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[Nonviolenza] La biblioteca di Zorobabele. 442

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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 442 dell'11 maggio 2022

In questo numero:
1. La vedi?
2. Un'azione efficace, e forse la piu' efficace, per fermare la guerra e salvare innumerevoli vite: sciogliere la Nato
3. Due cose che potrebbe e dovrebbe fare l'Unione Europea per la pace che salva le vite
4. Carol Gokee: Rise Up For Peltier Call to Action Toolkit
5. Jennifer Bendery: Even DNC Members Are Urging Biden To Let Leonard Peltier Go Home
6. Jennifer Bendery: Leonard Peltier to Joe Biden: "I'm Not Guilty. I Would Like To Go Home"
7. Ripetiamo ancora una volta...
8. Tre tesi

1. L'ORA. LA VEDI?

- La vedi?
- La vedo che?
- Come che? La vedi o non la vedi?
- Ma che, che?
- La gente che muore ammazzata, la vedi o no?
- E allora?
- La vedi o no?
- La vedo, la vedo, e allora?
- Come allora?
- Io mica ti capisco.
- Ma la vedi o no?
- La vedo, e chi non la vede?
- E allora?
- Ma allora che?

2. REPETITA IUVANT. UN'AZIONE EFFICACE, E FORSE LA PIU' EFFICACE, PER FERMARE LA GUERRA E SALVARE INNUMEREVOLI VITE: SCIOGLIERE LA NATO

