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Michael W. Posluns,
The StillWaters Group,
First Nations Relations & Public Policy.
Please note new address: mposluns@accglobal.net
Phone 416 656-8613
Fax 416 656-2715
36 Lauder Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario,
M6H 3E3.
We offer Canadian parliamentary debates by topics and bills.
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Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1999 03:18:41 -0400 (EDT)
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To: lpdccfd@web.net
From: Ish <ishgooda@tdi.net> (by way of Dan Smoke <dsmoke@julian.uwo.ca>)
Subject: NATIVE_NEWS: Leonard Peltier: North American Nelson Mandela
Cc: <wallmand@ichrdd.ca>, <angeline@worldchat.com>, <hkoehler@execulink.com>,
<jean.koning1@sympatico.ca>, <mstonefish@netscape.net>,
<tdbrown@sprint.ca>, <cvanidour@sprint.ca>, <lastcall@sprint.ca>,
<maaniiss@xcelco.on.ca>, <kaytocasnp@accglobal.net>,
<mposluns@accglobal.net>, <noodin@sympatico.ca>, <mikinak@mnsi.net>,
<anne.marshall@city.mississauga.on.ca>, <RedBone822@aol.com>,
<bear_paw@yahoo.com>, <goldenclouds@hotmail.com>,
<ahws@namerinda.on.ca>, <mdhl@odyssey.on.ca>, <ins93@hotmail.com>
And now:Ish <ishgooda@tdi.net> writes:
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 14:57:58 -0400
To: ishgooda@tdi.net
From: Lynne Moss-Sharman <lsharman@microage-tb.com>
Subject: Leonard Peltier: North American Nelson Mandela
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April 18, 1999
A NORTH AMERICAN MANDELA
Wrongly imprisoned for murder, Leonard Peltier is
now perhaps gravely ill
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Toronto Sun
After 23 years in prison and the refusal of authorities to even
consider they may have made a mistake, Leonard Peltier, a
Sioux-Ojibwa Indian, qualifies as the Nelson Mandela of North
America. Just as journalists were thwarted in attempts to visit Mandela in
his latter years of imprisonment in South Africa, so has an iron curtain
or, rather, a wall of silence, descended around Peltier in the U.S. federal
prison at Leavenworth, Kan. Peltier, now in his mid-50s, is serving a
double life sentence for the shooting deaths of two FBI agents - Jack Coler
and Ron Williams - during a range war at South Dakota's Pine Ridge
Reservation near Wounded Knee in 1975. Several times in the 1980s I tried
to visit Mandela in South Africa. He'd then been in prison for over 20
years. There was always an "official" reason why this was impossible.
Pretoria's Afrikaner government wanted no publicity for Mandela who was
becoming a symbol of the struggle against apartheid.
It's similar with Peltier. He represents the aspirations and
frustrations of North American Indians. I've twice visited him at
Leavenworth but now, apparently, no one gets to see him. CNN's request for
an interview was turned down, as was one from Britain's Guardian newspaper.
A telephone interview was the best I could hope for, and that was
unacceptable. I wanted to see Peltier. Is his health deteriorating, as has
been reported? Are harassments increasing? Is he persecuted - or neglected?
Phone interviews and letters are monitored. I told Leavenworth authorities
- particularly Bob Bennett, executive assistant to Warden J.W. Booker -
that I felt it important to have personal contact, like the last two times.
He echoed the warden's theme: "A more suitable means for
conducting this interview would be via the telephone." "Why the change of
policy?" I asked. "It's the warden's decision. You can reapply if you want."
Leonard Peltier Defence Committees (LPDC) have sprung up around the world
(Toronto's is at 416-439-1893). The LPDC headquarters at Lawrence, Kan.,
says only Peltier's lawyers, blood relatives and friends dating back five
years before his incarceration are eligible to visit. Like many of his
close supporters, I think Peltier is in considerable danger - that he may
well die if he doesn't get proper medical attention. He avoids trouble, but
is often punished for being who he is, and what he represents. Or so it
seems.
His lawyer, Bob Ellison, says bluntly that he thinks authorities
"hope" Peltier will die, thereby letting them, the U.S. justice
department and the FBI off the hook. It's become widely accepted that
Peltier's trial was a farce. Indians and others know who executed the two
FBI agents, but the FBI doesn't care. They've got their man. The last time
I saw Peltier, he could barely move his jaw. An untreated injury led to
atrophication, fusing jaw bone and muscle - sort of permanent lockjaw. He's
had two operations - both botched. One operation put him in a coma. He
required a total blood
transfusion. His recovery room was the hole.
