COINTELPRO Dbq

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counter Intelligence Programs, or COINTELPRO, were secret initiatives created for the sole purpose of infiltrating possible domestic national security threats government program created in 195
As the Griesa Document notes, the setting for the precursor to COINTELPRO was prior to the outbreak of World War II, as President FDR directed J. Edgar Hoover to avoid possible subversive activities by investigating alleged domestic fascist and communist movements. The order of command led this action to be taken up by the FBI, with the President ordering that other law enforcement groups turn over subversive investigations to the FBI. Effectively, this made the FBI the president’s secret police, ready to investigate

and infiltrate any groups they deemed necessary to maintain peace in the country. This continued until President Kennedy amended the directive to allow for the Attorney General to have greater oversight. COINTELPRO was officially in service from 1956-1971 itself was a huge violation of citizen’s rights to privacy “During the period 1960-1976 there were a total of about 300 member informants and about 1,000 non-member informants used by the FBI in the SWP investigation.”1
Recently the NSA has not only defended their practices, but intends on expanding their capability of collecting data through giant warehouses being built in New Mexico.

The unimaginable amount of storage is scary to contemplate, yet is backed by both former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama. The United States simply cannot go into Vietnam because of information of enemy shots that were never fired. The United States cannot go into Iraq because of knowledge of weapons of mass destruction that didn’t exist. It should not be moral to for example, monitor the phone calls of domestic “radical” groups and justify the NSA by the façade that it is simply an anti-terrorism agency. Leaders who aren’t representative of the people cannot lead us and institutions that reflect the same errors that COINTELPRO created 40 years ago cannot be allowed to run unconstrained of reform. The issue is that the US is indicative of a country, perhaps world, where people naturally categorize issues into dual conflicting ideologies such as: Republican or Democrat, bellicose or pacifist, privacy or security. The dilemma is, we don’t have the luxury to pick an absolute side, only to continue having open discourse about the amount of power the government has. While it is appalling, what our government has become, it is necessary to continue to debate opinions to avoid utilitarianism and anarchy, arguably two equally unbeneficial methods to govern a people. The mere existence of political spectrums affirms our abilities as a people to rationalize beyond absolutes. Therefore, upon reflection, COINTELPRO and modern equivalents are not inherently good or evil. The world is enveloped in shades of gray, and our goal is to balance freedom and responsibility. The scary aspect of this is that we don’t know what we don’t know. If a worker such as Snowden was able to access information on PRISM, what else is hidden from us, and do we want to know? In my opinion, the only way for

us to truly debate is to know the truth, and then maybe we can set ourselves free from our shackles of ignorance. A world of the people, by the people, for the people…period.

Quelled by the decision, the public was mostly silent about the NSA until the two events that defined the 1990s and early 2000s. Firstly the Internet and World Wide Web were created, which opened immense opportunity for the NSA to collect data about citizens and foreigners. Secondly, in the greatest US intelligence failure in modern times, the Twin Towers were attacked on September 11th, 2001 by Al-Qaeda terrorists. This event was an extreme turning point in US domestic and foreign policy and it also invoked the public to share common emotions: fear, patriotism, and loss. As Ms. Watts remarked in the quotation above, claiming that the government capitalized on this moment to push legislation such as the Patriot Act is not too much of a stretch in my opinion.