The FBI recently proclaimed its new list of "safest cities." But this safety information is already available to us, and is not valued by law enforcement officials. In a May 17th article about this list, Gregg Mansfield of the Ventura County Star writes, "The FBI's rankings are based on crime and arrest data for serious offenses provided by police agencies. Police officials acknowledge the FBI reports provide some civic pride but are used more by real estate agents and chambers of commerce than police departments." One might ask why the FBI spends our precious tax dollars to provide something not valued by those whose motto is "to protect and to serve"? Why would the FBI trumpet this pea-sized effort as something magnanimous? Senator Charles Ernest Grassley of Iowa answers the question well. Addressing the Senate on February 26 1997, Senator Grassley says, "Confidence and trust in the Nation's premiere law enforcement agency is dwindling. It is because of the FBI's own abuses of its very enormous powers..." The FBI abuses it's power? Say it ain't so Joe McCarthy.

Frank Wilkinson, Director of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, a civil liberties watchdog organization, has made efforts to control cooperation between the FBI and local law enforcement that often violates civil rights. It's no surprise Mr. Wilkinson chose this kind of work, when you consider what happened to him. I had the good fortune to speak with Mr. Wilkinson. He explains that while working for the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the McCarthy era he was labeled "Red." The FBI soon dismantled his professional and personal life. He was sent to prison for 1 year because he stuck to his first amendment rights. After building a file of 132,000 pages, wiretapping his home for 38 years, and spending $17 million on him, the FBI concludes, "It does not appear that Wilkinson has shown either the willingness or capability of engaging in any act which would significantly interfere with or be a threat to the viable effective operation of our national government." After spending one evening with this kind and gentle man of deep moral conviction, listening to personal stories that steered him to a life based on compassion, I find it shocking that the FBI wastes our money hurting such people. And I refuse to let the FBI's whimpy compilation of existing safety information direct my attention away from these abuses of its power.

As its history shows, the FBI is highly skilled at this public relations game. Even after the McCarthy era hysteria damaged our country so deeply, it took until 1975 to abolish the House on un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that ruined the lives of so many good people. It's name was then changed to "Committee on Terrorism." Wilkinson explains that the FBI now violates first amendment rights under the guise of fighting terrorism. Same old wolf, but with new clothes. Same FBI behavior, but new public relations rhetoric.

According to Mitzi Waltz, who authored an article in Covert Action Quarterly on the resurgence of police surveillance called "Policing Activists: Think Global, Spy Local," says FBI efforts are often misdirected at legitimate activists. She explains that the FBI is not legally permitted to spy on people who aren't breaking the law. She also points out that Federal money entices local police to cooperate with the FBI. I don't know about you, but I don't want the FBI violating my civil rights just because I join a war protest or help protect a redwood forest. And I certainly don't want local law enforcement to cooperate with these violations.

In fact, it seems the FBI has a long history of violating the rights of legitimate activists. Let’s consider a few examples.

Dr. Martin Luther King "became a chief target of the FBI, which tapped his private phone conversations, sent him fake letters, threatened him, blackmailed him, and even suggested in an anonymous letter that he commit suicide. FBI Internal memos discussed finding a black leader to replace King. As a senate report on the FBI said in 1976, the FBI tried 'to destroy Dr. Martin Luther King,'" writes Historian Howard Zinn, in his book "A Peoples History of the United States."

The Watergate scandal exposed other misdeeds the FBI and CIA. Both the FBI and CIA were caught "breaking the laws they were sworn to uphold, cooperating with Nixon in his burglary jobs and illegal wiretapping," writes Zinn.

