dirty wars screenplay
TRANSCRIPT
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DIRTY WARS
I
Dimly seen, furtive figures splash liquid under the exterior doors of
the Air Force R.O.T.C. Building at the University of Washington. The cloud
shrouded night explodes in flames as police and fire units respond.
II
A Seattle Police Department dispatcher receives a late-night bomb
threat against the University of Washington Administration Building.
Responding Seattle police and fire units find an unexploded bomb.
III
In Longview, Washington the drizzle and mist of a soggy night
obscure bombers at a U.S. Army base. The bombing attack blew up
military vehicles.
IV
A thin, furtive and seedy young man slips into shadows of night and
hurls two bombs into the University of Washington construction site of the
school of architecture building. The second bomb – the large one – was
designed to kill and maim responding police and fire department personnel.
The first bomb exploded. The second bomb was found.
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V
The heroin addicted bomber, a few blocks from the University of
Washington, begins to shoot up and slip into a hot bath as the first bomb
reverberates through soggy Seattle neighborhoods. In increasing agitation,
Jeffrey listens for a huge second blast and a chorus of following sirens.
Jeff wanted to kill and maim a lot of responding Seattle policemen.
VA
Jeff had placed a stick of dynamite beneath a patrol car parked with two
unsuspecting cops in it. The bomb didn't go off, it was just meant to scare
the cops. Jeff's involvement got back to the police. The Seattle cops
couldn't prove a case, but they arrested Jeff as he shot heroin and put him
in a holding cell to be gang raped.
VI
At about 10:00 p.m., a week later, the University Avenue Post Office
was bombed. Jeff and three others were caught in the act. Jeff built the
bomb. A postal worker was injured in the blast. Twelve Seattle cops had
been staked out at the Post Office, which had only been selected as a
target about an hour before it was bombed. By 2:30 a.m., Jeff was
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released without bail. The three other bombers were held in lieu of
$250,000 bail bonds.
VII
That next night, David R. Sannes sat in a restaurant 4 blocks from the
U.S. Post Office bombing and 6 blocks from the bombed construction site.
Sannes read the newspaper accounts, was disturbed by them, and decided
to investigate the two bombings. Sannes walked down the street and
examined the two sites.
VIII
The next day, Tissot, Reed, and Van Veenendaal were arraigned on
state bombing charges for the post office bombing. Jeff was hanging out
with the cops. Judge Edmond J. Quigley, confused, ordered Jeff back into
custody. The next day, Jeff was released back into federal safe houses.
VIX
At the Doghouse Restaurant, Sannes sat with his long time Seattle
Policeman friend, Pat Wright. The two men had worked together many
times as undercover Seattle cop and civilian police volunteer partner.
Sannes and Wright fenced around the subject of police and FBI
involvement with Jeff in bombings.
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X
Sannes, impersonating a federal lawyer upset with FBI agent screw
ups – cold calls distributors of dynamite. Maud Desmond, Jeff's mother,
had signed for the dynamite, fuse, blasting caps and fuse igniters from the
Harvey Powder Co. An FBI agent was vouching for the sale to her. (It was
Louis M. Harris Jr.)
XI
At a rock concert, Sannes saw the wanted poster for "Jeff Desmond –
Police and FBI Agent." From his Seattle policeman friend, Sannes knew
that the Seattle Chief of Police Tielsch knew where the FBI had stashed
Jeff.
XII
At the University of Washington's Henry Suzallo Library, Sannes
researched the recent U.S. experience with politically motivated bombing
and incendiary bombing attacks. The research reinforced Sannes'
conviction that the Seattle bombings by the FBI were part of a national
pattern. Agents provocateurs go back to Eve. Sannes finished research
determined to infiltrate the FBI to find out if it was carrying out a "dirty war"
against the Constitution that it was sworn to uphold.
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XIII
Sannes and Jill, one of his barmaids at the District, a huge nightclub
that he had designed and built, sit deep in discussion. Jill lived with some
of the leaders of the anti-war protest at, and partial trashing of, the U.S.
Courthouse in Seattle. Sannes forcefully expressed complete support for
the U.S. Courthouse trashing by her Seattle Liberation Front buddies.
XIV
J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John N. Mitchell, in a joint
White House press conference, announce the indictment of eight Seattle
Liberation Front members in connection with the February 17, 1970 attack
against the U.S. Court House in Seattle. A fascinated Sannes watches the
news accounts that two of the eight were still at large, Charles (Chip)
Marshall and Michael T. Justesen. Sannes started to formulate a plan to
penetrate the FBI by infiltrating the S.L.F.
