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The Danger We Face
Domestic Covert Action Remains a Serious Threat Today
The public exposure of COINTELPRO and other government abuses elicited
a flurry of apparent reform in the 1970s. President Nixon resigned in
the face of impeachment. His Attorney General, other top aides, and
many of the "plumbers" were prosecuted and imprisoned for brief
periods. The CIA's director and counter-intelligence chief were
ousted, and the CIA and the Army were again directed to cease covert
operations against domestic targets.
The FBI had formally shut down COINTELPRO a few weeks after it was
uncovered. As part of the general face-lift, the Bureau publicly
apologized for COINTELPRO, and municipal governments began to disband
the local police "red squads" that had served as the FBI's main
accomplices. A new Attorney General notified several hundred activists
that they had been victims of COINTELPRO and issued guidelines
limiting future operations. Top FBI officials were indicted for
ordering the burglary of activists' offices and homes; two were
convicted, and several others retired or resigned. The Bureau's
egomaniacal, crudely racist and sexist founder, J. Edgar Hoover, died
in 1972. After two interim directors failed to stem the tide of
criticism, a prestigious federal judge, William Webster, was appointed
by President Carter to clean house and build a "new FBI."
Behind this public hoopla, however, the Bureau's war at home continued
unabated. Domestic covert action did not end when it was exposed in
the 1970s. It has persisted throughout the 1980s and become a
permanent feature of U.S. government.
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