FBI

----

see FBI 2 post 7/17

see COINTELPRO and eco-terror on infiltration of green groups

also fusion ctr, DHS

https://www.theXXXguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/10/standing-rock-fbi-investigation-dakota-access

no link

Revealed: FBI terrorism taskforce investigating Standing Rock activists

FBI representatives have contacted several ‘water protectors’, raising alarm that an indigenous-led movement is being construed as domestic terrorism

A permit has been granted for the oil pipeline to cross the Missouri river, following Donald Trump’s executive order.

Sam Levin in Cannon Ball, North Dakota

@SamTLevin

Friday 10 February 2017 06.00 EST Last modified on Friday 14 July 2017 13.42 EDT

The FBI is investigating political activists campaigning against the Dakota Access pipeline, diverting agents charged with preventing terrorist attacks to instead focus their attention on indigenous activists and environmentalists.

The Guardian has established that multiple officers within the FBI’s joint terrorism taskforce have attempted to contact at least three people tied to the Standing Rock “water protector” movement in North Dakota.

The purpose of the officers’ inquiries into Standing Rock, and scope of the task force’s work, remains unknown. Agency officials declined to comment. But the fact that the officers have even tried to communicate with activists is alarming to free-speech experts who argue that anti-terrorism agents have no business scrutinizing protesters.

“The idea that the government would attempt to construe this indigenous-led non-violent movement into some kind of domestic terrorism investigation is unfathomable to me,” said Lauren Regan, a civil rights attorney who has provided legal support to demonstrators who were contacted by representatives of the FBI. “It’s outrageous, it’s unwarranted … and it’s unconstitutional.”

Regan, who has regularly visited Standing Rock and is the executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon, said she learned of three cases in which officers with the taskforce, known as the JTTF, tried to talk to activists in person. She described the encounters as attempted “knocks and talks”, meaning law enforcement showed up at people’s doors without a subpoena or warrant and tried to get them to voluntarily cooperate with an interview.

The three individuals, who include a Native American and a non-indigenous activist, asserted their fifth amendment rights and did not respond to the officers, according to Regan, who declined to identify them to protect their privacy and out of fear of retribution.

Two of them were contacted in North Dakota and a third at their home outside the state, according to Regan. She said all three contacts were made in recent weeks after Trump’s inauguration.

Trump, a former investor in Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based firm behind the pipeline, took executive action in his first week in office to expedite the project. On Wednesday, workers began drilling to complete the pipeline across the Missouri river.

The JTTF revelation comes at a time when there have been increasing concerns at Standing Rock about law enforcement surveillance, police violence and the targeted arrests and prosecutions of activists.

Since the summer, law enforcement officials have made roughly 700 arrests, in some cases leading to serious felony charges and possibly lengthy state prison sentences. Following recent indictments, at least six activists are now facing charges in federal court. Rumors about JTTF have caused further stress among the activists.

Regan said she was able to confirm the identity of one of the JTTF officers, Andrew Creed, who attempted to contact an activist. Reached by phone, he declined to comment to the Guardian, saying, “I can’t talk to you” before hanging up.

An FBI spokesman, Jeffrey Van Nest, also declined to answer any questions, saying: “We’re not in a position to provide a comment as to the existence of an investigation.”

In November, a JTTF officer also showed up to the hospital room of Sophia Wilansky, a 21-year-old who was seriously injured during a standoff with law enforcement at Standing Rock, according to her father, Wayne Wilansky. The FBI took her clothes and still have not returned them, he said in an interview this week.

Wayne said he suspected that the FBI brought a terrorism agent given that local police had alleged that activists set off an explosion that caused his daughter’s injuries. Witnesses have said they believe she was hit by a police concussion grenade.

The timing of the FBI hospital visit in Minneapolis was upsetting, he added. “It was especially disturbing, because Sophia’s blood pressure was going up. She was about to be wheeled into surgery.”

Activists at Standing Rock have faced blizzard conditions at the camp during the winter months.

Activists at Standing Rock have faced blizzard conditions at the camp during the winter months. Photograph: Michael Nigro/Pacific/Barcroft

Police have repeatedly painted the anti-pipeline movement as dangerous, which is why JTTF may be involved, Regan said.

“From the very beginning, local law enforcement has attempted to justify its militarized presence … by making false allegations that somehow these water protectors were violent.”

Analysis How Keystone XL and Dakota Access went from opposition to resurrection

Both projects were opposed by grassroots groups, mired in court battles and produced high-profile clashes between environmentalists and energy interests

The attorney said it also seemed likely that JTTF may have contacted other water protectors and said she worried they may not have realized their best option is to remain silent and contact a lawyer.

This is not the first time the JTTF has been tied to an investigation of civil rights protesters. Records from Minnesota suggested that the taskforce monitored a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

For indigenous leaders who have vowed to continue fighting the pipeline on the ground, the FBI investigations and ongoing federal prosecutions have become increasingly worrisome. It’s particularly troubling to some given the US government’s history of aggressively targeting Native American protesters and turning them into political prisoners.

“This is history repeating itself,” said LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, who founded the first camp opposing the pipeline. “I keep on thinking, how we did come to this point? … When did Americans lose their rights? When did America stop following the law?”

Brandy-Lee Maxie, a 34-year-old Nakota tribe member from Canada, said it’s difficult not to worry about possible prosecution. But the cause, she said, is too important to give up: “I’m staying here. Whatever happens to those who stay happens. We’ve just gotta keep praying.”

series

https://theintercept.com/series/the-fbis-secret-rules/

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The FBI’s Secret Rules

President Trump has inherited a vast domestic intelligence agency with extraordinary secret powers. A cache of documents offers a rare window into the FBI’s quiet expansion since 9/11.

Learn more

Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide

The rulebook governing all FBI agents’ activities, in unredacted form for the first time. This is the 2011 edition, which remains the baseline document today, although the FBI recently released some updates from 2013.

SEE DOCUMENT

Hidden Loopholes Allow FBI Agents to Infiltrate Political and Religious Groups

Cora Currier

Beneath the FBI’s redaction marks are exceptions to rules on “undisclosed participation.”

National Security Letters Demand Data Companies Aren’t Obligated to Provide

Jenna McLaughlin, and Cora Currier

Internal documents suggest the FBI uses the secret orders to pursue sensitive customer data like internet browsing records.

Despite Anti-Profiling Rules, the FBI Uses Race and Religion When Deciding Who to Target

Cora Currier

The bureau still claims considerable latitude to use race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion in deciding which people and communities to investigate.

In Secret Battle, Surveillance Court Reined in FBI Use of Information Obtained From Phone Calls

Jenna McLaughlin

Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists

Cora Currier

Rules governing the use of national security letters allow the FBI to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the targeted news organization.

Annotation Sets

Bureau Hid Doubts About Reliability of Stingray Evidence Behind Redaction Marks

Jenna McLaughlin - Jan. 31 2017

CIA and NSA Dossiers Are Available to the FBI in the Absence of Any Crime, Raising Privacy Questions

Cora Currier - Jan. 31 2017

FBI Spy Planes Must Abide Rules When Looking Into Homes

Jenna McLaughlin - Jan. 31 2017

On Campus, the FBI Sometimes Operates Outside Restrictions

Cora Currier - Jan. 31 2017

To Probe the Digital Defenses of Targets, the FBI Turns To a Special Program

Jenna McLaughlin - Jan. 31 2017

Confidential Human Source Policy Guide

Detailed rules for how the FBI handles informants. Classified secret. This unreleased September 2015 document is a major expansion and update of a manual from 2007 on the same topic.

SEE DOCUMENT

The FBI Gives Itself Lots of Rope to Pull in Informants

Trevor Aaronson

Agents have the authority to aggressively investigate anyone they believe could be a valuable source for the bureau.

When Informants Are No Longer Useful, the FBI Can Help Deport Them

Trevor Aaronson

The FBI coordinates with immigration authorities to locate informants who are no longer of value to the bureau.

How the FBI Conceals Its Payments to Confidential Sources

Trevor Aaronson

A classified policy guide creates opportunities for agents to disguise payments as reimbursements or offer informants a cut of seized assets.

Annotation Sets

How the FBI Recruits and Handles Its Army of Informants

Trevor Aaronson - Jan. 31 2017

Counterterrorism Policy Guide

Excerpts from a guide for agents working on counterterrorism cases, which functions as a supplement to the FBI’s main rulebook, the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide. Classified secret. Not previously released. Dates to April 2015.

SEE DOCUMENT

Undercover FBI Agents Swarm the Internet Seeking Contact With Terrorists

Cora Currier

The FBI’s online activities are so pervasive that the bureau sometimes finds itself investigating its own people.

Based on a Vague Tip, the Feds Can Surveil Anyone

Cora Currier

Low-level “assessments” allow the FBI to follow people with planes, examine travel records, and run subjects’ names through the CIA and NSA.

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement

Alice Speri

Bureau policies have been crafted to take into account the active presence of domestic extremists in U.S. police departments.

Annotation Sets

Disruptions: How the FBI Handles People Without Bringing Them To Court

Cora Currier - Jan. 31 2017

Confidential Human Source Assessing Aid

A document bearing the seal of the FBI’s Anchorage field office that gives tips for agents cultivating informants. It is classified secret, and dates from 2011.

SEE DOCUMENT

DIOG Profiling Rules 2016

A 2016 update to the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide’s policy on profiling by race, gender, and other factors.

SEE DOCUMENT

Guidance on Guardian Assessments 2013

A 2013 unclassified communique from the FBI’s counterterrorism division explaining the database checks and other steps to be taken as part of low-level investigations.

SEE DOCUMENT

National Security Letters Redacted

An unclassified internal FBI document explaining the rules for national security letters, orders that the bureau uses to obtain certain information without a warrant. The document is undated but contains references to another document from November 2015.

SEE DOCUMENT

The FBI Gives Itself Lots of Rope to Pull in Informants

Trevor Aaronson

Agents have the authority to aggressively investigate anyone they believe could be a valuable source for the bureau.

When Informants Are No Longer Useful, the FBI Can Help Deport Them

Trevor Aaronson

The FBI coordinates with immigration authorities to locate informants who are no longer of value to the bureau.

How the FBI Conceals Its Payments to Confidential Sources

Trevor Aaronson

A classified policy guide creates opportunities for agents to disguise payments as reimbursements or offer informants a cut of seized assets.

Undercover FBI Agents Swarm the Internet Seeking Contact With Terrorists

Cora Currier

The FBI’s online activities are so pervasive that the bureau sometimes finds itself investigating its own people.

Based on a Vague Tip, the Feds Can Surveil Anyone

Cora Currier

Low-level “assessments” allow the FBI to follow people with planes, examine travel records, and run subjects’ names through the CIA and NSA.

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement

Alice Speri

Bureau policies have been crafted to take into account the active presence of domestic extremists in U.S. police departments.

Hidden Loopholes Allow FBI Agents to Infiltrate Political and Religious Groups

Cora Currier

Beneath the FBI’s redaction marks are exceptions to rules on “undisclosed participation.”

National Security Letters Demand Data Companies Aren’t Obligated to Provide

Jenna McLaughlin, and Cora Currier

Internal documents suggest the FBI uses the secret orders to pursue sensitive customer data like internet browsing records.

Despite Anti-Profiling Rules, the FBI Uses Race and Religion When Deciding Who to Target

Cora Currier

The bureau still claims considerable latitude to use race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion in deciding which people and communities to investigate.

In Secret Battle, Surveillance Court Reined in FBI Use of Information Obtained From Phone Calls

Jenna McLaughlin

Secret Rules Make It Pretty Easy for the FBI to Spy on Journalists

Cora Currier

Rules governing the use of national security letters allow the FBI to obtain information about journalists’ calls without going to a judge or informing the targeted news organization.

