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Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Wednesday, 8 January 2014
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STORIES:
"It Was Time to Do More Than Protest": Activists Admit
to 1971 FBI Burglary That Exposed COINTELPRO
One of the great mysteries of the Vietnam War era has been
solved. On March 8, 1971, a group of activists — including a cabdriver, a day
care director and two professors — broke into an FBI office in Media,
Pennsylvania. They stole every document they found and then leaked many to the
press, including details about FBI abuses and the then-secret
counter-intelligence program to infiltrate, monitor and disrupt social and
political movements, nicknamed COINTELPRO. They called themselves the Citizens’
Commission to Investigate the FBI. No one was ever caught for the break-in. The
burglars’ identities remained a secret until this week when they finally came
forward to take credit for the caper that changed history. Today we are joined
by three of them — John Raines, Bonnie Raines and Keith Forsyth; their
attorney, David Kairys; and Betty Medsger, the former Washington Post reporter
who first broke the story of the stolen FBI documents in 1971 and has now
revealed the burglars’ identities in her new book, "The Burglary: The
Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI."
Click here to watch the one-hour Part 2 of this interview.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Today, we will spend the rest of the hour
unraveling one of the great mysteries of the Vietnam War era. On March 8th,
1971, a group of eight activists, including a cab driver, a daycare director
and two professors, broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole
every document they found. The activists, calling themselves the Citizens’
Commission to Investigate the FBI, soon began leaking shocking details about
FBI abuses to the media. Among the documents was one that bore the mysterious
word "COINTELPRO."
AMY GOODMAN: No one involved in the break-in was ever caught.
Their identities remained a secret until this week. Today, three of the FBI
burglars will join us on the show, but first I want to turn to a new short film
produced by the nonprofit news organization Retro Report for The New York
Times. It’s titled Stealing J. Edgar Hoover’s Secrets.
NARRATOR: It’s the greatest heist you’ve never heard of and one
of the most important.
HARRY REASONER: Last March, someone broke into the FBI offices
in Media, Pennsylvania, stole some records and mailed copies of them around to
the several newspapers.
NARRATOR: Those records would help bring an end to J. Edgar
Hoover’s secret activities within the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
JOHN CHANCELLOR: He ordered his agents not only to expose New
Left groups, but to take action against them to neutralize them.
UNIDENTIFIED: Many Americans were tapped and bugged, had their
mail opened by the CIA and the FBI.
NARRATOR: The burglars were never caught, and the details have
remained a mystery until now. A new book, The Burglary, reveals for the first
time who did it and how they used a crowbar to pry open one of the best-kept
and darkest secrets in American history.
JOHN RAINES: We were early whistleblowers before whistleblowers
were known as such.
NARRATOR: The burglars are stepping out of the shadows just as
new revelations about secret intelligence operations have many people asking,
"How much is too much when personal privacy is at stake?"
In the spring of 1970, the war in Vietnam was raging.
JOHN CHANCELLOR: American battle deaths in Vietnam now number
40,142.
NARRATOR: And at home, antiwar protesters and law enforcement
officers were violently clashing.
BONNIE RAINES: It felt like a nightmare was unfolding. I took
what was outrage and horror about what was going on, and I realized that I had
to take it somewhere.
NARRATOR: Bonnie Raines worked at a daycare center in
Philadelphia. Her husband John taught religion at Temple University. They were
the very picture of a golden couple.
BONNIE RAINES: We had an eight-year-old, a six-year-old and a
two-year-old. We were family folks who also wanted to keep another track active
in our lives, which was political activism.
NARRATOR: That activism attracted the attention of the FBI. Its
director, the powerful and feared J. Edgar Hoover, perceived the antiwar
movement, which ranged from radical revolutionaries to peaceful protesters, as
a threat to national security.
BONNIE RAINES: At one rally, I had one of my children on my
back, and not only did they take my picture, but they took her picture.
NARRATOR: Protesters like the Raines became increasingly
convinced the FBI was conducting a covert campaign against them, tapping their
phones and infiltrating antiwar groups.
JOHN RAINES: We knew the FBI was systematically trying to squash
dissent. And dissent is the lifeblood of democracy.
NARRATOR: Determined to get proof, the FBI was crossing the
line, fellow activist and Haverford physics professor William Davidon hatched a
plan. He reached out to the Raines and six others, including a social worker, a
graduate student and a taxi driver named Keith Forsyth.
KEITH FORSYTH: We agreed to meet someplace where we could talk.
And he says, "What would you think about the idea of breaking into an FBI
office?" And I look at him, and I’m like, "You’re serious, aren’t
you?" I was pretty vehement in my opposition to the war, and I felt like
marching up and down the street with a sign was not cutting it anymore. And it
was like, OK, time to—time to kick it up a notch.
NARRATOR: The crew decided to break into a small FBI field
office in Media, Pennsylvania.
KEITH FORSYTH: Once I got over the shock of thinking that this
was the nuttiest thing I’d ever heard in my life, I’m like, this is a great
idea, because we’re not going to make any allegations; we’re going to take
their own paperwork, signed by their own people, including J. Edgar Hoover, and
give it to the newspapers. So, let’s see you argue with that.
