|
Message |
| Posted By: |
Reality Dreamer |
| Response to: |
Life In Amerika,
Posted by: UT |
| Date: |
20-Jun-2002-02:08:45 |
| Subject: |
we have all been here before... |
Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that I re-watched the 1990
film "Berkeley in the Sixties" about three weeks ago. This
documentary chronicles the Free Speech movement and its
evolution into the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war
protests, followed by the birth of the women's rights and
environmentalism. The movie closes with discussion of a
rally at Berkeley where police let people in, but the
wouldn't let them out. They were subsequently tear-gassed
by helicopter. I highly recommend this film.
A big story that broke in these parts a few days ago was the
release of thousands of pages of FBI documents that show
that agency unlawfully engaging in intelligence operations
at the University of California in the '50s and '60s. Among
other actions, the FBI schemed with the CIA to harass
liberal students and faculty, campaigned to destroy the
career of then UC president Clark Kerr, and colluded on
numerous suspect activities with actor Ronald Reagan, who
with their aid successfully ran for California Governor in
1966.
These records were released after seventeen years (!) of
legal wrangling through the Freedom of Information Act,
which Attorney General John Ashcroft recently has explicitly
told the Justice Department to disobey. In short, they seek
to avoid any accountability to the American people.
The whole affair clearly highlights the dangers when a
reactionary administration are combined with a powerful
"security" apparatus. The potential for abuses and assaults
on individual liberties are enormous during times of genuine
crisis or politically-manufactured paranoia. A government
agency with unfettered powers of surveillance can become a
secret police force that targets even the mildest dissent
and criticism for reprisal and repression. Add to this
Bush's claim for war powers, and the danger may be greater
than ever.
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