[Ppnews] Omaha Two story: (Part 9) - United Airlines helped Omaha FBI with ambush plot

[Political Prisoner News]

The Omaha FBI office was under pressure from J. Edgar Hoover to 
disrupt the Omaha Black Panthers and planned an ambush, see link for 
article and slideshow of COINTELPRO memorandums:

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/united-airlines-helped-omaha-fbi-with-ambush-plot-against-black-panthers>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/united-airlines-helped-omaha-fbi-with-ambush-plot-against-black-panthers


United Airlines helped Omaha FBI with ambush plot against Black Panthers

    * By <http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
Richardson, COINTELPRO Examiner
    * March 22nd, 2011 10:14 am ET
Omaha Two story: Jan. 26, 1970

Paul Young, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-s-ugly-racial-history-includes-a-1919-downtown-lynching-and-mob-riot-1>Omaha, 
Nebraska office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was a troubled 
man.  Young's boss, 
<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, was unhappy with him.  Hoover wanted Young to "destroy" 
the leadership of Omaha's Black Panther affiliate chapter, called the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-informed-of-united-front-against-fascism-omaha>United 
Front Against Fascism, and Young had not taken action.

Hoover first ordered Paul Young to participate in an illegal 
counter-intelligence operation, code-named 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>COINTELPRO, 
on 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/george-wallace-rally-omaha-triggered-riot-after-demonstrators-were-beaten>March 
4, 1968, a year and a half earlier on a day of rioting in Omaha, 
triggered when George Wallace supporters beat demonstrators with 
metal chairs at an Auditorium Arena campaign rally.

On 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-directs-cointelpro-plot-against-omaha-chapter-of-black-panthers>October 
23, 1968, Hoover wrote to Young that although he wanted "measures" 
taken against the Black Panthers, "You are again reminded that no 
action should be taken on any specific proposals without prior Bureau 
authority."

As 1968 rolled into 1969 Hoover became more impatient with Young and 
ordered the Omaha FBI office to make COINTELPRO updates every two 
weeks instead of quarterly.

On 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-officer-kills-14-year-old-vivian-strong-triggering-race-riot-1>June 
27, 1969, Hoover wrote to Young, "It is apparent that the 
counterintelligence program of the Omaha Office has not been 
effective and needs a new approach."

However, no "new approach" yielded any results and on 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-orders-omaha-fbi-to-be-imaginative-against-black-panther-leaders>December 
10, 1969, Hoover again ordered Paul Young to take action against the 
Black Panthers in Omaha.

Hoover wrote:  "Evaluate your approach to this program and insure 
that it is given the imaginative attention necessary to produce 
effective results.  Handle promptly and submit your proposals to the 
Bureau for approval."

Special Agent-in-Charge Paul Young finally came up with a plan to 
ambush the Panthers when they went to Eppley Airport to pick up 
shipments of the Black Panther newspaper and prevent distribution of 
the newspaper in the community.

On January 26, 1970, Young wrote to Hoover:  "The United Front 
Against Fascism (UFAF) is the only BPP affiliated organization 
presently active with the Omaha Division.  At present the only known 
source of income of the UFAF is money derived through the sale of the 
Black Panther newspaper which arrives in Omaha weekly via United Airlines."

Young continued:  "Contact is presently being maintained with United 
Airlines to ascertain if a regular pattern exists for the pickup of 
this newspaper by [REDACTED] a known UFAF member to whom these papers 
are consigned.  As soon as this pattern is established, Omaha 
contemplates initiating counter intelligence measures aimed at 
disruption of the distribution of this newspaper."

Young learned from United Airlines that the weekly pick-up schedule 
was altered in January 1970 upsetting his planned action.  On 
February 24, 1970, Paul Young wrote to Hoover of the difficulty he 
was having implementing his COINTELPRO proposal.

Young wrote:  "Since BPP Headquarters has changed its policy 
concerning the publishing of theis newspaper to demanding that 
payment for these newspapers be received at BPP Headquarters prior to 
the time the newspaper goes to the printer, no papers have been 
received in Omaha from the San Francisco area.  In recent 
communications from San Francisco, it appears that arrangements are 
being made to have further shipments of the BPP Newspaper sent to 
Omaha and contact is maintained with United Airlines Air Freight so 
that the Omaha Office will be apprised when regular shipments of the 
newspaper to Omaha are resumed."

Young continued, "Once these shipments are resumed, United Airlines 
Air Freight will be contacted on a continuing basis in order to 
determine if a regular pattern is established for the pickup of these 
newspapers by UFAF members,.  Once a pattern is established for the 
pickup of these newspapers, counter intelligence measures will be 
aimed at disruption of the distribution of these newspapers."

The COINTELPRO memo from Omaha was read by Hoover and bears his 
distinctive "H" initial.

In March 1970, Omaha patrolman James Loder was acquitted in the death 
of 14 year-old Vivian Strong the previous summer.  Loder had shot 
Vivian in the back of the head near her home at the Logan Fontenelle 
housing project when she and other youth ran from police making an 
unrelated arrest.  The shooting of Vivian Strong had triggered 
several days of rioting in Omaha and remains controversial on the 
Near North Side to the present time.

Also in March, the FBI director used his annual appearance at the 
House Appropriations Committee to discuss the FBI budget as a bully 
pulpit against the Black Panthers warning the committee members about 
the threat facing America from the Black Panthers.

Realizing that Hoover could not be put off much longer with inaction 
on the airport ambush, Paul Young proposed an anonymous letter and 
phone call operation against UFAF leader 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police>Ed 
Poindexter.

Events in Omaha were inextricably moving to a climax that ended with 
the conviction of Ed 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, for the murder of an Omaha police 
officer.  Both men deny any involvement in the crime and are now 
known as the Omaha Two.

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

Permission granted to reprint

Michael Richardson
COINTELPRO Examiner
Examiner.com



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