On this of all days, let's remember that this US Empire's greatest threat is a majority that knows the facts and reality.

So in this regard, it's films like this that are dangerous to them.

https://scheerpost.com/2026/01/19/surveilled-slandered-and-targeted-the-fbis-crusade-against-mlk/

Surveilled, Slandered, and Targeted: The FBI’s Crusade Against MLK

 January 19, 2026 

Posted by Joshua Scheer

Republished From the Archives

Every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, official tributes reduce a radical critic of empire, capitalism, and militarism into a safely packaged icon — while quietly ignoring the brutal reality of how the U.S. government treated him in real time. Martin Luther King Jr. was not merely monitored by the FBI; he was hunted, harassed, and psychologically terrorized by a federal agency determined to silence a man whose moral authority threatened entrenched power. In this republished interview, acclaimed filmmaker Sam Pollard exposes the depth of the FBI’s crusade against King — a campaign far darker than most Americans are ever taught. Revisiting this history is not an exercise in nostalgia, but a necessary confrontation with how the state responds when demands for justice move from rhetoric to action.

Highlights of the Interview

1. The FBI’s Campaign to Destroy Martin Luther King Jr.

• Sam Pollard details the FBI’s systematic effort to first discredit King politically, then destroy him personally when the political smear failed.
• J. Edgar Hoover’s obsession with King is framed as an extension of white supremacist ideology embedded in American institutions.
• William Sullivan’s role as Hoover’s enforcer shows how deeply the Bureau committed itself to neutralizing King as a threat.

2. The Cold War as a Weapon Against the Civil Rights Movement

• The FBI used alleged Communist ties — particularly King’s relationship with Stanley Levison — as a pretext for surveillance.
• Robert Scheer challenges the narrative by noting that Communists historically played a positive role in civil rights organizing, making the smear even more cynical.
• Pollard underscores the hypocrisy of a government claiming to defend freedom while targeting its most effective freedom movement.

3. The FBI’s Personal Surveillance and Blackmail Campaign

• The Bureau wiretapped King’s associates and discovered details of his personal life, which they weaponized.
• The infamous suicide‑baiting letter — sent to King along with an audio tape — is discussed as a chilling example of state‑sponsored psychological warfare.
• Pollard emphasizes the media’s restraint at the time, which prevented the FBI’s personal smears from gaining traction.

4. Presidential Complicity: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Machinery of Surveillance

• Scheer highlights the irony that JFK, who had his own well‑documented private life, approved Hoover’s surveillance of King.
• Robert Kennedy’s role as Attorney General is explored — he authorized the wiretaps despite later becoming a critic of such abuses.
• Lyndon Johnson’s break with King after the Vietnam War speech is framed as a turning point that left King exposed.

5. King’s Moral Break with the U.S. Government

• The Riverside Church speech — “My government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” — is presented as King’s most radical and dangerous act.
• Scheer recounts Ramparts’ role in publishing the images of napalmed Vietnamese children that helped push King to speak out.
• Pollard acknowledges King’s isolation after the speech: abandoned by allies, attacked by the press, and targeted by the state.

6. The Unanswered Question: How Was King Assassinated Under 24/7 Surveillance?

• Scheer presses the central mystery: How could the most surveilled man in America be killed without the FBI knowing?
• Pollard admits the official story doesn’t add up and suggests future document releases may reveal more.
• The film raises doubts about the reliability of FBI files, especially handwritten notes alleging misconduct.

7. Infiltration of the Civil Rights Movement

• Pollard confirms that FBI informants were embedded inside King’s inner circle — including one man who sat at a desk next to King and is still alive today.
• Scheer connects this to modern movements, noting that infiltration continues in Black Lives Matter and other activist spaces.
• Pollard frames this as a structural pattern of American policing, not a historical anomaly.

8. The Larger Theme: America’s Enduring Racial Hypocrisy

• Pollard argues Hoover embodied white America — not an aberration but a reflection of national attitudes.
• Scheer situates racism as a 400‑year project used to divide working‑class people and maintain elite power.
• The interview ties past to present, showing how surveillance, repression, and racial control remain central to U.S. governance.

9. The Film’s Achievement

• Pollard’s documentary dismantles the FBI myth by juxtaposing Hollywood’s heroic FBI imagery with the Bureau’s real behavior.
• Scheer praises the film’s courage for refusing to sanitize King or the government — instead presenting a complex, uncomfortable truth.
• The documentary is positioned as essential viewing for understanding both the past and the modern surveillance state.