The Privacy War: One Congressman, J. Edgar Hoover and the Fight for the Fourth Amendment

by Ron Felber

Book Overview

- $20,000 advertising budget- Twelve-city author tour to include cities in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0971953899
• ISBN13: 9780971953895
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Croce Publishing Group, LLC
• Length: 299 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Highly relevant issues and an excellent read

Living now under the "Patriot" Act, with more addendums to it being planned, it is important for citizens and Congressional representatives to revisit recent history. Under the reign of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI regularly engaged in wire-tapping and secret taping via parabolic microphones. Catching mobsters, right? No, blackmailing members of Congress, destroying careers of public servants, and taking revenge on anyone who opposed the bureau's interests.How did they do it? By planting false information in respectable journals such as Life magazine, paying off members or organized crime for deeds done, and planting evidence to implicate innocent people. This is the story of New Jersey Congressman Neil Gallagher and his nightmarish encounters with Hoover and others in the American intelligence business. Gallagher championed privacy after learning of a young girl being forced to take a lie detector test for a low level administrative job. As Gallagher continued to delve into breaches of privacy over the years, he was astonished to discover massive deceptions carried out by the Pentagon, CIA, and FBI.In one such case, approximately 300,000 children ranging in age from 6 to 12 were given psychotic drugs such as Ritalin without the consent of their parents in a study to determine which drug was the most effective in behavior modification. It was discovered that the U.S. Army was quietly shipping canisters of dangerous chemical weapons by train through such heavily populated areas as Philadelphia. Once at port they were loaded on WWII Liberty ships, taken 250 miles out to sea, and sunk into the depths. Congress and the public were totally in the dark.Of course the nefarious Roy Cohn showed up in Gallagher's life, at first as a friendly, knowledgeable Washington insider, later threatening the successful Congressman with warnings from Hoover. Hoover went out of his way to terrorize Gallagher and his family. FBI agents ransacked their home while they were on vacation, interrogated his daughters while they were in college, and stormed into their home threatening his family at gunpoint. Author Ron Felber does not draw any conclusions, but allows the words of Gallagher and others to cast doubt on the veracity of the Warren Commission report.Felber conducted extensive interviews with Gallagher, cited newspaper accounts, and obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act in assembling his book. He uses the convention of jumping between time periods to provide background information on the current storyline. It is a technique that can be distracting, but Felber does a remarkable job. In light of the events of today, Felber's book is very relevant and a call to remember that in the past government institutions have acted against government officials and private citizens irresponsibly and maliciously.Invasion of privacy in our current environment has the potential to rise to dangerous, even outrageous, levels. Government secrecy and deception are enemies o

An Important Man, An important Topic

Neil Gallagher was a star in the world of politics who whose career was ruined by vicious men who turned the U.S. government into an 'evil empire'. Could this happen again? Is America the great country it seems to be or something else? It is every citizens job to insist that our country live up to the high ideals it was founded upon.

Extremely Topical

Wow. A great read. And very relevant to today's world.

Important Subject:Privacy in the U.S.

Ron Felber's book "The Privacy War" is well-written and well-reseached. Though it is controversial in many of its conclusions serious students of U.S. history should read it as well as every day citizens concerned about the future of their country.

Particularly relevant reading in today's political climate

The Privacy War: One Congressman, J. Edgar Hoover And The Fight For The Fourth Amendment by Ron Felber is a raptly involving account of Neil Gallagher's rise and fall in American politics. The tumult of the 1960's is uniquely mirrored in Gallagher's volatile career, which was ultimately brought low by an influx of forces which included the enmity of J. Edgar Hoover, a powerful man who defied presidents and conducted a secret war against anyone who would dare challenge the nation's security apparatus. The Privacy War is very highly recommended reading for students of Political Science and 20th Century American History -- and it is particularly relevant reading in today's political climate of Homeland Security and the rapid abridgements and erosions of personal rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.