BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 06:44 AM

Spoke by telephone with a friend who is in law enforecment in the states last night, glad to be able to report that this convicted killer has no chance of getting out.

So bleeding hearts and bored women should find another lost cause. Maybe Dale Farm ? oh sorry, that ball is also over the wall.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 07:13 AM

"True sadness is to live a live where the only happiness gained comes from hatefulness" - Lizzie Cornish



Petition for Leonard Peltier exceeded required votes and now goes before The White House

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 07:27 AM

life

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 07:30 AM

I like that saying, Lizzie and it is so true.

It is good news about the petition; I am hopeful that his case will be looked at favourably.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Nov 11 - 09:38 AM

Geez, listen to this radio programme...and weep! No wonder they have him locked up for 36 years. No wonder they're scared to let him free. Poor Leonard. Poor everyone else mentioned on here too.

What has been done to Leonard Peltier is one of the biggest scandals in American History, imo.

Audio link to documentary on Cointelpro 101

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 03:45 AM

From The Toronto Sun 5th November 2011:

Peltier Movie Seeks Justice - 'Wind Chases The Sun'

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 09:57 AM

Lizzie, any word of him getting out yet ?

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 10 Nov 11 - 02:14 PM

Many good people are working their butts off to achieve this...They are also working on sorting out the terrible way he's been treated in prison, *being* treated in prison, should I say.....

It's heartbreaking...I don't know how that man stays sane, I really don't. And now they've moved him so far from his family and friends, made it so difficult for them to visit him...

The people behind this are absolute bastards, and one day, either when Leonard is freed, or if he dies in prison, they'll be brought to face justice themselves over what they've done.

The whole thing stinks, from top to bottom and bottom to top..and meanwhile, for the past 36 YEARS this man has lived his life behind bars, inside prison routine, day upon endless day, being treated like shite throughout those years..

I have a whole new meaning for the letters F B I

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 14 Nov 11 - 02:45 PM

If anyone would like to write to Leonard, here are the details...Letters and cards only, apparently.


Leonard Peltier, Inmat...e # 89637-132.
USP - Coleman 1
U.S. Penitentiary
P.O. Box 1033.
Coleman, FL. 33521
USA

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 04 Dec 11 - 04:42 PM

Just in case anyone was in any doubt:

Ramsey Clark (former Attorney General of the USA) speaking about Leonard Peltier. *Please note this was written in 1999. Leonard has been in prison for a crime he did not commt for 36 years now



Ramsey Clark's Preface to'Prison Writings - My Life is My Sun Dance' by Leonard Peltier

(Ramsey was counsel to Leonard Peltier & former Attorney General of the United States of America.)



"I want to tell you why the freedom of Leonard Peltier is so important.

There are well over 200 million indigenous people on the planet, maybe as many as 300 million. They live on six continents and on countless numbers of islands. And everywhere they are the most endangered of human species. Yet the survival of humanity depends upon their salvation.

Leonard Peltier is the symbol of that struggle. I am distressed, saddened, and outraged that so many Americans have forgotten, or perhaps never known, who he is and what he represents. If we forget him, we forget the struggle itself. Strangely he is much better known outside of this country than here - in Europe, in Canada, in South America, in Asia and Africa. Enlightened people around the world see in him the struggle of all indigenous people for their lives, their dignity, for their sovereignty, their future. And they wonder: how is it that this man has been held so long when his innocence is known by those who hold him? Here in the United States, his voice, and the urgent message of indigenous peoples everywhere, has been muffled, if not silenced. Those who put him behind bars - and insist on keeping him there after nearly a quarter of a century* - believe he has been consigned to the dustbin of history, along with the cause of native peoples everywhere. We must not allow that to continue.

I think I can explain beyond serious doubt that Leonard Peltier has committed no crime whatsoever. Even if he had been guilty of firing the gun that killed two FBI agents - and it is certain that he did not - it would still have been in self-defense and in the defense not just of his people but of the right of all individuals and peoples to be free from domination and exploitation.

Not a single credible witness said they saw Leonard take aim at anybody that tragic day at Oglala in June 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. There was absolutely no evidence that he killed anyone - except fabricated and utterly misleading circumstantial evidence. Among the many, many things withheld in his alarmingly unfair trial - a trial that disgraced and continues to disgrace, the American judicial system - was the staggering violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation that led directly to the events of that day. That violence, directed against traditional people on the reservation, had earlier caused the related and better-known tragedy revolving around the occupation and siege at nearby Wounded Knee in 1973. And that violence accelerated enormously in the two years between 1973 and 1975.

At the time of Wounded Knee in 1973, there were only a few FBI agents in the whole state of South Dakota, and frequently just one. But by 1975, thee were sixty. They were deployed overwhelmingly against a small Indian population. During these two years more than sixty Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation - some say as many as three hundred - died violent and unexplained deaths, overwhelmingly from activity instigated by our own federal government. And there is little doubt about it.

With government complicity, a rogue paramilitary group that proudly called itself the GOONs - Guardians of the Oglala Nation - were provided with weapons, training, and motivation to create a wave of violence, still remembered as the "reign of terror," against traditional Indian people and their supporters, including the American Indian Movement (AIM).   In March of 1975 alone seven Indians were killed, their deaths going virtually uninvestigated despite the presence of that army of FBI agents and other federal, state, and tribal lawmen. And that's why the traditional people, the Elders of the Lakota (Sioux) people, asked AIM, as they had two years before at Wounded Knee, to send some people to help protect them. And I say thank God AIM did.

A small group of brave, dedicated AIM members - fewer than seventeen people, only six men, Leonard Peltier among them - came to protect the traditional Indians from violence secretly and illegally condoned and initiated by our government. Those AIM defenders, joined by local traditionals, set up a tent city, a "spiritual camp" they called it, on the remote Pine Ridge property of Harry and Celia Jumping Bull - two Elders who feared desperately for their loved ones' lives after constant threat from the GOONs.

This was a time, we must remember, of government paranoia against all dissident groups that remained as the Vietnam War era was drawing to a close. These things were all interrelated. We should never forget Martin Luther King Jr.'s heartbreaking words in 1967, when he came out against the war in Vietnam and announced "The greatest purveyor of violence on earth is my own government."

There's no question that our own government was generating violence against traditional Indians of Pine Ridge at that time as a means of control and domination, some believe acting on behalf of energy interests planning to purloin the reservation's vast untapped mineral wealth, especially uranium.

We now know, from documents recently released in the 1990s under the Freedom of Information Act, that the FBI had people in place at least twenty minutes before the two cars that precipitated the 'incident at Oglala' drove down into the Jumping Bull compound. The government had been preparing for a major act.

