1 00:00:02,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: Hello and Happy Saturday. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:09,840 Speaker 1: Holly Frye. Our next two Saturday Classics are a listener 3 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,880 Speaker 1: request from a friend who is also a history teacher, 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:16,239 Speaker 1: who noticed that she's been seeing a lot of references 5 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: to co Intel Pro on social media lately. We don't 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:24,119 Speaker 1: often run two partners as Saturday Classics, but our episodes 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: on co Intel Pro are not one continuous narrative. Part 8 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: ones today we will talk about some background on the 9 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: FBI and the origins of its counterintelligence programs, as well 10 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:38,839 Speaker 1: as one specific operation, which was called co Intel Pro 11 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:42,760 Speaker 1: White Hate. Then next week, Part two will cover two 12 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: other co Intel pros and how the public learned about 13 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: these programs. These episodes are also an example of something 14 00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: we said in this week's Behind the Scenes about not 15 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: needing to go back very far in history to find 16 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,880 Speaker 1: precedence and things that resonate with things that are happening now. 17 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: We recorded our episodes on co Intel Pro in July 18 00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,320 Speaker 1: of twenty twenty, during international protests over the murder of 19 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:12,080 Speaker 1: George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin. This originally came 20 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: out July twentieth, twenty twenty Welcome to Stuff You Missed 21 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome 22 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. 23 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: Something that has come up several times on our show 24 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: is FBI surveillance of people who were associated with the 25 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: civil rights movement in the United States. Most recently, we 26 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: talked about the bureau creating this file on James Baldwin 27 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:49,160 Speaker 1: that was more than seventeen hundred pages long, and in 28 00:01:49,240 --> 00:01:52,080 Speaker 1: earlier episodes we've talked about things like the FBI using 29 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: wiretaps to spy on Byerd Rustin and Martin Luther King Junior. 30 00:01:56,720 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: A lot of this surveillance was connected to a series 31 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:04,640 Speaker 1: of counterintelligence programs, or co intel pros that primarily targeted 32 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,000 Speaker 1: left wing organizations and people in the US from nineteen 33 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:12,079 Speaker 1: fifty six until nineteen seventy one. The FBI framed this 34 00:02:12,160 --> 00:02:15,440 Speaker 1: as work that was necessary to prevent violence and protect 35 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,080 Speaker 1: national security, but a whole lot of the people and 36 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: organizations that they targeted were not violent and were not 37 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: threatening national security. Mostly they were just threatening the status quo, 38 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: and the FBI pursued the one co intel pro that 39 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: really really was focused on violent organizations with a totally 40 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:36,840 Speaker 1: different end in mind than what it pursued with the 41 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: other operations. This is one of those topics that includes 42 00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,960 Speaker 1: a whole lot of history that is just a complicated tangle, 43 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:46,880 Speaker 1: So we're going to tackle it in two parts. Today, 44 00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: we'll talk about the history of the FBI, especially as 45 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:55,480 Speaker 1: it related to communism and perceived subversive threats, because all 46 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:59,360 Speaker 1: that fed directly into co Intel Pro. We're also going 47 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,800 Speaker 1: to give an o review of the types of tactics 48 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: that the FBI used across these various programs, and we're 49 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:06,840 Speaker 1: going to talk about the one co intel pro that 50 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:08,919 Speaker 1: was kind of an outlier in all of this, which 51 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 1: was cointel Pro White Hate. Next time, we will get 52 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:15,640 Speaker 1: into some of the specifics of the co intel pros 53 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 1: that targeted black liberation organizations and the new Left, as 54 00:03:19,560 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: well as how these programs were finally exposed to the public. 55 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: The investigation team that would become the US Federal Bureau 56 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,360 Speaker 1: of Investigation was established in nineteen oh eight, and at 57 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:33,399 Speaker 1: first this was a small group of newly hired investigators 58 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,120 Speaker 1: who worked for the Department of Justice under the Office 59 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:39,560 Speaker 1: of the Chief Examiner. Before this point when the Department 60 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: of Justice needed investigators, it had either hired private investigators 61 00:03:44,200 --> 00:03:48,280 Speaker 1: or borrowed investigators from other departments. In nineteen oh nine, 62 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,240 Speaker 1: the Office of the Chief Examiner was renamed the Bureau 63 00:03:51,320 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: of Investigation. The Bureau's work involved enforcing federal law and 64 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: helping to protect the nation from threats. In nineteen seven, 65 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: just after the US entered World War One, Congress passed 66 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: the Espionage Act, or an Act to punish acts of 67 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:11,440 Speaker 1: interference with Foreign relations, the neutrality of the foreign commerce 68 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,800 Speaker 1: of the United States, to punish espionage and better to 69 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,760 Speaker 1: enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for 70 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: other purposes. The Bureau of Investigation had become the government's 71 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,919 Speaker 1: largest investigative agency, and it was tasked with enforcing the 72 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: Espionage Act. The Bureau of Investigation also had an assortment 73 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:33,600 Speaker 1: of other duties, including guarding the US border with Mexico 74 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: during the Mexican Revolution. The same year that the Espionage 75 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:42,000 Speaker 1: Act was passed, j Edgar Hoover joined the Department of Justice. 76 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: The following year, Congress passed the Sedition Act, which expanded 77 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:49,920 Speaker 1: the Espionage Act to focus on anti war activists and socialists. 