Posted on 10/04/2022 3:34:56 PM PDT by conservative98
Aretha Franklin was tracked by the FBI for 40 years as the agency repeatedly sought but ultimately failed to tie the Queen of Soul to “extremists” and “radicals,” newly declassified documents reveal.
The 270-page FBI file — obtained by Rolling Stone magazine — details how the feds spied on the “Respect” songstress through “false phone calls, surveillance, infiltration and highly-placed sources” from 1967 to 2007.
The FBI’s suspicion of the late star was laid bare in the cache of documents, which included a slew of phrases, such as “black extremists,” “procommunist,” “hate America,” “radical,” “racial violence” and “militant blackpower.”
“I’m not really sure if my mother was aware that she was being targeted by the FBI and followed. I do know that she had absolutely nothing to hide though,” Franklin’s son, Kecalf Franklin, told the outlet.
The documents, some of which are heavily redacted, were first requested by the outlet via the Freedom of Information Act in August 2018 — just days after Franklin died from a pancreatic tumor, aged 76.
[cut]
Agents also tried to link the “Chain of Fools” singer to the Black Liberation Army. In one of the documents, the feds flagged her 1971 contract with Atlantic Records “just in case” there was any link to the Black Panther Party.
Despite the FBI’s extensive surveillance, the agency never discovered anything that linked Franklin to radical or extremist behavior, according to the file.
“It does make me feel a certain way knowing the FBI had her targeted and wanted to know her every move” her son said.
“But at the same time knowing my mother and the way she ran her business I know she had nothing to hide so they wouldn’t have found anything and were wasting their time. As you see…they found nothing at all.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
When will MLKs file be released?
No respect!
They gave themselves away when they ordered four fried chickens and a coke.
What a disgrace the FBI is.
It is a good thing they no longer do those things.(/////S)
The 9/11 hijackers doing test runs were reported to the FBI. What was the outcome? Crickets. Then destruction.
I don't care what Aretha Franklin's political views were. It is not the government's business.
Whaaaaa? The FIB engages in such practices? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
see also: Jan. 6, 2021
Directors, Then and Now
Robert S. Mueller, III (2001 to 2013) to J. Edgar Hoover (1924 to 1972)
https://www.fbi.gov/history/directors
No kidding.
The FBI spied on the “Respect” songstress through “false phone calls, surveillance, infiltration and highly-placed sources” from 1967 to 2007.
—
How much taxpayer money has been wasted by this garbage federal agency.
So much for the Hassidic diamond merchants disguise.
I was on a grand jury recently. One case involved the FBI, DEA, mA state police, VT state Police and the local police from two cities. There were fourteen LEOs involved in this one action.
They tracked these guys for two days.
They got less than 5 grams of Fentanyl.
That is how your tax money is spent every day.
FBI agents:
Dang, we don’t have tickets to the Aretha Franklin concert
Well, we can uh investigate her. At the concert.
Yeah! Undercover!
Who hasn’t been tracked by the FBI at one time or the other?
FBI has a new case, much more important: NEWS just in— Authorities Tuesday sought the public’s help to find the killer of Inglewood rapper Half Ounce, who was gunned down while walking with a friend in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles. The shooting occurred at about 11:30 p.m. Monday in the 700 block of South New Hampshire Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Just a shame.
Somebody was really pissed at this lady.
These worthies were after the Beatles too back in the day.
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