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Who Bombed Judi Bari?

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Who Bombed Judi Bari? How You Can Help Who Bombed Judi Bari? Come to the trial! Beginning April Historic Lawsuit 8, 2002, and continuing for 6 weeks, Monday-Thursday 8:30 am–1:30 pm at Against the FBI the Oakland Federal Courthouse, 1301 n May 24, 1990, Earth First! Clay Street (Clay and 13th Streets). organizers Judi Bari and Attend the weekly forums to be held dur- Darryl Cherney were the ing the trial on the abuses of the FBI and victims of a motion-trig- the Oakland Police Department, to learn Ogered car bomb as they drove through more about their past and present repres- Oakland on a tour to promote Redwood sion and misconduct. Summer, a nonviolent direct action campaign opposed to logging the last Help us publicize the trial and the old growth redwood forests. The FBI documented repression by the FBI and and Oakland police showed up at the Oakland Police Department. Share this bomb scene within minutes and quickly information with your friends and family. arrested the pair for transporting the Invite us to do an update for groups to bomb, despite ample evidence that Judi which you belong. was the intended target.-The Alameda County District Attorney eventually Call us to organize carpools to the court- refused to file charges against the pair house during the trial, to house activists due to lack of evidence. No real inves- from out of town during the trial or to tigation to find the bombers was ever organize a fundraising event to support done, and the bombers remain at large the case. today. Instead the FBI used the bomb- Write letters to the editors of your local ing as an opportunity to vilify Earth Judi Bari, 1949–1997 newspapers about the bombing case and First! and expand surveillance of non- Don’t Mourn, Organize! about FBI repression. violent environmentalists. In 1991, Judi and Darryl filed a Send us media contacts who have written civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and good articles on FBI abuses, civil rights, the Oakland Police Department for or environmental issues. false arrest, illegal search and seizure, and neutralize” political dissidents. Judi died of Donate money to the legal fund. Earth and conspiracy to violate their First Amendment breast cancer in 1997, but the case survives and First!’s fundraising and publicity support rights. The lawsuit is exposing the FBI’s notori- is scheduled for trial beginning April 8, 2002, at for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney’s case is ous and now illegal COINTELPRO program— the Oakland Federal Courthouse. a totally volunteer effort. All funds raised the FBI campaign to, in their words, “disrupt pay court costs, publicity, and volunteer expenses. Supporters receive news Redwood Nation Earth First! updates as well as informa- 106 West Standley Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 tion on the ongoing forest (707) 468-1660 www.judibari.org protection movement in Northern California. Please Printed on 100% post-consumer waste, bleached safely without chlorine izers of Redwood Summer, a continuous stream of mislead- What series of protests that began the ing and false statements about Happened? campaign to save Headwaters the investigation to the local Viva Judi Bari! Forest, and the largest for- and national press for the next n May 24, 1990, a car est conflict ever. At that time, several weeks.-For example, Tragically, on March 2, 1997, breast cancer ended Judi Bari’s life. Judi worked com- bomb exploded under Judi and Darryl were working they told media that nails piling evidence for the civil rights lawsuit until days before her death. She knew that the Othe seat of environ- to focus national attention on taped around the pipe bomb as case was about much more mental and labor activist Judi the vanishing old growth red- shrapnel matched nails found than herself or Earth First!. Bari, as she and fellow activist wood forests and on the Forests in Judi’s house, with tooling The FBI must be exposed, Darryl Cherney drove through Forever initiative, designed to marks proving that they came not just for Judi, but to Oakland, California. While legislate major changes in log- from the same small production injuring Darryl, the bomb near- ging rules. They also wanted to batch. In reality, they were dif- ensure the safety and rights ly killed Judi, leaving her per- slow the rapid timber cut until ferent types of nails. The type of all progressive activists. manently disabled and in severe the initiative could take effect. and placement of the bomb (it We honor Judi’s legacy by pain for the rest of her life. When the bombing occurred, was motion-triggered and under taking the FBI to task and The pair were key organ- Judi and Darryl were starting the driver’s seat) made it clear exposing the covert reign of on a road show to promote that the bomb was