[Pnews] Omaha 2 - New release of Black Panther file reveals FBI rigged investigation of murdered policeman

[Prisoner News]

http://sfbayview.com/2017/02/new-release-of-black-panther-file-reveals-fbi-rigged-investigation-of-murdered-policeman/ 



  New release of Black Panther file reveals FBI rigged investigation of
  murdered policeman

*/by Michael Richardson - February 26, 2017
/*

Buried in the Federal Bureau of Investigation file of deceased Black 
Panther leader Wopashitwe Mondo Even we Langa (formerly David Rice) are 
secrets still hidden by Bureau censors, missing records, a misleading 
letter to a New Jersey Congressman, and a handwritten note revealing the 
FBI called off the search for a policeman’s killer just four days after 
the officer was buried.

<http://sfbayview.com/2017/02/new-release-of-black-panther-file-reveals-fbi-rigged-investigation-of-murdered-policeman/omaha-2-fbi-memo-note-cancels-shooter-voice-test-082270/> 


An FBI memo dated Aug. 20, 1970, approves the Omaha Police request for 
help comparing voices – the voice of the person who called police with 
the voices of the suspects. But two days later, in a handwritten note at 
the lower right, the voice exams are cancelled, indicating a setup.

Mondo was deputy of information for the National Committee to Combat 
Fascism in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1970 when he was accused of murdering a 
policeman with a bomb. The NCCF was a Black Panther affiliate 
organization targeted by the FBI under an illegal and clandestine 
counterintelligence operation dubbed COINTELPRO.

Mondo was on a secret detention list called the Security Index, and 
Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered the Omaha FBI office to get Mondo off 
the streets. Mondo died serving a life sentence for murder on March 11, 
2016, at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

The heavily redacted file contains three pages of content still censored 
from public release 46 years after the crime. Many redactions go to 
protect the identity of informant OM T-7. The three redacted pages of 
interview information were “immediately furnished to the Intelligence 
Division of the Omaha Police Department.”

The sequence of the pages in the file suggests the unknown source may 
have been one of three men arrested in possession of dynamite in Omaha 
three weeks before the fatal bombing. Charges were dropped against all 
three men several days after the trial that convicted Mondo and 
co-defendant Edward Poindexter, NCCF chairman.


      Mondo was on a secret detention list called the Security Index,
      and Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered the Omaha FBI office to get
      Mondo off the streets. Mondo died serving a life sentence for
      murder on March 11, 2016, at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

The “smoking gun” of a counterintelligence operation in the case was a 
handwritten notation about the cancellation of a test by the FBI 
Laboratory of a recording of the 911 call which lured Patrolman Larry 
Minard Sr. to his death. The test, to discern the identity of an 
anonymous caller, was ordered by Hoover to be conducted informally, with 
no written report.

<http://sfbayview.com/2017/02/new-release-of-black-panther-file-reveals-fbi-rigged-investigation-of-murdered-policeman/omaha-2-fbi-memo-note-cancels-shooter-voice-test-082270-closeup-web/> 


A closeup of the Aug. 24 “smoking gun” notation on the FBI memo

Five days after Hoover’s command for a verbal report only, the assistant 
special agent in charge of the Omaha office called FBI headquarters and 
cancelled the test altogether, even before the arrest of the prime 
suspect, 15-year-old Duane Peak. As there is no legitimate investigative 
reason to cancel a test of the 911 recording of a killer’s voice just 
one week into the murder probe, the call from the Omaha FBI office 
speaks to a fixed outcome.

Mondo’s FBI file details the close collaboration between the Bureau and 
the Omaha police. By 7:45 a.m., FBI agents had been briefed by a police 
inspector about the 2 a.m. bombing and had swung into action. “Omaha 
Office offered assistance in covering out-of-state leads and FBI 
Laboratory facilities offered. Omaha advised it had notified military 
and Secret Service, was following closely, and alerted its racial 
informants in pursuit of investigation.”


      The “smoking gun” of a counterintelligence operation in the case
      was a handwritten notation about the cancellation of a test by the
      FBI Laboratory of a recording of the 911 call which lured
      Patrolman Larry Minard Sr. to his death.

A FBI teletype memorandum reported, “Close liaison is being maintained 
with Omaha PD, and the Omaha Office has furnished and is furnishing 
helpful info to PD to aid them in this investigation.” A second teletype 
memo stated, “Omaha initiating intensive investigation to locate and 
apprehend fugitives.”

