Washington - Yesterday the FBI added former Black Panther
and convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur to its Most Wanted Terrorist list,
placing a $2 million reward on her head. Shakur becomes the first woman and the
second 'domestic terrorist' to make the list.
Shakur, whose birth name is Joanne Chesimard, was also a
member of the Black Liberation Army. She was convicted of killing New Jersey
State Trooper Werner Foerster during a May 2, 1973 shootout in which she was
shot twice and one of her comrades was killed. With the help of some of her BLA
militants and members of the radical group Weather Underground, Shakur busted
out of prison in 1979. She escaped to Cuba, where she was granted political
asylum and has remained ever since.
"I am a 20th century escaped slave," Shakur
once wrote. "Because of government persecution, I was left with no other
choice but to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that
dominate the US government's policy towards people of color."
To the FBI, Shakur is nothing less than America's Most
Wanted Terrorist.
"While we cannot right the wrongs of the past, we
can and will continue to pursue justice no matter how long it takes,"
Aaron Ford, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark, New Jersey office,
told reporters while announcing Shakur's 'most wanted' status.
Well then, how about pursuing some of the many terrorists
who are living in the United States, men who have been granted asylum, immunity
or other protections because they took the "right" side during
Washington's myriad worldwide interventions? Assata Shakur was convicted of
killing one police officer. That's one too many, of course. But her crime pales
in comparison to the horrific atrocities committed by many of the convicted
human rights abusers who live freely in the United States.
For brevity's sake, here's a list of just six of the
scores of human rights violators who the government's resources would be better
spent on bringing to justice. We'll call them the "Dirty Half Dozen"
and rank them in reverse order. Here goes:

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Santiago Alvarez |
#5- Armando Fernández
Larios: Fernández
was a Chilean officer who participated in the 1973 CIA-backed coup that
overthrew democratically-elected President Salvador Allende and replaced him
with the brutal dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Fernández was a member of a
military unit responsible for the torture and execution of at least 72
political prisoners, the notorious "Caravan of Death." He also
admitted to involvement in the Chilean-sponsored 1976 car-bombing assassination
of former Chilean official Orlando Letelier and his American aide, Ronni
Moffit, in Washington, DC. Fernández struck a plea deal in the Letelier case
allowing him to remain in the United States, where he'd retired. He was later
found guilty of torture, crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killing by a
Miami jury and ordered to pay $4 million to victims for his actions in the
"Caravan of Death." He lives in Florida.

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Col. Carranza |
#3- Nicolás Carranza: Col.
Carranza was El Salvador's vice minister of defense from 1979-1981, during
which time horrific human rights abuses occurred under his watch. He commanded
the National Guard, National Police and Treasury Police, all of which killed,
tortured and raped innocent civilians with impunity. In 1980, four American
women-- three nuns and a church lay worker-- were kidnapped, tortured, raped
and murdered by National Guard troops under Carranza's command. Most of the
high-ranking Salvadoran officers who ordered the murder of the US churchwomen
were trained by the US military, and Carranza was a paid CIA informant. In
2005, a federal jury in Memphis found Carranza guilty of killings and torture
committed by Salvadoran troops under his command and ordered him to pay $1.5
million each to four of his victims. Carranza, who was granted US citizenship,
lives in Tennessee today.
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Mohamed Ali Samantar |
#2- Mohamed Ali Samantar: This former Somali
prime minister and defense minister was in charge of brutally crushing a
pro-democracy movement during the 1980s. Somali government forces engaged in
widespread murder, torture and destruction of property. In June 1988,
government troops launched an all-out air and ground assault on Hargeisa, the
nation's second-largest city. More than 5,000 civilians were killed. Samantar
has admitted to giving the final order approving this operation. After the
government fell in 1991, he moved to the United States. While Samantar was tried
for some of his crimes in a US court and ordered to pay $21 million in damages,
it now looks like Washington will honor a request by Somalia's new government
to dismiss the lawsuit against him. Samantar lives in Virginia.

The United States cannot bash the Cuban government for
"harboring a terrorist" by providing safe haven for Assata Shakur
when Washington allows mass-murderers, torturers, rapists and other extremely
unsavory characters-- many of them Cuban exile terrorists-- to freely reside
within our nation's borders. As is too often the case, hypocrisy reigns supreme
in US policy and action. We would do well to remember those wise words of
President George W. Bush: "If you harbor terrorists, you are a
terrorist." Too right!
This opinion article was written by an independent
writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are
not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com
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