Canadian man set for trial in 1975 killing of native activist

Thirty-five years after Canadian aboriginal activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash was gunned down in an execution-style murder in the South Dakota badlands, Vancouver resident John Graham is scheduled to go on trial this week for her murder.
Photograph by: LES BAZSO

Nov. 29, 2010 Montreal Gazette

Thirty-five years after Canadian aboriginal activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash was gunned down in an execution-style murder in the South Dakota badlands, Vancouver resident John Graham is scheduled to go on trial this week for her killing.

The highly anticipated trial in South Dakota — following a long extradition battle by Graham in Canada, and years of legal wrangling in the U.S. courts — arises out of one of the most sensational episodes in native American history.

In the early 1970s, Pictou-Aquash, a young Mi'kmaq from Nova Scotia, and Graham, a Southern Tsimshian originally from Yukon, drifted south and joined the American Indian Movement (AIM) and its high-profile occupation of the village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

The village is an important, historic symbol for American aboriginals, the site of a massacre of Sioux tribespeople by the U.S. Cavalry in 1890.

In 1973, armed AIM activists took control of the town to protest a variety of native grievances. A 71-day standoff ensued, leaving several people dead on both sides of the siege, and sparking an explosion of violence that lasted several years on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation.

By 1975, Pictou-Aquash, under suspicion of being an FBI informant, had left AIM and moved to Denver. According to prosecution documents filed in the Graham case, AIM leaders allegedly ordered Graham and two other followers to kidnap Pictou-Aquash and bring her back to Pine Ridge.

Prosecutors say she was tied up, driven north, and raped and interrogated for several days. Finally one morning at sunrise, prosecutors say, three AIM enforcers — Graham, plus Americans Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda Clark — drove Pictou-Aquash to the edge of a ravine on the reservation.

"Aquash begged to go free," say prosecution documents. "She was crying and praying for her kids, and begging them not to do this. . . . Looking Cloud and Graham marched Aquash up a hill and Graham shot her at the top of a cliff. Her body was either thrown, or it tumbled to the bottom."

Pictou-Aquash's partly decomposed body was found by a rancher in 1976. A sloppy initial autopsy said the unidentified woman had died of exposure, and she was buried in an anonymous grave — but not before FBI agents had cut off her hands and sent them to a lab in Washington, D.C.

Fingerprint experts identified the woman as Pictou-Aquash. Her body was exhumed and a second autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a close-range gun shot to the back of her head.

Still, the case lay dormant for many years, during which time AIM's leaders claimed the FBI had murdered Pictou-Aquash. Then, in the late 1990s, a handful of former AIM members began talking about the crime.

In 2001, Looking Cloud and Graham were indicted for first-degree murder. Looking Cloud was convicted in 2004 of "aiding and abetting" Pictou-Aquash's murder, and is now serving a life sentence.

Paul DeMain, the managing editor of News From Indian Country, a Wisconsin-based native newspaper that has investigated the affair, says Looking Cloud and Graham were not the key figures in the crime.

"They are like the Watergate burglars, breaking into the Democratic Committee office to do the dirty work," he says. "The AIM leadership has not been held accountable for this murder or a dozen others committed in that time era (because) none of the AIM leaders ever did their own dirty work. They got people like Arlo and John Graham, who were young warrior-wannabes in the organization."

Graham, 55, has said FBI agents visited him four times at his home in Canada, offering him immunity from prosecution if he named the leaders who ordered Pictou-Aquash's killing.

Graham refused, insisting on his innocence. When the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his final extradition appeal in 2007, Graham was transferred to a South Dakota jail.

The only direct, known evidence against Graham is that of Looking Cloud, who has said Graham fired the gun that killed Pictou-Aquash. It's not yet known if Looking Cloud, who remains in prison, will testify at Graham's trial.

Thelma Rios, another former AIM member who was scheduled to go on trial with Graham — but who pleaded guilty earlier this month to being an accessory to the Pictou-Aquash kidnapping — could also testify.

Theda Clark, now in her 80s, has never been charged in the crime, and has always refused to testify against Graham.

Meanwhile, Graham's family and supporters say Graham is the victim of a "travesty of justice" — that his constitutional rights have been violated, and that he won't receive a fair trial in the U.S.

Denise Maloney Pictou, one of the victim's two grown daughters who live in Nova Scotia, is expected to testify at the trial which is scheduled to last up to three weeks.

Although Pictou-Aquash's friends and family are hoping the Graham trial produces information that leads to future prosecutions of more senior AIM figures, they also say that holding the actual killer to account is their main priority.

"What (the family) have always said is, first and foremost, a person made the decision to shoot their mother in the back of the head. Regardless of what position that person held in the organization, somebody took their mother's life and someone should be responsible for that," says Catherine Martin, a Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq and close friend of the Pictou-Aquash family.

"Maybe others were involved, but one person pulled the trigger."

The Portland "Bomb" Plot: Fabricating Terror

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Counterpuch.org Nov. 30, 2010

Why does the FBI orchestrate fake terror plots

The latest one snared Osman Mohamud, a Somali-American teenager in Portland, Oregon. The Associated Press report by William Mall and Nedra Pickler (11-27-10) is headlined in Yahoo News: “Somali-born teen plotted car-bombing in Oregon.”

This is a misleading headline as the report makes it clear that it was a plot orchestrated by federal agents. Two sentences into the news report we have this: “The bomb was an elaborate fake supplied by the [FBI] agents and the public was never in danger, authorities said.” The teenager was supplied with a fake bomb and a fake detonator.

Three sentences later the reporters contradict the quoted authorities with a quote from Arthur Balizan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon: “The threat was very real.”

The reporters then contradict Balizan: “White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said Saturday that president Barack Obama was aware of the FBI operation before Friday’s arrest. Shapiro said Obama was assured that the FBI was in full control of the operation and that the public was not in danger.”

Then Shapiro contradicts himself by declaring: “The events of the past 24 hours underscore the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism here and abroad.”

The story arrives at its Kafka-esque highpoint when President Obama thanks the FBI for its diligence in saving us from the fake plot the FBI had fabricated.

After vacillating between whether they are reporting a real plot or a orchestrated one, the reporters finally come down on the side of orchestration. Documents released by US Attorney Dwight Holton “show the sting operation began in June.” Obviously, the targeted Portland teenager was not hot to trot. The FBI had to work on him for six months. The reporters compare “the Portland sting” to the recent arrest in Virginia of Faroque Ahmed who was ensnared in a “bombing plot that was a ruse conducted over the past six months by federal officials.”

Think about this. The FBI did a year’s work in order to convince two people to participate in fake plots.

If you are not too bright and some tough looking guys accost you and tell you that they are Al Qaeda and expect your help in a terrorist operation, you might be afraid to say no, or you might be thrilled to be part of a blowback against an American population that is indifferent to their government’s slaughter of people of your ethnicity in your country of origin. Whichever way it falls, it is unlikely the ensnared person would ever have done anything beyond talk had the FBI not organized them into action. In other cases the FBI entices people with money to participate in its fake plots.

