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John Graham Loses Extradition Appeal [Updated Including Info on How You Can Support John]

Contributed by blackandred on Mon, 2007-07-02 20:51.
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Former AIM Member Loses Extradition Appeal

by ROD MICKLEBURGH; Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 5:15 AM EDT - Globe and Mail

[Editor's Note: Additional information, including what you can do to support John Graham, follows the article below.]

VANCOUVER - Echoes from the turbulent and often violent conflicts that consumed the militant American Indian Movement in the 1970s continue to resound in the courtrooms of British Columbia.

Yesterday, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld the extradition of former AIM member John Graham to stand trial in South Dakota in the chilling murder more than 30 years ago of Canadian Mi'kmaq Anna Mae Aquash.

After the decision, to the evident distress of his two adult daughters sitting in the courtroom, Mr. Graham was taken into custody to await transport to the United States, pending a possible final appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

According to U.S. authorities, Mr. Graham executed Ms. Aquash as she wept and prayed for her life on a desolate corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation on a wintry South Dakota night in 1975.

Her death was allegedly ordered by AIM leaders who believed that the 30-year-old mother was an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

A U.S. federal jury convicted Arlo Looking Cloud of murder three years ago for his role in the killing. He has told authorities that he looked on while Mr. Graham shot Ms. Aquash in the back of the head.

Mr. Graham and his many supporters argue, however, that he is being framed by the FBI, as they believe well-known native activist Leonard Peltier was.

Mr. Peltier, currently serving a life sentence for the murder of two FBI agents killed during a 1975 shootout with AIM at Pine Ridge, also fought a long, unsuccessful battle to avoid extradition from B.C.

In a case that continues to arouse emotions today, the main evidence used to extradite Mr. Peltier was a sworn affidavit by native Myrtle Poorbear that later proved to be false. Many, including Amnesty International, have called for Mr. Peltier's release.

AIM was the focus of worldwide attention in those days after rifle-toting natives seized Wounded Knee reservation in 1971, keeping federal agents at bay for 71 days.

Over time, however, the militant movement bogged down in bitter divisions. Some of the statements used against Mr. Graham came from former members and leaders of AIM. They said that Mr. Looking Cloud told them Mr. Graham was involved in the murder of Ms. Aquash.

Court of Appeal Judge Ian Donald referred to the statements in upholding Mr. Graham's extradition to stand trial.

"In my opinion, a properly instructed jury acting reasonably could convict on the evidence that [Mr. Graham]...carried out [Ms. Aquash's] execution with the assistance of Looking Cloud," he concluded.

Mr. Graham's lawyer, Terry La Liberté, said he has little hope his client will receive a fair trial in the United States.

"He's going to be at the mercy of their justice system," Mr. La Liberté said. "It took them just four days to try and convict and sentence Arlo Looking Cloud. It's a railroad down there."

Apart from hearsay statements, the evidence against Mr. Graham is non-existent, he said. "There is not a tittle of forensic evidence. ... In Canada, this case wouldn't even get past the charge approval stage. It's terribly frustrating."

With a report from Canadian Press

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Please write John a postcard or letter. Write soon as John could be extradited at any time within the next 28 days:

Attn: John Graham
North Fraser Pre Trial Center
1451 Kingsway Ave.,
Port Coquitlam, BC
V3C 1S2

Here are some other addresses to write, in the order given.

PLEASE send copies of your letters to whomever is appropriate. Never just send off one copy of a letter. It is sometimes in the threat of a copy going elsewhere that something gets done.

ALSO please write: Robert Nicholson, Minister of Justice, House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 [no postage necessary, at least if mailed within Canada] and ask him NOT to put his signature on John's extradition order.

Write and ask that John Graham's case be looked into as a travesty of justice and ask to have John accepted as a political prisoner. Write London, [UK], US and Germany (Bonn) and the other [Amnesty International] groups listed only as you can. Write AI Canada especially given their lukewarm support (below).
__________________

Amnesty International (Canada) has previously commented on the need for careful scrutiny of the evidence presented against John Graham, whether in an extradition hearing or in a trial. However, while we respect efforts to mount an effective defense, we do not share the position that Graham should be shielded from prosecution on the basis of past miscarriages of justice in respect to other, much more prominent members of the [American Indian Movement].

