[News] Secret FBI program coordinated political repression in the United States
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Fri Aug 12 12:40:22 EDT 2016
http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/42648/Secret+fbi+program+coordinated+political+repression+in+the+united+states.shtml&SyAxxOu==
Secret FBI program coordinated political repression in the United States
Breno Altman | New York and Atlanta - 09/08/2016
Clandestine measures to combat rebel groups. Illegal arrests and trials.
This was the US federal police’s formula during the Cold War
The Americans had their eyes glued to the television. That night, March
8^th ,1971, Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali were fighting each other at
Madison Square Garden, a traditional indoor arena in New York, the first
of their legendary fights of the century.
They fought through fifteen dramatic /rounds./
Frazier was the world heavyweight champion. His challenger, undefeated,
had had the highest belt in his category stripped from him for refusing
to fight in the Vietnam War.
Most of the white fans craved for the defeat of the man who "flew like a
butterfly and stung like a bee", as described by himself. Ali was the
great symbol of the resistance against racial supremacy in a nation
still marked by segregation; a star of civil disobedience against the
anti-Communist hawks who ruled the White House.
During the 11^th round, the black idol of the conservative middle class
knocked down Ali with a left hook. Ali fell on his back. Recovered. Rose
stunned. Slowly, he dragged himself to finish the fight, which ended
with his defeat by points.
Less than 200 kilometers away in Media, Pennsylvania, a group of eight
young people prepared for a spectacular action. They were a part of a
small organization called Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI.
Their leader was William Cooper Davidon, a physics and mathematics
university who, on the same date, turned 44 years old. He would enter
history, soon we shall see, as an Edward Snowden or a Julian Assange of
the analog era.
They were ready, after months of preparation, to invade the city’s FBI
office, where they imagined they would find compromising documents on
police activities during that troubled period in U.S. history.
The papers they found were parte of a little treasure: the secrets of
the Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), a clandestine plan of J.
Edgar Hoover to face the Communists and other insurgent groups.
*COINTELPRO: "Expose, infiltrate, manipulate." *
**
Conceived in 1956 at the peak of the Cold War, the COINTELPRO would be
officially interrupted in 1971, soon after the findings of Davidon and
his companions began to circulate in the press.
One of the documents, signed by Hoover himself, on August 25^th , 1967,
determined the goals of the program’s new phase: “to expose, infiltrate,
disrupt, manipulate, discredit, neutralize and, if necessary, eliminate
black nationalist hate-based organizations and groups, their
leaderships, spokesmen, members, and supporters.”
It was an internal war declaration that didn’t have any consent from the
parliament or government recognition.
The "vale-tudo" included fabricating evidence, forging crimes, provoking
internal conflicts, destroying material resources, media war, control of
the legal system and cold-blooded murders.
Although publicly suspended, the program would still be secretly
conducted until 1975, when investigations opened by the Senate forced
the CIA and the FBI to reorganize their operating manual.
Cynthia McKinney: "There were no limits to the action of the State on
the combat against rebel organizations"
The chief inquirer, Frank Church, a Democrat senator from Idaho whose
surname baptized the commission in charge, was clear and concise in his
conclusions: "these are illegal and anti-American activities."
This is also the opinion of Cynthia McKinney, 61, a former federal
representative for Georgia. A Democrat like Church, she devoted much of
her academic and parliamentary life to study the subject.
"There were no limits to state action regarding the combat against rebel
organizations," she says. "The main targets were clearly the minority
groups such as blacks, Native Americans and Latinos.”
In her youth, she was sympathetic to the Black Panthers. But Cynthia
never considered herself as an "active revolutionary", although she has
actively participated in researching and reporting the repressive
apparatus that let hundreds of activists to prison and dozens to death.
"The country's elites panicked with the black uprisings and the movement
against the Vietnam War," she analyzes. "The white supremacy system and
the corporations' ruling could not coexist with a situation that seemed
to jeopardize their hegemony."
The former representative emphasizes that the reaction was not
restricted to repressive action.
Programa secreto del FBI coordinó represión política en los
EE.UU.
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/44874/programa+secreto+del+fbi+coordino+represion+politica+en+los+ee.uu..shtml>
EE.UU. ocultan información sobre sus presos políticos
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/44846/ee.uu.+ocultan+informacion+sobre+sus+presos+politicos.shtml>
Former prisoners organize solidarity towards current political
detainees
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/42652/former+prisoners+organize+solidarity+towards+current+political+detainees.shtml>
"The strategy was supported by a collusion between police devices and
the media, which still exist” she says. "The COINTELPRO documents show
that a third of its budget was dedicated to bribe journalists and
vehicles that participated in the demonization of the insurgents".
Her assessment is supported by writer Sara Flounders, currently the main
leader of the International Action Center, an organization founded by
former Attorney General of the Republic, Ramsey Clark, to oppose wars
promoted by the United States and the persecution of minorities inside
the country.
