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82 Comments
- Pollack, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33"Found among the Media documents was a new word, "COINTELPRO," short for the FBI's "secret counterintelligence program," created to investigate and disrupt dissident political groups in the U.S. Under these programs, beginning in 1956, the bureau worked to "enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles," as one COINTELPRO memo put it, "to get the point across there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox."
The Media documents — along with further revelations about COINTELPRO in the months and years that followed — made it clear that the bureau had gone beyond mere intelligence-gathering to discredit, destabilize and demoralize groups — many of them peaceful, legal civil rights organizations and antiwar groups"
Not much different now, I suspect. - iTorrey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30And the interesting part is that if you say today that the government intelligence agencies are manipulating the public through the media, you get called a 'conspiracy theorist', tin-foil hat wearing nut.
- jbus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+25You know what's funny??? We joke about it, but somewhere some FBI/CIA/NSA computer has triggered an alert and an agent is reading this, taking notes of username/comments/diggs and preparing a secret DHS information request from digg for their files.
- TopherT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25I wonder how much of that image of the tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist was fed to the public from programs such as the one documented here in order to sideline leftest or anti-war movements.
Food for thought. - bradsully, on 10/12/2007, -4/+27break into you local FBI office today!
- goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -6/+27Wow, a front page politics article on Digg. B-E-A-U tiful.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+28What's the difference between St. Patrick's Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. day?
Everyone wants to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day. - Daem0nX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Ok, breaking and entering = wrong, however I'm glad they did it. We the people are supposed to hold the power of this country, and it is OUR duty to question big brother. If we don't then we aren't told anything acually useful.
"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases." - Thomas Jefferson - ezkiel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20Now the corruptions out in the open and people are just apathetic.
- jeremiads, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20I promise you that things are no different today.
- Nichevo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15You better get with the times, those antiquated terms have been replaced with "freedom fighter" and "terrorist".
- iTorrey, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17"Plus, it is utterly ridiculous to afford constitutional protection to a group or individual who's whole political purpose is to destroy the constitution"
So you don't want to protect the Republican and Democratic parties? They are the biggest threat to our constitution.. that and people like you who think that we should selectively 'give rights' and take them away. Sorry, that isn't how RIGHTS work. Rights aren't given and taken away by the government. They are _protected_ by the government.
Here is a tip. Read the constitution. Then read the patriot act (and 'patriot act II'), and read Executive Order W199-EYE and while you're at it read up on project gladio. Then come back here and tell me how great our government is and how it's the Arabs or the Socialist working party that is destroying our constitution and not the Republicans and Democrats. - AmishJedi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Just imagine what would be found if that happened today.
and.. if anyones planning on doing that.. find out who killed JFK. my moneys on the CIA. - binkitybonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13FOIA requests are good in theory, but here are a few headlines and quotes from a quick google search:
Bush Administration Refuses to Comply With FOIA Request on Pre-War Intelligence
White House and State Department Illegally Ignore FOIA Request
Bush Administration Gutting FOIA and Hurting Public's Right to Know
On October 12, 2001, under the guise of "national security," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft sent a memo to all federal agencies creating a new level of secrecy under FOIA. According to the memo, it "supersedes the Department of Justice's FOIA Memorandum of October 4, 1993"
The Christian Science Monitor wrote in an editorial that "Years of hard-won battles that turned FOIA into a fundamental routine bulwark against government secrecy were undermined in a day."
A San Francisco Chronicle editorial stated "without fanfare, the attorney general simply quashed the FOIA." But it's not just law professors and the media who are upset over this memo and its chilling effect on FOIA.
Specifically regarding the Ashcroft FOIA memo, Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum said, "While private businesses and households can be selective about what they tell the world, the American people are not willing to accord the same privacy to public officials paid by the taxpayers. The American people do not, and should not, tolerate government by secrecy. The Freedom of Information Act and many other laws embrace the limited-government principle that 'government by the people' requires government disclosure to the people." - jemstar, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Holy moley, thanks for bringing this up. This incident occurred before my birth, so somehow it has always been foggy in my mind, but I'm glad to have read the article now.
