Film about American award-winning journalist on death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal - National Human Rights

Last night, LA's International Action Center screened the film about American award-winning journalist, political prisoner on death row, Mumia Abu-Jamal. This important, educational film by Marc Evans entitled, In Prison My Whole Life  includes cast members Mumia Abu Jamal and Noam Chomsky.

The movie is about Mumia Abu-Jamal’s arrest the day William Francome was born in 1981. William is now 25 years old and Mumia is still on Death Row in Pennsylvania.

The film follows Will Francome's investigation into the arrest of Black Panther journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Francome engages intellectuals, writers and musicians to expose the truth about justice in America for Black activists in general, and Mumia in particular.

COINTELPRO

According to 1954 Freedom of Information Files, when Mumia was only 15-years old, he was under surveillance, (followed by various agents) and photographed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) domestic intelligence agents.

The FBI network following him officially became COINTELPRO, the Counter Intelligence Program, in 1956.

In 1976, the Church Committee’s U.S. Senate Select Committee Investigation of Intelligence Agencies, led by Senator Frank Church, publicly revealed the FBI COINTELPRO’s covert, often illegal projects targeting groups and individuals considered by government to be “subversive,” particularly Peoples of color and those advocating for their rights.

According to the Church Committee and other congressional records, COINTELPRO extremist tactics included various physical and psychological abuses, torture, and murder to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” movements and their leaders, often in a manner appearing to be so “natural” and resultant of just “bad luck,” that targets never suspect his ongoing misfortune was covertly orchestrated.

Officially halted in 1971, the counter intelligence agents operates today throughout the United States under a different code name that some believe to be “INFRAGARD” and the operation has expanded globally. Increasingly, law-abiding citizens are reporting the FBI’s covert operation targeting them with ongoing signs of being stalked (kept under surveillance), harassed such as with unforced break-ins and theft, abused, discredited, framed, imprisoned, hospitalized through bogus diagnoses and other tactics to eventually “neutralize” targets and their peaceful work.

America’s untold story presented to U.N. available to students

The report, COINTELPRO, An Untold America Story by Paul Wolf is a comprehensive, user-friendly source of information about COINTELPRO and its tactics.  It is available online.

A host of American intellectuals and leaders, including Robert Boyle, Bob Brown, Tom Burghardt, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Kathleen Cleaver, Bruce Ellison, Cynthia McKinney, Nkechi Taifa, Laura Whitehorn, Nicholas Wilson, and Howard Zinn Wolf’s contributed to Wolf’s report.

COINTELPRO, An Untold America Story was presented to U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on September 1, 2001 at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa by Congressional Black Caucus members attending the conference including: Donna Christianson, John Conyers, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Cynthia McKinney, and Diane Watson.

U.S. political prisoners

Among a wealth of information and historical targets, COINTELPRO, An Untold America Story details five United States political prisoners, one of whom is Mumia Abu Jamal, another being Leonard Peltier. Many people around the world have said Peltier is “America’s Nelson Mandela.”  Passages in the report Overview include:

We're here to talk about the FBI and U.S. democracy… And one of the things that makes it not quite a democracy is the existence of outfits like the FBI and the CIA. Democracy is based on openness, and the existence of a secret policy, secret lists of dissident citizens, violates the spirit of democracy…

The most serious of the FBI disruption programs were those directed against "Black Nationalists." Agents were instructed to undertake actions to discredit these groups both within "the responsible Negro community" and to "Negro radicals," also "to the white community, both the responsible community and to `liberals' who have vestiges of sympathy for militant black nationalists simply because they are Negroes..." 

At last night's event, attendees learned about updates on Amnesty International USA April 19 national day of action to stop the execution of former coach, Troy Davis. 

Learn More: See this important film, In Prison My Whole My Life and "educated and activated in the anti-death penalty" work.  Los Angeles peace and social justice events updates are available at Addicted to War.  Also visit Amnesty International USA for further information about Troy Davis support  www.DeborahDupre.com to learn more positive, efective actions that make a difference.

Film's Age Warning Note: This film has graphic scenes that may not be suitable for persons under 15 years of age.

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