COINTELPRO

Exposed by the 1971 break-in at the Media, Pennsylvania FBI office. Subsequently investigated by the Church Committee.

COINTELPRO is not a theory. It is an admitted programme of covert action, run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation against citizens, civil rights organisations, anti-war groups and political dissidents on American soil. The files that surfaced after activists removed them from the Media field office, and the findings of the Senate Select Committee chaired by Frank Church, established beyond dispute what the Bureau had long denied: a sustained campaign of surveillance, infiltration, forged correspondence, disinformation and deliberate efforts to disrupt lawful association.

We hold the entry to the documentary record. Where the Church Committee, the released files and subsequent disclosures confirm a tactic or a target, we say so plainly. Where the record is partial or contested, we mark it as such rather than fill the gap with inference.

This is among the firmest ground the archive occupies, and it matters for that reason. COINTELPRO is part of the documented baseline — proof that a government did, in fact, run a secret programme against its own people that was for years dismissed as paranoia. It is why, elsewhere in this archive, we treat the difference between what is alleged and what is established with such care.