December 29, 1999: Politics, J. Edgar Hoover, & Aliens - Jack Anderson
Anderson shares the chilling story of G. Gordon Liddy walking out of a White House staff meeting after misinterpreting a remark about getting rid of Anderson as an order for assassination. He details how Nixon's administration deployed the IRS, FBI, and CIA against him, forging a tax return in his name and placing him under surveillance in an operation codenamed Mud Hen. His own children spotted and photographed the CIA operatives watching their home.
The conversation shifts to broader themes as Anderson reflects on political elites, media complacency, and the priceless American heritage of free speech. He reveals his belief, drawn from ancient scriptures, that populated planets are linked in a vast celestial society and that Earth remains under quarantine due to spiritual pollution. Art shares his own UFO sighting near Area 51, and the two discuss whether humanity can earn its place among the stars.
Key Moments
Garbage profile takes Hoover from deity to human: After Hale Boggs warned that Hoover's files made him untouchable, Anderson assigned reporters to surveil and trash-pick the FBI Director, then ran a column reporting Hoover suffered from gas pains.
Hoover denied the mafia existed: Anderson says Hoover insisted there was no mafia because admitting it would force Congress to make him fight an organization he believed was beyond the FBI's reach.
Art's triangle UFO over the high desert: Asked his view of UFOs, Anderson says he hasn't seen one but Bell describes a silent 150-foot triangle that floated 150 feet over him and Ramona for five minutes near Area 51.
LBJ told Hoover to bury Castro link to JFK killing: Anderson reconstructs a Johnson-Hoover phone call after McCone warned that pinning the Kennedy assassination on Castro could trigger nuclear war with Khrushchev, and says Hoover kept the Castro threat out of the Warren Commission record.
Roselli killed for talking, LBJ's slip to Howard K. Smith: Anderson recounts LBJ blurting to ABC's Howard K. Smith that Castro got Kennedy first, and says mob source Johnny Roselli was executed and stuffed in a chained barrel after telling Anderson the mafia killed JFK at Castro's behest.