The Reign of Terror Operations
By Russell Redner,
National/International Executive Director Leonard Peltier Defense
Committee,
Co-defendant in the Portland trial,
Member of Northwest AIM
THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S IMPLACABLE IMPUNITY - MILITARY, PARAMILITARY AND
COVERT ATTACKS ON SOVEREIGN INDIGENOUS LAND AND
PREFACE
The incident at Oglala was a firefight, a snapshot, one event in a
series of firefights that stemmed from Wounded Knee and attempted to
quell any resistance to the U.S. government's imperialist designs on
our sacred land. In spite of the well disseminated and rehearsed
official story, this confrontation was not a law enforcement matter
but a carefully planned paramilitary operation on sovereign Lakota
land. We intend to rectify the language and deconstruct the myths and
lies of this history that has been imposed on us. The downed agents,
highly trained in counterterrorism and tactical operations, were
carrying out a "recon by fire" mission. They wanted to find out the
strength of the compound at Tent City and opened fire. Indigenous
warriors responded in kind. As in a well planned military operation,
the intruders did not attempt to leave, knowing that reinforcements
and backup were only a few miles away. They did not arrive in time to
prevent the Oglala Akicitas and their allies from counting coup on
them. This is not a civic matter but a case of people under siege
protecting themselves from the invading forces. Still, Leonard
Peltier, a Lakota-Anishinabe warrior, is paying with his life for
protecting his people. We, the indigenous peoples in our occupied
lands, have the inalienable right, under the law of the Creator and
the man made international law, to defend ourselves in order to
survive, and attempt to live with dignity in a society where we are
still demonized and oppressed, where any reminder of the truth that we
are the rightful stewards of this land is quickly dismissed by
invalidating our own humanity.
The case of Leonard Peltier has been fraught with government
misconduct since its beginning. Leonard was extradited into this
country for trial only because the government knowingly filed
fraudulent affidavits in the extradition proceedings. Then, when the
trial was held in this country, the government, among other wrongful
acts, manufactured false evidence, withheld exculpatory evidence, and
coerced witnesses. That there is no dispute about the travesty of
Leonard's case is evidenced by a statement by the United States Court
of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in November 2003: "Much of the
government conduct at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in the
prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld
evidence. It coerced witnesses. These facts are undisputed."
The FBI has engaged in unprecedented abusive actions to keep Leonard
in prison. During Leonard's plea for clemency as former President
Clinton was leaving office, the FBI took out a full page newspaper
advertisement against clemency and marched en mass in protest before
the White House. I suppose we should not be surprised by this abuse of
governmental authority by the very agency which committed misdeed
after misdeed to assure Leonard's wrongful conviction. So, Leonard
sits in prison as a result of wrongful government conduct which has
been recognized by the courts, and remains in prison as a result of
this government's repeated wrongful abuse of power and intimidation.
Now, Leonard Peltier faces one of the gravest threats to his ever
seeing freedom. To insure that Leonard never leaves a cell, the
government, in conjunction with its use of other forces, are falsely
implicating Leonard in the death of Anna Mae Aquash through viciously
false innuendo which was introduced at the trial of Arlo Looking Cloud
and has been reported by main stream media and other government
puppets ad nauseum. These falsehoods are escalating and having their
intended effect on the public. Leonard faces a loss of support and
life in a cage if these forces are permitted to wrongly set him up as
a patsy for the death of Anna Mae Aquash.
The time is now for the presentation of fact. Only through fact can we
defeat the shadowy specters that threaten Leonard's freedom. This
article is important because it is based in fact, without the wild
speculation engaged in by the government and its puppets. Only through
fact will we be able to expose those who hide in the shadows and watch
as Leonard becomes the patsy for their crimes. The facts will be
revealed, and, with their revelation, will come justice. This article
is the first of several in which we will present the facts to put an
end to the extreme injustices suffered by Leonard. Read this and the
following articles, as well as the primary documents and statements
that support their truth. Armed with knowledge and truth, we will
defeat these further attempts by the government and its puppets to
imprison Leonard forever. Leonard will gain his freedom and those who
have committed the egregious wrongs will have a day of reckoning.
In this first article, Bob Robideau writes an account of the facts
surrounding the death of Anna Mae Aquash and the roles of those who
have implicated Leonard Peltier, from his first-hand account and from
interviews he himself carried out. While this document does contain a
degree of personal opinion, identified as such, there is no hearsay in
it and every statement has undergone grueling scrutiny.
FBI PUPPETS, PAWNS AND MURDERERS
PELTIER REMAINS THE TARGET
Although names have been revealed and one man declared guilty, the
truth still remains hidden under a blanket of deceptions and lies. Did
Arlo Looking Cloud become a sacrificial pawn for those who conspired
and ordered the execution of Anna Mae Aquash? Even more significantly,
why has the FBI paid the sum of $47,000 to target Leonard Peltier and
why has he become a scapegoat? Two individuals stand in the forefront
of these deceptions and lies, John Trudell and Kamook Banks Ecoffey.
After 29 years of covering up for those who ordered the execution of
Anna Mae Aquash, John Trudell has suddenly decided to become a federal
witness. Despite four previous grand juries in 1976, 1983, 1994, and
1999, Trudell did not come forward with any of his information until a
fifth grand jury in March, 2003. Why did Trudell decide to expose his
30 year old conversation with Dennis Banks; and 17 year old
conversation with Arlo Looking Cloud in 1988, connecting them both to
Anna Mae's execution? John also connected "Lorelei Means, Madonna
Thunder Hawk and Thelma Rios, as persons guarding Anna Mae" in
Thelma's home in Rapid City. Why did he, after 27 years decide to
expose AIM members for the crime, choosing not to expose other(s), he
knows ordered the execution and their motives?
Trudell's own testimony in the Looking Cloud trial establishes that he
knew for over 17 years that John Graham, Arlo Looking Cloud and Theda
Nelson Clark kidnapped Anna Mae and took her tied up from Denver,
Colorado to Rapid City, South Dakota, where she was interrogated and
ultimately murdered in cold blood. What Trudell has not revealed, but
which he unquestionably knows, is who ordered the execution of Anna Mae.
Kamook wrote in one e-mail to me on February 17th, 2004, "I was
initially upset with you when I read your statement that said I was a
paid informant." I was not surprised that the FBI had paid Kamook
Ecoffey $47,000 to target Leonard Peltier. What is surprising is that
Trudell approved and encouraged Kamook to lie on the stand, involve
Leonard Peltier in the death of Anna Mae, and cement his wrongful
conviction by stating, unsolicited, that Leonard had confessed to her
the killing the FBI agents. Norm Zagrossi, a lead FBI agent, in the
CBC Fifth Estate program, "Execution of Anna Mae", aired December 5th,
2000, exclaimed what we had always known, "?some agents wanted
revenge." We know this because the FBI has organized many campaigns to
maintain Leonard's imprisonment. The hundreds of thousands of dollars
the FBI spent during their anti-clemency campaign in the year 2000 on
full page ads in major newspapers show once more how far they will go
to keep Leonard in prison. Kamook simply represents the most recent of
the FBI's efforts to keep Leonard in prison- namely, to falsely
implicate Leonard in the death of Anna Mae.
It is well known in the AIM community that Kamook, who has made many
claims to have been a "close friend" of Anna Mae Aquash, was not. Many
say that she absolutely hated Anna Mae, and many AIM women came to the
defense of Kamook when they heard that Banks had an intimate
relationship with her, his "... West Coast woman", (Anna Mae Aquash
Chronology From 1945 to 1997 by Richard La Course) which may explain
why so many AIM women, according to John Trudell's testimony are
alleged to have been involved with the Anna Mae murder (Trudell's
Testimony regarding AIM women, Arlo Looking Cloud Trial). "I had a
short conversation with Kamook in Oglala in the summer of 1994, and
her exact words about Anna Mae were that she was `glad the bitch [Anna
Mae] was dead' " recalls Russ Redner (personal communication, July
14th, 2005).
Several sources have stated that Trudell asked Mrs. Ecoffey to
participate and gave her "strong words of support" to encourage her to
take the witness stand to testify about an alleged confession she
heard by Leonard Peltier. This, together with other testimony by
another Trudell associate (Troy Lynn Yellow Wood, see below), also
cleverly implicated Peltier in the Anna Mae murder drama. Why is
Trudell supporting Mrs. Ecoffey's testimony of lies against Peltier, a
person for whose freedom he publicly rallied for more than 20 years?
