COINTELPRO
MISCONDUCT
90s AND BEYOND

The following pages were collected from the internet using an infoseek.go.com search on the terms (FBI and informants).  They represent single pages from a variety of web sites, of both personal and public media origin.  They are posted here as a collection which points to an ongoing FBI program, now operating under the rubric "joint task forces".  When an agency has succeeded in distortion with impunity long enough, the result is a casual arrogance toward its victims and the pressumption of immunity for its protagonists.  This assumption of superiority appears to be rampant in investigatory agencies.
      There is a persistent thread that runs through the following documentation.  The  instigation of illegal activities in order to eliminate political dissent.   For instance, the case cited below in Ga was thrown out of court as the only individals connected with the bomb making material were apparently working for the BATF.  On the other hand, those whose political aspirations are in line with US policy (not law) tend to be ignored.
    Finally, there is an ongoing covert war against First Nations, in particular, the activism of the American Indian Movement.  This is listed separately at the bottom, as these activities are against citizens of foreign nations within the boundaries of the US.

Copyright of the following is retained in full by each.



 

Suspicion of FBI Cover-Up
When the patrol did begin to focus on Agent Farrall, it found the FBI less than forthcoming. Farrall had been moved inside North Broward Medical Center under an assumed name. When patrol investigators inquired, hospital personnel told them no such patient existed. A tip led investigators to the room where Farrall was recovering, but FBI agents standing guard at his door turned them away....
{SEE ALSO: http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000308_FBI_feature.html}
 

The FBI, COINTELPRO and Far-Right Vigilante Networks
...Inside the FBI there is a core of agents with authoritarian, if not quasi-fascist tendencies, who are integral to the far- right network of spies and political operatives that continue to operate with impunity. Across the decades, such agents freely pass back and forth between government service and employment as security consultants and union-busters. .....

GOVERNMENT TERRORISM
From Ruby Ridge To Waco And Beyond
The state of Idaho brought involuntary manslaughter charges against Horiuchi for killing Vicki Weaver, only to have them dismissed by a federal court. (He was only following orders). Given what had happened at Ruby Ridge, Pournell asks why Rogers and Horiuchi were at Waco. After all, he points out, "they were already responsible for one of the most shocking incidents since Reconstruction." Pournelle avers that he does not really believe that agents of the U.S. government would massacre women and children en masse at Waco, and yet, says he, if such a thing happened these are the very people you would expect to be in charge...
 

Government Informant: Delta Force Involved In Waco Shoot-Out
Meanwhile, congressional investigators are growing convinced that infrared film taken by an FBI surveillance aircraft at 9,000 feet on the final day of the Waco standoff does appear to show U.S. armed forces firing into the church compound.
{40 year old Investigator: Deceased in a 'car accident'}

Dallas Morning News Series on Waco
Waco Re-Examined: {extensive series of articles}

Convicted cult members attack government's case, key rulings
NEW ORLEANS - Six Branch Davidians convicted in the deaths of four federal agents during a 1993 gunbattle near Waco attacked the government's case and key decisions of the trial judge.....{1996}

Policing Activists: Think Global, Spy Local
LIKE A VAMPIRE who has developed a tolerance for garlic, Red Squads are back. Throughout the Cold War, these guardians of political compliance spied on and harassed law-abiding activists who veered too far left of the political center. Dedicated civil rights advocates and others fought back and won on local, state, and federal fronts. But their success was often short-lived....

JOHN LENNON
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 25 (AP) - The FBI has grudgingly made public all but 10 secret files on Beatles member John Lennon, including information ranging from the singer¹s contacts with antiwar activists to a talking parrot that chirped "Right on." The FBI had fought to keep Lennon¹s file secret on the grounds of national security after University of California, Irvine professor Jonathan M. Wiener, author of a 1984 book on the late rock star, had requested the documents more than 10 years ago. ...
 

Anti-Castro plots seldom lead to jail in U.S.
Anti-Castro militant Tony Bryant still chuckles when he recalls the FBI agents who interviewed him after a 14-foot boat, loaded with high explosives and registered in his name, turned up near Havana.
``They said, `You could hurt someone. Don't do it again,'  said Bryant, former member of the Miami-based Comando L paramilitary group. ``I promised not to do it again, and they went away."........


"Report of Investigation Concerning Allegations of Connections
Between CIA and The Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States"    Government report # (96-0143-IG)
 

DARK ALLIANCE: GARY WEBB
In August 1996, a San Jose Mercury News reporter named Gary Webb broke the story of his life, a three-part series titled Dark Alliance.
Webb's story documented the exploits of a Nicaraguan drug ring that sold cocaine on the streets of the U.S. to finance a CIA-backed war against the Sandinista government.
In the months that followed, Webb found himself the target of a vilification campaign led by the mainstream press, especially the New York Times and Los Angeles Times...

Canadian RCMP Justice Inquiry Info
...Paul Richardson has gotten himself real unpopular in Montana. He writes for one of the largest Native American newspapers, "Indian Country Today". Paul became interested in a story which originated from a group of Assiniboine-Sioux on the Fort Peck Reservation. The Fort Peck group claims a Miami, Florida based FBI agent Terry Nelson and some others have been smuggling heroin and cocaine on their reservation. Billion dollar shipments of tons of heroin and cocaine.
 

Federal Agents Charged with Criminal Actions
Dear Sir,
       This letter will serve as our formal complaint about improper and inappropriate conduct by two DOJ Special Prosecutors, three FBI Special Agents, and a paid confidential informant, during a 13 month long undercover FBI investigation from August 1995 through July 1996, and the subsequent trial and conviction of John Irvin Pitner, federal inmate # 26151-086/4C11, FDC SEATAC. .....
 

INVESTIGATION INTO THE ACTIVITIES OF FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES :WACO
August 2, 1996.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed based on a joint investigation by the subcommittee on national security, international affairs, and criminal justice of the committee on  government reform and oversight, and the subcommittee on crime of the committee of the judiciary....

June 14, 2000 FBI Congratulates Self on Hourouchi Decision
This evening I learned that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court decision that Agent Lon Horiuchi is immune from prosecution for the shooting at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. This ruling supports what I have always believed and I am grateful for the fine work that led to this important decision.

1994 DOJ Report on Misconduct
 

EVIDENCE OF COVER-UP IN OKLAHOMA BOMBING
(Four Reports)
MASSIVE, SYSTEMATIC FABRICATION OF EVIDENCE AT FBI LAB
AFFECTING OKLAHOMA, ATLANTA, AND NEW YORK BOMBING CASES
.....The internal findings basically confirm the allegations by FBI whistleblower Dr. Frederic Whitehurst of massive, systematic tampering of evidence, slanting of results, covering up of facts, and sloppy science at the FBI crime lab. Whitehurst was suspended last week after the FBI received the report Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who is following the case closely, said that the suspension looked like a retaliation for Whitehurst's whistleblowing......
 

DEFENSE FIRES DOUBLE BARRELS AT CRIME LAB
Oklahoma City Bombings
But outside the courtroom, the defense suffered a major setback when Judge Richard Matsch blocked the defense’s plans to call to the stand Carol Howe, a government informant who says members of a religious compound she had infiltrated in the fall of 1994 were talking about blowing up federal buildings, including one in Oklahoma City.
"Her testimony would have been very significant and compelling," Howe’s attorney, Clark Brewster of Tulsa, told reporters during a noon break in the trial.
Matsch did not announce or discuss his ruling in court, and defense attorney Stephen Jones is prohibited by from discussing the trial publicly. Brewster claimed he was told that Howe’s testimony was ruled irrelevant.......

Interview With The Grand Juror Who Wouldn't Shut Up:
The Oklahoma City Bombing Case - Part Two
In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy on April 19, 1995, independent researchers have begun to lift the lid on very troubling details of the crime. As in the JFK assassination, disturbing evidence of a different sort of murder scenario from the official version has emerged; and typically it has been relegated to the "conspiracy file" by the mainstream press. Very serious questions about bombs other than the ammonium nitrate truck bomb have surfaced. McVeigh himself in some eyes begins to appear as the dupe, the patsy left holding the bag. Key stories about federal law enforcement agencies having advance warning of a bombing in Oklahoma City are gaining credibility..........
 

New Categories of Exception to the FOIA
The Freedom of Information Reform Act of 1986 created an entirely new mechanism for protecting certain especially sensitive law enforcement matters under new subsection (c) of the FOIA. These three special protection provisions, referred to as record "exclusions," expressly authorize federal law enforcement agencies, for especially sensitive records under certain specified circumstances, to "treat the records as not subject to the requirements of [the FOIA]. ...

