From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/08-2
by Jamilah King
Published on Wednesday, May 8, 2013 by ColorLines.com
Assata Shakur has been given many names over the past four decades. Her political allies in the 1970s struggle for black liberation knew her as a comrade and freedom fighter. Ever since her escape from a New Jersey prison and exile in Cuba, she’s become an icon to many on the radical left. Some, mostly critics, still call her by her birth name, Joanna Chesimard. Now the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a new name for her: terrorist.
On May 2 the FBI and the New Jersey State Police announced that Shakur had become the first woman to be added to the agency’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Why? Because in 1977, Shakur was convicted of a slew of criminal charges, including the first degree murder of police officer Werner Forester, after a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. (Previously, she had been unsuccessfully prosecuted in six other criminal cases, including bank robbery.) After her conviction for the murder of Forester, Shakur was sentenced to life in prison. But on Nov. 2, 1979, she escaped, then turned up five years later in Cuba, where she has held political exile.
Shakur maintains her innocence, and notes that the State Police’s own investigation found that there was no gunpowder residue on her hands at the time of her arrest. She’s remained an outspoken critic of racism in the United States and become an iconic symbol for many in the racial justice community. Her book, “Assata: An Autobiography” is just one part of the immense cultural impact she’s had.
However, in all the years since her escape, the FBI has not given up its search for Shakur. “No person, no matter what his or her political or moral convictions are, is above the law. Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist who murdered a law enforcement officer execution-style,” FBI special agent Aaron Ford said recently at a press conference.
So she’s on the terror list. But for many, that new designation has begged the question: What exactly does it mean to be on one of the FBI’s wanted lists?
Continue reading at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/08-2
See Also:
Black Commentator: She’s No Terrorist: The Bizarre Move By the FBI Against Assata Shakur
Black Agenda Reports: Not Your Daddy’s COINTELPRO: Obama Brands Assata Shakur “Most Wanted Terrorist”
