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SQUADS IN THE U.S.: CONFESSIONS OF A NATIVE GO VERNMENT TERRORIST AMERICA BY WARD CHURCHILL

URING THE first half of the 1970s, the American Indian Movement came to the forefront of a drive to realize the rights of treaty-guaran­ mteed national sovereignty on behalf of North America's indigenous peoples. For the government and major cor­ porate interests of the , this liberatory challenge represented a considerable threat, given on the one hand that Indians possess clear legal and moral rights to the full exercise of self-determination and, on the other hand, that their reserved land base con­ tains substantial quantities of critical mineral resources. Upwards of half of all known "dome tic" U.S. uranium reserves lie within the boundaries of present-day reservations, as do as much as a quarter of the high grade low sul­ phur coal, a fifth of the oil and natural gas, and major deposits of copper and other metals. Loss of internal colonial control over these items would confront U.S. elites with significant strategic and economic problems. Predictably, the government set out to liquidate AIM's political effective­ ness as a means of maintaining and reinforcing its system of administering Indian Country. For a number of reasons, the crux of the conflict came to be situated on the Pine Ridge GOO sAT WOUNDED KNEE (1973)-KEVJN BARRY MCKIERNAN Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota people, in what is now the of South Dakota. Throughout the mid- the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) squads within the borders of the U.S. as 1970 , what amounted to low intensity police on Pine Ridge. Along with his an integral aspect of its programs of warfare was conducted against AIM in superior in the constabulary, Delmar political and social repression. this remote locale by the FBI and a sur­ Eastman, Brewer served as head of the rogate organization calling itself Guar­ GOONs and participated directly in dians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). many of the organization's most The Pine Ridge Bloodbath Although the Bureau and its various virulent anti-AIM actions. In an inter­ URING THE THREE year period apologists have consistently and view, televised in part by PBS as a seg­ running from mid-1973 through vociferously sought to quash talk of ment of a documentary entitled The D rnid-1976, at least 69 members any direct FBI relationship to the Spirit of Crary Horse, Brewer does and supporters of AIM died violently GOONs, contending that the claims of much to nail down exactly how the on Pine Ridge. More than 300 others critics in this regard are unsubstantiable GOONs were utilized by the FBI suffered serious physical , in­ and wildly irresponsible, a major chink within a broader campaign to destroy cluding gunshot wounds and stabbings, in their armor of "plausible deniability" AIM and "Indian militancy" more beatings administered with baseball has now appeared. generally. His statements should go far bats and tire irons, their homes torched This assumes the form of Duane in establishing that the federal govern­ as they slept, and their cars run off the Brewer, former second in command of ment has employed outright death road. Houses and other structures as-

103 Z MAGAZINE MAY 1991 sociated with "AIM sympathizers" 100,000--almost nine times that of falls) until mid-1975, pleaded "lack of were also occasionally blown up, as Detroit-takes into account only manpower." At the very moment he were at least two automobiles. In their caused by the physical repression of In­ spoke, O'Clock was enjoying the high­ book, Wasi' chu: The Cominuing In­ dian resistance." Nowhere in North est ratio of agents to citizens over a dian , researchers Bruce Johansen America has there been a comparable sustained period ever undertaken by the and Roberto Maestas have determined rate of during the 20th cen­ Bureau. that the politically motivated death toll tury. To find counterparts one must turn While professing to be too short­ on Pine Ridge made the rate for to contexts of U.S.