Black News - Freedom Archives
Black News - Freedom Archives
Black News - Freedom Archives
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from this ghastly act have been many, and<br />
continue to reverberate with subsequent<br />
revelations that paint a very clear , picture of past<br />
and present disruption tactics .<br />
Fred Hampton, w o wa 21 and DeputylChairmanjo<br />
thellllinosIChapterlofithe<strong>Black</strong> Panther Party, wa<br />
murderedlby lCointelpro on Dec. 4, luau.<br />
One of the most recent acts to come out of the<br />
Hampton/Clarke murders is that Dr . Lucius<br />
Walker, Jr . was fired by the 49-member National<br />
Council on Churches (NCC) Executive<br />
Committee from his post as head of the social<br />
action agency of the NCC, the Division of<br />
Church and Society .<br />
Dr . Walker had recently sent out several<br />
nationwide appeal letters for financial<br />
contributions to help the families of Hampton<br />
and Clarke conduct a lawsuit against the FBI and<br />
the Chicago Police Department, charging them<br />
with conspiring to murder the two young <strong>Black</strong><br />
men . The amount of the suit is for $47 .7 million .<br />
Walker feels that his firing from the NCCcould<br />
be related to his fundraising letters in the<br />
Hampton/Clarke lawsuit, and not for<br />
mismanaging the Division of Church and Society<br />
funds, as he was charged with . y<br />
Walker's letter cites evidence obtained through<br />
the court proceedings, such as after the<br />
government had supposedly , supplied the<br />
plaintiff's family with all relevant FBI files, an<br />
FBI agent's reference to something that had not<br />
previously been divulged caused another 55,000<br />
pages of files to be unearthed .<br />
On a less covert level, the FBI is presently<br />
training personnel to combat "terrorists ." The<br />
program involves extensive police training, and<br />
was recently criticized at a November hearing of<br />
tire Berkeley Police Review Commission as<br />
)providing officers with political indoctrination<br />
against organizations such as the <strong>Black</strong> Panther)<br />
Party and the American Indian Movement<br />
(AIM) .<br />
The Berkeley hearing was held to hear<br />
complaints over two policemen attending a<br />
California Specialized Training Institute in San<br />
Luis Obispo, California . The CSTI course,<br />
entitled "Terrorism : United States Domestic<br />
Analysis," listed the <strong>Black</strong> Panther Party, the<br />
American Indian Movement, the Nation of Islam<br />
(now the World Community of Al-Islam in the<br />
West), and the National Lawyers Guild as<br />
"terrorists ."<br />
Terrorism training is a process worth noting<br />
very carefully, as terrorism appears to have<br />
replaced subversion as a charge which silences all<br />
questions, and as such, the potential for abuse is<br />
ever-present . One of the chief terrorism trainers<br />
has been James L. Stinson, author of<br />
"Terrorism : United States Domestic Analysis ."<br />
He is an ex-Green Beret counterintelligence<br />
expert and communications specialist with a topsecret<br />
security clearance from the U .S . Defense<br />
Department's super-secret National Security<br />
Agency .<br />
At present, the <strong>Black</strong> Panther Party is one of<br />
the few groups to publicly call for an immediate<br />
halt to all police training designed to combat<br />
"terrorism," calling it part of an "ever-growing<br />
threat of a police state ."<br />
And last but certainly not least is the case of<br />
Huey P . Newton, co-founder and President of<br />
the <strong>Black</strong> Panther Party . Newton, now 36, has<br />
been constantly involved since the `60's with<br />
defending himself against a number of highly<br />
questionable charges brought against him by the<br />
State . For starters, his 1964 conviction for<br />
felony assault was ruled unconstitutional in 1971<br />
by Superior Court Judge Lyle Cook because of<br />
irregularities in the trial .<br />
Newton will not be able to see his way clear of<br />
legal matters for some time . For, in addition to<br />
his appeal in the Callins case, Newton is charged<br />
with murdering prostitute Kathleen Smith . That<br />
trial was set to begin on January 10 in Oakland .<br />
Newton has contended that the murder charge is<br />
also false .<br />
Given the governement's obvious tenacity in<br />
prosecuting and attempting to convict Newton<br />
(not to mention other tactics), it remains a<br />
remarkable feat that Newton has been able to<br />
fend off conviction verdicts from charges that<br />
appear highly dubious at best . However, it will<br />
be interesting to see whether his legal battles will<br />
continue to be rivaled and subverted by the extralegal<br />
tactics that have continuously been<br />
.employed against him and his organization .