I
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Portland Observer
H i ureday. December 11, 1975
Total amnesty essential
by Vernon Jordan
W e see the world
through Black eyes
Portland needs HRC
CR Movement lives
The C ity C o u n cil is c o n sid e rin g the fa te o f the
M e tro p o lita n H um an Resource C om m ission — sh ou ld
it be re ta in e d or sh ou ld it cease to exist?
It sh o u ld be cle a r to a n y o n e th a t a H um an
Resource C om m issio n is n e e d e d in P ortland. In just
th e past y e a r w e have had the s h o o tin g o f Rickie
Johnson, d isturba nce s a t R oosevelt H igh School,
c o n tin u in g p o lic e harassm ent, the crisis in d o w n to w n
housing.
D iscrim in a tio n a g a in st m in o ritie s is s till
strong in P ortland.
There a re m a n y subjects o f concern th a t c o u ld w e ll
be addressed by the C om m ission - d is c rim in a tio n in
e d u c a tio n , th e lack o f lo w -in c o m e h ou sin g, p o lic e
p ro ced ures a n d practices, e m p lo y m e n t d is c rim in a
tio n , to n a m e a fe w .
M uch needs to be d o n e in research a nd in
e d u c a tin g th e p u b lic on h um an values.
A n y o f these p ro b le m s a n d m an y m ore — in c lu d in g
d is c rim in a tio n a g a in st sexual m in o ritie s , a nd in c lu d
ing gun c o n tro l a nd the shotgun q ue stio n — a re
le g itim a te ly th e concern o f the HRC. These p ro b le m s
w e re b ro u g h t to the C om m ission by citizens. W e
w o n d e r h o w m a n y c it C om m issioners have sought
a nd used th e services o f the HRC.
If th e C ity C ou ncil b e lie ve s th e C om m ission has
been m isd ire cte d or th a t has se lected the w ro n g
p rio ritie s , it sh ou ld o ffe r g u id e lin e s .
W e w o u ld
suspect, h o w e v e r, th a t the fiv e C ity C om m issioners
w o u ld h a ve a hard tim e a g re e in g on w h a t the
p rio ritie s a n d g u id e lin e s sh ou ld be.
Rather th a n c ritic iz e the HRC fo r the e ffo rts it has
m ade, th e C ity C o u n cil should b e g in by e s ta b lish in g
it as a p e rm a n e n t b od y ra th e r th an o ne th a t exists
o n ly a cco rd in g to the w h im s o f the C ity C ou ncil. Then
the HRC c o u ld turn its a tte n tio n to th e p ro b le m at
hand.
O I! R
THE BLACK P R E S S
F R E E D O M D E P E N D S ON
The Presidential Clemency Board,
created a year ago to help Vietnam war
’-eaiaters clear their records, is no longer
in existence.
My experience as a member of that
Hoard had a great influence on my
thinking about how best to heal the scars
left by the war in Vietnam.
IT !
The m o d e rn d a y C iv il Rights M o v e m e n t
that
beg an tw e n ty years a g o w h e n a Black w o m a n
refused to g iv e up her seat in a M o n tg o m e ry ,
A la b a m a bus is s till a m o v e m e n t to d a y w h ic h
a pp ea ls to the U nite d States to re je c t its selfishness,
gre ed , h ate a n d v io le n c e .
On D ecem ber 1st, 1955, Rosa Parks w as arrested
fo r re fu s in g to g iv e up her seat on a c ity bus to a
w h ite m an, to u c h in g o ff the b o yco tt th a t lasted 381
days a nd b ro u g h t Dr. M a rtin Luther K ing, Jr., to
n a tio n a l le a de rship.
M uch progress has b ee n m ad e since the b lo o d y
tu rm o il o f the e a rly years. M o re th a n a m illio n a n d a
h a lf Blacks h ave re g is te re d to v o te in the South, a nd
m o re than 1,700 Black e le c te d o ffic ia ls a re h o ld in g
o ffic e .
M a n y o f the Black e le c te d o ffic ia ls see th e ir roles
as an e x te n fio n o f the C iv il Rights M o v e m e n t a n d are
a tte m p tin g to in je ct a sense o f e thics a n d m o ra lity
in to the body p o litic . They a tte m p t to re d ire c t the
p rio ritie s a n d resources o f the n a tio n — n ot to oppress
but to u p lift; n ot to d iv id e , b u t to b rin g to g e th e r; not
to enclose, b ut to set free.
A lth o u g h progress has b ee n m a d e , the p ro b le m s
a re as g re a t to d a y as th ey w e re tw e n ty years a g o —
w ith abuses o f g o v e rn m e n ta l p o w e r, c o rru p tio n a n d
secrecy in g o v e rn m e n t, v io le n c e a n d c rim e in the
streets, p o ve rty, racism a nd d ru g abuse.
In the South today, the seeds o f h o p e a n d ch an ge
coexist w ith d isco n te n t a nd fru s tra tio n ; a n d in the
N orth v io le n c e is increasing.
W e o fte n th in k it is hopeless. H ow can a sm a ll
g ro u p o f co nce rn ed p e o p le , e s p e c ia lly p e o p le
w ith o u t p o w e r a nd resources, in flu e n c e the g re ate st
n a tio n in the w o rld . Little d id Rosa Parks k n o w that
her act o f resistance w o u ld be an in s p ira tio n to the
oppressed a ro u n d the w o rld .
The oppression w e n o w fa ce is n ot m e re ly a by
p ro du ct o f the racist m e n ta lity , it is a co n sp ira cy o f
the h ighest e che lo ns o f g o v e rn m e n t. C h a ng e w ill
re q u ire n e w le a d e rs h ip , the in v o lv e m e n t o f n e w
g e n e ra tio n s in the strug gle , fin a n c ia l a n d m o ra l
support, a nd aggressive a n d im a g in a tiv e ideals,
g oals a nd program s.
When I was appointed to the Hoard, I
agreed with its basic mission to sift the
records of war resisters, deserters and
others and recommend alternate civilian
service to earn Presidential clemency.
It didn't take too many weeks of
service for me to see that there was alot
more to it. The conventional image of the
spoiled rich kid who ran away to Canada
to beat the draft just didn't hold true for
most cases
The great majority of cases before the
Hoard involved young people who were
denied their rights as conscientious
objectors, who deserted for compelling
personal reasons unrecognized by their
superior officers, or who simply should
never have been drafted to begin with.
The typical case involved someone who
was poor, not rich; who was victimized by
arbitrary and unfair rulings by his officer,
or who could not articulate the views that
got other, better educated young men.
deferments.
Most were individuals who were
helplessly caught up in the snares of a
g iant bureaucracy and, rig h tly or
wrongly, chose to escape their situation
in ways that the law defined as illegal.
Now a few cases involved men who had
served at the front and only after
returning to the United States or Europe,
deserted for personal reasons.
And we only have a fraction of the
cases still on the books. Many men just
didn't believe their resistance to an im
moral war was wrong, and refused to ap
ply for clemency. Others resented having
to do alternate service, feeling they'd al
ready paid their dues by being forced
underground for such a long time.
So while the Hoard is no longer in
existence, amnesty is still a hot issue; the
long awaited national reconciliation won't
take place until it is dealt with. And
hovering in the background of the
discussions about clemency is the univer
sal realization that the W ar was wrong.
It's time to finally end the war by
declaring complete, immediate, universal
and unconditioned amnesty. In my year
on the Hoard I learned that the
case by case treatment just won't work.
Ix>t's wipe the slate clean and end the war
still being waged against the draft
resisters and offenders.
While most of the public's attention has
been focused on 50. (XX) or so war
resisters, total amnesty should include
the more than 200.000 Vietnam era
veterans who hold less than honorable
discharges, which amount to lifetime
penalties keeping them from government
and many private sector jobs, and from
rights and benefits enjoyed by the
veterans.
