Over the years the U.S. Congress has investigated and uncovered a number of crimes, scandals, improprieties, and absurdities. The titles of these U.S. Congressional hearings may seem like a joke, but don’t be fooled! They are all legitimate government publications, though the subject matter may at times seem stranger than fiction.
The Marcos Tapes: Ferdinand Marcos’ Plan to Invade the Philippines
“A Sordid Story”
During the course of today’s proceedings, we will hear a sordid story of duplicity and double-dealing, replete with pseudonyms, clandestine meetings, and secret codes. We will hear how the hospitality and generosity of the United States have been rudely abused. We will receive eye-witness accounts of the revengeful schemings of a deposed dictator… We will, in short, have revealed before us, in his own damning words, the sleazy scheming and betrayals of a man whose principal purpose in life has been to deprive his countrymen of their national patrimony.
After losing a presidential election to Corazon Aquino and being expelled from the Philippines for attempting to steal the election, the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda had been living in Hawaii for over a year in opulent exile. One day he hatched a plan to use $14 billion dollars worth of gold allegedly hidden in the Philippines to acquire weapons, buy life insurance for an army, and illegally return to the Philippines, where he would capture President Aquino and stage an insurrection to restore his dictatorship. After sharing this plot with his lawyer, Richard Hirschfeld, Hirschfeld and a colleague posing as an arms dealer arranged to surreptitiously record Marcos describing his scheme in great detail. That bit of amateur espionage—the “Marcos Tapes”—is the subject of this hearing. Surprisingly, this twisted tale of international plots and hidden treasure has not yet been made into a movie.
Watch a video of the full U.S. House Committee hearing on C-SPAN: Marcos Plan to Invade (July 9, 1987)
Review of the State Department’s Silverware Replacement Program
“Just Plain Sloppy Management”
The GAO report we are releasing this morning reveals several deficiencies, including illegal procurement procedures, weak internal controls, and just plain sloppy management. You would think that every yuppie housewife in the United States could buy silverware cheaper and at a better deal than this one.
From 1979 to 1987 the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Foreign Buildings Operations (FBO) spent over $2 million on 72,000 pieces of sterling silver, according to this report published by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) in 1987: Procurement: State Department’s Purchase of Silverware for Overseas Missions
The report also indicated that the State Department had a chronic problem with
- failure to maintain accurate and complete property records
- failure to take and reconcile inventories
- failure to plan accurately for procurement
- failure to identify and properly dispose of excess inventory
This scandal over silverware purchases elicited amusement among the press, who described it with such puns as found in this title of a news story by Betty Cuniberti: “State Department Tale Without a Silver Lining: Program to Replace Embassy Silverware Is a Tarnished Affair” (Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1987). According to committee member Jack Horton, “I have heard a number of chuckles when the subject of this hearing has been raised. I understand that the co-anchors of one of the network morning news programs had some fun with it yesterday, and I have to agree that the specter of a prestigious congressional panel interrogating witnesses about the silverware used at embassy functions is somewhat entertaining and farfetched. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.”
The discussion often veers into sitcom badinage or theatre of the absurd, and then someone has to remind everyone else that this is a serious discussion and the seemingly trivial subject has serious implications about government waste of taxpayers’ money. Most of the recent problems were blamed on the incompetence of one person: Mr. John Conway, who was the contracting officer and the head of the State Department’s procurement section. This news prompted the following exchange between Committee Chairman Jack Brooks and John Payne, a witness from GAO:
Mr. BROOKS: Well, if Conway is telling the truth, it appears that he either knowingly violated Federal procurement regulations, or he just didn’t know procurement law well enough to be head of a procurement office. What is his job now?
Mr. PAYNE: He has since been promoted. He is now the procurement executive for the entire Department.
Mr. BROOKS: Sounds like he’s in the Defense Department. He botches it up but gets a promotion. That’s unbelievable to me.
Dumping of Human Waste from Amtrak Trains
“A Fine Mist”
Over 50 percent of the people we represent have been sprayed at one time or another by Amtrak. A good instance was in Thompson, UT where a steel gang was out preparing to eat lunch. The food was along the track. Amtrak came by and sprayed a fine mist at over 60 miles an hour and covered the food prepared for the men at lunch time.
One shouldn’t have to be told not to dump one’s poop in public places, but apparently for Amtrak this came as a surprise. This hearing on Amtrak’s discharge of lavatory waste was held because of Amtrak’s repeated failure to address the issue of their disgustingly unsanitary practice of dumping raw sewage in areas where the railroad’s maintenance workers were working on the railroad or taking a break. Because this was usually in a remote area, there was typically no place to shower or change clothes and no place to obtain a replacement for their now inedible food.
One might expect that this practice would be illegal. In fact, at the time this hearing was held, flushing human waste onto the track was perfectly legal. In addition, Amtrak pointed out a 1978 EPA report entitled Health Implications of Sewage Treatment Facilities, which concluded that discharging human waste from railroad conveyances posed no identifiable risk to human health. Even a 1971 FDA regulation that required all existing conveyances to be retrofitted with a system for treatment of waste prior to discharge or prevention of discharge of wastes carried no weight after the Association of American Railroads requested and was granted a postponement of the date they were required to comply with this regulation.
Amtrak did agree to three concessions:
- they would adjust the automatic discharge devices on their Superliner cars so that they would not dump at speeds below 35 miles per hour;
- direct deposit toilet facilities on their Heritage bilevel cars would be locked while in train terminals or other places where the train makes lengthy stops; and
- “clear and concise” instructions would be issued to onboard personnel explaining when and under what circumstances Superliner waste retention tanks could be manually dumped.
