MONOLOGUE WRITTEN BY CLYDE LEWIS
If you happen to watch CNN at any given moment – one of the stories they will not move on from is the so-called insurrection at the Capitol. It is turning into the Left’s war cry moment. Each day, there is always one more expert that is called to appear to decry the event and now they are pointing out the White Nationalist angle.
What seems to be overlooked or downplayed is that the FBI was informed that there would be an attack of some kind of attack in Washington DC, 24 hours before it happened.
A bulletin warning that extremists from all camps were calling for violent attacks on Congress landed in an email inbox used by the D.C. police department. That same evening, a member of the Capitol Police received the same memo.
But the alert was not flagged for top officials at either agency.
Like any other major event that happens in the United States, the FBI has an inside informant telling them of a major event –and lo and behold, there is a security failure. Then the FBI has reason to set up illegal spying and police state tactics that continues the war between the people and law enforcement.
The result is going to be a country without restraints under a new Domestic Terror statute.
We are about to see a repeat performance in history where in the 1960’s the FBI claimed that they were declaring war on the mob and KKK but eventually had their eyes set on “black American activities.”
We are already seeing a war declared on thought crime punishable in a variety of distasteful ways elaborated by a series of unprecedented new emergency regulations that propose extending the definition of “terrorism”. Those implicated under the new definition will be those broad swaths of citizens of the United States who don’t agree with the operating beliefs of the ruling oligarchy.
Yes, as many people have suspected this is the slippery slope and if you look back you can see how it all ends up becoming a civil war that pits so called radical groups against law enforcement and old school Joe Biden will not be able to hide his contempt for those who do not share his agenda.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was forced to again fend off questions about how the Biden administration’s detention camps for child immigrants differ from those that Democrats including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris decried during the Trump administration.
Psaki was asked how she felt about the widely adopted Newspeak term “kids in containers” — as opposed to the Trump-era Democratic accusation of “kids in cages” — for the Biden administration centers while saying she couldn’t comment on progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rebuking the reopening of the detention facilities.
Already those within the democratic party are seeing holes in the script which again will rile those who have been denouncing the behavior during the Trump administration.
These were some of the root problems that ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter denounced. These triggers may cause these groups to rise up again and then the tide will turn – it is just like the 1960’s all over again.
But this sounds like conspiracy theory, right? Even indicating that this may open old wounds is forbidden.
This should not come as a surprise, as Biden’s new addition to the Department of Homeland Security is Cass Sunstein who famously described exactly what this was going to look like in his infamous 2008 report ‘Conspiracy Theories’. In this study, he foresaw the greatest threat to the ruling elite took the form of “conspiracy theorizing” within the American population using as examples of what he calls the delusion that the government had anything to do with the murders of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X or the planning and execution of 9-11.
But we should not forget history and while many Americans do not believe the official story of how JFK was assassinated, there are also many so-called conspiracy theories about Black leaders like Martin Luther King and Malcom X that have shown government or FBI involvement in their deaths.
Throughout its history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has viewed Black activism as a potential national security threat. It has used its ample investigative powers not to suppress violence, but to inhibit the speech and association rights of Black activists.
In October 1919, a young J Edgar Hoover, director of the Bureau of Investigation’s general intelligence division, targeted “Black Moses” Marcus Garvey for investigation and harassment because of his alleged association with “radical elements” that were “agitating the Negro movement”. Hoover admitted Garvey had violated no federal laws. But the bureau, the precursor organization to the FBI, infiltrated Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association with informant provocateurs and undercover agents who searched for years for any charge that could justify his deportation.
The Justice Department ultimately won a conviction against Garvey on a dubious mail fraud charge in 1923. Meanwhile, white vigilantes, police and soldiers targeted Black communities with violence during this period, which included the Red Summer of 1919, the Tulsa massacre of 1921 and scores of lynching’s, did not receive the same focused attention from Hoover’s agents.
The FBI used similar tactics to disrupt, discredit and neutralize leaders of the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. The FBI targeted civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others specifically to “prevent the rise of a ‘messiah’ who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement” rather than to prevent any violent acts they might perpetrate.
The methods included informant-driven disinformation campaigns designed to spark conflict within the movement, discourage donors and supporters, and even break up marriages. Overt investigative activity was also used, as one stated goal of what was called the COINTELPRO program.
It was used to inspire fear among activists by convincing them that an FBI agent lurked behind every mailbox.
I fear that history is about to repeat itself as the media and the government are getting the public warmed up to the domestic terror laws -citing the rise of White supremacist groups as the reason for the swift police state moves of the Biden administration.
The U.S. government continues to act as judge, jury and executioner over a populace that have been pre-judged and found guilty, stripped of their rights, and left to suffer at the hands of government agents trained to respond with the utmost degree of violence.
Given the government’s tendency to manipulate labels to suit their purposes (case in point: consider how interchangeably the government uses the terms terrorist, extremist and anti-government), that could easily put a target on the back of any American who dares to challenge the government’s agenda or hold it accountable to the rule of law.
This is how “we the people” become enemies of the state.
The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.