Since 9/11, the only domestic “terrorist plot” that I recall that was not obviously organized by the FBI is the “Times Square plot” to which Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty to trying to set off a car bomb in Manhattan. This plot, too, is suspicious. One would think that a real terrorist would have a real bomb, not a smoke bomb.

In the May 19, 2009, online site, sott.net (reprinted Nov. 27, 2010), Joe Quinn collects some of the fake plots, some of which were validated by torture confessions and others by ignorant and fearful juries. The US government comes up with a plot, an accused, and tortures him until he confesses, or the government fabricates a case and takes it to jurors who know that they cannot face their neighbors if they let off a media-declared “terrorist.”

Perhaps the most obvious of these cases is “the Miami seven,” a hapless group of Christian-Zionist-Muslims that called themselves the “Sea of David” and were quietly living in a Florida warehouse awaiting biblical end times. Along came the FBI posing as Al Qaeda and offered them $50,000 and an Al Qaeda swearing in ceremony.

The FBI told them that they needed to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and various government buildings. An honest reporter at Knight Ridder revealed: “The Justice (sic) Department unveiled the arrests with an orchestrated series of news conferences in two cities, but the severity of the charges compared with the seemingly amateurish nature of the group raised concerns among civil libertarians,” who noted that the group had “no weapons, no explosives.”

The Justice (sic) Department and tamed media made a big show out of the “militaristic boots” worn by the hapless “plotters,” but the FBI had bought the boots for them.

The biggest piece of evidence against the hapless group was that they had taken photos of “targets” in Florida, but the US government had equipped them with cameras.

The US government even rented cars for its dupes to drive to take the pictures.

It turns out that the group only wanted the $50,000, but an American jury convicted them anyhow.

When the US government has to go to such lengths to create “terrorists” out of hapless people, an undeclared agenda is being served. What could this agenda be?

The answer is many agendas. One agenda is to justify wars of aggression that are war crimes under the Nuremberg standard created by the US government itself. One way to avoid war crimes charges is to create acts of terrorism that justify the naked aggressions against “terrorist countries.”

Another agenda is to create a police state. A police state can control people who object to their impoverishment for the benefit of the superrich much more easily than can a democracy endowed with constitutional civil liberties.

Another agenda is to get rich. Terror plots, whether real or orchestrated, have created a market for security. Dual Israeli citizen Michael Chertoff, former head of US Homeland Security, is the lobbyist who represents Rapiscan, the company that manufactures the full body porno-scanners that, following the “underwear bomber” event, are now filling up US airports. Homeland Security has announced that they are going to purchase the porno-scanners for trains, buses, subways, court houses, and sports events. How can shopping malls and roads escape? Recently on Interstate 20 west of Atlanta, trucks had to drive through a similar device. Everyone has forgotten that the underwear bomber lacked required documents and was escorted aboard the airliner by an official.

The “war on terror” provides an opportunity for a few well-connected people to become very rich. If they leave Americans with a third world police state, they will be living it up in Gstaad.

This despite the fact that everyone on the planet knows that it is not lactating mothers, children, elderly people in walkers and wheelchairs, members of Congress, members of the military, nuns, and so on, who are members of Al Qaeda plotting to bring aboard a bomb in their underwear, their shoes, their shampoo and face creams.

Indeed, bombs aboard air liners are a rare event.

What is it really all about? Could it be that the US government needs terrorist events in order to completely destroy the US Constitution? On November 24, National Public Radio broadcast a report by Dina Temple-Raston: “Administration officials are looking at the possibility of codifying detention without trial and are awaiting legislation that is supposed to come out of Congress early next year.” Of course, the legislation will not come out of Congress. It will be written by Homeland Security and the Justice (sic) Department. The impotent Congress will merely rubber-stamp it.

The obliteration of habeas corpus, the most necessary and important protection of liberty ever institutionalized in law and governing constitution, has become necessary for the US government, because a jury might acquit an alleged or mock “terrorist” or framed person whom the US government has declared prior to the trial will be held forever in indefinite detention even if acquitted in a US court of law. The attorney general of the United States has declared that any “terrorist” that he puts on trial who is acquitted by a jury will remain in detention regardless of the verdict. Such an event would reveal the total lawlessness of American “justice.”

The United States of America, “the city upon the hill,” “the light unto the world,” has become Nazi Germany. It was the practice of the Gestapo to ignore court verdicts and to execute or hold indefinitely the cleared defendant in the camps. The Obama regime is in the process of completing Dick Cheney’s dream by legislating the legality of indefinite detention. American law has collapsed to the dungeons of the Dark Ages.

This Nazi Gestapo policy is now the declared policy of the US Department of Justice (sic). Anyone who thinks the United States is a free society where people have liberty, “freedom and democracy” is uninformed.

Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. His latest book, HOW THE ECONOMY WAS LOST, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Release all Palestinian Children from Israeli Prisons

Action Alert: Release all Palestinian Children from Israeli Prisons

November 30, 2010 Al-Awda

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition calls on all its members,supporters and people of conscience to demand that the US administration direct the state of Israel to stop the targeted arrests and immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers. The US is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends the institutionalized and systematic abuse of Palestinian children and all of its violations of Palestinian human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.

BACKGROUND

Recent reports have shown that there has been an escalation of night raids and systematic arrests of Palestinian children in the Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem. These reports indicate that at least twenty one children in this Palestinian neighborhood have been arrested and subjected to physical abuse in the period from October 8, 2010 to November 3, 2010 alone. Children as young as 10 years old are deliberately targeted, arrested, and taken to al-Mascobiyya center (The Russian Compound), a notorious detention and interrogation center.

According to Defense for Children International (DCI), a Geneva-based non-governmental agency, 700 Palestinian children in the West Bank alone are detained and imprisoned by Israel every year. Furthermore, based on a survey in 2009 of 100 of these children, lawyers found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment is considered torture by the United Nations under international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is a signatory.

Of the estimated 11 million Palestinians in the world today, 7.2 million, including children, live in forced exile or are internally displaced; they have been denied their right to return to their homes and lands of origin by the state of Israel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 43.6% of Palestinian children living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are refugees. While refugee children experience special hardships,
they also endure the hardships that all Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are exposed to by the state of Israel. They are systematically and often denied their right to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and _expression_.

ACTION

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition calls on all its members, supporters and people of conscience to write to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to demand that they direct the state of Israel to immediately cease the targeted arrests of Palestinian children in Jerusalem, and to release all Palestinian children from its prisons. The US administration must demand an immediate end to all forms of institutionalized and systematic abuse of Palestinian children by the state
of Israel.

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear President Obama,

I am shocked and disturbed to learn about the recent night raids and systematic arrests of Palestinian children in the Silwan neighborhood in Jerusalem. Twenty one of these children have been arrested and subjected to physical abuse in the period from October 8, 2010 to November 3, 2010 alone. Children as young as 10 years old are deliberately targeted, arrested, and taken to al-Mascobiyya center (The Russian Compound), a notorious detention and interrogation center. Furthermore, 700 Palestinian children in the West Bank alone are imprisoned by Israel every year. Based on sworn affidavits of 100 of these children, lawyers found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment by the state of Israel against Palestinian children is considered torture by the United Nations under international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is a signatory.

