, both from within the cia and from outside the cia, even from former intelligence officers for cooperating with the church committee investigation, he thought it was the best way to strengthen the agency moving forward. i would characterize his cooperation as limited. he wanted to cooperate with them in the sense that he provided them with materials, but he also created a sort of liaison operation within the cia, to manage the relationship with the church committee. so the church committee would make requests for documents that were necessary to build their story and the cia would push back, we are not sure we have the material or why do you need the material? and by doing so, they further delayed the church committee's ability to begin to get the big picture. so he did receive criticism and he received criticism for working with the committee, but he did manage to restrict the corporation in some important ways. and speaking with the former staff, you will recognize that they will speak about the frustration of the the experience trying to get information from the cia. >> now, here is cal

cia's retention of an amount of shellfish toxin and the cia's use of various chemicals and drugs. the relationship between the cia as an activity requiring further investigation surfaced in late april this year. it resulted in information presented by a cia officer, not directly associated with the project. all past activities, which might now be considered questionable, be brought to the attention of agency management. information provided by him and two other officers aware of the project indicated the project involved development of warfare agents, some lethal and associated delivery suitable for use. a search was made for other records made available on the project. this produced information about the basic agreement between the army and the cia relating to the project and limited records covering activity from the beginning in 1952 to the termination in 1970. in the course of the investigation, cia laboratory storage facilities were searched and 11 grams, less than a half ounce of shellfish toxin were discovered in a little used vaulted storeroom. a major requirement of the a

he had been deeply involved in cia operations, cold-war related cia operations for 30 years before he ka came back to washington and was nominated by president nixon and confirmed by the senate to serve as the new cia director in 1973. so, he comes to this position as director while the cia is in a bit of term oil. the former director had ordered a report, an inhadternal report to be produced and had asked cia officers to come forward and report on any programs they believe the agency has been involved with, which may have been perhaps, if not illegal, at least unethical, immoral, improper. and this intelternal report became known as the family jewel. and at the start of the church committee investigation, they -- the staff did a lot of work behind the scenes. they literally had to investigate these agencies more broadly, in some ways for the first time. well, luckily, fortunately for them, william colby provided them with a copy. and it provided them basically with a road map. they could begin to sort of map out what the cia had been doing and look deeply into some of these cases of

they were already revealing their activity. , thenk that the cia legislative charter for the cia was never approved it for a variety of reasons. and so the legislative portion of the review of the cia never reached fruition. internale a number of reviews and changes that took place as a result. later, the congress establishes the cia inspector general position to provide consistent internal oversight. that person has to report to congress about what it finds. >> thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] each saturday and sunday, we will air extended portions of the church committee hearings on american history tv. announcer: daughters of the american revolution was founded in 1890 and their national headquarters is located a few blocks from the white house. the dar museumo to learn about their 125th anniversary exhibit. we begin with the 1820 four visit to america by revolutionary war hero general lafayette. lafay

, both from within the cia and from outside the cia, even from former intelligence officers for cooperating with the church committee investigation, he thought it was the best way to strengthen the agency moving forward. hisuld characterize cooperation as limited. he wanted to cooperate with them in the sense that he provided them with materials, but he also created a sort of liaison operation within the cia, to manage the relationship with the church committee. so the church committee would make requests for documents that were necessary to build their story and the cia would push back, we are not sure we have the material or why do you need the material? and by doing so, they further delayed the church committee's ability to begin to get the big picture. so he did receive criticism and he received criticism for working with the committee, but he did manage to restrict the corporation in some important ways. and speaking with the former staff, you will recognize that they will speak about the frustration of the the experience trying to get information from the cia. ofnow, here is called du

the o.s.s., the cia's precursor. he had gone into private law practice, then in 1949, two years after the cia was established, he joined. he worked abroad in europe. he had been deeply involved in cia operations, cold war related cia operations for 30 years before he came back to washington and was nominated by president richard nixon and, approved, importantly, by the senate and confirmed by the senate to serve as the new cia director in 1973. so, he comes to this position as director while the cia is in a bit of turmoil. there have -- the former director, james sles sing -- schlessinger, had ordered a report, an internal report to be produced and asked cia officers to come forward and report on programs they believe the agency had been involved in, which may have been constitutionally questionable, which may have been, perhaps if not illegal, at least unethical, immoral, improper. and this report, this internal report became known as the cia's family jewel. the family jewels. at the start of the church committee in

