The New Phoenix Program; Cointelpro

EIGHT:

COINTELRPO:

COINTELPRO stands for counter intelligence program which was primarily run by the FBI as a covert action program against domestic dissidents. The use of infiltration, psychological warfare, harassment through the legal system, and the use of extralegal force and violence, including murder, probably began in the 1950's and is now a permanent feature of US government. Targets included the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the environmental movement, opposition political parties, basically any progressive group in American society. Dissidents stole FBI files in 1971 that detailed Cointelpro operations at the same time the Pentagon Papers were published detailing decades of systematic government lying about the Vietnam war to the American people. Watergate hit the front pages with
the story of a clandestine squad of White House "plumbers" that broke into Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrists office in an effort to smear him. The "plumbers" were caught burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and eventually nationally televised congressional hearings revealed a full-blown program of "dirty tricks" to subvert the anti-war movement as well as the Democratic Party forging letters, leaking false news items to the press, stealing files, and roughing up demonstrators. The operation was traced back to the attorney general, and the White House, implicating the FBI, the President and his top staff. The fact that the president felt compelled to use former intelligence assets and their Cuban mercenaries to form his own personal Cointelpro squad to attack his enemies was curious considering that this could have been accomplished much easier by simply getting the FBI or other agency to do what they have been doing so successful for decades. Watergate was exposed fairly well but the Senate and Congressional hearings into the activities of the FBI and CIA were crushed. The Senate committee's report was edited by the agencies being investigated before its publication. The House Committee's report, including an account of FBI and CIA obstruction of its inquiry, was suppressed altogether. Senator Church and Congressman Pike, the committee chairs, were both targeted in their reelection
campaigns by the intelligence agencies and defeated, their careers destroyed. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) did open up access to FBI documents and lawsuits forced the release of some Cointelpro files to the media but many of the most important files were withheld or destroyed, and former operatives report that the most heinous crimes were never committed to writing. William C. Sullivan, who ran the Cointelpro program in the 1960's was killed in 1977 in an un-investigated "hunting accident" shortly before giving public testimony to a grand jury. The only FBI officials who were ever prosecuted for Cointelpro crimes were quickly pardoned by the president. There was an appearance of reform that was largely aimed at placating a weary public that had become disillusioned with government. Due to scrutiny the programs were muted for several years but began to increase in activity again in the 1980's. The most prominent target of Cointelpro in the 1960's was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who received a blackmail letter from J. Edgar Hoover that detailed evidence of Dr. King's exteramarital affairs and suggested that he should suicide himself to preclude the release of the material to the press and it's negative effect on his family and his movement. The surveillance of King included the 112th military intelligence unit, and the use of the U-2 spy plane to take photos. King was marked, barely a month before his murder, for elimination as a potential "messiah" who could "unify and electrify" the Black movement. The FBI planned to replace him "in his role of the leadership of the Negro people" with conservative black lawyer Samuel Pierce (later named to Reagan's cabinet). The theme of a forced suicide is repeated on others targeted by Cointelpro, most notably Jean Seberg, an actress involved in civil rights. Seberg's husband received a forged letter detailing an affair she was supposedly having with a black activist. The actress, who was pregnant at the time, attempted suicide, suffered a miscarriage, and eventually did commit suicide. Forced suicide on a target allows intelligence agencies deniability for the crime, in effect, it is the perfect crime.

A total of 2,370 oficially approved Cointelpro actions were admitted to the Senate Intelligence committee but thousands more have since been revealed. Ultimately, FBI documents disclosed six major officials counter-intelligence programs, as wel as non-Cointelpro covert operations against Native American, Asian-American, Arab-American, Irinian, and others. The majority violence of the domestic terrorist campaign was directed at the Black Nationalist and American Indian movements. These individuals were readily imprisoned on false charges or assassinated. Cointelpro did murder Caucasian targets, but did so in fewer numbers than minority personalities. The theory of counter-insurgency operations was codified by Frank Kitson, the British commander in Malaysia and Northern Ireland, among other places. His book, Low-Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency, and Peacekeeping, insists that infiltration and "psychological operations" be mounted against dissident groups in "normal times", before any mass movement can develop. These tactics have been adopted by US intelligence agencies against individuals and progressive movements within American society. Infiltration of the KKK by the FBI reached 10-20% of its membership at the height of the civil rights struggle, these assets, along with Neo-Nazi groups, were used to attack civil rights workers and activists. The man who bombed the Church in Birmingham Alabamba, was an FBI informant and agent provocateur. The favorite tactic used in infiltration of activist groups is the "snitch jacket" where suspicion of being an informant is used against legitimate leaders. The operatives are directed to disrupt meetings, spead rumors, inflame disagreements over what people normally fight over, money,
politics, race, gender, to exacerbate rivalries and jealousy, and to lead zealous activists into unnecessary danger and st them up for prosecution. False news stories, forged documents, and anonymous letters and phone calls as well as pressure on landlords and employers make up just some of the strategies used.

Cointelpro operations are presently being incorporated into the development of microwave and radio frequency weapons. Dissidents that in the past were visibly attacked or assassinated in a traditional manner are now targeted for elimination using electromagnetic weapons. These internal dissidents are used as human guinea pigs and experimental subjects in terminal experiments that are designed to force a suicide, incarceration, or premature death due to the effects of non-ionizing and ionizing radiation. These political assassinations are accomplished with invisible bullets that leave no obvious injuries. The theme of forced suicide, such as the MLK and Seberg blackmail letters has remained constant. What is different is that driving a target to suicide using microwave hearing as well as other techniques is perfectly deniable because these individuals are tormented invisibly and unable
to receive help from the psychiatric community due to the symptoms of the attacks mimicking symptoms of schizophrenia that naturally affect several million Americans. Thus the intelligence agencies achieve prefect deniability for their crimes.