Therefore, I call on you to direct Israel to

• Stop the night raids and arrests in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem forthwith.
• Immediately release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers.
• End all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse against all Palestinian children.
• Implement the full restoration of Palestinian children's rights in accordance with international law including, but not limited to, their right to return to their homes of origin, to education, to medical and psychological care, and to freedom of movement and _expression_.

The US government, which supports Israel to the tune of billions of taxpayer dollars a year while most ordinary Americans are suffering in a very bad economy, is bound by its laws and international conventions to cut off all aid to Israel until it ends all of its violations of human rights and basic freedoms in a verifiable manner.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Address
Phone Number

To contact the White House, please use this form:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Alternatively, write to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Call: 202-456-1414
Fax: 202-456-2461

To contact the Secretary of State:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000
Secretary Hillary Clinton Office: 202-647-5291
Fax: 202-261-8577

Letters in the US may be faxed online via: http://www.tpc.int/sendfax.html

Please send copies of your correspondence to child.rights@al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org



Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html

Nebraskans For Justice call for national COINTELPRO reconciliation action

Tariq Al Amin of Nebraskans For Justice issued call for COINTELPRO reconciliation commission

Photo: Author's photo

November 29th, 2010 Examiner.com

The Nebraskans For Justice, a citizen action group founded to provide litigation support to the Omaha Two, has issued a “Call to Action” urging a national COINTELPRO reconciliation effort.

Operation COINTELPRO was an illegal and clandestine program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation directed at political activists during J. Edgar Hoover’s long tenure as director of the national police agency. The Omaha Two are former Black Panther leaders, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) who were convicted for the bombing death of an Omaha policeman in 1970 after a COINTELPRO-tainted trial.

Tariq Al Amin, an ex-Omaha police officer, is head of Nebraskans For Justice and is spearheading the effort to get a COINTELPRO Truth and Reconciliation Commission established.

Tariq explained the group wants to use the national healing process that South Africa underwent following the end of apartheid for the largest abuse of law enforcement in American history.

“We are asking everyone to write a letter to the Attorney General of the United States and the Assistant Attorney General over the Civil Rights Division.”

Nebraskans For Justice wants a sweeping review of federal, state and local law enforcement files to identify COINTELPRO abuses and then corrective measures undertaken.

“We want them to look into all practices and policies of the local, state and federal agencies, their officers and agents. This is to include all levels of the criminal justice system, including prosecutors and the courts.”

“While our organization is working on the release of Ed Poindexter and Mondo, we want the cases if all political prisoners reviewed. We also know that there were many people who were falsely arrested, charged, and convicted and have had to live with the consequences of an undeserved criminal record.”

“COINTELPRO was far-reaching and very destructive. Above all, many of its tactics were illegal and./or unethical.”

“Two former FBI agents, L. Patrick Grey and Edward S. Miller were in the process of appealing their convictions for acts committed under COINTELPRO when they were given pardons by President Reagan. Reagan stated that their activities took place during an especially turbulent and divisive period. He stated that it was time to “put all this behind us” and “to forgive those who engaged in “excesses.” Yet nothing has been done on behalf of those still serving time behind those “excesses.”

Tariq said, “It is our hope that our collective voices will be heard.”

Oscar Lopez Rivera: Imprisoned for Supporting Puerto Rican Independence

by Stephen Lendman Oped News

After the 1898 Spanish-American War, the US took over the
Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Hawaii, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, Canal Zone, assorted other territories, and Puerto Rico. On
September 29, its Governor-General, Manuel Macias y Casado (a Spanish
general), ceded control to Washington, its current status today as a colony.

In 1966, then University of Puerto Rico economics associate, Dr.
Antonio J. Gonzales said:

"The Puerto Rican Independence Party bases its struggle in favor of
the independence of Puerto Rico on the conviction that we continue to
be a (US) colony, thus being denied (our) right to freedom and sovereignty."

After taking over in 1898, America "never granted Puerto Ricans the
total control of their lives and destiny. Sovereign powers have never
been transferred to us in order to be able to decide in all those
areas that affect the collective life of our nation."

For over 112 years, America's had total control, Puerto Ricans
virtually none, forced to "accept the dispositions of laws imposed"
by a colonial power. In its relationship with America, Puerto Rico is
called "Estado Libre Asociado" (Free Associated State or
Commonwealth). Under international law, it's a colony, seeking
independence. Therein lies the roots of its struggle, Oscar Lopez
Rivera imprisoned for supporting it.

A collective 1981 statement by Puerto Rican Independentistas,
convicted of "seditious conspiracy," said the following:

"Our position remains clear: Puerto Rico is a nation intervened,
militarily conquered and colonized by the United States....We are
prisoners of war captured by the enemy. Our actions have always been
and continue to be in the nature of fighting a war of independence, a
war of national liberation....The US interventionist government has
absolutely no right, no say so whatsoever in regards to Puerto Rico,
ourselves, or any Puerto Rican prisoner of war. The US
interventionist government has only one choice....and that is to GET
OUT! It is our right to regain and secure our national sovereignty.
Nothing will stand in the way of achieving our goal."

The struggle continues, Rivera one of its victims. The web site
prolibertadweb.com calls him and others like him:

"workers and professionals, students and teachers, community
organizers, artists, mothers, and fathers of families. They are
fighters (for) Puerto Rico's Independence and social justice." They
reject colonization and exploitation. They're committed  activists
for justice, struggling to end it.

Each year for decades, the UN Decolonization Committee approved a
draft resolution for Puerto Rican independence, the latest one on June 21:

"calling on the Government of the United States to expedite a process
that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their
right to self-determination and independence, and for the General
Assembly formally to consider the situation concerning Puerto Rico,
which the world body had not formerly taken up since the Territory's
removal from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories in 1953."

"....a majority of petitioners expressed dissatisfaction today with
the commonwealth's treatment by the United States, arguing that the
administering Power was hampering Puerto Rican decolonization
initiatives and those of civil society....(America) continue(s)
acting as a colonizing Power over a country with its own cultural identity."

Background on Rivera

Born in 1943 in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico, he moved to America at
age 12, then two years later to Chicago to live with his sister. A
decorated Vietnam veteran, he returned home to his Puerto Rican
community, plagued by unemployment, drugs, police brutality, and dire
levels of healthcare, education, and other essential social services
- issues he was determined to address.

He helped create the Puerto Rican High School and Cultural Center. He
co-founded the Rafael Cancel Miranda High School (now called Dr.
Pedro Albizu Campos High School). He worked for public school
bilingual education, for universities to admit more Latino students
and hire Latino faculty and staff, and for Chicago area corporations,
like Illinois Bell, People's Gas and Commonwealth Edison, to end
discriminatory hiring.

He became an organizer for the Northwest Community Organization
(NCO), ASSPA, ASPIRA, and Chicago's First Congregational Church. He
also helped found FREE, a half-way house for convicted drug addicts,
and ASAS, an educational program for Latino prisoners at Illinois'
Stateville Prison.

He also worked for Puerto Rican independence. In 1974, he helped
organize the committee to "Free the Five" (Rafael Cancel Miranda,
Irwin Flores, Oscar Collazao, Lolita Lebron, and Andres Figueroa
Cordero). In 1975, he was forced underground with other comrades
after the Justice Department named him an FALN leader (Fuerzas
Armadas de Liberacion Nacional - Armed Forces of National Liberation).

