Earlier I linked to a NY Times video/upcoming book promotion revealing the source of leaks about the FBI’s sometimes illegal COINTELPRO activities against individuals and groups exercising their democratic right to express dissent with government policy.

Reading about the state-sponsored surveillance of such ‘dissidents’ and ‘left-leaners’ put me in mind of the way the NZ prime minister last year dissed New Zealanders who rallied and marched against his proposed extension of powers of the government spy agencies he controls (GCSB & SIS — both apparently routinely seconded to assist other agencies such as NZ Police) as ‘either politically aligned or misinformed’. (See; With respect, Mr Key, you misjudge me.)

Mr Key was marginalising the dissenters, in other words, and floating a justification for ignoring the voices raised in protest. (An old trick. Mr Key and his colonels used roughly the same MO to dismiss the anti-state asset sales referendum, concerns about the Sky City Casino pokies for convention centre deal et al. As it ever will be with governments of the Left or the Right.)

It seems likely the state security agencies had the organisers of those anti-GCSB bill rallies under surveillance … possibly complete with infiltration by undercover agents (I mean, why wouldn’t they?) And it seems equally likely that those citizens who took part in the events were photographed etc. — perhaps as part of that same ‘security’ operation.

Penn Kimball – from his NY Times obituary ‘Penn Kimball, Journalist Who Sued U.S., Dies at 98’ 12 Nov 2013 (click) He outlived most of his accusers.

And who knows where that will lead?

I’m reading a fascinating book, referred to obliquely in Christopher Hitchens’ memoir Hitch 22. The book is THE FILE by Penn Kimball, published in late 1983 (virtually 1984, which is kind of appropriate).

THE FILE is the story of how a Kimball, a journalist who served as a marine in active service in WW2, was vetted for a Foreign Service job, and, as a consequence, a secret security file (geddit?) was opened on him — despite his actually declining the job offered to him of Vice Consul in Saigon. A series of investigations (kept secret from him, naturally) saw the FBI and State Department eventually classify him a security risk and possibly a ‘secret member’ of the Communist Party but ‘too clever’ to be caught as such …

Thomas Powers, reviewing the book for the New York Times summarised the book under the tile Ordeal by Hearsay put it like this:

IN 1946, Mr. Kimball had applied to join the Foreign Service. He passed the various examinations and was offered a post in Saigon. But he decided to take a job with Time magazine instead and requested a postponement. It was granted. His application had triggered a routine background investigation. One informant suggested that Mr. Kimball’s employment at PM ”might indicate his sympathies.” The F.B.I. was invited to join the case by the State Department’s director of security, Robert L. Bannerman. The initial check concluded Mr. Kimball was no security risk, but a second said he was. A third investigation was undertaken when another official at State thought the latter conclusion rested on shaky ground since it consisted mainly of hearsay and disregarded the testimony of leading journalists and Government officials – men like David Lawrence of U S News and World Report, Kenneth Crawford of Newsweek and Philip Kaiser, later an ambassador under Presidents Kennedy and Carter – who said Mr. Kimball was able and conscientious, loyal and reliable, a model citizen eminently qualified to serve the Government.
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