Why has Trudell now turned on Leonard to encourage the proffering of
lies that could result in his permanent incarceration? Candy Hamilton,
a prosecution witness, commented, "I didn't think that Leonard should
have been dragged into it. I mean, god, how could he had anything to
do with it, he was all so broken." She said further, "...Leonard was
not really considered high up in AIM, I think that it came from the
top. For sure the Bellecourts and probably Banks, and after that I
don't know" (taped conversation, August 28, 2004). Mrs. Ecoffey's
sister, Bernie Lafferty, in another taped phone conversation, said:
"Oh yeah, that is why I couldn't understand why they were trying to
involve Leonard in this ..." (August 4, 2004). Paul DeMain, in a phone
conversation in regard to Leonard's civil suit against him stated, "I
would have never said that Leonard Peltier ordered Anna Mae's death
because first of all I don't believe that is the way that happened and
second of all even if Peltier wanted her dead there was no authority
to have ordered something like that in the apparatus of AIM. He
wouldn't have been able to do that. But the first proposition is that
I never would have said that" (taped phone conversation May 2005).
"The way I understand how things went John T (Trudell) contacted
Kamook about telling the truth. So why he has come out of this
smelling like a rose and Kamook takes the label of informant is beyond
me," expressed Denise Maloney after the Looking Cloud trial. She has
also described odd behavior by Trudell just before the Looking Cloud
trial: "When I ran into John Trudell in San Francisco in 2002 he ran
around the room like a chicken with his head cut off ?talking in code
and not really saying anything" (e-mail, February 11, 2004).
If, as Kamook would have us believe, "Leonard threatened Anna Mae with
truth serum", why didn't she ask for police protection when she was
arrested during the Brando motor home shoot out? According to Russ
Redner, who had rejoined Leonard and Banks' group right before that,
"Anna Mae had enough influence on the leadership at this point to veto
my request for more firepower, I was afraid that if they stopped us
they'd shoot to kill trying to get Leonard, and I wanted to be
prepared for that". This is not how a victim behaves under the thumb
of her perpetrator. The fact is that neither Kamook nor Anna Mae were
ever threatened by or afraid of Leonard Peltier. Bernie Lafferty said
that, "Leonard treated Anna Mae no different than the rest of us, "?
"I never once heard Leonard accuse Anna Mae of being an informant."
Bernie also stated, "We was always real close to Anna Mae?well, we had
to be?I know deep in my heart that she was no FBI agent. She would
never say anything to anybody" (taped phone conversation, August 4th,
2004).
Regarding Leonard's feelings about Anna Mae, one source reported: "In
mid May 1999 I [Peter Worthington] visited Leonard Peltier, In
Leavenworth federal prison, in Kansas and asked him about Anna Mae.
Leonard, who was in charge of AIM security, together with Dino Butler
and Robert Robideau, questioned Anna Mae about being an informant. All
were convinced she was clean. Peltier to Worthington "Anna Mae was
dedicated to our cause." (June 13, 1999)
sources that uphold the same opinion that Leonard and members our
group trusted Anna Mae can be found in the following books: In the
Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen, Agents of Repression, by
Churchill and Vander Wall, and many other media journals, and books.
Yet, another "close friend" of Trudell's, and federal witness, Troy
Lynn Yellow Wood, who wasn't even present during the questioning of
Anna Mae by Leonard, alleged in the "Fifth Estate" program, that
Leonard "put a gun to Anna Mae's head" during the AIM convention in
1975. Kamook also testified that Anna Mae had told her the same story
at the said AIM conference (Arlo Looking Cloud trial transcript), but
I never saw Kamook at the Conference and Bernie Lafferty corroborated
she was not there (taped phone conversation, August 4th, 2004). I was
present and I never saw Leonard with a gun when Banks and Vernon
Bellecourt ordered us to take Anna Mae out to question her. While I
did not witness Leonard's questioning of Anna Mae, I witnessed them
return over a bluff laughing and acting as they normally did.
Moreover, if Yellow Wood's allegations were true, why would Aquash
make a special effort to volunteer to become a member of our group
after the Oglala firefight? Indeed, there were two occasions when Anna
Mae became a member of our group, one when she had asked me to become
a member of my group one day prior to the Crow Dog raid. The other
when she joined Bank's group in Denver, just before the October 12
bombings on Pine Ridge. Both actions on her part are indicative that
she had no fear of Banks, Leonard, Dino Butler or me. So this leaves
the question as to just what have the feds offered Troy Lynn for her
deceptions and lies?
In regard to the AIM convention in June 1975, the prosecution asked
Trudell at the Looking Cloud trial:
Q. Was she [Anna Mae] concerned about anything at that time?
Trudell. She was concerned because she had been accused of being an
informant, and because we had some discussion about that, but at the
time my feeling was, what I got out of it, she was just more angry. I
didn't sense really it was about fear, but she was really upset that
people were making this accusation to her.
If it was not about fear, but about anger, and since Anna Mae
voluntarily chose to join our group on two different occasions, when
she obviously had many opportunities to escape to safety after her
release from jail in Pierre, South Dakota, in September of 1975, it
becomes clear, based on her actions, that Anna Mae had no fear of and
trusted Leonard Peltier totally; and when she choose to run to the
safe house provided by Trudell's "close friend," Troy Lynn Yellow
Wood, in Denver, it was her second or third effort to escape
prosecution and get back to Banks.
On November 24th, 1975, after being released in connection with the
Oregon charges and the FBI Crow Dog arrest, Anna Mae decided to go to
Denver, Colorado. "She knew she was going to get indicted on the
Oregon charges no matter what, [and, I add, she knew there was no
chance she would receive justice from the scheduled trial on November
25th, 1975 in Pierre, SD] so she split," Nilak Butler stated (In the
Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Anna Mae also believed
that she would, as she had done on another occasion, re-join Dennis
Banks in Denver where AIM members had been provided safe houses. It is
evident that Evelyn Bordeaux and Ray Hand Boy drove Anna Mae to Denver
at her own request.
According to the testimony of Troy Lynn Yellow Wood and Angie (Begay)
Janis, soon after Anna Mae arrived at Troy Lynn Yellow Wood's safe
house, it became her prison. Within hours after Dennis Banks´ name
appeared on the November 26,1975 indictment for illegal arms violation
charges arising from the Oregon shoot out, the paranoia and old
suspicions which he and Vernon Bellecourt had at the AIM convention
came back to haunt him, Banks ordered the imprisonment of Anna Mae
Aquash. "Banks knew many AIM members, including those working at the
WKLD/OC, had already formed suspicions Anna Mae was an informant."
According to Candy Hamilton they "wanted to know why everywhere Anna
Mae had been people got arrested" (taped phone conversation, Sept. 2004).
Was Banks' old confederate, John Trudell, a part of this in any way?
Trudell was one of the few Banks trusted. Trudell revealed to Ken
Stern in his book, Loud Hawk, (p. 288.) that he had been one in AIM
with privileged information about Dennis Banks' group; that Mark Banks
had purchased $4,000 worth of weapons with $100 bills that he knew
came from Marlon Brando. In spite of Stern himself having been most
instrumental in making a deal with the U.S. government to drop the
case and prevent in this way the unmasking of the informants (Russell
Redner, personal communication, July 14th 2005), he writes at length
about Trudell's and his lawyer friend's ideas of who the informants
could have been that turned in Banks'motor home. According to Dennis
Banks, "John Trudell and another friend picked me up in Nevada after
my escape from the Brando motor home shoot out and took me to Lee
Brightman's home in San Francisco, California." The history of John
Trudell's close ties to Dennis Banks during this time is well recorded.
Mr. Stern listened tentatively as Trudell explored all the AIM members
who could have possibly been informants. Yet, Trudell said nothing to
Stern about the letter Anna Mae had sent him about informants "A" and
"B". Did Trudell also speak with Banks about who the informants might
have been? According to Stern, in support of Banks and others who had
been arrested in the Oregon shoot out, "...visiting AIM leaders Vernon
Bellecourt and John Trudell were interviewed on radio and television
stations." Trudell and Vernon became close traveling companions for
Banks during this period.
Trudell claims to know nothing about the death of Anna Mae. Yet,
statements he has made over the years highlight the incredulity of his
alleged lack of knowledge and that he has associated with and given
aid to the right AIM leader(s) to cover up the parties who committed
the crime and to create patsies to take the fall for these people.
Indeed, before Anna Mae left the jail in Vale, Oregon, for Pierre,
South Dakota, she wrote Trudell a letter warning him about an FBI
agent's affidavit of informants "A" and "B".
Candy Hamilton, who named Bruce Ellison as the attorney who was at
Thelma Rio's home and participated in the WKLD/OC meeting against Anna
Mae, in the Looking Cloud trial said, "Somebody said something about
her [Anna Mae] being a snitch. I said, I've seen how she worked and
lived in Oglala and I know that she is not a snitch. They stood there
a minute; either Lorelei or Thelma looked at Bruce Ellison and said,
'Well, what do you think?' Bruce said, 'Well, everywhere she goes
somebody gets arrested' (taped phone conversation Sept. 2004).
Trudell's attorney buddy believed Anna Mae to be a "snitch". This is
the same attorney Trudell knows took part in the WKLD/OC meeting that
condemned her; and this is the same attorney Trudell has conspired
with for the last 29 years to cover up for those who ordered and
killed Anna Mae. Beginning in 1976 both Trudell and Ellison began
making public statements accusing the FBI of being totally responsible
for the death of Anna Mae, while in fact they both knew the part in
which AIM members and themselves had played. In 1979, both Ellison and
Trudell, in Lan Brookes Ritz's documentary, "Brave Hearted Woman,"
parroted the same words Candy Hamilton reported allegedly came from
Anna Mae after the September 5, 1975 FBI raid on Crow Dogs, "Agent
David Price told her that he would see her dead within a year." said
Ellison. Trudell further stated, "And it worked out that way." In the
Looking Cloud trial, Trudell said nothing about the FBI's involvement.
Ron Schiffman, an attorney representing one of the defendants in the
Oregon shoot out said, "We may never know who the snitches are,
although, guaranteed, we'll find out. There may have been no snitches
at all. The FBI might be making this up to justify the stop of the
vehicle..." (pg. 45, Loud Hawk, by Kern Stern).
The FBI affidavit was never proven to be truth or fiction because not
one case went to trial, but based on previous experience of FBI
documents in the Leonard Peltier case, it is my strong opinion that it
was another FBI fabrication. The FBI affidavit then became one of the
documents used by certain AIM members to accuse Anna Mae of being an
informant. According to one source that was present, this affidavit
was used in Denver, Colorado, by Theda Nelson Clark and other AIM
members, and used again in South Dakota to interrogate Anna Mae and
purportedly evidenced to these people that she was an informant.
John Trudell, National Chairman of the American Indian Movement during
that period, began an early campaign to cover up for those he knew
were directly responsible for the execution of Anna Mae. The question
is why? For more than a decade, Trudell became the central figure in
the media who spoke exclusively about the FBI's involvement in Anna
Mae's murder, saying nothing of AIM's involvement. Even after I had
publicly confronted him in 1994, with the murder of Anna Mae, at the
"Salt of the Earth Book Store", in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (when Bob
Ecoffey was carrying an active investigation) he continued to say
nothing of what he knew of AIM`s involvement. To the contrary, he
accused me of being part of the FBI cointelpro program stating, "?a
Cointelpro operation is being directed at me?to neutralize me. I have
been waiting for the attack."
Significantly, during the "Salt of the Earth" bookstore confrontation
with Trudell about Anna Mae in 1994, Trudell admitted knowing "that
she had been taken to a protected area". Clearly, someone, in the
know, had contacted him. If Trudell, was not an important part of
Banks' support network, why was he contacted to "protect Anna Mae" in
California? Why was Trudell the only one Banks called to pick him up
in Nevada after escaping the Oregon shoot out? Why was Trudell
contacted and told the location of Anna Mae`s safe house? Banks knew
that "after Pierre Anna Mae went to Colorado" (In the Spirit of Crazy
Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Was it Banks who told Trudell that Anna
Mae had gone to the safe house of Troy Lynn Yellow Wood's? Trudell's
knowledge that Anna Mae "had been taken to a protected area," that she
had "been taken prisoner" leads many to believe he knew much more.
According to Trudell's testimony in the Looking Cloud trial, he
supposedly found out about Anna Mae's murder in 1988, when Looking
Cloud allegedly told him the story of Anna Mae's murder. This is
simply not true based on Troy Lynn`s words from October 2nd, 1994
(taped conversation) that, "John Trudell has known about all this from
the time Anna Mae was taken from my house", and Trudell's own
admission, during CBC the Fifth Estate program aired in December 2000,
that "Troy Lynn called me from Denver and told me that Anna Mae had
been at her house and these people had come and took her away as
prisoner."
An ex- girl friend of Dennis Banks, Angie (Begay) Janis testified, in
the Looking Cloud trial, that, 'they took Annie Mae tied up'. Troy
Lynn Yellow Wood denied that Anna Mae had left her home tied up. She
also denied, Janis's contention that Aquash had been kept in the
basement. But it is instructive that on cross-examination Troy Lynn
Yellow Wood said that Arlo Looking Cloud "was not in the meeting room.
