"Those revelations led to a dramatic series of hearings in the mid-1970s in the Senate, led by Frank Church of Idaho, that made it clear that Richard Helms, the Agency director at the time, accepted that he had an obligation to do what the President wanted, even if it meant violating the law.In unpublished, closed-door testimony, Helms ruefully explained that “you almost have an Immaculate Conception when you do something” under secret orders from a President. “Whether it’s right that you should have it, or wrong that you shall have it, [the CIA] works under different rules and ground rules than any other part of the government.” He was essentially telling the Senators that he, as head of the CIA, understood that he had been working for the Crown, and not the Constitution."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Central_Intelligence_Agency
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Central Intelligence Agency
36 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Central Intelligence Agency →
Related Quotes
"... some of the senior officials of the CIA determined that blowing up the pipeline “no longer could be considered a …"
"If you look into the history of what is called the CIA, which means the US White House, its secret wars, clandestine …"
"I mean we're not going to be as effective if they don't have trust in us and we're also not going to get the best peo…"
"Since the U.S. had previously seemed to be a protector of the right to self-determination, Iranians felt terribly bet…"
"George W. Bush... his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communi…"
"The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books — free from legal restrictions imposed …"
"“The Pentagon doesn’t feel obligated to report any of this to Congress,” the former high-level intelligence official …"
"Two former C.I.A. clandestine officers, Vince Cannistraro and Philip Giraldi, who publish Intelligence Brief, a newsl…"
"Giraldi, who served three years in military intelligence before joining the C.I.A., said that he was troubled by the …"
"Bob Archer: When you think about the CIA, you probably imagine two of our most popular and enduring myths. The first …"