Court

News

Rumored corruption

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Rumored corruption BY: PAUL MCMORROW March 18, 2011 THE FBI USED Ron Wilburn, and then tossed him aside. The feds got Wilburn, a Roxbury businessman, to wear a wire while passing bribes to Dianne Wilkerson and Chuck Turner. But after snaring the two black Boston politicians, they shut their investigation down, leaving all sorts of white political crooks untouched. That’s Wilburn’s take on his role in the sting that netted Wilkerson and Turner stiff federal prison sentences. For two years now, Wilburn has been a bitter critic of federal investigators and prosecutors. He stopped cooperating with the feds in February 2009, telling the Globe he was angry that their investigation hadn’t snagged anyone else inside City Hall or the State House. His anger at the prosecution was so great that he considered refusing to testify at Turner’s trial, telling the Globe, “You mean to tell me that the only people investigated in terms of criminal wrongdoing were Dianne and Chuck Turner? There’s no way.” Wilburn is right in that aspect. In their investigation into Wilkerson’s criminality, federal prosecutors looked into a number of Boston politicians and businessmen. Investigators also asked Wilburn for everything he had, and for every lead he could provide. Wilburn failed to provide them with much of anything to work with. Hundreds of pages of newly unsealed documents in the Wilkerson case shed fresh light on federal investigators’ scrutiny of City Hall and State House officials. Wilburn’s grand jury testimony, in particular, shows federal prosecutors inquiring about several prominent Boston figures. Wilburn’s testimony shows federal prosecutors inquiring about Daniel Pokaski, the former head of the Boston Licensing Board; Steven Miller, an attorney whose law firm specializes in securing liquor licenses in Boston; Arthur Winn, the real estatedeveloper behind a South End mega-development that was a pet cause of Wilkerson’s; the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, whom Wilkerson met with about casino gambling; developers Edward Zuker and Ed Fish; and contractor and Jay Cashman. No one other than Turner has been accused of any wrongdoing, let alone charged, in connection with the Wilkerson case. Whether or not there was a bigger case to be built – the investigation officially remains open, but hasn’t shown any public momentum – the questions prosecutors asked Wilburn suggest investigators were certainly trying to build a bigger case. For all his anger at the feds, Wilburn’s grand jury testimony helps explain why Wilkerson and Turner have been the only two public figures to face an indictment. Wilburn provided the grand jury with extensive testimony about his payments to Wilkerson and Turner, which were captured on tape. They also asked him about anyone else in town – anyone at all – whom he knew to be involved in corruption. He made a number of claims, but offered little in the way of evidence. Prosecutors asked Wilburn several times about Winn, the Columbus Center developer. Wilburn couldn’t tell them anything they hadn’t already read in the newspaper. They asked about Fish, long a major contractor and developer in Wilkerson’s district. Wilburn knew nothing. They asked about Zuker, a developer who loaned Wilkerson $9,000 so the senator could settle an outstanding tax debt; Wilburn didn’t have any information about him. Nor could he reveal anything about Cashman; he simply alleged that anyone who did any construction work in Wilkerson’s district had to pay the senator. The exchanges regarding Pokaski, the former licensing chairman, and Miller, the licensing attorney, are particularly illustrative. Wilburn had made a number of accusations about Pokaski while he was wearing an FBI wire, but at the grand jury, he testified he wouldn’t be able to prove anything in court. Prosecutors repeatedly pressed Wilburn for any specifics, in prosecutor John McNeil’s words, “about Steve Miller somehow engaged in nefarious conduct with the licensing board,” and whether “Mr. Miller was somehow passing on any kind of efforts, money, golf, trips anywhere, to anyone on the Licensing Board.” Wilburn couldn’t offer up anything. The public record is unclear as to whether the FBI enlisted undercover informants to investigate anyone other than Wilkerson or Turner. It appears the FBI pursued Wilkerson based on Wilburn’s claims that he had personally witnessed her taking cash. Wilburn “doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” says Miller. “He’s delusional.” Miller, whose grand jury testimony has not been made public, said it’s well known that investigators took a hard look at anyone connected to the licensing board. “They looked at everything possible, and there’s nothing there. I’ve been doing this for close to 40 years. People hire us because we know what we’re doing.” http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Voices/Back-Story/2011/Winter/Rumored-corruption.aspx

