(Correction: fixes last paragraph to remove inaccurate attribution of California Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee’s vote against authorizing President Bush to use military force against the al Qaeda terrorist network.)

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – Its distinctive shape has often been referred to as a “concrete mushroom” by architectural observers in and around Washington, D.C. But if six members of Congress have their way, one thing the headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation will not be referred to as, is the “J. Edgar Hoover Building.”

Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, earlier this week introduced legislation to permanently remove Hoover’s name from the building.

“J. Edgar Hoover clearly abused his role as director of the FBI,” Burton said upon introducing the bill. “Symbolism matters in the United States, and it is wrong to honor a man who frequently manipulated the law to achieve his personal goals.”

The proposal (H.R. 5213) is co-sponsored by Reps. Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio), Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), William Delahunt (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), and John Tierney (D-Mass). It would re-designate the current “J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building” as simply the “Federal Bureau of Investigation Building.”

Burton cited the FBI’s use of informants in the case of Joseph Salvati, as just one example of what he called “blatant misconduct” by the bureau.

Salvati and other co-defendants were sentenced to either death or life in prison for a contract murder in Boston in 1968. Salvati served 30 years in prison, Burton said, despite the FBI’s possession of substantial evidence that he was innocent. The government’s witness was later found to have committed perjury during Salvati’s trial.

Evidence also indicated that Hoover failed to pursue numerous murder investigations in order to develop and protect informants. As a result, Burton charged, Salvati and others were left in prison to die, despite clear evidence that they were not guilty.

“I am very dismayed with the FBI’s handling of the Joe Salvati case, adding to my disappointment with Hoover,” he added. “There is no reason we should honor a man who threw everything out the window, including the lives of innocent men, in order to get what he wanted.”

Burton’s investigative hearings examining the internal procedures in place while Hoover was FBI director uncovered “a long list of injustices,” including the use of derogatory information to influence politicians, illegal or unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens, attempts to disrupt the civil rights movement, and actions to benefit favored politicians.

“When you start thinking about putting innocent people in jail, or maybe even giving them the death penalty as they were thinking about doing with Mr. Salvati and others, it makes me cringe because that isn’t what this country is about,” Burton concluded. “Anybody who participated should be held accountable, including Mr. Hoover.”

Only one other member of the 107th Congress has proposed removing Hoover’s name from the FBI headquarters. In March of 2001, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) introduced H.R. 1278, a proposal to rename the building in honor of Frank F. Church.

A Democrat from Idaho, Church was an original co-sponsor of legislation during the Vietnam War to prevent American forces and advisers from becoming involved in Cambodia and to prevent direct air support of Cambodian forces. He died in 1984.

As CNSNews.com previously reported, McKinney gained national attention in April 2002, when she accused the Bush administration of having had advance knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S.

INFORMAL BY JEFFREY S. WEINER
Eradicating the Hoover Legacy The Willie Sutton Federal Reserve Building. The Charles Ponzi Securities and Exchange Commission Building.

Incongruous? Appalling? Yes, but no more so than the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation Building. Language and nomenclature are powerful symbols, and never more so than when they are emblazoned across the edifices of government.

Nowhere is this more true and apparent than in our nation’s capital. Washington, D.C., is a city defined by symbols and monuments that are intended to inspire, comfort, and remind people of our nation’s greatest accomplishments. Having 1, Edgar Hoover’s name on the FBI Building does not conjure up any of these feelings; it reminds us of an America in which constitutional rights only applied as long as the complexion, sexual orientation, and political beliefs of the accused met with the approval of the FBI Director.

Hoover’s illegal actions and abuse of power became more apparent in the years following his death. Documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act have illuminated the lamentable history of the FBI under Hoover. Some of the most offensive and troubling documents pertain to the treatment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Hoover seems to have had a personal vendetta against Dr. King and viewed him as a threat to the country, Hoover had Dr, King followed, investigated, and wiretapped.

Hoover ordered Dr. King to be under constant surveillance until the day he was tragically assassinated. Politicians, political dissenters, and civil rights activists were all subject to the Furs illegal activities under Hoover’s direction. Documents also reveal the relentless “gay witch hunts” on which Hoover and the FBI embarked. Hoover monitored the Hollywood elite, as well as administration officials working under President Lyndon B. Johnson, to determine if they were engaging in homosexual or extramarital activities. Jack Valenti, a top aide to President Johnson, was specifically targeted.

