I Cogitate
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To spy or not to spy is not the question
The question is who will provide unpartisan oversight over spying? Where are the checks and balance?
The various brouhahas over components of The Patriot Act and the brushing aside of FISA regulatioons by the Bush Administration are important concerns, though unfortunately not headline grabbers or anything that forces the U.S. populace to pay attention.
We've been down this road before and, like the phrase that all politics is local, all spying needs to be monitored. There is no room for a stand alone 'trust us' willingness over government surveillance regardless of who is presiding in The White House, over the FBI or at the CIA.
Heck, even Ronald Reagan, on a different subject, was famous for his 'trust but verify' admonition. This is a subject that should unite the left, right and center of this country, even despite the fact that bugging, tailing and surveyance is unjustifiably employed far, far more often against those on the left. Those on the progressive area of the political spectrum typically want change to take place while those is government prefer the status quo. The latter employ imagined threats for justification of its actions, something sounding very familiar to most of us right now.
Putting it this way for the here and now, why would anyone at this point be willing to trust the Bush Administration on anything?
The '9/11 changed everything' mantra didn't touch this: that the unresticted, unmanaged and unchallenged power of our government to invade the lives of its citizens is a recipe for abuse.
If you are still unconvinced that our government should have free reign in monitoring and spying then please justify the following:
11 News exclusive: Inside the FBI's secret files on Coretta Scott KingGo here for the remainder.
David Raziq & Mark Greenblatt
September 1, 2007
She had an unforgettable face: serene, beautiful and yet with a trace of sadness that few would say she did not earn. Indeed, Coretta Scott King’s life was filled with trouble and adversity caused by those opposed to her cause.
And among those opponents? J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.
Now, after more than a year’s work, KHOU-TV in Houston and its investigative unit, 11 News Defenders, have obtained a world-exclusive first look at the FBI’s file on Coretta Scott King.
Comprised of nearly 500 pages, with some of those documents partially or totally censored, the intelligence file paints a disturbing picture.
For example: The FBI very closely spied and did surveillance on Scott King for years, keeping close track of her public appearances, speeches and especially anytime she traveled.
Why would a federal agency go to such trouble?
For most of his life FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ruled the Bureau with a tight grip. In addition he opposed the civil rights movement as being an “un-American” and “subversive cause” and even called Martin Luther King Jr. “the Black Messiah,” saying he was too powerful. In public statements Hoover also called the leader “immoral” and accused him of being influenced by the Communists. (Regarding that last accusation, the FBI would later admit in a document submitted to Congress that “the veracity of the sources and the characterization are remaining questions.”)
Hence began an intense “counter-intelligence” campaign of surveillance, bugging, and harassment by the FBI’s “Racial Intelligence Section” that centered around MLK, his relatives, and associates.
But KHOU has found that even after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, the FBI’s Scott King file shows the Bureau actually intensified their spying and surveillance of the new widow.
The newly released documents show the Bureau closely tracked and scrutinized Scott King’s comings and goings, including public appearances (“Mrs. King is due to arrive...at 10:40 a.m.”) and what was said there. Agents also kept particular notice of any of her plane flights. They even kept tabs on a King family outing to Las Vegas and what security company Scott King was using.
Far more invasive though was the Bureau’s interception of private letters she had written.
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