&w=3840&q=100)
William Webster, only person to lead both FBI and CIA, dies at 101
His family announced his death in a statement that called him an 'extraordinary man' who 'spent a lifetime fighting to protect his country and its precious rule of law.'
Webster was appointed a federal judge by Richard Nixon, FBI director by Jimmy Carter and CIA director by Ronald Reagan. George H.W. Bush kept him on at the CIA until his retirement in 1991. Throughout his career, he preferred to be addressed as 'Judge.'
In 2002, the US Securities and Exchange Commission named him chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which Congress had created to restore investor confidence after corporate and accounting scandals at Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc. and the collapse of Arthur Andersen LLP.
He quit after just one month amid revelations that, as chairman of the audit committee of US Technologies Inc., he had been warned about a lack of accounting controls at the company, which wound up being sued by shareholders for fraud. The political furor surrounding his appointment, which was made in a 3-2 party-line SEC vote, led then-SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt to resign as well.
In a 2002 oral-history interview with the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, Webster said, 'The private man in public life is not an elected official, he is not a bureaucrat, he is one that has been called in to do a job and when he's done the job he will leave.'
Hoover's Legacy
Webster was FBI director for almost a decade, from February 1978 through May 1987, stabilizing a post that had seen a succession of leaders since 1972, when J. Edgar Hoover ended his 48-year tenure.
Carter chose Webster in part to lead the bureau beyond controversies over the secret and sometimes illegal surveillance it had carried out under Hoover. Congressional committee investigations led by Senator Frank Church of Idaho and Representative Otis Pike of New York had produced reports in the mid-1970s detailing abuses by the FBI and CIA.
'When I swore in William Webster as FBI director in 1978, I gave him a copy of our committee report and told him to read it before he did anything else,' Carter's vice president, Walter Mondale, wrote in his memoir, referring to the Church committee. 'I think it had an impact on his tenure.'
Webster said one of his challenges was facing down the 'Hoover hard hats' — FBI veterans still devoted to the ways of their old boss. He expanded efforts to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and female agents.
Iran-Contra
In 1987, after an ailing William Casey stepped down as director of central intelligence, Reagan asked Webster to take over the CIA. Webster walked into an agency under siege from the Iran-Contra affair, the secret US effort to aid guerrilla fighters in Nicaragua with money raised by selling arms to Iran.
'While Webster lacked experience in intelligence matters and foreign affairs, he had a reputation for uncompromising integrity,' said a 2008 report by the Center for the Study of Intelligence, part of the CIA.
After an internal CIA review, Webster disciplined several agency officers for their actions in Iran-Contra, including withholding information from congressional intelligence committees. He was credited with helping to restore the CIA's public image.
His efforts on behalf of the agencies he led continued into his 90s during the presidential administration of Donald Trump, who was highly critical of FBI leadership.
Rule of Law
'I know firsthand the professionalism of the men and women of the FBI,' Webster wrote in the New York Times in 2019. 'The aspersions cast upon them by the president and my longtime friend, Attorney General William P. Barr, are troubling in the extreme. '
The rule of law, Webster wrote, 'is the principle that protects every American from the abuse of monarchs, despots and tyrants.'
William Hedgcock Webster was born on March 6, 1924, in St. Louis. He graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1947 and earned a law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis in 1949. He served in the US Navy in World War II and in the Korean War.
He practiced law in St. Louis, got involved in Republican politics and served as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1960 to 1961. He was back in private practice when, in 1970, Nixon appointed him a District Court judge. Three years later he was promoted to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Griffin Bell, President Carter's attorney general, ran the search that resulted, in 1978, in Webster's nomination to run the FBI.
Under Webster, the agency's priorities shifted from traditional areas such as bank robbery to political corruption, illegal drugs and espionage.
Abscam Case
Among the cases he oversaw was Abscam, the sting that caught seven lawmakers accepting cash bribes from an undercover agent posing as a fictitious sheik. Against some cries of entrapment, Webster defended such undercover work as 'an indispensable tool in certain kinds of cases.'