XV
Sannes and Jill at the District discuss the arrests and what Sannes
and the District night club could do to raise defense funds for the six
arrested anti-war protesters.
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XVI
At the Bon Marche Department Store, Sannes buys a small tape
recorder, blank tapes, and a telephone eavesdropping device.
XVII
Sannes sits in his car at a beach and records his thoughts about
federal involvement in bombing, arson, and obstruction of justice plots
designed to discredit the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War
protests movement – and what he intends to do to find out about it, and if it
were necessary, to put a stop to violent federal crimes by the FBI and any
other federal agencies.
XVIII
April 18, 1970 -- Seattle Center – many thousands of anti-war
protesters march to a rally at the foot of the Space Needle. Chip Marshall
suddenly appears and speaks to the assembly. The FBI and local
authorities are blocked by the boisterous assembly from arresting Marshall.
XVIX
Hanging close to Jill, Sannes finds out that Chip Marshall would be at
the Century Tavern at 5:00 p.m. The Jill connection was working. Jill was
gorgeous, bright and an unconscious agent of her controller, Sannes.
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XX
From a quiet telephone booth in downtown Seattle, Sannes calls the
Seattle office of the FBI, identifies himself, gives his home address, and
tells the agent that he had information that Chip Marshall would be at the
Century Tavern at 5:00 p.m. The FBI agent asked Sannes how he knew
that Marshall would be there – and Sannes told him that one of the
bastard's roommates at the Sundance Collective worked for him at the
District night club. The FBI agent thanked Sannes for the tip and asked if
he would go to the Century and confirm if Marshall showed up, and then
call again. Sannes said: "Yes, sir!"
XXI
Marshall did show up as did David Dellinger of Chicago 7 fame.
Sannes called the FBI. Just before an FBI assault team burst through the
Century's doors, Sannes sat down with a policeman friend. When the cop
asked Sannes what he was doing, Sannes said "working." Then just
before all hell broke loose, Sannes whispered to his policeman friend, Dave
Franklin, to put his hands on the table, sit quietly, and not look around no
matter what happened. The raid established Sannes' identity as an
undercover agent for the FBI – an incredible coincidence Sannes exploited.
Sannes had the FBI hooked.
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XXII
The national newscasts broadcast Marshall's capture – thus sparing
J. Edgar Hoover's FBI a terrible embarrassment. Hoover would care little
about the arrest, but he would care everything about the near disaster to
the FBI's public relations – of being unable to arrest this dangerous
weatherman because of his protection by the crowd.
XXIII
FBI headquarters in Seattle – several agents sit around discussing
Sannes' Vietnam record with the National Security Agency. One agent
said: “He wasn't just a war hero, they say he is an expert at explosives,
incendiaries, conventional and unconventional combat. There are reports
that the bastard liked being ambushed. Recruit him.”
XXIV
The next morning, Sannes got a call from FBI Special Agent Louis M.
Harris, Jr. The Chip Marshall gambit had worked. The FBI had taken the
bait. Sannes was washed with waves of dread and exultation.
XXV
Sannes met FBI agent Harris. Harris thanked Sannes on behalf of
Hoover. Sannes was recruited as an undercover agent of the FBI. Sannes
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was asked to penetrate terrorist groups and he agreed. Sannes was to
work under deep cover.
XXV "A"
Sannes started to religiously attend anti-war rallies and protest
demonstrations:
a) The scene is a crowd of many hundreds of anti-war
demonstrators marching on 4th Street, along the northern
border of the University of Washington. Suddenly the people
start onto the north and south entrances to the I-5 freeway.
Within minutes, the freeway is blocked. Sannes leads part of
the group onto the reversible lanes. Those lanes grind to a
halt.
b) After the Kent State massacre, the throngs swell in numbers
and courage. The I-5 is blocked again. Sannes runs toward a
line of Seattle swat team members and starts to throw stones at
them. Sannes knew that he could escape trouble by telling the
police: "Call Captain Williams." Williams was responsible for a
lot of undercover operations. But just before Sannes would
have run into that crowd of swat team members, he leaped over
the freeway side rail and slid down the slope.
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XXV "B"
Sannes utilizes his contact with the extraordinarily gorgeous District
barmaid Jill, to hold legal defense fund raisers for the Seattle 7, the Air
Force ROTC fire bombing 8, and the Longview Army Truck bombing 3
defendants. This activity got Sannes into close proximity to the defendants
and their attorneys. Sannes became accepted by the aforesaid defense
teams as being one of them.
