THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290010
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 56 lines
Poor Richard Jewell, sideswiped by history. It now appears the security guard played a hero's part when a bomb was planted in Atlanta's Olympic Park during the summer games. But Jewell correctly concludes ``there will be a non-healing scar that is always affixed to my name.''
There's plenty of blame to go around for what happened to Jewell, but the FBI is at the top of the list. When Jewell discovered a bomb and helped organize an evacuation that kept the carnage from being worse, instead of a pat on the back he got a target painted there.
The FBI decided Jewell fit the psychological profile of the kind of fame-seeking loner who might concoct such a bombing in order to get his face on TV. He became the prime suspect, apparently the only suspect, and a media feeding frenzy ensued.
Yet the FBI early determined that the supposed loner could not have placed the phone call that warned of an impending explosion. So either Jewell wasn't a loner or wasn't the bomber.
Rather than rethink its theory, the FBI continued to pursue the blind alley. It subjected Jewell and his mother to humiliating searches and crippling legal expense. By the time the FBI decided it had erred, Jewell's name was thoroughly blackened, and the trail cold. The real bomber may never be found.
Even at the end, the FBI issued only the most grudging admission that it had hounded the wrong man and nothing resembling the kind of groveling apology the victim deserves.
In a gruesome irony, Jewell may now receive the kind of celebrity the FBI thought he was seeking all along - offers to appear on talk shows, to sell his story, to sue the government, to become another Kato Kaelin. That could be a worse punishment than the FBI inflicted.
Ultimately this case is a reminder that government institutions have enormous power to damage individuals and must be controlled. Locally, the misguided assault by the IRS on the Jewish Mother restaurant is another instance of power abused.
Those who are concerned about the Clinton administration's misuse of FBI files and the IRS aren't overreacting. Bureaucracies can grind up people carelessly in the normal course of business. When they are politicized, the danger only increases.
The Cold War enormously enlarged the power of security agencies, notably the CIA and the FBI. If there were occasional excesses, it was argued, that was a price worth paying to defend against communism. Now the excuse, in the Jewell case, is the fight against terrorism, and in the Jewish Mother case, the war against drugs. But good ends don't justify any means. Government power too often damages innocent bystanders. It needs to be kept on a very short leash.
Democrats are supposed to be defenders of civil liberties. Republicans are supposed to be enemies of Big Brother. They ought to be collaborating on ways to keep America's Jewish Mothers and Richard Jewells safe from their own government. by CNB