[chris]

This FBI file concerns Joanne Deborah Chesimard, also known as Assata Shakur, a Black Liberation Army associate convicted in New Jersey in 1977 in connection with the 1973 killing of State Trooper Werner Foerster. The released records are primarily 2012 and 2013 FBI Newark nomination memoranda and internal emails seeking to place her on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list and then the Most Wanted Terrorist List. They describe the FBI's account of the Turnpike shooting, her 1979 prison escape, her later presence in Cuba, and the Bureau's stated rationale for characterizing the offenses as domestic terrorism tied to Black separatist extremist ideology. The emails also address media questions, stating that the Black Liberation Army was not formally designated a terrorist organization and that the FBI investigated it under a Civil Unrest classification during the 1970s.

Documents span: 2012-2013 | Released in 1 part
Names in this file: Joanne Deborah Chesimard, Assata Shakur, Werner Foerster, Clark Squire, James Coston Jr., Theodore Appleby, John G. Perren, Stuart R. McArthur, Jane Chaliman
Subjects: Assata Shakur, Black Liberation Army, Most Wanted Terrorists, New Jersey State Police, prison escape, domestic terrorism