The information found in Hoover’s files is so disturbing that members of the judicial system, the media, and Congress have called for the removal of Hoover-’s name from the FBI Building, In his capacity as Acting Attorney General in 1975, Senior Federal Judge Laurence H, Silberman  subsequently appointed by President Reagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Y read the entirety of Hoover’s secret Files. In a July 2005 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece,‘ he described the experience as “the single worst experience of my long governmental service.” He went on to state:

I intend to take to my grave nasty bits of information on various political figures some still active. As bad as the dirt collection business was, perhaps even worse was the evidence that he allowed  even offered  the bureau to be used by presidents for nakedly political purposes. [T]he most heinous act in which a democratic government can engage is to use its law enforcement machinery for political ends.

Such “heinous acts” were standard fare for the FBI under Hoover, Judge Silberman’s experience led him to conclude:

“This country and the bureau  would be well served if [Hoover’s] name were removed from the bureau’s building. It is as building of the Defense Department were named for Aaron Burr’ To that end, he urged “liberals and conservatives [to] unite to support legislation to accomplish this repudiation of a very sad chapter in American history.” Even the notoriously conservative Wall Street journal editorial page advocated renaming the FBI Building.

A January 2006 editorial compared President George Bush’s warrantless wiretapping with Hoover’s conduct and regarded Hoover’s actions as the real surveillance scandal: We’d have an easier time taking our solons seriously if they`d ever demonstrated they understand what the real abuse of surveillance powers looks like, A good place to start would be stripping J. Edgar Hoover`s name from FBI headquarters.

For at least 30 years, Congress has known full well that Hoover didn’t serve nearly five decades as FBI director because he was indispensable, but because he’d amassed potentially embarrassing information on the elected leaders who might have wanted to remove him from his post. Hoover was also willing to use the FBI illegitimately to spy on the politically difficult likes of Martin Luther King Ir. It has even been suggested that Hoover engineered Lyndon  Johnson’s nomination for the vice presidency by threatening JFK with the revelation of his extramarital affairs, That Hoover’s name continues to adorn FBI headquarters needlessly shames every one of the honest civil servants who report for work there on a daily basis.

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Members of Congress have also called for the removal of Hoover’s name from the FBI Building, Rep. Dan Barron (R-Ind.) has introduced legislation to Congress over the past few years with the hopes of removing Hoover`s name. He introduced the most recent bill in Congress. Five other representatives, including Barney Prank (DMasei, sponsored it.

In November 2005, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) proposed similarlegislation. The proposed legislation made it as far as Rep. Burton’s did-nowhere. It is time to take action and demand that Hoover’s name be removed from the facade of the FBI Building, Praise and respect for a man who notoriously ruled the FBI through blackmail, intimidation, and flagrant abuse of power is an affront to all Americans.

Please write your congressional representatives and tell them that Hoover’s name must go.

Letter from J. Edgar Hoover to Martin Luther King Jr. Cause to remove Name from FBI Building . November 12th, 2014

@BarackObama – here is an executive order opportunity for the President of the United States of America.  Armagayddon supports  Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and soon hopefully the President, in the essential endeavor to take J. Edgar Hoover’s name, off the FBI Federal building in D.C.

Let HOOVER  be gone now America. Please write the President  or tweet him him with this message :

@BarackObama Kindly remove J. Edgar Hoover’s name from the Federal FBI Building in D.C. #HOOVERbegone

Not only is Mr. Hoover’s insidious hate exposed by the story below, but he persecuted  people, using sexual blackmail against heterosexuals as well as anyone he perceived to be homosexual – which was persecution for gays and lesbians at its best during those times  #HOOVERbegone.

Do you not think that this story below is reason enough to order that the Federal FBI Building named after J. Edgar Hoover get an immediate name change?

The New York Times Magazine on Tuesday published an uncensored copy of the 1964 letter, which Yale historian Beverly Gage stumbled upon in the National Archives. The earlier versions of the letter had only been shown with redactions.

