AUT: NoFlyby Alert - Leonard Peltier

[noflyby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Dear NoFlyby friends, members of Congress, UN Delegates, heads of state and
media,

        Recently, the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee requested support
for nonviolent civil disobedient actions to help Native American activist
and artist Leonard Peltier be released from federal prison, where he has
been held for the last twenty-two years without any evidence indicating that
he's the person who murdered the two FBI agents. November 19, 1998, will
mark five years since the filing of Leonard Peltier's executive clemency
petition. This process usually takes six to nine months to gain a response.
Clearly, the Federal government is continuing to stonewall with regard to
this egregious injustice.

        Currently Leonard Peltier's health is severely poor. Due to a jaw
operation, he is in constant excruciating pain, he cannot open his mouth
enough to bite or chew his food but rather must sip it through a small gap
between his teeth and mash it with his tongue. Prison officials have denied
him access to health services with Dr. Keller at the Mayo clinic and Leonard
refuses to go back to the Springfield clinic. Leonard's condition could
prove to be life-threatening due to the possibility of infection.

	This is a crucial time for anyone to lend support to Leonard Peltier's
plight. When any other country treats its political prisoners this way, the
brutality is correctly identified as a human rights violation. Peltier can
be compared to Nelson Mandela: a leader of an oppressed population, unjustly
incarcerated to enforce silence.

	The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) Web site is the best place
to go for more information on this issue:
http://members.xoom.com/freepeltier/index.html. (The NoFlyby site will offer
a link to LPDC in our "Support Organizations Endorsing NoFlyby" area.)

	Below is my letter to the editor of our local newspaper, where I am helping
to organize an action on December 19, 1998. I hope there will be many events
uniting our commitment for justice and compassion for Leonard Peltier.
Please consider what you may do on December 19 to support this important
human rights and justice action. Other nonviolent civil disobedient actions
are scheduled that day in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and many small
towns joining this spirit of the holidays to help free Leonard Peltier from
prison.
        These actions for justice, democracy in action and for human rights
could be just what we need to realize peace in space and justice for all.

        With best regards,
        Jonathan M. Haber
        NoFlyby Coordinator
        http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby

***********************************************************

Faxed to the Greenfield Recorder, October 6, 1998


Dear Editor:

	Two years ago I went to Washington, D.C. for a press conference at the
Capitol on the issue of Leonard Peltier. Senator Inouye addressed Congress
that day in an eloquent plea for justice, responding to the concerns of many
about decency, fairness and justice. Since that time, Leonard came before
another parole board hearing, after twenty-two years in federal prison,
undergoing a medical crisis, he got tetanus as a child.  His treatment in
prison has made it worse. Prison guards kept him in the "hole" in isolation
before surgery and afterwards the pain to Leonard in his jaw was almost
unbearable. Prison officials are denying him access of another facility and
doctor, one who knows of Leonard's condition and is willing to help him. The
major irony of all this harsh treatment is that there is no evidence
suggesting that Leonard Peltier actually shot the two agents on the Pine
Ridge Reservation. To the contrary, they proved his shotgun not to be the
one used. I understand the upset of the families and the FBI in response to
this "execution style" murder. Another person involved died that day, a
native American. Also, there were 23 unsolved homicides on the reservation,
which was why members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) were asked to
come. What makes this story even more scary is that this was going on during
the FBI COINTEL campaign, which Edgar Hoover initiated. This policy
deliberately crossed boundaries of what is "legal" to infiltrate and destroy
groups that the FBI deemed as "subversive." Some of these groups targeted
were the Black Panthers, AIM, Students of a Democratic Society (SDS) and I
believe some women's groups. As an American I feel human empathy knowing of
Leonard's condition and can inwardly feel what he may be going through. The
suffering of Leonard Peltier is also the suffering of all of us. My feelings
are that we are all somehow interlinked.

	There is a lot more history on this case posted at the Leonard Peltier
Defense Committee website http://members.xoom.com/freepeltier/index.html . I
hope many of you saw the CBS TV "Sixty Minutes" segment on Leonard done a
while ago where they interviewed the woman that the FBI coerced into giving
them a false affidavit to extradite Leonard from Canada to the U.S. Before
Leonard was tried before "hand picked" judges and courts, three other
suspects that the FBI held as "responsible" for their agent's deaths, were
all acquitted under the evidence of self defense.

	For those interested, this Columbus Day, October 12, which many hope to
change to "Indigenous People's Day," there will be a meeting on an action
requested by Leonard and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee at the
Unitarian Church across from the Library at Main and Hope streets in
Greenfield, [MA, USA] from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M.

Best regards,
Jonathan

ps: I hope this letter can be published before Monday's meeting at the
Unitarian Church, if not please announce the additional meetings planned for
the Jones Library's main meeting room in Amherst, MA Tuesday, November 3
from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. and at the Common Ground Restaurant in
Brattleboro, VT Thursday, November 5 from 7:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M.


     --- from list aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---