cia domestic spying program called chaos. covert operations abroad and other topics. >> there's a lot to get into, and i'm going to cover two of the reports and the investigations behind them here. the first is they're uncovering and documenting of foreign sass nations by the cia and the second is a limited review they conducted of some aspects of the kennedy assassination. i first want to say i think it's valuable work for castro and others because no doubt that the church committee did the whole idea of the cia would be one of these conspiracy theories we hear about all the reminiscent of some other matter that's before us. it's also striking how much i think things have changed in america since 1975. nowadays the u.s. openly conducts drone strikes against foreign adversaries. senior officialed call "bad guys." along with the classral damage farjs member, associates may or may not call themselves bad guys in the occasional wedding party. in 1975 by contrast it was a national scandal of the very idea that the executive branc

the cia was asked by nsa to assist. the nsa provided the cia names of individuals on the narcotics trafficking watch list and this collection by the cia lasted for approximately six months from late 1972 to early 1973 when cia stopped because of concern that the activity exceeded statutory restrictions. >> with respect to wholly domestic communications, is there any statute that prohibits your interception thereof of is it merely a matter of your internal executive branch drek directives? >> my understanding is that at least the national security intelligence directive defines our activities as foreign communications and we have adopted a definition consistent with the communications act of 1934. therefore i think -- >> you believe you're consistent with the statutes but there isn't any statute that prohibits your interception of domestic communications. >> i believe that is correct. >> nothing further. >> that was a term that began in 1969 and as we described somewhat formalized the process by which these messages were

we have a gentleman, george tenet of the cia. why did he not say, what a second, you're proposing a program for which we have no data to support it and you have no x earrings interrogations? their people so far above doctors jessen a mitchell who made this possible and without them being held accountable, giving them medals of freedom to move on to their lives, it is a travesty i think. amy: we have to leave it there. colonel steven kleinman is a former military intelligence officer who trained soldiers in interrogation. and i want to thank dror ladin of the aclu. that does it for this program. i will be speaking tonight at seattle town hall at 7:30. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] ww > for many peoples civilizations, and faiths, nature, or the natural world, has been an important accs point the sacd. and as we

we have a gentleman, george tenet of the cia. why did he not say, what a second, you're proposing a program for which we have no data to support it and you have no x earrings interrogations? their people so far above doctors jessen a mitchell who made this possible and without them being held accountable, giving them medals of freedom to move on to their lives, it is a travesty i think. amy: we have to leave it there. colonel steven kleinman is a former military intelligence officer who trained sdiers in interrogation. ani want tthank dr ladin ofhe aclu. that doe it r this pgram. will bepeaking night at seattle wn hall at 7:. democry now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] captioning sponsored by annenberg/cpb narrator: in the subregion of western europe, the port of liverpool was a thriving maritime gateway to the english manufa

it set off alarm bells at the cia. cia operations officer sam faddis, who ran a kill/capture team, was assigned the case. >> headquarters is extremely, extremely interested. i mean, the number one time-sensitive priority, as of june '02, when i left headquarters, was go collect on this islamic extremist enclave along the iran/iraq border. >> narrator: it didn't take long for faddis to find zarqawi and learn what was going on in the camp. >> we literally had guys that were working for us that were inside the camp. they're working on chemical and biological weapons. they were doing a lot of work with cyanide-based things. >> narrator: at cia headquarters, it was a threat they could not ignore if american troops were to invade iraq. >> if we took saddam out, zarqawi was going to cause a lot of problems. he was someone who we would have wanted dead if we had the opportunity and the wherewithal to do it. >> narrator: and sam faddis had a plan to do just that. >> i mean, a handful of aircraft tomorrow, with the specificity t

