By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2033324.stm

A new book reveals the 22-year effort by FBI director J Edgar Hoover to get Albert Einstein arrested as a political subversive or even a Soviet spy.

Uncovered FBI files are revealed in a book by Fred Jerome who says it was a clash of cultures - Einstein's challenge and change with Hoover's order and obedience.

From the time Einstein arrived in the US in 1933 to the time of his death, in 1955, the FBI files reveal that his phone was tapped, his mail was opened and even his trash searched.

Einstein became world famous in 1906 for his Special Theory of Relativity that deals with light.

His General Theory of Relativity, published in 1919, deals with gravity and has been called mankind's greatest intellectual accomplishment.

Derogatory information

The Einstein File begins with a request by J Edgar Hoover in 1950: "Please furnish a report as to the nature of any derogatory information contained in any file your bureau may have on the following person."

That person was Albert Einstein, and the request intensified a secret campaign to discredit him.

Hoover was worried about Einstein's liberal intellectualism and his dabbling in politics, something that has been forgotten today. It has been overtaken by Einstein's absent-minded professor image.

But Einstein was outspoken against social injustice and violations of civil rights.

The fledgling state of Israel once offered Einstein its presidency. Einstein declined.

The broad outline of this story has been known since 1983, when Richard Alan Schwartz, a professor of English at Florida International University in Miami, obtained a censored version of Einstein's 1,427-page FBI file.

But Jerome uncovers new material.

He sued the US Government with the help of the Public Citizen Litigation Group to obtain all the documents in the Einstein file.

Stalin comparison

The new material shows how the bureau spied on Einstein.

"It is like the agents got up in the morning, brushed their teeth, opened other people's mail and tapped some phones," he told the BBC.

After he left Germany, appalled by the barbarism of the Nazis, Einstein lent his name to a variety of organisations dedicated to peace and disarmament.

Because of this, the Woman Patriot Corp wrote a 16-page letter to the State Department, the first item in Einstein's file, in 1932, arguing that Einstein should not be allowed into the United States.

"Not even Stalin himself" was affiliated with so many anarchic-communist groups, the letter said.

Fred Jerome reveals that the 1,800-page document prepared about Einstein by the FBI shows that the agency even bugged his secretary's nephew's house.

The files reveal that for five years J Edgar Hoover tried, and failed, to link Einstein to a Soviet espionage ring.

The Einstein File by Fred Jerome, St Martin's Press, New York, 272 pages.

But then on John Lennon, there is a whole webpage on the FBI spying on him....

http://www.lennonfbifiles.com/

They tried many times to deport him as a subversive [was for Peace - USA is not]
He had been hooked on heroin BY agents of the US Govt.
He had kicked the habit and was working on a new record that was very political
He was also providing money for Peace and Justice issues, efforts and candidates.
So, they killed him.....
...I'd say for the lyrics of the song 'Imagine' as MLK was killed for his 'Vietnam' speech.

There are numberous good sources, books, websites on the FBI harrassment, spying upon and files of Matin Luther King. One is below.

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/c...lreportIIIb.htm

In the end Hoover was very much behind the murder of King. Ray was just a patsy. Robert Emmet Johnson was likley the shooter working for Military Intelligence, FBI, the ultra-right and maybe CIA. The local police in Memphis, as with JFK in Dallas just turned their eyes t
e 'other way'

Such a benign intelligence apparatus we have in this nation...and it has not changed.

Peter, do you seriously doubt the subversive nature of the theory of relativity?

Or of "Imagine"?

Kidding of course and of course I do share your abhorrence of the abuses of the FBI under JEH.

I used to think you were a disinformation agent for the CiA and its ilk, I now think you belong in an insane-asylum, I'm sorry to say. I will report this post.

Perhaps Peter who likes calling people he disagrees with Nazis "clown" "borg" etc can explain how Tim's post was abusive. Perhaps Mr. Lemkin is the one who belongs in the the place he thinks Mr. Gratz belongs.

Hi Len,

I can't think that Peter believed Tim's post abusive. He is probably asking himself why Tim followed him into Political Conspiracies to add a post of little intrinsic value to the bottom of his thread.

Especially after Peter has asked Tim to refrain from that very behaviour on several threads recently. I'm unsure if there's a specific forum policy on this behaviour - perhaps flood control can be applied on an individual basis - but I doubt it. I wonder if John or Andy could look into this.

Gary

Huh????