Editor-in-Chief: Betsy Reed. Series Editors: Laura Secor, Ryan Tate. Associate Editor: Andrea Jones. Reporters: Trevor Aaronson, Cora Currier, Jenna McLaughlin, Alice Speri. Research: Alleen Brown, Talya Cooper, Danielle Mackey, Eseosa Olumhense, Miriam Pensack, John Thomason. Art Direction: Stephane Elbaz, Philipp Hubert, Nick Simmons. Additional Photo Editing: Soohee Cho, Shaun Lucas, Chelsea Matiash. Development: Tom Conroy, Andy Gillette, Carl Licata, Cacie Prins, Raby Yuson.

http://www.alternet.org/media/new-york-times-russian-hacking

fail?

Talk about strange bedfellows joining forces to produce an unlikely media alliance.

That’s what happened when The New York Times reported on October 31, 2016, that FBI officials had not been able to uncover any evidence that Russian operatives, through allegedly hacking Democratic emails, were trying to help elect Donald Trump.

“Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia,” read the October 31 Times headline which relied on unnamed “law enforcement officials.”

Acting as an almost unofficial time-out, and one that came with the Times’ seal of approval, the article helped put the media brakes on the unfolding Russian hacking story; the same Russian hacking story that has now morphed into a full-scale Trump scandal.

The message on October 31 from the Times’ sources was unmistakable: There’s no conclusive connection between Trump and the Russians, and the Russians’ efforts were “aimed at disrupting the presidential election rather than electing Mr. Trump.” (Question: How do you not pick sides in a two-person election if you only undermine one of the candidates, the way Russian hackers only undermined the Democrat?)

The Times piece set off audible cheers within the conservative media, which usually holds the Times in contempt for its supposed “liberal media bias.”

In fact, pointing to the newspaper’s alleged Democratic leanings, conservative claimed that if even the liberal New York Times determined there was no Trump-Russia story, then it definitely must be true.

“And as far as liberals are concerned, the Democrats are concerned, when the New York Times clears you, you are cleared,” Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on November 1. “The New York Times carries as much weight as the FBI, and if the New York Times says there’s nothing to see between Trump and Russia and Putin, then there’s nothing to see.”

All across the conservative media landscape, the Times report was held up as putting the Trump-Russia story to bed.

However, to suggest the Times’ influential October 31 report “hasn’t aged well,” as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes recently put it, may be an understatement, as the unfolding hacking scandal continues to gain momentum and more evidence tumbles out regarding claims that Russians were trying to help Trump. (Hayes also correctly recalled that "At the same time the FBI was leaking like a sieve about Clinton, people around it went out of their way to dampen the Putin talk.")

The problems with the Times article are many. First off, Sen. Harry Reid’s spokesman claimed that Reid had been interviewed for the Times’ article, pushed back against its timid premise about there being no connection, and that Reid’s comments were omitted from the story.

More recently, we’ve seen all kinds of information revealed that contradicts the Times’ often-quoted October 31 report. For instance, FBI Director James Comey testified in December that Russia had “hacked into Republican state political campaigns and old email domains of the Republican National Committee,” but did not release information from those hacks. As Reuters pointed out, that allegation “may buttress the U.S. intelligence view that Moscow tried to help Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 campaign.”

More recently, the BBC reported that “a joint taskforce, which includes the CIA and the FBI, has been investigating allegations that the Russians may have sent money to Mr Trump's organisation or his election campaign.” Also last week, the Guardian reported that FBI investigators were so concerned with a possible Trump-Russia connection that they asked for a foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) warrant to monitor Trump aides during the campaign. (The warrant request was reportedly denied.)

Meanwhile, Britain’s The Independentreported that the former intelligence officer who wrote the recently revealed Trump dossier was frustrated that the FBI had “for months” ignored the information he passed along to the bureau about a possible Trump-Russian connection.

Note that just four weeks after the election, the Times itself reported, “Both intelligence and law enforcement officials agree that there is a mountain of circumstantial evidence suggesting that the Russian hacking was primarily aimed at helping Mr. Trump and damaging his opponent.” (Emphasis added.)

And from NPR: “FBI, CIA Agree That Russia Was Trying To Help Trump Win The Election.”

Here’s the larger context for the Times report and why it was seen as such a game-changer at the time.

On October 31, the FBI was dealing with two breaking news stories that were spinning out of its control and reflecting poorly on Comey.

The bureau was under withering criticism from legal experts, journalists, Democrats, and even some Republicans after Comey inserted insert himself into the final days of the campaign by informing Congress that the FBI was reigniting its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email while secretary of state. That last weekend in October the bureau was also battling damaging news stories that suggested its leadership had been slow to respond to the Russian hacking controversy as it pertained to Donald Trump.

Comey’s letter to Congress about the emails was dispatched October 28. In the days that followed, a steady stream of revelations undercut his actions. On October 30, CNN reported that the FBI had known about the new emails for “weeks” before Comey decided to go public with the information just days before the election.

The following day, news outlets reported that Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) had sent Comey a blistering letter , insisting the FBI director was sitting on “‘explosive’ information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government.”

That same day, Mother Jones, foreshadowing the news last week about a dossier collected on Trump, reported that, “a former senior intelligence officer for a Western country” had provided to the FBI with “memos, based on his recent interactions with Russian sources, contending the Russian government has for years tried to co-opt and assist Trump—and that the FBI requested more information from him.”

And that same day, CNBC reported, “FBI Director James Comey argued privately that it was too close to Election Day for the United States government to name Russia as meddling in the U.S. election.”

The contrast was startling: Comey had publicly reinvigorated the Clinton email investigation based on emails the FBI hadn’t even read (the emails turned out to be irrelevant), yet at the same time Comey allegedly sat on new information regarding claims that Trump had ongoing ties with Russia because Comey thought the optics would look bad.

Given all this, the FBI needed a way to stop the public relations bleeding. And late in the day on October 31, the Times provided the respite.

Specifically, the article helped push back on reports Comey didn’t want to go public with any Russian information close to Election Day.

“The reason Comey didn’t announce the existence of this investigation wasn’t because it was it was ‘explosive’ and could impact the election,” announced the conservative site, Hot Air, pointing to the Times article. “It was because the FBI had already figured out it was a dud.”

In other words, FBI PR problem solved. The problems with the Times report, however, were just beginning.

