--- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- **WIN A TRIP to HAWAII** Every time you send a FREE ZingCard through July 26, you are automatically entered in our drawing for a Hawaiian Summer get-away. Start Sending Now! http://click.topica.com/aaaaqibz8SnrbAjwjxa/ZingAd2 ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 6 June 2000 Vol. 4, Number 47 (#428) __________________________________________________________________________ Movie Reviews: "Sunshine" -- some of the darkest areas of human behavior Defending Leonard Peltier Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, "Dear Friends," 5 June 00 Glenn Morris (Denver Rocky Mt. News), "Truth must lead to pardoning of Peltier," 15 May 00 Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, "Response to the 'No Parole Peltier Association website" Fascism In E. Europe AP, "Czech Mein Kampf Publisher Charged," 2 June 00 UPI, "Haider's 'Freedom Party' in Trouble Again," 5 June 00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MOVIE REVIEWS: Sunshine Sunshine Matt Wolf (AP) 6 June 00 Don't be fooled by the title. Over the course of its disturbing yet often invigorating three hours, "Sunshine" inhabits some of the darkest areas of human behavior. That much is to be expected from Istvan Szabo, the gifted Hungarian filmmaker who has explored - in movies such as "Colonel Redl" (1985) and the Oscar-winning "Mephisto" (1981) - the Faustian pact that humans often strike in order to stay the course. With "Sunshine," Szabo takes on nothing less than the turbulent history of 20th century Europe, as refracted through three generations and 150 years of the Hungarian-Jewish Sonnenschein family. Ralph Fiennes, in his most demanding screen performance in years, plays three very different men across three different periods, and clearly delineates each. Their common bond: survival in a changing political and social climate in which - Szabo and co-screenwriter Israel Horovitz suggest - simply existing day to day exacts a price. The result sometimes veers toward soap opera. Still, there's no denying the rare ambition of a film with intelligence and empathy to burn: You go in expecting a history lesson and emerge impressed - often against the odds - by the shifting hues of humanity. The film has barely begun its flashback narration before the meaning of the title becomes clear. Emmanuel Sonnenschein (David de Keyser), the tale's great-grandfather, has made his fortune from a family recipe for an herbal tonic known as "Sunshine." The Sonnenscheins, it seems, are on the way up, having progressed from village tavern-keepers to city lawyers, with Fiennes' Ignatz embodying the social ascent. Among other things, he's keen to change the family name to the less-Jewish-sounding Sors. A famously severe magistrate, Ignatz's private life is colored by an illicit marriage to cousin Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), whom he once loved as a sister and then nearly destroyed by deriding her as a whore. Life in the public eye isn't much easier. Ignatz embraces a defiant assimilationism that proves a troubling touchstone for the family members who come after. The next generation provides the film's truly enduring sequences, pushing the film forward from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and into the charnel house of World War II. Fiennes reappears as Adam Sors, the youngest son of Ignatz and Valerie, a brilliant swordsman whose path to Olympic fencing glory includes his conversion to Catholicism. His newfound religion notwithstanding, Adam meets a grisly fate. Even those inured to images of Holocaust atrocities may find this character's end near-impossible to watch. His death, in turn, leaves Adam's son Ivan (Fiennes again) to confront issues of vengeance and retribution. His own circumstances include a secret liaison with a married policewoman (Deborah Kara Unger, in the film's least convincing role), and he finds an unlikely ally in a fiercely anti-fascist Communist (a mustachioed William Hurt). >From there, it's on to the toppling of Stalin and the Hungarian uprising, larger events always sifted through the Sonnenscheins' traumatized - yet possibly redemptive - lives. "Sunshine" is sufficiently dense that it defies thumbnail synopsis, and some filmgoers may surrender to it as a sweeping epic. Among the film's more than 150 speaking parts, special attention must go to the real-life mother-daughter team of Rosemary Harris and Jennifer Ehle, playing older and younger versions of the same person. Ehle, who just won the best-actress Tony Award for her performance in Broadway's "The Real Thing," sets "Sunshine's" narrative course early by remarking that the family is "already doomed to hell." With that comment in mind, Harris' emergence as Valerie's older, widowed self is doubly moving, since the character has acquired a sense of serenity and peace. Valerie, by the end, is said to possess "the gift of breathing freely," after decades of imprisonment and tumult. From grief, Harris suggests, can come a kind of grace. In a film suffused with sorrow, Harris' lovely performance lets in the sun. "Sunshine" is a Paramount Classics release, co-produced by Robert Lantos and Andras Hamori. A hefty 180 minutes, the film is rated R. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEFENDING LEONARD PELTIER Dear Friends, The FBI is continuing their misinformation campaign against Leonard Peltier. Their letters are still popping up in papers accross the country. However, many of our responses and letters are being printed as well. Below is a good rebuttal written in a Denver paper by Prof. Morris. Please continue to keep an eye out for the FBI's letters and be sure to send us copies in the mail. If the FBI has not submitted anything in your paper, you can still submit a letter of your own before they do. Please keep up phone calls to the White House, Congress, and Reno. Don't forget to organize phone banks to Janet Reno's office on June 9th and let us know if a vigil is being planned on June 11 in your region. We cannot let them obstuct Leonard's chances of receiving long overdue justice this year. Thank you. Solidarity, LPDC - - - - - Truth must lead to pardoning of Peltier Glenn Morris (Denver Rocky Mt. News) 15 May 00 In reporting the FBI's latest campaign to defame imprisoned American Indian activist Leonard Peltier (April 22 article, "FBI fights to prevent a pardon for Peltier"),the Denver Rocky Mountain News repeated several factual errors and pieces of FBI disinformation that deserve correction. At the outset, it should be stated that Leonard Peltier has now spent 23 years in federal prison for crimes that he did not commit. His convictions on the charges that he murdered two FBI agents were secured through perjured affidavits and testimony, exculpatory evidence was concealed by the FBI, and a judiciary has consistently ignored truth and justice in the case. Peltier's case has been examined by some of the finest legal minds in the world, with the respected human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) concluding that Peltier should be released immediately. AI has been joined in its plea for Peltier's freedom by millions of others, including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nelson Mandela, the late Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Rigoberta Menchu and Desmond Tutu. In the article reprinted in the News. some of the scurrilous tactics of the FBI's smear campaign were revealed when the FBI continued to suggest that Peltier had attempted to kill other police officers in Milwaukee prior to the 1975 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation shootout that left one Indian and two FBI agents dead. The FBI omits the fact that Peltier was acquitted of all charges in the Milwaukee case. It also neglects to mention that the case was fabricated by two Milwaukee police officers who set Peltier up, in their own words, to catch "a big one for the FBI." Today, given revelations in such cases as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the Los Angeles police department's Rampart Division scandal, and Denver's own Mena case, we know that the capacity of police agencies (including the FBI) to railroad innocent individuals for political or racial purposes, is virtually boundless. As documented in Peter Matthiessen's award-winning book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, the FBI attempted to conceal its own ballistics tests which excluded Peltier's purported gun as the one that killed the FBI agents. Before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. prosecutor admitted to the court that "we can't prove who shot those agents." Later, on CBS' 60 Minutes, the same prosecutor, Lynn Crooks, defended his and the FBI's conduct in the Peltier case, claiming that he didn't think that "we did anything wrong, but I can tell you, it don't bother my conscience one whit if we did." Such is the nature of "justice" in the Peltier case. Despite the FBI's attempts to spread lies about Peltier and his trial, people of goodwill should examine the facts for themselves. Those who are persuaded by truth and justice will join the international call for presidential clemency for the most renowned political prisoner in the United States, Leonard Peltier. * * * * * Glenn Morris is a Professor of International Law and Politics at the University of Colorado - Denver, a member of the American Indian Movement of Colorado and an advisory board member of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. - - - - - Response to the "No Parole Peltier Association" Website Leonard Peltier Defense Committee It comes as no surprise that a new organization named the "No Parole Peltier Association" or NPPA is in fact another guise for the FBI to continue their campaign of disinformation against Leonard Peltier. The NPPA consists of a website sponsored by an FBI agent, asking people to sign a petition against Leonard Peltier's parole release. Once again the FBI are going beyond their jurisdiction as law enforcement officials to defame Leonard Peltier, while further misinforming the public about the case. In doing this, the FBI is further obstructing justice in the Peltier case and interfering in his right to due process under the law. The NPPA's position as to why they do not support Leonard Peltier's parole release is unclear. They make no mention of why Leonard Peltier should be held in prison far longer than the laws and guidelines of the Parole Commission require. Most everything mentioned on their website is irrelevant, and makes no case against Leonard Peltier's parole release. Instead, they attack Leonard Peltier's character, Mr. X, and the trial of Robert Robideau and Dino Butler. To see the site for yourself go to: www.noparolepeltier.com However futile it may seem, we would like to respond to some of the allegations made on the NPPA site because we feel it is important to strongly reinstate our reasons for supporting Leonard Peltier's release. Correcting Wrongs of the Past The "PURPOSE" section of the NPPA site contains a paragraph titled "Correcting Wrongs of the Past." It is here the NPPA implies that supporters of Leonard Peltier are simply blinded by their sorrow for the US government's brutal past with Native Americans. They go as far as to say "history cannot be altered. Nothing can change the broken promises and