Leonard Peltier no 'political prisoner'
http://www.wickedlocal.com/plymouth/news/opinions/letters/x1316690761/LETTER-Leonard-Peltier-no-political-prisoner
Dec 01, 2010
To the editor:
I am a retired FBI Special Agent. I believe that any information I
provide in this letter is accurate.
For many years at Thanksgiving the Old Colony Memorial, whether
attempting to be fair or merely politically correct, has been
affording relatively equal coverage to the traditional Pilgrim
celebrations and the demonstrations, sometimes disruptive, of Native
American activists protesting the current and historic treatment of
the American Indian. Prominent within these demonstrations has been
the "Free Leonard Peltier" movement, a movement that as repeatedly
reported by the OCM claims that Peltier is a "political prisoner"
convicted on "trumped up charges." The OCM has correctly identified
Peltier as the convicted murderer of two FBI Agents in a 1975
shooting incident on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, for which he
was sentenced to two life terms. However, while repeatedly reporting
the unsupported claims of Peltier's supporters, the OCM has never
provided details of the crimes. Nor has there ever been any attempt
to report any facts whatsoever that could conceivably support these
outrageous claims. In publishing photographs of the banners carried
by Peltier supporters, and in reporting without question their
"political prisoner/trumped up charges" allegations, the OCM has
unwittingly afforded a degree of unwarranted credence to those
claims. There are OCM readers as well as attendees of these
parades/demonstrations with a natural empathy for Native American
causes. Many of those same individuals, usually without benefit of
the actual facts, have been inclined to support the Peltier cause
financially and/or through the petition process, something they
perhaps might have been less inclined to do had those facts been known to them.
It is noteworthy that Leonard Peltier has never denied being at the
murder scene. In fact he has admitted to media that he was there and
that he fired shots at the FBI agents. What he denies is that he
killed them. His denials lack credibility in light of the
considerable forensic evidence and witness testimony presented at his trial.
While Peltier has denied in public killing the two agents, what he
has had to say in private is quite another matter. In sworn
testimony, Ka-Mook Nichols, the ex-wife of American Indian Movement
(AIM) co-founder Dennis Banks, testified in federal court that
shortly after the murders Leonard Peltier bragged to her that "the
m_____ f_____ was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway." As
will shortly be shown, that graphic admission is remarkably
consistent with and supported by the actual evidence at the crime scene.
On 6/26/75, FBI Special Agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler were at
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation looking for federal fugitive Jimmy
Eagle, wanted on felony charges. At that time Leonard Peltier was
also a federal fugitive, wanted on a warrant issued in Milwaukee,
Wisc., in which it was alleged that he held a gun to the head of an
off-duty police officer and pulled the trigger. The gun fortunately
misfired. Peltier believed the agents were looking for him. They were
not. They did not know he was at Pine Ridge that day and it is
unlikely that they even knew who he was.
The agents, in separate cars, observed a Chevy Suburban occupied by
three unidentified Indian males, one of whom was in fact Leonard
Peltier. Thinking that one of them might be the fugitive Jimmy Eagle,
they followed the vehicle. At a point when Peltier and his companions
were over 200 yards ahead of the agents and on high ground looking
back down toward them, they stopped their vehicle, got out and took
cover. Then without provocation they commenced firing down on the
agents. Within minutes the Peltier group was joined by other armed
Indians who were in the area. A total of 125 bullets struck the
agents' cars from three sides, not including unrecovered bullets that
either struck the ground or blew out their car windows. Both agents
were wounded, Agent Coler so severely that he lost a considerable
amount of blood, went into shock and lost consciousness. While still
taking extensive gunfire and at great personal risk, Agent Williams
attempted to attend to his wounded partner. The two agents had been
able to return a mere five shots.
At this point our hero, Leonard Peltier, accompanied by two other
Indian associates, walked down to the wounded agents. Agent Williams
was shot at point blank range through his hand and into his head by a
high velocity small caliber rifle. His hand had apparently been
extended in a last futile self-defensive act. It is useful to recall
the sworn testimony of the ex-wife of Dennis Banks who testified that
Peltier told her that he shot the agent as he begged for his life.
The extended hand is certainly consistent with and corroborative of
her testimony. The unconscious Agent Coler was then shot twice in the
head by the same weapon.
In its previous reporting the OCM has characterized this incident as
a "shootout." I submit that the scene is more accurately described as
a "shooting gallery" with the two agents as targets, taking sustained
gunfire from three sides by an adversary that had superior numbers
and weaponry. The two agents were in fact ambushed, surrounded and
then executed at point blank range.
For those unfamiliar with weapons, the AR-15 is a high-velocity
small-caliber rifle, the civilian version of the military's M-16
automatic rifle. Evidence presented at Peltier's trial showed that
both agents were killed by head shots fired from a high velocity
small caliber weapon. Leonard Peltier was the only shooter observed
firing such a weapon at the murder scene that day. A total of 114
AR-15 shell casings were recovered from a location at which witness
testimony placed Peltier firing at the agents. Witness testimony
further placed Peltier in possession of an AR-15 rifle at the bodies
of the two agents. And finally an AR-15 shell casing recovered in
close proximity to their bodies was forensically matched to the 114
AR-15 shell casings recovered at Peltier's initial shooting location.
Leonard Peltier is not a "political prisoner;" he is not incarcerated
because of his political beliefs. He is incarcerated because of his
crimes. Those crimes were his role in the execution-style murders of
two wounded FBI agents at close range by a high velocity weapon. The
murders were real. His crimes were real. There are consequences for
those who either commit or participate in the act of murder. The
consequence is imprisonment, and it is rightly for a lengthy term.
And because of the heinous nature and circumstances of these murders,
in the case of Leonard Peltier that term is the full length of his
life, as it should be.
Two FBI agents were executed while in the legal performance of their
sworn duties as federal law enforcement officers. The punishment
meted out to the individual responsible for their murders is not
politics, it is justice.
The murder charges against Leonard Peltier were not "trumped up." To
suggest that they were is in essence saying that the evidence was
fabricated and false testimony given. There is and never has been any
factual foundation to support such inflammatory allegations. It is
certainly noteworthy that much of the witness testimony against
Peltier was provided by fellow Native Americans, many of whom
courageously testified notwithstanding the not insubstantial risk of
retribution from Peltier's associates.
The fact remains that Leonard Peltier was convicted in a United
States District Court by a jury of his peers based on credible
witness testimony and convincing forensic evidence. His convictions
have repeatedly been upheld on appeal and his several bids for parole
rejected by the U.S. Board of Parole after careful consideration of
the facts of his crimes, his role in them, and his complete lack of remorse.
Leonard Peltier is certainly not the sympathetic figure he and his
followers would have you believe. He stands convicted of a heinous
and especially cowardly crime, a conviction upheld through an
exhaustive appellate process. He selfishly continues to use the
legitimate plight of Native Americans to excuse and justify his many
criminal acts. Notwithstanding his writings from prison, he does not
represent the average Native American, and he does not and cannot
speak to or for their concerns on the many social issues that are
clearly in need of address by our government and social institutions.
Quite frankly, it would be a sad day indeed and a gross insult to the
families of the two slain agents, as well as to the many dedicated
law enforcement officers throughout this country who risk their lives
every day, if Leonard Peltier were ever to walk away a free man.
Thank you for affording this opportunity to present a different
perspective concerning the individual who our Thanksgiving protesters
would have go free.
Gerald Montanari
Plymouth
.
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