The FBI, COINTELPRO, And Martin Luther King, Jr.: Final Report Of The Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations With Respect To Intelligence Activitie

by Church Committee

The final report of the 1975 US Senate Church Committee, describing the decade-long effort by J Edgar Hoover and the FBI to discredit and "neutralize" the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Hoover considered the civil rights movement to be "Communist", and did everything in his power to destroy it.

Genres: American History

146 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2010

Reviews

[Reid tries to read]

I cannot stress enough how insane it is that the United States government investigated itself decades ago, admitted it was spying on and destroying the lives of an unimaginable number of American citizens and organizations, held a hearing and published this exact report on all of it, then published further reports on systemic CIA assassination programs, and almost nobody today even knows about it.

Remember the USSR were the totalitarian ones
United States intelligence agencies have investigated a vast number of American citizens and domestic organizations. FBI headquarters alone has developed over 500,000 domestic intelligence files… The FBI opened 65,000 of these domestic intelligence files in 1972 alone. (p. 22)

By 1960 the FBI had opened approximately 432,000 files on individuals and groups in the "subversive" intelligence field… An even larger number of investigative files were maintained at FBI field offices. Under the Bureau's filing system, a single file on a group could include references to hundreds or thousands of group members or other persons associated with the group in any way (p. 63)

Nearly a quarter of a million first class letters were opened and photographed in the United States by the CIA between 1953-1973, producing a CIA computerized index of nearly one and one-half million names (p. 22)

Millions of private telegrams sent from, to, or through the United States were obtained by the National Security Agency from 1947 to 1975 under a secret arrangement with three United States telegraph companies (p. 22)

at least 26,000 individuals were at one point cataloged on an FBI list of persons to be rounded up in the event of a "national emergency" (p. 22)

Some examples of general skullduggery
The "Women's Liberation Movement" was infiltrated by in- formants who collected material about the movement's policies, leaders, and individual members. One report included the name of every woman who attended meetings (p. 23)

Some investigations of the lawful activities of peaceful groups have continued for decades. For example, the NAACP was investigated to determine whether it "had connections with" the Communist Party. The investigation lasted for over twenty-five years (p. 23)

Similarly, the FBI has admitted that the Socialist Workers Party has committed no criminal acts. Yet the Bureau has investigated the Socialist Workers Party for more than three decades on the basis of its revolutionary rhetoric (p. 23)

National political leaders fell within the broad reach of intelligence investigations. For example, Army Intelligence maintained files on Senator Adlai Stevenson and Congressman Abner Mikva because of their participation in peaceful political meetings under surveillance by Army agents. A letter to Richard Nixon, while he was a candidate for President in 1968, was intercepted under CIA's mail opening program. In the 1960's President Johnson asked the FBI to compare various Senators' statements on Vietnam with the Communist Party line 12 and to conduct name checks on leading antiwar Senators. (p. 23)

Army intelligence agencies took such steps as: sending agents to a Halloween party for elementary school children in Washington, D.C., because they suspected a local "dissident" might be present; monitoring protests of welfare mothers' organizations in Milwaukee; infiltrating a coalition of church youth groups in Colorado; and sending agents to a priests' conference in Washington, D.C., held to discuss birth control measures (p. 23)

In the 1960's Bureau agents were instructed to increase their efforts to discredit "New Left" student demonstrators by tactics including publishing photographs ("naturally the most obnoxious picture should be used") , using "misinformation" to falsely notify members events had been canceled, and writing "tell-tale" letters to students' parents (p. 24)

COINTELPRO
The FBI's COINTELPRO-counterintelligence program-was designed to "disrupt" groups and "neutralize" individuals deemed to be threats to domestic security (p. 26)

COINTELPRO tactics included:
- Anonymously attacking the political beliefs of targets in order to induce their employers to fire them;
-Anonymously mailing letters to the spouses of intelligence targets for the purpose of destroying their marriages;
-Obtaining from IRS the tax returns of a target and then attempting to provoke an IRS investigation
-falsely and anonymously labeling as Government informants members of groups known to be violent, thereby exposing the falsely labeled member to expulsion or physical attack
-Pursuant to instructions to use "misinformation" to disrupt demonstrations, employing such means as broadcasting fake orders on the same citizens band radio frequency used by demonstration marshalls to attempt to control demonstrations
-Sending an anonymous letter to the leader of a Chicago street gang stating that the Black Panthers were supposed to have "a hit out for you". The letter was suggested because it "may intensify . . . animosity" and cause the street gang leader to "take retaliatory action". (p. 26-27)

The campaign against MLK
From late 1963 until his death in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the target of an intensive campaign by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to "neutralize" him as an effective civil rights leader. In the words of the man in charge of the FBI's "war" against Dr. King, "No holds were barred” (p. 27)

The program to destroy Dr. King as the leader of the civil rights movement included efforts to discredit him with Executive branch officials, Congressional leaders, foreign heads of state, American ambassadors, churches. universities, and the press. (p. 27)

The FBI mailed Dr. King a tape recording made from microphones hidden in his hotel rooms which one agent testified was an attempt to destroy Dr. King's marriage.6 The tape recording was accompanied by a note which Dr. King and his advisors interpreted as threatening 6 to release the tape recording unless Dr. King committed suicide (p. 27)

In early 1968, Bureau headquarters explained to the field that Dr. King must be.destroyed because he was seen as a potential "messiah" who could "unify and electrify" the "black nationalist movement". (p. 27)

