COINTELPRO

[[File:COINTELPRO - Jean Seberg.jpg|thumb|right|165px|FBI letter that suggested 'neutralizing' actor Jean Seberg for her financial support of the Black Panther Party]]
{{uspolitics}}
{{cquote|The purpose of this new counterintelligence endeavor is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, [[Propaganda|discredit]], or [[Terrorism|otherwise neutralize]] the activities of black nationalist hate-type organizations and groupings, their leadership, spokesmen, membership, and supporters, and to [[Hypocrisy|counter their propensity for violence and civil disorder]].|200|50|[[J. Edgar Hoover]]<ref>[https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro/cointel-pro-black-extremists/cointelpro-black-extremists-part-01-of/view page 3]</ref>}}
'''COINTELPRO''' (an acronym of '''CO'''unter '''INTEL'''ligence '''PRO'''gram) were a series of covert and often times illegal activities conducted by the [[FBI]] with the intention of 
surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting [[New Left]] political organizations and their leaders
 protecting America and its people from evil [[Communism|commies]] and [[African American|Negroes]]. Although pretty much every major group with 
leftist
 un-American notions had a file, they had a raging hard-on for hindering communist groups as well as black [[civil rights]] (e.g. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], The [[Black Panther Party]], [[Malcolm X]], and The [[Nation of Islam]]). It was the closest that the U.S. ever came to having an actual [[secret police]] force, and it was fueled by a bunch of old [[Racism|racist]], [[fear-mongering]] white guys suffering from serious [[paranoia]].<sup>[''citation NOT needed'']</sup>

==History==
It was originally started on the heels of [[McCarthyism]] to infiltrate and create a schism in the Communist Party of the United States of America. But as the liberal ideology became more and more popular with the youth throughout the sixties, COINTELPRO shifted it's targets to  anti-war doves, feminists, and Puerto Rican nationalist groups. They also infiltrated far-right white nationalist groups like the [[Ku Klux Klan]].

==Exposing COINTELPRO==
On March 8, 1971, The Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI ([[Irony|in a black bag operation]]) broke into a small FBI office building in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, stole a whole bunch of dossiers revealing COINTELPRO's dirty deeds, and then gave them to some journalists at The [[Washington Post]] who published them.<ref>Betty Medsger, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/remembering-an-earlier-time-when-a-theft-unmasked-government-surveillance/2014/01/10/30e9ee44-7963-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html Remembering an earlier time when a theft unmasked government surveillance]. [[The Washington Post]], 10 January 2014.</ref> Unfortunately, like most government documents, the dossiers and other information relating to them have been 
either partially or entirely
 generously highlighted with a black marker.

==Church Committee==
As with any legally questionable activities committed by federal organizations, there was a hearing by a U.S. [[Senate]] Committee before being completely ignored. In 1975, partially in response to [[Watergate]], The United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, or The Church Committee for the sake of brevity, was responsible for looking into the [[FBI]], [[CIA]], and [[NSA]]'s use of illegal surveillance in their operations. Their final report criticized the programs and led to the formation of the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.<ref>Barak, G. (Ed.). (2015). ''The Routledge international handbook of the crimes of the powerful''. Routledge. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H17LCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA520 p.520].</ref>

Thank god for the Church Committee's investigation! [[PATRIOT Act|I don't know what kind of crazy 1984-esque policies would be in place now if it weren't for them]]!

==Notable sketchiness==
* Wiretapping MLK, sending the [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Mlk-uncovered-letter.png "suicide letter"]
* The murder of {{wpl|Fred_Hampton}} and {{wpl|Mark Clark (activist)|Mark Clark}}
* The murder of {{wpl|Viola Liuzzo}}
* The incarnation of {{wpl|Elmer Pratt}}
* Over 200 reported black bag jobs (breaking and entering for the purpose of obtaining private information)

==Propaganda posters==
The COINTELPRO program created [[propaganda]] posters during the 1960s-1970s designed to smear the Black Panther Party, claiming that they were [[police]] informants, they were not who they claimed to be, or [[stereotyping]] them as [[Miscegenation|lusting for white women]].
<gallery>
Cointelpro1.jpg|
Cointelpro2.jpg|A poster that claimed that [[Bobby Seale]] was an informant.
Cointelpro3.jpg|
Cointelpro4.jpg|
Cointelpro5.jpg|
Cointelpro6.jpg|
Cointelpro7.jpg|
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[CIA]]
* [[FBI]] 
* [[J. Edgar Hoover]] 
* [[NSA]]
* [[Red Scare]]

==External Links==
*[https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro COINTELPRO] at the FBI Vault
*[http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/resources/intelligence-related-commissions Intelligence Related Commissions, Other Select or Special Committees and Special Reports] at the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
*[http://www.thegoyslife.com/Documents/Books/78272631-The-Cointelpro-Papers.pdf The COINTELPRO Papers]

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:United States government]]
[[Category:Government surveillance]]
[[Category:Government incompetence]]
[[Category:Racism]]

Categories: United States government, Government surveillance, Government incompetence, Racism