HANDS OFF ASSATA CAMPAIGN
Official Response to Announcement of $1 million Bounty and the Listing
of ASSATA SHAKUR on Domestic Terrorist Watch List

On May 2nd the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Jersey
Troopers publicly announced a $1 million bounty for the capture of
Assata Shakur. May 2nd also marked the 32nd anniversary of the fatal
shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike that resulted in the deaths Trooper
Werner Foerster and Zayd Shakur, and left Assata Shakur and Sundiata
Acoli wounded. Assata and Sundiata were both tried and convicted in
separate trials for the deaths of Werner Foerster and Zayd Shakur.

For more than three decades the FBI has attempted to demonize Assata
Shakur. She is a mother and grandmother, author and artist. She is
politically astute and intellectually sharp. She is warm, humble and
spiritual. Years ago, the FBI labeled Assata “the heart and soul of
the Black Liberation Army”. They issued all sorts of defamatory
statements about her. As a result she was hunted like an animal by law
enforcement agencies all over the country, as were many other Black
Panther Party and BLA members. She has been used by the FBI as a symbol
in various ways to further their political objectives.

Convicted of murder for the death of a New Jersey State Trooper in
1977, Assata has been living in exile in Cuba. She is not convicted for
any other incident or crime. In 1998 the New Jersey Troopers
petitioned Pope John Paul II as he prepared for his historic visit to
Cuba and meeting with President Fidel Castro. They wanted him to
pressure President Castro to return Assata to the United States. The
Pope flatly turned down their request but did advise then President
Clinton that the United States needed to end the senseless and inhumane
blockade against Cuba.

For years the New Jersey Troopers have held an annual commemoration
ceremony for Trooper Werner Foerster in early May. Each year the local
New Jersey papers print several stories about the events of May 2, 1973
that took place on the New Jersey Turnpike. Periodically various New
Jersey officials have issued different statements sometimes accusing
Assata and at other times accusing her co-defendant, Sundiata Acoli, of
killing Foerster.

Former New Jersey Governor, Christie Todd Whitman, curried political
favor with the stateÂ’s police when she announced a bounty of $25,000
for Assata and later doubled it to $50,000. She was duly rewarded by
President Bush who appointed her in 2001 to be the head of the
Environmental Protection Agency. The bounty was quietly increased by
the FBI to a million dollars as it crept around the country looking for
relatives, friends and associates to enlist in its scheme to kidnap
Assata and return her to the United States. Time and time again, the
FBI offered them a million dollars for their services. To some, they
stated that there was no limit to how much they would pay for AssataÂ’s
return.

The obsession shared by the New Jersey State Troopers and the FBI for
Assata is highly unusual unless you examine the larger political
picture and international affairs. Since the victorious Cuban
Revolution in 1959, the United States has engaged in an ongoing
campaign to assassinate President Castro and overthrow the Cuban
government. No fewer than 23 assassination attempts have been
documented. Then in 1961 the failed Bay of Pigs attempt by President
John F. Kennedy to invade and overthrow President Castro brought
international embarrassment to the United States. The Bay of Pigs
debacle was one of many government attempts to use and bow to the
wishes of the powerful Miami based Cuban exile community. This is the
same power base that Florida Governor Jeb Bush answers to and his
brother, George W., is beholden to for the 2000 and 2004 “election”
results.

Since the rise to power of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez in 1998,
the United States has greedily watched as political links developed
between Cuba and Venezuela. What does Venezuela have that the United
States wants? Oil! What does Cuba have that the United States wants?
It occupies a strategic geographic location that would enable the
United States to militarily control the Caribbean. Of course Cuba also
has the tenacity to show the people of the world that there is another
way to exist. It is possible for education and health care to be
guaranteed to every citizen. It is possible for every citizen to have a
home and most importantly, hope for the future. It is a sovereign
nation with the right to grant asylum whenever it sees fit. Equally
important is that the majority of the Cuban population is of African
descent. The significance of this fact is not lost on the other Third
World nations around the globe.