I don't know at what point he came in." and, "I never saw him. I have
heard from others that he came in and went down into the basement."
Trudell stated: "... And I got this message that...Annie Mae was in
trouble and could I help her. I couldn't because they had a warrant
for my arrest in Nevada on a charge that was later dropped. I could do
nothing about it. The next time I ?Dennis told me she had been shot in
the back of the head. He told me this in California. This is when he
was out on bail there...I know it was within two days or so after they
found the body and I knew nothing about that" (trial transcript of the
Butler -Robideau trial, Cedar Rapid, Iowa, 1976,
http://www.dickshovel.com/trurspn.html Paul DeMain, editor of News
From Indian Country, claims in his "Anna Mae Aquash Time Line" that
Trudell was unable to travel out of the state of Nevada, because he
had been accused of shooting a .32 caliber pistol into the ceiling of
the trading post on the Duck Valley Reservation in July 1975, the same
type of gun used to kill Anna Mae (FBI Memorandum. 7/18/75, From: SA
John M. Estes To: SAC Held, Pine Ridge, 70-10239 ; testimony of SA
Even Hodge, in the Looking Cloud trial). Trudell's words contradict
his own testimony at Looking Cloud's trial, where he testified that he
had been in Los Angeles in late September and early October, he said:
"?one of us always stayed with her as much as possible just to act in
the capacity of being security." He also drove from California to
Nevada in November to pick Banks up and took him back to California.
The fact is that even if Trudell was unable to travel in December, as
DeMain contends, he still had all the phone numbers of AIM members in
Rapid City, as well as the lawyers' who worked at the WKLD/OC office.
The information was just a phone call away. Why didn't he intervene to
save his "friend" Anna Mae? He knew exactly what was occurring.
Trudell's long time friend and close associate, Bruce Ellison, who
participated in the interrogation of Anna Mae when she was brought
from Denver to South Dakota, said that Anna Mae had been brought into
the WKLD/OC office tied up, "I told them to untie her", he said
(Conversation with Bruce Ellison during the March 4th, 2005, "Benefit
for Freedom" in Toronto, Canada).
Why did Trudell align himself for 29 years with Bruce Ellison, a
person he knew participated in the WKLD/OC "meeting" that undoubtedly
condemned Anna Mae as an informant? In my conversation with Trudell
1994 at "Salt of the Earth", I asked him, "Did you know that Bruce
Ellison was involved?" Trudell answered: "Yes, I knew about that". Did
those at the WKLD/OC "meeting" call Trudell, who they knew was not
only a long time "friend" of Anna Mae`s, but also a person who was a
very close associate to Banks? Why does Trudell continue to maintain
close ties to Bruce Ellison, who he knew took part in the
interrogation of Anna Mae at the WKLD/OC? The same attorney he has
conspired with for 29 years in covering up the true circumstance of
her death. Both Trudell and Bruce Ellison had taken the position that
they "do not know who pulled the trigger?" But "the responsibility
clearly rests with the federal bureau of investigation". In, Rolling
Stone, April 7, 1976, Banks was the first to utter this position
stating, "?even if AIM members had killed Aquash, the FBI bore
responsibility because it had helped launch rumors about her." Banks
stated in the Rolling Stone article that, "All kinds of strange things
have been happening in our movement, I suppose it is 99% infiltrated
by now". Banks said he had "?sent three people back to the reservation
to find out?", and that after talking with his three emissaries he was
satisfied that AIM members were not responsible for her (Anna Mae's)
murder." According to Banks, Trudell had been one of those people that
took part in the meeting with him in California. (In the Spirit of
Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen). Was Trudell, also one of the three
"emissaries" Banks had sent back to the rez to conduct this
investigation for him?
In a tape recorded interview, Candy Hamilton alleges Anna Mae told her
that "Price told me he would see me dead within a year." In the Lan
Brookes Ritz documentary, "Anna Mae, Brave Hearted Woman," Trudell
said, "Agent Price told Anna Mae if she did not cooperate she would be
dead before the end of the year...and it worked out that way!" Just
before leaving the jail in Vale, Oregon she told one reporter,
obviously speaking about the FBI, "They'll execute me. That's what
they do to Indians who fight for their people". In the Looking Cloud
trial, Trudell said nothing of these threats by FBI agents as he had
done in my trial. Why?
