Ancillary Mercy полностью

The first cracks in the facade appeared in 1971. With intelligence community break-ins widespread, Hoover ended the Cointelpro program in April, not due to any recognition of impropriety but to fear of exposure. The bureau continued to be aggressive against its Cointelpro targets but was less systematic. Hoover’s fears proved well justified, for in May 1971, burglars broke into the FBI Field Office at Media, Pennsylvania, escaping with about a thousand documents and exposing the FBI’s massive surveillance of blacks, students, radicals, and other mischievous groups. The word “Cointelpro” escaped into society.⁷

Then, on June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing a series of highly sensitive documents known as the Pentagon Papers. These were a classified history of the Vietnam War, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, whom the White House immediately sought to smear and discredit. In September, a group of Cuban-Americans connected with the CIA, along with G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist. These people were Richard Nixon’s personal covert action squad, nicknamed the “plumbers group.” In April 1972, it was almost certainly Nixon people who broke into the home of CBS White House correspondent Dan Rather.⁸

Also in April 1972, the residence of J. Edgar Hoover was broken into twice. According to Hoover biographer Anthony Summers, the second break-in allowed for the placement of a poison (thiophosphate) into Hoover’s personal toilet articles. The chemical is a compound used in insecticides, highly toxic if taken orally, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. It causes fatal heart seizure and is detectable only if an autopsy is performed within hours of death. J. Edgar Hoover died between 2 A.M. and 3 A.M. on May 2, 1971. He received no autopsy, and the cause was ascribed to cardiac arrest, although Hoover’s doctor claimed he had been in good health. That morning, about twenty government agents methodically ransacked Hoover’s residence, but Hoover’s secretary destroyed countless files before anyone reached them. The official establishment lionized and glorified Hoover, and twenty-five thousand people flocked to the Capitol to pay homage to him. Nixon called him “a great force for good in our national life.” Privately, Nixon feared Hoover even in death. A year later, he spoke of the old Director as though he were still alive: “He’s got files on everybody, goddamnit!”⁹

Shortly after Hoover’s death, Nixon’s plumbers group burglarized the Chilean embassy in Washington. Then, on June 17, 1972, they were caught while breaking into the Democratic National Committee in Washington’s Watergate Office Building. Many believe Watergate was just the tip of the ice-berg, since there had been at least a hundred similar types of break-ins, all apparently politically motivated, all unsolved, an unknown number of which were connected to Nixon. At any rate, Nixon’s position seemed strong. It took some time before the FBI realized the break-in was not a CIA operation. Moreover, even after eyes turned toward the president, prosecutors appeared to be in his pocket.¹⁰

THINGS FALL APART

Nixon’s several failed attempts to reorganize the intelligence community showed that he was no better than his predecessors at controlling this sprawling octopus. Dissatisfied with and mistrustful of Helms, Nixon fired him following his re-election to the presidency in November 1972. Helms now began two months of vigorous cleanup at the CIA, closing down such vulnerable programs as Operation Often. During his last days as DCI in January 1973, Helms ordered Gottlieb, also on his way out, to destroy all files relating to MK-Ultra, MK-Search, and related endeavors in mind control. Among other things, Helms was worried that the lawsuits of Ewen Cameron’s former patients could blaze a trail straight to Langley. Inexplicably, Gottlieb failed to destroy about 130 incriminating boxes in the archives. Had he destroyed these, MK-Ultra might have remained unknown to this day. Meanwhile, the CIA was also working to prevent the publication of an expose by former agent Victor Marchetti. HTLingual and the NSA’s Minaret programs also ended in 1973, the latter in order to prevent exposure during the Weathermen Trial.¹¹

In February 1973, immediately after Helms left the CIA, he was questioned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, subject to approval for an ambassadorial post to Iran. (He was there, incidentally, during an amazing UFO sighting in Tehran in 1976.) Helms was questioned by none other than Sen. Stuart Symington, the former air force secretary and enemy of James Forrestal. Symington asked Helms whether the CIA had tried to overthrow the government of Chile. “No, sir,” replied the ex-DCI, who also denied that the CIA had been involved in domestic intelligence activities. Seven months later, Salvador Allende died in a CIA-coordinated military coup.¹²