A CITIZEN'S GUIDE ON USING THE FOIA
The 1986 amendments to the FOIA gave limited authority to agencies to respond to a request without confirming the existence of the requested records. Ordinarily, any proper request must receive an answer stating whether there is any responsive information, even if the requested information is exempt from disclosure. .....
 
 

By Any other Name: COINTELPRO
"A Rough, Tough, Dirty Business Playing Dirty
The Secret War against Beliefs"
"In exceptional circumstances where it is considered counterintelligence [Cointel] action is warranted, recommendations should be submitted to the Bureau under individual case caption to which it pertains. These recommendations will be considered on an individual basis."
What this meant, quite simply, was that in future, Cointelpro-type operations would be buried in the Bureau's 500,000 case files, each one of which would have to be searched to turn up all the Cointelpro actions.
....But, as this and other post-Cointelpro events clearly show, inside the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there has really been no change of heart; merely a change of record-keeping. ...

FBI Protection Of Informants Condemned In Mob Ruling
By EDMUND MAHONY and LYNNE TUOHY
September 16, 1999
BOSTON - A federal judge on Wednesday sharply criticized FBI agents for taking potentially criminal measures - perhaps even inciting a murder - in an extraordinary, decades-long effort to protect the local FBI division's two most notorious informants.....

National Law Journal Series Uncovers World of Informants
Abuses by informants and law enforcement threaten the rights and safety of innocent people, as well as the integrity of the courts ... the war on drugs is the engine driving this development.
 

COINTELPRO
In early 1971, the FBI's domestic counterintelligence program (code named "COINTELPRO") was brought to light when a "Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI" removed secret files from an FBI office in Media, PA and released them to the press. Agents began to resign from the Bureau and blow the whistle on covert operations. That same year, publication of the Pentagon Papers, the Pentagon's top-secret history of the Vietnam War, exposed years of systematic official lies about the war. ...

The Judi Bari Bombing Revisited
Big Timber, Public Relations and the FBI
Nine years ago, on May 24, 1990, the car bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney made headlines across the nation. At the FBI's instigation, Oakland Police immediately arrested the pair and charged that they were terrorists injured by the accidental explosion of their own bomb. Events moved swiftly in the days that followed. For seven weeks, the FBI and police held press conferences where they dribbled out false claims of evidence of the pair's guilt to keep sensational media coverage roiling.....

FEDS SET UP DAUGHTER OF MALCOLM X IN FARRAKHAN ASSASSINATION PLOT
...William Kunstler is co-counsel representing Qubilah Shabazz along with Inner-City Broadcasting founder Percy Sutton. Both attorneys represented Malcolm X during the 1960's and are still active in progressive politics. Interviewed by the SHADOW, Kunstler said that "the real purpose" behind Fitzpatrick's attempt to "stimulate Qubilah Shabazz into a conspiracy to assassinate Louis Farrakhan" was to get Farrakhan killed, "not by her, but to stimulate that enmity again between those who loved Malcolm and those who followed Elijah Muhammad into an internecine civil war that resulted in so many deaths in the 60's...it's a dirty business engineered by the FBI...to prevent the rise of what Hoover used to call a black Messiah."...

Operation Piedmont
An investigation led by Randall has raised allegations that two BATF confidential informants, known by their aliases as Kevin and Danny Barker, were attempting to stage a terrorist attack at the Olympics using a pipe bomb "and blame the Georgia Militia." Randall stated in a May 11, 1996 CopWatch news release -- more than two months before the Centennial Park bombing -- that "this clandestine activity is called 'Operation Piedmont.'" To date, no arrests have been made in the Centennial Park case, despite the presence of numerous video cameras and scores of eyewitnesses. ...
 

REDACTED
Mr. John Tunheim, Chairman
JFK Assassination Records Review Board
600 E Street N.W., Second Floor
Washington, D.C. 20530
(Certified Mail No. P 271 942 632)
Dear Mr. Tunheim:
I am writing to you regarding the release of still classified documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy and to my former husband, Lee Harvey Oswald. ........

Black Panther gains freedom after 25 Years in prison
He did not get a fair trial in 1972 because prosecutors suppressed information that the key witness against him was a police informer, Judge Everett Dickey ruled in Orange County California.
Although the District Attorney's office in California could still appeal against the reversal of Pratt's conviction, his lawyers argue that Pratt's ordeal may soon be over.

How COINTELPRO Helped Destroy
the Movements of the 1960s
Since COINTELPRO was used mainly against the progressive movements of the 1960s, its impact can be grasped only in the context of the momentous social upheaval which shook the country during those years.

Report on Federal Anti-Activist Intelligence Network
On May 4, 2000, the Intelligence Newsletter, based in Paris, France,
published a report which stated that "sources close to the Washington DC
Metropolitan Police have given Intelligence Newsletter details about
intelligence units that gather information on anti-globalization militants
in the US and elsewhere"...

Dale Watson's Statement on FBI Role in Counter Terrorism
Madam Chairwoman and members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you the FBI's critical role in support of domestic preparedness. As the witnesses who have come before me have testified, this is an extraordinarily complex issue but one vital to the safety of our citizens and those sworn to protect them.....

The Anti-war and New Left Movements:
Government covert action against the New Left and anti-war movements also persisted, especially as activists mobilized to protest the 1972 Republican and Democratic Party conventions. In San Diego, where the Republicans initially planned to convene, this campaign culminated in the January 6, 1972 attempt on the life of anti-convention organizer Peter Bohmer by a "Secret Army Organization" of ex-Minutemen formed, subsidized, armed, and protected by the FBI.

The Labor Movement:
One of agent provocateur Joe Burton's main targets was
the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). The FBI falsified records to get Burton into UE Tampa Local 1201 soon after its successful 1973 organizing drive upset the Westinghouse Corporation's plan to develop a chain of non-union plants in the South. Burton's attacks on genuine activists repeatedly disrupted UE meetings. His ultra-left proclamations in the union's name antagonized newly organized workers and gave credibility to the company's red-baiting. Burton also helped the FBI move against the United Farm Workers and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
 

Harassment Through Psychological Warfare
While boring from within, the FBI and police also attack dissident movements from the outside. They openly mount propaganda campaigns through public addresses, news releases, books, pamphlets, magazine articles, radio, and television. They also use covert deception and manipulation. Documented tactics of this kind include:

INSLAW House Subcommittee Testimony; Sep 10, 1992
 ...Information  obtained  by  the  Hamiltons  through   sworn affidavits  of  several  individuals,  including  Ari   Ben-Menashe,  a  former  Israeli  Mossad  officer,  and  Michael Riconosciuto, an individual who claims to have ties  to  the
intelligence  community, indicated that an element  of  this ongoing  criminal  enterprise by Mr. Meese,  Dr.  Brian  and others  included  the  modification of the  Enhanced  PROMIS software by individuals associated with the world of  covert intelligence   operations.   The   Hamiltons    claim    the modification of Enhanced PROMIS was an essential element  of the   enterprise,  because  the  software  was  subsequently distributed   by   Dr.   Brian  to   intelligence   agencies internationally with a "back door" software routine, so that U.S.  intelligence agencies could covertly  break  into  the system when needed.

"RESERVATIONS?"
...... "Security Portfolio" allowed the FBI to develop a watch list of those who would be detained, as well as detailed information on their physical appearance, family, place of work, etc. (David Burnham, Above the Law).
Two years later Congress approved the Internal Security Act of 1950 which contained a provision authorizing an emergency detention plan. Hoover was unhappy with this law because it did not suspend the constitution and it guaranteed the right to a court hearing (habeas corpus). "For two years, while the FBI continued to secretly establish the detention camps and work out detailed seizure plans for thousands of individuals, Hoover kept badgering...[Attorney General McGrath for] official permission to ignore the 1950 law and carry on with the more ferocious 1948 program. On November 25, 1952, the attorney general...caved in to Hoover." ibid.....
 



Quote from: Third World Traveller
  " Since trade ignores national boundries and the manufacturer insists on
having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process."
         Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, 1907
***I have listed this section separately for the arena in which the FBI and others operate here is that of foreign sovereign nations whose existence predates the US, and whose continued existence as sovereign entities is recognized internationally by treaty, both by US constitutional law and by the UN.  Those targeted here by investigatory agencies are not political "dissidents", for to be a "dissident" one must first be a member of the group from which one is dissenting.

COINTELPRO
The Covert War Against the American Indian Movement

Aim, Pine Ridge and the FBI
John Trudell