-sponsored political handed to assign anyone to apprehend the reservation 170 per I 00,000 during repression in the Third World: "The the killers, O'Clock managed to find the crucial period. political murder rate at Pine Ridge ... ample resources to investigate the vic­ They go on to note that, "By com­ was almost equivalent to that in tims. Some 316,000 separate investiga­ parison, Detroit, the reputed 'murder during the three years after a military tive file classifications were amassed capital of the United States,' had a rate coup supported by the United States by the Rapid City FBI office regarding of 20.2 per 100,000 in 1974. The U.S. deposed and killed President Salvador AIM activities during the 1973 siege of average rate was 9. 7 per I 00,000, with Allende ... Based on Chile's population Wounded Knee alone. This enormous the average for large cities as fol­ of I 0 million, the estimated fifty expenditure of investigative manpower lows ... Chicago, 15.9; City, thousand persons killed in the three made possible the filing of 562 federal 16.3; Washington, DC, 13.4; Los An­ years of in Chile at charges against various AIM members geles, 12.9; Seattle, 5.6; and , about the same time ( 1973-1976) during the second half of 1973. The 5.6. An estimated 20,000 persons were roughly paralleled the murder rate at result, after two years of trials, was a murdered in the United States in 1974. Pine Ridge." paltry 15 -far and away In a nation of 200 million persons, a Under provision of the Major the lowest yield of guilty verdicts to in­ murder rate comparable with that of Act (18 U.S.C.A.-1153), mur­ vestigative hours invested and charges Pine Ridge between 1973 and 1976 der on an Indian reservation is an of­ filed in FBI history-many of them on would have left 340,000 persons dead fense under the jurisdiction of such trivial matters as "interference for political reasons in one year; 1.32 federal authorities, specifically the FBI. with a postal inspector in performance million in three. A similar rate for a city Not one of the of AIM people of his lawful duty." of 500,000 would have produced 850 on Pine Ridge during the mid-l970s The method inherent to all this was political murders in a year, 2,550 in was ever solved by the Bureau, despite perhaps best explained in 1974 by three. For a metropolis of 5 million, the the fact that in a number of instances Colonel Volney Warner, a counterinsur­ figure would have been 8,500 in one the assailants involved were identified gency warfare specialist and military year and 25 ,500 in three." by one or more eyewitnesses. In many advisor to the FBI on Pine Ridge, when Johansen and Maestas go on to point cases, investigations were never even he observed that convictions weren't out that the figures they are concerned opened. When queried with regard to the point. By simply causing charges, with do not include the "normal" high this apparent inactivity on the part of however spurious, to be filed, Warner rate of fatalities experienced on Pine his personnel, George O'Oock, Assis­ said, the Bureau was able to keep Ridge and most other American Indian tant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) "many of AIM's most militant leaders reservations in the United States. of the FBI's Rapid City Resident Agen­ and followers under , in jail Rather, the "murder rate of 170 per cy (under which jurisdiction Pine Ridge or [with] warrants out for their arrest," while the movement's financial resour­ ces were necessarily diverted to legal efforts. By pursuing such tac­ tics, Warner maintained, AIM could be effectively neutralized as a political force: "the government can win, even if no one goes to [prison]." Meanwhile, what the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was to categorize as "a reign of " on Pine Ridge continued, unim­ peded by interference from the FBI. To the contrary, all indications are that the I I Bureau not only encouraged, but ac­ tively aided and abetted it.

