Veterans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Seberg#FBI_COINTELPRO_investigation

During the late 1960s, Seberg provided financial support to various groups supporting civil rights, such as the NAACP and Native American school groups such as the Mesquaki Bucks at the Tama settlement near her home town of Marshalltown, for whom she purchased US$500 worth of basketball uniforms. The FBI was upset about several gifts to the Black Panther Party, totalling US$10,500 (estimated) in contributions; these were noted among a list of other celebrities in FBI internal documents later released under FOIA. This financial support, and her alleged interracial love affairs or friendships were evident triggers to a large-scale FBI program deployment in her direction.

The FBI operation against Seberg used COINTELPRO program techniques to harass, intimidate, defame, and discredit Seberg.[18] The FBI's stated goal was an unspecified "neutralization" of Seberg; all intended to be done while hiding FBI involvement. One stated FBI subsidiary objective was to "cause her embarrassment and serve to cheapen her image with the public", while taking the "usual precautions to avoid identification of the Bureau". FBI strategy and modalities can be found in FBI inter-office memos, since declassified and released to the public under FOIA.

In 1970, the FBI created the false story from a San Francisco-based informant, that the child Seberg was carrying was not fathered by her husband Romain Gary, but by a member of the Black Panther Party, Raymond Hewitt. The story was reported by gossip columnist Joyce Haber of The Los Angeles Times. The story was also printed by Newsweek magazine. Seberg went into premature labor and, on August 23, 1970, she gave birth to a 4 lb (1.8 kg) baby girl. The child died two days later. She held an open casket funeral in her hometown to allow reporters to see the infant's white skin, to disprove the rumors that the child's father was African American. Seberg and Romain later sued Newsweek for libel and defamation and asked for US$200,000 in damages. Seberg contended that she became so upset after reading the story, she went into premature labor which resulted in the death of her daughter. A Paris court ordered Newsweek to pay the couple US$10,800 in damages and also ordered Newsweek to print the judgement in their publication plus eight other newspapers.

The investigation of Seberg went far beyond the publishing of defamatory articles. According to her friends interviewed after her death, Seberg experienced years of aggressive in-person surveillance (constant stalking), as well as break-ins and other intimidation oriented activity. FBI files show that not only was she wiretapped, but aggressive U.S. official surveillance was deployed while she was travelling in Switzerland and Italy, and while she resided in France. FBI files show that the FBI cross-contacted the "FBI Legat" (legal attachés) in U.S. Embassies in Paris and Rome, to monitor the actress while abroad; the FBI also provided files on Seberg to the CIA, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Military intelligence to assist in monitoring Seberg while travelling abroad. Newspaper reports after her death make clear Seberg was aware of the surveillance; in 1980, The Los Angeles Times published FBI logs of her Swiss wiretapped phone calls.

FBI records also show that J. Edgar Hoover kept U.S. President Richard Nixon informed of FBI activities related to the Jean Seberg case via President Nixon's domestic affairs chief John Ehrlichman. John Mitchell, then Attorney General, and Deputy Attorney General Richard Kleindienst were also kept informed of FBI activities related to Jean Seberg.