David Burnham - Above the Law. Secret Deals, Political Fixes and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of...

Above the Law

Secret Deals, Political Fixes and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice

David Burnham

Acknowledgments

The debts accumulated in writing this book are enormous. It thus is a genuine pleasure to thank various individuals and institutions for their generous assistance.

Susan Long, a professor at the Syracuse Universitys School of Management, gave vast quantities of her wisdom, time and energy. David Banisar, a policy analyst at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, also was extraordinarily helpful, assisting in the search for literally hundreds of critically important documents with a seemingly endless supply of intelligence, enthusiasm and good cheer. In the early stages of my research, Rich Lucas pitched in with much invaluable research at the Library of Congress.

Large and small favors were granted by Linda Amster, New York Times; Judi Bari, environmentalist; Jerry Berman, Electronic Frontier Foundation; Mark Bohannon, Democratic National Committee; Stanley M. Brand, Washington attorney; Malcolm Byrne, National Security Archive; Julia Cass, coauthor of Black in Selma; Joseph Charney, assistant district attorney, Los Angeles County; J. L. Chestnut, civil rights lawyer, Selma, Alabama; Mae and Robert Churchill, friends, counselors, innkeepers and mad news clippers; Dayna Cunningham, lawyer, Legal Defense Fund, NAACP; Dennis Cunningham, San Francisco lawyer; Ira DeMent, former U.S. attorney in Montgomery, Alabama; James Dempsey, Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, House Judiciary Subcommittee; Joan Deppa, journalism professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Whitfleld Diffie, Sun Microsystems; Lowell Dodge, Justice Department Division, GAO; Thomas Edsall, Washington Post reporter; John T. Elliff, Senate Intelligence Committee; Edward J. Epstein, writer; Mary Fricker, Santa Rosa Press Democrat; Arthur Gelb, New York Times Company Foundation; Ross Gelbspan, Boston Globe; Robert Gelman, Information Subcommittee, House Government Operations Committee; Bennett L. Gershman, Pace University Law School; Don Goldberg, House Government Operations Committee; Sharon Greene, chief Washington librarian for the American Bar Association; Wade Greene, Rockefeller Family Associates; Rockefeller Foundations Bellagio Study and Research Center; Mary Stake Hawker, Deer Creek Foundation; Seymour Hersch, reporter; Philip B. Heymann, Harvard Law School; Richard Horne, lawyer in Mobile, Alabama; Janina Jarulzelski, Oversight Subcommittee, House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Arnold Kalman, Philadelphia attorney; Yale Kamisar, University of Michigan Law School; W. A. Kimbrough, Jr., former U.S. attorney, Mobile, Alabama; Joseph Krovisky, Justice Department; Kenneth C. Laudon, New York University; Katherine Leroy, Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, House Judiciary Committee; Ted Leventhal, journalist; Michael Levine, former DEA agent; Miranda Maroney, administrator, Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse; David W. Marston, Philadelphia attorney, Morton Mintz, former reporter, Washington Post; Jim Mulvaney, Newsday reporter; Victor S. Navasky, editor; Peter Neumann, Stanford Research Institute; Otto G. Obermaier, U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York; Ron Ostrow, reporter, Los Angeles Times; Michael Rand, Bureau of Justice Statistics; Harold Relyea, Government Division, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress; Mary Ronan, National Archives; Donald Ross, Rockefeller Family Fund; Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center; David Rubin, dean of the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University; Greg Rushford, Legal Times; Cathy Seddon, Information Subcommittee, House Government Operations Committee; Phil Shipman, Senate Judiciary Committee; William M. Simpich, San Francisco lawyer; Patrick Sloyan, Newsday reporter; David Sobel, Electronic Privacy Information Center; Peter Stockton, Oversight Subcommittee, House Committee on Energy and Commerce; Harry Subin, New York University Law School; Stuart Taylor, Legal Times; Athan Theoharis, Marquette University; Alice Travis, Democratic National Committee; Kent Walker, Justice Department; Barclay Walsh, New York Times; Ben Ware, vice chancellor, Syracuse University; Kendall Weaver, AP Bureau Chief, Montgomery, Alabama; Henry Weinstein, Los Angeles Times, federal court reporter; Neil J. Welch, retired FBI official; Glynn Wilson, Alabama freelance reporter.

Clarissa Wittenberg and Jim Lardner have generously extended their editorial talents, moral support and friendship to my efforts to understand the Justice Department and its place in American society. They have saved me from bad judgments, lack of clarity, gross errors and clumsy writing. They of course bear no responsibility for those occasions when I ignored their counsel.

From the very beginning, my editor, Lisa Drew, was a highly informed, thoughtful and enthusiastic supporter. As the researching and editing process went forward, she offered the guidance that is essential to such a sweeping project. As she has done in the past, Robin Straus, my close friend, mentor and agent, was insightful, helpful and supportive, even in my more grumpy periods. Jane Herman provided careful and consistent copyediting. Kate Boyle and Marysue Rucci shepherded me through the editing and production process with great skill and finesse.

My wife, Joanne Omang, who was working on her own book at the same time that I was struggling with mine, was her extraordinarily loving, unflappable, patient, brilliant and supportive self. To her, to my two dear daughters, Sarah and Molly, and to all the other helpersnamed and unnamedthis book is dedicated.

Contents

Law, Order and Politics: The Working of the United States Justice Department

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested four Arab immigrants for bombing New Yorks World Trade Center, the FBI agents acted in the name of their parent organization, the United States Justice Department.

When government antitrust lawyers filed suit against AT&T charging that Americas most powerful monopoly was illegally retarding the development of a revolutionary new age in communications, they did so in the name of the United States Justice Department.

When the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) forcibly abducted deposed dictator Manuel Noriega from Panama to face federal drug trafficking charges in Florida after his capture by U.S. military units, the DEA agents acted under the name of their parent organization, the United States Justice Department.

When four hundred deputy U.S. marshals confronted a violent mob of Mississippians in an ultimately successful effort to carry out the court-ordered admission of James Meredith to the University of Mississippi, they did so as an arm of the United States Justice Department.

When the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) rounded up scores of illegal Chinese aliens after their freighter went aground on a beach near New York City, the INS agents acted in the name of their parent organization, the United States Justice Department.

When the solicitor general of the United States, in an appearance before the United States Supreme Court, argued that the nations Constitution required congressional districts of substantially equal population, he did so as a senior official in the United States Justice Department.

When Al Capone was incarcerated in Alcatraz Prison, Americas most notorious gangster experienced life in one of the toughest environments in the United States. The escape-proof prison, located on an island in San Francisco Bay, was operated by the Bureau of Prisons, an arm of the United States Justice Department.