Reply #5: Great answer, KT2000 [View All]

Great answer to a very interesting and extremely important question. I would add that it is worth-while to go beyond googling, and to invest the time to read as many of the dozens of high-quality books about this subject as possible.

One might do well to start with any of the books that deal with the infamous Hoover memo from early 1968, which read , in part, that the FBI had to: "prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups .... prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining respectability ... Prevent the rise of a black 'messiah' who would unify and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. Malcomb X (sic) might have been such a 'messiah;' he is the martyr of the movement today. Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elija Muhammed (sic) all aspire to this position. Elija Muhammed is less of a threat because of his age. King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed 'obedience' to 'white, liberal doctrines' {nonviolence} and embrace nationalism. Carmichael has the necessay charisma to be a real threat in this way."

I think that it is important to first have an understanding of both Malcolm and Martin, and who they really were .... including how the black population viewed them, and the white population, and the international community.

One thing you'll find is that, much like in the days of the "Red Scare" and the McCarthy era, the FBI under Hoover was almost entirely focused on being the political police .... and a #1 tactic was to use informants to not only eport back on activities, but to disrupt. I'm tempted to add a segment on the use of sociopaths rather than mere "anti-social" informants, as anti-social people have a code of conduct they adhere to. While it is not the "main stream" code, it has a sense of honor. Sociopaths do not.

An interesting book that is used at Syracuse University is "Agents of Repression" by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. It covers the FBI's "secret wars" against the Black Panther Party and American Indian Movement. While there are many other extremely good books, this one is a good start. Also of interest is "Malcolm X : The FBI File" by C. Carson, with an introduction by Spike Lee that is worth the price of the book.