Ogni persona ragionevole, ogni umano istituto ordinato al bene comune, crediamo condividano queste convinzioni: che ogni essere umano ha diritto alla vita; che la guerra, che le vite umane distrugge, e' un crimine.
Ed in specifico riferimento alla guerra scatenata dal folle e criminale governo russo contro la popolazione ucraina inerme e innocente: che occorre soccorrere, accogliere, assistere tutte le persone in fuga dalla guerra; che occorre inviare aiuti umanitari per sostentare l'esistenza di chi non puo' o non vuole fuggire, e per ricostruire prima possibile e meglio possibile le strutture e i servizi necessari alla vita quotidiana; che occorre inviare forze di interposizione nonarmata e nonviolenta sotto la guida dell'Onu per fermare subito le stragi e le devastazioni; che occorre adoperarsi per l'immediato cessate il fuoco e l'immediato inizio di negoziati di pace che facciano cessare tutte le uccisioni.
E un'altra cosa ancora occorre fare, e farla subito, ed e' un compito che precisamente riguarda alcuni paesi europei tra cui l'Italia: sciogliere la Nato.
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La Nato, organizzazione terrorista e stragista, braccio armato dell'azione militare statunitense per destabilizzare, devastare, immiserire, imbarbarire l'Europa, deve essere al piu' presto sciolta, ed i suoi vertici devono essere processati per i crimini commessi da decenni a questa parte.
E nelle more delle procedure di scioglimento, per impedire che possa commettere nuovi crimini, occorre che i governi dei paesi che ne fanno parte pongano il loro veto a qualunque iniziativa l'organizzazione terrorista e stragista intendesse realizzare.
Sciogliere la Nato e' la cosa di gran lunga piu' efficace che i paesi europei che ne sono membri possano fare oggi per la pace e per salvare innumerevoli vite.
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Solo con lo scioglimento della Nato cadrebbe ogni fraudolento pretesto per la scellerata guerra che il folle e criminale governo russo sta conducendo contro la popolazione ucraina inerme e innocente.
Solo con lo scioglimento della Nato l'Unione Europea potrebbe tornare alla politica di pace e cooperazione dichiarata in tutti i suoi atti costitutivi e strumenti giuridici fondamentali.
Solo con lo scioglimento della Nato l'Unione Europea potrebbe realizzare una politica di difesa e sicurezza comune, finalmente non piu' asservita all'imperialismo americano.
Solo con lo scioglimento della Nato l'Unione Europea potrebbe divenire una vera unione europea: inclusiva di tutti i paesi europei, Russia compresa.
Solo con lo scioglimento della Nato l'Unione Europea potrebbe avviare la politica di disarmo necessaria e urgente per contrastare il pericolo di una guerra mondiale che puo' distruggere l'intera civilta' umana.
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Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato, con la fine del Patto di Varsavia e il crollo dell'Urss, non e' piu' - se mai lo fosse stata - un'alleanza difensiva, ma e' un'alleanza militare aggressiva il cui scopo e' minacciare, preparare, provocare, organizzare, eseguire destabilizzazioni, colpi di stato e guerre, guerre che sempre e solo consistono dell'uccisione di esseri umani, guerre che sempre e solo costituiscono crimini contro l'umanita'.
Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato non aiuta affatto il popolo ucraino vittima dell'invasione, della guerra, delle stragi e delle devastazioni volute dal folle e criminale governo russo: la Nato, come il governo americano di cui e' estensione e strumento, ne favoreggia il massacro.
Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato non contrasta la violenza del folle e criminale governo russo: gli fornisce materia per la propaganda, per quanto menzognera e fraudolenta essa palesemente sia.
Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato impedisce che l'Unione Europea ed i paesi che ne fanno parte possano contribuire positivamente a un negoziato che ponga fine alla guerra e alle stragi.
Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato opera per la crescita del riarmo, della militarizzazione, del bellicismo che stanno mettendo in pericolo l'esistenza dell'intera umanita'.
Si riconosca la nuda verita': la Nato non promuove ne' difende la democrazia e i diritti umani, ma il militarismo, il primato delle armi e della violenza, il disprezzo per le vite umane, la barbarie razzista e il potere imperiale del complesso militare-industriale che governa la politica statunitense contro il diritto e la liberazione dei popoli, contro i diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani, contro il mondo vivente vittima di uno sfruttamento insostenibile e desertificatore.
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E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche soccorrere tutte le vittime della guerra e della fame, delle violenze e dei disastri.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche il disarmo e la smilitarizzazione del mondo.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche la cooperazione internazionale per il bene comune dell'umanita'.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche sostenere la democrazia e i diritti umani ovunque.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche contrastare tutti i regimi che violano i diritti umani, tutti i regimi dittatoriali, tutti i regimi che commettono guerre e stragi, come il folle e criminale governo russo.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche sostenere l'Onu ed aumentarne l'efficacia.
E' ovvio: non basta sciogliere la Nato, occorre anche passare dalla difesa armata alla difesa popolare nonviolenta; dalla gestione dei conflitti basata sulla forza alla gestione e risoluzione nonviolenta dei conflitti; dal periclitante status quo alla politica nonviolenta, alla societa' nonviolenta, alla nonviolenza come metodo e come sistema, alla nonviolenza come fondamento del diritto, delle relazioni, delle istituzioni, della convivenza. E fortunatamente gia' molte e luminose sono le esperienze storiche nonviolente cui fare riferimento.
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Un'Unione Europea che s'impegnasse per lo scioglimento della Nato potrebbe chiedere con effettiva capacita' di persuasione al governo russo di porre immediatamente fine alla guerra contro la popolazione ucraina.
Anche un singolo paese europeo membro della Nato che s'impegnasse per lo scioglimento della Nato (nel frattempo fermandone ogni iniziativa esercitando il suo potere di veto) potrebbe chiedere con effettiva capacita' di persuasione al governo russo di porre immediatamente fine alla guerra contro la popolazione ucraina.
Occorre fermare immediatamente la guerra scatenata dal folle e criminale governo russo.
Occorre fermare immediatamente la guerra e le stragi di cui essa consiste.
Occorre fermare immediatamente la guerra per salvare tutte le vite umane che e' possibile salvare.
Occorre fermare immediatamente la guerra che gia' si sta estendendo e puo' diventare da un momento all'altro mondiale e nucleare, e distruggere l'intera famiglia umana.
Occorre fermare immediatamente la guerra.
Ogni vittima ha il volto di Abele.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Solo la nonviolenza puo' salvare l'umanita' dalla catastrofe.

