Post-COINTELPRO operations While COINTELPRO was officially terminated in April 1971, critics allege that continuing FBI actions indicate that post-COINTELPRO reforms did not succeed in ending COINTELPRO tactics.[60][61][62] Documents released under the FOIA show that the FBI tracked the late Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author David Halberstam for more than two decades.[63][64] “Counterterrorism” guidelines implemented during the Reagan administration have been described as allowing a return to COINTELPRO tactics.[65] Some radical groups accuse factional opponents of being FBI informants or assume the FBI is infiltrating the movement.[66] The FBI improperly opened investigations of American activist groups, even though they were planning nothing more than peaceful civil disobedience, according to a report by the inspector general (IG) of the U.S. Department of Justice. The review by the inspector general was launched in response to complaints by civil liberties groups and members of Congress. The FBI improperly monitored groups including the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh-based peace group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and Greenpeace USA, an environmental activism organization. Also, activists affiliated with Greenpeace were improperly put on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning no violence or illegal acitivities. The IG report found the troubling FBI practices between 2001 and 2006. In some cases, the FBI conducted investigations of people affiliated with activist groups for factually weak reasons. Also, the FBI extended investigations of some of the groups without adequate basis and improperly kept information about activist groups in its files. The IG report also found that FBI Director Robert Mueller III provided inaccurate congressional testimony about one of the investigations, but this inaccuracy may have been due to his relying on what FBI officials told him.[67] Several authors have accused the FBI of continuing to deploy COINTELPRO-like tactics against radical groups after the official COINTELPRO operations were ended. Several authors have suggested the American Indian Movement (AIM) has been a target of such operations. A few authors go further and allege that the federal government intended to acquire uranium deposits on the Lakota tribes reservation land, and that this motivated a larger government conspiracy against AIM activists on the Pine Ridge reservation.[2][35][68][69][70] Others believe COINTELPRO continues and similar actions are being taken against activist groups.[70][71][72] Caroline Woidat argued 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.[73] Other authors note that while some conspiracy theories related to COINTELPRO are unfounded, the issue of ongoing government surveillance and repression is real.[28][74] Page7
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 16:48:08 +0000
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