NARRATOR: In the Raines’ third-floor attic, the team divvied up
responsibilities and assigned tasks. They hung maps to learn about the
neighborhood, planned escape routes, and they took extensive notes on the
comings and goings in the building.
KEITH FORSYTH: I signed up for a correspondence course in
locksmithing. That was my job, to get us in the door. Practiced several times a
week. After a month, you get pretty good.
NARRATOR: Bonnie was assigned the job of going inside and casing
the office.
BONNIE RAINES: I was to call the office and make an appointment
as a Swarthmore student doing research on opportunities for women in the FBI.
So they gave me an appointment. I tried to disguise myself as best I could, and
I went to say goodbye, and I acted confused about where the door was, and that
gave me a chance then to check out both rooms and know where the file cabinets
were.
NARRATOR: Bonnie discovered there was no alarm system and no
security guards. She also found a second door leading inside.
JOHN RAINES: When she came back with that news, we became
convinced, yes, I think we can get this done. We had more to lose than anybody
else in the group, because we had these kids.
BONNIE RAINES: We faced the reality of, if we were arrested and
on trial, we would be in prison for very many years. He had to make some plans
for that.
NARRATOR: With a solid understanding of how they would conduct
the break-in, they now needed to figure out when.
JOHN RAINES: March 8th, 1971, Frazier and Ali were fighting for
the championship of the world. And we had the feeling that maybe the cops might
be a little bit distracted.
NARRATOR: While the crew waited at a nearby hotel, Forsyth
arrived at the office alone.
KEITH FORSYTH: Pull up, walk up to the door, and one of the locks
is a cylinder tumbler lock, not a pin tumbler lock. And I just about had a
heart attack. Bottom line is, I could not pick that lock.
NARRATOR: They almost called it off. But that second door that
Bonnie noticed gave them another chance.
KEITH FORSYTH: At that point, you know that you’re going to have
to wing it. Knelt down on the floor, picked the lock in like 20 seconds. There
was a deadbolt on the other side. I had a pry bar with me, a short crowbar. I
put the bar in there and yanked that sucker. At one point, I heard a noise
inside the office. And I’m like, "Are they in there waiting for me?"
Basically said to myself, "There’s only one way to find out: I’m going
in."
NARRATOR: Next, the inside crew walked into an empty office
wearing business suits and carrying several suitcases. They cleaned out file
cabinets and then made their way downstairs to the getaway car and drove off
unnoticed. The group reconvened at a farmhouse an hour’s drive away and started
unpacking.
KEITH FORSYTH: We were like, "Oh, man, I can’t believe this
worked." We knew there was going to be some gold in there somewhere.
JOHN RAINES: Each of the eight of us were sorting files, and all
of a sudden you’d hear one of them, "Oh, look! Look at this one!
Look!"
NARRATOR: After several long nights digging for documents that
looked the most revealing, the burglars sent copies to journalists, including
Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger.
BETTY MEDSGER: And the cover letter was from the Citizens’
Commission to Investigate the FBI, and the first file that I read was about a
group of FBI agents who were told to enhance the paranoia in the antiwar
movement and to create an atmosphere that there’s an FBI agent behind every
mailbox.
NARRATOR: Attorney General John Mitchell asked the Post not to
write about the stolen documents, saying it could endanger lives.
BETTY MEDSGER: The attorney general called two key editors and
tried to convince them not to publish.
NARRATOR: But the Post did publish the story, on the front page.
It was the first of several reports and told how agents turned local police,
letter carriers and switchboard operators into informants.
BETTY MEDSGER: There were very strong editorials calling for an
investigation of the FBI.
NARRATOR: Another stolen document would prove even more
explosive: a routing slip marked with a mysterious word,
"COINTELPRO." While reporters tried to uncover its meaning, the FBI
was desperate to find the burglars. The bureau put nearly 200 agents on the
investigation. Hoover’s best lead was the college girl who had visited their
office.
BONNIE RAINES: His command was "Find me that woman!"
NARRATOR: Agents actively searched for Bonnie, but there were
many antiwar activists who fit her description.
JOHN RAINES: We could hide within, you know, thousands of
people. There were so many of us who were active.
NARRATOR: Two years later, NBC reporter Carl Stern figured out
the meaning of that word, COINTELPRO.
JOHN CHANCELLOR: Secret FBI memos made public today show that
the late J. Edgar Hoover ordered a nationwide campaign to disrupt the
activities of the New Left without telling any of his superiors about it.
CARL STERN: Many of the techniques were clearly illegal.
Burglaries, forged blackmail letters and threats of violence were used.
NARRATOR: The FBI initially defended its actions.
CLARENCE KELLEY: The government would have been derelict in its
duty, had it not taken measures to protect the fabric of our society.
NARRATOR: But the bureau’s techniques were worse and the targets
more far-reaching than the burglars ever imagined.
DAVID BRINKLEY: Diplomats, government employees, sports figures,
socially prominent persons, senators and congressmen.
WALTER CRONKITE: The FBI at one time sought to blackmail the
late Martin Luther King into committing suicide.
UNIDENTIFIED: Marriages were destroyed. Violence was encouraged.
