Roman Polanski Arrested

Kate Harding of Salon (9-28-09) comments on the arrest of director Roman Polanski:

Reminder: Roman Polanski raped a child

Roman Polanski raped a child. Let's just start right there, because that's the detail that tends to get neglected when we start discussing whether it was fair for the bail-jumping director to be arrested at age 76, after 32 years in "exile" (which in this case means owning multiple homes in Europe, continuing to work as a director, marrying and fathering two children, even winning an Oscar, but never -- poor baby -- being able to return to the U.S.). Let's keep in mind that Roman Polanski gave a 13-year-old girl a Quaalude and champagne, then raped her, before we start discussing whether the victim looked older than her 13 years, or that she now says she'd rather not see him prosecuted because she can't stand the media attention. Before we discuss how awesome his movies are or what the now-deceased judge did wrong at his trial, let's take a moment to recall that according to the victim's grand jury testimony, Roman Polanski instructed her to get into a jacuzzi naked, refused to take her home when she begged to go, began kissing her even though she said no and asked him to stop; performed cunnilingus on her as she said no and asked him to stop; put his penis in her vagina as she said no and asked him to stop; asked if he could penetrate her anally, to which she replied, "No," then went ahead and did it anyway, until he had an orgasm. [Full text]

Soviet Bloc AIDS Disinformation Campaign

America.gov has a site that exposes propaganda. They recently discussed the KGB disinformation campaign about AIDS:

The origins of AIDS disinformation
— By Todd Leventhal, 9 January 2009

I had an interesting conversation on Dec. 22 with Thomas Boghardt, the historian at the International Spy Museum in Washington, and Oleg Kalugin, former Major General in the KGB, who is a member of the museum’s advisory board.

Thomas is researching the Soviet Bloc AIDS disinformation campaign and wanted to talk with me about it. I showed him a copy of the original covert disinformation press placement on this issue – a July 16, 1983 story in the Indian English-language newspaper Patriot, which was set up by the KGB.

The article, “AIDS may invade India: Mystery disease caused by US experiments,” purported to be an anonymous letter from a “well-known American scientist and anthropologist.” But several language errors revealed it was not written by a native English speaker.

First, it referred twice to the “virus flu,” instead of the “flu virus,” as English speakers say. At another point, it talked about the “real danger that AIDS may rapidly spread to India with the grave consequences to the people of the country.” A native English speaker would say “grave consequences,” not “the grave consequences,” probably followed by “for” instead of “to.” There is no definite article, aka the word “the,” in Russian, so Russian speakers frequently use a “the” when they shouldn’t – a further clue to the article’s origin.

The article also showed the signs of thorough, professional research characteristic of KGB’s Service A, which was responsible for disinformation. It cited The Army Research, Development and Acquisition Magazine, an odd magazine for an anthropologist to be reading. Oleg Kalugin noted that Soviet intelligence officers pored through obscure U.S. government publications on a regular basis, searching for something that could be taken out of context and used for their purposes.

In March 1992, then-Russian foreign intelligence chief (and later Russian Prime Minister) Yevgeni Primakov admitted that the KGB had concocted the AIDS-made-by-Pentagon story. The Russian newspaper Izvestiya reported on March 19, 1992:

"[Primakov] mentioned the well known articles printed a few years ago in our central newspapers about AIDS supposedly originating from secret Pentagon laboratories. According to Yevgeni Primakov, the articles exposing US scientists’ “crafty” plots were fabricated in KGB offices."

In Oleg’s estimation, Russian disinformation and “active measures” went through a period of relative dormancy after the collapse of the USSR, but have revived. More on that later.

Ken Alibek: Honest Scientist or Self-Serving Fabricator?

[U.S.] Officials still value his seminal depictions of the Soviet [biological warfare] program. But recent events have propelled questions about Alibek's reliability--L.A. Times (7-1-07)

Soviet biological weapons expert Ken Alibek defected from Russia in the Fall of 1992, about a year after the fall of the U.S.S.R., and became an advisor to the U.S. government. After 9-11, his stock went up. However, some scientists have expressed reservations about Alibek's reliability. Below is one skeptical article. It's really hard to know what is true.

The L.A. Times (7-1-07) reports:

FEAR INC. -- A TIMES INVESTIGATION - Selling the threat of bioterrorism - A scientist defected, warned of epidemics, helped shape policy and sought to profit.

By David Willman, Times Staff WriterJuly 01, 2007

WASHINGTON — In the fall of 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected from Russia to the United States, bringing detailed, and chilling, descriptions of his role in making biological weapons for the former Soviet Union.

As a doctor of microbiology, a physician and a colonel in the Red Army, he helped lead the Soviet effort. He told U.S. intelligence agencies that the Soviets had devoted at least 30,000 scientists, working at dozens of sites, to develop bioweapons, despite a 1972 international ban on such work.

He said that emigrating Russian scientists and others posed imminent threats. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, he said, several specialists went to Iraq and North Korea. Both countries, he said, may have obtained anthrax and smallpox. The transfer of smallpox would be especially ominous because the Russians, he said, had sought to genetically modify the virus, posing lethal risk even to those who had been vaccinated.

His expertise, combined with his dire pronouncements, solidified his cachet in Washington. He simplified his name to Ken Alibek, became a familiar figure on Capitol Hill, and emerged as one of the most important voices in U.S. decisions to spend billions of dollars to counter anthrax, smallpox and other potential bioterrorism agents.

"It was Alibek's revelations, when he defected, that really provided the first information about the scope" of both the Soviet program and the possible proliferation to Iran and Iraq, said Dr. Thomas Monath, who was a top biodefense specialist for the U.S. Army.

Monath, who later led a group of experts that advised the Central Intelligence Agency on ways to counter biological attacks, said Alibek's information resonated at high levels of the U.S. government and was "amplified by 9/11."

"I think he influenced many people who were in position to make some decisions about response," Monath said, adding, "Concern about smallpox, in particular, was driven by Alibek."

Dr. Kenneth W. Bernard, who served President Bush as a special assistant for biodefense, agreed, saying that Alibek "had a substantial and profound effect."

