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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial</a>
<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Last prosecution under COINTELPRO withheld evidence in
Omaha Two trial</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>April 30th, 2011 12:15 pm ET
</ul><br>
<b>Omaha Two story: April 28, 1971<br><br>
</b>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">
Edward Poindexter</a> 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, were in the Douglas County Jail
awaiting trial when a burglary in Media, Pennsylvania put in motion
events that led to the two men achieving the dubious distinction as the
last
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar">
COINTELPRO</a> defendants.<br><br>
The March 8, 1971, break-in of a satellite office of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation brought to light for the first time a massive, illegal
counter-intelligence operation code-named COINTELPRO. The
clandestine program was a fifteen-year war on domestic political
activists targeted by FBI director
<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>. The Black Panthers were the targets of the
most ruthless tactics with at times a lethal ferocity.<br><br>
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa headed the National Committee to Combat
Fascism, a Black Panther affiliate chapter, in Omaha, Nebraska.
Both men were charged with the bombing murder of Omaha police officer
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call">
Larry Minard, Sr</a>. and awaiting trial when the FBI burglary
occurred. Neither Panther leader knew that their trial would be
COINTELPRO-manipulated following an order by J. Edgar Hoover to withhold
evidence about the identity of Minard’s killer.<br><br>
The burglary, which netted 1000 pages of confidential FBI files,
disclosed for the first time outside the Bureau the secret COINTELPRO
operation. Immediately, an intense investigation was launched,
directed by Mark Felt, the “Deep Throat” of Watergate infamy, creating a
33,000 page case file. The crime was never solved.<br><br>
The Media break-in was first reported in the <i>New York Times</i> on
March 10, 1971. The next day a Haverford College professor, the
<i>Boston Globe</i>, and the Philadelphia FBI office all got a letter
from an unknown group called the Citizens’ Commission to Investigate the
FBI claiming responsibility.<br><br>
Two weeks after the break-in, selected FBI documents were sent to Senator
George McGovern of South Dakota and Representative Parren Mitchell of
Maryland, both FBI critics. The two elected officials turned over
the documents to the FBI because neither wanted to be associated with the
“illegal action” of the Citizens’ Commission.<br><br>
On March 23rd, as preparations for jury selection were underway in Omaha,
Representative Mitchell said the FBI documents he returned showed that
the FBI was engaged in “crime” with its surveillance activities.
That same day selected COINTELPRO documents were sent to the <i>New York
Times</i>, the <i>Washington Pos</i>t, and the <i>Los Angeles
Times</i>. The next day the <i>Washington Post</i> published
excerpts of the FBI documents.<br><br>
Attorney General John Mitchell appealed to the news media to not publish
details of the COINTELPRO documents but his appeal was futile in the face
of the improper FBI conduct revealed in the purloined files.<br><br>
As testimony progressed in Omaha against the Black Panther leaders on
trial, the Citizens’ Commission sent COINTELPRO documents to a Cambridge,
Massachusetts group called Resist which in turn supplied the booty to the
<i>New York Times</i>.<br><br>
On
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prosecution-rested-its-case-without-fbi-testimony-about-cointelpro-measures">
April 8th</a>, the day the prosecution ended its case against the Omaha
Two, the Citizens’ Commission gave a new batch of COINTELPRO documents to
the <i>Boston Globe</i>. <br><br>
Slowly, in piecemeal fashion, the FBI dirty secrets came to light, except
in Omaha. The Omaha Two were convicted on
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-two-convicted-cointelpro-tainted-trial-40-years-ago-nebraska">
April 17, 1971</a>, for murder without the jury every learning about
COINTELPRO or that the two defendants had been targeted by J. Edgar
Hoover. The jury never heard the recorded voice of Larry Minard’s
killer caught on the 911 phone system used to lure Minard to a deadly
ambush. The jury never learned that
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-gave-order-to-let-policeman-s-killer-get-away-with-murder">
Hoover had ordered</a> the FBI crime lab to withhold a report on the
identity of Minard’s killer based on an analysis of the 911
recording.<br><br>
On April 21, 1971, a Pennsylvania student group received COINTELPRO
documents and news reports on FBI misdeeds were growing. At FBI
headquarters, egotistically called the “Seat of Government” by Hoover,
concerns were mounting.<br><br>
On April 27th, Charles Brennan, a high-level COINTELPRO manger at the
FBI, sent a memorandum to
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/three-days-of-deceit-omaha-two-case-by-fbi-and-omaha-police">
William Sullivan</a>, head of Domestic Intelligence and principal
architect of COINTELPRO. The memo urged COINTELPRO be discontinued
except for “exceptional instances where counterintelligence action is
warranted.” <br><br>
Brennan, who had once worked in the Omaha FBI office, and Sullivan were
both on the distribution list of the COINTELPRO memo ordering the
withholding of evidence in the Omaha Two case.<br><br>
J. Edgar Hoover quickly agreed to Brennan’s recommendation and on April
28, 1971, eleven days after the end of the Omaha Two trial, the order was
given to discontinue COINTELPRO.<br><br>
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa remain confined in the maximum-security
Nebraska State Penitentiary where they are serving life sentences.
Both men continue to deny any role in Minard’s death and have repeatedly
been denied a new trial despite the COINTELPRO tampering of their
trial.<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>Continue reading on Examiner.com:
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial#ixzz1L36NFyw9">
Last prosecution under COINTELPRO withheld evidence in Omaha Two trial -
National Cointelpro | Examiner.com</a>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial#ixzz1L36NFyw9" eudora="autourl">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/last-prosecution-under-cointelpro-withheld-evidence-omaha-two-trial#ixzz1L36NFyw9<br>
<br>
</a>Michael Richardson<br>
COINTELPRO Examiner<br>
Examiner.com<br><br>
<br>
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