Portland Observer, October 15,1961 Page 11
Keeping track o f the money
S H A R O N H A YN ES
(Photo: Richard B row n)
G rassroot News. N . W . ~ B u ii-
nesses, organization* and individu
als can always use a good account
ing service. It was reported last
month that operation PU S H lost it*
entire government funding because
o f its refusal to let the government
look at its books. So, for the non
p ro fit this need is o f decisive im
portance in securing and m aintain
ing contributions.
In the Northwest there** an ac
counting service that provides book
keeping services geared to assist the
non-profit organization in keeping
its books. Sharon Haynes, proprie
tor o f Larue H aynes’ A ccounting
Service, explains the premise o f her
accounting service: " W e established
ourselves about six months ago and
our function is to help n o n -p ro fit
groups w ith their accounting ser
vice. We are out in the streets to let
n o n p ro fits know the type o f ac
counting service that they should
use. This way their donors could see
that their money is being used for
the purpose that was intended. A
donor could look and see how the
money is spent and i f records are
kept, then you could track down
every penny. Having a system like
this could increase the num ber o f
people that would'give to your o r
ganization. Larue Accounting ser
vice also wants to make sure that the
nonprofits aren’t short-changed if
som ethin < were to happen in our
government system where their non
profit status would be questioned."
The exam ple Haynes used was
churches. A change in the system
could alter their non-profit status.
" I f the government were to come
audit their books, would we lose a
lot o f our churches? We are going to
have to decide what makes a church
tax-exempt.’’
Although her primary concern is
churches, the whole area o f non
p ro fit* could benefit from tighter
accounting procedure*. " T h e
amount o f people asking for tax de
deductible c o n trib u tio n * has in
creased. The people competing for
charitable funds have to keep abreast
o f why people give. One item a don
or would look at is how y o u ’ ve
spent the money you’ve been given.
I f the books show that the money
has been spent responsibly, they will
be more likely to give and tell others
to give.”
How responsive is the non-profit
com m unity to this accounting ap
proach? "T h e community has been
very responsive. I ’ve had experience
working for one o f Oregon’s oldest
non-profit schools and their respon
siveness was high. 1 sent out a mailer
and have received h a lf back. You
see, most would have to pay $5,000
to get their books corrected by an
accounting firm . A t L arue we
charge them a very small fee which
goes to m aterial costs and 29 per
cent o f the fee is donated back to the
organization. We believe in giving
something back to the community
because we know that it ’ s just like
giving it back to our communities,
our families and ourselves.”
T o find out more about Larue
writ P.O. Box 11543, Portland. OR
97211 or phone 287-2879.
FBI faces m inority harassment charges
I 6 t i r t t I n l i t * f t f P /I Z Z I Z l/Z O t t t
A t
(Continued
from page I column 6)
misconduct without the conducting
o f a comprehensive in q u iry into
whether or not the individual mea
sures form part o f a pattern."
The report says that much of A m
nesty In te rn a tio n a l's work is for
people imprisoned for obviously po
litic a l reasons. When people are
charged under laws banning the ex
pression o f opinions or membership
in p o litic al org an izatio n s, as
happens in some countries, it is rela
tively easy to decide that they are
prisoners o f conscience. This is not
what happens in the U .S ., it adds.
W hen people arc convicted on
charges o f crim inal offenses, it is
often harder to establish whether
the reason for prosecution is really
political.
Evidence o f FB I misconduct, it
says, may not at first seem to affect
the questions o f whether a crime
was committed, and by whom. But
when that evidence is ruled out, the
court may not be in a position to de
termine whether there is a pattern
that influenced the preparation o f
the case and the ultimate conviction.
In the case o f Black Panther
leader Elmer Pratt, it emerged long
after his 1972 trial that he had been
a target o f C O IN T E L P R O . The FBI
denied this as late as 1979, but it lat
er became clear from official docu
ments.
C O IN T E L P R O went beyond in
telligence gathering to try to disrupt
target groups. As used against Black
nationalist organizations and acti
vists, it was intended to discredit
and demoralize them, to prevent the
growth o f such organizations and
the rise of any leader who could un
ify the movement. Violence among
Black groups was fomented. Arrests
and prosecutions were used to in
timidate and demoralize, according
to records which have since become
public.
A U .S. Senate committee, com
menting on C O IN T E L P R O , later
said: "Domestic intelligence activity
has threatened and undermined con
stitutional rights o f Americans to
free speech, association and p ri
vacy.”
The Amnesty International report
notes: "Undoubtedly there is a clear
distinction between the 'chilling' of
constitutional rights and (he impris
onment o f individuals on political
grounds. One object o f an inquiry
would be to ascertain whether C O -
IN T E I PRO, which certainly did the
former, also resulted in the latter.”
m
K .l m * a b
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Elmer Pratt, a leader o f the Black
Panthers in southern C a lifo rn ia ,
was targeted for "n e u tra liza tio n ”
under C O IN T E L P R O .
The report cites a long list o f
irregularities in connection with his
case, the latest o f which date from
long after the trial and the end o f
C O IN T E L P R O .
Still trying to clear himself, Elmer
Pratt argued that records o f F B I
surveillance would show that he was
attending a meeting in another city,
Oakland, on the day the murder of
which he was accused took place in
Santa Monica, December 18, 1968.
The FBI first replied that it had no
inform ation about Elmer Pratt be
fore 1969. When documents later
came to light showing that there was
surveillance o f the Black Panther
leaders in precisely the period of the
murder, the FBI was reported by an
appeals judge to have said that “ the
transcripts o f the conversations re
corded by these telephone taps have
been lost or destroyed.”
At the time o f the trial, it was not
disclosed that the chief prosecution
witness, Julius Butler, had been re
garded by the FBI as a "probation
ary racial in fo rm an t.” He testified
that Elmer Pratt had confessed the
murder to him.
I he FBI had planted informants
in Elmer Pratt's defense team and it
received information about prepara
tion o f the defense case.
In 1980, an F B I document
emerged indicating that the FBI had
passed to the Los Angeles police
some 14 months before the trial in
formation about an alleged second
suspect in the m urder, and that it
had information about the suspect’s
id en tity. This had not been made
known to the defense.
Elmer Pratt's lawyers have said
that the jury should also have heard
evidence showing that another w it
ness, who identified Elmer Pratt at
the trial, appeared to have identified
someone else earlier as the assailant.
In cases involving the American
Indian Movement (A IM ), Amnesty
International points both to irregu
larities in the F B I’ s actions against
Richard M ars h all and to a back
ground o f misconduct and alleged
abuses against other Indians arrest
ed in connection with an upsurge of
unrest in South Dakota in 1975.
M yrtle Poor Bear was a witness
whose testim ony was used by the
F B I and state authorities against
both Richard Marshall and Leonard
Peltier, another Indian later con
Arbitration
Report
Next week; W hy the city lost
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victed o f murder. She testified at
Richard Marshall’s trial that he had
confessed murder to her. E a rlier,
her testimony that she had witnessed
other murders had been used by the
F B I to extrad ite Leonard P eltier
from Canada so that he could be put
on trial. M yrtle Poor Bear later re
pudiated her testimony against both
men, swearing that it was false. She
said she testified against Richard
M arshall after the FB I threatened
her life and that o f her daughter.
At different stages, both prosecu
tion and defense argued that Myrtle
Poor Bear was not a credible w it
ness. In the Marshall case, the South
Dakota Supreme Court said a retrial
was unnecessary: but the Chief Jus
tice, dissenting, said the jury might
have reached a d iffe re n t decision
without M y rtle Poor Bear’ s testi
mony. He said the defense did not
know o f her "apparently false a ffi
davits" and her "tru e relationship
with the F B I,” and that her medical
history, which was not produced for
the trial, "would probably have had
a substantial effect on her c red i
b ilit y ." M edical records and her
family's testimony, he said, " in d i
cate I ha« Poor Bear is a seriously
disturbed young woman who often
fantasizes and tells stories and lies."
The prosecution did not use M yr
tle Poor Bear as a witness at Leon
ard Peltier's trial; she had already
contradicted herself. The F B I’s use
o f her testimony however to extra
dite Leonard Peltier from Canada
led an appeal court to com m ent:
“ What happened happened in such
a way that it gives some credence to
the claim o f t h e . . .In d ia n people
that the United States is willing to
resort to any tactic in order to bring
somebody back to the United States
from C a n a d a ----- A nd if they are
willing to do that, they must be will
ing to fabricate other evidence. And
it’s no wonder that 11nduyi peoplej
are unhappy and disbelieve the
things that happened in our courts
when things like this happen.”
G overnm ent witnesses against
Leonard Peltier testified that FBI
agents threatened, intim idated or
physically abused them when ques
tioning them about the murders
early in (he investigation.