Many Americans were tapped and bugged, had their mail opened by the CIA and the
FBI, and their tax returns used illegally.
AMY GOODMAN: An extended excerpt from Stealing J. Edgar Hoover’s
Secrets, a short film produced by Retro Report for The New York Times. To watch
the full video, visit RetroReport.org.
When we come back, three of the activists join us in
studio—Keith Forsyth, Bonnie and John Raines—as well as the former Washington
Post reporter Betty Medsger, who first broke the story of the stolen FBI
documents in 1971. This week, she revealed the identities of the burglars in
her new book, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI.
We’ll go back in time and talk about today, as well. This is Democracy Now!
Back in a moment.
[break]
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Joining us now in our studio are three of the
activists who broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, on March 8th,
1971. The break-in led to revelations about the FBI’s secret COINTELPRO program
that targeted activists across the country.
None of the burglars were ever caught. On Tuesday, their
identities were revealed for the very first time. Keith Forsyth, Bonnie Raines
and John Raines all lived in Philadelphia in 1971. Forsyth was working as a cab
driver. He was chosen to pick the lock at the FBI office. Bonnie and John
Raines hosted many of the planning meetings for the burglary at their home,
where they were raising three children. Bonnie, who worked as a daycare
director, helped case the FBI office by posing as a college student interested
in becoming an FBI agent. John Raines was a veteran of the Freedom Rides
movement and a professor at Temple University. He used a Xerox machine at the
school to photocopy many of the stolen documents.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re also joined by Betty Medsger, author of the
new book, The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI. Medsger
first reported on the stolen documents while working at The Washington Post.
She uncovered the identities of most of the burglars in her new book.
And we welcome you all to Democracy Now! Keith, I want to begin
with you. Talk about the time and how you ended up going into the FBI office.
What spurred you on?
KEITH FORSYTH: So, at that time, we had just, within a few
years, gone through the sort of peak of the civil rights movement, and many of
the laws, like the Voting Rights Act, had been passed some years before, but
the reality of racial justice was still far from complete. There were—the war
in Vietnam was raging at that point in time. And so, there were many, many
people who were working for change in those areas, in particular.
My main focus at that time was the antiwar movement. I was, you
know, spending as much time as I could with organizing against the war, but I
had become very frustrated with legal protest—didn’t seem to be getting us
anywhere. The government wasn’t listening. The war was escalating and not
de-escalating. And I think what really pushed me over the edge was, shortly
after the invasion of Cambodia, there were four students killed at Kent State
and two more killed at—at Jackson State. And—I’m sorry, I’d think I’d have this
down after all these years. And that really pushed me over the edge, that it
was time to do more than just—than just protest and just march with a sign. And
I joined the so-called Catholic Left, which is where I met John and Bonnie and
also Bill Davidon. And from there, the next step was the Media action.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Keith, could you also talk about how you were
invited to join this plan to break into—by William Davidon?
KEITH FORSYTH: If memory serves, he called me on the phone and
asked—
AMY GOODMAN: And explain who William Davidon was.
KEITH FORSYTH: Oh, I’m sorry. Bill Davidon, at that time, was a
professor of physics at Haverford College, and I knew him mainly as a fellow
activist in the peace movement. He was very prominent in Philadelphia in both
the legal and the illegal peace movements. And he called me on the phone one
day and asked me if I wanted to come to a party, which was code for an action. And
I believe I said, "Sure, I’m always up for a party." You can check
the FBI transcript, because they were tapping his phone at the time. And so, we
met at an outdoor location, where we couldn’t be bugged, and he presented the
idea to me then.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Bonnie Raines, talk about your involvement.
What motivated you? You were a young mother of three.
BONNIE RAINES: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: How old were your children?
BONNIE RAINES: They were eight, six and two at that time. We’ve
since had a fourth child. I became involved, as Keith said, beginning with the
civil rights movement and when we lived in New York and were students. Then we
moved to Philadelphia, very much opposed to the war in Vietnam, and found a
whole community of activists in Philadelphia. We became acquainted with
the—what was called the Catholic Left at that time. And the Berrigan brothers,
Bill and Dan, were the leaders in that. And we participated with that group,
called the East Coast Conspiracy to Save Lives, in a draft board raid. We went
into a draft board in the middle of the night as part of the draft resistance
movement.
AMY GOODMAN: Where was that?
BONNIE RAINES: In North Philadelphia, a draft board in North
Philadelphia. We targeted that draft board because it was in one of the poorest
sections of the city, where they were bringing many, many, many young, poor
young men into the armed forces to be sent as cannon fodder to Vietnam. Our
government was lying to us about the casualties, both civilian and military
casualties. So I participated, along with John, in going into a draft board and
removing files and destroying those files so those young men could not be
drafted.
AMY GOODMAN: And you mentioned the Berrigan brothers, the
priests.
BONNIE RAINES: Yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Phil, the late Phil Berrigan—
BONNIE RAINES: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: —and Father Dan Berrigan—
BONNIE RAINES: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —who’s still alive. Catonsville, how significant in
1969 was this for you? I wanted to go to a clip right now—
BONNIE RAINES: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: —of the Catonsville action. That was Catonsville,
Maryland, where a group of activists, led by Fathers Dan and Phil Berrigan,
burned draft cards with napalm. They stole hundreds of draft records and
torched them. They were sentenced to three years in prison, their action
helping ignite a wave of direct actions against the draft in the Vietnam War.
