KQED Perspective on History's Lessons from Domestic Spying

March 1, 2002 by Dorothy Ehrlich, KQED

    Attorney General John Ashcroft has made a dangerous announcement that has almost gone unnoticed… He is proposing to put domestic intelligence agencies back in the business of spying on religious institutions and political organizations. 

    Sure, some people say, why should I care, I have nothing to hide, after all this is a time of national crises. 

    But history teaches us that we have a great deal to fear.  Indeed a man now honored as a national hero was the victim of just such a spying effort.  

    In the late 1950’s Dr Martin Luther King came to the FBI’s attention because of a voter registration campaign in the south.  The FBI’s investigation was authorized by a specious claim that Communists were infiltrating Dr. King’s organization.

    Because Dr. King advocated non-violence, there was no legitimate law enforcement purpose for the FBI’s action.  But Dr. King ‘s growing power and effective advocacy for social justice caused the FBI to engage in a mind-boggling smear campaign designed to destroy him. Dr. King was not alone.  Many other political activists were also targeted, and had their lives ruined during the 1950’s and 60’s.

    Those ugly chapters of our history are largely forgotten today. The FBI’s treacherous abuses were exposed through Congressional hearings in the 1970s,  and  the Attorney General later  established new guidelines that put limits on the FBI’s power to engage in surveillance or to infiltrate groups engaged in protected First Amendment activities …in essence, a promise that it would never happen again. 

    For more than 25 years those rules stopped the FBI  from  spying in churches or on  political organizations without  specific evidence that someone in the group has broken the law.  Now Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced that he may abandon these guidelines. 

    That same Attorney General Ashcroft recently described those who disagree with the administration’s policies, as “giving ammunition to our enemies.”   This comment, coupled with the proposal to loosen these restrictions on the FBI should alarm us all…

    With a perspective, I’m Dorothy Ehrlich.