Having raised the prospect that Iraq had acquired the ability to wield smallpox or anthrax, Alibek also was outspoken as the U.S. went to war in early 2003, saying there was "no doubt" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Officials still value his seminal depictions of the Soviet program. But recent events have propelled questions about Alibek's reliability:

No biological weapon of mass destruction has been found in Iraq. His most sensational research findings, with U.S. colleagues, have not withstood peer review by scientific specialists. His promotion of nonprescription pills -- sold in his name over the Internet and claiming to bolster the immune system -- was ridiculed by some scientists. He resigned as executive director of a Virginia university's biodefense center 10 months ago while facing internal strife over his stewardship.

And, as Alibek raised fear of bioterrorism in the United States, he also has sought to profit from that fear...

Dr. Philip K. Russell, a retired Army major general and physician who joined the Bush administration from 2001 to 2004 to confront the perceived threat of smallpox, said he was convinced that Alibek had solid firsthand information about the former Soviet Union's production of anthrax. But regarding other threats, such as genetically engineered smallpox, Russell said he "began to think that Ken was more fanciful than precise in some of his recollections."

"He would claim that certain things had been done, and then when you came right down to it, he didn't have direct knowledge of it -- he'd heard it from somebody. For example, the issue of putting Ebola genes into smallpox virus. That was viewed, at least in many of our minds, as somewhat fanciful. And probably not true."

Alibek told The Times that the comments in question were based on articles he read in Russia's "scientific literature"...

By the late 1980s, with the Cold War ending, teams of U.S. and Soviet biological warfare experts prepared to visit each other's laboratories to see for themselves.

On Dec. 11, 1991, Alibek and his Soviet colleagues traveled to Ft. Detrick, Md., home to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), where researchers studied how to protect troops from germ warfare, work that was allowed under the 1972 agreement. And Alibek began making personal connections that would soon ease his transition to American life.

None would prove more important to him than his rapport with USAMRIID director Charles L. Bailey, an entomologist and U.S. Army colonel.

Within a year, Alibek resigned from Biopreparat and fled to the U.S. with his wife and three children. Bailey retired from the Army but stayed at Ft. Detrick as an analyst with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.

Bailey's job was to assess what the Russians were up to.

This gave him a close view of Alibek's confidential debriefings with U.S. intelligence agents. The debriefings, Bailey said, provided "very valuable" information about the Russian program. Alibek described threats beyond the Russian borders.

"Alibek thought that every country that had anthrax" also had smallpox, including Iraq, Iran and North Korea, Bailey said...

In 1997, the two worked together for Battelle, a large nonprofit research and development organization. Next, they moved to Virginia-based Hadron Inc., another firm that had ties to U.S. intelligence agencies. Alibek also circulated among government officials. He privately briefed Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, then vice chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, the nation's second-highest military officer...

Alibek's public profile rose after the Sept. 11 attacks and the mailings of anthrax a month later that killed five people.

Appearing before a House subcommittee on national security in October 2001, Alibek said that earlier "attempts to wipe out Iraq's biological weapons capability were probably not successful." He also told the subcommittee that Russian biological weapons experts had "emigrated to rogue nations such as Iraq." As the U.S.-led war got underway in March 2003, Alibek said during an online discussion hosted by the Washington Post: "There is no doubt in my mind that [Saddam] Hussein has WMD." [Full text]

Overseas Contingency Operations: Coming Soon to a Building Near You

The FBI site has posted some information about the recent spate of terrorist cases in Colorado, Springfield, New York, Charlotte, and Dallas on its site.

9-11 Truther Michael Ruppert Fined Over 127 Thousand Dollars for Sexual Harassment

"State labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, says Ruppert continually propositioned Lindsay Gerken – one time walking into her office wearing nothing but his underwear and a smile."---OBP News (9-21-09)

UPDATE: Welcome Screw Loose Change readers!

UPDATE: Read the Oregon Bureau of Labor sexual harassment decision against 9-11 Truther Michael Ruppert. Among other things, Ruppert subjected his employee to pornography:

In the Matter of FROM THE WILDERNESS, INC dba From the Wilderness Publications and Michael Ruppert as employer proxy, (Sept. 16, 2009) Case No. 39-08. The Agency alleged and established, by a preponderance of credible evidence, that Respondent, through its proxy Michael Ruppert, Respondent's president and sole shareholder, subjected Complainant to offensive and unwelcome sexual conduct that created a hostile and intimidating work environment, in violation of ORS 659A.030(1)(b), then discharged Complainant in retaliation for her complaint about the sexual conduct, in violation of ORS 659A.030(1)(f). The forum concluded that Respondent was liable for Ruppert’s sexual harassment and awarded Complainant $2,713.42 in back wages and $125,000 for emotional and mental suffering damages.

Michael Ruppert, a former California policeman who became a 9-11 "Truther," has been ordered, following a hearing before an administrative law judge of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries to pay more than 127 thousand dollars for sexually harassing a former employee. Ruppert, a conspiracist who alleged that the Bush Administration orchestrated the 9-11 attacks, based his fantastic claims partly on the fabrications of the incarcerated Denver child pornographer Delmart Vreeland. [See an article on his site about Vreeland by "Truther" Sander Hicks here.]

The Ashland Daily Tidings (9-24-09) reports:

Former Ashland businessman Michael Ruppert says he is innocent of sexually harassing a former employee and may appeal a state labor board ruling that he pay her $127,713.

Ruppert said the case was based on a deliberate attempt to discredit his work, a movie coming out about his views and his former newsletter, From The Wilderness...

State Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian...this month ordered Ruppert to pay $125,000 in damages and $2,713 in lost wages to former employee Lindsay Gerken, 25. She claimed Rupert fired her from work at his company, From the Wilderness Inc., after she refused his sexual advances. [Full text]

According to OBP News (9-21-09):

An Ashland-based journalist has been fined more than $120,000 for sexually harassing and then firing a 25-year-old employee.

Michael Ruppert blogs, writes books, and is the subject of a new documentary film: Collapse. For a time he operated his magazine From the Wilderness in Ashland.

State labor commissioner, Brad Avakian, says Ruppert continually propositioned Lindsay Gerken – one time walking into her office wearing nothing but his underwear and a smile.

