*** A BRIEF summary of criminal methods used by FBI Mother Fuckers ***

[st911]

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html

just search google for cointelpro


A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO

by Mike Cassidy and Will Miller
The FBI and police used secret and systematic methods of fraud and
force
                [Editor's note: More information on COINTELPRO in the Bari case 
is
available at the Monitor Judi Bari index. Much of the following was
taken from Brian Glick's book War At Home: Covert Action Against U.S.
Activists and What We Can Do About It, (South End Press; Boston, 1989),
a source for detailed and documented information on the history of
domestic covert action against movements for social change.]


In early 1971, the FBI's domestic counterintelligence program (code
named "COINTELPRO") was brought to light when a "Citizens Committee to
Investigate the FBI" removed secret files from an FBI office in Media,
PA and released them to the press. Agents began to resign from the
Bureau and blow the whistle on covert operations. That same year,
publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Pentagon's top-secret history
of the Vietnam War, exposed years of systematic official lies about the
war.

Soon after, it was discovered that a clandestine squad of White House
"plumbers" broke into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in an
effort to smear the former Pentagon staffer who leaked the top-secret
papers to the press. The same "plumbers" were later caught burglarizing
the Watergate offices of the Democratic National Committee. By the
mid-1970's Senate and House committees launched formal and lengthy
inquiries into government intelligence and covert activities. These
investigations revealed extensive covert and illegal
counterintelligence programs involving the FBI, CIA, U.S. Army
intelligence, the White House, the Attorney General, and even local and
state law enforcement, directed against opponents of government
domestic and foreign policy. Since then, many more instances of these
"dirty tricks" have been revealed.

When congressional investigations, political trials and other
traditional legal methods of repression failed to counter the growing
movements of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, and even helped fuel them, the
FBI and police moved outside the law. They used secret and systematic
methods of fraud and force, far beyond mere surveillance, to sabotage
constitutionally protected political activity. The purpose of the
program was, in FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's own words, to "expose,
disrupt, misdirect, discredit and otherwise neutralize" specific groups
and individuals. Its targets in this period included the American
Indian Movement, the Communist Party, the Socialist Worker's Party,
Black Nationalist groups, and many members of the New Left (SDS, and a
broad range of anti-war, anti-racist, feminist, lesbian and gay,
environmentalist and other groups). Many other groups and individuals
seeking racial, gender and class justice were targets who came under
attack, including Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, the NAACP, the
National Lawyer's Guild, SANE-Freeze, American Friends Service
Committee, and many, many others.


The Reagan Administration reinvigorated covert action
                The public exposure of COINTELPRO and other government abuses
resulted in a flurry of apparent reform in the 1970s, but domestic
covert action did not end. It has persisted, and seems a permanent
feature of our government. Much of today's domestic covert action can
also be kept concealed because of government secrecy that has been
restored. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a source of major
disclosures of COINTELPRO and other such activities, was drastically
narrowed in the 1980s through administrative and judicial
reinterpretation, as well as legislative amendment. While restoring
such secrecy, the Reagan Administration also reinvigorated covert
action, embracing its use at home and abroad. They endorsed it,
sponsored it, and even legalized it to a great extent.

Much of what was done outside the law under COINTELPRO was later
legalized by Executive Order 12333 (12/4/81). There is every reason to
believe that even what was not legalized is still going on as well.
Lest we forget, Lt. Col. Oliver North funded and orchestrated from the
White House basement break-ins and other "dirty tricks" to defeat
congressional critics of U.S. policy in Central America and to
neutralize grassroots protest. Special Prosecutor Walsh found evidence
that North and Richard Secord (architect of the 1960s covert actions in
Cambodia) used Iran-Contra funds to harass the Christic Institute, a
church-funded public interest group specializing in exposing government
misconduct.

North also helped other administration officials at the Federal
Emergency Management Administration develop contingency plans for
suspending the Constitution, establishing martial law, and holding
political dissidents in concentration camps in the event of "national
opposition against a U.S. military invasion abroad." There were reports
of similar activities and preparations in response to the opposition to
the Gulf War in 1991. Even today, there is pending litigation against
the FBI involving alleged misconduct in connection with the near-fatal
bombing of Judi Bari.


Domestic Covert Action Methods
                Although covert action will be adapted to changing social and
technological conditions, only a limited number of methods exist. A
study of COINTELPRO revealed four basic approaches.

    * First, there was infiltration. Agents and informers did not
merely spy on political activists. The main purpose was to discredit
and disrupt. Their presence served to undermine trust and scare off
potential supporters. They also exploited this fear to smear genuine
activists as agents.

    * Second, there was psychological warfare from the outside. They
planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other
publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged
correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone
calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up
pseudo movement groups run by agents, and manipulated or strong-armed
parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause
trouble for activists.

    * Third, there was harassment through the legal system, used to
harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers gave
perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for
false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced
tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous
surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in
an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.

    * Fourth and finally, there was extralegal force and violence. The
FBI and police threatened, instigated and conducted break-ins,
vandalism, assaults, and beatings. The object was to frighten
dissidents and disrupt their movements. In the case of radical Black
and Puerto Rican activists (and later Native Americans), these attacks,
including political assassinations, were so extensive, vicious, and
calculated that they can only be accurately called a form of official
"terrorism."

For details, along with many examples of each of these methods, read
Glick's well-documented and heavily footnoted "War At Home."


reprinted with permission

Mike Cassidy is a civil rights attorney and Will Miller is a Professor
of Philosophy at U. of Vermont
Comments? Send a letter to the editor.

Albion Monitor May 26, 1999 (http://www.monitor.net/monitor)

All Rights Reserved.

Contact rights@monitor.net for permission to use in any format.