Veteran agents challenge some decisions by their new chief
They came from New York City, from Philadelphia and Richmond, and from headquarters a few blocks away. They were all neatly dressed in jackets and ties, some still in the white shirts and short hair of yesteryear. On their own time and at their own expense, nearly 700 past and present FBI agents gathered last week in front of the U.S. courthouse in Washington for an extraordinary protest demonstration against the indictments of three former bureau officials.
L. Patrick Gray III, acting director of the bureau under President Nixon, W. Mark Felt, who ended his 31-year FBI career in 1973 as the bureau's second in command, and Edward S. Miller, who quit the bureau in 1974 after serving as assistant director of the intelligence division, were about to be arraigned for violating the civil rights of citizens—friends and relatives of Weatherman fugitives—by ordering illegal break-ins.
As the three strode through the crowd of G-men, applause rang out. At the courthouse door, New York Agent Patrick Connor read a statement: "Let this event assure the American people that our fight against terrorists was nothing more than our just and sworn duty." Replied Felt emotionally: "All I can say is God bless every one of you."
In court, when the charges were read to the three defendants, Gray defiantly shouted his answer: "Not guilty!" The other two entered similar pleas. They were all released on their own recognizance—a trial is not expected before fall—but they had to undergo the embarrassment of being mugged and fingerprinted, and having these documents added to the criminal files of the agency they once ruled.
Attorney General Griffin Bell, who is in charge of the FBI and who personally made the decision to indict the three men, was in Indianapolis to lecture the Indiana state bar association on his efforts at "holding the intelligence community to the rule of law," when he discovered that FBI agents there were preparing another demonstration against him. He promptly went to the local FBI office, where he confronted some 50 hostile agents and clerks. They presented him with a letter, signed by 100 agents, charging that "the FBI is being systematically destroyed for reasons unknown to us." Bell chided them. "Get rid of this hangdog attitude that somebody is after you," he declared. "You don't need me to be a nursemaid of any sort. You are all strong. Pick up your heads, and let's get going. I regret that you feel badly, but we had to do our duty."
Former bureau officials believe that Gray may have trapped himself in the alleged conspiracy when he gave his deputy, Felt, sweeping authority to do something about the Weathermen, and then failed to keep a sharp eye on Felt and the zealous Miller. Says one ex-FBI man: "You've got to remember that in those days Gray spent only three days a week in headquarters. He was out on the road, touring FBI offices, making speeches. He was almost totally preoccupied with the Watergate scandal during the limited time he spent in FBI headquarters. When requests for approval of bag operations came in, Felt and Miller handled them routinely. It's possible that Gray did not know what his subordinates were doing with the broad authority he gave them."