3. REPETITA IUVANT. DUE COSE CHE POTREBBE E DOVREBBE FARE L'UNIONE EUROPEA PER LA PACE CHE SALVA LE VITE

Agli istituti apicali dell'Unione Europea, a chi li presiede e dirige
Gentili signore e signori,
due cose potrebbe e dovrebbe fare immediatamente l'Unione Europea per la pace e per salvare le vite di innumerevoli persone in pericolo di morte in Ucraina.
1. Chiedere al governo russo di fermare immediatamente la scellerata e folle guerra che ha criminalmente scatenato contro la popolazione ucraina, cosi' da far cessare immediatamente le stragi e le devastazioni e salvare innumerevoli vite umane.
2. Impegnarsi come atto unilaterale di buona volonta', di realismo e di razionalita', a:
a) revocare immediatamente tutte le sanzioni contro la Russia che stanno provocando una catastrofe in tutta Europa;
b) chiedere ai governi dei paesi europei che fanno parte dell'organizzazione terrorista e stragista della Nato di bloccarne con il loro diritto di veto ogni attivita', e di impegnarsi per il suo scioglimento al fine di poter realizzare una struttura europea di sicurezza e difesa comune non piu' prostituita all'imperialismo americano e finalmente inclusiva di tutti i paesi europei, Russia compresa;
c) cessare immediatamente di prendere parte alla guerra e al massacro della popolazione ucraina, ed adoperarsi unicamente: I. per inviare alla popolazione ucraina i necessari urgentissimi ingentissimi aiuti umanitari; II. per soccorrere, accogliere, assistere tutte le persone bisognose di aiuto; III. per ricostruire al piu' presto case, scuole, ospedali, strade, tutte le infrastrutture della pacifica vita civile e produttiva;
d) proporre l'ingresso nell'Unione Europea di tutti i paesi europei, Russia compresa;
e) adoperarsi per l'immediata apertura di un negoziato di pace sotto l'egida dell'Onu e con la presenza sul territorio ucraino di adeguate - nel numero necessario, per quanto grande esso possa essere - forze Onu nonarmate e nonviolente di interposizione, vigilanza e peacekeeping.
Ogni vittima ha il volto di Abele.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
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Se non per umanita', almeno per realismo politico, l'Unione Europea accolga queste due proposte.
Se non per esercizio della razionalita' e della moralita', almeno per dovere d'ufficio e corretta intellezione e concreto adempimento delle sue obbligazioni giuridiche, l'Unione Europea accolga queste due proposte.
Fermare la guerra e la stragi di cui essa consiste e' l'urgenza delle urgenze.
Ogni vittima ha il volto di Abele.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
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Poiche' ci sembra che chi ha rilevanti ruoli istituzionali nell'Unione Europea, come nei governi e nei parlamenti dei paesi che la compongono, non sappia o non voglia consigliarvi queste semplici, necessarie e tra loro interconnesse iniziative, ci siamo permessi di farlo noi, che non abbiamo abdicato ai nostri doveri di esseri umani solleciti del pubblico bene, persuasi che ogni essere umano abbia diritto alla vita e che la guerra e' il piu' atroce dei crimini contro l'umanita'.
Ogni vittima ha il volto di Abele.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Augurandovi ogni bene,
il "Centro di ricerca per la pace, i diritti umani e la difesa della biosfera" di Viterbo
Viterbo, 6 maggio 2022

4. REPETITA IUVANT. CAROL GOKEE: RISE UP FOR PELTIER CALL TO ACTION TOOLKIT
[Dal comitato internazionale di difesa di Leonard Peltier ("International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee", 428-A8 Farnham St. Marshall, WI. 53559, 715.209.4453, sito: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info, e-mail: Contact at whoisleonardpeltier.info) riceviamo e diffondiamo]

