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</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Original Content at
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<b>March 6, 2009<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>Framed by the FBI: A dozen reasons the
'Omaha Two' deserve a new trial (5 of 6)<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><b> </b>
<img src="http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploaded/omaha-004-20081119-15.jpg" width=229 height=290 alt="[]">
</b></font><br><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=2><i>Mondo we Langa<br><br>
</i></font><font face="verdana" size=2>On August 17, 1970, an Omaha,
Nebraska police officer, Larry Minard, was murdered in an ambush bombing
at a vacant house. Two men, Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa
(formerly David Rice), are serving life sentences at the Nebraska State
Penitentiary for his killing. The pair were leaders of Omaha's
chapter of the Black Panther Party. Most people assume justice was
done in the case and little effort has been made by the news media to dig
into the hidden aspects of the crime.<br><br>
Poindexter has a new trial request pending before the Nebraska Supreme
Court and an examination of the record, much of it still hidden by
Federal Bureau of Investigation censors, reveals a dozen reasons to
question the outcome of the trial.<br><br>
<b>New Trial Reason Nine: Operation COINTELPRO's falsified
documents and secret directives </b> <br><br>
J. Edgar Hoover, the powerful director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, had secretly established a massive, nationwide clandestine
operation code-named COINTELPRO to conduct "disruption"
activity against the Black Panthers and thousands of other organizations
and individuals. Hoover wanted to destroy the Black Panthers and
went after them with lethal ferocity. <br><br>
The Omaha FBI office drew fire from Hoover on December 10, 1969, for a
lack of action against the local Panther chapter. Hoover ordered in
a COINTELPRO memo, "As long as there are BPP [Black Panther Party]
activities, you should be giving consideration to that type of
counterintelligence measure which would best disrupt existing
activities."<br>
<br>
Hoover wanted secret dirty tricks directed at the leaders of the
Panthers. "It is assumed that of the eight to twelve members,
one or two must certainly be in a position of leadership. You
should give consideration to counterintelligence measures directed
against these leaders in an effort to weaken or destroy their
positions. Bureau has noted that you have not submitted any
concrete counterintelligence proposals in recent months. 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 for approval."<br>
<br>
The Omaha Special-Agent-in-Charge got the message and a series of
COINTELPRO actions were planned against Ed Poindexter and Mondo we
Langa. Mondo edited the local newsletter and distributed the Black
Panther newspaper. An FBI plan to ambush the Panthers on their way
from the airport with newspapers was developed. Contact was made
with United Airlines Air Freight to determine pick-up schedules.
Irregular delivery of the newspaper to Omaha frustrated the FBI efforts
to "disrupt" distribution of the paper.<br>
<br>
Next, in March 1970, the Omaha FBI devised, and got Hoover's approval,
for a plan to discredit Poindexter with a bogus letter and anonymous
phone calls. The recipients of the FBI letters were <i>Black
Realities</i>, "a local Negro publication; <i>Everyone Magazine</i>,
"a monthly Negro publication published on Omaha's North Side";
and the <i>Omaha Star</i>, "a weekly Negro newspaper."
The letters and calls accused Poindexter of falsely soliciting for bail
money. Hoover reminded the Omaha FBI office, "Take the usual
security precautions to insure this letter and mailing cannot be traced
to the Bureau."<br>
<br>
Another COINTELPRO proposal was made in Omaha on August 15th, two days
before Larry Minard's murder, targeting Poindexter. There was a
dispute within the Black Panther Party over the status of the Omaha
chapter and the <i>Omaha World-Herald</i> reported on the possible split
in an article quoting Poindexter. The Omaha FBI wanted to write
another bogus letter trying to drive a wedge in the Panthers and accused
Poindexter of cooperating with "Whiteys newspaper" in the
ruse.<br>
<br>
On August 17th, an unknown caller told police that a woman was screaming
in a vacant house. Eight officers responded but only seven would
leave the crime scene alive. Instead of a rape victim police found
a deadly suitcase bomb.<br><br>
On August 19th, Hoover would order the FBI Crime Laboratory to not issue
a report on a voice analysis of Minard's killer's voice luring police
recorded by the 911 emergency call system. The search for truth to
the identity of the caller who set the fatal trap ended with Hoover's
order. <br>
<br>
The new COINTELPRO plan was to convict Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa
for the bombing--even if that meant letting the killer who actually made
the phone call go free.<br><br>
<b>New Trial Reason Ten: A mystery, "questionable"
adolescent federal informant </b> <br><br>
The Black Panthers in Omaha were under a concerted and coordinated
assault by law enforcement officials. An October 6, 1968, Federal
Bureau of Investigation COINTELPRO memo from the Omaha office to J. Edgar
Hoover told of local police efforts. "It should be noted that
the Omaha Police department has instigated an harassment campaign against
the BBP [Black Panther Party] members by stopping vehicles registered to
these individuals at every opportunity. This activity has become of
great concern to those members involved."<br>
<br>
The Omaha FBI office was itself busy with a campaign of misdeeds
including a planned ambush, bogus letters and anonymous phone calls
against the Panther leadership. The U.S. Attorney, Richard A. Dier,
had put Mondo we Langa and others before a grand jury investigation into
Panther activities.<br>
<br>
Not to be outdone, an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, Thomas Sledge, requested a federal search warrant for the Black
Panther headquarters. The search never happened and the public
never knew about it until later--after Larry Minard's death. The
<i>Omaha World-Herald</i> belatedly dug out some of the details.<br>
<br>
Sledge got his search warrant on July 20, 1970. As Sledge assembled
his ATF task force, he called upon U.S. Marshal Lloyd Grimm who, with
police and FBI agents, would stage an early morning raid the next
day. Grimm's involvement required a check-in with the Justice
Department in Washington, D.C. The call to Washington stopped the
search.<br>
<br>
Sledge claimed in his application for the search warrant that there were
ten boxes of machine guns of "Russian manufacture" and dynamite
at the headquarters. The dynamite was described as "15, more
or less, bundles of 12 sticks in a bundle wrapped with cord or
wire." The individual sticks were described as about 12 inches
long, an inch in diameter and brown.<br>
<br>
Sledge's ATF supervisor, Dwight Thomas, approved use of Sledge's
adolescent informant but the choice of snitch was overruled by Justice
Department officials. Dier refused to answer questions telling a
reporter, "I'm sorry but I cannot discuss the matter." A
Justice Department spokesperson said the raid had been cancelled because
the search warrant was based on "questionable
information."<br>
<br>
Sledge claimed his adolescent informant had detailed knowledge of a
recent bombing at Component Concepts Corporation. Sledge also
claimed he spoke with a man who alleged selling machine guns to the
Panthers.<br><br>
A month later 15 year-old Duane Peak would confess to planting the bomb
that killed Larry Minard. Peak said he got the dynamite from
Raleigh House, a suspected informant that was never charged for his role
in the crime. <br><br>
The police never solved the Component Concepts Corporation bombing.
Nor did they solve a similar bombing at Horace Mann Junior High
School. Horace Mann was Peak's school where he had discipline
problems.<br>
<br>
Could Duane Peak, at fifteen years of age, have been Sledge's
"questionable" adolescent informant overruled by the Justice
Department?<br><br>
***<br><br>
<i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Author's Bio: Michael Richardson
is a freelance writer based in Boston. Richardson writes about politics,
law, nutrition, ethics, and music. Richardson is also a political
consultant. <br><br>
<br><br>
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