The FBI comes calling
Ferkiss, Victor
Medicaid) that are still popular. But if they're to play more than defense, Democrats need a big argument about the affirmative uses of government. Gore's current weakness makes that debate more...
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...Gore's current weakness makes that debate more likely...
...But now that Gore has been tainted by the finance scandals, he will be forced to make his candidacy about something bigger than four more years of Clinton prosperity...
...When Achenbach's story appeared on the front page of the Post a few days later, I was quoted, accurately but not by name, to the effect that, though I agreed with much of the substance of the Unabomber's diagnosis of the ills of modern industrial society, I thought his suggested cure-its destruction by force-was way off base, to put it mildly...
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...The conference, held at a posh hotel, mustered only a half dozen academics and writers, far outnumbered by the members of the Unabomb Task Force, a hundred or so agents from the FBI, the Postal Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms...
...There was also, I was relieved to learn, a copy of Growing up Absurd by the late social critic Paul Goodman...
...El ©1997, Washington Post Writers Group Victor Ferkiss THE FBI COMES CALLING My encounter with the Unabomber When Ted Kaczinski goes to trial this November, I will take a personal interest in the proceedings...
...But the FBI has not yet released a full inventory of the Unabomber's library, and I must follow the trial closely to see if The Future of Technological Civilization was among his collection...
...He presented me with a copy of the Unabomber's manifesto, which was not yet public...
...Commonweal 1 0 September 26, 1997...
...It was taken for granted that the criminal was a man...
...Would I be willing to attend a conference in San Francisco in several weeks to discuss it with others...
...that way, the Unabomber could be engaged in open dialogue and might betray himself...
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...Where did he get his ideas...
...My concern began back in the summer of 1995...
...Ted Kaczinski is accused of murder, not of heresy, and his forthcoming trial will turn primarily on the physical evidence...
...The agent then asked me a series of prepared questions, most of which were quite specific...
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...That same afternoon, a lead agent of the FBI distributed a four-page paper, listing, by chapter and verse, parallels in ideas, similar or identical terminology, and apparent paraphrases linking the manifesto and my book...
...All this assumes that Gore is right about what the controlling legal authority-her name is now Attorney General Janet Reno-has to say about his fund raising and the need for a special counsel...
...erha( k REN ELATIOThe Torah and the Bible A r orn er,ation kx'riti een the 1 r,r...
...Still, it did not make matters easy for me that the Unabomber's manifesto was entitled "Industrial Society and its Future," nor that a book the manifesto did quote, Eric Hoffer's once popular The True Believer, sits next to The Future of Technological Civilization on many libraries' shelves...
...Though nothing much was said, I couldn't help feeling that the Task Force members were not persuaded by my explanation...
...I was basking in the New Mexico sun in blissful retirement, minding my own business, when out of nowhere I received a startling telephone call from the Albuquerque field office of the FBI...
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...The Unabomber had sent copies of the manifesto to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Bob Guccione, publisher of Penthouse...
...He couldn't help smiling when he came to The Future of Technological Civilization by Victor Ferkiss...
...Ted Kaczinski s brother read it, became suspicious, and led the FBI to make an arrest...
...they will probably touch on his motivation as well...
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...In leaving, he made me promise to read the manifesto within the week and to keep this whole matter as quiet as possible...
...Would I be willing to talk to an agent about the Unabomber...
...At this point, I am not at all sure what I hope the answer will be...
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...many of the items cited in the comparison were commonplaces in the literature on technology and society back in 1974 when my book appeared, and the Unabomber may have gotten them from some other, common source-something like the hypothetical "Q" gospel of many biblical scholars...
...In the end, publication of the manifesto, pushed by Attorney General Janet Reno, did make a difference...
...But in vain...
...It was suspected he might be a skilled worker or technician with access to sophisticated tools, but not a mountain recluse...
...The Unabomber had been killing people for ten years...
...My only "defense" was that the evidence was circumstantial...
