Never Say Anything: Power Behind The Throne

              PENN JONES T H E
CONTINUING
INQUIRY
SEPTEMBER 22, 1979
N(ever)S(ay)A(nything)
Throne
Power Behind the
In today's world no empire can hope to
maintain its power without a sophisticated
array of secret armies. It is they who will
perforin, secretly and quietly, those covert
activities deemed necessary by the empire's
power brokers. And more often than not it
will mean applying the "black arts" of ass­assination
and terror.
To lull ourselves into an assurance
that the exposes of CIA and FBI activities
have rid the American scene of its own secret
armies would be a costly mistake. Public
outrage and congressional investigations
have undoubtedly done much to cripple some
of the more blatant crimes, but thus far we
have been permitted to glimpse what is only
the tip of the iceberg of our secret forces.
And yet even this tiny window into the under­world
of government has shed America of its
innocence: blackmail, political assassina­tions,
and even drug experiments on unsus­pecting
citizens.
Nearly everyone would agree by now that
the FBI and CIA have been guilty of gross
violations of civil liberties. But is must
also be recognized that these two agencies
account for only a relatively small portion
of the nation's entire intelligence-gather­ing
apparatus. Many similar organizations
flourish in the federal bureaucracy like
the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Secret
Service, and the Drug Enforcement Admini­stration.
The nearly 100 government offices
engaging in "investigative or police acti­vities"
also include the likes of such
non-descript units as the Department of
Agriculture, the Farm Credit Administration,
the Department of HEW, and the U.S. Civil
Service Commission.^
At least some of the Government's of­fices
possess a special talent pool for
participation in the netherworld of murder
and sabotage. Aside from the Central In­telligence
Agency few agencies have publicly
by Dave Wemple
admitted to even considering assassination
as a viable political weapon. FBI documents
have certainly brought the subject to bear
as has the Drug Enforcement Administration
and its predecessor, the Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Druge (BNDD). And it is taken
for granted that such is the work of the na­tions
elite military units: the Array Special
Forces (i.e. Green Berets) and the Navy Seals
conmandos.
This article will examine another govern­ment
body which has proven itself both capa­ble
of and determined to use illegal methods
to fulfill its mission. It is an office
which, despite an annual budget estimated
(because it has never been made public) at
between one and ten billion dollars, is the
most secretive of any governmental body and
remains virtually unknown to the general
public after more that a quarter of a cen­tury
of activity.
Even a cursory examination of the Na­tional
Security Agency (NSA) makes it clear
why intelligence expert Tad Szulc has refer­red
to it as the nation's "$10 Billion
Frankenstein." Since its beginnings more
that 25 years ago it has remained totally
beyond reach of the law of the land, find­ing
its roots not in an act of Congress but
by virtue of vaguely-defined Executive Order
issued by President Truman in November 1952.*^
Today it remains the third largest bureau
within the U.S. Government, surpassed in
size only by the Department of Defense and
State.
The utmost secrecy surrounds its every
action and, as a result, a good deal of con-
*As of the mid-1970's, even the text
of the document authorizing the NSA's tre­mendous
programs. National Security Council
Intelligence Directive No. 6, remains clas­sified.