- DEFSMAC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11interesting read. sadly though things like this have gone on before. the nsa started a program in 1969, MINARET, to spy on americans they believed were involved in civil distrubances, anti war movements, etc.
- Zonkzor, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15What in the hell does qft mean?
- macewan, on 10/12/2007, -7/+17* crossing figures * two more years before we can start to repair the damage from our current administration
- MoFoKeR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11biased any who.....if it was that easy to steal from the fbi then we had real top notch agents/federeal employees back then and now....i agree this should come out since this shows how they perform a crappy job in securing important documents ..man i see some people here still regard the goverment as a no wrong doing god yeah right get over yourselves ha duggg
- alexw, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14QFT = "Quoted For Truth"
- retawd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The government does it, why cant I?
Father: Where did you learn how to do this??
Kid: I learned it from you dad! I learned it from watching you!!
(80s commercial for drugs) - binkitybonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"I would love tosee those documents if they actually exist."
now who's the paranoid conspiracy theorist? - noodhoog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Skeptical? No.
All too credulous. - headzoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Geez, can't we just have a revolution and start beheading some government officials already? Seems some people high in power need to be knocked off their high horses, and the rest need to be afraid of the "people" so they'll actually start working *for* us, instead of for *themselves*.
Now I give the feds one week to show up at my door. - jbus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Where have I heard this before??? Oh yeah...it's the old "if you don't support the war, you are against our troops" argument.
Sorry but you shouldn't confuse the war with the warriors TRANSLATED... You shouldn't confuse agency policy and leadership with its agents.
People can oppose a government agency's policies and leadership without opposing the agents who are just doing their jobs. Just as people can oppose a war and those that started it without opposing the troops who have no choice but to fight the war. - forgetfulca, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
- astroid0, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9I saw 'qft' and assumed it meant 'quit ***** typing'. Of course, I thought that was pretty harsh considering the truthiness of the statement. now i know.
- Dryden, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10I'd just like to say this...
The reality of it is that there are a lot of FBI agents out there who put their lives on the line to do their jobs every day. There are a vast amount of agents whose work takes them nowhere near the political arena. Keep that in mind when you read any article like this and comment about the agency involved as a whole. There are 2 sides to every coin. Dont forget those agents who work hard to keep drug dealers, murderers, and other criminals off the streets and behind bars. Most of all, dont forget those agents who died in the line of duty.
When you ***** on the FBI, you ***** on them. - iskatebad914, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6actually, i think dryden is right in a way. when you criticize the FBI, you do criticize the people who work for it, because without them all you're criticizing is some file cabinets and a whole network of wiretaps.
however, it is completely justified to criticize these agents, and should be encouraged. The actions of the agents in shady business, such as the agents in this article, needs to be scrutinized and criticized thoroughly, otherwise things like this would get out of hand. without any sort of check on the power of bureaucracy (because they can always slap on the phrase "national security" and keep anything a secret) it is vital that Americans do their job to "***** on the agents" and try to keep SOME sort of order and regulation in the system. agents can always say no or report misuse of power of thier leaders to a higher authority, and be keeping them on thier toes it ensures that this will be done. - boohiss, on 10/12/2007, -16/+22"Activist" is an interesting way to say "burgulars"
- binkitybonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6dryden, i don't agree with your reasoning. i can support the troops (many of my family have served in the military) but still be against the war. i can have a friend who works for microsoft and still think the company's products suck (for the most part.) i can oppose a government but still love people who live in that country. there are good cops and there are bad cops. by the same token, i can think that the FBI has done both good and ill, and i am thankful to the people who work for the FBI and do good, but this does not change the fact that there were many abuses committed by that organization.
- retawd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+63 years from tomorrow.
