Federal Bureau of Investigation: Difference between revisions

During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI officials became increasingly concerned about the influence of civil rights leaders, whom they believed either had communist ties or were unduly influenced by communists or "[[fellow traveler]]s". In 1956, for example, Hoover sent an open letter denouncing Dr. [[T. R. M. Howard]], a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of [[George W. Lee]], [[Emmett Till]], and other blacks in the South.<ref>David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, ''Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power'' (Urbana: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2009), 148, 154–59.</ref> The FBI carried out controversial [[surveillance|domestic surveillance]] in an operation it called the [[COINTELPRO]], from "COunter-INTELligence PROgram".<ref name="coinpro">{{cite web |url=http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000118104808/http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-date=January 18, 2000 |title=A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO |publisher=Monitor.net |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Cassidy |first=Mike M. |date=May 26, 1999}}</ref> It was to investigate and disrupt the activities of dissident political organizations within the United States, including both militant and non-violent organizations. Among its targets was the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]], a leading civil rights organization whose clergy leadership included the Rev. Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]].<ref name="latimes">{{cite news |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |title=A Break-In to End All Break-Ins |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Jalon |first=Allan M. |date=April 8, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620040020/http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |archive-date=June 20, 2006}}</ref>

The FBI frequently investigated King. In the mid-1960s, King began to criticize the Bureau for giving insufficient attention to the use of terrorism by white supremacists. Hoover responded by publicly calling King the most "notorious liar" in the United States.<ref>Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999), p. 524–529</ref> In his 1991 memoir, ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' journalist [[Carl Rowan]] asserted that the FBI had sent at least one anonymous letter to King encouraging him to commit suicide.<ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |title=Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist? |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=June 6, 2006 |author-link=Cecil Adams |last=Adams |first=Cecil M. |date=May 2, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110718163413/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref> Historian [[Taylor Branch]] documents an anonymous November 1964 "suicide package" sent by the Bureau that combined a letter to the civil rights leader telling him "You are done. There is only one way out for you." with audio recordings of King's sexual indiscretions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC |title=Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999) p. 527-529 |isbn=978-1-4165-5870-5 |last1=Branch |first1=Taylor |date=April 16, 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

Specific practices include:

*Covert operations on political groups – Political groups deemed disruptive have been investigated and discredited by the FBI in the aim of "protecting [[national security]], preventing [[violence]], and maintaining the existing [[Social order|social]] and [[Political system|political order]]."<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 4, 2013 |title=U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence |url=http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/churchcommittee.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104062808/http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/churchcommittee.html |archive-date=November 4, 2013 |access-date=July 20, 2021}}</ref>

*FBI surveillance since 2010 – In the years since 2010, it has been uncovered by various [[civil liberties]] groups (such as the [[American Civil Liberties Union|American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]]]) that the FBI earmarked disproportionate resources for the surveillance of [[Left-wing politics|left-leaning]] movements and political organizations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Still Spying on Dissent.pdf |url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z-i_XCoZub8ISKEe5DzjoMh0bPS5u1Xm/view?usp=embed_facebook |access-date=July 20, 2021 |website=Google Docs |archive-date=July 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720063600/https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z-i_XCoZub8ISKEe5DzjoMh0bPS5u1Xm/view?usp=embed_facebook |url-status=live }}</ref> The FBI has also committed several breaches of the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] in this time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Speri |first=Alice |date=October 22, 2019 |title=The FBI's Long History of Treating Political Dissent as Terrorism |url=https://theintercept.com/2019/10/22/terrorism-fbi-political-dissent/ |access-date=July 20, 2021 |website=The Intercept|archive-date=November 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105151641/https://theintercept.com/2019/10/22/terrorism-fbi-political-dissent/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 26, 2020 |title=US non-profit sues FBI to learn about phone hacking capability |url=https://www.thexyz.com/blog/us-non-profit-sues-fbi-to-learn-about-phone-hacking-capability/ |access-date=July 20, 2021 |website=Thexyz Blog |archive-date=July 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720063601/https://www.thexyz.com/blog/us-non-profit-sues-fbi-to-learn-about-phone-hacking-capability/ |url-status=live }}</ref>