COINTELPRO — FBI Domestic Surveillance

From 1956 to 1971, the FBI ran COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) to surveil, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt domestic political organizations. Targets included Martin Luther King Jr. (the FBI sent him a letter suggesting he kill himself), the Black Panthers, the NAACP, antiwar groups, feminist organizations, and the American Indian Movement. Methods included wiretapping, forged correspondence, planting fake news stories, and using informants to incite violence. The program was exposed when a group calling themselves the "Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI" broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania and stole 1,000+ documents.