[WCUSP] Letter to Congressman Conyers from the Jericho Movement

[Art for People]

Dear WILPF

Do we have a presence in New York City?

Luci Murphy

cell: (202) 234-8840


   Enclosed is a recent letter that was sent to Congressman John Conyers 
from Herman Furguson regarding US Political Prisoners and the need for a 
Congressional Investigation into COINTELPRO.
   If you would like more information, please call he National Jericho 
Movement at
   infothejerichomovement at yahoo.com   or by visiting the website at: 
www.thejerichomovement.com

>   FREE THEM ALL
>
>   December 7, 2006
>
>The Honorable  John Conyers
>Ranking Member
>Committee on the Judiciary
>U.S. House of Representatives
>2138 Rayburn House Office Building
>Washington, D.C. 20515
>
>Dear Congressman Conyers:
>
>Congratulations on your pending ascendancy to the chair of the House 
>Committee on the Judiciary. We write to request that you schedule hearings 
>on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact." For more than a decade, 
>many of us have been requesting hearings on COINTELPRO, and hopefully, 
>legislation that begins to address some of the  injustices committed 
>against the Black movement and activists as result of COINTELPRO. We hope 
>that one of your acts as the new chair of the Judiciary Committee will be 
>to schedule these hearings.
>
>As I am sure you are aware, COINTELPRO is an acronym for a series of FBI 
>counterintelligence programs against, inter alia, the Communist party, and 
>so-called "Black Nationalist Hate Groups." The August 1967 FBI memorandum 
>announcing the Black Nationalist Hate Group program describes its goals as:
>
>1. Prevent a coalition of militant black nationalist groups;
>2. Prevent the rise of a messiah who could unify and electrify the militant 
>nationalist movement;
>3. Prevent violence on the part of the black nationalist groups;
>4. Prevent militant  black nationalist groups and leaders from gaining 
>respectability by discrediting them;
>5. Prevent the long range growth of militant black nationalist 
>organizations especially among youth.
>
>The targets of the Black Nationalist Hate Group program included a wide 
>array of Black organizations and individuals, among them the Southern 
>Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating 
>Committee (SNCC), the Revolutionary Action Movement, the Republic of New 
>Afrika, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Kwame Toure, formerly known as 
>Stokely Carmichael, and countless others.
>
>Though the Black Panther (BPP) was not among the  original targets of the 
>program, in September 1968, then FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover labeled the 
>BPP "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country." 
>Thereafter the BPP became the primary focus of the program, and was 
>ultimately the target of 233 of the believed total authorized "Black 
>Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions.
>
>As the Final Report of the 1976 Select Committee to Study Government 
>Operations With Respect to Intelligence Activists states: "Although the 
>claimed purpose of the Bureau's COINTELPRO tactics was to prevent violence, 
>some of the FBI's tactics against the BPP were clearly intended to foster 
>violence, and many others could reasonably have been expected to cause 
>violence."
>
>In its pursuit of the BPP, the FBI, often together with local law 
>enforcement officials, knew no bounds. BPP members and supporters were not 
>only spied on and harassed but, in blatant violation of the both the United 
>States Constitution and International law, falsely accused of crimes that 
>they had not committed. Many were wounded and murdered by police and FBI.
>   December 4, 2006, marked the thirty-eighth anniversary of the 
>assassination of Fred Hampton, one of the leaders of the Chicago chapter of 
>the BPP, by local Chicago police thanks to information from an FBI 
>informant, while he slept in his bed. Hampton was shot twice in the head, 
>once in the arm and shoulder; while three other people sleeping in the same 
>bed escaped unharmed. Mark Clark, sleeping in a living room chair, was also 
>murdered while asleep. Hampton's wife, who was eight months pregnant, was 
>also shot but survived. Four Panthers sleeping in the apartment were also 
>wounded, while one escaped injury. Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he 
>was assassinated; Mark Clark was 17.
>
>While the true impact of the COINTELPRO Black Nationalist Hate Group 
>Program on the Black Liberation Movement will probably never be known 
>because the FBI never recorded all of its activities, has destroyed many of 
>its files, and many of the architects and participants are now deceased, it 
>is crucial that the impact and continuing legacy of this program be 
>investigated and remedies developed to repair the damage it has done. This 
>is particularly true with respect to the many members of the Black Panther 
>party, the Republic of New Afrika and other organizations who today 
>languish in jail as a result of their having been targeted by the FBI and 
>local law enforcement officials as part of the counterintelligence 
>programs.
>
>We urgently request that you schedule hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy 
>and Continuing Impact" in the near future. Thank you in advance for your 
>prompt attention this matter. We expect that you will give our request the 
>serious attention that it deserves.
>   Yours Truly.
>Herman Ferguson,
>Co-Founder, The Jericho Movement

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