tive Freedom: Transforming a Movement. Boston:
South End Press, 1990. Anthology of essays that
provide an historical and critical account of the
abortion rights movement.
Gorney, Cynthia.Articles of Faith: A Frontline Histor y of
the Abortion Wars. New York: Simon & Schuster,
- Study of abortion focusing primarily on rel-
evant public policy issues and court decisions.
Solinger, Rickie, ed.Abortion Wars: A Half Centur y of
Struggle, 1950-2000. Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1998. Chronicle of the evolution of
the debate on abortion.
Tatalovich, Raymond.The Politics of Abortion in the
United States and Canada: A Comparative Study.
Armonk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. Study of how
the two nations developed policies on abortion.
Torr, James D., ed.Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Greenhaven Press/
Thompson-Gale, 2006. Collects arguments on
both sides of the abortion debate. Includes moral
issues, practical issues, and public policy debates.
Susan A. Farrell
See also Bork, Robert H.; Elections in the United
States, 1984; Falwell, Jerry; Feminism; Ferraro, Ger-
aldine; Moral Majority; O’Connor, Sandra Day; Rea-
gan, Ronald; Supreme Court decisions; Women’s
rights.
Abscam
The Event A corruption scandal involving
members of the U.S. Congress and other
politicians who took bribes from undercover
FBI agents in return for special favors
The Abscam scandal reinforced the American public’s dis-
trust of politicians in the post-Watergate era.
Abscam is the name given to a twenty-three-month
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sting opera-
tion. The operation itself took place in the late
1970’s, but its public revelation and subsequent tri-
als and convictions occurred in the 1980’s. The
Abscam operation was first set up in 1978 to lure
public officials into accepting bribes for personal fa-
vors. The name “Abscam” was derived from the front
organization that the FBI set up on Long Island,
New York—Abdul Enterprises, Ltd. The scam
started in July, 1978, when the FBI created this ficti-
tious company in order to catch underworld figures
dealing in stolen art. The FBI portrayed the owner of
the company, Kambir Abdul Rahman, as a wealthy
Arab sheikh who wanted to invest his oil money in
artwork. The agency then recruited as an informant
a convicted swindler with connections to criminals
who wanted to sell stolen artwork.
The scam was successful, and within two months
the FBI recovered two paintings worth an estimated
$1 million. Furthermore, the initial artwork-focused
operation led the FBI to other criminals who were
selling fake stocks and bonds. The bureau was able
to prevent the sale of almost $600 million worth of
fraudulent securities.The Focus Shifts to Politicians As part of the Ab-
scam sting, the FBI rented a house in Washington,
D.C., through another fictitious company, Olympic
Construction Corporation, and furnished it with an-
tiques borrowed from the Smithsonian Institution.
In addition, the bureau set up operational sites on a
sixty-two-foot yacht called theCorsairin Florida and
at a set of Kennedy International Airport hotel suites
in New York, the Barclay Hotel in Philadelphia, and
a condominium in Ventnor, New Jersey. Finally,
agents created another fictitious sheikh, Yassar Ha-
bib, who claimed that he might have to flee his home
country and seek asylum in the United States. This
asylum could be achieved if a member of Congress
introduced a private bill granting the sheikh special
status for the purpose of bypassing the normal immi-
gration process.
Once everything was in place, the FBI began to in-
vestigate public officials. First, FBI agents set up a
meeting with Camden mayor and New Jersey state
senator Angelo Errichetti. Errichetti was told that
the sheikh was interested in investing money in the
Camden seaport and in Atlantic City casinos. The
FBI taped Errichetti offering to help the sheikh for
a fee of $400,000 and accepting $25,000 as a down
payment for his services. Errichetti also said that in
order to get a casino license the sheikh would have
to give $100,000 to Kenneth MacDonald, the vice
chairman of the Casino Control Commission. This
money was later given to the two men at the office of
Abdul Enterprises in New York.
In March, 1979, Errichetti, along with U.S. sena-
tor Harrison A. Williams, Jr., of New Jersey, met with
undercover FBI officials, including sheikh Kambir
Abdul Rahman, on theCorsairin Delray Beach,The Eighties in America Abscam 5