It’s tough to keep track of all the FBI’s programs—programs they’re actively using against the American people. Most of us are familiar with COINTELPRO, a program from the 1960s and 1970s that was supposedly targeted at radical leftists. It’s out there for everyone to read up on and is often cited as a shameful instance of suppression against supposedly innocent Americans, and it very well might have been.
Here’s just a snippet of what Wikipedia has to say about COINTELPRO:
COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal[1][2] projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive.[3][4][5][6] Groups and individuals targeted by the FBI included feminist organizations,[7][8] the Communist Party USA,[9] anti–Vietnam War organizers, activists in the civil rights and Black power movements (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr., the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party), environmentalist and animal rights organizations, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Chicano and Mexican-American groups like the Brown Berets and the United Farm Workers, independence movements (including Puerto Rican independence groups such as the Young Lords and the Puerto Rican Socialist Party), a variety of organizations that were part of the broader New Left, and white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan[10][11] and the National States’ Rights Party.[12]
The FBI has used covert operations against domestic political groups since its inception; however, covert operations under the official COINTELPRO label took place between 1956 and 1971. Many of the tactics used in COINTELPRO are alleged to have seen continued use, including discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; illegal violence; and assassination.[13][14][15][16] According to a Senate report, the FBI’s motivation was “protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order”.[17]
Notice how quickly Wikipedia labels COINTELPRO as ‘illegal.’ Keep that in mind as we delve into another sordid story involving an FBI program you’ve probably never heard of, called PATCON. Despite being equally suppressive and likely illegal, Wikipedia never mentions it. The likely reason it remains one of the web’s best-kept secrets? It targets those the FBI and the left consider the “real enemies” of their precious democracy: right-wing Christians.
