Lawyers Who Victimized the Pine Ridge Indians

"Bruce Ellison – Leonard Peltier’s long-standing lawyer and defender. Ellison has been implicated in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by several AIM members who place him at meetings where Aquash’s fate was discussed. When questioned before grand juries, Ellison has repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination."---Joe and John Trimbach

"Ken Tilsen – Former member of the American Communist Party and founder of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee. Tilsen is suspected of involvement in the murder cover-up of Aquash after acquiring the victim’s wallet. Tilsen, like Ellison, blames the FBI for her murder."---Joe and John Trimbach

In previous posts, I have noted that the American Indian Movement (AIM) lawyer Mark Lane had a relationship with the Soviet KGB and promoted conspiracy theories that discredited the FBI, CIA, etc. Mark Lane was also the lawyer for the people at Jonestown. When over 900 of his clients were murdered, Mark Lane reportedly ran into the jungle and saved himself. Then Mark Lane, who got money and advice from the KGB, wrote a book that blamed the CIA for the Jonestown tragedy!

I don't know what happened at Jonestown, but Trimbach's book American Indian Mafia (p. 122) reports that before the FBI allowed Mark Lane to meet with his hostage-taking clients in the Indian town of Wounded Knee during the 1973 occupation, the FBI took materials out of his trunk that could have been used to make molotov cocktails.

If Mark Lane was trying to bring materials for molotov cocktails to his clients, then he was not just an AIM lawyer any more but one of the AIM criminals intent upon blowing up the Indian town of Wounded Knee.

The KGB has a history of clandestinely orchestrating violence against innocent people for political propaganda--terrorism. This kind of terrorism is a component of what the Soviets and Russians call "active measures."

Wikipedia, citing the KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin, explains:

Active measures range "from media manipulations to special actions involving various degree of violence". They can be used abroad or domestically. They include disinformation, propaganda, counterfeiting official documents, assassinations, and political repression, such as penetration of churches, and persecution of political dissidents.

Active measures can include orchestrating violence against innocent targets that is then blamed on the Soviet/Russian regime's domestic opponents or on foreign targets such as the FBI, CIA, and U.S. Army.

I think that it is very probable that there was a KGB hand behind what happened at Wounded Knee and Jonestown. These tragedies may have happened because the Soviets were using active measures to discredit the FBI and CIA.

Today in Russia, some people have even accused the KGB's successor organization, the FSB, of blowing up apartment buildings while innocent Russian people slept in their beds. The accusers say that the 1999 bombings provided a pretext for the second war in Chechnya.

Dissidents within the FSB first made this terrifying accusation: The former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was murdered with polonium, and the former lawyer and FSB investigator Mikhail Trepashkin was imprisoned.

At the promotional site for Joe and John Trimbach's book American Indian Mafia, there is a page that lists AIM Mafia Perpetrators, Facilitators, and Victims (scroll down).

The KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin reports that the AIM lawyer Mark Lane had a relationship with the KGB, and Trimbach reports that some AIM lawyers are even implicated in the murder or suspected in the cover-up of the 1975 murder of the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash. According to Trimbach, the AIM lawyers Bruce Ellison and Ken Tilsen, a former member of the communist party, blame the FBI for Aquash's murder.

I have posted information about Anna Mae Aquash many times on my blog. For many years, the FBI has worked to get justice for Anna Mae Aquash, but their work has been hampered by the AIM propaganda which masked its evil, murderous attacks on Indians as pro-Indian advocacy.

The Trimbachs' site singles out lawyers who were government officials and who facilitated AIM's reign of terror because they didn't uphold the law, but the Trimbachs also identify two lawyers who have even been tied to Anna Mae's murder or its cover-up:

Bruce Ellison – Leonard Peltier’s long-standing lawyer and defender....has been implicated in the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash by several AIM members who place him at meetings where Aquash’s fate was discussed. When questioned before grand juries, Ellison has repeatedly invoked his Fifth
Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Ken Tilsen – Former member of the American Communist Party and founder of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee...is suspected of involvement in the murder cover-up of Aquash after acquiring the victim’s wallet. Tilsen, like Ellison, blames the FBI for her murder.

Some of the people who manipulated, robbed, persecuted and murdered Indians in the guise of Indian rights activists may soon be called to account. As Joe Trimbach explains in News from Indian Country (See also here), the trial of AIM hitman John Graham for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash may uncover Graham's co-conspirators:

People familiar with the case believe that once Graham is on American soil, AIM’s legacy is up for grabs. As the embattled Professor Ward Churchill likes to say, the chickens have come home to roost.

The professor, however, would presumably not want the description applied to his old warhorse buddy, AIM leader Russell Means. On a cold morning in 1976, Means and his brothers boycotted Anna Mae’s funeral, evidently believing her guilty as charged.

AIM war chiefs and Anna Mae’s erstwhile friends must now reposition themselves for the coming storm. An old rusty prosecutorial engine is finally turning over, powered by an unlimited statute of limitations for murder in the first degree.

Former members know that aiding and abetting carries the same penalty that awaits Graham: life in prison. And so they are naturally concerned that Graham may cut a deal and sing like a canary. Stay tuned. This could get very interesting.

Lakota writer and activist Tim Giago also recently observed:

There is a trial to be held starting June 17, 2008 in Rapid City. John Boy Graham, a member of AIM, has been accused of murdering Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Her body was discovered near the village of Wanbli on Feb. 24, 1976...I think every member of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, and President Steele, should be seated in the courthouse in Rapid City as many of the horrid details about the death of Anna Mae and the destruction of Wounded Knee come to light.