Operation CHAOS: full transcription
// Mission Dossier
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Get the dossier: $5 instant download →Richard Ober directed Operation CHAOS, a highly secretive covert operation to spy on racial, anti-war, and other protest groups inside the United States, reporting to James Jesus Angleton, the agency's chief of counterintelligence.
The CIA's charter bans domestic spying, but the final report of the special Senate subcommittee headed by Senator Frank Church concluded that the CHAOS project had amassed files on more than 7,000 American citizens and 1,000 domestic organizations. That information was disseminated in thousands of reports to the FBI and other agencies.
Even after more than 30 years, the CIA chose to keep scores of pages related to Operation CHAOS partly or totally blacked out. Much of the redacted material appears in sections relating to Richard Ober's Special Operations Group.
This transcription covers the program's leadership structure and the Church Committee's confirmed scale figures. The complete Family Jewels release and the Church Committee's full multi-volume final report contain substantially more detail, with real redactions preserved as officially released.
Confirmation: Final Report of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, 1976.
Program record: CIA Family Jewels compilation, 1973.
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