Ask President Biden for the Immediate Release of Leonard Peltier!
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Call to Action Briefing
There is no doubt that our criminal justice system is imperfect, and Mr. Peltier knows firsthand just how imperfect it can be.
"I call on President Biden to commute Mr. Peltier's sentence expeditiously. It is the right thing to do." - Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), longest serving member of the U.S. Senate
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Call to Action
Contact President Biden today!
202.456.1111
Ask for the immediate release of Leonard Peliter
Call President Biden Today! 202.456.1111
Please note: The White House comment line is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Eastern, Tuesday through Thursday.
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Important Links:
Change.org Petition: https://bit.ly/3refswl
Contact your local Representatives: https://bit.ly/housereplp
New York Times Article : Clemency for Peltier:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zpHhgTsR0cOQkqxlCJ-7fKoW2qJzTx9SbdoqaldBJlg/edit
Guardian Article Calling for Clemency:
https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/02/leonard-peltier-is-americas-longest-held-indigenous-prisoner-he-should-be-freed
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Graphics:
Click Here to Download Social Media Graphics
Please use these graphics to post on social media outlets.
RISEUpForPeltier Signs & Banner Art link here
Use images in this link above for signs and banners for art builds.
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Official Hashtags
#RiseUpForPeltier
#FreeLeonardPeltier
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Account to Tag
@POTUS
@whitehouse
@OfficialFBOP (Bureau of Prisons)
@PeltierHQ (International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee)
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Sample Facebook and Instagram Post (Copy and Paste)
Call-to-Action
Leonard Peltier, Anishinaabe and Dakota, has spent over 4 decades of his life behind bars, and recently, the prison system has failed to provide him adequate care and protection against COVID-19. His story is the epitome of the systemic abuse that continues to target Indigenous people and Movement Leaders.
We call upon President Biden to show proof of his efforts toward justice and equity by granting Executive Clemency to elder movement leader Leonard Peltier.
Call the White House and demand the release of Leonard Peltier. (202) 456-1111. Say
you support the commutation of #LeonardPeltier's sentence. He's held at USP-Coleman I in FL. Register number 89637-132
Sign the online petition: https://bit.ly/3refswl
Contact your reps. Find them here: https://bit.ly/35raR
#RiseUpForPeltier
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Here's what you need to know to #RiseUpForPeltier
On March 26, 2020 the Office of the Attorney General issued guidelines for the "Prioritization of Home Confinement as Appropriate in Response to COVID-19 Pandemic." A release to home confinement can be an immediate measure to ensure that Mr. Peltier gets the health care that he requires while the ILPDC continues to push for the commutation of his sentence.
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Mr. Peltier's home community on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota continues to plead for his return, confirming that they do not see his release as a threat to his community. Read the full letter here.
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The International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (ILPDC) is calling on the public to contact the White House and urge President Biden to take immediate action. Next, contact members of Congress and ask them to call upon the Warden at USP Coleman-1 and Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal, urging the immediate release of Leonard Peltier to home confinement.
It is time for Leonard Peltier to go home and be taken care of by his people. He has suffered for far too long and time is running out. Enough is enough!
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Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt), the longest serving member of the U.S. Senate issued a statement urging President Biden to commute Leonard Peltier's sentence stating that, "His trial was so riddled with flaws that even one of the prosecutors trying him has acknowledged that Peltier was wrongfully convicted... He is exactly the kind of individual who should be considered for clemency... I have long believed that pardons and commutations are vital tools to offer clemency and relief, particularly when our criminal justice system has been contorted to propagate injustices. I call on President Biden to commute Mr. Peltier.s sentence expeditiously. It is the right thing to do."
Read the full statement here:
https://www.leahy.senate.gov/press/comment-urging-president-biden-to-commute-leonard-peltiers-sentence
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Sample Tweets (Copy and Paste)
Mr. Peltier's home community on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota continues to plead for his return, confirming that they do not see his release as a threat to his community. Read the full letter here:
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The IPLDC is calling on the public to contact the White House and urge President Biden to take immediate action. Next, contact members of Congress and ask them to call upon the Warden at USP Coleman-1 and Bureau of Prisons Director Michal Carvajal, urging the immediate release of Leonard Peltier to home confinement.
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It is time for Leonard Peltier to go home and be taken care of by his people. He has suffered for far too long and time is running out. Enough is enough.
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Graphics Sharing Instructions
1. Download a graphic from one of the visual asset folders below.
2. Log on to the social media platform of your choice. Assets for Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter have been built for this toolkit.
3. Copy and paste one of the sample posts listed below or write your own post
and include one of our RISE UP FOR PELTIER hashtags.
4. Upload the image you’ve downloaded from the visual assets folder.
5. Tag or @mention @POTUS @WHITEHOUSE and post!
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For Media Inquiries, Please Contact:
Carol Gokee, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, 715-209-4453
Jean Roach, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, 605-415-3127
Kevin Sharp, former Federal District Court Judge & Peltier's lead attorney, 615-434-7001

