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[Nonviolenza] La biblioteca di Zorobabele. 366

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LA BIBLIOTECA DI ZOROBABELE
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Segnalazioni librarie e letture nonviolente
a cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXIII)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, tel. 0761353532, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 366 del 24 febbraio 2022

In questo numero:
1. Cessate il fuoco
2. La cosa piu' urgente da fare per la pace in Europa: sciogliere la Nato
3. Su Youtube un appello di Riccardo Noury per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier, detenuto innocente da 46 anni e malato di covid
4. Non consentiamo con il nostro silenzio che Leonard Peltier muoia di covid in carcere
5. Leonard Peltier rischia di morire in carcere di covid. Un appello per la sua liberazione
6. Jonathan P. Baird: It's time to release Leonard Peltier (2021)
7. Chair Grijalva, 10 Other Members Send Letter to President Biden, DOJ Requesting Clemency for Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier (2021)
8. Kathy Peltier: Leonard Peltier Is My Father and He Deserves Clemency (2016)
9. Subcomandante Marcos: Letter to Leonard Peltier (1999)

1. ULTIMORA. CESSATE IL FUOCO

Cessate il fuoco.
Cessate di uccidere.

2. REPETITA IUVANT. LA COSA PIU' URGENTE DA FARE PER LA PACE IN EUROPA: SCIOGLIERE LA NATO

La cosa piu' urgente da fare per la pace in Europa e' sciogliere la Nato, che e' un'organizzazione terrorista e stragista che mette in pericolo l'umanita' intera, e processarne i vertici per crimini contro l'umanita'.
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E' l'ora della smilitarizzazione del mondo.
E' l'ora del disarmo del mondo.
E' l'ora di abolire la guerra e tutte le uccisioni.
E' l'ora di riconoscere che siamo una sola umana famiglia in un unico mondo vivente casa comune dell'umanita' intera.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Solo la nonviolenza puo' salvare l'umanita' dalla catastrofe.

3. REPETITA IUVANT. SU YOUTUBE UN APPELLO DI RICCARDO NOURY PER LA LIBERAZIONE DI LEONARD PELTIER, DETENUTO INNOCENTE DA 46 ANNI E MALATO DI COVID

