FBI Wiretapped Hemingway 254
Hugh Pickens writes "On the fiftieth anniversary of the death by suicide of author Ernest Hemingway, his friend and biographer A. E. Hotchner writes in the NY Times that the man who 'had stood his ground against charging water buffaloes, who had flown missions over Germany, who had refused to accept the prevailing style of writing but, enduring rejection and poverty, had insisted on writing in his own unique way, this man, my deepest friend, was afraid — afraid that the FBI was after him, that his body was disintegrating, that his friends had turned on him, that living was no longer an option.' In the midst of depression and under treatment at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, Hemingway was convinced that his room was bugged, his phone was tapped, and suspected that one of the interns was a fed. Decades later, in response to a Freedom of Information petition, the FBI released its Hemingway file. It revealed that beginning in the 1940s J. Edgar Hoover had placed Hemingway under surveillance because he was suspicious of Ernest's activities in Cuba. The surveillance continued all through his confinement at St. Mary's Hospital, making it likely that the phone outside his room was tapped after all. 'In the years since, I have tried to reconcile Ernest's fear of the FBI, which I regretfully misjudged, with the reality of the FBI file,' writes Hotchner, author of Papa Hemingway and Hemingway and His World. 'I now believe he truly sensed the surveillance, and that it substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide.'"
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll refrain from calling you names, as you've characterized LutzSed, but just point out the fact that it the FBI that's the problem. They've been violating the rights of Americans, and spying on us all, for their own reasons, not because they were trying to protect us, since they were formed. There's no hope of curtailing their activities, especially now that we have the big Radical Muslem scare, and a congress full of right wing reactionaries and cowards.
LutzSec isn't bringing on anything, it's already here.
At least it goes to prove that (Score:5, Insightful)
you're not paranoid if they're really out to get you.
Even paranoiacs have enemies. (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact that he was wiretapped does not exclude he may have been a paranoiac.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:1, Insightful)
It's not lulzsec's fault, even if they are incompetent, misinformed and illiterate fools.
And yet, they keep breaking into the private and customer information for banks, global corporations, governments, etc. etc.!
I'm awfully grateful for lulzsec revealing to the world that all it takes is a group of incompetent, misinformed and illiterate fools to cause billions of dollars worth of damage, destroy the credibility and security of world governments and established institutions and reveal the private information for millions of individuals.
I can't wait to see what competent, informed and literate fools with government backing can do to countries and companies when they decide that destroying a country's economy is more effective then paying billions of dollars to blow shit up.
i generally laugh at conspiracy theorists (Score:5, Insightful)
but, when the conspiracy is shown to be real, i have nothing but venom and hate for the power abusing assholes who think they can get away with it
hoover was a cross-dressing pinhead (not that there's anything wrong with cross-dressing, but there's plenty wrong with hypocrisy). the fbi under him was an extension of mccarthy era hysteria and witch hunts. so fuck you hoover, thanks for contributing to the destruction of the composure of a great man and a great writer
those who seek to protect us, in the name of hypocritical assumptions about what we need protection from, are the real enemies of the usa
down with them all
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm very grateful for lulzsec revealing to the world that all it takes is a group of greedy CEOs and corrupt government officials to cause billions of dollars worth of damage, destroy the credibility and security of world governments and established institutions and reveal the private information for millions of individuals.
FTFY
Re:But they only snoop on terrorists (Score:2, Insightful)
I think you missed his point that terrorists are the new communists.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:2, Insightful)
*Sigh*
The government and CEOs didn't do those things. A bunch of sociopathic man-children did. The governments and CEOs should have had better security, but blaming them for the damage is like blaming a girl for getting raped while drunk at a party.
LulzSec isn't a group of working class heroes, no matter how much you may wish them to be. They're just thugs, hurting people for their own amusement. They'd do the same to you, if they thought it would be so much as a half-hearted chuckle to their friends' lips.
Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Margaret Sanger, .. (Score:5, Insightful)
With just a touch of exaggeration, I'll say that any public intellectual in that era who didn't have an FBI file probably was lacking a conscience. Einstein had a 1500-page FBI file [theeinsteinfile.com], having aroused Hoover's suspicion with his involvement in "communist front" organizations like the American Crusade Against Lynching [wikipedia.org]. America had been through the worst era of unrestrained robber-baron capitalism, followed by the Great Depression. It was the height of Jim Crow. If you were engaged in the intellectual life of the country, it was very likely that you were either going to become a socialist or some other kind of radical. Just to pick two more random examples: Margaret Sanger [wikipedia.org] and Helen Keller [wikipedia.org] were both leftists, and both had FBI files. American leftists were the only ones who spoke up against Fascism in Spain and tried to do anything about it -- at a time when right-wingers were often huge fans of Mussolini. For a lot of folks on the left, the big disillusionment came in 1939 with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Re:punctuation! (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of Hemingway's paragraphs didn't contain that many different thoughts.
That's because Hemingway actually knew how to write.
Re:But they only snoop on terrorists (Score:4, Insightful)
Your sarasm-meter is overdue for its 100,000-mile checkup.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the kind of mindset that fear mongers capitalize on. Hoover had the Red Scare to keep in power. This terrorist stuff is a fear mongers wet dream. Interesting how we have so many ways to keep people "informed", aka in fear. This kind of reptile brained actions are too global in reach. We haven't evolved out of it and we don't look like we will until we destroy ourselves or nature does it for us. Serioiusly, we are wasting time and resources we should be spending on space. Let's try to be ready to avoid a planet destroying event instead of fighting each other? How many asteroids need to wiz by our planet before we realize we need to tend to them?
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't blame LulzSec, blame the people who will be putting such laws in place. That is like blaming flaming homosexuals for making gay marriage illegal, or blaming rape victims for the high number of rapists in prison. This kind of douchebaggery attitude is what will lead to improved tolerance of such government policies. Fight the government policies.
Re:Unfortunately... (Score:5, Insightful)
So mr. anarchist, you don't think large companies and corporations are capable of significantly worse effects of oppression on our lives? I know it is an assumption, but judging by what you said I assume you are totally against all government regulations of the corporate world. Using barriers to entry, monopolistic and monopsonistic actions, most US companies have managed to drive prices through the roof while driving wages through the floor, despite the fact that in the past 40 years GDP went from .5 T to 17T, a 34 fold increase. If that isn't oppression, nothing short of China's internet censorship, Soviet Russia, or Hitlers Germany qualifies. When you let corporations exploit people to an unlimited extent, they will. Regulations ARE necessary, if they weren't, we wouldn't be in this shithole situation right now, it would be a lot better as the deregulation of the past 10 years goes into effect, instead of even worsening quality of life. But don't let the facts affect your anarchism.
Governments are the only thing in the world that is by, for, and of the people. Corporations are for profit, by profit, and of profit. Profit isn't a moral imperative, people are. Governments can become too powerful, too strong, and too evil, but they do not have to be inherently, and can and have been controlled by the people for periods of time. This is not true of large businesses, who have amassed so much power that voting with your dollars is either ineffectual or impossible.
Re:hey, asshole (Score:2, Insightful)
i don't understand how you can think the observation is true about terrorism but not about communism. it's the same form of trumped up threat. you swallow the koolaid about communism, but not terrorism. so you're half redeemed
Re:But they only snoop on terrorists (Score:2, Insightful)
And Gay Marriage
And Marijuana,
And Cubans,
And Native Americans,
And Mexicans,
Britain? Not so much anymore...
But don't forget about those pesky Canadians...
Re:Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Margaret Sanger, (Score:5, Insightful)
Franco kept Spain stable for decades, dealt with old-school Communists in the most effective way, and was a reasonably good steward of his country, which he kept out of WWII.
By which you mean he supported the Nazis and offered them assistance whilst not fighting in WWII himself, summarily executed his political opponents and sent hundreds of thousands more to forced labour camps, totally rolled back women's rights and religious freedoms, and was a least as bad as the Communist states - but that's OK because he wasn't red.
There's a reason the US isn't very popular.