Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Thursday, January 12, 2006
"A detailed preview of what was to come"
In light of all the recent revelations about domestic spying (e.g. http://tinyurl.com/7rh7p), I thought I’d post an excerpt from Seven Deadly Spins, re: the FBI Counterintelligence Program or “COINTELPRO.”
Ward Churchill describes COINTELPRO as “a secret, nationwide campaign conducted by the Bureau from 1956-1971 for purposes of destroying ‘politically objectionable’ organizations and individuals through any and every means available to it.”
(http://tinyurl.com/c25yv)
Former FBI agent, Wesley Swearingen says it was “the FBI’s program to thwart the efforts of any organization or person they think is unacceptable.” Such unacceptables ran the gamut from socialists to movie stars, the ACLU, the NAACP, and dissident groups like American Indian Movement, Black Panthers, and the New Left.
(http://tinyurl.com/74syb)
COINTELPRO methods included “forgery, planting of fabricated evidence, thefts, false accusations, intimidation, agent provocateur acts of terror, and aid to ad protection of terrorists attacking targeted individuals and groups.” Churchill estimates approximately 20,000 individuals and groups were targeted by the FBI “back in the period of the Vietnam War or in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Liberation Movement, the late 60’s and early 1970’s.” These groups included “community organizations, petition organizations, antiwar organizations, draft counseling organizations, abortion rights organizations, and on and on. Anybody who deviated in any way from the status quo to the left was essentially subject to FBI surveillance.”
(http://tinyurl.com/8ing)
Brian Glick, author of War at Home, adds, “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.”
“According to the official histories, COINTELPRO existed from late 1956 through mid-1971,” adds Churchill. “During this period, the FBI admits to having engaged in a total of 2,218 separate COINTELPRO actions, many of them coupled directly with other sorts of systematic illegality such as the deployment of warrantless phone taps (a total of 2,305 admitted) and bugs (697 admitted) against domestic political targets, and receipt of correspondence secretly intercepted by the CIA (57,846 separate instances admitted).”
But, as Swearingen explains, COINTELPRO is “still in operation today, but under a different code name. The operation is no longer placed on paper where it can be discovered through the release if documents under the Freedom of Information Act.”
“The COINTELPRO era provided a detailed preview of what was to come,” warns Churchill.
They see you when you’re sleeping, they know when you’re awake...
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Tyler Durden sez:
“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.”
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