On May 10, 2001, FBI Director Louis Freeh described the organization
as follows to the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Armed
Services, and Select Committee on Intelligence, under the heading:
"Left-wing and Puerto Rican extremist groups," saying:

"....left-wing (domestic terrorists) generally profess a
revolutionary socialist doctrine and view themselves as protectors of
the people against the 'dehumanizing effects' of capitalism and
imperialism. They aim to bring about change in the United States
through revolution rather than through the established political process."

"Terrorist groups (like FALN), seeking to secure Puerto Rican
independence from the United States through violent means, represent
one of the remaining active vestiges of left-wing terrorism....they
view....acts of terrorism as a means by which to draw attention to
their desire for independence....Acts of terrorism continue to be
perpetrated (by) violent" separatist groups like FALN.

Rivera's Arrest and Imprisonment

On May 29, 1981, he was arrested, the FBI calling him one of
America's most feared fugitives. Accused of being an FALN leader, he
neither confirmed or denied it, affirming only his nonviolent
activism. At trial, he refused to participate, declaring himself a
"prisoner of war."

In 1981, he was convicted of armed robbery, miscellaneous charges,
and seditious conspiracy - sedition pertaining to actions to incite
insurrection or rebellion; conspiracy by working with others to achieve it.

Initially sentenced to 55 years, 15 more were added in 1988, based on
spurious charges of participating in a conspiracy to escape, that
sentence to begin when the original one ends.

In 1999, the Clinton administration offered him and 11 other Puerto
Rican nationalists clemency. He declined, saying it required him to
serve 10 more years with good conduct. Had he accepted, he'd have
been free a year ago.

His sister, Zenaida Lopez, said he refused because on parole, he'd be
in "prison outside prison." Incarcerated at Federal Correctional
Institution (FCI) Terre Haute, IN, July 27, 2027 is his scheduled
release date unless  paroled and accepts or gets unconditional clemency sooner.

Punitive Sentencing and Treatment

The "ProLIBERTAD campaign for the freedom of Puerto Rican political
prisoners and prisoners of war" called sentences given "Puerto Rican
patriots excessive and punitive." On average, men got 70.8 years,
women 72.8, 19 times longer than average in the year they were
sentenced, real criminals faring much better.

For example, from 1966 - 1985, average murder sentences were 22.7
years; rape, 12.5 years, and arms violations 12. Only 12.8% of all
federal prisoners got over 20 years. Most often, only repeat
offenders get longer sentences. No Puerto Rican "patriot" had a prior
record at time of arrest.

Worse still, they've been harshly treated in prison, in violation of
UN Minimum Uniform Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners (UNSMRTR),
Rule A1 6(1). They've been held far from families despite facilities
closer to home. Some have been sexually assaulted, Alejandrina Torres
attacked in three different prisons, in one case by prison guards and
a male lieutenant. She was then held in solitary confinement for complaining.

They've been denied adequate medical care. Some have been held in
underground confinement, Rivera, in 1993, describing his treatment at
Marion, IL maximum security as follows:

"I am enclosed in a cell that is 8 feet wide by 9 feet long on an
average of 22 hours each day. Today while I write this letter, I have
been 36 hours without going out and tomorrow if they do not take us
out it will have been three days without moving from this same space.
In this little space I have everything. From eating my meals to
taking care of my needs. So it is my dining room and latrine at the
same time. My bed is a slab of cement. And the whole cell is painted
the same dead yellow color. From an aesthetic point of view, it is as
attractive as a jail for zoo animals."

In 1987, Amnesty International (AI) condemned Marion conditions, saying:

"In Marion, violations of the (UN) Minimum Standard Rules (for
treating prisoners) are common. There is almost no rule in the
Minimum Standard Rules that is not broken in one form or another."

In 1988, AI called conditions in Lexington, KY's Maximum Security
Unit for women "deliberately and gratuitously oppressive."

The same holds for all federal and state maximum security facilities
and many others, prisoners routinely abused, especially political ones.

From 1986 - 1998, Rivera was held in punitive maximum security
confinement, and remained in max facilities until 2008. Only then was
he transferred to a medium security prison on condition he report
every two hours to corrections staff, an unheard of stipulation.
Currently at FCI Terre Haute, his mailing address is:

Oscar Lopez Rivera
87651-024
FCI Terre Haute
PO Box 33
Terre Haute, IN 47808

A Final Comment

In early January 2011, likely the first week, Rivera will appear
before the US Parole Commission after nearly 30 years in prison.
Supporters are urged to
http://boricuahumanrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/final-OLR-1-pager-to-Obama-revised-11-23-10.pdf>download,

print and sign the attached letter and mail it to the following address:

Chairman Isaac Fulwood, Jr.
US Parole Commission
5550 Friendship Blvd.
Suite 420
Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7286

In addition, the National Boricua Human Rights Network urges signers
to email
mailto:info@boricuahumanrights.org>info@boricuahumanrights.org so
they can keep track of supportive letters.

"Together," they say, "we can help free Oscar Lopez Rivera!"

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. Also visit his blog site at
sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with
distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and
Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

Kevin "Rashid" Johnson & the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter

Copies of Defying the Tomb have indeed arrived from the printers!

This is an important introduction to the thought of Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, Minister
of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter, and to the
realities and challenges of developing and maintaining a revolutionary identity
behind prison walls.

Follow the author's odyssey from lumpen drug dealer to prisoner, to revolutionary
New Afrikan, a teacher and mentor, one of a new generation rising of prison
intellectuals. This book consists primarily of letters between Rashid and Outlaw,
another revolutionary New Afrikan prisoner, smuggled between the segregation wing
and general population over a period of months. These comrades educate themselves -
and us as well - on Marxism and Maoism, the Five-Percenters, Dialectical
Materialism, Dead Prez, Capitalism, Racism, Imperialism, Class Struggle,
Revolutionary Nationalism, New Afrikan Independence, Psychology, and a host of other
subjects, as they grapple with how to promote revolutionary consciousness in the
most hostile of environments.

Rashid has been in prison for twenty years - the past eighteen of which being in
segregation (solitary confinement). Shortly after this correspondence between
himself and Outlaw, he and his comrade Shaka Sankofa Zulu founded the New Afrikan
Black Panther Party–Prison Chapter. The NABPP-PC has since  developed branches in
various prisons across the u$ empire and has its own newsletter, Right On!

A number of Rashid's essays written as NABPP-PC Minister of Defense are also
included in this book, as well as a foreword by Black Liberation Army POW Russell
"Maroon" Shoats, an Afterword by New Afrikan political prisoner of war Sundiata
Acoli, and an introduction and afterword by Tom Big Warrior.

Click here to order from leftwingbooks.net

This book (like everything published by Kersplebedeb) will also be available from AK
Press.

kersplebedeb.com

In 1990, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson was a drug dealer, an ambitious member of amerika's Black lumpen proletariat, or underclass. Like so many, as a young adult he was arrested and received a lengthy prison sentence. He has been incarcerated ever since - for the past eighteen years in conditions of solitary confinement.

