Project MINARET: full transcription
// Mission Dossier
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Get the dossier: $5 instant download →The country appeared to be going up in flames. President Johnson wanted to know if the domestic anti-war movement was receiving help from abroad. The CIA and Army initially were involved in checking into the president's concerns, and the FBI contributed names for the list.
The list, which grew to more than 1,600 names, was active from 1967 to 1973, covering the terms of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. Over 5,925 foreigners and 1,690 organizations and US citizens were included on the Project MINARET watch lists.
NSA Director Lew Allen testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975 that the NSA had issued over 3,900 reports on the watch-listed Americans.
NSA Director Lew Allen believed the practice violated constitutional guarantees and, after discussions with the Attorney General, ended the program in 1973.
This transcription covers the program's origin, real scope, and conclusion. The full declassified release, published by the National Security Archive at George Washington University in 2013, includes the complete internal NSA history document.
Document: NSA internal history of Project MINARET. Declassified September 25, 2013.
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