FATHER DANIEL BERRIGAN: We do not believe that nonviolence is
dead, and that we don’t believe in interposing one form of violence for
another, and that we believe that an action like this will still speak to our
fellow Americans and bring home to them that a decent society is still
possible, but it’s totally impossible if these files, and what they represent,
are preserved and honored, and even defended, as those poor women tried to.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Father Dan Berrigan, as they stood around
in a circle and burned, with napalm—napalm being used in Vietnam—draft records.
BONNIE RAINES: Yes, mm-hmm. That was a very dramatic moment for
all of us, I believe. It took civil disobedience to another level and really
brought us, clearly, to another level of protest against the war in Vietnam.
And we followed their lead in targeting the draft as one of the real evil
systems of that war. And that’s how we became involved in covert actions with
draft boards in Philadelphia.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, John Raines, can you talk about your sense
that the antiwar movement itself had been infiltrated by FBI informants?
JOHN RAINES: Oh, sure. I mean, that was obvious, for any of us
who were involved in the civil rights movement, because it happened in the
civil rights movement. J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was all over the civil rights
movement with infiltrators and surveillance, intense surveillance, and people
that would report back on meetings and so on. And, of course, we’d all know
that J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI went after Martin Luther King, tried to
discredit him—indeed, even sent him a note suggesting that because of his
activities with other women besides his wife, he now had no option but to
commit suicide. That note was sent to Dr. King, suggesting—and it was from the
FBI, suggesting that Dr. King commit suicide. So that we knew, from the civil
rights actions, that J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI were very much against
anything that promised significant social change. We brought that information,
that knowledge, north with us when we came to the antiwar movement. And it
became clear that the tactics he used to disrupt and destroy—try to destroy the
protest movement in the South, he was using once again against the protesters
against the war in Vietnam.
The problem was, J. Edgar Hoover was untouchable. He was a
national icon. I mean, he had presidents who were afraid of him. The people
that we elected to oversee J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI were either enamored of him or
terrified of him. Nobody was holding him accountable. And that meant that
somebody had to get objective evidence of what his FBI was doing. And that led
us to the idea that Bill Davidon suggested to us: Let’s break into an FBI
office, get their files and get what they’re doing in their own handwriting.
AMY GOODMAN: You and Bill Davidon were professors.
JOHN RAINES: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: He a professor at Haverford, you a professor at
Temple University.
JOHN RAINES: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What did you feel about the risk that you were
taking? Were you concerned about getting caught?
JOHN RAINES: Well, Bonnie and I were parents, and we had three
kids under 10, and that was a very serious consideration. We had to be
persuaded that we could get away with this. And we had learned nice burglar
skills from priests and nuns. And we had cased the FBI office in Media very
carefully.
AMY GOODMAN: You had thought about Philadelphia, but thought it
was too secure?
JOHN RAINES: Oh, yes, it was a big building downtown, as—you
couldn’t touch that. But Media, you could. And we felt quite confident that if
we could get in there and get out without leaving any physical evidence behind,
that we could then disappear into the very, very large antiwar movement,
thousands of people in the Philadelphia area.
AMY GOODMAN: You had prepared, in case you were caught, to have
your children taken care of?
BONNIE RAINES: We had. We had. We knew the risks. We knew the
jeopardy. We weren’t going to be reckless. We weren’t going to move ahead with
our involvement except with the leadership of Bill Davidon, who we all had so
much admiration and respect for. But we did feel that it was necessary to speak
to John’s older brother and his wife and to my mother and father about caring
for our children if—should the worst happen and we would be convicted and sent
to federal prison.
AMY GOODMAN: Keith Forsyth, you chose the night of the Muhammad
Ali-Joe Frazier fight—
KEITH FORSYTH: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: —to break in. Why? Why was this so significant,
March 8th, 1971?
KEITH FORSYTH: Well, it was just—you know, there were many steps
that we took to try to avoid getting caught, and this was one of them, because
whoever suggested it—and I have no idea who it was—thought that it would add to
the distraction, not only of the police, but of just people in general. The
building in which the office was located had a live-in supervisor, and his
apartment was directly below the FBI office. So, he was going to be on the next
floor down while we were inside walking around opening cabinets. So, anything
that could keep his mind off of the ambient sounds sounded like a good idea.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: How did you know that you would find what
documents you would find, or did you know?
KEITH FORSYTH: We didn’t know. We were—we were pretty sure. You
know, bureaucracies are the same everywhere. They love to keep records. But we
really—we were taking a shot. So, in that sense, we got lucky that they did
keep records.
AMY GOODMAN: This brings Betty Medsger into the story, whose
book this week, The Burglary, reveals the identities of the activists involved
in this burglary. Looks like J. Edgar Hoover found his match in this group of
people. Talk about receiving in the mail the documents. You were a reporter at
the time for The Washington Post.
