INTRODUCTION
Activists across the country report increasing government harassment and disruption of their work:
-In the Southwest, paid informers infiltrate the church services, Bible classes and support networks of clergy and lay workers giving sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala.
-In Alabama, elderly Black people attempting for the first time to exercise their right to vote are interrogated by FBI agents and hauled before federal grand juries hundreds of miles from their homes.
-In New England, a former CIA case officer cites examples from his own past work to warn college students of efforts by undercover operatives to misdirect and discredit protests against South African and US racism.
-In the San Francisco Bay Area, activists planning anti-nuclear civil disobedience learn that their meetings have been infiltrated by the US Navy.
-In Detroit, Seattle, and Philadelphia, in Cambridge, MA, Berkeley, CA., Phoenix, AR., and Washington, DC., churches and organizations opposing US policies in Central America report obviously political break ins in which important papers are stolen or damaged, while money and valuables are left untouched. License plates on a car spotted fleeing one such office have been traced to the US National Security Agency.
-In Puerto Rico, Texas and Massachusetts, labor leaders, community organizers, writers and editors who advocate Puerto Rican independence are branded by the FBI as "terrorists," brutally rounded-up in the middle of the night, held incommunicado for days and then jailed under new preventive detention laws.
-The FBI puts the same "terrorist" label on opponents of US intervention in El Salvador, but refuses to investigate the possibility of a political conspiracy behind nation-wide bombings of abortion clinics.
-Throughout the country, people attempting to see Nicaragua for themselves find their trips disrupted, their private papers confiscated, and their homes and offices plagued by FBI agents who demand detailed personal and political information.
These kinds of government tactics violate our fundamental constitutional rights. They make it enormously difficult to sustain grass-roots organizing. They create an atmosphere of fear and distrust which undermines any effort to challenge official policy.
Similar measures were used in the 1960s as part of a secret FBI program known as "COINTELPRO." COINTELPRO was later exposed and officially ended. But the evidence shows that it actually persisted and that clandestine operations to discredit and disrupt opposition movements have become an institutional feature of national and local government in the US. This pamphlet is designed to help current and future activists learn from the history of COINTELPRO, so that our movements can better withstand such attack.
The first section gives a brief overview of what we know the FBI did in the 60s. It explains why we can expect similar government intervention in the 80s and beyond, and offers general guidelines for effective response.
The main body of the pamphlet describes the specific methods which have previously been used to undermine domestic dissent and suggests steps we can take to limit or deflect their impact.
A final chapter explores ways to mobilize broad public protest against this kind of repression.
Further readings and groups that can help are listed in back. The pamphlet's historical analysis is based on confidential internal documents prepared by the FBI and police during the 60s.
It also draws on the post-60s confessions of disaffected government agents, and on the testimony of public officials before Congress and the courts. Though the information from these sources is incomplete, and much of what was done remains secret, we now know enough to draw useful lessons for future organizing. The suggestions included in the pamphlet are based on the author's 20 years experience as an activist and lawyer, and on talks with long-time organizers in a broad range of movements. They are meant to provide starting points for discussion, so we can get ready before the pressure intensifies. Most are a matter of common sense once the methodology of covert action is understood. Please take these issues seriously. Discuss the recommendations with other activists. Adapt them to the conditions you face. Point out problems and suggest other approaches. It is important that we begin now to protect our movements and ourselves.
A HISTORY TO LEARN FROM
WHAT WAS COINTELPRO?
"COINTELPRO" was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression (exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally- protected political activity. Its methods ranged far beyond surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world.
HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT?
COINTELPRO was discovered in March, 1971, when secret files were removed from an FBI office and released to news media. Freedom of Information requests, lawsuits, and former agents' public confessions deepened the exposure until a major scandal loomed. To control the damage and re-establish government legitimacy in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, Congress and the courts compelled the FBI to reveal part of what it had done and to promise it would not do it again. Much of what has been learned, and copies of some of the actual documents, can be found in the readings listed at the back of this pamphlet.
