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          >>> Civil Liberties Under Threat <<<
                           by
                       Brian Glick
                                         
                         Part One

INTRODUCTION 

Activists across the country report increasing government harassment
and disruption of their work: 

-In the Southwest, paid informers infiltrate the church services, Bible
classes and support networks of clergy and lay workers giving
sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatamala. 

-In Alabama, elderly Black people attempting for the first time 
to exercise their right to vote are interrogated by FBI agents and 
hauled before federal grand juries hundreds of miles from their 
homes. 

-In New England, a former CIA case officer cites examples from 
his own past work to warn college students of efforts by 
undercover operatives to misdirect and discredit protests against 
South African and US racism. 

-In the San Francisco Bay Area, activists planning anti-nuclear 
civil disobedience learn that their meetings have been infiltrated by
the US Navy. 

-In Detroit, Seattle, and Philadelphia, in Cambridge, MA, 
Berkeley,CA., Phoenix, AR., and Washington, DC., churches and 
organizations opposing US policies in Central America report 
obviously political break-ins in which important papers are stolen 
or damaged, while money and valuables are left untouched. License 
plates on a car spotted fleeing one such office have been traced 
to the US National Security Agency. 

-In Puerto Rico, Texas and Massachusetts, labor leaders, 
community organizers, writers and editors who advocate Puerto 
Rican independence are branded by the FBI as "terrorists," 
brutally rounded-up in the middle of the night, held incommunicado 
for days and then jailed under new preventive detention laws. 

-The FBI puts the same "terrorist" label on opponents of US 
intervention in El Salvador, but refuses to investigate the 
possibility of a political conspiracy behind nation-wide bombings 
of abortion clinics. 

-Throughout the country, people attempting to see Nicaragua for 
themselves find their trips disrupted, their private papers 
confiscated, and their homes and offices plagued by FBI agents 
who demand detailed personal and political information.

These kinds of government tactics violate our fundamental 
constitutional rights. They make it enormously difficult to 
sustain grass-roots organizing. They create an atmosphere of fear 
and distrust which undermines any effort to challenge official 
policy.

Similar measures were used in the 1960s as part of a secret 
FBI program known as "COINTELPRO." COINTELPRO was later exposed 
and officially ended. But the evidence shows that it actually 
persisted and that clandestine operations to discredit and 
disrupt opposition movements have become an institutional feature 
of national and local government in the US. This pamphlet is 
designed to help current and future activists learn from the 
history of COINTELPRO, so that our movements can better withstand 
such attack. 

The first section gives a brief overview of what we know the FBI 
did in the 60s. It explains why we can expect similar government 
intervention in the 80s and beyond, and offers general guidelines 
for effective response. 

The main body of the pamphlet describes the specific methods which 
have previously been used to undermine domestic dissent and 
suggests steps we can take to limit or deflect their impact. 

A final chapter explores ways to mobilize broad public protest 
against this kind of repression. 

It also draws on the post-60s confessions of disaffected 
government agents, and on the testimony of public officials before 
Congress and the courts. Though the information from these sources 
is incomplete, and much of what was done remains secret, we 
now know enough to draw useful lessons for future organizing. 

The suggestions included in the pamphlet are based on the 
author's 20 years experience as an activist and lawyer, and on 
talks with long-time organizers in a broad range of movements. 
They are meant to provide starting points for discussion, so we 
can get ready before the pressure intensifies. Most are a matter 
of common sense once the methodology of covert action is 
understood. Please take these issues seriously. Discuss the 
recommendations with other activists. Adapt them to the conditions 
you face. Point out problems and suggest other approaches. 

IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE BEGIN NOW TO PROTECT OUR MOVEMENTS AND 
OURSELVES.


A HISTORY TO LEARN FROM


WHAT WAS COINTELPRO? 

"COINTELPRO" was the FBI's secret program to undermine the popular 
upsurge which swept the country during the 1960s. Though the name 
stands for "Counterintelligence Program," the targets were not 
enemy spies. The FBI set out to eliminate "radical" political 
opposition inside the US. When traditional modes of repression 
(exposure, blatant harassment, and prosecution for political 
crimes) failed to counter the growing insurgency, and even helped 
to fuel it, the Bureau took the law into its own hands and 
secretly used fraud and force to sabotage constitutionally-
protected political activity.Its methods ranged far beyond 
surveillance, and amounted to a domestic version of the covert 
action for which the CIA has become infamous throughout the world.


HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT IT? 

COINTELPRO was discovered in March, 1971, when some secret files 
were removed from an FBI office and released to news media. 
Freedom of Information requests, lawsuits, and former agents' 
public confessions deepened the exposure until a major scandal 
loomed. To control the damage and re-establish government 
legitimacy in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, Congress and the 
courts compelled the FBI to reveal part of what it had done and to 
promise it would not do it again. Much of what has been learned, 
and copies of some of the actual documents, can be found in 
the readings listed at the back of this pamphlet.


HOW DID IT WORK? 

The FBI secretly instructed its field offices to propose schemes 
to "misdirect, discredit, disrupt and otherwise neutralize 
"specific individuals and groups. Close coordination with local 
police and prosecutors was encouraged. Final authority rested with 
top FBI officials in Washington, who demanded assurance that 
"there is no possibility of embarrassment to the Bureau." More 
than 2000 individual actions were officially approved. The 
documents reveal three types of methods:

1. Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on 
political activists. Their main function was to discredit and 
disrupt. 

