Free Soviets
03-05-2005, 09:16
and assata shakur got herself added to the terror watchlist too. fucking ridiculous.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/ny-bc-nj--chesimard-reward0502may02,0,6110010.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba
Feds offer $1 million reward for fugitive Chesimard
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
Posted May 2 2005, 5:04 PM EDT
EWING, N.J. -- Fugitive cop killer Joanne Chesimard is now on the same terrorist watch lists that include Osama bin Laden.
In an indication of how badly New Jersey authorities still want to recapture the Black Liberation Army member who executed a state trooper as he lay on the ground 32 years ago, the bounty on Chesimard's head was increased Monday from $150,000 to $1 million.
State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said he hopes the sweetened reward will encourage someone to come forward with information leading to the capture of Chesimard, who has been living in Cuba under the protection of Fidel Castro's government.
"We have pretty long institutional memories," Fuentes said at a news conference at State Police headquarters on the 32nd anniversary of the killing. "This is a debt that she owes to the residents of the state of New Jersey for the crimes she committed."
Chesimard was convicted of the 1973 murder of Trooper Werner Foerster, but she escaped to Cuba and was granted political asylum after three gunmen busted her out of what was then the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in Hunterdon County in 1979.
Garden State officials have failed to convince Cuba to hand over Chesimard, 57, who goes by the name Assata Shakur.
Shakur is still believed to live in Havana. But a woman with a Cuban accent who on Monday answered at the number listed for Shakur in Havana's phone book said that no one by that name lived there.
At the address listed in the phone book, the woman said that Shakur had moved several years ago. A neighbor, when asked if he knew where she had moved, simply laughed and said it was "a war secret."
Foerster responded as backup when another trooper had stopped Chesimard and two companions for a faulty tail light on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. Shots soon rang out and Foerster was hit. As he lay on the ground, authorities said, Chesimard took his gun and fatally shot him.
Her brother-in-law was killed in the gun battle and another man was arrested. Clark Squire is serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison and was denied parole last August.
Although she had long been on the watch lists maintained by federal agencies such as the FBI and the Bureau Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Chesimard's name was added Monday to the FBI's wanted list of domestic terrorism suspects.
"Anyone of the mindset that would execute a police officer once they were on the ground" is dangerous enough to be considered a domestic terrorism threat, Fuentes said.
The money from the United States Justice Department, personally approved by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, will be paid for information leading to her safe capture. It would not be paid if Chesimard is killed in a capture attempt, Fuentes said.
"The goal is to bring a fully functional, no-assembly-required fugitive back home to New Jersey so she can finish out her term of imprisonment," he said.
He said the reward money should make Chesimard a much more attractive quarry for professional bounty hunters. One such businessman is already on the case.
"I'm going to jump on it," said Louis Faccone, a Woodbridge bounty hunter who tracked down and caught a fugitive ticket broker last fall who had fled to Cancun after fleecing customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Faccone said he could have a two-man team launched toward Cuba from the Florida Keys within hours of getting reliable information about where in Cuba Chesimard might be at a given moment.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/ny-bc-nj--chesimard-reward0502may02,0,6110010.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba
Feds offer $1 million reward for fugitive Chesimard
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
Posted May 2 2005, 5:04 PM EDT
EWING, N.J. -- Fugitive cop killer Joanne Chesimard is now on the same terrorist watch lists that include Osama bin Laden.
In an indication of how badly New Jersey authorities still want to recapture the Black Liberation Army member who executed a state trooper as he lay on the ground 32 years ago, the bounty on Chesimard's head was increased Monday from $150,000 to $1 million.
State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said he hopes the sweetened reward will encourage someone to come forward with information leading to the capture of Chesimard, who has been living in Cuba under the protection of Fidel Castro's government.
"We have pretty long institutional memories," Fuentes said at a news conference at State Police headquarters on the 32nd anniversary of the killing. "This is a debt that she owes to the residents of the state of New Jersey for the crimes she committed."
Chesimard was convicted of the 1973 murder of Trooper Werner Foerster, but she escaped to Cuba and was granted political asylum after three gunmen busted her out of what was then the Clinton Correctional Institution for Women in Hunterdon County in 1979.
Garden State officials have failed to convince Cuba to hand over Chesimard, 57, who goes by the name Assata Shakur.
Shakur is still believed to live in Havana. But a woman with a Cuban accent who on Monday answered at the number listed for Shakur in Havana's phone book said that no one by that name lived there.
At the address listed in the phone book, the woman said that Shakur had moved several years ago. A neighbor, when asked if he knew where she had moved, simply laughed and said it was "a war secret."
Foerster responded as backup when another trooper had stopped Chesimard and two companions for a faulty tail light on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick. Shots soon rang out and Foerster was hit. As he lay on the ground, authorities said, Chesimard took his gun and fatally shot him.
Her brother-in-law was killed in the gun battle and another man was arrested. Clark Squire is serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison and was denied parole last August.
Although she had long been on the watch lists maintained by federal agencies such as the FBI and the Bureau Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Chesimard's name was added Monday to the FBI's wanted list of domestic terrorism suspects.
"Anyone of the mindset that would execute a police officer once they were on the ground" is dangerous enough to be considered a domestic terrorism threat, Fuentes said.
The money from the United States Justice Department, personally approved by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, will be paid for information leading to her safe capture. It would not be paid if Chesimard is killed in a capture attempt, Fuentes said.
"The goal is to bring a fully functional, no-assembly-required fugitive back home to New Jersey so she can finish out her term of imprisonment," he said.
He said the reward money should make Chesimard a much more attractive quarry for professional bounty hunters. One such businessman is already on the case.
"I'm going to jump on it," said Louis Faccone, a Woodbridge bounty hunter who tracked down and caught a fugitive ticket broker last fall who had fled to Cancun after fleecing customers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Faccone said he could have a two-man team launched toward Cuba from the Florida Keys within hours of getting reliable information about where in Cuba Chesimard might be at a given moment.