The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
May 20, 2008 at 4:38 pm (Conspiracy Theories, Corrupt Politics,
Opinion)
(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
The New McCarthyism
By Michael Rivero
What Really Happened
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/the-new-mccarthyism/
Back in the year 1947, the House Select Committee began an
investigation into the Motion Picture Industry. Ostensibly the goal
was to ferret out communists working in the film industry. But in
actuality the US Government was concerned that Hollywood was no
longer as blindly supportive of government policy as it had been
only a few years earlier at the height of WW2. In particular, J.
Edgar Hoover had long held the opinion that the entertainment
industry should be the propaganda arm for the government in peace
time as well as war.
However, as WW2 had ended, the defense establishment had lobbied for
the creation of a “Cold” war against the Soviet Union, a war not
actually to be fought, but constantly to be prepared for at huge
cost to the taxpayers. This cost was the visible manifestation of
the “Military Industrial Complex” President Eisenhower referred to
in his farewell address, and many in Hollywood openly wondered just
why so much more money had to be thrown into the war machine during
a time of peace, and more to the point, just why we were supposed to
be so afraid of the communists.
Hoover’s desire to remake Hollywood into a gigantic propaganda
machine had started at the end of WW1 when Hoover tried to persuade
Charlie Chaplin to cease making films that portrayed authority
figures as oafish buffoons. Chaplin refused, laughed at Hoover.
Years later, as head of the FBI, Hoover was instrumental in having
Charlie Chaplin’s citizenship revoked in retaliation.
Hoover’s mania with Hollywood was a seldom reported but constant
factor in show business. The 1959 film, “The FBI Story” starring Air
Force General Jimmy Stewart was reportedly directed by Mervyn LeRoy,
but in actuality J. Edgar Hoover was personally supervising the film
(and briefly appears in it, shown only from the back) to make
certain the “correct” image of the FBI was shown.
In later years, FBI informants became permanent fixtures at movie
studios, and spied for the FBI. When Disney Studios made “That
Darned Cat”, a pre-production copy of the screenplay “somehow” made
its way to the FBI, which promptly sent Disney a memo expressing
concern at how the FBI was to be portrayed.
[That Darned Cat]Click for full sized page. [That Darned Cat]Click
for full sized page.
Likewise, when Paramount Pictures produced,”Skidoo”, starring Jackie
Gleason, it featured a single scene in which Gleason’s character is
seen fleeing a building marked,”FBI” carrying a file cabinet on his
back. That one single scene prompted the following four page memo.
[Skidoo page 1]Click for full sized page. [Skidoo page 2]Click for
full sized page.
[Skidoo page 3]Click for full sized page. [Skidoo page 4]Click for
full sized page.
Along with “nudging” the film studios to portray certain things
certain ways, the FBI did not hesitate to wreck the careers of those
people it felt posed a dangerous threat to the government’s public
image. During the height of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, the FBI
destroyed the career of actress Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg was considered a threat to the US Government because of
her public support for civil rights at a time when the Civil Rights
movement was starting to point out the racial bias in the draft
system that placed a disproportionate percentage of black kids on
the front lines. Seberg was also a supporter of the Black Panthers
in their pre-militant days when their agenda was breakfasts for the
ghetto kids, local control of school curriculum, and ending the
draft.
Jean Seberg, a well known actress in the 60s, became pregnant and
the FBI sent out letters to the gossip columnists identifying the
baby’s father as a Black Panther, in order to cheapen Seberg’s
image. Keep in mind that the 60s was an era in which sexual
relations between blacks and whites was still considered taboo by
most people.
The scans below are of the official FBI letter from Los Angeles to
Washington D.C. asking permission for the scam.
[Seberg Letter Page 1]letter requesting permission for the smearing
of Jean Seberg.
[Seberg Letter Page 2]page two of request for permission to smear of
Jean Seberg
The text of the letter:
"Bureau permission is requested to publicize the pregnancy of Jean
Seberg, well-known movie actress by (name deleted) Black Panther
(BPP)
(deleted) by advising Hollywood "Gossip-Columnists" in the Los
Angeles
area of the situation. It is felt that the possible publication of
Seberg's plight could cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen
her
image with the general public.
" 'It is proposed that the following letter from a fictitious person
be sent to local columnists:
"I was just thinking about you and remembered I still owe you a
favor.
So ---- I was in Paris last week and ran into Jean Seberg, who was
heavy with baby. I thought she and Romaine [sic] had gotten together
again, but she confided the child belonged to (deleted) of the Black
Panthers, one (deleted). The dear girl is getting around!
