COINTELPRO and the assassination of Tupac Shakur

I first wrote about the assassination of American Rap Music superstar Tupac Shakur almost a decade ago. I used the title “The Hand of The Man in Tupac’s Assassination” and I use the term “assassination” for good reason.

Tupac was gunned down on the “Los Vegas Strip” in front of the Maxim Hotel & Casino, after a Mike Tyson boxing match. Hundreds of people witnessed the killing and it had to have been captured on multiple CCTV (close circuit television) systems used to monitor the front of the hotel. The killers had to have arrived and departed from the scene of the crime via the main thoroughfare, “The Strip” and were certainly recorded doing so on hundreds of other CCTV systems.

Yet to this day, almost two decades later, law enforcement claims they have no idea who committed this crime. No photos extracted from the multiple video cameras that recorded the assassination, not even the license plate number of the killers vehicle.

It is so obvious that a cover up has taken place that even black American superstar comedian and actor Chris Rock raised this in one of his HBO comedy specials.

While Chris Rock may not consider Tupac’s killing an assassination, all one needs to do is watch Resurrection, the documentary made about Tupac’s life to understand how Tupac’s message to the youth of America, and the world, was something that was not going to be tolerated by those in the highest levels of law enforcement.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the USA has a long history of targeting black American political activists, amongst others, and through the notorious “COINTELPRO” program, law enforcement death squads assassinated hundreds of black, Latino and American Indian activists during the 1960s and 70s.

After viewing the documentary on Tupac Shakur’s life it becomes quickly apparent that Tupac met the profile for law enforcement “neutralization.”

Tupac stood for everything the FBI, founded by a white supremacist, is known to hate. His mantra of living the “Thug Life” with its portrayal of the American Dream as the American Nightmare for black American and Latino youth, with a militant disrespect for law enforcement, along with almost all aspects of the American elite had not only sunk deep roots amongst minority youth but had been taken up by millions of white American youth (the majority of rap music is actually bought by white kids of all demographics).

Tupac was not only talented but very charismatic and had begun a career in Hollywood. His revolutionary message, though mixed with the decadent lifestyle all too often part of the celebrity scene in Western society, was undeniable, and it was clear that Tupac was not about to kneel down and apologize for earlier “indiscretions” a la Ice T and Ice Cube, i.e., “Cop Killer” and “F*** the Police.”

If Tupac were still alive today, he would be more influential amongst the youth of the USA, and internationally, than Barack Obama. Whether he would have fallen for the Obamarama “change we can believe in” scam is a good question.

But what is clear is that the FBI and its law enforcement network was not about to take that chance. For law enforcement in the USA to confiscate multiple video evidence of the murder of a prominent black celebrity and then say they have “no suspects,” when they actually have images of the killers of Tupac Shakur means only one thing, that law enforcement must be involved in the killing. The fact that the FBI had Tupac under 24 hours surveillance means that the COINTELPRO team almost certainly was nearby when the shots were fired.

Tupac Shakur was assassinated, the US government had to be involved at the highest levels and we should add Tupac Shakur’s name to the long, bloody list of those murdered by the FBI and its minions in law enforcement.

Thomas C. Mountain is an independent journalist living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006. He can be reached @thomascmountain on Twitter, Thomas C. Mountain on Facebook or at thomascmountain at gmail dot com.