The United StatesÂ’ CIA has boldly intervened in Venezuelan affairs and
aided in the failed coup there in 2002. Bitter to admit defeat, the
United States continued to look for ways to provoke a confrontation
with President Chavez. They found it in Luis Posada Carriles. In fact,
Posada provides Bush with a two for one shot at Chavez and Castro. For
many years Posada has been a CIA operative. He is wanted in Venezuela
for
his role in the 1976 shoot down of a Cuban airliner that killed 73
civilians including the national fencing team. He escaped from prison
there. In 1998 he claimed responsibility for planning attacks on
various Cuban establishments including the 1997 bombing of a tourist
hotel that resulted in the death of an Italian tourist and the wounding
of 11 others. In 2000 Posada was arrested in Panama for plotting to
murder President Castro during the Ibero-American summit being held in
that country. He was convicted and sentenced to eight years. In
November 2004, the outgoing Panamanian President, Mireya Moscoso,
pardoned Posada allegedly in exchange for $4 million paid by a Cuban
American. Money talked and Posada walked, disappearing from public view
for several months.

In March 2005, he surfaced in Miami. His lawyer, Eduardo Soto, admitted
a few weeks later that Posada was in Miami as he filed his petition for
political asylum. House of Representative William Delahunt (D-Mass)
stated recently, “I can’t imagine how one could defend a terrorist
where there exists overwhelming evidence that he was responsible or a
co-conspirator in blowing up a civilian airliner.” To many the
revelation that Posada is in the country is shocking. But they were
apparently unaware that his co-conspirator, Orlando Bosch, has been
living comfortably in Miami for at least the past two years. The
revelation of PosadaÂ’s presence in the United States set off a tidal
wave of international and domestic criticism including accusations of
political hypocrisy. President Castro called on President Bush to
return Posada to Venezuela. Many demanded that the United States not
allow Posada to remain in the country.

But the role of Bosch and Posada as terrorists is indisputable. They
plotted, murdered, bombed innocents and bragged about it. So what could

Bush do? He tried denying that Posada was in the country but PosadaÂ’s
lawyer had already said that he was. Roger Noriega, top State
Department official for Western Hemisphere affairs, claimed he had no
knowledge of PosadaÂ’s whereabouts; again, hard to believe. Things, as
one can see, went from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Meanwhile President Castro issued a series of statements about PosadaÂ’s
presence in the United States and accused Bush of harboring of a
terrorist. His comments grabbed the attention of the local media and
hit a sympathetic nerve. It was impossible to explain PosadaÂ’s presence
in the United States after the numerous public statements Bush had made
about terrorists. Perhaps the most memorable of these is “If you
harbor a terrorist, you are a terrorist.” Things were getting very ugly
very fast for Bush.

However, the timing couldnÂ’t have been better (for the Bush
administration) since the anniversary of the New Jersey Turnpike
incident was fast approaching. Here was an opportunity to “save face”
and take another stab at Castro. A miserably transparent attempt to
deflect attention from the political embarrassment of PosadaÂ’s presence
developed overnight.

In the blink of an eye, Assata was suddenly placed on the domestic
terrorist list. How very convenient. Now Bush could aim a similar
accusation at Castro, harboring a terrorist.

Turning back to Assata and her 1973 chance encounter with Trooper
Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike, it can hardly be labeled a
terrorist act or plot no matter how you characterize the facts. No
doubt she and her companions did not plan on the events of May 2, 1973.
They didnÂ’t plan or provoke any encounter with the police nor did they
brag about Trooper FoersterÂ’s death.

Who defines a terrorist? What actions define a terrorist? Is it a
politically manipulated designation used to further the agendas of the
present administration? While there is certainly no agreed upon
definition of ‘terrorism’ even the U.S. State Department’s
self-serving definition that it involves “premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets” rules out
the incident on the NJ Turnpike which was – by all accounts – initiated
by the troopers in a state notoriously known for racial profiling on
the Turnpike.