"The FBI’s intervention overstepped repressive measures, conditioned the
communication industry's behavior and contaminated the legal system,"
she says. "The trials of most political prisoners were farces, with
fabricated evidence, witnesses under pressure and illegal decisions."
*Church Commission*
The acknowledgment of these facts is in the Church Commission's,
completed in 1976. Contrary to what occurred in other countries,
however, the findings of the illegalities committed by the state were
not accompanied by an amnesty policy or a reparation of the brutalities.
One of the few exceptions was the case of Dhoruba Bin Wahad, 70, born
Richard Earl Moore.
One of the Black Panther leaders in the Bronx, New York, Wahad lived in
clandestinity. Founder of the armed branch of the organization, he was
captured by the police while leading the invasion of a local club
dominated by drug dealers.
"Drugs were encouraged in black communities, particularly heroin, as a
part of the CIA’s and FBI’s strategy," he records. "Drug dealing helped
finance illegal intelligence activities abroad and was a destabilizing
element of the anti-racist fight".
The John Kerry Committee, in 1986, headed by the current Secretary of
State, then a Massachusetts senator, effectively proved that public
resources were offered to dealers who were willing to collaborate with
the enemies of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua during the 80’s.
Despite strong cover up indications, there is no official recognition of
the alleged facilities drug trade within the United States had.
The Black Panthers, however, were convinced that the future of their
party was conditioned to cleaning the neighborhoods in which they
operated from drug dealing.
Arrested on September 1971, in one of the confrontations with organized
crime, Wahad was the big fish that the police hoped to present as being
responsible for a widely reported shooting.
Youtube
Police captures Dhoruba Bin Wahad when he led an invasion on a local
club controle by drug dealers
On May 19^th , two police officers had been shot down with a machine gun
in front of Frank Smithwick Hogan’s house, who was New York's Attorney
General and one of the exponents in the campaign against the rebel
organizations.
Wahad was sentenced to life imprisonment, with right to parole, a
sentence based on witnesses who reported seeing or knowing of his
alleged participation in the crime.
*Revision*
After four years in jail, he heard about the information brought to the
public by the Church Commission and his lawyers filed a lawsuit to gain
access to those documents.
During the next fifteen years, the FBI released more than 300,000 pages
with various information. Trying to sink the defense in a sea of paper,
its agents eventually gave them transcripts of the witnesses’ reports
against, in which was clear that they had changed their version due to
police pressure.
On March 15^th , 1990, Judge Peter J. McQuillan from the Supreme Court
of New York, annulled the previous judgment on the fact that the
prosecution had concealed evidence that could exonerate the defendant.
Video shows how the US government viewed the Black Panthers group
The same court also denied the request for a new trial, determining that
the federal government should pay a compensation of US$400,000 to Wahad.
This decision, made in 1995, was followed by another one, five years
later, forcing the city of New York to pay another US$490,000 due to
moral and material damages.
Soon after that, the state parliament repealed the law that allowed a
revision of final judgments in case of testimonial evidence omission.
"We used to live and continue to live in a police state," says Wahad.
"Democratic freedoms are only guaranteed to those who do not threaten
the system. Otherwise, as happened to the 60's and 70's movements, the
answer will always be an extermination policy."
/*Português:* Programa secreto do FBI coordenou repressão política nos
Estados Unidos
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/reportagens/42545/Programa+secreto+do+fbi+coordenou+repressao+politica+nos+estados+unidos.shtml&SyAxxOu==>
*Español:* Programa secreto del FBI coordinó represión política en los
EE.UU.
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/44874/Programa+secreto+del+fbi+coordino+represion+politica+en+los+eeuu.shtml&SyAxxOu==>/
/*Read more articles of the USA Political Prisioners Series:*/
/
Former prisoners organize solidarity towards current political detainees
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/42652/Former+prisoners+organize+solidarity+towards+current+political+detainees.shtml&SyAxxOu==>
'I am a revolutionary and an optimistic', says former Black Panther
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/42651/I+am+a+revolutionary+and+an+optimistic+says+former+black+panther.shtml&SyAxxOu==>
*You may also like the 1st stallment of the series:*
/
/United States hide information about its political prisoners
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/40707/united+states+hide+information+about+its+political+prisoners.shtml>/
/A man who no longer wanted masters
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/40711/a+man+who+no+longer+wanted+masters.shtml>/
/The Black Panthers were the 60’s vanguard
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/40710/the+black+panthers+were+the+60s+vanguard.shtml>/
/A list of 54 political prisoners in the United States/
<http://operamundi.uol.com.br/conteudo/babel/40718/a+list+of+54+political+prisoners+in+the+united+states.shtml>
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20160812/e257fb2d/attachment.htm>
More information about the News
mailing list