5. DOCUMENTAZIONE. JENNIFER BENDERY: EVEN DNC MEMBERS ARE URGING BIDEN TO LET LEONARD PELTIER GO HOME
[Dal sito www.huffpost.com riprendiamo e diffondiamo il seguente articolo del 17 marzo 2022]

Even DNC Members Are Urging Biden To Let Leonard Peltier Go Home
"It is a matter of justice and compassion," the DNC's Native American Caucus leaders said of granting clemency to the ailing Indigenous rights activist.
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President Joe Biden is now facing pressure from within the Democratic National Committee to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, the 77-year-old Indigenous rights activist who has served 46 years in prison despite no evidence that he committed a crime.
"The continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is one of the great miscarriages of justice in modern history," the leaders of the DNC's Native American Caucus said in a statement released late Wednesday.
"We join the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators and the National Congress of American Indians in urging President Biden to immediately grant Mr. Peltier clemency and release," they said. "It is a matter of justice and compassion. It is time for our relative and elder, Mr. Peltier, to live out his final days among his people."
The statement is signed by the DNC caucus' chair, Clara Pratte, its vice chair, Rion Ramirez, and its secretary/treasurer, Ruth Anna Buffalo.
"We decided to put this out now as we believe as a caucus that the time grows more urgent for Mr. Peltier," Pratte told HuffPost.
The caucus didn't get a sign-off from top DNC leaders before releasing its statement, said Pratte, but that was largely due to timing. The caucus is aiming for “a formal full DNC resolution” by its next meeting, she said.
Here's a copy of the caucus' full statement:
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Democratic National Committee - Native American Caucus
Statement in Support of Clemency for Leonard Peltier
March 16, 2022
The continued imprisonment of Leonard Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is one of the great miscarriages of justice in modern history. Mr. Peltier has been imprisoned for over 46 years. He has remained imprisoned despite the admission by James Reynolds, the United States Attorney whose office handled the prosecution and appeal of his case, that his prosecution was unjust, and prosecutors were unable to prove that he had committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Mr. Peltier's continued incarceration symbolizes the decades-old racial injustice towards Native Americans that we continue to work against today. According to Bureau of Justice statistics, Native Americans are incarcerated at a rate that is 38 percent higher than the national average. In 19 states, Native Americans are more likely to be imprisoned than any other race and ethnicity.
This reality diminishes Native Americans' faith in the criminal justice system throughout the country and burdens our community with the intergenerational impacts of incarceration resulting from a law enforcement system that fosters racial injustice. We have an ethical and moral duty to recognize these long-standing injustices and to work to address underlying issues that contribute to these harrowing statistics. Access to education, economic opportunity, and a fair justice system are paramount to ensuring we get a fair shake in the system.
Petitions for Mr. Peltier's release are widespread and urgent. Advocates across the world recognize the injustice of Leonard Peltier's continued incarceration. Amnesty International and other internationally respected champions of human rights, such as the late Nelson Mandela, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Parliament, the Belgian Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, seven Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, represent but a fraction of those who have written in support of the release of Leonard Peltier.
Our relative Mr. Peltier, currently held at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida, is now an elder and suffers from severe health conditions, including diabetes and a lethal abdominal aortic aneurysm.
As the Native American Caucus of the Democratic National Committee, we join the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators and the National Congress of American Indians in urging President Biden to immediately grant Mr. Peltier clemency and release. It is a matter of justice and compassion. It is time for our relative and elder, Mr. Peltier, to live out his final days among his people.
Clara Pratte, Chair
Rion Ramirez, Vice Chair
Ruth Anna Buffalo, Secretary/Treasurer
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Peltier has been in prison ever since the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with the murders of two FBI agents during a 1975 shoot-out on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. He has maintained his innocence the entire time - even when it's meant he could have been paroled if he'd said he had committed the crime.
His trial was riddled with misconduct, and even the U.S. attorney who helped put Peltier in prison so many years ago is now pleading with Biden to grant him clemency because, he said, federal officials never had evidence that Peltier committed a crime.
There's been a recent surge in momentum for releasing Peltier, in part because Biden is a proud ally to the Native American community - and Native Americans were key to helping him win his election. One of Biden's own Cabinet secretaries, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, previously backed clemency for Peltier.
Biden is also likely Peltier's last chance at freedom before he dies in prison: At 77, he just survived a vicious bout with COVID-19 and has serious health issues including diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm.
At least two U.S. senators, several members of Congress and dozens of Native American state legislators have recently urged Biden to release him.
In addition to the serious problems with Peltier's conviction, it's not clear why he hasn't been sent home under a policy authorized by the Justice Department "to release elderly inmates and those with underlying health conditions from federal prisons" as part of the government's response to the COVID pandemic.
When HuffPost asked the Federal Bureau of Prisons about this last month, spokesperson Randilee Giamusso simply responded with boilerplate language about how that policy works.
"Beyond this, we have no additional information to provide," she said.
A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the DNC's Native American Caucus leaders urging clemency for Peltier.

