Leonard Peltier: 'I am Barack Obama's political prisoner now'

www.counterpunch.org/
September 11-13, 2009
A CounterPunch Exclusive
The Denial of My Parole
I Am Barack Obama's Political Prisoner Now
By LEONARD PELTIER
The United States Department of Justice has once again made a mockery of its lofty and pretentious title.
After releasing an original and continuing disciple of death cult leader Charles Manson who attempted to shoot President Gerald Ford, an admitted Croatian terrorist, and another attempted assassin of President Ford under the mandatory 30-year parole law, the U.S. Parole Commission deemed that my release would “promote disrespect for the law.”
If only the federal government would have respected its own laws, not to mention the treaties that are, under the U.S. Constitution, the supreme law of the land, I would never have been convicted nor forced to spend more than half my life in captivity.
Not to mention the fact that every law in this country was created without the consent of Native peoples and is applied unequally at our expense. If nothing else, my experience should raise serious questions about the FBI's supposed jurisdiction in Indian Country.
The parole commission's phrase was lifted from soon-to-be former U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley, who apparently hopes to ride with the FBI cavalry into the office of North Dakota governor. In this Wrigley is following in the footsteps of William Janklow, who built his political career on his reputation as an Indian fighter, moving on up from tribal attorney (and alleged rapist of a Native minor) to state attorney general, South Dakota governor, and U.S. Congressman.
Some might recall that Janklow claimed responsibility for dissuading President Clinton from pardoning me before he was convicted of manslaughter. Janklow's historical predecessor, George Armstrong Custer, similarly hoped that a glorious massacre of the Sioux would propel him to the White House, and we all know what happened to him.
Unlike the barbarians that bay for my blood in the corridors of power, however, Native people are true humanitarians who pray for our enemies. Yet we must be realistic enough to organize for our own freedom and equality as nations. We constitute 5% of the population of North Dakota and 10% of South Dakota and we could utilize that influence to promote our own power on the reservations, where our focus should be.
If we organized as a voting bloc, we could defeat the entire premise of the competition between the Dakotas as to which is the most racist. In the 1970s we were forced to take up arms to affirm our right to survival and self-defense, but today the war is one of ideas. We must now stand up to armed oppression and colonization with our bodies and our minds.
International law is on our side.
Given the complexion of the three recent federal parolees, it might seem that my greatest crime was being Indian. But the truth is that my gravest offense is my innocence.
In Iran, political prisoners are occasionally released if they confess to the ridiculous charges on which they are dragged into court, in order to discredit and intimidate them and other like-minded citizens. The FBI and its mouthpieces have suggested the same, as did the parole commission in 1993, when it ruled that my refusal to confess was grounds for denial of parole.
To claim innocence is to suggest that the government is wrong, if not guilty itself.
The American judicial system is set up so that the defendant is not punished for the crime itself, but for refusing to accept whatever plea arrangement is offered and for daring to compel the judicial system to grant the accused the right to right to rebut the charges leveled by the state in an actual trial.
Such insolence is punished invariably with prosecution requests for the steepest possible sentence, if not an upward departure from sentencing guidelines that are being gradually discarded, along with the possibility of parole.As much as non-Natives might hate Indians, we are all in the same boat.
To attempt to emulate this system in tribal government is pitiful, to say the least.
It was only this year, in the Troy Davis, case, that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized innocence as a legitimate legal defense.
Like the witnesses that were coerced into testifying against me, those that testified against Davis renounced their statements, yet Davis was very nearly put to death. I might have been executed myself by now, had not the government of Canada required a waiver of the death penalty as a condition of extradition.
The old order is aptly represented by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who stated in his dissenting opinion in the Davis case, “This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent.
Quite to the contrary, we have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged 'actual innocence' is constitutionally cognizable.”
The esteemed Senator from North Dakota, Byron Dorgan, who is now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, used much the same reasoning in writing that “our legal system has found Leonard Peltier guilty of the crime for which he was charged.
I have reviewed the material from the trial, and I believe the verdict was fair and just.”
It is a bizarre and incomprehensible statement to Natives, as well it should be, that innocence and guilt is a mere legal status, not necessarily rooted in material fact. It is a truism that all political prisoners were convicted of the crimes for which they were charged.
The truth is the government wants me to falsely confess in order to validate a rather sloppy frame-up operation, one whose exposure would open the door to an investigation of the United States' role in training and equipping goon squads to suppress a grassroots movement on Pine Ridge against a puppet dictatorship.
In America, there can by definition be no political prisoners, only those duly judged guilty in a court of law. It is deemed too controversial to even publicly contemplate that the federal government might fabricate and suppress evidence to defeat those deemed political enemies. But it is a demonstrable fact at every stage of my case.
I am Barack Obama's political prisoner now, and I hope and pray that he will adhere to the ideals that impelled him to run for president.
But as Obama himself would acknowledge, if we are expecting him to solve our problems, we missed the point of his campaign.
Only by organizing in our own communities and pressuring our supposed leaders can we bring about the changes that we all so desperately need.
Please support the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee in our effort to hold the United States government to its own words.I thank you all who have stood by me all these years, but to name anyone would be to exclude many more. We must never lose hope in our struggle for freedom.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier #89637-132USP-Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
For more information on Leonard Peltier visit the Leonard Peltier Defense-Offense Committee website.
IPF WEBSITE: http://users.skynet.be/kola/index.htm andwww.myspace.com/leonardpeltierisinnocent
IPF e-mail:ipforum@skynet.be
Also, please visit the website of theLeonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee (LPDOC):http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/
LPDOC e-mail:contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
LEONARD PELTIER IS INNOCENT !

