mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2024-12-26 15:59:29 -05:00
128 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
128 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
Downloaded from AMNET 312-436-3062 Chicago's Civil Liberties BBS
|
|
|
|
>>> 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'
|
|
pub |