I think the book could have done a better job drawing a comparison between the COINTELPRO operations of the 1970s and a number of modern day FBI entrapment cases - for example the tactics used in the Camden 28 entrapment were repeated verbatim in 2004 against Earth Liberation Front members and again in the 2010s in a number of terrorism cases where jihadist literature, bomb making plans, and ingredients were supplied by the FBI via an informant. But neither of these instances are brought up. The only way they could happen in 1971 and in the 2000s is if the same agents were involved 35 years later or subsequent agents have been taught the same techniques - which means it is institutional.

Except for this omission it is a solid book and an excellent place to start to learn about COINTELPRO and its campaign to infiltrate and undermine the peace movement and civil rights movement.

It also provides a healthy dose of skepticism about Mark Felt: at the same time he was working on COINTELPRO to undermine civil rights, trying to find the Media burglars, and protect the Bureau from exposure as the burglars released their stolen documents he was simultaneously also providing Woodward with information on the Watergate break-in. The picture that emerges is not of a man valiantly defending the Constitution from tyranny, but rather someone who routinely violated the Constitution and was engaging in petty office politics brinkmanship to try to manipulate things to land himself a promotion. ( )

Ms. Medsger's account of historic events in which she played a role was absorbing, enraging, astonishing and, sadly, still relevant to today. It would be nice to think that the abuses documented in the records of the FBI that spanned Hoover's tenure as director are only in the past. It would be somewhat comforting to think that people's lives would not be ruined now as they were when it was so easy to wiretap, smear and blackball innocent people because of their race or progressive beliefs. Ms. Medsger, in detail, documents the commitment, planning and risks that a small group of people were willing to take on to protect the rest of us. Through their actions, the illegal acts of the FBI was exposed. It was not until the documents that the burglars released that illegal acts as wire tapping, surveillance, use of informants, and harassing of activists, such as Dr. King, was exposed to the light of day. The stories of the " Media Burglars" was fascinating. I have much respect for them. Ms. Medsger also interweaves the workings of the FBI in the 1970's and follows the "reforms" (really not much) that were implemented later. The chapter on the NSA and current practices continues to disturb me. Hoover may not be spying and ruining people, but our civil liberties are still being abused. The Burglars were never caught. Never identified by the FBI. They never went to jail. That is not the case for contemporary whistle blowers and leakers who are jailed and in exile. Read this book. It will change your life. ( )

Born in the 1960s & an adolescent in the 1970s, the war in Vietnam was a continual background to the first 12 years of my life. Watergate, the Pentagon papers, COINTELPRO, and the Church committee all blended into a morass of untrustworthy government for me. I'm embarrassed to say that this book was my first attempt to differentiate some of these events, and when I initially picked up [The Burglary] I expected it to be about the Watergate burglary.

What I found instead was an accessible and captivating account of the 1971 theft of files from an FBI office in Pennsylvania by concerned war resisters that provided an initial peek into domestic surveillance of US Citizens by Hoover's FBI. The group planned and carried out the burglary as a way of investigating whether the FBI was quashing dissent among US citizens. In subsequent months they released files to various members of Congress and journalists, including the author (who at the time wrote for the Washington Post.) Despite several years of investigation, the FBI was unable to identify any of the burglars. The exposure of these files and investigation by journalists & Congress eventually resulted in the Church committee investigations & some changes in how the FBI & CIA function.

That's the first 375 pages or so, and it is riveting.

The next 5 chapters follow the lives of the burglars after the burglary, and their thoughts as they look back on what they did. I found it interesting that they managed to keep silence as long as they did about their involvement, and I suspect they were able to do that because they didn't stay in contact after the files were released.

I'm still trying to digest the last three chapters which delve briefly into the reforms that were implemented and how various administrations have changed them, the National Security Administration's electronic surveillance & Snowden's revelations, and questions about how or whether reforms have been effective. I can understand that Medsger wants to draw some parallels between then & now, but part of me thinks the book should have ended without these chapters - their subject could be the topic of another book.

All in all though, this was an absorbing account. ( )

Should be read by any American who labors under the misapprehension that the FBI and NSA serve in the public's interest. Exhaustively researched and nicely written, this book tells an amazing story: that the FBI could not even solve a burglary at one of its own offices (!), and no one knew who had done it until the burglars themselves went public. But the discouraging outcome is that the poisonous actions of the J. Edgar Hoover-era FBI seem to be still with us! When are we going to have a President and a Congress with enough courage to rein these people in? Well done, Betty Medsger! ( )

I had no idea that the FBI was so worthless and venal. ( )