As Rashid has written, "Because I accepted my lifestyle and all of its consequences, I was always reluctant to involve my family or others on the outside of prison in my conflicts with the pigs. I dealt with my own problems–directly."

In 1993, Rashid was transferred to Greenville prison. As he has written:

What I was to encounter at Greensville defied anything that I’d expected. The pigs had a refined system and license for brutalizing prisoners. I was not to understand the magnitude of the situation until a few days after being there. The pigs had a tier of handpicked proxy prisoners, whom they used to violently suppress those who got out of line. The ringleader – I’ll call him Pumpkin – was a career con with a reputation for butchering other prisoners. He had a trustee job (all trustees were similarly selected). Pumpkin was allowed by the pigs to keep weapons on his person. Part of the mental terror game was that while he was out cleaning (everyone knew he was a pig hit man and stayed armed), the pigs would bring others out around him in handcuffs (segregation prisoners must be handcuffed from behind when outside their cells, unless they have a trustee job, or are locked inside an exercise yard or shower stall). The she-pigs (guards and nurses) were the tools used to sic Pumpkin on others. He regarded and jealously guarded these she-pigs like actual mates, whereas all they did for him was bring him bubble gum, watch him masturbate in their presence and flirt with him.

The setup game usually went like this: one of their she-dogs would provoke an argument with the target (refuse him something he was due, etc.). She’d then report to Pumpkin that the target had “disrespected’ her, or any of many other claims. Pumpkin would then come to the target’s cell and start a hostile verbal exchange, send a challenge via third-party message, etc. Once the conflict was established, the pigs would move the target into the tier with Pumpkin and his cronies – the entire tier rode with him. The pigs would thoroughly search the target’s property for weapons before moving him, to ensure that he had no means of defense. Once assigned to a cell on Pumpkin’s tier, the target was fair game. If he was stouthearted, he’d stand his ground. The next day or so the pigs would put them on the exercise yard together, remove everyone’s handcuffs except the target’s (they’d put five to seven prisoners in each pen), and allow them to mob attack the still handcuffed target. Or if they wanted him butchered, he’d be unhandcuffed and left to contend unarmed against a knife-wielding Pumpkin.

Rashid took the lead in organizing and waging war against the "Pumpkin" and his goon squad, and the guards who were giving the orders to dole out abuse as well. Not only did this force Pumpkin's crew to back down and sue for peace, but it brought about some limited reforms at Greenville itself, though it also led to Rashid's being transfered again, and to the beginning of what would be 18 years (and counting) in "segregation":

On account of the systematic attacks on the pigs at the height of their abuses, the DOC’s internal affairs office decided to get involved in investigating the years of prisoner complaints of brutality in the unit. In their efforts to neutralize our responses, the internal affairs unit ended up having a dozen pigs criminally prosecuted for brutality and using other prisoners to enter prisoners’ cells and attack them – once allowing a prisoner to use riot gear. Two pigs were ultimately convicted. Pumpkin was also prosecuted and convicted for an incident where the pigs opened another prisoner’s cell, allowing him to ambush him. The prisoner was stabbed multiple times. Pumpkin’s trustee job was immediately terminated under the backlash of this incident. [...] Several weeks later I was transferred back to Mecklenburg prison, returning to the scene of past abuses [...]

During my stay at Mecklenburg, one of the ranking pigs, who were instrumental in torturing me with the freezing strip cell treatment, was ambushed. On this occasion I’d been strapped to the bunk by the pigs. In order for a prisoner to receive meals and toilet breaks while strapped down, the pigs must come to his cell, remove the chains and straps and handcuff him. They will leave the cell, close the door, and remove the cuffs through a hatch in the door. However, during this 1994 episode, when the pigs came in to release me for a toilet break, the claim is that I’d gotten out of the restraints and was lying on the bunk under a blanket as though still strapped down. When the ranking pig and two others moved to lift the blanket, I allegedly rose up, with weapon in hand, and attacked. Two of them (the ranking pig included) received multiple stab wounds, and the third pig received a cracked jaw. This incident, in its obvious preplanning and execution, left the pigs in such a quandary that no retribution followed. Indeed, I was several days later transferred to Buckingham and quickly released into the general population.

By this time it was realized that I was not insane at all, but calculating and determined. While prison administrators and those who proposed to “study” me from a distance put forward the fiction that I was inclined to “unprovoked” violence against the pigs, the pigs who dealt with me on a day-to-day basis knew, very clearly, that any violence from me was always in response to their own acts of violence or abuse of me or my peers. As long as the pigs remembered this, things went well, but there was always some lone pig with a cowboy complex who had to test his hand, and I’d answer it. The majority of the pigs at Buckingham didn’t want me in the population walking about. They therefore attempted several times through trumped-up reports to have me returned to segregation. On the last occasion that this was done, I was charged with being in an “unauthorized area” of the prison. The pigs waited until I’d locked into the cell at count time to come and lock me up in segregation. I refused to go peacefully. One pig threatened that if I didn’t, I’d receive a severe “ass-whipping.” In response I agreed to walk peacefully to segregation. When the pigs opened the cell door to escort me out, the threatening pig received a nose broken in two places. I’ve been in segregation ever since.

While in segregation, Rashid taught himself law, and began litigating against the prisons. For a period of six years he launched various lawsuits, and at first scored several victories, until he acquired the reputation of being troublemaker with various judges who then sought to shut him out of the courts:

With the added psychological deterrent of litigation, my clashes with the pigs declined somewhat in frequency. They focused primarily on isolating me from others. Their efforts to perpetuate a discontinuity in our unity has been the pigs’ only effective weapon against me. And they’ve admitted in a thousand ways that their greatest fear is ending up with many other prisoners on their hands who think and act as I do. Their isolating me was long a tactic that I could not devise an effective countermeasure against, that is, until after 2001, when I was first exposed to revolutionary theory and have since come to understand the role of ideology. Without a unifying ideology, there can be no unity of struggle. Ideology was something I’d never had, and thus something I could not share. The prisoners who’d united in struggle with me had done so because of me. Not because of a shared principle. Therefore, when I was no longer around, they lost the initiative to struggle on, and the pigs were free to resort to their old oppressive acts.

With the beginnings of my studies in revolutionary history and theory in 2001, litigation and my isolated clashes with the pigs paled in importance. My first exposure to revolutionary ideas came with my meeting Hanif Shabazz-Bey in 2001. Hanif is a political prisoner who is apparently well known within prison movement circles. Upon meeting we developed an instant affinity. He began sending me a variety of publications through which I was first exposed to the works of George Jackson. [...]

I became engrossed in acquiring and studying all that George had studied and more, which included the classics and not-so-classics: Vladimir Lenin, Mao Tse-tung, Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, Che Guevara, Rosa Luxemburg, Harry Magdoff, Paul Sweezy, Albert Szymanski, bell hooks, Cornel West, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Vo Nguyen Giap, etc. I investigated the various revolutionary schools of thought – Communism, Anarchy, New Afrikan Nationalism, Feminism, and other left-leaning theories. I studied military thinkers and military history, sociology and history, political science, economic theories (left and right), revolutionary history, etc. and I am still studying, refining my views, and testing them in practice.

