Operation CHAOS: Difference between revisions

▲'''Operation CHAOS''' or '''Operation MHCHAOS''' was the code name ([[CIA cryptonym]]) of a [[United States]] [[Central Intelligence Agency]] domestic espionage project targeting the American people from 1967 to 1974, established by [[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Johnson]] and expanded under [[Richard Nixon|President Nixon]], whose mission was to uncover possible foreign influence on domestic race, anti-war and other protest movements. The operation was launched under [[Director of Central Intelligence]] (DCI) [[Richard Helms]] by chief of [[counter-intelligence]] [[James Jesus Angleton]], and headed by [[Richard Ober]]. <ref name="Theoharis06">{{cite book|title=The Central Intelligence Agency: Security Under Scrutiny |last=Athan Theoharis |first=Richard H. |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=0-313-33282-7 |pages=49,175,195,203,322}}</ref><ref name="Napoli05">{{cite book|title=Intelligence Identities Protection Act and Its Interpretation |first=Russell P. |last=Napoli |publisher=Nova Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=1-59454-685-1 |pages=18–20}}</ref> The "MH" designation is to signify the program had a worldwide area of operations.<ref name="Friedman05">{{cite book|title=The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the Past and Changed the World |first=John S. |last=Friedman |year=2005 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-42517-1 |pages=278–279}}</ref>

▲When President [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]] came to office in 1969, existing domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS.<ref name="Goldstein01">{{cite book|title=Political Repression in Modern America: From 1870 to 1976 |first=Robert Justin |last=Goldstein |year=2001 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0-252-06964-1 |page=456}}</ref> Operation CHAOS first used CIA stations abroad to report on antiwar activities of United States citizens traveling abroad, employing methods such as physical surveillance and electronic [[eavesdropping]], utilizing "liaison services" in maintaining such surveillance. The operations were later expanded to include 60 officers.<ref name="Friedman05" /> In 1969, following the expansion, the operation began developing its own network of [[informants]] for the purposes of infiltrating various foreign antiwar groups located in foreign countries that might have ties to domestic groups.<ref name="Napoli05" /> Eventually, CIA officers expanded the program to include other leftist or counter-cultural groups with no discernible connection to [[Vietnam]], such as groups operating within the [[History of feminism#Late twentieth century: the postwar period and the second wave|women's liberation movement]].<ref name="Theoharis06" /> The domestic spying of Operation CHAOS also targeted the [[Israel]]i embassy, and domestic [[Jew]]ish groups such as the [[B'nai B'rith]]. In order to gather intelligence on the embassy and B'nai B'rith, the CIA purchased a [[Waste collection|garbage collection]] company to collect documents that were to be destroyed.<ref name="Loftus97">{{cite book|title=The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People |first=John |last=Loftus |author2=Mark Aarons |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |date=April 15, 1997 |isbn=0-312-15648-0 |page=322}}</ref>

▲The secret program was exposed by [[investigative journalist]] [[Seymour Hersh]] in a 1974 article in the ''[[New York Times]]'' entitled ''Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years''.<ref name="Theoharis06" /><ref name="NYT">{{Cite journal |title=Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years |author=[[Seymour Hersh]] |date=December 22, 1974 |journal=[[New York Times]] |page=1 |url=http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/238963-huge-c-i-a-operation-reported-in-u-s-against.html }}</ref> Amid the uproar of the [[Watergate scandal|Watergate break-in]] involving two former CIA officers, Operation CHAOS had been closed in 1973.<ref name=Lyon/> Further details were revealed in 1975 during [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[Bella Abzug]]'s House Subcommittee on Government Information and individual Rights.<ref name="Friedman05" /> The government, in response to the revelations, felt pressured enough to launch the [[United States President's Commission on CIA activities within the United States|Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States]] (The Rockefeller Commission), led by then [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Nelson Rockefeller]], to investigate the depth of the surveillance.<ref name="Theoharis06" /> [[Richard Cheney]], then [[Deputy White House Chief of Staff]], is noted as stating of the Rockefeller Commission; it was to avoid " ... congressional efforts to further encroach on the executive branch."<ref name="Theoharis06" />

▲[[Category:Central Intelligence Agency domestic surveillance operations]]

▲[[Category:FBI operations]]

▲[[Category:Government databases in the United States]]