During the trial of Leonard Peltier in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1977, much essential background evidence in the case was excluded. The greatest exclusion was all of this government-instigated violence, which had caused the whole tragedy and led to the deaths of their own agents.

Why were these men of AIM there? Why was Leonard Peltier there? He was there to protect people, his own people, who were being killed! If that's a crime, where are we?

But the government's own crimes didn't end there. They suborned our whole system of justice when they intimidated a witness, a poor and unknowing Indian woman, into testifying that she was Leonard Peltier's girlfriend and that she had actually seen Leonard kill the agents - then used that testimony to extradite Leonard from Canada, where he had fled fearing precisely the kind of kangaroo justice he was about to receive in U.S. courts.

As the FBI well knew, that woman wasn't even there, had never met or even seen Leonard Peltier, and the government knew it! It's amazing to me still, how they talk about that woman and blame her for not telling the truth. Because, long after it was all over, they freely admitted "there's not a scintilla of evidence, not a spark of evidence" - those are their own words - that this woman was a witness to anything. They admitted she wasn't even there. Now, do you think she just came forward and volunteered three affidavits? What did that poor woman go through at the hands of her interrogators? What type of abuse? It was the same sort of abuse and manipulation being perpetrated on the whole traditional population of Pine Ridge - and by our own government agents. Think of how they treated her to force her to give utterly false testimony, and took advantage of her in order to get Leonard Peltier and bring him back here. What a shameful, criminal act! So long as it goes unchallenged and unpunished we are all of us , every citizen in this great nation of ours, subject to the same kind of naked and arrogant injustice.

The other concealments that the government went through to imprison Peltier are unbelievable. The FBI laboratory, as you no doubt have heard, is the subject of a whole series of recent reports that condemn it for fabricating evidence, for falsifying evidence, for incompetence in evaluation of evidence. Yet the extenuated nature of the only evidence against Leonard Peltier is so absurd that, if the FBI laboratory were either competent or honest, that so-called evidence wouldn't be worth anything. The government, in prosecuting its fraudulent case against Leonard, covered up lab reports that said they could not connect the one bullet (it wasn't even a bullet but a casing, an expended casing) with what was called the 'Wichita AR-15' the so-called "murder weapon" And yet the FBI claimed to connect the AR-15 bullet casing (itself suspected of being fabricated evidence) with that particular AR-15, even though their own lab said they did not match, and they then illegally concealed this evidence to the contrary throughout Leonard's Fargo trial. Nor, even if they did connect the two, could they place that weapon in Leonard Peltier's hands, much less even prove it to be the "murder weapon" Leonard wasn't within fifteen hundred miles of where it was found near Wichita, Kansas, weeks after the shootout at Oglala. So how does that get to be his rifle in the first place? Well, they had a plan for that. The government argued that there was only one AR-15 rifle possessed by Indians on the reservation. But that was absolutely false, as they well knew. And the courts have since confirmed, without question, that there were a number of AR-15s there and M-16s as well, which fire the .223 cartridges that allegedly killed these FBI agents.

At Leonard's trial, government prosecutors re-enacted a scene for which they had no evidence whatsoever - an imaginary scene in which one agent, supposedly suffering from already having been hit at a distance, put his hand in front of his face and begged not to be shot and was shot through the hand and killed by Leonard Peltier, who then whirled and shot the other agent and killed him, both at point-blank range. The only problem was that there was absolutely no evidence of that; no witness testified to anything like that. And yet the jury was intimidated into believing this totally false story.

Then, in 1985, after Leonard had already served a decade in prison, one of the government prosecutors candidly admitted, "We did not know who shot the agents." That's what he said: "We did not know who shot the agents" Now more than another decade has passed and still Leonard Peltier is in prison! He's there, convicted on two counts of murder, and he's serving two life sentences - all for a crime the government knows it did not prove he committed! By imprisoning Leonard Peltier, those who keep him locked away from his people continue the government's dishonorable centuries-old policy of domination over, and oppression of, Indian peoples. Leonard Peltier is the very symbol of that domination and continuing oppression. Is it any wonder he's called a "political prisoner"?

So even after the government admitted that they did not prove who killed the agents, rather than see Leonard freed and thus open the door to an investigation into their own misdeeds, they switched after the fact to a new, equally fraudulent argument for continuing his imprisonment - charging him with "aiding and abetting" whoever it was who supposedly killed the agents. Yet the jury had given him a double life sentence because they believed the prosecutor's fabricated story that Leonard had murdered those injured agents in cold blood at point blank range, not for a charge of "aiding and abetting," which could equally apply to scores of Indians that day. They would never have given him a sentence twice his natural life for simply being at the scene, as were so many, trying to defend their elders and women and children against the government's unlawful and misguided invasion of the Jumping Bull property.

The fact is, the government does not have to tell us who shot the agents. The whole record shows that officials don't know who shot the agents, and they don't want anybody else to know. They desperately want the world to believe that Leonard Peltier is guilty because they have staked their reputation on it.

The president of the United States can commute that sentence in the name of justice any moment he wants to. He has the power, complete and absolute, under the Constitution. We have to demand that he does it and we must demand that it happens this year, this very day. Each of us and all of us must raise our voices in a chorus of millions, of tens of millions.

Until that happens, every day is a new crime, every dawn is a new crime, every dusk is a new crime against the dignity of the Indian peoples and the honor of the United States of America. Because while Leonard Peltier is in prison, we all are."<<<

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: gnu
Date: 04 Dec 11 - 09:10 PM

"There are well over 200 million indigenous people on the planet, maybe as many as 300 million."

I thought there was like 6, getting near 7B people who were born here? *I* am not indigenous to this planet? Where the fuck did I land from if I wasn't born here????

I recall posting about the fact that I read from court records that one of the officers he shot IDd him as the shooter before he died. I ain't gonna go back and read it all again and post it all again. I said my piece but it seems to have been ignored.

Read the whole thread. Read the court records. Decide for yourself based on the public record. Read the FACTS.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 06:58 AM

And I would suggest you too read the many facts in the above letter, from a former Attorney General, gnu, before taking off in such an arrogant manner.

Thanks.

And as for your rant about being 'indigenous'....hey, we left our tribes a very long while back, went out to cause chaos, at least, many of us did, through history, sadly.

Time to find our way back, pretty darn fast.

And why the hell would ANYONE trust the Court Records in this case? That is the ENTIRE point! READ Ramsey Clark's letter!

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 08:19 AM

Lizzie, thank you for taking the time to type that out. I don't have the book and I am sure that there are many others who don't either.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: gnu
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 04:59 PM

"Not a single credible witness said they saw Leonard take aim at anybody that tragic day..."