He now has only half-an-inch movement in his jaw. He eats by
shoving food through the gap of a missing front tooth, and mashes
food with his tongue before swallowing. Wires from his damaged jaw jut into
his mouth and make eating excruciating. He has abscessed teeth that can't
be treated, recurring headaches and lives in pain. Mayo Clinic doctors have
offered to come to Peltier and operate for free. The prison says no.
Peltier's sight is also deteriorating - inhibiting reading and his art work
which the defence committee sells to raise money for the continuing
campaign to win his freedom.
Like Mandela, Peltier has become an international cause. On April
30, Danielle Mitterand, former first lady of France and president of
the human rights organization France Libertes Assoc., hopes to visit
Peltier. She has appealed for clemency.
CANADA MAY HOLD KEY
Ironically, Canada could hold a key to Peltier's freedom. When the two FBI
agents were killed that turbulent summer of 1975, The American Indian
Movement (AIM), reservation police,administrators, rival Indians, the FBI,
etc., were all embroiled in feuds and shootings - some 300 people were shot
during that time. Four Indians were originally charged in the deaths of the
agents, but Peltier escaped to Canada. The others were acquitted. Had
Peltier stood trial with them, he would in all probability have been
acquitted as well. In 1976, Peltier was arrested in Canada and extradited
10 months later on the basis of an affidavit by one Myrtle Poor Bear who
claimed to be his girlfriend and said she had seen him shoot the FBI
agents. At the time, as editor of the Toronto Sun, I wrote editorials
supporting the FBI and criticizing Amnesty International, which questioned
the extradition.
It subsequently turned out Poor Bear was a mental patient and the
FBI had written the affidavits for her, coached her, pressured her.
She didn't even know Peltier, had never met him, was nowhere near
Pine Ridge at the time of the shooting. But the phony affidavits got
Peltier extradited. Peltier later told author Peter Matthiessen, as he told
me: "I have no bad thoughts for Myrtle Poor Bear. She is a poor, sick woman
.. a pawn for them to use as they've used so many Indian people." The
Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau refused to protest the fraud
perpetrated on our justice system.
Neither did the Tory government of Brian Mulroney care. Mostly it was NDP
MPs who protested on behalf of Peltier. Today, the Reform party seems
willing to raise hell. We shall see.
Reform justice critic John Reynolds says his party will try to
convince the government to protest Peltier's fraudulent extradition.
He's written both President Bill Clinton and Justice Minister Anne
McLellan, urging they act on the case.
ALLMAND OFFENDED
Warren Allmand was federal solicitor general when Peltier was
arrested in Canada and Indian affairs minister when he was
extradited. He was the lone Liberal who was offended at the abuse
of justice. Over the years he's sought to right the wrong and have
the Canadian government protest the extradition. A couple of years ago,
before he quit politics to head the International Centre for Human Rights
and Democratic Development, Allmand was asked by then-justice minister
Allan Rock to re-examine the Peltier extradition proceedings. Allmand's
report has gathered dust. Although his oath of office prevents him from
making his report public, Allmand has no hesitation saying that the "only"
cause for extradition was Poor Bear's perjured affidavit: "Otherwise,
there were no grounds for extradition."
Allmand even wrote Mandela, who, before he became president of
South Africa, urged clemency for Peltier, asking him to renew his
support. No response - a sad irony. If Canada were to react, Peltier's
supporters feel it could give impetus to get him freed and encourage the
U.S. government to do the right thing. Even assuming guilt, 23 years is
enough. Pine Ridge was a mini-war, not a criminal act. The appeal courts in
the U.S. over the years have been
disappointing, even though it was proved (and admitted) that evidence
was fabricated and misused. One appeal judge, Gerald Heaney, has since said
that if Peltier's appeal had been better handled (by the late William
Kunstler) he'd have freed Peltier. As it was, Heaney rebuked the FBI and
filed an official complaint. He also wrote president George Bush, urging
clemency. When I spoke to him, Heaney said he thought he knew who had shot
the two agents.
Leonard Peltier is a good man, a proud man, almost serene. He
relishes news of his kids, and grandkids, who he hears about but
never sees. Peltier's letters are gentle, sad. I suspect he's dying.
The spirit and flesh can take only so much. If Clinton won't
exercise his prerogative of executive clemency or pardon - as he
promised prior to being elected - America may soon have yet
another martyr on its conscience. Evidence is overwhelming that Peltier
did not kill those FBI agents. Even though he knows who did, it's a measure
of the man that he won't tell. The sorrow is that the Indian who did the
deed won't come forward. Maybe some day ...
"Let Us Consider The Human Brain As
A Very Complex Photographic Plate"
1957 G.H. Estabrooks, Creator
of the Manchurian Candidate
born New Brunswick
lsharman@microage-tb.com
www.aches-mc.org
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
Unenh onhwa' Awayaton
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
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