
COINTELPRO - geekfactor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
======
md224
I actually thought about posting this as well... definitely required reading
for anyone who believes the government would never abuse their powers to
stifle dissent. Really sad chapter in American history.

~~~
mindcrime
In addition to COINTELPRO, it's interesting to read up on MK ULTRA, another US
govt. program which engaged in illegal and unethical behavior, including
conducting illegal experiments on unknowing / unwilling subjects who were US
citizens.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5886782](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5886782)

I know some people will argue that this stuff is off-topic, and maybe it is in
a certain sense. But there are a lot of younger readers on HN who probably
aren't familiar with a lot of this history, and it helps explain why some
people are so quick to distrust the US government. In light of the recent news
about the NSA, IRS, etc., I think this is worthy of discussion.

~~~
asveikau
I think COINTELPRO is pretty much reducible to a single man's nuttiness, that
of J. Edgar Hoover. MKULTRA was CIA as I recall. Worth pointing out that these
are different. CIA also has a lot of messy history overseas, in places like
Latin America.

But I have to say:

> recent news about the NSA, IRS, etc.

To paint recent stories about IRS with the same brush as the recent news about
NSA, or to put IRS on the same level as COINTELPRO/MKULTRA... They're not
nearly in the same ballpark. There's this trend on HN right now to say that
anything government related (I hear they're putting floride in the water!
Don't get me started about the post office!) must be in on the crazy
conspiracy, and I find that attitude disappointing. It's not all the same.

~~~
jdc
> reducible to a single man's nuttiness, that of J. Edgar Hoover

...which demonstrates that the executive branch wields a disproportionate
amount of power, does it not?

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asveikau
I guess FBI is the executive branch, but one of the sneaky things about Hoover
was his ability to transcend and defy presidents. A bit different from recent
events with Bush and Obama in that sense.

In this most recent iteration of the NSA story it seems like all three
branches failed, with congress not giving enough of a crap and the courts
rubber stamping everything.

~~~
philwelch
> but one of the sneaky things about Hoover was his ability to transcend and
> defy presidents

That's one of the reasons he's a suspect in the JFK assassination. The best
part of this theory is the implication that discreetly disclosing each new
president on exactly how JFK was assassinated tends to get them in line.

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ck2
Note that something similar was done to groups that protested the Iraq War.

Some people who were known demonstrators ended up on the no-fly list.

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readme
To be fair, some of the groups that COINTELPRO targeted _were_ subversive. For
example, the weather underground:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground#Major_activ...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground#Major_activities_and_suspected_activities)

Ctrl+F "Bomb" ^^

~~~
scarmig
To be fair, you've stepped into a giant pile of irony. Indeed, the Weathermen
were a violent terrorist group that needed to be shut down. But very key point
in the story: its members originally were an extremely radical but small
faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Until its fracturing,
the Weathermen had committed no crimes, and SDS was undoubtedly a legitimate
organization to exist in a democratic society.

And the irony? Well, the FBI played no small part in the fracturing of SDS.
COINTELPRO planted agents who acted as infiltrators, agitators, disruptors,
and agents provocateur, with the explicit goal of destroying SDS.

So those bombs put more than a smidgeon of blood on the FBI's hands as well,
and the FBI were every bit as much a malign anti-American, subversive
influence as the Weathermen.

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e12e
For anyone that's interested in the US history with dissidents, I recommend
watching the documentary "The Black Power Mixtape (1967-1975)":

    
    
      http://blackpowermixtape.com/
      (alt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_qnnqyxQk )

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namank
_FBI 's stated motivation was "protecting national security, preventing
violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order._

So the only way to progress is...how again?

I wonder how they view innovation, startups, and Silicon Valley.

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dxm
With friends like these...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pen3isZj4cM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pen3isZj4cM)

