Cointelpro also includes creating fake groups with a ideology that leads to failure. It also includes operatives who infiltrate groups and become a legitimate part of the group winning the trust of everyone, taking a leadership position and then promoting the groups weaknesses and dismantling the group's strength's. They lead the group to failure by getting people to engage in activities that loses public support.

People do not have to be arrested or killed. All the group has to do is fail to organize and grow and then the counter-insurgency operation will be successful.

People need to appreciate the subtleties of how counter-intelligence operatives work. They are often educated and with a higher educational background, operatives can come up with a faulty line that sounds "revolutionary" to the uninitiated and naive.

Operatives create artificial fights between each other. This does a couple things. First, it gives people a false choice between the 2 people who are fighting. After the fight, people choose sides and go with their respective groups, both of which are false. This kind of "fight" also establishes a culture of splitting groups based on petty differences.

Operatives do not like "conspiracy theorists". If you know what's going on and speak up, they will label you a "conspiracy theorist".