Editing COINTELPRO (section)

==Later similar operations==
While COINTELPRO was officially terminated in April 1971, domestic espionage continued.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Price of Dissent: Testimonies to Political Repression in America |last=Schultz |first=Bud |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-22402-7 |location=Berkeley |oclc=45248227 |quote=Although the FBI officially discontinued COINTELPRO immediately after the Pennsylvania disclosures 'for security reasons,' when pressed by the Senate committee, the bureau acknowledged two new instances of 'Cointelpro-type' operations. The committee was left to discover a third, apparently illegal operation on its own.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74beCQAAQBAJ&q=judi+bari,+assassination,+cointelpro&pg=PA144 |title=The FBI Encyclopedia |last=Newton |first=Michael |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1476604176 |pages=143–146 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/fbicomprehensive0000theo |title=The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide |last=Theoharis |first=Athan G. |date=1999 |publisher=Oryx Press |isbn=0-585-09871-9 |location=Phoenix, Ariz. |oclc=42330983 |quote=More recent controversies have focused on the adequacy of recent restrictions on the Bureau's domestic intelligence operations. Disclosures of the 1970s that FBI agents continued to conduct break-ins, and of the 1980s that the FBI targeted CISPES, again brought forth accusations of FBI abuses of power—and raised questions of whether reforms of the 1970s had successfully exorcised the ghost of FBI Director Hoover. |url-access=registration }}</ref> Between 1972 and 1974, it is documented that the Bureau planted over 500 bugs without a warrant and opened over 2,000 pieces of personal mail. More recent targets of covert action include the [[American Indian Movement]] (AIM), [[Earth First!]], and [[Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador|Committees in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador]].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91FyAJDjAvQC&q=glenn+fine.+cointelpro.+patriot+act.+letters |title=Spies, Wiretaps, and Secret Operations: An Encyclopedia of American Espionage |last=Hastedt |first=Glenn P. |date=2011 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1851098071 |page=180 |language=en}}</ref> Documents released under the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|FOIA]] show that the FBI tracked the late [[David Halberstam]]—a [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning journalist and author—for more than two decades.<ref>[[Associated Press]], {{Cite news |url=https://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/533203 |title=FBI tracked journalist for over 20 years |date=November 7, 2008 |work=Toronto Star |access-date=November 23, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211135610/http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/533203 |archive-date=December 11, 2008 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> "Counterterrorism" guidelines implemented during the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]] have been described as allowing a return to COINTELPRO tactics.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Price of Dissent: Testimonies to Political Repression in America |last=Schultz |first=Bud |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-22402-7 |location=Berkeley |pages=399 |oclc=45248227 |quote=The problem persists after Hoover...."The record before this court," Federal Magistrate Joan Lefkow stated in 1991, "shows that despite regulations, orders and consent decrees prohibiting such activities, the FBI had continued to collect information concerning only the exercise of free speech.}}</ref> Some radical groups accuse factional opponents of being FBI informants or assume the FBI is infiltrating the movement.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Mosedale |first=Mike |date=2000-02-16 |title=Bury My Heart |magazine=City Pages |volume=21 |issue=1002}}</ref> COINTELPRO survivor [[Filiberto Ojeda Ríos|Filiberto Ojeda Rios]] was killed by the FBI's hostage rescue team in 2005,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrWSTeJbPXAC&q=ojeda+rios.+assassination.+cointelpro.&pg=PA440 |title=Enemies: A History of the FBI |last=Weiner |first=Tim |date=2013 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0812979237 |pages=439–441 |language=en}}</ref> his death described by a United Nations special committee as an assassination.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/06/182362-un-general-assembly-committee-urges-self-determination-puerto-rico |title=UN General Assembly Committee urges self-determination for Puerto Rico |date=2006-06-13 |work=UN News |access-date=2018-06-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612135911/https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/06/182362-un-general-assembly-committee-urges-self-determination-puerto-rico |archive-date=2018-06-12 |language=en}}</ref>

Environmentalist [[Eric McDavid]], convicted on arson charges, was released after documents emerged demonstrating that the FBI informant in his [[Earth Liberation Front]] group provided crucial leadership, information, and material without which the crime could not have been committed,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/13/fbi-informant-anna-eric-mcdavid-eco-terrorism |title=Role of FBI informant in eco-terrorism case probed after documents hint at entrapment |work=The Guardian |access-date=2019-01-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223826/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/13/fbi-informant-anna-eric-mcdavid-eco-terrorism |archive-date=2019-01-23}}</ref> repeating the same pattern of behavior of COINTELPRO.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI |last=Medsger |first=Betty |date=2014 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0804173667 |author-link=Betty Medsger}}</ref> It has been claimed these sorts of practices have become widespread in FBI "counter-terrorism" cases targeting Muslims in the [[2009 Bronx terrorism plot]] and others.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots |title=Fake terror plots, paid informants: the tactics of FBI 'entrapment' questioned |work=The Guardian |access-date=2019-01-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223024/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/16/fbi-entrapment-fake-terror-plots |archive-date=2019-01-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/aby-rayyan-fbi-terror-sting-pizza-man/index.html |title=How a suicidal pizza man found himself ensnared in an FBI terror sting |date=November 29, 2017 |publisher=CNN |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123223353/https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/aby-rayyan-fbi-terror-sting-pizza-man/index.html |archive-date=2019-01-23 |access-date=2019-01-24}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/02/01/attorney-fbi-entrapped-terror-suspect/97336280/ |title=Attorney: FBI entrapped terror suspect |work=The Detroit News |access-date=2019-01-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123232003/https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2017/02/01/attorney-fbi-entrapped-terror-suspect/97336280/ |archive-date=2019-01-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Would-Be Terrorist vs. the FBI |url=https://www.gq.com/story/matthew-llaneza-alleged-terrorist-fbi-snare |magazine=GQ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190123224042/https://www.gq.com/story/matthew-llaneza-alleged-terrorist-fbi-snare |archive-date=2019-01-23 |access-date=2019-01-24 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Authors, such as [[Ward Churchill]], [[Rex Weyler]], and [[Peter Matthiessen]] allege that the federal government intended to acquire [[uranium]] deposits on the [[Lakota people|Lakota]] tribe's reservation land, and that this motivated a larger government conspiracy against [[American Indian Movement|AIM]] activists on the [[Pine Ridge Indian Reservation|Pine Ridge]] reservation.<ref name="churchill-vanderwall-1990a">{{harvnb|Churchill|Vander Wall|1990|pp=xii, 303}}</ref><ref name="churchill-vanderwall-1988a"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against First Nations |last=Weyler |first=Rex |date=1982 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=0-394-71732-5 |location=New York |oclc=9371425}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/inspiritofcrazyh00matt_0 |title=In the Spirit of Crazy Horse |last=Matthiessen |first=Peter |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1983 |isbn=0-14-014456-0 |location=New York |oclc=25313752 |author-link=Peter Matthiessen |url-access=registration }}</ref><ref name="conculture">{{Cite journal |last=Woidat |first=Caroline M. |date=2006 |title=The Truth Is on the Reservation: American Indians and Conspiracy Culture |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=454–467|doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.2006.00422.x }}</ref> Others believe COINTELPRO continues and similar actions are being taken against activist groups.<ref name="conculture" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McQuinn |first=Jason |author-link=Jason McQuinn |date=Winter 1996 |title=Conspiracy Theory vs Alternative Journalism |journal=Alternative Press Review |volume=2 |issue=3}}</ref><ref>Horowitz, David. "Johnnie's Other O.J.", ''Front Page Magazine''.com, September 1, 1997.</ref> Caroline Woidat says that, with respect to Native Americans, COINTELPRO should be understood within a historical context in which "Native Americans have been viewed and have viewed the world themselves through the lens of [[conspiracy theory]]."<ref name="conculture" /> Other authors argue that while some conspiracy theories related to COINTELPRO are unfounded, the issue of ongoing government surveillance and repression is real.<ref name="publiceye.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/x-files.html |title=The X-Files Movie: Facilitating Fanciful Fun, or Fueling Fear and Fascism? |last=Berlet |first=Chip |date=1998 |website=PublicEye.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611085933/http://www.publiceye.org/conspire/x-files.html |archive-date=2007-06-11 |access-date=2020-01-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/RepressionTOC.html |title=One key to litigating against government prosecution of dissidents: Understanding the underlying assumptions |last1=Berlet |first1=Chip |last2=Lyons |first2=Matthew N. |date=1998 |website=PublicEye.org |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206194644/http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/RepressionTOC.html |archive-date=2008-02-06 |access-date=2020-01-19}}</ref>

FBI Agent Richard G. Held is known to have increased FBI support for the [[Guardians of the Oglala Nation]] (GOON) squads, who were a private paramilitary group established in 1972 by the elected tribal chairman, Dick Wilson, under authority of the Oglala Sioux. AIM accused GOONs of involvement in 300 assaults and 64 homicides of political opponents. Despite this, The Bureau rarely investigated them and instead used its resources overwhelmingly to prosecute AIM.<ref name="Newton 143–145">{{Cite book |last=Newton |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=74beCQAAQBAJ&q=judi+bari,+assassination,+cointelpro&pg=PA144 |title=The FBI Encyclopedia |date=2012 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1476604176 |pages=143–145 |language=en |access-date=2018-06-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405124652/https://books.google.com/books?id=74beCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA144&dq=judi+bari,+assassination,+cointelpro#v=onepage&q=judi%20bari,%20assassination,%20cointelpro&f=false |archive-date=2019-04-05 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2000, the FBI released a report regarding these alleged unsolved violent deaths on Pine Ridge reservation and accounted for most of the deaths and disputed the claims of unsolved murders. The report stated that only four deaths were unsolved and that some deaths were not murders.<ref name=FBIDeathsReport>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=747 |title=Unsolved deaths debunked by FBI Case by case examination puts some rumors to rest |last=Melmer |first=David |work=Indian Country Today |date=2000-07-19 |access-date=2007-10-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506041458/http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=747 |archive-date=May 6, 2006 }}</ref><ref name=FBIDeathsReportAnnounce>{{cite web|url=http://minneapolis.fbi.gov/report.htm|title=Accounting For Native American Deaths, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota|author=staff|work=Federal Bureau of Investigation Minneapolis Division|date=May 2000|access-date=2007-10-29 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070625072708/http://minneapolis.fbi.gov/report.htm |archive-date = 2007-06-25}}</ref>

A lawsuit filed by Dhoruba bin-Wahad, a former member of the Black Panther Party, revealed the existence of multiple programs similar to COINTELPRO including "Newkill" (New York Police Killings), Chesrob (a program focused on Panther [[Assata Shakur]]), and [[PRISACTS]] (The Prison Activists Surveillance Program), a program that focused on "neutralizing" political activists who were already in prison, many of whom (like bin-Wahad) had been targeted by COINTELPRO.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bin Wahad |first1=Dhoruba |title=Still Black, still strong: survivors of the U.S. war against Black revolutionaries |last2=Abu-Jamal |first2=Mumia |last3=Shakur |first3=Assata |date=1993 |publisher=Semiotexte |isbn=978-0-936756-74-5 |editor-last=Fletcher |editor-first=Jim |series=Semiotexte active agents series |location=New York |editor-last2=Jones |editor-first2=Tanaquil |editor-last3=Lotringer |editor-first3=Sylvère}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Burton |first=Orisanmi |title=Tip of the spear: black radicalism, prison repression, and the long attica revolt |date=2023 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39633-3 |location=Oakland, California}}</ref>

In April 2018, the ''[[Atlanta Black Star]]'' characterized the FBI as still engaging in COINTELPRO behavior by surveilling the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement. Internal documents dated as late as 2017 showed that the FBI had surveilled the movement.<ref name="Atlanta Black Star">{{Cite web |url=http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/27/cointelpro-continues-documents-reveal-fbi-surveillance-black-lives-matter/ |title=COINTELPRO Continues As Documents Reveal FBI Surveillance of Black Lives Matter |website=Atlanta Black Star |date=March 27, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180531185256/http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/03/27/cointelpro-continues-documents-reveal-fbi-surveillance-black-lives-matter/ |archive-date=2018-05-31 |access-date=2018-05-26}}</ref> In 2014, the FBI tracked a Black Lives Matter activist using surveillance tactics which ''[[The Intercept]]'' found "reminiscent of a rich American history of targeting black Americans," including COINTELPRO.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://theintercept.com/2018/03/19/black-lives-matter-fbi-surveillance/ |title=FBI Tracked an Activist Involved With Black Lives Matter as They Travelled Across the U.S., Documents Show |last1=Joseph |first1=George |last2=Hussain |first2=Murtaza |date=2018-03-19 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320222529/https://theintercept.com/2018/03/19/black-lives-matter-fbi-surveillance/ |archive-date=2018-03-20 |access-date=2020-01-19}}</ref> This practice, along with the imprisonment of black activists for their views, has been associated with the new FBI designation of "[[Black Identity Extremists]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-orders-release-black-identity-extremist-180504115412408.html |title=US judge orders release of 'first Black Identity Extremist' |publisher=Al Jazeera |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180610075237/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-orders-release-black-identity-extremist-180504115412408.html |archive-date=2018-06-10 |access-date=2018-06-10}}</ref><ref name="fp-2017">{{Cite web |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/06/the-fbi-has-identified-a-new-domestic-terrorist-threat-and-its-black-identity-extremists/ |title=The FBI's New U.S. Terrorist Threat: 'Black Identity Extremists' |website=Foreign Policy |language=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180609215625/http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/06/the-fbi-has-identified-a-new-domestic-terrorist-threat-and-its-black-identity-extremists/ |archive-date=2018-06-09 |access-date=2018-06-10}}</ref>

