Attn. Vermont Peltier Supporters :
CALL FOR CONSTITUENT LETTERS TO LEAHY
We are calling on all supporters to help in a focused letter campaign to Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
If you are a resident of Vermont, please write, fax, and/or call Leahy asking for Oversight Investigations of the FBI to resume, and for those investigations to include the case of Leonard Peltier.
If you have friends, family, or colleagues in Vermont who you think would participate in this letter campaign, please contact them and encourage them to do so. We have enclosed a sample letter which you can use to collect signatures. We encourage this action. Optimally, you yourself will write a letter in your own words. Use the sample letter to refer to, but the sending of sample letters is far LESS effective than even a short and simple note composed by you.
Your letter should be sent to:
Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee
US Senate
Washington, DC 20510I you are able to make a follow up phone call, please do. Ask if your letter was received and reiterate your request that Oversight Hearings continue and that an investigation into Leonard Peltier's case and the violence perpetrated by the members of the goon squads against the traditional people between 1973-76 be included.
(202) 224-4242
The TIME FRAME for this action is NOW and for the next several weeks. This action is in conjunction with a conference on wrongful convictions taking place April 19th and 20th at which Senator Leahy will give the keynote address.
With your help, we have the opportunity to make an impact. As always, if you receive a reply please send a copy to the office. Many thanks.
Mail or fax any responses to:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
P.O. Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 842-5796 FAXFor more information: (617) 789-3938 ahornbein@earthlink.net
Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510DATE:
Dear Senator Leahy:
Thank you for the work you are doing to bring about reform of the FBI. Your courage and commitment are encouraging to me, as a Vermont citizen and registered voter, that together we can bring a better democratic society through this type of reform.
In this light, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I ask that you please move forward in revealing the truth in the case of Native American prisoner, Leonard Peltier. I feel it is important to finally bring insight and fairness to this 27-year-old case. Amnesty International, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Coretta Scott King, amongst many other human rights leaders, consider Mr. Peltier a political prisoner and have called for his immediate release. Information now in the public domain, including trial transcripts and formerly concealed FBI documents, clearly reveal the injustice in Mr. Peltier's case. Still, there is no resolution.
During Mr. Peltier's trial, the FBI and U.S. Prosecutors emphatically swore that every document had been handed over to the defense. Yet, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit after Mr. Peltier's trial, forced the release of over 12,000 FBI documents. Among those documents was a concealed ballistic test, which proved the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Mr. Peltier. Had the jury been able to consider this evidence at trial, Mr. Peltier would undoubtedly be free.
I am concerned as well with the 60 or more traditional Native people killed on the reservation prior to this incident. I have learned that the vigilante group, Gaurdians of the Oglala Nation had a close and friendly relationship to the FBI. Although there was a massive FBI presence on the reservation during this time period, officers ignored illegal and often violent "goon" roadblocks and calls for protection from residents under attack by the goons. FBI officials shared intelligence with the vigilantes about AIM activities, ignored their illegal possession of highly dangerous weapons, and even gave them ammunition, including armor piercing ammunition.
It is time to uncover the whole story leading up to this shoot-out and the complicity of the FBI in violence on the reservation. What part did the Bureau play? Why haven't these deaths been investigated and the killers brought to justice?
Finally, the FBI continues to withhold over 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case today. These remaining files surely contain even more critical information. Senator Leahy, I know you have the authority and the courage to re-open the files on one of the dark days of American history. I request the oversight hearings on the FBI continue with a full and fair look at that agency's involvement on Pine Ridge Reservation in the 1970s, including the case of Leonard Peltier. Your action in this matter would be a historical event in the healing between Indigenous Peoples and the United States.
I also request the subpoena of the 6000 FBI documents. Whatever impact these documents have, they should be a part of the body of evidence in the Court's record.
Sincerely,
Until Freedom Is Won! The New Peltier Justice Campaign
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
PO Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
785-842-5774
www.freepeltier.org
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