2. Other forms of deception: The FBI and police also waged 
psychological warfare from the outside--through bogus 
publications, forged correspondence, anonymous letters and 
telephone calls, and similar forms of deceit. 

3. Harassment, intimidation and violence: Eviction, job loss, 
break-ins, vandalism, grand jury subpoenas, false arrests, frame-
ups, and physical violence were threatened, instigated or directly 
employed, in an effort to frighten activists and disrupt their 
movements. Government agents either concealed their involvement or 
fabricated a legal pretext.  In the case of the Black  and Native
American movements, these assaults--including outright political
assassinations--were so extensive and vicious that they amounted
to terrorism on the part of the government.


WHO WERE THE MAIN TARGETS? 

The most intense operations were directed against the Black 
movement, particularly the Black Panther Party. This resulted from 
FBI and police racism, the Black community's lack of 
material resources for fighting back, and the tendency of the 
media--and whites in general--to ignore or tolerate attacks on 
Black groups. It also reflected government and corporate fear of 
the Black movement because of its militance, its broad domestic 
base and international support, and its historic role in 
galvanizing the entire Sixties' upsurge. Many other activists who 
organized against US intervention abroad or for racial, gender or 
class justice at home also came under covert attack. The targets 
were in no way limited to those who used physical force or took 
up arms. Martin Luther King, David Dellinger, Phillip Berrigan 
and other leading pacifists were high on the list, as were 
projects directly protected by the Bill of Rights, such as 
alternative newspapers. 

The Black Panthers came under attack at a time when their work 
featured free food and health care and community control of 
schools and police, and when they carried guns only for deterrent 
and symbolic purposes. It was the terrorism of the FBI and 
police that eventually provoked the Panthers to retaliate with the 
armed actions that later were cited to justify their repression. 

Ultimately the FBI disclosed six official  counterintelligence programs: 
Communist Party-USA (1956-71); 
"Groups Seeking Independence for Puerto Rico" (1960-71); 
Socialist Workers Party (1961-71); "White Hate Groups" (1964-71); 
"Black Nationalist Hate Groups" (1967-71); and "New Left" (1968-
71).The latter operations hit anti-war, student, and feminist 
groups. The "Black Nationalist" caption actually encompassed 
Martin Luther King and most of the civil rights and Black Power 
movements. The "white hate" program functioned mainly as a cover 
for covert aid to the KKK and similar right-wing vigilantes,who 
were given funds and information, so long as they confined their 
attacks to COINTELPRO targets. FBI documents also reveal covert 
action against Native American, Chicano, Phillipine, Arab-
American, and other activists, apparently without formal 
Counterintelligence programs.


WHAT EFFECT DID IT HAVE? 

COINTELPRO's impact is difficult to fully assess since we do not 
know the entire scope of what was done (especially against such 
pivotal targets as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, SNCC and 
SDS),and we have no generally accepted analysis of the Sixties. 
It is clear,however, that:

-COINTELPRO distorted the public's view of radical groups in a 
way that helped to isolate them and to legitimize open political 
repression.

-It reinforced and exacerbated the weaknesses of these groups, 
making it very difficult for the inexperienced activists of the 
Sixties to learn from their mistakes and build solid, durable 
organizations.

-Its violent assaults and covert manipulation eventually helped 
to push some of the most committed and experienced groups to 
withdraw from grass-roots organizing and to substitute armed 
actions which isolated them and deprived the movement of much of 
its leadership.

-COINTELPRO often convinced its victims to blame themselves and 
each other for the problems it created, leaving a legacy of 
cynicism and despair that persists today.

-By operating covertly, the FBI and police were able to severely 
weaken domestic political opposition without shaking the 
conviction of most US people that they live in a democracy, with 
free speech and the rule of law.


THE DANGER WE FACE


DID COINTELPRO EVER REALLY END? 

Public exposure of COINTELPRO in the early 1970s elicited a 
flurry of reform. Congress, the courts and the mass media 
condemned government "intelligence abuses." Municipal police 
forces officially disbanded their red squads. A new Attorney 
General notified past victims of COINTELPRO and issued Guidelines 
to limit future operations. Top FBI officials were indicted 
(albeit for relatively minor offenses), two were convicted, and 
several others retired or resigned. J. Edgar Hoover--the 
egomaniacal, crudely racist and sexist founder of the FBI--died, 
and a well-known federal judge, William Webster, eventually was 
appointed to clean house and build a "new FBI." 

