US News

Jobs a ‘bad apple’

With friends like these, Steve Jobs didn’t need enemies.

Colleagues told the FBI that the iconic Apple co-founder was deceptive, dishonest, shallow and wrapped up in himself.

“Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty, stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,” according to the 1991 file released yesterday by the FBI.

But the consensus of the more than 30 people questioned during Jobs’ background check for a presidential appointment was that he’d serve the country well.

The FBI became involved when President George H. W. Bush was considering naming Jobs, then 36, to his Export Council. Agents questioned former high-school classmates, friends, former colleagues from Jobs’ first stint at Apple and others.

None was identified, but several had strong views of Jobs.

One woman “described his personal life as lacking due to his narcissism and shallowness.”

She also stated that his success at Apple, “which provided an enormous amount of power for [Jobs], also caused him to lose sight of honesty and integrity and even caused him to distort the truth at times to get his way.”

But the woman added, at the same time, that he has “far-reaching vision and can vitalize plans and goals.”

After dodging requests for an interview, Jobs agreed to be questioned by the FBI and talked about his past use of drugs.

“He had not used any illegal drugs in the past five years, however during the period of approximately 1970-1974 he experimented with marijuana, hashish and LSD,” the files says. “This was during high school and college.”

Some apparently juicy parts of the file, such as when colleagues described incidents illustrating Jobs’ character flaws, were redacted.

The 191-page file also discloses a bomb threat and a ransom demand to Jobs in 1985, before he quit Apple in a bitter dispute with management.

The file said a man called Apple from a public telephone and warned that “devices” had been placed in the homes of Jobs and other company officials.

The caller demanded $1 million and said another device would explode if Apple alerted police.

But nothing was found when law-enforcement officials scoured the areas where the caller said the bombs were placed, and the investigation was dropped.

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