This book describes the Congressional investigations of the CIA and FBI that occurred in the mid-70s. At the time several scandals had broken out concerning the CIA and the FBI, and both the House and Senate launched investigations. Among the crimes revealed to have been committed by the CIA were the attempted assassinations of foreign leaders, and a "massive" domestic spying campaign. The following excerpt from the book reveals some of the FBI's "excesses":

The committee began its FBI hearings by presenting the details of CONINTELPRO, or counterintelligence program -- the bureau's efforts to discredit and destroy dissident organizations. The program had been directed against many groups, including Communists, the Socialist Workers' Party, the Ku Klux Klan, civil rights and black nationalist groups, the New Left, and women's liberation groups. FBI informants would infiltrate these organizations, report on their movements, disrupt their plans, and often attempt to discredit the organization's members -- even, in some cases, to the point of encouraging them to kill one another or destroying their personal lives...

The most egregious example of the FBI's abuse of authority was its harassment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Not only had the bureau bugged and wiretapped the civil rights leader, but it had also engaged in a concerted program to knock him "off his pedestal and to reduce him completely in influence."...

The congressional investigating committees eventually fell prey to infighting, stonewalling, and the opposition of the politically powerful institutions they were challenging. In the end, some of the investigators even had aspersions cast upon them. Though some reforms were made, other abuses were "dealt with" by essentially making them legal. Many of the reforms were later scrapped by succeeding administrations.

Olmstead also analyzes the way the press behaved at the time, both the way they covered the hearings and the way they dealt with sensitive leaked information. In many cases the news media would not report the leaked details of serious domestic crimes committed by the CIA and FBI against American citizens. She concludes that the hearings failed partly because Americans' attention drifted elsewhere. She notes that some people wanted to continue thinking of their government as totally moral and so preferred not to hear about the dirty tricks.

This is a fascinating, if frightening and unnerving, book. While there are honorable men and women working in these, and other, institutions, there are others who can and do grossly abuse their authority. Certainly abuses continue to this day. I think it is a strength that Americans expect moral and ethical government. From this book, though, I conclude that if we want moral and ethical government we must both demand it and be persistent and vigilant in getting to the truth -- whatever it is.