BETTY MEDSGER: OK. I’d just like to say something about Bill
Davidon, if I might, first, that the idea was Bill’s. And Bill participated in
preparations for the book and the documentary that’s been made, 1971. And we
should note that we’re all very sorry that Bill’s not with us. Bill died in
November. But he was sort of a genius in coming up with this idea, because
although many people in the various movements at that time thought that there
was—there were FBI informers in their organizations, there was no evidence of
that, and the public didn’t know. And Bill had this deep commitment that if the
public could be presented with evidence, they would be very upset. Even though
there—Hoover was an iconic figure, that if they knew that there was massive
surveillance of the—political surveillance, that they would care and do
something. And that’s what happened.
I was a reporter. And one day this envelope appeared in my
mailbox. And it said it was from Liberty Publications—that was the return
address—Media, Pennsylvania. That didn’t mean anything to me. But when I opened
it, there was a cover letter, said it was from Citizens’ Commission to
Investigate the FBI. That was a new organization to me. And there was—the
letter explained that a group of eight people had burglarized an FBI office on
the night of March 8th, and that enclosed were some of the files that they had
removed from the office.
And some of those files were very shocking. I think the one—and
you showed the excerpt from this on the Retro Report—the first shock—and this
also resonated very much with the public when it was published and
discussed—was the one that instructed agents to enhance the paranoia and then
also make people think that there’s an FBI agent behind every mailbox. And that
was a pretty stunning statement and said so much. And the burglars
were—themselves, were shocked, I understand, when they found that the first—saw
that document the first night after the burglary. So that stunned me.
And I guess the other files—there were many about individuals,
and they were all serious, but the—one of the things that I remember most from
those files was the truly blanket surveillance of African-American people that
was described. It was in Philadelphia, but it also prescribed national
programs. And it was quite stunning. First, it described the surveillance. It
took place in every place where people would gather—churches, classrooms,
stores down the street, just everything. But it also specifically prescribed
that every FBI agent was supposed to have an informer, just for the purpose of
coming back every two weeks and talking to them about what they had observed
about black Americans. And in Washington, D.C., at the time, that was six
informers for every FBI agent informing on black Americans. The surveillance
was so enormous that it led various people, rather sedate people in editorial
offices and in Congress, to compare it to the Stasi, the dreaded secret police
of East Germany.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Could you talk about how the editors at The
Washington Post responded when you showed them these documents?
BETTY MEDSGER: The editors responded very positively to them. I
should point out that—two things. First, this was the first time that a
journalist had ever received secret government documents from a source who
had—from the outside, an outside source who had stolen the documents. So that
tended to pose a different kind of consideration as to what you would do—in
their minds, as to what you’d do with the documents. But it was a particularly
tough decision for Katharine Graham, who until this time had never faced
anything like this.
AMY GOODMAN: The publisher.
BETTY MEDSGER: The publisher, Katharine Graham, the publisher of
The Washington Post, because it was the first time that she had been faced with
a demand from the Nixon administration that she suppress a story. And she did
not want to publish. And the in-house counsel, the lawyers, also did not want
to publish. But two editors, from the beginning, realized it was a very
important story and pushed it—Ben Bradlee and Ben Bagdikian. I was just back
there innocently writing my story, talking—I had been a reporter in
Philadelphia and was talking to sources from the past, confirming information.
Didn’t know until 6:00 that there was a question as to whether or not they
would publish. By 10:00 that night, she decided to publish.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the reaction, and the reporters who
did not get to publish the story, because you weren’t the only person that
these activists sent the documents to.
BETTY MEDSGER: They sent them to five people. These are the
first files that they released. They sent them to Senator George McGovern and
Representative Parren Mitchell from Baltimore. And they immediately returned
the files to the FBI when they received them and didn’t make them public. They
sent them to three journalists. In addition to sending them to me, they sent
them to Jack Nelson at the Washington Bureau of the Los Angeles Times —
AMY GOODMAN: The great crusading reporter who wrote Terror in
the Night about the Klan in the South.
BETTY MEDSGER: Right, and Tom Wicker, columnist then at The New
York Times. Now, it’s also important to keep in mind, in addition to the fact
that we didn’t really know—the public didn’t know what was happening inside the
FBI, that very few journalists ever wrote investigative work or critical
comment about the FBI. And Jack Nelson and Tom Wicker were two of about three
or four who had, up until that point. At the L.A. Times, Jack never received
the envelope, even though it was addressed to him, and it was delivered to the
FBI immediately. I didn’t know this until years later, when I read the
investigative report on the FBI’s investigation. It’s a little less clear what
happened at the Times as to whether Tom Wicker received, and what they did do
was the same thing: They immediately gave the files to the FBI. And—but they
apparently kept them and copied them, unlike the L.A. Times, because the day
after we broke the story, then they wrote stories on the same files.
AMY GOODMAN: Keith, before we go to break, can you talk about
parallels to today? It is hard to look at—and for a moment, I want to turn to
the Church Committee hearings that took place a few years later. Senator Frank
Church of Idaho led this investigation. The Senate’s Church Committee
investigated the CIA and FBI’s misuse of power at home and abroad. The
multi-year investigation in the mid-'70s followed the exposure of COINTELPRO,
which stands for Counterintelligence Program—and it was the first time people
had seen that word, was in the documents you released—examining the FBI and
CIA's efforts to infiltrate and disrupt leftist organizations, the CIA’s
attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, and much more. This is Senator Frank
Church speaking during one of the committee’s hearings.