E' on line su YouTube un video di Riccardo Noury, portavoce italiano di Amnesty International, che chiede la liberazione di Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano impegnato per i diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e in difesa della Madre Terra, da 46 anni detenuto innocente e attualmente malato di covid.
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Amnesty International ha rinnovato il suo appello per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier. Di seguito il testo.
President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500, USA
White House Comment line: (202) 456-1111
Webform: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Dear Mr. President,
The news that 77-year-old Native American activist Leonard Peltier has contracted COVID-19 in federal prison has greatly heightened concern for his well-being given his age and his serious medical conditions, including diabetes, kidney disease and a heart ailment.
Pending before you is Leonard Peltier's clemency petition in which he seeks commutation of his sentence. Many have called for his release over the years on humanitarian grounds, including the National Congress of American Indians and several Nobel laureates, including the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Most recently, the Chairperson of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Brian Schatz, has urged you to grant clemency, in line with your administration's commitment to "righting past wrongs" in the criminal justice system.
Leonard Peltier has always maintained his innocence of the murder of two FBI agents during a confrontation with members of the American Indian Movement on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota in 1975. There are serious concerns about the fairness and reliability of proceedings leading to his trial and conviction in 1977. These concerns have led the former US Attorney who supervised the prosecution team post-trial to call for clemency.
Even without the serious additional serious factor of COVID-19, there remain deep concerns about Leonard Peltier's deteriorating health.
I urge you to grant Leonard Peltier clemency on humanitarian grounds and as a matter of justice.
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Un altro appello per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier e' stato promosso dall'International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee sulla piataforma change.org. Di seguito il testo.
Leonard Peltier has COVID, 46 years in prison! Hospitalize and free him now!
On Friday, January 28, Leonard Peltier tested positive for COVID-19 at Coleman I U.S. Federal Penitentiary. Leonard's life is in danger due to his age and health conditions! His supporters and family urgently ask you to sign our petition calling for his immediate transfer to a medical hospital properly equipped for COVID treatment. We also call on President Joe Biden to grant Leonard Peltier clemency immediately.
Join us to save Leonard Peltier's life - please sign the petition:
Transfer Leonard Peltier without delay to a hospital to receive treatment for COVID!
President Joe Biden, Listen to the people, grant Leonard Peltier clemency today!
Every day that passes without Leonard treated in a hospital endangers his life.
We are calling for Leonard's transfer to a hospital immediately. Prison isolation is not care! It is subjecting him to a possible death sentence without proper medical intervention!
Leonard is 77 years old. He has serious health problems that gravely complicate someone his age with COVID: diabetes, an abdominal aortic aneurysm, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and he has had open heart surgery.
The Bureau of Prisons failed to protect Leonard from COVID.
The BOP must act immediately to save his life!
It is unconscionable that he was not afforded the booster shot in time to avoid COVID contagion. A booster shot assures a much higher chance of survival. The Bureau of Prisons' failure to give a third shot to the prisoners on time means that they are now obligated to get Leonard Peltier hospitalized immediately. He must be granted the most aggressive treatment available to assure a higher rate of survival, such as monoclonal antibodies, and certainly oxygen to prevent stress and injury to his body.
Organizations and prominent individuals in the U.S. and around the world, are urgently calling for his freedom. 46 years in prison is not justice, it is an outrageous punishment for a man who is innocent. Even his trial prosecutor James H. Reynolds, now says, "I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust." Read the full text of the letter here.
Leonard Peltier is a renowned political prisoner, wrongly imprisoned for 46 years. He is Anishnaabe and Lakota, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. From an early age, Leonard actively advocated for his people against brutal racism and poverty.
Leonard Peltier's case is one of the most egregious and wrongful convictions in modern U.S. history. The U.S. railroading of Leonard into prison for 46 years is another example of the government's continued genocidal policies towards the Native Nations and denial of their sovereignty. As a member of the American Indian Movement, he was one of the young men who came to help protect the embattled community of Elders and Youth on Pine Ridge Reservation in June of 1975, where over 60 members of the Oglala Lakota Nation had been murdered over a period of three years. As traditional people they were singled out and brutalized for opposing an extremely corrupt tribal leader, Dick Wilson.
During the terrible violence against innocent residents on Pine Ridge, in an incident completely provoked by the FBI, two plainclothes agents raided the encampment over a supposed warrant. In the shoot-out that followed, the two agents and one Native man were killed.
Three men were indicted on charges of murder of the FBI agents. Two of the defendants, Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, were exonerated by an all-white jury on the grounds of self defense. But the third person accused, Leonard Peltier, had sought refuge in Canada and wasn't tried at the same time. The FBI then decided he would pay the price for all three men, despite his innocence.
