WEBVTT - 8. Statute of Limitations 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:07.840 Previously on SNAFU. 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:06.960 We were looking for. 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.159 We know, the documents proved for the first time that 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.120 the FBI undertook a program to harris and destroy new 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.640 left political organizations whose views. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.599 We were very aware that the FBI surveillance and intimidation 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:22.800 were everywhere. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.520 There has never been a full public accounting of FBI 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:31.720 domestic intelligence operations. Therefore, this committee has undertaken such an investigation. 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:40.280 It was a big deal what we did, and we 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.920 promised each other. We made promises and they were really 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:44.720 hard to keep. 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:48.360 Judy fine Gold had been part of the inside crew. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.360 On March eighth, nineteen seventy one, she'd personally removed FBI 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.880 documents from the office at One Veteran Square. She and 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.080 her accomplices then leaked some of those files to the public. 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:03.280 In the weeks after, Judy was on edge, she was 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.040 nineteen years old and everyone she knew was speculating about 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:07.680 the burglary. 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:11.720 This was a big thing and everybody was talking about it, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:13.240 and I didn't want to be around. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.760 Everyone was asking who did it. Everyone had a theory, 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.840 and there were FBI agents everywhere hanging around, just waiting 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:26.080 for someone to slip up. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.039 You know, That's what I would usually see in the 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.480 early morning, was them sitting in the cars on the 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:31.400 corner watching me. 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.720 So Judy left. She had a life in Philadelphia and 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.680 family on the East Coast, but she couldn't ignore her 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.000 instincts to get out of town and go west. 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:46.360 I committed a federal crime, so I wasn't taking any chances. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:53.720 I changed fining and started my underground life. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.600 Nobody, not her parents, not her friends, and none of 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.640 the burglars knew what had happened to Judy fine Gold. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.640 She spent some time in New Mexico, eventually settling in Arizona. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.600 She made friends and found loving communities, but she still 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.480 couldn't tell a soul who she was or what she'd 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.240 done in March of nineteen seventy one. 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:18.960 It's very lonely to carry a secret, and I think 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.480 it got to the point where I just I buried 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.240 it so deep I didn't even think about it. 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.360 As far as she knew, the FBI could catch up 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:31.720 with her at any moment and arrest her for treason, 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.919 Hiding seemed like the surest way to stay safe. 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.040 You get so used to living undercover that that becomes 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:39.639 the norm. 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.400 Still Judy couldn't help but check the news from time 0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.000 to time. She was deeply moved when she read about 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.040 the church hearings, knowing they wouldn't have happened without her, 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.040 But she couldn't celebrate with anyone, so she danced alone 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:58.160 on a mountain side. As the years passed, Judy put 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.360 down roots in the Southwest. All the while, the FBI 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.919 never came knocking, but periodically Judy felt compelled to check 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.280 in and see if anyone out there was still talking 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:09.040 about Medburg. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:11.760 It would occur to me now and then, and then 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.919 I would go to the library to see, Wow, I 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:19.840 wonder what happened with that? And so I just went 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.639 to the computer and looked up the website that I 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:28.280 would look up to find out, you know, just to 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:30.600 kind of check in with my past. 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:34.679 For years, Judy always got the same two search results. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.680 One was about the Brandywine Peace Community's annual celebration of 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.200 the burglary in Philadelphia. The other was a small story 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:46.360 in a local paper. Until one day in twenty fourteen, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.400 more than forty years after she went on the run, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:54.160 Judy encountered a shocking headline, burglars go public. 