TREATY SCHOOL: Harvest and solar workshop

From T.R.E.A.T.Y School on Pine Ridge, S.D.

Greetings!
Dear Friends,
As the leaves start to change and the last of the corn comes in, we at the T.R.E.A.T.Y. School wanted to share details of the summer harvest, as well as an exciting upcoming event.
This Summer, we were able to grow over 200 pounds of Summer Squash and Zucchini, much of which we made available to the Senior's Center here in Porcupine, as well as providing to folks as part of the local Farmer's Market in Kyle. We were able to grow over 100 pounds of green peppers and 100 ears of sweet corn, which we sold as well at the Farmer's Market, with proceeds going to the School. Click on the image below for some of the views from the Garden as part of our updated on-line Picture Gallery!
We also have been busy planning our most ambitious project to date: Beginning on September 30th, we will be holding a 5 day workshop on how to fabricate your own Do-It-Yourself solar panels. The workshop will be free and open to the public, with both out of state volunteers and local folks learning side by side. The workshop will be lead by Brian Clarke of GreenDIYEnergy.com. Check out the video below to get a brief overview of the process of solar panel fabrication! Even if you have no experience with solar and only minimal experience with building, the process is easy and straightforward.
We will be taking the process from end to end, including the following points:An overview of how Solar and Wind power generate electricity.
How to evaluate what type and capacity of system would work best for you.
Where to obtain supplies, from ordering on-line, to where to look locally for available recyclable materials.
How to assemble the supplies from scratch.How to integrate the system into your existing electrical supply or to install into a new set-up.
State and Federal rebates available to you for Wind & Solar power.
The workshop will be a lot of fun, with all materials on-site before the beginning of the build. We are encouraging anyone who is interested in either coming out to the Ranch to learn, or assisting with materials, to contact us at (605) 867-1025, or build@treatyschool.org. If you'd like to make an on-line donation to support the build, please visit treatyschool.org
'May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect the paths of you and your loved ones.'
T.R.E.A.T.Y. School Staff(605) 867-1025
build@treatyschool.org

Uranium in Indian country: Paul Zimmerman releases 'The Cult of Nuclearists'

Zimmerman releases chapter of new book to Censored News to aid in the struggles of Indigenous Peoples

From author Paul Zimmerman to Brenda Norrell:

"I recently read your article on CounterPunch.com about proposed uranium mining in the Grand Canyon. It got me thinking as to whether or not I could make some small contribution to the struggle, being played out yet again, between native peoples and what I call the Cult of Nuclearists. I decided to release a chapter that I'm very proud of from my newly published book. When you read the attached document, and if you find it of worth, I would be honored if you would share it with whatever groups and individuals you are aware of who may find it interesting and informative."

A Primer in the Art of Deception
The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science
by Paul Zimmerman
Copies of this book can be ordered at http://www.du-deceptions.com/ or by contacting the author at either info@du-deceptions.com or P.O. Box 145, Lyndonville, NY 14098
Excerpts, read full chapter at link below:
"... Peoples of the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo and Acoma Pueblo suffered the greatest impact from this invasion by the large energy companies. Their familiar pastoral economy was rapidly transformed into a mining-industrial economy,and they became a mining-dependent population (Kuletz). Recruited as a cheap source of labor for the mines, Native Americans were exploited economically, receiving two-thirds the salary of employees brought in from off the reservation (Churchill). During the uranium boom of the 1970s, the median salary for the Laguna Pueblo was 50 dollars per week(Kuletz). Maximum economic gain for the mining companies was the driving force for the abuses showered on Native American communities in the Four Corners region ..."

"The desecration of sacred lands by uranium mining interests is never ending. A particularly appalling example became public knowledge in 2008 when newspapers reported that VANE Minerals, a UK mining company, was petitioning the US government for mining rights in the Grand Canyon."
Read Zimmerman's chapter online:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2009/09/paul-zimmerman-cult-of-nuclearists.html

Read more:

Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon, CounterPunch

Photo: Havasupai Gathering to Halt Uranium Mining in the Grand Canyon/Photo by Brenda Norrell

Boeing contract extended for spy tower mess

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photo: Spy tower at Arivaca, Ariz. by Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Boeing's contract has been extended for spy towers at the border, with $6.7 billion pouring into the non-functioning equipment to spy on people along the US/Mexico border.
Earlier, Boeing subcontracted the Israeli Apartheid contractor Elbit Systems to install some of the spy mess.
The good folks at Arivaca, Ariz., protested the spy cameras pointed at their homes, flying their kites in front of the radar, which isn't working yet anyway.
It is hard to get WiFi to work in a coffee shop, much less to penetrate through the desert mountains on the Arizona border.
It probably doesn't matter much to Boeing whether the spy towers work or not. Boeing's only interest is to profit from the racist border hysteria, manufactured by television news.
The neutered US Congress could care less anyway.
According to the news article, "Early on, technicians had trouble with cameras that took too long to focus and radar images obscured by raindrops."
Duh, here's a no-brainer: If the cameras are distracted by raindrops, what will they do about cows, birds, coyotes and other animals like jaguars and pronghorns -- if there's any left when they finish destroying the Sonoran Desert.

Read article on contract extension:
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=319720
Maps of US spy towers on Tohono O'odham Nation land:
Note: These are public documents from the Pima County Library:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/search?q=spy+tower
Elbit/Boeing border contract from Elbit's website
Elbit is also contracted by Israel, for security at the wall in Palestine:
http://www.elbitsystems.com/data/ESLT_Kollsman_Boeing_SBI_Project.pdf