78 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: The Sedition Act made it a federal crime to quote, willfully, 79 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:59,360 Speaker 1: utter print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurreless, or 80 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: abusive life language about the form of the government of 81 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: the United States. It also outlawed urging, inciting, or advocating 82 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:12,480 Speaker 1: any curtailment or reduction in the production of war material. Then, 83 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: in nineteen nineteen, US Attorney General A. Mischel Palmer's home 84 00:05:16,920 --> 00:05:19,680 Speaker 1: was bombed. This was part of a series of male 85 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: bombings carried out that year, with seven other bombings happening 86 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:26,400 Speaker 1: on that same night. We have a two part episode 87 00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,159 Speaker 1: on the bombings and the massive series of raids and 88 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:32,760 Speaker 1: deportations that followed, and that two parter originally came out 89 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:36,159 Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen. J Edgar Hoover led a team to 90 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,920 Speaker 1: investigate these bombings, and the espionage and sedition acts were 91 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 1: a big part of it. The raids, incarcerations, and deportations 92 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,200 Speaker 1: that followed became known as the Palmer Raids and they 93 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: were part of the first Red Scare, which was a 94 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:55,200 Speaker 1: widespread fear of Bolshevists, anarchists, socialists, and immigrants as a 95 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:59,279 Speaker 1: threat to American life and national security. By nineteen twenty, 96 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:02,720 Speaker 1: Attorney General Arl Palmer's handling of these investigations had come 97 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:06,000 Speaker 1: under intense scrutiny from both within and outside of the 98 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: US government. On May twenty eighth of that year, a 99 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,080 Speaker 1: team of twelve lawyers issued a report on the raids 100 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: Mister port detailed cruel and unusual punishments, arrests without warrant, 101 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: unreasonable searches and seizures compelling persons to witness against themselves, 102 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 1: propaganda by the Department of Justice, and provocative agents, which 103 00:06:26,480 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: were basically operatives who entrapped people. Palmer's reputation suffered as 104 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,040 Speaker 1: a result of all this, and he returned to private 105 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: practice after failing to win the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. 106 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,839 Speaker 1: William J. Flynn was director of the Bureau of Investigation 107 00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:44,480 Speaker 1: at the time, and soon he was replaced as well. 108 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: The Espionage and Sedition Acts were repealed in nineteen twenty 109 00:06:48,960 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: and nineteen twenty one, but Hoover's reputation wasn't really tarnished 110 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,360 Speaker 1: by his involvement in all this. Soon he was being 111 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,359 Speaker 1: groomed to take over the Bureau. Jay Edgar Hoover became 112 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:03,960 Speaker 1: the Bureau of Investigations director in nineteen twenty four, and 113 00:07:04,040 --> 00:07:07,240 Speaker 1: the bureau was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 114 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,680 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty five. Of course, there is a ton of 115 00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,120 Speaker 1: history between when Hoover joined the Department of Justice and 116 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,120 Speaker 1: when the FBI started its co intel pros. Hoover was 117 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:21,559 Speaker 1: involved in modernizing and standardizing the FBI, and the bureau 118 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:27,239 Speaker 1: itself was involved in investigating organized crime during Prohibition. During 119 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: World War II, the FBI also maintained lists of Japanese, German, 120 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: and Italian nationals believed to be a threat to domestic 121 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: security and kept those people under surveillance. Then, of course, 122 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: Japanese immigrants and their American born descendants were incarcerated under 123 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,040 Speaker 1: Executive Order ninety sixty six. That is also covered in 124 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:51,320 Speaker 1: a previous two parter of the podcast. The Central Intelligence 125 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: Agency was founded in nineteen forty seven to focus on 126 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,480 Speaker 1: foreign intelligence. That left the FBI to focus on domestic 127 00:07:58,520 --> 00:08:02,960 Speaker 1: intelligence and on investigationading federal crimes. This creation of the 128 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:06,920 Speaker 1: CIA happened under the National Security Act of nineteen forty seven, 129 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: and that act also included this definition of counterintelligence quote 130 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:17,560 Speaker 1: information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other 131 00:08:17,680 --> 00:08:23,000 Speaker 1: intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted by or on behalf 132 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: of foreign governments or elements thereof foreign organizations or foreign persons, 133 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: or international terrorist activities. A big part of this same 134 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:36,720 Speaker 1: time span was the fight against communism. Following a precedent 135 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,400 Speaker 1: that had been set by the Palmer Raids, the First 136 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:43,360 Speaker 1: Red Scare, and the Espionage and Sedition Acts, in nineteen 137 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:47,079 Speaker 1: forty Congress passed the Alien Registration Act, also known as 138 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,480 Speaker 1: the Smith Act. In this act included clauses that made 139 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,720 Speaker 1: it illegal for any citizen or resident of the US 140 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:59,400 Speaker 1: to quote, advocate, a bet, advise, or teach the duty, necessity, desirability, 141 00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: or propriety of overthrowing, or destroying any government in the 142 00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 1: United States by force or violence. Just as the Espionage 143 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:11,400 Speaker 1: and Sedition Acts had been used to target political dissenters 144 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: and immigrants, the Smith Act became a primary tool for 145 00:09:15,120 --> 00:09:19,600 Speaker 1: prosecuting communists. In nineteen forty eight, eleven leaders of the 146 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,600 Speaker 1: Communist Party USA were tried and convicted under the Smith Act. 147 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,520 Speaker 1: They hadn't been directly advocating for the overthrow of the 148 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,679 Speaker 1: US government, but they had been teaching from works by 149 00:09:30,760 --> 00:09:35,959 Speaker 1: Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin that described the revolutionary overthrow 150 00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:40,880 Speaker 1: of governments as necessary. The Supreme Court upheld these convictions 151 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:43,840 Speaker 1: in Dennis versus the United States in nineteen fifty one, 152 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: and this Court decision moved the country away from an 153 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:51,280 Speaker 1: earlier standard that required evidence of a clear and present 154 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,520 Speaker 1: danger in order to justify the government placing limits on 155 00:09:54,600 --> 00:10:00,000 Speaker 1: free speech. The focus on