COINTELPRO Revisited - The Bari/Cherney Case

by Judi Bari

NOTE: Judi Bari passed away after fighting, for seven years, the after-effects of her car-bombing.

On May 24, 1990, Darryl Cherney and I were driving through Oakland on an organizing tour for Earth First!/Redwood Summer when a bomb exploded under the driver's seat of my car. Within minutes of the blast, the FBI and the Oakland Police Department moved in and arrested us on suspicion of carrying explosives. They lied outrageously, claiming that the bomb had been in the back seat, when their own photos showed clearly its location directly under me.

We survived the blast, but I have been crippled for life. Neither the FBI nor the Oakland Police made any attempt to find our would-be assassins, but instead used the bombing as a pretext to begin an investigation of the environmental movement.

For the past few years Darryl and I have been battling the FBI over their outrageous treatment of us in the 1990 car-bombing. We have filed a civil rights lawsuit against them, and we have been seeking a Congressional investigation. Now, finally, both of these efforts seem to be bearing fruit.

Courtroom Victory

The civil rights lawsuit has passed its final legal hurdle, and is now headed for trial. In a strongly worded, 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals turned down the FBI's third and last attempt to get the case thrown out of court. Our lawsuit charges the FBI and Oakland Police with false arrest and civil rights violations. We claim that they knew perfectly well that Darryl and I were innocent, and that we were in fact victims of a brutal assassination attempt. Yet the FBI and police arrested us for the bombing, and conducted a slanderous campaign against us in the press, as part of a plan to defame and discredit Earth First!

The appeals court has upheld our right to make all these changes, including those about the FBI's underlying motive to discredit Earth First!, based on the strength of the evidence we have collected so far. This evidence includes the police photos of the bombing scene that show beyond a doubt that the FBI and police deliberately lied when they arrested Darryl and me for knowingly carrying the bomb. We have also gotten access to over 5,000 pages of FBI files on the bombing case. These files have revealed a whole new layer of FBI misdeeds, going even beyond what we expected.

Sweeping Surveillance

The FBI files show that no legitimate search for the bomber was ever conducted. Instead, the FBI used this case as an excuse to investigate environmentalists and their associates, both locally and nationally, in a sweeping campaign reminiscent of the 1950's red scare.

Locally, under the guise of investigating the bombing, the FBI looked through the letters to the editor files of nine small hometown newspapers, and confiscated letters from environmentalists. The FBI also interviewed local police, management personnel from the timber companies, and Wise Use Movement anti-environmental activists, asking them to submit names of and information about any and all environmentalists. Using these methods, they collected data on approximately 150 Earth First!ers and other environmental activists in the redwood region.

Nationally, the FBI obtained the telephone records of fourteen Earth First!ers and compiled a list of 634 out-of-state phone calls we had made. The FBI then investigated each of these 634 phone numbers, gathering information including names, addresses, physical descriptions, places of employment, criminal records, and political associates.

Another example of scandalous FBI behavior revealed in the bombing file involves freedom of the press. In one memo to headquarters, San Francisco FBI director Richard Held complained about an article written by _Santa Rosa Press Democrat_ reporter Mike Geniella. In that article, Geniella documented the FBI's targeting of Earth First! in Arizona, Montana, and California. Richard Held states in his memo that he intends to complain to the _Press Democrat_'s editors about Mike Geniella's reporting, and suggests that FBI chief William Sessions complain to the _Press Democrat_'s parent newspaper, the _New York Times_. A few weeks later, Geniella was disciplined by the _Press Democrat_, and removed from his position as timber reporter.

Congressional Hearings

The FBI's investigations of people whose only crime was writing a letter to the editor or receiving a phone call from an activist violates our most basic rights of privacy, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. The use of false charges to frame and discredit activists recalls J. Edgar Hoover's illegal COINTELPRO campaign of political repression, used to disrupt and destroy activist groups in the 1960's and '70's.

Most extraordinary of all, we found out during the "discovery" phase of our lawsuit that law enforcement officers who quickly appeared on the scene after the attempted murder of Darryl Cherney and myself had just come from an FBI "bomb school" held on Louisiana-Pacific Lumber Company land near Eureka. At the school, FBI and other officers practiced blowing up cars with bombs so they could "investigate the results."

Help Needed

We have gotten support for this case from various social justice organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. Our awesome legal team, headed by Dennis Cunningham of San Francisco, has also donated many hours of free legal work. But with the current heightened level of activity in this case, this is no longer enough, and we must turn to our supporters for help.

There is a virtual press blackout on the case outside northern California. If you can spread the word in any way, please contact us. If you would like to receive updates on the bombing case, please write to Redwood Summer Justice Project, and we will put you on our mailing list.

And of course, if you can contribute toward our costs, any amount large or small will be appreciated. Checks to fund our FBI work should be made out to Redwood Summer Justice Project and mailed to the address below. If you would like your contribution to be tax deductible, please indicate this on your check.

Redwood Summer Justice Project, P.O. Box 14720, Santa Rosa, California 95402

[Judi Bari is a Mendocino County labor and environmental activist.]

From: The PARTISAN, Post Office Box 24764, Oakland, California 94623. Four Issue Subscription: $2; E-Mail (Internet): [email protected]