What about the guy he shot? Not credible?

You wanna read a "book" or the court evidence? BTW, it costs nothing to read the evidence in the public record but ya gotta BUY the book.

Say, does Lee get a cut on the book even if he is serving time for murder?

And, BTW, IF Ramsey Clark can prove all these accusations, why hasn't Ramsey Clark DONE IT? I would say Ramsey Clark has a DUTY to Lee to do so. But, there ain't no COIN in that, is there? Oh, wait, yeah, there is a SHITLOAD a coin in that... Lee would be compensated GREATLY for wrongful imprisonment, wouldn't he? So, why not go THAT route, get Lee out and get a big compensation package?

Allow me to answer rather than dragging this out. HE SHOT PEOPLE. He is in jail for SHOOTING PEOPLE. The court evidence proves it. He was convicted. His case was reviewed and DENIED appeal. He AIN'T gettin out so the best money deal is a book.

Buy the book. Buy copies for your friends and relatives. Send $$$ to the Free Lee foundation.

But... he ain't gettin out on accounta he shot people.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 09:08 PM

This guy is a convicted murderer. Not only should he remain in prison, he should rot there. And I am glad to report that is exactly what is going to happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 04:48 AM

You tell me, gnu, why Leonard Peltier has not been freed? You tell me why the FBI tried to get 'In The Spirit of Crazy Horse' banned, which again, is filled with evidence supporting his innocence? You tell me why they put huge pressure on Bill Clinton, threatening to take to the streets, when Clinton was about to release him? You tell me why, even to this day, Leonard is denied parole? You tell me why he is, at this moment in time, denied access to testing his blood sugar, despite being diabetic? You tell me why he is being denied visits from family, from lawyers, due to the new set of hoops Coleman Prison has thrown down? You tell me why Myrtle Poor Bear was NOT allowed to give evidence, telling the court how she was forced into saying she knew Leonard Peltier, saw him fire the gun? You tell me why the FBI suppressed so much evidence that would have got him walking free from that court? You tell me why the FBI themselves have said they do NOT know WHO killed those agents? You tell me why they tried to alter the charge to 'aiding and abetting' when they knew their shit evidence had been rumbled?

You tell me HOW, when all of the above is PUBLIC and LEGAL knowledge, tell me HOW Leonard Peltier is still in prison????


And I will tell YOU a tale of men who are so shit scared of being brought to trial themselves that they will stop at nothing to try to silence the truth! I will tell you a story of dishonesty, racism, hatred, political intrigue and the deep corruption within US Justice System which is so damned screwed up, so damned horrendous, that it will FIGHT to keep an INNOCENT man in prison for 65 YEARS just to save its' own back!!

They are the most evil bunch of bastards EVER and one day, they *will* pay for what they have done to Leonard Peltier..

HOW he is still sane, I've no idea, apart from the fact that he chose to become a symbol for his People...And if the Native Americans were still in charge of *their* country, men such as Leonard Peltier would be in the right place..teaching the young people how to have strength and spirit that outshines all around them...

However, you have a right to your opinion, no matter the fact that I regard it as total crap. I just hope you never find yourself in a similar situation, although, if ever you do, at least you will have time to reflet on your thoughts....

I tell you what though, if Leonard does die in prison, then...THEN they will have more shit surrounding them than they ever dreamt of, for then out will come the court cases, out will come the books, the films, the TV series, and those who ARE guilty of the longest and most horrendous miscarriage of justice in American History, will be finally made to account for what they have done..

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 05:01 AM

Well he is staying put, exactly where he belongs. I wouldn't be in any hurry sweetie to bake a cake with a file in it. Look around, there are plenty other lost causes to chase up, some in fact in your own country.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Jeri
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 09:01 AM

I suggest anyone who cares read this page, especially the judicial opinions.

There's certainly enough there to leave a doubt in the minds of those who have them.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 10:42 AM

Not signing in does not count as not posting, Lizzie. Why don't you just sign back in again to save having to put your name each time?

As for Leonard Peltier - I have said before I know little enough of either the relevent law or the case to comment and I have enough on my plate without taking on something I care little to learn about. Whichever side is right will prove themselves with or without my help.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: gnu
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 08:32 PM

"You tell me, gnu, why Leonard Peltier has not been freed?"

He is guilty. It has been proven MANY times. Read the public records.

Ya wanna read the hype that generates money? Go for it. Send in your money.

I'll send in some money... for a rope.

A DYING man identified him as his killer... along with all the other evidence. What more do you need?

As for me, I don't give two fucks from Tuesday if he is freed or fried. But I would prefer fried because I believe people who murder other people should pay with their own lives. Said it before, this guy has been allowed EVERY and numerous chance(s) to prove himself innocent... can't do it... BECAUSE HE SHOT PEOPLE. It's in the public record. It's proven.

Citing the viewpoints of anyone with no backup and no balls to carry it forward on Lee`s behalf does NOT make your case. It`s all bullshit unless it can be proven.

It`s called justice.

Lee is lucky he can still make money from killing people. And *I* think that is sickening.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 05:33 AM

Thanks, Jeri...and that is the *official* site for Leonard Peltier, by the way.

gnu, you an FBI Agent by any chance?   


And as for those who have no wish to even bother to find out about the case of an innocent man locked away for 36 years, for a crime he didn't commit, and the deeply disturbing facts which surround this, I have no time for them...

So you're telling me, gnu, that a former Attorney General has 'no balls' and 'no back up' facts-wise or respect-wise, right?

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 06:11 AM

There are thousands all over the world that are in prison for a crimes that they did not commit. Before anyone starts to judge those who chose other causes I sugegst they look into their own motives.

Hmmm- What shall I do? Scream and shout in a very loud voice about a high profile case so that everyone can see how good I am or shall I beaver away in the dark to help those poor souls in Jail with not a friend in the world and no hope of ever emerging alive?

How about trying to make a real difference supporting Amnesty International instead of posting to a forum that, quite frankly, doesn't make a ha'purth of difference?

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 01:54 PM

Amnesty International, whom I've already contacted say they can do nothing more. They've been trying for near on 4 decades..

Why do I put details on here? Because there are folks here from America and Canada, as well as many other places, who may just be interested in doing something and who knows where any path might lead...Many on here are singers, songwriters, musicians, who are in touch with others of their trade...They have many opportunities to tell Leonard's story if they feel like doing so, thus bringing yet more people in.

I don't give a fuck if it gets up your nose, Dave, where, or what I post. I sure as hell am sick of your snidey remarks though.

