America's No. 1 political prisoner?
Thirty Years of FBI Harassment and MisconductWhen the Truth Doesn't MatterBy LEONARD PELTIER
For over 30 years I have sought justice from the United States Courts which have failed to provide me with any relief despite acknowledging numerous acts of Government misconduct. For example, after my trial, my lawyers issued Freedom of Information Act Requests ("FOIA") and discovered that the Government fabricated the ballistics evidence which it used at trial to argue that I shot the agents in cold blood. Once we revealed this egregious misconduct, the Government has had to admit on several occasions in open Court and before the Parole Commission that it could not prove I shot the agents and that it could not prove who shot the agents.
Despite the Government misconduct recognized by the Courts, I remain in prison. When we exposed the Government misconduct, the Government stopped arguing that I "shot the agents," and began arguing that my conviction should be upheld on aiding and abetting grounds, even though the only two people I could have aided and abetted, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted on self-defense grounds.
3 comments:
Writerfella here --
And here is the heart of the argument whether Native people still are under siege by EuroMan and the government-by-majority that derived from EuroMan that exists in the United States of America. At no other time in Native history has one single individual ever represented all of us who are Native American. And it is Leonard Peltier, still imprisoned, whose fate tells all of us that we also still are imprisoned by those who came later and by those who now are their children. writerfella regards himself to be free, but in actuality, he is not free as long as Leonard Peltier is held prisoner. writerfella is alive but is imprisoned symbolically by the United States of America. This is the issue for which all of us should be striking out to have resolved, for the simple stupid representation of a Native face or image in films or sports stadia must pale before this one central reality. Leonard Peltier is us, and we are not free as long as he is not free. FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
All Worst
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Okay, but I thought you scorned the American Indian Movement (AIM), its members, and its efforts on behalf of Indians.
Writerfella here --
Yes, AIM is to be scorned and continues to deserve such. But Leonard Peltier is not AIM embodied, except to the FBI whom writerfella has opposed many times. Peltire almost may be the mutually agreed scapegoat that allows both AIM and the FBI to continue on without blame. Thus, it is a case of oppression aimed at one man, and writerfella must oppose such. Your error is that stereotypes and biases do not have a person or personality attached, but the case of Leonard Peltier most assuredly does.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
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