Jalil Muntaqim Sent to SHU on Bogus Charge

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Jalil Muntaqim has been sent to the SHU on a bogus charge (see below). Comrades from Jericho are asking that people speak with their own organizations and ask them to write or call the folks below to get Jalil out of the SHU and if possible a transfer to another facility.

The following report is from a friend of Jalil's who visited him on Saturday January 29th:

On Monday, [Jalil] was taken down to trial regarding the photograph that was "recovered" in his cell (the photo was from Cetewayo's memorial held at Hunter College this past March, in which a BPP banner was hanging in the background. Guards confiscated the photo on grounds that it demonstrated "unlawful organization.") This photograph had been sent in through the mail, and therefore presumably been processed through Attica's correspondence department. Jalil had lined up 3 witnesses for this bogus trial: 1. The head of Attica's correspondence dept, to argue that mail sent in through correspondence could not be considered contraband after the fact; 2. The head of Attica's gangs unit to show that Black Panther Party is not a designated gang (originally, the charges included gang affiliation as well); 3. Jalil's counselor, to demonstrate good behavior and non-involvement in unlawful organizations.

When he arrived to the trial, he was told all 3 of these witnesses were denied on the basis of "irrelevancy." He was therefore unrepresented and with no witnesses. A lieutenant was then brought in,confirmed that the photo was of unlawful organization, and Jalil was hit with 6 months SHU right then and there.

He has been in SHU since Monday, with only the clothes on his back. He has not been given any personal property, and was told he probably won't receive any of it for weeks. He has no phone privileges, no commissary, no packages, and will eventually be allowed 5 books and limited legal materials. He will have only one visit weekly for the duration, and these are no-contact visits which take place in Attica's SHU.

He is asking that people contact NYS Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman, as well as Commissioner Brian Fischer to demand that the
charges be dropped, Jalil be released from SHU immediately, and that
this campaign of harassment come to AN IMMEDIATE END! These charges
are entirely fabricated and show premediation on behalf of the prison
administration to lock Jalil away until his next parole hearing in
June.

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman:
Office of the Attorney General
The Capitol
Albany, NY 12224-0341
(518) 474-5481

Commissioner Brian Fischer
NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
Building 2
1220 Washington Ave
Albany, New York 12226-2050
(518) 457-8126

When you call and/or write, be sure to use Jalil's DIN number (#77A4283) and refer to him as Anthony “Jalil” Bottom, currently at Attica.

Jericho would like to know what responses people receive. Please send an email to nycjericho@gmail.com or mxcc519@verizon.net to let them know.

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Stop Ongoing Harassment of Jalil Muntaqim!

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Jalil Muntaqim, POW

This from comrades at Jericho:

We received a call Friday morning from Jalil Muntaqim to advise us that his cell had been raided on Thursday, January 5th.(Attica,NY) When Jalil asked why his cell was being searched, he was told it was because “something happened in California.”

The COs confiscated pictures of the memorials for BPP members Cetewayo (Michael Tabor) and Bro. Mark Smith “Smitty” of New Jersey. Jalil received a Tier 3 ticket for possession of these photos. Of course, these photos had been sent to him by mail and had been approved in the prison mailroom.

Jalil is not in the hole. We have been told this walking ticket means they can use it against him at any time for any reason.

Jalil's cell has been turned over five times in the last two months.

Jalil is asking people to call the Warden and Commissioner Brian Fischer to demand:

1. An end to this campaign of constant harassment

2. The return of his pictures

When you call, be sure to use Jalil's DIN number (#77A4283) and refer to him as Anthony “Jalil” Bottom, currently at Attica.

Brian Fischer (518) 457-8126
Warden: (585) 591-2000
We would like to know what responses people receive. Please send an email to nycjericho@gmail.com or mxcc519@verizon.net to let us know.

Thank you for your help.
Jericho Co-Chairs Jihad & Paulette

To learn more about Jalil Muntaqim, click here.

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Fax and phone campaign to support Herman Bell & Jalil Muntaqim

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Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell

Damn! i missed my call yesterday... guess i'll have to make one today!

People in the campaign to free the San Francisco 8 are asking us all to call New York governor David Patterson every Monday of February to state your support for returning Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim to New York for their parole hearings, as a practical way to celebrate Black History Month.


Makes sense to me, as the continued imprisonment of Muntaqim and Bell is an ongoing travesty of justice, one of historical significance no doubt. So pick up the phone and do your bit...

For more information about this case, see the post i made about Jalil Muntaqim a couple of days ago...

