[Ppnews] Omaha Two Story: (Part 29) - Last prosecution under Cointelpro withheld evidence in Omaha Two trial

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial


Last prosecution under COINTELPRO withheld evidence in Omaha Two trial

    * By <http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
Richardson, COINTELPRO Examiner
    * April 30th, 2011 12:15 pm ET

Omaha Two story: April 28, 1971

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police>Edward 
Poindexter and 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case>Mondo 
we Langa, then David Rice, were in the Douglas County Jail awaiting 
trial when a burglary in Media, Pennsylvania put in motion events 
that led to the two men achieving the dubious distinction as the last 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>COINTELPRO 
defendants.

The March 8, 1971, break-in of a satellite office of the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation brought to light for the first time a 
massive, illegal counter-intelligence operation code-named 
COINTELPRO.  The clandestine program was a fifteen-year war on 
domestic political activists targeted by FBI director 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/fbi-s-director-hoover-let-killer-of-omaha-policeman-get-away-with-murder-40-years-ago>J. 
Edgar Hoover.  The Black Panthers were the targets of the most 
ruthless tactics with at times a lethal ferocity.

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa headed the National Committee to 
Combat Fascism, a Black Panther affiliate chapter, in Omaha, 
Nebraska.  Both men were charged with the bombing murder of Omaha 
police officer 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call>Larry 
Minard, Sr. and awaiting trial when the FBI burglary 
occurred.  Neither Panther leader knew that their trial would be 
COINTELPRO-manipulated following an order by J. Edgar Hoover to 
withhold evidence about the identity of Minard's killer.

The burglary, which netted 1000 pages of confidential FBI files, 
disclosed for the first time outside the Bureau the secret COINTELPRO 
operation.  Immediately, an intense investigation was launched, 
directed by Mark Felt, the "Deep Throat" of Watergate infamy, 
creating a 33,000 page case file.  The crime was never solved.

The Media break-in was first reported in the New York Times on March 
10, 1971.  The next day a Haverford College professor, the Boston 
Globe, and the Philadelphia FBI office all got a letter from an 
unknown group called the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI 
claiming responsibility.

Two weeks after the break-in, selected FBI documents were sent to 
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and Representative Parren 
Mitchell of Maryland, both FBI critics.  The two elected officials 
turned over the documents to the FBI because neither wanted to be 
associated with the "illegal action" of the Citizens' Commission.

On March 23rd, as preparations for jury selection were underway in 
Omaha, Representative Mitchell said the FBI documents he returned 
showed that the FBI was engaged in "crime" with its surveillance 
activities.  That same day selected COINTELPRO documents were sent to 
the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles 
Times.  The next day the Washington Post published excerpts of the 
FBI documents.

Attorney General John Mitchell appealed to the news media to not 
publish details of the COINTELPRO documents but his appeal was futile 
in the face of the improper FBI conduct revealed in the purloined files.

As testimony progressed in Omaha against the Black Panther leaders on 
trial, the Citizens' Commission sent COINTELPRO documents to a 
Cambridge, Massachusetts group called Resist which in turn supplied 
the booty to the New York Times.

On 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prosecution-rested-its-case-without-fbi-testimony-about-cointelpro-measures>April 
8th, the day the prosecution ended its case against the Omaha Two, 
the Citizens' Commission gave a new batch of COINTELPRO documents to 
the Boston Globe.

Slowly, in piecemeal fashion, the FBI dirty secrets came to light, 
except in Omaha.  The Omaha Two were convicted on 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-two-convicted-cointelpro-tainted-trial-40-years-ago-nebraska>April 
17, 1971, for murder without the jury every learning about COINTELPRO 
or that the two defendants had been targeted by J. Edgar Hoover.  The 
jury never heard the recorded voice of Larry Minard's killer caught 
on the 911 phone system used to lure Minard to a deadly ambush.  The 
jury never learned that 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-gave-order-to-let-policeman-s-killer-get-away-with-murder>Hoover 
had ordered the FBI crime lab to withhold a report on the identity of 
Minard's killer based on an analysis of the 911 recording.

On April 21, 1971, a Pennsylvania student group received COINTELPRO 
documents and news reports on FBI misdeeds were growing.  At FBI 
headquarters, egotistically called the "Seat of Government" by 
Hoover, concerns were mounting.

On April 27th, Charles Brennan, a high-level COINTELPRO manger at the 
FBI, sent a memorandum to 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/three-days-of-deceit-omaha-two-case-by-fbi-and-omaha-police>William 
Sullivan, head of Domestic Intelligence and principal architect of 
COINTELPRO.  The memo urged COINTELPRO be discontinued except for 
"exceptional instances where counterintelligence action is warranted."

Brennan, who had once worked in the Omaha FBI office, and Sullivan 
were both on the distribution list of the COINTELPRO memo ordering 
the withholding of evidence in the Omaha Two case.

J. Edgar Hoover quickly agreed to Brennan's recommendation and on 
April 28, 1971, eleven days after the end of the Omaha Two trial, the 
order was given to discontinue COINTELPRO.

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa remain confined in the 
maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary where they are serving 
life sentences.  Both men continue to deny any role in Minard's death 
and have repeatedly been denied a new trial despite the COINTELPRO 
tampering of their trial.

To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click 
<http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national>HERE

Continue reading on Examiner.com: 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial#ixzz1L36NFyw9>Last 
prosecution under COINTELPRO withheld evidence in Omaha Two trial - 
National Cointelpro | Examiner.com 
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial#ixzz1L36NFyw9

Michael Richardson
COINTELPRO Examiner
Examiner.com



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