Brad Avakian: “We had one of our investigators do a thorough investigation. And after finding evidence that he had done these things...Michael Ruppert represented himself at the trial and the judge found against him.”

Avakian says Ruppert continually had conversations of a sexual nature in the office and left the woman frightened.

He says Ruppert then fired her for turning him down and then tried to trash her reputation on the internet. [Full Text]

AIM lawyer Bruce Ellison Named Co-Conspirator in Aquash murder

"[Bruce Ellison has] exercised his Fifth Amendment right. He is a co-conspirator, it is a co-conspirator's statement made in the furtherance and course of the conspiracy."--Assistant U.S. Attorney John Mandel at the February 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud [See also American Indian Mafia, page 19; information about how to purchase the soft-cover or e-book.]

In his 9-16-09 press release about the arrest of Thelma Rios for the December 1975 murder of the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash, researcher and author John M. Trimbach notes that American Indian Movement (AIM) lawyer Bruce Ellison is "a named co-conspirator" in the murder of Aquash. The young Indian woman was also a member of AIM. The assertion that Ellison is "a named co-conspirator" was made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mandel at the February 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud for the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. Mandel's assertion is documented and its significance explained in American Indian Mafia, which was co-authored by the former FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph H. Trimbach and his son, the researcher and author John Trimbach.

In a 9-16-09 alt.native post about the 9-10-09 arrest of Thelma Rios, the Trimbachs' assertion that Ellison is "a named co-conspirator" has been misreported by alt.native blogger "O'Brien," who falsely claims:

According to former FBI loudmouth Trimbach, long-time AIM lawyer Bruce Ellison is "a named co-defendant with Thelma Rios" in the Aquash murder.

A co-defendant is not the same thing as a co-conspirator. The Trimbach press release did not use the quoted phrase "a named co-defendant with Thelma Rios." Perhaps alt.native blogger/propagandist "O'Brien" doesn't want anyone to realize that the Trimbachs have reported that Bruce Ellison is a named co-conspirator, so he fabricated this misleading "quote" about a co-defendant to distract his readers from the real accusation and make it appear that Trimbachs don't know what they are talking about.

On page 19 of American Indian Mafia, the Trimbachs describe "a curious sidebar" that occurred during the February 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud for the December 1975 murder of the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash. It was during this sidebar that Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Mandel named Bruce Ellison a co-conspirator:

A curious sidebar took place during the Looking Cloud trial. The question seemed to catch defense counsel off guard, yet surprised no one familiar with the case. Robert Mandel, the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA), appeared to be finishing his witness's answer, and in the process, crossed the line between the presumption of innocence and a presumption of conspiracy. [American Indian Mafia p. 19]

The judge objected to what the witness was about to say, stopped the testimony, and had a sidebar discussion with the judge. The jury could not hear this, but it is available on-line as part of the transcript of the questioning of Candy Hamilton at the Arlo Looking Cloud trial.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mandel told the Judge:

My read on this is that this is a co-conspirator statement made in the furtherance of the course of the conspiracy...I point out that Mr. Ellison, according to [defense attorney] Mr. Rench, said he is going to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights and won't testify here...he's exercised his Fifth Amendment right. He is a co-conspirator, it is a co-conspirator's statement made in the furtherance and course of the conspiracy. [See American Indian Mafia, p. 19. See also the on-line trial testimony of Candy Hamilton.]

Seven Former CIA Directors Send President Obama an Open Letter

FOX News (9-18-09) has published a letter that seven former Directors of the CIA sent to President Obama. Unfortunately, I think President Obama is an arrogant leftist know-it-all who listens to people like the Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers and the propagandist Rev. Wright. Why would someone like that listen to seven former Directors of the CIA?

President Obama constantly denigrates professional people as greedy. He falsely disparages pediatricians for getting rich by unscrupulously ordering unnecessary tonsillectomies; yet President Obama's former Minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is a mendacious, demagogic buffoon who got rich by spreading the anti-American canard that America invented AIDS to kill black people. This lie is no different than the Medieval anti-Semitic canard that Jews poison the Christians' wells with plague. Actually, the KGB chief Primakov admitted in 1992 that the KGB spread that lie.

Why would a person who is comfortable in a church that disseminates long-discredited KGB propaganda believe the CIA? Still, here is what the CIA Directors wrote:

September 18, 2009
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

We have served as directors of Central Intelligence or directors of the CIA for presidents reaching back over 35 years. We respectfully urge you to exercise your authority to reverse Attorney General Holder's August 24 decision to re-open the criminal investigation of CIA interrogations that took place following the attacks of September 11.

Our reasons for making this recommendation are as follows.

The post-September 11 interrogations for which the attorney general is opening an inquiry were investigated four years ago by career prosecutors. The CIA, at its own initiative, forwarded fewer than 20 instances where agency officers appeared to have acted beyond their existing legal authorities.

Career prosecutors under the supervision of the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia determined that one prosecution (of a CIA contractor) was warranted. A conviction was later obtained. They determined that prosecutions were not warranted in the other cases. In a number of these cases the CIA subsequently took administrative disciplinary steps against the individuals involved.

Attorney General Holder's decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute. Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused.

If criminal investigations closed by career prosecutors during one administration can so easily be reopened at the direction of political appointees in the next, declinations of prosecution will be rendered meaningless. Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions.

They must be free, as the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Senator Lieberman, has put it: "to do their dangerous and critical jobs without worrying that years from now a future attorney general will authorize a criminal investigation of them for behavior that a previous attorney general concluded was authorized and legal." Similar deference needs to be shown to fact-based decisions made by career prosecutors years ago.

Not only will some members of the intelligence community be subjected to costly financial and other burdens from what amounts to endless criminal investigations, but this approach will seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country. In our judgment such risk-taking is vital to success in the long and difficult fight against the terrorists who continue to threaten us.

Success in intelligence often depends on surprise and deception and on creating uncertainty in the mind of an enemy. As president you have the authority to make decisions restricting substantive interrogation or any other intelligence collection method, based on legal analyses and policy recommendations.