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:59.520 When I pulled it up. Instead, I got like ten 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:05.640 page with ten articles a page or something about what 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:11.800 they were calling the burglary, and that there was a book. 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.120 A reporter named Betty Metzger had interviewed all of her 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.640 fellow burglars on the record for an upcoming book. 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:24.800 I was horrified. I mean, the earth actually moved under 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:28.520 my feet, you know, I felt emotionally, I could hardly agree. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:32.680 I just could not believe it. I just walked around 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:33.560 by myself. 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.560 Judy spent the day in a haze. Later that evening, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.159 still feeling shocked and betrayed, she finally confided in a 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.640 friend about what she'd done. She had kept the secret 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.400 of the media burglary for forty three years, and now 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:58.480 it was out. I'm Ed Helms, and this is Snappo, 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:03.000 a show about him History's greatest screw ups. This is 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.920 season two Medburg, the story of a daring heist and 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:14.240 the colossal FBI snaffoo it exposed. Today, the fallout from 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:20.400 the Church hearings, lessons learned and maybe forgotten, and finally, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:30.320 the enduring legacy of Medburg. When the Church Committee hearings 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:34.400 concluded in nineteen seventy five, Jay Aggar Hoover's secret FBI 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:38.800 was no longer a secret. After the hearings exposed the 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.479 bureaus decades long abuses of power to a shocked and 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:48.200 horrified American public. The only remaining question was okay, so now, 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:53.240 what was anything actually going to change? US Attorney General 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.440 Edward Levy certainly hoped, so he pushed the new FBI Director, 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:01.040 Clarence Kelly, to clean up all the bullshit. This meant 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.440 reassessing thousands and thousands of domestic intelligence cases, most of 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.039 which had been opened under the auspices of co intel 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:10.279 pro not arouse. 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.760 Whatever committee says, come back up here with all those 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:16.440 eight thousand cases and justify it. 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:20.560 That's Neil Welch, the lead FBI agent in Philadelphia at 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.880 the time. Welch was a veteran agent who knew cleaning 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.919 up the house of Hoover would be a tall order. 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:32.480 The agency's old guard, Hoover's loyal army, resisted any oversight. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:38.039 When congressional committees requested information, agents hid files or just 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:41.839 fed them false information. And as pressure mounted on Kelly, 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:47.560 the director apparently crumbled, and with Kelly gone, someone had 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:50.440 to deal with the mess at FBI headquarters. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.640 This We're going to get the tough of zumb As reunify. 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:57.480 No, are you making that up? 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:00.600 At a sold together? 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:05.080 Our first CLASSSLB and here, get that guy and call 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.719 out we all he hates his stuff, Get him in there. 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:15.280 That first class SOB was Neil Welch, the one speaking here. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:17.840 Welch had made a bit of a name for himself 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.000 within the halls of the FBI. He once negotiated the 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:25.200 surrender of a notorious killer holding five hostages for an hour. 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.440 The man held a gun to Welch's chest. When a 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:31.840 reporter asked how he managed to successfully negotiate the surrender, 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:37.760 Welch replied very carefully. Instead of going after draft dodgers, 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.720 activists and journalists, Welch went after you know, actual criminals. 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:47.800 He investigated mobsters and corruption. He hated co intel pro tactics, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.160 and he kind of despised Hoover. The feeling was mutual. Apparently, 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.680 Hoover once placed Welch on probation because Welch refused to 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:59.559 let his agents participate in co intel pro In other words, 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.200 Welch was the perfect de SOOB to clean up a 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:08.360 post Hoover FBI Welch's task was to determine which of 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.800 the thousands of FBI surveillance cases should stay open. The 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.120 new Attorney General made it clear only cases that involved 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:20.000 actual criminal conduct or presented evidence of clear and present 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:25.400 danger should remain active. All others should be shut down immediately. 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:31.200 These are cases that they're going on, and there in 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:35.679 some dark, bingy corner in the domestic Intelligence section, they 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:42.440 were carry oors from prehistoric times, really, and they were 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.840 still once just started these kinds of things. 