LPDC :Peltier press release - forward widely!
Managing Editor
PRESS RELEASE FOR LEONARD PELTIER BELOW!
Friends,
Below is the press release for the lawsuit that will be filed TOMORROW on
Leonard Peltier's behalf. Please forward it far and wide to your local
media and to other supporters. Please be sure that the release date remains
in tact. We do not want coverage on this before the case is filed tomorrow.
We do, however, want to give reporters a chance to write their stories today
so that it can hit the press tomorrow. Also note that this has been
distributed to all national news sources already, so we just need to focus
on everyone's local press. You may want to follow up with phone calls to
your paper, radio and TV stations to request they cover the story given that
a local support group or supporters exist in the area. Let us know if you
have any questions. THANK you for your help and support!
In Solidarity,
LPDC
PS A formatted version can be downloaded from our web site:
http://www.freepeltier.org
________________________________________________________
RELEASE DATE: THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2002
Contact:
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (785) 842-5774; lp...@freepeltier.org
NATIVE AMERICAN ACTIVIST FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST FBI
Former FBI Director Louis Freeh is named as a defendant in a lawsuit
filed today by attorneys for imprisoned Native American activist, Leonard
Peltier. Freeh, along with the FBI Agents Association and a long list of
active FBI agents, are accused of violating Peltier's Constitutional rights
by making false and unsupported statements to the public, the Department of
Justice, the United States Parole Commission, and former President Clinton.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, Washington D.C., alleges that
the FBI "engaged in a systematic, and officially sanctioned campaign of
mis-information and dis-information" designed to prevent Peltier from
receiving fair clemency and parole reviews.
The suit follows a highly controversial campaign conducted by
the FBI to stop former president Bill Clinton from issuing Peltier a grant
of executive clemency during his last days in office. FBI agents across the
nation submitted letters to the editor, sponsored major newspaper and radio
ads, and marched by the hundreds in front of the White House to discourage
clemency. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote searing letters to Bill
Clinton and Janet Reno, to urge against Peltier's release. The campaign,
which gained national attention, characterized Peltier as a cold-blooded
killer who brutally shot two FBI agents at point blank range. Peltier's
attorneys and supporters assert that this characterization is not only false
but intentionally deceptive given the government's long held position that
it cannot prove who shot the agents. Furthermore, they say it cost Peltier,
now 57 years of age and in poor health, his long deserved freedom.
Peltier has served more than 26 years in prison for the deaths
of two FBI agents killed in a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation. Peltier's supporters claim the FBI terrorized witnesses,
utilized false testimony and withheld a ballistic test proving Peltier's
innocence to gain his conviction. Senior Eighth Circuit Judge Gerald
Heaney, who denied Peltier a new trial based on a legal technicality, has
since come forward to support Peltier's release, citing FBI misconduct.
Amnesty International, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev.
Jesse Jackson, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Corretta Scott
King, and scores of Native tribes are among those who consider Peltier a
political prisoner who should be freed.
(Complaint will be posted on LPDC web site on April 4: www.freepeltier.org .
Interviews with lawyer handling case and spokespeople for the LPDC can be
arranged).
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
To subscribe, send a blank message to lpd...@mail-list.com
R. Hall
Well, at least it ain't about his teeth and his need for dentures.