COINTELPRO
 | |
|---|---|
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| Date | 1956 - 1971? |
| Perpetrators | FBI |
| Interest of | Ron Ridenour, Alex Rosen |
| Description | Series of covert and illegal projects aimed at subversion of 1960s left wing movements |
COINTELPRO (syllabic abbreviation derived from COunter INTELligence PROgram) (1956–1971) was a large series of covert and illegal projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations. [1]
Contents
The Methods
The most frequent COINTELPRO methods were the use of wiretaps, break ins, anonymous letters, sexual blackmail, death threats informants, agents provocateurs, black propaganda, provocations, perjury, doctoring of evidence, frame ups and trumped-up charges sometimes leading to long jail terms.
If this wasn't felt to be sufficient, other methods included giving right-wing groups like the Ku Klux Klan or individuals run free to do the dirty work - or with some discreet guidance. Other targets were assassinated by police; to increase divisions in the black community, gangs wars were encouraged; and more...
These, and other means of subterfuge to was meant to, in the Bureau’s own words, foster factionalism and create suspicion within groups, bring individuals into disrepute before the American public, and create disruption and discord among such groups and movements in order to destroy the Left, or at least render it useless.[2]
The program especially targeted members of the Black Panthers movement, where most famously the leader (Fred Hampton) was assassinated by police, others were jailed on false accusations (Mumia abu-Jamal, Dhoruba bin Wahad[3] and many others).[4]
Origins
COINTELPRO gave a name to methods used for a long time against left-wing dissidents, and there is an unbroken continuity between the harassment campaign implemented after 1945 and the official naming of the project in 1956.
The name COunter INTELligence PROgram, comes from "counter-intelligence", where the FBI and US media maintained - just like they do 50 years later - that leftist dissident, dissatisfaction in the African-American community and disagreements among Americans about policy were all part of some kind of Russian conspiracy orchestrated by foreign intelligence services. Despite that no members of the Communist Party USA were ever convicted of spying, the FBI maintained they were a spy ring; the black freedom struggle and the civil rights movement were declared as run from abroad[5].
After the program officially closed in 1971, the FBI's use of these methods never really stopped.
COINTELPRO in the 1980s
Even if the program officially closed down in 1971, the tactics of COINTELPRO continued. The gang wars in the black slums in the 1980s and 1990s were fueled by the CIA/Contra drug imports and the police's active participation in encouraging the divisions in the black community[citation needed].
The FBI and police used the same tactics against opponents of US interventions in Central America. Labeling the peace activists "terrorist", they paid informers to infiltrate church services, Bible classes and support networks of clergy and lay workers giving sanctuary to refugees from the CIA dirty wars in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. Tactics included infiltration, provocation, perjury, doctoring of evidence,break ins, sexual blackmail, frame ups and even assassination.[6]
COINTELPRO 2.0
During the war on terror, COINTELPRO methods were used against the US Muslim community to concoct false charges[citation needed].
The COINTELPRO tactics are still in use, by 2020 to combat “hate and extremist narratives" and conspiracy theories, citizens spreading "foreign disinformation", anti-vaxxers, Covid-deniers etc.
A 2019 academic paper suggests fighting “hate” (unacceptable political speech) by inserting a “population in a pre-engineered format” within a targeted “hate-cluster” and destroying it from within. [7]
Prominent Targets
The program had a broad scope.
Martin Luther King, Jr
- Full articles: Martin Luther King, Jr
- Full articles: Martin Luther King, Jr
Paul Robeson
- Full article: Paul Robeson
- Full article: Paul Robeson
The Black Panthers
- Full article:
The Black Panthers
- Full article:
Puerto Rican Independence Movement
- Full article: Puerto Rico
- Full article: Puerto Rico
American Indian Movement
- Full article: American Indian Movement
- Full article: American Indian Movement
A COINTELPRO victim on Wikispooks
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Phil Ochs | The most political singer/songwriter against the war in Vietnam. Survived strangulation attack by "robber" that may have been CIA operation. |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:COINTELPRO Revisited - Spying & Disruption | article | Brian Glick |
Rating
References
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=COINTELPRO&oldid=951447799
- ↑ https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/fbi-cointelpro-new-left-panthers-muslim-surveillance/
- ↑ ttps://www.bitchute.com/video/XtRuycblrmB5/
- ↑ http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/FBI/COINTELPRO_Revisited.html
- ↑ https://youtu.be/t6f8KBrPIx0?t=1271
- ↑ https://archive.org/details/AV_444-THE_WAR_AT_HOME
- ↑ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1494-7
