Mr. McCLOY. I was wondering how you were going to define that one.
Mr. BELMONT. Is to give you the opposite end of the spectrum of
subversives.
Mr. DULLES. Do we have anarchists in this country at the present time?
There used to be an old anarchist society in the old days.
Mr. BELMONT. That used to be, but it is dissolved. There is no
organization. I venture to say we have individual anarchists at this
time.
Mr. DULLES. No organized anarchist organization.
Mr. BELMONT. No.
Mr. STERN. Mr. Belmont, in view of the quite important considerations
you mentioned before, the danger of interfering with individual
liberty, would it be possible within your organization to have the
agents recommend to headquarters here and have someone at a higher
level examine the recommendation before it is made to the Secret
Service? This is, as I understand it, a continuing program and not one
that comes into effect only when the President schedules a trip. This
would operate without respect to scheduled trips by the President.
Would that be possible? Would it fit your operation? Do you think it
might help any?
Mr. BELMONT. Well, what is your thought behind that, Mr. Stern? In
other words, so that names of persons won't indiscriminately be sent on
a local level?
Mr. STERN. Precisely. These categories are, after all, fairly gross.
They use large terms which can mean different things to different
people. The considerations you mention, I think, are quite real and
important. Would it help any to do something of the sort?
Mr. BELMONT. I think we will find that our agents are using good
judgment in this matter. The danger involved in referring these matters
to headquarters for a decision as to dissemination is the delay in
time and, you will note, we stress the time element that when such
information comes into the possession of our agents, immediate steps
must be taken to transmit this information to Secret Service by the
most expeditious means possible.
This might be of assistance to you. This information which we send to
Secret Service in the field is placed in a control file, a separate
file in the field, and is subject, under instructions, to inspection
by our inspectors as they visit our field offices to insure that this
requirement is being carried out properly; and they will examine the
type of material that is being sent over.
Each field office is thoroughly inspected about once a year, and that
is one of the requirements that they go through this to make sure this
instruction is being properly carried out.
Mr. McCLOY. I have no further questions. I have some general questions
I would like to get to at the end, but I have to leave early this
afternoon.
Mr. RANKIN. I have one question I wanted to interject, Mr. Chairman,
and that is as to statements, Mr. Belmont, about subversives, including
persons who are members of Communist front groups. You mean to say that
that includes any person who is a member of a Communist front group
because, as you know, many leading citizens have been members of such
groups.
Mr. BELMONT. Now, Mr. Rankin, I wouldn't carry it by any means that
far. It would be dependent upon the front group, the extent of activity
in it, and the activities of the individual. By no means would we
classify someone as a subversive who was connected with a front group
by name or----
Mr. DULLES. By front groups you mean those on the Attorney General's
list; you are taking that as a criterion of a front group?
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; not necessarily that, sir. There are other groups
that we consider front groups.
Mr. DULLES. I see.
Mr. BELMONT. I am glad you raised that because each case would have to
be considered on its own individual merits as to what is the extent of
the activity and the purpose and intent of the activity.
Mr. RANKIN. You recognize in the work in this field that there are many
Americans who are interested in certain causes and purposes and front
groups in connection with them who are loyal Americans, don't you?
Mr. BELMONT. I have no doubt of that whatsoever.
Mr. RANKIN. I just wanted to get that in the record.
Mr. BELMONT. I also know many loyal Americans, unfortunately, who
don't look behind some of these groups to determine their intents
and purposes, and allow their names to be used where they would not
otherwise do so if they took the time and trouble to check into what
the organization was.
Mr. RANKIN. So you don't lump them all under the term "subversive,"
that is what I was trying to get at.
Mr. BELMONT. Right.
The CHAIRMAN. I suppose some join before an organization is
infiltrated, too.
Mr. BELMONT. That is correct, sir.
The CHAIRMAN. They find themselves in a mousetrap then.
Mr. BELMONT. That is correct, sir; that is right.
Mr. McCLOY. In other words, you would expect your agents to exert some
selection before they would send these names over to the Secret Service.
Mr. BELMONT. Our agents use judgment in the pursuance of this work, and
they would continue to use judgment in the selection of people who meet
this criterion. Otherwise if you carried this to the extreme you would
get out of hand completely. So that there is judgment applied here and
our agents are capable of applying the judgment.
