Three former political activists confessed to a brazen 1971 break-in at a Pennsylvania FBI office that exposed spying by the feds including a program designed to sully reputations of perceived enemies such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “We did it … because somebody had to do it,” John Raines, 80, a retired professor of religion at Temple University, told NBC News ahead of a new book's release. “In this case, by breaking a law -- entering, removing files -- we exposed a crime that was going on. … When we are denied the information we need to have to act as citizens, then we have a right to do what we did.” Raines, his wife, Bonnie, and former Philadelphia cab driver Keith Forsyth, said they were part of eight-member group of anti-Vietnam War protesters who broke into the FBI's office in Media, Pa., while much of the nation was preoccupied by the so-called "Fight of the Century" between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They selectively leaked some 1,000 documents to newspaper reporters -- revealing plans aimed at sowing "paranoia" among the "New Left" with fears of "an FBI agent behind every mailbox." The statute of limitations has long since expired on the crime.
