Submitted by John Stauber on
A federal jury has awarded $4.4 million to Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, two Earth First! activists who accused the FBI and the Oakland, CA, police of framing them for a 1990 bomb blast that severely injured them. Who really blew up their car? What was Hill and Knowlton PR's role in smearing Earth First! as eco-terrorists? Before Judi Bari died in 1997, she wrote about the bombing, the frame-up and the smear campaign in her book, Timber Wars. "It blew right through my car seat, shattering my pelvis, crushing my lower backbone ... The man in charge of my case was Richard Held, director of the San Francisco FBI office. Held has a 25-year history as one of the principal operatives of COINTELPRO. He was personally involved in the framing of [Black Panther and American Indian Movement leaders]. I cannot describe the cold terror of waking up in the hospital, crippled for life, and finding out that Richard Held was accusing me of blowing myself up with my own bomb."
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