People around the world have demanded Leonard Peltier’s freedom for decades, including Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 96 members of U.S. Congress, the National Congress of American Indians, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
And in an important new development, on January 26, Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) Chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, urged President Joe Biden, "I write to urge you to grant a commutation of Leonard Peltier's sentence."
To learn more about Leonard Peltier and his case, visit www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/home/about-us/
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Alleghiamo una minima documentazione
I. Una minima notizia su Leonard Peltier
La vicenda di Leonard Peltier puo' essere riassunta brevemente: nato a Grand Forks, nel North Dakota, il 12 settembre 1944, attivista dell'American Indian Movement per i diritti umani dei nativi americani e in difesa della Madre Terra, nel 1977 fu condannato a due ergastoli in un processo-farsa sulla base di presunte prove e presunte testimonianze dimostratesi false; da allora e' ancora detenuto, sebbene la sua innocenza sia ormai universalmente riconosciuta (gli stessi suoi accusatori e giudici responsabili della sua scandalosa ed assurda condanna hanno in prosieguo di tempo ammesso che le cosiddette "prove" e le cosiddette "testimonianze" erano false). Anche dal carcere ha continuato ad impegnarsi per i diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e in difesa della Madre Terra, sostenendo e promuovendo molte iniziative educative ed umanitarie, a cui ha affiancato un'apprezzata attivita' di pittore, poeta, scrittore. Da alcuni giorni e' malato di covid.
Di seguito riportiamo una breve nota di presentazione dal suo libro autobiografico edito in Italia nel 2005: "Accusato ingiustamente dal governo americano – ricorrendo a strumenti legali, paralegali e illegali – dell'omicidio di due agenti dell'FBI nel 1975 (un breve resoconto tecnico della farsa giudiziaria e' affidato all'ex ministro della giustizia degli Stati Uniti Ramsley Clark, autore della prefazione), Peltier, al tempo uno dei leader di spicco dell'American Indian Movement (AIM), marcisce in condizioni disumane in una prigione di massima sicurezza da quasi trent'anni. Nonostante la sua innocenza sia ormai unanimemente sostenuta dall'opinione pubblica mondiale, nonostante una campagna internazionale in suo favore che ha coinvolto il Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, il subcomandante Marcos, Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu', Robert Redford (che sulla vicenda di Peltier ha prodotto il documentario Incident at Oglala), Oliver Stone, Howard Zinn, Peter Matthiessen, il Parlamento europeo e Amnesty International, per il governo americano il caso del prigioniero 89637-132 e' chiuso. Non sorprende dunque che Peltier sia divenuto un simbolo dell'oppressione di tutti i popoli indigeni del mondo e che la sua vicenda abbia ispirato libri (Nello spirito di Cavallo Pazzo di Peter Matthiessen), film (Cuore di tuono di Michael Apted, per esempio) e canzoni (i Rage Against the Machine hanno dedicato a lui la canzone Freedom). In parte lucidissimo manifesto politico, in parte toccante memoir, questa e' la straordinaria storia della sua vita, raccontata per la prima volta da Peltier in persona. Una meravigliosa testimonianza spirituale e filosofica che rivela un modo di concepire la vita, ma soprattutto la politica, che trascende la dialettica tradizionale occidentale e i suoi schemi (amico-nemico, destra-sinistra e cosi' via): i nativi la chiamano la danza del sole" (dalla scheda di presentazione del libro di Leonard Peltier, La mia danza del sole. Scritti dalla prigione, Fazi, 2005, nel sito della casa editrice: fazieditore.it).
Per ulteriori informazioni si veda di Leonard Peltier, Prison writings. My life is my sun dance, St. Martin's Griffin, New York 1999 (in edizione italiana: Leonard Peltier, La mia danza del sole. Scritti dalla prigione, Fazi, Roma 2005); e tra le opere su Leonard Peltier: Peter Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1980, Penguin Books, New York 1992 (in edizione italiana: Peter Matthiessen, Nello spirito di Cavallo Pazzo, Frassinelli, Milano 1994); Edda Scozza, Il coraggio d'essere indiano, Erre Emme, Pomezia 1996; Michael Koch, Michael Schiffmann, Ein leben fur Freiheit. Leonard Peltier und der indianische Widerstand, TraumFaenger Verlag, Hohenthann 2016. Particolarmente utile anche l'opera di Bruce E. Johansen, Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement, Greenwood, Santa Barbara - Denver - Oxford, 2013, piu' volte ristampata.
Si puo' utilmente consultare anche il sito dell'"International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee": www.whoisleonardpeltier.info (sito nel quale e' disponibile anche il testo integrale del libro di Jim Messerschmidt, The Trial of Leonard Peltier).
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II. Due estratti dall'autobiografia di Leonard Peltier
"Tutti facciamo parte dell'unica famiglia dell'umanita'.
Noi condividiamo la responsabilita' per la nostra Madre Terra e per tutti quelli che ci vivono e respirano.
Credo che il nostro compito non sara' terminato fin quando anche un solo essere umano sara' affamato o maltrattato, una sola persona sara' costretta a morire in guerra, un solo innocente languira' in prigione e un solo individuo sara' perseguitato per le sue opinioni.
Credo nel bene dell'umanita'.
Credo che il bene possa prevalere, ma soltanto se vi sara' un grande impegno. Impegno da parte nostra, di ognuno di noi, tuo e mio".
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"Non ho scuse da porgere, solo tristezza. Non posso scusarmi per quello che non ho fatto. Ma posso provare dolore, e lo faccio. Ogni giorno, ogni ora, soffro per quelli che sono morti nello scontro di Oglala del 1975 e per le loro famiglie - per le famiglie degli agenti dell'Fbi Jack Coler e Ronald Williams e, si', per la famiglia di Joe Killsright Stuntz, la cui morte per una pallottola a Oglala quello stesso giorno, cosi' come le morti di centinaia di altri indiani a Pine Ridge in quel terribile periodo, non e' mai stata oggetto di inchiesta. Mi piange il cuore nel ricordare la sofferenza e la paura nella quale molta della mia gente fu costretta a vivere a quel tempo, la stessa sofferenza e paura che quel giorno spinse me e gli altri a Oglala per difendere chi era indifeso.