HOW DID IT WORK?
The FBI secretly instructed its field offices to propose schemes to "misdirect, discredit, disrupt and otherwise neutralize "specific individuals and groups. Close coordination with local police and prosecutors was encouraged. Final authority rested with top FBI officials in Washington, who demanded assurance that "there is no possibility of embarrassment to the Bureau." More than 2000 individual actions were officially approved. The documents reveal three types of methods:
1. Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main function was to discredit and disrupt. Various means to this end are analyzed below.
2. Other forms of deception: The FBI and police also waged psychological warfare from the outside through bogus publications, forged correspondence, anonymous letters and telephone calls, and similar forms of deceit.
3. Harassment, intimidation and violence: Eviction, job loss, break ins, vandalism, grand jury subpoenas, false arrests, frame- ups, and physical violence were threatened, instigated or directly employed, in an effort to frighten activists and disrupt their movements. Government agents either concealed their involvement or fabricated a legal pretext. In the case of the Black and Native American movements, these assaults including outright political assassinations were so extensive and vicious that they amounted to terrorism on the part of the government.
WHO WERE THE MAIN TARGETS?
The most intense operations were directed against the Black movement, particularly the Black Panther Party. This resulted from FBI and police racism, the Black community's lack of material resources for fighting back, and the tendency of the media and whites in general to ignore or tolerate attacks on Black groups. It also reflected government and corporate fear of the Black movement because of its militancy, its broad domestic base and international support, and its historic role in galvanizing the entire Sixties' upsurge. Many other activists who organized against US intervention abroad or for racial, gender or class justice at home also came under covert attack. The targets were in no way limited to those who used physical force or took up arms. Martin Luther King, David Dellinger, Phillip Berrigan and other leading pacifists were high on the list, as were projects directly protected by the Bill of Rights, such as alternative newspapers.
The Black Panthers came under attack at a time when their work featured free food and health care and community control of schools and police, and when they carried guns only for deterrent and symbolic purposes. It was the terrorism of the FBI and police that eventually provoked the Panthers to retaliate with the armed actions that later were cited to justify their repression.
Ultimately the FBI disclosed six official counterintelligence programs: Communist Party USA (1956-71); "Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico" (1960-71); Socialist Workers Party (1961-71); "White Hate Groups" (1964-71); "Black Nationalist Hate Groups" (1967-71); and "New Left" (1968- 71). The latter operations hit anti-war, student, and feminist groups. The "Black Nationalist" caption actually encompassed Martin Luther King and most of the civil rights and Black Power movements. The "white hate" program functioned mainly as a cover for covert aid to the kkk and similar right wing vigilantes, who were given funds and information, so long as they confined their attacks to COINTELPRO targets. FBI documents also reveal covert action against Native American, Chicano, Philippine, Arab- American, and other activists, apparently without formal Counterintelligence programs.
WHAT EFFECT DID IT HAVE?
COINTELPRO's impact is difficult to fully assess since we do not know the entire scope of what was done (especially against such pivotal targets as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, SNCC and SDS) and we have no generally accepted analysis of the Sixties. It is clear, however, that:
-COINTELPRO distorted the public's view of radical groups in a way that helped to isolate them and to legitimize open political repression.
-It reinforced and exacerbated the weaknesses of these groups, making it very difficult for the inexperienced activists of the Sixties to learn from their mistakes and build solid, durable organizations.
-Its violent assaults and covert manipulation eventually helped to push some of the most committed and experienced groups to withdraw from grass-roots organizing and to substitute armed actions which isolated them and deprived the movement of much of its leadership.
-COINTELPRO often convinced its victims to blame themselves and each other for the problems it created, leaving a legacy of cynicism and despair that persists today.
-By operating covertly, the FBI and police were able to severely weaken domestic political opposition without shaking the conviction of most US people that they live in a democracy, with free speech and the rule of law.
THE DANGER WE FACE
DID COINTELPRO EVER REALLY END?
Public exposure of COINTELPRO in the early 1970s elicited a flurry of reform. Congress, the courts and the mass media condemned government "intelligence abuses." Municipal police forces officially disbanded their red squads. A new Attorney General notified past victims of COINTELPRO and issued Guidelines to limit future operations. Top FBI officials were indicted (albeit for relatively minor offenses), two were convicted, and several others retired or resigned. J. Edgar Hoover the egomaniacal, crudely racist and sexist founder of the FBI died, and a well known federal judge, William Webster, eventually was appointed to clean house and build a "new FBI."
Behind this public hoopla, however, was little real improvement in government treatment of radical activists. Domestic covert operations were briefly scaled down a bit, after the 60s' upsurge had largely subsided, due impart to the success of COINTELPRO. But they did not stop. In April, 1971, soon after files had been taken from one of its offices, the FBI instructed its agents that "future COINTELPRO actions will be considered on a highly selective, individual basis with tight procedures to insure absolute security." The results are apparent in the record of the subsequent years:
-A virtual war on the American Indian Movement, ranging from forgery of documents, infiltration of legal defense committees, diversion of funds, intimidation of witnesses and falsification of evidence, to the para-military invasion of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, Joe Stuntz and countless others;
-Sabotage of efforts to organize protest demonstrations at the 1972 Republican and Democratic Party conventions. The attempted assassination of San Diego Univ. Prof. Peter Bohmer, by a "Secret Army Organization" of ex-Minutemen formed, subsidized, armed, and protected by the FBI, was a part of these operations;
-Concealment of the fact that the witness whose testimony led to the 1972 robbery murder conviction of Black Panther leader Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt was a paid informer who had worked in the BPP under the direction of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department;
-Infiltration and disruption of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and prosecution of its national leaders on false charges (Florida, 1971-74);
-Formation and operation of sham political groups such as "Red Star Cadre," in Tampa, Fla., and the New Orleans "Red Collective" (1972-76);
-Mass interrogation of lesbian and feminist activists, threats of subpoenas, jailing of those who refused to cooperate, and disruption of women's health collectives and other projects (Lexington, KY., Hartford and New Haven, Conn., 1975);
-Harassment of the Hispanic Commission of the Episcopal Church and numerous other Puerto Rican and Chicano religious activists and community organizers (Chicago, New York City, Puerto Rico, Colorado and New Mexico, 1977);
-Entrapment and frame-up of militant union leaders (NASCO shipyards, San Diego, 1979); and
-Complicity in the murder of socialist labor and community organizers (Greensboro, N.C., 1980).
IS IT A THREAT TODAY?
More information http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/cointelpro.html#is
Please go to LAST PAGE OF "Replies to this Discussion" to read NEWEST Information
Replies
Some information about COINTELPRO
Write your testimonies to COINTELPROCONTINUESTODAY.ORG
http://www.cointelprocontinuestoday.org/mission.htm
Write your testimonies to this organization about your experiences with government Cointelpro Corruption. They will be collected to be submitted to Congress to open up a Congressional Hearing and Investigation into our Illegal and Covert Operations by our Government on its Domestic Citizenry.
