Darryl Cherney wants the evidence
Note the gaping hole in the floorboard under the driver's seat, belying the FBI's stupid charge that Bari and Cherney were carrying their own bomb in the back seat of the car.
A press release from Darryl Cherney:
August 5, 2010
Earth First! Files Motion to Stop FBI from Destroying Evidence and to Preserve Bomb Remnants for DNA testing
Earth First! Files Motion to Stop FBI from Destroying Evidence and to Preserve Bomb Remnants for DNA testing
Just after the 20th anniversary of the May 24, 1990 car bombing and attempted frame-up of Northern California Earth First! organizers Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, attorneys Dennis Cunningham and Ben Rosenfeld filed a motion in Oakland Federal Court on August 4, 2010, to prevent the FBI from destroying two sets of bomb remains and to allow those remnants to be turned over to Cherney for DNA and other forensic testing to determine the identity of the bomber.
The case stems from the FBI and Oakland Police attempts to pin the bombing on the victims rather than look for the terrorist who tried to kill Judi Bari by placing a motion-triggered pipe bomb hidden under the driver's seat of her car. The explosion interrupted a musical organizing Earth First! roadshow that Bari and Cherney were on, heading to UC Santa Cruz to perform on that fateful day. Oakland police and FBI agents declared Bari and Cherney were the only suspects despite dozens of death threats they had received, which their attorneys provided to police on the day of the bombing, and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Bari and Cherney's successful civil rights lawsuit, filed in 1991, claimed their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the FBI and OPD falsely arrested them and illegally searched their homes--all in order to silence their activities to organize protests to protect ancient redwood forests via the Redwood Summer 1990 campaign.
The events took place in a highly charged year. It was the 20th anniversary of Earth Day and a ballot initiative, Forests Forever (Proposition 130), would have reformed logging practices by banning clearcutting, preserving ancient forests and endangered species and expanding stream protection zones, among other proposed policies. The timber industry seized on the bombing to falsely claim that the initiative was supported by terrorists, branding it the "Earth First Initiative." It was defeated by just over one percentage point in a major setback for environmental protection advocates.
Darryl Cherney, Bari's fellow organizer and a passenger in the car, has continually conducted his own investigation, with Bari until her 1997 passing from breast cancer, and subsequently on his own. He has engaged in collecting and testing evidence in a relentless pursuit of the bomber whose identity the FBI appears intent on burying. A letter taking credit for two bombings, including the bomb in Bari's Subaru, signed "The Lord's Avenger," provided detailed information of the design of a bomb that barely went off at the Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Cloverdale, CA as well as the one in Bari's car. The bomb in Cloverdale is nearly intact, has much duct tape and other materials that could provide DNA and fingerprints that could be most helpful in identifying the culprit. FBI and Oakland Police conducted no testing of any kind--not even fingerprint comparisons--to determine who bombed Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.
A jury awarded the two--in Bari's case, to her estate--$4.4 million, which was later settled post-trial for $4 million plus two other conditions: That the evidence be turned over to Cherney, and that May 24, 1990, be proclaimed Judi Bari Day by the city of Oakland, which did, in fact, occur; and that any evidence the FBI seeks to destroy by claiming it is contraband has to first be run by the plaintiffs in order to give them a chance to move for its preservation, which is what occurred by the filing of this motion on August 4.
The case stems from the FBI and Oakland Police attempts to pin the bombing on the victims rather than look for the terrorist who tried to kill Judi Bari by placing a motion-triggered pipe bomb hidden under the driver's seat of her car. The explosion interrupted a musical organizing Earth First! roadshow that Bari and Cherney were on, heading to UC Santa Cruz to perform on that fateful day. Oakland police and FBI agents declared Bari and Cherney were the only suspects despite dozens of death threats they had received, which their attorneys provided to police on the day of the bombing, and despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Bari and Cherney's successful civil rights lawsuit, filed in 1991, claimed their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the FBI and OPD falsely arrested them and illegally searched their homes--all in order to silence their activities to organize protests to protect ancient redwood forests via the Redwood Summer 1990 campaign.
The events took place in a highly charged year. It was the 20th anniversary of Earth Day and a ballot initiative, Forests Forever (Proposition 130), would have reformed logging practices by banning clearcutting, preserving ancient forests and endangered species and expanding stream protection zones, among other proposed policies. The timber industry seized on the bombing to falsely claim that the initiative was supported by terrorists, branding it the "Earth First Initiative." It was defeated by just over one percentage point in a major setback for environmental protection advocates.
