[Ppnews] Omaha Two story: (Part 14) - 1970 COINTELPRO plot is hatched in Omaha

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/cointelpro-plan-hatched-omaha-to-withhold-evidence-of-policeman-s-killer>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/cointelpro-plan-hatched-omaha-to-withhold-evidence-of-policeman-s-killer


COINTELPRO plan hatched in Omaha to withhold evidence of policeman's killer

By <http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
<http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Richardson
    * March 28th, 2011 8:19 pm ET
Omaha Two story: Aug. 17, 1970

Dawn broke over Omaha to an overcast drizzle on Monday, 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call>August 
17, 1970.  The weather matched the mood in the stunned, saddened 
city.  An ambush bombing in the night had taken life a 29 year-old 
policeman, 
<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., the father of five children.

Minard had responded to a 911 call of a woman screaming at a vacant 
house.  Instead of a screaming woman, the eight officers who 
converged at 2867 Ohio Street only found an empty house and a suitcase bomb.

While examining the suitcase, Minard was killed instantly by a 
powerful blast that shook the neighborhood and partially destroyed 
the vacant house.

First light brought the start of what would be a day-long procession 
of motorists slowly driving by the crime scene'  A crowd of onlookers 
was also on hand much of the time as people spoke in hushed tones and 
muted voices.

At Police Headquarters a hastily convened meeting of the Domino task 
force was called to order.  Principals present were agents from the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation and the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha>Division 
of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, detectives from the Douglas County 
Sheriff' and the Omaha Police Department. Governor Norbert Tiemann 
had also ordered the Nebraska State Patrol to send two troopers to 
work the case.

Retired ATF agent Jsmes Moore, from the Kansas City, Missouri ATF 
office, tells about the Domino meeting in his book Very Special Agents:

"Overcast skies reflected the morning mood of deputy sheriffs, police 
detectives, state troopers and federal investigators assembled for a 
special meeting of Domino--an informal Omaha venture hosting regular 
monthly meetings of lawmen to discuss problems and foster interagency 
cooperation.  This meeting has one mission to catch the cop killers."

Moore continues:  "Preliminary discussion was brief and pointed.  The 
weapon, the method and the target suggested extremists.  Panthers and 
Weathermen murdered policemen this way.  The Negro voice on the 
dispatcher's tape suggested Panthers."

Then a big surprise:  "The FBI representative stood up.  "We have 
excellent informer coverage of the Panthers,: he said, "and our key 
informer advises us that two white males were observed running from 
the scene shortly before the blast."

Although the FBI told Domino about "white males", perhaps in a ploy 
to stymie rival ATF investigators, the Special Agent-in-Charge, Paul 
Young wasted no time in getting with Glen Gates, Assistant Chief of 
Police, who was in charge of the investigation into the deadly ambush.

Young and Gates discussed the only evidence thus far, the recorded 
voice of Larry Minard's killer captured by the 911 system.  Young 
wanted to use the bombing as an opportunity to satisfy 
<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's mandate to "destroy" the local Black Panther 
leadership but the presence of an unknown caller presented a problem.

Gates was already working with the ATF laboratory on dynamite 
analysis from the other bombings in Omaha earlier in the summer so it 
may have seemed natural to accept the help of the FBI laboratory to 
analyze the 911 recording.  However, the FBI offer was 
conditional--no written report.

Meanwhile, thirteen off-duty Omaha policemen led by Captain William 
Patavina cornered Mayor Eugene Leahy in his office to complain about 
a lack of support for police.  Pattavina and two sergeants, Keith 
Lant and John Pfeffer, met with the mayor for a half-hour while the 
other ten officers occupied the lobby.  Pfeffer would later give 
conflicting testimony over the purported discovery of dynamite later 
in the case.

Pattavina told the Omaha World-Herald, "The men are angry and we are 
trying to keep things cool."  The captain then lashed out at a group 
of ministers, "All they ever get are preachers telling about police 
brutality.  They never want to hear our side of it."

Pattavina was complaining about the Omaha Presbytery's Commission on 
Church and Race which had a forum on police harassment three days 
earlier.  The Commission director, Rev. James Hargleroad, said 
policeman were not invited to the meeting because the Police 
Department has its own "forum."

By 4:30 p.m. the first of 25 arrests by midnight had begun.  The 
Omaha Police Department ran a dragnet through the Near North Side 
arresting 60 people by week's end.  However, the sweep was not 
looking for the FBI's "two white males" but instead concentrated on 
members or associates of Omaha's Black Panther group.

The departure from Omaha of the primary piece of evidence, the voice 
of Larry Minard's killer, was noted with both a front-page Omaha 
World-Herald article and a secret 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>COINTELPRO 
memorandum.

COINTELPRO was J. Edgar Hoover's clandestine counter-intelligence 
operation targeting the Black Panthers and other groups for sometimes 
lethal dirty tricks.

The Omaha newspaper headlined, "Voiceprint In Bombing To FBI Lab" and 
told:  "A copy of the telephone tape in the booby-trap killing of 
Patrolman Larry Minard has been sent to the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation in Washington for voiceprint analysis, Acting Police 
Chief Walter J. Devere said Tuesday."

"Voiceprinting--using voice sounds to establish identity--is 
relatively new and not admissible evidence in court.  But it is a 
good investigative tool, Devere said." to the Omaha newspaper.

Out of the public eye, Paul Young, Special Agent-in-Charge, sent an 
"airtel" memorandum to Hoover requesting FBI Laboratory assistance 
but recommending "the results of any examinations will be orally 
furnished the Police on an informal basis through the SAC, Omaha."

The awful truth is inescapable and confirmed by COINTELPRO memos, the 
same day of the fatal bombing Paul Young, head of the Omaha FBI, 
plotted to withhold a laboratory report on the identity of Larry 
Minard's killer.  The search for truth in the investigation of the 
bombing was abandoned before the murdered officer was laid to rest.

Two leaders of the Omaha Black Panthers called the National Committee 
to Combat Fascism 
were<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police> 
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.  Both men are now serving life sentences 
for Larry Minard's murder and deny any role in his death.

To view all 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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