Posted on 08/24/2012 10:25:25 AM PDT by RummyChick
The man who gave the Black Panther Party some of its first firearms and weapons training – which preceded fatal shootouts with Oakland police in the turbulent 1960s – was an undercover FBI informer, according to a former bureau agent and an FBI report.
One of the Bay Area’s most prominent radical activists of the era, Richard Masato Aoki was known as a fierce militant who touted his street-fighting abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining and arming the Panthers, whose members received international notoriety for brandishing weapons during patrols of the Oakland police and a protest at the state Legislature.
Aoki went on to work for 25 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator at the Peralta Community College District, and after his suicide in 2009, he was revered as a fearless radical.
But unbeknownst to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI intelligence informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area political groups, according to the bureau agent who recruited him.
(Excerpt) Read more at cironline.org ...
David Codrea noticed it here. Huffington Post has it here, but it originally came from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The man who gave the Black Panther Party some of its first firearms and weapons training – which preceded fatal shootouts with Oakland police in the turbulent 1960s – was an undercover FBI informer, according to a former bureau agent and an FBI report.
One of the Bay Area’s most prominent radical activists of the era, Richard Masato Aoki was known as a fierce militant who touted his street-fighting abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining and arming the Panthers, whose members received international notoriety for brandishing weapons during patrols of the Oakland police and a protest at the state Legislature.
Aoki went on to work for 25 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator at the Peralta Community College District, and after his suicide in 2009, he was revered as a fearless radical.
"All power to the people . . . er, ah, the FBI secret police."
But unbeknownst to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI intelligence informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area political groups, according to the bureau agent who recruited him.
That agent, Burney Threadgill Jr., recalled that he approached Aoki in the late 1950s, about the time Aoki was graduating from Berkeley High School. He asked Aoki if he would join left-wing groups and report to the FBI.
As David comments: "I certainly hope no "conspiracy theorists" point out how armed Panthers were exploited to gin up hysteria and pass the Mulford Act..."
http://www.sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2012/08/nothing-new-under-sun-for-american.html
The original “Fast and Furious”......er, no scratch that. This scam has been used before the Panthers as well.
Few know that Hitler joined the early Nazi Party (member 55) in order to spy upon it for the German Army and Wiemar government.
Unreal.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
I believe at the time it was still called "The German Workers' Party."
I would like to point out that this was under Lyndon Baines Johnson.
As a Baby Boomer who lived through the sixities, this makes me SICK~~~~
So many people were killed, ODed, fought, jailed, got hooked on drugs. I remember how shocked and saddened I was the day I heard about the Oakland PD killing the BP while they slept.
J Edgar Hoover, you hypocrite, I hope you’re burning in Hell!
I think some kind of deal was made with Bill Ayers. They got away with a lot.
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