Black News - Freedom Archives

Cointelpro Disruption
Continues
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Proof has continued to accumulate that the
notorious Cointelpro operations, has still
functioned beyond April of 1971, when it was
supposedly officially discontinued :
Whether or not Cointelpro continues to exist
under its original code name, there is always the
strong possiblility that a similar program with a
different name, or no name at all, has surfaced in
its place . At any rate, recent incidents and
revelations throughout the country bear closer
scrutiny, as the ominous spectre of Cointelpro
lingers on .
Two cases in North Carolina, the Wilimington
10 and the Charlotte Three, involving persons
convicted of crimes in the early `70's during
periods of "racial disturbances," have been
receiving plenty of attention by the media . In the
Wilmington lb case, Rev . Ben Chavis and nine
others were sentenced to prison on charges of
arson during racial unrest in Wilmington, North
Carolina in 1971 . Nine of the members have
since been freed from prison, with the leader of
the group of young civil rights workers still
incarcerated .
Charging President Carter with joining the
conspiracy against Chavis and the Wilmington
10, Dr . Charles Cobb, Executive Director of the
Commission for Racial Justice of the United
Church of Christ, recently announced plans to
bring the case before the United Nations for a
hearing . Amnesty International (A . L)
recognized the 10 as "prisoners of conscience ."
Cobb decided to take the case to the U .N . after
repeated attempts to get the U .S . Department of
Justice to look into charges that the 10 were
framed and railroaded into jail were
unsuccessful .
In d quick reversal of form, the Justice
Department, which had paid the witnesses that
convicted them, has asked a federal judge in
North Carolina to overturn the 1972 state court
firebombing convictions of the Wilminton 10 .
Drew Days III, chief of the Department's Civil
Rights Division, stated in an 89-page brief that a
review of the case has uncovered evidence that
the defendants were denied their constitutional
right to a fair trial . The brief asserts that the
state prosecutor and judge suppressed a
statement that raised doubts about the testimony
of the key prosecution witness, and that this act
kviolated the defendants' rights .
Meanwhile, the three Black activists who
comprise the Charlotte Three, remain
imprisoned after their 1972 convictions for
allegedly having firebombed a Charlotte riding
stable that refused to rent horses to Black people .
A recent appeal to have their case heard by the
U.S . Supreme Court was rejected . The three,
Jim Grant, T .J . Reddy and Charles Parker, were
given 25, 2p, and 10-year prison terms
respectively, the longest prison terms in state
history for arson in which no one was injured .
The Charlotte Three have also been adopted by
A . I . as prisoners of conscience .
These two cases are very closely linked for
some interesting reasons . First, the prosecution
used the same witnesses against both sets of
defendants to obtain convictions . The
witnesses, Al Hood and David Washington, had
a long string of charges against them
immediately prior to their testimony in the two
cases . Washington, for example, was the prime
suspect in five murder cases in the Charlotte
area . But charges were dropped in exchange for
his testimony against Chavis and the Charlotte
Three trials .
While it is widely acknowledges that bargains
are made nearly all the time between the
prosecution and what are felt to be key witnesses,
who are given immunity in return for their
testimony, immunity usually only extends to the
particular case being tried, and not to a host of
other unrelated crimes, as was done with Hood
and Washington .
But the most startling revelation which leads
right to the core of the federal government, is
that the two key witnesses were paid at least
$4,000 apiece for their testimony by none other
than the U.S . Department of Justice! The
payments were authorized by then-Assistant
Attorney General for Internal Security, Robert
Mardian, later a Watergate felon . These facts
were uncovered and reported two years after the
Charlotte Three trial by the Charlotte Observer.
The obvious question is why is the federal
government paying money to witnesses, for
testimony in State proceedings? Were these men
employees or agents-provocateur for the federal
government? From what funds were these
witnesses paid? One thing is certain and that is
that Mardian, John Mitchell, and other high
government officials were'obviously interested in
the outcome of these trials .
In one of the bloodiest and most overt acts of
murder carried out by local police with federal
assistance, in the early morning hours of
December 4, 1969, Illinois chapter Black Panther
Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark
were killed in their sleep . The repercussions;