February 13, 1981

NEW SOLIDARITY Page 5

80 Years of Abscam

The Backroom Birth of the FBI

by M. Murray

Feb. 6 (NSIPS)As this article goes to press, the Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Investigation and its Organized Crime Strike Force are standing trial before Federal District Court Judge George Pratt in Brooklyn, N.Y. The outcome of that hearing will determine whether or not the FBI and the Strike Force acted in concert to violate the U.S. Constitution and laws governing due process in their conduct of the "Abscam" and "Brilab" actions against constituency-based labor and political leaders. Historical investigations by this news service strongly indicate that whatever the outcome of the hearing, a more far-reaching point must urgently be brought before the American citizenry: From its very inception, the FBI was nothing more than a political gestapo deployed to destroy constituency political machines through the weaponry of blackmail, extortion, entrapment, and perjury. The FBI, which, until a congressional enactment in 1935, was called the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), was conceived in secrecy, and in defiance of the expressed will of the Congress of the United States. Congress, in fact, became the first victim of the Bureau's blackmail, and of frameup efforts, carried out at the direction of President Theodore Roosevelt and his attorney general, Charles J. Bonaparte.

Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. President who initiated the founding of an American Gestapo which became the FBI.

Prelude to the BOI: The Lands Scandal What were the circumstances at the turn of the century that created the congressional outrage and charges that the BOI threatened to be little more than a general "spy system" such as those used by Europe's despots? In the post-Civil War period, a number of congressional bills were passed to promote the development of our western frontiers. One such law was the Timber and Stone Act of 1878, which provided for the sale of lands generally considered unfit for cultivation although rich in valuable virgin forests. This land quickly became the target of speculators and swindlers. Shortly after taking office, President Roosevelt was approached by Interior Secretary Ethan A. Hitchcock, who suspected that his own department may

have been involved in the land fraud operations. Hitchcock conducted a preliminary investigation, and then requested that the Department of Justice pursue it. Attorney General Bonaparte, the grandnephew of French Emperor Napoleon I, promptly "borrowed" agents from the Treasury Department to make the inquiries. At that time the DoJ did not have its own investigative force, so in 1892 it had adopted the practice of "borrowing" agents from other federal departments, such as Treasury, Interior, and the Postal Service. 'Abscammed' Bonaparte's men found that the General Lands Division of the Interior Department had indeed been involved in the land frauds. What followed were the sensational indictments and convictions of public figures including: Sen. John H. Mitchell and Rep. John N. Williamson, both of Oregon; Van Gesner, a business partner of Williamson; U.S. District Attorney John J. Hall, who was to prosecute the case but was later said to have been involved in land swindle operations; and U.S. Commissioner Marion R. Biggs. All were found guilty. But the actual shock came in the followup investigation made by the Taft administration in 1911. Taft's attorney general, George W. Wickersham, found that the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the Oregon cases had employed a private detective to screen, threaten and bribe jurors. Affidavits were filed stating that detective William J. Burns had compelled witnesses by threats and intimidation to give perjured testimony to a grand jury. In later years, Rep. Williamson's appeal to the Supreme Court was upheld and the charges against him were dismissed. Mitchell died before the higher courts could make a decision on his appeal. But in 1907, the land frauds scandal was still "hot." Bonaparte went before the House Appropriations Committee and requested the creation of a permanent detective force for the DoJ. The request was not well received by the congressmen. The House immediately moved to ban the existing DoJ practice of "borrowing" agents, which was accomplished by an amendment to the Sundry Civil Appropriations Act that passed on May 27, 1908. Roosevelt Tries Again

Roosevelt tried to side-track the amendment. Writing to House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon, he warned that "the provision about the employment of the Secret Service men will work very great damage to the government in its endeavor to prevent and punish crime. There is no more foolish outcry than this against 'spies'; only criminals need fear our detectives." The New York Times rallied to his side. In a typical editorial entitled "Tools of Thieves." the Times stated, "It was the combination of 'land sharks,' according to the report, that persuaded the Appropriations Committee to approve, and the House to pass, the Amendment to the Sundry Civil bill. . . . The Representatives have, however unwittingly, become the tools of thieves. The Senators are duly warned." A typical Chicago newspaper article summarizing the opposing viewpoint during the debates was published in the Congressional Record: "There is no desire for a general detective service or national police organization in connection with the Federal Government. On the contrary, there is in Congress an utter abhorrence of such a scheme. . . ." The Backroom Birth The Congress adjourned on June 1, 1908. On July 26, acting at the direction of the President, Bonaparte issued the order that gave birth to the Bureau of Investigation. Upon its return, Congress was confronted with the RooseveltBonaparte fait acompli. The congressional response was both hostile and immediate. Investigations were launched by both houses into all federal investigative and police agencies, particularly the new force at the Justice Department. Bonaparte was forced to appear before the House and was subjected to intensive confrontation and grilling by the angered members. At the same time, rumors and accusations were circulating that congressmen were being surveilled and their personal papers and mail was being tampered with and in some cases actually opened. Roosevelt publicly denied the charges. However, he admitted that "sometimes through the accidental breaking of such [a mail] package the contents were exposed." The President then proceeded to publish the private correspondence of one of his principal foes, Sen. Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina. The objectlesson was not lost on the opposition.

Bonaparte made one final appearance before the House Appropriations Committee in December 1908. Impatient with the persistent, however feeble, cries against the abuses by the BOI. he declared: "Anybody can shadow me as much as they please. They can watch my coming in and my going out. I do not care whether there is somebody standing at the corner and watching where I go or where I do not go." Congressman Sherley's (Ky.) response to Bonaparte, was reportedly met with resounding applause by the House: "In my reading of history I recall no instance where a government perished because of the absence of a secret-service force, but many there are that perished as a result of the spy system. If Anglo-Saxon civilization stands for anything, it is for a government where the humblest of citizens is safeguarded against the secret activities of the executive of the government. . . . "The Fourth Amendment declares: 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated.'. . . "The view of government that called it into existence is not lightly to be brushed aside."