communism escalated during the Cold War. 156 00:09:59,800 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: W OR two had left the US and the USSR 157 00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: as the two remaining superpowers, and at first the US 158 00:10:06,320 --> 00:10:09,640 Speaker 1: was the only one with nuclear weapons, but the Soviet 159 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: Union detonated its first to nuclear device in nineteen forty nine, 160 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: and soon it became clear that spies had been at 161 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:21,000 Speaker 1: work within the US nuclear program. This sparked an increasing 162 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 1: fixation on the idea that Soviet agents were infiltrating the 163 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 1: United States, including through the US Communist Party. There was 164 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: also a more general fear of Communist infiltration, regardless of 165 00:10:32,880 --> 00:10:36,760 Speaker 1: whether a particular person or organization had ties back to 166 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. The House on American Activities Committee had 167 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: been established in nineteen thirty eight to investigate suspected disloyalty, 168 00:10:45,080 --> 00:10:49,199 Speaker 1: including ties to communism. During the Cold War, the committee's 169 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,439 Speaker 1: activities became notorious under the direction of Senator Joseph McCarthy. 170 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:56,680 Speaker 1: This was all part of the Second Red Scare, which 171 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:59,920 Speaker 1: was another national panic, this time focused on the idea 172 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:04,680 Speaker 1: of Communist infiltration. This panic grew out of the tensions 173 00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: between the US and the USSR, and it was further 174 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: inflamed by other events like the Chinese Communist Revolution which 175 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:14,440 Speaker 1: started in nineteen forty nine and the Korean War which 176 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: started in nineteen fifty. To be clear, some of the 177 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 1: people targeted by the House and American Activities Committee really 178 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: were communists or otherwise had ties to the Communist Party, 179 00:11:25,800 --> 00:11:28,720 Speaker 1: and there were some Communists who really did have ties 180 00:11:28,760 --> 00:11:31,720 Speaker 1: back to the Soviet Union and its leadership, even to 181 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: the point of spying on the US or expressing overt 182 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: loyalty to the Soviet Union and its leadership. But the 183 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:42,720 Speaker 1: overall paranoia was disproportionate to the actual level of threat 184 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:45,959 Speaker 1: or the number of Communists who had ties to the USSR. 185 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,600 Speaker 1: That also went way beyond communism and started targeting more 186 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: general political activity and dissent. The Communist Party had advocated 187 00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: for things like labor rights, civil rights, and women's rights, 188 00:11:59,000 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: and that made it really ease to brand anyone who 189 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 1: fought for these same causes as a communist, as McCarthy, Hoover, 190 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:10,000 Speaker 1: and other public figures stoked existing fear and paranoia. The 191 00:12:10,080 --> 00:12:14,240 Speaker 1: government and private organizations tried to purge themselves of anyone 192 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:18,360 Speaker 1: deemed to be disloyal or a security threat for any reason, 193 00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:23,079 Speaker 1: for example, anyone who might be susceptible to blackmail, and 194 00:12:23,160 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 1: the national climate was one of suspicion, repression, and fear. 195 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,760 Speaker 1: By early nineteen fifty four, McCarthy's support was starting to 196 00:12:30,840 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: wane because of his aggressive tactics with the Committee. I 197 00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:36,760 Speaker 1: can't remember now if we mentioned this already, but there 198 00:12:36,800 --> 00:12:39,640 Speaker 1: are also is yet another two parter on this back 199 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:43,160 Speaker 1: in the archive. After he accused several Army officers of 200 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: having Communist ties, his own behavior was investigated, and the 201 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: Senate voted to condemn his conduct on December second of 202 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four. Although the House on American Activities Committee 203 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:57,839 Speaker 1: still existed, its prominence and its reputation declined through the 204 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: late nineteen fifties and sixties. In a lot of ways, 205 00:13:01,120 --> 00:13:04,000 Speaker 1: the FBI's co intel pros picked up where the House 206 00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: on American Activities Committee left off, and we're going to 207 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 1: talk more about that after we paused for a sponsor break. 208 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:22,559 Speaker 1: The FBI and the House on American Activities Committee were 209 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: actively working together during the McCarthy era, but the FBI 210 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:28,439 Speaker 1: didn't really publicize what it was doing or try to 211 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:32,079 Speaker 1: promote the overall idea that communists had infiltrated a lot 212 00:13:32,120 --> 00:13:37,200 Speaker 1: of American institutions, particularly Hollywood. It left that to the Committee, 213 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:40,400 Speaker 1: whose activities were publicly known and reported in the press. 214 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 1: One of the papers that I read while researching all 215 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: of this described the FBI during this time as laundering 216 00:13:48,679 --> 00:13:53,080 Speaker 1: its intelligence and counterintelligence activities through the House on American 217 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,560 Speaker 1: Activities Committee. So when the House and American Activities Committee 218 00:13:57,600 --> 00:14:01,080 Speaker 1: came under scrutiny in nineteen fifty four or its own 219 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: activities declined, but the FBI's related work did not. Instead, 220 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: Jay Edgar Hoover drew on the Communist Control Act of 221 00:14:09,480 --> 00:14:13,000 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four or quote, an act to outlaw the 222 00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: Communist Party, to prohibit members of communist organizations from serving 223 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: in certain representative capacities, and for other purposes nice and 224 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: specific there this Act banned the Communist Party of the 225 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:29,320 Speaker 1: United States, framing it not as a legitimate political party. 226 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: But as a conspiracy to overthrow the government. This law 227 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,160 Speaker 1: came out of this same ongoing fear and suspicion of communism, 228 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:40,920 Speaker 1: and it also connected specifically to the labor movement. There 229 00:14:41,040 --> 00:14:45,200 Speaker 1: was some overlap between the Communist Party and union organizers, 230 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: and the act specifically banned members of the Communist Party 231 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: from holding office and labor organizations. This was purportedly to 232 00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: protect unsuspecting workers from Communist subversion, but really it granted 233 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:01,920 Speaker 1: the government a lot of of leeway to investigate labor 234 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:06,200 Speaker 1: organizations and to invalidate their collective bargaining agreements if they 235 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:11,080 Speaker 1: were determined to be communists infiltrated. Hoover interpreted the Communist 236 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:15,200 Speaker 1: Control Act as giving the FBI brought authority to investigate 237 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: and proactively disrupt communist threats in the US, and when 238 00:15:19,640 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: the Bureau started these counterintelligence programs, at first the focus 239 00:15:23,720 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: was on communism. The first formal co intel pro built 240 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:33,600 Speaker 1: on ongoing counterintelligence efforts that targeted communists. It was called 241 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:38,360 Speaker 1: co Intel pro Communist Party USA or CPUSA, and that 242 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 1: was launched in nineteen fifty six. This formal co Intel 243 00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:45,560 Speaker 1: pro grew out of a series of field conferences that 244 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,520 Speaker 1: were held that year as suspected communists had been brought 245 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: to trial under the Smith Act. The FBI's informants from 246 00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:56,640 Speaker 1: within the Communist Party had been exposed when they were 247 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: brought in to testify in court. These field conference were 248 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: held in part to figure out how the Bureau could 249 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:08,000 Speaker 1: recruit new informants. A counterintelligence program was recommended as a 250 00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:12,560 Speaker 1: way to keep targeting communists while recruiting new informants. Shortly 251 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:17,200 Speaker 1: after the FBI established cointel pro Communist Party USA. The 252 00:16:17,320 --> 00:16:21,200 Speaker 1: US Supreme Court partially reversed its earlier decision in Dennis 253 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:24,400 Speaker 1: versus the United States. This time the decision was in 254 00:16:24,480 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: Yates v. United States. The Supreme Court, under Chief Justice 255 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:32,800 Speaker 1: Earl Warren, ruled that radical reactionary speech was protected under 256 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:36,640 Speaker 1: the First Amendment. People could talk about revolution and overthrowing 257 00:16:36,680 --> 00:16:40,360 Speaker 1: the government in the abstract, and that was protected speech 258 00:16:40,560 --> 00:16:44,520 Speaker 1: unless it posed a clear and present danger. This overturned 259 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:47,520 Speaker 1: the convictions of fourteen people who had been charged with 260 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: violating the Smith Act. On the same day, the Supreme 261 00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:55,320 Speaker 1: Court also issued to other decisions in cases involving communism 262 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 1: and members of the Communist Party, and both cases protected 263 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 1: their rights to things like price to see and due process. 264 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:05,040 Speaker 1: These Supreme Court decisions were the first of a series 265 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:08,439 Speaker 1: that overturned or narrowed the focus of laws that had 266 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:13,680 Speaker 1: been providing the foundation for the FBI's activities against suspected communists. 267 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 1: The FBI argued that these court rulings left them with 268 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:21,280 Speaker 1: no other choice but to fight communism through covert counterintelligence, 269 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:25,480 Speaker 1: so by the time the cointel pros were uncovered and investigated, 270 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:28,640 Speaker 1: more than half of all the proposed operations had been 271 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,960 Speaker 1: aimed at the Communist Party USA. The FBI carried out 272 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:37,399 Speaker 1: one thousand, three hundred eighty eight separate documented efforts against 273 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:41,000 Speaker 1: the Communist Party, whose membership went from twenty two thousand 274 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:44,679 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen fifties to three thousand by nineteen 275 00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:49,400 Speaker 1: fifty seven. But the focus expanded out from communism. Co 276 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: intel pro CPUSA targeted communists and suspected communists, and then 277 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:59,400 Speaker 1: organizations that had Communists among their members, and then organizations 278 00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:03,840 Speaker 1: that were made be tangentially connected to suspected communists, and 279 00:18:03,880 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: then organizations whose purpose and goals had some common themes 280 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:11,440 Speaker 1: with the Communist Party even if there were no Communists involved, 281 00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: and then the definition of communism expanded to include pretty 282 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:20,040 Speaker 1: much anything that the Bureau considered to be subversive. Co 283 00:18:20,119 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 1: Intel pro Cposa also included counterintelligence operations against civil rights activists, 284 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:31,400 Speaker 1: initially because of known or suspected ties to communism. For example, 285 00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:34,880 Speaker 1: Stanley David Levison was a friend and advisor to Martin 286 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 1: Luther King Junior, and he had also been one of 287 00:18:37,760 --> 00:18:42,000 Speaker 1: the major financiers of the Communist Party USA. But this 288 00:18:42,160 --> 00:18:45,880 Speaker 1: targeting of civil rights activists was not just about actual 289 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:49,720 Speaker 1: connections to communism. It was also because the Bureau saw 290 00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,239 Speaker 1: civil rights work in the US in general as a 291 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:58,520 Speaker 1: subversive threat. So as cointel pro Cposa expanded, the FBI 292 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:03,280 Speaker 1: put intense efforts into discrediting and disrupting civil rights organizations. 293 00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:07,840 Speaker 1: The FBI repeatedly broke into civil rights organization's offices to 294 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,960 Speaker 1: steal documents, and got the IRS to start spurious audits 295 00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:15,640 Speaker 1: of civil rights leaders. In nineteen sixty four, the FBI 296 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,640 Speaker 1: sent an anonymous letter to Martin Luther King Junior, supposedly 297 00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:23,560 Speaker 1: written by an anonymous black person, calling him quote a 298 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 1: colossal fraud and an evil, vicious one at that This 299 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: letter was accompanied by an audio recording purportedly documenting evidence 300 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:36,440 Speaker 1: of King's extramarital affairs. It ended by saying that there 301 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,200 Speaker 1: was quote only one thing left for you to do. 302 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,399 Speaker 1: The implication was that King should take his own life, 303 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,360 Speaker 1: and it said he had thirty four days to do it, 304 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:48,399 Speaker 1: that deadline being the day he was due to accept 305 00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,920 Speaker 1: the Nobel Peace Prize. So those are just examples of 306 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,800 Speaker 1: the targeting of civil rights groups. And as the focus 307 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:58,840 Speaker 1: of co intel pro CPUSA expanded, the Bureau also started 308 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:04,840 Speaker 1: establishing other separate counterintelligence programs. When a Senate committee investigated 309 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:08,440 Speaker 1: the US government's intelligence operations starting in nineteen seventy five, 310 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,120 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that in Part two. They 311 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:15,720 Speaker 1: found five specific named FBI co intel pros, including co 312 00:20:15,800 --> 00:20:19,760 Speaker 1: intel pro Communist Party USA. The next co intel pro 313 00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:24,120 Speaker 1: Socialist Workers Party started in nineteen sixty one. This one 314 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:27,480 Speaker 1: was short lived. There's a whole bunch of freedom of 315 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,400 Speaker 1: information acts stuff on the FBI website, and this one 316 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:34,879 Speaker 1: only has like three pages or three lengths of stuff 317 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:37,119 Speaker 1: to go through, like the other ones have sometimes twenty 318 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:39,600 Speaker 1: and thirty and multiple pages of links to go through. 