NYT is reporting that the
F.B.I. Is Seeking to Search Papers of Dead Reporter.
My first thought was to grab the tinfoil, as i i thought they were looking for the files of David E. Rosenbaum (killed in an apparent mugging in Washington, DC this past January). But it's pretty interesting, nonetheless:
WASHINGTON, April 18 -- The F.B.I. is seeking to go through the files of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson to remove classified material he may have accumulated in four decades of muckraking Washington journalism.
Mr. Anderson's family has refused to allow a search of 188 boxes, the files of a well-known reporter who had long feuded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and had exposed plans by the Central Intelligence Agency to kill Fidel Castro, the machinations of the Iran-contra affair and the misdemeanors of generations of congressmen.
Who is
Jack Anderson? He was a giant of US journalism in the latter half of the past century. Besides breaking the story that the CIA had been planning to assasinate Castro, he exposed the Savings & Loan swindle and pursued the Iran-Contra shennanigans. He quoted Johnny Roselli as claiming the mob had 'an interest' in JFK's murder in Dallas. He was a merchant marine sailor who did work for OSS in China in the '40s. Hoover hated him, as did Nixon (Liddy supposedly had him on his hit list).
His books Confessions of a Muckraker and The Anderson Papers detail his decades spent doggedly pursuing corruption and malfeasance at the highest levels of government. Though his brazen style often could lead him into rough waters (as when he foolishly helped McCarthy with his witch hunt) he was unabashed in uncovering the truth.
Now, it seems, the FBI thinks he may have been passed infomration connected to the AIPAC case. That may be so (and — who knows? — we Kossacks might even see something positive come out of it). But, given that the US government has been secretly re-classifying secret many documents that were once freely available, one has to wonder what else the FBI would quietly remove from Mr Anderson's papers.
This page has a lot more information about Jack Anderson, including several excerpts from his books. Especially noteworthy is this,from an article by Patricia Sullivan in the Washington Post (at the link above):
He was not above flamboyant "Front Page" style tactics. During Watergate, when the FBI sought copies of grand jury transcripts that Mr. Anderson had obtained, he and Whitten decided to bar their office door and throw the papers out their window. Interns waiting below were supposed to scoop up the falling documents.
"We didn't have to do it because we got an agreement with Judge [John] Sirica," Whitten said. "He said if we'd return the papers and let him get rid of them, he would not pursue contempt of court against Jack. Jack agreed to that, and we took them out of a [hidden] panel in a desk. Jack took them home, what do you think he did? Xeroxed them and buried them in his backyard before he gave them back to Sirica. They're probably still back there."
I guess we may see if his children are as inventive as he was.
UPDATE: devtob had a diary about this last night, The FBI wants to censor Jack Anderson, again, which also points to articles by Scott Carlson, George Washington U. to Receive Jack Anderson's Papers -- but FBI Wants to See Them First and Will Bunch, The thought police want a dead Pulitzer Prize winner's documents.