j. edgar hoover and the fbi became national heroes. before they knew it, they really had turned the bureau of investigation into public heroes, and hoover himself was even called public hero number one by some publicists. >> but while hoover was wiping the floor with gangsters, a storm was once again brewing across the ocean. barely 14 years after the end of world war i, germany was again on the rise. by 1933, hitler was chancellor and established the third reich and began his master plan for world domination and racial tiering. although the united states was an ocean away, it didn't escape hitler's plan. >> the nazis had a very dangerous idea. the idea was anywhere there was a distraction anywhere in the world, they were to be officially represented by nazi germany. hitler would speak for them. >> the author of "espionage, the greatest spy operations throughout history." >> they looked over the united states and said there's about 30 million americans of german descent over there. what an incredible pool. >> some american organizations

j. edgar hoover titled: "martin luther king, jr. security matter - communist." hoover requests authority for "technical surveillance" of king. the approval is signed by attorney general robert kennedy. and there was no court order. it was the signature of the f.b.i. director and the signature of the attorney general? >> comey: yep. and then, open-ended-- no time limit, no space restriction, no review, no oversight. >> pelley: and given the threats in the world today, wouldn't that make your job so much easier? >> comey: in a sense, but in... also in a sense, we would give up so much that makes sure that we're rooted in the rule of law that i'd never want to make that

j. edgar hoover.blau first broke the story in 2010, based on newly declassified documents. >> now, after interviews with dozens of agents for the first time, he has published his new book. it is called "the nazis next door: how america became a safe haven for hitler's men." you can read the prologue on our website. eric lichtblau was last on democracy now! in 2008 after he and fellow reporter james risen won the pulitzer prize for exposing the nsa's warrantless wiretapping, despite white house pressure to kill the story. he joins us now from the the new york times' d.c. bureau. welcome back. this is a fascinating book. you open the book by telling us the story of a man in new jersey. why don't you tell us about him. >> his name is tom. who had many bosses over the years who worked for the fbi, the cia, and before that, he worked for the naziss. that opening senior talking about takes place in the mid-1970's when people at the justice department were first starting to become aware that s and he was.-na

j. edgar hoover who was wiretapping everybody, bugging everyone so there was a culture of this going on to be sure, but to take it to the limits that the nixon white house did, and to go in, the brookings institute, the watergate, to do it in such a sloppy fashion it becomes embarrassing and one of the things i took away from this as a historian is how can a man as brilliant as nixon, and he was brilliant, have such a dark side to him, such a blind spot, and achilles heel and the chip on nixon's shoulders larger than the chip i have ever seen on an american major american politician. he was a major one. >> that is the question i set out to answer in my book. i really wanted to find out how somebody as intelligent as nixon, as politically savvy, let a bungled burglary destroy his presidency. the bottom line, absolutely when you go through these tapes, he is not as savvy, not as intelligent as you think. where he is most articulate on the tapes is in areas of foreign policy. he is also surprisingly very articulate with regard to budgetary matters and finance. when you get him outside thos

j. edgar hoover and people in our government, to try to help bring us into the war. in world war i, they weren't that organized in the sense. they had a man who was running things under the cover of a film executive, and he was trying to get propaganda out. they had a former naval captain, guy gaunt, who was a member of mi-6, and he was based here in wall street, and he was in communication with arthur wood and tunney, and he was providing information. at that point, the federal government was so eager to get information that they needed the british help. america might not have discovered for another two years really what was going on, that this was a german plot against america, if the british hadn't passed on the information they had gotten from breaking the german codes. but sure, britain was determined to get the united states into the war, and they succeeded, and they were effective in doing it, in both wars. >> yes, i don't understand the relationship between bombing the capitol building and then trying to assassinate jp morgan jr. in what sounds like a very am

j. edgar hoover. johnson wanted a press conference and appointed a head of the f.b.i. for life. bradley and tell them [bleep] you. >> joining me now, washington post columnist ruth marcus. ruth, one of the three or four most important figures in american journalism in the last 50 years? i think that's a fair thing to say about him. >> totally fair. people like me hired by ben bradley, probably the most important thing in american journalism. >> my experience was that he was a pretty beloved figure. he was this legendary figure inside the post. people felt strong feelings about him, people would trade ben bradlee stories. he was a remarkably good manager from all the people that i know in the post in his years there aside from being a great newspaper man. >> the thing about ben, and i did not know him before he was a legend. i only knew him post-watergate, post-all the president's men ben. there was something compelling about him so that you just wanted to please him and you just wanted to get his attention and get his approval. when it came, you just felt great about yourself. i

j. edgar hoover titled: "martin luther king, jr. security matter - communist."ver requests authority for "technical surveillance" of king. the approval is signed by attorney general robert kennedy. and there was no court order. it was the signature of the f.b.i. director and the signature of the attorney general? >> comey: yep. and then, open-ended-- no time limit, no space restriction, no review, no oversight. >> pelley: and given the threats in the world today, wouldn't that make your job so much easier? >> comey: in a sense, but in... also in a sense, we would give up so much that makes sure that we're rooted in the rule of law that i'd never want to make that trade. >> pelley: some of the worst of the f.b.i.'s history is in its investigation of dr. king. so, on comey's orders, f.b.i. academy instructors now bring new agents here to talk about values lost in the pursuit of the man who became a monument. >> character, courage, collaboration, competence. we have to be able to call on those tools in our toolbox to be able to make sure that we are correcting some

