President Obama Failed To Mention WHY Government Was Spying On MLK - FDL

[WillyT]

President Obama Failed To Mention Why Government Was Spying On MLK
By: DSWright - FDL
Monday January 20, 2014 11:02 am



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During his speech defending the NSA and domestic surveillance President Barack Obama ironically mentioned Dr. Martin Luther King as proof that intelligence agencies spying on Americans had precedent in our recent history. What Obama failed to mention was why MLK had been targeted by the government. What did King do to become a threat to national security besides being a leading in the civil rights movement?

FBI founder and longtime director J Edgar Hoover initiated attempts to destroy MLK well before King’s assassination in 1968. Hoover started a project known as COINTELPRO to destroy MLK and other radical elements. FBI Director Hoover’s plot against King was particularly nasty and involved taping King engaging in extra-marital affairs then writing a letter to King to commit suicide or risk exposure.

Hoover and others within the American national security establishment view MLK’s overall agenda for America as a threat to national security. After successfully pushing for civil rights reform King fought for a guaranteed annual income and against the Vietnam War.

The FBI played an active role in trying to disrupt the Poor People’s Campaign with Operation POCAM:

The FBI, which had been targeting King since 1962 with COINTELPRO, increased its efforts after King’s April 4, 1967 speech titled “Beyond Vietnam”. It also lobbied government officials to oppose King on the grounds that he was a communist, “an instrument in the hands of subversive forces seeking to undermine the nation”, and affiliated with “two of the most dedicated and dangerous communists in the country.”

Despite the intense interest by America’s national security state, no evidence was ever produced to back up the charge – repeatedly leveled – that King was some agent of a foreign power. You may note current parallels.

Operation POCAM became the first major project of the FBI’s Ghetto Informant Program (GIP), which recruited thousands of people to report on poor black communities.Through GIP, the FBI quickly established files on SCLC recruiters in cities across the US. FBI agents posed as journalists, used wiretaps, and even recruited some of the recruiters as informants.

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Link: http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/01/20/president-obama-failed-to-mention-why-government-was-spying-on-mlk/

[spin]

1. J. Edgar Hoover was spying on everybody of any importance during his reign. ...

He was known as "the most powerful man in Washington D.C." for good reason. Even Presidents and congressmen feared him. He knew where ALL the bodies were buried and all the secrets the politicians had in their private lives.

Information is power. Imagine how powerful J. Edgar would be today if he had access to the mega-data gathered by the NSA and other government agencies.

[Luminous Animal]

2. Near identical to the Snowden smearers.

“an instrument in the hands of subversive forces seeking to undermine the nation”,

[WillyT]

3. Yep...

[WillyT]

4. Kick !!!

[Fumesucker]

5. History doesn't repeat itself

But it does rhyme

-Mark Twain

[WillyT]

6. I Like That...