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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 28, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
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FBI pressures Clinton as
Movement demands pardon for Peltier
By John Catalinotto
On Dec. 15, a group of 500 active and retired FBI agents ignored both their
constitutional role and human decency to march on the White House. They
complained about the fact that President Bill Clinton would even consider
pardoning American Indian Movement warrior Leonard Peltier.
Marching silently with their short haircuts and business suits, the agents
were an ugly sight to anyone who understands their role in repressing the
progressive movement in the United States.
For New Yorkers, the action directed against the lame-duck president had the
same taste of fascism as the cop demonstration against then-Mayor David
Dinkins during his last year in office.
Since the 1975 FBI attack on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the
agency has been involved in other widely publicized attacks on people or
groups on questionable grounds. The most deadly was the armed FBI assault on
the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, in 1993. There the FBI took
revenge for the shooting deaths of four Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms agents, launching a siege that ended in the deaths of 86 adults and
children.
Peltier has been in jail nearly 25 years for allegedly killing two FBI agents
in 1975. The FBI members had been part of an armed attack on the Native
community at the time, and hadn't even identified themselves as federal
agents.
The incident occurred during the "Pine Ridge Reign of Terror" of 1973-76,
when more than 60 members and supporters of the American Indian Movement were
killed. Peltier was part of a group of AIM activists trying to defend their
people.
The federal prosecutor in Peltier's case has admitted that he doesn't know
who killed the agents. Two others charged with the killing of the FBI agents
were tried separately and acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Peltier remains in prison. His health is deteriorating. His best hope for
release is executive clemency, so the support movement has focused its
attention on Clinton.
Peltier is the only Pine Ridge defender the FBI has been able to get
imprisoned, and the agency seems determined to take out its vengeance on the
Native leader.
Media's reluctant coverage
When thousands demonstrated Dec. 10 in New York demanding clemency for
Peltier, the corporate media gave the event no coverage. The FBI's action, on
the contrary, got lots of air time and newspaper space.
The only bright side of this was that Peltier's defenders took advantage of
the attention to fight publicly for their client. Jennifer Harbury, one of
Peltier's attorneys, spoke forcefully to millions both through the newspapers
and by debating an FBI spokesperson on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"Mr. Peltier has been in prison for 25 years. He is way overdue for parole,"
Harbury said. "He has been receiving human-rights awards for the good deeds
he has done behind bars, for his massive humanitarian efforts, and he is in
failing health."
Harbury called on FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno to
open an investigation into the case.
"Even the United States attorney admits no one knows who killed that FBI
agent, who fired those fatal shots," Harbury said. "The woman who claims to
have witnessed the killing later admitted she signed those affidavits only
after the FBI threatened to take away her children. The FBI ballistics test
showing that the bullet could not have come from Mr. Peltier's gun was
concealed from the jury and also from the defense."
Freeh, overstepping his constitutional role, wrote a letter to Clinton
complaining that the president would consider Peltier for clemency. When he
made the letter public, this drew a protest from Janet Reno.
Peltier's defenders have organized a popular call-in campaign to the
president. The FBI has held its own campaign--with the pressures only a
police agency can bring--to try and keep him in prison.
Readers can call the White House at 202-456-1111 to demand that President
Clinton grant executive clemency to Leonard Peltier.
- END -
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