(The following article is from the October 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

Friends and allies of political prisoner John Graham are being asked for urgent financial donations to help family and close supporters attend his upcoming trial in the United States.

     Graham, who is a Southern Tutchone from the Yukon Territory, is imprisoned at the Pennington County Jail in Rapid City, South Dakota. He was arrested in Vancouver in December 2003, and after a prolonged legal battle, was extradited to South Dakota in December 2007. He denies accusations of murdering fellow American Indian Movement member and Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq Anna Mae Pictou in 1975.

     In the mid-1970s, AIM was a primary targets of the FBI's COINTELPRO counter-intelligence program aimed to weaken, confuse, and arouse suspicion amongst AIM members. At different times, Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, Leonard Peltier and John Graham all said they were offered their freedom if they collaborated with the FBI against other AIM members; they all refused.

    On the killing of Anna Mae, former FBI regional director Norm Zagrossi has stated it "looked like a cover-up." Ellen Klaver, a journalist in Colorado who has followed the story for three decades, has observed that, "Whoever was involved, the FBI was the architect." Both the B.C. Supreme Court extradition judge and the B.C. appeal court ruled there were deficiencies in the record of the case given to the courts by U.S. officials.

     However, the 1999 Extradition Treaty between the United States and Canada lowers the burden of proof to include hearsay evidence, which would not be admitted in a Canadian criminal court. Graham would welcome a trial in Canada, where the fake evidence could be exposed. A key witness, Arlo Looking Cloud, recanted his testimony stating that he was coerced and under the influence of alcohol. Another prosecution witness Kamook Banks admitted she was paid $43,000 to cooperate with the FBI.

     Graham has received support from a wide range of organizations including the Canadian Labour Congress, Native Youth Movement, Chief Capilano of the Squamish Nation, BC Teachers for Peace and Global Education, BC Hospital Employees Union, Stopwar.ca, Council of Yukon First Nations, BC Federation of Labour. Amnesty International has also stated their concern about the lack of a fair trial, given the clear parallels to Leonard Peltier, who was extradited from Vancouver in 1976 on false evidence and remains in a US prison to this day.

     For more information, see the following websites: http://www.grahamdefense.org, http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com.

     John Graham's defense committee is aiming for 50 people or organizations to donate at least $20 each by the end of September. Direct deposits can be made to CIBC Branch account # 86-64536 transit # 04700, or cheques made out to Naneek Graham can be mailed to 1424 Commercial Drive, P.O. Box 21640, Vancouver, BC, V5L 5G3.

     In the Vancouver area, to arrange for someone to pick up a donation, contact Naneek Graham @ 778-386-0354 (message); Chusia Graham @ 604-418-0279; Harsha @ 778-885-0040; or Ange at 778-317-3830 or noxmadima@yahoo.com.