Whitey Bulger Causes FBI Policy Revamp

Back in 1976, I was eight years old and dressed like a miniature Uncle Sam, as was the rest of my class. We were marching in the Bicentennial parade in my town, which happened to occur right in the middle of a furious thunderstorm that dumped buckets of rain on us. I remember the endless shower causing the red, white and blue coloring from our paper top hats to run down our faces.

As we and the rest of the U.S. of A. were celebrating the 200th birthday of our republic, Congress passed a law limiting the tenure of the FBI director -- to 10 years.

Why? Well, think about it. The name J. Edgar Hoover ring a bell? He served as FBI director from its founding in 1935, until his death in 1972, and it only took the Feds a few years to realize the full scope of illegal enterprises Hoover implemented.

"Hoover was a power unto himself, and the FBI that was created very much in his image sometimes acted more like the secret police of the totalitarian regimes Hoover regularly denounced: running rogue wiretaps, harassing political dissidents, using illegal means to collect evidence. Hoover’s FBI wasn’t accountable; it was untouchable," The Boston Globe reports.

So now, just weeks after gangster and FBI informant Whitey Bulger returns, Congress is about to ignore its own wisdom and let Bob Mueller, the FBI director and former US Attorney in Boston, stay on an extra two years."

Read the Boston Globe article: A lingering question for the FBI’s director

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