6. DOCUMENTAZIONE. JENNIFER BENDERY: LEONARD PELTIER TO JOHN BIDEN: "I'M NOT GUILTY. I WOULD LIKE TO GO HOME"
[Dal sito www.huffpost.com riprendiamo e diffondiamo il seguente articolo del 7 maggio 2022]

Leonard Peltier to Joe Biden: "I'm Not Guilty. I Would Like To Go Home."
In a rare interview, the imprisoned Native American rights activist said he is also "grateful" to Biden for giving tribes their sovereignty back.
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Leonard Peltier knows his time is running out.
The Native American rights activist is 77, has serious health issues, just survived an ugly bout with COVID-19 and is now serving his 46th year in federal prison - where the U.S. government put him without any evidence that he committed a crime.
Peltier and his supporters are holding out hope that President Joe Biden will finally send him home. Because, if anything has become clear with time, it's just how troubling Peltier's imprisonment has been from the start. Prosecutors in his trial hid key evidence. The FBI threatened and coerced witnesses into lying. A juror admitted she was biased against Native Americans on day two of the trial, but was allowed to stay on anyway.
Even some of the same U.S. government officials who helped put Peltier in prison in the first place have since admitted how flawed his trial was and how horribly the government has long treated Native Americans, and they have urged clemency for him.
There is reason to believe that Biden could, at last, give Peltier his freedom. He has already demonstrated a willingness to address past injustices against Native Americans. Since taking office, Biden has made it a priority to examine the government's ugly history of Indian boarding schools, to protect sacred Indigenous sites and cultural resources, and to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. He also canceled the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a major win for tribes and environmentalists.
Biden also chose Deb Haaland to lead his Interior Department, making her the nation's first Indigenous Cabinet secretary. Haaland strongly advocated for Peltier's release from prison in her former role as a member of Congress.
In November, HuffPost pressed Haaland on whether she still supports Peltier's release in her role as interior secretary and whether she's talked to the president about him. Haaland said only, "My thoughts and feelings about this issue are well-documented."
If only Peltier had a few minutes alone with Biden himself. What would he say?
In a rare interview from his maximum security prison in Florida, Peltier recently told HuffPost that his message to the president would be simple.
"I'm not guilty of this shooting. I'm not guilty," he said. "I would like to go home to spend what years I have left with my great-grandkids and my people."
Peltier said he's been following Biden's efforts to support Native American rights and empower tribes, and if he had the president's ear, he would give him credit for that.
"I appreciate what you're doing by giving us our nationhood back, our sovereignty back," he said he'd tell Biden. "I'm very grateful for that, because that's what I was fighting for all my life."
Before he was put in prison, Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, a grassroots group of activists focused on drawing attention to federal treaty rights violations, discrimination and police brutality targeting Native Americans. Back in the 1970s, the FBI was running a covert campaign to suppress the activities of AIM. In fact, as time has revealed, the FBI is at least partly responsible for the shootout that day on Pine Ridge Reservation, as it was intentionally fueling intra-tribal tensions there in an effort to disrupt AIM's efforts.
Today, the FBI remains the biggest obstacle to Peltier getting out of prison, for no clear reason other than wanting to shield itself from scrutiny over its past wrongdoings. The bureau simply doesn't want him to ever be released. It recently made that clear to HuffPost - even when we didn't ask. This was very weird. The unsolicited statement it provided was also full of misinformation, which signals the FBI's plan is to keep recycling a flimsy, face-saving argument for keeping Peltier in prison until he dies.
Peltier said he knows exactly what he would say to FBI Director Christopher Wray if he had the chance to talk to him alone for a few minutes.
"Stop killing my people. That's all I would tell him," he said. "Stop killing my people. Arrest the people that are guilty of crimes on the reservations."
