Teddy's FBI secrets hard to come by
By Tom Fitton
Sunday, September 12, 2010
On a wide range of investigations -- from the financial bailouts, to ACORN corruption, to the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- the Obama White House continues finding excuses to keep critical government documents secret.
The motivation seems obvious: These documents might just link the Obama administration and key allies in Congress to unethical and perhaps even illegal activity. Or, in the very least, government documents might provide a source of embarrassment for the administration.
It seems that the political sensitivity might extend to the beyond in the case of FBI documents about the late Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy.
Since May, Judicial Watch has been battling the Obama administration over documents related to Kennedy's FBI file. When the FBI balked, and reports suggested that the Kennedy family would help vet what would be released, we sued and forced the release of much of Kennedy's FBI file.
Most of the media focused on the FBI material related to numerous death threats directed at Ted Kennedy. The Washington Post suggested that the threats "may have contributed to his reckless behavior over the years."
Well, that's certainly an interesting theory. Ted Kennedy was corrupt and reckless because he was the subject of death threats!
But some might find FBI information on Ted Kennedy's fellow travelers more interesting.
According to the FBI files, Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, called the bureau in 1954 to complain about a news story that was to be published indicating that "Teddy" was denied the opportunity to attend school at Ft. Holabird, Md., while in the U.S. Army because of "an adverse FBI report which linked him to a group of 'pinkos.'"
The report further indicates that during a 1961 tour of Central and South American countries, Kennedy "expressed an interest in meeting with 'Leftists' to talk with them and determine why they think as they do. Kennedy met with a number of individuals known to have communist sympathies," the report notes.
While in Mexico City, Kennedy asked the ambassador to set up interviews at the embassy with communists. The ambassador refused.
The FBI also documents a 1961 meeting between Kennedy and the notorious Dr. Lauchlin Bernard Currie, an alleged Soviet spy.
These meetings took place just months before Kennedy entered national politics and laid the groundwork for the radical leftist policies he advocated during his almost 47 years in the U.S. Senate.
And just last week, Judicial Watch obtained 23 new pages of documents regarding Kennedy's activities.
The newly released FBI documents include a memo dated March 28, 1963, that details the FBI's concerns over Edward and Robert Kennedy's successful efforts to pressure the State Department to allow Katalin Karady, a Hungarian emigre living in Brazil -- described as "consistently refused an immigrant visa because of the voluminous subversive and derogatory data on file concerning her" -- to enter the United States:
Legat, Rio de Janeiro, has furnished data from State Department files, Sao Paulo, Brazil indicating that in August, 1961, Edward and Robert Kennedy, now U.S. Senator and Attorney General, respectively, were interested in [Katalin Karady's] obtaining an immigrant visa to U.S. Subject is former Hungarian actress of unsavory reputation who has now obtained the immigrant visa ...
... Subject, Hungarian-born, aged 48, is former well-known actress in Hungary. Numerous allegations have been received in the past indicating subject to have been a communist collaborator, lesbian, and prostitute. She has reportedly admitted being the fiancee of the head of Hungarian intelligence (Nazi) during World War II.
(FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover seems to have handwritten the note "I am speechless!" at the bottom of this memo.)
However, while we have been successful in obtaining these Kennedy FBI documents, the Obama White House continues to keep others under lock and key. We are still fighting to obtain an additional 71 pages of documents being withheld by the FBI.
In the Freedom of Information "world," the release of a deceased person's FBI file is a relatively straightforward matter.
But not for Ted Kennedy.
We had to file a lawsuit and fight over documents that reference events from nearly 50 years ago.
Remember this the next time you hear Obama promote his administration's "transparency." It is a big lie.
Tom Fitton is president of Judicial Watch Inc., a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational foundation.
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