Behind this public hoopla, however, was little real improvement 
in government treatment of radical activists. Domestic covert 
operations were briefly scaled down a bit, after the 60s' upsurge 
had largely subsided, due in part to the success of COINTELPRO. 
But they did not stop. In April, 1971, soon after files had been 
taken from one of its offices, the FBI instructed its agents that 
"future COINTELPRO actions will be considered on a highly 
selective, individual basis with tight procedures to insure 
absolute security. "The results are apparent in the record of the 
subsequent years:

-A virtual war on the American Indian Movement, ranging from 
forgery of documents, infiltration of legal defense committees, 
diversion of funds, intimidation of witnesses and falsification of 
evidence, to the para-military invasion of the Pine Ridge 
Reservation in South Dakota, and the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, 
Joe Stuntz and countless others;

-Sabotage of efforts to organize protest demonstrations at the 
1972 Republican and Democratic Party conventions. The attempted 
assassination of San Diego Univ. Prof. Peter Bohmer, by a "Secret 
Army Organization" of ex-Minutemen formed, subsidized, armed, and 
protected by the FBI, was a part of these operations;

-Concealment of the fact that the witness whose testimony led to 
the 1972 robbery-murder conviction of Black Panther leader Elmer 
"Geronimo" Pratt was a paid informer who had worked in the BPP 
under the direction of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police 
Department;

-Infiltration and disruption of the Vietnam Veterans Against the 
War, and prosecution of its national leaders on false charges 
(Florida, 1971-74);

-Formation and operation of sham political groups such as "Red 
Star Cadre," in Tampa, Fla., and the New Orleans "Red Collective" 
(1972-76);

-Mass interrogation of lesbian and feminist activists, threats 
of subpoenas, jailing of those who refused to cooperate, and 
disruption of women's health collectives and other projects 
(Lexington, KY., Hartford and New Haven,Conn., 1975);

-Harassment of the Hispanic Commission of the Episcopal Church 
and numerous other Puerto Rican and Chicano religious activists 
and community organizers (Chicago, New York City, Puerto Rico, 
Colorado and New Mexico, 1977);

-Entrapment and frame-up of militant union leaders (NASCO 
shipyards,San Diego, 1979); and

-Complicity in the murder of socialist labor and community 
organizers (Greensboro, N.C., 1980).


IS IT A THREAT TODAY? 

All this, and maybe more, occurred in an era of reform. The use of 
similar measures in today's very different times cannot 
be itemized in such detail, since most are still secret. The 
gravity of the current danger is evident, however, from the major 
steps recently taken to legitimize and strengthen political 
repression, and from the many incidents which are coming to light 
despite stepped-up security. 

The ground-work for public acceptance of repression has been laid 
by President Reagan's speeches reviving the old red-scare tale of 
worldwide "communist take-overs" and adding a new bogeyman in the 
form of domestic and international "terrorism." The President has 
taken advantage of the resulting political climate to denounce 
the Bill of Rights and to red-bait critics of US intervention in 
Central America. He has pardoned the FBI officials convicted of 
COINTELPRO crimes, praised their work, and spoken favorably of 
the political witchhunts he took part in during the 1950s.

For the first time in US history, government infiltration 
to "influence" domestic political activity has received official 
sanction. On the pretext of meeting the supposed terrorist 
threat, Presidential Executive Order 12333 (Dec. 4, 1981) extends 
such authority not only to the FBI, but also to the military and, 
in some cases, the CIA. History shows that these agencies treat 
legal restriction as a kind of speed limit which they feel free 
to exceed, but only by a certain margin. Thus, Reagan's Executive 
Order not only encourages reliance on methods once deemed 
abhorrent, it also implicitly licenses even greater, more damaging 
intrusion. Government capacity to make effective use of such 
measures has also been substantially enhanced in recent years:

-Judge Webster's highly-touted reforms have served mainly to 
modernize the FBI and make it more dangerous. Instead of the back-
biting competition which impeded coordination of domestic counter-
insurgency in the 60s, the Bureau now promotes inter-agency 
cooperation. As an equal opportunity employer, it can use Third 
World and female agents to penetrate political targets more 
thoroughly than before. By cultivating a low-visibility corporate 
image and discreetly avoiding public attack on prominent 
liberals, the FBI has regained respectability and won over a 
number of former critics.

-Municipal police forces have similarly revamped their image 
while upgrading their repressive capabilities. The police "red 
squads" that infiltrated and harassed the 60s' movements have been 
revived under other names and augmented by para-military SWAT 
teams and tactical squads as well as highly-politicized community 
relations and "beat rep" programs, in which Black, Hispanic and 
female officers are often conspicuous. Local operations are linked 
by FBI-led regional anti-terrorist task forces and the national 
Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit (LEIU).

-Increased military and CIA involvement has added 
political sophistication and advanced technology. Army Special 
Forces and other elite military units are now trained and equipped 
for counter-insurgency (known as"low-intensity warfare"). Their 
manuals teach the essential methodology of COINTELPRO, stressing 
earlier intervention to neutralize potential opposition before it 
can take hold. 

The CIA's expanded role is especially ominous. In the 60s, while 
legally banned from "internal security functions," the CIA 
managed to infiltrate the Black, student and antiwar movements. It 
also made secret use of university professors, journalists, labor 
leaders, publishing houses, cultural organizations and 
philanthropic fronts to mold US public opinion. But it apparently 
felt compelled to hold back--within the country--from the kinds of 
systematic political destabilization, torture, and murder which 
have become the hallmark of its operations abroad. Now, the full 
force of the CIA has been unleashed at home.

-All of the agencies involved in covert operations have had time 
to learn from the 60s and to institute the "tight procedures to 
insure absolute security" that FBI officials demanded after 
COINTELPRO was exposed in 1971. Restoration of secrecy has been 
made easier by the Administration's steps to shield covert 
operations from public scrutiny. Under Reagan, key FBI and CIA 
files have been re-classified "top secret." The Freedom of 
Information Act has been quietly narrowed through administrative 
reinterpretation. Funds for covert operations are allocated behind 
closed doors and hidden in CIA and defense appropriations. 