I also post on the White House Wall, not so that people will think I'm some kind of fooking Saint, but because SOMEONE bloody well has to, to get most of the eejits who post total gobbledeegook on there to sit up and take notice!

Several posters from there have come over to my page and now spread the word to their friends..and THAT is why I do it!

Comprendez?????


MANY posters, the Occupy Wall Street Guys, on the Support Chief Raoni page I seem to now be running myself, are now spreading Leonard's story far and wide, along with the many dreadful things that have happened to the American Indians for so long, a great deal of which they knew nothing about...And they're ANGRY they knew nothing about his story.

The world seems to have forgotten Leonard Peltier....so the more folks who help to spread the word, the better. I am simply one more, no more or less important than the others who've been doing FAR more for a very long time, and who will continue to fight, with every breath in their body, to free Leonard.

Vivienne Westwood is doing all she can behind the scenes too....

The LPDOC guys are sensational and they're doing a bloody wonderful job keeping Leonard's morale up, fighting for better conditions for him all the time, recently demonstrating yet again, so that Obama would see them all on his recent visit to one of the Tribal Conferences.

Read this is you want. But hey, if you don't give a shit, then why the fuck do you bother to come in here, other than to have your usual bloody 'go' at me? You're a bully, Dave. Covert, but a bloody bully nonetheless, always determined to get folks to see me in as bad a light as you can possibly shine......

Well, shove your light up your arse and get out of this thread...

Thanks..


And yes, you're another reason why I rarely come here any longer. Hope that makes you proud, and if it does, then you are even more up your own arse than I think you are.

As to 'my motives' again, fook you. I just do things the way I've always done them, to spread the word, to make folks think, to get them angry sometimes, which causes thinking to go even deeper..I really don't give a flying duck what you, or anyone else thinks about me, so long as the message gets out there.....

So take your vindictive, suspicious crap and do with it what you will.




Oh, and folks can also check out The Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights, starting from Alcatraz Island, led by Dennis Banks, on December 18th...

>>>"Dennis Banks-Ojibwe
in Tucson, AZ
ALCATRAZ ISLAND - Dennis Banks, Ojibwe, will kickoff "The Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights." The Walk will leave Alcatraz Island on Sunday, December 18 and continue through California on its way to Washington DC where it will conclude on May 18, 2012.
The walk is an effort to raise attention regarding political prisoner Leonard Peltier, imprisoned for over 35 years, to seek his freedom, and to demand President Obama to assert his authority by providing an Executive Clemency.
"Leonard has served 35 years for something I do not believe he is guilty of doing,"
Banks told the Native News Network from the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota on Thursday.
"He should be granted clemency for humanitarian reasons. He should be granted clemency for health reasons, " Banks continued.
"He has served time for real questionable court activities that found him guilty," stated Banks.
"He has already served too long."
Peltier, Turtle Mountain Ojibwe, was convicted of killing two FBI agents who showed up on June 25, 1975 at a private residence in Oglala, South Dakota.
Many American Indians and others around the world view Peltier as a political prisoner. Through the years, Peltier's supporters have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Bishop Desmond Tutu, among other prominent names.
Banks is the co-founder of the American Indian Movement. He completed the Longest Walk 3 - Reversing Diabetes in July, which brought awareness to the epidemic rates of diabetes among American Indians in the United States. Banks led the first Longest Walk from San Francisco to Washington in 1978.
Banks will be joined by Dorothy Ninham, coordinator for Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights, Antonio Gonzales, Norman "Wounded Knee" DeOcampo.
Spiritual advisors Fred Short and Yvonne Swan and other regional American Indian Movement representatives will also be part of the ceremony and kickoff. Short and Swan will be on hand to guide the prayer service/ceremony. The morning's theme will also address the United States injustice system and support for all political prisoners human rights.
There will be drummers and singers, fire and tobacco offerings. All supporters and allies are welcome to attend this Sunday Prayer Circle who are in solidarity with political prisoners. The gathering is to also offer strength to the volunteers who have committed themselves to walk across the United States for Leonard Peltier and for all political prisoners, from Alcatraz Island to Washington.
The boat leaves for Alcatraz Island from San Francisco at Pier # 33 beginning 9:10 am until Noon. Prices for the ferry to Alcatraz Island are tentatively $14."<<<<

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 02:59 PM

Another post filled with ladylike comments. How nice.

"The world seems to have forgotten Leonard Peltier" Yes, because he murders people and a judge sent to jail for his crimes, at least the ones he was caught for. Evidence suggests he was involved in at least four other murders.

If you have time on your hands love, start contacting the widows of his victims and run your tears past them.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 04:51 PM

People should only be in prison where guilt is proved beyond reasonable doubt; that is supposed to be the way the justice system works in both the UK and the USA.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: gnu
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 05:00 PM

"So you're telling me, gnu, that a former Attorney General has 'no balls' and 'no back up' facts-wise or respect-wise, right?"

Yup. If so, why is Lee still in jail? Why can't an Attorney General get him out? I'd say it's because, like I said before, it's about money and not about the truth.

Seriously... speak to THAT... if the AG can prove it, why has is NOT been done?... simply, why not?

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 05:26 PM

""People should only be in prison where guilt is proved beyond reasonable doubt""

And, there is a legal system in most western countries to deal with that. You are considered innocent until proven guilty. Once you have been determined guilty, there are appeals systems (based on the trial and any admissable new facts). However, once you are found guilty, legally proving you are not guilty is very complex,and an up hill battle (made more difficult with time).

Beyond that, there are personal opinions, books, movies, magazines articles, petitions, web articles, songs (etc) to try and sway public opinion. But, in the end, it is not up to public opinion, it all comes back to the codified legal system in each country.

Whether one feels the law is fair oe not, likely depends on the side of an issue your interests/sympathies lie, an assesment of facts (logical and biased, or less so)and of course your personal opinion.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 06:30 PM

Intersting reading -

http://legendofpineridge.blogspot.com/2009/07/aim-myth-busters-ten-reasons-why.html

Enjoy.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: gnu
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 07:44 PM

Ed... "However, once you are found guilty, legally proving you are not guilty is very complex,and an up hill battle..."

No, it's not any more complex than being shown to be guilty in the first place. If you have the evidence, you get out. If not, you stay in jail.

Lee is in jail, even though a former AG says he can get him out. Why this AG has not done that yet baffles me. I say send as much money as you can to the former AG to mount an appeal to free Lee. Mortgage your house if you have to to FREE LEE!

Oh, yeah, ya might make a small donation to the family of the guy that IDd Lee as the guy who shot him to death. Whatever ya can spare after ya mortgage yer house fer Lee's donation.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 07:46 PM

Did you not READ the words of the former Attorney General, Ramsey Clark?

