Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI

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The Citizens 'Commission to Investigate the FBI ( English for about citizens' commission to investigate the FBI ) was a group of activists that the political left belong. Their only known to the public action is the burglary on March 8, 1971 in the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Media , Pennsylvania , where the actors than 1,000 secret stole documents.

Parts of the papers were then sent to various US newspapers , which then usually partially published the processed information. The first full publication took place in 1972 through a print medium that was related to the War Resisters League .

These documents documented a large number of mostly illegal covert operations by the FBI against politically undesirable groups, the most famous being Operation COINTELPRO , which was processed by the Church Committee .

In January 2014, a book by the journalist Betty Medsger appeared about the break-in and the activists: "The Burglary: The discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI" . In it, four of the surviving members of the group explained details and told the story of the group from their point of view. During the book's press launch, the four spoke to the New York Times . Medsger was the first female journalist to use the material sent in 1971 to write an article that appeared in the Washington Post .

The deeds have been statute-barred since 1976 .

Members

The identity of the members could not be clarified during the five-year investigation, there was neither evidence nor accused , only one person from the group was suspected at all.

The following five people appeared as members of the group:

William Davidon's name was published by the four living members because, according to their information, he intended to take this step himself, but died before that. His original motivation was the frustration that accumulated due to the poor success of the demonstrations organized by him as a central figure in the peace movement .

“It looks like we're terribly reckless people. But there was absolutely no one in Washington - senators, congressmen, even the president - who dared hold J. Edgar Hoover to accountability. It became pretty obvious to us, that if we don't do it, nobody will. "

“It looks like we're reckless people, but there was absolutely no one in Washington - senators, members of Congress, not even the President, trying to hold J. Edgar Hoover accountable. It became clear to us: if not us, nobody will do anything. "

- John C. Raines

Originally the group consisted of nine people, one member withdrew early. After March 8th, all members of the group never met again.

The break-in

Buildings on One Veteran's Square, Media, Pennsylvania with the Delaware County Courthouse in the background. Now serving as an apartment building, this property was the target of the March 8, 1971 break-in of the local FBI office that led to the discovery of the CoIntelPro program.

preparation

Originally the FBI headquarters in Philadelphia itself was the target, but the risk seemed too great to break into. After considering whether the regional office had any interesting documents at all and whether the risk of the crime was worth it at all, the building in Media was chosen as the destination.

Before the actual act, the building 1 Veterans Sq, Media, PA was observed over a period of months and the local conditions were scouted out: Through repeated visits at different times of the day, behavioral patterns of residents and employees could be derived. World icon

"We knew when people came home from work, when their lights went out, when they went to bed, when they woke up in the morning, we were quite certain that we understood the nightly activities in and around that building."

“We knew when people were coming home from work, when their lights were off, when they went to bed, when they woke up. We were pretty sure that we understood the nighttime activities around the building. "

- John Raines

Bonnie Raines walked into the FBI's office weeks before the action with a bogus interest in local career opportunities. She noticed the apparent absence of alarm systems .

implementation

The group chose the night of March 8th, as they suspected fewer passers-by in front of the target building due to the Fight of the Century boxing match and hoped that the live radio transmission would distract the guards.

Keith Forsyth was supposed to open the front door using lock picking , but failed because of the lock used. Instead, he used brute force to pry open a side door. Everyone involved wore gloves when they put the papers and files in their suitcases. Escape cars were waiting outside , going in different directions, before the inmates met at the agreed meeting point, a farm, to evaluate the stolen documents.

Selected papers were sent to various newspapers, some of which refused to publish them because of immorality . The Washington Post , which initially received 14 documents, and later the New York Times were in charge of the preparation . On March 24, 1971, Betty Medsger published the first article after Attorney General John Mitchell tried to prevent publication: He cited "the endangerment of the lives of American citizens" . Mitchell was later convicted of engaging in illegal machinations during his involvement in the Watergate affair .

Aftermath

After initial doubts about the quality of the loot, it quickly became apparent that the documents contained hard facts about intelligence operations that demonstrated a wide range of illegal activities. Left-wing organizations in particular have been the target of illegal discredit , manipulation and surveillance .

"The intent of Cointelpro was to destroy lives and ruin reputations."

"The intention of Cointelpro was to destroy lives and ruin reputations"

- Loch K. Johnson , University of Georgia

This and subsequent publications, which were also made possible by other activists and whistleblowers , resulted in a series of social upheavals and political consequences in the early 1970s. Together with the scandals surrounding the Pentagon Papers and Operation CHAOS , the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI was the trigger for the establishment of the US Senate's special committee to investigate government activities related to intelligence activities in 1975, the so-called Church Committee .

"According to its analysis of the documents in this FBI office, 1 percent were devoted to organized crime, mostly gambling; 30 percent were "manuals, routine forms, and similar procedural matter"; 40 percent were devoted to political surveillance and the like, including two cases involving right-wing groups, ten concerning immigrants, and over 200 on left or liberal groups. Another 14 percent of the documents concerned draft resistance and "leaving the military without government permission." The remainder concerned bank robberies, murder, rape, and interstate theft. "

“After analyzing these documents on this FBI office, it turns out that 1% was involved in organized crime, mostly gambling; 30% were manuals, procedures and other organizational matters; 40% were engaged in political surveillance and the like: two cases from right-wing groups, ten from immigrants and over 200 from left or liberal groups. Another 14% dealt with resistance to conscription and desertion, the rest dealt with bank robberies, murder, rape and theft across national borders. "

- Noam Chomsky

A documentary called 1971 was produced by Big Mouth Productions and Laura Poitras . In the film released in 2014, participants spoke about their action in public for the first time.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Mazzetti: Burglars Who Took On FBI Abandon Shadows ( en ) January 7, 2014. Archived from the original on January 12, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  2. ↑ Allan M. Jalon: A break-in to end all break-ins ( en ) Los Angeles Times . March 8, 2006. Archived from the original on January 12, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  3. ↑ Domestic Terrorism: Notes on the State System of Oppression , chomsky.info. Retrieved January 14, 2014, from: Noam Chomsky : New Political Science, Volume 21, Number 3 , September 1999, ISBN 978-1-274-38986-2 , pages 303-324.
  4. ↑ 1971 Citizens Who Exposed COINTELPRO . PBS. Retrieved May 19, 2015.