Secret Army Organization(SAO) was a right-wingparamilitary organization created in 1971 in the aftermath of the breakup of the Minutemen group by local law enforcement. The organization received Federal Bureau of Investigation sponsorship throughout its life from its creation in Fall of 1971 to its dissolution in 1972, engaging in various terroristic activities during this time.
Secret Army Organization was headquartered in San Diego, California and consisted of “a bout a dozen”[1] local members and a handful more spread across the Southern California region.[1] Its creation was a product of a meeting held on October 16–17, 1971; Its leaders were two former Minutemen, Howard B. Godfrey and Jerry Lynn Davis.[2] Davis had previously participated in CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion.[3] SAO was to serve as a replacement for FBI’s intelligence/operative network broken up by local law enforcement in 1970. According to ACLU, the operation known as “Inlet” utilized the paramilitary Minutemen group to provide daily intelligence reports on the activities of “demonstrators and domestic radicals”. These reports were made on behalf of John N. Mitchell, then Attorney General, and Richard Nixon, by way of H.R. Halderman (former White House Chief of Staff) and John D. Ehrlichman (former Chief Advisor on Domestic Affairs in the Nixon White House)…..more here
Click here for reuse options!