Provo pena e tristezza anche per la perdita subita dalla mia famiglia perche', in qualche misura, quel giorno sono morto io stesso. Sono morto per la mia famiglia, per i miei bambini, per i miei nipoti, per me stesso. Sopravvivo alla mia morte da oltre due decenni.
Quelli che mi hanno messo qui e che mi tengono qui sapendo della mia innocenza avranno una magra consolazione dalla loro indubbia rivincita, che esprime chi essi sono e cio' che sono. Ed e la piu' terribile rivincita che potessi immaginare.
Io so chi sono e quello che sono. Sono un indiano, un indiano che ha osato lottare per difendere il suo popolo. Io sono un uomo innocente che non ha mai assassinato nessuno, ne' inteso farlo. E, si', sono uno che pratica la Danza del Sole. Anche questa e' la mia identita'. Se devo soffrire in quanto simbolo del mio popolo, allora soffro con orgoglio.
Non cedero' mai.
Se voi, parenti e amici degli agenti che morirono nella proprieta' degli Jumping Bull, ricaverete qualche tipo di soddisfazione dal mio essere qui, allora posso almeno darvi questo, nonostante non mi sia mai macchiato del loro sangue. Sento la vostra perdita come mia. Come voi soffro per quella perdita ogni giorno, ogni ora. E cosi' la mia famiglia. Anche noi conosciamo quella pena inconsolabile. Noi indiani siamo nati, viviamo, e moriamo con quell'inconsolabile dolore. Sono ventitre' anni oggi che condividiamo, le vostre famiglie e la mia, questo dolore; come possiamo essere nemici? Forse e' con voi e con noi che il processo di guarigione puo' iniziare. Voi, famiglie degli agenti, certamente non avevate colpa quel giorno del 1975, come non l'aveva la mia famiglia, eppure voi avete sofferto tanto quanto, anche piu' di chiunque era li'. Sembra sia sempre l'innocente a pagare il prezzo piu' alto dell'ingiustizia. E' sempre stato cosi' nella mia vita.
Alle famiglie di Coler e Williams che ancora soffrono mando le mie preghiere, se vorrete accettarle. Spero lo farete. Sono le preghiere di un intero popolo, non solo le mie. Abbiamo molti dei nostri morti per cui pregare e uniamo la nostra amarezza alla vostra. Possa il nostro comune dolore essere il nostro legame.
Lasciate che siano quelle preghiere il balsamo per la vostra pena, non la prolungata prigionia di un uomo innocente.
Vi assicuro che se avessi potuto evitare quello che avvenne quel giorno, la vostra gente non sarebbe morta. Avrei preferito morire piuttosto che permettere consapevolmente che accadesse cio' che accadde. E certamente non sono stato io a premere il grilletto che l'ha fatto accadere. Che il Creatore mi fulmini ora se sto mentendo. Io non riesco a vedere come il mio stare qui, separato dai miei nipoti, possa riparare alla vostra perdita.
Vi giuro, sono colpevole solo di essere un indiano. E' questo il motivo per cui sono qui".
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III. Una considerazione sul significato della solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier
La solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier e' la solidarieta' con la Resistenza degli indiani d'America vittime di un genocidio, di un etnocidio e di un ecocidio che tuttora continuano e che occorre contrastare.
La solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier e' la solidarieta' con la lotta di tutti i popoli e di tutti gli esseri umani oppressi e denegati dalla violenza dei poteri dominanti.
La solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier e' la solidarieta' con la lotta dell'umanita' cosciente in difesa del mondo vivente dalla minaccia di distruzione da parte di un sistema di potere, di un modo di produzione e di un modello di sviluppo che schiavizzano, divorano e distruggono gli esseri umani, gli altri animali, l'intero mondo vivente.
La lotta di Leonard Peltier e la lotta per la sua liberazione sono quindi parte di un impegno in difesa della vita, della dignita' e dei diritti di tutti gli esseri umani, di un impegno per la salvezza dell'intero mondo vivente.
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IV. Un appello del Presidente del Parlamento Europeo David Sassoli
Il Presidente David Sassoli, recentemente scomparso, il 23 agosto 2021 espresse pubblicamente - con una conferenza stampa, un video e un tweet - la richiesta al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere la grazia a Leonard Peltier.
Nel suo tweet del 23 agosto 2021 il Presidente Sassoli scrisse, in italiano e in inglese:
"Inviero' una lettera alle autorita' statunitensi chiedendo clemenza per Leonard Peltier, attivista per i diritti umani dell'American Indian Movement, in carcere da 45 anni.
Spero che le autorita' accolgano il mio invito. I diritti umani vanno difesi sempre, ovunque".
"I will send a letter to the US authorities asking for clemency for Leonard Peltier. A human rights activist of the American Indian Movement, he has been imprisoned for 45 years.
I hope the authorities will take up my invitation. Human rights must be defended always, everywhere".
A sostegno di questa iniziativa del Presidente del Parlamento Europeo Sassoli si sono espresse innumerevoli personalita', associazioni, istituzioni. Tra esse prestigiosissime personalita' dell'impegno religioso ed istituzionale, morale e civile, culturale ed artistico.
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V. Alcuni riferimenti utili
Per contattare le associazioni promotrici della campagna italiana in corso per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier: e-mail: bigoni.gastone at gmail.com, naila.clerici at soconasincomindios.it, nepi1.anpi at gmail.com, centropacevt at gmail.com, tel. 3490931155 (risponde Andrea De Lotto, del "Comitato di solidarieta' con Leonard Peltier" di Milano), tel. 3478207381 (risponde Naila Clerici, direttrice della rivista "Tepee" e presidente italiana di Soconas-Incomindios).
Per contattare l'"International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee": sito: wwww.whoisleonardpeltier.info, e-mail: contact at whoisleonardpeltier.info
Alcuni siti utili: Centro studi americanistici "Circolo Amerindiano": www.amerindiano.org ; Il Cerchio, coordinamento di sostegno ai/dai nativi americani: www.associazioneilcerchio.it ; Soconas Incomindios, comitato di solidarieta' con i nativi americani: https://it-it.facebook.com/soconasincomindios/

