Cointelpro
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Cointelpro
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Re: Cointelpro
#2> After the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Hoover singled out King as a major target for COINTELPRO. Under pressure from Hoover to focus on King, Sullivan wrote:
"In the light of King's powerful demagogic speech ... We must mark him now if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security."
Re: Cointelpro
#3>The Committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of American citizens. The legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. On other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not apply. While intelligence officers on occasion failed to disclose to their superiors programs which were illegal or of questionable legality, the Committee finds that the most serious breaches of duty were those of senior officials, who were responsible for controlling intelligence activities and generally failed to assure compliance with the law.[1] Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that ... the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.
So how are we going to prevent history from repeating itself (which it looks like it already is)?
All it takes for bad people to win, is for good people to do nothing.
Re: Cointelpro
#4>The Committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of American citizens. The legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. On other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not appl…
Coming to a reasonable consensus on what constitutes good and bad would be a start.
We can’t even agree on that, in the US, at least.
Re: Cointelpro
#5>The Committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of American citizens. The legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. On other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not appl…
Something to keep in mind trying to reason about appropriate responses and preparation:
The IC now has a century or so invested in perfecting the techniques whereby good people are led to do either nothing or bad thing, some of which are almost impossible to either detect or disrupt unless you are actively on guard—and that may well not save you.
One analogy is to image yourself the target of "pick up artist" strategies backed by state-level resources. Not just one person matching their manipulation—based on focused study on human motivation, belief steering, and behavior steering—but an institution.
Against the concerted efforts and craft of a committed IC you and I are utterly helpless...
...as individuals.
Systemic confrontation and disruption is IMO the only viable path to preventing this sort of abuse under people like Patel.
Re: Cointelpro
#6Any non-fiction sources on 50 years of innovation in this field since cointelpro, across the globe? There was a 2020 US story [1] about TLOs: non-law-enforcement citizen informants.
We also have private actors (e.g. eBay stalking conviction [2]) drawn from former state actors. Plus non-state actors and transnational campaigns [3].
There are a few TV shows and movies on public-private predictive tech analytics and nudge interventions.
[1] Austin TLOs (Threat Liason Officers), https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2020-07-24/apds-secret-...
[2] eBay lawsuit, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28049706 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBay_stalking_scandal
[3] China transnational repression, https://freedomhouse.org/report/transnational-repression/chi...
Re: Cointelpro
#7>The Committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of American citizens. The legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. On other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not appl…
> So how are we going to prevent history from repeating itself (which it looks like it already is)?
This kind of operation has never stopped.
Re: Cointelpro
#8>The Committee finds that the domestic activities of the intelligence community at times violated specific statutory prohibitions and infringed the constitutional rights of American citizens. The legal questions involved in intelligence programs were often not considered. On other occasions, they were intentionally disregarded in the belief that because the programs served the "national security" the law did not appl…
Historically you pretty much have to wait for the institutions to over extend itself before an opportunity arises for means reversion. Fascism can never be satisfied with the status quo- it must take actions for actions sake. The enemy is always inferior yet all encompassing. Fascists will always lose in a war of equals because the longer they stay in power the further they stray from reality.
Re: Cointelpro
#9[deleted]
Re: Cointelpro
#10Notable passage: "The program was secret until March 8, 1971, when the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burgled an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania, took several dossiers, and exposed the program by passing this material to news agencies."
Most of the various programs involving the CIA spying on, harassing and so-forth Americans have been revealed by either whistle blowers like Edward Snowden or group like the "Citizens' Commission" (basically a group of radicals, not a public organization). Which is to say that a lack of discussion of such activities isn't evidence they are not occurring.