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href="http://sfbayview.com/2017/02/new-release-of-black-panther-file-reveals-fbi-rigged-investigation-of-murdered-policeman/">http://sfbayview.com/2017/02/new-release-of-black-panther-file-reveals-fbi-rigged-investigation-of-murdered-policeman/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">New release of Black Panther file reveals
FBI rigged investigation of murdered policeman</h1>
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<p><strong><em>by Michael Richardson - February 26, 2017<br>
</em></strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<div id="attachment_67521" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a
href="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/"
rel="attachment wp-att-67521"><img
class="wp-image-67521"
src="cid:part2.F90889A2.7FCFF054@freedomarchives.org"
height="380" width="350"></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">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.</p>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><span>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.</span></h3>
<p>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.</p>
<div id="attachment_67522" class="wp-caption alignright"><a
href="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/"
rel="attachment wp-att-67522"><img
class="wp-image-67522"
src="cid:part4.20642CA0.32C4593E@freedomarchives.org"
height="286" width="350"></a>
<p class="wp-caption-text">A closeup of the Aug. 24
“smoking gun” notation on the FBI memo</p>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<h3><span>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.</span></h3>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3><span>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.</span></h3>
<p>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.”</p>
<p><em>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 </em><a
href="mailto:richardsonreports@gmail.com"><em>richardsonreports@gmail.com</em></a><em>.
</em></p>
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