-Caveat Lector- It doesn't really matter what you may think of Earth First! or their policies. What really matters here is that the FBI again screwed this one up in a bad way. COINTELPRO never died, and we're giving the FBI even more leeway today to "fight the bad guys." Just who are "the bad guys?"
- jt -- http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0226/ridgeway.php Bari Case Blows Up on Agency Federal Bureau of Instigation Anyone who buys the line that the FBI's bad old days ended with the death of J. Edgar Hoover can think again. Take one look at the scarcely believable tale of how the agency set up the environmental activist Judi Bari when her car exploded in May 1990 in Oakland. This month, a federal court awarded a total of $4.4 million in damages to Bari's estate (she died of cancer in 1997) and to passenger Darryl Cherney. The pair had charged local police and the FBI with a gross violation of civil rights. The verdict repeatedly singled out the senior agent on the scene for his outrageous behavior. The story goes like this: On the morning of May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb exploded directly under the driver's seat, shattering Bari's pelvis and lower backbone and leaving her permanently disabled. Cherney suffered minor injuries. The two were on a tour to recruit students for Redwood Summer, a series of protests against corporate logging. Bari awoke 12 hours later to policemen telling her she was under arrest for possessing explosives. They, of course, had not bothered even to question her. Bari had received death threats in the weeks before, but the FBI never followed up. In the beginning, the cops claimed Bari and Cherney had themselves put the bomb in the back seat, where it accidentally went off. However, files released during the court proceedings revealed that when supervisory special agent David R. Williams-the FBI crime lab's top explosives expert-inspected the car, he pointed out to special agent Frank Doyle evidence clearly showing the device had been stowed under the driver's seat. Yet Doyle contin ued to tell the press that Bari and Cherney were the only suspects. Throughout their sworn testimony, the FBI agents repeatedly said that they never heard of Bari or Cherney before the bombing, and that they were not investigating Earth First!, to which the activists belonged. But an FBI field report, written minutes after the bomb exploded, states that Bari and Cherney were "the subjects of an FBI investigation in the terrorist department." Cherney-Bari lawyers used these facts to argue that the FBI agents lied in their sworn testimony before the court. The history of the FBI's involvement with Earth First! is lengthy and disgusting. Before Bari's car blew up, the Bureau was in the final phases of Thermcon, an Arizona sting that involved 50 agents and was aimed at casting Dave Foreman, co-founder of the group, as a terrorist who made use of explosives. The FBI managed to infiltrate a small chapter of Earth First!, and having successfully planted an agent inside, tried to push the environmentalists into using thermite to take out a power line. But, as the alternative Albion Monitor relates the story: "The activists declined the infiltrator's offer of explosives, and he settled for providing them with a cutting torch instead. The agent provided the equipment, trained the activists to use it, chose the target, and drove them to the site, then joined an FBI strike team in busting them in the act on May 31, 1989. The case ended in plea bargaining with two activists-not Foreman-going to jail. Several of the agents involved in Thermcon also worked on the Bari bombing, reports the Albion Monitor. FBI records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the FBI had been spying on Earth First! since the group started in 1981. The paper reports that "heavily censored" FBI documents made available through Bari's suit detail weekly meetings in 1990 between an agent and informant in California. Local law enforcement has been just as invasive. In his deposition, Oakland Police Department intelligence chief Kevin Griswold revealed that the cops maintain files on 300 political organizations and individuals. He said the Oakland cops had been spying on Earth First! ever since 1984. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
