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Part 2
Gross Misconduct by FBI Agents in Greene County Investigations

At the time of the 1980s investigations and indictments in the Alabama Black Belt, FBI agents conducted interrogations of hundreds of African American voters, terrorizing many of them, especially elderly citizens. This was well-documented at the time. One of the chief architects of this investigation was Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, then U. S. Attorney in the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile.

The investigation of the 1994 general election began in 1995, at the initiative again of Sessions who was then Attorney General of Alabama. (Sessions is now U. S. Senator.)

Between 1995 and the present, almost 1,000 of the 1,400 people who voted by absentee in Greene County in 1994 have been questioned by the FBI. Virtually all those questioned are Black, and virtually all are associated with the Alabama New South Coalition, which is the organization that has organized the effective voter participation. In other words, the investigation was a fishing expedition that targeted all Alabama New South voters who could be identified by who witnessed their ballets --- and only them.

In late 1995 and early 1996, three African American churches in Greene County burned myseriously. After that, in a number of instances, FBI agents went to the homes of absentee voters and asked questions pertaining to the church burnings --- then turned the questioning to the absentee vote cast by the person being questioned.

This extensive FBI activity has created widespread fear among the African American citizens --- and a reluctance on the part of many ever to vote again.

In some situations, the agents were rude and even cruel to those they questioned. In other situations, they were reasonably polite. But even when a polite FBI agent comes to the door, many people are frightened. The implication is that one has done something wrong and may be in trouble. When almost all of those visited are African American and almost all part of the same organization (the Alabama New South Coalition), the impact is especially great.

Below we give an example of an especially cruel episode. (Others can be documented, and will be submitted later as a supplement to this report.)

Rev. James Cater is assistant pastor off the Little Baptist Church in Tishabee community, one of the churches that was burned mysteriously. In 1996, his 84-year-old uncle, Jonas Bullock, was bed-ridden and very ill with cancer, when he was visited by an FBI agent who questioned him about his absentee ballot and asked him to provide a handwriting sample. Mr. Bullock was too ill to hold a pen in his hand and became very upset during the questioning. After the agent left, his niece and caretaker, Dorothy Gulley, called Reverend Carter, who told her to call him immediately if the agent returned.

About three weeks later, Agent Long of the FBI, came to the Bullock residence, Ms. Gulley refused to let him in and called Reverend Carter. Carter arrived and found the agent questioning teenagers who were in the area about the recent church-burnings. These young people, including Shawn Longmire, were very upset because they felt the questioning suggested that Black teenagers who were their acquaintances may have burned down the churches.

Carter told Long that his uncle had been very upset by the previous questioning

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