Bari v FBI - April 25, 2002

Thursday Media Conference on Week’s Highlights:

* FBI Bomb School and “The Final Exam”
* Doyle Admits: “No Evidence of Damage” on Car’s Back Seat
* Sena “Not All That Interested” in Investigating Tips

Contact: Jean Eisenhower, Kathy Glass, Steve Christianson at 510/663-6330

OAKLAND, CA -- Background on the FBI’s “Bomb School” will be part of this week’s highlights discussed with the media by plaintiffs’ attorneys after court on Thursday, approximately 2:00 pm, in front of the Oakland Federal Courthouse. In addition, a limited number of videotape copies will be provided to the media of the FBI tape played in court on Monday that contains the voice of someone who announces enthusiastically at the bomb scene, “This is it! This is it, don’t you think?! This is the final exam!”

FBI Special Agent and Bomb Technician Frank Doyle’s Monday testimony was riddled with lapses of memory and contradictions to his previous testimony in deposition, to others’ testimony, and to written reports. Regarding the bombed car’s back seat, brought into the courtroom for the jury to view, which he’d earlier stated had the bomb placed a foot or so away from it, he admitted, “I don’t see what I would term bomb damage.” Doyle claimed never to have said the bomb was “behind” the driver’s seat, but chose language never before heard in this case: “on the axis of the seat back.” He also reiterated his deposition testimony that Judi’s guitar case was “blown to pieces,” while a photo of the mostly-intact guitar case, beside the car at the bomb scene, remained displayed on the video screen for the jury.

In FBI Special Agent Philip Sena’s testimony on Wednesday, the courtroom was shocked to hear him dismiss his failure to follow up on leads given him by Darryl Cherney, based on the death threats Judi had received, or to even write them down in any record. Though he would later admit to be the case agent in charge, he said, “I wasn’t in charge of the case, didn’t know what was going on, and furthermore, I wasn’t all that interested.”

Wednesday morning’s testimony began with Lisa Bari, daughter of Judi, who was nine years old when the assassination attempt occurred. She testified that her mother was “definitely afraid” and “hated having her name dirtied.” She also said that she was “harassed all the time about it” by children at school. Regarding her mother, she testified, “The more she learned about it, the more she was amazed and disgusted that it could happen.” Lisa was not allowed, by court agreement, to complete a sentence referring to other FBI repression of political activists.

Utah Phillips, folk singer and storyteller who spent two days previous to the bombing with Judi, charmed the audience with his depictions of her as a brilliant and charismatic organizer, a non-violence activist “who understood the concepts,” and a singer of original songs that he went out of his way to tape and learn.

FBI Bomb School Background:

The FBI’s “Bomb School,” held a month before the car bombing, included a field day in which cars were blown up with bombs under them and inside them, overseen by Frank Doyle. The bombing was conducted on clear-cut land owned by Louisiana-Pacific Timber Company near Eureka, where the head of security was a former bomb school student of Doyle’s, Frank Wigginton. When a bomb went off a couple of weeks later at L-P’s Cloverdale Mill, no law enforcement agencies conducted any investigation.

When the bomb went off in Judi’s car, Doyle was coincidentally in the area and arrived soon after with some of his students. This lawsuit charges the FBI with failing to gather any information on people other than those they were intent on framing. For instance, no fingerprints were taken from the mostly-intact bomb at the Cloverdale Mill, or from the sign found with it. When the “Lord’s Avenger” letter arrived, describing both bombs and claiming credit for both, it was dusted for fingerprints, but they were never compared or analyzed. Darryl Cherney describes Louisiana-Pacific Timber Company as having been, prior to the bombing, “Judi Bari’s number one adversary” in protecting the ancient redwoods.

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