COINTELPRO warrior Dhoruba bin Wahad attacked by New Black Panther Party – National Cointelpro | Examiner.com — Many consider Dhoruba an elder statesman of the Black Power movement and he has continued his activism after release from prison. Dhoruba was interviewed by Examiner.com last year on his views: “The pitfalls of opportunism and reactionary politics are always present so we can claim no certain victories just yet. It was the racist and deceptive brutality of America’s law enforcement establishment that was deployed against the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the sixties. COINTELPRO and similar repressive programs carried out by the federal government did not initiate and maintain “racial profiling” and a militarized police presence in African-American communities – it was local police departments and local prosecutorial agencies who did the dirty work of infiltration, disruption of grass root activists and who were responsible for controlling the fires of Black rebellion in America.”
Dhoruba considers the New Black Panthers to be a hate group, heavily infiltrated by the FBI, and serving to divide the black community in a modern-day COINTELPRO operation. On August 8, when the group decided to hold a rally in Atlanta, Dhoruba felt it was his duty, as a former Black Panther and political prisoner, to confront attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz who heads the New Black Panthers.
A news release from New Afrikan Press International offered initial details. Dhoruba and the others were jumped by two dozen members of the New Black Panthers at the “Power Belongs to the People Conference” where Shabazz was speaking.
According to witnesses, Dhoruba Bin Wahad and the others approached the side of the stage where Shabazz was speaking. Shabazz shouted “Wahad! We’ll deal with you later!” Dhoruba replied “You can deal with me now.”
Shabazz then ordered the group to expel Dhoruba, which attacked the elder activist with chairs breaking Dhoruba’s jaw in three places and leaving him bloody and swollen with bruises. One of the others with Dhoruba was choked unconscious and another received a head wound that required staples. Dhoruba’s injuries required a six-hour operation to repair his broken jaw.
Earlier this year when Dhoruba moved from New York to Atlanta he was beaten by Clayton County Deputy Ryan Hall in May at his home. Hall was fired over the attack, captured on a cell phone camera, and was indicted by a grand jury on July 29.
In response from numerous requests from individual’s seeking information on the “New Black Panthers,” the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation issues this public statement to correct the distorted record being made in the media by a small band of African Americans calling themselves the New Black Panthers. As guardian of the true history of the Black Panther Party, the Foundation, which includes former leading members of the Party, denounces this group’s exploitation of the Party’s name and history. Failing to find its own legitimacy in the black community, this band would graft the Party’s name upon itself, which we condemn.
Firstly, the people in the New Black Panthers were never members of the Black Panther Party and have no legitimate claim on the Party’s name. On the contrary, they would steal the names and pretend to walk in the footsteps of the Party’s true heroes, such as Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton, George Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Cark, and so many others who gave their very lives to the black liberation struggle under the Party’s banner.
Secondly, they denigrate the Party’s name by promoting concepts absolutely counter to the revolutionary principles on which the Party was founded. Their alleged media assault on the Ku Klux Klan serves to incite hatred rather than resolve it. The Party’s fundamental principle, as best articulated by the great revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, was: “A true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.” The Black Panthers were never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the “white establishment.” The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people.
Furthermore, this group claims it would “teach” the black community about armed self-defense. The arrogance of this claim is overwhelmed by its reactionary nature. Blacks, especially in the South, have been armed in self-defense for a very long time; indeed, the spiritual parent of the Party itself was the Louisiana-based Deacons for Defense. However, the Party understood that the gun was not necessarily revolutionary, for the police and all other oppressive forces had guns. It was the ideology behind the gun that determined its nature.
Because the Party believed that only the masses of people would make the revolution, the Party never presumed itself to be above the people. The Party considered itself a servant of the people and taught by example. Given massive black hunger, the Party provided free breakfast for children and other free food programs. In the absence of decent medical facilities in the black community, the Party operated free medical clinics. In the face of police brutality, the Party stood up and resisted. Considering the overwhelming number of blacks facing trials and long prison terms, the Party developed free legal aids and bussing-to-prison programs.
The question the Foundation raises, then, is who are these people laying claim to the Party’s history and name? Are they reactionary provocateurs, who would instigate activities counterproductive to the people’s interests, causing mayhem and death? Are they entertainers, who would posture themselves before the media, and, according to numerous sources, with empty guns, to spin gold for themselves? Are they, given the history of their late-leader Khalid Muhammad, a group of anti-Semites like the very Ku Klux Klan they allegedly oppose? What is their agenda?
Modern AfroIndio Times 
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