The US justice system is capable of meeting international fair trial standards and should be expected to do [so] in every instance.

The alternative would be to accept that no one could be prosecuted for the murder of Indigenous rights defender Anna Mae Aquash because similar concerns about political interference [in] past investigations would come up in every instance.

I hope that this clarifies our position.

Craig Benjamin
Campaigner for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples
__________________

Amnesty International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London UK
WC1X 0DW

Tel +44 (0)20 7413 5500
Fax +44 (0)20 7956 1157

www.amnesty.org
_____________________

Amnesty International USA
5 Penn Plaza, New York, New York
USA 10001
(212) 807-8400

Mid West Office
53 Jackson, Ste. 731, Chicago, IL
USA 60604
(312) 427-2060; aiusamw@aiusa.org
__________________

Amnesty International
Sekretariat der deutschen Sektion
Büro Bonn
Heerstr. 178
53111 Bonn, Germany
info@amnesty.de

Amnesty International
Sekretariat der deutschen Sektion
Büro Berlin
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin, Germany
_____________________

Amnesty International Scotland
9 Haymarket Terrace
Edinburgh EH12 5EZ
scotland@amnesty.org.uk
[Press and media enquiries should be directed to Naomi McAuliffe at the above office.]

Amnesty International Northern Ireland
397 Ormeau Road
Belfast
BT7 3GP
nireland@amnesty.org.uk
[Press and media enquiries should be directed to Fiona Smith at the above office.]
________________________

Write to ask that John Graham's case be put into the Supreme Court of Canada for the sake of all Canadians and our threatened sovereignty.

The Right Hon. Beverley McLachlin
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
301 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0J1

Irwin Cotler MP (former Minister of Justice who knows about John's case, as does External Affairs Minister Peter McKay and MP's Andy Scott and Stephen Owen. All have been spoken to regarding this issue.) All can be written:

House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

Warren Allmand
4351 Oxford, Montréal, Quebec
H4A 2Y7
(514) 486-1811

(Allmand was the Solicitor General for Canada when Leonard Peltier was extradited)

__________________________

International Action Center
5C - Solidarity Center
55 West 17th Street
New York, N.Y. 10011
212-633-6646

(This organization was set up by former U.S. Attorney-General Ramsay Clark who has been much in sympathy with Leonard Peltier)
_____________________

Also write:

Canadian Civil Liberties Association
360 Bloor St. W.
Suite 506
Toronto, Ontario

Here are addresses for Human Rights Watch. Let them know the story and even ask them re: legal help in USA. Washington and San Francisco offices have always replied in the past:

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700, Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
hrwnyc@hrw.org

1630 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 500
Washington, DC 20009 USA
Tel:1-(202) 612-4321, Fax:1-(202) 612-4333
hrwdc@hrw.org

11500 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 441
Los Angeles, CA 90064 USA
Tel:1-(310) 477-5540, Fax: (310) 477-4622
E-mail: hrwlasb@hrw.org

100 Bush Street, Suite 1812
San Francisco, CA 94104
Tel: 415.362.3250, Fax: 415.362.3255
E-mail: hrwsf@hrw.org
____________________

Info & Links:

"Who killed Anna Mae Aquash?"
by Rex Weyler
Vancouver Sun, January 8, 2005
www.grahamdefense.org/20050108weyler-van-sun.htm

Noam Chomsky on John Graham's threatened extradition from Vancouver
http://www.members.shaw.ca/johngraham/noam.html

Bob Newbrook, attending police officer at Leonard Peltier's arrest; he now raises doubts about John Graham's arrest
http://www.grahamdefense.org/news_province1.htm

Bruce Ellison, Lawyer, four decades defending Native activists in the U.S.
http://www.danieltv.com/movies/jg-400.mov

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'Socialist Voice' Article: Stop the Deportation of John Graham!

Submitted by blackandred on Wed, 2007-07-04 11:29.

Stop the Deportation of John Graham! Indigenous Rights Activist Faces Imminent Transfer to U.S.