But, the administration must be mindful that public disclosure about past intelligence operations can only help Al Qaeda elude U.S. intelligence and plan future operations. Disclosures about CIA collection operations have and will continue to make it harder for intelligence officers to maintain the momentum of operations that have saved lives and helped protect America from further attacks.

Finally, another certain result of these reopened investigations is the serious damage done to our intelligence community's ability to obtain the cooperation of foreign intelligence agencies. Foreign services are already greatly concerned about the United States' inability to maintain any secrets. They rightly fear that, through these additional investigations and the court proceedings that could follow, terrorists may learn how other countries came to our assistance in a time of peril.

The United States promised these foreign countries that their cooperation would never be disclosed. As a result of the zeal on the part of some to uncover every action taken in the post-9/11 period, many countries may decide that they can no longer safely share intelligence or cooperate with us on future counter-terrorist operations. They simply cannot rely on our promises of secrecy.

We support your stated commitment, Mr. President, to look to the future regarding these important issues. In our judgment the only way that is possible is if the criminal investigation of these interrogations that Attorney General Holder has re-opened is now re-closed.

Sincerely,
Michael Hayden
Porter Goss
George Tenet
John Deutch
R. James Woolsey
William Webster
James R. Schlesinger

FBI Dragnet: Alleged Al-Qaeda Operative Najibullah Zazi Arrested in Denver

The New York Daily News (9-20-09) reports that an alleged Al-Qaeda operative, Najibullah Zazi, has been arrested by the FBI in the Denver suburb of Aurora. Here is the FBI press release (9-20-09) about the arrests. Zazi's father was arrested with his son; and Ahmad Wais Afzali, an imam at a Queens mosque, was arrested in Flushing N.Y.

Najibullah Zazi was arrested for lying about documents on explosives that the authorities found on his computer, which was confiscated when he visited New York. This charge will be enough to get him off the street until the FBI has time to make its case. The FBI may not want to share all their evidence in a public indictment, especially before they have a chance to round up all the terrorists in this cell. That's the difficulty with trying these terrorists in court instead of obliterating them on the battlefield: the authorities have to share so much information with the enemy.

The Queens imam Ahmad Afzali made this not-very-sincere statement:

"Are we going to be treated like this for the rest of our lives?"..."Every Muslim across America is fed up with this kind of mistrust." [See the full text of this long, informational article.]

Aren't you just just itching to dust the mothballs off your waterboard and head for the nearest alligator hole when Al-Qaeda morons say annoying things like that?

Since when does the arrogant Afzali speak for "every Muslim across America"? Most American Muslims do not support Al-Qaeda. In fact, most Muslims in the world do not approve of Al-Qaeda or suicide bombing. After all, Al-Qaeda is constantly murdering Muslims who vote for their leaders and don't toe the Al-Qaeda line. According to Pew Research (9-10-09):

Eight years after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Pew Global Attitudes Project finds that support for Osama bin Laden has declined considerably among Muslim publics in recent years. Moreover, majorities or pluralities among eight of the nine Muslim publics surveyed this year say that suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilians can never be justified to defend Islam; only in the Palestinian territories does a majority endorse such attacks.

The drop in support for bin Laden has been most dramatic in Indonesia, Pakistan and Jordan. Currently, about one-quarter of Muslims in Jordan (28%) and Indonesia (25%) express confidence in the al Qaeda leader to do the right thing regarding world affairs; in 2003, majorities in each country agreed (56% and 59%, respectively).

In Pakistan, where bin Laden is believed to be hiding, 18% of Muslims now say they have confidence in him. Just last year, 34% of Pakistani Muslims expressed support for bin Laden and, in 2003, nearly half (46%) agreed. Pakistani Muslims' views of al Qaeda have also grown less favorable over the past year; 9% have a favorable view of the group, compared with 25% in 2008. (Publics in the other nations surveyed were not asked about their opinion of al Qaeda in the current poll; for a more detailed analysis of Pakistani views about extremism see "Pakistani Public Opinion: Growing Concerns About Extremism, Continuing Discontent with U.S.," released Aug. 13, 2009)

Only in Nigeria is Osama bin Laden more popular among Muslims than he was earlier in the decade. More than half of Nigerian Muslims (54%) have confidence in bin Laden when it comes to world affairs; 44% said that was the case in 2003.

Bin Laden also has the support of most Muslims in the Palestinian territories (52%), but a much more solid majority of Palestinian Muslims had confidence in him in 2003 (72%). Young Palestinians are far more likely to express positive views of the al Qaeda leader. Six-in-ten Palestinian Muslims under 30 say they have confidence in bin Laden; 46% of those age 30 and older share that view. The age gap was much narrower in 2003 -- 76% of those under 30 and 69% in the older age group had confidence in bin Laden then. [See the full text of the article.]

Feds Preparing Criminal Charges Against Alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist Najibullah Zazi

"In addition to [alleged Al-Qaeda Terrorist] Mr. Zazi, at least one other man in Denver and one in New York were expected to be facing charges, officials said."---New York Times (9-19-09)

UPDATES: Zazi and his father arrested in Aurora---Denver Post (9-19-09); See the FBI press release (9-20-09)

The New York Times (9-19-09) reports:

Federal authorities were preparing to file criminal charges on Saturday night against a 24-year-old Denver shuttle bus driver, and two others as part of an ongoing federal terrorism investigation stretching from New York to Colorado to overseas, government officials said.

The news came on a day of dizzying twists after the shuttle driver, Najibullah Zazi, declined to sit for a fourth day of intense questioning by F.B.I. agents in Denver, choosing instead to consult with his lawyer.

In addition to Mr. Zazi, at least one other man in Denver and one in New York were expected to be facing charges, officials said.

The identity of the two men, besides Mr. Zazi, who would face criminal charges was not clear.

A criminal complaint was expected to be filed charging the men with crimes other than terrorism — like lying to the government. The development was a clear signal that the authorities had reached a stage in the investigation where they had decided to go ahead with some charges, rather than allowing the men to remain at large, and to figure out the scope of potential wrongdoing and terrorist activity as time went on. [Full text]

Judge Larry Naves Tells Ward Churchill to Take a Hike

"Stripped of its exaggerations and insults designed to provoke the Court toward an emotional response, the Motion to Amend is an empty pleading."---Patrick O'Rourke

The Boulder Daily Camera (9-19-09) reports:

A Denver district court judge has refused to change his decision that denied ousted University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill the chance to be reinstated or receive any compensation.

