[Ppnews] Omaha Two were targets of secret Domino Task Force & COINTELPRO

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.examiner.com/x-1969-Boston-Progressive-Examiner~y2009m11d24-Omaha-Two-were-targets-of-a-secret-police-task-force-codenamed-Domino

November 24, 10:30 AM
[]
<http://www.examiner.com/x-1969-Boston-Progressive-Examiner>Boston 
Progressive Examiner
[]

Michael Richardson

Omaha Two were targets of secret Domino Task Force & COINTELPRO

The Omaha Two, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David 
Rice), were leaders of the Black Panther Party chapter in Omaha, 
Nebraska. Today both men are serving life sentences for the 1970 
bombing murder of an Omaha police officer, Larry Minard, and deny any 
involvement in his death.

Secret government documents, only uncovered after the trial that 
convicted the two Panther leaders, establish the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation National Crime Laboratory withheld a report on the 
identity of the anonymous caller that lured Minard to his death on 
Omaha's newly installed 911 system with a false report of a woman screaming.

The secret files disclose that the Omaha FBI office 
Special-Agent-in-Charge, Paul Young, had been under orders from FBI 
Director J. Edgar Hoover to be "imaginative" in developing illegal 
tactics against the Panthers and that several plans were concocted 
and implemented under Operation COINTELPRO in the months before the bombing.

Hoover's hidden war on political activists he didn't like was 
national in scope but kept secret from outsiders, including the 
Attorney General and members of Congress. The secretive COINTELPRO 
directives forbid working with other federal agencies and fostered a 
bitter rivalry with agents of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 
Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

In the months before the flawed murder investigation both Panther 
leaders were targeted by the Omaha Police Department, Hoover's 
COINTELPRO operatives, the U.S. Attorney and ATF agents. Both men 
were constantly harassed by local police with frequent traffic stops 
and verbal abuse. Mondo was fired from his job with the Greater Omaha 
Community Action Agency and hauled before a grand jury. Ed was the 
victim of bogus letters to Omaha newspapers and an anonymous phone campaign.

The police campaign against the two Panthers was coordinated by a 
secret task force codenamed Domino, according to retired ATF Special 
Agent James Moore. Moore worked in the Kansas City ATF office and 
busted Black Panther Pete O'Neal on a firearms charge. Moore had 
worked closely with his counterparts in the Omaha office and followed 
the efforts to get the two Panther leaders.

Moore discloses the bitter rivalry between the FBI and ATF and breaks 
the code of silence about the secret Domino task force in his book 
Very Special Agents. Endnotes in the book explain Moore got his 
information primarily from ATF agent Thomas Sledge and the supervisor 
of the Omaha ATF office, Dwight Thomas. Moore learned details from 
Sledge and Thomas contemporaneously and in later conversations and interviews.

"Most law enforcement officers wanted to believe that the FBI lived 
up to its motto: 'Fidelity, Bravery and Integrity.' For some, 
disillusionment solidified in Omaha."

Moore describes how Sledge worked a 12 year-old girl as his informant 
to obtain a federal search warrant of Panther headquarters in Omaha 
looking for Russian machine guns and dynamite only to have the 
Justice Department cancel the search because of the unreliability of 
the witness.

The U.S. Attorney, Richard Dier, had no comment on the matter at the 
time and speculation centered on the U.S. Marshal's office as the 
probable source of the Justice Department intervention. However, 
Moore fills in the details with a different version, presumably 
telling the story from Sledge's account.

"Sledge gathered enough corroboration to obtain a search warrant. 
Assistant U.S. Attorney J. William Gallup, United States Attorney 
Richard Dier and a federal judge agreed. Sledge summoned ATF agents, 
Omaha police, and U.S. marshals to plan a raid."

While Sledge briefed the strike force, Dier called the FBI for 
information on any fortification of the Panther headquarters. Hours 
later Dier got a call from the Justice Department in Washington 
cancelling the raid. When Dier asked the reason the warrant was 
quashed he was told, "The FBI informs us it's based on questionable evidence."

"While the task force cooled its heels in the federal building, FBI 
agents went door-to-door in the Panthers' neighborhood asking 
everyone whether there were weapons or explosives inside the headquarters."

The Domino task force convened in a special meeting after the killing 
of Larry Minard, unaware that Assistant Chief of Police Glen W. Gates 
had already agreed with the FBI to let the unknown caller go in order 
to make a case against the two Panther leaders.

"Overcast skies reflected the morning mood of deputy sheriffs, police 
detectives, state troopers and federal investigators assembled for a 
special meeting of Domino--an informal Omaha venture hosting regular 
monthly meetings of lawmen to discuss problems and foster interagency 
cooperation. This meeting had one mission: to catch the cop killers."

As the Domino team zeroed in on the Black Panthers as the targets of 
investigation, the FBI made a sudden announcement.

"The FBI representative stood up. 'We have excellent informer 
coverage of the Panthers,' he said, 'and our key source advises us 
that two white males were observed running from the scene shortly 
before the blast.'"
The killer of Larry Minard who made the 911 call was never identified 
nor were the "two white males" cited by the FBI to the Domino group.

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa are serving life sentences at the 
maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln. Both men, 
targets of COINTELPRO and Domino, have continuously denied any 
involvement in the crime.


Permission granted to reprint





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