Slashdot Mirror
Mystery of FBI Documents Posted To US Press In 1971 Solved
AHuxley writes "A team of eight antiwar activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and removed at least 1000 documents. Once removed and sorted, the bulk of the files showed FBI spying on U.S. political groups. COINTELPRO had been found. 43 years later five of the participants have come forward."
This is a useful reminder that government can be heavy handed. The group that did this made careful plans, took a big risk, and the results are still being talked about and referenced today. It contributed to reform. COINTELPRO is regularly referenced in Slashdot discussions, relevant or not.
Although COINTELPRO is remembered, few bother to remember the other side of the equation, which is the conduct of the radicals. There were those that went past legitimate protest, past civil disobedience, and turned to violence: bombs, arson, shooting. One famous example, the Weather Underground.
Weather Underground: William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire
Kent State tape indicates altercation and pistol fire preceded National Guard shootings (audio)
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Come on, tell us exactly how these terrorists destroyed America 40 years ago by telling Americans they were being spied on by America.
They weren't terrorists engaged in violence, and they didn't destroy America. The crimes they committed were more or less breaking and entering, and theft of documents.
The actual terrorists engaged in a campaign of violence at the time were the Weather Underground. They had a goal of violently overthrowing the US government and economic system to replace it with revolutionary communism. If you read the very bottom section of the second link, the transcript, you can see how far they were prepared to go to accomplish it. I've heard numbers like that before, and you should too.
Shall we commence with the ironic moderation?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell