Before WikiLeaks, before Edward Snowden, and before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks turned most government offices into fortresses, there were 8 people with suitcases who broke into an FBI office housed in a suburban apartment building west of Philadelphia in 1971. Their plan was to reveal to the American public FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s “secret counterintelligence program.” While casing the building, they noticed that the interior door that opened to the draft board office was always locked. No one in the group knew how to pick the lock, so several hours before the burglary was to take place, one of them wrote a note and tacked it to the door. It read, “Please don’t lock this door tonight.” Sure enough, when the burglars arrived that night, someone had obediently left the door unlocked. The burglars entered the office, stole the documents they sought, and left. They were so pleased with themselves that one of them proposed leaving a thank-you note on the door…….but they didn’t. The theft revealed that under Hoover, the FBI conducted an illegal spying operation that included blackmail, the opening of personal mail, and forging documents, all with the aim of disrupting student antiwar groups. The stolen documents were quickly slipped into large envelopes and sent to journalists, politicians and activists.
