And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Aquash Family accuses AIM of her murder http://indiancountry.com/headlines2.html By Jamie Monastyrski Sept. 20, 1999 Leaders of the American Indian Movement have been named as the conspirators behind the controversial murder of Anna Mae Aquash by members of her family during a press conference held in Canada�s capital city of Ottawa. The family members also named three individuals who carried out the orders from the AIM leadership that allegedly kidnapped, raped and executed the 30-year-old Aquash in 1975 near the South Dakota reservation of Pine Ridge. Robert A. Pictou-Branscombe, Aquash�s cousin, who�s been investigating the murder for 9 years, said she was killed because she had the capability to expose FBI informants within AIM. "She was eliminated because she walked with leadership and knew too much. She was not killed because she betrayed the trust of her comrades, she was killed for taking a stand against those who betrayed her," Pictou-Bransombe wrote in his press statement. Supporters and the family of Aquash held the press conference in association with the Assembly of First Nations, Canada�s national Native association, to make an emotional appeal to the public, media and Canadian government to push for the prosecution of the three individuals they believe murdered Aquash. According to a statement made by Detective Abe Alonzo of the Denver Police Department, whose been investigating the case for the past five years, "the investigation has led to three individuals who are responsible for forcibly taking Anna Mae from Denver and then taking her to the northeast end of the Pine Ridge reservation and killing her." Since the press conference, Alonzo has been taken off the investigation and subsequently, can�t discuss further details of the case. The Denver Police Department was unavailable for comment. Aquash, a Micmac Indian born in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia was an active member of the American Indian Movement in the 1970�s. Two years after the Wounded Knee stand-off, with tension at the breaking point on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, an altercation broke out leaving two FBI agents and one Native man dead. In the months that followed Aquash was arrested several times on charges unrelated to the death of the federal agents but was alway! ! s su spected of holding information about the murders. Pictou-Branscombe said the FBI painted her as an informant who had betrayed AIM. One theory says the FBI spread malicious rumors about her out of frustration because she refused to cooperate with them. Pictou-Branscombe said this resulted in her abduction and transfer from a Denver "safe home" to South Dakota for questioning by AIM leadership about her involvement with the FBI. This is when the decision was made to silence Anna Mae Aqaush, said Pictou-Branscombe. "It was a conspiracy to commit murder. The responsibility of that decision was a command from AIM leadership." He added, "I personally hold the American Indian Movement and the FBI equally responsible." In his statement he said, Aquash was taken to the northeast end of the reservation by three individuals who denied her request for a prayer and was shot point blank in the back of the head. The "trigger man" lives near Whitehorse in the Yukon while the other two accomplices live in Nebraska and Denver said Pictou-Brans! ! comb e. The three people accused cannot be named for legal reasons although their names have been made public by the family. Indian Country Today contacted one of the accused. "I don�t know why they want to do this," she said. "They�re not going to let it go. (Anna Mae) is at rest and they should just let her be�Everybody had involvement back then. I don�t have anything (else) to say." Pictou-Branscombe has presented evidence and testimonies to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and the Denver Police Department to help expedite the prosecutions of those involved. One of the three persons involved was given immunity in by the FBI in exchange for information, Pictou-Branscombe said. "We want it resolved. We want prosecution and we will not accept anything else. We want justice for Anna Mae," he said. One report published said that DNA evidence will be the key in solving the murder and the people involved may soon be indicted. The report also stated the FBI dismisses any accusat! ! ion that they were involved in the death of Aquash. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe from the Minneapolis bureau said, "The FBI, along with local authoriites and the U.S. Attorney�s Office, is continuing its investigation and does not comment on who is, or who is not, an FBI informant." Vernon Bellecourt, a founder and national representative of AIM said that AIM was never involved in the death of Aquash and to suggest they were is unfounded and misguided. "It�s very defamatory, libelous, slandorous, dangerous, reckless that these statements are being made trying to connect a number of us over the years to the death of Anna Mae Aquash," he said. Bellecourt added that he realizes how devastating this unsolved murder is for the family but by listing names publicly and through the media, the ones responsible for it better have the facts to back everything up. He said he�s had a long relationship with the Aquash family and it disturbs him that his name, among others, are being released i! ! n a defamatory way. Others, besides the family of Aquash, have accused AIM and its leaders of being involved and have posted information about AIM activities on the Internet. Bellecourt said the names of the people allegedly involved have been "thrown around" several times over the past 10 to 15 years and it isn�t the first time, nor the last, that AIM has been accused of being involved. "The reason why, in our opinion, that they haven�t been able to solve the case of Jumping Bull, the deaths of the two FBI agents and Anna Mae is because it was all part of a war against AIM," designed by the President Nixon administration and carried out by the CIA and the FBI, said Bellecourt. "They were the victims of this government campaign to disrupt, divide, demonize and villianize the leaders of the movement in order to destroy the movement." AIM is preparing to release a 350-page report based on a review of CIA, FBI, Federal Justice Department and Whitehouse documents released under the Fr! ! eedo m of Information Act. It will detail how the federal administration began a deep covert program that not only targetted AIM but the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. "They wanted to neutralize us. They admit to using extremist informants to set up what has been characterized as the execution death of Anna Mae Aquash." Bellecourt added that the report which has sections posted on their website will be "a mindblower" and it will document that the very people that are accusing AIM of being involved are involved themselves. Kent Tilson, a lawyer who worked with AIM in the 1970s and was their legal defense coordinator through numerous cases said that if there was any solid evidence against AIM, there would have been indictments long before these current accusations. Tilson also said that it was him that requested the body of a woman exhumed after it was reported Aquash may have been buried as a Jane Doe in an umarked grave. It was revealed she had a gunshot woun! ! d to the head and hadn�t died of exposure as the first coroner concluded. Most alarming, said Tilson is the fact that her hands were cut off and sent to FBI headquarters in Washington for possible identification. "The FBI would have been so pleased with any evidence no matter how tenuous to link one of the (AIM) leaders. But they couldn�t get a breath of evidence against them," he said. Bellecourt agrees, "Why haven�t they been able to arrest anybody? Because they will have to give up some of their agents and it�ll come right back to their dirty hands and that�s why there�s a major cover-up going on." Pictou-Branscome wants answers and is not taking �no� or �I can�t remember� for an answer. He is determined and adamant that until people are come forward and are charged with the death of Aquash, he will continue. "There�s a 100 people out there that know the truth and never talk about because of fear and feeling they�ll be an accessory. We�re not going away. We�re getting this done! ! ," h e said. Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ UPDATES: CAMP JUSTICE http://shell.webbernet.net/~ishgooda/oglala/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
