COINTELPRO-National Security Vs. Civil Liberty

"The only conceivable purpose of the continuation of the COINTELPRO techniques is harassment and disruption of political activity"-The New York Times The counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) was established in 1956. The program founded by head of F.B.I J. Edgar Hoover originally had a sound purpose, one that was both reasonable and logical. The program was founded during a time when tensions with the Soviets were getting very heated. The program was established to counter …

…COINTELPRO in retrospect looks horrible now; it might have been necessary at the time, to protect national security. Today we live in fear of terrorism, just like in the 1950's we lived in fear of communism. Who's to say that today certain groups and individuals are not secretly being persecuted and destroyed. No one knows, nor may we ever know. In the end it comes down to a question of individual rights versus national security.