4. REPETITA IUVANT. NON CONSENTIAMO CON IL NOSTRO SILENZIO CHE LEONARD PELTIER MUOIA DI COVID IN CARCERE

Chiediamo ad ogni persona di volonta' buona di far sentire la sua voce per la vita e la liberazione di Leonard Peltier, l'illustre attivista nativo americano da 46 anni in carcere innocente, difensore dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e della Madre Terra, attualmente malato di codiv e bisognoso di cure adeguate impossibili in carcere.
Chiediamo al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America di concedere la grazia presidenziale che restituisca a Leonard Peltier la liberta' e gli consenta cure adeguate.
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Diffondete questo appello, grazie.
Scrivete al Presidente Biden: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Scrivete all'"International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee": e-mail: contact at whoisleonardpeltier.info
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Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Chi salva una vita salva il mondo.

5. REPETITA IUVANT. LEONARD PELTIER RISCHIA DI MORIRE IN CARCERE DI COVID. UN APPELLO PER LA SUA LIBERAZIONE

Leonard Peltier rischia di morire in carcere di covid.
Leonard Peltier e' detenuto da 46 anni pur essendo del tutto innocente dei delitti che gli sono stati attribuiti sulla base di "prove" false e di "testimonianze" altrettanto false.
Leonard Peltier e' un nativo americano perseguitato per aver sempre lottato per i diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani e in difesa della Madre Terra.
Leonard Peltier e' un testimone della dignita' umana la cui liberazione e' stata chiesta da Nelson Mandela, da Madre Teresa di Calcutta, da Desmond Tutu, da Rigoberta Menchu', dal Dalai Lama, da innumerevoli donne e uomini di volonta' buona.
Leonard Peltier alcuni giorni fa ha contratto il covid, e nel carcere di massima sicurezza in cui si trova non puo' ricevere cure adeguate.
Facciamo sentire la voce dell'umanita' per la liberazione di Leonard Peltier.
Chiediamo al Presidente degli Stati Uniti d'America che attraverso l'istituto della grazia presidenziale gli restituisca la liberta' e gli consenta cure adeguate.
Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier.
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Invitiamo ogni persona di volonta' buona a diffondere questo appello.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Non muoia in carcere Leonard Peltier.
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Le persone partecipanti all'incontro di Viterbo del 7 febbraio 2022 (a quarantasei anni e un giorno dall'arresto di Leonard Peltier il 6 febbraio 1976)

6. DOCUMENTAZIONE. JONATHAN P. BAIRD: IT'S TIME TO RELEASE LEONARD PELTIER (2021)
[Dal sito del "Concord Monitor" (www.concordmonitor.com) riprendiamo e diffondiamo questo articolo del 20 dicembre 2021]