A FBI letterhead memorandum boasted, “Special Agents of the FBI in 
conjunction with members of the Omaha Police Department arrested [Duane 
Peak].” Further, “Captain [Hartford] advised that the Police Department 
was in the process of obtaining a search warrant … and that he would 
advise the FBI as to the results.” Another FBI memo reported, “Captain 
[Hartford] requested our assistance in interviewing [REDACTED] for any 
information he may have regarding the bomb slaying.”

A second FBI letterhead memo spelled out the degree of cooperation. “On 
a continuing basis, the Omaha Division has exchanged information with 
the Intelligence Division of the Omaha Police Department, regularly 
furnishing that department information pertinent to their investigation 
when same can be done without compromising Omaha informants. Background 
information obtained by the Omaha Division of the FBI on members of the 
NCCF was furnished to the Omaha Police Department.”

The FBI and Omaha police even shared at least one informant. “[REDACTED] 
is an Omaha police informant whose use as an informant should be kept 
confidential.” However, the Omaha police chief claimed this joint 
investigation never happened.

Chief Richard Anderson testified at a post-trial hearing to the contrary 
of the FBI documents. In May 1980, Anderson stated there was no Bureau 
involvement in the case. Either Anderson was lying to the court or he 
had been lied to by his subordinates, who worked closely with FBI agents.

In December 1982, Congressman Richard Roe from New Jersey asked the FBI 
for a report on Mondo’s case. Assistant Director in Charge Roger Young 
with the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs misleadingly replied 
two weeks later that there was no Bureau role to report. “The 
investigation of these two individuals was conducted by the Omaha Police 
Department and the trial was held in state District Court, not in a 
federal court. … I am, therefore, not in a position to furnish you a 
report.”

Some FBI records on Mondo have disappeared. David Hardy, section chief 
of the Records Management Division, explained some material may have 
been destroyed during two major purges of records in 1978 and 1998. 
However, according to Hardy, “there was an additional record potentially 
responsive” but the record “was not in its expected location and could 
not be located after a reasonable search.”

Mondo’s file does reveal in January 1971, three months before the murder 
trial, the FBI Laboratory did return the dictabelt recording of the 911 
call submitted by Paul Young, the special agent in charge of the Omaha 
FBI office. The file does not reveal if Young returned it to the Omaha 
Police Department as instructed. Omaha police officials and prosecutors 
have all testified in post-trial proceedings that there was no 
communication with the FBI and that the Bureau did not participate in 
the investigation.

Although Mondo died in prison and cannot benefit from a new trial, Ed 
Poindexter remains imprisoned for a crime he vehemently denies. The jury 
that convicted the Omaha Two, as the pair are now known, never heard the 
911 recording of a killer’s voice. The tape recording was kept from the 
defense and during the discovery process was never provided.

The jury was never told the FBI called off an analysis of the anonymous 
911 caller’s voice to determine identity. In short, the jury was unaware 
the case was fixed and that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI were willing to 
let a policeman’s killer get away with murder to imprison two COINTELPRO 
targets.

The official story, told at trial, was that Mondo and Poindexter put 
15-year-old Duane Peak up to the crime. Peak, a squeaky-voiced youth, 
said he made the 911 call, however the recording is of a deep baritone 
voice. The reason the tape was not analyzed to discern if Peak’s voice 
was on the recording was because of his confession, prosecutors and 
police later said. However, the handwritten notation found in Mondo’s 
FBI file gives lie to that explanation because the test was cancelled 
three days before Peak was even arrested.


      The jury was never told the FBI called off an analysis of the
      anonymous 911 caller’s voice to determine identity. In short, the
      jury was unaware the case was fixed and that J. Edgar Hoover and
      the FBI were willing to let a policeman’s killer get away with
      murder to imprison two COINTELPRO targets.

Ed Poindexter remains confined under harsh maximum-security conditions, 
serving a life-without-parole sentence. After Mondo’s death, Poindexter 
wrote to a supporter the loss was great but that it was important to 
“continue the struggle.”

/Michael Richardson has written extensively about the FBI’s Operation 
COINTELPRO, focusing especially on the Omaha Two, Wopashitwe Mondo Even 
we Langa, now deceased, and Ed Poindexter, who were imprisoned in the 
last COINTELPRO conviction in 1971. He can be reached at 
//richardsonreports at gmail.com/ <mailto:richardsonreports at gmail.com>/. /

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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