huston: operation chaos, apparently the cia had a group set up. they were concerned directly with matters affecting domestic intelligence collection. or even's network -- or even's that were occurring in continental united states. we didn't know about that. in fact, impression we had was that the cia had very little interest in areas which we thought were important, which was what happened abroad when these people under surveillance by the fbi. that is where we thought the cia effort should be. >> i am told i only have one minute left. let me ask you this. do you have any information, qui -- quickly, can you tell me who authorized these programs? was it presidential operation? mr. huston: i don't think any president knew about it. i think both of those programs were originated before this administration. i think the first went back into the johnson administration. >> i am just trying to establish in my own mind's eye, whether these agencies were self-starters. mr. huston: i don't know, except that they were inspired by the administration. my under

it's tied to a speech i gave in 2007 after i was director of the cia to the graduating class. duquesne is my alma mater and i use that to pivot off of my pittsburgh experience and how i brought that with me to the cia. i mentioned in the book i was in america's air force before his m.a. question they didn't have a crucifix in it. wonderful, broad, culturally-based historically-based education, kind of values based from the parochial school to the catholic high school to duquesne university and of course my parents and then it was in pittsburgh which is a blue-collar town and even though it has a white-collar economy now it still has a blue-collar style of life in a blue-collar culture. i quote an article by bernie pyle the famous world war ii correspondent before he was somebody and before the war he was traveling through the united states visiting pittsburgh pretty wrote an article which is penned -- append to the bulletin board on what we call the vernaculars in downtowns pittsburgh and he characterized the city masterfully in 19391940. this place just goes to work so that's

have you been a member of the cia, fbi, cia? >> i was assigned as an army intelligence officer. >> were you hired at one time? did you go into the preparation of the houston plan? was the houston plan ever used? >> no, sir. >> never put into effect? >> no. >> what do you think about it as you sit here today? >> senator, i think i still believe that there is a threat that may be characterized as a security threat. i think there people who want to destroy this country or people willing to go to great lengths to do it. i think the two attempts upon the life of the president are symptomatic of that. so i think there's a necessary place in our society for an effective domestic intelligence collection effort, and more importantly than collection for professional analysis of that information. i think that it's perhaps easy to justify the emphasis that we attached in 1970, but i think it's just as easy to discount it. we were sitting in the white house getting reports day in and day out of what was happening in this country. in terms of

we have a gentleman, george tenet of the cia. why did he not say, what a second, you're proposing a program for which we have no data to support it and you have no x earrings interrogations? their people so far above doctors jessen a mitchell who made this possible and without them being held accountable, giving them medals of freedom to move on to their lives, it is a travesty i think. amy: we have to leave it there. colonel steven kleinman is a former military intelligence officer who trained soldiers in interrogation. and i want to thank dror ladin of the aclu. that does it for this program. i will be speaking tonight at seattle town hall at 7:30. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> "p. allen smith's garden to table" is brought to you by... mountain valley spring water. mountain valley spring water, america's

one on the cia and one on the fbi. on the cia, post 9/11 a read a report in the "washington post" saying the cia has become a highly efficient killing machine. >> yeah. >> this goes to the question of the use of drones. and we know that that's something we didn't have to deal with on the church committee because drones and missiles and the rest weren't there. this is something that is of concern for a number of reasons, including whether or not the use of drones for basically target assassinations is bumping up executive order and that. they say enemy combatants is the way they are allowed to get around assassin prohibition. the whether it has evolved to a central action agency and is losing its central function of collecting intelligence to inform decision making. president obama has said and john brennan has said they think this should be off-loaded to the pentagon. my question is, are you concerned about this evolution of the cia, and do you believe these kinds of actions, which will certainly continue into the futu

citizens that have been violated the cia, fbi and irs. as the present hearings will reveal, the nsa has not escaped the temptation to have its operations expanded into provinces protected by the law. while the committee has found the work of the nsa on a whole to be of high caliber and properly restrained, and test tremendous respect for the professional caliber of the people that work there, the topics we explore today illustrate excessive and suggest areas where legislative action is desirable. that is why we are here. >> this complex and sophisticated electronic capability is the most fragile weapon in our arsenal. unfortunately, i cannot elaborate on that because that would not be proper. public inquiry on nsa i believe serves no legitimate legislative the vitalt exposing element of our intelligence capability and unnecessary risks, risks of knowledge and the chairman's own statement. authorize nsa inquiry and this has been done very thoroughly. in closed sessions. in 1967, requested agencies provided names of agencies, some of whom w