News, Politics

No silent farewell for Chuck Turner

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No silent farewell for Chuck TurnerPhoto by Herald fileBy Jessica Fargen / Pols & Politics  |   Sunday, March 20, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics Disgraced former City Councilor Chuck Turner, who reports to prison Friday for a three-year sentence, is hoping to get the last word. Turner, 70, who was convicted of bribery in a federal corruption scandal, is hosting a talk Thursday at Northeastern University titled “Framing the Innocent.” Turner has frequently alleged that federal law enforcement targeted him. Turner was convicted in October of taking a $1,000 bribe. The talk is being dubbed as Turner’s last public appearance, according to a story on blackstonian.com. The event is a “public discussion about the U.S. Attorney’s Office and what we can do to hold it accountable to our concerns.” It starts at 7:30 p.m. at 240 Dockser Hall. A reporter who attempted to reach Turner at his Roxbury home yesterday was turned away.

News, Politics

Roxbury’s future in the "post-racial" era

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Roxbury’s future in the “post-racial” era by Shirley Kresselcontributing writer South End Newshttp://www.mysouthend.com/index.php?ch=columnists&sc=city_streets&sc2=&sc3=&id=117456Wednesday Mar 16, 2011 The race for Chuck Turner’s District 7 City Council seat has been fraught with bitter ironies and troubling questions about the future of Boston’s black community. As the media have amply reported, Senator Dianne Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner, long-time black leaders, have recently been sent to prison for accepting money from a paid FBI informant in a liquor-license imbroglio. What does this signify for their fragile community? The candidates, both black men, represent different visions for the District. Cornell Mills is the son of Wilkerson, who broke the color barrier at the state senate in 1993 and pursued an activist legislative career, while Tito Jackson, son of a labor-rights activist, is endorsed by Turner, an old-school firebrand. Interestingly, Mills echoes Turner’s spirit of fighting to protect the poor and disadvantaged, while Jackson pushes further Wilkerson’s talk about business incentives to attract job creation and developers’ gifts to the community. Jackson has enjoyed far more funding and voter support. However, his experience is in mainstream politics and his campaign chest is filled heavily by white contributors and business interests outside the district. This has sparked concerns about the dilution of the black community’s power to defend against economic and political exploitation. Indeed, some suspect a larger strategy to neutralize minority defenses against discriminatory governmental policies. On March 6, I attended a forum in Roxbury titled, “The Attack on Black Leadership: Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the black community by targeting its leadership?” In impromptu remarks, Wilkerson talked about documents she had read indicating that the FBI had been targeting her and Turner for seven years, looking for reasons to prosecute them. Finding none, she said, the Bureau finally hired a black informant to bait them with money. If her account is accurate, it is extremely alarming. It is at least suspicious that in the FBI’s lengthy investigation of the license issue, only two black officials were (literally) “caught,” leaving unbaited and uncharged seven white officials implicated by FBI documents. Turner accused the US Attorney of racial bias and, because there was no evidence of previous wrongdoing by him to constitute probable cause, entrapment. The FBI informant, a black man, expressed anger at this apparently biased outcome and tried to refuse to testify at Turner’s trial. This week, I came across a 2003 South End News bit on now-deceased City Councilor Jimmy Kelly, reporting his acceptance of unlawful financial contributions: “Infractions included accepting individual contributions over the $500 limit and accepting corporate contributions, which is not allowed at the city level.” The full report (pdf) at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) website listed numerous violations. Kelly paid a $1,000 fine and made a charity donation of $7,500, equaling the contributions he got from business corporations, excess contributions, excess cash contributions, and money from a federal PAC. The matter was never sent to the Attorney General for further action. Kelly was proven to have committed financial violations worth about $11,000. He simply settled up financially, with no criminal prosecution. Turner was never proven committing any offenses — before the FBI created one. The informant himself later told the Boston Globe that the money (an amount the FBI said, but never proved, was $1,000) that he handed unbidden to a “naïve” Turner while expressing his “gratitude” (with these words, turning Turner’s scheduling of a hearing on licensing discrimination into a crime, as the FBI instructed), “could have been a gift or a campaign donation.” As a contribution reporting error with no criminal intent, a civil fine would have ended the story. Instead: felony conviction and three years in federal prison. Unlike Kelly, Turner’s case was all over the media, inflaming a wave of public venom. The City Council enacted an ordinance to expel him. The two young new minority Councilors, Felix Arroyo, Jr. and Ayanna Pressley, cited him as their mentor as they voted him out. Why such disparate fates? Perhaps the answer lies in a Boston Globe editorial: “Turner… isn’t a venal man. … But he has spread unreality among his supporters for decades. And that may be his greatest crime. In a Boston neighborhood that so desperately needs sensible leadership to address crime, joblessness, and poor education, Turner has fed his constituents a steady diet of political fantasy.” Do our media leaders believe that Turner’s punishment for an unproven bribe was justified by his discomfiting politics? The newspapers endorsed Jackson; is he their “sensible leader” — bringing practical compromises to counter Turner’s audacity of unbending aspirations? Selective justice is a great injustice, and one well known to the black community. What really happened here? And what will be the impact on a District ripe for — or vulnerable to — radical change? Shirley Kressel is a landscape architect and urban designer, and one of the founders of the Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods. She can be reached at Shirley.Kressel@verizon.net.

News

Chuck Turner's Last Public Appearance: "Framing the Innocent" Thur. 3/24 7:30pm

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Framing the Innocent: Crimes Under Color of Law at the Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office When: Thursday, March 24, 7:30 p.m. Where: Northeastern University Law School        240 Dockser Hall Confirmed speakers include: Chuck Turner–Five-term Boston City Councilor representing Roxbury and Dorchester, and a lifetime activist for social justice, recently targeted by the FBI and the Massachusetts US Attorney. Bob Boyle–Attorney representing many activists and political prisoners targeted by the FBI’s infamous Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) Laila Murad–Organizer from the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee Michael Avery–Professor of Law, Suffolk Law School, won a landmark civil suit against the Boston FBI on behalf of four men wrongfully convicted of murder *** Over the past few years, an atrocious history of government misconduct at the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office has emerged in the court record, but few people have heard about it. In the case Ferrara v. US, the court found that US Assistant Attorney Jeffrey Auerhahn worked with an FBI agent to coerce a witness into maintaining false testimony, withheld evidence of the witness’s recantation from defense counsel, and perjured himself in court. Other members of the office have: –Withheld information about misconduct by FBI agents –Consistently and deliberately withheld evidence of the innocence of defendants from defense counsel and from the court The head of the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office has shielded assistants and acted to cover-up government misconduct. Auerhahn was given responsibility to prosecute “terrorism” cases, where he continues to handle government informants and “cooperating witnesses.” The Massachusetts US Attorney has also demonstrated a clear set of political priorities: contempt for basic civil liberties and due process rights; an anti-immigrant agenda; selective prosecution of black political leaders; and the prosecution of an overwhelming number of indigent defendants and people of color. Although the US Attorney’s office has extraordinary power, people who are concerned about government abuses have paid comparatively little attention to its role within the criminal justice system. Come participate in a public discussion about the Massachusetts US Attorney’s Office and what we can do to hold it accountable to our concerns.

