In March of 2015, I submitted FOIA requests to the CIA, Department of the Army, and FBI for the release of records on the subject of Mae Brussell. Ms. Brussell is an iconic researcher that not only left us an impressive body of research on political assassinations; perhaps her greatest contribution as an investigative journalist is raising critical questions on some of the most significant events of the 20th century.
I submitted FOIA requests to the following U.S. government bodies with exceedingly poor results:
CIA: "With respect to any other records, in accordance with section 3.6(a) of Executive Order 13526, the CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request. The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure by section 6 of the CIA Act of 1949, as amended, and section 102A(iXl) of the National Security Act of 1947 , as amended. Therefore, your request is denied pursuant to FOIA exemptions (bX1) and (bX3). An explanation of exemptions is enclosed." Neither confirm nor deny is termed a Glomar response. Response: CIA_final
Department of the Army: "To determine the existence of Army intelligence investigative records responsive to your request, a check was made of the automated Defense Central lndex of lnvestigations (DCll). This index reflects the holdings of all investigative elements within the Department of Defense. As a result of the DCll check, no record responsive to your request was located." Response: Army_final
FBI: The Bureau released a disappointing 42 pages. Some of the material released include an extortion attempt investigated by the FBI's San Francisco office as well as Brussell's concern to the Sacramento office that her name might appear on a "death list" (p. 18). In this same document (10/22/75), it's noted that "BRUSSEL is known to various police agencies on the Monterey Peninsula as a chronic complainer." Of note too is a letter written by Brussell (November 15, 1975) that discusses her inclusion on a "surveillance list" after her work on the Watergate scandal was published. P. 23 is a handwritten letter that states "Mae is soon to have a serious accident"; pages 41-42 discuss a visit to Brussell's home by "representatives of the U.S. Secret Service."; this document states that Brussell reports she was never fully informed as to the purpose of the interview, but taped the encounter. Secret Service agents quizzed Brussell about weapons in her possession, but Brussell replied "the only thing that she does have in the way of a weapon is a paring shears and hardly feels that that presents a threat to anyone."
I appealed to DOJ's Office of Information Policy to gain release of additional records and rec'd the following response: OIP_denial
Under FOIA in October, I requested records dealing with Ms. Brussell's radio shows that broadcast in the Bay area in the 1970s-1980s. Many of these shows are fully available on YouTube, World Watchers, and other places on the Web.
I encourage researchers to submit their own requests on Ms. Brussell.
Albert Doyle Wrote:Why would the FBI be concerned about a radio lady from California?
My guess is because she was a brilliant and dedicated researcher who aired stories that were damaging to the US government and others. She went to places that most other journalists weren't even aware of in those days. The FBI wears the internal security hat of the US and she would've triggered considerable interest in many quarters, I suspect. She was doing her thing in the middle of the cold war and doubtless flags about her being a "commie agitator" were raised.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
06-11-2016, 07:53 PM (This post was last modified: 07-11-2016, 06:55 AM by Peter Lemkin.)
Jim Hargrove Wrote:I have limited time today, but if anyone finds anything interesting in the files, please post here. Thanks!
What VERY LIMITED of what exists [must be in the thousands or tens of thousands of documents, total] that have been released is all very interesting.....even the redactions are. I just read one in which they even blanked out the name Manson.
I'll upload several of them. She was one of the biggest threats the FBI and/or CIA had at the time, IMHO....she saw right through their dirty little plots and had others paying attention to her. In the end, I believe they killed her with 'CIA fast-acting cancer'....much the same as was used on Ruby and many others. They monitored her like hawks. They [some three-letter-agency] even had people spy on her daily from a house directly in view of her house. That house, who none of the neighbors knew who owned or lived there burned down the day after Mae died of cancer. Coincidence? I think not. A variety of cars were seen to move in and out of that house and almost always at night before it burned down. The curtains always seemed to be closed and whoever was in the house never went out on the lawn nor spoke to the others in homes nearby.
Mae pulled a few of her planned shows at the last minute due to specific threats. This was especially true near the end of her life, but not only. Whoever made the threats knew the subject matter of her upcoming broadcast, proof that she was being bugged. Before her death, she stopped the radio show altogether due to the increasing threats. If she really was only 'delusional' and 'inventing conspiracies' why would anyone threaten her?! They obviously did, because she was speaking the uncomfortable truths that were being hidden from U.S. Society by powerful forces. While some connected to the Manson 'Family' could have been upset at some of her shows, they couldn't have bugged her house - and the subject of Manson was a very small part of her output. The released FBI papers are suspiciously [to me] weighted toward the Manson 'angle' and not about all the other things she spoke about - which were infinitely more important.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
She was the best of the best and I am positive that there exists massive files on her in every alphabet agency. But they will never see the light of day.
UNLESS someone of conscience becomes a whistle blower and takes matters into his or her own hands. I too have always believed she was murdered by the same fast acting cancer that took Jack Ruby, shortly after his appeal granted him a new trial.
Commander Donaldson, the Viet Nam Navy fighter pilot and champion of the evidence showing a shoot-down in the crash of TWA 800, also died of fast-acting brain cancer right around the time the inquiry was wrapping up on the crash. Donaldson was not backing down.
The latest book on the cover-up by journalist Jack Cashill is being ignored. Americans prefer the "grand old party" when the government is committing Transylvanian acts of evil.
