CIA Operation CHAOS, CACTUS, RESISTANCE & MERRIMACK American Dissidents Monitoring Programs Files

CIA Operation CHAOS, CACTUS, RESISTANCE,& MERRIMACK American Disspdents Monitoring Programs Files

5,325 pages of CIA files (3,244 pages) and Congressional investigation reports related to Operation Chaos.

Operation CHAOS or Operation MHCHAOS was the code name of a Central Intelligence Agency domestic intelligence program compiling information on  Americans from 1967 to 1974, Established by President Johnson and expanded under President Nixon, the program's original 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. 300,000 individuals were indexed in a CIA computer system and separate files were created on approximately 7,200 Americans and over 100 domestic groups during the course of CIA's Operation CHAOS (1967-1973).

The files also cover other CIA project related to CHAOS such as Operation CACTUS, Operation Project MERRIMAC and Project RESISTANCE

Operation CACTUS was the setup by the CIA to move information it gathered to the FBI.

Project MERRIMAC was a domestic espionage operation employing infiltration and and surveillance of anti-war groups.

Project RESISTANCE  was a domestic espionage operation to gather information on U.S. based groups the CIA believed might attack CIA facilities or personnel.

Major targets of CHAOS activity were the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Black Panther Party (BPP), Young Lords, Women Strike for Peace and Ramparts Magazine.

The secret program was exposed by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in a 1974 article in the New York Times entitled "Huge CIA Operation Reported in US Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years." The story began, “. “The Central Intelligence Agency, directly violating its charter, conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States, according to well-placed Government sources.”

This contributed to calls to establish a government investigation. The Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States, better known as The Rockefeller Commission), led by then Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, included these programs in its investigations.

 According to the findings in the Commission's final report:

"Responding to Presidential requests made in the face of growing domestic disorder, the Director of Central Intelligence in August 1967 established a Special Operations Group within the CIA to collect, coordinate, evaluate and report on the extent of foreign influence on domestic dissidence. The Group’s activities. which later came to be known as Operation CHAOS, led the CIA to collect information on dissident Americans from CIA field stations overseas and from the FBI. Although the stated purpose of the Operation was to determine whether there were any foreign contacts with American dissident groups. it resulted in the accumulation of considerable material on domestic dissidents and their activities.

 For six years, the Operation compiled some 13,000 different files, including files on 7,260 American citizens. The documents in these files and related materials included the names of more than 300,000 persons and organizations, which were entered into a computerized index.

This information was kept closely guarded within the CIA. Using this information. personnel of the Group prepared 3.500 memoranda for internal use, 3,000 memorandum for dissemination to the FBI and 37 memorandum for distribution to White House and other top level officials in the government.

The staff assigned to the Operation was steadily enlarged in response to repeated Presidential requests for additional information, ultimately reaching a maximum of 52 in 1971. Because of excessive isolation. the Operation was substantially insulated from meaningful review within the Agency, including review by the Counterintelligence Staff of which the Operation was technically a part.

Commencing in late 1969, Operation CHAOS used a number of agents to collect intelligence abroad on any foreign connections with American dissident groups. In order to have sufficient "cover" for these agents, the Operation recruited persons from domestic dissident groups or recruited others and instructed them to associate with such groups in this country.

Most of the Operation's recruits were not directed to collect information domestically on American dissidents. On a number of occasions, however, such information was reported by the recruits while they were developing dissident credentials in the United States, and the information was retained in the files of the Operation. On three occasions, an agent of the Operation was specifically directed to collect domestic intelligence.

No evidence was found that any Operation CHAOS agent used or was directed by the Agency to use electronic surveillance, wiretaps or break-ins in the United States against any dissident individual or group. Activity of the Operation decreased substantially by mid-1972. The Operation was formally terminated in March 1974."

 The Commission concluded:

"Some domestic activities of Operation CHAOS unlawfully exceeded the CIA's statutory authority, even though the declared mission of gathering intelligence abroad as to foreign influence on domestic dissident activities was proper.

Most significantly, the Operation became a repository for large quantities of information on the domestic activities of American citizens. This information was derived principally from FBI reports or from covert sources and not from clandestine collection by the CIA, and much of it was not directly related to the question of the existence of foreign connections."