“Here’s Gage on the letter’s origins:

When the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. received this letter, nearly 50 years ago, he quietly informed friends that someone wanted him to kill himself — and he thought he knew who that someone was. Despite its half-baked prose, self-conscious amateurism and other attempts at misdirection, King was certain the letter had come from the F.B.I. Its infamous director, J. Edgar Hoover, made no secret of his desire to see King discredited. A little more than a decade later, the Senate’s Church Committee on intelligence overreach confirmed King’s suspicion.”

talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/read-fbi-letter-threatening-mlk

#HOOVERbegone:

TWEET NOW @BarackObama Kindly remove J. Edgar Hoover’s name from the Federal FBI Building in D.C. #HOOVERbegone

Robert Novak is a nationally syndicated columnist. Removing J. Edgar’s name Thursday, December 1, 2005; Posted: 9:29 a.m. EST (14:29 GMT)   WASHINGTON — On Halloween night, crusty conservative Judge Laurence H. Silberman had a scary tale to tell fellow right-wingers gathered for dinner at Washington’s University Club. He told in more detail than ever before how J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director “allowed — even offered — the Bureau to be used by presidents for nakedly political purposes.” He called for the director’s name to be removed from the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington. “In my view,” Silberman said, “it is as if the Defense Department were named for Aaron Burr. Liberals and conservatives should unite to support legislation to accomplish this repudiation of a very sad chapter in American history.” That concluded his speech, but it was not followed by overwhelming applause. Nor was there volunteered support for his mission. Silberman’s plea was not exactly what his listeners expected from him as featured speaker for the Pumpkin Papers Irregulars, who dine each year to celebrate Whittaker Chambers hiding in his farm’s pumpkins classified documents conveyed by Alger Hiss to his Soviet spymasters. The 70-year-old Silberman is a judge in senior status on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, capping a career in high government office dating back 37 years. His most recent public service was as co-chairman of the bipartisan presidential commission on intelligence failures. Its recommendations, implemented by President Bush, included a separate national security service within the FBI. The Bureau’s initial opposition that it would undermine the attorney general’s authority over the FBI “amused” Silberman, considering his experience as deputy attorney general in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Instructed by the House Judiciary Committee in 1974 to report on secret files kept by Hoover (who died in 1972), Silberman told the Irregulars: “It was the single worst experience of my long governmental service.” He said Hoover ordered special agents to report “privately to him any bits of dirt on political figures such as Martin Luther King and their families.” Silberman said Hoover used this as “subtle blackmail to ensure his and the Bureau’s power,” adding: “I intend to take to my grave nasty bits of information on various political figures — some still active.” Even worse than “dirt collection,” Silberman continued, was Hoover’s offering of Bureau files to presidents. He exempted only Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower from this use of FBI files, but said, “Lyndon Johnson was the most demanding.” When President Johnson’s aide Walter Jenkins was arrested for homosexual conduct in a men’s room during the 1964 campaign, Silberman said, LBJ aide Bill Moyers directed Hoover to find similar conduct on Barry Goldwater’s staff. “Moyers’ memo to the FBI was in one of the files,” he continued. An “outraged” Moyers telephoned Silberman, he said, to assert that the memo was “phony.” “Taken aback,” said Silberman, he offered an investigation to publicly exonerate Moyers. “There was a pause on the line, and then he [Moyers] said, ‘I was very young. How will I explain this to my children?'” “Silberman’s account of our conversation is at odds with mine,” Moyers told me when I asked for comment. During the 1968 campaign, Silberman said Johnson ordered FBI surveillance on Republican vice presidential candidate Spiro Agnew, not about the bribery that eventually drove him out of office but to check whether he was in contact with South Vietnam’s government. He said LBJ also used the FBI to spy on Democrats, including his aide Richard Goodwin, whom he inherited from President John F. Kennedy but suspected was too close to Robert F. Kennedy. “I think it would be appropriate to introduce all new [FBI] recruits to the nature of the secret and confidential files of J. Edgar Hoover,” Silberman concluded. “And in that connection this country — and the Bureau — would be well served if Hoover’s name was removed from the Bureau’s building.” After polite applause, a conservative gentleman sitting at my table said he thought Hoover on balance was a force for good in America. I disagreed, contending he was a rogue and a law-breaker (though I may be prejudiced by his plans to tap my telephone that were undone by my FBI sources). Nearly a month now has passed without any conservative publicly rising to agree with Larry Silberman that J. Edgar’s memory should not be honored.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/01/novak.hoover/