Darryl Cherney, Bari's fellow organizer and a passenger in the car, has continually conducted his own investigation, with Bari until her 1997 passing from breast cancer, and subsequently on his own. He has engaged in collecting and testing evidence in a relentless pursuit of the bomber whose identity the FBI appears intent on burying. A letter taking credit for two bombings, including the bomb in Bari's Subaru, signed "The Lord's Avenger," provided detailed information of the design of a bomb that barely went off at the Louisiana Pacific sawmill in Cloverdale, CA as well as the one in Bari's car. The bomb in Cloverdale is nearly intact, has much duct tape and other materials that could provide DNA and fingerprints that could be most helpful in identifying the culprit. FBI and Oakland Police conducted no testing of any kind--not even fingerprint comparisons--to determine who bombed Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.
A jury awarded the two--in Bari's case, to her estate--$4.4 million, which was later settled post-trial for $4 million plus two other conditions: That the evidence be turned over to Cherney, and that May 24, 1990, be proclaimed Judi Bari Day by the city of Oakland, which did, in fact, occur; and that any evidence the FBI seeks to destroy by claiming it is contraband has to first be run by the plaintiffs in order to give them a chance to move for its preservation, which is what occurred by the filing of this motion on August 4.
More information at http://www.judibari.org/
Deconstructing the phony "new evidence" argument on the bombing.
posted by Rob Anderson @ 4:32 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
wow, no posting on how the injunction was lifted yesterday? Depressed? Or just don't want to talk about your defeat against what is obviously an inevitable movement away from cars in big cities across the globe.... Its called the movement of time....Things change...Get over it....
"Inevitable movement"? This is the kind of goofy arrogance that makes you bike people so unendearing to the rest of us. The hard part for you bike people is just beginning. My sense of things is that you aren't very popular, even here in Progressive Land. Screwing up traffic on city streets won't win you a lot of new friends.
Are these bike people fucking insane?
Inevitable movement away from cars in big cities?? seriously? when?
Not gonna happen. Cars, electric, gas or solar powered are not going away. Yes, a tiny percentage of people will enjoy riding a bike in the city to get around.. A TINY percentage.
Get over your false ideas bike nuts. not gonna happen.
Um... Hey anonymous. What rock do you live under? Big cities from New York to Sao Paolo are ALL getting rid of cars in many central areas. It doesn't mean cars are going away, but it's definitely true. I suggest traveling a little!
hey protcho: you're so wrong. I've been to Europe several times; London, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, etc..They have NOT gotten rid of cars in the center zone. They simply impose fees on driving there, and some restrictions to hours. Bikes and cars still co-exist, but cars are not gone. Trust me, you need to get out more.
If by fees you mean "Huge fucking tickets" then you are correct.
Florence has a NO CARS zone in the city center. Caveat - if you live there, you can pay major $$$ to have a car there.
This is not an isolated circumstance across Europe, even just in Tuscany (Siena had this as well).
I'm not convinced that San Francisco has a serious enough traffic problem downtown to justify a congestion pricing system. The anti-car folks in MTA are of course studying it anyhow for future deployment when the opportunity presents itself. I went to one of MTA's presentations the other day, and it seems that the idea as it relates to SF is based on some exaggerated---even scary---ABAG projections on future traffic in the city, much like city housing policy is in part driven by ABAG's estimates on how much housing SF is supposed to produce.
Back in early 2009, a Chamber of Commerce poll showed that congestion pricing didn't have much support in SF, which supports my suspicion that traffic downtown isn't bad enough to justify this idea. That of course won't prevent the anti-car folks in city government from continuing to push the idea.
Basically the bike people and the true believers that are the elected progressive supervisors do not really believe in discourse. Their way is the only way. I'm born, raised and still live in the city in western Soma. I ride on the weekend for fun and exercise so I try to keep a balanced view of the bike advocates. But in the bigger picture there has been a disturbing trend over the past decade of "progressives" that will not even sit down and talk. Heck I can remember growing up when people like George Christopher, Shelly, Joe Alioto and George Moscone (and Supervisors) would meet and talk with people. Their minds were open and they asked for input...you could negotiate and change could be incremental to make sure whatever was proposed did not completely screw up the works. Yes there was the influence of Downtown, but when push came to shove Downtown and civic leaders came to the plate to help the city in whatever it needed. I am afraid those days are gone.
When city progs talk to the public, it's usually in the context of some condescending "outreach" as a preliminary to doing whatever the hell they want to do in the first place. But if neighborhood opposition is strong enough, dumb projects can be vetoed. I witnessed this myself a couple of years ago. And recently neighborhood opposition scotched the idea of closing Noe to traffic at Noe and 24th Street to make a "plaza."
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