Media manipulation
The FBI has attempted covertly to influence the public's perception of persons and organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press, either anonymously or through "friendly" news contacts (p. 31)

Examples include:
-Planting a series of derogatory articles about Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Poor People's Campaign." For example, in anticipation of the 1968 "poor people's march on Washington, D.C.," Bureau Headquarters granted authority to furnish "cooperative news media sources" an article "designed to curtail the success of Martin Luther King's fund raising." Another memorandum illustrated how "photographs of demonstrators" could be used in discrediting the civil rights movement
-Soliciting information from Field Offices "on a continuing basis" for "prompt . . . dissemination to the news media . . . to discredit the New Left movement and its adherents." The Headquarters directive requested, among other things, that: specific data should be furnished depicting the scurrilous and depraved nature of many of the characters, activities, habits and living conditions representative of New Left adherents…"Every avenue of possible embarrassment must be vigorously and enthusiastically explored."
-Taking advantage of a close relationship with the Chairman of the Board -described in an FBI memorandum as "our good friend"- of a magazine with national circulation to influence articles which related to the FBI. For example, through this relationship the Bureau: "squelched" an "unfavorable article against the Bureau" written by a free-lance writer about an FBI investigation; "postponed publication" of an article on another FBI case; "forestalled publication" of an article by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and received information about proposed editing of King's articles. (p. 32)

History/timeline
The expansion of domestic intelligence activity can usefully be divided into three broad periods: (a) the pre-war and World War II period; (b) the Cold War era; and (c) the period of domestic dissent beginning in the mid-sixties. The main developments in each of these stages in the evolution of domestic intelligence may be summarized as follows:

a. 1936-1945 By presidential directive the FBI and military intelligence agencies were authorized to conduct domestic intelligence investigations. These investigations included a vaguely defined mission to collect intelligence about "subversive activities" which were sometimes unrelated to law enforcement. Wartime exigencies encouraged the unregulated use of intrusive intelligence techniques; and the FBI began to resist supervision by the Attorney General.
b. 1946-1963 Cold War fears and dangers nurtured the domestic intelligence programs of the FBI and military, and they became permanent features of government. Congress deferred to the executive branch in the oversight of these programs. The FBI became increasingly isolated from effective outside control. The scope of investigations of "subversion" widened greatly. Under the cloak of secrecy, the FBI instituted its COINTELPRO operations to "disrupt" and "neutralize" "subversives". The National Security Agency, the FBI, and the CIA reinstituted intrusive wartime surveillance techniques in contravention of law.
c. 1964-1976 Intelligence techniques which previously had been concentrated upon foreign threats and domestic groups said to be under Communist influence were applied with increasing intensity to a wide range of domestic activity by American citizens. These techniques were utilized against peaceful civil rights and antiwar protest activity, and thereafter in reaction to civil unrest, often without regard for the consequences to American liberties. The intelligence agencies of the United States… disregarded the law in their conduct of massive surveillance and aggressive counterintelligence operations against American citizens.

Don't forget about our good friends in the CIA
In secret and without effective internal controls, the CIA undertook programs for testing chemical and biological agents on unwitting Americans, sometimes with tragic consequences. The CIA also used American private institutions as "cover" and used intrusive techniques affecting the rights of Americans. (p. 56)

The CIA's drug research was conducted in part through arrangements with universities, hospitals, and "private research organizations" in a manner which concealed "from the institution the interests of the CIA," although "key individuals" were made witting of Agency sponsorship. (p. 74)

Under White House pressure, the CIA developed its own (domestic spying) program- Operation CHAOS…CIA officials recognized from the outset that it had "definite domestic counter-intelligence aspects." (p. 115-116)

The CIA undertook a series of specific security investigations within the United States, in some cases to find the source of news leaks and in others to determine whether government employees were involved in espionage or otherwise constituted "security risks." These investigations were directed at former CIA employees, employees of other government agencies, newsmen and other private citizens in this country. Among the techniques used were physical surveillance, mail and tax information coverage, electronic surveillance, and surreptitious entry… there is no suggestion that the CIA's security investigations were specifically approved by the Attorney General. (p. 118-119)

The CIA Office of Security established two programs directed at protest demonstrations which involved the CIA in domestic affairs on the theory that doing so was necessary to safeguard CIA facilities in the United States. “Project MERRIMACK “(1967 to 1973) involved the infiltration by CIA agents of Washington-based peace groups and Black activist groups. The stated purpose of the program was to obtain early warning of demonstrations and other physical threats to the CIA. However, the collection requirements were broadened to include general information about the leadership, funding, activities, and policies of the targeted groups.
“Project RESISTANCE” (1967 to 1973) was a broad effort to obtain general background information about radical groups across the country, particularly on campuses... Much of the reporting by CIA field offices to headquarters was from open sources such as newspapers. But additional information was obtained from cooperating police departments, campus officials, and other local authorities, some of whom in turn were using collection techniques such as informants. (p. 119-120)

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea]

Stunningly matter-of-fact which gives it such impact as it exposes the nefariousness of our Federal Bureau of Investigations. Mind-boggling. Here's one of the final reports from the 1975 US Senate Church Committee describing the lengths that the FBI and the paranoid J. Edgar Hoover went to discredit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement he was apart of. I don't read government reports usually, but this makes for fascinating history and helps situate us within the current history of government repression against movements for social justice. Accessible, repeated itself at times, but a damning report on the FBI, COINTELPRO, and the bureau's efforts to sabotage the civil rights movement of the 1960s. No justice, no peace. Fuck the police.