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04/06/2005:

":COINTELPRO's long shadowThe importance of the John Graham case"

...John Graham, a Canadian citizen and former AIM activist, has been charged in a U.S. court with the 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, a member of the Mi’kmaq First Nation who was a prominent young leader of AIM.

An editorial piece such as this can’t do justice to the complexities of this case, nor to the sordid history of U.S. government sabotage of the American Indian Movement. Rex Wyler, a Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist, has written extensively on the Graham case, and his in-depth article – published in the CanWest Global Vancouver Sun of all places – provides a fairly definitive summary. (See 'Who Killed Anna Mae?' January 4, 2004).

Suffice to say, though, that the evidence against Graham is highly dubious, and must be viewed in light of the 1976 Peltier extradition, where it is now acknowledged that the FBI falsified evidence. Further, the entire context of the case is the U.S. government’s efforts to exterminate oppositional Native movements, as a culmination of a centuries-long genocide and colonisation.

The COINTELPRO infiltration by government agents -- also now well documented -- was designed to create and fuel violent internecine conflicts within AIM as well as other organized threats to ‘Homeland Security’ such as the Black Panther Party, the Socialist Workers Party and a myriad of other groups organizing for social change.

A number of journalists, commentators, and Native activists have articulated a principled position on the case: No matter who pulled the trigger, the FBI is responsible for the murder of Anna Mae.
Full Article: zmag.org