In 1971, burglars broke into an FBI office outside Philadelphia and stole files that proved the bureau was spying on Americans. They then mailed the documents to the press, opening a firehose of "extensive spying" operations against dissident groups. The crime was never solved.
Now, decades later, in a safe haven of expired statute of limitations, the thieves have stepped forward.
“There was only one way to convince people that it was true, and that was to get it in their handwriting,†Keith Forsyth, one of the thieves, told the New York Times. Forsyth, 63, and other members of the eight-person group agreed to be interviewed one week before the release of a new book called The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret F.B.I., which details the inner workings of their escapade.
Headed up by William C. Davidon, a professor at Haverford College, the group spent months casing the FBI office and devising a plan to obtain files they hoped would be in the Media, Pa. location. They made their move while the rest of the nation was glued to television sets, watching Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier throw punches.
The revelation of the group's identity comes just days after the Times' editorial board petitioned President Obama to offer a plea bargain to "whistleblower" Edward Snowden, who starting last summer leaked thousands of documents exposing the National Security Agency's spying tactics.
Considering the enormous value of the information he has revealed, and the abuses he has exposed, Mr. Snowden deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight. He may have committed a crime to do so, but he has done his country a great service. It is time for the United States to offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency that would allow him to return home, face at least substantially reduced punishment in light of his role as a whistle-blower, and have the hope of a life advocating for greater privacy and far stronger oversight of the runaway intelligence community.
Although they used old-fashioned, cloak-and-dagger spy tactics, the burglars who exposed J. Edgar Hoover’s "dirty-tricks operations" are seemingly similar to Snowden. They, too, wanted to call attention to practices that they believed were underhanded.
“It looks like we’re terribly reckless people,†said John Raines, another member of the group. “But there was absolutely no one in Washington â€" senators, congressmen, even the president â€" who dared hold J. Edgar Hoover to accountability [...] It became pretty obvious to us that if we don’t do it, nobody will.â€
Image: Retro Report
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