Defending Rights & Dissent, a civil liberties group, cataloged known instances of First Amendment abuses and political surveillance by the FBI since 2010. The organization found that the FBI devoted disproportionate resources to spy on peaceful left-leaning civil society groups, including [[Occupy Wall Street]], [[economic justice]] advocates, [[Racial equality|racial justice]] movements, [[Environmentalism|environmentalists]], [[Abolish ICE]], and various [[Peace movement|anti-war movements]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://rightsanddissent.org/fbi-spying/ |title=Still Spying on Dissent |first=Chip |last=Gibbons |website=Defending Rights & Dissent |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105084533/https://rightsanddissent.org/fbi-spying/ |archive-date=2019-11-05 |access-date=2019-11-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://theintercept.com/2019/10/22/terrorism-fbi-political-dissent/ |title=The FBI Has a Long History of Treating Political Dissent as Terrorism |last=Speri |first=Alice |date=22 October 2019 |work=The Intercept |access-date=5 November 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105151641/https://theintercept.com/2019/10/22/terrorism-fbi-political-dissent/ |archive-date=5 November 2019}}</ref>

In December 2012, the FBI released redacted documents in response to a [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] request from the [[Partnership for Civil Justice Fund]] (PCJF). [[Mara Verheyden-Hilliard]], the executive director of PCJF, said the documents showed that FBI [[counterterrorism]] agents had monitored the [[Occupy movement]] from its inception in August 2011 and that the FBI acted improperly by collecting "information on people's free-speech actions" and entering it into "unregulated databases, a vast storehouse of information widely disseminated to a range of law-enforcement and, apparently, private entities" (see [[Domestic Security Alliance Council]]).<ref name="SchmidtMoynihan">Michael S. Schmidt & Colin Moynihan, [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/nyregion/occupy-movement-was-investigated-by-fbi-counterterrorism-agents-records-show.html F.B.I. Counterterrorism Agents Monitored Occupy Movement, Records Show], ''New York Times'' (December 24, 2012).</ref> The FBI also communicated with the [[New York Stock Exchange]], banks, private businesses and state and local police forces about the movement.<ref>{{cite web |title=The FBI vs. Occupy: Secret Docs Reveal "Counterterrorism" Monitoring of OWS from Its Earliest Days |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/27/the_fbi_vs_occupy_secret_docs |website=Democracy Now! |access-date=30 April 2021 |language=en |date=27 December 2012}}</ref> In 2014, the PCJF obtained an additional 4,000 pages of unclassified documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, showing "details of the scrutiny of the Occupy protests in 2011 and 2012 by law enforcement officers, federal officials, security contractors and others."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/05/23/us/23occupy-docs.html Government Surveillance of the Occupy Protests], ''New York Times'' (May 22, 2014).</ref>

In October 2020, Katie Reiter, chief of staff to Michigan state Senator [[Rosemary Bayer]], had an FBI task force come to her house and aggressively question her about a draft bill she had recently discussed which would have limited the use of tear gas against protesters. Reiter had discussed the proposed ban on tear gas on a private 90-minute Zoom call with Bayer and a handful of other staffers. Reiter says the two officers refused to answer any questions about how they became aware of her private meeting. ''The Intercept'' reported about the incident: "Reiter said that the FBI's visit left her confused and fearful. 'It has impacted my sleep, it has caused me quite a bit of anxiety,' she said. 'And it has certainly impacted how we talk. I try not to let it, I'll just be like, 'No, we're going to talk about this.' But it's in my mind all the time.'" A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment on the record, as did a spokesperson for Zoom.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Speri|first1=Alice|last2=Biddle|first2=Sam|title=FBI Questioned a Michigan Senate Staffer After Zoom Call About Banning Tear Gas|url=https://theintercept.com/2021/01/04/michigan-fbi-zoom-tear-gas/|access-date=2021-05-28|website=The Intercept|date=January 4, 2021|language=en}}</ref>