FBI puts $2M price on head of ‘terrorist’ cop killer who fled to Cuba

[bemildred]

Joanne Chesimard, who killed a New Jersey cop 40 years ago today, then escaped prison and fled to Cuba, has been labeled a terrorist and had a $2 million bounty put on her by the FBI, authorities said Thursday.

Chesimard was serving a life term for killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973 when she escaped prison. After hiding out in a New Jersey safe house for several years, Chesimard managed to flee in 1979 to Cuba, where she has been living for decades under the name Assata Shakur.

"Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist," Aaron T. Ford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark division, said at a press conference Thursday. "She absolutely is a threat to America."

Chesimard, a member of the radical Black Liberation Army, shot and killed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster execution-style on May 2, 1973, after she and two others were pulled over for a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike, about an hour south of New York City.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/02/fbi-in-nj-to-announce-cuba-fugitive-case-details/?test=latestnews

Amusing, but not in a good way.

[dipsydoodle]

1. In the absense of the US having an extradition treaty with Cuba

I'm not sure why this has suddenly appeared out of the woodwork.

[bemildred]

2. I find it a bit amusing, the empty posturing.

Why they would decide to bring attention to this now is a good question, to which no answer was provided. He may just be sucking up in hopes of promotion. The FBi has always had a violent and vindictive streak. But 40 years and then suddenly a $2 milion "reward" is pushing it, I don't think that's really the reason. It could be a lot of things, and we will not be told. What you can be sure of is that it's no accident that it occurred now. I want to see where they try to go with it.

But as you can see I could only speculate about the reason, and I would come up with something sensible, or purporting to be sensible, and that is probably wrong, this is probably something really stupid and emotional, such futile actions are likely to be symbolic.

[Catherina]

4. The drag Assata out everytime they need to divert attention away from Luis Posada Carriles

They do it every single time too.


From 2005

Fidel Castro Defends Assata Shakur, Calls for Mass Demo May 17

Cuban President Fidel Castro made clear this week he will not hand over political exile Assata Shakur who has been living in Cuba since escaping from prison in 1979. U.S. officials put Shakur on a government terrorist watch list this month. On the same day, New Jersey officials announced a $1 million reward for her capture. She was convicted in 1973 of killing a New Jersey State Trooper. In a major televised address, Castro called Shakur a victim of "the fierce repression against the Black movement in the United States" and said she had been "a true political prisoner." He called the charges against her "an infamous lie." Castro’s remarks were his first comment on the new U.S. actions. Castro suggested that the threats against Shakur were meant to divert attention from Cuba’s demand that U.S. officials arrest Luis Posada Carriles, a former CIA asset who has admitted to carrying out acts of terrorism against Cuba. Fidel Castro called for a massive rally on May 17 in front of the U.S. Interests Section to demand the arrest of Posada.

http://www.democracynow.org/2005/5/12/headlines#5125

[bemildred]

6. That works. Maybe the other red herrings have been overused.

I rather thought it must have something to do with Cuba, so it works as a handy way to prevent any normalization of relations and to fend off all that pressure from the "leftists" to walk like we talk and acknowledge our own "terrorist" activities.

Hmm. So that makes this a yelp of outrage.

[Catherina]

3. Assata Shakur, Tupac's aunt

Assata Shakur

Why the Assata Shakur case still strikes a chord

In “A Song for Assata,” rapper, Common asks “I wonder what would happen if that would’ve been me?” Common wonders aloud what readers of Assata Shakur’s gripping autobiography, Assata, must ask themselves as they are confronted with the miscarriages of justice at the core of Shakur’s life as a black revolutionary.

Published in 1987, the autobiography chronicles Shakur’s emergence as an activist at the center of America’s racial conflict. She ultimately affiliated with the Black Panther Party and the black liberation movement in the 1960s. Her case and her bouts with the criminal justice system recall all of the angst and murkiness within which the battles for black freedom were fought in the mid-20th century: brutal prison conditions, falsified evidence, conflicting statements, frenzied media panic, and violent racists posing as officers of the law.

