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Richard Feynman's FBI Files Released

Posted by Unknown on from the soviet-sympathizers-beware dept.

v3rgEz writes "The FBI files of noted physicist, esteemed author and all-around geek Richard Feynman have been released. Feynman and the FBI had an extended encounter after the Bureau discovered he had been invited to speak at the USSR, which set off a flurry of investigations into his loyalty — even as he pestered the State Department for guidance on whether he should or shouldn't go, guidance they only gave belatedly. Of particular interest to the FBI was his avid devotion to the art of lock picking, his high school membership in a socialism club (for social reasons, he swore), and the fact that he was a godless scientist who loved his bongo drums. Original documents are available. One other element? A seven-page letter detailing a conspiracy theory that Feynman was a sleeper agent for enemies unknown, but probably communist ones."

22 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. During the Cold War by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The summary forgot this was during the height of the Cold War. Stuff like this doesn't happen today. The government wouldn't waste time doing a background check just because you flew to modern-day Democratic Russia.

    hahahahahahahahahahahaaha
    I kill me.

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    1. Re:During the Cold War by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nah, they'd already know what you were up to from having taped all your phone calls first.

    2. Re:During the Cold War by Sarten-X · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, they wouldn't. Actual background checks take too long and return far too much information. Today, your visit is recorded in a database, correlated with the fact that your plane had held a suspected terrorist in its last flight, so the conclusion is that you must be the recipient of a secret package hidden inside your seat cushion. That's enough to get a GPS tracker on your car and addition to the no-fly list.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
    3. Re:During the Cold War by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >>> the conclusion is that you must be the recipient of a secret package hidden inside your seat cushion.
      >>>That's enough to get a GPS tracker on your car and addition to the no-fly list

      That's enough to get you thrown in jail without a right to trial under the NDAA which Congress passed by ~65% and Obama vetoed..... ooops, I mean signed. (I would have vetoed.)

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    4. Re:During the Cold War by crazyjj · · Score: 4, Funny

      the NDAA which Congress passed by ~65% and Obama vetoed..... ooops, I mean signed.

      Yeah, but he didn't WANT to sign it, see. Or, at least, that's what he says when he's running for reelection.

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    5. Re:During the Cold War by nschubach · · Score: 4, Funny

      Those damn mind control pens!

      --
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    6. Re:During the Cold War by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So? Veto it anyway. Make them declare themselves to be for the reasons that he vetoed the bill.

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  2. surely they're joking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    surely they're joking

  3. So who wrote that letter? by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The interesting question is, who wrote that letter? Not an FBI agent; an FBI agent wouldn't write to Hoover directly, outside of channels. That came from some outside source with a political agenda. But the source has been "redacted".

    1. Re:So who wrote that letter? by The+Mister+Purple · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I find it funny that the term "security-minded" is used when describing the scientists upset by Feynman's lock picking, when the impression I got from reading his memoirs and biography was that he was not concealing it and was indeed pointing out security vulnerabilities at Los Alamos. He was able to open a colonel's office safe using the default combination, if I recall correctly. After all, it's not like Feynman was letting the Germans or Japanese know about the weakness of the locks, let alone about the existence of the Manhattan Project. It's basically the same problem as seen in computer security today: people who point out vulnerabilities in a non-destructive way still get criticized (or worse, ignored).

      --
      "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Feynman
    2. Re:So who wrote that letter? by PPH · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Possibly someone like Klaus Fuchs. Secrets are being leaked. Counter intelligence is certain to find out and come looking for an insider source. Better to divert attention towards a plausible suspect than have them spot you.

      Law enforcement (in general) seems to develop a theory of a crime and then go looking for supporting evidence rather than keeping an open mind. So if you give them a plausible hypothesis, they'll stop their wider investigation. Its an old trick and still works quite well.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:So who wrote that letter? by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I find it funny that the term "security-minded" is used when describing the scientists upset by Feynman's lock picking, when the impression I got from reading his memoirs and biography was that he was not concealing it and was indeed pointing out security vulnerabilities at Los Alamos.

      "Security-minded" people always hate it when holes in their security systems are pointed out. It's practically a law of nature.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    4. Re:So who wrote that letter? by tqk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The interesting question is, who wrote that letter?

      I doubt that really matters (but from a cursory read of the redacted FBI notes, I'd guess it was a woman). Everyone was encouraged to be suspicious of everybody else. I'd be surprised if no-one had bothered to point a finger at him.

      Feynman was an oddball iconoclast and would have stood out as fairly strange at anytime. His wife divorced him because he was constantly solving calculus problems even while driving, and flew into violent rages (including choking her) when she interrupted him during it or while he was playing the drums. He made a habit of tweaking the noses of censors and the security people, for fun.

