Ending Impunity in Office

 

J. Edgar Hoover

The recent disclosure that the late J. Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI, “…ordered agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants to the FBI when talking with police and prosecutors…” and to withhold evidence, underscores how some people who attain a position of power and authority abuse the peoples’ trust.

Hoover was well known for using FBI agents to compile “information” and for maintaining vast records on politicians as well as ordinary citizens throughout his 37 years as FBI Director. When it suited his purposes, he used his “information” to blackmail, extort, or intimidate to maintain his position as director or otherwise attain his will. Hoover had no fear that he would be force out because he had files on everyone. 

Hoover clearly acted with impunity. I doubt he gave a thought to serving time in prison for any of his extra-legal deeds.

He was not alone, by the way. 

While Ike's Sec. of State, John Foster Dulles and his brother, Allan Dulles, Director of the CIA, and their compadres were creating our world-wide image as what later became collectively known as, The Ugly American, at home, the CIA, under Mr. Alan Dulles, inaugurated Operation Mockingbird to subvert what little Fourth Estate remained.

In this recent case, “Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation found new evidence that the men were not involved with the killing and determined that authorities withheld some of what they knew.”

Malcolm X was shot to death while giving a speech in 1965. Earlier, before his trip to Mecca, Malcolm X was renown as a member of the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslim organization which Hoover infiltrated. After the Mecca trip, Malcom X began advocating for racial unity and some Black Muslims considered him a traitor.

“Innocence Project co-founder Barry Scheck, one of the lawyers for Aziz and for Islam’s family, said the review also found the FBI and police hid evidence from prosecutors, as what he called part of a plot to disrupt the Black civil rights movement.”

“The FBI and New York Police Department had evidence of Aziz’s and Islam’s innocence within hours but ignored and suppressed it,” said attorney, Deborah Francois.

It’s time to end, “impunity in office” by appointed and elected officials, don’t you agree?

Dad Was Right

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part I, How We Lost Our Naïveté

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part II, A Doppelganger USA is Running Amok Throughout Our World

Lies Too Big to Fail, Part III, The Time of The Great Awakening: How We Can Resurrect Our Democracy

The CIA and the Media, Carl Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct 1977