Government employees now face censorship even after they retire, 
and new laws make it a federal crime to publicize information 
which might tend to reveal an agent's identity. Despite this 
stepped-up security, incidents frighteningly reminiscent of 60s' 
COINTELPRO have begun to emerge. 

The extent of the infiltration, burglary and other clandestine 
government intervention that has already come to light is 
alarming. Since the vast majority of such operations stay hidden 
until after the damage has been done, those we are now aware of 
undoubtedly represent only the tip of the iceberg. Far more is 
sure to lie beneath the surface. 

Considering the current political climate, the legalization of 
COINTELPRO, the rehabilitation of the FBI and police, and the 
expanded role of the CIA and military, the recent revelations 
leave us only one safe assumption: that extensive government 
covert operations are already underway to neutralize today's 
opposition movements before they can reach the massive level of 
the 60s.


WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT? 

Domestic covert action has now persisted in some form through at 
least the last seven presidencies. It grew from one program to 
six under Kennedy and Johnson. It flourished when an outspoken 
liberal, Ramsey Clark, was Attorney General (1966-68). It is an 
integral part of the established mode of operation of powerful, 
entrenched agencies on every level of government. It enables 
policy-makers to maintain social control without detracting from 
their own public image or the perceived legitimacy of their method 
of government. It has become as institutional in the US as the 
race, gender, class and imperial domination it serves to uphold.
     

Under these circumstances, there is no reason to think we can 
eliminate COINTELPRO simply by electing better public officials. 
Only through sustained public education and mobilization, by a 
broad coalition of political, religious and civil libertarian 
activists, can we expect to limit it effectively.

In most parts of the country, however, and certainly on a 
national level, we lack the political power to end covert 
government intervention, or even to curb it substantially. We 
therefore need to learn how to cope more effectively with this 
form of repression. 

The next part of this pamphlet examines the methods that were 
used to discredit and disrupt the movements of the 60s and 
suggests steps we can take to deflect or reduce their impact in 
the 80s.


A CHECK-LIST OF ESSENTIAL PRECAUTIONS:

-Check out the authenticity of any disturbing letter, rumor, 
phone call or other communication before acting on it.

-Document incidents which appear to reflect covert intervention, 
and report them to the Movement Support Network Hotline: 212/477-
5562.

-Deal openly and honestly with the differences within our 
movements (race, gender, class, age, religion, national origin, 
sexual orientation, personality, experience, physical and 
intellectual capacities, etc.) before the FBI and police exploit 
them to tear us apart.

-Don't rush to expose a suspected agent. Instead, directly 
criticize what the suspect says and does. Intra-movement 
witchhunts only help the government create distrust and paranoia.

-Support whoever comes under government attack. Don't be put off 
by political slander, such as recent attempts to smear radical 
activists as "terrorists." Organize public opposition to FBI 
investigations, grand juries, show trials and other forms of 
political harassment.

-Above all, do not let them divert us from our main work. Our 
most powerful weapon against political repression is effective 
organizing around the needs and issues which directly affect 
people's lives.


WHAT THEY DO & HOW WE CAN PROTECT OURSELVES

INFILTRATION BY AGENTS OR INFORMERS 

Agents are law enforcement officers disguised as activists.

Informers are non-agents who provide information to a law 
enforcement or intelligence agency. They may be recruited from 
within a group or sent in by an agency, or they may be disaffected 
former members or supporters.

Infiltrators are agents or informers who work in a group or 
community under the direction of a law enforcement or 
intelligence agency. During the 60s the FBI had to rely on 
informers (who are less well trained and harder to control) 
because it had very few black, Hispanic or female agents, and its 
strict dress and grooming code left white male agents unable to 
look like activists. As a modern equal opportunity employer, 
today's FBI has fewer such limitations.

What They Do: Some informers and infiltrators quietly 
provide information while keeping a low profile and doing whatever 
is expected of group members. Others attempt to discredit a target 
and disrupt its work. They may spread false rumors and make 
unfounded accusations to provoke or exacerbate tensions and 
splits. They may urge divisive proposals, sabotage 
important activities and resources, or operate as "provocateurs" 
who lead zealous activists into unnecessary danger. In a 
demonstration or other confrontation with police, such an agent 
may break discipline and call for actions which would undermine 
unity and detract from tactical focus.

Infiltration As a Source of Distrust and Paranoia: While 
individual agents and informers aid the government in a variety 
of specific ways, the general use of infiltrators serves a very 
special and powerful strategic function. The fear that a group 
may be infiltrated often intimidates people from getting more 
involved. It can give rise to a paranoia which makes it difficult 
to build the mutual trust which political groups depend on. This 
use of infiltrators, enhanced by covertly-initiated rumors that 
exaggerate the extent to which a particular movement or group has 
been penetrated, is recommended by the manuals used to teach 
counter-insurgency in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Covert Manipulation to Make A Legitimate Activist Appear to be 
an Agent: An actual agent will often point the finger at a 
genuine, non-collaborating and highly-valued group member, 
claiming that he or she is the infiltrator. The same effect, 
known as a "snitch jacket," has been achieved by planting forged 
documents which appear to be communications between an activist 
and the FBI, or by releasing for no other apparent reason one of 
a group of activists who were arrested together. Another method 
used under COINTELPRO was to arrange for some activists, arrested 
under one pretext or another, to hear over the police radio a 
phony broadcast which appeared to set up a secret meeting between 
the police and someone from their group.

