Return-Path: ACTIV-L%UMCVMB.BITNET%UCHIMVS1@gargoyle.uchicago.edu Received: from gargoyle.uchicago.edu by cabot.dartmouth.edu (5.61a+YP/4.1) id AA00391; Wed, 12 Dec 90 13:54:02 -0500 Received: by gargoyle.uchicago.edu from zaphod.uchicago.edu (4.0/1.14) id AA01531; Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:54:57 CST Received: from uchimvs1.uchicago.edu by zaphod.uchicago.edu (5.59/4.7) id AA02737; Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:54:54 CST Date: Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:54:54 CST From: ACTIV-L%UMCVMB.BITNET%UCHIMVS1@gargoyle.uchicago.edu Message-Id: <9012121854.AA02737@zaphod.uchicago.edu> Received: (from UICVM for via BSMTP) Received: (from MAILER@UICVM for MAILER@UCHIMVS1 via NJE) Apparently-To: (M-RSCS5041-5041; 290 LINES); Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:55:50 CST Received: from UICVM.BITNET by UICVM (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 2948; Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:53:38 CST Date: Wed, 12 Dec 90 12:46:37 CST Reply-To: "Rich Winkel, UMC Math Department" Sender: Activists Mailing List From: "Rich Winkel, UMC Math Department" Subject: COINTELPRO in the '80s: The "New" FBI To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L Following are excerpts from an article in Covert Action Information Bulletin, #31, (Winter '89). The article was written by Ross Gelbspan, a reporter for the Boston Globe. COINTELPRO in the '80s: The "New" FBI "Between 1981 and 1988, the FBI - in particular the bureau's global counter-terrorism unit and its foreign intelligence division: "Mounted a massive political spying campaign, involving 52 of the FBI's 59 field offices, to infiltrate and watch members of the committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador, as well as 138 other labor, educational, religious and political groups, who had mobilized against US policies in central america. (1) "Interviewed and, according to numerous subjects, intimidated more than 100 US citizens who traveled to nicaragua and ordered documents and private papers seized from scores of citizens re-entering the US after visiting central america. "Compiled a "terrorist album" whos hundreds of entries included US senators, congressmen, diplomats and clergy. "Enlisted the aid of a range of private, rightwing extremist groups, including the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's organization; a private, intelligence-gathering network of US based rightwing salvadorans; John Rees, a rightwing journalist who has provided information to the bureau which he received from his own netowrk of police and police informants; and a group of rightwing ideologues, including J. Michael Waller and Michael Boos, whose spying operations have been sponsored by a number of rightwing patrons and, in some cases, financed by the US government. (2) "Collaborated in the surveillance, imprisonment and possible deaths of salvadoran refugees who have been deported back to el salvador where they were met by salvadoran authorities who had been alerted to their arrival by the fbi. "Ignored more than 85 reported break-ins and thefts of files at the offices and homes of central american activists around the country. While the fbi maintains it did not commit the break-ins, many vicitms suspect the bureau has received data gathered by burglars. In addition, the fbi has declined to investigate the break-ins, contending that since it has no evidence of government involvement, it has no jurisdiction to investigate. "As a result of the fbi's opeations, tens of thousands of names have been added to the bureaus terrorism files- names of people whose only offense has been to write a letter in support of the nuclear freeze movement (which the fbi obtained by virtue of a mail intercept on the post office box of freeze organizers) or to attend a meeting of cispes or other groups (where the fbi recorded and traced license plates and other information in order to identify activists) (3) "The FBI's five year, nationwide investigation did not result in the arrest of a single activist for criminal or terrorist activities. "Even before he took office, president-elect reagan signalled a major change in foreign policy goals. Human rights was out and counter terrorism was in. That was the message to the nations's law enforcement and intelligence communities. It was also the message that Ret. Maj. Gen. John Singlaub [former head of the World Anticommunist League, an international ultra-rightwing group associated with death squads in south america and repressive regimes all over the world] and Daniel O. Graham, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, brought to Central America in 1980. After meeting with Singlaub and Graham the leaders of Guatemalas' fanatic rightwing were delighted because they were given the distinct impression that "Mr. reagan recognized that a good deal of dirty work has to be done." (4) "While the administration trumpeted its anti-terrorism policies to justify its alliance with repressive central american governments, it buried under the deepest kind of cover its campaign against hundreds of thousands of law abiding dissenters inside the US. "According to a 1980 Heritage Foundation