[Ppnews] 42 Years After Launch of COINTELPRO against Omaha Two

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.examiner.com/article/murder-anniversary-brings-sorrow-and-controversy-cointelpro-case


  Murder anniversary brings sorrow and controversy in COINTELPRO case

    * August 17, 2012
    * By: Michael Richardson
      <http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/michael-richardson>

The bombing murder of patrolman Larry Minard, Sr 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/officer-larry-minard-denied-justice-by-j-edgar-hoover-under-cointelpro-1970>. 
in Omaha, Nebraska, forty-three years ago, August 17, 1970, still haunts 
the Midwestern city. The killing of Minard was blamed on the Black 
Panthers and two of its leaders, Ed Poindexter 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police> 
and Mondo we Langa 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case> 
(formerly David Rice) were convicted and continue to serve life 
sentences at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary. However, 
the prosecution of the case was tainted by withheld evidence 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call> 
on the identity of the 911 caller who lured Minard to his death in a 
booby-trapped vacant house. The order to withhold a lab report came from 
J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as a 
part of a massive, illegal, clandestine counter-intelligence operation 
code-named COINTELPRO 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar>.

West Omaha with its tony new subdivisions and shining shopping centers 
is a world away from the remnants of the Near-Northside, Omaha’s 
“ghetto”, where weedy vacant lots are more common than houses. On North 
24th Street the remains of a neighborhood still in the clasp of crime, 
fear, and poverty are evident. The new Omaha has forgotten Larry Minard 
and moved on, while the Near-Northside, Minard’s former beat, still 
remembers the fallen officer. But Minard is not remembered for his 
heroism, instead, he is remembered as another victim of Hoover’s 
COINTELPRO <http://www.examiner.com/topic/cointelpro/articles> plot to 
destroy the Black Panthers.

Ever since the controversial April 1971 trial that convicted Ed 
Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, now known as the Omaha Two 
<http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-1/articles>, doubt about their 
guilt has openly surfaced in the Near-Northside. Just last weekend an 
event was held at the Malcolm X birthplace featuring the new film 
/COINTELPRO 101/ and a discussion about the Omaha Two as political 
prisoners 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/black-august-event-on-omaha-two-and-cointelpro-to-be-held-by-malcolm-x-group>. 
Meanwhile, new Omaha it seems, just doesn’t want to know of such things. 
Earlier this summer the Omaha City Council voted not to even hear a 
request to reopen the Minard murder investigation which was based on new 
information not available at trial about J. Edgar Hoover’s tampering.

J. Edgar Hoover conducted his own secret war on political activists he 
deemed subversive. The COINTELPRO operation lasted fourteen years, was 
nationwide in scope, and consumed vast amounts of FBI resources. Many of 
the COINTELPRO misdeeds were illegal had a lethal ferocity. Hoover hated 
no group as much as the Black Panthers and personally commanded the 
secret activities of his agents.

In Omaha, the FBI director was particularly upset at the lack of 
“imagination” against the Black Panthers and chided Special 
Agent-in-Charge Paul Young for a lack of results. Minard’s murder 
provided the FBI with a perfect scenario 
<http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-story/articles>, pinning the 
crime on the Black Panther leadership. Young sprang into action the day 
of the bombing and proposed to Assistant Chief of Police Glen Gates that 
the FBI take custody of the incriminating 911 recording which captured 
the voice of a killer. Two days later, before Larry Minard was even 
buried, J. Edgar Hoover gave the order to FBI Crime Laboratory director 
Ivan Willard Conrad to not issue a report on the identity of the 911 
caller. Hoover let the anonymous caller get away with murder to make a 
case against the Omaha Two.

The jury that convicted Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa never got to 
hear the crucial 911 tape or even know of its existence. The jury also 
never knew about the existence of COINTELPRO in Omaha and the jury was 
never informed of Hoover’s orders to get the Black Panther leadership 
off the streets.

Every August the anniversary of Larry Minard’s murder brings an unheard 
call from Omaha's Near-Northside for justice and the date brings annual 
sorrow and controversy 
<http://www.examiner.com/article/anti-cointelpro-demonstration-at-nebraska-state-capitol-for-the-omaha-two>.

*For more information on the Omaha Two 
<http://www.crimemagazine.com/j-edgar-hoover-and-framing-omaha-two>*

/Permission granted to reprint/



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