In 1950, 12 days after the start of the Korean War, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan “to apprehend and detain persons who are potentially dangerous to the internal security of the country” — thousands of them, almost all American citizens.
Hoover submitted the plan to President Harry Truman’s special consultant for military and foreign affairs, Adm. Sidney Souers — who had been the first director of the nascent Central Intelligence Agency in 1946 — and to Souers’ successor as Truman’s top security aide, James Lay.
According to the plan, the United States was to round up suspects, detain them at federal prisons or military facilities and eventually allow them a hearing that would not be bound by the rules of evidence.
Author Ronald Kessler said he sees a big difference between that plan and the detention of suspected terrorists now. Kessler has penned several books about the FBI, including “The Bureau.”
“The court has allowed all the measures that the Bush administration has used to find terrorists to continue,” he said. “Congress has allowed all the measures to continue as well. So it’s quite a contrast with the days of J. Edgar Hoover.”
Back in the day, other versions of thought police were overcome – with the help of courts defined by respect for our Constitution and [a few] members of Congress with guts and backbone.
Yet Hoover objected to the internment of the Japanese.
#1 – Gee, wasn’t that nice of him ?
When I see/hear one of our potential wannabe leaders actually saying something about rolling back the crap laws from the last 20 years designed to protect them from us, then I’ll get excited..til then..I’ll stimulate myself in here.
Oh, Merry to you MikeN.
As for me, Merry Christmas to you and all you meet this holiday !
Be well, stay safe .
Congress has only been doing what its corporate masters have paid it to do. Kind of like how Hitler had the backing of Germany’s major industries. Think about that.
Oh and have a very Merry Christmas too.
Of course the situation is a fair bit different.
Truman was not a milksop, like George W.
His father was not the Ex-Head of the CIA.
There had been no coup that placed key people into positions of power behind the throne.
Hoover and other key people had not as much backing from the military industrial complex.
One could say that our current condition was a “Perfect Storm” senario that had been brewing since 1962.
Cursor_
To go off on another one of my historical rants again.
Most of the Federal Judges around Truman’s time and up until Reagan had been chosen first by FDR and then Truman. Eisenhower did not deviate much and also chose solid, intelligent men for the bench. Thus we ended up with the Warren and Burger Courts, both known for their more “people” view of civil rights.
Nixon started appointing some right wing conservative judges such as Rehnquist. Reagan continued with the religious quacks and pseudo judges. Men like Justices Scalia and Thomas. Bush II has also shown a tendency for quacks, with a nomination of Harriet Meyers and later Alito and Roberts.
So today we have a court largely made up of religious wackos (Alito & Scalia), quacks (Roberts & Thomas) and some middle of the road (Kennedy & Souter), and a few honest people (Breyer, Ginsberg, & Stevens). This court is not the mental equivalent of the Vinson Court during Truman’s era.
Mr. Catshit is right. In addition to Warren (supposedly a political deal to keep California Governor Warren from running for President), Eisenhower also appointed William Brennan, one of the stalwarts on the High Court. When he was warned that Brennan was liberal, Eisenhower supposedly said that liberals deserved representation on the Court.
Imagine that happening today.
Hmmm… no harm no foul. Anyway isn’t it time to celebrate the fact that we have won in Iraq?
I want some of what Brianon is smoking.