319 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,640 Speaker 1: So we're not covering that one in as much detail. 320 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,399 Speaker 1: But one of the things that the Bureau routinely did 321 00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,919 Speaker 1: was to target Socialist Workers Party members who were running 322 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,399 Speaker 1: for public office to undermine their political campaigns. In nineteen 323 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,600 Speaker 1: sixty four, the bureau launched co Intel pro White Hate, 324 00:20:56,760 --> 00:21:00,199 Speaker 1: co Intel pro Black Nationalist Slash Hate groups started in 325 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:04,280 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, and co Intel pro New Left started 326 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:09,120 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty eight. Other counterintelligence programs were also unearthed 327 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:12,600 Speaker 1: later on, with targets that included the American Indian Movement 328 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,880 Speaker 1: and Puerto Rican independence activists. Ostensibly, the goals of all 329 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 1: these counterintelligence programs were to protect national security and to 330 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:28,480 Speaker 1: prevent violence, and to do that the FBI would quote expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, 331 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,920 Speaker 1: or otherwise neutralize its targets. The one exception was co 332 00:21:33,080 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: Intel pro White Hate, and with that the FBI was 333 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: focused on curbing white nationalist violence rather than neutralizing the 334 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,600 Speaker 1: targeted groups altogether, which was more the focus and the 335 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:47,560 Speaker 1: other coin cel pros we're going to get to more 336 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,320 Speaker 1: about that in a bit. At the same time, even 337 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:54,120 Speaker 1: though the FBI was purportedly preventing violence, some of these 338 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: operations incited violence. For example, the FBI tried to start 339 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,879 Speaker 1: or escalate violent disputes between the black Panthers and street 340 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: gangs operating in the same areas. As another example, it's 341 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,159 Speaker 1: not clear whether the FBI played a direct part in 342 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:14,199 Speaker 1: the assassination of Malcolm X, but the Bureau definitely stoked 343 00:22:14,240 --> 00:22:17,520 Speaker 1: the divisions and disputes within the Nation of Islam that 344 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,719 Speaker 1: led to his assassination. Another Bureau effort that was unearthed 345 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,119 Speaker 1: later was Operation Hoodwink, which was an effort to quote 346 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:30,479 Speaker 1: evoke a dispute between CPUSA and Lekosa Nostra, in other words, 347 00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:33,040 Speaker 1: to try to start a war between the Communist Party 348 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,199 Speaker 1: and the Sicilian mafia. And beyond these ideas of national 349 00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,280 Speaker 1: security and violence prevention, these programs also worked to maintain 350 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,240 Speaker 1: the existing social and political order in the United States. 351 00:22:45,800 --> 00:22:48,760 Speaker 1: These co intail pros, many of them targeted organizations that 352 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:52,199 Speaker 1: were not violent and did not threaten national security, but 353 00:22:52,280 --> 00:22:55,680 Speaker 1: they did advocate for changes big and small in how 354 00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: the country operated or treated its residents and citizens, especially 355 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 1: with and people of color. Although there was some variation 356 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,000 Speaker 1: from one to another, which we will get into, the 357 00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: Bureau tended to use similar tactics all across all of 358 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 1: these various counterintelligence programs. Most of these tactics came from 359 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:17,120 Speaker 1: counterintelligence works that had been carried out in foreign countries 360 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:21,640 Speaker 1: during wartime, with outcomes that the FBI considered to be successful. 361 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:25,400 Speaker 1: In other words, the United States had honed these techniques 362 00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:29,040 Speaker 1: against its enemies during wartime, and then the FBI started 363 00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,520 Speaker 1: using them in the US against its own citizens. To 364 00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:36,240 Speaker 1: quote the Church Committee report, which followed a Senate investigation 365 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:41,320 Speaker 1: into US intelligence activities. Quote, the techniques were adopted wholesale 366 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,640 Speaker 1: from wartime counter intelligence and ranged from the trivial mailing 367 00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:49,480 Speaker 1: reprints of reader's digest articles to college administrators to the 368 00:23:49,520 --> 00:23:54,200 Speaker 1: degrading sending anonymous poison pen letters intending to break up marriages, 369 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:59,800 Speaker 1: and the dangerous encouraging gang warfare and falsely labeling members 370 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:04,160 Speaker 1: of violent groups as police informers. So the bureau relied 371 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,440 Speaker 1: on informants, surveillance, and other investigative tools to get information 372 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:13,639 Speaker 1: about organizations, their activities, and their members. This included everything 373 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:18,359 Speaker 1: from conducting interviews, to opening and photocopying people's mail, to 374 00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:22,719 Speaker 1: breaking into organization's offices to tap phones and copy documents. 375 00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:27,360 Speaker 1: Then it used that information to create division, distrust, and dissent. 