Eric Boehlert is a senior fellow at Media Matters for America and the author of Lapdogs: How The Press Rolled Over for Bush.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Former_FBI_Ten_Most_Wanted_Fugitives

On Thursday, Exxon got even more bad news. New Jersey State Senator Raymond Lesniak called on Acting Attorney General Robert Lougy to join an investigation launched by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. California Attorney General Kamala Harris opened a similar probe.

The investigations just keep piling up. The FBI’s criminal investigation unit is currently conducting an initial review of evidence that Exxon knew about the “catastrophic” impacts of climate change.

While the problems and negative press continue to mount for Exxon, traders remains fairly bullish on XOM stock.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/rockefeller-family-fund-divest-exxonmobil-says-oil-giant-morally-reprehensible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Sessions

William Steele Sessions (born May 27, 1930) is an American civil servant who served as a judge and fourth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sessions served as FBI director from 1987 to 1993, when he was dismissed by President Bill Clinton.

[hide]

Early life:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Sessions was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the son of Edith A. (née Steele) and Rev. Will Anderson Sessions, Jr.^[1] He graduated from Northeast High School in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1948, and enlisted in the United States Air Force, receiving his commission October 1952. He served on active duty until October 1955. He attendedBaylor University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956 and an LL.B. degree in 1958.

Sessions is an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. The Scouting tradition runs deep in the Sessions' lineage – his son, Pete Sessions (a member of the United States House of Representatives serving Texas' 32nd District), is also a Distinguished Eagle Scout, his grandsons Bill and Steele are also Eagle Scouts, and his father, William A. Sessions, Jr. wrote the first God and Country handbook for the Boy Scouts of America.^[2][3]

Legal career:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Sessions was an attorney for the firm of Haley, Fulbright, Winniford, Sessions, and Bice in Waco, Texas from 1963 until 1969. He was then appointed Chief of the Government Operations Section, Criminal Division of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he served until his appointment as United States Attorney for the Western District of Texas in 1971. In 1974 he was appointed United States District Judge for that district, becoming Chief Judge in 1980. He also served on the Board of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D C, and on committees of both the State Bar of Texas and the Judicial Conference of the United States. Overall he has been a practicing attorney for more than 40 years. He also is associated with the National Youth Leadership Forum on Law (NYLF/LAW).

FBI career:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

After a two month search, Sessions was nominated to succeed William H. Webster as FBI Director by President Ronald Reagan and was sworn in November 2, 1987.[1]

Sessions was viewed as combining tough direction with fairness and was respected even by the Reagan administration’s critics, although he was sometimes ridiculed as strait-laced and dull and lacking hands-on leadership. He worked to raise the image of the FBI in Congress and fought to raise the pay of FBI agents which had lagged behind other law enforcement agencies.[2]

Despite being a Republican who was appointed by Reagan, Sessions disappointed the administration of President George H. W. Bush for not being partisan, and he was personally disliked by Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. Sessions had an uneasy relationship with Thornburgh's successor William P. Barr. Reflecting the tensions between the Justice Department and the independent Bureau, Sessions announced that the FBI would be looking into whether Justice Department officials illegally misled a federal judge in a politically sensitive bank-fraud case involving loans to Iraq before the Persian Gulf War, and 48 hours later Sessions was the subject of an ethics investigation on whether he had abused his office perks.^[4][3]

Sessions enjoyed the strongest support among liberal Democrats in Congress.^[4][4] Sessions was applauded for pursuing a policy of broadening the FBI to include more women and minorities, efforts which upset the "old boys" at the Bureau. [5]

Sessions became associated with the phrase "Winners Don't Use Drugs", which appeared on idle North American-released arcade game screens during demos or after a player finished playing a game. By law it had to be included on all imported arcade games released in North America and continued to appear long after Sessions left office. The quote normally appeared in gold against a blue background between the FBI seal and Sessions' name.

Sessions major contributions to the US Criminal Justice Community include the encouraging of the FBI Laboratory to develop a DNA program with a strong legal underpinning and the automation of the national fingerprint process. The later project, known as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) reduced the turn around time for fingerprint searches for both criminal arrest cycles and applicants for sensitive positions to include teachers from months to hours. A full description of the IAFIS program can be found in Section 2.7 of the book: Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) published by Elsevier, Inc. in 2005; ISBN 0-12-418351-4.[6]

Sessions was FBI director during the controversial 1992 confrontation at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, at which the unarmed Vicky Weaver and her son were shot dead by an FBI sniper. This incident provoked heavy criticism of the Bureau as did the deadly assault on the Branch Davidian compound that lasted from February 28 to April 19, 1993. These incidents were also related to the discovery of severe procedural shortcomings at the FBI's crime laboratory.

Just before Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993, allegations of ethical improprieties were made against Sessions. A report by outgoing Attorney GeneralWilliam P. Barr presented to the Justice Department that month by the Office of Professional Responsibility included criticisms that he had used an FBI plane to travel to visit his daughter on several occasions, and had a security system installed in his home at government expense.^[4] Janet Reno, the 78th Attorney General of the United States, announced that Sessions had exhibited "serious deficiencies in judgment."^[5]

Although Sessions denied that he had acted improperly, he was pressured to resign in early July, with some suggesting that President Clinton was giving Sessions the chance to step down in a dignified manner. Sessions refused, saying that he had done nothing wrong, and insisted on staying in office until his successor was confirmed. As a result, President Clinton used his powers to dismiss Sessions immediately on July 19, 1993.^[5] Sessions was five and a half years into a ten-year term as FBI director; however, the holder of this post serves at the pleasure of the President.^[6]

Clinton nominated Louis Freeh to the FBI directorship at a Rose Garden ceremony on July 20. Then-FBI Deputy Director Floyd I. Clarke, whom Sessions suggested had led a coup to force his removal, served as Acting Director until September 1, 1993 when Freeh was sworn in.[7]

Sessions returned to Texas where on December 7, 1999 he was named the state chair of Texas Exile, a statewide initiative aimed at reducing gun crime.