FAX AND PHONE CAMPAIGN TO SUPPORT HERMAN BELL AND JALIL MUNTAQIM

To all celebrating Black History Month:

Black History Month is a time to not only celebrate, educate and embrace Afrikan contributions, but a time to continue upholding the legacy of our unsung Afrikan heroes, many of whom sacrificed a great deal in the times of the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements.

1,000’s of Afrikan people have been held captive as Political Prisoners or Prisoners of War for holding America responsible for its injustices.

Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Kwame Ture and Huey P. Newton were all incarcerated for political reasons.

Many of the men and women who stood beside the civil rights and black liberation heroes of yesterday are still incarcerated today.

Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell (of the San Francisco 8) are two of many who sacrificed so much during the Civil Rights and Black Liberation Movements.

Both have been held captive since the early 1970’s. Jalil and Herman are being denied of their right of parole hearings because neither the California nor New York Governor will act on their request to be transferred to NY in order to work on their parole hearings.

“Phone for Parole!” every Monday during Black History Month

Let us commemorate Black History Month by simply calling or faxing for the immediate transporting of Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell for parole hearings.

“Phone for Parole!” every Monday during Black History Month

Please look at the attached letter for more details on this injustice. Feel free to use it as a basis for your fax or phone call.

Free the SF 8!!


Honorable David A. Paterson
Governor of the State of New York
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
FAX: 1-518-474-1513, 1-518-474-3767
david.paterson@chamber.state.ny.us
phone: 518-474-8390

February, 2009

Dear Governor Paterson:

I call upon you to immediately approve the already agreed upon
transfer of Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom (aka Jalil Muntaqim), back to New York State custody to attend their parole hearings.

Mr. Bell and Mr. Bottom have been languishing in the San Francisco County Jail for over two years. Their case is at least four months away from preliminary hearings, but red tape continues to block the implementation of their transfer.

The San Francisco County Jail does not have the proper facilities or capacity to hold people for an extended period of time, and two years in sub-standard living conditions, woefully limited visits and little to no access to proper medical care or activities has had devastating effects on Mr. Bell and Mr. Bottom and their families.

Both of these men have been incarcerated for over 35 years and are model prisoners. Their return to New York State is essential in
order for them to be present for crucial parole hearings. It is
unfair and cruel to deny them this right.

Additionally, Mr. Bottom has submitted a fully documented application to you for clemency/commutation of his New York sentence. Please do not allow Mr. Bottom's custody in California to lessen the urgency of
acting on his compelling case.

Please act now to end this injustice.

Sincerely,

__________________________________________
(Print Name)

__________________________________________
(Signature)


__________________________________________
(Address)

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Jalil Muntaqim

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Jalil Muntaqim was born on October 18, 1951, in Oakland, California. He has spent thirty eight of his fifty seven years locked behind bars, paying a heavy price for his participation in the Black Liberation Movement, a struggle he has never abandoned, even behind bars.

Jalil grew up in a family environment imbued with an awareness of the political battles of the day, of the history of Black people in amerika and the struggle for freedom that has been waged on this continent for centuries. As he has explained,

My mother taught us [my sister and I] that we are African. She made that a very important lesson for us; she said, "You are African, don't let anybody call you anything other than that." ... In our house we used to have pictures of H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X - so these individuals, these were our icons in the household ...

In the 1960s Jalil attended high school in San Jose, California, where he earned a scholarship to an advanced high school math and science program. He also received a summer scholarship for a San Jose State College math and engineering course. Jalil participated in NAACP youth organizing during the civil rights movement. In high school, he became a leading member of the Black Student Union, often touring in "speak-outs" with the BSU Chairman of San Jose State and City College.

As he has stated in the documentary Jalil Muntaqim: A Voice for Liberation:

The assassination of Martin Luther King, that's one thing that impacted me. The other thing that really impacted me was the 1968 Olympics when John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised their fists in protest - that was significant. John Carlos used to be one of my math tutors, so the culture, the African culture and the politics and the time, the struggle that was going on, the civil rights movement that was going on at that time, being a part of that and being impressed by that - and then, on the other hand seeing the Black Panther Party taking this other stroke after the death of Martin Luther King - after his assassination I began to realize that maybe this non-violent protest thing in not going to be all that there's going to be in order to make real changes in this country.

Tommie Smith (center) and John Carlos (right) giving the raised fist salute in the 1968 Summer Olympics, while Silver medalist Peter Norman from Australia (left) wears an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to show his support for the two Black athletes.

Two months shy of his 20th birthday, Jalil was captured along with Albert "Nuh" Washington in a midnight shoot-out with San Francisco police. When Jalil was arrested, he was a high school graduate and employed as a social worker.