It has now been over five years since I last wrote about the Leonard Peltier case. Back then in 2016, Peltier had hoped President Obama would grant him clemency. That did not happen.
Now, Peltier is 77 years old, residing in a federal penitentiary in Florida. He is not in good health. He suffers from diabetes and an aortic abdominal aneurysm that could rupture. He has served 46 years behind bars and he is hoping President Joe Biden will grant clemency. Peltier is the longest-serving political prisoner in America.
The Department of Justice issued a national response to the COVID-19 pandemic authorizing the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release elderly inmates and those with underlying health conditions from federal prison. Peltier's sentence was life, with parole. He deserves this consideration.
For those who are unfamiliar with the case, Peltier was a leader of the American Indian Movement or AIM on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. In 1975 there was a shoot-out on the reservation and three men died: two FBI agents and a Native American man.
Peltier was one of the three men charged in the murders of the FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. Peltier's co-defendants were acquitted on grounds of self-defense. No one was ever charged for the murder of the Native American man, Joseph Stuntz. Stuntz was also an AIM member.
The FBI was desperate for a conviction since there were two dead agents. They needed a fall guy. Peltier played that role.
Obviously, at this late date, any recital of the facts can legitimately be considered partial but there have been some new developments on the case since I last wrote about it. The U.S. Attorney, James Reynolds, who played a prominent role in prosecuting Peltier, sent President Biden a letter in July.
"I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor to beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars. With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge reservation."
Reynolds had previously said, "he (Peltier) didn't go out there with the intention to kill anybody. He was just trying to protect his people."
Just to reiterate, the prosecutor has admitted there is no proof Peltier killed the two FBI agents. The government had to drop the murder charges because they had withheld exculpatory evidence, a ballistics test that showed the murder weapon was not Peltier's gun.
All that has been established is that Peltier was at the scene, shooting along with forty other Native Americans. He was charged with "aiding and abetting" but it was not proved whom he "aided and abetted" and you cannot aid and abet yourself.
The fact that a powerful institution like the FBI wanted to pin the blame on someone should not obscure the proof problem. Being in the vicinity of the shooting proves nothing but it has been enough to put Peltier away for 46 years. The FBI was hellbent on that result.
The trial was riddled with misconduct by the prosecution. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals later wrote about it.
"Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge reservation and in the prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed."
Even though Peltier's co-defendants were tried separately and were acquitted based on self-defense, the trial judge, Paul Benson, did not allow Peltier a self-defense argument. Also, one of the jurors acknowledged she was biased against Native Americans. In a decision that is difficult to understand, she was allowed to sit on the jury (and she voted for conviction).
Peltier now has a new lawyer, Kevin Sharp, who was previously a Federal District Court judge. Willie Nelson's ex-wife, Connie Wilson, who is a Peltier supporter, reached out to Sharp to ask him to take the case.
Via Freedom of Information Act requests, Sharp has uncovered FBI internal memos that showed U.S. Attorneys were directed to put all resources into convicting Peltier. The FBI had a broader strategy to suppress AIM. Sharp has said that the agency plan was to "continually harass and arrest and charge" AIM members to keep them tied up in court.
This fits in with the FBI's Counter Intelligence Program (called COINTELPRO) which was directed, in part, against AIM. COINTELPRO was designed to infiltrate, disrupt and destroy a wide range of activist groups. In this period, virtually every known AIM leader in the United States was incarcerated in either state or federal prison. 69 AIM members and supporters were murdered on the Pine Ridge reservation in the period between 1973-1976. 350 others suffered serious physical assaults.
The prosecution of Peltier needs to be seen in the context of COINTELPRO and broader Native American history. AIM was in the forefront of the struggle to realize the rights of treaty-guaranteed national sovereignty on behalf of Native Americans.
As Sharp has said, "Part of what's going on is an extermination policy. We're taking your land, your minerals. We're going to get rid of you altogether... That's what started it. That's what the counter-intelligence was running."
The FBI was still infected by the J.Edgar Hoover racist virus. They pursued Peltier and they continue to fight his clemency petition to this day. It does not seem to matter that all the agents from that era are long gone from the Bureau. The FBI's pursuit of Peltier was in the racist tradition that defined so much of Hoover's disgraceful tenure as FBI director.
In his letter to President Biden, former prosecutor Reynolds also wrote, "Leonard Peltier's conviction and continued incarceration is a testament to a time and a system of justice that no longer has a place in our society... I urge you to chart a different path in the history of the government's relationship with its Native people through a show of mercy rather than continued indifference. I urge you to take a step towards healing a wound that I had a part of making. I urge you to commute Leonard Peltier's sentence and grant him executive clemency."
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont just became the most senior U.S. government official to support Peltier's release. Before she became Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet Secretary, also advocated Peltier's release. On October 8, eleven members of Congress including Rep. Raul Grijalva, Barbara Lee and Pramila Jayapal requested Peltier's expedited release and granting of clemency.
Please, President Biden. It is time to turn the historical page. Do the right thing and grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.

7. DOCUMENTAZIONE. CHAIR GRIJALVA, 10 OTHER MEMBERS SEND LETTER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN, DOJ REQUESTING CLEMENCY FOR INDIGENOUS ACTIVIST LEONARD PELTIER (2021)
[Dal sito naturalresources.house.gov riprendiamo e diffondiamo questo appello del 10 agosto 2021]

Washington, D.C. - Chair Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today sent a letter with 10 other House lawmakers to President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland requesting the expedited release of and clemency for renowned American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier. The letter is available at https://bit.ly/3DsQ5KD.
Mr. Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, was arrested in connection with the murders of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in 1977 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Following a trial that was riddled with evidentiary and procedural concerns, Mr. Peltier was sentenced to two life sentences.
As the authors of today's letter note, Mr. Peltier's trial included issues such as "a critical alleged eyewitness later retracting her testimony and admitting that the FBI had threatened her" and revelations following a Freedom of Information Act ruling in 1980 that "the prosecution had withheld documented evidence that might have assisted Mr. Peltier's case."
Despite these civil rights violations, Mr. Peltier was never granted a fair retrial. Currently housed at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, he has served more than 43 years in federal prison. Today, at 77 years old, he suffers from severe health conditions such as diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
As an Indigenous rights activist, Mr. Peltier worked to draw attention to systemic issues facing American Indian and Alaska Native communities during the 1970s, including federal treaty rights violations, discrimination, and police brutality.
Individuals and groups who have called for Mr. Peltier's release include Amnesty International, the National Congress of American Indians, the late Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rigoberta Menchu', seven other Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Rage Against the Machine, Pete Seeger, Carlos Santana, Harry Belafonte, Gloria Steinem, and Robert Redford.
A recent petition calling for his release gathered more than 275,000 signatures. Even former U.S. Attorney James H. Reynolds, who oversaw Mr. Peltier's original conviction, has written to President Biden requesting clemency for Mr. Peltier. Last year, Chair Grijalva co-led a similar clemency request letter with then-Representative Deb Haaland, now Secretary of the Interior.
The full list of signatories includes:
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Rep. Jesus G. "Chuy" García (D-IL)
Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-MO)
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA)
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN)
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM)
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Press Contact: David Shen (202) 225-6065 or (202) 860-6494 mobile

