Word: pyle
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...such operations have logically focused on the Army's military role abroad: no matter that dossiers have been kept on politically suspect South Vietnamese, at least American citizens were reasonably assured that their political activities were not under surveillance. Such is apparently no longer the case according to Christopher Pyle, formerly a captain in Army intelligence himself and presently a graduate student at Columbia. Writing in the Washington Monthly (January and July, 1970), Pyle documents the collection, computerization, storage, and analysis of purely domestic intelligence by the U. S. Army Intelligence Command under the official designation of "CONUS," the Army...
...PYLE DISCLOSED that the Army maintains a $2.7 million command post under the Pentagon parking lot. This so-called Directorate for Civil Disturbance Planning and Operations is a constant riot watch. Despite Army assurances that it has dismantled its computerized file system at Fort Holabird, Md., it still maintains 375 copies of a two-volume encyclopedia on dissent entitled "Counter-Intelligence Research Project," popularly known as the Compendium. This is compiled by the Counter-Intelligence Analysis Division at the Pentagon...
...which throughout the summer was conducting hearings on bombings and other terroristic acts, denied that a general investigation of the reading habits of Americans was part of Treasury policy; the agents were purportedly conducting a specific investigation. This is another example of the "plausible denials" by which, according to Pyle, the Army placated irate senators and congressmen such as Sen. Samuel Ervin and Rep. Cornelius Gallagher concerning its CONUS operation. Once such investigatory operations are underway it is not likely that they will be limited unless outside pressure is exerted...
...many existing dictatorships, however, the police function, while pervasive, is not undertaken by the Army. Recent disclosures such as Pyle's concerning the Army's intelligence operations in the "continental United States" raise serious questions about the Army's role in domestic politics. The judge who dismissed the ACLU suit claimed that Army maintenance of files was no different than maintenance of files by a newspaper. Frank Askin, arguing for the plaintiffs, observed that no newspaper also possessed weapons or other means of force to deploy against whoever was on file. The right of the Army to operate data banks...
...necessity of Congressional investigation is evident. The Army, or the Justice Department, or Treasury, for that matter, will evade the issue unless threatened by hearings. Pyle has already documented how the Army, by means of plausible denials and half-assurances, succeeded in placating Sen. Ervin and Rep. Gallagher when they threatened to hold hearings earlier in the year...