The more I studied, reflected, practiced, and drew insight from my own practical experiences, the more it all fell together, so clear and obvious. As my conceptualizations developed, I wrote a few essays, usually at others’ requests, (my ideas were still forming, some I could not clearly articulate, so I adopted terms, thoughts, and ideas. But it was all quickly coming together.) I could see where the failures and successes had occurred in various anti-colonial, class, anti-racist, feminist, and anti-imperialist struggles. And I could see where the failure to apply the scientific Marxist approach to the study and practice of resisting oppressive conditions (Historical and Dialectical Materialism) resulted in failed idealist attempts to make the desired social changes. [...]

I still endure repression at the hands of the pigs, as do my peers. I still take a principled stand against this repression. But above all else, I am working on bringing my peers into a principled ideological and political consciousness that will give them discipline and a cause to struggle for, while simultaneously imparting to them the correct methods of mass based struggle. The pigs’ response continues to be to isolate me. Their violence has proven futile. Even in this most totalitarian of environments, innovation and relentless commitment to an ideal has proven, to my satisfaction, that the oppressive institutions are not invulnerable. Fear is our greatest hindrance. Fear and half measures. They can isolate me, but they cannot isolate an ideal.

---

In the mid-2000s, Rashid took up an illicit correspendence with another revolutionary held at the same supermax prison as him, but in general population. Messages were smuggled back and forth between segregation and general pop for several months. This correspondence, in which Rashid and "Outlaw" discuss revolutionary theory and practice, the challenges of dealing with other less committed prisoners, reactionaries, and snitches, and the question of how to best organize behind bars, has been collected together and is available now in the book Defying the Tomb, published by Kersplebedeb in 2010.

As well as Rashid and Outlaw's letters, Defying the Tomb contains several essays by Rashid, a foreword by Russell "Maroon" Shoats, a foreword and afterword by Tom Big Warrior, and an afterword by Sundiata Acoli. (The quotes above are from Rashid's autobiographical sketch, also included in the book.)

Defying the Tomb has been reviewed by:

Reviews

• Defying the Tomb

  Reviewed by former political prisoner Ed Mead

A few months after Outlaw and Rashid exchanged the last letters included in this book, Comrade Shaka Sankofa Zulu and Rashid came together to found the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC). The NABPP-PC has since developed branches in various prisons across the u$ empire and has its own newsletter, Right On!

Many of the thoughts and ideas that went into the formation of the NABPP-PC and its mass organization, the New Afrikan Service Organization, can be seen in their developmental stages in these letter exchanges with Outlaw.

Right On! is published by Rising Sun Press, are several other newsletters promoting Marxism-Leninism, with a focus on national liberation and the prison struggle. A collection of these newsletters from the period of 2005 to 2008 have been made available as an anthology. These were scanned in by some comrades, and are being made available for free download here with permission from the publisher. Just click on the image to the right, or else right here.

---

Incomplete List of Writings
by Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Rashid is a prolific writer, on subjects ranging from the class structure of the Black nation in the united states to the theory of Historial and Dialectical Materialism. Of particular importance are his ongoing exposes of abuse and torture within the dungeons of the prison-industrial complex.

Here are a few of his essays:

Writings

• Abu Ghraib Comes to Amerika: Torture Unit Under Construction at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison

  October 2010 expose of the planned new torture unit at Red Onion prison, by Kevin "Rashid" Johnson

Oppression Breeds Resistance, Resistance Breeds Repression by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action L.A./People Against Racist Terror

by Michael Novick, Anti-Racist Action L.A./People Against Racist Terror

The night before the verdict came in at the trial of BART officer Johannes Mehserle
for the murder of a young Black father, Oscar Grant III, the LAPD raided the home of
Wolverine Shakur, a/k/a T.A.C.O. (Taking All Capitalists Out), founder of the Black
Riders Liberation Party. Under the authority of the parole officer supervising
T.A.C.O., they lined up and handcuffed five members and an associate of the BRLP who
were present at the time. They detained a 10-year-old child and ransacked the home,
taking personal possessions, a laptop computer and cell phone, and Black Riders
literature. T.A.C.O. was taken into custody for alleged parole violations and taken
to the hole at the Men's Central Jail in L.A., with the intention of transferring
him back into state prison.

The alleged parole violations T.A.C.O. is accused of amount to violations of his
civil, constitutional and human rights of free speech and freedom of association.
They make it a crime for him to have Black Rider literature and Black comrades. Like
the original charges, they are politically motivated and unjustified. T.A.C.O. is
once again a political prisoner because of his advocacy of African Inter-communalism
and self-defense. The parole officer has admitted that he was violating T.A.C.O.
under instructions from higher-ups, and that T.A.C.O. was specifically charged with
“sending the Black Riders to the Oscar Grant trial.” The Black Riders did indeed
smash the media blockade of the Mehserle trial in Los Angeles, turning out in large
numbers to post up outside the court in support of Oscar's family and to organize
community people at the courthouse. They did attract immediate media and public
attention with their strong, disciplined presence.

The LAPD had already announced that they had a “secret tactical plan” to handle the
possibility of any “disruptions” in response to the verdict on Mehserle for the
murder of Oscar Grant. They saw the Black Riders as a threat to the plans to let
Mehserle get away with murder and to contain or deflect people's righteous anger.
Part of the plan was the staged arrest of the so-called Grim Sleeper serial killer
suspect timed for the day the verdict would come in, to distract attention and paint
the LAPD as saviors of the community. The pre-emptive arrest of T.A.C.O. was
designed to disrupt the Black Riders' organizing around the case, which was
channeling people's anger into revolutionary consciousness. But the arrest failed to
accomplish that goal.

The Black Riders continue organizing both independently and within the L.A.
Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant, which they helped develop. The BRLP, which
had smashed at court the day before, came back strong the next day despite
T.A.C.O.'s incarceration, when the verdict came down after shenanigans delayed it.
Several Black Riders spoke at the community protest in Leimert Park, where a couple
of hundred people came out for the rally that had been called in advance for 5:00 PM
when the verdict came down, despite the pigs' efforts to disorient the Riders and
the community. Everyone there stood with the Riders and understood the transparent
tactics of the pigs in violating T.A.C.O.'s parole.

There is a long history of illegitimate, repressive tactics by the LAPD to try to
squelch community resistance to police violence and abuse of power. Back in the day,
the pigs launched their war on the original Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
with the COINTELPRO assassination of Alprentice Bunchy Carter and John Huggins at
UCLA. The LAPD were stymied in their attempt to assassinate other BPP members by the
military planning of Geronimo ji Jaga. A strong base of community support came out
into the streets when the LAPD attempted to kill the L.A. Panthers on 41st and
Central, as the Chicago pigs had executed Fred Hampton and Mark Clark days before.
After Geronimo and the Panthers were taken down by COINTELPRO, the police
infiltrated the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) organized by former Black
Panther Michael Zinzun around the police killing of sister Eulia Love over an unpaid
gas bill. One Black pig provocateur who was planted inside CAPA in an attempt to spy
on the community and disrupt or discredit resistance was later rewarded with a
promotion to the FBI. The LAPD was hit with a court injunction preventing such
political espionage, and forced to pay million-dollar damages to Zinzun and others.
Police illegality and criminality continued after the LAPD “red squad” was ordered
to disband and destroy its illegally obtained espionage files. One officer involved
secretly moved the files to his own garage and then turned them over to Western
Goals, a private right wing, pro-fascist “think tank” connected to the John Birch
Society and the white supremacist movement. Still later, police agents infiltrated
communist forces organizing in the projects, entering into illicit sexual
relationships with people organizing against a May Day police killing in order to
carry out their political espionage and dirty tricks.

