Before WikiLeaks, before Edward Snowden, and before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks turned most government offices into fortresses, there were eight people with suitcases who broke into an FBI office housed in a suburban apartment building.
They knew the building superintendent would be preoccupied that night. Like millions of Americans on March 8, 1971, he was next to his radio, transfixed by the "Fight of the Century" between heavyweight champion Joe Frazier and challenger Muhammad Ali. They stuffed the luggage full of documents, which within days were slipped into large envelopes headed for the desks of journalists, politicians and activists.
More than 40 years after the break-in, which revealed a spying program run by J. Edgar Hoover that targeted antiwar and civil rights activists, some of the burglars went public Tuesday to discuss an event that they say is more pertinent than ever in this age of ramped-up surveillance.
We're hoping that by coming forward today, we can remind Americans of the abuses unchecked police power can lead to," said Bonnie Raines, 72, who along with her husband, John, took part in planning and carrying out the burglary in the small town of Media, Pa., about 12 miles west of Philadelphia.
The statute of limitations on the burglary ran out in 1976, but the five years leading up to that were tense. FBI agents once visited the Raineses' home. A sketch of Bonnie Raines — who had visited the FBI office in a ruse to study its security setup — had circulated around FBI offices, showing a slender woman in horn-rimmed glasses with her hair tucked under a cap.
Luck and timing helped the burglars elude capture.
Activists open up about 1971 FBI burglary - latimes.com
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‘It was time to do more than protest’: 1971 burglars who exposed FBI spying finally come forward to tell their story
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