” ‘Anyway, I thought you might get a scoop on the others. Be good
and
I’ll see you soon.
‘Love,
” ‘Sol.,
“Usual precautions would be taken by the Los Angeles Division to
preclude identification of the Bureau as the source of the letter if
approval is granted.”
Permission to use the fake letter was granted, but with the
suggestion that the smear be delayed until Jean Seberg’s pregnancy
was in a very obvious condition.
[Seberg Letter Page 1] letter granting permission for the smearing
of Jean Seberg.
The story was then run by Los Angeles Times propagandist Joyce
Haber.
[Seberg Letter Page 2]Click for full size picture of the Haber
Article that launched the smear.
The story was picked up by Newsweek and the international press. The
shock of the story was so severe that Jean Seberg suffered a
miscarriage. The funeral for the child was held with an open casket,
so that the lie stood revealed in it’s most tragic form. Jean Seberg,
her baby dead and her career shattered by this outright lie,
attempted suicide several times, finally succeeding in a French
Hotel.
[Seberg Letter Page 1] memo that accompanied copy of the Haber story
sent to FBI files.
(The name which was redacted from the memo during the FOIA process
is thought by many to have been Raymond Hewit, a Black Panther
leader. His “outright lie” was far more direct. The FBI typed up a
letter on official FBI stationary identifying Hewit as an informant
and planted it where other Black Panthers would find it in the hopes
that Hewit would then be killed.)
Following Seberg’s death, the Los Angeles Times, the key instrument
of her torment, issued a statement by the FBI.
"The days when the FBI used derogatory information to combat
advocates
of unpopular causes have long since passed. We are out of that
business forever."
The Senate committee that looked into COINTELPRO disagreed, however.
"Cointelpro activities may continue today under the rubric of
'investigation.'
Finally, no single celebrity filled the government with more fear
than did ex-Beatle John Lennon. Lennon’s popularity, and hence his
ability to influence popular opinion, coupled with his strong
anti-war stance, made him a real threat in the event the United
States decided it had to go to war. For this reason, Lennon was one
of the most watched celebrities, and according to Lennon’s youngest
son, the victim of a government assassination plot.
[Lennon 1]Click for full sized page. [Lennon 2]Click for full sized
page.
[Lennon 3]Click for full sized page. [Lennon 4]Click for full sized
page.
[Lennon 5]Click for full sized page. [Lennon 6]Click for full sized
page.
[Lennon 7]Click for full sized page. [Lennon 8]Click for full sized
page.
[Lennon 9]Click for full sized page. [Lennon 10]Click for full sized
page.
Having documented the FBI’s willingness to destroy anyone they feel
represents a threat to the government, let us return to the days of
the House Select Committee on UnAmerican Activities.
While Senator Joseph McCarthy grabbed headlines with his shouts of
“Communist”, Hoover set about his self-appointed task of purging
Hollywood of any he viewed as “disloyal” to the United States, which
meant anyone unwilling to make the movies they were told to make,
when and how they were told to make them. Senator McCarthy’s screed
of “Communist” provided Hoover with a bludgeon he could and did use
with impunity on Hollywood’s creative talents. Careers were ruined.
Some 400 people, mostly innocent of any actual wrongdoing, were
destroyed. Some, like Jean Seberg would later do, committed suicide.
Ten men (the famous Hollywood Ten), Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman,
Lester Cole, Ring Lardner jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz,
Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott, Dalton Trumbo, and eminent director
Edward Dmytryk were jailed for contempt of Congress.
Others punished for refusing to cooperate included Larry Adler,
Stella Adler, Leonard Bernstein, Marc Blitzstein, Joseph Bromberg,
Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copland, Hanns Eisler, Carl Foreman, John
Garfield, Howard Da Silva, Dashiell Hammett, E. Y. Harburg, Lillian
Hellman, Burl Ives, Arthur Miller, Dorothy Parker, Philip Loeb,
Joseph Losey, Anne Revere, Pete Seeger, Gale Sondergaard, Louis
Untermeyer, Josh White, Clifford Odets, Michael Wilson, Paul Jarrico,
Jeff Corey, John Randolph, Canada Lee, Orson Welles, Paul Green,
Sidney Kingsley, Paul Robeson, Richard Wright and Abraham Polonsky.
Lee Grant was registered on the black list because she refused to
give evidence against her husband Arnold Manoff.
Stars such as Larry Parks were destroyed because they refused to
“name names” of other actors who were party members. Actor Philip
Loeb threw himself out of a skyscraper window. Edward G. Robinson,
never a communist, was put on a “grey list,” and spent the rest of
his life making B movies (except for his role opposite Charlton
Heston in “Soylent Green”). Sam Jaffe, formerly a well-known actor
and Oscar winner in 1950 was registered on the black list because he
refused to cooperate with the committee. After that he practised the
profession of a math teacher and he lived at his sister’s.
Of course, what was really involved was money. War is good for
business. Business had been great during WW2 and the newly created
“Cold War” was just a way to keep business good. The Military
Industrial Complex NEEDED Hollywood to demonize the Soviets.
Otherwise, too many people were going to ask why we were being told
to be so afraid of them, and few in the government had a really
convincing answer for that question. So, in order to perpetuate the
Cold War, those in Hollywood who might sympathize with the
designated villains had to be removed; their ruined lives a small
price to pay for unending access to the taxpayers’ wallets.
But that was then and this is now.
Once again vast sums of money are being spent on a war, this time a
hot one and getting hotter. and once again parties with a vested
interest are out to smear and destroy anyone who dares ask if the
wars are worth the sacrifice of our young people (not to mention the
money), indeed if there really is any point at all to the wars aside
from justifying the flow of money to defense contractors.
But the Soviet Union has gone out of business. The word “communist”
doesn’t carry the same psychological impact it used to, so the war
hawk smear squad has come up with a new one, “Anti-Semite.” Like
“Communist”, “Anti-Semite” gets used to ruin the lives of people who
have not actually done anything wrong other than to challenge the
war profiteers. It is a new word for an old trick, and I am amazed
that they are still playing the same old game, but I guess the FBI
can always find some dumb-assed idiot to fall for it and do their
dirty work of wrecking a career for them.
Of course, it really isn’t that new a word. Oddly enough, Charles
Lindbergh the famous aviator commented in a speech in Des Moines in
1941…
Our theaters soon became filled with plays portraying the glory of
war. Newsreels lost all semblance of objectivity. Newspapers and
magazines began to lose advertising if they carried anti-war
articles. A smear campaign was instituted against individuals who
opposed intervention. The terms “fifth columnist,” “traitor,”
“Nazi,” “anti-Semitic” were thrown ceaselessly at any one who dared
to suggest that it was not to the best interests of the United
States to enter the war. Men lost their jobs if they were frankly
anti-war. Many others dared no longer speak.
Today we are seeing once again the heavy hand of the war profiteers
trying to reshape the film industry into a tool to propagandize the
public into a high war-fever such that they will gladly trade their
own blood for gold to line the pockets of the defense establishment.
And those individuals who have the courage to speak out are
attacked, and once again they are smeared to silence them. In the
1940s it was “Communist”, today it is “Anti-Semite”, but aside from
the particular label used, the methods, goals, and morality are
little changed from the days of Joseph McCarthy.
If there is a difference today it is that the American people are
better educated. No longer dependent on the state schools, or
controlled media, the public understands the tactics used to silence
those who speak out. and as a result, those who speak out are more
and more not only accorded the sympathetic ear that their message
deserves, but the effects of the smearing are far less ruinous than
in times past.
Thus, when we see people like Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, Sean
Penn, and Marion Cotillard speak out and survive, it sends a message
that it is now permissible to speak out. This is not to say that
there are not risks. Rosie O’Donnell lost her spot on “The View”,
but the majority of Americans understand exactly why, and understand
that Rosie sacrifice a great deal trying to get the truth out. Rosie
is and will be remembered as a hero for truth.
In contrast, of course, we look back at those who aided the “Commie”
witch-hunts of the 1940s with deserved contempt. No doubt many aided
Hoover purely to rid themselves of competition, and then tried to
lull themselves to sleep with the idea that in some way they had
actually done something good for the nation by wrecking their
neighbors’ careers. I have no doubt strong liquor played a role in
this grossest of self-deception. But if the informants and smear
artists of the 1940s are remembered in a poor light, that should
serve as a reminder to the informants and smear artists of today. It
does not matter what you do with the rest of your life, aiding the
new version of McCarthyism is how history will remember you. While
people like Charlie Sheen, Willie Nelson, Sean Penn, and Marion
Cotillard (and to step out of entertainment, former President Jimmy
Carter) will be remembered and honored for their courage, history
will lump the smear artists together with Stalin’s “Useful idiots”,
little more than no-talent opportunists for whom ratting out someone
was the fastest path to advancement.
They say that history repeats itself, and indeed that is the major
thing wrong with history. We are seeing history repeat itself again.
We have been down this path before, in the 1940s. Whether the word
is “Communist” or “Anti-Semite”, Hollywood is making the same
mistake all over again. And Holywood will have to live with that
image in the coming decades.