That 'blog' you've linked to is the biggest load of bullshit I've ever read.

If you choose to comment to me about things I have put down here, then at least do me the courtesy of READING what it is you are commenting about.

You will also find another site called 'In The Spirit of Coler and Williams' out there, which is a take of 'In The Spirit of Crazy Horse' by Peter Matthiesen, a book the FBI managed to 'somehow' mysteriously get removed from circulation whilst yet another legal case to try to free Leonard was going ahead. They tried to get it banned entirely, because it tells the truth of what happened that day, but sadly, for them, they were not able to do this. You'll find Peter on Youtube, you'll find his book online...

As I've said countless times before, Bill Clinton was going to release Leonard Peltier, but pressure was put on him by the FBI.

Look into how the FBI behaved towards the AIM. Look into the Jumping Bulls, who asked Leonard Peltier to come and help them...look into it all in depth, with an open mind, rather than a twisted one, which would rather condemn an innocent man, purely because of your utter hatred of me.....

And then, book yourself into see someone over your weird obssession with me and see if they can redirect your thoughts to Miss Piggy, instead.

Thanks.


gnu, that is the WHOLE POINT I'm making here!!! WHY, when a former Attorney General has gone to the trouble of writing what he has, gone to the trouble of being Leonard Peltier's counsel, knowing what he knows, proving beyond doubt what he can prove is Leonard Peltier STILL in prison?????

That is why Robert Redford made his film, to try to get this OUT THERE! That is why Desmond Tutu calls for his release. That is why Nelson Mandela does the same, writing to Leonard too...

Holey Jumping Catfish! WHY can you not see what is right in front of you!

READ why I took the trouble to type out!
SPEAK to those at 'Who Is Leonard Peltier' for they know FAR more than any of us here..and they have spent decades doing all they can to help him.

Better still, speak to the bloody FBI themselves, for THEY are the ones who are behind all this, in my opinion, and have been from the very start!   READ how they had cars in position 20 minutes before those agents went on to Pine Ridge, expecting something to happen...

And that twit who wrote the blog was wrong, because Leonard Peltier was 'convicted' of murder, but the FBI changed the plea to 'aiding and abetting' after his conviction...You can't change what a man has been sentenced for then leave him in prison for something he was never even tried for!   READ what Ramsey Clark says about that too...it's ALL in his detailed report above...

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 07:50 PM

Transcript of Democrary Now interview from 2000: Democracy Now site


>>>>AMY GOODMAN: This is a big weekend for rallies. In fact, on Sunday in New York, another major vigil and walk for another man in prison, and he is Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier, who has been in prison for more than twenty-four years, he is now at Leavenworth prison.

Yesterday in the late afternoon, FBI Director Louis Freeh sent a letter to President Clinton urging that the President not commute the life prison term of the American Indian activist serving a life term for killing two FBI agents. The vigil on Sunday — and it may be targeted to come at the time of this vigil, where many people are expected from around the country — in fact, many from the reservation that Leonard Peltier was on, the Pine Ridge Reservation — that's calling for the granting of executive clemency for Leonard Peltier.

I had a chance to ask President Clinton on Election Day about whether he would be granting executive clemency. This is Leonard Peltier on what Clinton had to say.

    LEONARD PELTIER: My name is Leonard Peltier. I'm a Lakota and Chippewa Native American, and I am currently serving two life sentences for the deaths of two FBI agents.

    AMY GOODMAN: Did you kill the FBI agents?

    LEONARD PELTIER: No, I did not.

    AMY GOODMAN: President Clinton, what is your position on granting Leonard Peltier executive clemency?

    PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Part of my responsibilities in the last ten weeks of office after the election will be to review the requests for pardons and executive clemencies and give them a fair hearing. And I pledge to do that.

    LEONARD PELTIER: I've got my dignity, my self-respect. And I'm going to carry that with me, even if I die here.

AMY GOODMAN: Leonard Peltier and what President Clinton had to say about his case. The key time is between Election Day and Inauguration Day.

We're now joined on the telephone by Jennifer Harbury, who is well known on many issues. She is also one of the lead attorneys for Leonard Peltier.

Before we talk about another case that you're deeply involved with, which we're going to go to after the break, the Organization of American States handing down a key ruling yesterday in the death of your husband, Guatemalan Mayan "Comandante Everardo," Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, let's talk about Leonard Peltier.

What is the significance of the FBI director's call on President Clinton not to grant Leonard Peltier executive clemency?

JENNIFER HARBURY: In fact, that's a very typical gesture from all of the different officials in the FBI at any high levels, not just today, but for the last twenty-five years. I personally find it quite shocking, given the extreme levels of misconduct on the part of FBI officials, which occurred throughout the trial of Mr. Peltier, throughout the investigation, and even after his incarceration. And by that, I'm specifically referring to FBI officials terrorizing a witness into signing a false statement saying that she was his girlfriend and witnessed the killings, when in fact she never met Mr. Peltier and later told the judge that. She simply didn't want to have her children taken away, which is what the FBI was threatening to do. I'm also specifically referring to the FBI decision to withhold the key findings of their ballistic expert, which actually said this bullet did not come from Mr. Peltier's weapon. They withheld that from the defense and instead testified that the bullet probably did come from his gun. Those are just two examples of some of the gross misconduct which occurred in the de facto lynching of Mr. Peltier, who has never to this day received a fair trial.

AMY GOODMAN: What word —

JENNIFER HARBURY: In fact, the United States attorney to this day admits that no one knows who fired those fatal shots.

AMY GOODMAN: What word do you have on which way President Clinton is going at this point? There must be a lot of internal goings-on at the White House now. And why do you think Freeh is coming out at this point? In addition, we understand that Henry Hyde, Congress member, is circulating a Dear Colleague letter calling on people — Congress members to sign a letter saying don't free Leonard Peltier.

JENNIFER HARBURY: Yes, well, Mr. Hyde has always opposed clemency in the case of Mr. Peltier. I don't think he's fully informed of the facts. Unfortunately, I think that that Dear Colleague letter will not go very far, since many people on the Hill are very apprised of the case.

I know, for example, on the — Coretta Scott King, Amnesty International, Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu, the National Conference of Churches, almost every major human rights organization and/or leader in the world has called for Mr. Peltier's release, not as the FBI suggests because they're knee-jerk liberals, but because they are in fact — they in fact are very, very aware of the record and the misconduct which occurred.