huston: operation chaos, apparently the cia had a group set up. they were concerned directly with matters affecting domestic intelligence collection. didn't know about that. in fact, impression we had was that the cia had very little interest in areas which we thought were important, which was what happened abroad when these people under surveillance by the fbi. that is where we thought the cia effort should be. >> i am told i only have one minute left. let me ask you this. do you have any information, qui ckly, who authorized these programs? was it presidential operation? mr. huston: i don't think any president knew about it. i think both of those programs were originated before this administration. i think the first went back into the johnson administration. i am just trying to establish in my own mind's eye, whether these agencies were self-starters. mr. huston: i don't know, except that they were inspired by the administration. my understanding is that president johnson did not know about it, and i don't believe president nixon did either. >>

huston: operation chaos, apparently the cia had a group set up. they were concerned directly with matters affecting domestic intelligence collection. or agents that were occurring within the continental united states. we didn't know about that. in fact, impression we had was that the cia had very little interest in areas which we thought were important, which was what happened abroad when these people under surveillance by the fbi. left the country. that is where we thought the cia effort should be. >> i am told i only have one minute left. let me ask you this. do you have any information, qui ckly, who authorized these programs? was it presidential operation? mr. huston: i don't think any president knew about it. i think both of those programs were originated before this administration. i think the first went back into the johnson administration. >> i'm not trying to establish blame or even responsibility. i am just trying to establish in my own mind's eye, whether these agencies were self-starters. mr. huston: i don't know, except that they were

campaign against the cia. touched off in part, perhaps, by russian and cuban unhappiness about the administration human rights program. these officials seem somewhat embarassed by the cia role in the investigation of the kennedy assassination. as one official put it, 'the cubans are hitting us where were most vulnerable, but why they are doing it now, we really don't know.'" beyond camelot and the celebrity, there was a president. the speeches, the political wins and losses have all been well documented by history but in today's "through the decades" profile, we hear from one of the people who worked closest with the president. longtime kennedy speechwriter ted sorensen, sat down for the cbs show nightwatch in 1989. "what was it like writing words like that for john f. kennedy. did he change them much? is that pretty much the way you wrote it? what was the interaction between the two of you?" "well, there are a few secrets that i will carry to the grave. bear in mind that working with this one man for 11 years

>>> the head of the cia rarely gives extended interviews. director john brennan sat down with "60 minutes" to discuss the biggest national security threat facing the united states. in a conversation first broadcast back in february, brennan provide insight into the fight against isis as well as concerns over cyberand biological terror. here is scott pelley. >> reporter: is isis coming here? >> i think isil does want to eventually find its mark here. >> you're expecting an attack in the united states? >> i'm expecting them to try to put in place the operatives, materiel, whatever else they need to do or to incite people to carry out these attacks. clearly. so i believe that their attempts are inevitable. i don't think the necessarily are. >> can you explain to the folks watching this interview why the people want to kill us? how does attack the united states further their interests? >> i think they're trying to provoke a clash between the west and the muslim world, or the world that they're in. as a way to gain more adherence, because what th

. >>> the head of the cia rarely gives extended interviews. director john brennan sat down with "60 minutes" to discuss the biggest national security threat facing the united states. in a conversation first broadcast back in february, brennan provide insight into the fight against isis as well as concerns over cyberand biological terror. here is scott pelley. >> reporter: is isis coming here? >> i think isil does want to eventually find its mark here. >> you're expecting an attack in the united states? >> i'm expecting them to try to put in place the operatives, materiel, whatever else they need to do or to incite people to carry out these attacks. clearly. so i believe that their attempts are inevitable. i don't think their successes necessarily are. >> can you explain to the folks watching this interview why the people want to kill us? how does attack the united states further their interests? >> i think they're trying to provoke a clash between the west and the muslim world, or the world that they're in. as a way to gain more adherence, bec

