Watch Program
Read Transcript
Buy DVD/VHS
Info: Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author Tim Weiner discusses his new historical narrative, “Enemies: A History of the FBI.” The book details the FBI’s 100 year hidden history of war against terrorists, spies, and ultimately any person or group deemed subversive. Weiner reveals details of secretly taped conversations FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Lawful and unlawful strategies against their enemies were reviewed. He writes about the agency’s predominantly illegal secret intelligence and surveillance techniques such as wire-tapping, break-ins, and burglaries. The author suggests that the FBI is in a constant tug of war between national security concerns and the protection of civil liberties. Weiner reveals how he researched recently declassified documents which included J. Edgar Hoover’s personal intelligence files. In addition, he talks about the major contribution to his research from scrutinizing over 200 oral histories of current and former FBI agents. Weiner discusses his early career as a reporter, sharing the story of The Kansas City Times’ coverage of the collapse of an atrium skywalk in a Kansas City Hyatt Hotel in 1981. The coverage won Weiner and his team a Pulitzer Prize. His second Pulitzer was received for investigative journalism on black budget spending while employed by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