I think that Mr. Clinton is very seriously considering the petition. He and his staff, of course, have not been able to comment on which way they're leaning. I think at this point they're simply reading the materials very carefully. But I think the FBI is concerned, because there's been a major groundswell across the United States and in fact around the world, as Mr. Clinton's last days in office are approaching, to ask him to settle this case for once and for all and to undo the gross misjustice — injustices which have occurred for the last twenty-five years towards Mr. Peltier. And this would be a major gesture towards reconciliation between the United States government and Native peoples.

It would be a major gesture towards trying to undo some of the damage inflicted by the COINTELPRO era of the FBI. The FBI, of course, does not want the entire Reign of Terror issue to be looked at again with closer scrutiny, as Mr. Peltier's case becomes reexamined. That is one of the ugliest chapters of civil rights history in recent American history. Some sixty-four Native peoples were murdered, all of them AIM supports and sympathizers of AIM on Pine Ridge Reservation in a three-year period of time by vigilantes closely allied with and supported by the FBI.

AMY GOODMAN: Jennifer Harbury, we're going to talk more about this case in the coming days with the major event in New York this weekend and also this critical period of the consideration of executive clemency. But we have to break right now. When we come back, we want to look at another case, which is the case that was just decided by the Organization of American States.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We continue with attorney Jennifer Harbury. The Organization of American States issued a harsh ruling yesterday against the Guatemalan military. In a case that has been fought now for eight years, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that the Guatemalan army is guilty of murder, torture and other crimes in the case of Mayan rebel Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, who disappeared in 1992. He was the husband of Jennifer Harbury. According to the ruling, the Guatemalan military had killed Bamaca and obstructed justice after the killing.

Jennifer Harbury, can you talk about the significance of this ruling?

JENNIFER HARBURY: Yeah, we're — all of us who have ever lost family members throughout Latin America, whether it be under Pinochet in the stadium or in the dirty wars in Argentina or in Salvador or Honduras, Colombia, Guatemala, what all of us have always been told is your husband, your son, your daughter, your loved one, your sister, your brother, that person was into something political. Perhaps they were a dissident. Perhaps they were a church leader, you know, organizing the people. Perhaps they were a union organizer. Perhaps they were leaders of the groups for the disappeared, in fact, or they were doing civil rights work or anything progressive or dissident in any nature.

What the army would always say is your husband or your family member was into something [inaudible], with the heavy insinuation that they were a Communists, that they were insurgents, that they were rebels, and therefore deserved what had happened to them, that they deserved to be kidnapped, that they deserved to be tortured in secret cells, that they deserved to be flung from helicopters, stuffed down wells, dismembered or scattered across unmarked graves, that that was legal and justified in the context of a counterinsurgency movement by the army and that the army could in fact substitute itself for the courts of law. That's what all of the military dictatorships have been saying for all of these years. That's what the CIA, in fact, has been saying for all of these years.

And what the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Organization of American States has just said is, no, it is never legal. It is never justified. There are no exceptions. Every single one of those hundreds of thousands of murders — 200,000 of them alone in Guatemala — has been and always will be completely illegal.

AMY GOODMAN: What about the United States's involvement? Where did the Organization of American States stand on that? You have the Guatemalan military, a White House panel finding in 1996 that the CIA knowingly hired a number of Guatemalan military officials suspected of political assassinations, ex-judicial executions, kidnapping and torture, and used them as paid informants. The panel also concluded that one of those paid officers, a colonel known as Julio Roberto Alpirez, took part in the interrogation and torture of your husband, Everardo.

JENNIFER HARBURY: That is correct. The case that was before the court is the case against the Guatemalan government, meaning specifically the Guatemalan military. We cannot bring the United States into the Inter-American system until I've exhausted legal remedies within the United States. And I still have a major civil rights case pending against close to thirty defendants from the CIA, from the White House, and from the State Department for their participation and collaboration in my husband's torture, murder, and the cover-up that ensued, including the blocking of his rescue. We in fact could have saved his life if they had timely released the information they possessed, including specific bulletins that he was still alive, as were 300 other prisoners of war. As soon as that case is resolved, if resolved positively, we will not need to bring it to the Inter-American system. If resolved negatively, then I can bring the United States forward, as well.

Meanwhile, this ruling has very, very heavy implications, legal implications for routine practices of the CIA. They've always maintained that they have the right to collaborate and participate in certain "dirty practices," because it's a necessary part of information gathering, intelligence work, and "national security work," meaning assassinations. What this case says is that that can never be legal and that none of those practices can ever be legal.

AMY GOODMAN: You have a lawsuit against the FBI and the CIA still pending here in this country?

JENNIFER HARBURY: It's against individual officials in the CIA, the State Department and the White House.

AMY GOODMAN: Charging them with?

JENNIFER HARBURY: In — it's the equivalent of a police brutality case. It's a constitutional violations claim, a series of those claims together with the Federal Tort Claims Act. They basically divide into two categories. One is participation, collaboration and conspiracy to commit kidnapping, torture, and assassination, you know, which boils down to, you know, a police brutality case under the Constitution. They would be due process claims. The other category would be the equivalent of assault and battery under civil law, as well as intentional infliction of emotional harm and blocking of rescue attempts by myself, including fraud, as well, for leaving me out there thirty-two days on a hunger strike when they already knew that he was dead.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jennifer Harbury, I want to thank you very much for being with us. Jennifer Harbury, attorney for — well, the widow of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, the murder of which the decision came down yesterday in the Organization of American States, Inter-American court case, also the attorney for Leonard Peltier.

If people want to get in touch with the Leonard Peltier defense committee, where can they call?

JENNIFER HARBURY: The best line would be the main office in Kansas, which is [phone].

AMY GOODMAN: One more time?

JENNIFER HARBURY: [phone], and if people would call the White House comments line every single day, Mr. Peltier's life hangs in the balance. He's been in there twenty-five years. His health is seriously deteriorating. If Mr. Bush is going to be president, this is our last chance before Inauguration Day to undo some of the damage that's been inflicted on Native people throughout the hemisphere by the United States government since its inception. We can't bring back any of the dead. None of the 200,000 in Guatemala will ever come back alive, including Everardo. But Leonard Peltier is alive. And we can do something about the harms that our government has inflicted. The White House comments line is [phone]. Please call every single day and tell President Clinton that you are with him in any stand against the FBI to undo some of the injustices which have occurred and that you want Mr. Peltier released immediately. Please help us. It's one of our last chances to undo one of the most serious human rights abuses in the country in many, many years.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jennifer Harbury, I want to thank you for being with us. I know you will be in New York this weekend —

JENNIFER HARBURY: I will be.

AMY GOODMAN: — for the Leonard Peltier march on Sunday that will ultimately be a major rally at the — outside of the United Nations on Sunday at 2:00 in the afternoon, and we'll be reporting on that.

