FBI Airs Disruptive Tactics
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By John M. Goshko
cern a campaign started by Klan rallies. There was no
the late FBI Director J. Edgar indication in the documents
The FBI made public yester- Hoover in 1964 to disrupt the about whether Godwin was
day previously secret docu- Klan. According to the docu- actually approached.
ments
describing
the ments, the. FBI infiltrated the Other documents reveal a
"counterintelligence" tactics it Klan with approximately 2,000 campaign that started in 1954
used in the late 1960s to dis- informants, set up an organi- against the American Commit.
rupt and discredit such organi- zation to act as a counter nist Party which included
zations as the Ku Klux Klan force, fabricated news stories anonymous mailings to Jewish
the Communist Party and the hostile to Klan leaders, and members about anti-Semitic
Black Panthers.
mailed large numbers of anon, policies in the Soviet Union.
The documents detail how ymous postcards intended to In yet another campaign,
the counterintelligence pro. frighten Klan members into FBI informants induced Chicago officials to condemn et
,gram, known as COINTEL- resigning.
PRO, used such devices as The documents also reveal building serving as local head.
portraying the Panthers as a that the FBI considered try- quarters for the American
black version of the Ku Klux ing to persuade the governor Nazi Party on the grounds of
Klan and the Klan as an "anti- of Virginia, Mills Gcidwin, to building code violations.
Christ" organization hindering take action against the Klan The documents, most of
the Vietnam war effort.
in 1966 for failing to pay state which are internal FBI memos
Most of the documents con- retail taxes on items sold at
See. FBI, A6, Col. 2
Washinaton Poet Staff Writer
FBI Airs Disruptive Tactics
Against Klan, Communists
expert on how to flatter Mr. the color of the skin beneath.
Hoover. Tre reply from my the sheets has changed from
and. letters from 1964 through office sounds like the sort of white to black," the "treatise"
1970, were obtained by a thing he use to routinely send went on to charge that the
Panthers were similar to the
group of reporters under the out."
Freedom of Information Act,
On another occasion, Sept. Klan in terms of their- emapClarence M, Kelley, the pres- 16, 1969, the documents indi- phasis on violence and
ent FBI director, revealed last cate that a report on "the ex- peals to racism. The main
Conyear that the countelintell}. cellent results achieved difference, the article
gene program, which also al- through' counterintelligence in cluded, —was 4 that the Black
legedly was used against vast smashing the Klan effective- Panthers looked for financial
ous anti-Vietnam war groups, ness in North Carolina" was and moral support to Comwas discontinued by Hoover in sent to the then Attorney Gen- munist backers like. Cuba.
April, 1971, after the news me- eral, John N. Mitchell, the Although it has long been
dia exposed some of its activi- then- deputy attorney general, common knowledge that the
This exposure also prompted Richard G. Kleindienst, and FBI had heavily infiltrated
the Attorneys General during three assistant attorneys gen- the Klan, the documents show
how deep the infiltration was.
the time the programs were in eral.
force to deny that they were Kleindienst, who has denied At one point in the 1960s, they
informed of them during their knowledge of COINTELPRO say, FBI informants held high
tenure at the Justice Depart- when he served as Mitchell's rank in seven of the country's
ment. However, the documents deputy and later when he was 14 Klan groups and one acmade public yesterday indi- himself Attorney General, told tually headed one state Klan.
cate that memos or letters re- The Washington. Post yester- In 1966 a campaign was
ferring to some of the coun- day that he had no recollec- started to send anonymous
Postcards to known Klan
terintelligence activities were tion of seeing this report.
sent to the Attorney General's Like Katzenbach, Klein- members bearing such mesoffice on at least two °cert.? dienst noted that "I was get- sages as, "Trying to hide your
ting about 30 pounds of stuff identity behind a sheet? Somesions.
On Sept. 2, 1965, Hoover a day, and I didn't really read one knows who you are," and,
"Is Your job safe even after
sent letters to Attorney Gen- most of it
eral Nicholas deB. Katzenzach The documents stress the everyone finds out you're a
and to Marvin Watson, a spe- discrediting of target organi- Klansman?"
cial assistant to President zations 'through the coopera- One unusual disruptive
Johnson, describing how the tion of reliable news media weapon fashioned against the
Klan was the FBI's creation of
FBI had infiltrated the Klan sources."
and giving other examples of The documents cite. several an organization called the Nahow "we, also are seizing every instances where . FBI agents tion& Committee for - Domesopportunity to disrupt the were able to plant stories in tic- Tranquility.
The committee was designed
activities of Klan organiza- the press about the Klan- and,
tions," Katzenbach said "I in one case, influence the film- as "a vehicle for attacking
appreciate having the benefit ing of a half-hour documen- Klan policies and disputes
of detailed information on this tary by a Miami TV station, on from a low key, common sense
subject, and I hope you will the right-wing American, and patriotic position" appeal- ing to the sort of people from
continue to keep me up to States Rights Party.
One memo, dated Sept. 21, which the Klan traditionally
date on it
Katzenbach, who was con- 1964, cited Ralph McGill, the sought support
The committee issued a bultacted by The Washington late publisher of the Atlanta
Post in Armonk, N.Y., yester- Constitution, as "a staunch Rain that appeared under the
day, reiterated that he had not and proven friend of the bu- signature of Harmon Blennerbeen informed of the counter• reau" and suggested that "the basset, an obscure historical
intelligence programs during bureau, furnish. McGill appro- figure who gave financial suphis time in the Justice De- priate material on the nation- port to Aaron Burr. Under letpartment. The former Attor- wide activity of the Klan" fer terheads suggesting it had
ney General said that he had transmission to a Saturday chapters in several states, it
been aware of the FBI's Infil- Evening Post correspondent sought to create the imprestration of the Klan but knew then working on an article sion that Klan leaders were in
league with "the anti-Christ,
nothing about the bureau's about_the Klan.
A meino dated Dec. 17, 1968, the atheistic Communist" and
disruption activities.
He also said that he had no proposed that a "treatise in interested only in their own
recollection of the 1965 letter narrative form," prepared by profit.
from Hoover and noted: "The the FBI and entitled "The The bulletin offen tried to
bureau used to send up- that Black Klan" be disseminated drive home its point by- featur:
stuff by the truckload. I had to "friendly news media" in a ing in held eapital letters the
almost all of it read by my as- campaign against the Black slogan: "QUIT THE KLAN;
AND BACK OUR BOYS IN
sistants. Mr, Hoover liked to Panthers. .
be flattered, and I had one Beginning with "this time VIETNAM,"
FBI, FromAl