On Friday, Judge Larry Naves [pictured above] denied the motion filed by Churchill's attorney, David Lane, requesting that Naves amend his previous ruling. [See Churchill's Notice of Appeal.]

This, however, was not a surprise, according to Lane, and does not mean that Churchill's fight has been put to rest.

"We knew what was going to happen before we even filed it," Lane said. "But we gave the trial judge every conceivable shot to do the right thing."

Churchill was fired in July 2007 after CU said he had committed repeated academic fraud in his scholarship.

The ethnic studies professor then sued school, claiming that the university really fired him over a controversial essay he had written several years earlier. In the essay, Churchill called victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks "little Eichmanns" -- a reference to an architect of the Holocaust.

A Denver jury found that CU unlawfully fired Churchill for exercising his right to free speech, but only awarded him $1 in damages. After considering the jury's ruling, Naves declined to award Churchill his job back or any compensation.

Lane says that he and Churchill now plan to take the case to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where a panel of three judges will reconsider the outcome. If that is not successful, Lane said the case would be appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court, and if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court....

CU's attorney, Patrick O'Rourke, could not be reached for comment Saturday, but he earlier called the motion that was denied Friday a "publicity stunt."

"Stripped of its exaggerations and insults designed to provoke the Court toward an emotional response, the Motion to Amend is an empty pleading," O'Rourke wrote.

Former FBI Agent in Charge Joe Trimbach: "Justice for Anna Mae Might Finally Become a Reality"

Murdered American Indian Movement (AIM) Activist, Anna Pictou Mae Aquash (1945-75)

On September 10, 2009, Attorney General Marty Jackley announced the indictment of American Indian Movement (AIM) activists John Graham and Thelma Rios, both of Rapid City, South Dakota, for the December 1975 murder of another AIM activist, the Canadian Indian Anna Mae Aquash.

An indictment in the case of the Canadian Indian John Graham had been expected. Graham had been previously charged, along with the American Indian Richard Marshal, by federal authorities; but two courts ruled that the federal government lacked jurisdiction in Graham's case because he and Aquash were not American Indians, so Graham's case was turned over to the state of South Dakota.

Richard Marshall, the former bodyguard of the buffoonish AIMster-turned-actor Russell Means, will stand trial separately in federal court. Marshall is accused of providing Graham with the gun that was used to kill Aquash. Russell Means's former bodyguard is a previously convicted killer who served time for the murder of Martin Montileaux in the men's room of a Scenic, South Dakota, bar.

According to News from Indian Country journalist Paul DeMain:

Marshall was convicted in the March 1, 1975 shooting of Martin Montileaux and later confessed to the act in order to obtain parole for life. Montileaux was shot in the back of the head, at the base of the skull by one bullet while standing in a bathroom stall of the Longhorn Bar in Scenic, South Dakota. Russell Means was on the other side of Montileaux when he was shot.

The arrest of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Thelma Rios for the December 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash, is a new and significant development because it may lead to murder charges against leaders of the American Indian Movement and their lawyers, according to former FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph H. Trimbach. Rios's boyfriend in 1975, Bruce Ellison, "is a named co-conspirator" as well as "a lawyer for the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee (WKLDOC), a group that defended AIM leaders in court," Joseph Trimbach observes in a 9-16-09 press release. Ellison may have been part of a criminal conspiracy, not just the criminals' lawyers.

Joseph and John Trimbach learned:

Some of WKLDOC's more revealing artifacts are hard to find. [Indian journalist] Paul DeMain has noted that WKLDOC meeting notes, phone records, and other documents (To Do lists?) from around November, 1975 to around February, 1976---coinciding with Anna Mae's disappearance---have themselves disappeared (American Indian Mafia, page 595/footnote 75).

"I think all of this will lead to more indictments. It's long overdue, but justice for Anna Mae might finally become a reality," says Trimbach.

John M. Trimbach of Trimbach & Associates, Inc. has issued the press release that follows. In order to help interested researchers, I am adding links to my posting of this press release that are not on the original press release.

John M. Trimbach is the son of Joseph H. Trimbach, the former Special Agent in Charge of the Minneapolis FBI. Joseph and John Trimbach co-authored American Indian Mafia: An FBI Agent's True Story About Wounded Knee, Leonard Peltier, and the American Indian Movement (AIM). This book has received accolades from law enforcement and Indian leaders. It is available as a paperback or as an inexpensive, searchable e-book.

John M. Trimbach's 9-16-09 press release follows:

News Alert: Former FBI Chief Heralds American Indian Movement Indictment

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Video Clip: Click to Watch [Filmed by Richard Two Elk]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atlanta – A former FBI official has expressed approval for the recent indictment of a fourth person in connection with the 1975 execution-style murder of a 30-year-old woman. Thelma Rios-Conroy of Rapid City was indicted on one count of felony murder in relation to kidnapping and one count of premeditated murder for the death of American Indian Movement (AIM) member Anna Mae Pictou Aquash. Joseph H. Trimbach, the former FBI Special Agent in Charge for South Dakota from 1973 to 1975, said the indictment shows that prosecutors are moving closer to indictments against AIM leaders and their lawyers.

Aquash was dragged from the trunk of a car near the reservation town of Wanblee, South Dakota, and shot in the head in December 1975. The alleged triggerman, AIM member John Graham, will stand trial in state court although no date has been set. Graham's accomplice Arlo Looking Cloud was convicted in federal court of aiding and abetting the murder in 2004. Following a series of interrogations, AIM leaders falsely accused Aquash of being an FBI informant. One of her interrogators was convicted killer Leonard Peltier. At an AIM conference in June 1975, Peltier put a loaded gun in Aquash's mouth to administer "truth serum." The trail of evidence could lead to Peltier's former boss, AIM co-founder Dennis Banks.

