COINTELPRO
[related: Malcolm X, the GOON Squad, GIP, Jean Dorothy Seberg]
A top secret series of covert and blatantly illegal domestic operations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in cooperation with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). COINTELPRO, a syllabic abbreviation of Counter Intelligence Program), ran roughly between 1955 and 1971, though similar operations both preceded and succeeded its formation. COINTELPRO served primarily as an unofficial governmental response to the civil rights movement - the program was formed in part to prevent the rise of "a Black Messiah". Ex., the FBI sent a letter to Martin Luther King days before his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize urging him to committ suicide. The letter included lewd information regarding King's extramarital affairs gained through illegal wiretapping and other methods of surveillance. Using the Ghetto Informant Program (GIP), the FBI was able to infiltrate the Black Panthers and other Black Power groups. Through GIP, the FBI was able to sow discord within the movement, spreading rumours and false accusations within its memberships. Ex., GIP initiatives led to the assassination of Malcolm X by three members of the Nation of Islam [1]. COINTELPRO also targeted various Native American groups through similarly nefarious means, covertly funding the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON) Squads, a Sioux-founded paramilitary group later accused of over 300 political assaults and 64 assassinations. Other COINTELPRO-targeted individuals include: the authors Ernest Hemingway, Studs Terkel, and Eldridge Cleaver, Yippies founder Abbie Hoffman, and the Jean-Luc Godard muse Jean Dorothy Seberg [2].
Although COINTELPRO was officially disbanded in the mid 1970's following a wave of abhorrent publicity, FBI-led COINTELPRO-style suppression peaked again in the 1980's, this time in response to the coalescence of the phone phreaking/computer hacking community. Groups like the Legion of Doom, Masters of Deception, and Cult of the Dead Cow were met with COINTELPRO-like subterfuge, conducted in collusion with and at the behest of corporate giants like Ma Bell. These efforts culminated in the widely-mocked and comically unsuccessful Operation Sundevil.
- ↑ It is unclear if the assassins were in fact official NOI members that had been manipulated by the FBI or simply undercover FBI-informants themselves.
- ↑ In 1970 the FBI planted false rumours in the media that Seberg had been impregnated by a member of the Black Panther party, reportedly in response to Seberg contributing $500 to a Black Panther-related community group for the purchase of school basketball uniforms. The story was widely disseminated, appearing in the Los Angeles Times and in Newsweek magazine. Romain Gary, the biological father of her in-utero child, left Seberg as a result of the reports, leading the actress to overdose on sleeping pills, miscarrying her baby in the process. Seberg repeatedly attempted suicide on August 25th, the anniversary of her child's death, finally succeeding in 1979.