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Ah-ho My
Relations,
Over the years the
case of the wrongful imprisonment of Leonard Peltier has been a
unifying factor all across "Indian Country" and among our
allies worldwide. All across our lands American Indian people have
stood shoulder to shoulder in demanding freedom for Leonard Peltier
for a reason..... he's innocent!
Independent
investigations by authors, defense attorney's working for Peltier and
not, and hundreds of journalists has shown without doubt that he did
not get a fair trial. Within the American Indian Movement there has
never been any doubt that Leonard was framed and used as a scapegoat
by an FBI desperate to pin the guilt of their failed attack on
someone from AIM, anyone, as long as they got a conviction.
After Dino and Bob
were acquitted by a jury that was allowed to hear the truth, the FBI
spent many hours in many meetings deciding how to convict Peltier.
First they picked a "FBI friendly" judge who they could
count on to help them bend the truth. He then refused to allow
Peltier to use the only true defense he had, the one that had freed
Dino and Bob, he ruled that Peltier could not use
"self-defense" as a defense! In other words a federal judge
ruled the truth of the shooting would not be allowed to be used for
Leonard, so the trial was fixed from the start.
Then, because they
had moved the trial to a state where hating Indians is as common as
loving John Wayne, they got a jury predisposed against all Indians,
gave them fabricated ballistic and other "expert"
information, fed them outright lies from the witness stand by FBI
agents and withheld pertinent information that would have given the
jury any doubt. Thus Leonard Peltier was wrongly convicted..... but
only of "aiding and abetting" the killing of the two
agents.
Even the
government has no idea who killed those attacking agents during the
intense fight the Indian people were waging for their lives. And in
the end I do not think it matters, no more than exactly who killed
Custer matters. We know whose homes were being attacked and what
people (Traditionals and AIM) were being killed by the FBI and their
GOONs. We know it was an invited and welcomed AIM encampment, on a
local Lakota family's homesite containing families from babies to
grandparents, that was slated for attack by these same invaders. We
may never know for sure but evidence points to these two agents
"jumping the gun" on the attack and starting the fight
before their backup was in place.
Unfortunately for
them, but lucky for the babies, they jumped on a hornets nest and
died for their foolishness before the helicopters and other
reinforcements arrived. The ensuing fight and it's aftermath of a
quarter century of wrongful imprisonment of Leonard Peltier has been
well documented and is known worldwide.
Leonard Peltier is
known as the prime example of an American political prisoner and
millions of people around the world have asked for his freedom. The
case has been investigated and litigated until even one of the
appeals judges asked for his freedom, the facts of the governments
case are known, at least what they have released, so we can say with
confidence that if Peltier would have had a fair trail based on all
the facts that have come to light, he would have been acquitted and
be at home with his grandchildren right now. Instead his framing has
been allowed to stand and Peltier remains a political prisoner of
America's longest war.
We know for
certain that the fight at the Jumping Bull home was a part of an FBI
attempt to wipe out the American Indian Movement and that all who
were there fought in self-defense. We also know the agents were not
scalped. We know that Peltier told us that he and the other warriors,
men and women, fought hard and desperately with real guns using real
bullets to repel the attack. We know that the FBI has a different
version, a version that has been put to the lie by responsible
journalists, authors and all of ndn country. We know they will go to
any lengths to keep the truth hidden and Peltier in jail.
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