Assata stands convicted (the result of a highly politicized trial) of
one criminal act, the murder of Trooper Foerster. The U.S. Department
of Justice Office of Justice Programs reports that the FBI identified
785
assailants convicted in the killing of law enforcement officers between
1993 and 2002. Should we expect that the next political announcement
to be that those 785 individuals have also been placed on the domestic
terrorism list? Is a murder conviction of a police officer the
criteria? If so, then should we expect the list to increase by at least
785?

Perhaps, the commission of any heinous act makes one a terrorist. If
so, what of the joint team of FBI agents and Chicago police that
murdered Black Panther leaders, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, in their
sleep during in a pre-dawn raid at their apartment? Should they not be
named as terrorists? When now, Reverend, then Mayor, Wilson Goode
ordered the bombing of the MOVE headquarters located at 6221 Osage
Avenue in Philadelphia in 1985 that killed 11 people including 5
children, and
resulted in the destruction of the entire neighborhood, including 62
homes, was that an act of terrorism? Should we expect to see his name
added to the list? Were the New York City Police Officers who shot and
killed the unarmed grandmother, Eleanor Bumpers, during an apartment
eviction, terrorists? They murdered her. Maybe the members of New
YorkÂ’s finest that fired 41 bullets at unarmed immigrant Amadou Diallo
will have their names added to the list of domestic terrorists. If
this be the case, should not the names of the convicted abortion clinic
bombers be added to the list? Are the officers who beat, assaulted and
sodomized young Abner Louima terrorists? What about the soldiers who
shot unarmed detainees in Guantanamo?

In this current climate we find the terrorism label abused and
manipulated. Political motivations, not international law, or ethical
sensibilities, are increasingly being used to determine who is and who
is not defined as a terrorist. It is an outrage that this government
would offend the sensitivities of the American public by labeling
Assata Shakur a terrorist.

In 1976 the Senate Select Subcommittee headed by Senator Frank Church
of Utah issued its report on the activities of the FBIÂ’s Counter
Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). That Program was aimed at
destroying any political dissent in the country. Among its targets were
Rev. Martin Luther King, Kwame TureÂ’ (f.k.a. Stokely Carmichael)
Malcolm X, the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, the New
Left, the Weather Underground, the American Indian Movement, the Puerto
Rican independence movement and the Communist Party. Led by J. Edgar
Hoover, the FBI left no stone unturned and no dirty trick untried. Part
of this campaign was to criminalize legitimate political movements and
individuals. The FBI maimed, murdered and imprisoned hundreds of
political activists. The Report concluded that “Many of the techniques
used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all the
targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far
beyond that.” The condemnation of the FBI practices temporarily
limited its activities.

However, in 2001 the FBI was able to publicly reinstitute all the
previously condemned COINTELPRO practices under the guise of the
Patriot Act. Increased surveillance of political organizations and
individuals began. Harassment, arrest, incarceration and intimidation
of political activists have once again been restored as “acceptable”
police practices.

This recent labeling of Assata as a terrorist is done as part of the
broader campaign to demonize and criminalize political dissent and
resistance. This agenda was begun by the previous United States
Attorney General, John Ashcroft. All over the country FBI agents
started questioning and harassing past and present political activists.
In courtrooms and filed documents, the FBI and U.S. Attorneys began
referring to domestic political activists as terrorists. The label has
far reaching implications. The First Amendment is in serious danger
and so is anyone who dares to exercise their rights under its
protections.

The convergence of PosadaÂ’s entry into the United States, the hardening
of relations with Cuba under Bush mandated Executive orders, and the
otherwise inexplicable labeling of Assata as a terrorist fit well into
a much broader politically motivated scheme. Her name must immediately
be removed from the list and the bounty offer rescinded.

For more information, contact: hoa@afrocubaweb.com.