Ever seen those Time Life commercials advertising their Nazi Germany collection? The ads claim they’ll give you a glimpse into the “face of evil” that is Adolph Hitler. When we think of the “face of evil,” why are we so quick to admonish foreign tyrants like Joseph Stalin and Hitler but not domestic, state-sponsored terrorists like J. Edgar Hoover?
The former head of the FBI, who was a well-known racist, authorized the killings and imprisonment of countless people through the War on Drugs and Cointelpro policies. He set the precedent for the U.S. to have the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world. Hoover’s influence can also be seen in our “world police,” who bomb, detain and torture in the name of “freedom.”
Though the statistics are comparable to totalitarian regimes of the past, the perception of the U.S. domestically is that of a champion of human rights.
I had lessons on Nazi and Soviet propaganda drilled into my head in high school. We learned egregious human rights violations were allowed to persist because the people were deceived by propaganda posing as news.
One of Hoover’s go-to tactics was the use of informants in the media. These informants carried out misinformation campaigns by writing fake stories about supposed enemies of the state and demonizing anyone who sought to expose the FBI. They also seized on the news’ function as an agenda setter by choosing which stories got reported and which ones never made it to the American public.
For example, according to the late author Manning Marable, an informant was involved in the writing of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” This resulted in an exaggeration of Malcolm’s criminal past as well as the omission of his evolved views following his pilgrimage to Mecca.@@http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/10/scholar-charges-alex-haley-with.html@@
By using the media to frame how the public saw targets of the state, it allowed the FBI and the CIA to abuse the law without being challenged.
In the case of the War on Drugs, the characterization of everyone arrested as a drug criminal has made it acceptable to have a new racial caste system. Media reports on drug criminals have overwhelmingly displayed images of black and brown men even though whites are statistically just as likely to use and sell illegal drugs. The result has been a disproportionate number of people of color as second-class citizens by virtue of a criminal record. This second-class citizenship includes disenfranchisement, denial of public housing and the right to be discriminated against in employment. To date, over 35 million people have been arrested since the War on Drugs began 40 years ago.@@http://ozarkretirementhomes.com/rx_maryjane.htm@@
Code words have also been utilized in Cointelpro operations, which targeted groups like the Black Panthers, the Young Lords and the American Indian Movement. Members of these groups were characterized as thugs for their embrace of 2nd Amendment rights even though they emphasized prolific reading, cultural pride and community development. The media campaign created an atmosphere where the FBI could get away with acts like the assassination of a sleeping Fred Hampton or the bombing of MOVE, which killed 15 people, including women and children, and took out three and a half @@AP style?@@blocks. It also allowed them to lock up numerous political prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal@@http://articles.philly.com/2011-05-02/news/29495893_1_hugh-j-burns-mumia-abu-jamal-case-district-judge-william-yohn@@ and Assata Shakur.@@http://afrocubaweb.com/assata.htm@@ This legacy continues today with political prisoners like Bradley Manning.@@http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/bradley-manning-then-and-now/2011/04/16/AF81grqF_gallery.html@@
Perhaps the most prevalent use of code word targeting has come in the War on Terror. Images of terrorists have not-so-subtly been equated with Arabs and Muslims in a way that would make the late Hoover blush. Domestically, this has allowed the Patriot Act to give police and the FBI little discretion in detaining and entrapping suspected terrorists despite little evidence.
Similarly, the U.S. has created a number of secret prisons abroad where soldiers are encouraged to torture detainees, labeled “enemy combatants” to avoid adhering to the Geneva Convention, for intelligence information. This torture includes religious and sexual humiliation, beatings, waterboarding and exposure to phobias. It has yielded faulty intelligence because many innocent detainees have admitted to confessing to stop the torture, as detailed in Andy Worthington’s “The Guantanamo Files.” In fact, last week Wikileaks revealed that the U.S. knowingly detained 175 innocent people in Guantanamo Bay.@@http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/the-guantanamo-files/@@ @@http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1380290/Guantanamo-Bay-Wikileaks-releases-chilling-interrogation-files-terror-suspects.html@@
The U.S. gets away with this imperialistic behavior by using the media to downplay any objections. If a person dissents from the official narrative, then he or she is reviled as a conspiracy theorist.
For example, questions about why we haven’t seen any evidence of Osama bin Laden’s body or why the U.S. chose to shoot him in the head despite him being unarmed have been marginalized on the major news networks despite non-stop coverage.
In contrast, theories on President Obama’s birth certificate got so much push he had to hold a special press conference to display it it.
Although Hoover died decades ago, the legacy and implementation of his policies has lived on. The media is still in bed with the government as human rights violations abound.
Skepticism is equated with treason.
Perhaps we don’t teach Hoover in the same vein as Hitler because this chapter in history has yet to close.