JENNIFER HARBURY: And I want to thank you, Amy, for being one of the few bright beacons of both free speech and free flow of information about world realities and civil rights realities, in specific, in this country. Thank you so much for all of the work you do.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, thanks, Jennifer.

JENNIFER HARBURY: We'd be lost without you, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, thank you very much for being there, as well.
"<<<<<

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 07:57 PM

""No, it's not any more complex than being shown to be guilty in the first place. If you have the evidence, you get out. If not, you stay in jail.""
Gnu
I believe it is more complex than you allude to. Legal appeals do not have to deal with new evidence. They can and do deal with errors in court.This is indeed complex, and can take years to work out, one way or the other.

Introducing new evidence is no guarantee the court ruling will be considered or the ruling overturned. A new trial can also result. Regardless, I stand by my statement that getting out is an uphill battle, and complex, once you have been found guilty in a court. I am confident the case records would show just that.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 08:06 PM

""speak to the bloody FBI themselves""

Good luck with that. When I called them last, I got a busy signal.:)

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 08:13 PM

And just so's you know, it is my opinion there is inherent racism in the FBI. The wrongful imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, who'd they'd been after for some time anyway, him being a leader of the AIM, isn't just about him. It's about the continuing racism that is out there every day against America's Indigenous People.

By keeping Leonard locked up they are keeping their message out there loud and clear, the message which keeps so many American Indians down, depressed and despondant....

If you want me to talk about The American Holocaust, which far outweighs that of the Jewish People in numbers, just ask..If you want me to tell you about the continuing Genocide that is being carried out against them, albeit far more covertly these days, just ask....or better still, find out about it yourselves, for that at least would show you care just a fraction....

America is a country that kills its' prisoners sometimes, even when the evidence is shaky..even when MILLIONS of people shout out to try to stop this from happening, as in the recent case of Troy Davies...It's Justice System is fooked up badly, rotten from the inside out, in many cases...where again, racism reigns..

They took the sacred mountains of the Sioux and carved faces into them of 3 men who had given the orders to have so many Indians killed...Roosevelt just happened to be the President the desigener of Mount Rushmore wanted to impress at the time, but that man was in the KKK....and to this day, that eyesore stands as a National Monument when in reality it is the loudest message ever to the American Indians that their land, their lives are no longer their own...

It's sick..and Mount Rushmore should be stripped of its name and have those faces blasted off, and be given back to the Sioux, along with recognition of all that has happened, plus a National Apology from President Obama to be aired on every radio station, every TV programme, in every school and every shop and office in the Land. Then, FINALLY the American Indians may dare to let themselves believe that true remorse is finding it's way out to them at long last....

That Apology starts with Freeing Leonard Peltier...and until Obama dares to do it, ANYTHING he says will not really come from his heart..

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free
From: Ed T
Date: 07 Dec 11 - 09:23 PM

Beyond the case facts, is anyone but me smelling the scent of a conspiracy theory?

Conspiracies
Why people believe in conspiracies


Debunking Conspiracy

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 03:17 AM

No, it's not just you, Ed.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 03:34 AM

Not 'conspiracy theories' at all, but yet more words from the former Attorney General about Leonard Peltier's case.

This speech is similar, in many ways, to the 'preface' he wrote for Leonard's book 'Prison Writings'. The truth within them though, is exactly the same.

And yes, I too believe the FBI have so *much* to lose here, were they ever to back down and admit what they've done, that they continue, to this day, to run round like chickens with no heads, in an absolute blind panic over The Truth ever getting out.

Ramsey Clark - Speech

And of course, it's interesting that you guys haven't mentioned ANY of the Indians killed on Pine Ridge, or the escalating violence, from the FBI and others.

Neither have you mentioned the fact that these wonderful FBI folks had threatened to take Myrtle Poor Bear's children away from her, if she refused to lie by saying she knew Leonard Peltier and had heard him say he killed the agents. She had, of course, NEVER met him...

Only when she wanted to tell the truth did they turn around and say she was a totally unreliable witness, thus suppressing The Truth yet again...

It staggers me that you refuse to see....
But hey, it's me who's putting these details down, so no way are you going to agree with anything I say, for 'black' becomes 'white' when it comes to saying "Yes, Lizzie, you're right, this whole case stinks higher than a boatload of rotten fish!"


Anyway, I'll leave you to read, or not, the words of the former US Attorney General and you can say that he too is lying, because ONLY the FBI is telling the truth here, in your opinins...

You poor, misguided fools...

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 04:23 AM

Beyond the case facts, is anyone but me smelling the scent of a conspiracy theory?

Not quite sure what you mean there but I'll say not me.

I'm not convinced of his innocence or guilt but I do believe that he did not receive a fair trial and that the US "justice system" is (at least in this case) not operating as it should.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 04:43 AM

Yes, Lizzie, you're right, this whole case stinks higher than a boatload of rotten fish!

Both Sides

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 06:14 AM

Leonard Peltier is suspected of involvement in four or five other murders, that says it all. I see there is also a petition on Facebook to keep him in prison.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 08:10 AM

John Trudell - The Documentary


Yup, it ALL stinks! The FBI stinks higher than anyone else in all this, as does the Bureau of Indian Affairs...

Above, you can watch the man who has the thickest file in the FBI, a man they regards as hugely dangerous, because 'he is so eloquent'....

Yes, the bastards don't like folks who not only speak out, but who speak out with The Truth!

John's highly respected and intelligent wife, Tina, died, along with her children and her mother in a fire, in which the family were 'trapped' in the house. The BIA did a very limited investigation...WHY?

Needless to say, the FBI were on to Tina Trudell too...

As I said, Dave, there are many hateful blogs out there on the internet about Leonard Peltier. But sadly, they don't have a former Attorney General on their side...they just spew out hatred against him, whilst praising the FBI left, right and centre, never mentioning how the FBI had already killed many American Indians, had infiltrated the AIM, causing terrible distrust, and had been harrassing them all for years......

Not to mention Sovereign Land of course and them being on it without being invited...

Still, I'll leave you to side with the FBI, that wonderful institution that threatened to take a woman's children away from her, if she did not lie for them, and say Leonard killed those men, despite her never knowing him, EVER.



One of the speakers in here, Tina's cousin, almost whispers in disbelief that he does not want to think the FBI could ever kill innocent women and children....

I can believe it....

I had the most aggressive woman I've ever spoken to when I rang them a few weeks back, asking to speak to someone regarding Leonard Peltier, boy did she get nasty!

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Ed T
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 08:47 AM

OK, since you seem to ask what I mean Jon, I am starting to see many of the characteristics present here in the conspiracy theory sites I linked.

