COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveiling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.

COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; and illegal violence, including assassination. Covert operations under COINTELPRO took place between 1956 and 1971; however, the FBI has used covert operations against domestic political groups since its inception. The FBI’s stated motivation at the time was “protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order.”

The intended effect of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, or otherwise neutralize” groups that the FBI believed were “subversive” by instructing FBI field operatives to:

1. Create a negative public image for target groups (e.g. by surveiling activists, and then releasing negative personal information to the public)
2. Break down internal organization (e.g. by having agents exacerbate racial tensions, or send anonymous letters to try to create conflicts)
3. Create dissension between groups (e.g. by spreading rumors that other groups were stealing money)
4. Restrict access to public resources (e.g. by pressuring non-profit organizations to cut off funding or material support)
5. Restrict the ability to organize protests (e.g. agents sending letters promoting violence against police at protests)
6. Restrict the ability of individuals to participate in group activities (e.g. by character assassinations, false arrests, surveillance)

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.