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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 13:24:13 EST
Subject: Dirty Tricks after all these years
FROM UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
FOR RELEASE: WEEK OF NOVEMBER 26, 1999
COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez
DIRTY TRICKS AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Few people were surprised when recently released Nixon tapes showed the president
making disparaging remarks against African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Jews and
gays. According to a Chicago Tribune report, Nixon told John D. Ehrlichman: "They
(Mexicans) have a heritage. At the present time they steal; they're dishonest. They do
have some concept of family life; they don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the
Negroes do live like."
It's hard to put the '60s behind us with presidential tapes like that. And meanwhile,
the likes of Leonard Peltier, recognized everywhere as the world's leading political
prisoner, is still locked up after 23 years for the murder of two FBI agents -- even
when federal prosecutor Lynn Crooks testified in 1993 and 1995 that he had no direct
evidence that Peltier had actually shot the agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in
South Dakota in 1975. In this case, it seems that the judicial system operates under
the precept of "any Indian will do."
Speaking of dirty tricks, last time we wrote about Peltier three years ago, the FBI
publicly challenged the veracity of our column. (They wrote letters to the editor of
the El Paso Times.) They claimed he's guilty, and as proof, they offered the fact that
two of his associates were found with the weapons associated with the crime.
Of course, it's a little unusual that the FBI would go out of its way to rebut
columnists. Some might infer that they are trying to stifle free speech. Their
statement was true enough, but as commentator Paul Harvey would say, here's the rest
of the story. Indeed, two of Peltier's associates were found with the weapons, but
they were acquitted, arguing self-defense. Yet even if they had been convicted in U.S.
courts, that doesn't translate into guilt for Peltier, who was prevented from making
the same defense.
So, as his supporters always ask, "Why is Peltier still in prison?" Purportedly, the
only reason President Clinton will not release Peltier from prison is heavy pressure
from law enforcement. That strikes us as extreme interference.
In Peltier's case, we should be asking whether the FBI was capable of influencing the
judicial process a generation ago.
Perhaps the situation in Los Angeles today may give us a clue. There, the LAPD scandal
involving the anti-gang unit within the Ramparts division has already resulted in
disciplinary measures for at least a dozen officers for crimes ranging from attempted
murder and drug running to brutality and the frame-up of gang members. Several inmates
who were subjected to frame-ups have already been released, and many more are expected
to be released soon. The still-unfolding scandal has come to light as a direct result
of one of its officers, Rafael A. Perez, informing on his fellow officers.
For those who wonder whether law enforcement officers ever resort to frame-ups, this
should end the speculation.
In perhaps an even more sobering development, a former paid informant purportedly
working for the New Mexico State Police has stepped forward and claimed that the
deaths of Chicano Movement activists Rito Canales and Antonio Cordova in 1972 were the
result of a set-up by law enforcement agents.
The informant recently issued a statement on videotape describing in chilling detail
how Canales and Cordova were lured to their deaths in a remote location outside of the
Albuquerque city limits.
As a result of this new information, a wrongful death civil rights lawsuit was filed
in federal court in November against the state police and two other law enforcement
agencies. On the tape, the informant says that it was he who lured the two to a
construction site where they were killed by law enforcement officers who lay in wait,
adding that the two were suspected of being involved in bombings. Once Canales and
Cordova arrived, they were killed, purportedly in a firefight.
The local district attorney and the state attorney general have not yet agreed to open
up a murder investigation. It may fall upon the Department of Justice to reopen its
investigation of a generation ago. "As a result of the fraud and conspiracy, the
entire Hispanic community in the state of New Mexico was damaged in the denial and
delay of civil rights," states the lawsuit.
What can be deduced from all this is that there can be no doubt that counterinsurgency
tactics were indeed part of that era. It's time to create a high-level commission to
examine and rectify the abuses of that generation.
COPYRIGHT 1999 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
Gonzales & Rodriguez can be reached at PO BOX 7905, Albq NM 87194-7905,
505-242-7282 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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