if you opened them up prior to 1995, you would not find cia, nsa. it was somewhere hidden in this document. we have some notion of disclosure, some notion of boundaries. fisa work wasthe extraordinary and was important, we never went further, as i think the congress should have done, to clarify the authority of these agencies, to make it absolutely clear what they can toand what they can't do bolster the worthwhile and ,mportant things that they do to prevent being pushed by their political masters or pushed by what the technology can do to go beyond their limits. host: so, fritz schwartz, one of the effects that this had, the fisa law, as we know it. what was the importance for american society and congressional oversight? chwarz: the court has approved almost everything that is come before them, but that does not mean the law has not a positive impact. the kinds of things the fbi and other agents these were doing in terms of surveillance would not be tried now because they would not feel, they would not want to put on paper what they were trying t

it while working there, received a job offer from the cia. it would have been very easy for me to stay at ford. i consulted with many friends and family and they thought i should stay with ford motor company. but there was a voice inside me. i knew there was more that i wanted to be. for me, there was no other option but to accept the job offer with the cia and i have never regretted it. working there really brought out the person that i knew was inside me, the things that i was able to do, the things that i was able to do and the places and things that i saw contributed to the confidence that i needed to go ahead and apply to the astronaut corps. so, make your own decisions and own those decisions. if you select the path of doing something that interests you, you must accept the consequences and limitations that may arise from that decision but you will reap a personal satisfaction that comes are doing something that you love. many people that i knew at ford motor company, they are still working there. and they probably make double the money

, cia. it was the culmination of a lot of hard work by some very good people, cia and other agencies. we have destroyed a large part f so we have to stay focused on what it can do. now, with the new phenomenon of isil, this is going to challenge us for years to come. >> isil leader is a gentleman by the name of al baghdadi. if we announced today, if you and the president, you know, announced tonight he was dead, would there be that same sense of, this is the destruction of isis? there was a feeling of bin laden, al qaeda, yeah, that's a symbolic move. al qaeda is going to go into history. same thing with al baghdadi. is he that important? >> he is important, and we will destroy isil, i have no doubt in my mind. we have to remove the leadership that directs the organization to carry out these horrific attacks. bin laden had very important symbolic as well as strategic significance for al qaeda. and it was important after 9/11 that we remove the person responsible for that. if we got baghdadi,

, cia. it was the culmination of a lot of hard work by some very good people, cia and other agencies. we have destroyed a large part of al qaeda. it's not completely eliminated so we have to stay focused on what it can do. now, with the new phenomenon of isil, this is going to challenge us for years to come. >> isil leader is a gentleman by the name of al baghdadi. if we announced today, if you and the president, you know, announced tonight he was dead, would there be that same sense of, thiss the destruction of isis? the was a feeling of bin laden, al qaeda, yeah, that's a symbolic move. al qaeda is going to go into history. same thing with al baghdadi. is he that important? >> he is important, and we will destroy isil, i have no doubt in my mind. we have to remove the leadership that directs the organization to carry out these horrific attacks. bin laden had very important symbolic as well as strategic significance for al qaeda. and it was important after 9/11 that we remove the person res

, cia. it was the culmination of a lot of hard work by some very good people, cia and other agencies. we have destroyed a large part of al qaeda. it's not completely eliminated so we have to stay focused on what it can do. now, with the new phenomenon of isil, this is going to challenge us for years to come. >> isil leader is a gentleman by the name of al baghdadi. if we announced today, if you and the president, you know, announced tonight he was dead, would there be that same sense of, this is the destruction of isis? there was a feeling of bin laden, al qaeda, yeah, that's a symbolic move. al qaeda is going to go into history. same thing with al baghdadi. is he that important? >> he is important, and we will destroy isil, i have no doubt in my mind. we have to remove the leadership that directs the organization to carry out these horrific attacks. bin laden had very important symbolic as well as strategic significance for al qaeda. and it was important after 9/11 that we remove the person

