NSA and Domestic spying? It happened in Mississippi not so long ago

[NVMojo]

In secret, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission (1956-1977) harassed and spied on Civil Rights activists and quiet citizens as well, branding many of them racial agitators and communist infiltrators. After a 21 year long legal battle the ACLU was able to get thousands of files released. Shades of current National Security Agency domestic spying activities?

By Susan Klopfer, 12/24/2005

NSA and Domestic spying? It happened in Mississippi not so long ago
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The volume of information gathered from telephone and Internet communications by the National Security Agency without court-approved warrants was much larger than the White House has acknowledged, The New York Times reported Saturday.

While mention of Watergate and impeachment may pervade the holiday’s political ether, others compare this spy news to revelations of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, a retired Civil Rights-era spy agency specifically created to maintain segregation and white supremacy.

Mississippi’s state leaders, public and private, established the commission in 1956 to spy on its citizens and deal with anyone, black or white, who challenged Jim Crow segregation. Former FBI and military intelligence gatherers, hired by the commission, recruited and paid informers (including school superintendents, college officials, ministers, teachers and others, black and white) to hassle Civil Rights workers and individuals, the records show.

"Files were accumulated that violated individual privacy and that could be used to destroy and even kill those who advocated for social change. The commission was authorized to ‘do and perform any and all acts and things deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states, from encroachment thereon by the Federal Government,’" said the author of a Civil Rights book that focuses on the commission and on Mississippi’s unexamined and unresolved murders of voting rights advocates and others.


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http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-24-2005-84820.asp