Word: fbi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...obvious question in these cases, where the courts are compelling an agency to release information which may be damaging to that agency, is whether the FBI could have tampered with the files. Weinstein thinks not. "Obviously we'll never know with absolute certainty but there is a good cross checking system." By this Weinstein means that many copies of these files have already been made and are kept in various governmental agencies. Thus, should the FBI tamper with the files in violation of court orders, it might well create more difficulties for itself than if it released information, some...
...Freedom of Information suits filed by Weinstein, by Hiss and by Michael and Robert Meeropol, serve a contemporary political purpose, in addition to fulfilling the demands of history. As Weinstein says, the real issue in the suits became a question of whether the Justice Department could control the FBI. Long after Elliot Richardson '41, as a Watergate-shuffle Attorney General, had promised that these specific files would be made completely public, the FBI was still holding out. The bureau presented irrelevant national security arguments, released completely blue-pencilled 17-page reports, claimed a lack of manpower for copying the documents...
Weinstein describes an experience he had in February of this year at FBI headquarters in Washington when he complained about the FBI's exorbitant price-scale for copying documents. An FBI agent named Farington became offended at Weinstein's suggestion that the Justice Department had a more reasonable payment procedure and exploded at him: "Don't tell me about the Justice Department. I don't care how they handle things. They do things their way and we do things our way. They don't tell us how to handle our affairs, and we don't tell them. And another thing...
Strange words from an FBI agent who, technically, is a Justice Department employee. Strange, but apparently valid, judging from Weinstein's experience. For it was a series of court orders, the final one in October, demanding FBI compliance, which finally forced the bureau to comply with the law, not the continuous pressure from the Justice Department. The Chief Justice of the U.S. District Court in Washington formally rebuked the FBI in his October ruling for its behavior, and it is a safe bet that by the end of next week, the FBI's stubborn fight to keep its records...
Actually, the FBI never really kept its files entirely secret. For years the bureau granted selective access, showing files that it chose to, withholding documents at whim. In fact, FBI files, even the tightly guarded ones on Alger Hiss, have been floating around in private hands since as long ago as 1945. Apparently they were leaked to favorable parties for potentially helpful political purposes by the bureau itself...