When that was exposed through lawsuits, the police espionage and infiltration was
then transferred to new anti-gang and anti-terrorist task forces, or to units
steeped in criminality and violence like the CRASH units operating out of Rampart,
Seventy-seventh, and other divisions. CRASH officers were involved in frame-ups,
“bad” shootings justified with drop guns, coerced confessions, drug thefts and even
bank robbery. Yet thanks to the same Judge Perry who presided over the Mehserle
trial for killing Oscar Grant, the only cop who went to prison was the one who blew
the whistle, turning state's evidence after he got caught.

But for a dozen years now, the Black Riders Liberation Party, and especially its
founder, General T.A.C.O., have been the concerted target of police repression,
frame-ups, assaults and COINTELPRO type tactics in Los Angeles and elsewhere in CA.
The LAPD hates the Black Riders because of the Riders' love for the people,
expressed in such concrete survival programs as the Watch-a-Pig program and their
gang truce efforts. They once took T.A.C.O. into custody on traffic warrants, and
threatened to kill him while he was hogtied and handcuffed. LAPD, along with LA and
San Bernardino sheriff's deputies and federal agents with armored personnel
carriers, battering rams, helicopters and assault weapons, staged a raid on the home
of BRLP members in San Bernardino. They sealed off four square blocks in hopes of
provoking an incident in which they could shoot and kill members of the Black
Riders. They pointed guns at little children and their care-givers.

Finally, failing to ever infiltrate or deviate members of the BRLP, they sent an
undercover police agent, posing as a outside Middle Eastern sympathizer who could
provide weapons. They succeeded, through a process of entrapment and frame-up, in
bringing charges of conspiracy to possess (non-existent) weapons against T.A.C.O.
and two other members, known as the Black Rider Three. Even more so than in the
Oscar Grant murder trial, there was a complete media white out of that case, even
though it was brought as a Homeland Security/USA PATRIOT style indictment with
outlandish claims that the BRLP was planning attacks on police stations (never
brought as a criminal charge). It was as a result of a plea bargain on that case,
through which T.A.C.O. obtained the release of his comrades, that T.A.C.O. was on
parole. Thus he was subject to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a P.O. who enabled the
LAPD to stage their raid. But like their previous attempts at repression, this too
will fail. As Chairman Mao said, “To be attacked by the enemy is a good thing.” The
pigs' tactics are a mark of their vulnerability, not their power, and a sign of the
fear they have of the Power of the People!

The Black Riders Liberation Party has raised the slogan of “Free General T.A.C.O. or
the sky's the limit,” and is calling for an Inter-Communal Solidarity Committee, to
organize in defense of T.A.C.O. and all political prisoners. Anti-Racist Action-Los
Angeles/People Against Racist Terror (ARA-LA/PART) is committed to joining and
helping build such an effort. We recognize that people of European descent who
oppose racism and hate oppression and exploitation must fight as allies with African
and other liberation forces against the common enemy of humanity, capitalist
colonialism and imperialism. We urge all people who are tired of this wretched
system to join such an effort

Video: Mumia Abu-Jamal "Some Who Feel No Reason For Thanksgiving"

November 23, 2010



"Some Who Feel No Reason For Thanksgiving"

To this day, I can hardly bear to think of that quintessentially American holiday—Thanksgiving.

When I do, however, I do not dwell on Pilgrims with wide black hats sitting to sup with red men, their long hair adorned with eagle feathers. I think not of turkeys or of cranberries, foods now traditional for the day of feast.

Unlike millions, I dont even think of the days football game. And not thinking of it, I dont watch it.

I think of the people we have habitually called Indians, the Indigenous people of the Americas; those millions who are no more.

I think of those precious few who remain, and wonder, what do they think of this day; this national myth of sweet brotherhood that masks what can only be called genocide?

Several years ago, I read a thin text that was pregnant with poignancy. It was a collection of Native remarks from the first tribes who encountered whites in New England, and down through several hundred years. Throughout it all, the same vibration could be felt, no matter what the clan or tribe—a profound sense of betrayal and wrong from people who were treated like brethren when they first arrived.

In New England, the name Powhatan (ca. 1547-1618) is still recalled (even if that wasnt his name, but what the English called him). Known as Wahunsonacock by his people, he headed a confederacy of 32 tribes and governed an area of hundreds of miles. He was the father of Pocahontas, the young Indian maiden who saved the life of Capt. John Smith. A year after sparing Smiths life, the white captain threatened the great chief. This is some of his response given in 1609:

Why should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? We can hide our provisions, and fly into the woods; and then you must consequently famish by wronging your friends. What is the cause of your jealousy? You see us unarmed, and willing to supply your wants, if you come in a friendly manner, and not with swords and guns, as to invade an enemy. I am not so simple, as not to know it is better to eat good meat, lie well, and sleep quietly with my women and children; to laugh and be merry with the English; and, being their friend, to have copper, hatchets, and whatever else I want, than to fly from all, to lie cold in the woods, feed upon acorns, roots, and such trash, and to be so hunted, that I cannot rest, eat, or sleep. In such circumstances, my men must watch, and if a twig should but break, all would cry out, Here comes Capt. Smith; and in this miserable manner, to end my miserable life; and, Capt. Smith, this might be soon your fate too, through your rashness and unadvisedness. I therefore, exhort you to peaceable councils; and, above all, I insist that the guns and swords, the cause of all our jealousy and uneasiness, be removed and sent away. (Blaisdell, Bob, ed., Great Speeches by Native Americans. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Press, 2000, p.4.)

That great chiefs sentiments would be echoed for over hundreds of years, but injustice would just be piled on injustice. Genocide would be the white answer to red life.

Centuries later, what can Thanksgiving Day mean to Native peoples?

Thank you for stealing our land? Thank you for wiping out our people?

Thank you for placing a remnant of our once great numbers on rural ghettoes called reservations?

Thank you for abolishing most of the ancient traditions?

Thank you for poisoning what little Indian lands remain with uranium?

Thank you for poisoning the lands now inhabited by the whites?

Thank you for letting Indians fight in American wars against other people?

Thanks.

The real tragedy is that millions of Americans dont know, and dont want to know about Indian history and traditions.

Today, the names of rivers, lakes and landmarks bear indigenous markers of another age.

The people, except for an occasional movie, are mostly forgotten, out of mind, the easier to replace with false images of happy meals and turkey dinners. Happy Thanksgiving.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Ab...
http://www.prisonradio.org/
http://www.freemumia.com/
http://www.freemumia.org/
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Check out Mumia's NEW book:
"Faith of Our Fathers: An Examination of the Spiritual Life of African and African-American People" at http://africanworld.com/

761: Oscar Lopez Rivera needs more Support!

