COINTELPRO for beginners

This is a great reference source for the history of counterintelligence, Cold War era and later.

Offers some good insight into why any staff member here would not like this label stuck to their forehead, or on their back when they aren't looking or feeling...

www.icdc.com...

COINTELPRO is an acronym for the FBI's domestic "counterintelligence programs" to neutralize political dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political organizations.

The origins of COINTELPRO were rooted in the Bureau's operations against hostile foreign intelligence services. Counterintelligence, of course, goes beyond investigation; it refers to actions taken to neutralize enemy agents.

"Counterintelligence" was a misnomer for the FBI programs, since the targets were American political dissidents, not foreign spies. In the atmosphere of the Cold War, the American Communist Party was seen as a serious threat to national security. Over the years, anti- Communist paranoia extended to civil rights, anti-war, and many other groups. As John Edgar Hoover, longtime Director of the FBI, put it

The forces which are most anxious to weaken our internal security are not always easy to identify. Communists have been trained in deceit and secretly work toward the day when they hope to replace our American way of life with a Communist dictatorship. They utilize cleverly camouflaged movements, such as peace groups and civil rights groups to achieve their sinister purposes. While they as individuals are difficult to identify, the Communist party line is clear. Its first concern is the advancement of Soviet Russia and the godless Communist cause. It is important to learn to know the enemies of the American way of life.

Although today this may sound ridiculous, the implications were deadly serious for the thousands of people who became COINTELPRO targets. After many years of investigating and disrupting these groups, the Bureau could not find evidence that any of them were foreign-controlled.

These programs were exposed to the public following an unsolved break-in into the FBI's Media, PA resident agency, separate lawsuits by NBC correspondent Carl Stern and the Socialist Workers' Party, and then a US Senate investigation led by Senator Frank Church. Although the FBI's COINTELPRO's officially ended in 1971, there have been many examples of counterintelligence-type operations against political dissidents since.



There are a wealth of specific examples of the programs on the website.



[Edited on 8-11-2003 by MaskedAvatar]

AH...1956-1971, the time when it was permissible to indiscriminately murder american citizens for exercising their right to protest, bare arms, and dissent. Oh, and let's not forget organize, because if you organize you're definately a threat to american society and should be bugged and followed.

I found it interesting that almost all of the people on the FBI's list are no longer alive, imprisioned, or exiled. Most of them were murdered while they were actively being investigated under COINTELPRO.

Extremely You could say..this is the second time I've heard of this and the first time hit home with a tragic ending. Great post MA..too bad there weren't/aren't more comments.
Mags

" The origins of COINTELPRO were rooted in the Bureau's operations against hostile foreign intelligence services. Counterintelligence, of course, goes beyond investigation; it refers to actions taken to neutralize enemy agents. "

The idea was good. The way how they applyed it was bad. Theory and practice, one more time.

Well, there are direct parallels in today.

Homeland Security.
Total Information Awareness/Terrorism Information Awareness.
USA Patriot Act & Victory Act.

All providing extraordinary new powers to law enforcement and capturing more and more dissidence in the net.

The new bogeyman isn't the spectre of "communism", it's a new abstract noun called "terror" or "terrorism".

All terror programs are completely under the management of the Bush admin. Both the fear and terror tactics of alerts and the "terrorist attacks" that are allowed to slip through the cracks.

The Age of Reason has not yet arrived.