Editing Weather Underground (section)

===Event===
In April 1971, the "[[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI]]" broke into an FBI office in [[Media, Pennsylvania]].<ref>David Cunningham, ''There's Something Happening Here: the New Left, the Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence'', (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 33.</ref> The group stole files with several hundred pages. The files detailed the targeting of civil rights leaders, labor rights organizations, and left-wing groups in general, and included documentation of acts of intimidation and disinformation by the FBI and attempts to erode public support for those popular movements. By the end of April, the FBI offices were to terminate all files dealing with leftist groups.<ref>David Cunningham, ''There's Something Happening Here: the New Left, the Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence'', (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), p. 35.</ref> The files were part of an FBI program called COINTELPRO.<ref>[http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113101622/http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm|date=January 13, 2013}}</ref>

After COINTELPRO was dissolved in 1971 by J. Edgar Hoover,<ref>Nelson Blackstock, ''Cointelpro: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom'', (New York: Anchor Foundation, 1990), 185.</ref> the FBI continued its counterintelligence on groups like the Weather Underground. In 1973, the FBI established the "Special Target Information Development" program, where agents were sent undercover to penetrate the Weather Underground. Due to the illegal tactics of FBI agents involved with the program, government attorneys requested all weapons- and bomb-related charges be dropped against the Weather Underground. The most well-publicized of these tactics were the "[[Black bag operation|black-bag jobs]]," referring to searches conducted in the homes of relatives and acquaintances of Weatherman.{{sfn|Varon|2004|p=292-298}} The Weather Underground was no longer a fugitive organization and could turn themselves in with minimal charges against them.{{sfn|Varon|2004|p=292-298}} Additionally, the illegal domestic spying conducted by the CIA in collaboration with the FBI also lessened the legal repercussions for Weatherman turning themselves in.{{sfn|Varon|2004|pp=292–298}}