11 Jan, 2014
How Would Dr. Martin Luther King React to NSA Spying?
How would Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have reacted to recent revelations that the U.S. government is collecting and storing nearly every citizen’s phone records and gathering their electronic data?
From 1958 until his 1968 assassination, the FBI conducted extensive surveillance on Dr. King, amassing over 17,000 pages of material on his day-to-day activities.
Today King’s legacy as a civil rights leader is celebrated; there is even a federal holiday named after him. But during his lifetime, the government tracked his movements, tapped his phones, bugged his offices and hotel rooms, and planted informants to spy on him. In addition, the FBI anonymously sent him a letter threatening to destroy his credibility and suggesting that he commit suicide to avoid this.
King was also separately targeted by an NSA domestic spying program called “Minaret.” With others, including Muhammad Ali, Dr. King was labeled and watch-listed as a possible “domestic terrorist and foreign radical” suspect.
We know that Dr. King was aware of his constant surveillance and the threat that it posed to him, yet he continued to teach and promote the ideals of peaceful organizing and resistance, equality, fraternity, and freedom until his life was taken.
So how would he react to the recent disclosures that the NSA and FBI, along with the CIA, DEA, and even local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD are spying on U.S. citizens by collecting communication metadata and infiltrating public demonstrations, activist circles, and houses of worship?
Today Dr. King would be confronted with the Orwellian truth that we are all under surveillance, although some groups – like American Muslims – are under more scrutiny than others. However, whether you are white or black, Hispanic or Asian, Muslim or Christian, the government is spying on all groups as potential “domestic terrorist and foreign radicals.”
Just as it was 50 years ago, the NSA and FBI have once again been caught abusing their surveillance powers, infringing on the liberties they are sworn to protect — all in the name of national security.
These government spying programs constitute a clear violation the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures, and chills First Amendment freedom of speech.
Dr. King supported the Constitution as a framework for all citizens to achieve equal rights, and I believe he would have vocally opposed such government intrusions and spying. While he may have remained publicly silent on the government’s unlawful invasion of his personal life, it’s hard to believe that he would have sat idly by and let every American experience similar attacks on personal liberties as he faced while leading the battle for civil rights and the nation’s soul.
To honor Dr. King’s legacy and the values on which our nation was founded, Americans should work together to challenge these expansive domestic spying programs that are robbing us of our civil liberties.
Some members of Congress and the Obama administration make the claim that these spying programs are lawful under the USA PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Dr. King would know better — the Constitution is clear and these programs are illegal and need to be ended.
[Robert McCaw is government affairs manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization. He can be contacted at rmccaw@cair.com or 202-742-6448.]
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