A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition By Mark Feldstein

[jbfam4]

A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801854_pf.html

By Mark Feldstein
Saturday, April 29, 2006; A17



In an earlier life I spent 20 years as an investigative reporter, getting subpoenaed and sued in the United States, and censored and physically harassed in other parts of the globe. But when I switched careers to academia, I thought such scrapes would come to an end. I was wrong.

On March 3 two FBI agents showed up at my home, flashing their badges and demanding to see 25-year-old documents that I have been reading as part of my research for a book I'm writing about Jack Anderson, the crusading investigative columnist who died in December.


Evidently the Justice Department has decided that it wants to prosecute people who whispered national security secrets decades ago to a reporter now dead. The FBI agents asked me if I had seen any classified government documents in the nearly 200 boxes of materials the Anderson family has donated to my university. I replied that I had seen some government documents -- reports, audits, memos -- but didn't know what their classification status was.

"Just because the documents aren't marked 'classified' doesn't mean they're not," Agent Leslie Martell suggested helpfully. But I was unable to give her the answer that she wanted: that our collection housed classified records.



Ironically, for the past five years the FBI and other federal agencies have refused to turn over such documents to me under the Freedom of Information Act, even though almost all the people named in them are now dead. The government claims it would violate their privacy, jeopardize national security or -- in the most absurd argument of all -- compromise "ongoing law enforcement investigations."

[drm604]

1. K&R

:kick:

[elehhhhna]

2. K&R WHAT & WHO are they HIDING?

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Isn't that scary? WHAT ARE THEY HIDING???

[formercia]

6. Bush Family Values n/t

[elehhhhna]

10. Dirt on GHWB, Cheney, Rummers, etc. nothing probably THAT

bad for GWB--but the oldtimers from the Nixon years? YIKES! Bet we don't WANNA know.

[acmejack]

4. It is a matter of policy now.

They obscure things a as matter of routine. It makes the legitimate retrieval of anything doubly difficult...

[formercia]

5. Kafka would laugh. n/t

[AwakeAtLast]

7. Another K & R

And this is just one person with files from one person.

How many others and how far does this go?o

:scared:

[mirandapriestly]

8. If they're so worried about old documents

imagine what they are trying to hide NOW.

[formercia]

9. Removing all traces of involvement

making sure future investigations will have difficulty connecting the dots.

[elehhhhna]

11. all their deals w/ obl and saddam?

[formercia]

12. They are going after much older documents

Poppy has been involved for a long time in many operations way back to WWII. I think they're trying to cover up the tracks of who and how the Government was taken over by this 'Cult of Personality.'

[elehhhhna]

13. Good point