Editing COINTELPRO (section)

==Methods==
[[File:Fred Hampton dead body.jpg|thumb|right|Body of [[Fred Hampton]], national spokesman for the [[Black Panther Party]], who was assassinated<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayGMaGUXpKQC&pg=PA10 |title=From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago |last=Williams |first=Jakobi |date=2013 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1469608167 |page=10 |language=en}}</ref><ref>[[Michael Newton (author)|Michael Newton]]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205 Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113035339/https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA206&pg=PA205 |date=2017-01-13 }}.'' [[ABC-CLIO]], p. 205. {{ISBN|1610692853}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://chicagocrimescenes.blogspot.com/2009/11/shoot-it-out-death-of-fred-hampton.html |title=Shoot It Out? The Death of Fred Hampton |last=Kendall |date=3 November 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315082445/http://chicagocrimescenes.blogspot.com/2009/11/shoot-it-out-death-of-fred-hampton.html |archive-date=15 March 2016 |access-date=18 April 2016 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> by members of the Chicago Police Department, with the raid itself being a COINTELPRO operation, although there is not proof the assassination itself was.<ref name="FBI Secrets 1995" /><ref name="icdc.com" />]]

According to attorney Brian Glick in his book ''War at Home'', the FBI used five main methods during COINTELPRO:
# '''Infiltration:''' Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit, disrupt and negatively redirect action. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
# '''Psychological warfare:''' The FBI and police used a myriad of "dirty tricks" to undermine movements. 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 government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials, and others to cause trouble for activists. They used [[bad-jacketing]] to create suspicion about targeted activists, sometimes with lethal consequences.<ref>{{Citation |last=Ward Churchill |title=Agents of Repression |date=2002 |edition=Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement |publisher=South End Press |isbn=978-0896086463 |oclc=50985124 |ol=25433596M |id=0896086461}}</ref>
# '''Harassment via the legal system:''' The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.<ref name="icdc.com">{{Cite web |url=http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIc.htm |title=The FBI'S Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113102047/http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIc.htm |archive-date=2013-01-13 |access-date=2005-04-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0001a.htm |title=Assassination Archive and Research Center |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140918004714/http://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/book3/html/ChurchB3_0001a.htm |archive-date=2014-09-18 |access-date=2015-05-05}}</ref>
# '''Illegal force:''' The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations.<ref name="icdc.com" /> The objective was to frighten or eliminate dissidents and disrupt their movements.
# '''Undermine public opinion:''' One of the primary ways the FBI targeted organizations was by challenging their reputations in the community and denying them a platform to gain legitimacy. Hoover specifically designed programs to block leaders from "spreading their philosophy publicly or through the communications media". Furthermore, the organization created and controlled negative media meant to undermine black power organizations. For instance, they oversaw the creation of "documentaries" skillfully edited to paint the Black Panther Party as aggressive, and false newspapers that spread misinformation about party members. The ability of the FBI to create distrust within and between revolutionary organizations tainted their public image and weakened chances at unity and public support.<ref name="Churchill_1990" />

The FBI specifically developed tactics intended to heighten tension and hostility between various factions in the black power movement, for example between the Black Panthers and the [[US Organization]]. For instance, the FBI sent a fake letter to the US Organization exposing a supposed Black Panther plot to murder the head of the US Organization, [[Maulana Karenga|Ron Karenga]]. They then intensified this by spreading falsely attributed cartoons in the black communities pitting the Black Panther Party against the US Organization.<ref name="Churchill_1990" /> This resulted in numerous deaths, among which were San Diego Black Panther Party members John Huggins, Bunchy Carter and Sylvester Bell.<ref name="icdc.com" /> Another example of the FBI's anonymous letter writing campaign is how they turned the Blackstone Rangers head, Jeff Fort, against former ally Fred Hampton, by stating that Hampton had a hit on Fort.<ref name="Churchill_1990" /> They also were instrumental in developing the rift between Black Panther Party leaders Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton, as executed through false letters inciting the two leaders of the Black Panther Party.<ref name="Churchill_1990" />

[[Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad|Dhoruba Bin Wahad]], a former Black Panther, reflects on how these tactics made him feel, saying he had a combat mentality and felt like he was at war with the government. When asked about why he thinks the Black Panthers were targeted he said, "In the United States, the equivalent of the military was the local police. During the early sixties, at the height of the civil rights movement, and the human rights movement, the police in the United States became increasingly militaristic. They began to train out of military bases in the United States. The Law Enforcement Assistance Act supplied local police with military technology, everything from assault rifles to army personnel carriers. In his opinion, the Counterintelligence Program went hand-in-hand with the militarization of the police in the Black community, with the militarization of police in America."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Still Black, Still Strong |last1=Bin Wahad |first1=Dhoruba |last2=Abu-Jamal |first2=Mumia |last3=Shakur |first3=Assata |date=1993 |publisher=[[Semiotext(e)]] |isbn=978-0936756745 |pages=18–19 |author-link=Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad |author-link2=Mumia Abu-Jamal |author-link3=Assata Shakur}}</ref>