The GOONs And The FBI NUMBER OF studies have con­ cluded that the GOONs were A responsible for the bulk of AIM fatalities on Pine Ridge. In those cases in which witnesses identified the mur-

104 Z MAGAZINE MAY 1991 derers of AIM people, the culprits were decided were uncontrollable and a only equipped, but provided field intel­ invariably known members of the reser­ menace to his own men--FBI counter­ ligence and overall command and con­ vation GOON squad. That the GOONs intelligence specialist Richard G. Held trol to the death squads operating on had a tangible relationship with the flew to the site to "straighten things Pine Ridge from 1973 through 1976. federal government has been clear all out." Held informed the chief marshal Not that the FBI/GOON thesis along, given that the group was formed that "the highest authority" had in­ hasn't had its critics. The Bureau's own in late 1972 through a Bureau of Indian structed that the GOON position would professional publicists have of course Affairs grant of $67,000 to then Pine remain in place. Similarly, when adamantly denied any such linkage, Ridge Tribal President Dick Wilson for several GOONs were arrested by while "scholarly experts" like Athan purposes of establishing a "Tribal ColbLtm's deputies, the FBI again inter­ Theoharis and Alan Dershowitz have Ranger Group." From 1973 onward, vened, causing the men to be released argued persistently and vociferously in funding of GOON payrolls seems to prior to booking. the FBI's behalf that all suggestions of have come from the Wilson admini­ More importantly, toward the end of direct Bureau involvement in GOON stration's misappropriation of block the Wounded Knee siege-when Col­ operations are circumstantial at best, granted federal highway improvement bum was actively disarming the relying on "innuendo" and "guilt by as­ monies (the "Rangers" were officially GOONs after it appeared possible that sociation" rather than hard proof. Those redesignated as a "Highway Safety Pro­ one of his men had been seriously who have spoken to the obvious cause gram" for this purpose). Most federal wounded by a round fired by the Wil­ and effect pattern involved have been housing funds allocated to Pine Ridge sonites at AIM members-those who publicly dubbed " left wing Mc­ during the two term of Wilson's had been relieved of their hunting rifles Carthyites," and author Peter Matthies­ presidency also appear to have been and shotguns which, until then, had sen has been on the receiving end of a devoted to rewarding members of the comprised their typical weaponry sud­ frivolous but massive and prolonged GOON squad for services rendered. denly began to sport fully-automatic, lawsuit, ostensibly for "defaming the Many of Wilson 's relatives, as well as government-issue M-16 rifles. character" of David Price, an agent perhaps one-third of the BIA police Military M-14 rifles and an heavily involved in the repression of force on the reservation, were quickly abundance of ammunition also made AIM. Comes now a major GOON rostered as GOONs. appearances among the GOONs. At leader to upset the polemical apple cart. The quid pro quo seems to have about the same time, the Wilsonites ex­ been that Wilson would receive quiet perienced a marked upgrade in the federal support for running Pine Ridge quality of their communications gear, as a personal fiefdom in exchange for somehow acquiring military PRC-25 The Brewer Revelations his cooperation in an illegal transfer of radios and other paraphernalia which LTHOUGH MUCH is not addressed the Sheep Mountain Gunnery Range­ allowed them to monitor federal police in the interview with Duane approximately one-eighth of the total frequencies. To top it off, it appeared as Brewer, what is included is reservation area-from Indian to if the GOONs' operational intelligence quite explicit. With regard to how he federal ownership. The GOONs were had undergone considerable improve­ and his underlings got along with the necessary to quell resistance among ment during the 71 days of the siege. agents on Pine Ridge, he says "we had traditional grassroots Oglalas to any It has been substantiated that the a pretty good relationship." Intelligence uch transaction. When AIM moved in U.S. military turned over no ordnance with which to conduct his anti-AIM at the request of the traditionals, the or other equipment directly to non­ operations was no particular problem ante went up appreciably, and the federal agencies during the siege of because "the agents would come to my GOON shifted from tac­ Wounded Knee. It is also clear that the house" and "we could information tics to activities, pursuing U.S. Marshals, for reasons of their own, from them" whenever it was needed. not only their original objective but the were genuinely attempting to reduce As concerns weapons, he states federal goal of eliminating AIM as a vi­ rather than enhance GOON weaponry. categorically that the Bureau provided able political force as well. In any event, Colburn withdrew his the Wilsonites with Thompson sub­ On the face of it, the FBI's main personnel as rapidly as possible from machineguns and M-16s: "Some of it in the ensuing bloodbath Pine Ridge in the aftermath of the was given, like I told you, in a little wa to look the other way as the siege, leaving the FBI as the only [undecipherable] in Rapid City where GOONs went about their grisly work. federal force on the reservation until they would give you some weapons This would be bad enough. However, mid-1975. And, in the months follow­ and in another location where they there is ample indication that the ing Wounded Knee-the period when would tell you to come up with this Bureau' role was much more substan­ the Wilsonites' activities became truly amount of money and we'll tum all this tial. For instance, when, during the lethal-both the quantity and the over to you." "All this" included more siege of Wounded Knee, U.S. Marshals quality of GOON firepower increased than automatic weapons. Brewer item­ on the cene attempted to dismantle a steadily. All things considered, it is izes Bureau provision of "Plastic ex­ GOON roadblock (where an FBI man widely believed among reservation resi­ plosives, det[onation] cord, [and] frag­ was continuously posted, according to dents-and several researchers have mentation grenades" to the GOONs. Brewer}--the occupants of which Chief also concluded, by process of elimina­ "We had M-16s," he says, ".30 caliber U.S . Marshal Wayne Colburn had tion, if nothing else-that the FBI not carbines, a lot of. .. military stuff." The

105 Z MAGAZINE MAY 1991 GOON Joe Clifford, may have been not so much politically motivated as he was enraged by the fact that Bissonette had been romantically involved with his sister. In either event, the killing added up to murder rather than the "self­ defense" explanation officially registered by the Bureau. Brewer is also less forthcoming about the circumstances of the ftrefight on the Jumping Bull near the reservation village of Oglala on June 26, 1975, an event which resulted in the deaths of an Indian man, Joe Stuntz Killsright, and two FBI agents, and Jed to the double murder of . Careful analysts have for some time concluded that the two slain agents, Ron Williams and Jack Coler, appear to have been "running point" in an elaborate plan to provoke method of delivery is instructive: Clarification of the FBI's "inability an exchange of gunfire with a group of "[Y]ou'd go to their room with this big to come to grips" with the wave of AIM members who would then be suitcase and [they'd] show you a bunch violent death is offered. Take, for ex­ quickly overwhelmed by a large force of weapons, grenades, det cord, blasting ample, one of the more mysterious of BIA SWAT personnel and GOONs cap , whatever, and give you some. involved in the entire reign prepositioned in the immediate area. ·Here, take this.' A couple guys I know of terror on Pine Ridge, that of Jeanette The incident was then to be used as a of walked around with blasting, you Bissonette-a not especially prominent pretext justifying the introduction of a know, blasting caps in their shirt pock- activist-on the night of March 27, truly massive FBI contingent to Pine ets." 1975. Careful observers have always Ridge for purposes of breaking the At another point Brewer explains suspected the victim was mistakenly backs of AIM and the traditionals once that as a reward for his engaging in a killed by a GOON sniper who confused and for all. In the event, the plan went fi st fight with AIM leader Russell her car with a similar one driven by somewhat awry, the two agents were Means, an agent rewarded him with "a traditionalist leader and AIM supporter cut off from their reinforcements and .357 magnum, 6-inch barrel.. . [worth] Ellen Moves Camp. For its part, and killed and the AIM targets escaped. 300 and some bucks, brand new. Real for reasons it has never explained, the The Bureau and its supporters have nice. I carried that a long time." He Bureau insisted the killing "must" have countered that such speculations are also addresses the fact that the FBI sup­ been done by ·'militants" and expended nonsensical, that no such plan existed. plied the GOONs with Harmor piercing an appreciable amount of energy at­ The presence of perhaps 150 GOONs ammunition" which was "real expen­ tempting to tie AIM leader Leonard and BIA police near the remote loca­ sive," so the gunmen could hit their Peltier to the . However, as tion in which the firefight occurred was AIM targets even if .. they took cover Brewer sums up the matter: "I know sheer coincidence. AIM, FBI media behind a wall or something." This led there was [innocent] people killed liaison Tom Coli initially claimed, was to a question concerning '"the best way during that time, like that Bissonette the group with the plan, having "lured" to hit a house," to which the GOON lady down in, near Oglala. We didn't the agents into a "carefully prepared leader responded: ·'Best way to hit it is do that type of stuff [ordinarily). That ambush" where they were fired upon probably just to, like I say, have your was, must have been, a freak accident with "automatic weapons" from a lookouts and when there is nobody They must have mistaken her for some­ "sophisticated bunker complex," "rid­ around and it's nice and quiet, have body else. I think that's what happened. dled with 15 to 20 bullets" apiece, your. like I aid, your assault car with But, you know, the weapon we u ed to "stripped" and-in one version­ all the weapon in it. And do it from kill that woman was also a weapon "scalped." After finally admitting that the road. Don't cruise up to the house [provided by the FBI]." none of this was true, the Bureau then because then you got return fire. Then Brewer also provides an interesting switched to the story that it maintains you got a . Most of the points of interpretation of what the FBI described to this day: Coler and Williams were shooting up a house is just to prove that as the "" of merely attempting to serve a "routine we didn 't approve of [AIM] gathering, OSCRO leader Pedro Bissonette warrant" on a 19-year-old AIM member you know. and we want them to know (brother of Jeanette) at a police road­ named Jimmy Eagle and ended up that we 're on our toes and watching block near Pine Ridge village on the being brutally murdered for their them." night of October 17. 1973. He ugge ts trouble. Brewer tell a rather different that the killer, BIA "cum" tory: "The thing that we was to do was

106 Z MAGAZI E MAY 1991 A Review Reversal? The spreading of mythology useful to the FBI is rorfze the movement. This seems unlikely, at least In h•rdly restriQted to copsel'Vatlve circles. The same sort the later years of the siege, when the F:B.I. wanted total of thing occurs In progressive pubflcattons, often more pontrol and was unwilling to support the B.I.A., police, effectively, given that progressives are reputedly tar whom it called ~untrained, poorly educated1 and in more critical of the Bureau than are their more estab· som~ cases convictecl felons'; upder the clrcumstan· llshmentarian counterparts. For Instance, on November ces, the Bureau would hardly have armed a group ot 13, 1989, the flst(on published a review essay entltJed undisciplined vlg)Jantes.'1 In other words, ret t]'le reader 'fQoing Edgar Proud" by Diana R. Gordon. In her ar· beware, the authors-wltom she carefully defines as ticle, Gordon critiqued several recent books, each of befng activists r.ather than sctlolars, as If the two terms them purporting to recount and analyze aspects of the were somehow mutually exclusive-will mislead the un· FBI's long history of political repression In the-'-Un1ted Wary Into believJng all manner of wild '(conjecture•• States. Among the titles Included for discussion were about tfle u.s. h-vlng the characterlsti~s of an actual «Racial Matters": The FBI's Secret File on Black · police state. , America by Kenneth O'Reilly, a protege of Bureau Indeed. Pemaps in light of GOONtBIAPQUte com· aj)ologist Athan Theoharis. Also included was the 1988 mahder Duane Brewer's rectmtly released '"'elations­ South End Press release, Agents of Repression: The .. and in view of other, similar, testimony now emerging FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther PaTty and from oth'er former memberS- of the GOONs-confirmJng t,he Amer~n Indian Movement, by Ward Churchill and virtually every aspect of Churcbills' and Vander Walls' Jim Vander Wall. ('~unsubstantiated" cootentiqns about the Bul'eau"s Gordon Is quite charitable to O'Reilly's ex_tended relationship to the Pine Ridge death squads. Gordon and sometimes convoluted rationalization of many of woold like to rethink her rather vacuous dlsmiss,l of the FBI's worst "excesses·• agalnst1he clvll rights and 'their book. For that matter, since It's becoming more black-liberation move111ents during the 1960s and apparent by th~ moment that tile FBI has habitually 1970s. She say.s not a word about his pronounced ten­ engaged In precisely those practices "re!lponslble'' cleJlCY to parrot Bureau rhetoric In blaming certaJn vtc­ scholars such as Kenneth O'Reilly and his mentor tims of its COINTELPRO operations-most especiarty have afways claimed "overstate the case," she'll un­ the " prone" Black Panther Party-tor the fates doubtedly wish to revise her opinion of "Racial Mat­ which befell them at the hand of the Bureau. Nor does ters" as well. she comment upon the authors consistent downplay~ Being duped 1nto the -spreading of government disin· lng of well-documented COINTELPRO techniques formation carries with it a correspo11ding obligation on designed and employed to Induce the very violence of the part of progressives and progressive publications whtch the Panthers were (and are still) accused. IJlo. to correct the record, once the truth becomes known. stead, she concludes that O'Reilly's effort adds up 'to a Otherwise, there Is really no difference between those "masterful study," a piece of "solid scholarship" to be who profess to be progressive and such unabashed read and believed by everyone concerned with the proponents of t"e status quo as Pat Buchanan or the form and Junction of America:. political police. New York Times. Given that she was dead wrong In her Churchill and Vander Wall fare rather differently assessments of the merJ•s of both of the books 1n ques­ under Gordon's handling. As she puts it: "They main­ tion, it seems only appro'prjate that Diana Gordon ac­ tain, for example, that the F.B.I., 'either directly or knowledge tt'le feet In writing, and that The Nation through the Pine Ridge B.J.A,; provided rifles and am­ publish the result. There fs1 after all, nottling progres­ munition to the Indian goon squads-hired by the sive or honorable about being used as a propaganda Oglata tribal chief [sic: she means Dick Wilson, then vehicle-no matter how unwlWngly-for the agents of tribal president, an altogether different position] to ter- repression. use CB radios, have people placed, from the road, you know(empha i Bull Hall, the Jumping Bull place with po itioned in different places, on hills added)." all these warriors down there. And and things. And we was going to have A second variation of the plan wa that's when they killed them agents.'' an assault vehicle go to about three for Brewer's GOONs to hoot up orne Asked why he and hi men hadn't hou es that we figured they was at, and of the Jumping Bull hou es, provoking responded to Williams' radioed pleas, shoot them up ... We would do the a return of fire. A force of FBI agent once the firefight had begun in earnest, shooting, shoot the place up and make and BIA SWAT team would then at­ for someone to "get on the high our run and go to Rapid City. Stay up tempt to arrest the AIM members on ground" adjacent to the Jumping Bull over night, party around and then come the property, ''and we (the GOONs] property and provide covering fire back the next day. you know. Not be in could cover for them on the way back. while the two agents withdrew, Brewer the area when it happened. But, like I We had three different plans, I guess. responded: "If we could have got our­ said, we had three or four different We sat down there at the creek I don't selves into that position where we went plans that we was going to use ... [B]ut know how many times and went over to the top of that hill, they [AIM) our intentions never were, was to go that [emphasis added)." In the event, would have had us before we got out of right down into that place. That was however, Coler and Williams were sent the, got to the highway, the way they ju t one of the places that we was in to get things rolling, but "we never were set up. That would have been a going to hit. We could have hit them really knew they had this, the Jumping losing battle there."

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In the Spirit of Crazy Horse Returns On May 20, 1991, Viking Press is scheduled tore­ the question of whether Williams and Coler followed release Peter Matthfessen's /n the Spirit of Crazy Peltier's red and white van to their deaths (as agents Horse, perhaps the best all•round book written about and pro.secutots contended during his trial, or a the FBI's virulent repression of AIM during the 1970s, mysterious "red pickup truck" (as the government ar­ and the probable basis for an upcomtng Ollver Stone gued during the earlier trial of Peltier codefendants film on the case of imprisoned AIM activist Leonard Pel­ Bob Robid~au and Dino Butler), is resolved once and tier. The book has been suppressed since 1984 be­ for all. cause of_ suits agaJnst Matthressen and Rumor has U that Oliver Stone's production com­ Vfking btought by former South Dakota Governor Wil­ pany will begin shooting sometime.this summer, with liam Janklow and FJ:sl Agent Pa>~id Ptice, both named an eye tow;~rds releasing a cinematic version of In the by the author as heavily involved In some ot the worst SplrltoiCrazy Horseat some point in 1992. The book offenses committed by the government against AIM and fifm could .Mt.p raUy public support for P$1tier to members and supporters. In landmark first amendment receive a new trial; he Is currently embarking upon his decisions, both suits were finally dismissed as base­ third appeal process, the Supreme Court having twice less by federal courts ln late 1989 (see Ward declined to review the record of hts case after negative Churchill's, "In ttle Splrit of Crazy Horse, •• Z, AprJI rulings in the Efghth Circuit Court of Appeals ($88 1990). '\- Churchill's ''l-eonard Peltier: The Struggle Continues,'" The original 600 page text will appear unexpurgated, ~ April1988). Less Likety, they could compel Con­ but somewhat improved as the result otmlnor revision gress to finally convene a serious 1nctuiry into the mas­ and upd;~tlng by Matthlessen. A major expanslon has sive acid sustained violence directed by the Fel against also been added in the fonn of a 30 page epilogue in AIM on Pine Ridge. More probably, we will see some which the author reveals the results of personal inter­ sort of renewed affort at quasi-official , views conducted during 1990 with the indivlduat who using the courts as a vel'llcle, not for administration of actually fired the c(ose-range shots-falsely attributed with regard- fo either Peltier or_offending FBI per­ by the government to Pettier-which killed FBI agents sonnel, but to d(IV'e Matthlessen's book from the shel­ Ronald Williams and Jack Coler on June 26, 1975. The ves once again and/or to block completion of Stone's exact reason these shots were fired is spelled out, and movie.

At one point toward the end of the lapped a it wa with local police for­ Organization (SAO), developed under interview, Brewer wa a ked how he ce in the Deep South, wa u ed by the FBI spon orship in southern ju tified the sorts of thing he d been FBI during the early-1960 again t the during the early 1970s for, among other involved in a a GOON. Aimo t pen- civil right movement. The arne cir­ thing . the expre purpose of liquida­ iveiy, he acknowledged that, ''There cum tance are at i ue with regard to ting key activi t . Such illustration really isn't no justification for it. It' the Klan, in alliance with other neo­ might be continued at length, but the ju t what we done at the time, and Nazi , murdering five members of the pattern is by now clear to anyone will­ there' no way you can go back and Communi t Workers Party in Green - ing to face fact . change what' already done." Exactly. boro, North Carolina in November The e realities should serve to in­ And no number of eva ion , withheld 1979. fonn and temper the understandings of document , denial , or other lie on the Certainly, the pecial unit of State· activists and scholars alike, the fonner part of the FBI and its friend will Attorney' Police which as as inated in tenn of their appreciation of what make the truth of what the Bureau did Black Panther Party leaders Fred they are up against as they truggle to on Pine Ridge any less true. Hampton and Mark Clark in Chicago achieve positive social change, the lat­ on December 4, 1969 wa functioning ter in tenns of the paradigms by which as a death quad under Bureau control. they to shed light on the nature Death Squads Similarly, the Windy City wa afflicted of power dynamics in America. In In The United States with a neo-Nazi/police/FBI/military in­ either case, it is plain enough there is HE FBJ"S USE of outright death telligence amalgamation known as the no longer any for continuing the squads to accomplish the repre - "Legion of Ju tice·· during the first half generalized elf-delusion among pro­ T sion of AIM may the mo t ex­ of the 1970 . No le s striking is the gressives that such things are "anom­ treme example of its kind in modern combination, described at length by alous" in the contemporary United U.S. hi tory. It i nonetheie hardly agent provocateur Louis Tackwood in State . True death squads are not only i olated or unique in principle. To the The Glass House Tapes. of state and po ible in the U.S., they have been a contrary, ample exist that the local police red quads with the relatively common phenomenon for Bureau has been experimenting with Bureau' COINTELPRO some time. It is well past the point and perfecting this technique of dome - ection and area vigilante groups during where we need to have gotten the tic for at least 25 the late I 960 , for purpo e of physi­ government's message, and to conduct years. There can be little que tion at cally destroying the "California Left." ourselves accordingly. z thi point that the , over- And then there was the Secret Army

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