meant to kill terror against social justice Redwood Summer. Judi also the driver. activists that has character- had been working to forge a The Alameda County coalition between timber work- District Attorney’s office ized the agency’s entire ers and environmentalists. looked at the facts and refused existence and continues to In the weeks previous to to proceed with prosecution, this day. the bombing, Judi had received citing the OPD’s failure to written death threats, which the come up with real evidence. Mendocino County Sheriff’s To date, the FBI and police Department had refused to have never conducted a serious investigate. investigation of the bombing. The FBI has closed its file and Below are some of the more than 130 organizations that have signed statements of solidarity for Judi the bomber remains at large. Bari and Darryl Cherney’s civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department. The Police Abalone Alliance Institute for Social Ecology Ancient Forest Defense Fund IWW, East Bay General Membership Response The Victims’ Ancient Forest Rescue Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Within minutes of the Response Bay Area Coalition For Headwaters Mendocino Environmental Center Oakland car bomb blast, the Berkeley Copwatch National Forest Protection Alliance San Francisco FBI office After Judi recovered Berkeley Ecology Center National Lawyers Guild took over the scene from the enough to return to her home Bioneers Nicaragua Network Oakland police. The Oakland and examine the course of Circle of Life Foundation Pacifica Campaign Police Department (OPD) the police “investigation,” it COINTELPRO Survivors Rainforest Action Network took Darryl into custody and became obvious to her and Earth Island Institute Redwood Rabbis questioned him intensely for Darryl that no honest investi- Eastern N. America Native Forest Network Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center hours, eventually placing him gation was taking place. They Environmental Protection Info. Center Ruckus Society and Judi under arrest in the filed a federal civil lawsuit Grandmothers for Peace International San Francisco Tenants Union hospital for possession of the against the FBI and the OPD, Greenpeace Save America’s Forests bomb that had been intended charging them with false arrest, Headwaters Action Video Collective Student Environmental Action Coalition to kill them. Authorities fed a illegal search and seizure, Int’l. League for Peace and Freedom, US 2 7 and conspiracy to violate the Our activists’ civil rights. The suit charges that the FBI and police Nonviolent knew that Judi and Darryl were A Pattern of innocent victims, and that they FBI Blunders & Reputation were in fact targets of an assas- sination attempt. Their false Judi Bari was outspoken in arrest was part of an FBI-coor- Repression her opposition to violent dinated manipulation intended methods. Because only 3% Since the bombing of Judi to discredit Earth First! and to of the old growth redwoods Bari in 1990, the FBI has been “neutralize” Judi and Darryl as remain standing, Earth in the news for: the killings at organizers. First! adopted a popular Ruby Ridge, the siege and mas- Despite a decade’s worth “no compromise” stance in sacre of the Branch Davidians of legal maneuvers by the FBI protection of the last ancient at Waco, the disclosure of sys- and the OPD attempting to stop redwood ecosystems. A tematic FBI lab fraud, the FBI- the case, the trial will begin on decade ago, Judi’s advo- on the day before Judi held a fed virtual lynching of Richard April 8, 2002. San Francisco press conference Jewell for the Atlanta stadium cacy was largely what led investigation; revealing the police photos of bombing, the nearly year-long Northern California’s Earth it was invented her bombed car and other “dis- solitary confinement of Wen First! movement to adopt a to fit the claim covery” materials that proved Ho Lee on charges that turned nonviolence code denounc- “Discovery” that the bomb the FBI had lied to the media out to be either massively ing tree-spiking and equip- A vital part of the prepara- belonged to its about the location of the bomb inflated or just plain false, the ment sabotage. Judi’s work tion for a lawsuit is the legal victims. and other supposed evidence Robert Hanssen spy affair, the and legacy have carried process called “discovery,” in The FBI of her guilt. Held’s resignation Boston murders by FBI inform- Northern California’s Earth which each side must provide recovered the was all the more significant ants who went unprosecuted, First! through over a decade the other with information motion-sensing because his father, Richard G. the agency’s mysterious loss of of confrontational timber about the available evidence device that trig- Held, had retired as Assistant large numbers of weapons and protests without a single they have gathered.
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