Between 1956 and 1971, the FBI ran a secret program on American soil — COINTELPRO — to surveil, infiltrate and destabilize political movements. This is not a theory: the U.S. Senate officially documented it (Church Committee, 1976). The facts are solid — and more precise than the myth.
COINTELPRO ("COunter INTELligence PROgram") was launched in 1956 against the American Communist Party, then extended: the Socialist Workers Party, "white hate groups" (including the Ku Klux Klan), "black nationalist" groups and the civil rights movement, and finally the "New Left." So the left, the racist right, and the civil rights movement alike. The Church Committee counted 2,370 approved covert actions.
The FBI went beyond intelligence: it conducted covert actions explicitly meant to "disrupt" and "neutralize" groups and individuals — anonymous letters, disinformation, infiltration.
The Church Committee report details the arsenal: forged anonymous letters to break up marriages and set organizations against each other, "snitch-jacketing" (framing a genuine activist as an FBI informant, exposing him to retaliation from his own side), articles planted in the press through cooperative journalists, targeted tax referrals, pressure on employers and landlords. The case of Fred Hampton, the Chicago Black Panthers leader killed in a police raid on December 4, 1969, marks the darkest zone: documents showed an FBI informant had supplied the floor plan of his apartment, and the civil case ended in 1982 with a $1.85 million settlement paid by the authorities — without any admission of liability.
On March 8, 1971, activists burgled the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, took more than 1,000 documents and mailed them anonymously to the press. The disclosure exposed COINTELPRO, pushed the Senate to create the Church Committee, and led the FBI to end the program. None of the burglars was ever arrested; their identity was only revealed in 2014.
Around November 1964, the FBI sent Martin Luther King Jr. an anonymous package (a letter and a recording) that King understood as urging him toward suicide. A copy of that letter was found in the working files of FBI deputy director William Sullivan during the Church Committee investigation — which confirmed the FBI origin of the mailing.
The disclosure produced more than scandal — it produced law. In the wake of the Church Committee: the Levi Guidelines (1976) constrained the FBI's domestic investigations for the first time; FISA (1978) created a special court to authorize intelligence surveillance; and Congress installed permanent intelligence-oversight committees (Senate 1976, House 1977) that still exist. That is the decisive argument against the fatalism of "they do whatever they want": exposed by citizens and a free press, an illegal program was shut down, investigated, and durably changed the law.
As with Operation Mockingbird or MK-Ultra, COINTELPRO is a real, documented and precise abuse. Telling it honestly — neither minimized nor inflated into an all-knowing legend — beats the myth: the established reality is heavy enough.
Yes. It is a clandestine FBI programme (1956-1971), officially documented by the US Senate (Church Committee, final report Book III, 1976), which records 2,370 approved clandestine actions.
The Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, "white hate groups" including the Ku Klux Klan, "black nationalist" groups and the civil rights movement, then the "New Left" — that is, the left, the racist right and the civil rights movement.
Through the burglary of the FBI office in Media (Pennsylvania) on 8 March 1971: activists took more than 1,000 documents and sent them to the press, exposing COINTELPRO and triggering the Church Committee investigation.
Yes. A copy was found in the files of FBI assistant director William Sullivan during the Church Committee investigation, which confirmed the FBI origin of this anonymous 1964 mailing.
No. The official programme ended in 1971 and was limited to specific clandestine actions. Equating any FBI surveillance, or any modern operation, with "COINTELPRO" is a shortcut not covered by the documents.
In order: the American Communist Party (1956), the Socialist Workers Party (1961), white supremacist groups including the KKK (1964), "black nationalist" groups — a label that also encompassed non-violent civil rights organisations (1967) — and the "New Left" (1968).
The revelation led to the Levi guidelines (1976) framing the FBI's domestic investigations, to FISA (1978) creating a surveillance court, and to the permanent intelligence oversight committees in Congress — still in place.
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