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                      >>> Civil Liberties Under Threat <<<
                                             by
                                       Brian Glick
                                         
                                         Part Two


GUIDELINES FOR COPING WITH INFILTRATION:

l. Establish a process through which anyone who suspects an 
informer (or other form of covert intervention) can express his 
or her fears without scaring others. Experienced people assigned 
this responsibility can do a great deal to help a group maintain 
its morale and focus while, at the same time, centrally 
consolidating information and deciding how to use it. This 
plan works best when accompanied by group discussion of the danger 
of paranoia, so that everyone understands and follows the 
established procedure.

2. To reduce vulnerability to paranoia and "snitch jackets", and 
to minimize diversion from your main work, it generally is best if 
you do not attempt to expose a suspected agent or informer unless 
you are certain of their role. (For instance, they surface to make 
an arrest, testify as a government witness or in some other way 
admit their identity). Under most circumstances, an attempted 
exposure will do more harm than the infiltrator's 
continued presence. This is especially true if you can discreetly 
limit the suspect's access to funds, financial records, mailing 
lists, discussions of possible law violations, meetings that plan 
criminal defense strategy, and similar opportunities.

3. Deal openly and directly with the form and content of what 
anyone says and does, whether the person is a suspected agent, has 
emotional problems, or is simply a sincere, but naive or confused 
person new to the work.

4. Once an agent or informer has been definitely identified, 
alert other groups and communities by means of photographs, a 
description of their methods of operation, etc. In the 60s, some 
agents managed even after their exposure in one community to move 
on and repeat their performance in a number of others.

5. Be careful to avoid pushing a new or hesitant member to take 
risks beyond what that person is ready to handle, particularly in 
situations which could result in arrest and prosecution. People in 
this position have proved vulnerable to recruitment as informers.


OTHER FORMS OF DECEPTION

Bogus leaflets, pamphlets, etc.: COINTELPRO documents show that 
the FBI routinely put out phony leaflets, posters, pamphlets, 
etc. to discredit its targets. In one instance, agents revised a 
children's coloring book which the Black Panther Party had 
rejected as anti-white and gratuitously violent, and then 
distributed a cruder version to backers of the Party's program of 
free breakfasts for children, telling them the book was being 
used in the program.

False media stories: The FBI's documents expose collusion by 
reporters and news media that knowingly published false and 
distorted material prepared by Bureau agents. One such story had 
Jean Seberg, a noticeably pregnant white film star active in 
anti-racist causes, carrying the child of a prominent 
Black leader. Seberg's white husband, the actual father, has sued 
the FBI as responsible for her resulting still-birth, breakdown, 
and suicide.

Forged correspondence: Former employees have confirmed that the 
FBI and CIA have the capacity to produce "state of the art" 
forgery. The U.S. Senate's investigation of COINTELPRO uncovered a 
series of letters forged in the name of an intermediary between 
the Black Panther Party's national office and Panther leader 
Eldridge Cleaver, in exile in Algeria. The letters proved 
instrumental in inflaming intra-party rivalries that erupted into 
the bitter public split that shattered the Party in the winter of 
1971.

Anonymous letters and telephone calls: During the 60s, activists 
received a steady flow of anonymous letters and phone calls which 
turn out to have been from government agents. Some threatened 
violence. Others promoted racial divisions and fears. Still 
others charged various leaders with collaboration, corruption, 
sexual affairs with other activists' mates, etc. As in the Seberg 
incident, inter-racial sex was a persistent theme. The husband of 
one white woman involved in a bi-racial civil rights group 
received the following anonymous letter authored by the FBI:

--Look, man, I guess your old lady doesn't get enough at home or 
she wouldn't be shucking and jiving with our Black Men in ACTION, 
you dig? Like all she wants to integrate is the bedroom and us 
Black Sisters ain't gonna take no second best from our men. So 
lay it on her man--or get her the hell off [name]. A Soul 
Sister


False rumors: Using infiltrators, journalists and other contacts, 
the Bureau circulated slanderous, disruptive rumors through 
political movements and the communities in which they worked.

Other misinformation: A favorite FBI tactic uncovered by 
Senate investigators was to misinform people that a political 
meeting or event had been cancelled. Another was to offer non-
existent housing at phony addresses, stranding out-of-town 
conference attendees who naturally blamed those who had organized 
the event. FBI agents also arranged to transport demonstrators 
in the name of a bogus bus company which pulled out at the last 
minute. Such "dirty tricks" interfered with political events and 
turned activists against each other.

Fronts for the FBI: COINTELPRO documents reveal that a number 
of Sixties' political groups and projects were actually set up and 
operated by the FBI. 

