<html>
<body>
<font size=3>As bombs rocked Omaha, Nebraska in the summer of 1970 the
FBI competed with ATF to arrest the Black Panthers for the
bombings:<br><br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha<br>
</a></font><h2><b>ATF agents compete with FBI in summer 1970 to arrest
Black Panthers in Omaha</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>March 26th, 2011 2:49 pm ET
</ul><b>Omaha Two story: July 2, 1970<br><br>
</b>A loud blast shattered the quiet of the North Omaha neighborhood as a
bomb exploded outside Components Concepts Corporation on 24th
Street. The business was a subcontractor for the Defense Department
and was rocked by the bombing on July 2, 1970.<br><br>
Assistant Chief of Police Glen Gates told reporters that it was the same
type of bomb that damaged a police substation on
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/ed-poindexter-was-target-of-fbi-anonymous-letter-and-phone-call-campaign">
June 11th</a>, three weeks earlier. <br><br>
The <i>Omaha World-Herald</i> reported: “A report on a chemical analysis
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory showed the black-owned
Component Concepts…was damaged by dynamite detonated by a
battery-operated device, Gates said.”<br><br>
The account continues, “Gates earlier said he thought the dynamite used
in the second blast was different from that used in the first.
Dwight Thomas, head of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division in Omaha,
had maintained that the dynamite in both explosions was the
same.”<br><br>
Thomas wanted to get ahead of the FBI and assigned two ATF agents, Tom
Sledge and Dick Curd, to the case. There was intense rivalry, both
nationally and locally, between the two federal law enforcement
agencies. ATF had been given jurisdiction over explosions in the
1968 Gun Control Act and was working very hard to build a name for itself
cracking the wave of bombings sweeping America.<br><br>
<a href="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</a>’s FBI responded defensively to the ATF zeal which saw
it both as turf competition and a problem for the ongoing
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar">
COINTELPRO </a>operation. Hoover was already at war with the
bombers, whoever they were, through a massive, clandestine
counter-intelligence operation code-named COINTELPRO.<br><br>
As a result of the agency rivalry, the rule of thumb was whoever got to
the scene of a crime first got the case. However, in Omaha, because
of a local law enforcement task force called
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/progressive-in-boston/omaha-two-were-targets-of-a-secret-police-task-force-codenamed-domino">
Domino</a>, with which both ATF and FBI participated, both agencies
competed and did not defer or cooperate.<br><br>
On or about July 16, 1970, ATF Agent Sledge questioned an “adolescent”
about the headquarters of Omaha’s Black Panther affiliate, the United
Front Against Fascism. The identity of Sledge’s informant has never
been revealed.
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">
Ed Poindexter</a>, chairman of the chapter, says that there were
only two adolescents that frequented the Panther headquarters. A 12
year-old girl who lived nearby or a 15 year-old, Duane Peak, who wanted
to join the group, is most likely Sledge’s informant.<br><br>
James Moore, a retired ATF agent from Kansas City, was friends with both
Thomas and Sledge. Moore was hot after Pete O’Neal, head of
the Kansas City Black Panthers, on a gun charge and kept up regular
contact with Omaha.<br><br>
Moore, in his book <i>Very Special Agents</i>, picks up the story:
“Sledge gathered enough corroboration to obtain a search warrant.
Assistant U.S. Attorney J. William Gallup, United States Attorney Richard
Dier and a federal judge agreed. Sledge summoned ATF agents, Omaha
police, and U.S. marshals to plan a raid.”<br><br>
While Sledge briefed the task force, Richard Dier made a courtesy call to
the Omaha FBI office to inquire if the agency had any information on the
interior layout of the Panther headquarters.<br><br>
Young had been
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-orders-omaha-fbi-to-be-imaginative-against-black-panther-leaders">
called to task</a> several times by J. Edgar Hoover for his inactivity
under COINTELPRO against the Black Panthers and realized that his career
was finished in the autocratic FBI if he let the ATF get ahead of the
Bureau and bring down the local Panthers. Neither Young nor Thomas
had any actual knowledge of any explosives at the headquarters, but both
men were willing to assume there was some there.<br><br>
Young sprang into action and soon Dier got a call from the Justice
Department in Washington, D.C. cancelling the planned raid. Moore
wrote that Dier was told about the search warrant, “The FBI informs us
it’s based on questionable evidence.”<br><br>
The book continues, “While the task force cooled its heals in the federal
building, FBI agents went door-to-door in the Panthers’ neighborhood
asking everyone whether there were weapons or explosives in the inside
the headquarters.”<br><br>
Moore wrote: “Dier registered strong protests with Justice.
FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Paul Young told him, “Our key informant
assured us there were no weapons in that building.” <br><br>
William Gallup was so angry at his superiors in the Justice Department
for listening to the FBI he resigned his position as a federal
prosecutor. Gallup told the Omaha newspaper, “I got sick of
Washington trying to run our legal business in Omaha.”<br><br>
Thomas Sledge, whose young brother James was an Omaha patrolman, alleged
he had reason to believe ten cases of machine guns and dynamite were at
the headquarters based on his adolescent informer, purportedly the 12
year-old girl.<br><br>
Ed Poindexter scoffs at the idea and denies ever having any explosives or
machine guns. Besides, Poindexter points out, the headquarters
would be a poor choice as a hiding place for anything.<br><br>
Ed Poindexter and
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">
Mondo we Langa</a>, then David Rice, are now known as the Omaha Two and
are serving life sentences for the
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/larry-minard-was-the-policeman-betrayed-by-j-edgar-hoover-to-frame-the-omaha-tw">
bombing murder</a> of an Omaha police officer. Both men deny any
role in the crime<br><br>
<b>To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">HERE</a><br>
<br>
</b><i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i>Michael Richardson<br>
COINTELPRO Examiner<br>
Examiner.com<br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>