Among other aspects o f the F B I’s
actions against accused Indians, the
Amnesty International report cites
the in filtratio n o f defendants' de
fense teams by paid informants. Re
plying to appeals on these grounds,
courts decided that they did not
have evidence that significant infor
m ation gathered by these in fo r
mants was actu ally passed back
through the FBI to the prosecution;
but the Amnesty International re
port says that in the context o f a
pattern o f FBI bad faith and harass
ment, the presence o f an informant
in the defense team, with an oppor
tunity to get confidential inform a
tion on the defense case, requires
careful study.
"A m n e s ty In te rn a tio n a l," the
new report says, "does not have any
view about the need for any particu
lar domestic intelligence investiga
tion, but it wonders what conclusion
should be drawn when a federal
government agency (the F B I) con
ducts such an investigation and at
the same tim e appears w illin g to
fabricate evidence against its ‘ ta r
gets and to withhold inform ation
which, according to law , should
have been disclosed.”
After citing a number o f FB I ac
tions connected w ith the accused
which were not disclosed during
tria l, including the F B I's relations
w ith witnesses, the report com
ments: "Allegations against the FBI
o f a pattern o f FBI intimidation of
A IM must be considered against this
background.
" H o w widespread is such FBI
misconduct? Amnesty International
does not know.”
In the Peltier and Marshall cases,
inconsistencies in M y rtle Poor
Bear’ s evidence, her retractions, and
the evidence o f other irregularities
were not considered decisive by
courts hearing the individual cases.
Amnesty International argues that
the two cases considered together,
w ith examples from other cases,
give enough cause for concern about
the F B I’s role and the effects o f that
role on trials to point to the need for
a broad, independent examination.
The Amnesty International report
makes the following recommenda
tions to the United States G overn
ment:
1. Amnesty International recom
mends that the U n ited Slates
Government establish an indepen
dent commission o f inquiry to ex
amine thoroughly and im partially
the matters raised in this report.
2. The commission o f in q u iry
should examine the effect o f the
F B I’s domestic intelligence program
" C O IN T E L P R O ” on crim in al
prosecutions o f persons who were
"targeted” under it. Amnesty Inter
national considers that the case o f
Elmer Pratt, including the role and
conduct o f the F B I, should form
part o f the material studied by the
commission o f inquiry.
3. The commission o f inquiry
should consider the conjunction o f
FBI domestic intelligence investiga
tion o f members o f the American
Indian Movement with the irregular
and inappropriate F B I conduct in
prosecutions against them. Amnesty
International considers that the case
o f Richard Marshall, including the
role and conduct o f the FBI. should
form part o f the material studied by
the commissin of inquiry.
4. The commission o f inq u iry
should consider whether the politi
cal views o f any citizens, or the
F B I’ s attitude toward those views,
have been a factor in prosecutions
or the preparation o f cases against
them and, if so, seek ways o f pre
venting this from occurring in
future.
I
Pacific Citizen
Power o f the Week
Galvin Irby is a Legal Rating Specialist for the federal Veterans
Administration.
Irby is a native of Youngstown, Ohio. After high school he joined
the Army and served three years overseas. After returning home he
graduated from Youngstown University.
Irby studied law at Howard Law School, where he was part of
the law team that researched the landmark school desegregation
cases including Brown vs Board of Education. He studied under
such leading educators as Thurgood Marshall and James Nesbit
Upon graduation from Law School, Irby moved to Portland. He
was first employed with the Oregon Employment Division.
Irby is on the Board of Regents for Pacific Lutheran College, is
an advisor to the Board of Control for Concordia College, is vice-
president of Alpha Phi Alpha, and is a member of Sigma Delta Tau,
a national legal fraternity. He and his wife, Virginia, have four chil
dren.
His words of advice to the young: "F irs t, don’t be afriad to
dream. Never be unsure of who you are."
(Photo: Richard Brown)
Pacific
Power
B R O U G H T T O YOU BY
! ¡ATTENTIONI!
HIGH SCHOOL S E N IO R S -
PARENTS-CO UNSELO RS
W AN T TO KNOW MORE ABOUT
W HAT BLACK COLLEGES OFFER?
Come to
The Second Annual Black Colleges Conference:
BLACK COLLEGES:
AN ALTERNATIVE
Hilton Hotel
Saturday, October 24
For further information call
June Key
Portland 287-9669
Adults $10 (includes luncheon) Students $5