The FBI began its smear campaign against Dr. King in the late 1950s under a secretive program entitled "Racial Matters." Over the next decade, the FBI engaged in concerted and illegal harassment and surveillance of Dr. King and other luminaries in the civil rights movement. Throughout this campaign, no credible evidence of wrongdoing existed to justify the FBI's activities.
In response to revelations exposed by congressional investigations into governmental abuse, the Justice Department implemented a series of "Attorney General Guidelines" that limit the scope of acceptable surveillance and infiltration of religious and political organizations.
"If Attorney General Ashcroft relaxes the restrictions against domestic political spying -- restrictions put in place specifically because of the federal abuse of Dr. King -- he will run the clear risk of allowing the same inexcusable behavior to happen again," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington National Office.
"Dr. King's legacy is not just the gains made toward political and social equality," added Marvin Johnson, an ACLU Legislative Counsel who wrote the King report. "His legacy is also an important reminder of the potential for abuse when a government with too long a leash seeks to silence voices of dissent."
The ACLU's Case Study can be found at:
http://www.you-click.net/GoNow/a15545a51387a80295107a7
********************************
