## FBI Crimes - Excerpt from ...

# War at Home

## Brian Glick, ISBN 0-89608-349-7

The excerpt below is an example of crimes committed by the American FBI.

The purpose of posting this excerpt is for use when someone hostile to our search for justice states that government "would never do such a thing", referring to crimes against the government's own citzens.

The author permits limited, properly footnoted excerpts without written permission.

    Memo to Field Offices

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    Page 62:

    GOVERNMENT ASSAULTS, BEATINGS, AND KILLINGS:  Under the guise of enforcing
    the law, FBI agents and police officers routinely roughed up 1960s activists
    and often threatened or injured them.  The coordinator of PEN American
    Center's Freedom to Write Committee recorded the experience of one
    alternative newspaper:

        Kudzu, produced in Jackson, Mississippi, served as a major
        organizational center for the New Left and counterculture in the
        area.  The tenacity of the paper and its allies can be gauged by
        the fact that by 1968 the newspaper had survived a conviction on
        obscenity charges, the arrest of salespeople, the confiscation of
        cameras, and even eviction from its offices.  On October 8, 1968,
        eighteen staff members and supporters of Kudzu were attacked
        and beaten by Jackson deputy sherriffs ... In 1970, Kudzu was
        put under direct surveillance by the FBI.  For more than two months
        FBI agents made daily searches without warrants ... On October
        24 and 25, Kudzu sponsored a Southern regional conference of the
        Underground Press Syndicate.  The night before the conference the
        FBI and Jackson detectives searched the Kudzu offices twice.
        During the search, an FBI agent threatened to kill Kudzu staffers.
        On the morning of October 26, FBI agents again searched the offices.
        That evening local police entered the building, held its eight
        occupants at gunpoint, produced a bag of marijuana, then arrested
        them ... A Kudzu staff member commented, "The FBI used to be
        fairly sophisticated, but lately they have broken one of our doors,
        pointed guns in our faces, told us that 'Punks like you don't have
        any rights', and threatened to shoot us on the street if they see
        us with our hands in our pockets."  [166]

    Similar violence was used to disperse 1960s demonstrations, with proactive
    acts by undercover agents often providing a convenient pretext.  Southern
    police attacks on civil rights workers in the early 1960s have been widely
    publicized, most recently in the film "Eyes on the Prize".  Contrary to the
    impression promoted by the media, however, 1960s brutality against political
    protesters was not limited to any one period or region.  As progressive
    momentum surged in the final years of the decade, "Southern justice" spread
    throughout the country.  Unarmed demonstrators were attacked by police and
    national guardsmen in Ohio (Kent State), Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, New
    York, California and Puerto Rico as well as Mississippi (Jackson State) and
    North Carolina (Orangeburg).  Thousands were beaten and injured. Hundreds
    were wounded and hospitalized.  At least 17 were killed. [167]

    166.    Rips, Geoffrey, "The Campaign against the Underground Press"
            (A PEN American Center Report), in UnAmerican Activities
            (City Lights Books, 1981); Mackenzie, Angus, "Sabotaging the
            Dissident Press", Columbia Journalism Reveiw, March 3,
            1981; Armstrong, David, A Trumpet to Arms: The Alternative
            Media in America (South End Press, 1981), pp. 137ff.

    167.    Goldstein, pp. 509-513; Petition to the United Nations,
            p. 24

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    MEMO TO FIELD OFFICES

    This is not an excerpt from Brian Glick's writing itself.  It is, however,
    an excerpted FBI directive to its field offices, both in Brian Glick's files
    and in the FBI Reading Room in Washington DC.  Another source of FBI
    COINTELPRO papers is COINTELPRO PAPERS: Documents from the FBI's Secret
    War on Domestic Dissent (South End Press, 1989.  REMEMBER THE FOLLOWING
    FBI DOCUMENT IS EXCERPTED:

    COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM
    INTERNAL SECURITY
    DISRUPTION OF THE NEW LEFT
    (COINTELPRO - NEW LEFT)

    7/5/68

    Bulletin 5/10/68 requested suggestions for Counterintelligence action against
    the New Left.  The replies to the Bureau's request have been analyzed and it
    is felt that the following suggestions for counterintelligence action can be
    utilized by all offices:

    1.  Preparation of a leaflet desgined to counteract the impression that
        Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and other minority groups
        speak for the majority of students at universities.  The leaflet
        should contain photographs of New Left leadership at the respective
        university.  Naturally the most obnoxious pictures should be used.

    2.  The instigating of or the taking advantage of personal conflicts or
        animosities existing between New Left leaders.

    3.  The creating of impressions that certain New Left leaders are
        informants for the Bureau or other law enforcement agencies.

    4.  The use of articles from student newspapers and/or the "underground
        press" to show the depravity of New Left leaders and members.  In
        this connection, articles showing the use of narcotics and free sex
        are ideal to send to university officials, wealthy donors, members
        of the legislature and parents of students who are active New Left
        members.

    5.  Since the use of marijuana and other narcotics is widespread among
        members of the New Left, you should be alert to opportunities to
        have them arrested by local authorities on drug charges ...

    6.  The drawing up of anonymous letters regarding individuals active in
        the New Left.  These letters should set out their activities and
        should be sent to their parents, neighbors, and the parents'
        employers.  This could have the effect of forcing the parents to
        take action.

    7.  Anonymous letters describing faculty members and graduate assistants
        in the various institutions of higher learning who are active in New
        Left matters.  The activities and associations of the individual
        should be set out.  Anonymous mailings should be made to university
        officials, members of the state legislature, Board of Regents, and
        to the press.  Such letters could be signed "A Concerned Alumni" or
        "A Concerned Taxpayer".

    8.  Whenever  New Left gropus engage in disruptive activities on college
        campuses, cooperative press contacts should be encouraged to emphasize
        that the disruptive elements constitute a minority of the students
        and do not represent the conviction of the majority ...

    9.  There is a definite hostility among SDS and other New Left groups
        toward Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the Young Socialist Alliance
        (YSA), and the Progressive Labor Party (PLP).  This hostility should
        be exploited wherever possible.

    10. The field was previously  advised that the New Left gropus are
        attempting to open coffeehouses near military bases in order to
        influence members of the Armed Forces.  Wherever these coffeehouses
        are, friendly news media should be alerted to them and their purpose.
        In addition, various drugs such as marijuana, will probably be utilized
        by individuals running the coffeehouses or frequenting them.  Local
        law enforcement authorities should be promptly advised whenever you
        receive an indication that this is being done.

    11. Consider the use of cartoons, photographs, and anonymous letters
        which will have the effect of ridiculing the New Left.  Ridicule
        is one of the most potent weapons we can use against it.

    12. Be alert for opportunities to confuse and disrupt New Left activities
        by misinformation.  For example, when events are planned, notification
        that the event has been cancelled or postponed could be sent to various
        individuals ...

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    Memo to Field Offices