Denise Maloney wrote to me: "Please keep in touch it is people like
yourself and others who are the true warriors who loudly condemn and
contest the injustices that hold us up and keep us moving forward.
Thank you"?"It saddens me when all these people who have spent so many
years celebrating their professed friendships with my mother would end
up defending the very people who took her life in the name of
brotherhood." "?I think we really need to band together collectively
for my mother's sake," Denise wrote, "?and put our differences aside
and remember that the reason most of us see things in different ways
IS because of the lies and deception (s)" (e-mail: February 21, 2004)
I am comforted by the fact that I am not alone in my quest for truth
and justice. Lakota Oyate expressed in a September 28, 1999,
statement: "?John Trudell - please end your silence. We know your
paranoia is awful, but you MUST tell us everything and clear yourself
before the Spirits. It's the only way. Wakan Inyan will forgive you,
even if men do not?.Truth is everything. Hau."
There are many unanswered questions concerning John Trudell's motives
for joining the federal prosecution of the Anna Mae Aquash case and
giving comfort and aid to Kamook´s lies about Peltier. It has become
clear that John Trudell has known, from day one, why Anna Mae Aquash
was taken prisoner, and executed; and as a witness for the
prosecution, sheltered himself from possible prosecution for wrong
doings he played in the cover-up and killing of Anna Mae. On the other
hand, Arlo Looking Cloud and John Boy Graham may have been the
instruments used to kill Anna Mae, but they had, from the beginning
been pawns to be sacrificed to do the bidding of those AIM leader(s)
that ordered Anna Mae's execution. Anna Mae was a member of Banks'
group, everyone in the movement knew this. According to our unwritten
code of behavior in the American Indian Movement, absolutely no one
would have touched Anna Mae Aquash without the express order of Dennis
Banks. Leonard Peltier has become the fall guy for Trudell and those
other AIM leader(s) who ordered the execution; and actual target in
the ongoing saga of FBI's deception and lies. What appears to have
materialized is an unspoken, silent hidden unity between the FBI, and
John Trudell.
Note: I have offered the main players in this article the opportunity
to read it and comment on its content, in order to include their
opinion. These are the responses I obtained:
Denise Maloney has objected to my use of her written expressions that
appear in this article pertaining to Kamook and Trudell.
Mr. Bruce Ellison's responses to my statement were: "Again, Bob, none
of the allegations about what you claim occurred at the WKLD/OC house
ever happened there." and, "I can only address the more than subtle
references to me. You continue to accept BS rather than reality."
John Trudell, has not responded.
Dennis Banks´ only comment in a taped phone conversation was: "Who is
going to believe you Bob?"
Bob Robideau,
International/National spokesperson for the LPDC
Case Consultant to Barry Bachrach, Attorney for Leonard Peilter
And Leonard Peltier Co-defendant in the incident at Oglala trial
Member of AIM
For questions and verification of information used in this article
Please e-mail: americanindianm@telefonica.net or Phone/fax:
011-34-93-815-0424 (Europe: 00-34-93-815-0424)
Appendix:
Trudell's testimony in the Looking Cloud trial, section about AIM women:
Q. You didn't know him (Arlo Looking Cloud) at that time?
A. No, I may have met him. But, no, I didn't know him. So he told me
that he and John Boy and Theda, they had taken her from Troy Lynn's
house in Denver, and that they brought her to a place in Rapid City,
they took her to one house, one place, and then from there to an empty
apartment or house, and that this house belonged to Thelma Rios, and
that they kept Anna Mae there for maybe a day. And that while she was
there that Laurelie Means and Madonna Thunder Hawk and Thelma Rios and
John Boy and himself, between them, somebody always stayed with her,
and she was kept in that house not free to leave.
Q. Did he ever mention to you why Anna Mae had been taken to South Dakota?
A. To be questioned.
Q. About what?
A. Being an informant.
Bob Ecoffey's recorded video of his conversation with Arlo Looking
Cloud, presented at the trial: http://jfamr.org/compile.html
"..., Looking Cloud denied that AIM leader Vernon Bellecourt ever
visited him after the murder, although Ecoffey tells Looking Cloud he
has a witness who says otherwise. However, near the very end of his
interview, Looking Cloud tells Ecoffey, if he wants to talk to
somebody who knows everything, "talk to Bellecourt.... Vernon Bellecourt".
Interesting fact: John Trudell has never made public or performed a
single poem or song about his "friend" Anna Mae.
[end]