This year's DNC protest in Denver brought to mind an old story, something that happened in the days of Vietnam protests and a ruthless Federal government.

Here is the story of Tommy the Traveler:

Probably the most-well known FBI agent provocateur was Thomas Tongyai, known as Tommy the Traveler. Tongyai, who was paid by both the FBI and local police, spent over two years traveling among colleges in western New York state urging students to kill police, make bombs and blow up buildings.

He supplied students with radical speakers, literature and films, tried to organize an SDS chapter at Hobart College, organized SDS conferences in Rochester and urged students to participate in the Weatherman "Days of Rage" in Chicago in October, 1969. Tongyai constantly talked violence, carried a grenade in his car, showed students how to use an M-1 rifle and offered advice on how to carry out bombings.

After some students at Hobart College apparently took his advice and bombed the Hobart ROTC building, and Tongyai's cover was exposed, the local sheriff commented, "There's a lot of difference between showing how to build a bomb and building one. "

As a result of disturbances connected with Tongyai's activities on the Hobart campus, nine students and faculty faced criminal charges, but Tongyai was cleared by a local grand jury and went on to become a policeman in Pennsylvania.

Thomas Tongyai was charged by students with preaching revolution, using violent rhetoric to gain converts, and demonstrating the M1 carbine and the construction of various types of bombs. He did not deny these allegations, but explained, "The best cover for an undercover agent who wanted to get into the campus was portraying the part of a radical extremist which I did.

Source: The COINTELPRO Papers; Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars; Against Dissent in the United States, by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall, South End Press ISBN 0-89608-359-4.

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