Rios-Conroy was indicted in part because of a phone call she allegedly made saying that Aquash was found guilty of being an informant. The phone call led to the abduction, rape, and murder of Aquash after a final interrogation. Prosecutors believe Graham raped Aquash in Rios-Conroy's Rapid City apartment. Rios-Conroy's former boyfriend, Bruce Ellison, is a named co-conspirator. Ellison was a lawyer for the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee (WKLDOC), a group that defended AIM leaders in court. Ellison allegedly questioned Aquash as she sat tied to a chair in his Rapid City WKLDOC office.

In 2001, Ellison testified before a UN Human Rights Commission and called for an investigation of the FBI for what he claimed were 60 "uninvestigated" reservation killings. One of the cases he cited was the Aquash murder. AIM leaders and lawyers have accused the FBI of backing a tribal "goon squad" that murdered AIM members and supporters. Many of these deaths, however, have since been exposed as having been instigated and committed by AIM members or were the result of deaths not attributed to inter-tribal violence. One of the dead, Michelle Tobacco, was a nine-month old victim of child abuse. Several of the deaths were found to be alcohol-related.

Trimbach's book, American Indian Mafia, implicates another WKLDOC lawyer, Kenneth Tilsen, in the Aquash murder. Tilsen took possession of Aquash's wallet near the time of her death but says he cannot remember details from that period. Trimbach's book includes a letter Tilsen mailed to Aquash's relatives in which he writes that the wallet came to him "through a circuitous route." According to Paul DeMain, editor of News from Indian Country, WKLDOC files from that period have been purged from public archival records. Another lawyer, Charles Abourezk, was closely associated with AIM leader Russell Means during the period when Means's relatives were allegedly plotting against Aquash. Abourezk and Means are rumored to have been in the Wanblee area the night of the murder. Means's former bodyguard, Richard Marshall, awaits trial in federal court. Marshall, an ex-convict for murder in a separate case, stands accused of providing the weapon and bullets Graham allegedly used to execute Aquash.

The Rios-Conroy indictment indicates that prosecutors have established a stronger link between Aquash's final hours and her encounters with Ellison and several AIM members. Says Trimbach, "I think all of this will lead to more indictments. It's long overdue, but justice for Anna Mae might finally become a reality."

John M. Trimbach
Trimbach & Associates, Inc.
Atlanta
770-883-5086

First Url: AIM Myth Busters

Book Title: American Indian Mafia

[See contact information here]

ACORN: Your Tax Dollars at Work

ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke

The surreal FOX News stories about corruption at the government-supported organization ACORN [Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now] are coming from an Andrew Breitbart blog called Big Government.com

You can read all their stories about ACORN here.

Today, as the cameras rolled, an ACORN advisor in San Bernadino named Teresa casually boasted that she was a former prostitute and that she had shot her husband in the head and killed him.

Teresa was filmed speaking with two 20-something undercover reporters (Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe) who were posing as a young prostitute and an aspiring politician who wanted to use the funds from prostitution to fund his political campaign.

Teresa sent the pair across the street to her friend, who advised Hannah and James that they could get money from the government to open their brothel by disguising their illegal business as a "school" and the child prostitutes, allegedly illegal aliens from El Salvador, as "students."

9-11 Truther Hero Delmart Vreeland Locked Up for Molesting Colorado Boys

"[Delmart] Vreeland was arrested in October 2004 for numerous charges including child prostitution. Witnesses reported that Vreeland provided drugs and alcohol to two teenage boys, and then induced them to perform sex acts and make child pornography for the promise of thousands of dollars and a drum set."---The Denver Channel (10-24-08)

UPDATE (9-26-09): 9-11 "Truther" Michael Ruppert found guilty of sexual harassment. [9-11 "Truther" Michael Ruppert championed the child pornographer Delmart Vreeland as a source for his 9-11 conspiracy theories. Basically, he subjected his employee to pornography.]

The wild-eyed child Denver-area pornographer and drug dealer Delmart Vreeland (above) was arrested in 2004 and convicted in 2006 of charges such as inducement of child prostitution, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, and distribution of cocaine. Vreeland is a hero to some 9-11 Truthers.

"Truthers" are people who believe that President Bush and/or elements of the U.S. government were complicit in 9-11. "Truthers" have linked-up in the so-called "9-11 Truth Movement."

David Corn of The Nation (5-30-02) has written a lengthy article about the backgrounds of the "Truthers" Delmart Vreeland and Michael Ruppert. News articles and court records about the con man Vreeland have been compiled here. (Give this site time to load.) A blog called Screw Loose Change reports on the activities of the Truthers and debunks their crackpot "science" and fabrications.

Delmart Vreeland is a hero to the mendacious "Truther" Sander Hicks (pictured in the center), who used Vreeland as a "source" for his ridiculous 2005 "Truther" book The Big Wedding and depicted this con man, habitual criminal, and sex offender as a secret agent for the U.S. Navy who supposedly was "framed" because he foretold 9-11 from his Canadian prison cell.

Sander Hick's ridiculous book and his vile kiddie porn "source" Delmart Vreeland are glorified in a nauseating book review by the mendacious Muslim "Truther" Kevin Barrett. In an article he purportedly authored, Hicks describes a meeting he had in Toronto, Canada with Vreeland. [This article was published in From the Wilderness, which was published by Michael Ruppert. Ruppert has just been fined for sexual harassment. He tried to make his employee look at pornography and other disgusting things.]

In fact, "intelligence operative" Vreeland is really a Denver-area child pornographer who molested two boys and was sentenced in 2006 to 336 years to life in prison. [Hat Tip Screw Loose Change: "Delmart "Mike" Vreeland: 9-11 Troofer and Kiddie Porn Producer."] Vreeland masqueraded as a 9-11 "whistleblower" so that he could claim that the government was framing him.

Hicks has a bad habit of bonding with violent criminals who are--to put it delicately--unreliable sources. Micropublisher Hicks also published a book about George W. Bush called Fortunate Son by the late author and car-bomber James H. Hatfield.

The late James H. Hatfield was a convicted Dallas car-bomber, a financial swindler, a jailbird, and the author of a book on the X Files. Hatfield was the self-published author of a James Bond thriller titled The Killing Zone (Bond dies!) that Hatfield slyly attributed, in the book's forward, to the licensed publisher of the James Bond series.