SEN. FRANK CHURCH: We have seen today the dark side of those
activities, where many Americans, who were not even suspected of crime, were
not only spied upon, but they were harassed, they were discredited, and, at
times, endangered.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Senator Frank Church. The Church Committee
hearings led to major changes in what the FBI could do, and also dealing with
the press, as well. You listen to Frank Church, you could be hearing possible
hearings today, though they haven’t started, to do with Edward Snowden.
KEITH FORSYTH: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: What are your thoughts on Edward Snowden today?
KEITH FORSYTH: I think there are some parallels. It’s not an
exact parallel. But, to me, one of the most significant ones is that not long
before Edward Snowden released these documents, James Clapper went in front of
Congress and the American public and was asked a direct question whether the
NSA was engaged in this kind of surveillance, and he said no, which was
obviously a lie. And I think if he had said, "Oh, we can’t talk about that
because that’s national security," I might have had some respect for that
answer. But to come out and lie to the public about it—and, of course, not
suffer any punishment as a result—so, to me, Edward Snowden—I’ve seen no
evidence, personally, that Edward Snowden has released anything that was
actually harmful to our national security. You know, certainly has been
embarrassing, but, to me, the young man is definitely a whistleblower and has
performed a great service by enabling us to have the conversation. You know, we
couldn’t—we couldn’t have the conversation about whether this is right or wrong
before, because we were not told about it. So he’s made that conversation
possible, and I think—I think we owe him something, a debt for that.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and come back to this
conversation. Our guests are Keith Forsyth and Bonnie and John Raines. They
were part of the—what they called themselves, the Citizens’ Commission to
Investigate the FBI, activists during the Vietnam War era who broke into an FBI
office in Media, Pennsylvania, and took the documents they got and sent them to
The Washington Post and other publications to let people know what the FBI was
doing. We’re also joined by the woman who has revealed the names of these
activists—and we’ll talk about why they decided to come forward—Betty Medsger,
former Washington Post reporter, author of The Burglary: The Discovery of J.
Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War
and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh, as we continue our
discussion looking at how activists broke into an FBI office in Media,
Pennsylvania, in 1971 and disclosed secrets about the FBI’s COINTELPRO
program—that’s Counterintelligence Program—first came to public attention with
the release of these documents. We are joined, as well as Bonnie and John
Raines, who were among those who broke into the FBI office that day, March 8th,
1971, by the reporter who broke the story then and now, released the names of
those involved with this break-in, Betty Medsger. She wrote The Burglary: The
Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI. We’re also joined by David Kairys,
who has represented this group until this day for what, more than 40 years?
DAVID KAIRYS: Forty-three years.
AMY GOODMAN: Forty-three years. But, John Raines, why have you
decided to come forward 43 years—what, 42 years later?
JOHN RAINES: Well, the simple answer is: A book came out. And,
of course, that’s not accidental. We decided years ago that we would trust
Betty with this story. And she’s done a wonderful job, spending years of
research writing a very substantial book. It tells a very interesting story.
We decided that it was time to, once again, come forward with
the question of government surveillance, government intimidation, and the right
of citizens to vocally dissent. I think that the gasoline of democracy is the
right to dissent, because wherever there’s power, wherever there’s privilege,
power and privilege are going to try to remove, insofar as they can, from
public discourse anything they want to do. That leaves the citizens’ right to
dissent as the last line of defense for freedom. Now, that’s what we were faced
with back in 1970s. I think that’s what we’re faced with once again today. It
should not surprise us. I mean, it should not surprise us that those in power
in Washington want to make the decisions that really count off stage, out of
sight from the rest of us. But democracy depends upon the rights of citizens to
have the information they need in order for them, the citizens—who are the
sovereigns—for them to decide what the government should be doing and should
not be doing. They must have that information so that they can make up their
minds.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain that moment that night when Betty Medsger
came over and you revealed who you were. What year was it?
JOHN RAINES: I think that was in 1988. We had known Betty when
she was a reporter there in Philadelphia.
AMY GOODMAN: That was more than 20 years ago.
JOHN RAINES: Oh, more than 20 was ago. And Betty was then living
in San Francisco, but she was on a trip to the East Coast. And we invited her
for supper, and Betty was nice enough to say, "Sure, I’ll come." And
I think it was—we had had supper, and finally, our youngest daughter, Mary,
came down. She was, I think, 12 or 13, something like that. And without
thinking about it, I just said, "Mary, come on in. We want you to meet
Betty Medsger, because she was the one that we sent those FBI files to."
And Betty’s chin dropped down to her chest, and it was out of the bag. That’s
how it started.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: David Kairys, as the attorney who has worked on
this case for so long, could you talk about the significance of the statute of
limitations on the case, as well as what you saw as the illegality—what was
indeed the illegality of what these documents exposed about what the FBI was
doing?
