Howard Zinn's FBI file released, was established in 1949

[Triana]

by DAVID GURA

The FBI released a 423-page file on Howard Zinn, author of 'A People's History of the United States,' who died earlier this year.

Earlier today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released a 423-page file on Howard Zinn, "radical historian, teacher, playwright, and political activist."

Zinn, the author of A People's History of the United States, which has sold more than 2 million copies, died in January, following a heart attack he suffered while swimming. He was 87 years old.

Gawker has some highlights. On Nov. 5, 1953, for instance, two agents approached Zinn in New York City.

According to their report, "He was advised that the Bureau had received information concerning his associations with the and was affording him this opportunity to discuss it with agents of the FBI."

MORE...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128875890&sc=fb&cc=fp

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Here is a shocker

you want to know HOW MANY Americans have a file? Most of you, if not all.

I know I have one... and that is life.

At times I have been tempted to request mine under FOIA... should make for some damn interesting reading.

And no, it is not ok, but it is life.

[gratuitous]

17. I've considered making a FOIA request for mine

But figured that would just generate more paperwork on me, so I'd have to make another request, which would . . . Ah, screw it. I finally decided I don't care. Let my survivors worry about it.

[slay]

21. It would not surprise me at all if they had a file on many DU'ers

especially the more enlightened ones who see through bullshit easily.

[rbrnmw]

28. Mine no doubt has my fierce hatred of the Cowboy Raygun and Presidunces Bush I & II

[indepat]

29. Not be surprised if the FBI has files on all those whose politics are not far enough to the right

:P

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. "The Land of the Free...." A conceit still believed by many.

[EFerrari]

3. NPR calls him a "radical historian".

The truth hurts.

lol

[Kurovski]

6. It's never really about rich people being very nice, soooo

y'know...who cares.

Me still no likey NPR since election theft 2004.

[Kurovski]

4. Did Maddow or Olbermann report on his death?

I first heard of it on DU this week. :shrug:

[EFerrari]

7. I don't know about them but there were tributes.

Can you stream video?

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=Howard+Zinn+tribute&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701

And since NPR went over to the dark side, they had David Horowitz write his obituary. They got thousands of complaints.

[Kurovski]

9. well...

If I can stream one hundred boners a minute, I can certainly stream that. And so I shall.

thanks!

[EFerrari]

11. The one at BusBoys & Poets was outstanding.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292110-1

:hi:

[Kurovski]

13. I'm listening to that "awful" Ralph Nader.

:evilgrin:

Will busboys and poets make me cry? I mean they're poets and stuff. I'm trying to toughen up, will it help or hurt?

[EFerrari]

15. It made ME cry and that never happens.

lol

[Kurovski]

18. Amy Goodman

relates about how Zinn said Obama should think of MLK before he makes a move regarding war. Like before he sends more troops to Afghanistan. :(

I haven't had cspan2 until recently.

[EFerrari]

20. I never watch it on teevee any more

because Brian Lamb usually has some right wing whackjob conference on for the whole weekend. But, I'm always filching in the archives. :evilgrin:

[Kurovski]

23. Ms.Edelman reminds us of Zinn's motto...

"democracy is not a spectator sport"

[upi402]

26. Free Speech TV is on my community access cable channel

I see Amy there -the ONLY good thing about not having a job.
King was pro union too. Obama supports workers as much as Clinton did -not at all.

[asdjrocky]

19. That was great.

Thanks for the reminder, might watch it again today. Just finished "Can't be neutral" for like the 11th time.

We need his voice now more than ever.

[Radical Activist]

5. This should make for fun reading.

:popcorn:

[Radical Activist]

8. Do we believe this statement from the FBI page?

"The investigation ended in 1974, and no further investigation into Zinn or his activities was made by the FBI."

I would love to see an investigative reporter try to confirm or disprove that.

[leveymg]

10. Interesting that the Bureau denies investigating Howard after '74. They did an op on me in '80 when

I was Howard's student. The Boston FBI Office had an agent provocateur infiltrate a group I had started to protest at Reagan's Inauguration. That was a sort of class assignment I got credit for a course I was taking with Howard at BU at the time. Not many degrees of separation there.

I know the Boston FBI was doing this because they called my step-father who worked for the gov't and told him before the Inauguration he should "talk to your son" about my involvement in organizing that protest.

The NPR report contains more lies and sanitized official history, as is to be expected.

[EFerrari]

12. You're so lucky. n/t

[leveymg]

14. Yes, I am lucky! Who else but Howard gave college credit for protesting against Reagan?

Actually, the rest of the Poli Sci Dept at BU was pretty wonderful - Francis Fox Piven, Murray Levin - what a great place to spend my impressionable youth! Saw a lot of Noam Chomsky on the other side of the Charles, as well.

Taught me a thing or two about the FBI, as well. I may have been the only person at BU who was investigated by the FBI in the same year he was approached by a CIA recruiter (I turned down the recruiter, telling him I couldn't see much difference in methods between the CIA and the KGB). That sentiment was only partially Howard's influence. My attitudes toward people at both agencies have somewhat mellowed since I started working, living and getting to know people in the DC area - but, the institutions really haven't basically changed much, so I don't regret my career choices.

[EFerrari]

22. Do you have stories about Howard as a teacher?

Fork 'em over.

[leveymg]

25. Howard had really quick reflexes, and could move like a point guard

In 1981 the new Reagan-Bush Admin. flooded Latin America with machine guns, and the anti-intervention movement got started at BU. Howard was at the center of that emerging anti-war movement. In late 1981, Howard spoke at a teach-in organized outside the BU Student Common by the Coalition In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). No sooner did he get up on the platform than a phalanx of Moonies and another of Young Spartacists arrived at the square from opposite directions. The Moonies and Sparts often clashed and seemed to disrupt every progressive public event on campus. Fists and other items started to be thrown, and a millisecond later the Boston Cops appeared as if by script. Howard, who was about 60, leaped off the five foot high podium changing direction in mid-air -- like Bill Russell grabbing a rebound in the Boston Garden -- and in a flash disappeared into the crowd. I think he might have made a fine addition to the Celtics if he hadn't chosen to be a First-string Historian. He was also a First-string Human Being.

The FBI has admitted it had a COINTELPRO against CISPES. So, there's another reason to conclude the Zinn file has been sanitized just a bit after 1974.

[EFerrari]

27. Oh, man.

Yes, the IranContra felons brought in the Moonies. I thought I'd imagined the whole thing until I heard Greg Grandin saying it the other night in a lecture from 2006. I was translating at the time and our stuff was ditched by Congress in favor of the Moonie's tesitmony. Unreal.

("And you were there -- and you were there -- and YOU were there".)

Yeah, that 1974 date is a little silly. Too bad the FBI doesn't spend as much time doing its job as it doed trying to tank the 1st Amendment.

[asdjrocky]

16. Thanks for sharing this! nt

[old mark]

24. Mine was established in 1967. I went to a peace march in NYC,

brought some left wing literature (A "Maoist" group that lasted maybe a year or so) and ran into an FBI agent later that day after I got home...he asked about the pamphlet.
Several years later, in the Army, I was denied a Top Secret security clearance because I had an FBI file...I got a copy of it years later, and found it was mostly blacked out.

Maybe I should try to get another one...If the FOIA still applies...


mark