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<h2><b>Government infiltration threatens rights and freedom, warn
analysts</b></h2><font size=2>By Eric Ture Muhammad -Contributing Writer-
| Last updated: Sep 21, 2010 - 11:29:31 AM</font><font size=3> <br><br>
<br>
ATLANTA (FinalCall.com) - Allegations that a famed photographer who
chronicled the most pivotal moments in civil rights history was
identified as a paid FBI informant reminded activists, organizations and
dissident movements of dangerous government surveillance employed
yesterday and today against domestic groups. <br><br>
The last thing one wanted to be thought of in activist circles in the
heyday of the civil rights and Black Power movement was an informant or
snitch. Providing information and sometimes setting up plots to entrap
unsuspecting comrades resulted in deaths, bitter inter- and intra-feuds
as well as activists who still languish in prison, not to mention the
suffering of those jailed unjustly or who spent decades in
exile.<br><br>
Since Ernest Withers the man the Memphis<i> Commercial Appeal</i>
reported was an FBI informant is dead, many unanswered questions remain
and his family doubts the reports are true.<br><br>
“Personally, and as a family, we do not believe what has been alleged. It
still has to be proven,” Mr. Withers' youngest daughter, Rosalind
Withers, told <i>The Associated Press</i> in an interview. Andrew Jerome
Withers, Rosalind Withers and Frances Williams vowed to do their own FOIA
request and talk to the FBI themselves in efforts to clear their father's
name.<br><br>
Still the use of informants yesterday and today cannot be denied and so
are reasons for concern. In the current political environment and with
passage of so-called anti-terror legislation, such as the post-9-11
Patriots Acts, advocates warn Americans should have major worries about
violations of their civil liberties and government ability to spy and pry
into their private lives. <br><br>
Informants have been at the center of “terrorist plots” allegedly
involving Muslims from Florida to New York. And Muslim leaders from New
York to Los Angeles have complained about agents sent to monitor and
infiltrate their places of worship.<br><br>
“A movement or institution with enough strength and political discipline
can usually withstand the damage from informants. Unfortunately, the
Black movements in this country have never gained the level of critical
mass or cohesion necessary to escape the damage done and that's the case
in this era,” observed Professor Hank Williams, and instructor and Ph.D.
candidate at the City University of New York. <br><br>
“This has a direct connection to where we are today politically, since
the movement was successfully destroyed and a generation of some of the
strongest leaders was lost through political assassination, exile, and
other means. Some were bought off, others couldn't handle the pressure,
and yet others couldn't see the people around them destroyed. That
affects where we are now, since many have survived and are even still at
the forefront of struggle, losing the wisdom and momentum of the leaders
and organizations that didn't survive the '60s and '70s was a serious
blow.”<br><br>
While people should not “get too wrapped up in the past,” Prof. Williams
said, “one has to wonder how much further along we'd be if the most
politically advanced ideas of the organizations and people who didn't
make it had been synthesized and acted upon?”<br><br>
On Sept. 12, <i>The Commercial Appeal</i>once noted itself for the
fomenting of tensions and hostilities in its coverage of civil rights and
Black liberation issues in Memphisreported that photographer Withers was
as an FBI informant and spied on Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil
rights movement. <br><br>
A veteran freelancer, Mr. Withers' photography ranged from the murder of
14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, to the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. and beyond.<br><br>
According to the <i>Commercial Appeal</i>, an informant identification
number assigned to Mr. Withers was overlooked in the redaction of a 1977
FBI file. The document, obtained via the federal Freedom of Information
Act provided by the <i>Commercial Appeal</i>, cites ME 338-R and
identifies Mr. Withers. In the right-hand margin the notation “b7D''
provides justification for the redacted words. Under the FOIA, section