The FBI also conspired with the police departments of many U.S. cities (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago) to encourage repeated raids on Black Panther homes—often with little or no evidence of violations of federal, state, or local laws—which resulted in the police killing many members of the Black Panther Party, most notably Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman [[Fred Hampton]] on December 4, 1969. Whether or not the FBI sanctioned his killing remains unproven.<ref name="FBI Secrets 1995" /><ref name="icdc.com" /><ref>{{Cite book |title=A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story |last=Brown |first=Elaine |date=1992 |publisher=New York: Doubleday |isbn=978-0385471077 |pages=204–206}}</ref> Before the death of Hampton, long-term infiltrator, William O'Neal, shared floor plans of his apartment with the COINTELPRO team. He then gave Hampton a dose of [[secobarbital]] that rendered Hampton unconscious during the raid on his home.<ref name="Churchill_1990" />

In order to eliminate black militant leaders whom they considered dangerous, the FBI is believed to have worked with local police departments to target specific individuals,<ref>[http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/doc156.gif Paul Wolf, "COINTELPRO"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090927132811/http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/doc156.gif |date=2009-09-27 }}, ICDC</ref> accuse them of crimes they did not commit, suppress exculpatory evidence and falsely incarcerate them. [[Elmer Pratt|Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt]], a Black Panther Party leader, was incarcerated for 27 years before a California Superior Court vacated his murder conviction, ultimately freeing him. Appearing before the court, an FBI agent testified that he believed Pratt had been framed, because both the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department knew he had not been in the area at the time the murder occurred.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/10/pratt.release/ |title=Former Black Panther freed after 27 years in jail |access-date=April 30, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090415190050/http://www.cnn.com/US/9706/10/pratt.release/ |archive-date=2009-04-15 |publisher=CNN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/law/inrepratt82CalRptr2d260.htm|title=In re Pratt, 82 Cal|accessdate=19 February 2024}}</ref>

Some sources claim that the FBI conducted more than 200 "[[Black bag operation|black bag jobs]]",<ref name="Whiteout">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC |title=Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press |first1=Alexander |last1=Cockburn |first2=Jeffrey |last2=St. Clair |publisher=Verso |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-85984-139-6 |page=69 |author-link2=Jeffrey St. Clair |access-date=2015-12-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228175904/https://books.google.com/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=2015-12-28 |url-status=live|author1-link=Alexander Cockburn }}</ref><ref>FBI document, 19 July 1966, DeLoach to Sullivan re: "Black Bag" Jobs.</ref> which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.<ref>{{Cite report |url=http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIf.htm |title=Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Book III: Warrantless Surreptitious Entries: FBI "Black Bag" Break-Ins and Microphone Installations |publisher=Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities United States Senate |date=23 April 1976 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050212101653/http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIf.htm |archive-date=12 February 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1969 the FBI special agent in San Francisco wrote Hoover that his investigation of the Black Panther Party had concluded that in his city, at least, the Panthers were primarily engaged in feeding breakfast to children. Hoover fired back a memo implying the agent's career goals would be directly affected by his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the Black Panther Party was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".<ref>FBI document, 27 May 1969, "Director FBI to SAC San Francisco", available at the FBI reading room.</ref>

Hoover supported using false claims to attack his political enemies. In one memo he wrote: "Purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the Black Panther Party and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge."<ref>FBI document, 16 September 1970, Director FBI to SAC's in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, [[New Haven, Connecticut|New Haven]], San Francisco, and Washington Field Office. Available at the FBI reading room.</ref>
{{quote box|width=23em|Viola's family endured Hoover's claiming that cuts on her arm from the car's shattered window indicated "recent drug use" and that her proximity to Moton resembled "a necking party," despite an autopsy revealing no traces of drugs in her system and indicating she hadn't had sex recently before her death.|salign=right|source=—On the FBI's targeting of [[Viola Liuzzo]]<ref name=liuzzo>{{cite web|last1=Britt|first1=Donna|title=A white mother went to Alabama to fight for civil rights. The Klan killed her for it.|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/15/a-white-mother-went-to-alabama-to-fight-for-civil-rights-the-klan-killed-her-for-it//|website=washingtonpost.com|access-date=16 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616153237/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/12/15/a-white-mother-went-to-alabama-to-fight-for-civil-rights-the-klan-killed-her-for-it//|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all|archive-date=June 16, 2020}}</ref>}}
In one particularly controversial 1965 incident, white civil rights worker [[Viola Liuzzo]] was murdered by [[Ku Klux Klan]]smen, who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was [[Gary Thomas Rowe]], an acknowledged FBI informant.<ref name="The Informant">{{Cite book |title=The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Liuzzo |last=May |first=Gary |date=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-18413-6 |location=New Haven |oclc=57549917}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063001422_pf.html |title=Jonathan Yardley |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=April 30, 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504041637/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/30/AR2005063001422_pf.html |archive-date=2011-05-04}}</ref> The FBI spread rumors that Liuzzo was a member of the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with [[African Americans]] involved in the [[civil rights movement]].<ref name="uua">{{Cite web |url=http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/violaliuzzo.html |title=Viola Liuzzo |first=Joanne |last=Giannino |website=Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227131648/http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/violaliuzzo.html |archive-date=2008-12-27 |access-date=2008-09-29}}</ref><ref name="urlRearview Mirror">{{Cite web |url=http://www.detroitnews.com/history/viola/viola.htm |title=The Detroit housewife who moved a nation toward racial justice |first=Kay |last=Houston |website=[[The Detroit News]], Rearview Mirror |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990427180231/http://www.detroitnews.com/history/viola/viola.htm |archive-date=1999-04-27}}</ref> FBI records show that J. Edgar Hoover personally communicated these insinuations to President Johnson.<ref name="plantingseeds">{{Cite web |url=http://www.plantingseedsmedia.com/violaliuzzo.html |title=Uncommon Courage: The Viola Liuzzo Story |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060223045502/http://www.plantingseedsmedia.com/violaliuzzo.html |archive-date=2006-02-23}}</ref><ref name="Stanton">{{Cite book |title=From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo |first=Mary |last=Stanton |publisher=University of Georgia Press |year=2000 |page=190}}</ref> Despite this, three Klansmen would be convicted in a federal trial for Liuzzo's murder in December 1965.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://michiganadvance.com/briefs/on-this-day-in-1965-kkk-members-are-convicted-of-killing-civil-rights-activist/|title=On this day in 1965: KKK members are convicted of killing civil rights activist|first=Ken|last=Coleman|publisher=Michigan Advance|date=December 3, 2021|accessdate=July 24, 2024}}</ref>

FBI informant Rowe has also been implicated in some of the most violent crimes of the 1960s civil rights era, including attacks on the [[Freedom Riders]] and the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]].<ref name="The Informant" />

The ACLU has claimed the FBI supported an extreme right-wing group of former [[Minutemen (anti-Communist organization)|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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Holles |first1=Everett R. |date=27 June 1975 |title=A.C.L.U. Says FBI Funded 'Army' to Terrorize Antiwar Protesters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/27/archives/aclu-says-fbi-funded-army-to-terrorize-young-war-dissidents.html |url-status=live |journal=[[The New York Times]] |type=Newspaper |language=en |location=New York |pages=4 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20190727220038/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/27/archives/aclu-says-fbi-funded-army-to-terrorize-young-war-dissidents.html |archive-date=27 July 2019 |access-date=28 July 2019 |via=The New York Times Archives}} from the original on 28 July 2019. [https://archive.org/download/a.-c.-l.-u.-says-fbi-funded-army-to-terrorize-antiwar-protesters-everett-r.-holl/A.C.L.U.%20Says%20FBI%20Funded%20%27Army%27%20to%20Terrorize%20Antiwar%20Protesters%2C%20Everett%20R.%20Holles%20%28The%20New%20York%20Times%2C%20June%2027%2C%201975%29%20p.%204.pdf Original scan available.]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://crca.ucsd.edu/~esisco/friendlyfire/A1972.html |title=1972 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514043305/http://crca.ucsd.edu/~esisco/friendlyfire/A1972.html |archive-date=2007-05-14 |access-date=2009-01-26}}</ref><ref name="Kowalewski">{{Cite book |title=International Handbook of Violence Research |last=Kowalewski |first=David |publisher=Springer Netherlands |year=2003 |isbn=9780306480393 |location=Dordrecht |pages=339–349 |chapter=Vigilantism |doi=10.1007/978-0-306-48039-3_18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rofFPZc0nooC |title=Privacy, a Vanishing Value? |last=Andrews |first=Bruce |date=1980 |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |isbn=9780823210442 |editor-last=Bier |editor-first=William Christian |chapter=Privacy and the protection of national security |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Hoover ordered preemptive action "to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence."<ref name="WRH" />