By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
One of the seven conspirators who revealed a dirty campaign of intimidation by the FBI in March 1971 by stealing a cache of documents in burglary of an bureau office in suburban Philadelphia died on Nov. 12 at his home in Philadelphia.
John C. Raines, a Temple University religion professor, was 84, the Washington Post reports.
During the burglary, the seven conspirators stole documents that showed a campaign of intimidation by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover against civil rights and antiwar activists, communists and other dissenters.
One of the documents revealed an that agents were directed to increasingly interview perceived dissenters “to get the point across there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox.”
The burglars, who called themselves the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, disseminated the stolen documents to newspapers.
The leaked reports lead to the formation of the Senate Church Committee, which revealed widespread abuses among intelligence agencies.
Raines kept the explosive secret for 43 years before revealing his identity to a Washington Post journalist, Betty Medsger, who wrote a book-length account of the break-in, “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI.”
The reported called Dr. Raines’ actions “one of the most powerful acts of resistance in the history of the country.”
