In Chapter 4, The Fairshake Files follows the moment COINTELPRO stopped being a secret program and became a documented one.
It begins with a burglary in Media, Pennsylvania.
Not a leak.
Not an insider.
A break-in that forced the Bureau into daylight.
From there, we trace the chain reaction:
FOIA lawsuits that compelled disclosure, congressional investigations that exposed the tactics in plain language, and the reforms that were supposed to prevent this playbook from returning.
But the story doesn’t end with Watergate-era accountability. It evolves. We examine how the logic of COINTELPRO survives through modern domestic authorities, where investigations can begin without criminal predicate, where disruption can be outsourced to platforms and contractors, and where surveillance becomes a background condition of public life.
This chapter is not about paranoia. It’s about the rubric: the method, the permissions, and the machinery that persists even when the names change.
IN THIS EPISODE
- The Break-In: The Media, Pennsylvania burglary that cracked open the COINTELPRO file.
- FOIA & Exposure: How forced disclosure revealed the Bureau’s directives in its own words.
- Reform Era: Church Committee oversight, new guidelines, and the attempt to rebuild limits.
- The Modern Turn: “Assessments,” expanded domestic authority, and surveillance without probable cause.
- Digital Disruption: Social media monitoring, outsourced tools, and the new shape of influence control.
SOURCES & CITATIONS (selected)
- U.S. Senate (Church Committee), Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans (Book II)
- FBI COINTELPRO directives and memoranda (declassified / FOIA releases)
- DOJ Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations (2008)
- FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) (selected sections)
- ACLU reporting on FBI “assessments” and domestic intelligence practices
- Documented reporting on social-media monitoring tools and related civil liberties cases
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