Richard Jewell, R.I.P.

Richard Jewell, the Atlanta security guard smeared by the FBI after a pipe bomb exploded during the 1996 Olympics, has passed away.  Jewell’s experience epitomizes the feds’ ability to turn an innocent man’s life into hell.

Here is the section on FBI Director Louis Freeh and Jewell from my 2000 book, Feeling Your Pain:

In a 1995 commencement address at Catholic University, FBI Director Louis Freeh, speaking of the mission of law enforcement agents, compared himself to the prophet Isaiah and quoted the Old Testament: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom Shall I Send? Who Will go for us? Here I am, I said; Send me.'” It was not surprising that Freeh would characterize himself in Biblical terms, since he had already  been deified by the Washington press corps, members of Congress, and the Clinton administration.

 Freeh’s biblical invocation at Catholic University was not an aberration. The FBI issued a report in 1998 by Freeh in which he hyped his achievements in his first five years as FBI director.  The report began by quoting Psalm 101: “He who walks in the way of integrity  shall be in my service.  No one who practices deceit  can hold a post in my court. No one who speaks falsely can be among my advisors.”  Freeh bragged: “In the past five years, I have established core values for all FBI employees: obedience to the Constitution, respect for the dignity of all protected by the  FBI, compassion, fairness, and total integrity.  At the same time, I have developed ‘Bright Line’ policies to which all FBI  employees must adhere. Certain conduct will not be tolerated, including lying, cheating, stealing, sexual harassment, and alcohol and drug abuse.”  Freeh declared: “One of the major training breakthroughs that has been achieved at the FBI is the  addition of ethics and integrity training for the new Special Agent curriculum  and management training at the FBI Academy at Quantico. Ethics is the golden thread which runs throughout our training. It often is the difference between correctly applying the awesome power of law enforcement and conduct that undermines the rule of law.”

 ****Thanks to Freeh’s reforms, FBI agents receive special training to give them a “deeper intellectual understanding of human rights,” as the Washington Post reported.  But there are one or two loopholes.  The official course material used in FBI ethics classes declares: “The harmful effects [of deception] may be counterbalanced by beneficial consequences.” The Post noted, “Subjects of FBI investigations, according to the academy’s study guide, ‘have forfeited their right to the truth,’ and as a result, agents are justified in the use of decoys, sting operations and other forms of deception when they are investigating a case.”

On July 27, 1996, a pipe bomb went off at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, where the world’s athletes and media were gathered for the   Olympic games. The FBI decided that 33-year-old security guard Richard Jewell, who had found the bomb and helped clear the area and minimize fatalities, had also planted the bomb. FBI agents lured Jewell over to their Atlanta office and asked him to help them make a training film about detecting bombs.  The ruse allowed the agents to question Jewell extensively without reading him a Miranda warning – without alerting him that anything he said could be used against him.  As Investor’s Business Daily noted, “Jewell was the bureau’s top suspect, a fact that was leaked to the press in time for cameras to catch agents poring over Jewell’s home.” 

FBI leaks led to 88 days of hell for Jewell, who saw his life and reputation dragged in the gutter day after day. The FBI did nothing to curb the media harassment of Jewell long after it had recognized that he was innocent.  A Justice Department investigation concluded that the training-film scam violated Jewell’s constitutional rights.  But, in 1997 Senate testimony, Freeh asserted that Jewell’s rights were not violated because he did not say anything to incriminate himself.  Apparently, only guilty citizens have constitutional rights. 

Two FBI agents were censured and one was suspended for five days without pay. But, as the Washington Times noted, “No similar disciplinary action was recommended against senior FBI officials in Washington who oversaw the probe and were actively involved in the interrogation, including Mr.  Freeh, who took part in the hour-long interview, even suggesting a question.” 

Jewell became a hero-martyr to some Americans.  President Clinton identified with Jewell because Clinton felt that he, too, was so often been falsely accused by the media. Clinton was asked at a November 1996 press conference whether he thought  John Huang should “come forward and answer these questions [about alleged illegal fund-raising]?” Clinton responded: “One of the things I would urge you to do, remembering what happened to Mr. Jewell in Atlanta, remembering what has happened to so many of the accusations over the last four years made against me that turned out to be totally baseless, I just think that we ought to make sure we’ve got — we ought to just get the facts out, and they should be reported.” (Huang pleaded guilty to federal election law violations in 1999.)  Clinton “kept in the file newspaper articles about what he regarded as unfair attacks on [Jewell],” the New Yorker reported in late 1999.