j. edgar hoover and people in our government, to try to help bring us into the war. war i, they weren't that organized in the sense. they had a man who was running things under the cover of a film executive, and he was trying to get propaganda out. they had a former naval captain, guy gaunt, who was a member of mi-6, and he was based here in wall street, and he was in communication with arthur wood and tunney, and he was providing information. at that point, the federal government was so eager to get information that they needed the british help. america might not have discovered for another two years really what was going on, that this was a german plot against america, if the british hadn't passed on the information they had gotten from breaking the german codes. but sure, britain was determined to get the united states into the war, and they succeeded, and they were effective in doing it, in both wars. >> yes, i don't understand the relationship between bombing the capitol building and then trying to assassinate jp morgan jr. in what sounds like a very amateur ass

the attorney general and the head of what was called the bureau of investigations, this is pre-j edgar hoover, a guy named of the lasky writes and says we think that we can get jim phillips based on what he said to undercover agents in cincinnati that was very pro-german and -- we are in the wrong war and the germans are going to beat us, etc. wilson bit off more than he could chew. he spoke to these ever tender -- of -- these undercover agents. you talk about pure free speech, mmo goes all the way to the attorney general. they know about this. the authorities know about it from the local people who have told them about it. even talk about senator harding being caught in a compromising position with mrs. phillips in a local town. so they very much know about it, but they walked very gingerly. my question was, when i wrote my book, why did they not use it in the 1920 campaign when they knew about it? the democrats clearly know about it and they did not use it. you can read my book and find out what my answers on that. [laughter] went to the attorney general. this is not something that was whit

j. edgar hoover director for life. and as he is stepping down peace says, tell bradley i said forget you, except he did not use the words forget. [laughter] so it was always a little tough. >> what is the future of republican politics? >> i was a practicing journalist working for the houston chronicle. so i am going to jump in to this answer to say that, of course, the 24 hour news cycle, instantaneous communication affect our politics to a degree unknown in past times if only because the expectation of that news cycle is that public officials are immediately, instantaneously weiss with regard to what is happening at all and what to do about it. no human being is capable of doing that. in past times when communication was much slower public officials did have the luxury of thinking were discussing these matters before they spoke and acted. that is a luxury not allowed today, and it is an egg that cannot be unscrambled. and that, i can say with some certainty. i cannot speak with certainty about what jeb bush will do. t

j. edgar hoover recommended against the death penalty. >> i wasn't thrilled that ethel was under a sense willing to face death. >> turning her into mooartyr. and just like irish catholics are inclined to alcohols im, coughman and collin were way too eager to prove that american jews were patriotic and coughman was too gungho for it. and when the reagan administration was twisting his arm to retire in the 1980s, he wouldn't step down unless he had the medal of honor, which he didn't deserve. and he was given a medal of hon forzapping the rosenburgs, they would say. >> one more question. overstayed my -- overdue at the microphone here. you've talked about vernona and i want to hear from each of the tleef you. if you could tell us one or two of what you would consider the most important sources that you view in your research to help with the conclusion. >> although they is some issues with the copyrights that google has, google bohas been the most incredible resource. i've been flabbergasted. there are perm permen tagss and apparently more than our share in the extended family. incredible w

the deathgets you penalty, that is a pretty steep -- j edgar hoover was gung ho behind let's get themthrown in prison. we need to get them convicted. when the judge passed down the death sentence, he was like, whoa. i was not expecting that. it was very harsh. certainly for a phone -- for eth el. julius certainly gave information. but if you compare them to what they servedknew -- moretime and gave way information then did the rosenbergs. we get harsher punishments in the united states than other places. yes? wait for the microphone. >> is there any evidence that soviet participants -- with his research were giving information to the west about the progress of the soviet atomic program? >> yes. that is a great question. we get to go the other direction. i love that. eventually there would be a book about yet. so, yes, there are some. there are a lot of hints that come out of the soviet union that there is a process happening. there is an active offensive intelligence operation to try to discover what is happening inside the soviet union. so there are the scientific information passing

j. edgar hoover, and the modern fbi was born. so as i stared at the bullet, it occurred to me that dillinger could not do 1,000 robberies in all 50 states in the same day in his pajamas from halfway around the world. that's what today's vector change represents. the unheard of distances of dillinger and his ilk, the speed of dillinger and his ilk are infinitely smaller and more narrow than the threat moves today. the internet moves at 186,000 miles per second. the speed of light. the notion of county lines, state line, international lines, normal concepts of venue and space and time are blown up by this threat. i was in indianapolis. shanghai is next to indianapolis on the internet. space and time movement of the threat on the internet has shrunk the world to the size of a pin. so if we're going to be effective at the fbi, we have to be able to operate effectively in cyberspace. so i have to be able to recruit, retain, train, equip and deploy against that threat. i was asked at a hearing earlier this week where i was sitting with

j. edgar herbert hoover. >> : the new and who wore the dress.this research had a political life people to know about. also deeply in love with his own life even though their long marriage deeply in love with an actress, and up committing suicide. a lot of information and hear about this factor. a dozen stop me from liking him letting him thinking his wonderful but it's so interesting about his pot you get a deeper look at the command was. the lin >> : trees behind legends >> : we are the solis family. and this is our chex commercial. there's lots of choices and each of us has a favorite. like chocolate, honey nut and cinnamon. there's no artificial colors or flavors. that's good. and it's gluten free. chex. full of what you love. free of what you don't. you asked for gluten free oatmeal. now it's here. new chex oatmeal. in the hot cereal aisle. new gluten free chex oatmeal. the show returns to the bay area next weekend in an elegant kron 4 place to control the action of explaining what to look for in the skies during their show. >> : the blue an