Jalil was subsequently framed for the assassination of two police officers in New York city by the Black Liberation Army. After his first trial - along with four other codefendants - ended in a hung jury, the State pulled out all the stops, arranging to have him and two codefendants (Herman Bell and Nuh Washington) convicted in a second trial - a trial that was riddled with the kind of inconsistencies and corruption that amerika is famous for:

When Jalil was arrested, he had a gun in his possession. The prosecution would claim that this was the gun that had been used to kill the New York City policemen, even though this was contradicted by the findings of the FBI's crime lab. The FBI's findings were suppressed, and an NYPD ballistics expert committed perjury with the prosecutor's knowledge. In 1983 an appeal would be made for a new trial: shortly after, all ballistics evidence was removed from the police evidence locker and destroyed, thereby preventing the gun from ever being retested. In 1992 a Federal District Court would acknowledge that the NYPD's witness did in fact commit perjury, but also found that the perjury was a "harmless error".

Apart from the bogus gun, the only other evidence against Jalil was that of an eyewitness who "thought" he "might be" one of the assailants. This was contradicted by four other eye witnesses, who stated that he definitely was not.

Two women who testified against Jalil and his codefendants did so only after being jailed and separated from their young children for over a year. They were threatened with prosecution if they did not testify against their friends.

The trial judge barred the defense from questioning FBI or police witnesses about the state's campaign against the Black Liberation Movement. Had these questions been allowed, it might have come to light that Jalil and his codefendants Herman Bell and Albert "Nuh" Washington had all been singled out by name as targets for "neutralization" by the FBI's COINTELPRO programme.

The FBI uncovered an alternate explanation of the crime: a drug dealer who stated that he had had the cops killed. This information was suppressed. Similarly, the NYPD arrested a prostitute who stated she knew who had committed the crime, yet this too was withheld from the defense.

Even some of the dead policemen's family members have seen through the government's lies - not an everyday occurrence, as the emotional and political pressures on people to seek "revenge" against whomever they are told is to blame for their family's tragedy is strong indeed. But in 2004 Waverly Jones Jr. - the son of police officer Waverly Jones - spoke up on behalf on Jalil at his parole hearing:

I feel that Herman Bell and Anthony Bottom [Jalil's birth name] were both victims as well of a much larger scheme which got them incarcerated to this day [...] I think that keeping them in prison is only strengthening resentment among grassroots individuals and is producing a greater passion in them to pick up a weapon, and I believe that keeping them prison in their eyes is almost like there is no justice, if you will. I just don't think that's a good message to send out, and that's why I requested to meet with the NYS Parole Board.

Jalil and his codefendants were known as the "New York Three"; in 2000 one of the three, Albert "Nuh" Washington, died in the prison's medical unit after having spent twenty nine years in prison for a crime he did not commit. In Washington's case, the only evidence against him was his political beliefs and his association with his comrades.

Just over two years ago, in January 2007, the state upped the ante in this case, charging Muntaqim and his codefendant Herman Bell in the notorious San Francisco 8 frame-up.

The SF8 case developed as certain law enforcement officials realized that with the new repressive legislation the Bush regime had passed in the wake of 9-11, it might be possible to replay some of COINTELPRO's greatest hits.

In practical terms what that meant was that one of the government's most obscene and disreputable attacks on the Black Liberation Movement - a case in which New Orleans and San Francisco police proudly engaged in torture - could be dusted off. The case - which had been thrown out of court in 1976 when it was revealed that the defendants had "confessed" only after being subjected to sleep deprivation, beatings, cattle prods, suffocation (plastic bags & hot wet blankets), and electric shocks - was for the 1971 assassination of a San Francisco police officer by the Black Liberation Army. All of the accused were at the time known to have been close to the Black Panther Party.

(A short documentary about this case, Legacy of Torture, can be viewed online, or purchased as a DVD from Kersplebedeb.)

Retired FBI agents re-deputized under Bush started visiting these men - the same men whose torture they had been complicit with twenty-some years earlier - in 2005. The stress this created - the trauma of being harassed and bullied by your abuser even decades later - was great indeed. One of the men thus targeted, John Bownam, was already battling cancer: under the added strain of this FBI persecution, he died just on December 23, 2007.

Exactly one month later, on January 23, 2007, eight men were charged with the 1971 murder of Sergeant John Young and numerous related activities. The same charges, based on nothing but the same evidence that had been thrown out of court in 1976.

Amongst these eight were Jalil Muntaqim and Herman Bell, the two surviving members of the New York Three, who had already each spent over thirty years in prison.

