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<h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Cointelpro
101</i></b></font></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs10072010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs10072010.html<br><br>
</a></font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
<b>A History of Repression
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By RON JACOBS
<br><br>
</font><font size=3>In recent weeks, articles have appeared in various
media outlets detailing recent surveillance activities of the FBI and
other law enforcement agencies. According to these reports. much of
this surveillance was focused on antiwar and peace groups. Then, on
September 24, 2010 several homes and offices in Minneapolis/St. Paul,
Chicago and North Carolina were raided by the FBI. Subpoenas to
appear at a grand jury investigation were issued to several
activists. The reason provided for the raids was that some
individuals were suspected of providing "material support to
terrorists." These raids and recent revelations have been met
with protest and, in some quarters, shock-as if the United States
government were somehow above such police state intimidation and
practices.<br><br>
On <a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Cointelpro.html">October 10,
2010 at the Mission Cultural Center of Latino Studies</a> in San
Francisco, the Freedom Archives will premier its latest
documentary. Titled <i>Cointelpro 101</i>, this hour-long
film makes it quite clear that the US government is certainly not above
such practices and that, furthermore, it has a long history of
them. For those who don't know, Cointelpro was the abbreviated name
for the intelligence and counterinsurgency operation waged against a
multitude of organizations and individuals deemed threats to national
security during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by the FBI and other US law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. Short for
counterintelligence, Cointelpro involved the use of a multitude of
methods up to and including murder in its crusade to neutralize any and
all left opposition to the status quo in the United States. From Martin
Luther King, Jr. to the Weather Underground Organization, any one
considered an enemy of the US national security state because of their
opposition to the US war in Vietnam or their support for the
self-determination of people of color in the United States was a
potential target of the Cointelpro program. <br><br>
<i>Cointelpro 101 </i>opens with the April 1971 break-in by antiwar
activists at the federal offices in Media, Pennsylvania. The
activists were searching for Selective service files to destroy when they
came upon files labeled Cointelpro. After a quick perusal of the
file's contents, they removed as many as they could find from the office,
made copies and released them to the press. The program was
unknown to the broader public at the time and the files proved a
revelation to the country. Many politicians were offended and,
after the 1972 discovery of the Plumbers unit run by G. Gordon Liddy
under the direction of the Nixon White House and the subsequent months of
Congressional hearings around Watergate, Senator Frank Church called for
hearings to investigate the Cointelpro program. <br><br>
As the history related in the film makes clear, Cointelpro's stretch was
broad. Beginning in the 1950s with a focus on the Puerto Rican
independence movement and continuing through the 1960s and into the 1970s
when much of its focus had shifted to the black liberation, Chicano
liberation and American Indian movement, the program racked up a number
of assassinations, false imprisonments and ruined lives. No
government official was ever punished for actions taken under the
program's auspices. The film details this history through the
artful use of still photos and moving images of the period covered.
Films of police attacks and protests; still photos of revolutionary
leaders and police murders graphically remind the viewer of Washington's
willingness to do whatever it takes to maintain its control.
Organizers who began their political activity during the time of
Cointelpro discuss the effect the program had on them and the
organizations and individuals they worked with. Indeed, several of
the interviewees were themselves targets and spent years in prison (some
that were false, as in the case of Geronimo ji-Jaga Pratt) or on the
run. One of the interviewees, Wesley Swearingen, is a former FBI
agent who was involved in Cointelpro operations in Los Angeles and
elsewhere and later published a book exposing his knowledge. His
recollections reveal the nature of the war the FBI was fighting.<br><br>
Former Black Panther member Kathleen Cleaver states toward the end of the
film that Cointelpro represented the efforts of a political police force
making the decision as to what is allowed politically and what is
not. Anything outside the parameters set by this force was fair
game. Nothing that was done by government officials or private
groups and individuals acting on the government's behalf was perceived as
wrong or illegal. As Attorney Bob Boyle makes clear in his final
statement in the film, Cointelpro is alive and well. The only
difference now is that most of what was illegal for the government to do
during Cointelpro's official existence is now legal. The PATRIOT
Act and other laws associated with the creation of the Department of
Homeland Security have insured this. The September 24, 2010 raids
mentioned above are but the most recent proof of it.<br><br>
<i>Cointelpro 101</i> is a well made and appealing primer on the history
of the US police state. Produced, written and directed by
individuals who have themselves been the target of tactics documented in
the film, it has an authenticity and immediacy that pulls the viewer
in. Although too short to cover the history in as full detail as
some may desire, the film's intelligence and conscientious presentation
of the historical narrative makes it a film that the student, the citizen
and the activist can all appreciate.<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2><b>Ron Jacobs</b> is author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841678/counterpunchmaga">
The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground</a>, which is
just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured
in CounterPunch's collection on music, art and sex,
<a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html">
Serpents in the Garden</a>. His first novel,
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0977459098/counterpunchmaga">
Short Order Frame Up,</a> is published by Mainstay Press. He can be
reached at:
<a href="mailto:rjacobs3625@charter.net">rjacobs3625@charter.net</a>
<br><br>
<br><br>
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<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
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