- lostndaflow, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I can't believe how many people live their life with the wool pulled over their eyes. Everyone believes what the television, radio, and print tells them and they never take the time to think and investigate what is going on. Stop being sheep and think! If you don't believe that in some way, you are being deceived, you are brain-dead. I hate it when an investigative person gets labeled as a conspiracy theorist. Sure, there are a few fruit loops out there, but the fact is, most of the information comes from government documents and such, which adds a lot of credibility to the "conspiracy". Who cares that the article is from some reporter. Digg deeper into the page and click some of the links. They take you to declassified documents, recordings of presidential telephone conversations, and declassified documents. Read them and tell me that you are not a little bit more skeptical about our political system than you were before.
- fredrated, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9"it is utterly ridiculous to afford constitutional protection to a group or individual who's whole political purpose is to destroy the constitution (ie American Communist Workers Party)"
American Communist Party? Are you out of your mind (yes), they are about as relevant today as the last turd I flushed down the toilet, perhaps you are worried about that also.
Stupidity: it's a renewable resource! - joshuastephen, on 10/12/2007, -11/+16Wonder if this is safe to digg?
- drydiggins, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Three years ago tomorrow
or
Thirty-Five years ago today.
Which anniversary makes you prouder as an American? - binkitybonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4if you are out in the street calling our troops murderers and rallying support for the enemy, then that would not qualify as "supporting our troops," and similar for your other points.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I used to work down the hall from those guys and their "two man office". The most often repeated phrase you could hear late at night, was a sobbing "I wish I could quit you!".
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Up the revolution!
(looks behind shoulder) - 1337d00d, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4everybody knows that all citizen"s government action groups are now and always have been funded by Iran and therefore need to be monitored and controlled by the government..... our right's and civil liberties need to be constantly kept in check or one day we might use them
- DEFSMAC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3the cia was established after war world 2 it had nothing to do with the cold war. and there are way more than two intelligence agencies is this country. off the top of my head you got the cia, nsa, dia, scs, nro and many more. we need to move to a model like britain with three agencies that deal with everything, not a million like we have that all deal with little pieces of the pie.
- devwal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Thereinlies the problem lostndaflow... I know it's /possible/ to find the truth to the day's top news stories if you do a bit of digging, but do you really have that kind of time? I mean honestly... Can you tell me you have enough time in every single one of your days to investigate and research everything you read for the day? Do you read every single front page digg article every day and follow up a week later? Of course not. That's why there is a nifty comment system in place, because there is just way too much shtuff every day, every hour, every 15 minutes.
The internet has been a great thing, but this seems more and more like the age of deception(tm) -- It's impossible to keep up. Do you really think I have time to read the entire patriot act? I'd be a bum before I have that kind of time. Hell, most of congress didn't read the patriot act, and that's their full time job! - heymark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Whoa, cool, i drive through Media everyday. It's just a small town. That's all I've got. Thanks.
- nuxx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5wow, godwinned already??
- binkitybonk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3you raise an interesting point, budlight. the 9/11 commission found that part of the reason our gov't failed to prevent these attacks was that the agencies failed to share vital information which, when put together, might have made a difference. i can see why we still need "intelligence" operations in the federal gov't, but there have certainly been some startling failures and significant abuses of power.
- definiteform, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4People like silver linings. They like it when simple (very simple minded) men such as the current people who make up the current administration let them know that "we're making progress in Iraq" and "believing these 'conspiracy theories' about 9/11 is un-American."
- Clp727, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"But a war that had been started and sustained by lies had gone on for years. And a government had betrayed its citizens, manipulating their fear to strengthen its grip on power.
Today, again, many people worry that their government may be on the road to subverting its own ideals. I hope that the commemoration of those unknown activists being held today in Media, Pa., will serve as a reminder that fighting for democracy abroad must remain more than merely an excuse to weaken civil liberties at home."
Good Point! - mikal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3In "The Weather Underground" -- a documentary about a far left terrorist group who on their merit list had things like bombing public buildings and breaking Timothy Leary out of prison -- I believe it was claimed it was some of their members who broke into that FBI office.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343168/ - Interesting movie, check it out. - fkuall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2we'll find out in 2021
- spxiii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Something tells me 2021 will come around and those classified documents will have been misplaced...
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