COINTELPRO 2.0: Project Esther, EO 14243, and Palantir

The pattern is familiar, and the escalation is predictable. I warned about this recently, and now it’s unfolding exactly as anticipated.

From my May 22 post:

Just as I anticipated, the blame is being directed at China. Marco Rubio, currently serving in the Trump administration, has previously targeted various leftist organizations for their funding connections to Neville Roy Singham, who has been accused of having ties to the Communist Party of China. These allegations originated from front groups linked to Stratfor, often referred to as the “Shadow CIA,” as well as the State Department and U.S. Intelligence. Additionally, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) receives backing from the Israel lobby. Recall my previous post about Project Esther, which linked antisemitism to Marxism. Expect a crackdown on leftists and other antiwar activists who are protesting the Gaza war.

On May 28, the Heritage Foundation—architect of Project Esther—officially embraced the narrative linking pro-Palestinian activism to Chinese influence.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther is more than a framework—it’s a blueprint for ideological suppression masquerading as national security policy. By tying anti-Zionism to antisemitism, then layering in foreign influence accusations, the initiative sets the stage for a sweeping crackdown on dissent. Under the guise of national security, any challenge to U.S. policy—whether in opposition to the Gaza war or broader leftist movements—can be framed as a foreign threat. This justification makes mass surveillance not just palatable but necessary.

Enter Palantir—the data engine that makes ideological suppression scalable. While Heritage Foundation shapes the narrative and justification for crackdowns, Palantir provides the technical apparatus to execute them. As I warned in my earlier post, EO 14243 and Trump’s Data Consolidation: The Hidden Agenda Behind Big Tech Surveillance, Palantir is embedding digital IDs across DHS, IRS, and Social Security, consolidating surveillance under the guise of fraud prevention. These tools, once presented as safeguards against fraud, now serve a far clearer purpose: streamlining the targeting and suppression of leftist dissent. Heritage Foundation supplies the blueprint—Palantir builds the machinery.

This isn’t new. The playbook remains the same—COINTELPRO weaponized bureaucratic surveillance to neutralize Black liberation and leftist movements under the guise of national security. Now, Project Esther will leverage EO 14243’s infrastructure to fuse ideological suppression with the mechanics of automated surveillance. Just as COINTELPRO framed activists as subversives to justify government crackdowns, Project Esther weaponizes accusations of extremism and foreign influence to achieve similar ends. The targets have shifted, but the machinery of repression remains intact.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Katie Halper: I Was Canceled for Criticizing Israel

On Monday, September 26, I delivered a video monologue as part of my job as a rotating co-host for The Hill TV’s political commentary show, Rising. I’d been a weekly guest on the show for three years, and this was my first “Radar”—an op-ed delivered straight to the camera. It was also my last. On September 28, I was fired.

I Was Canceled for Criticizing Israel

Previously:

Hill TV Segment on Rashida Tlaib and Israel Is Censored

Terrell Starr and Black Support of Imperialism

Black Agenda Report’s analysis of the US instigated crisis in Ukraine makes clear that imperialism is the source of turmoil in that country. The US role in heightening tensions must be exposed and the servants of US empire must be exposed as well.

In recent weeks Black Agenda Report contributors have regularly commented on the United States instigated crisis in Ukraine. “Ukraine: What Does It Have to Do With Black Folks,” “Crisis or Confusion: A Brief Guide for Black Folk on Ukraine,” ”Ukraine and U.S. War Propaganda,” and “The Black Political Class and War” are efforts to clarify what the U.S. is doing and why. Black Agenda Report is committed to news and analysis from a Black left perspective and must explain how the imperatives of imperialism and full spectrum dominance drive U.S. actions abroad.

Terrell Starr and Black Support of Imperialism

Unions Are Taking a Stand for Black Lives

Unions Are Taking a Stand for Black Lives

“You represent the potential and the power of the labor movement,” said Angela Davis, the activist and former member of the Black Panther Party, to the assembled crowd. “Whenever the ILWU takes a stand, the world feels the reverberations,” she said, listing the dockworker union’s history of activism—against, for example, the internment of Japanese Americans and apartheid in South Africa, in support of civil rights, and in solidarity with past victims of violence police.