[Ppnews] The Omaha Two story, part one of a review of the trial 40 years ago

[Political Prisoner News]

Greetings!

Here is the first installment of a series of articles examining the 
conviction of the Omaha Two 40 years ago, click link for article, 
video, and slideshow

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-cointelpro-trial-40-years-ago-by-the-fbi-against-the-omaha-two-examined>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-cointelpro-trial-40-years-ago-by-the-fbi-against-the-omaha-two-examined

Michael Richardson
COINTELPRO Examiner


Last COINTELPRO trial 40 years ago by the FBI against the Omaha Two examined

Omaha Two story:  An explanation

The Omaha Two are 
<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 (formerly David Rice).  Both men are imprisoned at the 
Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln where they are serving life 
sentences for the August 17, 1970 bombing murder of an Omaha police officer.

Both Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa deny any involvement in the 
death of patrolman 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/larry-minard-was-the-policeman-betrayed-by-j-edgar-hoover-to-frame-the-omaha-tw>Larry 
Minard, Sr.  Minard, a 29 year-old father of five young children, was 
killed instantly when he handled a booby-trapped suitcase in a vacant house.

Minard had been lured with seven other officers to the vacant house 
on Ohio Street in Omaha by a false 911 emergency call reporting a 
woman screaming at the residence.  Police immediately suspected the 
local Black Panther chapter, called the National Committee to Combat 
Fascism, of the crime and focused their attention on the Panthers.

Poindexter was Chairman of the chapter and Mondo was the Minister of 
Information.  Both men had been targets of 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>COINTELPRO, 
an illegal counter-intelligence operation of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover.

Hoover had been personally monitoring the COINTELPRO actions against 
Black Panther chapters across the United States.  In December 1969 
Hoover chastised the Special Agent-in-Charge of the Omaha office, 
Paul Young, for not getting the Panther leadership off the streets.

When the report of Minard's death came in to the FBI office, Young 
sprang into action and proposed making a case against the Panther 
leaders offering to deal with the incriminating 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/attorney-tim-ashford-on-the-withheld-911-tape-of-the-omaha-two-case>911 
tape.  A recording of the killer's voice was sent to the FBI crime 
laboratory for analysis with the instruction to make 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/attorney-robert-bartle-on-withheld-evidence-by-fbi-omaha-two-case>no 
report on the findings other than a phone call to the local FBI office.

When Ivan Willard Conrad, the FBI lab director, got the COINTELRO 
memo he called Hoover to verify he was to not issue a report on the 
identity of Minard's killer.  Hoover told Conrad to proceed as 
directed and the lab boss noted Hoover's directive on the memo, 
initialing and dating he entry.

The jury that convicted the Omaha Two in April 1971 never heard the 
911 tape nor were told of COINTELPRO and Hoover's role in the 
case.  Despite the later revelation of the withheld report and 
subsequent police conflicting testimony, plus new scientific analysis 
of the 911 tape, the two men have been repeatedly denied new trials.

EXAMINER is going to go back in time and relive the turbulent era in 
Omaha four decades ago in a continuing series of reports culminating 
in a day-by-day recap of the trial.

The series will begin in 1919 with a lynching in downtown Omaha to 
set the scene and then advance to March 1968 when George Wallace 
sparked a small riot in Omaha during a campaign appearance.  From 
there the story will advance as events of the time occurred.

Permisson granted to reprint




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