376 00:24:28,400 --> 00:24:32,560 Speaker 1: Sometimes the interviews themselves did that work, interviewing members of 377 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:35,840 Speaker 1: an organization to make others suspect they were informants, or 378 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: conducting multiple simultaneous interviews to make people think that their 379 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,480 Speaker 1: organization had been infiltrated. One specific tactic used to breed 380 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 1: distrust was called snitch jacketing, also known as bad jacketing, 381 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,840 Speaker 1: which involved using things like planted evidence and faked communications 382 00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:54,960 Speaker 1: to make it seem like a loyal member of an 383 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:59,639 Speaker 1: organization was really an FBI informant. In some cases, FBI 384 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:03,359 Speaker 1: informed planted the suspicion that loyal members were informants to 385 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: shift the focus off of themselves, and the FBI used 386 00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:10,400 Speaker 1: this tactic within organizations that had a reputation for violence, 387 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: as mentioned earlier, even though that carried the real potential 388 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:17,000 Speaker 1: for the targeted member to be assassinated or otherwise harmed. 389 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:23,000 Speaker 1: The Bureau also called people's parents, employers, landlords, and universities 390 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:26,919 Speaker 1: to inform them of their involvement in targeted organizations to 391 00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:30,720 Speaker 1: try to get them fired, evicted, or expelled. Many of 392 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:34,200 Speaker 1: the targets of cointel pro New Left were college students, 393 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,359 Speaker 1: and the FBI either contacted their parents to tell them 394 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:42,280 Speaker 1: about their children's purportedly subversive activities or they faked calls 395 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:46,240 Speaker 1: from parents to students haranguing them for their political activity. 396 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,800 Speaker 1: The FBI also created and distributed published material that was 397 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,359 Speaker 1: meant to discredit their targets, and they fed news stories, 398 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:59,439 Speaker 1: sometimes real and sometimes fabricated, to the media. FBI informants 399 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,719 Speaker 1: gave media interviews in which they intentionally tried to make 400 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: the organizations they were purportedly representing look as bad as possible, 401 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:10,879 Speaker 1: whether it was through using loaded rhetoric or emphasizing a 402 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:15,760 Speaker 1: group's most controversial viewpoints, or just seeming unhinged. The FBI 403 00:26:15,880 --> 00:26:19,879 Speaker 1: also paid informants to make false statements, for example, paying 404 00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:23,600 Speaker 1: informants who were part of nonviolent organizations to make public 405 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:27,320 Speaker 1: calls for violence. In some cases, the bureau even set 406 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:31,439 Speaker 1: up local branches of an organization, with the branch's entire 407 00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 1: membership being made up completely of informants, or they set 408 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:40,119 Speaker 1: up new fictitious organizations whose members were all informants so 409 00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: that they could work against their actual targets. The FBI 410 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:48,560 Speaker 1: also outed gay people and spread rumors about people's sexual orientations, 411 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 1: regardless of what their sexual orientation actually was. They made 412 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 1: postcards and mailed them to people's homes like for example, 413 00:26:57,160 --> 00:26:59,840 Speaker 1: a card that said quote thank you for your successful 414 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:05,400 Speaker 1: anticipation in anti establishment and anti military Industrial complex activities, 415 00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,120 Speaker 1: and those were sent to college students' parental addresses. During 416 00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 1: co Intel pro New Left, the Bureau used postcards specifically 417 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 1: so that mail carriers, other members of a target's household, 418 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: and others could also see the messaging, and so the 419 00:27:21,400 --> 00:27:24,479 Speaker 1: intended target would wonder who else might have seen it. 420 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: Although most of these tactics were used across all the 421 00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,879 Speaker 1: different counterintelligence programs, they weren't used identically or to the 422 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:35,399 Speaker 1: same extent from one to another. For example, the FBI 423 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,040 Speaker 1: didn't really create a lot of false documents to drive 424 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,879 Speaker 1: negative publicity for the ku Klux Klan under Cointel pro 425 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: White Hate. It didn't really need to, since the Ku 426 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: Klux Klan's activities included openly harassing and murdering civil rights activists. 427 00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:53,880 Speaker 1: As another example, the FBI also used tactics that had 428 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,960 Speaker 1: the potential to cause really serious physical, emotional, or economic 429 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: harm during co Intel prob Bloe nationalist hate groups, but 430 00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:05,960 Speaker 1: really rarely used similar tactics when they were working in 431 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,440 Speaker 1: co Intel pro White Hate. Although the FBI was fairly 432 00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:12,879 Speaker 1: insulated from other government departments, which is how it was 433 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,520 Speaker 1: able to carry out these kinds of programs for so long. 434 00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,320 Speaker 1: It also pulled in other departments and bureaus. As part 435 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,359 Speaker 1: of this work. The FBI leaked real and false information 436 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,639 Speaker 1: to the IRS, prompting audits of civil rights leaders and 437 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:31,439 Speaker 1: other targets, essentially using the IRS to harass people. It 438 00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,159 Speaker 1: did the same with local police, leading to things like 439 00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:39,360 Speaker 1: police harassment, arrests, false charges, and just a selective enforcement 440 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: of existing laws depending on who the FBI thought deserved 441 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:48,240 Speaker 1: to be prosecuted. Basically, all these efforts combined investigation, disinformation, 442 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: psychological warfare, and harassment to try to destroy organizations that 443 00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 1: the FBI thought were threatening, or, in the case of 444 00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: cointel pro white hate, to just try to curb those 445 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,360 Speaker 1: organizations violence rather than trying to neutralize them altogether. In 446 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 1: all of this, the FBI's focus was on whether what 447 00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: it was doing was effective, not on whether these tactics 448 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: were constitutional or otherwise legal. According to the FBI, co 449 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:18,040 Speaker 1: intel pro operations were a tiny proportion of its overall 450 00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,920 Speaker 1: work between nineteen fifty six and nineteen seventy one, quote 451 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: about two tenths of one percent of the FBI's workload 452 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:29,040 Speaker 1: over a fifteen year period. At the same time, more 453 00:29:29,040 --> 00:29:32,680 Speaker 1: than fifty thousand pages of co intel pro documents were 454 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,120 Speaker 1: released to the public. Starting in the nineteen seventies, a 455 00:29:36,160 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: Senate investigation concluded that the FBI had carried out two thousand, 456 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:44,680 Speaker 1: three hundred seventy separate counterintelligence actions, with almost one thousand 457 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: additional actions being proposed but not carried out. More were unearthed. 