Human rights group calls for reopening of COINTELPRO cases - National Cointelpro
A U.S. Human Rights Network Working Group has issued a call to action to end the incarceration of “COINTELPRO/Civil Rights era political activists held in United States prisons, some more than 40 years.” Operation COINTELPRO was a massive, secret, illegal attack on political activists conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The illegal campaign of dirty tactics was ordered and micro-managed by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The U.S. Human Rights Network Political Prisoner/State Repression Working Group based the call to action on recent draft recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Council to end the incarceration of political prisoners in America. Efia Nwangaza of the USHRN Working Group offered three actions to correct past and continuing injustice: 1. “We call on President Obama to use his presidential powers to grant clemency and commute the sentences to time served and release all COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era political activists criminalized and held in federal custody.” 2. “We call on President Obama to direct U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice to review the convictions of all COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era activists in federal or state custody to identify and address civil and human rights violations perpetrated.” 3. “We call on the Obama administration to create a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the release and compensation of all COINTELPRO/Civil Rights Era activists in federal or state custody.” The call for action echoes that of Jericho, a national effort to address the problem of political prisoners in the United States. One of Jericho’s efforts to help political prisoners is an online petition. Jericho’s appeal followed a call for a national Reconciliation Commission on COINTELPRO cases from the Nebraskans For Justice. Formed to support litigation for the Omaha Two, the Nebraskans For Justice began a postcard campaign to the Attorney General last fall. The Omaha Two are Edward Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) who have been locked up since August 1970 when they were arrested for the murder of an Omaha policeman. Ed Poindexter was head of Nebraska’s chapter of the Black Panthers known as the National Committee to Combat Fascism. Mondo we Langa was minister of information of the group and published a local newsletter. Both men had been targeted by the Omaha FBI office under orders of J. Edgar Hoover. When Omaha police officer Larry Minard was killed in an ambush bombing Hoover decided to pin the crime on Poindexter and Mondo and ordered the FBI crime lab director to withhold evidence on the identity of the 911 caller that lured Minard to his death. Both men were convicted of the killing in a COINTELPRO-tainted trial that included both withheld evidence and also conflicting police testimony. The Omaha Two remain imprisoned at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary where they continue to maintain their innocence. Permission granted to reprint -- http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/human-rights-group-calls-for-reopening-of-cointelpro-cases?do_not_mobile_redirect=1 Via InstaFetch -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
