Jack Anderson's Files to Go Public; FBI Wants to Remove Info

[LiberalHeart]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jack Anderson's son says the columnist "would be rolling over in his grave" if he had lived to see the FBI's efforts to get his papers. Anderson died in December after a half-century of investigative reporting that exposed several scandals and put him on President Nixon's "enemies list."

More:
http://wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=4785512

[Faygo Kid]

1. Why now? Can't be Nixon. Could it be the Bush family?

Could Jack Anderson have unearthed something about Prescott/GHWB, or even W., that could be embarrassing, even incriminating? Or Rumsfeld, or Cheney, who have been around in positions of power since Nixon? Just asking.

[stillcool]

3. the Reagan administration featured...

many of our current players, and many of their favorite playmates. Cheney, Rummy, and pappy are fruit of the poison Nixon tree, and there's always James Baker III,...they've all had alot of practice at thievery in high places.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. Anderson's files go back to the early 1950s when Ike was pres....

...and Nixon was VP. Quite a few of the players that surfaced during Watergate got their start in the 5412 Group, a covert ops group run by Nixon out of the White House. Think about all of the covert activities that took place in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, and you can bet the 5412 Group was involved.

Some of the names that have surfaced in my research from that time include E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, Bernard Barker, and Al Haig. Do any of those names ring some heavy-duty bells? How about the JFK assassination? The Bay of Pigs?

A contemporary of the first three names mentioned above would have been George H. W. Bush, also known to have been a CIA operative in those same geographic areas. Think also of all of the FBI and other CIA heavyweights that Anderson would have researched, interviewed or otherwise followed during those times.

IMHO, Anderson's files may have been exceeded only by those of J. Edgar Hoover, but only because Hoover had a twenty year head start.

[Faygo Kid]

7. I don't disagree. I just wonder why the pressure now to get these files.

I remember all that you cite well, but look who is in charge. The Bush family has never been known to go to anyone else's defense for alleged wrongdoing (HW: Iran Contra? Never heard of it). They only cover their own asses, and those who play ball in the here and now. My brother thinks George HW Bush was involved in the JFK assassination, but I won't go that far. Anyway, interesting stuff that won't be reported on by the mass media.

[rodeodance]

2. let me guess--they are claiming Nat. Security

[cantstandbush]

5. Anderson's office should be "broken into" and papers stolen and sent

to....you got it, Judith Miller.

[newswolf56]

6. Undoubtedly because Anderson reported on the effectively secret...

records of the Congressional hearings c. 1948-1949 that uncovered the Big Oil/Big Automotive conspiracy to destroy public transport in the United States: to shut down fast, efficient electrically powered trolley and rail systems and replace them with slow stinky herky-jerky petroleum-fueled buses offering only the most minimal service -- all this to force the U.S. public into maximum dependence on privately owned automobiles and petroleum fuels. Anderson wrote extensively about this uniquely capitalist atrocity during the fuel crises of the 1970s, but few people paid any attention, and the outrageous practices continued: hence the fact the U.S. has the worst, most viciously discriminatory, least efficient, most expensive transport system on the entire planet -- one that is also uniquely (and obscenely) profitable for the ruling class. Hence too the present crisis: the bitter fact millions of U.S. workers are being ruined because we cannot afford gasoline despite the fact there is no functional alternative to the automobile -- nor (because of now-totally-prohibitive costs) will such alternatives ever be built.

No doubt the Bush Administration in service to its corporate masters has sicced the FBI on Anderson's estate to suppress this information -- particularly the undeniable proof that Enron conspiracies are a defining characteristic of capitalism. The ruling class fear is obviously that such material -- especially the "lost" (that is, deliberately suppressed) records of the Congressional hearings -- will surface to further support the quietly growing conviction that capitalism is essentially nothing more than infinite greed elevated to ultimate virtue: Enron personified.

_________
Edit: clarity.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

8. Anderson had the goods

He was really good at what he did.

Isn't this interesting? Will this penchant for secrecy - even going back a generation or two - ever stop with these miserable bastards?

Oh, man, how I hate them ..................

[drduffy]

13. can you source this...?

I have always been pissed about this issue and would like to read more about it.
And as much as I have like having and restoring old British sports cars, I'd be happy to do without any cars at all.

rdw

[Rex]

9. Can't let us see who really killed JFK.

Just seal off all those nasty records, keep at bay the growing cancer called 'government secrecy' and call it national security. :eyes:

Democracy? Maybe in another country.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Is this legal? Anderson was private citizen. What if family wants to sell?

Can the feds stop them from selling private property? I suspect this case will be heading to court. If I was the family, I would create mulitple photocopies of everything and store them in undisclosed locations.I would also invite scholars to look at the documents NOW to see if there is anything of immediare importance that may be sitting there, unnoticed. The fact that the FBI is so eager to censor them is bound to increase every reporter and scholar's interest in them, particularly in light of the CIA's retroactive classification of Scoop Jackson's paper's. I suspect that was because Jackson's paper's had damaging info about the early origins of the Neo-cons and their plans to invade Iraq which were formulated by Wolfowitz and Co. in the late 70's early 80's. Did Anderson know anything about the Neo-cons?

[LiberalHeart]

11. Love your idea about the scholars...

I wonder how many papers there are, where they are stored, and what the plans are for making them public. I'd love it if they hit the internet.

[LiberalHeart]

12. More info at this link...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060418/ap_on_go_ot/jack_anderson_fbi_3

Reveals the case the FBI is concerned about, and more...

[JPZenger]

14. NPR This morning

NPR had this story on this morning. There should be an audio link at www.npr.org.

They said that the papers are still owned by the family, but are in the possession of a university. The FBI showed up and demanded access, which was refused. The FBI said they wanted to fingerprint some papers to determine who leaked them in an early 1980s case involving disclosure of secrets to Israeli lobbyists (who by the way have a long-standing relationship with the Neocons in the Pentagon).

The FBI said they are afraid that secret documents that were leaked to Anderson may become public.

However, I believe there is more to it than that. I believe they are really looking for leakers that occurred more recently.

[noonwitch]

15. He probably had Lennon's INS file, or documents from it

Nixon was forever trying to kick Lennon out of the country, even though he was married to an american citizen (Yoko), because of his involvement in peace rallies and such. Jack Anderson took up his cause in his column, and eventually, John got a green card from, I believe, the Ford administration.