report [a policy white paper presented to president-elect reagan] compiled by an anonymous group within the intelligence community, "extremist political groups should be kept under surveillance, at first by reading and fileing publicly available information ... the more serious surveillance can be carried out by the use of such intelligence techniques as wiretapping, mail intercepts, informants and, at least occasionally, surreptitious entries." (5) "The report noted that terrorist groups may be difficult to detect, since "clergymen, students, businessmen, entertainers, labor officials, journalists and government workers may engage in subversive activities without being fully aware of the extent, purpose or control of their activities." (5) "Lamenting the weakening of law enforcement capabilities in the wake of the revelations by the church and pike committees in the 1970's [these congressional investigations dealt with past abuses of the fbi and cia during the vietnam era], the report recommended "contracting with one or several of the many private groups that have specialized in providing and disseminating relevant information with legal complications." [meaning illegally obtained information] (5) "The group recommended scrapping the 1976 fbi guidelines instituted by then Attorney General Edward Levi [instituted in response to the above investigations]. It suggested exempting the fbi from the Freedom of Information Act. And it called for the appointment of an attorney general and fbi director who "understand the nature of the threat and the professional tradecraft of internal security work." (5) "Most of these recommendations found expression in an executive order (EO 12333) which reagan signed in december 1981. That order permitted the fbi, among other things, to contract with private groups for intelligence gathering and to conceal the existence of such contracts; to engage in warrantless break-ins under certain circumstances (which remain classified); and to accept any material it received in the course of a counter-terrorism or coutnerintelligence investigation regardless of how the material was obtained. "What is known today of the administration's assault on the first amendment is vague, partly because the administration promulgated a series of directives which effectively pulled a blanket of secrecy over the government. But despite the administration's use of random polygraph exams, censorship agreements and legislation (passed with the consent of the aclu and the approval of congress) which adds dramatic restrictions to the freedom of information act, some clues exist as to the nature and scope of its campaign to silence dissent." The article goes on to mention several sources of information, including a published interview with former CIA contract agent Philip Mabry, the trial of Lyndon LaRouche and congressional testimony of former FBI agent Frank Varelli. According to Mabry, Oliver North and the National Security Council were involved in instigating fbi investigations into the Christic Institute, the Center for Constitutional Rights, CISPES, and former mercenary turned wistleblower Jack Terrell. In the LaRouche case, evidence surfaced that the FBI continues to keep "DO NOT FILE" files, which it used in the 1960's and 70s to store records of "black bag jobs" until they had been reviewed, after which they were destroyed. (fbi representatives have testified under oath that they no longer use these types of files) This particular file referenced a secret meeting between Henry Kissinger (???) and William Webster regarding a press conference LaRouche had had the previous day. Kissinger, who had asked for the meeting, wanted no paper trail of it. The most valuable information source was Frank Varelli: Varelli spied on numerous groups opposed to central american policy. He testified that he was asked to visit the offices of cispes and the institute for policy studies, to check out the locations of filing cabinets, alarms, exits and fire escapes. He was told that the work had been authorized by the NSC and the White House. Soon after his visits, these offices were broken into. In texas, he worked closely with members of Rev. Moon's church, who had been hired by the FBI to disrupt cispes events on the southern methodist university campus. "Whenever CISPES mounted a lecture or demonstration, members of CARP (the collegiate arm of the Moon organization) were on hand to throw rocks and start fights." He also came to know a network of rightwing salvadoran spies financed and organized by a group of wealthy salvadoran exiles in the US. He arranged to provide the names of airline travelers enroute to el salvador to the fbi, which was able to look up their names in a database of leftist salvadorans provided to the fbi by death squad leader Roberto d'Aubussion. The FBI then alerted the salvadoran national guard to the arrival of suspected subversives. He arranged with the salvadoran consulate to get the names of american activists who were applying for visas to el salvador. He testified that much of the information stolen from activists offices in the US (including the names of salvadoran activists) had been provided to the salvadoran national guard, probably costing many salvadorans their lives. "It is very distressing that, once again, the FBI has turned its counter- terrorism unit into thought police. After years of promises, reassurances, laws and guidelines, the FBI is still in the business of spying on political protesters. It is, however, even more distressing that the press, Congress and the public have let them get away with it. We must ask, especially after eight years of Reagan doublespeak, have we become so desensitized to the meaning of freedom that we do not recognize when it is blatantly eroded?" --------- Footnotes: 1. 