Later in life:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Judge Sessions is a member of the American Bar Association and has served as an officer or on the Board of Directors of the Federal Bar Association of San Antonio, the American Judicature Society, the San Antonio Bar Association, the Waco-McLennan County Bar Association, and the District Judges' Association of the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by President Reagan as a Commissioner of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday Commission, and was a Delegate for the Americas to the Executive Committee of ICPO-Interpol. He is also a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.^[7]

In 2006, Mr. Sessions also was present on the American Bar Association task force examining the constitutionality of controversial presidential signing statements, which concluded that the practice "does grave harm to the separation of powers doctrine, and the system of checks and balances that have sustained our democracy for more than two centuries".

In 2008, he argued that the execution of Troy Anthony Davis should not proceed because of serious doubts as to whether Davis is actually guilty.^[8]

Sessions agreed to serve on The Constitution Project's :{Guantanamo:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: Task Force in December 2010.^[9][10][11]

maxxam:

Robert S. Johnson

Advisory Director Shearson Lehman Brothers,

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/13/as_internal_docs_show_major_overreach

As Internal Docs Show Major Overreach, Why Is FBI Spying on Opponents of Keystone XL Pipeline?

A new report confirms for the first time that the FBI spied on activists in Texas who tried to stop the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Documents from the FBI reveal it failed to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened its investigation, which was run from its Houston field office. The files document "substantial non-compliance" with Department of Justice rules. The Tar Sands Blockade mentioned in that report was one of the main groups targeted by the FBI. Agents in Houston office also told TransCanada they would share "pertinent intelligence regarding any threats" to the company in advance of protests. We are joined by Adam Federman, contributing editor to Earth Island Journal and co-author of the new investigation published by The Guardian, "Revealed: FBI violated its own rules while spying on Keystone XL opponents." In February, he also revealed how the FBI has recently pursued environmental activists in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and Idaho for "little more than taking photographs of oil and gas industry installations."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: A new report confirms for the first time that the FBI spied on activists in Texas who tried to stop the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The report is based on FBI documents obtained by The Guardian and the Earth Island Journal. The documents also reveal that the FBI failed to get approval before it cultivated informants and opened its investigation, which was run from its Houston field office. The files document, quote, "substantial non-compliance" with Department of Justice rules. Much of the FBI’s surveillance took place between November of 2012 and June 2014.

AMY GOODMAN: The Tar Sands Blockade mentioned in the report was one of the main groups targeted by the FBI. Agents in Houston also told TransCanada they would share, quote, "pertinent intelligence regarding any threats" to the company in advance of protests.

For more, we are joined by Adam Federman, contributing editor to Earth Island Journal, co-author of this new investigation that was published by The Guardian. It’s headlined "Revealed: FBI Violated Its Own Rules While Spying on Keystone XL Opponents." In February, he also revealed how the FBI has recently pursued environmental activists in Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and Idaho for, quote, "little more than taking photographs of oil and gas industry installations."

Adam Federman, thank you so much for joining us from Burlington, Vermont. Talk about this most recent exposé. How do you know the FBI was spying on those who are opposed to the Keystone XL?

...A lawyer working with the protesters says he’s personally aware of a dozen people having been contacted in the northwestern U.S. and says the actual number is probably higher.

Larry Hildes says it’s been happening the last few months in Washington State, Oregon and Idaho. He says one person got a visit at work, after having already refused to answer questions.

“They appear to be interested in actions around the tarsands and the Keystone XL pipeline,” Hildes said in an interview.

“It’s always the same line: ‘We’re not doing criminal investigations, you’re not accused of any crime. But we’re trying to learn more about the movement.“’

He’s advised activists not to talk — and they mostly haven’t. That lack of communication has made it a little complicated to figure out what, exactly, the FBI is looking for.

The bureau hasn’t offered too many clues.

One agent left his name, number, and the following message in a voicemail for Helen Yost of the group Wild Idaho Rising Tide: “I work with the FBI. Could you give me a call back — I would appreciate it.”

Is anti-oilsands activity an actual focus of the FBI investigation, or is it merely incidental? The bureau won’t say.

What it will say is that it only investigates potential crimes, not political movements.

“The FBI has the authority to conduct an investigation when it has reasonable grounds to believe that an individual has engaged in criminal activity or is planning to do so,” said FBI spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich.

“This authority is based on the illegal activity, not on the individual’s political views.”

But activists say oil sands opposition appears to be the common thread among people being contacted. Police have been in touch with people from different groups, who in some cases don’t agree on much, but one thing they share is mutual participation in the so-called megaload protests.

Those are the intermittent highway blockades set up the last few years to complicate the enormous, football-field-sized shipments of processing equipment up to the oilsands.

Yost said only two people from her group participated in that anti-oil sands action — and those are the people who’ve been contacted by the FBI. She has refused to co-operate.

The other person, Herb Goodwin, was visited at home by an FBI agent and a veteran detective from the local police force in Bellingham, Wash. He said the federal agent told him: “We’re here to ask whether you’ll answer some questions for us about Deep Green Resistance.”

That group, DGR, calls itself a radical environmental movement that believes the biggest problem with the planet is human civilization itself. It proposes a shift back from agriculture to a hunter-gatherer horticultural lifestyle.

It also proposes a four-step program called decisive ecological warfare, a long-term plan calling for the sabotage and dismantling of planet-harming infrastructure.

The group has repeatedly stated that it wouldn’t participate itself in any such actions. But Lierre Keith, one of its founders, laid out the plan in a speech last year at an environmental conference at the University of Oregon.

“I would vastly prefer to wage this struggle non-violently,” Keith said. “But my blogging will not bring forth the necessary numbers. So given a realistic assessment of what we actually have, the only viable strategy left that I can see is direct attacks against infrastructure. In the plainest terms, we need to stop them.”

There was some controversy about inviting her to the conference. Other groups wanted her event cancelled because of her views on transgender people — Keith dismisses the notion that a sex change can undo someone’s gender perspective.

Hildes said the FBI tried asking people about that Oregon speech. Since Yost’s group was among those voicing opposition to DGR, she believes the FBI might be trying to sow division in the movement.

The Canadian government said it wasn’t involved in any U.S. law-enforcement effort. A spokesman said it was aware of the megaload protests, but hadn’t discussed them with any American agency....

