I just started reading The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States (Boston: South End Press Classics Series, 2nd edition, 2001) by Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall. Churchill has been tarred quite heavily in recent years because of his essay after 9/11 titled "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens." I have not read that essay or his book expanding on it.

I'm finding the COINTELPRO Papers fascinating. Reproductions of many original FBI documents pepper the work, providing concrete examples of just how developed these tactics were/are. While the COINTELPRO program was officially ended in the 1970s, there is ample evidence that the methods themselves are alive and well.

Among the groups that were affected by COINTELPRO were the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, and the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

I'll post more when I've finished the book but from what I've read so far, I can recommend it highly. It's a sobering look for anyone who dissents in American society, no matter how mildly.