The FBI also targets legitimate Native American organizations. Brian Glick, in his book "War at Home" (published by South End Press), tells how the FBI perpetrated hoaxes against the American Indian Movement (AIM), causing senseless and deadly confrontations. Undercover FBI operative Doug Durham authored AIM documents that the FBI consistently cited to demonstrate the group's supposed violent tendencies. Durham confessed to stealing organizational funds during his two years with AIM, and to setting up the arrest of AIM militants for actions he himself organized. Durham also participated in an attempt to frame AIM members for the brutal murder of a Los Angeles taxi driver. A bogus AIM note taking credit for the murder was pinned to a signpost, along with a bundle of hair said to be the victim's "scalp." The FBI then provoked a sequence of events that lead to the death of an AIM activist and two agents. Native American Leonard Peltier is now in maximum security prison for the agents’ deaths. Glick explains the conviction was "based on perjured testimony and falsified FBI ballistics evidence." Amnesty International has called for a review of this case.

Or take the case of Geronimo Pratt (now known as Janome Ji Jaga). The FBI convicted Ji Jaga of murder, and he spent 27 years in prison before his case was dismissed. In an article that appeared in the L.A. Times, December 19, Edward J. Boyer tells how the chief witness turned out to be an FBI informer. In a radio interview that aired March 4, 1999 on Amy Goodman's syndicated show "Democracy Now," Ji Jaga tells how FBI documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that one of the jurors was an FBI agent named Dennis Romo. Against the Judges instructions, Romo tried to persuade other jurors to convict. The documents also show there was an FBI agent in Ji Jaga's jail cell, and an agent posing as a secretary in the office of his attorney, Johnny Cochran. Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti recently decided not to re-try him.

Can you imagine what we would have learned about the FBI had Garcetti decided to re-try?

You may have heard about the late Judi Bari, the environmental/labor activist, injured when a bomb exploded beneath her car seat as she drove through Oakland with fellow activist Darryl Cherney. Judi and Darryl were the two most prominent organizers for "Earth First! Redwood Summer," a campaign of non-violent logging protests. The FBI and Oakland Police portrayed Judi and Darryl as violent terrorists and declared them guilty of transporting the bomb that had been used to try to kill them. Finally, after eight weeks of public accusations, the charges were dropped because there was no evidence. But to this day the FBI and police have conducted no serious investigation of the bombing, and the bomber remains at large. In an article that appeared in the Albion monitor titled "FBI Faked Evidence, Says Justice Dept" on April 19 1999, Jeff Elliott writes "Besides falsifying evidence, Williams [the FBI evidence examiner at the bomb site] has also admitted suppressing critical information that would have tended to exonerate Bari. Williams has verified that the bomb was connected to a timer, which in turn activated a "motion device" that exploded the bomb when her car began moving--certainly not something that a bombmaker would transport. Williams later confirmed that the bomb in the car had "functioned as designed." And perhaps even more shocking, it was revealed that the discredited Williams’ opinions were pivotal in the prosecution or investigation of other high-profile bombing cases including the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombing.

This kind of information should make all Americans pause and think.

We could go on about other cases, such as FBI botch jobs at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and violations against other activists, such as the following: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, the Rev. Ben Chavis and "the Wilmington Ten," Imari Obadele, George Jackson, "the New York 3" (Herman Bell, Anthony "Jalil" Bottom, and Albert "Nuh" Washington), Francisco "Kiko" Martinez, Carlos Soto Arrivi and Arnaldo Dario Rosado, Angel Rodriguez Cristobal, Karen Silkwood, Angela Davis, and others. I call special attention to Mumia Abu-Jamal, who will soon be executed unless something is done to stop it. The FBI has targeted many legitimate movements, such as Anti-war movements, the Political Left, the Labor Movement, the Afro-American movements, Chicano and Puerto Rican movements, Women's, Gay, and Lesbian movements.

These kinds of abuses are why Ward Churchill of AIM quotes Senator Philip A. Hart, as follows:

"Over the years we have been warned about the danger of subversive organizations that would threaten our liberties, subvert our system, would encourage its members to take further illegal action to advance their views, organizations that would incite and promote violence, pitting one American group against another... There is an organization that does fit those descriptions, and it is the organization, the leadership of which has been most constant in its warning to us to be on guard against such harm. The [FBI] did all of those things." (Select Committee on Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans, 1975).

...WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...