XXV "C"
Sannes leveraged these activities into recruiting several people in an
anti-war collective boarding house to talk about planning to bomb a public
place of a federal property type. Gradually, a few of the people in the
collective were willing to talk a little more. Finally, a few meetings take
place with Sannes and one man in the house agrees to help bomb the
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge over Lake Washington.
XXVI
In a face-to-face clandestine meeting, Sannes obtained the verbal
approval of Assistant Special Agent In Charge Bert Carter to blow up the
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge across Lake Washington, if he made sure
that some participating radicals died at the site. This was nothing short of
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felony murder being approved by the FBI in order to smear the anti-war
movement around the world.
XXVII
Scene: ACLU offices at the Smith Tower, Seattle. Posing as a
radical political volunteer, Sannes managed to hold benefit concerts to
contribute money to the Seattle 7, the Air Force R.O.T.C. Building Bombing
8, and the Longview Army Truck Bombing 3 cases. Sannes reported to the
FBI on confidential client/attorney conversations, he purloined privileged
defense documents, and generally obstructed justice on behalf of the FBI.
In the case of at least 37 criminal counts of federal law, violations Sannes
obstructed justice on behalf of the FBI. It was time to come in from the
cold.
XXVIII
Sannes started going to the University of Washington Arboretum to
salt the gold mine with evidence to confound the FBI laboratory. Sannes
also started to intensify his formulation of his notional Chinese communist
espionage network. For example, Sannes recruited Chinese conspirators
by the simple expedient of going to grocery stores, buying bottles of drinks,
wiping off all fingerprints, and the carefully collecting the empty bottles after
the youths finished with them. The teenagers wouldn't have fingerprints on
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file. Sannes underlined certain words in one of his books and put it back
on a shelf. He carefully slipped a public locker key into the spine of one of
his other books. Sannes also hid his tape recorder in the flour. Trace
evidence was gathered at the U.W. arboretum and preserved for FBI
laboratory analysis. An anonymous Chinese speaking caller warned the
Seattle office of the FBI about an espionage ring centered on a Caucasian
spy.
XXIX
In a quiet tavern, Sannes sat with a member of the defense collective
for the Seattle 7 and Air Force Fire Bombing 8, a man by the name of
Thurman Fremsted. Having already involved Fremsted in a previous
conspiracy to obstruct justice in the Seattle 7 case while reporting to the
FBI, Sannes told Fremsted of his plan to be a surprise defense witness,
confessing FBI directed obstruction of justice, in the three hereinabove
cases.
XXX
Sannes wrote a book of Vietnam war and love poetry to utilize in
obtaining Seattle P.I. Managing Editor Jack Doughty's trust and help while
coming in from the cold of the counter-intelligence world. This tactic
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worked, too. Jack Doughty eagerly sought out Sannes' comments on
Vietnam and other matters.
XXXI
Sannes listened in on a Seattle police officer's walkie-talkie while a
poor sap named Larry Ward was murdered while setting a bomb at the
Leon Hardcastle Realty. Ward died as a result of a plot by FBI Agent
Stephen Travis and Alfred Burnett.
XXXII
In a wretched and tiny apartment on Highway 99, Sannes carefully
surveyed the deliberately prepared mess, put his two carefully prepared
waste baskets of garbage into one bag, and took it to the apartment
house's garbage disposal container.
XXXIII
The garbage bag would be a treasure trove for counter-intelligence
examination by FBI forensic experts that night. It would be a treasure trove
of planted forensic evidence.
XXXIV
Sannes took a bus to the law offices of Jeffrey Steinborn, a Seattle 7
defense attorney. Hoping that the notional Chinese communist espionage
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network's investigation by the FBI would buy him time before the FBI would
hire his assassination, Sannes got off the bus.
XXXV
Attorney Jeffrey Steinborn was simply stunned and horribly frightened
when Sannes told him that at all pertinent times in their acquaintance, he
was an undercover agent of the FBI assigned to obstruct justice in the
political cases. Sannes told Steinborn that he was there to swear out an
affidavit confessing obstruction of justice acts in the ROTC Fire Bombing 8
case. A nearly panicked law firm got a signed affidavit and Steinborn
headed by cab for the office of U.S. Attorney Stan Pitkin.
XXXVI
Within two hours, an excited and somewhat exultant Steinborn was
back in his law firm's offices, reporting to his law partners and Sannes.
Steinborn said that a stunned Pitkin had called J. Earl Milnes, the FBI
Special Agent in Charge of the Seattle office. Pitkin got enough
confirmation of Sannes' affidavit to dismiss the "ROTC 8" cases if approved
by the Department of Justice.
XXXVII
Later, when Sannes emerges on the downtown Seattle street upon
exiting the office building – he was confronted by a veritable swarm of at
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least twenty FBI agents. As Sannes walked toward a city bus, about 7 FBI
agents walked ahead of and behind him. The nearest FBI agents mouthed
and hand-signaled death threats – death by shooting and a slashed throat.
Sannes just appeared scared and boarded a city bus going towards his
hovel. Cars of FBI agents went ahead and behind the bus, and several FBI
agents ran onto the bus.
XXXVIII
As the bus neared Sannes' place, he got off and continued to walk
towards home. FBI agents on foot again were ahead and behind Sannes
and FBI cars kept slowing and then speeding up to take side streets. As
Sannes neared his tiny apartment along Highway 99, he rabbited.
Climbing over a fence, he sprinted across Highway 99. No FBI agent ran
after him in this wild escape. FBI agent cars were racing to find ways
across Highway 99. FBI agents ran to the trailing cars.
XXXVIX
Once across Highway 99, Sannes ran 3 blocks at a sprint, reached
into bushes and added layers of clothes to disguise himself, and walked
two more blocks and hid himself in an apartment house basement – where
he had stashed a completely different outfit.
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XL
Hours later, after FBI cars had moved on, Sannes walked the short
distance to the offices of the Hearst Corporation's Seattle Post Intelligencer
Newspaper.
XLI
Sannes went to the office of Managing Editor, Jack Doughty. Jack
was winding up a meeting to lay out the newspaper's front page, etc. for
the next morning's edition. Sannes waited and then sat an astonished
Doughty down to show him the affidavit and to tell him about working for
the FBI to obstruct justice in the University of Washington Air Force ROTC
Building fire bombing legal case. A nearly speechless Doughty brought in
his best investigative reporter, Walter Wright, to start questioning Sannes
and investigating his claims.
XLII
Walter Wright and Sannes had supper and Sannes told him that he
had to have other media exclusives, so he would only talk about the ROTC
bombing obstruction of justice. Sannes told Wright at that supper about
attending client/attorney meetings with the defendants and their attorneys,
where Sannes was acting as a volunteer paralegal. Sannes explained his
contacts with FBI agents. Sannes told Wright that the proof of the pudding
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would be when and if the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss
the 15 federal fire bombing and conspiracy charges against the eight
defendants.
XLIII
Sannes returns very late at night and carefully checks his trap. The
piece of cookie hidden under the edge of his room's carpet had been
crushed by an FBI black bag team member. The cookie had crumbled –
the FBI by then was chasing down wrong trails.
XLIV
Now Sannes had to mostly hole up in his stinking hovel and wait for
the U.S. Justice Department to act on the his affidavit of criminal
obstruction of justice in the ROTC fire-bombing case at the direction of the
Seattle office of the FBI.
XLV
Sannes takes the Greyhound to visit his mother in case he might fall
victim to a federal assassin hired by the FBI. The FBI follows, and tries to
scare Agnes Sannes.
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XLVI
On April 8, 1971, Seattle P.I. court reporter, Maribeth Morris, picked
up a copy of a motion for dismissal, with prejudice, executed personally by
Attorney General of the United States, John N. Mitchell, as to all 15 federal
conspiracy and fire-bombing felony charges against the eight (8)
defendants in the University of Washington Air Force ROTC Building case.
The building had been burned to the ground. Attorney General John N.
Mitchell had personally aided in the cover-up of the FBI's felony crimes by
obstructing justice in the bombing case.
XLVII
After two fruitless weeks of trying to get the FBI to comment on
Sannes' affidavit, the Seattle P.I. and the Hearst newspaper chain broke
Sannes' story. The FBI's silent threats to Sannes by now numbered in the
thousands. Title 18 of the United States Criminal Code said that it was a
felony called threats or intimidation under color of a badge for a law
enforcement officer to threaten the life of anyone – punishable by a
maximum of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Everywhere Sannes
went, about twenty plus FBI agents accompanied him – in front, on the
sides, and behind him.
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XLVIII
At the 13 Coins Restaurant in Seattle, an Associated Press reporter
got an exclusive obituary story and photographs from a bemused Sannes.
The anxiousness of the A.P. newsman was palpable at the meal.
XLIX
Don Oliver, a premier NBC correspondent, interviewed Sannes about
the Sannes/FBI plot to bomb the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. By the
end of the session, Oliver and his veteran crew were so rattled, that they
each left with pieces of the film.
L
In his place on 99, Sannes watches TV as a speech by President
Nixon segues into the NBC Nightly News with John Chancellor. Chancellor
said "Good Evening, today's top story is an extremely disturbing one from
Seattle, Washington." In a second, the silhouette of Sannes appeared on
the screen and on came the interview with Oliver. The FBI and the U.S.
Department of Justice had no comment.
LI
At Jeffrey Steinborn's office, Sannes swears out another affidavit –
this one in connection with the Seattle 7 case. In that case, word had
leaked to the prosecution that an unknown defense witness would take the
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stand and nail the FBI for obstruction of justice. The federal judge, George
Boldt, was talked into instantly ending the trial by holding all of the
defendants in contempt of court. Sannes' confession of assisting FBI
special agents Bert Carter and Louis M. Harris, Jr. in obstructing justice
was filed with the 9th District Court of Appeals as part of the motion to
dismiss the Seattle 7 case.
LII
With Carl Maxey, an attorney working with attorney Michael Tigar
[now in 1999, better known as the attorney who handled the defense at the
trial of one of the Oklahoma City federal building bombers, who killed 93
people in 1996], Sannes swears out a third affidavit of obstruction of justice
with the FBI agents in the bombing at the U.S. Army base in Longview,
Washington. This affidavit was to support a motion to dismiss bombing and
conspiracy charges against James E. Green.
III
A conference session of attorneys and Sannes in the cases involving
the two bombings and the assault on the U.S. Courthouse is elated as
Sannes in scheduled to give open court testimony confessing, without
immunity, his roles in FBI conspiracies to obstruct justice. Sannes let the
attorneys know that he was ready to be assassinated by the federal
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government, to go to prison, or both, in order to stifle the FBI's assault on
the U.S. Constitution.
LIV
President Nixon, obviously with the advice and consultation of
Attorney General John N. Mitchell, removes the coming crisis for his
Administration by appointing U.S. District Court Judge George Boldt as
chairman of the new Pay Board. President Nixon's appointment of Boldt
was designed to obstruct justice (Nixon was either a conscious or
unconscious agent in this plot). Sannes' scheduled open court confession
to obstructing justice in conspiracy with FBI agents Harris and Carter was
stopped. James E. Green and his attorney, Michael Tigar, cut a deal on
the bombing at the Longview U.S. Army base.
LV
Early one morning, Sannes walked a downtown Seattle street with his
bodyguard, Thurman Fremsted. As the two approached the sky bridge that
connected the Olympic Hotel from its parking garage, they suddenly
sprinted for the sky bridge stairs, across the span and into the Olympic
hotel. A woman confederate had left a stair tower emergency door open.
The pair raced up the stairs and went to the room of New York Times
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political correspondent, John Kifner, who had checked into the hotel
utilizing an alias.
LVI
John Kifner questioned Sannes for many hours about his role as an
undercover agent of the FBI and his years as a counter-intelligence agent
for the National Security Agency – in Alaska and South Vietnam.
LVII
In the Olympic Hotel's restaurant after the conclusion of the interview,
Kifner, Sannes and Fremsted had supper and talked. Within minutes of
entering the restaurant, three FBI agents took separate tables close to
Kifner and his associates. As planned, before he traveled to Seattle, John
Kifner was dressed in a set of rough workman's clothes and moccasins. All
during the supper, the three FBI agents silently mouthed death threats
when Sannes looked in their directions. At the end of the meal, Kifner
stood up in front of the apparent leader and proffered his New York Times
identification. The three FBI agents bolted from the restaurant.
LVIII
The three FBI agents instantly knew, when John Kifner identified
himself, that they had been busted. For hours, a political correspondent for
the New York Times had watched them, under color of a badge, threaten
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the life of Sannes. There was a scramble outside the Olympic Hotel as FBI
agents pulled back their surveillance car and foot units. As soon as the FBI
fled the Olympic Grill, Sannes, Kifner and Fremsted ran across the street to
the parking garage and jumped into a waiting car, idling at the garage
entrance. Fremsted drove two blocks on the sidewalk against one-way
traffic to foil pursuit.
LIX
University of Washington Police Officer, David Franklin, was
interviewed for a couple of hours about his knowledge of and participation
in Sannes' clandestine activities on behalf of the FBI. Franklin confirmed
Sannes' accounts of Chip Marshall arrest, the FBI's supply of a cold 45
semi-automatic to Sannes, and the Lake Washington bridge bombing OK
by FBI agent Carter – as well as FBI death threats against Sannes.
LX
When Kifner and Fremsted went to Sannes' tiny apartment on
Highway 99, they were dumbfounded. The entire apartment had been
systematically and completely taken apart. The carpet and linoleum had
been cut into pieces, all of Sannes' clothes had been cut up, the furniture
was all taken apart, the books were all torn apart, and the mattress was in
shreds. The cold hand of fear gripped all three men. The FBI obviously
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had tried to scare the hell out of them, and that worked. It just didn't stop
Sannes.
LXI
At Fremsted's home, which was a politically radical collective, Sannes
met his future wife, Lyda Held. Lyda and Dave talked deep into the night.
Both were in love at first sight. Sannes stayed there for many months, with
Lyda, prior to their marriage.
LXII
Meanwhile, the FBI was hunting for Sannes' notional Chinese
communist espionage ring. Sannes knew this because he had planted his
own recruited agent as a radical political informant for the Seattle office of
the FBI. At a meeting in a University of Washington district restaurant,
Sannes got that update from his planted agent inside the FBI.
LXIII
A Volkswagen pulled up to a nondescript house on Queen Ann Hill, a
Seattle neighborhood. Sannes gets out of the car and walks through the
gentle rain up to the front door. A thin, nervous Jeffrey Desmond partially
opened the door. Sannes, standing there with his right hand simulating a
gun in his raincoat, softly told Desmond to come out slowly and quietly. At
the car, a Desmond nightmare, John Van Veenendaal, slipped out of the
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car to let the two in. Walter Wright, the top P.I. investigative reporter sat
silently with his tape recorder on, as the car slipped away from Desmond's
FBI safe house. Desmond was jammed into the front between Fremsted
and Van Veenendaal.
LXIV
As the car left the neighborhood, Sannes softly told Desmond that he
wanted Jeff to start from the very beginning of his relationship with any FBI
agent, and to relate every detail of his involvement with the agency.
Sannes softly told Jeff that he wanted only the absolute truth. Sannes also
told Jeff that if he were caught telling a lie, he would never need to say
another word to them. Desmond took that as a very serious threat of
death.
LXV
Jeff, riding in the car, then detailed his recruitment as a bomber by
Bert Carter and Louis Harris. Desmond told about the FBI agents taking
him and his mother, Maude, to the Harvey Powder Company at the
Snohomish County Airport to buy dynamite, blasting caps, fuse igniters
and fuse. Maude was able to sign for the material after Harris flashed his
FBI identification. Desmond told about his bombing of the U.W.
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architecture building construction site and the Post Office. Walter Wright's
tape recorder got Jeff's confession.
LXVI
After dropping off Walter Wright, the four drove to KING TV, Seattle's
NBC affiliate. Desmond was interviewed at considerable length, by Mike
James who was a KING TV news anchorman. Again, Desmond detailed
his conspiracy with FBI agents Harris and Carter in carrying out the
bombings. After the interview was taped, Sannes called the FBI safe
house and put Desmond on the line. A very irate FBI agent on the
telephone ordered Desmond to get back to the safe house. Sannes, who
recognized the voice of the FBI agent, took the phone and told him that Jeff
couldn't come back until he completed all of his media interviews.
LXVII
At the end of that telephone call, Sannes, Fremsted and Desmond
went underground – surfacing a couple of weeks later after the national and
local media stories about FBI bombing had aired or been published.
During the underground episode, Jeff confessed to Sannes that he had
built the bomb that was planted by Larry Ward.
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LXVIII
Sannes had been sitting with two Seattle Police Officers, very late
one night at the District, and listened in as Larry Ward was shot to death by
a Seattle Police Officer. FBI Special Agent Stephen Travis had recruited
an individual, Alfred Burnett, as an undercover operative, whose mission in
that affair was to find someone who would take a dynamite bomb and just
set it outside the Leon Hardcastle Realty office. The dynamite would have
a fuse but no blasting cap – so it would only appear to be a dangerous
bomb. Travis had set up the Seattle Police Department into having two
nervous police officers staked out in a nearby alley for nearly 8-1/2 hours.
The cops were staked out in a car that also was subject to be sneaked up
on and bombed. When the two cops spotted Larry Ward setting a package
down by the front door of the realty, they gunned the car up near Ward.
Sannes, listened as Ward was ordered to freeze, began to rabbit, turned
back to look at the cops and was shot to death at close range with a
shotgun. (Alfred Burnett later sought out Sannes to confess his role in
setting up Ward for execution by decent Seattle cops, who were also set
up by the FBI.)
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LXIX
A King County Grand Jury investigated the death of Larry Ward and
returned a verdict that his death had been the result of a criminal
conspiracy. No FBI agent was ever indicted. (It should be noted that so far
as is known, Larry Ward was not told that he would be paid by the FBI to
plant a dynamite, but inoperable, bomb).
LXX
On the night that Sannes went to the radical communal house upon
slipping out of hiding, he was seduced by Lyda Held, who lived there. The
love affair, within less than a year turned into a marriage. The pairing had
an odd twist in that Lyda's father, Dr. Edward Held, was a clandestine
scientist, who ostensibly worked for the Applied Fisheries Laboratory at the
University of Washington, but actually was one of the top managers of the
Atomic Energy Commission and later for the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission.
LXXI
N.E.T. and P.B.S.' American Dream Machine news show filmed
interviews with FBI bombing and murder plotters, Sannes, Desmond and
Burnett – all of whom had been working at the direction of the FBI. J.
Edgar Hoover and Nixon's White House intimidation, caused a one week
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delay of the 15 minute segment. A nationwide media reaction turned the
program into a two hour program, one week later.
LXXII
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the contempt
citations against the Seattle 7. U.S. Attorney Stanley Pitkin, after a decent
interval, dismissed, without explanation, all criminal charges against the
Seattle 7. Pitkin's death, shortly after his resignation, remains a mystery.
(Pitkin was the first federal official to obtain dismissals of federal felony
indictments due to FBI agent obstruction of justice.)
LXXIII
Former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, personally financed a
speaking tour by Sannes that included a speech to an assembly of the law
students at Yale University while Bill and Hillary Clinton were students
there. In that speech, Sannes challenged the Attorney General and the
Nixon administration to indict him and bring him to trial for the dozens of
acts of obstruction of justice, done at the direction of the FBI, and for
conspiracy to commit felony murder and bombing in connection with the
Evergreen Point Floating Bridge bombing plot. The Yale Law School
teachers and students were stunned and quiet during the speech, but
cheered Sannes wildly at the end. Sannes received many offers of free
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legal defense from famous attorneys, like Frank Donner and Aryia Nieher,
the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
LXXIV
On the same speaking tour, Sannes spoke at Princeton University to
a conference of the Committee for Public Justice. At the first session of the
ACLU sponsored conference, Sannes happened to have been seated next
to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the Harvard professor who had been a close
friend and consultant to John F. Kennedy. When Schlesinger
conversationally asked Sannes what had brought him to be seated at the
speakers' rostrum, Sannes casually mentioned that it was his work as a
bomb plotter for the FBI. Schlesinger physically recoiled.
LXXV
Sannes spoke at the conference about many of the criminal acts that
he had participated in at the direction of FBI special agents. Sannes,
heavily covered by the national media as he spoke, invited the federal
government to indict him on literally dozens of obstruction of justice
charges. The conference participants were stunned at Sannes'
enumeration of participating in criminal acts, federal crimes with total
penalties calculable in hundreds of years worth of prison time.
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LXXVI
At the ACLU sponsored conference at Princeton University, there
was at least one man who knew what Sannes had done to the Nixon
administration and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. That man was Frank Donner, a
famous attorney, who was once one of Senator Joseph McCarthy's
toughest antagonists. Donner frankly told Sannes that he knew that
Sannes had deliberately infiltrated the FBI's dirty war against the civil rights
and anti-Vietnam war movements. Donner, at a dinner meeting, told
Sannes that Sannes was the bravest man that he had never known, and an
incredible defender of the United States Constitution. Sannes told him
anyone who would go alone against 10,000 armed federal agents and the
power of the federal government was not a candidate to be a mental health
poster boy. But Sannes told him that he got kind of used to putting his life
on the line to defend our system against all enemies, foreign and domestic,
in a war called Vietnam.
LXXVII
Sannes started publicly taunting President Nixon, the Justice
Department, J. Edgar Hoover and Attorney General John Mitchell to
convene a federal grand jury to inquire into his allegations, and to either
indict him for his confessed criminal acts – or conversely, indict him for
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perjury and obstruction of justice in executing affidavits in the Seattle 7,
ROTC Fire-Bombing 8, and Longview Army Base bombing cases. Sannes,
repeatedly, publicly accused J. Edgar Hoover, Nixon and Mitchell of
running a criminal operation to discredit the civil rights and anti-Vietnam
War movements. Sannes, moreover, publicly accused Hoover, Nixon and
Mitchell of directing a criminal cover-up of the parts of this criminal
enterprise that he uncovered.
LXXVIII
Sannes sits with attorneys Sam Franklin and one of his law partners,
discussing the very long, highly detailed letter that he had written to U.S.
Senator Sam Ervin. In it, Sannes pleaded for a Senate investigation of his
charges, his own criminal acts and his confessions to them. The letter
argued that Sannes had either committed serious crimes for the FBI or had
perjured himself and obstructed justice by executing sworn affidavits that
had been used to quash 37 federal felony indictments. The Sannes letter
to Sam Ervin also detailed the public confessions of Desmond and Burnett.
LXXIX
On December 28, 1971, the nation's media detailed the seven major
changes in the leadership of the FBI in the months following Sannes' well
publicized charges of FBI criminal acts. But as of that date, no FBI agent in
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history had been indicted or convicted of a felony. It was also true that until
Sannes came in from the cold to the law offices of Jeffrey Steinborn, no
stain had ever sullied the escutcheon of the FBI.
LXXX
In March of 1972, Sannes began going to the U.S. Courthouse in
Seattle, to publicly confront federal employees and ordinary citizens with
his charges and sworn affidavits. For weeks, the federal police prevented
Sannes from getting beyond the lobby. Every day for weeks, Sannes had
wrestling matches in the lobby of the courthouse with federal policemen.
They refused to arrest him.
LXXXI
Sannes walked into the lobby of the U. S. Courthouse armed with a
five gallon pail of loose cow shit. He splattered it around the lobby and
kicked shit on two federal policemen, About 15 federal marshals and police
swarmed Sannes and pushed him outside the courthouse. The next
morning, as he arrived at the courthouse, Sannes was arrested by over 30
federal cops. The story was published widely by the news media. One
Seattle Times headline proclaimed "Messy Way to Request Hearing, in it’s
article."
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LXXXII
At his hearing, before Chief 6th District U.S. District Court Judge
William T. Beeks, Sannes got a judge to listen. Beeks ordered U.S.
Attorney Stan Pitkin to convene a special federal grand jury to hear Sannes
and to review his documentary evidence. Beeks also ordered Pitkin to
recuse himself and his office from managing the grand jury proceedings.
Sannes then pleaded guilty to littering.
LXXXIII
6/20/72 – At the federal grand jury hearing, Sannes testified without a
grant of immunity to scores of federal felonies – and detailed his direction
from FBI agents to carry out these criminal acts. The federal attorney
controlling the grand jury had a name prominently bandied about in another
legal case known as Watergate – he was one of Nixon's most faithful
servants. (It is now time that those federal grand jury records see the light
of day).
LXXXIV
At his sentencing hearing, Judge Beeks told Sannes that he could
utilize his pre-sentencing report from the court's psychiatrist as a job
reference. Judge Beeks told Sannes that normally he would sentence him
to a few days at the honor farm of the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary,
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but "due to his well-documented propensity to mishandle certain farm
products", he couldn't do that. Beeks then asked Sannes what sentence
that he would give himself. Sannes said he would sentence himself to 10
days in jail with time off for good behavior of 1 day. Judge Beeks said: "So
ordered."
LXXXV
Sannes reported, as agreed, to the U.S. Courthouse in Seattle to
begin serving his 10 day sentence for littering. The U.S. Marshal, Charles
"Chuck" Robinson, in Seattle, in the company of several Secret Service
agents and a couple of deputy U.S. Marshals, mocked Sannes. The
federal marshal's son had hanged himself sometime before that. As the
sneering marshal walked in front of him, Sannes asked him if his son was
still hanging around. Robinson went berserk and attempted to draw his
gun to shoot Sannes. The Secret Service agents wrestled the marshal to
the floor and dragged him away as Sannes stood a few feet away –
laughing.
LXXXVI
At the Snohomish County Jail, Sannes was booked and taken back to
maximum security. Someone had gone to great lengths to have Sannes
murdered in jail. A jail inmate, awaiting transportation back to Deer Lodge,
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AS CLOSING CREDITS ROLL
WHAT SANNES BEGAN, THE WATERGATE INVESTIGATION
CONTINUED. FBI INSPIRED AND DIRECTED BOMBINGS,
ASSASSINATIONS, ATTACKS ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT,
AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE PLOTS, WERE CHILLED. THIS
MOVIE IS DEDICATED TO THE PRINCIPLE THAT ETERNAL VIGILANCE
IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY.