COMMITTEE EXHIBIT NO. 3-Continued asterisks) will have less than three thousand demonstrators. Our targets are decentralized to a) insure the total halt of traffic and b) to increase the difficulty of Federal forces containing our demonstrations. Our numbers are concentrated in an effort to defeat the Federal forces' primary defensive tactic which is dispersal (dividing us into small units) and containment (isolating the small units). GOVERNMENT RESPONSE On the basis of a careful reading of public and confidential government plans for containment of Mayday type actions and information secured from our sources inside the Federal bureaucracy and the military, the following is a general overview of the Federal Government's efforts to deal with Mayday. Specific late intelligence will be supplied by the Mayday Tactics and Logistics section on May 1st. General The current plans call for a cooperative force of US Military (National Guard & Federal troops) and the DC police force. There will be no outside civilian police called in for Mayday. Agent provocateurs will say that Virginia and Maryland State Police have been called in to D.C. This is a lie designed to spread panic about the supposed brutality of Virginia and Maryland State Police. Because of the limited number of D.C. police (5100 total, including clerks and 1000 headquarters personnel) the bulk of the defensive activities will be handled by the military. The central tactic of the defensive forces will be psychological warfare. There will be a maximum display of military hardware; agent provocateurs will seek to spread panic and exacerbate normal tensions in Algonquin Peace City (Rock Creek Park) in order to break our morale. There will be extensive use of helicopters to attempt to intimidate us and rumors will be spread that a helicopter equipped with gas spraying devices (M 5 disperser) are about to attack Algonquin Peace City and/or target areas. GI's, meanwhile, will be subjected to intensive "Psychological preparation" and indoctrination. They will be told we are armed, we intend to verbally harass troops, we intend to throw shit and bags or urine at them, that we will throw bottles, rocks, and we will all be carrying clubs. Prior to moving into defensive positions, GI's will be told that Mayday forces have beaten several GI's. This is designed to create fear and resultant hostility among GI's and overcome their natural feelings of solidarity with us. While temporary detention facilities are being prepared the general defensive tactic will be dispersal and containment. Through the use of troop movement (wedges, etc.,) there will be an attempt to break our concentrations into easily contained small units and gas may be used at low levels and selectivity (large amounts of gas will block the roads more efficiently than we could). The primary removal tactic will be short term detention, This means people will be "arrested" and then released on the promise that they leave town. Threats of severe punishment for those breaking the promise will be made. The threats will be phony since they cannot be legally supported. In a last resort people will be arrested, booked and jailed in temporary detention facilities. Because of limited dentention facilities an intense effort will be made by the Federal gov't to get everyone to bail out within twelve hours and leave town under "bail conditions", threatening severe punishment. Once "bail conditions" are set, the severe punishment can be carried out. Because of the volatile condition of the Washington Black community and the active participation of SCLC and NWRO forces, physical brutality against demonstrators will be avoided unless defensive forces feel themselves physically threatened. Small scale selective brutality may be used to panic and disperse demonstrators. Weapons on troops will be plainly displayed as well as jeep mounted machine guns (up to .30 calibre) and other armor, but because of the experience with the Kent-Jackson reaction, ammunition will not be issued. Rumors to the contrary will be encouraged by agent provocateurs. Command COMMITTEE EXHIBIT NO. 3-Continued The main command for the Washington defense will be located in the Pentagon in a special "Washington Situation Room." Three additional command centers are projected but the number may be expanded. An effort will be made to maintain "Unit Integrity" with certain military units being responsible for the defense of certain Mayday targets. These units will be under a "decentralized command" with the highest ranking officer on the scene being responsible, within defined limits, for the defense of the Mayday target using his own discretion. Issuance of ammunition will be tightly controlled by the command centers. Overall command will rest with the military, though our intelligence reports Chief Jerry Wilson and Mayor Walter Washington will be given the "illusion of control." Intelligence Many Mayday regions have already been infiltrated. An intensive Army intelligence operation is underway. In addition, there is close cooperation with the Justice Department and the FBI. The intelligence objectives are to identify leaders, numbers of participants, unstable elements, target areas, etc. Agent provocateurs are assigned to project the image of Mayday as an undisciplined violent action. Mayday radio communications will be monitored and in some instances jammed with static or police information. guns for psychological purposes. Other armor up to, but at this time not including, tanks will be highly visible. There will be extensive use of fencing and barricades including, but not limited to, chain link, concertina and barbed wire. Troops will be housed in government buildings and on selected billet sites in and around Washington. There will be hot food for troops in most cases. Bridge Defense Troops will be used in large concentrations to line roads and prevent entry to bridges by pedestrians where practicable. In most cases troops will be behind barricades. Efforts will be made to prevent communication between troops and demonstrators. Traffic Circle Defense Defense of circles will be left mostly to D.C. police though military reinforcements will be used. Attempts will be made to prevent concentrations of demonstrations with gas and arrests used as a last resort. OUR RESPONSE In essence, our response is to maintain communications, prevent panic, and not allow ourselves to be chased out of town. We cannot prevent infiltration so efforts at keeping information "secret" will only serve to confuse participants. It is important that we consistently project that Mayday is a nonviolent action. Any fuzzing of this point will lend legitimacy to the rumors spread by provocateurs and cause people to stay away from Washington. The worst thing that can happen is a small, politically isolated action. We need to work actively with GI's prior and during the action. At this time we can't expect a mutiny but we can expect the overwhelming majority of GI's to be sympathet COMMITTEE EXHIBIT NO. 3-Continued ic. A few GI's will be outright hostile, but we should recognize that they will be isolated. We need to educate all participants to the fact that attacks on GI's will reinforce the propaganda they're being fed by the brass and turn friends into enemies; thus increasing the probability that some of us might get hurt. Participants need to be educated about the role of agent provocateurs and how to deal with them. For communications, we suggest regions secure bull horns and short range walkie talkies. The walkie talkie operators need to be familiar with the equipment and establish codes to prevent interception and false information from being beamed in on their frequencies. The radios can be easily jammed or be made useless by false messages being beamed in, so you should establish an alternate system such as runners. The Mayday tactics and logistics section will maintain several coordination centers and is setting up several alternative means of communication. We will monitor all police and military frequencies to provide up to date information for all participants. The information will be sent out over AM radio frequencies from special mobile transmitters. These transmitters will broadcast May 3 and 4 over clear channels and cover all twenty-one target areas. Every participant should bring a transister radio. Our own logistic preparation should be oriented towards individual self contained units. People should bring wire cutters for fences, squeeze bottles of water for gas, bamboo flutes, tamborines for people's music, balloons and flowers for joy, dope and food to share with the GI's and fellow demonstrators. And a transister radio so we are all informed of what is happening. V. TACTICAL APPROACHES The following are a few of the nonviolent civil disobedience tactics being planned by various regions. WAVES The regional groups will be broken into units of 10-25 people. Monday morning the units will move in waves one unit in each wave, onto the road. They will sit down in a circle, and pass the pipe and play music until arrested. The next wave will then move to the road. This will last until noon when the remaining people will return to Algonquin Peace City. The same thing will happen Tuesday. Any people remaining will move on Wednesday to the Capitol and stay until everyone is arrested. This tactic is particularly useful at traffic circles where there are many roads leading into the circle. STREET PARTY The regional group will move in mass to their circle target playing music and dancing getting as close as they can to the target. They will disperse if gassed or charged with batons but always regroup. They stay put if threatened with arrest. TROOP TEACH-IN The region will encircle troops guarding a circle or line up several deep along troop lines protecting bridges. They will establish a one to one relationship to GI's and demonstrate solidarity. Food and dope will be passed. If a large group of Gl's come over to our side the breech will be filled with demonstrators moving through and sitting in on the target road. The Mayday legal facilities will have special sections to serve troops who join us and a special GI counseling center will be located in Algonquin Peace City. These regions are bringing wire cutters to get through fences to the GI's. Wedges and other formations sent to break up the concentration of demonstrators will be absorbed amoeba-like and given intensive arguments about why they should join us. SIT-IN The region will march up a street towards a circle or bridge and when confronted by police or troops will sit down. They will maintain their ground until arrested. VI.TACTICAL DESCRIPTIONS The District of Columbia is most likely one of the easiest cities to understand and travel within, for it was one of the few which was laid out by a city planner. The district is sectioned off into four areas, designated North West, North East, South West, and South East. Base lines for these sections are North, East, and South Capitol Streets and an imaginary line extending West from the Capitol Building. Numbered streets run north to south; the lettered streets travel east to west. House and buildings number for each section start at each base line. For example, the 900 block on "C" Street, NW, is between 9th and 10th Streets, NW. The 300 block on 7th Street, SW is between "C" and "D" Streets, SW. As one travels North, and the single lettered paths and trails in D.C. end, a new sequence appears, of one syllable words, starting with "A" and continuing in alphabetical order. Once this order is finished, two syllable words, starting again with "A" begins. For instance, in one part of NW Washington, Benton, Calvert, Davis, Edmunds, Fulton, Garfield, etc. appear, following "W" Street. Pennsylvania Avenue is numbered the same as lettered trails; Connecticut Avenue is the same as a numbered path. Most other diagonal paths and trails have no standard pat tern. The plans of D.C. were made, based upon the lessons and experiences of the French Revolution of 1789. The architect for the city, an aristocratic Frenchman, designed the District so that it could be easily defended against a general insurrection of the populace. All the main avenues were purposely built wide, with all the original streets being fed into a series of circles. The Paris experience showed that the avenues needed to be wide so trees felled from both sides would not meet and block the street. For the defenders of the city, this enabled cavalry charges, one of the fiercest tactics of the period, to be used to clear the avenues of insurrectionists and maintain communications. The circles joining every street were designed for the purpose of mounting cannon. With cannon in the circles, every street of the Capitol could be swept with grape and chain shot, in the event of street demonstrations or insurrections. Washington was the most militarily secure capitol of the Nineteenth Century. That security, however, is now its insecurity, as the following tactical descriptions will reveal. 1 COMMITTEE EXHIBIT No. 3-Continued Site One (Asterisks denote key target) Site one, Rosslyn Plaza, is on the Virginia side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which connects George Washington Parkway, Lee Highway, Route 66 and Fort Myer Drive. It is probably one of the most heavily traveled single areas in the entire Metropolitan area. Site one affords excellent, low, flat, open areas which are adjacent to ro near all the aforementioned major highways from Northern Virginia. North of Rosslyn Plaza is the Marriot Hotel, where it was found, the "High Command" of the Pentagon regularly dine. As one leaves Key Bridge, travelling West, the Mariott Hotel is clearly visible on the right and it provides an excellent staging area and superb parking facilities. Traffic, during rush hour, is normally stalled and it is believed that it would present extreme problems for the defense forces of the Federal Government to prevent any dis ruption from occuring. Massive defense of Rosslyn Plaza would normally disrupt traffic, one third of which travels to the Pentagon, and the defense forces would thus be doing our job. Also, use of gas in Rosslyn Plaza may be impossible since it is directly adjacent to the business section of Arlington and the "prestigious" Mariott Hotel. Their reluctance of using gas, however, is naturally not certain; we are merely speculating on probability. Rosslyn Plaza, leading to Key Bridge. The traffic flowing toward the bottom of the picture is moving onto Lee Highway. The four lane avenue, traveling east, towards the Potomac River is Lynn Street. The major artery in the upper right-hand corner is Route 66, which flows into Lyna Street, and which also by-passes Rosslyn Plaza. The major road which borders Rosslyn Plaza, flowing from left to right, behind Route 66, is the George Washington Parkway. The traffic can be seen leaving GW Parkway onto Key Bridge in the upper left-hand section of Rosslyn Plaza. 2 Site Two Site two, the D.C. side of Key Bridge is restrictive in area and severly limited in mobility. "M" Street can be easily secured by defense forces. Thirty-fourth and thirty-fifty streets are extremely steep, and can be easily blocked by police without affecting the flow of traffic at all. The traffic both to and from Key Bridge is intense; congested traffic is normally a problem during rush hour. Whitehurst Highway, which travels under Key Bridge is a major thorofare and can be relatively easily disrupted from a flat, open area which is directly adjacent to Key Bridge, "M" Street and Whitehurst. One word of caution: this open area is extremely small, perhaps supporting only several hundred people. "M" Street, facing east. Traffic in the right lane, traveling cast is leaving Key Bridge. |