Webster was a partner at the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in 2002 when he was appointed to what turned into his short, stormy stint at the accounting industry oversight board.
Webster and his first wife, Drusilla Lane Webster, who died in 1984, had three children. He married Lynda Jo Clugston in 1990.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Mint
15 minutes ago
- Mint
National Guard in Washington: TV host Rachel Maddow rips into Trump, says ‘it's not crime, he enjoys using force'
American TV host Rachel Maddow ripped into United States President Donald Trump hours after he deployed National Guard into Washington DC reportedly to curb the rate of crime, saying it is not about that but 'authoritarian takeover' of the country. Rachel Maddow said Donald Trump 'enjoys' using the US military against American citizens. Speaking on The Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday, August 12, night, the TV host said, 'Let's be generous here. Maybe it's not really just a generic tough-on-crime thing. Maybe it's specifically because it's DC, which is the seat of the U.S. federal government. Maybe [Trump's] just really sensitive about protecting the federal government.' Rachel Maddow said the deployment of the National Guard may not be him being 'tough on crime', 'maybe he enjoys it.' 'Maybe it's what you can see with your own two eyes. Maybe it's that he really enjoys using US military force against American civilians on American soil and wants any excuse to do it anywhere he can. Watch what they do, not what they say,' she said. The American TV host pointed out that Donald Trump has remained silent on shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, where an armed gunman opened fire inside the federal building. She alleged that Trump was using the military to cull protests against him and face the American citizens. Terming the deployment of the National Guard in Washington DC as 'authoritarian takeover', Rachel Maddow said, 'We clearly are now in the part of the attempted authoritarian takeover where our authoritarian leader just starts trying to turn our own military to face us, the people of this country.' Donald Trump said Monday, August 11, he's taking over Washington's police department and activating 800 members of the National Guard in the hopes of reducing crime. The National Guard deployment in Washington DC was enforced even as the national capital officials stressed that crime was already going down. Trump, flanked by his attorney general, his defense secretary and the FBI director, said he was declaring a public safety emergency and his administration would be removing homeless encampments. 'We're going to take our capital back,' Trump declared, adding he'd also be 'getting rid of the slums.'


Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Migrants apprehended in marijuana farm raids recount living nightmare
* Migrants apprehended in marijuana farm raids recount living nightmare Raids at farms ensnare migrants who lived in the U.S. for decades * One detained migrant said an agent in military garb hit him on the head, threatened him with gun * DHS said 185,000 people have been deported from the U.S. this year By Lizbeth Diaz Aug 12 - Yahir remembers growing up in Mexico without a bed or a stove. He didn't own a pair of shoes until he was 10, and in the mid-1990s — when he was 13 — he crossed with a group illegally into the U.S. in search of work. He settled in California and worked on farms across the state. He met his wife and had six children, the eldest of whom is now 15. Then, on July 10, Yahir, 43, was apprehended while working at a marijuana farm in southern California, in one of the largest immigration raids since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. 'It was like a nightmare, but I was awake,' said Yahir, his skin dotted by sun stains from working in the fields, just hours after being deported to Tijuana. Yahir asked to withhold his last name to protect his family in the U.S.. As Trump ramps up his deportation efforts targeting immigrants in the country illegally, Mexicans - with the largest population of immigrants in the U.S. without status - are living in fear. They are being arrested at restaurants, farms, Home Depot outlets and 7-Eleven convenience stores. A remarkable 42% of Hispanic adults are worried they or someone close to them might be deported, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Last week, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to halt a court order restricting immigration stops on the basis of what language they speak or where they work. Yahir said he knew of other immigrants being deported. 'But I never thought it would happen to me,' he said, adding that he didn't have a criminal record. Reuters couldn't independently confirm his account. More than 360 alleged immigration offenders were apprehended during the July 10 marijuana farm raids in southern California. One immigrant worker died after he fell 30 feet from a greenhouse roof. The president of the United Farm Workers union criticized the raids, saying they "terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families." 