THE NEW YORK TINIZ.

,S, FRIDAY, JUNE

27, 1975

A.C.L.U. Says F.B.I. Funded 'Army' the Minutemen.

Mr. Godfrey testified at the
1973 trial of another member]
To Terrorize Antiwar Protesters of the Secret Army Organiza-i
tem who was convicted of
bembinr a motion picture thea-
ter that the F.B.I. furnished
, counterintelligence
By EVERETT It HOLLES ooerationsiof the San Diego Police Der.sart- him or pair! for $10,000 to
SPKI.110 Tr. ie- Vert rtmet w
beteen May, ID68, and April. 'ment's antisuv lo ersive 'Red 520.000 ssorth of weapons and
SAN DIEGO, June 26—The 1971. under the code name,,Squad,'' also described as an 'eeplosives for the so-called Se-I
American Civil Liberties Union Cointelpro. Hhese were aimed'F.B.I. undercover agent. Icret Army Organization oeer
completed today a report for Lett According to the report, Mr. •a perind of five years. As a
at the New and desig"ediBohmer and Linco Burn°. a imember of the Minutemen and
!Senate investigators alleging to harass and discredi t campusimemher of the Brown Berets, !later the Secret Army
that the Federal Bureau of In- antisvar and leftist groups. Organi•
vestigation recruited a band of 'a left-wing Chicano organize- zation, he said he was paid
The A.C.L.U. maintained,Ijlee were to
right-wing terrorists and sup- however, that F.B.I. be lured across about 5250 a month by the
sponsor-, the Mexican border
plied them with money and ship to a des°. bureau.
of the "Secret Army" ter-(late area near Tijuana In addition to the F.B.I.'s
weapons to attack young anti- •rorism continued into . There,
1972, they were to he killed by the direct control over the Secret'
war demonstrators. . The accusations contained in Mexican Federal police
The 5,000-word account pre- the report to the Senate corn- for pos- Army, the White House alleged-
session of a cache of smuggled ly maintained contact with the
pared for the Senate Select mittee go considerably beyondl group through Donald H. Se-
weapons.
Committee on Intelligence con- those of a $10.6-million
damage' The plot was abandoned. Mr. gretti, who was later convicted
tains what A.C.L.U. lawyers sun tiled by A.C.L.U. attorney
s1Young reported, presumably for directing a campaign of•
described as "newly established 'in Federal Disrict Court here'wh
en the Republican conven- political espionage and sabo.'
evidence" purportedly linking last Jan. 6 on behalf of Peterti
on was moved to Miami tage against the Democrats In
the F.B.I. to at least two as- G. Bohmer, a discharged eco- 1972.
Beach.
sassination plots here. nomics professor at San Diego Mr. Segretti was quoted by
The A.C.L.U. lawyers said
The lawyers, H. Peter Young 'State University, and Paula that Mr. Romero was also the A.C.L.U. as having cola
of-
and Mark D. Rosenbaum of the Tharp, a companion. fered 54.000 by his F.B.I. "con- the Secret Army that any
A.C.L.U. Foundation of South- 1 Miss Tharp was wounded on trol" if he would implicate
Mr. potential troublemakers at the
ern California, said the allega- :Jan. 6, 1972, when shots were Bohmer in the shooting
of a moue/Limo treetiqndall 7.f 6 f
tions to be sent, probably to- fired into Mr. Bohnier's Ocean San Diego police officer in
the would be "gotten rid of," an
morrow, to the Senate commit- Beech home here from an auto- city's Ocean Beach section. apparent reference to the so-
tee "document in detail the mobile carrying several mem- In the $10.6-million lawsuit called Liddy plan alluded to
F.B.I.'s sponsorship in 1971 and bers of the so-called Secret pending in Federal District during the Senate Watergate
1972 of a San Diego group call- Army. Court here, former President , ,hearings, whereby the leaders
ing itself "the Secret Army In subsequent court proceed- Nixon's name heads a list of of anti-Nixon elements would
Organization." ings, it was brought out that 58 defendants, including offi- be kidnapped and taken to
Told of the A.C.L.U.'s asset- Steven L. Christiansen. _an cials of the F.B.I., the Central Mexico.