b7D allows the FBI to withhold information that would identify
confidential sources, according to the report.<br><br>
In the article, Mr. Withers, who died in 2007 at the age of 85, is
portrayed in the eyes of the bureau “as a prolific informant who, from
1968 until 1970, passed on tips and photographs detailing an insider's
view of politics, business and everyday life in Memphis' Black
Community.”<br><br>
“The grief-stricken aides photographed by Withers on April 4, 1968, had
no clue, but the man they invited in that night was an FBI
informantevidence of how far the agency went to spy on private citizens
in Memphis during one of the nation's most volatile periods,” the story
read. According to the <i>Commercial Appeal</i>, the story reported was
two years in the making. <br><br>
Mr. Withers' children question <i>Commercial Appeal</i>
reporting.<br><br>
“When I heard that, it was just terrifying,” said Rome Withers in an
interview with <i>The Tri-State Defender</i> on Sept. 14, speaking about
his father. “I just hope that the community understands that this is only
an attempt to really demonize his Withers' (photography) collection or
even to devalue his collection because we have been on an uphill fight to
try and maintain and keep his collection intact,” he said.<br><br>
Since his death, the Withers' children say “forces” have tried to gain
control of their father's extensive and unique collection. The family
says it is involved in a court battle and wants to make the collection
available to the public, particularly so the Black community. It covers
Black life beginning in the 1940s, they added.<br><br>
“Unfortunately, Mr. Withers is not here to answer the allegations or to
provide exactlyif anythingwhat happened. However, what we do know is
that J. Edgar Hoover was so diabolical that his hatred for Black people
did not stop him from doing what he desired to Whites as well. And like
Mr. Withers, we don't know what was held over peoples' heads. We don't
know the extent of the threat that anyone found operating in this way,
faced,” said Atty. Nkechi Taifa, senior political analyst for criminal
and justice reform with the Open Society Poverty Center, in Washington,
D.C.<br><br>
“Why the FBI didn't remove ME 338-R remains unclear, but the evident
oversight provides the key that unlocks Withers' secret life,” the paper
said.<br><br>
“They still haven't said what he was doing,” observed satirist and
activist Dick Gregory, who was also a target of the FBI's nefarious
activities. Mr. Gregory told <i>The Final Call</i>, “We may never know
why this number was not redacted. At the same time, it might help us
finally pull some pieces together.”<br><br>
Mr. Gregory took strong issue with some responses to the spying
allegations. Civil rights icon Andrew Young has publicly said he always
liked Mr. Withers “because he was a good photographer and was always
around.” “I don't think Dr. King would have minded him making a little
money on the side,” Mr. Young, 78, told the Memphis newspaper.<br><br>
“Can you imagine a Jew in Nazi Germany finding out that a Jew was working
with Hitler for the Nazis and then another Jew saying we wouldn't have
minded him making a little money on the side?” Mr. Gregory
asked.<br><br>
“It is never acceptable to turn for the enemy,” commented Kalongi Changa,
of the Atlanta, Ga.-based Free The People Movement and author of the
forthcoming book “How to Build a People's Army.” He is a grassroots
organizer and deals with social and criminal justice issues.<br><br>
“With all due respect to Andy Young, I think that is one of the most
absurd statements that an educated man can make in these days and times.
Saying that he thinks that Dr. King wouldn't have minded this man making
money snitching on his people is almost equivalent to saying he wouldn't
have minded a prostitute making a little money selling her body,” Mr.
Changa said. “Playing with your enemy is like playing with firesomeone
or something will eventually get burned.”<br><br>
“I presume that snitching is older than stealing because a person could
steal information and give it away before there was ‘property' to steal,”
said Dr. Nathan Hare, founder of the San Francisco, Calif.-based Black
Think Tank. <br><br>
“However, though ‘snitch' is now generally associated with giving away or
selling secret information it also means ‘to steal.' So snitching is
tantamount to stealing and in most people's minds worse than a thief.
