Was FBI involved in the cover-up?

Was FBI involved in the cover-up?

Families and friends of slain anti-Marcos activists want answers

SEATTLE, Wash.–Friends and family of slain anti-Marcos activists Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo delivered a petition this week to the Seattle Office of the FBI, asking FBI officials to come clean on the U.S. Government’s role in the cover-up of their assassinations in 1981 and open an investigation into potential obstruction of justice. Their simple request:   “Open the files and open a case.”

The demand comes in the wake of a newly-released book by attorney, author and friend to the slain victims Michael Withey: Summary Execution:  The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes.

Terri Mast, widow of Silme Domingo; Cindy Domingo, his sister; documentary film maker Sharon Maeda and Withey went to the FBI’s Seattle office on Wednesday (March 14) to challenge the FBI about its role in the cover-up of the murders. The group presented a petition signed by more than 60 elected officials and community leaders. The families and petition request that the FBI turn over 1276 pages of documents the FBI has already admitted are related to the work of an FBI informant for the Seattle FBI Office at the times of the murders. The petition also called on the FBI and local US Attorney’s Office to open a case investigating why that FBI informant came to the scene of the murders of Domingo and Viernes and perjured himself by exonerating the hit men.

Their efforts are featured in an investigative story released today by Seattle Times reporter Steve Miletich who actually covered the civil trial.

Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos was found liable for the 1981 murders by a federal court and jury in 1989, the first and only time a foreign head of state has been held liable for the murders of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. The trial of Marcos featured detailed evidence that Marcos had established an intelligence operation in the U.S., which monitored, harassed, intimidated and used physical violence, including the Domingo and Viernes murders, against his opponents. The families proved that the murders were paid for out of an intelligence slush fund that was also used to influence U.S. elections, build propaganda outlets in the U.S. and harassed and physically intimidated his opposition. They also proved that both the FBI and Naval Intelligence conducted active surveillance operations against the Union of Democratic Filipinos to which Gene and Silme belonged. They had also infiltrated its ranks with informants and shared the information gathered with Marcos intelligence.

Poster of slain activists.

“When a foreign dictator kills American citizens, we expect our own government to support our efforts to get to the bottom of the FBI’s role in the cover-up of these murders rather than further block our justice efforts. The Marcos intelligence operation and these murders were an attack on our country. The role of the FBI needs to be investigated,” said Terri Mast.

Cindy Domingo, sister of Silme and former head of the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes (CJVD), stated, “We pledged back in 1981 that we would not rest until all were held accountable for these assassinations. After 37 years, we deserve the cooperation of the FBI in turning over documents as well as any other agency that has knowledge of what happened in this conspiracy. Its claim that the “personal privacy” of its agents outweighs the public interest in holding accountable all of those involved in the murders and cover-up is frightening and must be rejected.”

On June 1, 1981, hit men financed by Marcos executed Domingo and Viernes as they worked in one of Seattle’s oldest union halls. Family and friends would later learn that the two American sons of the Philippines paid the ultimate price for helping to expose the anti-labor and human rights violations of the Marcos regime in America and back home.

Viernes died instantly from his gunshot wounds. But Domingo did not. His dying whispers gave the police, friends and family an important clue to a dark mystery that ultimately helped expose a U.S.-backed Marcos infiltration scheme of espionage aimed at anti-Marcos activists in the U.S. That clue was the names of the hit men.

Undaunted by the ferocity of the battle ahead, friends and family formed the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes. The Committee helped local prosecutors convict the hit men who had been paid by a Marcos intelligence slush fund.

An FBI informant was dispatched to the murder scene and then perjured himself while trying to exonerate the hit men during the civil trial. The CJVD has known for decades that the FBI’s own informant, LeVane Forsythe, obstructed justice in the murders by falsely testifying on behalf of the hit men Jimmy Ramil and Ben Guloy, then charged with first degree aggravated murders. Forsythe was suspected of knowing in advance that these murders were going to happen.

After nearly three years, the FBI has failed to turn over a single page and has refused to provide the families with even the identity of the FBI agent who acted as the control agent for Forsythe who has since died.
“Our justice efforts will never be over until ALL of those responsible are brought to justice. Thirty-seven years after these murders, our resolution to find out who in the Seattle FBI sent this FBI informant to the scene of the murders and allowed him to perjure himself to exonerate the hit men is firm. We will never rest until full justice is done,” Withey said.

(PRESS RELEASE)