Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Secrets of the FBI (Hoover’s Secret Files)
The Daily Beast ^ | August 2, 2011 | Ronald Kessler

Posted on 08/03/2011 5:18:13 AM PDT by lbryce

Complex man that he was, J. Edgar Hoover left nothing to chance. The director shrewdly recognized that building what became known as the world’s greatest law enforcement agency would not necessarily keep him in office. So after Hoover became director, he began to maintain a special Official and Confidential file in his office. The “secret files,” as they became widely known, would guarantee that Hoover would remain director as long as he wished.

Defenders of Hoover— a dwindling number of older former agents who still refer to him as “Mr. Hoover”—have claimed his Official and Confidential files were not used to blackmail members of Congress or presidents. They say Hoover kept the files with sensitive information about political leaders in his suite so that young file clerks would not peruse them and spread gossip. The files were no more secret than any other bureau files, Hoover supporters say.

While the files may well have been kept in Hoover’s office to protect them from curious clerks, it was also true that far more sensitive files containing top-secret information on pending espionage cases were kept in the central files. If Hoover truly was concerned about information getting out, he should have been more worried about the highly classified information in those files.

Moreover, the Official and Confidential files were secret in the sense that Hoover never referred to them publicly, as he did the rest of the bureau’s files. He distinguished them from other bureau files by calling them “confidential,” denoting secrecy. But whether they were secret or not and where they were kept was irrelevant. What was important was how Hoover used the information from those files and from other bureau files.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Society
KEYWORDS: fbi; governmentsecrets; hoover

1 posted on 08/03/2011 5:18:17 AM PDT by lbryce
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: lbryce
I wonder if this might be laying some groundwork toward torpedoing a Democrat primary challenge by Hillary Clinton? She used FBI files too, right?
2 posted on 08/03/2011 5:24:01 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The USSR spent itself into bankruptcy and collapsed -- and aren't we on the same path now?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy

I think someone has done this same thing to Lindsey Graham and Boehner.


3 posted on 08/03/2011 5:50:18 AM PDT by RummyChick (It's a Satan Sandwich with Satan Fries on the side - perfect for Obama 666)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Supposidly, Bobby Kennedy, when he became Attorney General, wanted to get rid of Hoover and discussed this with his brother, the President. After a face to face meeting between Hoover and Kennedy, that idea faded away immediately.


4 posted on 08/03/2011 5:53:47 AM PDT by GoldenPup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

They crucified Hoover after his death, but no one had the balls to mess with him when he was alive.

It tells you a lot about Hoover, but it is also telling us about a lot of people he had something on.


5 posted on 08/03/2011 5:55:55 AM PDT by Venturer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
" . . . his Official and Confidential files were not used to blackmail members of Congress or presidents."

So what do the police do with surveillance information?

6 posted on 08/03/2011 5:59:39 AM PDT by Zuben Elgenubi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Zuben Elgenubi
"So what do the police do with surveillance information? "

Sell it to the Brit tabloids?

7 posted on 08/03/2011 6:11:48 AM PDT by Paladin2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

"Dishonesty and incompetence so often goes hand in hand, because one is used to hide the other"...

Does That Describe This Man?

Donate

8 posted on 08/03/2011 6:36:55 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are here! What will you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Speaking about juicy gossip, Ann Coulter’s book, Demonic contains some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that Bill Ayres is only 5’4” tall and has been known to enjoy anal sex with men.


9 posted on 08/03/2011 6:42:26 AM PDT by Eva
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
My FIL was an FBI agent for years and I can tell you from his stories that while Kennedy may indeed have hated Mr. Hoover, that feeling went both ways - he ESPECIALLY couldn't stand the AG Robert Kennedy.

I have some amusing stories he told us in the year before he passed if anyone is interested. He told us about how and why MLK, Jr was bugged, what Black Bag squads do, and how Mr. Hoover got back at Robert Kennedy (and his dumb dog too I heard - Hoover hated that Bobby kept his German with him at the office) and how the rumour that he wore women's clothing was started. I've never shared the stories before because all I have is my word on what he said, and if anyone says “uh uh, that couldn't have happened,” I have no way to prove any thing.

Nothing he told us is classified any longer. He maintained confidentiality protocol to the end.

10 posted on 08/03/2011 6:49:13 AM PDT by SoftballMominVA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GoldenPup
After a face to face meeting between Hoover and Kennedy, that idea faded away immediately.

I suspect the JFK file held by Hoover was probably second in thickness to only MLK, Jr. Hoover had JFK and his daddy figured out in the 30s when Papa Joe was still practicing his "Sieg Heil" salute in front of the bathroom mirror.

11 posted on 08/03/2011 7:00:31 AM PDT by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA

Tell us more!


12 posted on 08/03/2011 7:40:48 AM PDT by rejoicing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA

The rumor, now permanent description, that he wore women’s clothes seems to have been wholly created out of a nonsense claim of a chick convicted perjurer.


13 posted on 08/03/2011 11:57:34 AM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

According to my FIL when we asked him about this....

First of all, the FIRST time we asked years ago, he was disgusted we would even ask it and he actually left the room moderately angry at us.

The next time we asked, years later, my husband couched the question in the form of mutual disgust and then asked if he knew how the rumour was started. Apparently, it began with a mob boss’ wife. She told the rumour as fact at some parties in the NY/NJ area, the rumour made its way to some society editors at the NY Times and was accepted as truth because people that are evil to their core WANT to believe that others are capable of perversions.

Now the rumour is accepted as fact by those who have heard it 10th hand or more by people who didn’t know the man or even know anyone who knew anyone who knew him.

According to my FIL, Hoover was not a perfect man, and sinned like every other man does, but cross-dressing? No, never, not in any possible world.


14 posted on 08/03/2011 7:07:13 PM PDT by SoftballMominVA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA

The media convinced everyone in America that the smear is true because the left wrote it into their stage comedy routines, their sitcoms, and their movies, as a punch line, as though we all knew it as fact, now the public takes it for granted that it is a completely accepted and known fact.


15 posted on 08/03/2011 7:37:47 PM PDT by ansel12 ( Bristol Palin's book "Not Afraid Of Life: My Journey So Far" became a New York Times, best seller.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA

I’d love to hear every one of them


16 posted on 08/03/2011 7:41:42 PM PDT by advertising guy (if a politician from either party was to say hello to me, it should be law I can shoot em)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA; ansel12
The Mitrokhin archive indicates the KGB was dedicated to spreading rumors that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual. I assume this includes the cross-dressing rumors too.

I've heard Truman Capote loved spreading these rumors too. Perhaps his commie friends encouraged him.


17 posted on 08/04/2011 4:49:29 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
I'm of two minds about Hoover.

There is something wrong about one man having so much power.

On the other hand, perhaps he functioned as an "apex predator" and kept more damaging figures, such as communist spies or organized crime, from monopolizing the blackmail business. Perhaps he also kept congressmen themselves from using dirty tactics, so the actual business of the country could be addressed better.

I can think of worse people than Hoover to have had such power.

The pretense of many Hoover critiics is that his blackmail-friendly system was uniquely worthy of condemnation, and that this kind of blackmail doesn't go on today. I doubt that.

One elderly friend's father was a well-connected "Tea Party"-type activist in the Midwest in the 1930s. She told me she once overheard him speaking with his friend, a U.S. Senator I believe to be Michigan's Arthur H. Vandenberg.

Her father asked the senator how FDR got away with his foreign policy. The senator explained that FDR convened a gathering of senators and then "brought in the girls." The senator said he left because he was offended and did not want to betray his wife, and because of that he could vote his conscience.

18 posted on 08/04/2011 5:04:27 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
Okay, here is one story of the ones he told us...the story of how much Hoover hated Bobby Kennedy.

The story starts with George Zeiss, the only agent to never go through FBI training.

It seems that Zeiss, who was nicknamed Pachyderm due to his size, was a devoted assistant to Hoover, a sort of ‘go-pher’ guy or jack of all trades. Also an incredible expert with self-defense and guns, but that came later.

Zeiss contracted an illness, FIL never explained what it was, and Hoover visited him on his what was expected to be his deathbed. Apparently Hoover showed incredible kindness and tenderness to a man who was dying and asked him if there was anything he could do for George. George told him that he regretted that he had never gone to law school and could never be an agent and told Hoover that his true regret was not being able to serve Hoover as an agent. His heart moved, Hoover took a badge from a pocket and pinned it on George's pillow and said “Son, you are now a full agent of the FBI.”

Then the son-of-a-bitch lived....as the other agents would tell the story with much laughter.

So now, George, an agent who was the only one never allowed to carry a weapon because of his lack of training, but he was still very useful in self-defense, so Hoover placed him in charge of the Quantico gun range/hand combat/self defense training and he literally trained thousands of agents. But since he could not carry his own weapon, Zeiss had to borrow one from an agent for demonstrations of gun shooting trickery. Zeiss’s specialty was shooting at a target with his back to it using a diamond ring from the audience to aim. (Demonstrations were given to the families of graduating agents)

To say that George was devoted to Hoover would be an understatement. He would do anything Hoover asked.

So, onto Bobby Kennedy...

When he was AG, his office was in the FBI building and he made a point of coming to work pretty much every day with his German Shepard and keeping the dog with him throughout the day, which Hoover HATED, but he had no power to tell him not to. Also, Kennedy liked to work out during the day, and the most convenient gym was the FBI gym, which was open only to agents. Hoover got wind of his visiting the gym and decided to step in.

He asked George to stand at the door and request to see the FBI credentials of anyone who wanted to enter. The agents would approach the door guarded by Pachyderm, show their credentials and go on in.

Then came Bobby strutting down the hall with his dog. He approached the door and politely asked George to step aside. George just as politely asked for his credentials. Bobby told him to move aside, George repeated his request. Bobby stood there for a moment, then raised his voice with the question “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” to which George replied, “I know that you are not someone with FBI credentials sir and I'm not allowed to let anyone enter who does not possess credentials.” He then moved slightly to the middle of the door with his arms crossed and stared down the AG of the US.

Bobby sputtered and fumed down the hall vowing revenge on George, Hoover, and anyone else who dared to tell him no. George went into the gym to a chorus of cheers and was treated to a few rounds of beers later that week

George remained at the door for a few more weeks, but Bobby never tried to enter again, after all, he wasn't an FBI agent and didn't have credentials.

*******

This is almost word for word the story my FIL told us, more than once. I have more George Zeiss stories too, as my FIL was an agent at Quantico and worked as a fire-arms instructor during part of his time there.

There are a few pics out there of George demonstrating self-defense moves, I think LIFE did an article on him.

Hope you like the story, it's one of my favorites.

19 posted on 08/04/2011 6:44:21 PM PDT by SoftballMominVA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoftballMominVA
It is a good story!

It's quite amazing that RFK, the son of a reputed bootlegger, became Attorney General and then launches a crusade against organized crime. (Wonder if any of that was taking revenge on Dad's enemies?)

20 posted on 08/04/2011 10:24:12 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson