FBI Wants Jack Anderson's Papers

Here's a real shocker:

Jack Anderson turned up plenty of government secrets during his half-century as an investigative reporter, and his family hoped to make his papers available to the public after his death last December--but the government wants to see and possibly confiscate them first.

The FBI believes the columnist's files may contain national security secrets, including documents that would aid in the prosecution of two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, who have been charged with disclosing classified information.

Lawyers for the family are preparing a letter saying no to the FBI, said the columnist's son, Kevin Anderson.

"He would absolutely oppose the FBI rifling through his papers at will," Anderson said.

Although some of the documents may be classified, he said, they contain only "embarrassing top secrets--hammers that cost a thousand dollars and things like that."

Anderson said it was unlikely his father had papers relevant to the AIPAC case, since he had done little original reporting after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1990.

Good for the family. Kudos to them.

This story originaly appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education and they had some good bits:

Were he alive today, Jack Anderson "would probably come out of his skin at the thought of the FBI going through his papers," said Kevin N. Anderson, the journalist's son. If papers were taken -- even if some were stamped "declassified" and returned -- that would "destroy any academic, scholarly, and historic value" of the archive, Kevin Anderson adds.

Hey, they would never do that... would they?

The FBI would not comment for this article.

The Andersons are the not the only ones who are incensed. Observers of academic freedom and libraries say that the FBI's request is part of a renewed emphasis on secrecy in government, which has focused on libraries and archives in particular. Recently, librarians have been concerned about scores of documents that have been reclassified at the National Archives, and librarians have long been concerned about freedom of information since the passage of the USA Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The FBI's interest in the Anderson archive is "deeply disturbing and deeply in conflict with the academy's interests in freedom of inquiry, research, and scholarship," said Duane E. Webster, the executive director of the Association of Research Libraries.

Now all the FBI dudes I know are good dudes, but the institution? And their masters? Well they've done some awfully sketchy stuff.