Операция «Хаос» ЦРУ: Внутренний шпионаж против граждан США

Central Intelligence Agency domestic espionage project
the espionage project
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. The "MH" designation is to signify the program had a global area of operations.

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." Amid the uproar of the Watergate break in involving two former CIA officers, Operation CHAOS had been closed in 1973. Further details were revealed in 1975 during Representative Bella Abzug's House Subcommittee on Government Information and individual Rights. The government, in response to the revelations, felt pressured enough to launch the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (The Rockefeller Commission), led by then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, to investigate the depth of the surveillance. Richard Cheney, then 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." 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."