As Jalil noted:

The SF8 case is about more than the continued persecution and destruction of the Legacy of the Black Panther Party. It is also an effort to legitimize and validate torture as a method to extract confessions from suspects to be used in a court of law. This case seeks to incorporate COINTELPRO tactics as a means to further law enforcement techniques under the auspices of the Patriot Act.

Both Jalil and Herman Bell were extradited to California, where they have remained incarcerated while awaiting the actual trial in the SF8 circus to begin. In the meantime, the fact that they have been in California has been a convenient excuse to deny their hearings for parole which were meant to occur in 2008.

As Jalil explains:

I was scheduled to see the parole board for the fourth (4) time in July 2008; however, since I am being held in California I have been denied an opportunity to appear before the parole board. The NYS Division of Parole will not grant a parole hearing without the physical presence of the prisoner. This matter in California is not expected to conclude before mid-2010, which means I will have missed two parole appearances – 4 additional years of incarceration when I could have been released on parole, essentially adding to 37 years of imprisonment.

What we have here is the threat of one frame-up being used to help prolong another.

As a result, a campaign has emerged around the demand for clemency/commutation to time served in the case of the New York Three. What this would mean would be that Jalil's sentence for the 1971 killing of two NYPD cops would be over, done with, and what would remain would be for he and his comrades to overcome the impending SF8 frame up in California.

This is a time of great danger, which we are told must also mean great opportunity, no matter how difficult this may be to see. As the San Francisco 8 have explained in their joint statement:

This case and our call for action will teach today's activists what to expect from the state in its efforts to suppress dissent and protest of government repression. Indeed, this task will forward a broader understanding of what happened in the Movement of the 60s and 70s, and how COINTELPRO disrupted and destroyed the most viable Black political party that emerged out of the civil rights movement. Ultimately, what is here proposed will tell of a youth movement and how the government sought to undermine and destroy it. The proposal will expose how the government seeks to retaliate because those youth (who are now Elders) did in fact challenge the system of racist oppression. They not only challenged oppressive conditions in our collective communities, but also worked to support all oppressed peoples fighting against colonialism and imperialism at that time.

Jalil Muntaqim is an Elder of the Black Liberation Movement, a comrade has remained politically active as he has lived his life on one of imperialism's starkest terrains, the u.s. prison system.

He is a leader who represents historical dynamics and legacies that have nothing to do with the latest inhabitant of the Whitest House, but rather one who has dedicated his life to freedom from white supremacy and imperialism.

He is a man who stood up with countless others at a time when the last cycle of struggle was at its apex, and has been buried alive and made to suffer as a scapegoat for all those the state could never get.

Support for Jalil Muntaqim and other political prisoners and prisoners of war is a moral necessity, because decades behind bars are already testament enough to the inhumanity of this age.

It is a tactical necessity, because this new case (the SF8) seeks to further legitimize torture, and we all know where that is leading.

It is a strategic necessity, because it weaves our struggle into that against the prison system, against the u.s. traditions of racism and political repression.

It is a political necessity, because it affirms our connection to and identity with the forces of liberation that have struggled even within the belly of the u.s. monster, and have done so without cease ever since the first euro-amerikan imperialists began their invasion of this continent centuries ago.

Please take some time to learn more about Jalil Muntaqim, the New York Three, and the San Francisco 8.

Please also take some time to participate in the various letter-writing and phone-call-making activities that Jalil and his closest supporters have asked us to join in. This kind of thing can be demoralizing, and many of us make a mental note to write a letter or make a call, but then life gets in the way so we don't. I mean, who wants to have any contact with the kind of scum who have been responsible for this ongoing travesty?

Nevertheless, this is where we're at, and this is what we're being asked to do. Jalil and other political prisoners and prisoners of war have spent decades of their lives behind prison for their commitment to human liberation - if this is what they need, well, isn't it the least we can do?

Jalil has prepared a model letter to Governor David Patterson, supporting his application for Clemency/Commutation to Time Served. Please take a look at this letter and use it as a model to write to the governor yourself. Even better, have some friends over, and all of you write some letters!

All rhetoric aside, this is something that needs to be done.

There have been efforts to struggle on that level since the day we came off the boats, we've always been in rebellion. From the slave rebellions of the plantations to the days of Nat Turner and Mark Vesey and Gabriel Prosser to the Revolutionary Action Movement and naturally to the BPP and the BLA. So there's always been that historical thread of resistance against white supremacy and racism; and when we recognize that thread of resistance throughout history then you can see that there's always been a movement - no matter what name it took in time and place - there's always been those individuals who militantly pursued the ideals of freedom and liberation.