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign's New Campaign

761 is not Enough! Forward this out far and wide! Oscar needs your Support!
In solidarity with the National Boricua Human Rights Network's  (NBHRN) new campaign
to ask for parole for Oscar Lopez Rivera, one of our two Puerto Rican Political
Prisoners, ProLibertad has started an online petition to pressure President Brack
Obama to give Oscar parole or to commute his sentence. 

We are asking all freedom loving people to support both the online petition, which
will be sent to President Barack Obama once we have reached our goal of 10,000
petitioners, and to support the letter writing campaign by the NBHRN. Our letters
and online support will help us bring one of the longest held political prisoners
home!

Both campaigns are important! We must use all avenues available to help win
parole/commutation for Oscar.

Sign our petition: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Parole4OscarLopezR/

and send a letter out: http://boricuahumanrights.org/

"Agitation, organization, resistance, struggle and love are the ingredients that
will guarantee us VICTORY!" -Oscar Lopez Rivera, Puerto Rican Political Prisoner

For more information on Oscar Lopez Rivera and to write to him:
http://www.prolibertadweb.com/id40.html          

Stop And Frisk: Police Stop More Than 1 Million People On Street

Oct. 8, 2009 huffingtonpost.com

NEW YORK — A teenager trying to get into his apartment after school is confronted by police. A man leaving his workplace chooses a different route back home to avoid officers who roam a particular street. These and hundreds of thousands of other Americans in big cities have been stopped on the street by police using a law-enforcement practice called stop-and-frisk that alarms civil libertarians but is credited by authorities with helping reduce crime.

Police in major U.S. cities stop and question more than a million people each year – a sharply higher number than just a few years ago. Most are black and Hispanic men. Many are frisked, and nearly all are innocent of any crime, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press.

And the numbers are rising at the same time crime rates are dropping.

Ronnie Carr's experience was typical: He was fumbling with his apartment door after school in Brooklyn when plainclothes officers flashed their badges.

"What are you doing here?" one asked, as they rifled through his backpack and then his pockets. The black teenager stood there, quiet and nervous, and waited.

Carr said the officers told him they stopped him because he looked suspicious peeking in the windows. He explained that he had lost his keys. Twenty minutes later, the officers left. Carr was not arrested or cited with any offense.

"I felt bad, like I did something wrong," he said.

Civil liberties groups say the practice is racist and fails to deter crime. Police departments maintain it is a necessary tool that turns up illegal weapons and drugs and prevents more serious crime.

Police records indicate that officers are drawn to suspicious behavior: furtive movements, actions that indicate someone may be serving as a lookout, anything that suggests a drug deal, or a person carrying burglary tools such as a slim jim or pry bar.

The New York Police Department is among the most vocal defenders of the practice. Commissioner Raymond Kelly said recently that officers may stop as many as 600,000 people this year. About 10 percent are arrested.

"This is a proven law enforcement tactic to fight and deter crime, one that is authorized by criminal procedure law," he said.

The practice is perfectly legal. A 1968 Supreme Court decision established the benchmark of "reasonable suspicion" – a standard that is lower than the "probable cause" needed to justify an arrest.

But in the mid-1990s, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NYPD Commissioner William Bratton made stop-and-frisk an integral part of the city's law enforcement, relying on the "broken windows" theory that targeting low-level offenses helps prevent bigger ones.

Street stops started to go up, and overall crime dropped dramatically in a once-dangerous city.

Last year, New York police stopped 531,159 people, more than five times the number in 2002. Fifty-one percent of those stopped were black, 32 percent Hispanic and 11 percent white.

Not all stops are the same. Some people are just stopped and questioned. Others have their bag or backpack searched. And sometimes police conduct a full pat-down.

David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on street stops, said few searches yield weapons or drugs. And the more people are searched, the more innocent people are hassled.

"The hit rate goes down because you're being less selective about how you're doing this. That has a cost. It's not free," Harris said.

When officers make a stop, they are required to fill out a form, including the time and location of the stop and why police were suspicious. Age, race and whether the person was frisked are also recorded.

In Philadelphia, stops nearly doubled to more than 200,000 from 2007 to 2008. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter deployed an "aggressive" stop-and-frisk policy in the year since his election in November 2007 and overall crime has dropped.

In Los Angeles, where Bratton recently stepped down as police commissioner, pedestrian stops have doubled in the past six years to 244,038 in 2008. The number of people stopped in cars is higher.

About 15 percent of the stops resulted in arrests in 2002, compared with about 30 percent in 2008, according to an analysis of the data by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Several other major police departments do not keep street-stop statistics or do not release them. Chicago police refused to release numbers to the AP. Boston police say they do not keep the records. The New Orleans department is not required to keep statistics on race and pedestrian stops.

RAND, an independent research agency hired by the New York Police Department to analyze street-stop data in 2007 after public outcry, found little racial profiling. It said the raw statistics "distorted the magnitude and, at times, the existence of racially biased policing."

The NYPD continues to monitor the issue, but after the RAND analysis, officials agreed that large-scale restructuring was unnecessary.

Kelly has warned against more simplistic data reviews.

"There are 8.4 million people in New York City. That number swells to more than 10 million every work day. Police are responsible for more than 800,000 summonses and arrests annually based on the higher standard of probable cause," Kelly said.

"Under the circumstances, it's not surprising that we make 500,000 or even 600,000 stops based on the less stringent standard of reasonable suspicion."

Civil liberties groups also complain because New York police keep a database of everyone stopped – innocent or not. That makes them targets for future investigations, said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Los Angeles was forced by federal mandate to release data on street stops – including the race of those stopped – starting in 2000 after a series of scandals. The city government promised to adopt scores of reform measures under federal court supervision.

The LAPD was released from the federal decree in July, but a report last year by the ACLU in Southern California showed that blacks were still nearly three times more likely to be stopped by police than whites.

"The initial defense was: 'Because we're over-policing higher crime neighborhoods, they're predominantly populated by people of color, and that's why,'" said Peter Bibring, an ACLU attorney in Los Angeles.

But an analysis done for the ACLU in 2008 by Yale law professor Ian Ayres accounts for differences in crime rates and still shows minorities are stopped much more.

Some people who are stopped file lawsuits against the city and speak out publicly. Most just accept it.

In Harlem, George Lucas changed his route home from work to avoid a stretch of Seventh Avenue, because he kept being stopped by the police.

"The inconvenience of walking out of my way still saves me the worry and frustration about being stopped," said Lucas, 28, director of a nonprofit.

It's so common in some areas that community groups have begun offering classes on how to behave when stopped.

Courtney Bennett of the nonprofit New York City Mission Society says he regularly hosts groups of 30 men, of all ages, who feel powerless because they are stopped routinely for what they say is no reason. Carr recently attended a similar meeting for teens at another nonprofit called The Door.

Bennett is also a member of the Order of the Feather, a black fraternity that mentors young men and promotes community service. At a recent initiation ceremony in Harlem, it did not take long to find dozens of people who said they were stopped by police.

"You see these guys? They're normal guys, you know? Regular dudes," said Paul Hawkins, 22. "They've all been affected by it somehow. They were stopped, or someone they knew, or their dad or whatever. And they're not, you know, criminals."