Conspiracy Theories: COINTELPRO

Last week we covered the Tuskegee Experiment, this week we attempt to cover another conspiracy that was perpetrated against the black community.

COINTELPRO

COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political organizations.

The program was initially targeted at the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA). After its initial success, it was expanded to include many other organizations. Some of the largest COINTELPROs targeted the Socialist Worker's Party, the "New Left" (including several anti-war groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (aka SNCC)), Black Liberation groups such as the Black Panthers, Puerto Rican independence groups, and the American Indian Movement.

In early 1971, COINTELPRO was brought to light when a "Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI" removed secret files from an FBI office in Media, PA and released them to the press. Agents began to resign from the Bureau and blow the whistle on covert operations. That same year, publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Pentagon's top-secret history of the Vietnam War, exposed years of systematic official lies about the war.

COINTELPRO's effect on the black civil rights movement was vast.

In addition to Marin Luther King the, Black Panthers were also a target.

For those of you who are interested in looking up some of the declassified info please go to www.cointel.org.