Feb. 6 actions call for Peltier to be freed

AP Photo

Special to the world

On Feb. 6 supporters of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier will be holding protests and starting hunger strikes in an effort to pressure the Clinton administration to keep its 1992 campaign promise.

Peltier is an American Indian Movement (AIM) activist who was framed on the charge of killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation on June 26, 1975.

Peltier was arrested in Canada on Feb. 6, 1976 and has remained in prison ever since.

In 1975 there had been a large number of FBI agents at Pine Ridge for the purpose of defending multinational energy company's attempt to take Lakota land for uranium mining.

AIM members were resisting the illegal taking of Lakota land.

On the day of the shootout two FBI agents entered the AIM camp in a similar manner to those who had killed resisters in the two years prior.

Internal government files point to a setup against the AIM leadership, which included Peltier.

Two FBI agents and one Indian were killed during the firefight.

In the first trial two AIM members were found not guilty by reason of self-defense.

Then the government illegally had Peltier extradited from Canada based upon false statements. They then moved his trial to a judge that had been cited for his anti-Indian attitude.

Peltier's trial included falsified evidence and intimidation of witnesses.

Through the appeals process Peltier's defense has disproved the government's case to the point that the government prosecutor has come forward and stated that they don't know who killed the agents and that if Peltier were to have a trial today they could not convict him.

They say now that his crime was that he "aided and abetted" in the deaths because he was there that day.

Since the first two AIM members were found not guilty by reason of self-defense, this means that Peltier has been locked-up for 23 years for aiding and abetting in an act of self-defense.

Protests are planned in Washington DC; San Diego; Tacoma Wash.; Rapid City, S.D.; Louisville, Ky.; Houston; Albany, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; several cities in Massachusetts and around the world, including London, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee at (785) 842-5774 or e-mail them at <lpdc@idir.net>.