What was the purpose of the COINTELPRO program?
COINTELPRO, in full Counterintelligence Program, counterintelligence program conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1956 to 1971 to discredit and neutralize organizations considered subversive to U.S. political stability.
What are the COINTELPRO hearings?
Instead, they date from the 1970s, when Idaho Senator Frank Church led congressional hearings into whether intelligence agencies had gone too far in investigating U.S. citizens. At the core of the Church hearings was COINTELPRO, a program started by FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s.
What happened to COINTELPRO?
Within the year, Director J. Edgar Hoover declared that the centralized COINTELPRO was over, and that all future counterintelligence operations would be handled case by case.
What did the FBI do in COINTELPRO?
COINTELPRO. The FBI also financed, armed, and controlled an extreme right-wing group of former Minutemen, transforming it into a group called the Secret Army Organization that targeted groups, activists, and leaders involved in the Anti-War Movement, using both intimidation and violent acts.
Who was COINTELPRO created by?
Martin Luther King Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, and other civil rights organizations. Black nationalist groups.
How did COINTELPRO begin?
COINTELPRO The FBI began COINTELPRO—short for Counterintelligence Program—in 1956 to disrupt the activities of the Communist Party of the United States. In the 1960s, it was expanded to include a number of other domestic groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Socialist Workers Party, and the Black Panther Party.
Which government agency was responsible for COINTELPRO?
COINTELPRO, in full Counterintelligence Program, counterintelligence program conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1956 to 1971 to discredit and neutralize organizations considered subversive to U.S. political stability.
What was COINTELPRO quizlet?
COINTELPRO is an acronym (Counter Intelligence Program) for a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States.
Who created the FBI?
In the early 20th century, the FBI originated out of the General Intelligence Division, created by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and headed by J. Edgar Hoover. Created with the intention of collecting intelligence on " radical organizations ," the General Intelligence Division received funds from Congress meant to go toward " anticommunist activities ." During 1919 and 1920, the Palmer Raids, also called the Palmer Red Raids, focused on arresting and deporting anarchists, radical leftists, and communists who were deemed "alien" or "foreign."
Who was the FBI agent who was involved in the Greensboro massacre?
The Greensboro Massacre of November 3, 1979, called by Politico "The Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right," was organized and led by agents provocateurs Edward Dawson, an FBI infiltrator, and Bernard Butkovich, an agent working undercover for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
What is a counterintelligence program?
COINTELPRO, in full Counterintelligence Program, counterintelligence program conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1956 to 1971 to discredit and neutralize organizations considered subversive to U.S. political stability.
When was the Church Committee launched?
A major investigation was launched in 1975 by the U.S. SenateSelect Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, commonly referred to as the “Church Committee,” for its chairman, Senator Frank Churchof Idaho. However, millions of pages of documents remain unreleased, and many released documents are heavily censored. In its final report, the committee sharply criticized COINTELPRO:
What was the purpose of the Cointelpro program?
It combined the efforts of the Bureau and local police forces to track, harass, discredit, infiltrate, destroy, and destabilize dissident groups in the United States.
What did the FBI do with the Cointelpro?
COINTELPRO also sought to undermine, intimidate, and slander avowedly nonviolent black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. The counterintelligence methods used by the FBI program included sending undercover agents into the Black Panther Party, where they incited criminal acts and fomented much of the violence that the public came ...
When did the Cointelpro files come to light?
Some COINTELPRO files came to light in March of 1971 after a leftist group called the Citizens’ Committee to Investigate the FBI broke into a small Pennsylvania FBI office, seized documents, and disseminated them to news outlets.
What is counterintelligence in the Cold War?
Counterintelligence is the term for any anti-espionage or surveillance activities aimed at spying on or breaking up domestic threats.
Who authorized the covert operation of the FBI?
With the knowledge and approval of President Dwight Eisenhower, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized a covert operation that aimed to bring all of the nation’s counterintelligence operations together under one easily managed umbrella. The project became known as, imaginatively, “counterintelligence program,” COINTELPRO for short.
Who was the FBI Director in 1956?
With the knowledge and approval of President Dwight Eisenhower, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover authorized a covert operation ...
Who held hearings that exposed Cointelpro, and spurred new domestic spying regulations?
CHIDEYA: In 1975, three years after Hoover's death, Senator Church held hearings that exposed COINTELPRO, and spurred new domestic spying regulations. Kate Martin, Director for the Center of National Securities Studies:
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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.
Exposing COINTELPRO
On March 8, 1971, The Citizens' Committee to Investigate the FBI ( 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.
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.