http://www.truth-out.org/cointelpro-and-omaha-two-interview61517
Monday 19 July 2010
by: Angola 3 News Staff
In 2007, veteran journalist Michael Richardson began writing a series
of articles for OpEdNews.com about Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa,
who are two Black Panther political prisoners known as the Omaha Two.
Richardson argues that they were framed for the 1970 murder of a
policeman as part of the FBI's notorious counterintelligence program,
dubbed "COINTELPRO." This top-secret and illegal operation was a
dirty war on the entire US Left, including the civil rights & Black
liberation movements.
Illustrating this program's intent, a March 3, 1968 COINTELPRO memo
discussed the need to stop "the beginning of a true black
revolution," and to "prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify,
and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement… Through
counterintelligence it should be possible to pinpoint potential
troublemakers and neutralize them." Another stated goal was "to
prevent the long-range growth of militant black nationalist
organizations, especially among youth. Specific tactics to prevent
these groups from converting young people must be developed." One
specific tactical approach was expressed in an April 3, 1968
communiqué arguing that "The Negro youth and moderates must be made
to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teaching, they
will be dead revolutionaries."
In terms of scale, the FBI's war of repression against the Black
liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s was greatest against the
Black Panthers. Many Panthers, like Chicago leader Fred Hampton, were
assassinated outright, while others were framed for murders they did
not commit. A few of these Panthers, like Geronimo Ji Jaga and
Dhoruba Bin Wahad, had their convictions overturned and were
released, but many of the COINTELPRO survivors remain in prison today.
In addressing why the Panthers were targeted so intensely by
COINTELPRO, Noam Chomsky wrote in 1973: "A top secret Special Report
for the president in June 1970 gives some insight into the
motivations for the actions undertaken by the government to destroy
the Black Panther Party. The report describes the party as 'the most
active and dangerous black extremist group in the United States.' Its
'hard core members' were estimated at 800, but 'a recent poll
indicates that approximately 25 percent of the black population has a
great respect for the BPP, including 43 percent of blacks under 21
years of age.' On the basis of such estimates of the potential of the
party, the repressive apparatus of the state proceeded against it to
ensure that it did not succeed in organizing as a substantial social
or political force."
Michael Richardson is now working on a book about the Omaha Two and
an archive of his definitive OpEdNews.com series about the case is
available here. This year, he began a new series of articles at
Examiner.com, exploring the broader history of COINTELPRO, along with
a continued focus on the Omaha Two, viewable here.
Angola 3 News: Please tell us about who the Omaha Two are.
Michael Richardson: Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David
Rice) were two leaders of the Black Panther affiliate chapter in
Omaha, Nebraska and targets of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
under Operation COINTELPRO. Both men are serving life sentences at
the Nebraska State Penitentiary for the 1970 bombing murder of an
Omaha policeman and have been imprisoned forty years. The former
Panther leaders have come to be known as the Omaha Two.
A3N: As a journalist at the time, how did you first react to news
of their arrests?
MR: I didn't know Poindexter, but Mondo, then called David, was a
friend of mine I met at Omaha City Council meetings. I knew Mondo was
the sharpest critic of Omaha police around and that he was constantly
being harassed, so I wasn't surprised he became a prime suspect. I
didn't think he did it though and I followed the case in the news and
attended part of his trial the next year. I never got to speak to
Mondo after his arrest and I moved from Nebraska within a year of his trial.
My first published article was a report on the trial that appeared in
the Omaha Star, but it only reported the surface story as the true
facts of the case remained hidden.
Over the years I have wondered if Mondo was guilty, as there seemed
to be so much evidence of his involvement. Finally, after over 35
years of doubt I began corresponding with Mondo and started research
on the case. I reviewed portions of the voluminous court file,
interviewed people familiar with the case including the two current
attorneys, read old newspaper accounts, studied formerly secret
COINTELPRO files, and visited with both men at the prison where they are held.
I am now convinced Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa did not get a
fair trial and were framed by overzealous police and prosecutors who
ended up letting the real killers get away to put the Panther leaders in jail.
A3N: Can you briefly explain the charges against the Omaha Two, and
what evidence was used to convict them?
MR: On August 17, 1970, an anonymous 911 caller reported a woman
screaming at a vacant house. Police arrived to an ambush instead, in
which 29 year-old Officer Larry Minard was killed. A recording of the
killer's voice was sent to the FBI crime laboratory for analysis but
before Minard was even buried, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had
ordered the crime lab to withhold a report on the tape.
A 15 year-old, Duane Peak, was soon charged with the murder and after
six different versions of the crime, he implicated Ed and Mondo in
exchange for his own freedom.
Dynamite was allegedly found in Mondo's basement only to have two
different detectives both claim they were each the one that found the
explosives.
The 911 tape was withheld from the jury. The conflicting police
dynamite testimony was also unknown to the jury, as was the deal that
allowed Peak his freedom. The jury was never informed that the
defendants were COINTELPRO targets.
After five days of deliberation, the jury convicted Ed and Mondo of
murder but spared their lives from the electric chair. The two men
have been in prison ever since.