There at least used to be a code among thieves that they didn't steal
from other thieves, but I don't think there's any sense of honor among
snitches, and it is rightfully and universally despised and personified
with the words ‘rat' as in ‘to rat,' ” he said.<br><br>
“Stool pigeon, which suggests a pigeon sitting on a toilet stool, but is
in fact a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others into a net, and thus the
snitch becomes an extension of the police or, and for the enemy,” said
Dr. Hare.<br><br>
A victim of government surveillance himself because he was closely
aligned with a range of Black Power groups, Dr. Hare added, “The other
side of the coin was that so many good guys appeared to be called
snitches, who, apparently and probably were not. At one point it looked
like people would call anybody who disagreed with them a snitch or an
‘agent provocateur,' usually shortened to ‘an agent.' ”<br><br>
Dr. Hare said one book about the FBI's dreaded Counterintelligence
Program, <a href="http://www.noi.org/cointelpro/">COINTELPRO</a>, which
was designed to disrupt and destroy Black and progressive organizations,
misidentified him in connection with the case of former Black Panther
Elmer Geronimo “Ji Jaga” Pratt, who was jailed for 27 years for murders
he did not commit. Informant Julius Butler, a member of the Panther
Party, testified that Mr. Pratt boasted to him about the murder. Mr.
Pratt was only freed after a retired FBI agent admitted the agency had
evidence that proved the Vietnam vet was nowhere near the crime
scene.<br><br>
Atty. Taifa added: “I think what we have to do is put it all in
perspective. It is one thing to be a snitch, then there is the
collaborator and then there is another situation when there is in fact
something happening within our communities. Say, one of our leaders is
murdered and someone knows who did it. Or, a child is raped or molested
and someone has that information for authorities. It is critical to
provide that information. But it needs to be clearly distinguished from
those who seek financial aggrandizement to bring down the movement,
seeking to collaborate with the movement when it is not in our
community's best interest,” she said.<br><br>
<b>A long history of spying inside America</b> <br><br>
One would be hard pressed to find an instance where dissident or
influential individuals and groups were not monitored regularly by the
U.S. government as well as some international agencies. The FBI's
Electronic Reading Room houses tens of thousands of pages detailing some
of the deepest penetrations into the lives of individuals, organizations
and the infiltration of mass movements. <br><br>
Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Asian Law Caucus and
the San Francisco Bay Guardian filed a lawsuit against the FBI in an
effort to speed the release of FBI records on the investigation and
surveillance of Muslim communities in the Bay Area. <br><br>
The civil liberties organizations and The Bay Guardian have requested the
records in order to understand and to report on whether and how the FBI
are “investigating Islamic centers and mosques (as well as Christian
churches and Jewish synagogues); ‘assessing' religious leaders;
Infiltrating communities through the use of undercover agents and
informants; Training agents in Islam and Muslim culture; and Using race,
religion and national origin in deciding whom to investigate; and
identifying particular schools for its Junior Agent Program. <br><br>
“Clear information about the FBI's activities is necessary in order to
understand the scope of their surveillance tactics to assess whether they
have had a chilling effect on the right to worship freely or to exercise
other forms of expression,” said Julia Harumi Mass, staff attorney for
the ACLU of Northern California. “This lawsuit is about transparency. The
public is entitled to this information under the Freedom of Information
Act.”<br><br>
“The FBI admitted in March that our clients' FOIA requests are entitled
to expedited processing because of the widespread media attention on
these issues, but the government has yet to provide them a single
document,” said attorney Raj Chatterjee of the law firm Morrison &
Foerster. <br><br>
The FBI records are sought in part in response to concerns about the
effects of possible racial and religious profiling and the potential harm
such tactics may have on national security. The groups are also seeking
details on whether FBI agents are recruiting Muslim and Arab children at
Bay Area schools to serve in the agency's Junior Agent Program. <br><br>
“Snitches have played a role in disrupting African resistance since
enslavement,” said Georgia State University Professor Akinyele Umoja.
Prof. Umoja was referring to paid agents who curry favor with oppressive
forces, not tattle tales about run-of-the-mill street crime or illicit
activity.<br><br>
“Denmark Vesey's planned insurrection was stopped due to information
provided to the slaveholders. Informants were present in the civil rights
movement in the South. Movement forces assumed snitches were in their
meetings. Wise movement leaders often confused their enemies by providing
misinformation in public meetings.