One, "Grupo pro-Uso Voto," was used to disrupt the fragile 
unity developing in l967 among groups seeking Puerto Rico's 
independence from the US.The genuine proponents of independence 
had joined together to boycott a US-administered referendum on 
the island's status. They argued that voting under conditions of 
colonial domination could serve only to legitimize US rule, and 
that no vote could be fair while the US controlled the island's 
economy, media, schools, and police. The bogus group, pretending 
to support independence, broke ranks and urged independistas to 
take advantage of the opportunity to register their opinion at 
the polls.

Since FBI front groups are basically a means for penetrating and 
disrupting political movements, it is best to deal with them on 
the basis of the Guidelines for Coping with Infiltration. 

Confront what a suspect group says and does, but avoid public 
accusations unless you have definite proof. If you do have such 
proof, share it with everyone affected.


GUIDELINES FOR COPING WITH OTHER FORMS OF DECEPTION:

l. Don't add unnecessarily to the pool of information that 
government agents use to divide political groups and turn 
activists against each other. They thrive on gossip about 
personal tensions, rivalries and disagreements. The more these 
are aired in public, or via a telephone which can be tapped or 
mail which can be opened, the easier it is to exploit a groups' 
problems and subvert its work. (Note that the CIA has the 
technology to read mail without opening it, and that pay 
telephones can now be programmed to record any conversation in 
which specified political terms are used.)

2. The best way to reduce tensions and hostilities, and the urge 
to gossip about them, is to make time for open, honest discussion 
and resolution of "personal" as well as "political" issues.

3. Don't accept everything you hear or read. Check with the 
supposed source of the information before you act on it. Personal 
communication among estranged activists, however difficult or 
painful, could have countered many FBI operations which proved 
effective in the Sixties.

4. When you hear a negative, confusing or potentially harmful 
rumor, don't pass it on. Instead, discuss it with a trusted friend 
or with the people in your group who are responsible for dealing 
with covert intervention.

5. Verify and double-check all arrangements for 
housing, transportation, meeting rooms, and so forth.

6. When you discover bogus materials, false media stories, etc., 
publicly disavow them and expose the true source, insofar as you 
can.

HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION & VIOLENCE:

Pressure through employers, landlords, etc.: COINTELPRO documents 
reveal frequent overt contacts and covert manipulation (false 
rumors, anonymous letters and telephone calls) to generate 
pressure on activists from their parents, landlords, employers, 
college administrators, church superiors, welfare agencies, credit 
bureaus, licensing authorities, and the like. 

Agents' reports indicate that such intervention denied Sixties' 
activists any number of foundation grants and public speaking 
engagements. It also cost underground newspapers most of their 
advertising revenues, when major record companies were persuaded 
to take their business elsewhere. It may underlie recent steps 
by insurance companies to cancel policies held by churches giving 
sanctuary to refugees from El Salvador and Guatamala.

Burglary: Former operatives have confessed to thousands of "black 
bag jobs" in which FBI agents broke into movement offices to 
steal, copy or destroy valuable papers, wreck equipment, or plant 
drugs.

Vandalism: FBI infiltrators have admitted countless other acts of 
vandalism, including the fire which destroyed the Watts Writers 
Workshop's multi-million dollar ghetto cultural center in l973. 
Late 60s' FBI and police raids laid waste to movement offices 
across the country, destroying precious printing presses, 
typewriters, layout equipment, research files, financial records, 
and mailing lists.

Other direct interference: To further disrupt opposition 
movements, frighten activists, and get people upset with each 
other, the FBI tampered with organizational mail, so it came late 
or not at all. It also resorted to bomb threats and similar "dirty 
tricks".

Conspicuous surveillance: The FBI and police blatantly watch 
activists' homes, follow their cars, tap phones, open mail and 
attend political events. The object is not to collect information 
(which is done surreptiously), but to harass and intimidate.

Attempted interviews: Agents have extracted damaging information 
from activists who don't know they have a legal right to refuse 
to talk, or who think they can outsmart the FBI. COINTELPRO 
directives recommend attempts at interviews throughout political 
movements to "enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles" and 
"get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every 
mailbox."

Grand juries: Unlike the FBI, the Grand Jury has legal power to 
make you answer its questions. Those who refuse, and are required 
to accept immunity from use of their testimony against them, can 
be jailed for contempt of court. (Such "use immunity" enables 
prosecutors to get around the constitutional protection against 
self-incrimination.) 

The FBI and the US Dept. of Justice have manipulated this process 
to turn the grand jury into an instrument of political 
repression. Frustrated by jurors' consistent refusal to convict 
activists of overtly political crimes, they convened over 100 
grand juries between l970 and l973 and subpoenaed more than 1000 
activists from the Black, Puerto Rican, student, women's and 
anti-war movements. Supposed pursuit of fugitives and 
"terrorists" was the usual pretext. Many targets were so terrified 
that they dropped out of political activity. Others were jailed 
without any criminal charge or trial, in what amounts to a U.S. 
version of the political internment procedures employed in South 
Africa and Northern Ireland.

False arrest and prosecution: COINTELPRO directives cite the 
Philadelphia FBI's success in having local militants "arrested on 
every possible charge until they could no longer make bail" and 
"spent most of the summer in jail." Though the bulk of the 
activists arrested in this manner were eventually released, some 
were convicted of serious charges on the basis of perjured 
testimony by FBI agents, or by co-workers who the Bureau had 
threatened or bribed. 