This person has had a trial, and appeals of this trial, that were unsuccessful. From that, I suspect it is more likely that he is guilty than innocent. However, there indeed is logic in looking at the case facts to determine if his trial and appeals were fairly delivered and assessed. It is also reasonable to look at credible new evidence, to determine if it could and should be grounds for reconsideration of the verdict. But, all the conspiracy stuff posted (to me) that I have seen is no more than background noise.

Whether celebraties, political or other, or a whole bunch of people who communicate alot feel he is innocent (for one reason or another) has little to due with the facts and determining whether a legal error was made or not.

IMO, dragging a truckload of sketchy and loosely connected broad (conspiracy) stuff into this consideration puts the case clearly into the conspiracy theory field. IMO, it is illogical to connect such loose dots to come up with a conclusion.

People who promote conspiracy theories are most frequently very convinced (and emotional) that their analysis is correct, and agressively shoot down others who do not look at things the same way. They bring in many unrelated circumstances to weave the web of a broad conspiracy. They expect people to believe that government is efficient to deliver in such a broad and long-term conspiracy, with noone from inside coming forward through the years to reinforce this theory. They even try to appeal to your emotion, in this case anti-aboriginal prejudices (that I agree does exist, but I do not agree that it is a significant factor here).

In this case, to believe the conspiracy theory, one would need to buy in to the concept that it involves:

Broad corruption in the USA legal system, with little protest from inside.

Accross the board corruption in USA law enforcement agencies, with no credible person coming forward to prove it.

Fabricating evidence in a legal case and proceeding.

Corruption that has infiltrated the USA legal and political system, right up to USA Presidents.

A widespread and organized anti-aboriginal movement within the USA government that fuels all of this.

I can be convinced to review facts of the case to determine if an error in justice ocurred. If that evidence is present, and a logical case is made this is the case, of course it should be made right. But, bringing in the truckload of other "crap" to prove a conspiracy happened does nothing to promote that case to me. IMO, that approach just makes my "wacko meter" go off.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Mayet
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:00 AM

Peltier has NOT been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty although they have expressed concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction.

The organization has called for his release on parole, one of its concerns being that his extradition from Canada in 1976 -- where he had fled following the shootings -- was secured on the basis of coerced testimony from someone who later retracted it but Amnesty accepts 'the fact that appeals before the courts have long been exhausted'
(There have been several appeals since the original conviction, I'm sure our resident expert can confirm the actual number.)

Amnesty International has additionally called on prison authorities at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary to improve conditions for Peltier AND other inmates held in isolation at the facility for prison disciplinary violations. Peltier did escape for a time in 1979 and, according to a Huffington Post article, following the parole refusal in 2009, he also has had numerous infractions in prison, some of them drug-related.

Although Amnesty only supports his parole, unsurprisingly, it is the official well funded site (linked by Jeri) that makes an argument for Peltier's innocence. Unremarkably, there are other sites that make an equally convincing argument for his guilt but it is not my intention to barrage everyone with links they can look up themselves.

Inasmuch as it is not realistic to impart to the murdered FBI Agents Coler and Williams the historical guilt and culpability for broken treaties between American Indian tribes and the U.S. Government it's also equally unreasonable and very misleading to give Peltier the status of 'representative' of all the disposed Native Americans.
There are American Indians like Paul Demain who have investigated the issue of "without doubt," and state "it makes me angry to think we have all been used. But, I can't be afraid to say the King has no clothes."
The Independent Native Journal article

Although questions about the government's handling of the Peltier prosecution has provided fuel (and profit) for writers and film producers who have sought to turn Peltier into a 'political martyr' Harvard law professor Allan Dershowitz, a defence lawyer with liberal political leanings, was moved to describe Matthiessen's book as "utterly unconvincing" and "embarrassingly sophomoric when he pleads the legal innocence of individual Indian criminals.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:01 AM

"Still, I'll leave you to side with the FBI, that wonderful institution that threatened to take a woman's children away from her"

I do hope everyone notes there is not one word of regret in these boring ranting posts in defence of this murderer. What about the husband's, brothers and sons that Leonard Peltier "took away" when he murdered them ?

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:02 AM

They even try to appeal to your emotion, in this case anti-aboriginal prejudices (that I agree does exist, but I do not agree that it is a significant factor here).

I agree with you there. Personally I think the most significant factor is that Feds were killed (and they were going to get someone).

Fabricating evidence in a legal case and proceeding.

This does occur and I think does raise a point from the Wikipedia article about the original trial:

Unlike the juries in similar prosecutions against AIM leaders at the time, the Fargo jury were not allowed to hear about other cases in which the FBI had been rebuked for tampering with evidence and witnesses

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,999
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:03 AM

"Amnesty International considers Leonard Peltier to be a political prisoner whose avenues of redress have long been exhausted.
Amnesty International recognizes that a retrial is no longer a feasible option and believes that Leonard Peltier should be immediately
and unconditionally released."

-- Amnesty International, April 6, 1999

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Mayet
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:18 AM

"Amnesty International is appealing for the release from prison of Leonard Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota Indian, who is serving two consecutive life-sentences for the murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents.
Although he has not been adopted as a prisoner of conscience, there is concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction"

USA: Appeal for the release of Leonard Peltier
AMR 51/160/1999
Date Published: 14 July 1999
Categories: Americas, USA

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:21 AM

Conspiracy theories are usually birdbrained and just wrong. Not all of them, though. This one in particular has too much wrong to not be considered at all.

In the United States, one is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. One does NOT have to prove innocence to be found "not guilty". I don't know if he's guilty or innocent, just that the trial was a mockery.

If you look into this case, you may see that the FBI was a little too eager to convict leaders of the AIM and manipulated witnesses and evidence to get that conviction. There was just too much wrong.

I think a review by some court outside the influence of the FBI would be a good thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:26 AM

Leonard Peltier has a history of gun crime,drug dealing and murder. He is also a looney leftist,and a member of a violent American Indian Movement.

He is banged up and that is exactly where he will remain.You can dance around the pole all day and stamp your love, he en't getting out.

Subject: RE: BS: Petition to Free Leonard Peltier
From: Mayet
Date: 08 Dec 11 - 09:31 AM

Guest 999
Russell Means, an Oglala Sioux activist and prominent member of the American Indian Movement, has stated unequivocally

"Everything about Leonard Peltier's case stinks of complete racism. No one including his lawyers argue this in court. Even Amnesty International is racist in not labeling him as a political prisoner."

There are many references for the quote you posted but none from Amnesty International of which I am a supporter and which I do not believe to be a racist organization!