DAVID KAIRYS: Well, sure. The statute of limitations, by any
fair reading, is five years. The FBI themselves closed the file in 1976,
because five years had elapsed and there was no charges. Excuse me. There are
arguments one can make, but there’s really no legitimate or good-faith basis to
bring any legal—any legal charges at this point.
As for the illegality of the FBI, they’re supposed to enforce
the law. Here they are interposing themselves as almost a political counterforce
to stop certain movements. And it had a direction to it: They were stopping
left-liberal movements. And they were using techniques that we usually
associate with state police in countries and systems that we usually think of
as alien.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And how did you come to become involved in the
case?
DAVID KAIRYS: Well, I was regularly doing civil rights work, and
I was—I would represent demonstrators of all kinds. And so, two of them checked
with me before, what’s my home number. And they—Keith kids me that he’s still
got my phone number from back then on his arm. And so, that was the beginning.
I didn’t know then exactly what they were going to do, but then two of them got
arrested in the Camden 28 case, where I was lead counsel.
AMY GOODMAN: And, in fact, remarkably, five days before this
break-in, Bill Davidon met with Henry Kissinger at the White House, the
national security adviser for Richard Nixon.
DAVID KAIRYS: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: We don’t have time for the story, but we’re going
to talk about it in our post-show interview, and we’ll post it online at
democracynow.org. How was this secret kept for so many decades? It’s not just
the two of you, John and Bonnie Raines; there were nine of you. One person
dropped out. There were eight of you. This is decades later. How did you keep
this secret?
BONNIE RAINES: Well, we—
AMY GOODMAN: A hundred FBI agents looking for you. And, Bonnie,
you had gone into the FBI office in Media to case it out and pretend you were a
young woman looking for an FBI job and sat with the official there.
BONNIE RAINES: Mm-hmm, and did not know, following that, that
there was a sketch that was then circulated of me by the FBI. It was—we knew—
AMY GOODMAN: We have 30 seconds.
BONNIE RAINES: We knew that we had to pull the curtain down, not
meet after we did our work, and just not talk about it with anybody at all,
because our work was done at that point, and we were not looking for anything
more than for the general public and Congress to follow suit in a way that we
hoped they would.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel it accomplished what you wanted?
BONNIE RAINES: I think, in certain ways. In certain ways, it
did. We were encouraged when there was a Church Committee that was—that was taking
their task seriously, and there were reforms that did take place.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for all being with us,
and also thank Johanna Hamilton. Her film, 1971, on the same subject, is just
coming out. We’ll be interviewing her. The book is The Burglary. Thanks so
much, all, for joining us.
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HEADLINES:
Polar Vortex Begins to Lift After 9 Deaths in U.S.
The death toll from frigid temperatures across the United States
has reached nine. The polar vortex set record lows in a number of cities on
Tuesday as freezing temperatures overwhelmed homeless shelters and continued to
disrupt travel by land and air. The cold will begin easing for large parts of
the country today. Cities like New York will see an extreme jump by the
weekend, from a record low of 4 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday to a projected
high of 55 degrees on Saturday.
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Extension of Jobless Benefits Face GOP Challenge Despite Senate
Vote
The Senate has advanced a measure that would extend the jobless
benefits of 1.3 million Americans for three months. The Emergency Unemployment
Compensation program expired late last month after Congress failed to renew it.
On Tuesday, the Senate agreed to begin debate on the temporary extension,
setting up a likely vote later this week. At the White House, President Obama
blasted claims from some Republicans that jobless benefits discourage
recipients from seeking employment.
President Obama: "I can’t name a time where I met an
American who would rather have an unemployment check than the pride of having a
job. The long-term unemployed are not lazy. They’re not lacking in motivation.
They’re coping with the aftermath of the worst economic crisis in generations."
The measure would face a hostile reception in the House, where
Republicans have insisted on an equal amount in cuts to avoid increasing the
federal debt. House Speaker John Boehner has also floated a proposal to tie the
jobless benefits to approval of energy projects, including the Keystone XL oil
pipeline.
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JPMorgan Pays $2.6 Billion Fine to Avoid Criminal Charges in
Madoff Case
The financial giant JPMorgan Chase will pay $2.6 billion to settle
allegations it failed to disclose suspicions of fraud in what turned out to be
a massive Ponzi scheme by Bernie Madoff. Senior executives at JPMorgan Chase
had serious doubts about Madoff’s investment business at least 18 months before
it collapsed. Despite repeated suspicions, the bank never alerted authorities
and allowed Madoff to move billions of investors’ cash in and out of his Chase
bank accounts right up until the day of his arrest in December 2008. New York
District Attorney Preet Bharara unveiled the settlement.
Preet Bharara: "The BSA is a law that requires financial
institutions — as institutions — to establish and maintain effective
anti-money-laundering compliance programs and to know their customers. It is
not a tip; it is not a suggestion. It is a legal requirement, enforceable
through criminal sanction. Today’s charges have been filed because, in this
regard, JPMorgan, as an institution, failed — and failed miserably. One reason,
among others, that Madoff was able to get away with his crime for so long was
that JPMorgan had an inadequate and ineffective anti-money-laundering
program."