The object was not only to remove experienced organizers from 
their communities and to divert scarce resources into legal 
defense, but even more to discredit entire movements by 
portraying their leaders as vicious criminals. Two victims of 
such frame-ups, Native American activist Leonard Peltier and 
l960s' Black Panther official Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, have 
finally gained court hearings on new trial motions. 

Others currently struggling to re-open COINTELPRO convictions 
include Richard Marshall of the American Indian Movement and 
jailed Black Panthers Herman Bell, Anthony Bo:Pom, 
Albert Washington (the "NY3"), and Richard "Dhoruba" Moore.

Intimidation: One COINTELPRO communique urged that "The Negro 
youths and moderates must be made to understand that if they 
succumb to revolutionary teaching, they will be dead 
revolutionaries." 

Others reported use of threats (anonymous and overt) to terrorize 
activists, driving some to abandon promising projects and others 
to leave the country. During raids on movement offices, the FBI 
and police routinely roughed up activists and threatened further 
violence. In August, 1970, they forced the entire staff of the 
Black Panther office in Philadelphia to march through the streets 
naked.

Instigation of violence: The FBI's infiltrators and anonymous 
notes and phone calls incited violent rivals to attack Malcolm X, 
the Black Panthers,and other targets. Bureau records also reveal 
maneuvers to get the Mafia to move against such activists as black 
comedian Dick Gregory. 

A COINTELPRO memo reported that "shootings, beatings and a high 
degree of unrest continue to prevail in the ghetto area of 
southeast San Diego...it is felt that a substantial amount of the 
unrest is directly attributable to this program."

Covert aid to right-wing vigilantes: In the guise of a COINTELPRO 
against "white hate groups," the FBI subsidized, armed, directed 
and protected the Klu Klux Klan and other right-wing groups, 
including a "Secret Army Organization" of California ex-Minutemen 
who beat up Chicano activists, tore apart the offices of the San 
Diego Street Journal and the Movement for a Democratic Military, 
and tried to kill a prominent anti-war organizer. Puerto Rican 
activists suffered similar terrorist assaults from anti-Castro 
Cuban groups organized and funded by the CIA. 

Defectors from a band of Chicago-based vigilantes known as the 
"Legion of Justice" disclosed that the funds and arms they used 
to destroy book stores, film studios and other centers of 
opposition had secretly been supplied by members of the Army's 
ll3th Military Intelligence Group.

Assassination: The FBI and police were implicated directly in 
murders of Black and Native American leaders. In Chicago, police 
assassinated Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, using a 
floor plan supplied by an FBI informer who apparently also had 
drugged Hampton's food to make him unconscious during the raid. 

FBI records show that this accomplice received a substantial bonus 
for his services. Despite an elaborate cover-up, a blue-ribbon 
commission and a U.S Court of Appeals found the deaths to be the 
result not of a shootout, as claimed by police, but of a 
carefully orchestrated, Vietnam-style "search and destroy 
mission".


GUIDELINES FOR COPING WITH HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION & VIOLENCE:

l. Establish security procedures appropriate to your group's 
level of activity and discuss them thoroughly with everyone 
involved. Control access to keys, files, letterhead, funds, 
financial records, mailing lists, etc. Keep duplicates of valuable 
documents. Safeguard address books, and do not carry them when 
arrest is likely.

2. Careful records of break-ins, thefts, bomb threats, raids, 
arrests, strange phone noises (not always taps or bugs), 
harassment, etc. will help you to discern patterns and to prepare 
reports and testimony.

3. Don't talk to the FBI. Don't let them in without a warrant. 
Tell others that they came. Have a lawyer demand an explanation 
and instruct them to leave you alone.

4. If an activist does talk, or makes some other honest error, 
explain the harm that could result. But do not attempt to 
ostracize a sincere person who slips up. Isolation only weakens a 
person's ability to resist. It can drive someone out of the 
movement and even into the arms of the police.

5. If the FBI starts to harass people in your area, alert 
everyone to refuse to cooperate (see box). Call the Movement 
Support Network's Hotline:(2l2) 614-6422. Set up community 
meetings with speakers who have resisted similar harassment 
elsewhere. Get literature, films, etc. through the organizations 
listed in the back of this pamphlet. Consider "Wanted" 
posters with photos of the agents, or guerilla theater which 
follows them through the city streets.

6. Make a major public issue of crude harassment, such as 
tampering with your mail. Contact your congressperson. Call the 
media. Demonstrate at your local FBI office. Turn the attack into 
an opportunity for explaining how covert intervention threatens 
fundamental human rights.

7. Many people find it easier to tell an FBI agent to contact 
their lawyer than to refuse to talk. Once a lawyer is involved, 
the Bureau generally pulls back, since it has lost its power to 
intimidate. If possible, make arrangements with a local lawyer and 
let everyone know that agents who visit them can be referred to 
that lawyer.  If your group engages in civil disobedience or 
finds itself under intense police pressure, start a bail fund, 
train some members to deal with the legal system, and develop an 
ongoing relationship with a sympathetic local lawyer.

8. Community education is important, along with legal, financial,
child care, and other support for those who protect a movement
by refusing to divulge information about it. If a respected activist
is subpoenaed for obviously political reasons, consider trying to
arrange for sanctuary in a local church or synagogue.

