Word: belled
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Bell reviewed this evidence last April and approved an indictment against the supervisor of Squad 47, John Kearney, 55, on five counts of illegal wiretapping, intercepting mail and conspiracy. That action drew a storm of protest from the FBI's ranks. By Bell's estimate, letters ran 100 to 1 against his decision. Some agents took the unprecedented step of even picketing the FBI's New York headquarters. Morale sagged in FBI offices across the country...
...December, Bell decided to concentrate on tracking down the FBI decision makers who had ordered the illegal actions. When he announced the indictments of Gray, Felt and Miller, he dropped the charges against Kearney. According to Bell, his problem was that while trying to investigate the FBI, he also had to run it. Said he: "I have to consider what's good...
...Bell's strategy of prosecuting only high-level officials kicked up another storm: four of the Justice Department attorneys involved in the investigation resigned in protest. Said Stephen Horn, one of the four: "There were a whole lot of agents stonewalling us. We could not investigate. Everybody knew...
...Bell ordered newly appointed FBI Director William Webster to investigate the hiding of the documents and take disciplinary action, ranging from reprimands to dismissals, against 68 agents who had carried out illegal acts under orders from Gray, Felt and Miller...
...After Bell's announcement, many Americans raised questions about the propriety of striking so hard at high law-enforcement officials who were trying-however misguidedly-to do their job in a crisis situation. Similar reservations were raised when former CIA Director Richard Helms was charged with two misdemeanor counts for, in effect, lying to a Senate committee in denying that his agency had tried to stop Salvador Allende Gossens' 1970 election as President of Chile. Helms pleaded no contest but justified his actions on national security grounds...