How an ADL spy operation helped bring down the far-right John Birch Society - Kotaku In Action 2

How an ADL spy operation helped bring down the far-right John Birch Society (www.timesofisrael.com)

posted 149 days ago by BollocksToBolsheviks 149 days ago by BollocksToBolsheviks +64 / -1

How an ADL spy operation helped bring down the far-right John Birch Society

Researching his new book 'Birchers,' Matthew Dallek discovers paperwork documenting a successful espionage effort to thwart an anti-Civil Rights group deemed a threat by some Jews

46 comments

46 comments share save hide report block hide replies

You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.

Comments (46)

sorted by:

▲ 39 ▼

– Mpetey123 39 points 149 days ago +40 / -1

Look at all the evil things they did

They sent out literature trying to give members roadmaps or ideas for what they could do. They believed a mass education of the public was needed because traditional two-party politics was not going to be very effective at exposing the communist threat. They would form front groups such as Impeach Earl Warren [the Supreme Court’s chief justice] or Support Your Local Police. They tried to ban certain books that they viewed as socialistic from being used in schools. Some Birchers ran for school board seats and protested at libraries.

permalink save report block reply

▲ 27 ▼

– BollocksToBolsheviks [S] 27 points 149 days ago +27 / -0

Doesn't this very much echo the current response of the DoJ / Silicon Valley / Journos to groups like, say, Moms for Liberty? Here's what the ADL did back then:

But the ADL also had undercover agents with code names, who were able to infiltrate the society’s headquarters in Belmont, Massachusetts, and various chapter officers. They dug up financial and employment information about individual Birchers. And they not only used the material for their own newsletters and press releases, but they also fed information to the media.

permalink parent save report block reply

▲ 2 ▼

– when_we_win_remember 2 points 148 days ago +2 / -0

This is why we have to make ourselves undoxable. If you work for a strong, white firm, they're gonna laugh when your docs come out.

It's time we cleave to our own. Even incognito, it's not hard to figure out who we are. Seek out gun enthusiasts.

permalink parent save report block reply

▲ 17 ▼

– TheStupidPrizeWinner 17 points 149 days ago +17 / -0

Roadmaps? Mass education? Impeaching the Supreme Court? Running for local school boards?

Who are these people? Modern leftists!?

permalink parent save report block reply

▲ 10 ▼

– LinkR 10 points 149 days ago +10 / -0

No sense leaving a good idea go to waste.

permalink parent save report block reply