Phan Nguyen

In July, a local discovery made national news when “John Jacob,” a participant in Olympia and Tacoma activists groups, was revealed to be John J. Towery II, an infiltrator employed by the US Army. Brendan Dunn, a former member of Olympia’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), had made a public records request to the City of Olympia for communications concerning SDS, anarchists, and the IWW. The resultant records, coupled with investigative work, led to Towery’s outing, which in turn raised issues about a likely violaton of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the US military from engaging in civilian law enforcement actions. What has been less publicized, however, are the portions of the records that deal with The Evergreen State College.

Why did the Cooper Point Journal knowingly publish a fake quote by Martin Luther King? Why will it not publish a correction to its reference to a nonexistent anti-Semitic Jordanian law? Why does it allow personal attacks against individuals and not allow the attacked to respond? These questions must be posed in light of the CPJ’s mishandling of a “controversial” subject.