Perhaps Peltier's greatest strength is something the FBI can't match: the staying power of his story. For decades, thousands of people have been protesting his imprisonment - including U.S. senators, members of Congress, Native American groups, celebrities and human rights leaders like Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King and Amnesty International, an organization otherwise focused on political prisoners in other countries.
Just last week, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland on the status of Peltier's clemency petition as Garland testified in an unrelated Senate budget hearing. The U.S. attorney general offered a surprisingly weak response, saying he didn't know about Peltier's case beyond what he's read in the press.
Pleas for Peltier's release are also happening at the international level. On Tuesday, North Dakota state Rep. Ruth Anna Buffalo (D) gave a statement at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues demanding clemency for him.
"The case of Leonard Peltier demonstrates the failure of the U.S. criminal justice system to provide real justice for Native Peoples as well as the government-generated environment of racism that consistently leads to unjust convictions," Buffalo said in her statement, which she read aloud on behalf of the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. She urged the U.N. to push for "a means for relief and justice for Leonard Peltier."
Buffalo later told HuffPost she felt her remarks were "well-received" at the U.N. forum.
"I hope the reading of the statement on behalf of the ILPDC will have a positive effect on the release of our elder, Leonard Peltier," she said. "I'm thankful for the decades of advocacy in fighting for justice for Leonard Peltier."
Peltier is watching all of this play out from his prison cell. He gets regular updates from supporters on news stories that come out about him and rallies being organized in his name. He is surprisingly up to date on current news. Sometimes people mail him articles to read, and when he can't access a relevant news story online, he has friends who will call in and read it to him over the phone, line by line.
During HuffPost's interview with Peltier, he did most of the talking. He said he was scared recently by chest pains he'd had when he was walking across the prison yard and that he hopes to get back to painting after being denied access to the art room for years because of pandemic precautions.
Asked if he thinks he'll make it out of prison before he dies, Peltier said he doesn't know. To date, the White House has either ignored HuffPost's questions about the president's willingness to grant clemency to Peltier or talked only about the process a person must go through for requesting clemency.
"Sometimes it feels like, well...," Peltier said, trailing off. "I shouldn't even be here... I should have never been in prison to start with."
He is clearly still animated by the cause for justice for Native Americans that he was fighting for with AIM so many years ago. He told stories from his days in the 1970s, when he said Indigenous women were being routinely raped by white men who later got little or no punishment for it, and he and other AIM members would confront local law enforcement to do something about it.
Peltier specifically cited the case of former South Dakota Republican Gov. Bill Janklow, who allegedly raped a 15-year-old Lakota schoolgirl, Jancita Eagle Deer, at the Rosebud Boarding School on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Eagle Deer was mysteriously killed by a car a few months after she testified against Janklow, who was never charged.
"Native people are humans and we had a society, a very advanced society of our own. We were generous people. We gave. That was our problem," he said. "When the white man first came here, we gave too much. That's what we did. We opened up because that's the way we were brought up. We have been nothing but abused for the last 300-some years."
Peltier said the fact that he has a strong base of supporters who are still fighting for him to get clemency shows that the more people learn about the way he was put into prison, the more people "are finally believing us" that the whole process was unjust.
"How do I feel about it? I feel good about it," he said of people appealing for his release at the United Nations this week. "Maybe I'll be able to go home and die now."
He paused before adding, "I'm still pissed off about what they did. What they did to me was wrong. It violated the whole Constitution of the United States."

