New documents raise questions about Denver Police Department continued participation in a controversial Obama-era counterrorism program.

A recently released Federal Bureau of Investigation file shows that months after the public pressured the Bureau to pull out of an event sponsored by anti-Muslim group ACT for America, the FBI secretly initiated a liaison with the organization.

An incident from Muhammad Ali’s Federal Bureau of Investigation file shows that no less than Director J. Edgar Hoover himself doubted the Bureau’s ability to get charges against Ali to stick.

Countering Violent Extremism initiatives rest on the core assumption that it is possible to detect and stop violent extremists before they carry out attacks, through theories of radicalization which identify behaviors that are thought to be “indicators” or “risk factors.” This logic is the driving force behind the National Counterterrorism Center’s annual handbook for law enforcement agencies, which provides guidance for spotting these indicators - from legitimate calls to violence, to more troubling grey areas, such as “expressing frustration with employment situation.”

The last section of Malcolm X’s 10,000 plus page FBI file concerns the Bureau’s electronic surveillance of the activist shortly before his death. For months, agents listened to X’s phone calls, photographed his comings and goings, and even considered bugging his Queens residence - only to hastily discontinue the operation for fear it would taint a potential conviction.