Assata Shakur: First Woman Added to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist List - Democracy Now Segment with Angela Davis & Lennox Hinds: www.democracynow.org/2013/5/3/angela_davis_and_assata_shakurs_lawyer - May 3rd, 2013
One day after the exiled former Black Panther Assata Shakur became the first woman named to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, we’re joined by another legendary African-American activist, Angela Davis, as well as Shakur’s longtime attorney, Lennox Hinds. Davis, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the subject of the recent film, "Free Angela & All Political Prisoners." She argues that the FBI’s latest move, much like its initial targeting of Shakur & other Black Panthers four decades ago, is politically motivated. "It seems to me that this act incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism," Davis says. "I can’t help but think that it’s designed to frighten people who are involved in struggles today. 40 years ago seems like it was a long time ago. In the beginning of the 21st century, we’re still fighting around the very same issues: police violence, healthcare, education, people in prison." A professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University, Hinds has represented Shakur since 1973. "This is a political act pushed by the state of New Jersey, by some members of Congress from Miami & with the intent of putting pressure on the Cuban government & to inflame public opinion," Hinds says. "There is no way to appeal someone being put on the terrorists list." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/140130;_ylc=X3oDMTJzYzB1dWpzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzIxODIwMjIEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDYzOTg1BG1zZ0lkAzE0MDEzMARzZWMDZG1zZwRzbGsDdm1zZwRzdGltZQMxMzY3ODMzMTYx> REVOLUTIONARY FRONTLINES: www.revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/an-open-letter-from-assata An Open Letter From Assata Shakur Posted on May 3rd, 2013 My name is Assata Shakur, and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color. I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one. In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had become the number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program. Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists. In 1978, my case was one of many cases bought before the United Nations Organization in a petition filed by the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice, exposing the existence of political prisoners in the United States, their political persecution, and the cruel and inhuman treatment they receive in US prisons. According to the report: ‘The FBI and the New York Police Department in particular, charged and accused Assata Shakur of participating in attacks on law enforcement personnel and widely circulated such charges and accusations among police agencies and units. The FBI and the NYPD further charged her as being a leader of the Black Liberation Army which the government and its respective agencies described as an organization engaged in the shooting of police officers. This description of the Black Liberation Army and the accusation of Assata Shakur’s relationship to it was widely circulated by government agents among police agencies and units. As a result of these activities by the government, Ms. Shakur became a hunted person; posters in police precincts and banks described her as being involved in serious criminal activities; she was highlighted on the FBI’s most wanted list; and to police at all levels she became a ‘shoot-to-kill’ target.” I was falsely accused in six different “criminal cases” and in all six of these cases I was eventually acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted or that the charges were dismissed, did not mean that I received justice in the courts, that was certainly not the case. It only meant that the “evidence” presented against me was so flimsy and false that my innocence became evident. This political persecution was part and parcel of the government’s policy of eliminating political opponents by charging them with crimes and arresting them with no regard to the factual basis of such charges. On May 2, 1973 I, along with Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a “faulty tail light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State trooper Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and then once again from the back. Zayd Malik Shakur was later killed, trooper Werner Foerster was killed, and even though trooper Harper admitted that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest friend and comrade, and charged in the death of trooper Forester. Never in my life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying to protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper Foerster was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths. Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial We were both convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life. The U.S. Senate’s 1976 Church Commission report on intelligence operations inside the USA, revealed that “The FBI has attempted covertly to influence the public’s perception of persons & organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press, either anonymously or through “friendly” news contacts.” This same policy is evidently still very much in effect today. On December 24, 1997, The New Jersey State called a press conference to announce that New Jersey State Police had written a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to intervene on their behalf and to aid in having me extradited back to New Jersey prisons. The New Jersey State Police refused to make their letter public. Knowing that they had probably totally distort the facts, and attempted to get the Pope to do the devils work in the name of religion, I decided to write the Pope to inform him about the reality of’ “justice” for black people in the State of New Jersey and in the United States. In January of 1998, during the pope’s visit to Cuba, I agreed to do an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza around my letter to the Pope, about my experiences in New Jersey court system, and about the changes I saw in the United States and it’s treatment of Black people in the last 25 years. I agreed to do this interview because I saw this secret letter to the Pope as a vicious, vulgar, publicity maneuver on the part of the New Jersey State Police, and as a cynical attempt to manipulate Pope John Paul II. I have lived in Cuba for many years, and was completely out of touch with the sensationalist, dishonest, nature of the establishment media today. It is worse today than it was 30 years ago. After years of being victimized by the “establishment” media it was naive of me to hope that I might finally get the opportunity to tell “my side of the story.” Instead of an interview with me, what took place was a “staged media event” in three parts, full of distortions, inaccuracies and outright lies. NBC purposely misrepresented the facts. Not only did NBC spend thousands of dollars promoting this “exclusive interview series” on NBC, they also spent a great deal of money advertising this “exclusive interview” on black radio stations and also placed notices in local newspapers. Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have a voice. Black people, poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression and very little freedom of the press. The black press and the progressive media has historically played an essential role in the struggle for social justice. We need to continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets that help to educate our people and our children, and not annihilate their minds. I am only one woman. I own no TV stations, or Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that people need to be educated as to what is going on, and to understand the connection between the news media and the instruments of repression in Amerika. All I have is my voice, my spirit and the will to tell the truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black media, those of you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in truth freedom, To publish this statement and to let people know what is happening. We have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless. Free all Political Prisoners, I send you Love and Revolutionary Greetings From Cuba, One of the Largest, Most Resistant and Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) That has ever existed on the Face of this Planet. Assata Shakur Havana, Cuba Below is a clip of Assata Sakur’s Documentary “Eyes of the Rainbow: Assata Shakur Documentary”: www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BKnJT-ne62k> &v=BKnJT-ne62k RBG-Eyes of the Rainbow: Assata Shakur Documentary/Part 5 of 6 “I am a Black revolutionary woman, and because of this i have been charged with and accused of every alleged crime in which a woman was believed to have participated. The alleged crimes in which only men were supposedly involved, i have been accused of planning. They have plastered pictures alleged to be me in post offices, airports, hotels, police cars, subways, banks, television, and newspapers. They have offered … rewards for my capture and they have issued orders to shoot on sight and shoot to kill.” — Assata Shakur “People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” ― Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography WORKERS WORLD Assata Shakur is a Modern-Day Harriet Tubman By Monica Moorehead on May 7th, 2013 I had the distinct honor of meeting Assata Shakur in person at the 1997 World Youth Festival in Havana, Cuba. I was all the more surprised when she recognized me as the 1996 presidential candidate for Workers World Party. Assata has been living in political exile in Cuba since 1979. A year later, in 1998, during a New York City memorial for Workers World Party chairperson Sam Marcy, Assata sent a moving message of condolence to our organization. So when the FBI posted a $2 million bounty May 2 for the return of Assata to the U.S., not only did it anger me and countless others, but it also reminded me of another bounty put on the head of another freedom fighter over 160 years ago — Harriet Tubman. Both of these courageous women sacrificed much in their lives, including any kind of a normal family life, to join important movements to free humanity from oppression. Harriet was born into slavery, only to escape to join the Underground Railroad, where, as a conductor, she brought hundreds of enslaved people of African descent to freedom in the North, including to Canada. She was so hated by the slavocracy that a $50,000 bounty — big money in those days — was put on her head for capture, dead or alive. During Tubman’s era, the slavocracy had at its disposal the federal government, with the Supreme Court refusing to recognize escaped former slaves as citizens based on the 1857 Dred Scott decision. The Constitution counted Black people as “three-fifths of a human being,” and the Dred Scott decision encouraged armed white vigilantes, who were paid to recapture those trying to escape the slave masters. This kind of terrorist atmosphere did not impede Harriet Tubman from her political activism until she died 100 years ago in 1913. Assata’s Political Journey Born in New York City in the late 1940s, Assata moved to Wilmington, N.C., to live with her grandmother when she was three years old until her teenage years. She eventually joined both the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. The Panthers were beloved and respected within numerous poor, Black urban communities where they provided free breakfast programs, health clinics and other vital services, while at the same time promoting the right to armed self-defense against police terror and state repression. The Panthers were forerunners with their call for community control of the police. COINTELPRO or Counter-Intelligence Program was created by the FBI then led by notorious J. Edgar Hoover in the early 1950s. The aim of COINTELPRO was to use every dirty tactic, including demonization in the media, to discredit and eventually destroy national liberation movements like the Panthers and their leaders. Assata, for instance, was harassed, arrested and falsely accused of several bank robberies beginning in the late 1960s. She was acquitted each time of the bogus charges. Then on May 2, 1973, Assata and two other Panther members, Sundiata Acoli and Zayd Malik Shakur, were stopped by white state troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike. Shots were fired, which resulted in the death of Shakur and Assata being shot multiple times. One of the troopers died. Assata and Acoli were charged with murder and convicted by all-white juries. Both were railroaded to prison based on their political beliefs and convictions. Assata spent more than six brutal years in men’s and women’s prisons before she was able to escape to Cuba where she was welcomed with open arms. Acoli has been imprisoned for 40 years. There are now posters in post offices and even a huge billboard in New Jersey calling for the arrest of Assata as a “terrorist.” The CIA has falsely accused Cuba of “exporting terrorism” since soon after its revolutionary leadership defeated the U.S.-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and declared the country to be socialist. It is important for the progressive movement here and worldwide to expose the U.S. as being the biggest exporter of terrorism. Its deadly weapons, including drones, maim and kill to protect the profits of the bosses and bankers. The bounty on Assata will boomerang and eventually help to introduce her inspirational story to a whole new generation of younger activists who are already disenchanted with capitalism and all its ills. And it will bring about a deeper solidarity with Cuba. Hands off Assata and Cuba! Moorehead saw Assata again in June 2000 as part of a U.S. delegation that participated in a Cuban TV panel on the growth of the U.S. prison-industrial complex. Sent from : WALTER LIPPMANN: [email protected] Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews www.groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews "Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo" ========================================= [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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