A3N: Can you please explain what COINTELPRO was? How do the Omaha 2
fit into the story of COINTELPRO?
MR: Operation COINTELRO was a vast, illegal campaign by the FBI in
the 60's and 70's to "disrupt" domestic political activity that J.
Edgar Hoover deemed dangerous. The clandestine program was national
in scope, targeted thousands of individuals and groups and broke a
number of laws dwarfing Watergate in magnitude.
The Black Panthers were the primary target of Hoover's law
enforcement conspiracy. Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa had been
COINTELPRO targets for at least a year prior to their arrests. Hoover
had sent several memos to the Omaha FBI office complaining about a
lack of results and urged the Omaha agents to be "imaginative" with
counterintelligence actions.
Poindexter had been the subject of a secret FBI smear campaign with
forged letters and anonymous phone calls while Mondo was targeted for
an ambush while distributing Black Panther newspapers. It was the
death of Minard, however, that gave the FBI an opportunity to put the
Omaha Two behind bars.
At the time of the trial, the jury had no idea that COINTELPRO
manipulation of evidence had occurred. The secret program was
officially disbanded a week after the trial ended making Ed and Mondo
the last COINTELPRO victims.
The COINTELPRO withholding of evidence did not surface until years
later following Freedom of Information requests for COINTELPRO documents.
A3N: Have all the COINTELPRO documents been released?
MR: No. Key documents identifying informants and providing
evidentiary details have been destroyed, withheld, or remain heavily redacted.
In the mid 70's when the Church Committee of the U.S. Senate
investigated COINTELPRO, much of the Omaha case remained hidden and
so the full story of the FBI duplicity in Omaha remains unknown and
will likely never be fully disclosed.
Five different members of the Omaha Police Department ended up making
perjured or false statements about the case in court proceedings, to
the media, and in congressional testimony.
No official or agent of the FBI ever was publicly disciplined for the
COINTELPRO misconduct in the Omaha case.
A3N: What are the Omaha Two doing today to challenge the
convictions and imprisonment?
MR: Both Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa have habeas corpus
petitions pending in the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and
petitions for hearings pending in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska.
Both appeals address the conflicting police testimony on dynamite and
new scientific testing of the 911 tape that establishes Duane Peak
did not make the deadly phone call as he had claimed.
Poindexter asked the Nebraska courts for review and in 2008 was told
by the Douglas County District Court that it didn't matter where the
dynamite was found or who found it. Last year the Nebraska Supreme
Court told Ed that it didn't matter who made the 911 call.
A3N: How has the mainstream media done with reporting on the Omaha Two?
MR: Poorly. The national media has largely ignored the case and
the regional media has failed to explore the COINTELPRO aspect of the
prosecution. Almost all Nebraska media accounts of the Omaha Two
contain factual errors of some sort and glaring omissions of relevant
facts. Anyone relying on the mainstream media about this COINTELPRO
case is sadly both misinformed and under-informed.
Racism and the stigma against the Black Panthers is partially to
blame, while COINTELPRO media manipulation was another factor in
early reporting on the case. Why the media continues to ignore this
important case today is a mystery to me.
A3N: What upcoming articles are you working on?
MR: Now that internet newspaper Examiner.com has named me the
COINTELPRO Examiner, the opportunity to report on the Omaha Two is
part of my beat. I intend on revisiting, in serial form, the long
convoluted history of the case as well as report on current developments.
My research on the FBI and COINTELPRO has led me to understand that
Ed and Mondo are not alone and that each COINTELPRO conviction needs
a fresh new look. COINTELPRO was the largest, most systematic attack
on our legal system in U.S. history. It is our responsibility today
to carefully review the cases of remaining COINTELPRO targets because
of the strong possibility of tampering with evidence.
A3N: Having written about the Angola 3, why do you think their case
is important?
MR: Any case coming out of the 1970's involving the Black Panthers
is important because of the COINTELPRO abuses. The Angola 3 case is
somewhat different than others since its genesis is inside a
Louisiana prison. It may have not been technically a
J.-Edgar-Hoover-authorized COINTELPRO prosecution but some of the
trial tactics, including deals with informers, are the same.
The severity of the punishment, decades in solitary confinement,
calls out for review and is itself an injustice.
A3N: Any closing thoughts?
MR: Larry Minard, the father of five young children, was buried on
what would have been his 30th birthday. He was a police officer
responding to the call of a woman screaming. Larry Minard's killers
walk free today.
The named supplier of the dynamite, a suspected police informant, was
never charged with the crime and only spent one night in jail.
The anonymous 911 caller was not properly identified and has never
been charged in the case.
Duane Peak, the confessed bomber, was released after less then 3
years in juvenile detention.
J. Edgar Hoover let the killer of Larry Minard, the 911 caller, go
free to make a case against the Omaha Two.
Justice has not been done in Nebraska.
--
--Angola 3 News is a new project of the International Coalition to
Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we
provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our
own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story
of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights,
solitary confinement as torture, and more.
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