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Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless
Many people will recall Jean Seberg as the young blonde gamine who played opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo in Godard’s classic 1960′s film Breathless.
Few remember that she was hounded by the FBI for supporting liberal causes, and committed suicide in 1979 at the age of 40. J. Edgar Hoover personally tried to destroy her career by planting the story that the married Seberg was pregnant by a member of the Black Panthers. As the LA Times wrote in 2009:
Hoover oversaw the Seberg smear, ordering agents in Los Angeles to wait until Seberg’s pregnancy grew more visible. He didn’t want the wiretap–which agents apparently misinterpreted–to be suspected. Ronald Ostrow, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who worked in the Washington bureau, obtained documents in 1980 showing that FBI officials in Washington and agents in Los Angeles targeted Seberg for giving $10,500 to the Panthers.
The psychological toll of being targeted by the government for political beliefs is massive, the stuff that filled Soviet-era gulags. People like John Kiriakou and Thomas Drake have had their careers destroyed and their lives torn apart simply for telling uncomfortable truths that expose corruption and lawlessness at the highest levels. The only surprise is that there aren’t more people who simply can’t handle the intense pressure.
Seberg’s family blamed the FBI for her death, just as activist Aaron Swartz’s family rightly blames his overly zealous prosecutors. Public intolerance for this kind of government harassment and abuse of power should be vigorous and swift, but sadly there’s no better way for careerists to make their bones at the DoJ or any other agency right now than to engage in the personal destruction of activists advocating for the freedom of information.
Aaron Swartz isn’t the first victim of this war nor, sadly, will he be the last. His death is collateral damage in a war being waged by a ruthless government intent on protecting a secretive and unaccountable kleptocracy at all costs.
It’s tragic that this lesson must be learned anew by every generation, it seems.
42 Comments
The sad and sick I feel over this, for someone most of us know only virtually, is tremendous. And I am outraged. What will it take for an uprising sufficient to bring this to a broader public and hold the government accountable?
It is clear that they have all the psy-ops they need to discover who among us is vulnerable and how, and they target the vulnerabilities and hound people to death, I suppose in an effort to make “examples” of them, so as to keep the rest of us in line.
We need to get loud over this. Sad and mad ia how I feel.
That is the point — make them object lessons about what happens to those that challenge institutional kleptocracy.
Hope your case is going well, B. You certainly know from personal experience.
Thanks for covering this Jane. It is worth noting the pattern: After spying on MLK,Jr, his father, and grandfather for decades; the FBI (according to a FOIA disclosure) actually demanded that King kill himself.
Thanks Jane,
Not to detract from the tragedy of Mr Schwartz’s story but this is going on in this state for simply singing, just to illustrate, Obama justice = Walker justice. 69 year old woman manages to keep her composure despite prosecution for purposes of intimidation.
(Getting virus alerts from the site that originally posted this video so I linked to DailyKos)
Our case is so minor and nothing in the face of this. Of course, they are also dealing with people who are Not Young, which is so much part and parcel of the people who are targeted by the PTB for prosecution, both as “terrorists” and as Swartz was, for the purpose of setting examples. I really have no end of fury for the way they go after young people, especially.
And the true criminal class continues to operate with impunity.
Bradley Manning, of course, also too.
Our Reich has a proud history.
Presidential presser: “new security for the middle class.” Taking on more meaning daily.
Thanks for reminding the world of Jean Seberg. A native Iowan with a big heart and empathy for the underdogs. BTW- I thought she gave the money to the Panthers for food programs and preschool, etc. She was no bomb throwing radical. Just a wonderful human being. Kind of like a Donna Reed with an evolved and modern consciousness. J. Edgar Hoover, on the other hand, was a rotten, stinking, worthless pig and a sociopath, to boot. That’s why he’s got federal buildings named after him, right? Anyway, my sympathy goes out to Aaron’s family. They know what went on here.
An author we are all familiar with, and who many consider to be the greatest writer of the last century was also driven to suicide by the FBI. Ernest Hemingway committed suicide.
Here’s one link “http://morallowground.com/2011/07/05/a-e-hotchner-f-b-i-surveillance-drove-ernest-hemingway-to-suicide/”>
Hemingway, it turns out was hounded by a FBI surveillance program. This info was recently discovered and released. I think it went mainly unnoticed. Hemingways friends remember that he seemed manic at times raving that his phones were tapped, that he was being followed. Hemingway became increasingly paranoid and ended his life.
Thank you for the history on Jean Seberg, Jane. I had no idea.
Thanks for this. I remember Jean Seberg’s death, but it was my first year of law school and I was barely aware of the outside world; had no idea she was being pressured by the fbi.
Truly shocking. I once thought the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids of the early 20th century were things of the past, but the bad idea persists, just less visible, it seems.
I can’t say I approve of Swartz’s JSTOR liberation, even though I have often found I needed or wanted something behind JSTOR’s paywall, which might as well be a brick wall, given their prices. But with JSTOR and MIT declining prosecution, the over-the-top prosecution by the DOJ is more outrageous.
There are so many fronts on which to fight; it’s discouraging sometimes.
I agree, I’m not sure of the wisdom of the act but I think you’ve identified the larger point. This was a government vendetta, completely out of proportion to what was done.
I did not know that. I’ll look into it.
We apparently had FBI outside the house here on Friday night when John Kiriakou and Thomas Drake came over for dinner. If the GOP ever came out for federal budget cutting by defunding this kind of pointless, expensive harassment, they might actually get my support.
Anyone else getting snail mail (including packages) that have “fallen” or ripped open? If it was deliberate, I’m sure “they” found school text books and Christmas cards most exciting. Sheesh, the fact that this concerns me concerns me.
!!
Be careful!(I’m sure that you are)
I was just going to ask if you and other prominent members of the liberal blogosphere are being spied on regularly. Is there any clearinghouse for accumulating reports and publicizing this harassment on an ongoing basis?
I think I know what Aaron Swartz and Jean Seberg experienced, at least a taste of it. Even though my days of activism were long ago and seemingly peripheral, there have been curious incidences that suggest they were not truly in the past as I believed them to be. A desire for brevity and enduring shame, warranted or not, are enough to keep me from tiring your eyes with the details. Even in recent years my father remembers things I have tried to forget, suggesting relationships where I did not recall any, enough to leave a lingering doubt. So, yes, I do feel a disturbing sense of familiarity with Aaron Swartz and Jean Seberg’s stories, even if writ small.
cross posted at Turley blog, where there is also a thread ( http://jonathanturley.org/2013/01/14/aaron-swartz-and-the-obama-administrations-war-on-public-access-to-information/#comment-480440 )
Yes, I remember the Jean Seberg case very well. You must remember, however, that it was in the days before the internet; we only got the news that was allowed to be printed or broadcast. I’m sure that my view was skeptical of the charges, but relatively uninformed.
I am hoping that you will be safe. If, however, something happens, we will know that the govt was involved. I do feel a little bit of agitation with the ndaa and kill list hanging over our nation. The woman cited above with three cops and two squad cars on Sunday morning for really nothing indicate how the govt at many levels is more and more authoritarian. Anyone who sticks his/her head up is now automatically a target for intimidation. Please let us know if things get worse in your case.
When people speak of how the historians will be writing about what went on in this period here, I just wonder what materials will be available freely to read. The govt and ptb will try very hard to suppress the documentation that shows the establishment of fascism here.
Thanks Don, that’s a great post. Just tweeted it out. Everyone should read.
We know Hoover was at Clint Murchison, Jr.’s house party on 11/21/63 amd then got out of town on his private jet. Still, it would be interesting to see the clear photos his team took of the “onlookers” the next day. Larry O’Brien faked that he photos at the Watergate, but didn’t, so Nixon (also at same party)got his…sort of.
Thanks for the link Don!! I think more of us activists need to start ramping up the FOIA requests. Even though we only get heavily redacted stuff, many months later, we are still able to at least partially expose government harrassment of peaceful dissenters.
mah daddy (SIGINT, russian linguist) taught me a looong time ago: security theatre is for two purposes only: 1) getting paid ridiculous amounts of money for crap that does not work and serves no logical purpose and 2) so pencil dicked members of our security forces can spy on women and men who won’t sleep with them. oh, and also: killing blahs and browns when they get uppity.
i find it kind of sad that there’s been so little discussion about DHS in the librul blogosphere. “hookers and blow” on that scale must be massive. but of course, people who believe this is still a representative democracy can’t be bothered to ask tuff kweshuns about any of that.
I was having a discussion with my girlfriend last night after we watched a documentary about Huey Long. She insisted, that Long was a dictator and I answered, I was willing to agree, provided she agreed that there are powerful interests who will do and say the same and worse things than Huey Long.
I did know that Jean Seberg killed herself, but I didn’t know why until I read this just now. To her name you can add Phil Lochs, and the author of “Fortunate Son” — his name escapes me at the moment.
I feel so sick and sad about Swartz’s suicide, and so helpless. I’ve been collecting every article I find about it (this one included) in a folder I created, but beyond that, I don’t know what I can do.
Phil Lochs, not Lochs.
It did it again! PHIL OCHS.
On the other hand, the federal government’s pursuit and prosecution of Lloyd Blankfein gives me great hope for our democracy!
Oh, wait….
Yeah. ‘Nuf said.
At what point would Americans reflexively assume that a political suicide is rather murder?
Are they still holding on to an exceptionalism that is a positive of the true exceptionalism?
Reading Cory Doctorow’s condescending eulogy demonstrates what is missing in the dissident American conscience. There is no rage, only silent compliance to the ghost in the machine growing all too familiar.
If they want you they will keep coming after you and run you out of money. Eventually you will cave one way or another unless you have Bill Gates type of money. Watch the documentary aka Tommy Chong, it is enlightening on just this subject.
At least one sysadmin, writing in the comments thread of an article on this, has stated that Swartz’ death has made him decide to be a lot more reluctant about turning kids like Aaron in to the authorities. Thirty to fifty years in real prison (not Club Fed like what the bankers get) is bad enough.
The only silver lining I see is that Carmen Ortiz is now and for all times radioactive after this fiasco. The sad part of that is that’s probably the only thing about this that Ortiz regrets.
Don’t forget Ernest Hemingway. He thought his phones were bugged. Turns out the FBI was spying on him and kept a dossier on him for probably decades. I suggest they were a contributory factor in his suicide.
“During the Vietnam War, Reed was a peace activist, co-chairing a group opposed to the war called Another Mother for Peace.” You can guarantee that the FBI kept a file on her.
I heard a great talk by Aaron Swartz on Democracy Now! while I was driving home from work today, about defeating SOPA. He ended it by warning that Congressmen and Senators still had fire in their eyes about the people standing up for their freedom on the Internet; how DARE those peasants question the rulers!
It’s a shame what happened. Such a loss. Thanks for posting this, Jane.
Hemingway was “prematurely anti-Fascist,” you know. Today, he’d be subject to extraordinary rendition.
You’re right, of course. Though few remember Fred Williams today, or for that matter, RFK. The times of dismay, hope, blood and insurrection. Are praying for a new, wiser resurrection. The arch of justice is long, indeed. Though, daily, monthly there’s more in need. The obstacles in plain view are our neighbors; we’re goin’ to find out pretty soon in who’s fields, each of us labors.
Boy, isn’t that telling it like it is.
No one has mentioned Jean Seberg (and Peter Sellers) in “The Mouse that Roared” from 1959.