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:47.720 They never saw. 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:51.800 What Welch means is that if anyone had been identified 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.000 as a person of interest for any reason as far 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.600 back as the Cold War, the FBI was still actively 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.240 surveilling them and maintaining files on them. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:01.680 But no more. 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.599 I said to the field losses, can you justify this? 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:09.319 Have they committed any criminal offenses? I gave him on 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.840 the outline of what they had to do to qualify, 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:13.600 and they just. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:20.040 Disappeared, one by one. Thousands of cases vanished practically overnight. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.559 Our old pal Carl Stern, who you may remember was 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:25.559 the first one to get the real dirt on co 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.560 Intel Pro, covered this astonishing development on NBC News. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.800 Kelly brought some real news to the Committee, announcing a 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.480 ninety seven percent cutback in domestic security investigations. That's a 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.640 cutback from more than twenty thousand active investigation. 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:46.960 For the first time in decades, Jay Edgar Hoover's culture 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:51.440 of fear, intimidation, and secrecy no longer defined the FBI. 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:54.640 In the wake of the Church Committee hearings, new Director 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.760 Clarence Kelly understood the old ways had to change. There 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:02.240 would be no more threatening congressman with sex tapes or 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.880 writing poison pen letters to ruin reputations. Moreover, it was 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.840 time for the FBI to own up. On ABC News, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.880 Ted Copple reported on the new FBI director's historic apology. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.760 FBI Director Clarence Kelly today for the first time publicly 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.200 apologized for past FBI and mis conduct. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:24.720 We are truly sorry, said Kelly, and. 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.000 He added we recognize errors and have learned from them. 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:34.280 Thanks Clarence. Better late than never, I guess, but let's 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.400 be clear, serious damage had been done. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:43.520 One of the most damaging accomplishments of Hoover's FBI, ironically, 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:49.120 was the destruction of the FBI's law enforcement capacity. 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.000 This is Betty Medsker. 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:57.000 Everything it did was outside of the law, whether you're 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:03.559 talking about surveillance without cause, physically harming individuals, and even 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:11.480 assisting in murdering dissidents, usually black people. The generation's long 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:17.880 quest by Black Americans to claim basic rights was delayed 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:25.080 for decades by an FBI director who cautioned every president 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:30.600 he served under not to support African Americans in their 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:36.000 efforts to obtain their rights, because he said those efforts 0:11:36.720 --> 0:11:41.839 were promoted by communists, and that was all that needed 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:46.040 to be said to make a president refuse to support 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:52.760 civil rights. Imagine what an enormous roadblock it was for 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:58.160 the FBI director to say, don't touch these movements. They're dangerous, 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.200 they're supported by communist. 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.079 The harm it was done, the effect that that is 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:05.959 still alive today. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:09.520 That's Omar Barber, a former Black panther you heard in 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:10.480 the last episode. 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.520 It simply was to criminize the whole black community, because 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.679 it was a crimination of a people, a race of people, 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.760 not just the organization that may be and represented those people. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.239 Cointelpro was a two of the ruling class to suppressed 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.599 people who were aspiring to try to be free and 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:31.600 try to find their freedom and liberation. 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.760 Levy Welch and others also acknowledged that, in addition to 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:41.280 being racist, creepy, invasive, and downright or Wellian, blanket surveillance 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:42.360 didn't work. 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.679 These mesthods are easy and often mindless, but they do 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:51.200 not lead to greater safety. Instead, they lead to violations 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:57.679 of basic civil rights of countless Americans. Levy's guidelines were 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.600 good in that they could lead to to this kind 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:05.319 of reform that made it impossible for informants to go 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.400 after people without any intention of prosecution and only harm 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:09.880 in mind. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:14.320 It seemed like people were actually learning some lessons from 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:19.080 Cointel pro To Neil Welch, the most important lesson was clear, 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:19.960 and the. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.120 Lessons is that the government can't be trusted to do this. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.719 It just proves that the government will be stupid and 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:30.960 unresponsible in many instances. 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:32.280 And how they gather that intelligence. 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.960 They'll keep it going too long, It'll be a widespread 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:41.040 net rather than a narrowly focused one. They won't use 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.760 the least intrusive means, They'll use drag net procedures. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:46.800 This is a very sensitive area. 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.679 I think the record. 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.360 Proves that they cannot be relied upon to do it 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:53.920 without independent monitoring. 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:55.600 Some accountability. 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:58.440 I shouldn't be surprising to anybody that. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.600 The FBI was doing those things. 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:06.439 Yeah, you can almost guarantee that it all happened. Again, 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:12.960 the intentions of the most honorable, proper people can go astray. 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.160 The burglary led to a profound change at the FBI, 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.520 something the burglars probably couldn't have even imagined when they 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.280 first decided to break into that office. By the late seventies, 0:14:26.440 --> 0:14:29.480 they had reason to hope the abuses they'd uncovered would 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.640 no longer be possible. The rule of law would finally 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:36.600 apply to the FBI, But it wasn't long before there 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:38.280 was new cause for concern. 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:49.280 The concern about whether these guidelines could have lasting impact 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.120 was verified as soon as Reagan became president. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.920 Recently, we've passed through a painful era in American history 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.680 when it seemed that many of our proudest values and 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:05.880 most important institutions were called into question. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.600 During his run for president in nineteen eighty, Ronald Reagan 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.240 vowed to undo Attorney General Levy's guidelines on surveillance that 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:16.840 had come out of the church hearings. 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:22.360 He had campaigned in part on his wish to unleash 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.760 the FBI and as soon as he became president that 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:28.280 started to happen. 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.720 Reagan ordered his Attorney general to loosen controls. He lowered 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.320 the bar for launching investigations, and he diminished the Attorney 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.240 general's powers of oversight. What do you call it when 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:44.920 you reform a reform? I guess a return to form. Yeah, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.920 that works. The FBI once again had an unnerving amount 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:53.080 of power, and it would stay that way for decades. 0:15:54.760 --> 0:16:00.320 Then September eleventh, two thousand and one, our ability. 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:05.680 To prevent another catastrophic attack on American soil would be 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:12.760 more difficult, if not impossible, without the Patriot Act. It 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.840 has been the key weapon used across America in successful 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:17.240 counter terrorist operations. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.080 When we come to nine to eleven, we just see 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:25.080 a very extreme version of that, where with the passage 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:30.080 of the Patriot Act and the demand from the Attorney 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:35.480 General and the President that you know, stop thinking in 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:41.200 terms of prosecutions. Your goal now is to prevent another 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.280 nine to eleven. And so the FBI went through this 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:50.640 radical change again that you're not aiming to prosecute, you're 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.760 aiming to prevent another major crime like nine to eleven 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:57.960 against the American people. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:01.360 For the Bureau. Oh, it was a radical change in 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.080 the moment, but also I returned to the old way 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.280 of doing things once again. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:13.879 Racial profiling came back with a vengeance, and Muslims became 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.679 what Black people had been under j Edgar Hoover, a danger. 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:24.719 People were told that Muslims were danger to society. 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:29.160 And something else came back with a vengeance, blanket surveillance. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.840 The FBI treated Muslims just as they had treated Black 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:38.159 people all over the country with surveillance of mosque and 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:45.879 surveillance of Arab American organizations and opera sting operations. What 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:50.159 the FBI did and other intelligence agencies too, we. 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.080 Must and did not. 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:59.520 Lead to helpful information, and great harm was done as 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.880 a result of that. As things went into high gear, 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:08.200 they create a massive electronic haste acts and without the 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:15.160 capacity to search those hast acts for information that might 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:19.600 have been helpful, so that the surveillance was done of 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:26.520 millions of Americans without the capacity to find out whether 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:32.200 there was valuable information. I think that fear makes it 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:38.080 possible for people to not care whether they're under surveillance 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.920 or whether their basic rights are being trampled, and especially 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:47.399 it makes it possible for them to not care about 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:52.040 needless harm being done to others, if in fact that 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:56.560 harm may help protect them Americans. 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.240 If it was so incredibly easy the FBI to trample 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.240 on fundamental American rights back in the days of rotary 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:09.160 phones and eight track cassettes, then what about today? These days, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.879 surveillance technology that would have been unimaginable to hoover is everywhere, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:20.679 and governments, corporations, even individuals can use predictive algorithms, facial recognition, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.879 and a whole bunch of other frankly terrifying technologies to 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:31.200 create staggeringly detailed profiles on all of us. In twenty thirteen, 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:35.240 Edward Snowden exposed that the NSA was gathering massive amounts 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:40.520 of personal data on Americans without warrants. During the twenty 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.639 sixteen election, a private firm called Cambridge Analytica acquired in 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:48.800 depth data from tens of millions of Facebook users without 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.639 their knowledge or consent, and used it to covertly manipulate 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.119 public opinion. And during the Black Lives Matter protests in 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.600 twenty twenty, the New York City Police Department used facial 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:05.879 recognition software to surveil and track down demonstrators back In 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.240 the Hoover era, the FBI weaponized information they dug up 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.200 on activists. Today, our own personal data can also be 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:18.639 easily weaponized to intimidate, so misinformation, create deep fakes, even 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:23.320 incite civil unrest. There's a lot more to be said 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:27.280 about technology, surveillance and the need for oversight, which is 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:30.399 why we went and recorded an entire bonus episode about it. 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.920 You might remember Locke Johnson from our last episode. He 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.720 was Frank Church's special assistant. He and I had a 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:41.080 pretty good chat. Look for that bonus episode soon. For now, 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.600 suffice to say, it's more important than ever to learn 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.680 as much as we can from the story of Hoover, co, 0:20:47.880 --> 0:20:51.680 Intel pro and the courageous burglars of Media Pennsylvania. 0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:59.920 The most important thing is that the law enforcement agency 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:05.080 should obey the law and not have as a motivation 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:11.320 going after people because of their religious or their political beliefs. 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:17.280 The opening page of the FBI's website announces we protect 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:23.159 the American people and uphold the US Constitution throughout Jangar 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.920 Hoover's half century as director of the Bureau. Too often 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:30.639 since then, the Bureau has protected some types of people 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:35.320 much more than its protected others. One of the lessons 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:41.640 learned from revelations of that history were for transparency and accountability. 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:47.920 That's essential for the FBI to continue to operate as 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:51.960 it should. The Bureer should have a deep respect for 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:56.440 the expression of dissent, a basic right that is crucial 0:21:56.520 --> 0:21:58.199 to keeping democracy alive. 