COINTELPRO – program kontrwywiadowczy FBI z lat 1956–1971. Założenia, realizacja i ocena przez Komisję Churcha z 1976 roku – wybrane elementy
FBI COINTELPRO counterintelligence program of 1956–1971: Assumptions, implementation, and evaluation by the 1976 Church Committee – selected elements

Summary/Abstract: This article presents the specificity of the counterintelligence operations of the FederalBureau of Investigation under the code name COINTELPRO, conducted in the years 1956–1971. The study characterizes the illegal and unlawful activities of the FBI undertaken inrelation to organizations legally operating in the USA and their leaders. The author de-scribes the circumstances of the disclosure of these operations, as well as the reasonsfor their termination. The study indicates that even in democratic societies it is possiblefor counterintelligence services to conduct illegal operations, especially when these ac-tivities are classified. The article shows that conscious and organized citizens (whistle-blowers), as well as independent media, have an influence on revealing illegal operationsconducted by the secret services, and properly exercised control, in this case parliamen-tary control, is able to end such activities. The article fills the cognitive gap in the subjectarea – so far, no articles on the FBI’s activities under the COINTELPRO program have beenpublished in Poland.

• Details
• Contents