◆ SpookStack

a * Ot 2. 1 aota, #1_-— -~# at._ a ees certain file to be found in the subversive files of the FBI, and there it is. He has not made a misstatement at sll. But to the American People that man’s name and reputation have been scarred. . Apams. And I hope this committee recognizes that and rec- ommends legislation that would enforce st punitive or . violations against misuse of information in the files. We feel this way, CLA feels this way. We recognize we have a lot of sensitive infor- mation in it. We fire our employees if we find them misusing informa- tion. We feel we need additional sanctions in this area. I don’t think we can ever stop the accumulation of information. I don’t know an investigative agency in the world, a law enforcement agency, that does not have to accumulate information. And we are working on guidelines as to how to get rid of the irrelevant information, how to eliminate material that really doce not need to be kept. We hope we will be able to come to Congress with these guidelines before too long, which will help address itself to just some of these problems. _ The Cuamuan. Well, you may be assured that the committee shares your objective in this regard and we will be working with you and the Department of Justice and others to try and change the laws to give & greater measure of protection to the amendment rights of the American people. I have no further questions. Are there any other questions? Senator Mondale? - Senator Monpate, Mr. Adams, earlier, in inquiring about the basis for investigating Dr. King, I thought I heard two basic justifications. : One was suspicion and fear of Communist influence or infiltration. ' The second was, “that he constituted a threat to the success of the : Negro movement.” Did I understand that second basis! _ Mr. Apaas. No. The first I was talking about was not suspicion but information indicating Communist influence. The second was on this question of motivation that you have raised. I don’t know what their motive was to get to some of these other activities in order to discredit and remove him, but it was a question. Apparently they must have felt. that he was a threat to either, as shown in the files the President and Attorney General expressed concern about the civil rights move- ment and his continued affiliation with some of these people. Senator Monpa.z. Would you agree that it would not be a proper basis for an investigation for the FBI or any other Government official to be concerned about the success of the negro movement? Mr. Apame. I have no problem. Senator Monnate. / right. So let us take the one ground that appears to have justified the investigation of Dr. King and the investigation of the women’s liberation movement—the fear that “dangerous influence might infiltrate these organizations.” Suppose it is true. Suppose that a Communist did have influence over Dr. King, or suppose an SDS member infiltrated and became a dominant influ- ence in & chapter of the women’s liberation movement and you established it as a fact. What would you dof Assuming that we can't get into this harassing and so on, you agree that that no longer has any validity. What do you have? Mr. Apaus. We have potential violations which might arise, which rarely come to fruition and haven't for many years, Sut we do have an intelligence responsibility under the directives from the President a et re hel