FBI ID sniper at Occupy Houston but did not inform

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/3/25/why_did_fbi_monitor_occupy_houston Jason Leopold

fbi said cointelpro techniques to spread rumors about animal activists safe b/c they are non-violent

resists FOIA

dn:GARY RUSKIN: Well, again, this is something we don’t know very much about, but, there is this little known FBI corporate partnership called InfraGuard. It, essentially, it seems like it’s like business class for law enforcement. They get extra special information which is such a foreign concept, really to the rule of law. So, they share information with one another. But, we’re really not quite sure what they share and whether or not — to what extent maybe the FBI might be providing intelligence or assistance with respect to corporate espionage against nonprofit organizations. We just don’t really know.

The

FBI’s investigation

the

Thomas

Merton

Center

(“Pittsburgh’s

peace

and

social

justice

center”)

and

the

FBI’s

misstatements

about

“raised

the

most

troubling

issues

this

review.”

Trevor Aaronson is author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism (Ig Publishing, January 2013). He is also co-director of the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University. mostly anti-muslim? cf alternet

**http://gawker.com/5850054/meet-the-guy-who-snitched-on-occupy-wall-street-to-the-fbi-and-nypd**

===

seation Movement.^[citation ^needed]

Methods

According to attorney Brian Glick in his book War at Home, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:

Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
Psychological warfare: The FBI and police used myriad "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists.
Legal harassment: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.^[4]
Illegal force: The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations.^{[4][5][6][28]} The object was to frighten, or eliminate, dissidents and disrupt their movements.

The FBI specifically developed tactics intended to heighten tension and hostility between various factions in the black militancy movement, for example between the Black Panthers, the US Organization and the Blackstone Rangers. This resulted in numerous deaths, among which were the US Organization assassinations of San Diego Black Panther Party members John Huggins, Bunchy Carter and Sylvester Bell.^[4]

The FBI also conspired with the police departments of many U.S. cities (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Philadelphia, Chicago) to encourage repeated raids on Black Panther homes—often with little or no evidence of violations of federal, state, or local laws—which resulted directly in the police killing of many members of the Black Panther Party, most notably the assassination of Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton on December 4, 1969.^{[4][5][6][29]}

In order to eliminate black militant leaders whom they considered dangerous, the FBI conspired with local police departments to target specific individuals,^[30] accuse them of crimes they did not commit, suppress exculpatory evidence and falsely incarcerate them. One Black Panther Party leader, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, was incarcerated for 27 years before a California Superior Court vacated his murder conviction, ultimately freeing him. Appearing before the court, an FBI agent testified that he believed Pratt had been framed because both the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department knew he had been out of the area at the time the murder occurred. ^[31][32]

The FBI conducted more than 200 "black bag jobs",^[33][34] which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.^[35]

In 1969 the FBI special agent in San Francisco wrote Hoover that his investigation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) revealed that in his city, at least, the Panthers were primarily feeding breakfast to children. Hoover fired back a memo implying the career ambitions of the agent were directly related to his supplying evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means".^[36]

Hoover was willing to use false claims to attack his political enemies. In one memo he wrote: "Purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the BPP and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge."^[37]

In one particularly controversial 1965 incident, civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo was murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was acknowledged FBI informant Gary Thomas Rowe.^[38][39] False rumors were spread that Liuzzo was a member of the Communist Party and abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with African Americans involved in the civil rights movement.^[40][41] FBI records show that J. Edgar Hoover personally communicated these insinuations to President Johnson.^[42][43] FBI informant Rowe has also been implicated in some of the most violent crimes of the 1960s civil rights era, including attacks on the Freedom Riders and the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.^[38] In another instance in San Diego the FBI financed, armed, and controlled an extreme right-wing group of former Minutemen, transforming it into a group called the Secret Army Organization which targeted groups, activists, and leaders involved in the Anti-War Movement for both intimidation and violent acts.^{[44][45][46][47]}

Hoover ordered preemptive action "to pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they exercise their potential for violence."^[11][48]

Illegal surveillance

The final report of the Church Committee concluded:

Too many people have been spied upon by too many Government agencies and too much information has been collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power. The Government, operating primarily through secret informants, but also using other intrusive techniques such as wiretaps, microphone "bugs", surreptitious mail opening, and break-ins, has swept in vast amounts of information about the personal lives, views, and associations of**American citizens**. Investigations of groups deemed potentially dangerous -- and even of groups suspected of associating with potentially dangerous organizations -- have continued for decades, despite the fact that those groups did not engage in unlawful activity.Groups and individuals have been harassed and disrupted because of their political views and their lifestyles. Investigations have been based upon vague standards whose breadth made excessive collection inevitable. Unsavory and vicious tactics have been employed -- including anonymous attempts to break up marriages, disrupt meetings, ostracize persons from their professions, and provoke target groups into rivalries that might result in deaths. Intelligence agencies have served the political and personal objectives of presidents and other high officials. While the agencies often committed excesses in response to pressure from high officials in the Executive branch and Congress, they also occasionally initiated improper activities and then concealed them from officials whom they had a duty to inform.Governmental officials -- including those whose principal duty is to enforce the law --have violated or ignored the law over long periods of time and have advocated and defended their right to break the law.The Constitutional system of checks and balances has not adequately controlled intelligence activities. Until recently the Executive branch has neither delineated the scope of permissible activities nor established procedures for supervising intelligence agencies. Congress has failed to exercise sufficient oversight, seldom questioning the use to which its appropriations were being put. Most domestic intelligence issues have not reached the courts, and in those cases when they have reached the courts, the judiciary has been reluctant to grapple with them.^[49][50]

Post-COINTELPRO operations

While COINTELPRO was officially terminated in April 1971, continuing FBI actions indicate that post-COINTELPRO reforms did not succeed in ending COINTELPRO tactics.^[51][52][53] 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.^[54][55]

“Counterterrorism” guidelines implemented during the Reagan administration have been described as allowing a return to COINTELPRO tactics.^[56] Some radical groups accuse factional opponents of being FBI informants or assume the FBI is infiltrating the movement.^[57]