Of the $2.6 billion fine, $1.7 billion will go to Madoff’s
victims, who lost an estimated $18 billion. With the Madoff penalty, JPMorgan
has now paid some $20 billion to resolve government probes over the past 12
months. It is the latest settlement to come out of a series of deferred
prosecution agreements that have allowed major corporations to escape criminal
charges. In a statement, the watchdog group Public Citizen criticized the
Justice Department, saying: "This marks the latest example of a
predilection toward settling through the use of deferred prosecution
agreements, instead of issuing indictments. It also underscores the continuing,
and perhaps growing, problem of 'too big to jail.'"
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Iraq Violence Leaves Dozens Dead; Thousands Flee Fallujah
Nearly 100 people were killed in Iraq on Tuesday amidst clashes
between government forces and al-Qaeda-linked militants for control of two
major cities. At least 25 fighters were killed when Iraqi warplanes bombed
Ramadi, which is partially under control of a group called the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. Iraqi forces have also surrounded Fallujah in
preparation for a potential assault to retake the city. Thousands of Fallujah
residents have fled to avoid being trapped in the crossfire.
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Syria Begins Removal of Chemical Stockpile
The United Nations has begun moving Syria’s chemical weapons
stockpile out of the country as part of the disarmament program agreed to last
year. U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq announced the latest step.
Farhan Haq: "An initial quantity of priority chemical materials
was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia in Syria for verification and
was then loaded onto a Danish cargo ship today. The vessel has been accompanied
by naval escorts provided by Denmark and Norway, as well as the Syrian Arab
Republic. This movement initiates the process of transfer of chemical materials
from Syria to locations outside its territory for destruction."
The weapons will eventually be transferred to a U.S. ship and
destroyed in international waters.
-------
Al-Qaeda Group Leader Rejects Ceasefire Call from Rival in Syria
In other news from Syria, the head of the Nusra Front is calling
for a ceasefire in clashes with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. More
than 270 people have been killed in nearly a week of fighting between the two
al-Qaeda-linked groups in northern Syria. In an audio recording, Nusra Front
leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani proposed the formation of an Islamic legal
council to resolve disputes and return to a united stance against President
Bashar al-Assad. But in a response hours later, the head of ISIL vowed to crush
Nusra fighters as well as members of the Syrian National Coalition, the
internationally backed opposition group in Syria. The clashes mark the worst
infighting between opponents of Assad since the Syrian conflict began nearly
three years ago.
-------
Morsi Trial Delayed in Egypt
The trial of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has been
delayed today in Cairo. Morsi was due to appear on incitement charges
surrounding the deaths of protesters killed in a rally against his government
in December 2012. But the military regime says it is postponing Morsi’s
appearance until next month due to bad weather. The Muslim Brotherhood had
called for a pro-Marsi rally today to mark his return to court. State forces
have killed hundreds of Morsi supporters since his overthrow in July.
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U.S. to Deploy Additional Forces, Tanks to South Korea
The United States is boosting its military presence in South
Korea. The Pentagon will deploy an additional 800 soldiers and around 40 tanks
and armored vehicles beginning next month. The move comes as part of the Obama
administration’s pledge to rebalance U.S. foreign policy toward the Pacific. At
a meeting with South Korea’s foreign minister in Washington, Secretary of State
John Kerry renewed a vow to confront nuclear proliferation in North Korea.
Secretary of State John Kerry: "We call on North Korea to
denuclearize. We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state nor as a
nuclear-armed state, and nor will the international community abide by that. I
assured Foreign Minister Yun that we remain fully committed to the defense of
the Republic of Korea, including through extended deterrence and putting the
full range of U.S. military capabilities in place."
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Victim in Maryville Rape Case Hospitalized After Suicide Attempt
A teenage victim of an alleged rape in Maryville, Missouri, has
tried to take her own life. In 2012, Daisy Coleman, then 14 years old, claimed
she was given alcohol and raped during a gathering of high-school athletes
while another teen filmed the incident on his phone. Despite reported evidence
and interviews supporting the case, prosecutors dropped charges against
Coleman’s accused rapist. Coleman’s family says she tried to commit suicide
this weekend by overdosing on pills after being bullied online. Coleman was
rushed to a hospital where she remains in recovery. It was her third suicide
attempt since the alleged rape.
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Los Angeles County Sheriff Resigns After Deputy Arrests
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has announced his retirement
one month after the arrests of 18 current and former deputies for the alleged
abuse of prisoners and other offenses in local jails. Baca has served for
nearly 50 years and had planned to seek re-election in June. But he now says he
will step down at the end of the month. The charges followed a multi-year
investigation into the systemic abuse of prisoners in Los Angeles County jails.
-------
Ex-Defense Secretary Gates Says Obama Doubted Afghanistan
Strategy
A forthcoming memoir from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates
says President Obama did not believe in his own strategy for the war in Afghanistan.
Obama ordered a surge of 30,000 troops in 2009, but Gates says the president
had major doubts. Describing his thoughts at a 2011 meeting, Gates writes:
"The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand [Afghan President
Hamid] Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the
war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out." Gates was appointed
under President George W. Bush, but stayed on during President Obama’s first
term.
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