home

J. Edgar Hoover Redux

By TChris, Section Constitution
Posted on Sun Dec 23, 2007 at 09:30:45 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

J. Edgar Hoover sent a memo to the White House in 1950, where it evidently languished until the Bush administration decided that Hoover had a good plan.

A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty.

The irony, we hope, is obvious: to protect the country from "disloyalty," Hoover urged a betrayal of the Constitution. What kind of loyal American believes that individuals should be deprived of their freedom on suspicion alone, without due process and with no right to challenge the confinement in court?

Oh, right. This kind:

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush issued an order that effectively allowed the United States to hold suspects indefinitely without a hearing, a lawyer, or formal charges.

< Campaigns Wind Down for Christmas | Jose Rodriguez to Seek Immunity in CIA Tape Destruction Probe >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    J. Edgar Hoover Redux | 10 comments (10 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

    You hope the irony is obvious (5.00 / 2) (#1)
    by Molly Bloom on Sun Dec 23, 2007 at 09:45:23 PM EST
    However, Mr. Justice Davis's words have come true:

    Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln...

    Sad to say there are regular posters here who think its a good thing.


    And they are all trolls (none / 0) (#2)
    by kovie on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 03:29:50 AM EST
    No one who posts here who believes in such things is or can be a good faith member of this or any other progressive blog. Or any blog that purports to respect and preserve the constitution for that matter. Nor can any such person be rightly called a good American. The constitution accords all Americans an enormous amount of leeway of action but it does not accord them the right to destroy it. And any who seek or try to do so should, I think, be viewed as among the most dangerous and un-American of Americans. Bush, Cheney, Addington & Co. are such people, as are their supporters, here and elsewhere.

    I am generally quite open-minded and forgiving, but not of such things, and such people. They are well beyond the pale.

    Parent

    the true irony (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by cpinva on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 03:53:31 AM EST
    is that bushco, staunch haters of gays everywhere, would pay any attention to the mad ravings of the closet queen, j. edgar hooover.

    truly delicious, in a thefaceofevilisbanal kind o' way.

    Except (5.00 / 1) (#7)
    by squeaky on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 11:16:27 AM EST
    is that bushco, staunch haters of gays everywhere
    When they are nasty and in the closet, adn if they are nasty enough as is the case with Hoover, the door can be ajar.

    Parent
    FDR redux (none / 0) (#4)
    by diogenes on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 10:25:37 AM EST
    That might also be the title of this post, since the "disloyal" Japanese who were held in detention camps during world war II also did not have access to habeus corpus.
    This changes what about Hoover? (5.00 / 0) (#5)
    by Molly Bloom on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 10:36:19 AM EST
    2 wrongs make a right?

    Everybody does it?

    What exactly is your point?

    I don't know any Democrat, in this day and age,  who wouldn't tell you the incarceration of Japanese Americans was wrong.

    Parent

    True (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by Adept Havelock on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 11:03:12 AM EST
    True.

    However, I can think of at least one yammerhead commentator for the right who wrote a book defending  that illegal imprisonment and seizure of assets from US citizens.

    Parent

    FDR and Bush (none / 0) (#8)
    by diogenes on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 01:16:46 PM EST
    Ah, Mr. Justice Davis's words:

    "Wicked men, ambitious of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law, may fill the place once occupied by Washington and Lincoln..."

    I guess if this describes FDR, then it describes Bush.
    And why is it OK for cpinva to gaybait Hoover?

    pointing out Hoover was in the closet is not gay (none / 0) (#10)
    by Molly Bloom on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 05:46:28 PM EST
    baiting. The excess of power by Bush far exceed the excess of power by FDR. But go ahead compare the two- it works in FDR's favor.

    Parent
    Truman (none / 0) (#9)
    by Kewalo on Mon Dec 24, 2007 at 05:01:43 PM EST
    Listen to what Truman had to say in April 1950.

     http://youtube.com/watch?v=-FfdsHP1UWU

    I'm surprised that Hoover sent that memo in July, he must have known that Truman wouldn't act on it. I really wonder what was behind it.

    J. Edgar Hoover Redux | 10 comments (10 topical)

    Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment