Recent events have stirred memories of the 1960s and 1970s, as the use of state security apparatuses to suppress activism echoes tactics from that era. It meant that during those decades, US intelligence agencies were able to infiltrate everything from student, leftwing and antiracist movements to civil rights organizations. Men like J. Edgar Hoover and James Jesus Angleton were instrumental in these duplicitous efforts. The arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University doctoral student, has put up similar red flags because of its similarities to those previous abuses. This event happened only a few blocks away from the home of a former local columnist.
Rumeysa Ozturk’s arrest followed her publication of an op-ed in the university newspaper describing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide. Her detention has sparked concern and fear among fellow academics and activists, prompting one colleague to request the removal of her opinion pieces from a Spanish newspaper due to fear of retaliation. Another Middle Eastern friend has altered her daily route to avoid potential arrest, while German colleagues have resorted to deleting WhatsApp conversations regularly.
All of these actions evoke the civil disobedience of the 1960s and 1970s. In those years, courageous activists, as well as the Church and Pike Committees, revealed numerous abuses. These intelligence committees brought about the rebirth of the Church Committee — awakening America’s conscience to the dangers of unchecked state surveillance and intervention. Democratic backsliding occurs in drips and drops. Authoritarian regimes usually begin their repression by attacking the most vulnerable segments of society.
The moment we’re in calls for an honest appraisal of the past. Mark Twain’s famous observation that while history does not repeat itself, it often rhymes, rings especially true in this moment. The arrest of an academic for her criticism of a controversial police operation is a stark reminder of how fragile our freedom is when faced with security State. In fact, it was this event that sparked Rick’s NY Times column exposing the violations that led to Ozturk’s arrest. It shows the wider implications for freedom of expression.