Targeting Revolutionaries

Abstract This essay traces the emergence of carceral warfare project, a clandestine campaign to infuse US prisons with logics and techniques counterinsurgency. First exposed by Black Liberation Army member Dhoruba bin-Wahad, project came into being between 1970 1978. The article begins discussing theory undergirding reactionary idea known as “the issue exploitation thesis.” Starting in 1970, seasoned cold warriors renovated their long-standing arguments against communism for application imprisoned revolutionaries. Next, FBI’s little-known Prison Activists Surveillance Program (PRISACTS) is discussed. Focusing on words deeds George Jackson Donald Bordenkircher—two central figures positioned opposite sides struggle—the shows how bureau used PRISACTS treat spaces zones counterrevolutionary warfare. Although FBI officially discontinued 1976, final section argues that methodology had already been integrated state prison systems this date. Ultimately, demonstrates through prisons, internal security operatives engage plausibly deniable form counterinsurgency seeks isolate political prisoners from each other, general population, outside networks support, even alienates them themselves.