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COINTELPRO: How a Secret Program Turned Solidarity into Suspicion

In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975.

⬛ CONFIDENTIAL nhat141210/data 8/14/2026 1 min read

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In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975. From those successive revelations the public learned that COINTELPRO, short for Counterintelligence Program, operated from 1956 to 1971. It began by targeting the Communist Party USA and later expanded to the New Left, Socialist Workers Party, Ku Klux Klan, Puerto Rican independence groups, and the Black Panther Party.

In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975.

In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975.

In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975.

In 1971, a group calling itself the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI broke into the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and walked out with a stack of files. Those documents went to the press and to members of the US Congress; four years later, the Senate's Church Committee opened its investigation of domestic intelligence activities in 1975.

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