Had discharges carry penalties ab
surdly inappropriate to the real or
imagined offenses, often minor, that have
sometimes been imposed for racially -
inspired reasons. They continue to dodge
the lives of men who did serve and who
risked their lives only to be busted out of
the service for a host of reasons that
would earn no penalty at all in a civilian
setting.
The system is rigged against these men
from the start. The discharge process is
shot through with abuses of servicemen's
rights and many bad discharges are given
unfairly. These abuses are compounded
when veterans try to ap|*eal their bad
discharges and again, when they try to
apply for Veterans Administration bene
fits where the VA has authority to assess
their discharge.
In both the clemency cases and the less
than honorable discharge rases, indi
viduals have been caught up in a heart
less system that penalizes them unfairly.
The vast majority of both groups have
paid dearly for either not complying with
the nation's error of going into Vietnam
or for running afoul of irrational military
regulations and procedures.
We should have a policy of total
amnesty for both groups, and a reformed
system of granting and rating discharges
Human Relations Commission
(Continued from p. 1 col. 4)
instructed the staff to begin long range
approaches to the serious inter group
problem in North Portland.
Ms. Schwab said she would prefer that
the HRC staff be retained and that the
Commission be abolished. She said she
would be willing to fund the Commission
for another six months to see if it could
reorient itself.
James Brooks, Executive Director of
the Urban League of Portland, said the
Commission is needed and that the
attitude of the Council points out that
need. He said that the N A A C P. the
Urban League, and the Albina Ministerial
Alliance had requested a meeting with
Commissioner McCready, but did not
even receive the courtesy of a reply.
Brooks asked that the HRC have
permanent funding:
Lloyd Rosenfeldt, representing the
National Conference of Christians and
Jews; Richard Braunstein, a former
chairman of HRC; Philip Mayer, ACLU:
Nate Proby, United Minority Workers;
Sue Juba, League of Women Voters;
James Loving. Chairman. Model Cities
Hoard; Al Green. Hildress Benson; and
Naomi Riding, also spoke to the need for
a human relations agency in Portland.
Braunstein said that although there are
many professional human relations per
sonnel in Portland, the HRC is the only
commission dealing with inter group
problems. Ms. Juba suggested that many
of the problems fared by minorities
housing, education, employment
are
areas of concern to all citizens and on
whether the realm of the HRC. Mayer
suggested that if the Council were
disatisfied with the staff of commission
members, they could be replaced
Commissioners Connie McCready and
Schwab charged that the Commission and
staff had spent the last six months
lobbying for support rather than proving
that they could function properly. Com
missioner Jordan, who is the liaison to
the Commissioners, said lobbying was
legitimate since the most crucial thing at
the time was the survival of the
Commission.
The matter was continued to De
eember 17th.
What is the SLA all about?
unibiV'i-K,
Sponsored by
Portland Public Schools
Metropolitan Human
Relations Commission
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(Continued from p. 1 col. 3)
The question was put to this writer:
what’s it all for? why all the exposes do
you sometimes get the feeling that you
really don't want to know about the FBI
and the C IA 'dirty tricks"?“ A primary
reason for the necessity of full exposure
of governmental involvement in terror
and assassination is simply the necessity
of preventing future terror and assassi
nation. Critics of the W arren Commis
sion and FBI investigations are universal
in saying that such agencies have
covered up rather than uncovered details
surrounding assassination and terror.
For a preliminary look at the SLA we
have relied on four sources: the Citizen's
Research and Investigation Committee
(CRIC); Investigating the FBI I Bantam.
74); the Realist (Mae Brussel issues) and
International Press Service lIP S ) which
published “A Brief on C IA Terrorism in
the U.S.A."
The primary agreement
among the investigative groups is that
the drug oriented climate is the essential
recruiting ground for the SLA and other
'government created’ terrorist opera
tions.
Also essential, is a controlled
environment, in which behavior modifi
cations, drugs
clinical brainwashing
can take place. Prisons and a multitude
of mental institutions provide these. In
the case of the SLA, it was created at
Vacaville Prison (California) - that much
was revealed by the New York Times
(May 28th. 1974). A third ingredient for
government created terrorist stew is the
agent ridden 'left' swamp, provided by
the Venceremos, Revolutionary Union
and other Maoist groupings. The most
essential ingredient is the government
agents.
