Destroying the Left From Within: The Historical Context

In a sense, the broader implications of Project Veritas’ efforts to rat out leftists, both real and imagined, within labour organizations, the media, and progressive campaigns and groups seems to be a form of counter-intelligence directed by right-wing organizations against the left. This echoes a disturbing historical precedence in that historically, the American government, particularly intelligence agencies such as the FBI, has sought, through infiltration and surveillance, to destroy organizations, particularly leftist and progressive organizations, that it deems as a threat to national security.

The most infamous of these government instigated initiatives was COINTELPRO, a massive operation undertaken during from 1956-1971 by the FBI, particularly during the height of the anti-Vietnam war and civil rights movement. COINTELPRO involved the infiltration of various groups by FBI operatives deemed to be a threat. These included various anti-war organizations, communists (whom were their initial targets), new left organizations, student movements, black power organizations, and feminist movements that sprang up in the 60s. The goal of the program was not only to spy on these organizations and report their operations back to the FBI, but also to sow division within their ranks.

To achieve this goal, FBI operatives would bring up controversial issues or raise acrimonious debates in order to spark conflict, or deflect any efforts to expose them by planting falsified evidence suggesting that a particular individual was a CIA/FBI informant, which would raise further suspicions within organizations. This was what happened to black power theorist and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Stokely Carmichael, who was deemed by FBI head J. Edgar Hoover as the man most likely to succeed Malcolm X as America's "black messiah". Through COINTELPRO, the FBI undermined efforts by Carmichael to merge the Black Panthers (of which he was the "Honorary Prime Minister" of) and the SNCC by spreading disinformation that Carmichael was a CIA operative. As a result of their actions, Carmichael was banished from SNCC that year, and alienated from the Black Panthers.

Apart from destroying radical organizations from within through infiltration, other methods taken by COINTELPRO to suppress perceived threats from the left was distributing misinformation through newspaper and gossip outlets controlled secretly by the FBI to demonize specific activists, breaking into offices of various organizations such as the Socialist Workers Party to dig up personal information of individuals affiliated with radical and leftist organizations. This was specifically done in order to exploit any weaknesses they see in the personal backgrounds of the targeted activists and use it to their advantage.

The mass media was complicit in these efforts to destroy the anti-war movement, the new left, the black power movement and the civil rights movement from within. The FBI relied on friendly media sources to broadcast any information that could weaken anyone they deemed to be a threat. In addition, they worked with the media to produce content that could demonize activists in movements such as black liberation movements, as evident by a documentary demonizing black panthers and New Left activists in the Miami area; the FBI praising the television station that helped make said documentary for working with the FBI by its own accord to demonize the left.

While Project Veritas is currently an independent initiative taken by a right-wing activist, it does share disturbing similarities with COINTELPRO. These similarities manifest themselves mainly through attempts taken by both the FBI and O’Keefe’s organization to infiltrate and subvert any organization they deem to be a threat from within. Interestingly enough, while the FBI has yet to be involved in Project Veritas, Erik Prince, as noted above, has been able to recruit British intelligence operatives to help train Veritas operatives.

In the case of both the historical COINTELPRO operation and Project Veritas, operatives would infiltrate organizations or institutions deemed to be troublesome, gain the trust of those whom they want to destroy, and exploit that trust to expose any weakness or opening that the parent organization(the FBI, Project Veritas) would seek to take advantage of in order to ruin the lives and reputations of those they target.

Of course, media complicity and collaboration is a key factor in both COINTELPRO and Project Veritas. Project Veritas was able to succeed in destroying the career of an Emmy award winning journalist because ABC news, in response to Project Veritas’ expose of David Wright identifying as a democratic socialist, decided to suspend him from any further “biased” political coverage; presumably in response to his leftist leanings and his criticism of ABC being influenced by Disney.

A large chunk of American media is controlled by six wealthy corporations, with these corporations themselves having previously ratted out news reporters. A famous example was the shutting down of the Donahue show on the General Electric owned MSNBC in 2003. This was done to prevent media from giving space for opposition to the Iraq War. In modern times, James O’Keefe, Erik Prince, and Project Veritas has a strong base of willing accomplices that would fall behind their efforts to root out any potential leftist voices in the media.