For a follow-up to this hearing, see “Amtrak Told to Curb Waste Disposal” (CQ Almanac, 1990)
Today all Amtrak passenger cars have been equipped with retention tanks that are emptied out sanitarily at maintenance facilities, not while whizzing through public areas. We can all breathe easier.
FBI Counterintelligence Visits to Libraries
“Impervious to the Cold”
” … In computer science 101, Leakh made the acquaintance of a Hispanic student named Artie. The two exchanged telephone numbers, and Artie one day called to say that he was quitting a job doing research for a professor. Artie reported that he had been earning $10 an hour and asked if Leakh wanted the position. At 3:30 p.m. on April 18, 1983, Leakh met Artie in front of a building at Queens College. Artie suggested that Leakh impress the professor by saying he planned to study something like artificial intelligence. Artie further advised Leakh to try for $15 an hour.
I said fine.
Fifteen minutes later, a neatly groomed gentleman appeared out of the drizzling afternoon. He looked professorial in a blue suit, blue tie, and light-gray shirt. He gave Leakh’s hand a firm shake and introduced himself as Genrick. Leakh immediately recognized the accent as the same as that of a girl he knew.
As soon as he spoke, I knew he was Russian.
Artie headed off, and Leakh went for a stroll with the gentleman. Leakh said that he was studying artificial intelligence and robotics. The gentleman produced a list of various public institutions and libraries. He asked if Leakh would be willing to do research at these places for a school called “Moscow Institute.”
I said, Library and what not is fine. He asked if I can get classified material. I said I won’t be able to do that. He kind of smiled.
On a chilly afternoon in early May, Leakh went from an art class to meet the gentleman outside the Student Union. The gentleman seemed impervious to the cold as he gave Leakh a list of magazine articles to look up in the Queens College Library. The gentleman asked Leakh to present him with photocopies on the following Tuesday afternoon.”
—Michael Daly, “I Spy: How a Queens College Student Helped Catch a KGB Agent and Set Off a Superpower Showdown,” New York Magazine, April 6, 1987, 34–47. (Quoted in hearing at page 268.)
These hearings raise concerns over the FBI’s Library Awareness Program, which was an effort by the FBI during the Cold War to to recruit front-line public service library staff to track the reading habits of “suspicious” library patrons. In particular, library staff might be asked to identify Soviet agents—for instance, by their foreign accent or their apparent imperviousness to cold weather—or suspicious activity by persons that may be cooperating with Soviet agents.
In their 1988 report The KGB and the Library Target, 1962–Present, The FBI defended their activities, alleging without hard evidence that the KGB or agents working for the KGB had stolen large amounts of microfiche from libraries, and that foreign access to unclassified scientific data and scientific research was somehow dangerous and damaging to the U.S.
Duane Webster, Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries (ALR), countered that these FBI tactics violated state laws and library policies, not to mention the librarian’s code of ethics regarding patron privacy. The directors of ALR member libraries adopted the following statement to address Library Users’ Right to Confidentiality:
“The Association of Research Libraries is committed to the principle that unrestricted access to and dissemination of ideas are fundamental to a democratic society. Libraries, in addition to their other information services, exercise a unique responsibility in preserving the freedom of citizens to receive and exchange ideas. Public confidence in libraries must not be shaken by any breach in the confidentiality of individual use of library resources.
The Association of Research Libraries condemns the efforts of any government agency to violate the privacy of library users, to subvert library patron records, and to intimidate or recruit library staff to monitor so-called “suspicious” library patrons or report on what or how any individual uses library resources. Such actions are an affront to First Amendment freedoms, individual privacy, and all citizens’ right to know. These actions violate the basic tenets of a democratic society.”
This New York Times article first revealed the Library Awareness Program to the public: Robert D. McFadden, “F.B.I. in New York Asks Librarians’ Aid In Reporting on Spies,” New York Times, September 18, 1987.
For a detailed analysis of the Library Analysis Program, see Herbert N. Foerstel, “Surveillance in the Stacks: The FBI’s Library Awareness Program,” Greenwood Press, 1991.
Some Unfortunate Ambiguities
Creating a title that is both clear and succinct can be a challenge. Here are a few hearings whose titles may not convey their intended meaning:
- Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation: Are We Doing Enough?
- Health Effects of Pesticide Use on Children
- The Impact of Computer Aliens along the Mexican and Canadian Borders [In this case, computer is a typo for commuter.]
Do You Want to Know More?
To discover more government documents with fun and interesting titles, see the Sycamore Library Pinterest board entitled “Government Documents!!” and the Tumblr account “Best. Titles. Ever.” sponsored by Free Government Information, a website that promotes free public access to sometimes difficult to find information provided by agencies of the U.S. federal government.
While you are here, feel free to explore the Government Publications and other collections housed in Sycamore Library, such as the Juvenile Collection, the business, political science, and law collections, and historic maps and posters. After you leave, explore our Digital Collections and Subject Guides from the comfort of your home or dorm room.
If you need assistance finding or using government information, please visit the Service Desk in the Sycamore Library during regular hours, contact us by phone at (940) 565-2194, or send a request to govinfo@unt.edu. To request a research consultation or in-depth assistance, we recommend that you E-mail or call us to make an appointment with a member of our staff.
Have you ever come across a government publication with a funny or weird title? Share your favorites in the comments!
Article by Bobby Griffith. Source of image: Opper, Frederick Burr, Artist. Trying to make an April fool of him / F. Opper. , 1895. N.Y.: Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, April 3. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012648616/.
Four Dubliners—Wilde, Yeats, Joyce, and Beckett
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