william colby tribute thread

As I sat there, I was reminded of the time that I have spent, that I have known Mr. Colby, first as a junior officer for several years during my tenure at the CIA. I had the honor of serving under him during the years that he served as DCI or Director of Central Intelligence . At the time I knew him probably simply by reputation as the boss, the man that headed the agency. I knew him by reputation for the long years of service that he had put in serving his country at the CIA and, prior to that, in the OSS and in the military during the war. But it was really in the years after I left my service at the CIA, entered the private practice of law in Georgia, served as the U.S. Attorney in Georgia, and now as a Member of Congress that I have really come to know the William Colby that was such a tribute to his country, to his family and to his friends.

Mr. Colby's passing, of course, is the signal of the passing of an era in some ways. The tremendous years, decades of service to his country, the selfless service that he embodied, the service that forsook the lucrative call of private practice for many years, that drew him away from his family for many years, that kept him apart indeed in many ways from his fellow citizens for many years because of the very nature of his work, the secrecy of it, are the sorts of things that we see far too infrequently in public life nowadays.

Mr. Speaker, something else about Mr. Colby that I know from personal experience that is, if not unique, certainly something that we again do not see too often. That is the fact that, despite the man's tremendous intellect, despite the tremendous responsibilities that he continued to carry with him, even after leaving Government service, despite the fact that he could be jetting around the world anywhere at a moment's notice and meeting with world leaders, meeting with business leaders, large and small, he would always, and I emphasize always, find the time to take a call from a friend, to chat for a few minutes, to answer a question, to promise to get back to that old friend, that former junior colleague of his with an answer that might help with providing some information to an American citizen contemplating traveling abroad and who wanted to learn something about the inside scoop on a foreign nation.

In listening to the tributes today at the National Cathedral to my old friend, Bill Colby, I really was struck by the depth of public service embodied in this man. It is something that I cherish very much, and I commend to my colleagues here in this House and to the American people to learn about this man, to study him, to take heart in the selfless public service, the nonpartisan public service. In all the years that I knew Bill Colby, and he supported me politically, he supported me in many ways, I never asked him whether he was a Republican or a Democrat, and I do not know. It is not something that he demanded as a litmus test of anybody, and probably most people never demanded it of him.

Mr. Speaker, he responded to me as he responded to American citizens, many of whom he never knew, because he was that kind of man. He was a man that would constantly reach out, give of himself whether it was simply answering a question or whether it was parachuting behind enemies lines in World War II or serving this country very valiantly for many years in Vietnam. Mr. Colby truly was the professional's professional. He was the patriot's patriot for this country. He has indeed now come in from the cold, for he is now in the bosom of our Lord. I commend him to the American people.

http://www.espionageinfo.com/images/eeis_01_img0195.jpg
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media"

On May 7 1962, Helms and other CIA officers briefed Robert Kennedy, telling him that they were working with the mafia to assassinate Castro and had agreed to pay $150,000 to Sam Giancana, the Cosa Nostra boss of Chicago, to find a gunman to go down to Cuba and kill Castro. Hoover's detailed note read, "Robert A. Maheu, a private detective in Washington DC, to approach Giancana with a proposition of paying $150,000 to hire some gunmen to go into Cuba and kill Castro". A week later the CIA official note of the meeting was circulated but it contained no mention of the assassination plot. But there can be little doubt that Robert Kennedy was brief, and then he in turn told his brother, a briefing that must have been excruciating for Kennedy who was sharing a mistress, Judith Exner, with Giancana. Exner was not called as a witness, and Giancana never got to testify. In the middle of the Church Commitee hearings he was assassinated with a bullet in the back of the head. Six further bullets were fired into his face, making a neat circle round his mouth, the symbolism of which was not lost on anyone. His assassin has never been found. The day after, CIA Director William Colby made a bizarre announcement, saying, "we had nothing to do with it".

