The King letter and sordid government surveillance

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Nov 20, 2014 - 12:51:58 PM

(FinalCall.com) - The recent disclosure that a researcher found an unedited copy of an infamous FBI letter sent to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., may have taken some by surprise and may have left the mainstream media gasping in shock.

But these responses betray a woeful ignorance that exists among the American public and the media’s failure to properly and clearly address government abuses and the targeting of civil rights and Black Power movement leaders and organizations.

This sordid and disgusting episode in U.S. intelligence activity isn’t important for purely historical reasons. With the ever-expanding security state inside America and the continued erosion of civil liberties, the letter is a reminder that the citizenry of any country needs to ardently watch the watchers.

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While FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was acting in the name of protecting the vital security interests of the United States, he was actually acting to protect White supremacy and to ensure the survival of White power. While personnel has changed and there are even Black faces in high places make no mistake that systemic White supremacy still exists.

“No person can overcome the facts, not even a fraud like yourself. Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure. You will find yourself and in all your dirt, filth, evil and moronic talk exposed on the record for all time. . . . Listen to yourself, you filthy, abnormal animal. You are on the record,” said letter from the FBI to Dr. King written in 1964.

“King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do it (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significance). You are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy, abnormal fraudulent self is bared to the nation,” the letter warned.

According to researcher Beverly Gage, who found the letter in the personal papers of Mr. Hoover, the FBI was monitoring Dr. King and planting listening devices around him in 1963, unhappy with his closeness to a White fundraiser and Communist and criticism of FBI failures to protect Black lives in the South.

The letter was also designed “to try to fracture movements and pit leaders against one another,” she added.

After passage of 1964 civil rights legislation, Ms. Gage noted in the New York Times, Mr. Hoover labeled Dr. King “the most notorious liar in the country.” Ms. Gage believes a Hoover deputy actually wrote and had the letter sent to Dr. King.

The “debate over how much the government should know about our private lives has never been more heated: Should intelligence agencies be able to sweep our email, read our texts, track our phone calls, locate us by GPS? Much of the conversation swirls around the possibility that agencies like the N.S.A. or the F.B.I. will use such information not to serve national security but to carry out personal and political vendettas. King’s experience reminds us that these are far from idle fears, conjured in the fevered minds of civil libertarians. They are based in the hard facts of history,” Ms. Gage noted.

“Imagine Facebook chats, porn viewing history, emails, and more made public to discredit a leader who threatens the status quo, or used to blackmail a reluctant target into becoming an FBI informant. These are not far-fetched ideas. They are the reality of what happens when the surveillance state is allowed to grow out of control, and the full King letter, as well as current intelligence community practices illustrate that reality richly,” added the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seeks to defend civil liberties and combat government secrecy.

But the targeting of Dr. King was not an isolated incident but part of a concerted U.S. government effort to derail the Black struggle and demand for freedom, justice and equality. In 1968 another FBI memorandum laid out the fears and the plots of the feds as part of their Counterintelligence Program. The memo described the FBI’s determination to “prevent the coalition of black nationalist groups. In unity there is strength, a truism that is no less valid for all its triteness. An effective coalition of Black nationalist groups might be the first step toward a real ‘Mau’ in America, the beginning of a true black revolution. Prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. Malcolm X might have been such a ‘messiah’; he is the martyr of the movement today. Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position. Elijah Muhammad is less of a threat because of his age. King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his ‘obedience to white liberal doctrines’ (nonviolence) and embrace black nationalism … ”

The King letter isn’t just an episode from yesterday but a sign of continued plotting today against the rise of a Black Messiah and the rise of Black people. It fits the biblical verses that speak of pharaoh’s plots against the children of Israel fearing their growing numbers and fearing their once slaves may join on with an enemy and seek vengeance. It fits the targeting of the Nation of Islam and other Islamic groups for surveillance and infiltration of mosques under the guise of fighting a religious fifth column inside America. It also fits the warnings issued by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan about the plot against Black people, young Black people in particular, under the guise of a war on drugs.

The King letter is another warning and a sign: Our enemy has not changed and neither have their tactics. Division, intimidation and assassination are their weapons of choice and their commitment to our destruction and their survival is strong. We need to recognize the danger we face and resolve that we will not fall for the tools used yesterday but will stand together like a solid wall. Our unity and our God will bring us victory.

The Final Call