8. DOCUMENTAZIONE. KATHY PELTIER: LEONARD PELTIER IS MY FATHER AND HE DESERVES CLEMENCY (2016)
[Dal sito di "Time" (time.com) riprendiamo e diffondiamo questo intervento del 31 agosto 2016.
Kathy Peltier is the daughter of Leonard Peltier and lives in Los Angeles]

When I first heard that President Obama had commuted the sentences of more than 300 federal prisoners this month, my heart stopped for a moment. I wondered, as I do every time the President uses his clemency power, whether my father's name would be on the list. Although this was the largest round of commutations ever announced by a president in a single day, it still came as a disappointment. My father, Leonard Peltier, was not among them.
During his final months in office, President Obama is working against the clock to correct past legacies of injustice. He has focused his clemency powers on federal prisoners who were locked up in the context of the War on Drugs. As the daughter of an incarcerated person, I know how extraordinary it is that thousands of unjustly jailed people will finally come home. But I also hope that this initiative doesn't overshadow the other cases sitting on the President's desk, and that he takes the opportunity to address even older, more politically sensitive cases that require an equally extraordinary remedy—cases like my father's.
A prominent member of the American Indian Movement, my father is synonymous with the struggle for both native rights and injustice. He has been behind bars for more than 40 years—my entire life. The first time my father saw me, I was nine months old, and I was handed to him in a courtroom. I know that my story isn't unique - many children grow up without fathers. But that doesn't make his absence any easier, or erase the decades of injustice my family has endured.
In 1975, two FBI agents and a native person were killed during a confrontation between the FBI and the American Indian Movement on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. My father was there that day, and has repeatedly expressed regret that any lives were lost. But he has always maintained his innocence. My father was ultimately extradited from Canada 40 years ago, convicted of the agents' killings and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences based on testimony that the FBI has admitted they knew was perjured.
Despite the many people—including judges, prison guards and legal experts - who have agreed and insisted that his trial was unfair, he remains in prison. Amnesty International, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous People, Native American advocates and countless activists have been fighting for his release for years.
Just before he left office, we believed that President Clinton was very close to pardoning my father. When FBI agents protested outside the White House a month before his last day in office, our hopes for my father's freedom were shattered. Jan. 20, 2000, came and went, and my father's case remained unaddressed. That incredibly painful disappointment marked a turning point in my life. To have come so close to having him home, and then losing that chance - I was heartbroken, and I began to distance myself from the case.
But I cannot distance myself any longer. My father is very sick. He's 71 now and has a host of medical issues, including suffering from a stroke, diabetes, undergoing multiple jaw surgeries and, now, an abdominal aortic aneurysm— - a condition that can be life - threatening if not treated. The prison, USP Coleman, won’t operate to repair or remove it until the aneurysm grows to five centimeters and my aging father is spending his days in a maximum security prison, where he's at constant risk of a physical altercation that could cause the aneurysm to rupture.
His case may be 40 years old—and for some people, it's part of a difficult history that's better left in the past. But it defines every day of my present. Every moment my father spent in prison has impacted the lives of his family members. While Leonard Peltier is thought of by many as a father to the movement for the rights of native people, he was never able to be a true father to his own children.
He used to tell my siblings and me: "When I get out, I'm going to raise you." For years, I believed it. Then I learned not to hope. I have never been able to celebrate a birthday with him. He did not get to teach me to ride a bike or comfort me when I was hurt or watch me graduate. My father has been a ghost in my life, and I've often wrestled with the anger and sadness caused by his absence. I remind myself that he hasn't missed these moments because he wanted to - he had no choice.Making things more difficult, during my father's decades - long imprisonment, he has been transferred at least seven times, sometimes without notice. It's been a struggle to maintain a relationship with him when he is consistently thousands of miles away, separated not only by distance, but also by prison walls.
My worst fear is that my father will die in prison, and that I will never know him as a free man. Clemency for my father would mean our family would get to spend what's left of his life together for the first time. That freedom would also mean that he can get the help and treatment he truly needs. The truth is, I don't know how much longer he will be alive. But I do know that even a week with him would mean the world to me. And I know that to watch him die in prison, without clearing his name, would devastate our family even more than the past four decades have.
My father and our family have lived with this injustice for far too long. At this moment, only the president can decide his fate. I hope that President Obama will grant Leonard Peltier clemency before it's too late.
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The prison did not respond to request for comment.