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/www.noi.org/cointelpro/">
COINTELPRO</a> (Counter Intelligence Program of the FBI to destroy Black
leadership and movements) and Southern state documents are full of
examples of misinformation provided by Movement leaders to confuse White
supremacists and local, state and federal police,” he said.<br><br>
“It is also revealed that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad couldn't sneeze
without the enemy knowing. Snitches also played an important role in the
demise of the Black Panther Party.” <br><br>
The list of Black groups and leaders targeted by government unfortunately
goes on and on, he said.<br><br>
“Informing on the movement is treason. A liberation movement cannot be
successful if a culture of snitching is acceptable. Movements are only
sustainable and victorious if we have a culture of resistance and
self-reliance. One should wear a ‘badge of shame' for informing on our
organizations, leaders, and other sisters and brothers to our enemies,”
Dr. Umoja continued. <br><br>
“We also have to develop a culture of collectivism or communalism. If one
wants forgiveness, a public apology should be made and restitution should
be made to the individuals, organizations and families involved. People's
lives and human rights were violated by the repression of the
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/www.noi.org/cointelpro/">
COINTELPRO</a> and other U.S. government initiatives against our
movement. “<br><br>
Dr. Umoja also recommended that if a member of a community has an
addiction or a financial or emotional problem, it should be shared with
their community and organization. “We are only as strong as our weakest
link. If we leave brothers and sisters out there they are vulnerable for
parasites who want to destroy the movement,” he said.<br><br>
Under
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/www.noi.org/cointelpro/">
COINTELPRO's</a> directive in the 1960s and 1970s, FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover was on the lookout for a “Black Messiah” who could inspire diverse
groups and unite the Black masses. The language was clear and so were its
targets: H. Rap Brown (now Jamil Al Amin), Stokely Carmichael (who became
Kwame Ture), the Black Panthers, the Nation of Islam and the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad.<br><br>
“The reason Jamil Al-Amin was transferred to the prison in Florence,
Colo., if you recall, is because the Georgia inmates petitioned to make
him their imam. An effective organizereven within the prison
populationand a charismatic leader who had also begun to exercise
influence over the prison staff is something the government could not
afford. So now he sits in solitary. The same for Dr. Mutula Shakur, Mumia
Abu-Jamal, Max Sanford, Huey P. Newton. They know they have to do
something with people like these,” said Dr. Umoja.<br><br>
But while the Panther Party and other nationalist groups were destroyed,
one movement has been able to re-emerge and is the undeniable target of
government surveillance: The Nation of Islam and the Honorable Minister
Louis Farrakhan. With the Nation there is the combination of Islam, Pan
Africanism, nationalism and self-relianceall elements that pose a threat
to a nation dependent upon its former slaves, said Dr. Umoja. “Now
Minister Farrakhan is here, who represents a blend of all of the
elements: an effective organizer, charismatic, influential and has the
genuine love of the people from all walks of life. You cannot be an
effective leader without charisma. No one can deny that, he has that
charisma that no one can control,” he said.<br><br>
“Unfortunately, the mission of the Nation of Islam has been misunderstood
by some in government but in other cases misunderstanding has been
created, which has permitted, and it is well documented in history, the
violation of our civil and constitutional rights through J. Edgar Hoover
that continues down to the present time as revealed in December 2009
disclosures that there was Department of Homeland Security illegal
surveillance of the Nation of Islam and that we were still a target of
the U.S. government,” said Atty. Abdul Arif Muhammad, general counsel for
the Nation of Islam.<br><br>
“It would not be wise for us to not think such activity does not
continue, especially in light of the Islamaphobia present in the United
States and being stoked by the media and other forces in and outside of
government to illegitimately distort the mission and work of the
Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.”<br><br>
<br><br>
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