The main sell of the new Domestic Terror laws is that we need the encroachment of a well-oiled police state to control White supremacists and right wing extremism – but it is a ploy to silence all dissent and just like the pitch that was made in the 1960’s – where the Klan and the Mob were alleged targets it appears that there was a bait and switch and black leaders became the targets.
The new film undefinedJudas and the Black Messiahundefined retells the story of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and its chairman, Fred Hampton. The film depicts the assassination of Hampton, orchestrated by the FBI, with the help of an informant, William OundefinedNeal. This film along with the recent release of Regina Kingundefineds one night in Miami are apparently being released in order to resonate with the public about racism and how many black leaders were misunderstood in their time.
It is also unwittingly digging up old conspiracy theories that are becoming true about how the FBI had a problem with so called undefinedBlack Messiahsundefined of the 1960undefineds
Especially Hampton because his political views were extremely left. The movie does make clear that Hampton was a socialist. But in our current political moment – when the term “socialism” can mean anything from universal healthcare to workers controlling the means of production – it is important to understand and respect that Hampton had a very specific understanding of the world and what must be done to make it a place worth living in, and dying for.
Like the Black Panther party as a whole, Hampton was not just a socialist, but a communist and a Marxist-Leninist who subscribed to many of the theories laid out by Karl Marx and by Vladimir Lenin, father of the Russian Revolution.
Hampton believed that the people needed to seize the state and usurp the power and wealth of the ruling class, and that only by doing so would Americans establish a truly democratic government and economic system.
He also believed that a vanguard organization, composed of the most politically developed of the working class, would lead the way – helping to guide the masses of disgruntled people to ensure that they were not led astray by reformist leaders who sought to maintain the same underlying exploitative system.
Unlike some Marxist-Leninists before, however, Hampton and the Black Panthers believed that the poorest of the poor – the unemployed, the hustlers and others outside the confines of traditional work – were best suited to carry out this revolution. He believed that we did not need rulers, and that electoral politics could not get us to a revolution. And he believed that race, gender and class work together to keep the masses of people poor and divided.
The film is an engrossing, chair-clenching and relatively accurate depiction of one of the most important young leaders in the history of the United States. However, it tip-toes around the radical politics that made him a large enough threat to be targeted and assassinated by the FBI and the Chicago police department.
I wanted to point this out in order to acknowledge that while I do not agree with his political views undefined I wish to demonstrate that the same tactics the government used to betray Hampton are the same tactics that I believe will be used with the Biden Administrationundefined new Domestic Terrorism crusade.
Biden has been praised for acknowledging white super-racist groups which of course feeds a great deal of cheering on CNN and other liberal networks. However what will not be praised is the fact that these new “laws” being considered are also aimed at “black identity extremists,” as well as environmental activists whom the FBI calls “ecoterrorists” and Muslim Americans who been the focus of the bureau’s attention for the last two decades.
Reporting about a Klansman in the bushes waiting to say undefinedbooundefined – is a distraction from what Biden wants – and what he wants is what happened back in the 1960’s when J. Edgar Hoover was given Carte Blanch to do whatever was necessary to wipe out anyone who saw themselves as a revolutionary or freedom fighter.
The Capitol insurrectionists are just a distraction and an excuse to implement more tyranny.
Civil rights advocates worry that moves to fight far-Right extremism will be used against communities of color and Left-wing activists.
An expanded no-fly list. New crimes put on the books. Increased use of the death penalty.
These are some of the ways that politicians, pundits and law enforcement want to head off a repeat of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. But a renewed national security push aimed at addressing domestic terrorism has civil liberties groups steeling themselves, concerned that moves to combat far-right extremism will instead redound against communities of color and Left-wing activists.
Last summer’s Color Revolution jump-started a national conversation over the endurance of racism within America’s law enforcement and security apparatus. But despite campaigning on the need to reform those institutions, some mainstream Democrats are now taking the lead on calls to expand them.
All this time the Democratic elite accused Trump of Tyranny undefined now it is feared that the same tyranny that plagued the Democrat line on race will return again like a Phantom from the tumultuous past and that community leaders, and even radical moves by groups like Black Lives Matter are going to be put down under the new domestic terror apparatus.
It is an acute case of history repeating itself.
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has called for the Capitol rioters to be placed on the no-fly list. President Joe Biden, whose campaign website pledges his administration will “work for a domestic terrorism law”, has ordered a comprehensive assessment of domestic violent extremism. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has called for a new “9/11-type commission”. And the first domestic terrorism legislation to follow the Capitol attack was introduced in the House last week by the Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider.
The Democratic party, however, isn’t entirely united on the issue.
Ten progressive members of Congress led by the Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have sent a letter to congressional leadership expressing opposition to an expansion of national security powers.
Our history is littered with examples of initiatives sold as being necessary to fight extremism that quickly devolve into tools used for the mass violation of the human and civil rights of the American people.
The new movie, Judas and Black Messiah, resonates with this particular fear and that is the conspiracy to rule the United States as a police state undefined the barbed wire and fencing around the capitol is a sign that the leadership in this country fears that their new policies will incite more insurrection not just from right wing white supremacists as the media will have you believe but from radical Left-wing groups who do not hold the same ideas as this current administration.