From Bob Levin
Professor Alfred McCoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vTmCMSjBvE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8-RHMSR908
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8-RHMSR908
COINTELPRO 101 - The Sabotage Of Legitimate Dissent
Pentagon hacks blogs and changing messages to destroy the writer’s credibility while enlisting groups like FFCHS to subvert the positive efforts of Pro-TI Activists with COINTELPRO operations and propaganda. This is also realized by scientific articles disappearing or being changed on the internet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISkqQ3hpW5E
Norm Chomsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpAKfAtPfps
Ward Churchill on COINTELPRO and Terrorism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14W5hYRHjD0&feature=related
Cointelpro FBI (#24) [Marshal Thomas] Note I do not concur on any associations linking COINTELPRO to gang stalking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbMsOGWN_ts&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtGrWUIz92Y&feature=related
FBI DIRECTOR ROBERT MUELLER TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS [speaks of programs, software, “terrorism”, prosecutions of law enforcement]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guYXH_0-YAQ&feature=related
FBI history not always legal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVNu9XWQob4&feature=related
Alex Jones TV: Obama's Info Czar Sunstein, to Order Cointelpro, Military Provocateurs on Truthers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxYX5QNU5CA&feature=PlayList&...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzgUON8WGC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY4oGEu3RG0&feature=channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhWXtocgIA&feature=rec-fav-watc...
DALTON TRUMBO [McCarthyism] MUST LISTENING
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dalton-trumbo/intr...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyWWb9QJOHs
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dalto+trumbo&search...
"Safety Bracelets" for air travelers that would include personal information and would not only track the wearer but also be capable of remotely delivering a taser-like shock.
http://fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/homeland_security_pa...
Another Fourwinds10.com
No-Planer Cointelpro Operation Becoming Transparent
http://fourwinds10.com/siterun_data/government/fraud/911_attack/new...
The above one describes the disinformation campaigns to label targets. Ex: Alex Jones:
Haupt continuously spreads disinformation, even abject lies, surrounding the 9/11 truth movement. From calling legitimate 9/11 truthers “Plane Huggers”, to claiming “Alex Jones works for ABC” and is “covering up for the media”, Haupt’s tactics and behavior exhibit classic COINTELPRO methods. Haupt even advocates “waterboarding Plane Huggers”.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/gang-stalking-foia-and-cointelpro-co...
http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-national/video-ron-paul-def...
http://americanstargetingamericansbycointelpro.com/faqs.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How do you know it is COINTELPRO (i.e., Federal) Crimes being committed against us?
The absence of physical break-ins is what identifies the criminals. Only a government intelligence agency has the capability to bypass any lock or security device without breaking in.
Common criminals and “local” gangs do not have this capability and have no motive to avoid leaving evidence of a break-in. The COINTELPRO motive is to make the victim to be delusional and to give local police an excuse to refusing to investigate the crime.
Why is a TI’s harassment not a crime?
Separate acts of harassment by people in a group do not meet the penal definition of the crime of “stalking.” Harassment is not a crime unless you can prove a series of harassing acts by a single person. This constitutes the crime of stalking. It is thus not only useless, but counterproductive to report activities that are not crimes and which will give police an excuse for treating you as delusional. This is the purpose of street theater and other unbelievable forms of COINTELPRO harassment.
Only a federal investigative or intelligence agency has the capability to perform these operations, and they have a very long proven history of having performed such operations for decades.
If you report this to the FBI, as many TI’s have tried to do, they have always ignored all the reports and refused to investigate its own unconstitutional, criminal COINTELPRO operations.
Anti-TI activists have been very successful in covering up the COINTELPRO truth with the “local stalking group” myth. Also, “local stalking groups” could not possibly be doing this all over the U.S. and Canada to so many TI’s in so many different cities and states because they are, supposedly, LOCAL. They are NOT local; they receive federal training.
Why shouldn’t I report these harassment activities, even if I don’t refer to them as “local gang stalking”?
No matter what you call them, the harassment activities do not violate any penal law, unless you are a senior citizen; in which case they are a violation of elder abuse laws. The harassment activities are designed to make anyone who reports them appear to be paranoid and delusional. This is the kind of police report you would get if you attempt to report the bizarre harassment forms of COINTELPRO operations.
TI’s need to understand that local police are a part of the COINTELPRO machine. They participate in COINTELPRO harassment, and they cover up COINTELPRO crimes.
Why won’t a lawsuit succeed in getting TI’s help?