Representative FORD. What has been the reaction of the Secret Service
to this greater flow of information that they have received?
Mr. BELMONT. They have taken it. There has been no official reaction,
to my knowledge.
Representative FORD. Have they objected to the greater burden?
Mr. BELMONT. No, sir; I would like to say, I don't know whether you
are going to cover this, Mr. Stern, that our relations with the Secret
Service are excellent. We work closely together.
As a matter of fact, since the assassination, at the request of
Mr. Rowley, we have furnished agents to assist on occasion in the
protection of the President, which is primarily a function of Secret
Service, but as a cooperative gesture we have on a number of occasions
made agents available at the request of Mr. Rowley. I think the figure
runs to something like 139 agents--yes, 139 agents that we have made
available.
We do have a very close liaison with Secret Service both at the seat
of Government and in our field offices. We have a supervisor here at
the seat of Government whose duty it is to stay directly in touch
with Secret Service, to cut redtape and produce results both for
Secret Service and for the FBI; to see that the problems are handled
immediately. He has direct access to Mr. Rowley, and we have on a
number of occasions at the request of Secret Service, sent one of our
agents with the Secret Service when the President travels abroad,
particularly where we have a representative in the countries being
visited, because our relations with the law enforcement officials in
those countries have been built up over the years, and we are thus
in a position to assist Secret Service in establishing the necessary
security measures and the flow of information to serve their purpose.
In addition, when the President travels abroad we alert all of our
offices to advise us of any information which may pertain to the travel
of the President, and we set up a supervisor back here to receive
that information and cable it or get it immediately to our man who is
accompanying the President when he makes this trip.
This is done, this agent going with Secret Service is done, at the
invitation and request of Secret Service.
Representative FORD. 169 agents of the FBI who have assisted since the
assassination. Did Secret Service make a specific request for their
help in these instances?
Mr. BELMONT. Yes; Mr. Rowley advised that he needed help, it was
offered to him by Mr. Hoover, and when the President is going to visit
a city and Secret Service does not have sufficient personnel in that
particular city to cover what they consider is necessary, they need
specialized help from us, they will make the request to us and we will
authorize our local agent in charge to make those men, the designated
number, available to the Secret Service representative, who then uses
their services while the President is there.
Representative FORD. I gather that prior to the assassination such
requests, specific requests, had not come from Secret Service to the
Bureau.
Mr. BELMONT. No. There were never any such requests before.
Mr. STERN. At the level at which the requests have been made so far,
have they proved to be a difficult burden for the FBI?
Mr. BELMONT. Mr. Stern, any time that we have a pending caseload of
something like 115,000 investigative matters, which is what we have,
and our agents are assigned about 20 to 25 cases apiece across the
country, ranging from matters of immediate urgency to matters which
can be handled in due time, and whenever our agents are putting in an
average of over 2 hours overtime a day voluntarily, the loan of 139 men
will be felt.
Representative FORD. 169.
Mr. BELMONT. I believe it was 139, sir. I think the letter says 139.
Mr. STERN. 139 on 16 separate occasions.
Mr. BELMONT. Yes. I do not wish to overplay this. We are not
complaining.
We do feel that at such time as Secret Service is able to increase
its personnel or meet this problem within the organization that it is
properly their problem. But meanwhile we are following this procedure
and we are not complaining.
Mr. DULLES. I had hoped, Mr. Chairman, that at some time while Mr.
Belmont was here, we could ask him to just briefly define for us, going
back to the assassination day, a clear definition of the respective
functions of the FBI and the Secret Service prior to and immediately
after the assassination. There seemed to have been at one time a little
confusion there. Naturally in a situation of this kind it always
happens, but I am not absolutely clear in my mind as to----
Mr. BELMONT. At the time of the assassination?
Mr. DULLES. Yes. Just before, I mean what your responsibilities were
just before the assassination, and just after as contrasted with the
functions of the Secret Service.
Mr. BELMONT. The Secret Service has the responsibility for protecting
the President and his family, and the Vice President and so on. That is
a basic responsibility.