Replies

nothingnew:

As usual, you miss the point.

It is not a question of whether you personally trust the thousands of FBI Special Agents who investigated all sorts of matters, OR

whether or not you personally trust the thousands of informants inside legitimate and subversive organizations who made reports to the FBI, OR

whether or not you personally trust the hundreds of thousands of contacts which the FBI received from other independent sources such as local and state law enforcement, military intelligence (G-2, ONI, OSI), state and federal un-American activities committees, the Subversive Activities Control Board, the Loyalty Review Board, etc.

The point is that Robert Welch and the Birch Society are on record numerous times declaring that THEY trusted both Hoover and the FBI (as did the entire conservative movement in our country) — including (probably) every national figure whom YOU DO admire and respect.

And to refresh your memory regarding the JBS evaluation of Hoover and the FBI:

JBS Bulletin, July 1961, p 11
“But we have been equally emphatic at all times in expressing our confidence in J. Edgar Hoover and in the FBI under his direction.”

Robert Welch 11/20/64 letter to J. Edgar Hoover after seeing Boston newspaper article regarding Hoover’s criticisms of Welch at an 11/18/64 press conference:

“I can only hope that in time I may still earn your respect, simply by continuing to put all that I am and that I have into the same fight as your own. With all good wishes to you in the meantime, for your continued great service to our country, I am, Sincerely, Robert Welch” [FBI HQ file 62-104401, serial #2381, 11/20/64 letter by Welch]

Hattiesburg MS American, 5/5/65, p4 “John Birch Society Representative Discusses Talk He Will Make Tonight” re Reed Benson (the National PR Director of the JBS):

“Benson praised the dedication of J. Edgar Hoover who he said is the foremost authority on Communism. ‘I fear and tremble at thought of the day when he will be out of the FBI’ Benson said.”

Albuquerque NM Journal, 3/22/66, p1, “John Birch Lecturer” re Julia Brown (former FBI informant within CPUSA):

“We must demand full support for the great American, J. Edgar Hoover.”

American Opinion (JBS magazine), October 1966: “The Wisdom and Warning of J. Edgar Hoover”:

Hoover is described as “the government’s top authority on Communism. His patriotism, integrity, devotion to duty, and consistent efficiency are well known...Had we been wise enough to heed his clear words of warning over the years, we would not now be faced with such a monstrous conspiracy...God bless J. Edgar Hoover!”

Robert Welch letter to Hoover asking for permission to publish book with Hoover comments on communism:

“Mr. Welch advised he had the greatest admiration for the Director and that the captioned book was intended as an instrument against communism. He said he felt the statements on the subject from Mr. Hoover would be taken as statements from the world’s greatest authority on the matter of communism.” [FBI HQ file 62-104401, #3148; 6/28/67 airtel from SAC Boston to J. Edgar Hoover concerning contact made by Douglas C. Morse, Managing Editor of Western Islands Publishers.]

Review of the News (JBS magazine), 6/27/78, pp 31-44
John Rees: “J Edgar Hoover Was Right: A Review of FBI Documents Under the Freedom of Information Act” and
Review of the News, 9/5/79, pp 31-44: John Rees: “They’re Out To Destroy The FBI”

John Birch Society Website 8/19/93: Robert W. Lee: “Assassinating J. Edgar Hoover”
“If it is true that a person’s character can be judged as precisely by the enemies he earns as by the friends he makes, the character of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover must be rated high indeed…J. Edgar Hoover had, and obviously still has, the right enemies. They continue to stand, in their own peculiar way, as a special tribute to his character, his patriotism, and those ‘social values of home’ which he espoused.”

Incidentally, why do you think that tens of thousands of FBI Special Agents over the years have been totally incompetent to do their jobs?

And more importantly:

Is it your contention that ALL of the people who were convicted of crimes based primarily (or entirely) upon FBI investigations should be exonerated and compensated because the FBI was incompetent and corrupt and never found the truth or the real culprits?

In other words, we should totally discard and dismantle the FBI’s fingerprint database? We should ignore the expertise of the FBI’s laboratory staff? We should erase the many hundreds of thousands of interviews which FBI Agents conducted which led to discovering the perpetrators of the crimes they investigated? We should destroy all of transcripts and recordings of closed, secret meetings of senior Communist Party officials? We should ignore all of the testimony of FBI security informants inside the Ku Klux Klan and similar organizations which resulted in convictions of Klan members? Because ALL of this data and testimony is WORTHLESS and has no relationship to “the truth” since it originated inside the FBI?

In my experience, people (like yourself) who make the type of comment which you made are so hostile toward Hoover or the FBI (and so intellectually lazy) that you have become totally irrational.

Furthermore, I am willing to bet that you have never even seen an FBI investigative file — which is why you can so cavalierly pretend that nothing in them is valuable. What an incredibly stupid position to associate yourself with!