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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."
Come on, tell us exactly how these terrorists destroyed America 40 years ago by telling Americans they were being spied on by America.
In the words of Martin Luther King, one of the targets of COINTELPRO, "One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
Some criminals claim to be irish, so we should unlawfully surveil, harass and frame all the irish people.
Some criminals claim to be leftists, so we should unlawfully surveil, harass and frame all the leftist people.
Some criminals claim to be anarchists and one guy can burn down the capitol building, so we should enact emergency laws to surveil, harass, frame, and imprison all the anarchists. ...
Difference? Nope. The rule of law and fundamental freedoms exist for a reason.
One could almost say it fits into one of the big ideas of the 60's, equal rights for everyone, now we just need to make sure the NSA and congress are as surveilled (sp) as we are.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
That's not the only reason they monitor everyone.
If you're building up a dossier on absolutely everybody, then you can usethe information in that dossier whenever you want to.
For example, let's say WanderCat decided to run for political office, and part of his/her platform was "Stop the NSA from spying on everyone." Now, up until now, WanderCat hasn't been interesting enough to monitor, but now, in order to protect "America" (i.e. the national security state), the NSA will want to go through everything that WanderCat has ever said or done that they know about and make sure that anything potentially embarrassing is released via a friendly journalist willing to quote the source anonymously.
That means that the only people that can actually stop the NSA from doing what they're doing are those so squeaky-clean that they won't want to.
I am officially gone from
Now the FBI blatantly spies on everybody, including political groups, and nobody cares enough to stop them. The FBI doesn't even consider law enforcement their primary job any more. Now it's "national security".
...the conduct of the radicals.
Well of course! That justifies everything. Nobody has any right to question the conduct of the government.
It contributed to reform.
LOL!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
That's why we should elect officials that can't be embarrassed. If you are selling the image of being a squeaky clean family man, you are easily blackmailed. If you are well known for making filthy porn, they can't really sling any mud at you.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Didn't the NSA just recently clam up about whether or not they were surveilling Congress?
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
And the summary willfully leaves out the reason they came forward. They came forward as a show of support for Snowden.
Although COINTELPRO is remembered, few bother to remember the other side of the equation, which is the conduct of the radicals.
Stop changing the subject. What did infiltrating peaceful antiwar groups - or attempting to blackmail MLK - have to do with the Weather Underground?
Seems like the hatred that a lot of Americans have for Americans is so extreme, it almost seems cultivated by way of plan. I'm not aware if Snowden has released any info pertaining to this.
I've read allegations elsewhere that the FBI has infiltrated the Occupy movement - whether these have any basis in fact, I have no idea. They've certainly infiltrated other extreme-left groups at times, but most of these are bush league affairs. However, there's scant evidence that the government ever resumed the kind of insanity that Hoover engaged in, which was really unique to Hoover. They've done no shortage of other sleazy stuff, but the combination of Watergate and revelations like the ones resulting from this burglary were pretty successful in putting the FBI out of the business of internal politics - as far as we know.
In any case, the demonization of "the other" in American politics - or any other country - has been going on for decades if not centuries, and is usually done openly. Rush Limbaugh built his career on it, among many others. We get a somewhat blinkered view of what it was like in the past, simply because most of us weren't around to remember the vitriol, and all we get is the historical summaries. I seriously doubt that Americans hate each other any more than they did in the 1960s, or much earlier, and in some cases, such as anti-immigration activists, the modern version is considerably milder. I heartily recommend the book "Nixonland" for a more comprehensive view of what American politics were like back then; the Tea Party movement seems almost quaint in comparison.
Weiner / Spitzer 2016!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?"
They came forward as a show of support for Snowden.
That appears to be false, unless you can point to something more direct.
Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows
Mr. Forsyth, now 63, and other members of the group can no longer be prosecuted for what happened that night, and they agreed to be interviewed before the release this week of a book written by one of the first journalists to receive the stolen documents. The author, Betty Medsger, a former reporter for The Washington Post, spent years sifting through the F.B.I.’s voluminous case file on the episode and persuaded five of the eight men and women who participated in the break-in to end their silence.
The article and video discuss similarities, but I don't believe that either attributes the motivation as support for Snowden. It appears to be directly tied to the book coming out.
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
"Among the grim litany of revelations was a blackmail letter F.B.I. agents had sent anonymously to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., threatening to expose his extramarital affairs if he did not commit suicide."
From the NY Times Article
The corollary to the "you shouldn't worry if you don't have anything to hide" argument apparently is "you'd better not ever have anything to hide or the government will use it against you".
What you describe is almost the polar opposite of what Snowden actually did.
So, let's try to bring the shill back on topic. We aren't talking about the Weather Underground. I don't think that there has ever been any outrage over the FBI monitoring them.
The better example is MLK, who clearly represented a non-violent shake up of our system. By diverting resources to focus on MLK, they endangered the whole country. These enforcers aren't here to protect us or our constitution - they only exist to protect the system. And they'll still be protecting the system as we descend into the tyranny that they have lined up for us.
So CF, do you shill for them because they have dirt on you or are you just a nihilist who wants to watch America crumble under the iron heel?