Some
troubling connections contradict Amnesty’s image as a benevolent
defender of human rights and reveal key figures at the organization
during its early years to be less concerned with human dignity and
more concerned with the dignity of the US and UK’s image in the
world.
by
Alexander Rubinstein
Part
5 - Amnesty’s role in the death of Black Panther Fred Hampton
But two
years later, senior Amnesty officials engaged in far more troubling
coordination with Western intelligence agencies.
FBI
documents, released by the Bureau in the spring of 2018 as a part of
a series of disclosures of documents pertaining to the assassination
of President John Kennedy, detail Amnesty International’s
role in the killing of Black Panther Party (BPP) Deputy Chairman Fred
Hampton, the 21-year-old up-and-coming black liberation icon — a
killing that was widely believed to be an assassination but was ruled
officially as a justifiable homicide.
Amnesty
International co-founder Luis Kutner attended a November 23, 1969
speech of Hampton’s delivered at the University of Illinois.
During
the speech, Hampton described the BPP “as a revolutionary party”
and “indicated that the party has guns to be used for peace and
self-defense, and these guns are at the Hampton residence as well as
BPP headquarters,” according to the FBI document.
“Kutner
has reached the point where he would like to take legal action to
silence the BPP,” the FBI wrote. “Kutner concluded by
stating that he believed speakers like Hampton were psychotic, and it
is only when they are faced with a court action that they stop their
“rantings and ravings.”
The FBI
internal report on Kutner’s testimony cited above was issued on
December 1, 1969. Two days later, the FBI, alongside the Chicago
Police Department, conducted a firearms raid on Hampton’s
residence. When Hampton came home for the day, FBI informant William
O’Neal slipped a barbiturate sleeping pill into his drink before
leaving.
At 4:00
a.m. on December 4, police and FBI stormed into the apartment,
instantly shooting a BPP guard. Due to reflexive convulsions related
to death, the guard convulsed and pulled the trigger on a shotgun he
was carrying – the only time a Black Panther member fired a gun
during the raid. Authorities then opened fire on Hampton, who was in
bed sleeping with his nine-month pregnant fiancee. Hampton is
believed to have survived until two shots were fired at point-blank
range towards his head.
Kutner
would go on to form the “Friends of the FBI” group, an
organization “formed to combat criticism of the Federal Bureau
of Investigations,” according to the New York Times,
after its covert campaign to disrupt leftists movements —
COINTELPRO — was revealed. He also went on to operate in a number
of theaters that saw heavy involvement from the CIA — including
work Kutner did to undermine Congolese Prime Minister and staunch
anti-imperialist Patrice Lumumba — and represented the Dalai Lama,
who was provided $1.7 million a year by the CIA in the 1960s.
While
Amnesty International’s shady operations in the 1960s might
seem like ancient history at this point, they serve as an important
reminder of the role that non-governmental organizations often play
in furthering the objectives of governments of the nations where they
are based.
***
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