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.^[58]

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 tribe's reservation land, and that this motivated a larger government conspiracy against AIM activists on the Pine Ridge reservation.^{[3][24][59][60][61]} Others believe COINTELPRO continues and similar actions are being taken against activist groups.^[61][62][63]

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."^[64]

Other authors note that while some conspiracy theories related to COINTELPRO are unfounded, the issue of ongoing government surveillance and repression is nonetheless real.^[16][65]

References

^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_0-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_0-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_0-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_0-3) "Quick Facts". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2012-03-03.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-church-final-report_1-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-church-final-report_1-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-church-final-report_1-2) [1]
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-churchill-vanderwall-1990a_2-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-churchill-vanderwall-1990a_2-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-churchill-vanderwall-1990a_2-2) Churchill, Ward, and Jim Vander Wall, (1990), The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent, Boston: South End Press, pp. xii, 303.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-3) ^e(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-4) ^f(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-icdc.com_3-5) The FBI'S Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_Secrets_1995_4-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_Secrets_1995_4-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_Secrets_1995_4-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-FBI_Secrets_1995_4-3) FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose. M. Wesley Swearingen. Boston. South End Press. 1995. Special Agent Gregg York: "We expected about twenty Panthers to be in the apartment when the police raided the place. Only two of those black nigger fuckers were killed, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark."
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-itsabouttimebpp.com_5-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-itsabouttimebpp.com_5-1) ^c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-itsabouttimebpp.com_5-2) ^d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-itsabouttimebpp.com_5-3) itsabouttimebpp.com
^ COINTELPRO: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens, Final Report of the Senate Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Acti...
^ Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. THE FBI, Yale University Press, 2008, p. 189
^ Ken Gewertz (2007-04-12). "Albert Einstein, Civil Rights activist". Harvard University Gazette. Archived from the original on 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
^ Various Church Committee reports reproduced online at ICDC: Final Report, 2A; Final Report,2Cb; Final Report, 3A; Final Report, 3G. Various COINTELPRO documents reproduced online at ICDC: CPUSA; SWP; Black Nationalist; White Hate; New Left; Puerto Rico.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-WRH_10-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-WRH_10-1) COINTELPRO Revisited - Spying & Disruption - IN BLACK AND WHITE: THE F.B.I. PAPERS
^ "A Huey P. Newton Story - Actions - COINTELPRO". PBS. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-cfr3a_12-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-cfr3a_12-1) "Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans". United States Senate. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
^ See, for example, Hobson v. Wilson, 737 F.2d 1 (1984); Rugiero v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 257 F.3d 534, 546 (2001).^[dead ^link]
^ http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/RepressionTOC.html
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-publiceye.org_15-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-publiceye.org_15-1) Berlet, Chip. “The X-Files Movie: Facilitating Fanciful Fun, or Fueling Fear and Fascism? Conspiracy Theories for Fun, Not for False Prophets”, 1998, Political Research Associates
^ A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO. Retrieved July 13, 2007. Archived September 28, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ Deflam, Mathieu (2008). *Surveillance and governance: crime control and beyond*. Emerald Publishing Group. pp. 182. ISBN 978-0-7623-1416-4.
^ Deflam, Mathieu (2008). *Surveillance and governance: crime control and beyond*. Emerald Publishing Group. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-0-7623-1416-4.
^ at YouTube
^ Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Final Report of the Senate Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities
^ Blackstock, Nelson. COINTELPRO: The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, Pathfinder, New York. 1975. p. 111.
^ Gelbspan, Ross. (1991) Break-Ins, Death Threats, and the FBI: The Covert War Against the Central America Movement, Boston: South End Press.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-churchill-vanderwall-1988a_23-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-churchill-vanderwall-1988a_23-1) Churchill, Ward; and James Vander Wall. Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, 1988, Boston, South End Press.
^ Pickett, Karen. "Earth First!(The RedWood Tree Activists on the West Coast) Takes the FBI to Court: Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney’s Case Heard after 12 Years," Earth First Journal, no date.
^ The Railroading of Matt Hale by Edgar J. Steele
^ "The Black Panther Toll is Now 28, NYT The Week in Review, 7 Dec 1969, p.E4
^ "The Black Panther Toll is Now 28," NYT, The Week in Review, 7 Dec 1969, p.E4
^ Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. (New York: Doubleday, 1992, pp204-06
^ icdc.com
^ "Former Black Panther freed after 27 years in jail". CNN. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
^ In re Pratt, 82 Cal
^ Alexander Cockburn; Jeffrey St. Clair (1998). *Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press*. Verso. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-85984-139-6.
^ FBI document, 19 July 1966, DeLoach to Sullivan re: "Black Bag" Jobs.
^ [2]
^ FBI document, 27 May 1969, Director FBI to SAC San Francisco. Available at the FBI reading room.
^ FBI document, 16 September 1970, Director FBI to SAC's in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Haven, San Francisco, and Washington Field Office. Available at the FBI reading room.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-The_Informant_37-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-The_Informant_37-1) Gary May, The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Luzzo, Yale University Press, 2005.
^ "Jonathan Yardley". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
^ Joanne Giannino. "Viola Liuzzo". Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Archived from the original on 2010-11-18. Retrieved 2008-09-29.
^ Kay Houston. "The Detroit housewife who moved a nation toward racial justice". The Detroit News, Rearview Mirror. Archived from the original on 1999-04-27.
^ "Uncommon Courage: The Viola Liuzzo Story". Archived from the original on 2007-08-13.
^ Mary Stanton (2000). From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. University of Georgia Press. p. 190.
^ Triumphs of Democracy, by Noam Chomsky (Excerpted from Language and Responsibility)
^ Watergate and the Secret Army Organization - msg#00404 - culture.discuss.cia-drugs
^ 1972
^ [3]^[dead ^link]
^ OpEdNews - Article: J. Edgar Hoover personally ordered FBI to initiate COINTELPRO dirty tricks against Black Panthers in 'Omaha Two' case
^ "Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans Book II, Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities United States Senate (Church Committee)". United States Senate. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
^ "Tapped Out Why Congress won't get through to the NSA.". Slate.com. Retrieved May 11, 2006.
^ David Cunningham. There's Something Happening Here: The New Left, the Klan, and FBI. University of California Press, 2005: "However, strong suspicions lingered that the program's tactics were sustained on a less formal basis—suspicions sometimes furthered by agents themselves, who periodically claimed that counterintelligence activities were continuing, though in a manner undocumented within Bureau files."; Hobson v. Brennan, 646 F.Supp. 884 (D.D.C.,1986)
^ Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz. The Price of Dissent: Testimonies to Political Repression in America. University of California Press, 2001: "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."
^ Athan G. Theoharis, et al. The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999: "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."
^ The Associated Press, "FBI tracked journalist for over 20 years". Toronto Star. November 7, 2008. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
^ [4]^[dead ^link]
^ Bud Schultz, Ruth Schultz. The Price of Dissent: Testimonies to Political Repression in America. University of California Press, 2001: "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."
^ Mike Mosedale, "Bury My Heart," City Pages, Volume 21 - Issue 1002 - Cover Story - February 16, 2000
^ "FBI Probes of Groups Were Improper, Justice Department Says". The San Jose Mercury News. September 20, 2010. also reported at democracynow.org
^ Weyler, Rex. Blood of the Land: The Government and Corporate War Against First Nations.
^ Matthiessen, Peter, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Viking.
^ ^a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-conculture_60-0) ^b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#cite_ref-conculture_60-1) Woidat, Caroline M. The Truth Is on the Reservation: American Indians and Conspiracy Culture, The Journal of American Culture 29 (4), 2006. Pages 454–467
^ McQuinn, Jason. "Conspiracy Theory vs Alternative Journalism", Alternative Press Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, Winter 1996
^ Horowitz, David. "Johnnie's Other O.J.", FrontPageMagazine.com. September 1, 1997.
^ Woidat, Caroline M. "The Truth Is on the Reservation: American Indians and Conspiracy Culture", The Journal of American Culture 29 (4), 2006. pp. 454–467.
^ Berlet, Chip; and Matthew N. Lyons. 1998, "One key to litigating against government prosecution of dissidents: Understanding the underlying assumptions", Parts 1 and 2, Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report (West Group), 5 (13), (January–February): 145–153; and 5 (14), (March–April): 157–162.