News

DiMasi co-defendant pleads guilty

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DiMasi co-defendant pleads guiltyBy Laurel J. Sweet  |   Tuesday, March 8, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage Photo by Mark Garfinkel A North Reading father of two pleaded guilty today to banking $2.8 million for getting former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi on board with a lucrative bid-rigging scheme to land Canadian software firm Cognos, whose products he sold, two state contracts worth close to $20 million, prosecutors said. Stamped a federal felon on his 50th birthday, Joseph P. Lally Jr., who’s apparently now broke, will be sentenced after the anticipated two-month trial of DiMasi, 65, DiMasi’s former financial advisor Richard D. Vitale and former Cognos lobbyist Richard W. McDonough, scheduled to begin April 25. “Today I accept responsibility for my actions,” Lally, leaning on a post-hip replacement crutch, told reporters outside U.S. District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf’s courtroom. “It’s the first step to moving forward.” Lally told Wolf during his change-of-plea hearing that he has received mental health counseling in the past year and is taking anti-depressants. “I’m very fortunate to have a very, very loving wife and a supportive network of friends and family,” he told reporters. Prosecutors will recommend Lally, who pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, extortion and aiding and abetting wire and mail fraud, spend no more than three years in prison in exchange for his cooperation against big fish DiMasi. When Lally is sentenced, assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt said he will drop money laundering charges, for which Lally could have received an additional 10 years behind bars. Lally’s attorney Robert Goldstein said he will urge Wolf to let his client off with a term of probation. DiMasi, Vitale and McDonough are all due back in court tomorrow for a pre-trial hearing. Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1321904

Events, News

TODAY!!! “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” Forum Sun. March 6th Hibernian Hall 5-8pm

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COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS JOIN FOR ROXBURY FORUM “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Jamarhl Crawfordblackstonian@verizon.net   617-297-7721 -Boston, MA- Local activists have joined in order to conduct a community forum which will be an examination into what is widely perceived as a deliberate “Attack on Black Leadership”.  The forum will be held Sunday, March 6th from 5pm – 8pm @Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley St. Roxbury.  Speakers will consist of Prof. Charles Ogletree (who serves as Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s Attorney), King Downing (formerly of the ACLU, currently Ex. Dir. Human Rights Racial Justice Center), Prof. Robert Johnson (UMass Boston Africana Studies Dept., Author of “Race, Law & Public Policy”) and a presentation on surveillance in Boston by Kade Crockford (ACLU of MA, Privacy Rights Coordinator). Organizer Jamarhl Crawford said “This forum will seek to answer the very basic question ‘Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the Black Community by targeting its leadership?’ While this question may sound like conspiracy theory to some, we have to examine the fact that the United States government has used its resources *to monitor, frame and in many cases assassinate Black leaders. Now that we have the information on programs like CoIntelPro and **Operation Fruehmenschen which were standard practice in the not so distant past, we must ask and answer this question to determine if the very same thing is happening in our present.” The forum will discuss historical practices of the government’s targeting of Black leadership and organizations, modern day surveillance and information gathering tactics as well as an open discussion of the recent local federal cases against Chuck Turner and Dianne Wilkerson. EVENT Sponsors:  New Democracy Coalition, Center for Church & Prisons, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, Human Rights Racial Justice Center, Blackstonian.com, 10,000 Strong Boston, Voices of Liberation, Pastor Bruce Wall, Bishop Filipe Teixeira, ACLU of Massachusetts, National Action Network-Boston *Individuals & Organizations Targeted by the Government: Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan, Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, NAACP, SNCC, Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party **Operation Fruehmenschen (launched by no later than 1977) was the FBI’s own designation for the Justice Department/FBI campaign to frame-up, jail, & drive from o ffice, hundreds of African-American elected officials, because, in the words of one FBI agent, high ranking officials at the Bureau believed that “black officials were intellectually and socially incapable of governing major governmental organizations and situations.” ###