'MY LIFE IS NO LONGER HERE' Manuel, 32, another worker at the Camarillo farm, said he hid among marijuana plants in a greenhouse for five hours until agents cut the locks on the door. An agent in military garb then hit him on the head and put a gun to his chest, he said. Manuel declined to share his last name because he hopes to one day return to the U.S. legally. He overstayed his tourist visa in 2023. The Department of Homeland Security said it could not comment on Manuel's allegations without further evidence. After his arrest, Manuel bounced between detention centers and eventually ended up in one in Adelanto, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, where he said he slept on the floor of a freezing cell that reeked of urine. 'The torture was more mental but it was horrible,' he said. Democratic lawmakers who visited the nearly 2,000-bed center in June criticized its conditions, saying some detainees were unable to get fresh clothes or towels for more than a week. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, "The allegations about the Adelanto detention center are FALSE. All detainees are provided with proper meals, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers." The DHS added 185,000 people have been deported from the U.S. during the second Trump administration. Manuel and Yahir were both deported to Tijuana. Manuel has returned to his hometown in the state of Oaxaca but Yahir remains in Tijuana, unsure of what to do next. He has never been away from his children for so long, he said. 'I am from Mexico but my life is no longer here.' This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.


Mint
9 hours ago
- Mint
When a NASA intern stole $21 million worth of Lunar rocks— to impress his girlfriend
In 2002, a shocking theft rocked NASA, literally. Former NASA intern Thad Roberts, along with his then-girlfriend Tiffany Fowler and two other friends, stole 17 pounds (7.7 kg) of lunar samples valued at $21 million. The motive? According to Roberts, it was to impress his love interest. But the FBI later revealed there was also a financial angle. The bizarre incident, detailed by People magazine and later in Ben Mezrich's 2011 book Sex on the Moon, saw the young intern and his team go to extreme lengths to pull off the heist. They tampered with security cameras, donned Neoprene bodysuits, and carried authentic NASA badges to access the highly secure Building 31, where the moon rocks were stored. At the time, Roberts was a 24-year-old prodigy with triple degrees in physics, geology, and geophysics from the University of Utah. During his internship at NASA, he met 22-year-old stem cell researcher Tiffany Fowler. The two quickly became romantically involved and moved in together within weeks. Roberts soon shared his audacious plan to steal moon rocks, which piqued Fowler's interest. They enlisted another NASA intern, Shae Saur, to help. On a July evening, Roberts and Fowler entered Building 31 while Saur kept watch, monitoring the compromised security system. The couple accessed an airless lab, removed a safe containing lunar samples, and later cracked it open with a power saw. In one of the strangest twists, Roberts reportedly placed some of the moon rocks under his bedcovers, claiming it was a symbolic gesture of 'having sex on the moon.' Speaking to CBS in 2012, he said: 'I mean, the simple answer is to say that I did it for love. I did it because I wanted to be loved. I wanted someone to know that I'd cared about them that much. And to have the symbol there to remind them of it. It was more about the symbol of what we were doing… And no one had ever had sex on the moon before. I think we can safely say that.' Roberts also claimed Fowler was unaware of the rocks under the blanket, though he hinted she might have felt them during their intimate moment. While Roberts maintained it was an act of love, the FBI uncovered another motive: money. Investigators found that he had been in contact with a potential buyer from Belgium who offered between $1,000 and $5,000 per gram for the rocks. When the buyer became suspicious of their origin, they alerted the FBI, triggering an undercover operation that led to the arrests. Roberts pleaded guilty in 2002 to stealing the moon rocks and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He also admitted to stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City while at the University of Utah. He served just over six years before being released in 2008. Fowler and Saur pleaded guilty and were given house arrest, community service, and ordered to pay restitution. Another accomplice, McWhorter, was sentenced to six years in prison. Roberts and Fowler ended their relationship after the incident.