...

While little detail is available as to how Ms. Shakur was ferreted away to freedom from the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979, the “facts” of her case, or rather, the state’s case against her are shaky at best. By her supporters’ accounts they are institutionally designed to falsely prosecute and imprison her.

For more info on her case and details of her experiences go here: http://www.assatashakur.org.

...

Assata’s status, the government’s case against, her and the moment out which all of this emerged, are signal reminders to many of us that not so long ago, members of the Black Panther Party were considered the greatest threat to the United States government; that revolutionary activists like Assata Shakur, were considered this nation’s most feared terrorists.

...

http://thegrio.com/2013/05/02/why-the-assata-shakur-case-still-strikes-a-chord/

[bemildred]

5. Ah! Thank you. nt

[Catherina]

7. Rather the reverse, thank you for this thread

I immensely enjoyed relistening to that song. I was trying to find a particular broadcast that Democracy Now or KPFA did about her but I couldn't.

I just realized too that your news is very interesting because they must need to divert the attention bad. They just doubled the reward on her head. It was 1 million before.

[bemildred]

8. My pleasure.

My wife listens to DN most mornings, but I'm usually here catching the news.

Gitmo comes to mind too. The President is making public statements about Gitmo.

But yeah, I thought it was a bit under the radar and deserved wider dissemination. These unexpected LEO outbursts can be so illuminating when you follow them out.

[Catherina]

10. I agree with the gist of what you wrote but what is LEO ? n/t

[bemildred]

11. "Law Enforcement Organization".

But I usually include anything from the "defense" business too.

[Catherina]

12. Thank you. It's so obvious now lol! n/t

[bemildred]

13. Common in gun threads, that's where I ran into it.

You remember all the gun threads, right?

But it is a bit obscure otherwise I think, jargon.

[Catherina]

15. I don't think I've ever spent more than 5 minutes on that subject or in that forum lol

The overwhelming majority of the people on my ignore list are from that forum though. They come up for air every once in a while like for the Trayvon Martin or Kathy Giffords tragedies. I don't have the patience for rightwing talking points and shudder just to think of it. I'll remember LEO lol.

[bemildred]

16. Good thinking.

I never go to the gungeon, maybe once for jury duty. But the Dorner case sort of made guns a universal subject for a while there, and I was interested in Dorner, since I live in near LA. I inherited a S&W .357 stainless steel revolver a few years ago and it sits locked in a box in my closet because I cannot think of anything I want to shoot at and I don't care enough to try to sell it.

Playing with guns seems sort of like driving cars I think, long hours and days of boredom punctuated by seconds of sheer terror.

But the real gun nerds seem to get into it sort like sports nerds, wallowing in all kinds of data and statistics and whatnot, able to dialog for hours about the subject of minutae regarding the various products. Them I have a certain respect for.

And then there are the insecure people who think having a gun will protect them, or at least improve their chances, which I think unlikely without lots of practice.

And even then, we had a sheriff here get shot by a perp he was interrogating, BECAUSE he forget to leave his gun outside the interrogation room.

[idwiyo]

9. I am more interested in how much iUS spends on protecting war criminals and tortureres.

Never mind a nice collection of terrorists, and dictators.

[alp227]

14. Fox News? No thanks.

Here's a report from the Star-Ledger of Newark, NJ: Convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard named one of FBI's most wanted terrorists

[Daniel537]

17. Lets bomb Havana!

Lets drop some daisy-cutters on 'em, some white phosphorus, a little agent orange, and a MOAB to top it all off. I'm joking of course, but remember, this is what right-wing exiles want to actually happen. Make sure Rubio doesn't win in 2016, or ever.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Marco Rubio, one of the LAST people in the world who should become a President.

He lied for years to other Cuban Americans, pretending his parents "fled" from Cuba to escape the terrifying communists, when they actually "fled" from Cuba BEFORE the Revolution. What could be more pathetic?

All things considered, this only makes him sound more like an ideal Republican candidate.

Let's invade Miami, instead.