Bugging J. Edgar Hoover

A top Senate aide used to begin his first telephone conversation of each week with a hearty "F-- J. Edgar Hoover." To the startled listener on the other end of the line, he explained: "Just clearing the lines." During the debate over G. Harrold Carswell's nomination to the Supreme Court, Indiana Senator Birch Bayh became so disturbed over an inexplicable strategy and information leak that he called in an expert to examine his office for listening devices. The expert "swept" Bayh's office--the same suite occupied by Richard Nixon when he was a Senator--with a detector and picked up blips from beneath the floor. The floor was pounded until the blips ceased, but Bayh decided against bringing in jackhammers to tear up the concrete to retrieve the dead bug. During his years in the White House, Lyndon Johnson spiced his private conversations with such intimate disclosures about the personal and political operations of his enemies on Capitol Hill that it seemed to many that he had them under FBI surveillance.

Gestapo Tactics. Against this background, House Democratic Leader Hale Boggs turned to a colleague on the floor of the House last week and said: "I'm going to make a speech that's going to get national headlines." In a one-minute address, Boggs broke the desultory parliamentary doings with a harsh challenge to the reputation of one of Washington's most powerful institutions--J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Boggs: "When the FBI taps the telephones of members of this body and members of the Senate, when the FBI adopts the tactics of the Soviet Union and Hitler's Gestapo, then it is time that the present director no longer be the director."

Two weeks earlier, Democratic Senator Joseph Montoya of New Mexico had made the same wiretapping charge at a little-reported political dinner in Denver. But this time the accusation came in the House chamber from a top Democratic leader, and the Administration responded quickly and categorically. Attorney General John Mitchell took time during a Florida vacation to deny charges of wiretapping. Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst followed with a slightly veiled attack on Boggs' drinking problem and emotional instability in the past. Kleindienst said Boggs was "sick, or not in possession of his faculties." But reporters who questioned Boggs after the speech found him motivated only by sober and sensible outrage.

No Knowledge. Kleindienst at first offered to let Congress investigate the FBI. Then he qualified the offer, saying that any investigation would have to be limited to the congressional phone-tapping charge, rather than become a wide-ranging look at the FBI that could jeopardize its mission and sources.* As the feud progressed, Boggs, too, did some retrenching, admitting that Mitchell might be "technically correct" about the absence of taps. But he continued to insist that the FBI had Congressmen under "surveillance"--perhaps using other electronic devices to monitor their offices. Boggs further blunted his attack by the specious argument that whatever the facts, a number of his colleagues believe their phones are tapped and that "if everyone thinks his phone is tapped, it's as bad as their being tapped. You're sure not going to carry on any business."

Boggs and the Justice Department concur on that, though for different reasons. Said Kleindienst, appalled that Boggs would make the charge without proof at hand: "It's destructive to the country for people to believe that it's being done. How can a Congressman function if he feels his talks with his colleagues or his constituents are being overheard? We agree that it has a chilling effect, and we'd like to have a hearing to get rid of that feeling."

Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark--whose personal disagreements with Hoover have flared openly in recent months--said that during his eight years in the Justice Department, he had no knowledge of the FBI's tapping Congressmen's phones. He added that it could conceivably be done without an Attorney General's awareness: "It's a relationship that depends on trust." Kleindienst outlined the procedures involved in authorizing a tap: Hoover must submit a request in writing, which is then reviewed by Mitchell. The signatures of both are required before the FBI can cut into a line. Kleindienst added that for the agency to take the initiative on wiretapping is also unlikely: "I just can't picture an FBI agent out splicing wires someplace at 3 o'clock in the morning, risking observation for an illegal wiretap."

With Boggs promising that the results of his personal investigation would be forthcoming, Congress left for the Easter recess with the FBI in the biggest turmoil since Hoover became the director of the bureau 47 years ago. Under Hoover, the FBI long ago evolved into an untouchable symbol of righteousness to most citizens. The chairman of a House Appropriations Subcommittee often bragged that he never cut Hoover's budget requests. Films, television series and books chronicled the bureau's crime-fighting exploits. The bureau's image has begun to fuzz of late, thanks to Hoover's outspoken beliefs and unwillingness to brook criticism from any quarter. He admitted that he had not even spoken to Robert Kennedy during Kennedy's last six months as Attorney General and labeled Ramsey Clark "a jellyfish" and "a softie."

Last December he angered Spanish-speaking Americans with a racial slur made during an interview with TIME Correspondent Dean Fischer. Hoover's testiness led to 26 agents and clerks being ordered last fall to withdraw from college courses where professors had questioned Hoover's methods and techniques. Then in January it was discovered that one of them, Special Agent John Shaw, was forced to resign from the FBI and blacklisted by Hoover for writing a private letter to a college professor that was mildly critical of Hoover and the bureau.

No Peace Clerks. There have been increasing suggestions that, at age 76, Hoover should resign. He has been criticized for making the FBI too much a lengthened shadow of his own philosophy. Though the critics aim chiefly at Hoover, the FBI's image suffers as well. It was discovered that Hoover keeps a fleet of armored limousines around the country that outnumbers the presidential limousines. Documents stolen by radical activists from the Media, Pa., FBI office outlined the agency's use of undercover informers; one memorandum encouraged local agents to exacerbate "the paranoia endemic in [New Left] circles that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox" by questioning radicals about their activities at every opportunity. In the midst of the Boggs controversy last week, the FBI forced the resignations of two low-ranking clerks for their after-hours envelope stuffing at a peace group's headquarters. Until last week there had been a noticeable cooling of the close relationship between Hoover and top Justice Department officials. The names of possible successors cropped up in private conversations at the department. Most frequently mentioned: Supreme Court Justice Byron White.

Blood. Throughout the latest round of criticism, Hoover has kept uncharacteristically quiet, apparently because Justice Department officials are worried that further intemperate remarks from the director might irreparably damage his cause. But even if Boggs' charges turn out to be groundless, Hoover's critics, scenting blood, are likely to continue to press for his resignation.

*The Administration's policy toward telephone tapping was set back last week by a decision from the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals (see THE LAW).

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