9. While the FBI and police are entirely capable of 
fabricating criminal charges, your non-political law violations 
(such as drugs) make it easier for them to set you up. The point 
is not to get so up-tight and paranoid that you can't function, 
but to make a realistic assessment based on your visibility and 
other pertinent circumstances.

10. Upon hearing of Fred Hampton's murder, the Black Panthers in 
Los Angeles fortified their offices and organized a 
communications network to alert the community and news media in 
the event of a raid. When the police did attempt an armed assault 
four days later, the Panthers were able to hold off the attack 
until a large community and media presence enabled them to leave 
the office without casualties. Similar preparation can help other 
groups that have reason to expect right-wing or police assaults.

11. Make sure your group designates and prepares other members to 
step in if leaders are jailed or otherwise incapacitated. The more 
each participant is able to think for herself or himself and take 
responsibility, the better will be the group's capacity to cope 
with crises.


ORGANIZING PUBLIC OPPOSITION TO COVERT INTERVENTION


A BROAD-BASED STRATEGY: No one existing political organization 
or movement is strong enough, by itself, to mobilize the public 
pressure required to significantly limit the ability of the FBI, 
CIA and police to subvert our work. Some activists oppose covert 
intervention because it violates fundamental constitutional 
rights. Others stress how it weakens and interferes with the work 
of a particular group or movement. Still others see covert action 
as part of a political and economic system which is 
fundamentally flawed. Our only hope is to bring these diverse 
forces together in a single, powerful alliance.

Such a broad coalition cannot hold together unless it operates 
with clearly-defined principles. The coalition as a whole will 
have to oppose covert intervention on certain basic grounds--such 
as the threat to democracy, civil liberties and social justice, 
leaving its members free to put forward other objections and 
analyses in their own names. Participants will need to refrain 
from insisting that only their views are "politically correct" 
and that everyone else has "sold out."

Above all, we will have to resist the government's maneuvers to 
divide us by moving against certain groups, while subtly 
suggesting that it will go easy on the others, if only they 
dissociate themselves from those under attack. This strategy is 
evident in the recent Executive Order and Guidelines, which single 
out for infiltration and disruption people who support liberation 
movements and governments that defy U.S. hegemony or who 
entertain the view that it may at times be necessary to break the 
law in order to effectuate social change.

DIVERSE TACTICS: For maximum impact, local and national coalitions 
will need a multi-faceted approach which effectively combines 
a diversity of tactics, including:

l. Investigative research to stay on top of, and document, just 
what the FBI, CIA and police are up to.

2. Public education through forums, rallies, radio and TV, 
literature, film, high school and college curricula, wallposters, 
guerilla theater, and whatever else proves interesting and 
effective.

3. Legislative lobbying against administration proposals to 
strengthen covert work, cut back public access to information, 
punish government "whistle-blowers", etc. Coalitions in some 
cities and states have won legislative restrictions on 
surveillance and covert action. The value of such victories will 
depend our ability to mobilize continuing, vigilant public 
pressure for effective enforcement.

4. Support for the victims of covert intervention can reduce 
somewhat the harm done by the FBI, CIA and police. Organizing on 
behalf of grand jury resisters, political prisoners, and 
defendants in political trials offers a natural forum for public 
education about domestic covert action.

5. Lawsuits may win financial compensation for some of the people 
harmed by covert intervention. Class action suits, which seek a 
court order (injunction) limiting surveillance and covert action 
in a particular city or judicial district, have proved a valuable 
source of information and publicity. They are enormously 
expensive, however, in terms of time and energy as well as money. 
Out-of-court settlements in some of these cases have given rise 
to bitter disputes which split coalitions apart, and any 
agreement is subject to reinterpretation or modification by 
increasingly conservative, administration-oriented federal 
judges. 

The US Court of Appeals in Chicago has ruled that the consent 
decree against the FBI there affects only operations based 
"solely on the political views of a group or an individual," for 
which the Bureau can conjure no pretext of a "genuine concern for 
law enforcement."

6. Direct action, in the form of citizens' arrests, mock trials, 
picketlines, and civil disobedience, has recently greeted CIA 
recruiters on a number of college campuses. Although the main 
focus has been on the Agency's international crimes, its domestic 
activities have also received attention. Similar actions might be 
organized to protest recruitment by the FBI and police, in 
conjunction with teach-ins and other education about domestic 
covert action. Demonstrations against Reagan's attempts to bolster 
covert intervention, or against particular FBI, CIA or police 
operations, could also raise public consciousness and focus 
activists' outrage.

PROSPECTS: Previous attempts to mobilize public opposition, 
especially on a local level, indicate that a broad coalition, 
employing a multi-faceted approach, may be able to impose some 
limits on the government's ability to discredit and disrupt our 
work. It is clear, however, that we currently lack the power to 
eliminate such intervention. While fighting hard to end domestic 
covert action, we need also to study the forms it takes and 
prepare ourselves to cope with it as effectively as we can.

Above all, it is essential that we resist the temptation to so 
preoccupy ourselves with repression that we neglect our main 
work. Our ability to resist the government's attacks depends 
ultimately on the strength of our movements. So long as we 
continue to advocate and organize effectively, no manner of 
intervention can stop us.

Electronic Osmosis by New York On-Line (718) 852-2662
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