Reporter Pete Slover of the Dallas Morning News was one of the journalists who exposed Hatfield. [Google "Pete Slover" Hatfield.] Hatfield's criminal career was also exposed by 60 Minutes and the Washington Post.

Hatfield, who served time in a federal prison because he was convicted of soliciting another criminal to car-bomb his supervisor's car (solicitation of capital murder) in the Dallas Cotton Exchange parking garage, claimed in Fortunate Son that George Bush was arrested for cocaine possession. The blockbuster cocaine allegation was appended to the end of Hatfield's book and caused a scandal before Bush's first election. The book was withdrawn by St. Martin's Press when they learned of Hatfield's criminal history and reissued by Sander Hicks, who ran a micropublishing company called Soft Skull Press. The ludicrous and sordid tale of the car-bomber's misbegotten book, which Hicks subsequently reissued with some changes, is also recounted by the Texas Monthly (December 1999) in an article called "Bio Hazard: Exposing the disgraced author of a discredited book on George W."

In a press conference, but not in the book, Hicks and Hatfield subsequently claimed that the book's anonymous source for the cocaine allegation was none other than Karl Rove, who supposedly disclosed this damaging secret about the President to the convicted car-bomber while they were sitting in a boat on an Arkansas lake.

While he was still on parole for soliciting a car bombing, Hatfield was rearrested for a computer crime; so he killed himself with an overdose of prescription medicine. He didn't want to go back to prison for life. The two people in the wired car survived the blast because the bomb blew out instead of into the passenger area. Hatfield wrote in his book that the man he hired to place the bomb was "not the sharpest knife in the drawer." Hatfield wrote about his intended victim in the introduction of his book: "Nobody liked her anyway."

The conspiracist Hatfield may have even written some garbled pre-9-11 "James Bond" fantasy about Bin Laden and George Bush, according to this article, which was purportedly authored by Hatfield and re-posted after his death.

After Hatfield's suicide, Hicks wrote a semi-autobiographical play titled Sarcoxie and Sealove (2003). The play's "hero" is a Black Bloc anarchist named Sealove who bears a strong resemblance to Sander Hicks. Sealove pursues a political candidate (George W. Bush) and orders the candidate to take off his shirt at the close of the play (Scene 10) so he can be fitted with a noose and hanged by a "people's tribunal." Ironically, the late car-bomber Hatfield (who died before 9-11) appears as a ghost named Coby and confronts the candidate (George W. Bush) with some 9-11 Truther nonsense. It's pretty ironic that Hicks has a convicted car-bomber who went to prison for solicitation of capital murder blame the Bush Administration for the 9-11 bombings.

Hicks has evidently moved on since 1999. He now uses a child pornographer as a source for his "research" on President Bush's alleged complicity in 9-11. Although Hicks has criticized torture at Abu Ghraib, it doesn't seem to faze him that his "source" for the "truth" about 9-11 is an international criminal who victimized two boys. Also, if Hicks' nemesis George W. Bush was capable of bombing thousands of Americans with airplanes on 9-11, why are "whistleblower" Truthers--especially a chronic irritant like Sander Hicks--still walking around alive? Why aren't the Truthers shot or poisoned with polonium like the Russians who accused Putin of blowing up Russian apartments in 1999 to provide a pretext for the Second Chechen War?

One notes that Hicks' moral outrage about 9-11 bombings is not very sincere. After all, he expressed no moral outrage about his partner the convicted bomber James H. Hatfield.

UPDATE (10-4-09) Hicks's newest conspiracy theory is about the anthrax mailings. On Youtube (September 2, 2009), Hicks is even accusing an early FBI suspect in the anthrax mailings, Stephen Hatfill, of being "clearly a fascist" who used anthrax to kill black people in Africa. Hicks characterizes the science used to uncover the anthrax mailer as "pseudo-science," "junk science" and "joke science."

Denver Channel 7 News (10-24-08) reports the lurid details about the fabricator Delmart Vreeland, who reminds me a lot of the late James H. Hatfield.

International Criminal Gets Prison For Child Sex Crimes

Delmart Vreeland Claimed To Have Advance Knowledge Of Sept. 11 Attacks

A man with an international following has been sentenced to 336 years to life in prison after he was convicted of luring two boys into performing sex acts and making child pornography.

Delmart Edward Vreeland, 42, of the Cottonwood subdivision in Douglas County, was convicted in 2006 of 13 felony charges, including inducement of child prostitution, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, and distribution of cocaine. Earlier this year, he was convicted of six habitual criminal counts.

Vreeland was arrested in October 2004 for numerous charges including child prostitution. Witnesses reported that Vreeland provided drugs and alcohol to two teenage boys, and then induced them to perform sex acts and make child pornography for the promise of thousands of dollars and a drum set. The victims reported Vreeland to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

Detectives conducted an extensive background search on Vreeland and learned that he was wanted in several states and Canada. He has over 40 aliases and an extensive criminal history dating back over 20 years.

Vreeland posted bond and cut off his ankle bracelet, fleeing the state. Detectives tracked him down in Iowa and brought him back to Colorado.

Douglas County authorities called Vreeland an international "folk hero" and conspiracy theorist who claimed that while he was incarcerated in a Canadian Jail in 2001 he forewarned Canadian officials of the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Vreeland has claimed to be a U.S. spy, a covert operative, and a Naval Intelligence Officer, all of which have been proven false, according to investigators. U.S. Naval records show that in 1986 Vreeland was kicked out of basic training for his inability to conform to military regulations.