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/events/images/ACF875.jpg

Michael Holzman has recently assessed the theory that William Colby was a Soviet spy (Lobster 51). The original claim that Colby was a spy came from James Jesus Angleton. Mind you, according to Angleton, several CIA senior officials were spies and he leaked this information to several journalists. Richard Helms told his biographer, Thomas Powers (The Man Who Kept the Secrets) that Colby acts “as Director of Central Intelligence were entirely consistent with those of a man who was a Russian agent.” Helms of course was very angry with Colby for cooperating with the Congressional committees led by Frank Church and Otis Pike. In his own autobiography (A Look Over My Shoulder) Helms asks the question – “Was Colby America’s more successful Kim Philby?”

Holzman looks at the reasons why Colby was hated by both Angleton and Helms but fails to consider the connections with Watergate.

Colby appeared to have no chance of obtaining promotion while Richard Helms was Director of the CIA. However, everything changed when Nixon sacked Helms for refusing to cover-up the Watergate scandal.
In February, 1973, an outsider and Nixon supporter, James Schlesinger, became the new director of the CIA. Schlesinger was heard to say: “The clandestine service was Helms’s Praetorian Guard. It had too much influence in the Agency and was too powerful within the government. I am going to cut it down to size.” This he did and over the next three months over 7 per cent of CIA officers lost their jobs.

On 9th May, 1973, Schlesinger issued a directive to all CIA employees: “I have ordered all senior operating officials of this Agency to report to me immediately on any activities now going on, or might have gone on in the past, which might be considered to be outside the legislative charter of this Agency. I hereby direct every person presently employed by CIA to report to me on any such activities of which he has knowledge. I invite all ex-employees to do the same. Anyone who has such information should call my secretary and say that he wishes to talk to me about “activities outside the CIA’s charter”.

There were several employees who had been trying to complain about the illegal CIA activities for some time. As Cord Meyer pointed out, this directive “was a hunting license for the resentful subordinate to dig back into the records of the past in order to come up with evidence that might destroy the career of a superior whom he long hated.”

It now became necessary to get Schlesinger removed from office. On 16th May, 1973, Deep Throat has an important meeting with Woodward where he provided information that was to destroy Nixon. This included the comment that the Senate Watergate Committee should consider interviewing Alexander P. Butterfield. Soon afterwards told a staff member of the committee (undoubtedly his friend, Scott Armstrong) that Butterfield should be asked to testify before Sam Ervin.

Nixon now realized he had gone too far and removed Schlesinger from his post. However, to maintain the pressure on the CIA, Nixon suggested Colby for the post. The reason for this was that Colby had convinced Schlesinger that he was in favour of revealing details of CIA’s dirty tricks.

This is no doubt true and this meant that the CIA now had a good reason to get rid of both Nixon and Colby.

On 25th June, 1973, John Dean testified that he believed Nixon's office might be bugged. On Friday, 13th July, Butterfield appeared before the committee and was asked about if he knew whether Nixon was recording meetings he was having in the White House. Butterfield now admitted details of the tape system which monitored Nixon's conversations. It was this disclosure that meant that Nixon would be forced to resign.

When in 1975 both houses of Congress set up inquiries into the activities of the intelligence community, Colby handed over to the Senate committee chaired by Frank Church details of the CIA's recent operations against the left-leaning government in Chile. The agency's attempts to sabotage the Chilean economy had contributed to the downfall of South America's oldest democracy and to the installation of a military dictatorship.

His testimony resulted in his predecessor, Richard Helms, being indicted for perjury. Colby was attacked by right-wing figures such as Barry Goldwater for supplying this information to the Frank Church and on 30 January 1976, President Gerald Ford replaced him with George H. W. Bush. Someone he knew would do everything he could to prevent disclosure of the CIA’s dirty tricks. After all, he had been involved with illegal CIA projects such as Operation 40 since 1960.

Watched this last night:

http://warezforyou.com/img_store/0/59/52/77.jpg

Directed by his son, but did not come across as a whitewash (conceding that my background knowledge is limited). I followed the Watergate hearings when I was 12--up to a point; I was 12--but was oblivious to the Church committee a couple of years later; those hearings sound like they were every bit as fascinating. Interesting cast of characters lurking in the background: Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush Sr.