Jean Seberg
I am glad to see that someone remembered Jean Seberg, as Neal Gabler has in his article (“A Reminder of the Old FBI,” Opinion, June 8) about Geronimo Pratt and the FBI’s [counterintelligence division] COINTELPRO operations against Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers. Some commentators have suggested that COINTELPRO amounted to only a few “poison pen” letters. Gabler’s account makes the human tragedy inherent in COINTELPRO all too real.
The COINTELPRO operations do not mitigate the Panthers’ culpability. (The Black Panthers did commit murders, according to published accounts.) But as in life, it shows that the truth is more complicated.
TOM OLAFSON
La Jolla
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
