COINTELPRO was not only about surveillance. It was about disruption.

In this full-length documentary compilation, The Fairshake Files examines how the FBI developed a domestic playbook of “neutralization,” using informants, psychological operations, forged correspondence, internal sabotage, and sustained pressure campaigns that went far beyond traditional law enforcement.

This is the complete, uninterrupted story of the FBI’s most controversial secret domestic program, from its Cold War origins and the infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan, to the targeting of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Black Panther Party, and the 1971 burglary that exposed it all.

This bundled release brings together our 4-part COINTELPRO series for listeners who prefer the full historical arc in one sitting.

Timestamps:

00:00 The FBI’s Secret Domestic War
00:46 The Origins: FDR to the Cold War
02:21 The Duquesne Spy Ring Convictions
03:32 Soviet Espionage & The Atomic Crisis
06:12 The Supreme Court vs. J. Edgar Hoover
08:05 1956: The Birth of COINTELPRO
10:37 Infiltrating the KKK: The “Good Lie”
13:21 The 1964 Mississippi Burning Case
16:45 White Hate Sabotage & Gary Thomas Rowe
21:40 The Rise of Modern White Power Militancy
25:03 The Threat of Peace: Targeting the Left
28:13 Preventing a “Messiah”: The War on MLK
31:31 The FBI-King Suicide Letter
35:21 The War on the Black Panther Party
37:06 Jean Seberg & The Hollywood Smear Campaign
38:51 1969: The Killing of Fred Hampton
42:30 The 1971 Media, Pennsylvania Break-In
49:33 Discovering the Secret “COINTELPRO” Files
55:54 1975: The Church Committee Hearings
58:38 The Patriot Act & Modern Surveillance
01:00:15 JTRIG, Platform Monitoring & Modern Intelligence Tools
01:03:04 Conclusion: Sunlight vs. The Shadows

The full video version, with visuals, is available on YouTube:
@thefairshakefiles

Thank you for listening to The Fairshake Files.

If this investigation stayed with you, leave a review, share the episode, or send it to someone interested in history, intelligence, Cold War secrecy, surveillance, civil liberties, and the machinery behind official stories.

The Fairshake Files is independently produced. Every listen, view, review, and share helps keep the work moving.

Sources & Materials:

• U.S. Senate Church Committee, Book II: Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans
• FBI Vault: COINTELPRO Primary Files
• Department of Justice: Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations, including 2008 guidelines and 1976 Levi-era reforms
• FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, 2011
• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Public Law 95-511
• Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the FBI, 1971 break-in
• FOIA litigation and Carl Stern reporting, NBC News
• Washington Post coverage and Betty Medsger reporting
• ACLU: Unleashed and Unaccountable
• Brennan Center for Justice: FBI: Fact or Fiction?
• EFF and related reporting on law enforcement monitoring through social platforms and third-party tools
• ACLU: JTRIG Tools and Techniques
• Statewatch: JTRIG document archive

Disclaimer: The following is an exploration of historical records, official narratives, and competing interpretations. The goal of this channel is to examine the evidence presented, not to endorse any single conclusion.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-fairshake-files--6771179/support.

Thank you for listening to The Fairshake Files.

If this investigation stayed with you, leave a review, share the episode, or send it to someone interested in history, intelligence, Cold War secrecy, and the machinery behind official stories.

The full video version, with visuals, is available on YouTube and Spotify:
@thefairshakefiles

The Fairshake Files is independently produced.

Every listen, view, review, and share helps keep the work moving.




This episode includes AI-generated content.