After Multiple Denials, CIA Admits to Snooping on Noam Chomsky

[KurtFF8]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po...n_noam_chomsky

For years, the Central Intelligence Agency denied it had a secret file on MIT professor and famed dissident Noam Chomsky. But a new government disclosure obtained by The Cable reveals for the first time that the agency did in fact gather records on the anti-war iconoclast during his heyday in the 1970s.
The disclosure also reveals that Chomsky's entire CIA file was scrubbed from Langley's archives, raising questions as to when the file was destroyed and under what authority.
The breakthrough in the search for Chomsky's CIA file comes in the form of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For years, FOIA requests to the CIA garnered the same denial: "We did not locate any records responsive to your request." The denials were never entirely credible, given Chomsky's brazen anti-war activism in the 60s and 70s -- and the CIA's well-documented track record of domestic espionage in the Vietnam era. But the CIA kept denying, and many took the agency at its word.
Now, a public records request by FOIA attorney Kel McClanahan reveals a memo between the CIA and the FBI that confirms the existence of a CIA file on Chomsky.
Dated June 8, 1970, the memo discusses Chomsky's anti-war activities and asks the FBI for more information about an upcoming trip by anti-war activists to North Vietnam. The memo's author, a CIA official, says the trip has the "ENDORSEMENT OF NOAM CHOMSKY" and requests "ANY INFORMATION" about the people associated with the trip.
After receiving the document, The Cable sent it to Athan Theoharis, a professor emeritus at Marquette University and an expert on FBI-CIA cooperation and information-gathering.
"The June 1970 CIA communication confirms that the CIA created a file on Chomsky," said Theoharis. "That file, at a minimum, contained a copy of their communication to the FBI and the report on Chomsky that the FBI prepared in response to this request."
The evidence also substantiates the fact that Chomsky's file was tampered with, says Theoharis. "The CIA's response to the FOIA requests that it has no file on Chomsky confirms that its Chomsky file was destroyed at an unknown time," he said.
It's worth noting that the destruction of records is a legally treacherous activity. Under the Federal Records Act of 1950, all federal agencies are required to obtain advance approval from the national Archives for any proposed record disposition plans. The Archives is tasked with preserving records with "historical value."
"Clearly, the CIA's file, or files, on Chomsky fall within these provisions," said Theoharis.
It's unclear if the agency complied with protocols in the deletion of Chomsky's file. The CIA declined to comment for this story.
What does Chomsky think? When The Cable presented him with evidence of his CIA file, the famous linguist responded with his trademark cynicism.
"Some day it will be realized that systems of power typically try to extend their power in any way they can think of," he said. When asked if he was more disturbed by intelligence overreach today (given the latest NSA leaks) or intelligence overreach in the 70s, he dismissed the question as an apples-to-oranges comparison.
"What was frightening in the ‘60s into early ‘70s was not so much spying as the domestic terror operations, COINTELPRO," he said, referring to the FBI's program to discredit and infiltrate domestic political organizations. "And also the lack of interest when they were exposed."
Regardless,, the destruction of Chomsky's CIA file raises an even more disturbing question: Who else's file has evaporated from Langley's archives? What other chapters of CIA history will go untold?
"It is important to learn when the CIA decided to destroy the Chomsky file and why they decided that it should be destroyed,'" said Theoharis. "Undeniably, Chomsky's was not the sole CIA file destroyed. How many other files were destroyed?"

The files themselves can be viewed on the website

[A Revolutionary Tool]

I'd be more surprised if he didn't have a file.

[RadioRaheem84]

If the FBI had one on Zinn then you can be sure an agency had one on Chomsky.

[Sheepy]

The suits are so predictable.

[Fred]

Yes they are. So yeah, this comes as no surprise. One of the current memes in the air is that the snooping the government is doing is something new and sinister. Of course, it is sinister, but really, this is so not new. When I argue about this with liberal friends, I point out the US has been doing this kind of thing for a VERY long time. The methods change, but the song remains the same. That being said, it makes me wonder how monitoring email will help them catch terrorists. I mean, can't the folks of Al Queda learn to use encryption?

[piet11111]

With "dissidents" like Chomsky who needs loyalists ?

They guy is the prime example of ivory tower leftist intellectuals.

[RebelDog]

With "dissidents" like Chomsky who needs loyalists ?

Can you expand on that comment please?

[cyu]

You can't expect anybody who is not poor to have the same motivation for overthrowing the system as someone who is poor. Even street thugs with no political ideology have more motivation to change things than someone who is comforted by the fact that they'll always have a warm bed and health insurance to return to for the foreseeable future.

[Comrade Jacob]

I'm not surprised.

[piet11111]

Can you expand on that comment please?

A harmless professor as a dissident that needs to be watched by the CIA ?
If that's the best the left has to offer what does the state have to fear.

[Rafiq]

It's no surprise that they eventually scrapped it, the liberal that he became.

[argeiphontes]

Chomsky is an analyst and an educator, which is exactly the role I'd expect somebody in the ivory tower to perform.

[Os Cangaceiros]

"I was spied on by the CIA", man, that's got to get you a lot of points in your local leftie scene

[breakdowner]

Chomsky once told me via email that his lawyers told him that the FBI file on him was several phonebooks thick, but that he wasn't interested in reviewing them.