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Serrano Sends
Letter To FBI Director
PRESS RELEASE
Washington, D.C., April 6 -- In
a letter to FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, Congressman José E. Serrano
(D-NY) requested complete and detailed answers to questions regarding
the agency’s alleged role in an operation to discredit and persecute
members of the independence movement in Puerto Rico.
Serrano raised the issue March
16 during the FBI's budget hearing before the Commerce, Justice, State,
Judiciary and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations
Committee, which funds federal agencies. Serrano is ranking Democrat on
the Subcommittee.
His comments come after the
Puerto Rico Senate passed a resolution March 14 calling for a probe into
the federal government’s role in the creation of political dossiers on
members of the independence party. The Puerto Rican government also has
established a fund to compensate people targeted by this operation for
their losses.
Text of the letter follows:
Mr.
Louis J. Freeh
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. - Room 7176
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Dear
Mr. Freeh:
This
is to request a complete and detailed answer to the questions that I
posed to you during the hearing before the Commerce, Justice, State and
Judiciary Appropriation Subcommittee on March 16, 2000.
My
questions to you were:
It
is now known that during the 1950's, ‘60's and ‘70's the then
government of Puerto Rico participated in an operation to discredit the
independence movement on the Island, and that files were kept on
individuals --doctors, lawyers, journalists, housewives and factory
workers-- who had at any time supposedly made any comments in support of
independence for Puerto Rico. People also lost their lives and there is
a serious belief that somehow the authorities, if you will, were
involved in the loss of these lives.
1.
Was there any involvement by the FBI in that operation to discredit and
persecute the independence movement, and what was the extent of any
involvement?
2.
Specifically, did the FBI commit, aid or abet, or was the FBI in any way
involved in any violence or violent acts committed with the intention to
have them pass as acts committed by supporters of independence for
Puerto Rico, when in fact those acts were being committed by the
government of Puerto Rico, the FBI, or by any other agency of the United
States government, to discredit the independence movement in Puerto
Rico?
3. With
what agencies within the government of Puerto Rico the FBI collaborated
in any way, with what purpose and to achieve what?
4.
Did the FBI engage in violent acts against supporters of the
independence movement?
5.
Was the FBI in any way involved in, or aid or abet violent acts
committed against Mr. Santiago Mari-Pesquera, Mr. Muñiz Varela, or any
others?
One
of the leaders of the independence movement in Puerto Rico during the
1930's through the 1960's was Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos. He spent 27 years
in Federal prison for acts committed in pursuit of his belief in
independence for Puerto Rico, dying shortly after his release. A rumor
persists among very serious people in the government and other places
that the FBI participated with federal prison officials in torturing him
for his beliefs and to get information from him that he obviously did
not have or that died with him. My third question therefore is:
6.
Did the FBI, itself or with any other government agency, including
federal prison officials, torture or otherwise do any mental or physical
violence to Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos at any time during Dr. Campos’
imprisonment, because of his beliefs or to get information from him?
With
your answers to my six questions above, I request that you include the
following documents:
a.
Copies of those documents generated or received by the COINTELPRO
program, the FBI or the U. S. Justice Department, related to any
investigation, surveillance or record of acts committed individually or
jointly, in Puerto Rico or in the United States, by people or by
organizations associated with the independence movement in Puerto Rico.
b.
Copies of any memoranda, guidelines or directives issued by the Justice
Department, related to any practice of documenting or interfering with
the activities of individuals and organizations in the United States
because of their ties with the independence movement in Puerto Rico.
c.
A copy of the Attorney General guidelines issued in 1976 by Attorney
General Levi to prohibit and prevent the institutional behavior that I
describe in my questions above, and to which you made reference at the
hearing of March 16.
d.
Copy of any notification to the government of Puerto Rico regarding the
existence of the COINTELPRO files, or of any other recompilation of
information, about individuals or organizations linked to the
independence movement, in Puerto Rico or in the United States.
Thank for your prompt reply.
With my best regards,
JOSE E. SERRANO
Congressman
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CONTACT: Rosalinda DeJesus
March 16, 2000
(202) 225-4363
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