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revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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194<br />

Churches that permitted the Panthers to use their facilities in<br />

the free breakfast prog<strong>ram</strong> were also targeted . When the FBI<br />

San Diego office discovered that a Catholic Priest, Father Frank<br />

Curran, was permitting his church in San Diego to be used as a<br />

serving place for the BPP Breakfast Prog<strong>ram</strong>, it sent an anonymous<br />

letter to the Bishop of the San Diego Diocese informing<br />

him of the Priest's activities . In August, 1969, the San Diego<br />

Field Office requested permission from headquarters to place<br />

three telephone calls protesting Father Curran's support of the<br />

BPP prog<strong>ram</strong> to the Auxiliary Bishop of the San Diego Diocese . 40<br />

The FBI also sent anonymous mailings to public officials and people<br />

who might sway public opinion against the BPP . The FBI destroyed community<br />

support for individual<br />

BPP members by spreading rumors that they were immoral<br />

. The San Diego Field Office reported it had been successful in this<br />

aspect of COINTELPRO by anonymously informing the parents of a teenage<br />

girl that she was pregnant by a local BPP leader . The parents of the girl<br />

forced her to resign from the BPP and return home to live . As a result, it<br />

became general knowledge throughout the Black community that the BPP leader<br />

was responsible for the difficulty experienced by the girl .<br />

The field office also considered the operation successful because<br />

the mother of another girl questioned the activities of her own<br />

daughter after talking with the parent the agents had anonymously<br />

contacted . She learned that her daughter, a BPP member, was also<br />

pregnant, and had her committed to a reformatory as a wayward<br />

juvenile . 41<br />

The FBI also, on several occasions, developed schemes to create friction<br />

between the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam . The FBI war<br />

against the Black Liberation Movement was very extensive . In a July 10,<br />

1968, FBI memorandum, it was suggested that consideration be given to conveying<br />

the impression that Stokely Carmichael was a CIA agent . The report<br />

suggested that the FBI inform a certain percentage of criminal and racial<br />

40 1bid . . p . 210<br />

4l ibid ., p . 213 .

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