- Jalil Muntaqim

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A Statement from Jalil Muntaqim

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The following is a statement by Jalil Muntaqim, a man who has withstood decades of brutal repression from the united states government. Arrested at the age of 19 and framed for the BLA assassination of two police officers in New York City, Jalil Muntaqim has spent over thirty years behind bars. (Along with Herman Bell and the late Albert Nuh Washington, he is one of the New York Three.)

Today, the State - whose arrogance we must use against it - is once again trying to frame this man!

Along with his co-defendant, prisoner of war Herman Bell, and six other men who participated in the Black Liberation movement in the 1960s and 70s, Jalil is being accused of having been involved in the assassination of a San Francisco police officer in 1972. This is the infamous case of the San Francisco Eight, men in their fifties, sixties and seventies who are being set up as an example to any and all who would resist colonialism from within the borders of amerika.

Read the following statement, and read the words of a man who has paid an incredible price - his entire adult life behind bars - in the struggle for freedom, and yet remains unbroken:

March 23, 2007

Dear Comrades, Friends and Supporters:
As many of you have learned, the [Incorporated] State of CALIFORNIA initiated the persecution of former members of the Black Panther Party and those who were accused as being members of the Black Liberation Army. This persecution is subject to an August 29, 1971, incident when alleged members of the BLA are reported to have retaliated for the August 21, 1971, assassination of Black Panther Field Marshal George L. Jackson.

On March 22, 2007, I was seized by prison officials and taken to the Cayuga County Court in AUBURN, for the conducting of an extradition hearing. I had to defend a writ of habeas corpus petition challenging the Governor’s Warrant granting the CALIFORNIA Governor’s request for me to be brought to that State for trial. Throughout the course of the hearing, I was handcuffed and shackled, making an argument with documented proof that the Governor’s Warrant was defective on its face, and therefore should be held invalid.

However, the judge, despite reviewing documented proof that the warrant was based on false and misleading information, decided the warrant was valid and signed it. Therefore, I am presently waiting for the S.F. authorities to come and bring me to CALIFORNIA, to make an appearance at the scheduled April 27, 2007 hearing in S.F.

Despite it all, after 35 years of imprisonment, I remain strong and will resist every step of the way the efforts of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act initiatives to stifle dissent. I am confident that, with strong support from progressive peoples across the country and overseas, the S.F. 8 will be successful, and the State will suffer defeat. We will have a true People’s Victory.

It will be a victory against fear and State terrorism; it will be a defeat against State torture tactics, threats and coercion. This case will teach today’s activists what to expect from the State in its efforts to prevent dissent and protest of government repression. It will forward a broader understanding of what happened in the Movement of the 60’s & 70’s, and how Cointelpro disrupted and destroyed the most viable Black political party that emerged out of the civil rights Movements. Ultimately, this case will tell of a militant youth movement and how the government sought to destroy it, and today seeks to retaliate because those youths did in fact rebel against oppression and repression not only in their communities, and in an
international determination in support of all oppressed peoples’ fighting against colonialism and imperialism at that time.

So, to organize and fight back against this nefarious persecution of the S.F. 8, I. urge all to organize and sponsor educational programs in your community and invite Jericho representatives and the Committee in Defense of Human Rights to speak about the Case of the S.F. 8 and other U.S. political prisoners. Furthermore, I ask that progressive folks seek to organize a Jericho chapter on college campuses and in your communities. I urge that letter writing/phone/fax campaigns be initiated directed to Congressman John Conyers, demanding that he conduct the reopening of Cointelpro Hearings. There are many Cointelpro victims languishing in prison, and while the Senate Church Committee in fact decided the FBI’s Cointelpro activities was unconstitutional, the Senate Church Committee never established remedies for Cointelpro victims.

They are trying to rewrite history and deny the legacy of the BPP/BLA, and essentially with a board paint brush label all those involved in those struggles as “terrorists,” “criminals,” and “wanton killers.” They will never say those youths were revolutionaries, freedom fighters and progressive organizers. They will never say they sought to relieve the community of all forms of State sponsored terrorism that is too often found in Black and Hispanic communities today. They will never talk about the over 30 Panthers that were killed by police across the country and no one being prosecuted for these murders. They will never admit to the
unconstitutional practices of the FBI Cointelopro activities.

The task for all of us is to raise consciousness about U.S. political prisoners, and build a durable and determine Jericho Amnesty Movement to ensure all of our victory against State tyranny and terrorism.

Remember: WE ARE OUR OWN LIBERATORS!
Jalil

For more information about the San Francisco Eight, check out the Committee in Defense of Human Rights and also the Jericho movement in support of political prisoners and prisoners of war.

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