Huston Plan

Pada July 14, 1970, President Nixon telah meluluskan satu rancangan yang dikenali sebagai Huston Plan yang bertujuan merangka satu gerakerja perisikan ke atas rakyat Negara Amerika yang disyakki cuba menentang dasar petadbiran Negara tersebut. [Rujuk: Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. London: Horgarth Press, 1991. Hal 399].

H.R Haldeman, Ketua Kakitangan kepada President Nixon ketika itu menguraikan secara terperinci Huston Plan di dalam bukunya, The Haldeman Diaries. Beliau menulis;

…the Huston Plan, a program designed to integrate the entire source for domestic intelligence under some central control to eliminate duplication and infighting. This was generated by President complete dissatisfaction with the results of intelligence gathering and interpretation, particularly regarding the instigation and training for the wave of violent demonstrations. Tom Huston was middle – level staffer who assigned to coordinate and staff the work of the project. [Haldeman, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. New York: Berkley Books, 1995. Hal 206 – 207]

Tom Huston merupakan bekas pegawai perisikan tentera darat Amerika Syarikat, yang ditugaskan sebagai anggota White House Internal Security Committee, antara tugas beliau ialah berhubungan dengan pasukan polis berhubung dengan kegiatan demonstrasi anti perang yang sedang rancak ketika itu. [Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. London: Horgarth Press, 1991. Hal 157]

Beliau telah diarahkan oleh President Nixon untuk merangka pelan bertindak termasuk perisikan dan peninjauan secara eletronik (electronic surveillances), membuka dan membaca dokumen dan surat – surat milik awam secara haram, dan meningkatkan pemantauan dan perninjauan ke atas kampus – kampus dan universiti awam AS oleh pihak perisikan tentera. [rujuk: http://www.twcnet.edu/cschutz/history-page/1960-1980/huston-plan.html ]

Unsur – unsur pemantauan pihak tentera ke atas awam di AS dilapurkan telah ujud sejak dari tahun 1967 lagi. Christopher H Pyle, dalam lapurannya kepada akhbar Washington Monthly bertarikh January 1970 sebagai berkata;

For the past four years, the US army has been closely watching political activity within the United States. Nearly 1,000 plainclothes investigators, working out of some 300 officers from coast to coast, keep track of political protest of all kind – from Klan rallies in North Carolina to antiwar speeches at Harvard.[Lihat: Peters, Charles, and Taylor Branch. Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Public Interest. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972. Hal 44]

Pyle, yang sebelum itu merupakan salah seorang pegawai perisikan yang terlibat menambah lagi;

To assure prompt communication of these reports, the Army distributes them aver a nationwide wire service. Completed in the fall of 1967, this teletype network gives every major troop command in the US daily and weekly reports on virtually all political protests occurring anywhere in the nation. [Peters & Branch, 1972: 45 – 45]

Untuk itu, pada April 1970, Tom Huston telah memujuk Haldeman, untuk mencadangkan kepada President Nixon bagi memanggil kesemua ketua – ketua badan perisikan di Amerika Syarikat bagi merangka satu program bersama bagi menjalankan operasi perisikan ke atas masyarakat awam di Negara tersebut. [Shawcross, 1991: 157]

Shawcross memperincikan pertemuan yang bersejarah itu (menurut kata Haldeman dalam bukunya – rujuk: Haldeman, 1995: 206] dalam tulisannya;

The session Huston had suggested took place on June 5. Nixon met with Hoover (Ketua pengarah FBI – Pen), CIA Director Richard Helms, Vice Admiral Noel Gaylor (Director of the National Security Agency), General Donald Bennett (Director of Defense Intelligence Agency), and Haldeman, Ehrlichman (Assistant to President Nixon for Domestic Affair. Lihat: Haldeman, 1995: xix) and Huston. [Shawcross, 1991: 158]

Menurut laman web wikipedia.org, Cuma Hoover sahaja yang menentang rancangan ini, dan dengan bantuan Attorney General John Mitchell, beliau berjaya mempengaruhi President Nixon untuk membatalkan Huston Plan. [rujuk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Plan ]

Wikipedia menambah;
As details of the Huston Plan unfolded during the Watergate Hearings, it came to be seen as a part and parcel of what AG Mitchell referred to as, "White House Horror". This would include the Plumbers Unit, the proposed fire – bombing of the Brookings Institute, the 1971 burglary of the office of the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, the creation of a White House enemies list, and the use of the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to punish those deemed to be enemies.
[rujuk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Plan ]

Walaupun Huston Plan dibatalkan pada tahun 1970, pada March 2, 1971, President Nixon telah mengarahkan pembantu – pembantunya untuk mendapatkan lebih maklumat perisikan mengenai gerakan para pelajar universiti yang selalu melancarkan demo anti peperangan ke atas pentadbirannya. Beliau juga amat kecewa dengan prestasi unit – unit perisikan domestic AS yang gagal memberitahu dan menyalurkan maklumat – maklumat penting kepadanya. [Haldeman, 1995: 305]

Huston Plan atau apa – apa juga bentuk kegiatan pengintipan ke atas warganegara sendiri telah mendapat banyak tentangan dari pihak masyarakat AS. Dennis Wise dan Thomas Ross dalam bukunya The Invisible Government telah melahirkan kebimbangan mereka ke atas aktiviti ini. Mereka menulis;

These unseen domestic activities of the CIA have become disturbingly complex and widespread… no outsider can tell whether this activity is necessary or even legal. No outsider is in a position to determine whether or not, these activities might become an internal danger to a free society. Both Congress ant the Executive ought to give urgent attention to this problem. [Wise, Dennis, and Thomas B Ross. The Invisible Government. New York: Vintage Books, 1974. Hal 357]

Bibliography
1. Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. London: Horgarth Press, 1991
2. Haldeman, H.R. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. New York: Berkley Books, 1995
3. Peters, Charles, and Taylor Branch. Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Public Interest. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972
4. Wise, Dennis, and Thomas B Ross. The Invisible Government. New York: Vintage Books, 1974
5. http://www.twcnet.edu/cschutz/history-page/1960-1980/huston-plan.html
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Plan