Customer Reviews

The Privacy War: One Congressman, J. Edgar Hoover and the Fight for the Fourth Amendment

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I read this book after reading all the positive reviews on amazon. I thought the one negative review was an outlier and I would be in store for a good read. This book was horribly, horribly written, almost embarrassingly so. I cannot believe anyone gave it a positive review. Read about Gallagher online, but DO NOT read this horribly written book. I do not know much about the author, but if this book is an example of his writing, I would strongly suggest he find another way to earn a living.

I've followed the progress of Ron Felber's writing for nearly ten years and continue to be impressed with the depth and risk-taking Mr.Felber continues to display starting with Searcher's, A True Story of Alien Abduction to his current book The Hunt for Khun Sa, Drug Lord of the Golden Triangle. All of these including The Privacy War are well-researched, depthfull in their presentation, and plain out fascinating! As fo the writing, I think the opening of The Privacy War, when the FBI raids Gallagher's home, is among the most riveting I've encountered.

The Privacy War: One Congressman, J. Edgar Hoover And The Fight For The Fourth Amendment by Ron Felber is a raptly involving account of Neil Gallagher's rise and fall in American politics. The tumult of the 1960's is uniquely mirrored in Gallagher's volatile career, which was ultimately brought low by an influx of forces which included the enmity of J. Edgar Hoover, a powerful man who defied presidents and conducted a secret war against anyone who would dare challenge the nation's security apparatus. The Privacy War is very highly recommended reading for students of Political Science and 20th Century American History -- and it is particularly relevant reading in today's political climate of Homeland Security and the rapid abridgements and erosions of personal rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The biography of Neil Gallagher, one of the most promising young members of Congress in the 1960s whose rise to power unraveled as later years revealed links to the mob and J. Edgar Hoover's war against privacy makes for an engrossing story of not just one politician's rise and fall, but the underlying power struggles, politics and influences which led to pressures against Fourth Amendment rights. A revealing blend of biography and political history.

Living now under the "Patriot" Act, with more addendums to it being planned, it is important for citizens and Congressional representatives to revisit recent history. Under the reign of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI regularly engaged in wire-tapping and secret taping via parabolic microphones. Catching mobsters, right? No, blackmailing members of Congress, destroying careers of public servants, and taking revenge on anyone who opposed the bureau's interests.

How did they do it? By planting false information in respectable journals such as Life magazine, paying off members or organized crime for deeds done, and planting evidence to implicate innocent people. This is the story of New Jersey Congressman Neil Gallagher and his nightmarish encounters with Hoover and others in the American intelligence business. Gallagher championed privacy after learning of a young girl being forced to take a lie detector test for a low level administrative job. As Gallagher continued to delve into breaches of privacy over the years, he was astonished to discover massive deceptions carried out by the Pentagon, CIA, and FBI.

In one such case, approximately 300,000 children ranging in age from 6 to 12 were given psychotic drugs such as Ritalin without the consent of their parents in a study to determine which drug was the most effective in behavior modification. It was discovered that the U.S. Army was quietly shipping canisters of dangerous chemical weapons by train through such heavily populated areas as Philadelphia. Once at port they were loaded on WWII Liberty ships, taken 250 miles out to sea, and sunk into the depths. Congress and the public were totally in the dark.

Of course the nefarious Roy Cohn showed up in Gallagher's life, at first as a friendly, knowledgeable Washington insider, later threatening the successful Congressman with warnings from Hoover. Hoover went out of his way to terrorize Gallagher and his family. FBI agents ransacked their home while they were on vacation, interrogated his daughters while they were in college, and stormed into their home threatening his family at gunpoint. Author Ron Felber does not draw any conclusions, but allows the words of Gallagher and others to cast doubt on the veracity of the Warren Commission report.

Felber conducted extensive interviews with Gallagher, cited newspaper accounts, and obtained documents under the Freedom of Information Act in assembling his book. He uses the convention of jumping between time periods to provide background information on the current storyline. It is a technique that can be distracting, but Felber does a remarkable job. In light of the events of today, Felber's book is very relevant and a call to remember that in the past government institutions have acted against government officials and private citizens irresponsibly and maliciously.

Invasion of privacy in our current environment has the potential to rise to dangerous, even outrageous, levels. Government secrecy and deception are enemies of democracy. As Albert Einstein said:

"Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth."

Neil Gallagher was a star in the world of politics who whose career was ruined by vicious men who turned the U.S. government into an 'evil empire'. Could this happen again? Is America the great country it seems to be or something else? It is every citizens job to insist that our country live up to the high ideals it was founded upon.

Wow. A great read. And very relevant to today's world.

Ron Felber's book "The Privacy War" is well-written and well-reseached. Though it is controversial in many of its conclusions serious students of U.S. history should read it as well as every day citizens concerned about the future of their country.

Congress Gallagher's story is compelling, however Mr. Felber has absolutely no business or right to tell it - after reading the book, I believe Mr. Felber should go back to Georgtown and Drew and hand back his diplomas and re-enroll in History 101 and English . . . maybe he should start at 098. The factual errors are substantial, namely, page 45 - Rostenkowski was from Illinois not Michigan, page 104 - JFK was shot on Nov. 22, 1963, not Nov. 23rd, page 122 - Mao was not dying, he had 12 more years to live. If Mr. Felber barely did enough research to get these facts straight, how reliable is the rest of the book? Also, can we believe that Congressman Gallagher, with all due respect, recalled conversations from 35 years prior to the interviews with Mr. Felber, to the specificity of quotes in the book?
I am ashamed for the Congressman and nearly disgusted that Mr. Felber and his editor felt this should be published in this form. The author missed a golden opportunity to document an incredible story. Shame on you.