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In reply to the discussion: The NSA Scandal is a Bipartisan Cluster Fuck. [View all]pacalo
(24,721 posts)6. J. Edgar Hoover had his own secret spy program called COINTELPRO.
[font size="4"]Somewhere, J. Edgar Hoover Is Smiling[/font] -- The FBI director and notorious snoop would have loved PRISM.
By Beverly Gage|Posted Friday, June 7, 2013, at 1:10 PM
On March 8, 1971, a handful of activists broke into the FBIs field office in Media, Penn., and made off with a stack of incriminating documents. Over the next several months, they began to publish what they had learned. In the pre-Internet age, this often meant reprinting the FBI records in the alternative press, though papers such as the Washington Post and New York Times also picked them up. Like Glenn Greenwalds recent revelations about the NSA, the discoveries from the Media break-in sparked widespread public outrageand turned out to be one of the biggest scoops in intelligence history.
The program they exposed was called COINTELPRO (short for counterintelligence program), known today as the most notorious of the many notorious secret operations authorized by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Under COINTELPRO, federal agents engaged in a jaw-dropping array of abusesnot only widespread surveillance of law-abiding American citizens, but also active disruption efforts against political organizations and activist leaders. The most famous is perhaps the FBIs bugging of Martin Luther Kings hotel rooms, an effort that captured King in a variety of sexually compromising situations. When the press refused to peddle the sex stories (yes, the press used to refuse to peddle sex stories), the FBI sent King an anonymous note urging him to drop out of politics, and potentially to commit suicide. You are done, the letter declared. There is but one way out for you.
There can be no question that COINTELPRO was more intrusiveif also more targetedthan todays apparent efforts at mass technological surveillance by the National Security Agency. But there is at least one important distinction that makes todays scandal far more disturbing. When the FBI launched COINTELPRO, it was acting alone, outside of the boundaries of established law. Today, what the NSA is doing appears to be legaland nearly every branch of the government is complicit. Unlike Hoovers activities, the NSAs programs come to us with the seal of congressional and judicial approval. It didnt take J. Edgar Hoover to engineer this scandal. We did it to ourselves.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/06/prism_j_edgar_hoover_would_have_loved_the_nsa_s_surveillance_program_topic.html
By Beverly Gage|Posted Friday, June 7, 2013, at 1:10 PM
On March 8, 1971, a handful of activists broke into the FBIs field office in Media, Penn., and made off with a stack of incriminating documents. Over the next several months, they began to publish what they had learned. In the pre-Internet age, this often meant reprinting the FBI records in the alternative press, though papers such as the Washington Post and New York Times also picked them up. Like Glenn Greenwalds recent revelations about the NSA, the discoveries from the Media break-in sparked widespread public outrageand turned out to be one of the biggest scoops in intelligence history.
The program they exposed was called COINTELPRO (short for counterintelligence program), known today as the most notorious of the many notorious secret operations authorized by former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Under COINTELPRO, federal agents engaged in a jaw-dropping array of abusesnot only widespread surveillance of law-abiding American citizens, but also active disruption efforts against political organizations and activist leaders. The most famous is perhaps the FBIs bugging of Martin Luther Kings hotel rooms, an effort that captured King in a variety of sexually compromising situations. When the press refused to peddle the sex stories (yes, the press used to refuse to peddle sex stories), the FBI sent King an anonymous note urging him to drop out of politics, and potentially to commit suicide. You are done, the letter declared. There is but one way out for you.
There can be no question that COINTELPRO was more intrusiveif also more targetedthan todays apparent efforts at mass technological surveillance by the National Security Agency. But there is at least one important distinction that makes todays scandal far more disturbing. When the FBI launched COINTELPRO, it was acting alone, outside of the boundaries of established law. Today, what the NSA is doing appears to be legaland nearly every branch of the government is complicit. Unlike Hoovers activities, the NSAs programs come to us with the seal of congressional and judicial approval. It didnt take J. Edgar Hoover to engineer this scandal. We did it to ourselves.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/06/prism_j_edgar_hoover_would_have_loved_the_nsa_s_surveillance_program_topic.html
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Came out the same time as "Pan's Labyrinth." Both excellent anti-fascist / totalitarian statements
villager
Jun 2013
#27
Damn, I did not! Just looked him up on IMDB. I think the director wanted to work with him again, too
villager
Jun 2013
#40
Actually, Stasi 3.0 (the 60s in America being Stasi 2.0). But I've got that
HardTimes99
Jun 2013
#21
Well, frankly I no longer care what ignorant people, people with no knowledge of what is very recent
sabrina 1
Jun 2013
#56
Agreed, but please remember to pay all attention to the man behind the curtain.
Fire Walk With Me
Jun 2013
#5
This is exactly what I want to know. If you notice the spy machine we have incl Clapper, etc. is
rhett o rick
Jun 2013
#9
IMO, when Obama became president, he was told that there was a super-duper spy machine in place that
rhett o rick
Jun 2013
#29
Why then would Pres Obama appoint the same people to run the economy and the intelligence agencies?
rhett o rick
Jun 2013
#32
No, both President Obama and Bush's former advisers have said that Obama made changes when he became
okaawhatever
Jun 2013
#36
What? The NSA is part of the executive branch. Congress allegedly has oversight,
Warren Stupidity
Jun 2013
#51
Congressional law governs the general program. If Wyden wants Clapper to speak
okaawhatever
Jun 2013
#52
Only legal from the point of view some appointed republican judge(s) who.........
nolabels
Jun 2013
#48
I was thinking today, which country is going to be the one to tell the U.S., "Tear down this wall."
pacalo
Jun 2013
#49
It is laughter i feel ( because in thinking of the xenophobes it would be just too sad to cry for)
nolabels
Jun 2013
#57
The more the world hears about those nut-jobs, the less need for a fence to keep them out.
pacalo
Jun 2013
#59
Did you mean to say, "...democrat-IC republic?" Misusing that word is often a rightie smear
LaydeeBug
Jun 2013
#11
This is nothing more than some who have a cause and nothing more to entertain themselves
Thinkingabout
Jun 2013
#18
I saw (a version of) this when you posted it in, I think, Kentuck's thread. I was
HardTimes99
Jun 2013
#20