The old FBI lost its bearings under J. Edgar Hoover, hounding Martin Luther , King Jr. and running wholesale spy operations against groups that opposed the Viet Nam War. A new and improved agency emerged during William Webster's nine years as director. But there was a palpable sense of deja vu in the air last week. First came news that a black agent had been racially harassed by his white colleagues. Then followed charges that the FBI had conducted wide- ranging surveillance of critics of the Reagan Administration's Central American policy.
The racist taunting of Agent Donald Rochon was limited to...