A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford Click the flash player below to listen to or the mic to download an mp3 copy of this BA Radio commentary.
A white racist who threatened the lives of white state legislators and federal judges in Connecticut and Illinois, was jailed. But when the same man demanded the lynching of Black Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney while a paid agent provocateur for the FBI, in 2006, nothing happened – which leads us to conclude that the FBI approved.
FBI Provocateur on McKinney: Why Not Lynch an “Uppity Black Bitch?”
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
“By doing nothing, the FBI condoned Turner's demand for the assassination of a federal lawmaker.”
There is every historical reason to believe that the FBI approved of – or at least, had no objections to – it’s own agent’s incitement to assassinate a sitting Black U.S. congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, in 2006.
The FBI's deep and institutional involvement in promoting domestic terror is an abiding fact of American life dating back nearly a century. The Bureau was born as a secret political police agency that arguably manufactured or instigated far more crime than it legitimately uncovered. It's core mission has remained unchanged since World War One, when the embryonic FBI was set loose as the federal attack dog to maul anti-war forces, labor, and the Left in general. Throughout its history, the FBI has considered all consciously Black politics to be inherently subversive – and the Bureau believed its mandate was to eliminate all subversives by any means necessary.
To that end, the FBI employed a vast army of agent provocateurs, whose job was to create crimes. Some of this FBI activity was simple entrapment, provoking people to engage in crimes they were presumably predisposed to commit, anyway, so that they could be arrested and taken out of circulation. But throughout the 19-teens, the 1920s, the 30s, and in every decade into the 21st century, the primary mission of the FBI's so-called “counter-intelligence” efforts has been to devise ways in which its “enemies” would wind up dead, maimed or otherwise “neutralized.” Thus, the Bureau routinely instigated violence for its own political purposes.
“The primary mission of the FBI's so-called 'counter-intelligence' efforts has been to devise ways in which its 'enemies' would wind up dead, maimed or otherwise 'neutralized.'”
Hal Turner, an internet radio operator and white racist from New Jersey, is charged with calling for the deaths of state lawmakers in Connecticut and three federal judges in Illinois. For that, he has been jailed. His lawyers claim Turner was only doing what the FBI taught him to do when he was one of their paid provocateurs, from 2002 to 2007. The prosecution admits Turner worked for the FBI before he broadcast the calls for the white officials' deaths. The FBI won't comment. But Turner would have been employed by the Bureau in 2006, when he asked his racist internet audience the question, “Given the prevalence of Black crime in America, would it serve the public good to lynch Congresswoman McKinney within the next few weeks...so as to send an unmistakable message to other Blacks...behave or die?” Turner then told his audience the address of McKinney's campaign headquarters.
For this brazen and very public threat against a federal official, Turner was neither charged, nor jailed, nor otherwise bothered in the least. When a McKinney aide contacted the FBI, he was told, “We know all about Turner.” Of course they did. By doing nothing, the FBI condoned Turner's demand for the assassination of a federal lawmaker, who he described as “a violent, black, racist bitch....”
Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department oversees the Bureau – at least on paper. It is his job to root out the terror squads that have always been part of the very fiber of the FBI. Attorney General Holder has said Americans are “cowards” when it comes to race. Is he afraid of his own FBI?
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Dahoud Andre is a member of KOMOKODA, the Committee to Mobilize Against Dictatorship in Haiti.
Erin George is National Director of Policy for the Bail Project.