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.360 On March eighth, nineteen seventy six, the statute of limitations 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:19.160 on the burglary expired. This would have been a great 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.320 moment for the burglars to get together and pop some champagne, 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.520 but none of them knew about it. For all they knew, 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:28.160 the g men were still waiting behind the next mailbox 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:32.320 to arrest them. Three days later, Special Agent Neil Welch 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.680 filed a memo to FBI Director Clarence Kelly on the 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:40.160 subject of Medburg. Quote, all logical investigation in this matter 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:44.600 has been conducted, Welch wrote, accordingly, this case is being 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:49.840 placed in a closed status, and that was it. After 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:58.440 five years, Medburg was closed. The FBI was never even 0:22:58.560 --> 0:23:01.959 close to catching the burglar. At one point they had 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:05.760 four hundred suspects. That group included all of our media 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:10.240 burglars except Bonnie Rains. But after subsequent rounds of elimination 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:14.600 based on interviews. Seven suspects remained and only one was 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:18.120 an actual media burglar, Bob Williamson, and there was never 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.120 enough evidence to charge any of them. The partial palm 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.879 print found in the FBI office was never matched to 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:30.040 Sarah Schumer. Investigators never found her. Glove agents had interviewed 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:33.280 burglar number nine and placed him under twenty four hour surveillance, 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:37.840 but they ultimately decided he knew nothing, and despite Bill 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:41.320 Davidon's role as the unofficial spokesperson for the media burglars, 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:48.440 he was cleared in nineteen seventy two, just a year 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:51.879 in change after the burglary. The following headline appeared in 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:56.360 the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Three Air Force jets are sabotaged 0:23:56.400 --> 0:24:00.240 at Willow Grove. It seemed on Memorial Day that the 0:24:00.320 --> 0:24:03.280 crew at Willow Grove Naval Air Station had discovered that 0:24:03.440 --> 0:24:07.119 three of its cargo planes had been rendered inoperable. Some 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:10.399 no good nick had tampered with them just before they 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.639 were scheduled to fly missiles over to Vietnam. On the 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.480 exterior of one of the planes, someone had painted a 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:19.840 peace symbol as well as the words bred not bombs 0:24:20.280 --> 0:24:24.359 in big red letters the vandals who took credit the 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:29.879 Citizens Commission to Interdict War material. In another incident around 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:33.639 the same time, reporters received envelopes full of bomb casings 0:24:33.720 --> 0:24:37.800 and caps. An accompanying letter was signed the Citizens Commission 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:43.639 to Demilitarize Industry. Our old friend Bill Davidan, the mastermind 0:24:43.680 --> 0:24:47.440 of the original Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, was 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:49.199 up to his usual tricks. 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:54.639 I think not just the media, but I think a 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:57.480 lot of these kinds of actions were important to me 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:03.520 in just building that that sense that the struggle isn't futile. 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:07.360 Bill david On never stopped acting out against the war. 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:10.600 He wanted the public to know that despite the government's power, 0:25:10.960 --> 0:25:15.520 Goliath was vulnerable to david especially if a lot of 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:24.520 David's banded together. His activist spirit stayed with him until 0:25:24.600 --> 0:25:26.600 he passed away in twenty thirteen. 0:25:28.520 --> 0:25:31.399 I think this was this quote of cameu of. 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:35.879 To keep alive the living society within Michelle of the 0:25:35.960 --> 0:25:39.800 dying On when you sort of generally feel that not 0:25:39.960 --> 0:25:43.600 only in the case of the prosecution of the Vietnam War, 0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:47.040 but other things are involved forces that are so huge 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:51.159 in comparison to what we can actually influence, how do 0:25:51.240 --> 0:25:54.960 you keep alive? And the struggle to influence them media, No, 0:25:55.160 --> 0:25:58.680 I think we accomplished more than we had reason to 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:02.520 expect to go into a small field office. 0:26:05.359 --> 0:26:09.359 The following year, Betty finally published her book, The Burglary, 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:14.280 The Discovery of j Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI. Every living 0:26:14.359 --> 0:26:18.359 member of the burglary crew spoke to Betty except Judy. 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:22.000 Neither Betty nor the other burglars could figure out what 0:26:22.160 --> 0:26:25.560 had happened to her. When Judy read that her accomplices 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:29.080 had come forward and confessed to the burglary, she was 0:26:29.160 --> 0:26:30.560 stunned and hurt. 0:26:31.840 --> 0:26:36.320 We promised each other. That was the devastation, we promised 0:26:36.359 --> 0:26:36.800 each other. 0:26:37.640 --> 0:26:39.639 It took a while for her to forgive the others 0:26:39.720 --> 0:26:41.640 and come to grips with the story getting out. 0:26:42.640 --> 0:26:46.040 You get so used to living undercover that that becomes 0:26:46.119 --> 0:26:46.639 the norm. 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:48.919 And so. 0:26:50.440 --> 0:26:55.159 I can tell you that I still carry trauma with me. 0:26:56.480 --> 0:26:59.080 I mean, I just kept going, That's all I mean, 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:02.960 that's all we're doing. We just keep going. You go 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:05.440 through experiences you don't think you're going to live through, 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:10.040 and you live through them. So you have to figure 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:13.879 out how to keep going. I mean, I don't know. 0:27:14.320 --> 0:27:16.080 I can't think of anything to regret. 0:27:18.400 --> 0:27:21.600 As Judy recovered, she reconnected with her past life for 0:27:21.680 --> 0:27:24.880 the first time. She met up with Keith in Philadelphia, 0:27:25.440 --> 0:27:28.000 and she reunited with Bob, who was just one stayed 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:31.800