Halperin, Morton; Berman, Jerry; Borosage, Robert; and Marwick, Christine. The Lawless State: The Crimes of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies. New York: Penguin Books, 1976. 328 pages.

Published at the height of Watergate and the numerous revelations about the CIA and FBI, this book tries to put together much of the information known at that time in a comprehensive and coherent manner.

Separate chapters deal with the following: CIA operations at home and abroad; the FBI's vendetta against Martin Luther King and its covert operations against other American dissenters; the domestic use of military intelligence; the National Security Agency; the IRS; and the use of grand juries to investigate, harass, intimidate and prosecute dissenters -- a picture that adds up to "the lawless state." The authors conclude by offering a long and detailed program to reform these practices.

As extensive as the book is, we now know that the U.S. government was a lot more lawless than the authors were aware at the time.

-- William Blum
ISBN 0-14-004386-1

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