treaties and subjugation of the first peoples to inhabit this continent." However, the Peltier case has long underlined the CURRENT attitudes and continuing racism against Indigenous Peoples by the US government. Leonard Peltier was accused of killing two FBI agents during a time when the FBI themselves were illegally seeking to destroy AIM. In the years surrounding the shoot-out over 60 members and supporters of the American Indian Movement were murdered on Pine Ridge. Despite an overwhelming FBI presence, virtually no prosecutions were brought. Former GOON leader, Duane Brewer, has told us that the FBI helped to arm the GOONs and they intentionally looked the other way when crimes against AIM members and supporters were committed. In short, the GOONs were given the green light to murder and beat people with impunity. Hardly is this ancient history and surely the FBI should be held accountable for their participation in the violence. The double standard that allows an innocent man to pay for the deaths of two FBI agents while the murders of AIM members and supporters are given no priority whatsoever is what most of Leonard Peltier's supporters find disturbing and unacceptable. Agents Shot in Self-Defense Secondly, the NPPA state throughout their web site that the agents only shot 5 times before they were killed, that there was no gun battle between the Jumping Bull residents, and that the agents merely shot in self defense. They say that "agent Coler had fired one shot from a service revolver, one shot from a 12-gauge shotgun and one shot from a .308 rifle . . . Agent Williams had fired two shots from his service revolver. . ." However, there is no evidence to support this contention and it contradicts the testimony of all of those who were at the scene, including the testimony of Angie Long Visitor, who said the agents repeatedly fired their guns. It would be hard to imagine agent Coler picking up three different guns, and firing each one once within a ten minute period, as the NPPA claims. Further, the NPPA claim that though Robideau and Butler were acquitted on grounds of self-defense, it does not mean they were actually innocent. The LPDC, they say, fails to consider the "guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. However, we contend that the NPPA fails to recognize the "innocent until proven guilty" standard, meaning they cannot continue to accuse Butler and Robideau of being guilty, and Leonard Peltier of aiding and abetting them, when in fact no evidence of this exists. Mr. X They also question the morality and validity of Mr. X, the person who came forward incognito, and admitted to shooting the agents at point blank range in self-defense. Mr. X has long been a controversial topic, by both supporters of Leonard Peltier and those who oppose his release. Whether we agree with Mr. X's tactics or not is irrelevant. The LPDC's arguments are based on the legal record of the Peltier case. If the FBI is so confidant that Leonard Peltier is guilty, we must ask them why they felt it necessary to obtain falsified affidavits from Myrtle Poor Bear, to withhold critical ballistics evidence, to "develop evidence to lock Peltier into the case" and why they now admit that they do not know who killed the agents. The Ballistics The NPPA attempts to minimalize the formerly withheld ballistic evidence, which forced the government to admit that they did not know who shot the agents. In doing so, they point to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals decision which affirmed Peltier's conviction and stated: "When all is said and done, however, a few simple but very important facts remain. The casing introduced into evidence in fact had been extracted from the Wichita AR-15. This point was not disputed." However, an extractor test is much less conclusive than a firing pin test. What the newly discovered documents revealed was that the firing pin test was done, and in fact, THE CASING DID NOT MATCH. The jury was never allowed to hear this evidence. Moreover, the Eighth circuit said if the casing did not match, it would mean the FBI had planted it. In response to this they said, "we recognize that there is evidence in this record of improper conduct on the part of some FBI agents, but we are reluctant to impute even further improprieties to them." They concluded the following: There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case. Yet, we are bound by the Bagley test requiring that we be convinced, from a review of the entire record, that had the data and records withheld been made available, the jury probably would have reached a different result. We have not been so convinced. The judge who wrote the decision also admitted that he was uncomfortable with it. He would later write a letter recommending Peltier be released through Executive Clemency saying that "the FBI used improper tactics in securing Peltier's extradition from Canada and in otherwise investigating and trying the Peltier case." We would also like to point out that we find the Bagley standard to be unjust, in that it requires the judge to replace himself with a jury in deciding whether or not certain evidence would have conclusively overturned a conviction. If the new evidence forced the prosecution to say they could not prove Leonard Peltier shot the agents, then surely the jury would have concluded the same. Lastly, the NPPA attempts to demoralize Leonard Peltier's character, pointing to perceived flaws in his lifestyle. However, Leonard Peltier is not being held in prison for imperfections in his personality, and we do not feel it is necessary to respond to such allegations. In conclusion, we insist that the complete lack of evidence against Leonard Peltier combined with his excellent conduct in prison and his continued advocacy for human rights from behind bars, make him a perfect candidate for parole. We find that the FBI's continued attempts to obstruct justice in the Peltier case in order to protect their own reputation to be a disgrace. We urge those who view the site to express their concerns on its message board. Call the White House Comments Line Today Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! 