The FBI and Mortal Sin

Somehow, although I am as historically aware as most Americans can be expected to be, I never knew until this morning that the FBI tried to get MLK to kill himself. The intense surveillance they deployed against him gave them a wealth of knowledge about his actions that they used to assemble this letter, which is disturbing but not surprising. That a police agency would attempt to fool one of its citizens into committing suicide is both horrible and shocking.

Of course, the FBI is only partially a police agency; they also think of themselves as a counterintelligence service. That is an inadequate excuse.

(H/t: InstaPundit.)

3 comments:

raven said...

Grim, I share your feelings- it goes right along with the FBI lab scandal. There are many times the government is indistinguishable from a very large organized crime cartel.

Eric Blair said...

And, mind you, that was over 40 years ago. Just think of what they're up to *now*.

Ymar Sakar said...

That version of the FBI also spied on Nixon, got Ayers released due to illegal searches, and various other things nobody but a few know about.

The current FBI has been a lot more useful with their domestic surveillance, from my analysis. Useful not for Democrats, meaning.