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</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Original Content at
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<b>February 27, 2008<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>Justice Dept. overruled ATF agent
aiding FBI over unreliable informant in COINTELPRO plot against Omaha
Black Panthers<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2><i>By Michael Richardson<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The Federal Bureau
of Investigation's secret and illegal war on the Black Panthers and other
domestic political groups called COINTELPRO was closely directed by the
top three officials of the FBI who oversaw an eight-member directorate in
charge of the clandestine operation. At the helm, making all
important decisions, was Director J. Edgar Hoover who had ordered FBI
agents to "disrupt" the Black Panthers.
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>William Sullivan,
Assistant Director of the FBI, was the point person who selected which of
the thousands of field COINTELPRO memos were to be seen by Hoover.
Sullivan testified to Congress on November 1, 1975, about the nature of
COINTELPRO tactics used against the Panthers. "This is a
rough, tough, dirty business, and dangerous. It was dangerous at
times. No holds were barred."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The FBI had focused on
Omaha's Black Panthers early and monitored a 1968 visit to the city by
Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver where he spoke to a rally of 400
people at a city park. In 1969, the Omaha chapter of the Black
Panther Party was renamed the National Committee to Combat Fascism and
two leaders of the group, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (then David
Rice), became targets of Hoover.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>On July 20, 1970, agent
Thomas Sledge of the Omaha office of the Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
division of the Treasury Department applied for and was granted a federal
search warrant for the NCCF headquarters. The search was to be led
by Sledge and U.S. Marshal Lloyd Grimm who, along with FBI and Omaha
Police, were going to stage an early morning raid the next day. A
COINTELPRO tactic used in other cities was to raid Panther homes and
offices on any pretext to be able to gather documents and other
information.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Sledge claimed in his
application for the search warrant that there were ten boxes of machine
guns "of Russian manufacture" and dynamite at the NCCF
headquarters. The dynamite was "15, more or less,
bundles of 12 sticks in a bundle wrapped with cord or wire."
The individual sticks of dynamite were described as about 12 inches long,
an inch in diameter and brown.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Sledge's boss, Dwight
Thomas, Iowa-Nebraska ATF area supervisor, approved the use of Sledge's
informant, an adolescent, and gave the go-ahead for the raid. The
<i>Omaha World Herald </i>learned from its Washington bureau that
officials within the Justice Department initially approved of the raid
after U.S. District Court Clerk Richard Peck signed the search warrant
sought by Sledge. Then, later that day, a call came from the
Justice Department cancelling the raid.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>U.S. Attorney Richard
A. Dier was asked by the <i>Omaha World Herald </i>to explain the
cancelled raid on NCCF headquarters but declined to answer.
"I'm sorry but I cannot discuss the matter." <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Dier was no stranger to
the COINTELPRO-orchestrated focus of law enforcement on the Black
Panthers as he had impaneled a federal grand jury in December 1969 to
investigate Langa and a school he operated, the Vivian Strong Liberation
School named for a 14 year-old girl fatally shot by Omaha Police in the
summer of 1969.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The explanation given
by a Justice Department spokesman for the cancelled search raid at NCCF
headquarters was that the search warrant was based on "questionable
information."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Sledge claimed his
"questionable" adolescent informant also had detailed knowledge
of a recent bombing at a black-owned business, Component Concepts
Corporation in Omaha. Sledge further claimed he spoke with a man
who had alleged selling machine guns to NCCF members.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Ed Poindexter, head of
the NCCF chapter, denied any machine guns or dynamite were at the
headquarters. "We don't have anything to hide….Actually, if
they believe everything they hear, we'd have an entire National Guard
armory stuck up here. We will be glad to let them search all they
want."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Less than a month
later, another adolescent, 15 year-old Duane Peak, planted a booby-trap
bomb that killed Omaha patrolman Larry Minard at a vacant house and
injured seven other officers. Peak quickly confessed following his
arrest and gained his freedom after several years in juvenile detention
in exchange for testimony against the two COINTELPRO targets, Poindexter
and Langa who deny any involvement in the crime.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Two Omaha Police
detectives, Jack Swanson and Robert Pheffer, both claim to have found
dynamite in Langa's basement, although their competing claims cast doubt
on both men. In Pheffer's latest version of the story, told in an
Omaha courtroom in May 2007, an ATF agent was also present at the search
of Langa's house. Pheffer did not specify if the ATF agent was
Sledge. No dynamite was pictured in Langa's house in evidence
photographs and the explosives only first turned up in photos in the
trunk of a police squad car.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Sledge is the older
brother of James Sledge, one of the seven policemen injured by the bomb
that took Larry Minard's life.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>ATF agent Sledge did
have a role in the case against Poindexter and Langa, taking evidence to
Washington, D.C. for analysis the week after the bombing. Sharing
custody of the evidence with Sledge on the trip to ATF headquarters,
according to the <i>Omaha World Herald,</i> was Assistant Chief of Police
Glenn Gates. <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Gates' duplicity in the
case would not be known for years until after the trial when a Freedom of
Information release of COINTELPRO memos revealed that Gates had asked the
Omaha FBI Special Agent-in-Charge to drop Bureau analysis of the
emergency call tape recording of the lethal message luring Minard to his
death. Peak, the murderous adolescent witness against Poindexter
and Langa, had claimed he made the call but the voice on the tape did not
sound like him. Gates did not want the exculpatory information
known to defense attorneys and succeeded in withholding the tape from the
jury.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The COINTELPRO memo,
dated October 13, 1970, was from the Omaha FBI office to J. Edgar
Hoover:<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>"Assistant COP
GLENN GATES, Omaha PD, advised that he feels that any use of tapes of
this call might be prejudicial to the police murder trial against two
accomplices of PEAK and, therefore, has advised that he wishes no use of
this tape until after the murder trials of PEAK and the two accomplices
has been completed." <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Poindexter and Langa
were convicted of first-degree murder for Minard's death by a jury
unaware of the withheld evidence, Hoover's COINTELPRO orders, or false
testimony by Omaha Police detectives about the case. Both men are
serving life sentences at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The Nebraska Supreme
Court is now considering Poindexter's request for a new trial. No
date has been set for a decision.<br>
<i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Authors Bio: Michael Richardson is
a freelance writer based in Boston. Richardson writes about politics,
election law, human nutrition, ethics, and music. Richardson is also a
political consultant on ballot access. <br><br>
<br><br>
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