202-456-1111 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FASCISM IN E. EUROPE Czech Mein Kampf Publisher Charged AP 2 June 00 PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- The Czech publisher of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf has been charged with promotion of Nazism, police said Friday. Michal Zitko, who published the unabridged Czech translation of Mein Kampf in March, was charged Thursday and faces up to eight years in prison if convicted, said police spokeswoman Sona Jindrakova. Upon publication of the book in March, Zitko said he wanted to expose Czechs to Hitler's "monstrous ideology," but also characterized Nazi ideas as no worse than those of communism. Zitko said Hitler is one of the best-known people of the 20th century and everybody should have the right to read a firsthand account of his political manifesto. The first unabridged Czech-language edition of Mein Kampf was published in 10,000 copies and immediately sold out. Publication drew immediate protests from the Czech Jewish Community and local anti-fascist associations. The book contains no commentaries or disclaimers. - - - - - Haider's 'Freedom Party' in Trouble Again UPI 5 June 00 VIENNA -- Furor over pro-Nazi sentiments and Joerg Haider's Freedom Party is flaring again in Austria following a fascist-style comment by a new party boss. The controversy Monday could further damage Austria's image and jeopardize its plea for normalized relations with the European Union. The EU slapped diplomatic sanctions on Vienna when Haider's far-right party became part of a ruling coalition in February. If not for the current friction between Austria and the other 14 nations in the EU, the comment by Haider ally Ernest Windholz might have gone unnoticed. But the flare-up came quickly Sunday at a Freedom Party convention, where in a speech to party faithful Windholz quoted a Waffen SS slogan that was etched on every SS member's dagger blade: "Our honor is called loyalty." He was subsequently elected the party's national chairman for lower Austria. Windholz later told the Austrian news agency APA he was unaware of the slogan's link to the SS military police, which fomented bloody terror during the country's Nazi era in the 1930s and 1940s. Through a party spokesman, Windholz apologized "if the repetition of this saying hurt the feelings of victims of the National Socialists (Nazis) or their descendants." He also said Windholz does not "play down the crimes of the National Socialists." Haider, whose popular right-wing rhetoric fueled the Freedom Party, issued a similar apology three months ago for pro-Nazi comments he made in the mid-1990s. Windholz was praising longtime party members when he made the comment. He later thanked convention delegates for electing him on his 40th birthday. He received 56 percent of the vote, compared to Franz Marchat's 36 percent. Freedom Party opponents reacted angrily. Barbara Prammer, a leader of the Social Democratic Party, called the comment "intolerable." She said the Freedom Party is "outside the acceptable spectrum of democratic parties" and that Windholz should step down. Prammer also called for Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel to denounce the comment. There was no immediate reaction from the chancellor's office. Schuessel's center-right People's Party shares power with the Freedom Party. The Social Democrats ruled in Vienna for 30 years. They were pushed out of power when the coalition government was formed in February, based on the results of October elections that gave no single party a clear majority. In the coalition's first months, Haider and Schuessel were central figures even though Haider does not hold a federal office. The EU sanctions and related threats to Austria's economy prompted Haider to step out of the spotlight, quitting the job of Freedom Party chief last month. He was replaced by the country's vice chancellor, Susanne Riess-Passer. The Austrian government has been campaigning rigorously for an end to the EU sanctions. Officials insist there is no backward movement toward Nazism, and that Vienna embraces EU enlargement as well as human rights. Yet the government has failed to convince its European neighbors to begin a political dialogue. Last month it appeared a thaw had begun after Vienna's foreign minister met informally with EU ministers. Denmark, Greece, Spain, Ireland and Italy were among the countries showing interest in easing the sanctions. Next month, Austria may get another chance when France assumes the rotating presidency of the EU. Currently the post is held by Portugal, which is refusing to back down from its position that the sanctions remain while the Freedom Party holds power. The Austrian government is trying to persuade the world that it's not a demon. To that end, it has launched an infomercial-type Web site, www.keepintouch.at. * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction) - - - - - back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- GUARANTEED APPROVAL MASTERCARD? All* applicants approved with NO up front cash or security deposit. 0% A.P.R. and REPORTS TO ALL 3 MAJOR CREDIT BUREAUS! 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