, cia. it was the culmination of a lot of hard work by some very good people, cia and other agencies. we have destroyed a large part of al qaeda. it's not completely eliminated so we have to stay focused on what it can do. now, with the new phenomenon of isil, this is going to challenge us for years to >> isil leader is a gentleman by the name of al baghdadi. if we announced today, if you and the president, you know, announced tonight he was dead, would there be that same sense of, this is the destruction of isis? there was a feeling of bin laden, al qaeda, yeah, that's a symbolic move. al qaeda is going to go into history. same thing with al baghdadi. is he that important? >> he is important, and we will destroy isil, i have no doubt in my mind. we have to remove the leadership that directs the organization to carry out these horrific attacks. bin laden had very important symbolic as well as strategic significance for al qaeda. and it was important after 9/11 that we remove the person respo

that was never relayed to me by the cia. they were talking to the cia, i think, at that time. if they said that, it wasn't a claim relayed to me. >> okay. well, i have an article from november 20th, 2005, from the "l.a. times," and it says this -- "the senior bnd officer who supervised curveball's case said he was a gasp when he watched powell misstate curveball's claims as a justification for war." "we were shocked," the official said. "we had always told them it was not proven." mr. hannah, is that true? >> well, i don't have any knowledge of it. >> the germans warned from the beginning that this information was not verified? >> that's what historically is reported between their communications, between their intelligence and the cia. that's what the germans have claimed. >> but it got in to the secretary's speech, secretary powell's speech. now, your narrative was at best misleading and at worst blatantly false. as a result, thousands of people were killed and injured when this nation went to war based on those false claims. do you have any remorse about that? >> i have grea

. >> one of the architects of that national security policy is john brennan, director of the cia. >> you're okay with being considered one of the architects of this changed way of war fare? >> i take great pride in being part of a national security team that has done some great things to protect this country. >> reporter: the drone revolution can be traced back to this moment when a cia drone picked up a figure in white believed to be osama bin laden. no one took a shot because back then drones weren't armed. that was a year before 9/11. soon drones went from intelligence gathering to killing. >> counter terrorism professionals always would prefer to capture individuals and devices they might have with them, taking kinetic action against a target or individual is usually a last resort. >> the cia director told us his agency would prefer to capture a terror suspect than kill him. is that true? >> i'm sure they would prefer to if both were equally riskless. the reality is they are not so we have chosen kill rather than capture. >> under president obama drones strikes surged sharply. th

it with the agency culture you seek cia it is nebula -- never singular. most days it is plural noun not in the book but john brennan our successor tries to cut through those cylinders of excellence. you have got to learn. >> i love your'' to in your final chapter of a great guide to those in a senior position to be the only superpower in the room but don't act like it. >> guidance to the station chief. thank you. fix >> booktv covers though wider rate from nonfiction books on history history, biography, science. >> one of the few places is not the only place to see and hear a lot of different voices on a lot of different topics. but they have a story to tell to have that opportunity to bring that to our viewers. >> we're talking about isis with the viewers in the feedback is vital to c-span in general and we listen to our viewers. so we take that into account to bring them into the mix. >> we have tweets and facebook comments with the program for the audience to interact with the author to answer their questions and share their comments. >> we know there

the cia or military? the organizational affiliation of people known to have been killed by strikes, and the number and identities of civilians who are known to be killed. speaking about the second area of focus, the legal legal basis for the drone program, it was mentioned that the few governmental documents have been made public that relate to the u.s. lethal drone program, primarily primarily as a result of court orders. one was a rejected, that means editing, black lines and through much of it, a rejected memo from the department of justice about the legality of the 2011 targeted killing of u.s. citizens on -- without due process of law. this followed a successful aclu new york times freedom of information act request. the other release document was the department of defense law of war manual with three short sections on the use of remotely piloted aircraft's in war. the only qualification it contained was that the weapons cannot be inherently indiscriminate or calculated to cause injury. but the genev

brandon bryant, sean westmoreland and lisa ling among a dozen and former air force and cia operators and technicians speaking out against drones. they're here with their lawyer because they fear prosecution for breaches of security as they describe the u.s.'s drone use as immoral. >> being able to press a button from the opposite side of the world and kill another human being or multiple human beings at once is way too easy. >> reporter: is it video game warfare? >> it is. i mean the skill set that you use for video games is the exact same skill set you have when operating a drone. >> i have actually deployed overseas and the drone program for me was worse. i lost a piece of my humanity. >> i supported 2,400 close air support missions and 200 plus enemy kills. i asked to see civilian casualties. nobody would give that to me. >> i killed 13 people with missiles. three of them were enemy combatants. the other ten people, i don't know who they were. >> reporter: a critic would say -- what did you think you were going to do you were in the air force, a military organization that fires fr

