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The FBI, established to prevent crime, now provoked it. Robert Hardy, a former Bureau informant in New Jersey, testified that agents urged him to persuade antiwar activists to break into the offices of the local draft board. ‘They told me,’ he said,

all they wanted was evidence of a conspiracy … In the course of the next month, upon the instruction of my FBI agents, my leadership role increased to the point that it became absurd. I was not only encouraging the group to raid the Camden draft board, I was initiating all the plans to do so. I provided them with the tools they needed – ladders, ropes, drills, bits, hammers … On instructions, I once tried to give them guns, but they refused … All this was paid for by the FBI.

Far from settling for evidence of conspiracy, said Hardy, his control agent told him the break-in was to be allowed to go ahead. It did, and the protesters were caught red-handed. Hardy’s Bureau contact told him the orders ‘had come direct from the little White House in California … The FBI again had gotten its man. The country could now see positive proof that the administration was correct in warning the country about the threat from the Left … I will never forget the role I played in this abuse of American justice.’

The fact that the FBI denied Hardy’s story is no reason to doubt it. The Bureau was conducting itself just as badly in other areas. The black movement, and especially the militant Black Panthers, came under ruthless attack. Unlike the mainstream civil rights movement, the Panthers preached revolution. Many were armed and dangerous, others not. Edgar lumped them together as ‘the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.’

People the Panthers approached for funds, such as church groups and women’s organizations, were shocked to receive copies of the Panthers’ Coloring Book for Children, depicting black children killing white policemen. The Panther leadership disapproved of the book and had ordered that all copies be destroyed. The FBI, however, obtained copies and circulated them – to deter possible donors.

The Newark Agent in Charge proposed the sending of a fake telegram, supposedly from within the Panthers’ organization, warning that white ‘supporters’ were sending poisoned food donations to Panther charities. To ‘prove’ it, he suggested, the Bureau laboratory could ‘treat fruit such as oranges with a mild laxative-type drug by hypodermic needle or other appropriate method and ship fruit as a donation from a fictitious person …’ Incredibly, Edgar’s office thought the plan ‘had merit,’ and rejected it only ‘because of the lack of control over the treated fruit in transit.’

A vicious campaign was mounted to discredit Jean Seberg, the movie actress remembered for her role as Joan of Arc. Because the actress was among the Panthers’ several prominent white backers, this suggestion went to Edgar from Agent Richard Held, a COINTELPRO specialist in Los Angeles:

Bureau permission is requested to publicize the pregnancy of JEAN SEBERG, well-known white movie actress, by Raymond Hewitt, Black Panther Party … by advising Hollywood Gossip Columnists in the Los Angeles area of the situation. It is felt the possible publication of Seberg’s ‘plight’ could cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the general public. It is proposed that the following letter from a fictitious person be sent to local columnists:

I was just thinking about you and remembered I still owe you a favor. So – I was in Paris last week and ran into Jean Seberg, who was heavy with baby. I thought she and Romaine [sic] had gotten together again, but she confided the child belonged to Raymond Hewitt of the Black Panthers. The dear girl is getting around! Anyway, I thought you might get a scoop on the others. Be good, and I’ll see you soon.

Love,

Sol

The FBI had discovered from a wiretap that Seberg was pregnant. To conceal that fact, Edgar recommended that the sending of ‘Sol’s’ smear letter should be delayed ‘until Seberg’s pregnancy would be obvious to everyone.