Operation CHAOS, CIA surveillance project in Virginia, United States.
Operation CHAOS was a Central Intelligence Agency surveillance program monitoring American citizens for potential foreign ties to protest movements in the United States. The program used an electronic index system to systematically catalog personal information and family relationships of individuals under observation.
The Central Intelligence Agency launched the program in 1967 under President Johnson and expanded it under President Nixon until 1974. The program collected data on thousands of American citizens and documented their activities across different social and political movements of that era.
The program targeted multiple social movements, including Students for a Democratic Society, Black Panthers, and Women Strike for Peace organizations.
Information about the program now exists in declassified government documents and archives of twentieth-century American history. Researchers can access these materials at public libraries and digital collections documenting the activities of that period.
The agency acquired a garbage collection company to retrieve discarded papers from local Jewish organizations and the Israeli embassy. This unusual method allowed access to documents without formal requests or legal processes.
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