In Quantico, Virginia, at the sprawling marine corps base where the FBI would soon open its own academy, a less-formal “Hoover University” trained agents in the delicate art of passing as leftists. They grew unkempt beards, refrained from bathing for days at a time, parroted radical talking points, got stoned, and tripped on acid. In the Black Panther party and, in Los Angeles, the US Organization, informants were instrumental in fomenting violence. They would spread disinformation to catalyze an intergroup rivalry, or they’d simply arrange for the bloodshed themselves.