External links

Documentary

"Me and My Shadow": A History of the FBI's Covert Operations and COINTELPRO - Part 1". 34:21 minute Real Audio. Produced by Adi Gevins, Pacifica Radio. 1976. Rebroadcast by Democracy Now! Wednesday, June 5, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.
"'Me and My Shadow': A History of the FBI's Covert Operations and COINTELPRO - Part 2". 13:43 minute Real Audio. Produced by Adi Gevins, Pacifica Radio. 1976. Rebroadcast by Democracy Now! Thursday, June 6, 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2005.

Websites

Articles

U.S. government reports

Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. United States Senate, 94th Congress, 2nd Session, April 26 (legislative day, April 14), 1976. [AKA "Church Committee Report"]. Archived on COINTELPRO sources website. Transcription and HTML by Paul Wolf. Retrieved April 19, 2005.

Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, Book II

I. Introduction and SummaryII. The Growth of Domestic Intelligence: 1936 to 1976III. Findings(A) Violating and Ignoring the Law(B) Overbreadth of Domestic Intelligence Activity(C) Excessive Use of Intrusive Techniques(D) Using Covert Action to Disrupt and Discredit Domestic Groups(E) Political Abuse of Intelligence Information(F) Inadequate Controls on Dissemination and Retention(G) Deficiencies in Control and AccountabilityIV. Conclusions and Recommendations

Supplementary Detailed Staff Reports, Book III

Ross Gelbspan is the author of a forthcoming book on the FBI's campaign from 1981 to 1985 against groups critical of U.S. policy in Central America. Gelbspan says "While the FBI conducts legitimate criminal investigations, its carrying out of unauthorized politically-motivated police activity is more than just history." For proof, Gelbspan (a veteran Boston Globe reporter who helped pen a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative series) points to documents obtained under the federal Freedom of Information Act, lawsuits, and Congressional hearings which show that in an FBI probe of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), "the FBI took at face value allegations by right-wing security specialists that members of (CISPES) were terrorists or foreign agents."

The FBI probe of CISPES moved beyond surveillance to attacks on CISPES, its members and allies. Thousands of citiens were referenced in secret dossiers. The FBI also used the services of right-wing sleuths including a network of conservative campus activists who attended meetings and then submitted reports to the FBI. "The CISPES probe by the FBI was not an aberration by a handful of field agents," says Gelbspan refuting widely published reports. "It was clearly approved at the highest levels of the Bureau and was apprently sanctioned by the NSC and the White House."

"Looking at the CISPES investigation in light of other political investigations dating back to the 1950's, one gets the distinct impression that the FBI sees its mandate as neutralizing or disabling every political movement that has the potential for bringing about significant changes in the American political system," argues Gelbspan.

Kit Gage, the Washington representative of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation (NCARL) agrees with Gelbspan. "We know first hand the kind of havoc the FBI can wreak on a group exercising its First Amendment rights," says Gage who has leafed through FBI files recording "38 years of surveillance on NCARL and its predecessors which produced 130,000 pages of files but not one criminal conviction." What is well documented "is an incredible amount of harassment and disruption of our organization," Gage charges. "Since the FBI seems unable to regulate itself," says Gage, "NCARL is currently seeking legal remedies in the form of legislation that would limit FBI investigations solely to criminal activity." Hundreds of law school professors have endorsed NCARL's proposed legislation.

Roberto D'Aubuisson

FBI

Contents

Early life:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Legal career:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

FBI career:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

Later in life:{:(style="margin-right:0px;margin-left:0px"):}:[edit:{]}:

As Internal Docs Show Major Overreach, Why Is FBI Spying on Opponents of Keystone XL Pipeline?

TRANSCRIPT

Methods

Illegal surveillance

Post-COINTELPRO operations

See also

References

Further reading

Books

Articles

U.S. government reports

External links

Documentary

Websites

Articles

U.S. government reports