Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

LEONARD PELTIER DENIED BASIC RIGHTS-UN, HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS INTERVENTION SOUGHT

Paula Ostrovsky - LPDC Media PR | 10.07.2005 07:37 | Social Struggles | World

Indigenous political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, continues in arbitrary solitary confinement at USP Terre Haute. His basic rights are being denied and his health threatened. Intervention by Human Rights organizations is urged.

After learning that at the sixth day of his solitary confinement, Leonard Peltier is being denied phone privileges, religious rights, visitation privileges, cannot write out, cannot even breathe fresh air, and is running out of medication, his Defense Committee has launched a national and international campaign asking human rights bodies and advocates to intervene on his behalf. Leonard Peltier is an internationally known Native American political prisoner who has been incarcerated in the United States for almost thirty years for defending his people on sovereign Indian land. His conviction came about as a result of well known, and proven, outrageous government misconduct in which documents were withheld, witnesses intimidated, and false testimony was allowed as evidence, among many other irregularities.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) with the invaluable help of the International Indian Treaty Council (an organization working for protection of the sovereignty and human rights of indigenous peoples in the Americas and the Pacific) has appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, its Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Human Rights, The Special Representatives of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders, members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues, the National Native American Prisoners Rights Coalition, the Office of Multi-Lateral Affairs, Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the United States State Department, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project, among others. They are asking for urgent assistance in response to the new crisis situation, which has further violated Peltier’s rights and is currently threatening his health.

Last Thursday, June 30th, in a move that Russell Redner, Executive Director of the LPDC, describes as “extraordinary domestic rendition”, Mr. Peltier was transferred without notice to his attorneys or his family from the United States Federal Prison at Leavenworth Kansas to the United States Federal Prison at Terre Haute Indiana. He is arbitrarily being held there in solitary confinement indefinitely with the resulting suspension of all his prisoner privileges and basic human rights. He was a well-respected model prisoner at Leavenworth, he is an elder, has many serious health problems, and poses no threat to the system. “There is no real basis for subjecting him to this kind of treatment” affirms Barry Bachrach, his lead counsel.

The International Indian Treaty Council (IITC) had already submitted a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions in 2004 regarding Peltier’s wrongly obtained conviction and imprisonment. In yesterday’s communication, IITC urges the U.N. Group to exercise its mandate and visit Mr. Peltier in prison.


FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
RUSS REDNER, LPDC DIRECTOR, 866-534-6151 (TOLL FREE)
BARRY BACHRACH, LPDC ATTORNEY, 508-926-3403
ALBERTO SALDAMANDO, IITC GENERAL COUNSEL, 415-641-4482

Paula Ostrovsky - LPDC Media PR
- e-mail: info@leonardpeltier.org
- Homepage: http://leonardpeltier.org

Comments

Hide the following 2 comments

misinformation?

10.07.2005 10:36

We talk a lot here about the power of misinformation, but it is used by more than just big governments. I am not contending that Peltier was wrongfully arrested, I don't know either way, but why do you say that the crime was "defending his people on his land" and not the one he was actually convicted for, which was killing two FBI special agents, execution style? He was spotted while they were searching for someone else, as he was under federal fugitive status at the time for fleeing to avoid prosecution over the attempted murder of a police office in Milwaukee. I am not making a comment on his innocence OR guilt, but I do wonder why people withhold such information when seeking support.

sarah


this is very relevant

11.07.2005 17:42


exerpt from here:

 http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/coinwcar3.htm

cointelpro the untold American story


Snitch Jacketing
Under the guidance of the FBI, informants were often able to work their way into positions of power, such as was the case with Chicago-BPP Chief of Security William O'Neal, or American Indian Movement bodyguard Douglas Durham. Such individuals were often considered valuable due to the (FBI-supplied) information they were able to provide. Besides misleading and provoking the infiltrated groups, another technique used by informants was to "snitch jacket" genuine activists, to make them appear to be the informants. One such person was Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael.

Utilizing the services of an infiltrator who had worked his way into a position as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader's bodyguard, the Bureau deliberately created the false appearance that Stokely Carmichael was himself an operative. 83 In a memo dated July 10, 1968, the SAC, New York, proposed to Hoover that:
... consideration be given to convey the impression that CARMICHAEL is a CIA informer. One method of accomplishing [this] would be to have a carbon copy of an informant report supposedly written by CARMICHAEL to the CIA carefully deposited in the automobile of a close Black Nationalist friend ... It is hoped that when the informant report is read it will help promote distrust between CARMICHAEL and the Black Community ... It is also suggested that we inform a certain percentage of reliable criminal and racial informants that "we have it from reliable sources that CARMICHAEL is a CIA agent. It is hoped that the informants would spread the rumor in various large Negro communities across the land. 84

Pursuant to a May 19,1969 Airtel from the SAC, San Francisco, to Hoover, the Bureau then proceeded to "assist" the BPP in "expelling" Carmichael through the forgery of letters on party letterhead. The gambit worked, as is evidenced in the September 5, 1970 assertion by BPP head Huey P. Newton: "We ... charge that Stokely Carmichael is operating as an agent of the CIA." 85

Snitch jacketing has even resulted in the target's death. This appears to have occurred in 1975 in the case of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a young Micmac woman working with the American Indian Movement on the Pine Ridge Reservation. According to attorney Bruce Ellison,
"I represented a young mother and AIM member named Anna Mae Pictou on weapons charges. She told me after her arrest that the FBI threatened to see her dead within a year unless she cooperated against members of AIM. In an operation [similar to those] previously used against members of the Black Panther Party, the FBI, through an informant named Doug Durham who had infiltrated AIM leadership, began a rumor that she was an informant.

"Six months later her body was found on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The FBI said she died of exposure. They cut off her hands, claiming that this was necessary to identify her, and buried her under the name of Jane Doe.

"We were able to get her body exhumed, and a second, independent autopsy revealed that rather than dying of exposure, that someone had placed a pistol to the back of her head and pulled the trigger. When I asked for her hands after the second autopsy, because she was originally not buried with her hands, an FBI agent went to his car and came back and handed me a box, and with a big smile on his face he said, 'You want her hands? Here.'" 86

The FBI agents involved then used the morgue photos of Aquash to frighten another victim, Myrtle Poor Bear, a woman with a history of deep psychological disorder, for which she had undergone extensive treatment, explaining to their captive that she'd end up "the same way" unless she did exactly what they wanted. Poor Bear quoted Agent Wood as informing her, in specific reference to Aquash, that "they [Price and Wood] could get away with killing because they were agents." Poor Bear was coerced into giving false testimony which led to the extradition of Leonard Peltier, who remains a political prisoner to this day. [See "Political Prisoners" section].



--------------------------------------------------------------


please read this report

and wake up


















paul c


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech