGE 663 --- MORI DocID: 1451843 CIA INTERNAL USE ONLY 31 May 1973 MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD SUBJECT: Interview with [REDACTED] FMSAC 1. [REDACTED] said he recalled [REDACTED] talking about the Office of Security's liaison with the Police Forces in the Metropolitan Area and that the Ballou case was mentioned. He also recalled that [REDACTED] had mentioned that the Agency had provided assistance to the Secret Service in connection with surveillance work against radical groups at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He said that he could not re- member exactly what [REDACTED] said, but he did recall that there was considerable discussion and debate among the class members about the propriety of the Agency engaging in such activities. 2. Later in January or February 1972, at a time when [REDACTED] was Chairman of the Management Advisory Group (MAG), he said he discussed these matters, and questioned the extent to which the Agency should become involved in domestic intelligence activities, with Colonel White and later with Mr. Colby. The MAG also raised the general problem in a couple of their papers, but without citing specific detailed examples. He said he understood that Colonel White had taken the matter up with the Director of Security and that some changes had been made as a result. [REDACTED] F.T. Bishop Orig - File w/ [REDACTED] nterview CIA INTERNAL USE ONLY 00653 [vision-ocr]

Extracted by haiku-vision. Carbon-copy typewriter text from 1973 is imperfect; words may be misread. Always cross-check against the embedded image above.