[Ppnews] We All Stand Before Peltier's Parole Board

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/wasserman07282009.html

July 28, 2009


12,226 Days

We All Stand Before Peltier's Parole Board

By HARVEY WASSERMAN

Native American activist Leonard Peltier has been 
in prison for more than 12,226 days, more than 33 
years. His is one of the longest ordeals of any 
political prisoner in human history.

With him, our souls have suffered. Our bodies ache for his freedom.

Today, July 28, 2009, Peltier goes before the 
Federal Parole Commission in Lewisburg, 
Pennsylvania. As you read this, all over the 
world, beginning in the wee hours of the morning 
in the South Pacific, prayer vigils, peace 
marches, ecumenical gatherings, group chantings 
and all forms of individual meditation accompany 
this hearing. It is one of the most important 
tests of the new Obama Administration.

Peltier was charged more than a third of a 
century ago with the murder of two FBI agents. 
The circumstances of the prosecution, and the 
legal history of the case, involve thousands of 
pages of missing evidence, compromised witnesses 
and procedures so twisted as to stagger the 
imagination and leave any sense of fair play and 
reasonable jurisprudence buried in the dust.

Through it all, Peltier has maintained his 
dignity and strength with astonishing grace. He 
will be 65 years old in September, having spent 
more than half his life behind bars. His body is 
wracked with prison-related ailments. He has 
great grandchildren he has never seen.

Yet his writings remain politically astute, 
spiritually compelling and unfailingly compassionate.

Supporters believe the time is “favorable” for 
his release. The four-member 
<http://www.usdoj.gov/uspc/>Parole Commission 
that will decide on his plea is chaired by Isaac 
Fulwood, Jr., originally appointed by George W. 
Bush, elevated to the Chair in May by Barack Obama.

Obama himself has the power through various legal 
means to end Peltier’s torture and make him a free man.

Peltier’s defense attorney, Eric Seitz, has 
expressed optimism that the Parole Board will 
grant Peltier his freedom, especially given 
Leonard’s exemplary behavior in prison, the utter 
collapse of the case against him, his health, age 
and other factors, not least of which may be a 
changed political and cultural climate. But Seitz 
has warned of previous disappointments in 
<http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/27/parole_hearing_to_be_held%20_tuesday>an 
interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now .

Millions of supporters worldwide have suffered 
with Leonard over the decades as with no other 
political prisoner. His case embodies the 
tortured relationship between the US Government 
and the Native American community, says Tony 
Gonzalez (of the Comca'ac-Chicano Tribe) of the 
<http://www.aimovement.org>American Indian 
Movement founded, he says, 41 years ago today.

Meaningful steps toward healing that relationship 
will be very hard to take until Leonard Peltier is free to re-join his family.

This is a critical moment in the Obama Era. Bill 
Clinton was thoroughly briefed by numerous people 
very close to the Peltier case, but did not free 
him. Constitutional scholar Barack Obama is also 
well aware of this horrific imprisonment.

Peltier’s freedom marks a monumental corner that 
must be turned. For the millions who have ached 
through the terrible injustice and sheer physical 
and spiritual pain of this imprisonment, it is a 
moment of liberation that must come.

Only a strongly supportive political climate can 
make it happen. Call your Senators and 
Representatives as well as the White House and 
Parole Commission, newspapers and radio shows, 
web friends and neighbors down the street. 
Meditate, pray, march, dance, sing, shout, laugh, 
cry
.do whatever you can to help move this man 
out of his jail cell and into the open air after 33 hellish years.

This imprisonment must end. Rarely has it been 
more true that freeing a single human being will help free us all.

Harvey Wasserman is the author of 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0975340247/counterpunchmaga>SOLARTOPIA! 
Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030, is at 
<http://www.solartopia.org/>www.solartopia.org. 
He can be reached at: <mailto:Windhw at aol.com>Windhw at aol.com




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