February 9, 2017
While the FBI is no stranger to political controversy, the bureau is now the target of an unlikely attack. President Trump and his allies have launched a campaign to discredit the FBI…and, by extension…the Russia Investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller. In “Presidents, Politics and the FBI”, host Neal Conan speaks with former FBI Agent Asha Rangappa about declassified memos, smoking guns and the culture of the bureau. Plus NPR’s Ron Elving on the political history of the FBI from gangbusters to Watergate, and Garrett Graff, on how the bureau’s changed since 9/11.
GUESTS
Ron Elving
Garrett Graff
Asha Rangappa
Ron Elving is Senior Editor and Correspondent on the Washington Desk for NPR News
Garrett Graff is a journalist, author and executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Cybersecurity & Technology Program. His book, The Threat Matrix: The FBI At War traces the modern history of the FBI.. Graff has written several other books and for publications including Wired, Esquire and The New York Times.
Asha Rangappa is a senior lecturer at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and a former FBI agent.
READING LIST
By Ron Elving
The Massive Case Of Collective Amnesia: The FBI Has Been Political From The Start
NPR, January 26, 2018
By Garrett Graff
The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror
Garrett M. Graff takes us inside the FBI and its attempt to protect America from the Munich Olympics in 1972 to the attempted Times Square bombing in 2010. It also tells the inside story of the FBI’s behind-the-scenes fights with the CIA, the Department of Justice, and five White Houses over how to combat terrorism, balance civil liberties, and preserve security. The book also offers a never-before-seen intimate look at FBI Director Robert Mueller, the only U.S. national security leader still in office from 9/11, and the most important director since Hoover himself.