9. DOCUMENTAZIONE. SUBCOMANDANTE MARCOS: LETTER TO LEONARD PELTIER (1999)
[Dal sito della "Monthly Review" (monthlyreview.org) riprendiamo e diffondiamo questa lettera apparsa sul n. 1 del gennaio 2000.
Subcomandante Marcos is a member of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)]

Leonard,
Through NCDM and Cecilia Rodriguez we extend greetings from the men, women, children, and elders of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
Cecilia has told us about the grave injustice the North American judicial system has committed against you. We understand that the powerful are punishing your spirit of rebellion and your strong fight for the rights of indigenous people in North America.
Stupid as it is, the powerful believe that through humiliation, arrogance, and isolation, they can break the dignity of those who give thoughts, feelings, life and guidance to the struggle for recognition and respect for the first inhabitants of the land, over whom the vain United States has risen. The heroic resistance that you have maintained in prison, as well as the broad movement of solidarity that your case and your cause have motivated in the United States and the world, reveal their mistake.
Knowing of your existence and history, no woman or man (if they are honest and conscious) can remain silent before such a great injustice. Nor can they remain still in front of a struggle which, like all that is born and grows from below, is necessary, possible, and true.
The Lakota, a people who have the honor and fortune to have you among their blood, have an ethic that recognizes and respects the place of all people and things, respects the relations that mother earth has with herself and other living things that live and die within her and outside of her. An ethic that recognizes generosity as a measure of human worth, the walk of our ancestors and our dead along the paths of today and tomorrow, women and men as part of the universe that have the power of free will to choose paths and seasons, the search for harmony and the struggle against that which breaks and disorders it. All of this, and more that escapes because we are so far away, has a lot to teach the "western" culture which steers, in North America and in the rest of the world, against humanity and against nature.
Probably the determined resistance of Leonard Peltier is incomprehensible to the powerful in North America, and the world. To never give up, to resist, the powerful call this "foolishness."
But the foolish are in every corner of the world, and in all of them, resistance flourishes in the fertile ground of the most ancient history.
In sum, what the powerful fail to understand is not only Peltier's resistance, but also the entire world, and so they intend to mold the planet into the coffin the system represents, with wars, jails, and police officers.
Probably, the powerful in North America think that in jailing and torturing Leonard Peltier, they are jailing and torturing one man.
And so they don't understand how a prisoner can continue to be free, while in prison.
And they don't understand how, being imprisoned, he speaks with so many, and so many listen.
And they don't understand how, in trying to kill him, he has more life.
And they don't understand how one man, alone, is able to resist so much, to represent so much, to be so large.
"Why?" the powerful ask themselves and the answer never reaches their ears: Because Leonard Peltier is a people, the Lakota, and it is impossible to keep a people imprisoned.
Because Leonard Peltier speaks through the Lakota men and women who are, in themselves and in their nature, the best of mother earth.
Because the strength that this man and this people have does not come from modern weapons, rather it comes from their history, their roots, their dead.
Because the Lakota know that no one is more alive than the dead.
Because the Lakota, and many other North American Indian people, know that resisting without surrender not only defends their lives and their liberty, but also their history and the nature that gives them origin, home, and destiny.
Because the great ones always seem so small to those who can not see the history that each one keeps inside.
Because the racism that now governs can only imagine the other and the different in jail or in the trashcan, where two Lakota natives were found last month, murdered, in the community of Pine Ridge. This is justice in North America: those who fight for their people are in jail, those who despise and murder walk unpunished.
What is Leonard Peltier accused of?
Not of a crime he didn't commit. No. He is accused of being other, of being different, of being proud to be other and different.
But for the powerful, Leonard Peltier's most serious "crime" is that he seeks to rescue in the past, in his culture, in his roots, the history of his people, the Lakota. And for the powerful, this is a crime, because knowing oneself with history impedes one from being tossed around by this absurd machine that is the system.
If Leonard Peltier is guilty, than we are all guilty because we seek out history, and on its shoulders we fight to have a place in the world, a place of dignity and respect, a place for ourselves exactly as we are, which is also very much as we were.
If the Indian people of the North and Indian people of Mexico, as well as the indigenous people of the entire continent, know that we have our own place (being who we are, not pretending to be another skin color, another tongue, another culture), what is left is that other colors that populate the entire world know it. And what is left is for the powerful to know it. So that they know it, and learn the lesson so well that they won't forget, many more paths and bridges are needed that are walked from below.
On these paths and bridges, you, Leonard Peltier, have a special place, the best, next to us who are like you.
Salud, Leonard Peltier, receive a hug from one who admires and respects you, and who hopes that one day you will call him "brother."
Vale, and health to you, and I hope that injustice disappears tomorrow, with yesterday as a weapon and today as a road.
From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
Mexico, October 1999

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LA BIBLIOTECA DI ZOROBABELE
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Segnalazioni librarie e letture nonviolente
a cura del "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Supplemento a "La nonviolenza e' in cammino" (anno XXIII)
Direttore responsabile: Peppe Sini. Redazione: strada S. Barbara 9/E, 01100 Viterbo, tel. 0761353532, e-mail: centropacevt at gmail.com
Numero 366 del 24 febbraio 2022
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