After having spent eleven years collecting documentation on the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, historian Gerald Nicosia lost a chunk of it in one night:

FBI documents about FBI surveillance of John Kerry in the early 1970s have been stolen, according to their owner, a historian who lives near San Francisco, California. Gerald Nicosia, who spent more than a decade collecting the information, said three of 14 boxes of documents plus a number of loose folders containing hundreds of pages were stolen from his home Thursday afternoon. ...

"It was a very clean burglary. They didn't break any glass. They didn't take anything like cameras sitting by. It was a very professional job," Nicosia said. "Was it a thrill-seeker who wanted a piece of history? It could be," Nicosia said. "You'd think there was a very strong political motivation for taking those files. The odds are in favor of that."

Nicosia hints that the FBI may have some motivation for stealing the records, but that doesn't pass the smell test. The FBI's peccadilloes from the 60s and 70s are already well known, and anyone who might be embarrassed over Kerry's surveillance is either dead or retired. Can you imagine someone writing a story that says, "FBI Spied On People During The The Vietnam War," and having that shock anyone today? The only people who had anything to fear over those files are the people who were being surveilled -- the VVAW -- and the Kerry campaign.

If you're looking for suspects in the break-in, the police may be interested in a little bit more of the history behind Kerry and his political career (big hat-tip to reader Pat Curley):

Pretense to imaginary forebears may be a misdemeanor as these things go, but breaking and entering is not. Heard of Watergate? Get ready for Lowellgate.

On Sept. 18, 1972, the evening before the primary election during his second attempt for Congress, Kerry's brother Cameron and one Thomas Vallely, both part of his current campaign team, were arrested by Lowell police at 1:40 a.m. and charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit larceny. The two were apprehended in the basement of a building whose door had been forced open, police said. It housed the headquarters of candidate DiFruscia. The Watergate scandal was making headlines at this time, and it was called the Lowell Watergate.

"They wanted to sever my telephone lines," DiFruscia said recently. Had those lines been cut, Kerry's opponent would not have been able to telephone supporters on Election Day to get out the vote and coordinate poll watchers, vital roles in a close election. "I do not know if they wanted to break into my office," says DiFruscia today. At the time he said, "All my IBM cards and the list of my voter identification in the greater Lowell area are in my headquarters."

Since both men are currently working for the Kerry campaign, perhaps they can explain why they're still working in politics after emulating Richard Nixon in 1972 and where they were last week when this break-in occurred. Until those boxes are returned and the culprits identified, the Kerry campaign certainly seems the likeliest suspect.

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Gerald Nicosia, an historian who caught Comade Kerry lying about his attendance at 1971 VVAW 'hit squad' meeting was burgled over the weekend and some of his Kerry-related FBI files were stolen. Bah! Commissar was unimpressed. Then Reactionary Caption ... [Read More]

Tracked on March 28, 2004 7:30 PM