Vreeland has continually claimed to have information on terror plots and high profile murder and kidnapping cases. However, Douglas County detectives and the FBI state that Vreeland's claims have no merit, and he is not a credible source of information...[See full text]

See other articles about Vreeland:
Parker Chronicle (10-29-08)
CBS4Denver (10-24-08)

And Then There Were Four: Thelma Rios Indicted for the Murder of Anna Mae Aquash

"Thursday, state and county officials announced a grand jury in Pennington County has...indicted [John] Graham for felony murder, kidnapping and rape, and added long-time American Indian Activist Thelma Rios as a suspect [in the December 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash (pictured above)]. She's now also charged with felony murder and kidnapping."---Keloland.com (9-10-09)

South Dakota's new Attorney General Marty Jackley has issued a press release (9-10-09) about new charges in the December 1975 murder of American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Aquash (pictured above). The South Dakota Attorney General's press office (9-10-09) states:

John Graham and Thelma Rios Indicted on Murder Charges

PIERRE, S.D.-Attorney General Marty Jackley announced that John Graham, 54, Rapid City and Thelma Rios, 64, Rapid City, have been indicted today by a Pennington County Grand Jury. Graham was indicted on one count of felony murder in relation to kidnapping, one count of felony murder in relation to rape and one count of premeditated murder. Rios was indicted on one count of felony murder in relation to kidnapping and one count of premeditated murder. The indictment charges that Graham and Rios murdered Anna Mae Aquash on or about December 10-12, 1975.

Graham and Rios are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty. The investigation is being conducted by the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Attorney General Marty Jackley, Assistant Attorney General Rod Oswald and Pennington County States Attorney Glenn Brenner are prosecuting the case.

According to Carson Walker of the AP (updated 9-12-09):

[Pennington County State's Attorney] Brenner said there is no statute of limitations on the state charges against Graham and Rios. The case should be simpler than in the federal system because prosecutors must merely prove if a crime was committed.

Keloland T.V. (see article below) is struggling to explain the very confusing federal, state, and county jurisdictional issues of American Indian law as they relate to the Anna Mae Aquash murder case.

Aquash was shot to death on Pine Ridge Indian reservation, which would usually suggest that the murder was subject to federal jurisdiction; however, Aquash and one of her accused killers, John Graham, were Canadian Indians, not American Indians.

Two courts have ruled that John Graham cannot be tried in federal court because he is not an American Indian. [American Indians accused of a serious crime on Indian territory must be tried in Federal Court.] However, according to an article in News from Indian Country (about 9-10-09):

Graham had faced federal murder charges in Aquash's killing but two courts ruled the U.S. government lacked jurisdiction to try Graham because he is not American Indian. Federal prosecutors say they may appeal.

News from Indian Country writes of the second accused killer, Thelma Rios:

Rios was close to AIM leadership members, Russell Means, Dennis Banks and Vernon Bellecourt at the time [of the Aquash murder]. She was also the common law wife of Harry David Hill, the alleged Mr. X that claimed to have killed two FBI agents on June 26, 1975 and has been identified in law enforcement and FBI records as being responsible for the June 27, 1975 bombing of Mt. Rushmore.

According to the retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Joseph S. Trimbach and his son John:

December 10 (on or about), 1975: Anna Mae is taken from the Denver home of Troy Lynn Yellowood by John Graham and Arlo Looking Cloud and put in the back of Theta Clarke's red Pinto hatchback. Several witnesses observe that Anna Mae is bound and carried against her will. She is eventually taken to the offices of the Wounded Knee Legal Defense Offense Committee in Rapid City, where she is questioned by AIM [American Indian Movement] members. Anna Mae is moved to two residences owned by Thelma Rios-Conroy. AIM leaders hold further discussions about Annie Mae's loyalty. According to News from Indian Country sources, WKLDOC attorney Bruce Ellison is said to have encouraged the idea that Anna Mae might be an [FBI] informant.

December 12, 1975: Anna Mae is driven to the reservation home of Bill Means where AIM members Clyde Bellecourt and David Hill are said to be waiting. Later that night, Theta Clark, Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham drive Anna Mae to a remote part of the Pine Ridge Reservation. After Looking Cloud and Graham force Anna Mae out of the car, they drag her to the edge of a cliff. Graham allegedly shoots her in the head. (American Indian Mafia, p. 515).

The Trimbachs explain that some of the female power brokers in the AIM such as Madonna (formerly Gilbert) Thunder Hawk, Thelma Rios, and Lorelei Means are implicated in the planning and covering-up of the murder of Anna Mae. (American Indian Mafia, p. 562/footnote 42.)

According to testimony presented at Arlo Looking Cloud's trial for the murder of Anna Mae:

Bruce Ellison, Thelma Rios, Ted Means, Lorelei DeCora Means, Clyde Bellecourt, Madonna Gilbert, and a man called "Red" [plotted] Anna Mae's future (American Indian Mafia, p. 594/footnote 90).

Now prosecutors are making the case that much of the crime occurred in Rapid City, which is subject to state and Pennington county laws. I always thought that kidnapping was a federal offense, but obviously it is also an offense in Pennington County. Hopefully, the media will clarify these confusing jurisdictional issues.

Keloland.com (9-10-09) reports:

A fourth person is now charged in the death of American Indian Movement activist Anna Mae Aquash [pictured above]. She was found shot to death in 1975 along a highway on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

One person's already been convicted in her death. Arlo Looking Cloud is serving a life sentence.

John Graham, who's charged with felony murder, kidnapping and rape, and Richard Marshall, who's charged with aiding and abetting, wait to stand trial in Federal Court.

Thursday, state and county officials announced a grand jury in Pennington County has also indicted Graham for felony murder, kidnapping and rape, and added long-time [so-called] American Indian Activist Thelma Rios as a suspect. She's now also charged with felony murder and kidnapping.

Anna Mae Aquash's murder has been working its way through Federal Court for more than six years, but now, investigators believe part of the 1975 crime happened in Rapid City, which brings the new charges to the Pennington County Courthouse.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley says new evidence shows 64-year-old Thelma Rios of Rapid City had a role in the crime.

"A lot of the public record indicates that ultimately the kidnapping and rape occurred at her residency," Jackley said.

Since it didn't happen on the reservation, John Graham also now faces felony murder, kidnapping and rape charges in Pennington County.

Last October, a judge decided the U.S. government doesn't have jurisdiction over him because neither he nor Aquash belonged to [an American] tribe. Since that's in appeals, he's now being tried in both federal and circuit court. [Confusing]

"This case is an example of cooperative law enforcement on a federal, state and local level, which I think our community demands from our law enforcement," Jackley said.

Multiple agencies working together to help solve a crime that happened more than three decades ago.

Because each court [state and federal?] has its own independent authority, Graham can be tried on the same charges twice and could have different outcomes, which don't impact the other.

Rios made her first court appearance Thursday morning...