News

Dianne Wilkerson: ‘You gotta move on’ Ex-senator speaks out

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Dianne Wilkerson: ‘You gotta move on’Ex-senator speaks outBy Colneth Smiley Jr.  |   Saturday, March 5, 2011  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Politics Photo by John Wilcox Former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who next week will begin serving 42 months on a federal bribery conviction, yesterday sat down with a Herald reporter to reflect on being “set up” by the feds, the “harsh” sentence she and ex-City Councilor Chuck Turner received and her plans for future public service. Following, for the first time since her indictment, Dianne in her own words. Q: What’s your message to your constituents? A: None of us are perfect. My message was and still is not that God expects you to never make a mistake. You’re gonna get judged on how you handle it when you make it. My advice to everyone, and I have to take my own advice, is that if you do, you gotta own up to it. You have to own it, you gotta stand up, you gotta own it, you gotta shake it off and you gotta move on. You gotta move on and that’s where I am. I don’t have any ‘woe is me,’ no bitterness as I start this next phase. . . . I want this piece to be over because I still have things that I want to do. And I want to get back to my family, to my community to resume the public work and try in every way, in every breath that I have and every moment that I have, in every breath that I take, to make up for the lost time and for the disappointment — whatever disappointment that people have. Q: As far as you know, are you the only political figure to accept money for helping people with liquor licenses, legislation or anything else? A: It’s a difficult question to answer. . . . I think that the practice in Massachusetts — both the practice and the policy — is fraught with gray areas where I do think there are probably elected officials who are engaging in activity that they even believe to be legal — which in fact it could be under our state law and may not be at all under federal law. Q: Do you think anyone else should have been indicted? At City Hall? The State House? In the private sector? A: This was a very purposeful, targeted, specific investigation where the federal government chose the defendants and then created the crime. And that’s a fact. In knowing that, if you’re asking me do I wish they had set somebody else up, my answer is no. . . . There should be little question with a little bit of investigation if this was a purposeful targeting where the FBI and the Boston police went out and hired and recruited informants, brought them from other parts of the country to pose specifically for the purpose and enlisted their full support in collaboration with Ron Wilburn to pose as friends of his for the sole purpose of ensnaring Sen. Diane Wilkerson and City Councilor Chuck Turner in their net. So in giving that, if you’re asking me if I wish they had done it to someone else, the answer is no. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Q: Do you think your sentence was unfair compared to U.S. Rep. John F. Tierney’s wife, Patrice Tierney, and former House Speaker Tom Finneran? A: I think that the sentence imposed was harsh for me and even more harsh for Chuck Turner, given what I know about the facts of the case and how we got here. Yeah, I do. I think that the problem is it creates a whole new level and a bar that suggests if you sentence someone this harshly for a set of circumstances wholly created by the FBI and the U.S. attorneys created to ensnare them, what do you do when you have people who actually devise their own plan and get caught? . . . No. I don’t think it was fair, and I think it’s even more unfair for Chuck because of what I know about it. How the decision and the conversation that got him into this, like I said, was literally, ‘We’ve always suspected he’s been doing something. Let’s throw him in the mix,’ which shouldn’t instill any comfort in a population, in a people, about the justice and the fairness of the legal system. It’s the best one in the world and it works best when it works right and I would say this time it didn’t work right. Q: Do you have a reading list for prison? A: Not only do I have a reading list, but I plan to speak fluent Spanish by the time I’m done. That’s No. 1. I’m not going to sit idle. . . . I hope I am able to do some teaching. I can do GED, ESL classes, it doesn’t matter. I’m not sure what will be available but I taught before I came to the Senate so it’s not a new thing for me. I like the idea. . . . It could be an exciting opportunity. Q: What are your plans for after prison? A: To immediately re-engage in a process that allows me to serve the public in some way. I have more specific detail, which I’m not going to say, but whatever it is, it’s going to be serving the public because that’s what I enjoy. Q: What do you think your legacy is? A: I’m only in about halfway through the book. Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1321161

Events, News

All Panelists Confirmed!! “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” Forum Sun. March 6th Hibernian Hall 5-8pm