The crimes being perpetrated against us are government crimes. We are not prevented from exposing our knowledge of government crimes, but these crimes are state secrets. We cannot access state secrets through court discovery procedures, but congress can access them. It has done so in past investigations of COINTELPRO, MK-ULTRA, etc.:
1. A major congressional investigation of COINTELPRO OPERATIONS WAS CONDUCTED IN 1976-78 BY THE Church Committee, a U. S. Senate Committee chaired by Senator Frank Church.
2. An investigation of the 1981-85 COINTELPRO war against CISPES (Committee In Sympathy with the People of El Salvador) was conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1989.
What if we don’t get a Congressional Investigation?
If we cannot get a Congressional Investigation, we will publish the statements on the Internet with the identifying into removed. We will respect privacy elsewhere for those who request it.
We will send statements to journalists, to civil and constitutional rights organizations; to all liberal activist organizations, such as 9-11 Truth. These activist organizations may now be targeted or may have participants who are targeted, or they are subject to being targeted in the future. It is very much in their interest to join with us in demanding congressional Investigation of today’s COINTELPRO operations.
We can’t name all of the organizations and groups that we would contact. We would try anything that might help once we have the evidence we need. And that would be your testimonial.
Why are you asking for certain topics on your sample testimonial?
We need to join together many people who can confirm the truth of the same COINTELPRO crimes. Any ONE person can be treated by police as a nut, but if several people in cities around the U.S. report the same crimes, we are more likely to paint the picture of federal COINTELPRO TACTICS.
Where will you be taking my statement?
(See the FAQ “What if we don’t get a congressional Investigation?”)
Will you be taking my statement to the FBI?
No, they are an intrinsic part of COINTELPRO.
What happens if we choose to NOT have our personal information disclosed (i.e., privacy issue concerns)?
We will respect the privacy of those who are fearful about identifying themselves. We WOULD need to disclose names if we ask Congress to investigate specific harm to specific persons, but we can maintain anonymity even there for those who wish it, --but they will not get the possible benefit of an investigation of their personal experiences.
How long does this process take?
The actual timeline is uncertain, and depends largely on the number of testimonials we receive, and how soon we receive them.
It can’t happen at all if propagandists are able to continue making the entire TI community present a public image as paranoid and delusional, covering up the truth of COINTELPRO by claiming “organized stalking” is the problem.
My testimony, if submitted, may not guarantee a Congressional Investigation. Is this true?
We can’t get a Congressional Investigation by proving the need for it and the right to it. That has never happened. Only proving it to the public has ever forced an investigation. Your statement will be used to arouse enough public pressure to force a Congressional Investigation.
Why do we need a Congressional Investigation, instead of a lawsuit against government officials or agencies?
Congressional Investigation is the one and only way possible to access the classified government secrets that we must be able to prove in order to make successful litigation possible. The two past Congressional Investigations of COINTELPRO were forced upon Congress by public pressure.
TI’s have never been able to obtain such investigation by making personal requests to Congress. What worked for TI’s twice in the past can work again now.
http://www.it.ojp.gov/documents/fusion_center_guidelines.pdf
in Guideline 1 they write about targeting "terrorists" and "prolific criminals" but the innocent people who are being targeted fit neither category yet they are having their lives destroyed with government sanctioned gang stalking, character assasination everywhere they go and electronic harassment/torture when they are in their homes.
The enclosed affidavit of Geral D. Sossbee, ex-agent of the FBI, is clear enough. Who could believe that what he asserts are just delusions of a paranoid individual!
sosbee 2.doc
http://www.scribd.com/doc/50732111/Notice-to-Cease-and-Desist-From-Using-CointelproToday
Bob Levin
www.BobLevin.org
Patriot Act extension fails in the House by seven votes
By Paul Kane and Felicia Sonmez
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, February 8, 2011; 9:21 PM
House Republicans suffered an embarrassing setback Tuesday when they fell seven votes short of extending provisions of the Patriot Act, a vote that served as the first small uprising of the party's tea-party bloc.