A t Vacaville Donald DeFreeze CCin
que') was “programmed" with a Black
Nationalist identity, through the Blark
Cultural Association IBCA) at the prison.
The Maximum Psychiatric Diagnostic
Unit at Vacaville was created and funded
sniv-Mi
n«l‘ l
rills >1 -
Why was the SLA destroyed?
Donald Freed, an investigative w riter
and head of the cited CRIC, released to
the press in Loa Angeles one day before
the SLA 'cremation' a 400 page preaa
release detailing the extensive C IA etc.
involvement in the SLA. It is universally
agreed among investigative groups de
voting serious attention to the SLA that
the government agencies right up to the
National Security Council would have
been exposed if the SLA were not
eliminated. Angela Atwood and Emily
Harris, SLA members
Atwood waa
killed in Ixis Angeles May 17th. 1974
had been narcotics agents, trained in
the ‘C IA think tank
the College of
Foreign Affairs, Bloomington, Indiana'.
Other SLA members (excepting De
Freeze) killed were dupes with conserva
tive or drug culture backgrounds, and no
police pedigree, though all were tied to
the BCA at Vacaville.
Agent Emily
Harris was apprehended along with
Patty Hearst in San Francisco.
Last
week at a press conference, Miss Hearsta'
chief defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey said he
expects to spend "up to $100,000 to
defend" his client, saying “she will not
spend one day in jail after ber trial."
Groups such as the Citizens Commission
on Human Rights fear that she may
spend the rest of her life a vegetable.
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o-tlnfZ
primarily to define the limits of political
activity: to frighten workers from getting
'mixed up in' political organizing. The
SLA is only the extreme form of the
government countergang
Hie second
and related
reason for SLA (a nil the
Blark Liberation Arm y
created at the
methadone maintenance renter called
Lincoln Detox in New York City) is the
justification it provides for 'gestapo like'
S W A T organizations, and the political
climate necessary for the passage of
legislation such as Senate Bill I which
resurrects the McCarren and Smith Acta.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIM M H I MOHIIHIIHIIMMMIOI
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A
by the la w Enforcement Assistance
Administration (L E A A ); the head of the
BCA was C IA agent Colston Westbrook,
trained in psychological warfare techni
ques.
Westbrook's C IA involvement
dates at least to 1962 where Westbrook
was an advisor for the South Korean C IA .
Westbrook also worked in the C IA
assassination organization Phoenix Pro
gram in Vietnam, which was run by the
current C IA head William Colby. Several
other C IA or FB I agents were respon
sible for the creation of the SLA
we
haven't the space to detail them all. but
the cited sources are worth the skeptic's
time. Joseph Remiro, Robyn Steiner.
Chris Thompson, Thero Wheeler, William
Harris. Wes Davis, D r. Fredric Harker
all of these individuals responsible at the
lower governmental level for the creation
of the SLA have extensive C IA or
FBI informer backgrounds, yet none
have been brought to trial or before a
Grand Jury.
According to all accounts, Donald
DeFreeze was a police agent (like Louis
Tackwood and Ron Karenga) who became
'unreliable' to the Los Angeles Police
Department
and was sent to Vacaville
to be 'recreated' through the use of
clinical brainwash procedures
it was a
replication of such use of drugs and
therapy' used by the SLA on Patty
Hearst.
The agency responsible for apprehend
ing and investigating the SLA was the
FBI, under agent Charles Bates. Bates
was the man in charge of the FBI's
W atergate investigation, and also the
agent responsible in Chicago for the FBI
inquiry of the slaying of the Black
Panthers Mark Clark and Fred Hampton.
The FB I had so infiltrated the Black
Panthers that Hampton's bodyguard was
FBI agent William O'Neill!
Why was the SLA created?
The investigative groups cited concur
in their view that terrorism is created
and Armed Services