458 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,160 Speaker 1: Later on, we're going to talk about coin cell pro 459 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,800 Speaker 1: white hate, which, as we've noted, is kind of an 460 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:58,320 Speaker 1: outlier in all of this. After a quick sponsor break, 461 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,240 Speaker 1: the FBI established most of its co intel pros because 462 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,640 Speaker 1: it believed that the people and organizations that it was 463 00:30:12,640 --> 00:30:16,560 Speaker 1: targeting were a threat. Overwhelmingly, these targets were on the 464 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:19,760 Speaker 1: political left. They were people and groups who were advocating 465 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:26,880 Speaker 1: for things like civil rights, black liberation, women's liberation, pacifism, socialism, communism, 466 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,360 Speaker 1: nuclear disarmament, and an end to the US involvement in 467 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,800 Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. Things like that. As we noted at 468 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:35,840 Speaker 1: the top of the show, there were exceptions, but most 469 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,680 Speaker 1: of the time the people and organizations being targeted weren't 470 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:43,680 Speaker 1: violent threats. Even organizations that weren't specifically nonviolent. A lot 471 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 1: of the time were focused on defending themselves with violence 472 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 1: if necessary, not on instigating violence, or in some cases, 473 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: there were individual members of an organization that were involved 474 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:58,440 Speaker 1: in violence while the organization itself was not. Co Intel 475 00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 1: pro White Hate started on July thirtieth, nineteen sixty four, 476 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: and in many ways it was an outlier when compared 477 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,160 Speaker 1: to the other co Intel pros. Most of the other 478 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,360 Speaker 1: programs shifted and expanded over time, and some of them 479 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:15,280 Speaker 1: were particularly vague. For example, in co Intel pro New Left, 480 00:31:15,320 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 1: the FBI did not have a precise definition for what 481 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,320 Speaker 1: New Left even meant. But co Intel pro White Hate 482 00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,160 Speaker 1: was focused on white supremacist groups, especially the Ku Klux Klan, 483 00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: and it kept that focus throughout its whole existence. The 484 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,960 Speaker 1: Ku Klux Klan has been through a few iterations in 485 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: the United States, and it surged in popularity during the 486 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:40,760 Speaker 1: Civil Rights movement, with its members fighting against integration and 487 00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: terrorizing black people in other communities, using everything from cross 488 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: burnings to murder. Co Intel pro White Hate targeted seventeen 489 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:53,040 Speaker 1: Ku Klux Klan organizations and nine other hate groups, including 490 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: the American Nazi Party. Another big difference is that many 491 00:31:56,760 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: of the other co intel pros were focused on organizations 492 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:03,720 Speaker 1: that were challenging the status quo. The Ku Klux Klan 493 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 1: and other targeted hate groups, on the other hand, were 494 00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:11,600 Speaker 1: maintaining the status quo by upholding segregation, racism, and white supremacy. 495 00:32:12,360 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: They harassed, threatened, and murdered integrationists and civil rights workers, 496 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:20,920 Speaker 1: primarily in the Southern United States. In general, members of 497 00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:26,000 Speaker 1: these organizations were also Christian, anti communists, intensely patriotic, and 498 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:30,560 Speaker 1: supportive of both local and federal law enforcement. So, unlike 499 00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: with the other co intel pros, the FBI's goal wasn't 500 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:37,440 Speaker 1: to totally neutralize these groups. It was just to curb 501 00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,240 Speaker 1: their violence and prevent that violence from spreading to other groups. 502 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,400 Speaker 1: The FBI also took the initiative to launch its other 503 00:32:44,440 --> 00:32:47,200 Speaker 1: co intel pros based on its own assessments of what 504 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,160 Speaker 1: constituted a threat, But co intel pro white hate followed 505 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:55,520 Speaker 1: intense pressure from outside the bureau, including from President Lyndon 506 00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:59,840 Speaker 1: Baines Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. Current and 507 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:03,440 Speaker 1: former klansmen and other white supremacists had carried out a 508 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,520 Speaker 1: whole series of murders and other acts of violence. This 509 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: included the nineteen sixty three Sixteenth Street Baptist church bonding, 510 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:15,360 Speaker 1: which killed fourteen year olds Addie mccollins, Denise McNair and 511 00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:19,920 Speaker 1: Carol Robertson and eleven year old Cynthia Wesley. It also 512 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,960 Speaker 1: included the nineteen sixty three murder of Medgar Evers and 513 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty four murders of civil rights activists Michael Schwermer, 514 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:31,760 Speaker 1: Andrew Goodman, and James Cheney. After coinceel pro white hate started, 515 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:36,040 Speaker 1: members of the clan also murdered Viola Luzo, and one 516 00:33:36,080 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: of the participants in that murder might have been a 517 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:42,560 Speaker 1: paid FBI informant. The FBI was criticized for failing to 518 00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:45,640 Speaker 1: prevent or intervene in any of this, something that the 519 00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: Bureau had argued was not part of its jurisdiction, but 520 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,160 Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four had guaranteed 521 00:33:52,200 --> 00:33:55,360 Speaker 1: black Americans equal protection under the law in a number 522 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,440 Speaker 1: of different contexts, which made it hard for the FBI 523 00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 1: to continue that argument. Cointel pro white hate then served 524 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,840 Speaker 1: several purposes for the FBI. It allowed the bureau to 525 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:08,480 Speaker 1: demonstrate for the President and the Attorney General that it 526 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,240 Speaker 1: was doing something to investigate these crimes. At the same time, 527 00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: by using covert counterintelligence, the FBI could do most of 528 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:21,400 Speaker 1: this work in secret without alienating or antagonizing Southern law enforcement, 529 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:24,520 Speaker 1: many of whom tacitly allowed the Ku Klux Klan and 530 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:28,759 Speaker 1: other hate groups to operate in their area or actively participated. 