Word: abscam
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...Abscam Scandal...
What concerns me most about the Abscam revelations [Feb. 18] is not so much that some of our elected representatives were caught scrambling to get their hands into the cookie jar. It is far more disturbing that I no longer feel a sense of shock at their clownish, unethical antics...
...General Griffin Bell suspects it was "someone who got caught in the Watergate syndrome, a paranoiac who thought the Justice Department would just sit on the whole thing, someone who thinks no one can be trusted." The New York Times published a long set of questions and answers about Abscam, including one on why leakers leak, but didn't think it necessary to discuss why newspapers publish information that could presumably wait until formal charges are filed. Convinced that news of Abscam was getting out, the FBI hurriedly completed its last interviews on the very Saturday that...
...discuss the subject publicly for fear of prejudicing any later legal claim to the right to remain silent. But it is not hard to discover the Times's attitude. It frequently knows and doesn't publish the news that prominent figures are under investigation. What made Abscam different, the Times feels, was the sheer size and expense of the FBI operation, almost like a Bay of Pigs. That seemed a story that needed telling even if it might violate the civil liberties of some who, if innocent, would later have to clear themselves...
...businessmen complained to the FBI, and the bureau's San Diego office dutifully began an investigation. It was stopped on orders from the New York City FBI officials supervising the Abscam operation, who feared that any talk about Meltzer would blow the bigger sting. Not until last October was the FBI's information on Meltzer turned over to the U.S. Attorney in San Diego...