the 1971 FBI breakin (1 Viewer)

[fatness]

Burglars broke into an FBI office in 1971, stole almost every document, exposed government spying and dirty tricks, and never got caught.

The statute of limitations has run its course, and 5 of the 8 of them have come clean.

The burglars had, until now, maintained a vow of silence about their roles in the operation. They were content in knowing that their actions had dealt the first significant blow to an institution that had amassed enormous power and prestige during J. Edgar Hoover’s lengthy tenure as director.

“When you talked to people outside the movement about what the F.B.I. was doing, nobody wanted to believe it,” said one of the burglars, Keith Forsyth, who is finally going public about his involvement. “There was only one way to convince people that it was true, and that was to get it in their handwriting.”

The group spent months casing the building, driving past it at all times of the night and memorizing the routines of its residents. “We knew when people came home from work, when their lights went out, when they went to bed, when they woke up in the morning,” said Mr. Raines, who was a professor of religion at Temple University at the time. “We were quite certain that we understood the nightly activities in and around that building.”

But it wasn’t until Ms. Raines got inside the office that the group grew confident that it did not have a security system. Weeks before the burglary, she visited the office posing as a Swarthmore College student researching job opportunities for women at the F.B.I.

The burglary itself went off largely without a hitch, except for when Mr. Forsyth, the designated lock-picker, had to break into a different entrance than planned when he discovered that the F.B.I. had installed a lock on the main door that he could not pick. He used a crowbar to break the second lock, a deadbolt above the doorknob.

Interesting stuff.

 

[Sarnoff]

Among the grim litany of revelations was a blackmail letter F.B.I. agents had sent anonymously to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., threatening to expose his extramarital affairs if he did not commit suicide.

People shouldn't forget that this happened.

 

[MaxThreshold]

It's amazing that those very same type of people have no issues with this today - now that their party is in power.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Among the grim litany of revelations was a blackmail letter F.B.I. agents had sent anonymously to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., threatening to expose his extramarital affairs if he did not commit suicide.

People shouldn't forget that this happened.

Obvious tie-in to the Verizon/NSA thread.

 

[skol asylum]

Data mining is EXACTLY the same thing as cajoling somebody to kill themselves.

 

[Mario Kart]

Snowden should take notes.

 

[DrJ]

This pretty much sums up the government for you.

 

[fatness]

Snowden should take notes.

It looks like he did.

Much like Snowden, the FBI burglars selectively leaked the stolen files to journalists. They produced months of headlines about FBI surveillance of anti-war and civil rights groups — including the first references to COINTELPRO, a secret program started years earlier by Hoover and aimed at smearing the reputations of perceived enemies such as Dr. Martin Luther King.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/06/22205443-after-43-years-activists-admit-theft-at-fbi-office-that-exposed-domestic-spying

 

[fatness]

“We did it … because somebody had to do it,” John Raines, 80, a retired professor of religion at Temple University, said in an interview with NBC News. “In this case, by breaking a law — entering, removing files — we exposed a crime that was going on. … When we are denied the information we need to have to act as citizens, then we have a right to do what we did.”

 

[Mr. Retukes]

It's amazing that those very same type of people have no issues with this today - now that their party is in power.

What's not amazing is that you are terrible at reading comprehension and making analogies.

 

[msommer]

Interesting, thanks for posting!

 

[Brony]

Was hoping for a video of FBI agents doing some moonwalks and poppin' before the whole country was BREAKIN'

 

[Psychopav]

Too bad the FBI didn't have any secret courts to protect them. Glad to see our politicians haven't been completely idle over the last 40 years. Let's hear it for separation of powers, eh? Now if only we can get them to tackle that pesky deficit and energy independence...

 

[Sabertooth]

They had balls, that's for sure.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

It's amazing that those very same type of people have no issues with this today - now that their party is in power.

Let me guess. Infowars told you that Assange and Snowden were right wing patriots?

 

[mr roboto]

That's pretty cool. Just some younger Americans who were fed up with what the govt was doing. But that couple had 3 kids - I don't think I could do it if I knew if I got caught I'd go to jail.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

That's pretty cool. Just some younger Americans who were fed up with what the govt was doing. But that couple had 3 kids - I don't think I could do it if I knew if I got caught I'd go to jail.

That's why they are who they are.

 

[Ignoramus]

That's pretty cool. Just some younger Americans who were fed up with what the govt was doing. But that couple had 3 kids - I don't think I could do it if I knew if I got caught I'd go to jail.

That's why they are who they are.

Yeah, it must have taken incredible conviction to do this given the knowledge that they could potentially be abandoning their children if caught.

 

[SacramentoBob]

That's pretty cool. Just some younger Americans who were fed up with what the govt was doing. But that couple had 3 kids - I don't think I could do it if I knew if I got caught I'd go to jail.

That's why they are who they are.

Yeah, it must have taken incredible conviction to do this given the knowledge that they could potentially be abandoning their children if caught.

:megasoftball:

 

[E Street Brat]

Wow

I had never heard this story before.

I also just learned last night watching "The Poisoner's Handbook"

About the government adding poison to grain alcohol to curb consumption during prohibition, and ended up

killing around 10,000 people.

 

[fatness]

That's pretty cool. Just some younger Americans who were fed up with what the govt was doing. But that couple had 3 kids - I don't think I could do it if I knew if I got caught I'd go to jail.

Yeah, that had to be a tough decision for them to make --- conviction on one hand, kids on the other. Fortunately they planned and executed it well enough they got away with it. The article did say they made arrangements for someone else to look after their kids if they got caught, so you know they were thinking about it.