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LPDCUpDates and Announcements!
Saturday, June 12, 2004Hello Friends and Supporters, Many of you have given in some way to support Leonard Peltier and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee over the years. As a supporter, you know that the battle is not over. The battle for Leonard's freedom is the focal point of the continuing battle for justice, religious freedom, cultural freedom, and the ecological health of our Mother Earth. Had it not been for our belief in those freedoms, there would have been no reason for the Indian community to be in conflict with what was taking place in the rest of America. The Indigenous people of America have always posed a threat to the corporate structure of power in the U.S. If a family is living on their own land happily and self-sufficient, they have no reason to sell their land and work in a factory. Throughout the world you can see others emulating our traditions and philosophies. Our way of life is not just another way of life; our way is the way of natural life because it teaches us to live in a manner that takes no more than is needed and replenishes that which was taken. It is the basis of a continuing life; a people's observation of natural law. The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee is organizing another spiritual demonstration with horses. This ride will begin in Oglala, SD on the 26th of June, the anniversary of the Incident at Oglala. It will continue through major cities and end in Boston, MA at the Democratic Convention. This is the most peaceful, non-threatening way we have found to gather public attention and educate people about Leonard Peltier, the concerns of native people, and the dire need for people to seek harmony with the Mother Earth. We need $5,000 to get started with six horses and riders. Many places in America do not want Indians or horses or the combination to enter their cities and they pass all the laws they can to make it most difficult. To bring attention to Leonard and the cause of justice we need your help. Leonard has been in prison for 28 years. Every piece of evidence used to convict him has been proven false in the courts. Still, he has not received a new or fair trial; he was denied the basic constitutional right that guarantees a fair trial. This is an assault on the rights of all Americans which has a precedent setting effect on the rights of all. To say nothing or do nothing is the same as condoning these injustices. When we demonstrate for Leonard, we do it in the name of all oppressed people and those who want to right what is wrong. Since Leonard is a political prisoner, the political climate often dictates the urgency of our actions. We must stand up and make our voices heard, as long as it is necessary. If you can help contribute to this demonstration, call or write: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee PO Box 583 Lawrence, KS 66044 Phone: (785) 842-5774 Email: info@leonardpeltier.org May the Creator of Life hear you when you speak and answer you in a kind and gentle way. Your Friend, David Hill Director, Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Posted by Webmaster@AIMSupport.org 11:52 AM  Author: WISDOMKEEPERS: Meetings with Native American Spiritual Elders DREAMKEEPERS: A Spirit-Journey into Aboriginal Australia TRAVELS IN A STONE CANOE: The Return to the Wisdomkeepers HAVE YOU THOUGHT of LEONARD PELTIER LATELY? Editor: PRISON WRITINGS: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier NOBLE RED MAN: Lakota Wisdomkeeper Mathew King WHITE BUFFALO TEACHINGS by Chief Arvol Looking Horse An Open Letter to President Bush on Leonard Peltier Dear President Bush-- Now that the dereliction of the FBI on 9/11 has been formally confirmed by the Kean Commission, I recall with a chill how, in December 2000-even as the terrorists were already in our cities fine-tuning their attacks against our Nation-some 500 FBI Agents found the leisure and spare time to spend a day staging an FBI march of intimidation in front of the White House, demanding that President Clinton NOT grant long-expected and well-deserved executive clemency to wrongfully imprisoned Native American Leonard Peltier. Mr. Peltier now serves his 29th year of incarceration at USP Leavenworth for a 'crime' the whole world-and especially the FBI-knows he did not commit. In the sorriest moment of his tarnished Presidency, Mr. Clinton shamefully acceded to the FBI's intimidating demands. Leonard remains in prison, torn from his People and his granddchildren, recently refused by the courts even a hearing on parole until December 2008-even though he fulfilled all requirements for parole a dozen years ago. His false imprisonment began when he was 31; he is now 59. I am compelled to wonder if the efforts of those 500 FBI agents might not have been better spent that day on protecting our Country against our real enemies instead of continuing their 30-year unlawful vendetta against a Native American man they know to be innocent, but whose false imprisonment conceals the many many crimes of Agency personnel on the Pine Ridge Reservation during the 1970's Reign of Terror authorized by the FBI's illegal COINTELPRO program. The Agency has spent countless thousands of hours over the decades constructing a Wall of Lies & Silence against Mr. Peltier. For the sake and safety of the America People, this shameful vendetta must cease. I ask you, I plead with you, President Bush, as part of your coming re-organization of the FBI, that you immediately issue an order for an absolute end to the Agency's ongoing and self-serving vendetta and disinformation campaign against Leonard Peltier and other members of the American Indian Movement. I pray you will give him immediate executive clemency, or at least allow him a new-and this time fair and unstaged-trial which would clearly reveal the FBI's own innumerable crimes against him. Also, the recent sham trial staged by the FBI in Rapid City to railroad still another Native American man-Arlo Looking Cloud-to a life behind bars, as well as to further defame Leonard Peltier and others of AIM, should immediately be overturned by the courts or the executive branch-both of which have been complicit, if only out of FBI intimidation, in allowing that Soviet-style mockery of justice to occur in this Land. Mr. President, I don't know if you know the Leonard Peltier case personally. I ask that you grant a brief audience to me and Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th-Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Pipe of the Great Lakota Nation, so that we may deliver a message to you on behalf of millions of good souls around the earth who plead for Leonard's freedom, who see Leonard's freedom as The Sign that Democracy and Justice and Love and Prayer still have a meaning in America. I ask to read to you from Leonard's book PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUN DANCE, of which I am privileged to be the editor. I would welcome the presence of FBI director Mueller, of Mr. Cheney, of Mr. Ashcroft and of any other others you care to have on hand. I also ask to have Leonard Peltier standing beside me in the Oval Office as I read his words-words Leonard would read to you himself if his locked jaw would allow him to. Mr. President, we await your strong hand in bringing this enormous and glaring injustice to an end. Please please please-FREE LEONARD PELTIER! It could be the finest act of your Presidency. Respectfully, /Harvey Arden harvey@haveyouthought.com Posted by Webmaster@AIMSupport.org 1:31 PM
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