Hanging out its dirty laundry from the 1970s

CIA employees have nicknamed the documents "the family jewels." They were compiled in 1973 by then-CIA director James Schlesinger as he sought details about whether and when the CIA might have overstepped its authority.

...

Gary Thomas, Voice of America's National Security Correspondent, says, "I think what it came down to was, a lot of this came down from the White House, it came down from the federal agents that they wanted this stuff done. [U.S. Attorney General] Bobby Kennedy wanted Fidel Castro assassinated."

Thomas says although the official release offers no stunning revelations, it may spark more debate about frustrations within the intelligence community. "These investigations of the time led to putting up barriers between the CIA and other agencies, on domestic law enforcement or intelligence cooperation. They [intelligence community] were afraid they would get caught on domestic surveillance. And this issue has now come back to the fore because now they're saying, 'Well, those committees actually hurt our domestic surveillance efforts, which might have prevented the 9/11 attacks, had we had a more robust domestic surveillance.' And I think if there is one thing these documents will do, is it might reignite that debate."

...