(*Note: This is a Vintage Dangerous History Podcast from 2014, reissued on the public DHP feed for a limited time. Please cut the poor audio quality some slack!)

From 1954 to 1971, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI ran a “Counterintelligence Program” (“Cointelpro”) that targeted such diverse people as communists, civil rights activists, antiwar groups, black power leaders, and the Ku Klux Klan for illegal and unconstitutional surveillance, harassment, defamation, and even physical attack.

Join CJ as he discusses:

The origins of Cointelpro

The nature of the operation

How the FBI applied Cointelpro under at least 4 presidents to all sorts of “extremists” and “subversives” (no matter how peaceful their methods), including efforts to defame Martin Luther King to the point of suicide

The exposure of Cointelpro to the public in 1971 and its (supposed) cessation that year

The investigation of the operation by the Church Committee in the US Senate

How the FBI frequently shared info with other government agencies, including the CIA and NSA

How reforms aimed to curb this sort of thing were short-lived at best

How things in some ways are worse today

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