. >> the 1975 church committee hearings convened to investigate the intelligence activities of the cia, fbi, irs and the nsa. saturday night at 10:00 eastern. the commission questioned former associate counsel and staff assistant to president nixon tom charles huston on a plan he presented to president nixon to collect information about snabt war and radical groups using burglary, electronic surveillance and opening of mail. >> black bag jobs for a number of years up until 1966 that had been successful and valuable again particularly in matters involving espionage, and that they felt this again was something that given the revolutionary climate they thought they needed to have the authority to do. >> and just before 7:00 p.m. eastern -- >> and one person came and she said, you were chosen. she was from czechoslovakia. she was there for four years already in the concentration camp. she spoke hungarian also. and they ask her, what's happening to -- where are our parents? and our -- and she said, you see that smoke? there are your parents. >> holocaust survivor anna gross recalls her fami

brandon bryant, sean westmoreland and lisa ling among a dozen and former air force and cia operators and technicians speaking out against drones. they're here with their lawyer because they fear prosecution for breaches of security as they describe the u.s.'s drone use as immoral. >> being able to press a button from the opposite side of the world and kill another human being or multiple human beings at once is way too easy. >> reporter: is it video game warfare? >> it is. i mean the skill set that you use for video games is the exact same skill set you have when operating a drone. >> i have actually deployed overseas and the drone program for me was worse. i st >> i supported 2,400 close air support missions and 200 plus enemy kills. i asked to see civilian casualties. nobody would give that to me. >> i killed 13 people with missiles. three of them were enemy combatants. the other ten people, i don't know who they were. >> reporter: a critic would say -- what did you think you were going to do you were in the air force, a military organization that fires from afar? >> okay. integrit

. >>> we'll start today's show with edward snowden, the former cia employee turned whistleblower and fugitive from american justice. snowden and i had a spirited debate this week about whether or not the government should have lawful access to encrypted devices like the san bernardino iphone. i say yes, he of course says no. >> encryption saves lives. without it our economy stops. our government stops. everything stops. >>> and donald trump says mexico will pay to build a wall on its border with the u.s. >> we will build a wall and you know who is going to pay for the wall, mexico. >> but parag khanna says the next president should break down borders between north and south and form an all powerful north american union. he will make his case. >>> also, islamic radicalism in pakistan has always been worrying because of that country's nuclear arsenal. pakistan's charismatic politician imran khan tries to explain the anger against america in the muslim world and why he says it's actually lessened in pakistan in recent years. >>> but first here is my take. after donald trump's foreign po

cia and is live from atlanta. mr. woolsey, are the russians just shooting fast from the hip or have solid evidence this was definitely terrorism. >> they're shooting fast, probably, but the indications are in that direction. this happened with the plane at 35,000 to 40,000 pete in perfectly good weather. it was a strange maneuver that came on very suddenly. there's no real indication it was anything else. so, i don't think you can say it's for sure, and this business there's very few things that are for sure, but eight to one, ten to one, i think probably you could make that kind of a call. >> there was also a report from a greek ship that reported seeing a fire ball streaking across the sky. >> yes. >> if a plane is coming down in flames, that leads one to believe there was some kind of explosion. >> yes, indeed and greeks on island saw the same thing. and that's a pretty dramatic thing to see, and they reported it, i'm told, before there was any press report they could have heard. so, it's another pretty good indica

how the cia got away with murder." we're also joined in pittsburgh by jules lobel, the president of the center for constitutional rights and a law professor at the university of pittsburgh. and joining us from london is julian assange, founder of wikileaks, joining us from the ecuadorian embassy in london where he has asylum. he has been there for almost four years. he took refuge in the embassy in 2012. assange wants to avoid extradition to sweden over sex assault crimes, which he has repeatedly denied. he says he fears sweden will extradite him to the unit is rates were he could face trial for publishing classified information. welcome to democracy now! your thoughts today on your late counsel, your late attorney and friend michael ratner. >> michael touched many people throughout his life. you're seeing some of that today. frid and personal advisor. lawyer. with wikileaksed and other lawyers in the united states are grieving, but i want to reflect a little on michael ratner. important not his talent, political and h