blackbag

English

Adjective

blackbag (not comparable)

1. Alternative form of black-bag
   • 1978, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, Nomination of Benjamin R. Civiletti to be Deputy Attorney General:

     Are there any internal proceedings at Justice against the FBI agents who broke the law with blackbag jobs and that kind of thing?

   • 1984, Cornell Law School, Symposium, national securities and civil liberties, page 884:

     The Hoover directive referred only to "blackbag jobs" — the FBI term for warrantless surreptitious entries for purposes other than the installation of electronic listening equipment.

   • 1988, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Break-ins at sanctuary churches and organizations opposed to administration policy in Central America:

     In Portland, Oregon, an address book was removed from a kitchen table in the home of movement activists who were the victims of a series of admitted FBI blackbag jobs in the 1960's.

   • 1990, Robert Graysmith, Sleeping Lady: The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate Bridge:

     The Soldier of Fortune was not directed toward the procurement of weapons: Rather, it was to provide chemical, explosive and "blackbag" data to the whacko right (as opposed to the whacko left, which wants to blow up nuclear plants to show how dangerous they are. You figure it-- I gave up trying).

Verb

blackbag (third-person singular simple present blackbags, present participle blackbagging, simple past and past participle blackbagged)

1. Alternative form of black-bag
   • 1979, Joseph Rosenberger, Death Merchant: Cosmic Reality Kill, →ISBN, page 2:

     It stood to reason that it was in Fort Worth that Padden and Montroy had intended to blackbag Kenner.

   • 1979, United States. Congress. House. Select Committee on Assassinations, Investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr:

     I came in with a Director who was Director of the FBI before I was born, and I think he rather wondered who this new kid was, saying you can't wiretap here and you can't blackbag here.

   • 1987, United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, FBI Domestic Security Guidelines, page 3:

     During his short life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked and inspire others to join together in working for racial, plitical and economic justice. Only after his death did we learn, through access to government information, of the massive campaign by the FBI to surveil, wiretap, bug, blackbag, infiltrate, and activelv disrupt his work and his life.

   • 1995, Chris Davis, Death by Fire, →ISBN, page 152:

     We've already gone to Judge Sachs and had him issue you enough blank warrants to tap any suspect's phones, read his mail, blackbag his house, hold him without a writ of habeas corpus or whatever else you feel you need to do.

   • 2014, Dustin Hellberg, Squirrel Haus, →ISBN:

     Back when terrorism actually meant something. -He'd be blackbagged and adios these days.