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COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS JOIN FOR ROXBURY FORUM “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 1, 2011 CONTACT:Jamarhl Crawfordblackstonian@verizon.net   617-297-7721 -Boston, MA- Local activists have joined in order to conduct a community forum which will be an examination into what is widely perceived as a deliberate “Attack on Black Leadership”.  The forum will be held Sunday, March 6th from 5pm – 8pm @Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley St. Roxbury.  Speakers will consist of Prof. Charles Ogletree (who serves as Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s Attorney), King Downing (formerly of the ACLU, currently Ex. Dir. Human Rights Racial Justice Center), Prof. Robert Johnson (UMass Boston Africana Studies Dept., Author of “Race, Law & Public Policy”) and a presentation on surveillance in Boston by Kade Crockford (ACLU of MA, Privacy Rights Coordinator). Organizer Jamarhl Crawford said “This forum will seek to answer the very basic question ‘Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the Black Community by targeting its leadership?’ While this question may sound like conspiracy theory to some, we have to examine the fact that the United States government has used its resources *to monitor, frame and in many cases assassinate Black leaders. Now that we have the information on programs like CoIntelPro and **Operation Fruehmenschen which were standard practice in the not so distant past, we must ask and answer this question to determine if the very same thing is happening in our present.” The forum will discuss historical practices of the government’s targeting of Black leadership and organizations, modern day surveillance and information gathering tactics as well as an open discussion of the recent local federal cases against Chuck Turner and Dianne Wilkerson. EVENT Sponsors:  New Democracy Coalition, Center for Church & Prisons, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, Human Rights Racial Justice Center, Blackstonian.com, 10,000 Strong Boston, Voices of Liberation, Pastor Bruce Wall, Bishop Filipe Teixeira, ACLU of Massachusetts, National Action Network-Boston *Individuals & Organizations Targeted by the Government: Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan, Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, NAACP, SNCC, Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party **Operation Fruehmenschen (launched by no later than 1977) was the FBI’s own designation for the Justice Department/FBI campaign to frame-up, jail, & drive from office, hundreds of African-American elected officials, because, in the words of one FBI agent, high ranking officials at the Bureau believed that “black officials were intellectually and socially incapable of governing major governmental organizations and situations.” ###

News

“THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” Forum Sun. March 6th Hibernian Hall 5-8pm

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COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS JOIN FOR ROXBURY FORUM “THE ATTACK ON BLACK LEADERSHIP” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMarch 1, 2011 CONTACT: Jamarhl Crawfordblackstonian@verizon.net   617-297-7721 -Boston, MA- Local activists have joined in order to conduct a community forum which will be an examination into what is widely perceived as a deliberate “Attack on Black Leadership”.  The forum will be held Sunday, March 6th from 5pm – 8pm @Hibernian Hall 184 Dudley St. Roxbury.  Speakers will consist of Prof. Charles Ogletree (who serves as Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s Attorney), King Downing (formerly of the ACLU, currently Ex. Dir. Human Rights Racial Justice Center), Prof. Robert Johnson (UMass Boston Africana Studies Dept., Author of “Race, Law & Public Policy”) and a presentation on surveillance in Boston by Kade Crockford (ACLU of MA, Privacy Rights Coordinator). Organizer Jamarhl Crawford said “This forum will seek to answer the very basic question ‘Is there an ongoing effort by the US Government to destabilize the Black Community by targeting its leadership?’ While this question may sound like conspiracy theory to some, we have to examine the fact that the United States government has used its resources *to monitor, frame and in many cases assassinate Black leaders. Now that we have the information on programs like CoIntelPro and **Operation Fruehmenschen which were standard practice in the not so distant past, we must ask and answer this question to determine if the very same thing is happening in our present.” The forum will discuss historical practices of the government’s targeting of Black leadership and organizations, modern day surveillance and information gathering tactics as well as an open discussion of the recent local federal cases against Chuck Turner and Dianne Wilkerson. EVENT Sponsors:  New Democracy Coalition, Center for Church & Prisons, Union of Minority Neighborhoods, Human Rights Racial Justice Center, Blackstonian.com, 10,000 Strong Boston, Voices of Liberation, Pastor Bruce Wall, Bishop Filipe Teixeira, ACLU of Massachusetts, National Action Network-Boston *Individuals & Organizations Targeted by the Government: Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan, Stokely Carmichael, Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, NAACP, SNCC, Black Panther Party, Nation of Islam, New Black Panther Party **Operation Fruehmenschen (launched by no later than 1977) was the FBI’s own designation for the Justice Department/FBI campaign to frame-up, jail, & drive from office, hundreds of African-American elected officials, because, in the words of one FBI agent, high ranking officials at the Bureau believed that “black officials were intellectually and socially incapable of governing major governmental organizations and situations.” ###

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