7. REPETITA IUVANT. RIPETIAMO ANCORA UNA VOLTA...

... ripetiamo ancora una volta che occorre un'insurrezione nonviolenta delle coscienze e delle intelligenze per contrastare gli orrori piu' atroci ed infami che abbiamo di fronte, per affermare la legalita' che salva le vite, per richiamare ogni persona ed ogni umano istituto ai doveri inerenti all'umanita'.
Occorre opporsi al maschilismo, e nulla e' piu' importante, piu' necessario, piu' urgente che opporsi al maschilismo - all'ideologia, alle prassi, al sistema di potere, alla violenza strutturale e dispiegata del maschilismo: poiche' la prima radice di ogni altra violenza e oppressione e' la dominazione maschilista e patriarcale che spezza l'umanita' in due e nega piena dignita' e uguaglianza di diritti a meta' del genere umano e cosi' disumanizza l'umanita' intera; e solo abolendo la dominazione maschilista e patriarcale si puo' sconfiggere la violenza che opprime, dilania, denega l'umanita'; solo abolendo la dominazione maschilista e patriarcale l'umanita' puo' essere libera e solidale.
Occorre opporsi al razzismo, alla schiavitu', all'apartheid. Occorre far cessare la strage degli innocenti nel Mediterraneo ed annientare le mafie schiaviste dei trafficanti di esseri umani; semplicemente riconoscendo a tutti gli esseri umani in fuga da fame e guerre, da devastazioni e dittature, il diritto di giungere in salvo nel nostro paese e nel nostro continente in modo legale e sicuro. Occorre abolire la schiavitu' in Italia semplicemente riconoscendo a tutti gli esseri umani che in Italia si trovano tutti i diritti sociali, civili e politici, compreso il diritto di voto: la democrazia si regge sul principio "una persona, un voto"; un paese in cui un decimo degli effettivi abitanti e' privato di fondamentali diritti non e' piu' una democrazia. Occorre abrogare tutte le disposizioni razziste ed incostituzionali che scellerati e dementi governi razzisti hanno nel corso degli anni imposto nel nostro paese: si torni al rispetto della legalita' costituzionale, si torni al rispetto del diritto internazionale, si torni al rispetto dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani. Occorre formare tutti i pubblici ufficiali e in modo particolare tutti gli appartenenti alle forze dell'ordine alla conoscenza e all'uso delle risorse della nonviolenza: poiche' compito delle forze dell'ordine e' proteggere la vita e i diritti di tutti gli esseri umani, la conoscenza della nonviolenza e' la piu' importante risorsa di cui hanno bisogno.
Occorre opporsi a tutte le uccisioni, a tutte le stragi, a tutte le guerre. Occorre cessare di produrre e vendere armi a tutti i regimi e i poteri assassini; abolire la produzione, il commercio, la disponibilita' di armi e' il primo necessario passo per salvare le vite e per costruire la pace, la giustizia, la civile convivenza, la salvezza comune dell'umanita' intera. Occorre abolire tutte le organizzazioni armate il cui fine e' uccidere. Occorre cessare immediatamente di dissipare scelleratamente ingentissime risorse pubbliche a fini di morte, ed utilizzarle invece per proteggere e promuovere la vita e il benessere dell'umanita' e dell'intero mondo vivente.
Occorre opporsi alla distruzione di quest'unico mondo vivente che e' la sola casa comune dell'umanita' intera, di cui siamo insieme parte e custodi. Non potremo salvare noi stessi se non rispetteremo e proteggeremo anche tutti gli altri esseri viventi, se non rispetteremo e proteggeremo ogni singolo ecosistema e l'intera biosfera.
Opporsi al male facendo il bene.
Opporsi alla violenza con la scelta nitida e intransigente della nonviolenza.
Oppresse e oppressi di tutti i paesi, unitevi nella lotta per la comune liberazione e la salvezza del'umanita' intera.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.

8. REPETITA IUVANT. TRE TESI

La guerra e il fascismo sono la stessa cosa. Solo la lotta di liberazione delle donne puo' difendere e liberare l'umanita'.
Salvare le vite e' il primo dovere.
Solo la nonviolenza puo' salvare l'umanita' dalla catastrofe.

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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 442 dell'11 maggio 2022
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