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<font size=3>Native American prisoner to fight on <br><br>
Saturday, 24 April, 2004 <br><br>
<br>
by Chris Summers <br>
BBC News Online <br>
<b>Native American activist Leonard Peltier has spent 28 years in prison
for a crime he says he did not commit - the cold-blooded murder of two
FBI agents on an Indian reservation in the summer of 1975. On Friday, as
another activist was jailed for life for a murder on the same
reservation, BBC News Online spoke to Peltier's lawyer Barry Bachrach.
<br><br>
</b>A ticker on the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website counts the
days, hours, minutes and seconds that he has served in prison. <br><br>
It currently stands at 10,305 days. <br><br>
Peltier was convicted of the murder, on 26 June 1975, of FBI agents Jack
Coler and Ron Williams. <br><br>
The pair had been involved in a firefight with members of the American
Indian Movement (Aim) on a property, known as the Jumping Bull site, on
the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. <br><br>
Both were finished off, at close range, by their killers. <br><br>
Peltier has always admitted he was on the Jumping Bull site on that day
but he claims he escaped, along with other Aim activists, before the
agents were killed. <br><br>
<b>'He knows who did it' <br><br>
This was not a trial about Arlo Looking Cloud. They couldn't care less
about Arlo. It was about putting to rest the Aim and getting some more
shots in at Leonard. They want to make sure he never gets out <br>
</b>Barry Bachrach <br>
Leonard Peltier's lawyer <br>
His lawyer, Barry Bachrach, told BBC News Online: "He knows, through
rumours, who did it but he will not reveal it." <br><br>
Mr Bachrach is currently preparing an appeal, challenging the Parole
Commission's right to set Peltier's parole date, bearing in mind its
record of "arbitrary and capricious" decisions. <br><br>
On Friday a former AIM activist, Arlo Looking Cloud, was jailed for life
for the murder of a colleague, Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash, whose body was
found on the Pine Ridge reservation in February 1976. The trial heard she
was killed because she was suspected of being an FBI informant.
<br><br>
Pine Ridge is home to the Oglala Sioux tribe, whose famous ancestor was
the warrior Crazy Horse. <br><br>
Mr Bachrach said: "Arlo's trial was a farce. It was a set-up. This
was not a trial about Arlo Looking Cloud. They couldn't care less about
Arlo. It was about putting to rest the AIM and getting some more shots in
at Leonard. They want to make sure he never gets out." <br><br>
He said: "What is important to bear in mind is that this (Pine
Ridge) was a war zone. At the time - between 1973 and 1976 - it was known
as the "reign of terror". <br><br>
<b>'Terrorising people' <br><br>
</b>"During this time Dick Wilson (the former tribal chief, now
deceased) hired a group known as the Guardians Of the Oglala Nation
(Goon), and they were terrorising people. <br><br>
"Wilson was leasing and hiring land, rich with uranium deposits, to
energy companies. <br><br>
"The US Government and the FBI were supporting Dick Wilson and his
Goons, who committed more than 60 murders which were
uninvestigated." <br><br>
Mr Bachrach said: "The only one of these 60 murders which anybody
has bothered to reinvestigate was Anna Mae's." <br><br>
Arlo Looking Cloud's trial heard evidence from Darlene "Kamook"
Nichols, the former wife of one-time Aim leader Dennis Banks. <br><br>
She claimed Anna Mae was challenged about being an FBI informant at a
convention in New Mexico in June 1975. <br><br>
Ms Nichols testified that Peltier threatened Anna Mae with a gun and
added: "She told him that if he believed that he should go ahead and
shoot her." <br><br>
Mr Bachrach said he visited Peltier last week at Leavenworth penitentiary
in Kansas: "I asked Leonard about what Kamook said. He said he was
asked to inquire of Anna Mae if she was working for the FBI and he took
her into a teepee in Farmington, New Mexico to talk to her. But it's
false to say he struck a gun in her mouth." <br><br>
Ms Nichols also told the trial that Anna Mae had said Peltier later
bragged about killing the two FBI agents. <br><br>
Mr Bachrach said: "This case was nothing more than smearsay. They
coached Kamook and she admitted she had been paid $40,000 by the FBI. Her
evidence should never have seen the light of day." <br><br>
<b>'Betrayed' <br><br>
</b>He said: "Leonard feels very betrayed by Kamook. It's very
hurtful for someone you think is a friend to lie about you."
<br><br>
He added: "Why would he brag about killing the agents if he
suspected she was an informant?" <br><br>
Peltier is one of the best-known alleged miscarriages of justice victims
in the United States. <br><br>
In the past he has received messages of support from Nelson Mandela, the
Dalai Lama, British MP Tony Benn and numerous actors, including Robert
Redford and Winona Ryder. <br><br>
Mr Bachrach said: "We are not going to go away. This is an injustice
and a government cover-up and we are just not going to go away until
Leonard is released and even when he is released we will not go
away." <br><br>
He recently wrote to the US Congress asking them to widen an
investigation into FBI misconduct in Boston, Massachusetts (involving
mafia boss James "Whitey" Bulger) to include alleged misconduct
among FBI agents in South Dakota in the 1970s. <br><br>
Story from BBC NEWS:<br>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3654785.stm" eudora="autourl">http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/3654785.stm</a><br><br>
Published: 2004/04/24 04:49:11 GMT<br><br>
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