FBI Charged With Improper Surveillance

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has admitted mistakes were made in some FBI surveillance activities under the "Patriot" Act.

Once again the FBI has engaged in illegal activities in its conduct while attempting to ferret out possible domestic and foreign enemies.

The FBI under Robert Mueller has hearkened back to the days of J. Edgar Hoover when protection of the civil rights of American citizens took a back seat to the political goals of the sitting President and his party.

Remember COINTELPRO?

COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against radical political organizations. In the early 1950s, the Communist Party was illegal in the United States. The Senate and House of Representatives each set up investigating committees to prosecute communists and publicly expose them. (The House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy). When a series of Supreme Court rulings in 1956 and 1957 challenged these committees and questioned the constitutionality of Smith Act prosecutions and Subversive Activities Control Board hearings, the FBI's response was COINTELPRO, a program designed to "neutralize" those who could no longer be prosecuted. Over the years, similar programs were created to neutralize civil rights, anti-war, and many other groups, many of which were said to be "communist front organizations."

COINTELPRO was a disaster and led to many violations of the civil rights of American citizens and was basically an attack by the U.S. government on dissent. This was just one of many abuses of power carried out by Hoover's FBI. It seems that once again a sitting president is out to infringe on the liberties of Americans in order to pursue his highly questionable policies.