531 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,840 Speaker 1: As a side note, when j Edgar Hoover said quote 532 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,200 Speaker 1: doctor Martin Luther King is the most notorious liar in 533 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:39,520 Speaker 1: the country in nineteen sixty four, that was in response 534 00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:42,960 Speaker 1: to King's criticisms that the Bureau was too friendly with 535 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:47,200 Speaker 1: Southern segregationists and that the Southern FBI agents were not 536 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:51,400 Speaker 1: taking threats to Black Americans seriously. The FBI used a 537 00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,000 Speaker 1: lot of the types of tactics that we discussed earlier 538 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:57,520 Speaker 1: in the episode during cointel pro white hate. As we 539 00:34:57,560 --> 00:35:00,719 Speaker 1: noted earlier, the Bureau didn't really need to create materials 540 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,320 Speaker 1: to try to bring bad pr to the clan because 541 00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:05,760 Speaker 1: the clan was doing a lot of that work for them. 542 00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,400 Speaker 1: The FBI publicized not only their hate crimes, but also 543 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:13,560 Speaker 1: other crimes committed by clan leaders and members, including things 544 00:35:13,640 --> 00:35:17,680 Speaker 1: like embezzlement and attempting to arrange marriages between clan members 545 00:35:17,760 --> 00:35:22,719 Speaker 1: and underage girls. The FBI also publicly identified clan leaders, 546 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,120 Speaker 1: including leaking their names to the press who published critical 547 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:31,280 Speaker 1: articles and satirical editorial cartoons. After the House on American 548 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,400 Speaker 1: Activities Committee held hearings on the clan, something that the 549 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,960 Speaker 1: committee was pressured to take on, the FBI released those 550 00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,440 Speaker 1: findings to the press as well. The FBI also worked 551 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:45,920 Speaker 1: to so distrust within these organizations. They sent thousands of 552 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,560 Speaker 1: postcards to clan members that either implied or flat out 553 00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:53,200 Speaker 1: said that the government had infiltrated the organization or that 554 00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:58,080 Speaker 1: accused KKK leaders of fraud or other wrongdoing. These postcards 555 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,480 Speaker 1: said things like clansmen, trying to hide your identity behind 556 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:04,759 Speaker 1: your sheet? You received this, someone knows who you are. 557 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:09,640 Speaker 1: Once again, these postcards served multiple purposes to make clan 558 00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:13,200 Speaker 1: members think the organization had been infiltrated, to make them 559 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,040 Speaker 1: wonder how many other people had seen that postcard on 560 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:18,719 Speaker 1: its way to them, and to make it possible for 561 00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:22,280 Speaker 1: other people, including postal workers, to see that the target 562 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,560 Speaker 1: was in the clan. During coen Cel pro White Hate, 563 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:30,120 Speaker 1: the Bureau created the National Committee for Domestic Tranquility, which 564 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:33,400 Speaker 1: sent letters and other materials to clan members to stoke 565 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:38,200 Speaker 1: dissent and spread rumors about informants. They printed accusations that 566 00:36:38,320 --> 00:36:41,440 Speaker 1: clan leaders were the anti Christ and kind of a 567 00:36:41,480 --> 00:36:45,799 Speaker 1: weird irony. The FBI, which is we've talked about, was 568 00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:51,000 Speaker 1: really focused on undermining communism, tried to undermine clan membership 569 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:55,920 Speaker 1: by spreading rumors that communists had infiltrated the organizations. The 570 00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:00,000 Speaker 1: organization itself was fiercely anti communist. Some of the operations 571 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:04,360 Speaker 1: were almost bizarre. In one instance, the FBI collected the 572 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,280 Speaker 1: charred remnants of a cross that the clan had burned 573 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,840 Speaker 1: and then had it delivered by courier to a clan meeting, 574 00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:14,520 Speaker 1: hoping to reinforce the idea that not only had someone 575 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:16,920 Speaker 1: known about the cross burning and who was behind it, 576 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:20,280 Speaker 1: but that they also knew when and where the group gathered. 577 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:25,279 Speaker 1: It is not clear how effective this was. According to 578 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:28,000 Speaker 1: the book that I was reading about this, they took 579 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:29,959 Speaker 1: it outside and tried to light it on fire again. 580 00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:34,839 Speaker 1: The targeted hate groups naturally realized that they had informants 581 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:39,120 Speaker 1: in their midst Some turned toward requiring lie detector tests 582 00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,000 Speaker 1: and questioning people under the effects of sodium pentathal to 583 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 1: try to determine whether a person was loyal. It is 584 00:37:45,440 --> 00:37:49,239 Speaker 1: not clear whether co Intel pro white hate thwarted white 585 00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:53,600 Speaker 1: supremacist violence, but overall membership in the clan did drop 586 00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,960 Speaker 1: during these years, from an estimated fourteen to fifteen thousand 587 00:37:57,040 --> 00:38:01,319 Speaker 1: members before co Intel pro tour twey three hundred in 588 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,839 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one. It does also seem that public perceptions 589 00:38:05,840 --> 00:38:09,400 Speaker 1: of the clan shifted during these same years, with more people, 590 00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:13,480 Speaker 1: especially more white people, seeing the clan in similar hate groups, 591 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:17,960 Speaker 1: as violent and unstable and mentally connecting the clan to Nazis. 592 00:38:18,920 --> 00:38:22,760 Speaker 1: Some white Southern leaders who had tacitly or directly approved 593 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:27,920 Speaker 1: of the clan's activities gradually distanced themselves during the Bureaus operations. 594 00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:30,520 Speaker 1: So in the next episode, we're going to talk more 595 00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,719 Speaker 1: about some of the other Cohentel pros, including intense targeting 596 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:38,560 Speaker 1: of the Black Panthers, and we'll also talk about, honestly 597 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:40,520 Speaker 1: one of my favorite parts of this whole story, which 598 00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,520 Speaker 1: is how these programs were finally exposed. That is a 599 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 1: very very good story. Thanks so much for joining us 600 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:54,480 Speaker 1: on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, 601 00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:59,319 Speaker 1: our email addresses History podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and 602 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:02,000 Speaker 1: you can subsc vibe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, 603 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:05,440 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.