(Testimony of Alan H. Belmont)
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
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