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LONG HISTORY OF FBI SPYING & INFILTRATING PROGRESSIVE GROUP REVEALED
COLIN MOYNIHAN, NY TIMES - From 1940 to 1975, thousands of reports were
part of extensive files compiled by the F.B.I. while it carried out a
clandestine surveillance campaign on the National Lawyers Guild, an
organization founded in New York in 1937 and associated with the labor
movement and liberal causes. . . As part of a lawsuit filed in 1977 by
lawyers in the New York City chapter of the guild, the F.B.I. turned
over copies of roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the group.
Under a 1989 settlement, the original documents are sealed until 2025,
when they will be given to the National Archives and Records
Administration in Washington. But the copies were donated by the guild's
lawyers in 1997 to the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor
Archives at New York University with the understanding that they could
be made available to the public this year.
The F.B.I. reports, some of which were reviewed recently by this
reporter, include information about future members of Congress, law
professors and journalists. . .
The F.B.I.'s surveillance of the guild was part of a broad monitoring
operation mounted by the agency under Mr. Hoover against groups and
individuals it deemed seditious, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. The F.B.I. insisted that the guild was rife with communists who were
directed by Moscow. Although some early guild members had been
communists, there was scant evidence to show that the group was
controlled by the Communist Party. . .
The surveillance spanned the administrations of seven presidents even
though the Justice Department determined in 1958 and 1972 that the guild
was not subversive or criminal.
Thousands of people were drawn into the inquiry's orbit, whether as
targets or peripheral figures, and the files provide an unusually
revealing window into efforts that often focused on law-abiding
citizens. The files include mentions of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the
N.A.A.C.P., Students for a Democratic Society and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War. . .
Another government document from 1964, stamped "confidential," cites
John Conyers Jr., now a congressman from Michigan and the chairman of
the Judiciary Committee. The report says that Mr. Conyers had discussed
a campaign for public office and a recent visit to Mississippi where he
was said to have participated in civil rights activities.
Some reports detail how F.B.I. agents used ruses and deception to attack
political opponents. In 1966, a memo from Mr. Hoover's office instructed
agents to derail the electoral efforts of George W. Crockett Jr., the
guild vice president, who was running for a judgeship in Detroit.
Soon after, the agency sought to discredit him by linking him to the
Communist Party. Agents wrote a letter under a false name assailing Mr.
Crockett and mailed it to a right-leaning organization. Unaware of the
true source of the letter, the group disseminated fliers emblazoned with
a hammer and sickle and calling Mr. Crockett an "enemy collaborator."
F.B.I. agents then sent the fliers to political committees, the state
bar association, unions and newspapers. Still, Mr. Crockett won the
election and later served 11 years as a congressman.
The files also identify several secret informants who were assigned code
numbers by the F.B.I. One of the more well-known informants was a man
named John Rees, who was paid by the F.B.I. and used an alias to
masquerade as a member of left-leaning groups in the 1960s and 1970s
while compiling secret intelligence newsletters about the groups that he
circulated to law enforcement agencies.
His wife, Louise Rees, who also used a bogus identity, got a secretarial
job with the guild. She reported to the F.B.I. about legal strategies
developed by guild lawyers and was recommended for a raise in one F.B.I.
document that described her as a valuable source.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/nyregion/25archives.html
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LONG HISTORY OF FBI SPYING & INFILTRATING PROGRESSIVE GROUP REVEALED
COLIN MOYNIHAN, NY TIMES - From 1940 to 1975, thousands of reports were
part of extensive files compiled by the F.B.I. while it carried out a
clandestine surveillance campaign on the National Lawyers Guild, an
organization founded in New York in 1937 and associated with the labor
movement and liberal causes. . . As part of a lawsuit filed in 1977 by
lawyers in the New York City chapter of the guild, the F.B.I. turned
over copies of roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the group.
Under a 1989 settlement, the original documents are sealed until 2025,
when they will be given to the National Archives and Records
Administration in Washington. But the copies were donated by the guild's
lawyers in 1997 to the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor
Archives at New York University with the understanding that they could
be made available to the public this year.
The F.B.I. reports, some of which were reviewed recently by this
reporter, include information about future members of Congress, law
professors and journalists. . .
The F.B.I.'s surveillance of the guild was part of a broad monitoring
operation mounted by the agency under Mr. Hoover against groups and
individuals it deemed seditious, like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. The F.B.I. insisted that the guild was rife with communists who were
directed by Moscow. Although some early guild members had been
communists, there was scant evidence to show that the group was
controlled by the Communist Party. . .
The surveillance spanned the administrations of seven presidents even
though the Justice Department determined in 1958 and 1972 that the guild
was not subversive or criminal.
Thousands of people were drawn into the inquiry's orbit, whether as
targets or peripheral figures, and the files provide an unusually
revealing window into efforts that often focused on law-abiding
citizens. The files include mentions of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the
N.A.A.C.P., Students for a Democratic Society and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War. . .
Another government document from 1964, stamped "confidential," cites
John Conyers Jr., now a congressman from Michigan and the chairman of
the Judiciary Committee. The report says that Mr. Conyers had discussed
a campaign for public office and a recent visit to Mississippi where he
was said to have participated in civil rights activities.
Some reports detail how F.B.I. agents used ruses and deception to attack
political opponents. In 1966, a memo from Mr. Hoover's office instructed
agents to derail the electoral efforts of George W. Crockett Jr., the
guild vice president, who was running for a judgeship in Detroit.
Soon after, the agency sought to discredit him by linking him to the
Communist Party. Agents wrote a letter under a false name assailing Mr.
Crockett and mailed it to a right-leaning organization. Unaware of the
true source of the letter, the group disseminated fliers emblazoned with
a hammer and sickle and calling Mr. Crockett an "enemy collaborator."
F.B.I. agents then sent the fliers to political committees, the state
bar association, unions and newspapers. Still, Mr. Crockett won the
election and later served 11 years as a congressman.
The files also identify several secret informants who were assigned code
numbers by the F.B.I. One of the more well-known informants was a man
named John Rees, who was paid by the F.B.I. and used an alias to
masquerade as a member of left-leaning groups in the 1960s and 1970s
while compiling secret intelligence newsletters about the groups that he
circulated to law enforcement agencies.
His wife, Louise Rees, who also used a bogus identity, got a secretarial
job with the guild. She reported to the F.B.I. about legal strategies
developed by guild lawyers and was recommended for a raise in one F.B.I.
document that described her as a valuable source.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/nyregion/25archives.html
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