For the record:
http://emperors-clothes.com/dream.hexcerpt:
Reported ABC:
“This afternoon New York City police stopped a car in Queens, New York, which they suspected was used as a get-away vehicle in Tuesday’s Brink’s holdup. The suspects, both wearing bullet-proof vests, led police on a wild chase that ended in a gun battle. One suspect was killed, the other captured.”
– ibid.
The surviving suspect was Nathaniel Burns, aka Sekou Odinga.
“One of several Black Panthers indicted here [i.e., New York City – J.I.] in 1968 for a series of bombings, he had escaped prosecution by sliding down a drainpipe at his home as police approached.”
– “1 Killed, 1 Seized by Police Seeking Brink’s Suspects; Police Kill Suspect in Brink’s Robbery,” The Washington Post, October 24, 1981 [14]
As for the man who was killed:
“Samuel Smith, 37, slain in the shootout in which Mr. Burns was captured; a former convict with a record of attempted murder, assault and armed robbery; a bullet-proof vest he wore was dented over a body bruise suffered in a recent shooting; ballistics tests determined that a .38-caliber slug in his pocket had been fired from the gun of one of the police officers slain in Nyack.”
– The New York Times, October 27, 1981 [15]
On October 28th the Times announced that two Weathermen arrested in the Bronx on an outstanding bomb-making charge were arraigned in New Jersey, and that officials in Mississippi had arrested Cynthia Boston, suspected of involvement with the Brink’s gang, and were seeking her husband as well. Ms. Boston:
“was identified in arrest papers as the minister of information for the Republic of New Africa [sic! Said organization used the spelling ‘Afrika’ – J.I.], described as a terrorist organization. The arrest complaint said William Johnson, her common-law husband, who has eluded capture, was believed to be affiliated with the Black Liberation Army.”
– “2 New Brink’s Suspects Held in Mississippi and Manhattan,” The New York Times, October 28, 1981 [16]
Wrote the Times:
“The new names associated with the case also lent support yesterday to the view already advanced by the F.B.I. and the New York City Police Department that members of the Weather Underground had joined forces with members of black terrorist organizations.”
– ibid.
On October 30th, the Times reported that an FBI/police task force had been formed to pursue suspects still at large, including Ms. Boston’s husband and at least three other alleged members of the Black Liberation Army. [17]
Some have argued that the BLA was invented out of the whole cloth by the FBI and police and trumpeted by the media to spread fear of black people. I will discuss the media’s role in Part 6 of this series, but let me say here: if the Establishment was hyping the BLA to spread fear, it was helped by the accused and their defenders, who provided ample material from which the media could pick and choose. Case in point: during the New York State Brink’s trial, two defendants affirmed that they were BLA members and that the BLA and their white supporters (the Weathermen) were right to maim and murder people if they hindered ‘expropriations’ (robberies). [18]
In like fashion, speaking shortly after Cynthia Boston’s arrest, her attorney, Chokwe Lumumba, ‘defended’ her by saying that the so-called ‘provisional government’ of the Republic of New Afrika, of which she was part, was:
“not a clandestine offensive military formation. The BLA is. The provisional government [of which Lumumba was ‘Justice Minister’ – J.I.] has no control and no connection with the army. It shares with the army, however, a common determination to be free.”
[My emphasis – J.I.]
– “Bail Set at $250,000 for Cynthia Boston,” The Associated Press, November 3, 1981 [19]
(Notice that for Attorney Lumumba, the Black Liberation Army was “the army,” giving his disclaimer, that the “provisional government has no control and no connection with the army,” a coy ring.)
So, regarding the BLA: perhaps delusional; perhaps partly organized and/or led by agents provocateurs; not imaginary.
The FBI said the BLA was a “black terrorist organization.” The leading defense attorney said it was a “clandestine offensive military formation.” One might say, the alternative presented by the defense was not reassuring.
The extreme brutality of the robbery, confirmed and justified by the defendants, and the descriptions of the BLA made by the two supposedly opposing sides (“black terrorist organization” or “clandestine offensive military formation,” take your pick), could only spread fear of African-American men.
How did Obama react?
Based on what he has written and said, he didn’t.
Obama dreams in black and white
In his autobiographical Dreams from my father, despite spending sixteen pages writing about his three years in New York, Obama has not one word about the Brink’s affair.
Yet in the book, Obama presents himself as being concerned during this period – one might say, obsessed – with the question of black-white relations.
It is true that the Brink’s-Weatherman-BLA affair is not the only striking omission in Dreams. As the New York Times noted, Obama also did not write anything about his experiences at Columbia University, where the Times was told he was an outstanding student from Fall 1981 to Spring 1983. The Times pressed Obama and his campaign organization for any details about Columbia and got this lame reply:
“‘He doesn’t remember the names of a lot of people in his life,’ said Ben LaBolt, a campaign spokesman.”
SEKOU ODINGA (Nathaniel Burns.)
“The teachings of Malcolm X, who was then with the Nation of Islam, became a big influence on me at that time. After my release, I became involved in Black political activity in New York, especially revolutionary, nationalist politics. In 1964, I also became involved in the Cultural Nationalist movement. By 1965, I had joined the organization of African American Unity, founded by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X). I began to move with and among many young African Nationalists. My political consciousness was growing daily. I was reading and listening to many Afrikan Nationalists from Africa and the U.S. and became convinced that only after a successful armed struggle would New Afrikans gain freedom and self-determination. I also became convinced that integration would never solve the problems faced by New Afrikans...
http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla1.html
Bump!
Lumumba? Odinga?
Deja vu?
You’ve got to be kidding me! What is it they say, that there are no coincidences?
Does anyone have crowd shots of the robbery, arrests, etc.? Or even of these cons and their followers? Just wondering if there might be other recognizable faces there.
Starts here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278969/posts?page=402#402
excerpt
SEKOU ODINGA (Nathaniel Burns.)
“The teachings of Malcolm X, who was then with the Nation of Islam, became a big influence on me at that time. After my release, I became involved in Black political activity in New York, especially revolutionary, nationalist politics. In 1964, I also became involved in the Cultural Nationalist movement. By 1965, I had joined the organization of African American Unity, founded by El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X). I began to move with and among many young African Nationalists. My political consciousness was growing daily. I was reading and listening to many Afrikan Nationalists from Africa and the U.S. and became convinced that only after a successful armed struggle would New Afrikans gain freedom and self-determination. I also became convinced that integration would never solve the problems faced by New Afrikans...
http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla1.html