Operation CHAOS

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This article is about the espionage project. For the science fiction novel, see Operation Chaos (novel). For Rush Limbaugh's 2008 political strategy, see The Rush Limbaugh Show § Operation Chaos.

Operation CHAOS or Operation MHCHAOS was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) domestic espionage project targeting American citizens operating from 1967 to 1974, established by President Lyndon B. Johnson and expanded under President Richard 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.[1][2] The "MH" designation is to signify the program had a global area of operations.[3]

Background

The CIA was charged with the collection, correlation, and evaluation of intelligence. While the Act does not specify a prohibition on collecting domestic intelligence, or a restriction to only collect foreign intelligence,

Lyndon Johnson requested that the CIA begin its own investigation into domestic dissent—independent of the FBI's ongoing COINTELPRO.[4]

The CIA developed numerous operations targeting American dissidents in the US. Many of these programs operated under the CIA's Office of Security, including:[2]

  • HTLINGUAL – Directed at letters passing between the United States and the then Soviet Union; the program involved the examination of correspondence to and from individuals or organizations placed on a watchlist.
  • Project 2 – Directed at infiltration of foreign intelligence targets by agents posing as dissident sympathizers and which, like CHAOS, had placed agents within domestic radical organizations for the purposes of training and establishment of dissident credentials.
  • Project MERRIMAC – Designed to infiltrate domestic antiwar and radical organizations thought to pose a threat to security of CIA property and personnel.
  • political dissidents
    without any infiltration taking place.

Scale of operations

When Nixon came to office in 1969, existing domestic surveillance activities were consolidated into Operation CHAOS.

Jewish 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 garbage collection company to collect documents that were to be destroyed.[6]

Targets of Operation CHAOS within the antiwar movement included:[5]

At its finality, Operation CHAOS contained files on 7,200 Americans, and a computer index totaling 300,000 civilians and approximately 1,000 groups.[8]

Findings

The aim of the programs was to compile reports on "illegal and subversive" contacts between United States civilian protesters and "foreign elements" which "might range from casual contacts based merely on mutual interest to closely controlled channels for party directives."[8]

DCI

cabinet level officials.[2]

Expose

The secret program was exposed by investigative journalist

Deputy White House Chief of Staff, is noted as having stated the Rockefeller Commission was to avoid "... congressional efforts to further encroach on the executive branch."[1]

Following the revelations by the Rockefeller Commission, then-DCI George H. W. Bush admitted that "the operation in practice resulted in some improper accumulation of material on legitimate domestic activities."[3]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-313-33282-7
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-59454-685-1
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-312-42517-1
    .
  4. ^
    Covert Action Information Bulletin, No. 34, Summer 1990, pp. 59-62. Full issue available
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-252-06964-1
    .
  6. ISBN 0-312-15648-0
    .
  7. ISBN 9780786867820
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-8153-3534-2
    .
  9. New York Times
    : 1.

External links
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