Jericho Calls for Congressional Investigation into COINTELPRO

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

In January 2007, Congressman John Conyers will become the new chair of
the United States House of Representative Committee on the Judiciary.
The House Committee on the Judiciary jurisdiction includes the
following areas: (1) the judiciary and judicial proceedings, civil and
criminal; (2) civil liberties; (3) claims against the United States;
(4) national penitentiaries and (5) Revision and codification of the
Statutes of the United States.

Herman Ferguson, on behalf of The Jericho Movement, has written a
letter to Congressman Conyers requesting that he schedule hearings on
"COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and Continuing Impact." A copy of Herman's
letter is below. It is our hope that these hearings, if held, will not
only further expose the FBI and local law enforcement crimes against
the Black Liberation Movement and many of those involved it, but also
result in legislation addressing some of these injustices.

Of particular concern to the Jericho Movement is the release and
treatment of our political prisoners. Though the United States
steadfastly denies it, presently there are many political prisoners in
the United States, the majority of them Black/New Africans who were
targets of the COINTELPRO "Black Nationalist Hate Groups" program.
Many of these brothers and sisters have been incarcerated for decades.

For example, Jalil Abdul Muntaqim has been incarcerated since 1971;
Sundiata Acoli and Herman Bell since 1973. It is critical that the
human rights and constitutional violations surrounding their arrests,
trials, sentencing, conditions of their confinement and continuing
incarceration because of their political histories—all were members of
the Black Panther Party—and continuing commitment to the liberation of
Black/New Afrikan people be brought to the wider attention of the
public. Sundiata Acoli, now 70 and with a near exemplary record, has
twice been denied parole.

If nothing else, congressional hearings on "COINTELPRO: Its Legacy and
Continuing Impact" would go along way towards achieving this result.

To this end, we are calling on all supporters of political
prisoners—defense committees; revolutionary nationalist, radical, and
progressive organizations, elected officials, community, religious,
spiritual leaders, etc.—to write, fax, or call Congressman Conyers to
urge that schedule hearings on COINTELPRO. Congressman Conyers'
address is as follows:

The Honorable John Conyers
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax

Your support of Jericho's call will help ensure that it becomes a
reality. Forward, download, copy and distribute this letter and
Jericho's call to as many people as possible. Please mail or email
copies of your letters to Herman Ferguson at the following address:

National Jericho Movement
P.O. Box 340084
Jamaica, NY 11434
 Iyaluua@aol.com

Thank you in advance for your support of this effort. Please also do
not hesitate to contact Herman or us if you have any questions about
this campaign.

In solidarity,
Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. (718) 270-6296 OR 1-718-757-4093
Mani Gilyard, Chair, Malcolm X Commemoration Committee

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