tiodns, a spokesman for the F.B.I. agent who was identified Intelligence Agency. the Na- I The plan was devised by
F.B.I. said that the bureau had by court witnesses as the "con- tional Security Council and a G. Gordon Liddy, former coun-
had "nothing to do" with the Oral" for the Secret Army Or- half-dozen other Government sel of the Committee for the
establishment or the so-called home for nearly ;ix months agencies. as well as most of Re-election of the President,
secret army organization, "nor the automatic pistol used in the defendants in the Water- who was convicted of conspira-
did we have anything to do j the attack while the police gate case. , cy, burglary and wiretapping
with the direction of its activi- were searching for evidence to in the Watergate case.
Daily Reports to Aritchell
ties." bring atis Tharp's assailant to
Mr. Nixon, according to Fe-
According to the A.C.L.U. re- trial. deral court records, accepted
port, the Secret Army Organiza- . Mr. Bohmer, an avowed a summo
ns at his home in
tion was set up "on instruceions Marxist, and Miss Tharp, for-' San Clement
e on Jan. l4.
of F.B.I. officials" to serve as merly employed by an under-
agents provocateurs. inciting ground The F.B.I.'s creation of the
newspaper twicel Secret Army Organization
disorders as a means of expos- 'wracked in nighttime Secret here,
ing "domestic radicals," partic- !Army raids, organized the San' as a success or to the paramili-
ularly campus leaders of the Dieeo convention coalition tary Minutem en broken up by
New Left protesting the war in mid-1971. The coalition was the local authorities in 1970.
(was said by the A.C.L.U. to
Southeast Asia. 'formed to bring thousands of
The paramilitary extremist youthful demonstrators to San ( have been an extension of ear-
organization, Her espinnage activities by the
consisting of Diego to citerapt the 1e72 Re.
about a dozen members locally oublican National Convention bureau, including a 1969 opera-i
with others scattered through- before the convention site was tints with the code name "In-
out southern California, was 'switched to Miami Beach. let."
described by the A.C.L.U. as an Under "Inlet," the F. B. 1.
Instructed to Open Mail ,allege dly made daily intel-
outgrowth o fan elaborate in-
teragency espionage apparatus i The A.C.L.U . report says that ligence reports Involving "de-
"at the direction of Richard M. • lrhn Resper ree whom it iden- monstra tors and domestic radi-
Nixon" early in his Administra- tified as an F.B.I. informer, has cals" to John N. Mitchell. then
tion to intimidate and silence admitted that. in the winter of the Attorney Genera!, and to
domestic critics. 1971-1972, the bureau in- Mr. Nixon by way of H. R.
structed him to assassinate Mr. Haldeman, the former White
A.9 s ass Ina t on Alleged Bohmer. but that the attempt, House Chiek of Staff, and John
The group's acts of terrorism, was never carried out. D. Ehrlichman, the former
•
allegedly carried out in San Mr. Resnerry is also nuoted Chief Advi er on Domestic Af-
Diego on instructions from the as saving that be
was instruct-( fairs in the Nixon White House.
F.B.I., range from espionage. ed to intcrcent art!
open Mr.' The A.C.L.U. alleged that
vandalism and mail theft to Bnerrer's mail
and to plant' when the F.B.I. set up the Se-
bombings, assassination plots, several
rifles in the for- cret Army Orgeniention here ,
and shootings, accordingg tol mer ernmesnr's possess
ions to in 1971, in advance of the
the report. • facilitate his arrest, Republican convention, it chose
The A.C.L.L.1, charges followed I
Annteer F.B.I.-directed plot as one of its two leaders How-
by two days the F13.1.'s ace ard B. Godfrey, a former San
to assaesinate Mr. Flohmer was
knowiedgement, in a 256-maze
alter:v.11y set nip in April. 1972. Diego fireman, elder of the
document, that it conducted
with Gil Romern. a member; Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints and, for three '
- 'years. an F.B.I. informer in