...I read it immediately, of course, partly in search of any mention of me or my book...
...So much for secrecy...
...As a professor, had I ever used this or that book in class...
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...Already, Gore looks to be challenged by House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, Senator Paul Wellstone, the liberal firebrand from Minnesota, and possibly Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska...
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...Among the books found in his cabin were a guide to the Bible by Isaac Asimov and Les miserables by Victor Hugo...
...Would I be willing to read it and to talk to him a week later about my reactions...
...f lehreu,• and RI's+ , 1u i l 517.{l0 : m -rim( k I-RI\1-I-1 I'RFSS INTi:R\A-1-IO\Al Task Force members had become convinced that they were trying to catch a loner, an almost impossible task...
...this could well form part of the "Q" source I suggested in my "defense" at the conference...
...The mystery of why I had been invited was soon dispelled...
...Bradley could be especially useful to the debate...
...but if not the bombing would resume...
...Above all, they faced a dangerous deadline...
...Yes: I was intrigued by the idea of a detective story in which the clues were ideas...
...Two days later, the phone rang again, and this time it was Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post who wanted to know what I thought of the manifesto...
...The agents also told us what we should do if we or our wives or secretaries received a suspicious package-just in case...
...The Task Force was costing more than $1 million per year to operate...
...The more open the nomination looks, the more likely former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey is to run...
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...If we presume that, as charged, Kaczinski is the Unabomber, he does not completely fit the Task Force's working profile, whatever the current claims...
...Tough primaries often lead to defeat...
...He has a moderate demeanor but asks radical questions about how the economy distributes its rewards and how the political system works (or doesn't...
...The Task Force assumed he lived in the San Francisco Bay area, from which the packages were usually mailed, but not the wilds of Montana...
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...Lucky indeed...
...But others objected that publishing the manifesto would only play into his hands...
...Ll Victor Ferkiss taught government at Georgetown University and has been a frequent contributor to Commonweal...
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...Some of its leaders had put off retirement to nab this elusive terrorist...
...I perhaps should have been flattered that at least someone had read it and taken it seriously, but in the circumstances I managed to suppress any possible elation...
...So no wonder they were willing to grasp at straws...
...If the manifesto were published in entirety, the Unabomber's accompanying notes seemed to imply, he would refrain from killing...
...The agents asked us conferees what we thought should be done...
...A few hours later, the agent arrived at my door...
...Come on over...
...Gore would prefer to have little challenge...
...It was a facsimile of the original communication, complete with typos and tics, which the FBI and other agencies were furiously screening for clues about its origins, physical and intellectual...
...A million-dollar reward had been offered for information, but it had elicited no real leads, rather phone calls from women, each claiming that the Unabomber must be her husband...
...At the first morning session, the lead agent of the Postal Service told the assemblage that the Unabomber must be a great fan of Professor Ferkiss, since so much of the manifesto had apparently been cribbed from TheFutureof Technological Civilization...
...Some felt that the manifesto should be published...
...So nothing was decided, and we were sent home with injunctions to keep the proceedings confidential...
...Talk about guilt by association...
...The good news in this for the country is that the current torpor in the political debate will end-and that will be true in both parties...
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...And though the manifesto seemed at times to speak on behalf of a group, the Commonweal 9 September 26,1997 CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM - 71:e Funuuth'i...
...But the prosecution will be concerned not only with proving that he did in fact mail the bombs and write the manifesto...
...Otherwise, the Task Force might still be looking, only not necessarily in the right places...
...In a conflict worthy of Greek tragedy, civic virtue triumphed over filial piety...
...FBI agents, searching his cabin, found more than two hundred books, and he is known to have made use of the primitive local library and interlibrary loans...
...The conference was polite in tone, but included a note of near desperation...
...The Task Force was looking for someone far less educated, perhaps with some part-time graduate study, but nothing like a Berkeley assistant professor of mathematics...
Vol. 124 • September 1997 • No. 16
