bridgingthegap

"We must now face the harsh truth that the objectives of communism are being steadily advanced
because many of us do not recognize the means used to advance them. ... The individual is
handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The
American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our
midst." J. Edgar Hoover
Though he was describing what he saw as the plan for communists to take over America, he could well
also have been describing his Counter Intelligence Program, Cointelpro for short. After the McCarthy
era, when men like himself and Joseph McCarthy found that they could not go any further legally with
their Communist witch hunts, Hoover decided to go outside of the law, and to become a law unto
himself. He created a counter intelligence program that would continue where the McCarthyism witch
hunts had ended, and go further than those witch hunts had ever dreamed or dared to hope. It was used
to investigate and disrupt, destroy, and disseminate, dissident programs. It was famous for targeting
leaders of those programs.
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. 28
This program was hard to imagine. It was a conspiracy that was impossible to comprehend that any
democratic government could take such deliberate actions against it's own citizens but it did.
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
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