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The bill to reauthorize key parts of the counter-terrorism surveillance law, which expire at the end of the month, required a super-majority to pass under special rules reserved for non-controversial measures.
But it fell short of the required two-thirds after 26 Republicans bucked their leadership, eight of them freshman lawmakers elected in November's midterm elections. With most Democrats opposing the extension, the final tally was 277 members in favor of extension, and 148 opposed.
The Republicans who control the House made plans to bring the measure back for a quick vote later this month under normal rules, requiring only a simple majority for passage. They blamed House Democrats for the bill's downfall, noting that they provided the lion's share of votes against a bill that President Obama supports.
The vote was the latest signal, though, that on certain matters House leaders could face a sizable resistance to compromise from within their own ranks, both from the 87 GOP freshmen and from conservative veterans who have been emboldened by the newcomers.
Earlier Tuesday, House Republicans pulled a bill to extend assistance to workers who lose jobs due to competition from imports. Conservatives had complained that the bill would put the federal government too squarely into the private economy.
And leaders of the Appropriations Committee heard complaints Tuesday from fellow Republicans on the panel that their bill to slash at least $32 billion in fiscal year 2011 spending was insufficient.
The Patriot Act measure would have extended through the end of the year three provisions that are set to expire Feb. 28. One authorizes the FBI to use roving wiretaps on surveillance targets; the second allows the government to access "any tangible items," such as library records, in the course of surveillance; and the third allows for the surveillance of targets who are not connected to an identified terrorist group.
Democrats hailed the day's events under a press release from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office asking a simple question: "Disarray?"
Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), who has presented an occasionally lonely opposition to the Patriot Act, said that Tuesday's vote demonstrated that he now had company from more than two dozen Republicans who support the Bill of Rights. "The Patriot Act represents the undermining of civil liberties," Kucinich said after the vote. Republicans "brought [the bill] forward not knowing the votes."
House leaders rejected that analysis. "Democrats in Congress voted to deny their own administration's request for key weapons in the war on terror," said Erica Elliott, spokeswoman for Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
A large majority of the freshman Republicans did support the extension of the law, which the last GOP president, George W. Bush, staunchly supported. Even some who wavered eventually decided to support the bill.
Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), a freshman who voted yes, said the measure is "going to need some examination going forward, so all I did today is just, hey, instead of making a wrong decision, we're just going to do a little more due diligence to make the very right decision to both protect our security as well as protect the civil liberties of the American people."
"This is just a temporary extension, so the Judiciary Committee can dive a little deeper into the details," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), a second-term lawmaker closely aligned with tea party activists. "That seemed fair. I don't want to let it expire without giving it full contemplation."
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who sponsored the extension, told reporters after the vote that opposition had little to do with the particular provisions being considered Tuesday and more to do with other counter-terrorism tools that have received scrutiny. "People didn't understand it," he said. "A lot of the complaints that we heard were about sections [of the law] not in this bill."
The White House said in a statement Tuesday that it "does not object" to extending the three Patriot Act provisions until December. However, it added, the administration "would strongly prefer" an extension until December 2013, noting that the longer timeline "provides the necessary certainty and predictability" that law enforcement agencies require while at the same time ensuring that Congress can continue to review the law's effectiveness.
The Senate is considering three competing timelines, in addition to the House legislation. Among them are proposals that would permanently extend the three provisions or extend them through 2013.
kanep@washpost.com sonmezf@washpost.com
http://americanstargetingamericansbycointelpro.com/
http://www.it.ojp.gov/documents/fusion_center_executive_summary.pdfCo-Intelpro is the main operation of all the False Opposition groups which comprise the majority of so-called Truth groups dealing with subjects like 9/11, wars in the Middle East, and general propaganda operations aimed at the disaffected.
These are part of Military Covert Operations, as is Predatory Gangstalking. http://www.whale.to/c/predatory_gangstalking.html