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Page 8 The Skanner December 6, 2017 News CBC Meets with FBI Director Over ‘Black Identity Extremists’ Report By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire Contributor F BI Director Christopher A. Wray failed to explain why the agency he leads changed the name of a do- mestic terrorism designation from “Black Separatist Extrem- ist” to “Black Identity Extrem- ist,” during a recent meeting with a group of Congressional Black Caucus members about a leaked FBI document. Wray also refused to ac- knowledge that Black activists, including Black Lives Matter organizers, are being moni- tored by the FBI, according to CBC members present at the meeting. The leaked FBI document, titled “Black Identity Extrem- ists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Offi cers,” sparked a wave of controversy and sharp criticism of the FBI. At least one CBC member called the leaked document “COINTELPRO 2.0,” while an- other said that the report “calls for open season on Black ac- tivists.” The document was shared widely with local law enforcement agencies across the country. According to Newsweek, following the “fatal attacks on police offi cers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2016, the bureau expressed concerns about ‘the threat of copycat attacks against law en- forcement’ at the Republican and Democratic national con- ventions.” Newsweek also reported that other documents showed that “the FBI has monitored Black Lives Matter protesters.” Those documents were re- leased, because of a lawsuit to expose the surveillance fi led by the Center for Constitution- al Rights and the civil rights group Color of Change. On Wednesday, November 29, Congressional Black Cau- cus Chair Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and 2nd Vice Chair Karen Bass (D-Calif.), provided an overview of their meeting with Wray in a teleconference with National Newspaper Pub- lishers Association (NNPA) President Dr. Benjamin F. Cha- “ Newsweek also report- ed that other documents showed that ‘the FBI has monitored Black Lives Matter pro- testers’ vis; NNPA National Chairman Dorothy Leavell; and a group of Black publishers, editors and reporters. CBC members, who are also members of the House Com- mittee on Homeland Security, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the House Committee on the Judiciary, were present at the meeting. “Listening to [Wray], espe- cially considering meetings and discussions we’ve had with Attorney General [Jeff ] Sessions, he appeared to be a breath of fresh air,” Bass said. According to Bass, Wray said the “Black Identity Extremists” report was completed prior to his taking the post, but he ac- knowledged that he “owns the document” now. Wray also said that no one would be investigated or tar- geted, unless they met three points of criteria: there had to be credible evidence of feder- al crimes; a credible threat of force or violence; and both of those points had to exist in fur- therance of a social or political goal. Bass said the FBI uses that criteria to categorize people as domestic terrorists and, according to the leaked docu- ment, “Black Identity Extrem- ists” fall into the category of domestic terrorism. Wray also admitted that the policy wasn’t new, the name simply changed, Bass said. “They used to call it ‘Black Separatist Extremists’ and they changed it to ‘Black Iden- tity Extremists,’” said Bass. “[Wray] didn’t have a lot of rationale for why that change took place, except for the fact that the people that fall under the category ‘Black Identity Extremist’ don’t seem to be separatists in today’s world.” CBC members raised major concerns about the report, one of which was how FBI even craft ed the methodology to come up with the category of “Black Identity Extremists.” “[Wray] essentially said that they used ‘open source’ docu- ments, which means news re- ports,” said Bass. “Lord knows what that means.” Bass said that, based on what FBI/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CBC Members Met with FBI Director Christopher Wray about the FBI’s Controversial “Black Identity Extremists” Report. This Is What They Learned. FBIDIRECTORWRAY FBI Director Christopher Wray denied that his agency is investigating the Black Lives Matter movement. In this photo, Wray speaks at the Intelligence and National Security Alliance Summit in Washington, D.C on September 7, 2017. she heard from Wray, the methodology seemed “fl imsy.” “When we raised our con- cerns that a new generation of Black activists were being targeted [including the Black Lives Matter movement] for surveillance and harassment, [Wray] said repeatedly that there was no investigation of the Black Lives Matter move- ment,” said Bass. Bass and the other CBC mem- bers let Wray know that they were “completely aware” that some activists in their com- munities were experiencing surveillance and harassment, even though they didn’t meet the requirements that Wray described that would lead to an investigation. The CBC members asked the FBI to retract the document and issue a new message to lo- cal law enforcement agencies. “One of the problems with this document is that it has been widely distributed to law enforcement agencies around the country,” said Bass. “Many of us referenced either our own per- sonal experiences or experi- ences we were aware of during the ‘COINTELPRO’ years. when if you send a document like this out to local law enforce- ment, in many of our opinions, you can declare open season on Black activists, because, then local law enforcement agencies can use the document as justifi cation for doing what- ever they want to do.” COINTELPRO, or the “Count- er Intelligence Program” of the FBI, was designed in part to “expose, disrupt, misdi- rect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of the Black nationalists,” during the 1950s and 1970s. Writing for the Huffi ngton Post, G. Flint Taylor, a found- ing partner of the People’s Law Offi ce in Chicago, said that hundreds of documents were uncovered during a court case in 1976 that revealed that the FBI also plotted to destroy a children’s breakfast program See FBI on page 11 Zimbabwe cont’d from pg 7 A career you can be proud of. Being a carpenter isn’t just a job. It’s a way of life. We’re devoted to strengthening the lives of our members with steady work, wealth and personal growth. We take a stand for our members and all workers. We work together to lead the building industry in safety, training and compensation. We create rich lives for our members and partners. To learn more about becoming a union carpenter, go to NWCarpenters.org. PORTLAND: 1636 East Burnside, Portland, OR 97214 | 503.261.1862 HEADQUARTERS: 25120 Pacifi c Hwy S, #200, Kent, WA 98032 | 253.954.8800 More than 20,000 members in the Pacifi c Northwest. to usher in true democ- racy. “The country belongs to the people. The sol- diers won’t do nothing if the people revolt. They will just stand by,” Map- fumo said in the inter- view in his small apart- ment. Mapfumo, who drives a Dodge minivan in Eu- gene, still chafes at the government’s confi s- cation of several of his BMWs in Harare years ago, which he labeled as government harassment. “The reason was be- cause I was singing against the ruling party, the government and the corruption that was go- ing on,” he said. A friend was later told he could collect the cars for Mapfumo, but they were gone when he went to get them. “They’d been sold by a corrupt policeman,” Mapfumo said. Mapfumo believes Zim- babwe needs young lead- ers and said he admires Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. But Mapfumo ruled out performing in support of him or any other politician. Mapfumo plans to keep up his criticism in a new album he’s working on that includes a song he wrote shortly before Mugabe resigned. He sang part of it during the interview. “Rise up Zimbabwe, wake up Zimbabwe, open your eyes,” Mapfumo sang in a deep voice. “It’s all about fi ghting against corruption, fi ght- ing against injustice, bad rule of law,” he said with a smile. AP journalist Farai Mutsaka contributed to this report from Harare, Zimbabwe.