By Ian Beeching; July 4, 2007 - SocialistVoice.com

I fear that John will not receive a fair trial in the US any more than I did. I must remind you, it is court record that the FBI lied to extradite me back to the US.

-—Leonard Peltier

The British Columbia Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Tuchone-Canadian John Graham against his extradition to the U.S. Sitting in prison, Graham now waits to see if the Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal of the BC court decision. If it refuses, within 30 days he will be sent to South Dakota to face the same kind of kangaroo court system that imprisoned his former colleague and American Indian Movement (AIM) leader Leonard Peltier in 1977 and has held him ever since.

U.S. authorities accuse Graham of murdering Anna Mae Aquash, an AIM activist who was killed shortly after an armed standoff between U.S. government authorities and AIM at the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975.

Under Canadian law, U.S. government authorities can request extradition of a Canadian citizen using flimsy or hearsay evidence before Canadian courts. A Canadian judge need simply believe that arguments presented by U.S. authorities provide a "reasonable expectation" of conviction of the accused. The same criteria were used to extradite Leonard Peltier from Canada in 1976. He was convicted of killing two FBI agents at Pine Ridge. Years after his conviction, evidence emerged that key prosecution witnesses were coerced into lying at his trial.

"In Canada," said Graham's lawyer, Terry LaLiberte, following the BC Supreme Court decision, "I'd drive a truck through the holes in this case."

The Evidence

The case against John Graham is a COINTELPRO style frame-up. That was the secret FBI program during the 1960's and 1970's to disrupt or violently assault social protest movements. A 2005 Vancouver Sun article by Rex Weyler reported, "'Alleged witness Al Gates had been dead for nine months,' said LaLiberte, when the U.S. `claimed he was available for trial.' Witness Frank Dillon, to whom Graham is alleged to have confessed, claims he did not make the statement attributed to him."

Only one piece of evidence could possibly have pointed the finger at Graham. This was video-recorded testimony of Arlo Looking Cloud. Later, Looking Cloud claimed he had been given drugs and alcohol by detectives in order to manipulate the statement against Graham out of him.

Looking Cloud's current attorney, Terry Gilbert from the Centre for Constitutional Rights in New York, "claims that Looking Cloud's court-appointed lawyer incriminated his own client. `Looking Cloud was a homeless alcoholic for more than 20 years,' said Gilbert, `vulnerable to manipulation by the detective in Denver.'"

"David Seals, with a Lakota human rights group, interviewed Looking Cloud at Pennington County jail in South Dakota, and writes that Looking Cloud told him, "'It was a set-up … I was drunk. They were giving me drugs and alcohol.' Seals claims the video confession is `almost incoherent, and the police were asking a lot of leading questions.'"

Can Justice be Found in Graham's Extradition?

The extradition of John Graham is not about finding justice for the tragic death of Anna Mae Aquash but rather punishing Graham for his involvement in AIM and covering up the FBI's likely role in the death of Aquash. John Graham's defenders claim that evidence points to involvement by FBI agent David Price in the killing of Aquash.

According to Aquash herself, when FBI agents arrested her after the Pine Ridge standoff and shootings, Price threatened that if she did not cooperate "you won't live out the year."

A year after the death of Aquash, Price used her death to threaten and extract false testimony from Myrtle Poor Bear that led to the extradition and imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. According to Poor Bear, "He [Price] showed me pictures of the body and said that if I don't cooperate this is what may happen to me."

The FBI's violent undercover operations against AIM during the 1970's resulted in the deaths of dozens of members of AIM and other Indigenous rights activists.

History Repeats Itself

Warren Allmand was Minister of Indian Affairs in the Canadian government at the time of the 1976 extradition demand against Leonard Peltier. He refused to intervene, despite considerable pressure on him from Peltier's defenders and others concerned with civil liberties. According to Weyler, "He now feels `betrayed and insulted … [by the] FBI's deliberate use of fraud.' In 1992, fifty-five Canadian MPs filed a brief to a U.S. court affirming that Canada had been duped."

In a letter in support of Graham, Peltier writes, "When we talk of sovereignty, we must be willing to solve our own problems and not go running to the oppressor for relief.… We have been and still are at odds with the most dangerous, well-funded, strongest military and political organization in the history of the world [the US government]."

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