Word: hooverism
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...well he can-with limited administrative experience-run an agency with 19,000 employees, a $500 million annual budget and a lot of problems. Dominated by cliques and thoroughly demoralized, the FBI has suffered one severe blow after another to its public image since the death of J. Edgar Hoover...
There were damaging revelations of Hoover's petty corruption and personal wars against political dissenters and black leaders. L. Patrick Gray, the acting director, politicized the agency by bending to pressure from the Nixon White House to impede the Watergate investigations. Outgoing Director Clarence Kelley, who is due to retire by Feb. 15, has been unable to wrest full control from the remaining members of Hoover's inner circle. Within the past five years, moreover, it has been disclosed that a number of the FBI's 8,400 agents have been involved in illegal entries and mail...
...page report was prepared by Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which was assigned to probe allegations of wrongdoing by high officials of the Hoover regime in 1976. The order was given by then Attorney General Edward Levi, after he concluded that the FBI's own investigation of the charges was a whitewash. Mostly, the report dwells on just how much Hoover, a stickler for rules as far as ordinary agents were concerned, could tolerate improper use of bureau resources by high officials-especially himself. In fact, much of the purpose of the FBI's exhibits section...
Exhibits-section employees painted the house annually. They also built a front portico, dug a fish pond and equipped it with a pump and lights, and made shelves, telephone stands and an Oriental fruit bowl for Hoover. They repaired his air conditioners, stereo equipment, tape recorders, television sets, electric wiring, lawn mowers and a snow blower. They sodded portions of his yard, installed artificial turf, planted shrubbery, built a deck in the rear of the house, a redwood fence, a flagstone court and sidewalks. They designed and constructed a power-operated window, reset clocks, polished metal, retouched wallpaper, provided firewood...
...Justice investigators found that similar services were provided (on a lesser scale) to Hoover Aides John P. Mohr and Nicholas Callahan. These men were found to have destroyed records of an FBI "recreation" fund after Hoover's death, and after Callahan had spent $39,590 of the money for an unexplained "library fund." The two former officials, along with G. Speights McMichael, another aide to Hoover, were also held responsible for a questionable business arrangement. This involved purchases of electronic equipment, without competitive bidding, from the Washington-based U.S. Recording Co. between 1963 and 1975. One such purchase...