Prison Radio
Mumia Abu-Jamal

“Of FBI Spies and Spying.”

In light of the empty dud of the fall of the Mueller report, we have heard repeated charges of outrage that alleged FBI spying of the Trump campaign and administration. To anyone who has studied a smidgen of black history, especially of the twentieth century, such a charge is quite ridiculous.

Why? Because the FBI has spied on black activists for decades. From Marcus Garvey, who headed the Back to Africa movement, to Martin Luther King, Jr., whose sex tapes from hotel rooms were sent to his home. And then there was the Black Panther Party.

And in the case of Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, an FBI informant/provocateur not only drew a floor plan of the apartment—he dosed Fred’s drink with [inaudible] to make sure that when the pigs raided his home, Fred, too high on drugs, couldn’t move a muscle.

I stood in that room before a blood-drenched mattress in 1969. Spying is a long FBI tradition, but spying isn’t objectionable when the targets are black activists. It’s only an issue when they’re spying on rich white people. That’s the real history of the FBI spies and spying.

P.S. If you want to do a deep dive into FBI spying on Americans, by the way, read the book called The COINTELPRO Papers, and its authored by historians Ward Churchill and James Vander Waal, originally published by South End Press.

From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.

These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of prison, radio.