More than 100 civil and human rights organizations have also joined in a statement of opposition to any new domestic terror legislation.
The government does have more expansive powers – powers that ballooned in the decades since 9/11 – to target Americans it claims are associated with groups designated by the state department as “Foreign Terrorism Organizations”. While the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 authorities did expand the government’s ability to investigate and prosecute domestic terrorism, it has so far avoided extending all of those authorities to domestic groups. That’s in part due to first amendment-related concerns, as the US constitution permits non-violent association with hateful groups. Advocates also point out how damaging those anti-terrorism powers have been to Muslim-American communities and the rule of law. The “terrorism” label has been used to justify the surveillance of entire communities, mass arrests and deportations, entrapment, harassment, an inflated watchlist system.
We have seen how an overzealous system has been used against the Black community in the past and again, what should resonate in these historical Biopics of Hampton, Malcom X and Martin Luther King is how they were victims of the FBI and other alphabet organizations that were ordered to infiltrate, spy on and eventually kill leaders that preach the word of opposition.
Fifty-six years after the death of Malcolm X, lawyers revealed what they called new evidence of a conspiracy, perpetrated by the NYPD and the FBI to assassinate the Civil Rights activist in Harlem.
Ray Wood was an undercover police officer at the time - his family and their attorney now claim Wood wrote a letter on his deathbed confessing the NYPD and the FBI conspired to kill the Civil Rights activist.
Malcolm X was gunned down in February 1965 in Harlem during a speaking engagement. Woodundefineds family says in the letter that Wood wrote, he stated his responsibility was to ensure Malcolm Xundefineds security detail was arrested days before the assassination.
The letter further states this move would guarantee Malcolm X not having door security at the Audubon Ballroom where he was killed.
Now Malcolm Xundefineds three daughters, along with Woodundefineds family and high-profile Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, are asking for the murder investigation to be re-opened in light of the new evidence.
Three Nation of Islam members were convicted in Malcolm Xundefineds murder. Last year the Manhattan DA began a review of those convictions after meeting with representatives of the Innocence Project.
Now, with the new evidence, the DAundefineds office says undefinedthe review of this matter is active and ongoing.undefined
The FBI released a statement on the investigation.
undefinedThe FBIundefineds New York field office is aware of recent reporting regarding the circumstances surrounding Malcom Xundefineds death. Over the past several months, we have worked cooperatively with the Manhattan District Attorneyundefineds Office to assist in its review of the matter and provide relevant documents from FBI holdings. Todayundefineds FBI stands for the noble pursuit of justice, and we will continue to support the review in any way we can.undefined
They also issued further:
Several months ago, the Manhattan District Attorney initiated a review of the investigation and prosecution that resulted in two convictions for the murder of Malcom X. The NYPD has provided all available records relevant to that case to the District Attorney. The Department remains committed to assist with that review in any way.
These new revelations are actually vindication for most conspiracy theorist who believed that Malcom X, Martin Luther King Junior and Fred Hampton were targets of a vast and well organized FBI spying operation called COINTELPRO.
The FBI established COINTELPRO—short for counterintelligence program—in 1956 to investigate, infiltrate and discredit dissident groups ranging from the Communist Party of the United States to the Ku Klux Klan, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. Of particular interest to Hoover and other top officials were figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Fred Hampton, many of whom endured illegal surveillance, explicit threats and police harassment. Details of the covert program only came to light came to light in 1971, when activists stole confidential files from an FBI office in Pennsylvania and released them to the public.
Though Hampton stated that the Panthers would only resort to violence in self-defense, Hoover interpreted his words as a declaration of militant intentions.
The FBI believed that any threat of violence was seen as a threat and so the infiltration was a justified and any and all deaths of these Black messiahs was seen as a self-fulfilling prophecy from the FBI’s point of view.
Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request confirm that Hoover himself was involved in the plan to assassinate Hampton and other conspiracy theories connect Hoover with the deaths of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Junior.
This, of course, is conspiracy history – a history as haunting as another dark moment that eventually fades to black. I am sure that many people will say that the radicals always get what they deserve but you need to understand that eventually, “we the people” will be the ones in the cross-hairs.
At some point or another, depending on how the government and its corporate allies define what constitutes “extremism, “we the people” might all be considered guilty of some thought crime or extremist act – something that was once considered patriotic.
On a closer inspection of history, we find countless instances where people shape their individual and group behavior around sets of ideas that transcend controllable material impulses. When this happens, those individuals or groups tend to resist adapting to environments created for them. This incredible phenomenon is witnessed empirically in the form of the American Revolution, Warsaw Ghetto Uprisings, Civil Rights movements, and even some bold manifestations of anti-lockdown protests now underway around the world.
Computer models that are implemented for national security flags are now looking for key words and phrases that put people in the crosshairs of investigation –words like:
“Conscience”, “Truth”, “Intentions”, “Soul”, “Honor”, “God”, “Justice”, “Patriotism”, “Dignity”, and “Freedom”.
Some of the same words that were used by Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Maybe we should take a lesson from black history before it fades away into obscurity for another year.
