The Otis Pike Report Options

[John Simkin]

In February of 1976, the House of Representatives, voted to suppress the final report of its intelligence investigating committee. The chairman of the report, Otis Pike, was furious with this decision. Another member of the committee, Ronald Dellums, shared this view. Daniel Schorr, who had managed to get an advance copy, leaked the information to Village Voice. This led to his suspension by CBS and an investigation by the House Ethics Committee in which Schorr was threatened with jail for contempt of Congress if he did not disclose his source. Schorr refused and eventually the committee decided 6 to 5 against a contempt citation.

The report was published in the UK by a left-wing publisher called Spokesman in 1977. The book includes an introduction written by Philip Agee. I have managed to get hold of a copy of this book and will be posting passages on the Forum over the next few weeks.

One of the most interesting parts of the report concerns Operation Mockingbird. The report points out the battle they had with the CIA over this information. However, from the documents it was able to obtain, Pike's committee came to the conclusion that it was the "largest single category of covert action projects undertaken by the CIA".

I suspect that it was either Otis Pike or Ronald Dellums who leaked the report to Daniel Schorr. Both are still alive. I will try to get them to join the Forum. In 2000 Dellums publushed his autobiography, Lying Down with the Lions. I have ordered a copy. Has anyone else read it?

(1) Otis Pike (2) Ronald Dellums

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