1200 pages of fbi files released in a freedom of information act suit brought by the center for constitutional rights. 2. Boston Globe 3/15/88; 4/20/88; 5/17/88. Interview with M. Waller, 5/88; KRON-TV, San Francisco, 11/10/87 3. FBI FOIA cispes files, Frank Varelli, Boston Globe 1/31/88 4. Scott and Lee Anderson, _Inside_the_League_, 1986 5. Mandate For Leadership - Policy Management in a Conservative Administration, The Heritage Foundation, 1980 ------------- The next article deals with the congressional investigation and the coverup of these activities. No grand jury was ever convened, no one was ever indicted. The hearings were a whitewash. It should be pointed out that the FBI has functioned as a political police since its founding. Similar tactics were used against labor unions in the 30's, "red sympathizers" in the 50's, antiwar protesters and the Black Panthers in the 60's, and the American Indian Movement in the 70's. Innocent people were killed, and political prisoners targeted by the FBI languish in prison to this day. As the next article shows, nothing has changed since the congressional hearings mentioned above. ---------------- >From In These Times, Dec 20, 1989: When both cia director william webster and fbi director william sessions conceded that the fbi should not have harassed the committee in solidarity with the people of el salvador during webster's misbegotten tenure as fbi director, it might have seemed that the violations would end. But according to a document acquired by cispes during the prosecution of an antiwar activist in san francisco, government spying on cispes and other opponents of the us' central american policy has continued. The document, a march 6, 1989 domestic intelligence update, originated at the state department- specifically at the bureau of diplomatic security (ds). The report's author, charles sparks, is identified as a member of the diplomatic security policy threat assessment division. Sparks sent the update to 12 people in ds, including nine stationed in major us cities who have the ominous title "bureau of diplomatic security field office special agent in charge" In his report on the activities of cispes and the salvadoran refugee committee (CRECEN), sparks wrote that both groups had planned a 'non-violent blockade' of the state department to protest what he acknowledged as "the US war in el salvador." he also noted that cispes had been planning a fundraising dinner on march 11, 1989. Cispes and the fmln are particularly upset about the last line of the intelligence document, which reads, "this information should be shared with appropriate law enforcement contacts as well as official government of el salvador representatives." Fmln spokeswoman Guardelupe Gonzales put it this way: "it is very dangerous for the salvadoran government to be getting the names of salvadoran refugees who are opposing the government from here in the US, because under the newly passed anti-terrorist law, speaking against the government is prohibited whether you are inside or outside the country. If you do it, it can mean a 10 year prison sentence." In el salvador, a prison sentence for people convicted of political crimes is often a prelude to death. Cispes spokesman Mike Zielinski says, "this memo indicates that the government's harassment and surveillance of cispes is ongoing. Sessions has testified in congress that the fbi's actions in spying on cispes were an abberation and had ended in 1985, but here we have a government agency continuing that kind of activity in the spring of 1989." Jinsoo Kim, who has been working on the cispes spying case for the new york based center for constitutional rights (ccr) says, "when americans go to el salvador, they often find their names on a list when they are stopped at the airport in el salvador. That list had to be coming from somewhere, and now we have an idea where the source is." Cispes and CRECEN activists worry that the state department's newly uncovered intelligence work may in part explain the violence and threats of violence against those in the us working against american policy in central america. Noting that the alleged termination of fbi surveillance and the infiltration of cispes by the fbi has not put an end to death threats received by activists, cispes' zielinski says, "there is still quite a pattern to the harassment, and i think it is clearly being organized as a way of stifling dissent." He notes that recently salvadoran refugees in los angeles were presented with a "hit list." And last week, a Lousiville, KY minister active in cispes was sent a photograph of the six priests killed in el salvador accompanied by a note warning "you're next."