Deadly Alliance: The FBI's Secret Partnership with the Mob
(HarperCollins, 2001)
BOOK FORUMTuesday, November 6, 2001
12:00 p.m.
Featuring the author, Ralph Ranalli, Reporter, Boston Globe with comments by Adam Kurland, Law Professor, Howard University.
The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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In order to anticipate and thwart crime, many police and intelligence officials argue that our government must be able to recruit individuals from the criminal underworld. That was the rationale for the creation of the FBI's Top Echelon Informant Program. Under its protective umbrella, the FBI courted dangerous felons and protected them from prosecution in exchange for inside information about organized crime. In Deadly Alliance, journalist Ralph Ranalli observes that although valuable information was obtained, it came at a high price. An unholy alliance between the FBI and certain mobsters led to shocking instances of violence and corruption. Please join us for a discussion of how the FBI's informant program went awry and its policy implications.