      Back then, if you weren't a frothing at the mouth Commie hater like Curtis LeMay or Edward Teller, you looked suspicious, and the US' security apparatus at the time was encouraged to be nutbar paranoid. Look at what happened to Oppenheimer. This was the McCarthy era. Read Vasilli Mitrokhin's history of the KGB, and you'll see the Soviets were practically level-headed sensible in comparison. Besides, there was a large contingent of scientists who thought the whole thing should end once the Nazis were beaten. Feynman was just the village oddball (and a terrific physicist).

      Tuva, or bust!

      --
      "Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit ..." -- Pink Floyd.
  4. Sleeper agent? by T.E.D. · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wouldn't a Theoretical Physicist (not under government contract) make a really crappy "sleeper agent"? When you activate him, what is he going to do, change Relativity?

  5. the lockpicking hobby was a bit more involved by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Interesting

    While the lockpicking hobby might've scared the FBI just in itself, more problematic to them was that he had used it in a "stole the atom bomb secrets" prank. He really did break into the safe that had the atom bomb secrets! But he didn't leak them. But: not everyone was sure of that.

    Here's the story from an interview (from p. 51 in this book):

    Interviewer: Is it true that you broke the Los Alamos security code and opened a safe containing top-secret documents? Then left behind a note that said "Guess Who?"

    Feynman: When I was at Los Alamos one of my hobbies was to try to open safes and locks, a sort of locksmith-type hobby. Practicing opening locks, I at one point opened the lock of the safe that contained all the secrets of the atom bomb, and the whole business behind them. There were nine filing cabinets containing all the documents at Los Alamos. I opened three of them to check if they all had the same combination. I left notes in them to tell the guy that he shouldn't have locks with all the combinations the same, and stuff like that. And that I'd taken the documents out. And there were certain jokes in my notes. I was standing in the office there playing with the safes in the full light of day. The guy who was running the office was a friend of mine. And he was very upset when he found the safes had been opened. They probably changed the combinations after that.

    Fortunately, FBI agents apparently were more reasonable even during the Cold War than they are in the War on Terrorism, because he'd probably be in jail for that prank today.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    1. Re:the lockpicking hobby was a bit more involved by vlm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Fortunately, FBI agents apparently were more reasonable even during the Cold War than they are in the War on Terrorism, because he'd probably be in jail for that prank today.

      Its not so complicated as an individual's judgment call, its simpler; back then we were the good guys. Not so much now.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    2. Re:the lockpicking hobby was a bit more involved by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 5, Interesting

      He later revealed that they didn't change the combinations, instead they sent a memo out instructing that Prof. Feynman was not to be left alone with a safe. "Security by missing the point entirely" I believe it's called.

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  6. Different era by rbrander · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That was a whole different era; government was different, indeed, human nature was entirely different.

    There is NO chance of another generation looking back at all the surveillance of every Muslim community picnic and shake their heads in wonder at our paranoia. All of our investigations are justified and wise.

  7. Re:7 pages, typed... by starless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Edward Teller testified against Oppenheimer's security clearance. Could he have been against Feynman as well?

  8. Tannu Tuva by fliptout · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Feynman had a bit of an obsession with a small Asian nation called Tannu Tuva. He badly wanted to visit, and at the time Tannu Tuva was part of the USSR. As part of an arrangement with the USSR government, he would be allowed passage to travel there, but in exchange he would have to give some lectures in Moscow, I think.

    Nova has a wonderful documentary about this, and it can be watched in its entirety on youtube.
    The Last Journey of Genius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4_40hAAr0/

    --
    A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
  9. Beautiful mind this is by pesho · · Score: 4, Interesting
    You got to love the logic of the person who wrote the letter. The first thing that disqualifies Feynman as scientific adviser is:

    Technical ability to review scientific data

    And then there is:

    Experience in formulating and laying out the groundwork for complex patterns of activity that extend well into the future

    and

    A practical aptitude for dealing with mechanical and electronic devices

    The funny part is that this is exactly the kind of things that would send you to a camp if you were in the soviet block at that time. And people on the other side of the iron curtain were writing exactly the same letters but substituting 'communist' for 'imperialist'.

  10. Only the Good Get Arrested by ElijahBailey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I love that he did the right thing and alerted the government to the fact that Russia had requested he visit and asked for their guidance but they knowingly ignored his request just to investigate whether he would go. It's like they were lying in wait, hoping for him to screw up so they could slap him in chains and say, "Made my quota! America is safe from citizens who do the right thing once more!"