Greenwald: 4 points about the 1971 FBI break-in

[JDPriestly]

28. If Cointelpro was illegal, why is the NSA surveillance in the US being done today legal?

FBI records show that 85% of COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals that the FBI deemed "subversive",[10] including communist and socialist organizations; organizations and individuals associated with the Civil Rights Movement, including Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Congress of Racial Equality and other civil rights organizations; black nationalist groups; the American Indian Movement; a broad range of organizations labeled "New Left", including Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen; almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, as well as individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; the National Lawyers Guild; organizations and individuals associated with the women's rights movement; nationalist groups such as those seeking independence for Puerto Rico, United Ireland, and Cuban exile movements including Orlando Bosch's Cuban Power and the Cuban Nationalist Movement; and additional notable Americans —even Albert Einstein, who was a socialist and a member of several civil rights groups, came under FBI surveillance during the years just before COINTELPRO's official inauguration.[11] The remaining 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert white hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the National States' Rights Party.[12]

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover issued directives governing COINTELPRO, ordering FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and their leaders.[13][14] Under Hoover, the agent in charge of COINTELPRO was William C. Sullivan.[15] Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, although himself the target of FBI surveillance[citation needed], personally authorized some of these programs.[16]

. . . .
The FBI improperly opened investigations of American activist groups, even though they were planning nothing more than peaceful civil disobedience, according to a report by the inspector general (IG) of the U.S. Department of Justice. The review by the inspector general was launched in response to complaints by civil liberties groups and members of Congress. The FBI improperly monitored groups including the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh-based peace group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and Greenpeace USA, an environmental activism organization. Also, activists affiliated with Greenpeace were improperly put on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning no violence or illegal acitivities. The IG report found the "troubling" FBI practices between 2001 and 2006. In some cases, the FBI conducted investigations of people affiliated with activist groups for "factually weak" reasons. Also, the FBI extended investigations of some of the groups "without adequate basis" and improperly kept information about activist groups in its files. The IG report also found that FBI Director Robert Mueller III provided inaccurate congressional testimony about one of the investigations, but this inaccuracy may have been due to his relying on what FBI officials told him.[71]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

The current NSA program is secret, and therefore we do not know who they are targeting. Again, I would like to know whether liberal thinkers, liberal people are included in the leadership of the NSA beyond those President Obama personally picked.

The NSA program has the potential to continue activities similar to those of COINTELPRO.

Some surveillance is probably needed for our security. But the people overseeing the surveillance should be from all political persuasions and should have complete access to anything the surveillance system does and should know exactly who or what organizations are being placed under surveillance. Further, any member of the group overseeing the surveillance should be free to go to the public when any question arises as to political surveillance. I fear that there may be a great deal of political surveillance going on today.

Now, you can reassure me all you want. You can call me a conspiracy-theorist all you want.

The fact is that COINTELPRO targeted those with political ideas that differed from the leadership of COINTELPRO and elected leadership in the country. They destroyed the freedom of people who disagreed with them in the slightest.

Why in heavens name would they spy on Art Buchwald?

There is no justification for placing the American people under widespread surveillance. It violates our Constitution. The secrecy surrounding this program exists, ad Thomas Drake explained because those who manage it from day to day know very well that if the American people really understood the program, it would be clearly and without any doubt ended.