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
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“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.