From Barry Bachrach

Attorney for Leonard Peltier

2/7/04

Ladies and Gentleman of the Press,

A major occurrence in Rapid City last week. A trial, if that's what you

want to call it. Many of you covered the murder trial of Arlo Looking

Cloud. A 10-minute defense? Pretty sensational stuff. You didn't find

what you were witnessing at all strange? I did. I mean, who was on trial?

The majority of the testimony presented had nothing whatsoever to do with

Arlo Looking Cloud, but prominent members of the American Indian Movement

(AIM) and my client, Leonard Peltier, in particular. Leonard Peltier or the

AIM leadership, I would remind you, are not on trial for the 1975 murder of

Annie Mae Aquash. They have not been charged with the crime, either, simply

because there is no evidence against them. Only rumor, conjecture, and

innuendo.

And that's all you were treated to in that courtroom this week. There was

not one iota of proof presented to support many witnesses' "beliefs". And

for every witness presented, there are any number of other individuals who

could be called to appear and who would tell very different stories - that

Annie Mae wasn't afraid of AIM, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation

(FBI); she had stated this to various individuals on numerous occasions; and

she had actually put such fears in writing. In 1975, she said she'd been

told by investigators that she would be dead within the year if she didn't

cooperate with FBI agents in framing AIM leaders and Leonard Peltier.

How credible are the witnesses in this case? Paid informants, for example,

must immediately be called into question, as must others who have long been

accused of fabricating evidence in the Peltier case and/or of playing some

part in the murder of Ms. Aquash.

Ask yourself, too, what didn't come out at this trial.

During the 1970s, the AIM leadership was targeted by the FBI much like, as

we have seen this week, they are targeted now. The Bureau's documented

intent was to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise

neutralize" the AIM organization. The FBI had decided that Native Americans

who were committed to uniting all Native Peoples in an effort to uplift

their communities and promote cultural pride and sovereignty were "enemies

of the State". Fact, not fiction.

Virtually every known AIM leader in the United States was incarcerated in

either state or federal prisons since (or even before) the organization's

formal emergence in 1968, some repeatedly. After the 1973 siege of Wounded

Knee (SD), for example, the FBI caused 542 separate charges to be filed

against those it identified as "key AIM leaders". This resulted in only 15

convictions, all on such petty or contrived offenses as "interfering with a

federal officer in the performance of his duty". Organization members often

languished in jail for months as the cumulative bail required to free them

outstripped resource capabilities of AIM and supporting groups. Fact, not

fiction.

After Wounded Knee, AIM activities were forbidden on the Pine Ridge Indian

reservation by the then Tribal Chairman Dick Wilson. Traditionalists were

not allowed to meet or attend traditional ceremonies. Wilson hired

vigilantes who called themselves Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) to

enforce his rules. Fact, not fiction.

The three years following Wounded Knee are often referred to as the Pine

Ridge "Reign of Terror" because anyone associated with AIM was targeted for

violence. Their homes were burned and their cars were run off the road.

They were struck by cars, shot in drive-by shootings, and beaten. Between

1973 and 1976, over 60 traditionalists were murdered. Pine Ridge had the

highest murder rate in the United States, people! Fact, not fiction.

And now we're supposed to believe, I take it, that the lives of these 60 or

more human beings are somehow less significant than that of Anna Mae Aquash?

Yes, we want justice for Anna Mae, but what about the many others? Don't

they deserve justice, too?

In almost every case of violence, witness accounts indicated GOON

responsibility, but nothing was done to stop these bloody events. On the

contrary the FBI, the agency responsible for investigating such violence,

supplied the GOONs with weaponry and intelligence on AIM. The FBI, in fact,

looked the other way as the GOONs committed crime after crime against

members as well as supporters of AIM. Fact, not fiction.

Yet, there was no mention of these facts during last week's trial. That

means only part of the story was told. A very small part.

The public didn't hear about the shoddy investigation the FBI conducted into

the death of Anna Mae Aquash, either. It took them 28 years to bring

someone - anyone - to trial? The FBI is better than that. Everybody knows

it.

Why did the FBI not find the bullet hole in the back of Anna Mae's head, or

the blood on the back of her jacket? These things were immediately

discovered by means of an independent autopsy. Fact, not fiction.

Why did the FBI rule the cause of death instead as "exposure"? Fact, not

fiction.

Why did the FBI find it necessary to sever Anna Mae's hands, when the agents

on the scene - in particular, David Price, who testified this week - should

have been able to identify the body of a woman with whom they were well

acquainted? Anna Mae's body lay frozen in a gully when found. Winter in

South Dakota. The body was too decomposed, they say. "Unidentifiable."

Fact, not fiction.

And why then was a photo of Anna Mae's severed hands later used to frighten

another Indian woman into signing several false affidavits against Leonard

Peltier? Why was Myrtle Poor Bear told that the same would happen to her if

she failed to cooperate with the FBI and the federal prosecutors? Fact, not

fiction.

On the basis of these fabricated affidavits, a Canadian court was convinced

to extradite Peltier to the U.S. for trial. Bob Newbrook, a retired police

officer who arrested Peltier in Alberta in 1976 recently stated, "Canada

should have learned from the Peltier case that it cannot trust U.S. evidence

presented against American Indian activists." Newbrook said he has

thoroughly investigated the Peltier and Aquash cases and has come to regret

his role. "I'm haunted by the fact that I now think we seized an innocent

man, with no valid Canadian arrest warrant, based on false evidence from the

U.S.," he said.

Warren Allmand, a former Canadian justice minister, and the judge who later

extradited Peltier said they would never have agreed to his extradition had

they known affidavits and evidence presented by the U.S. were false.

Despite its carefully contrived image as the nation's premier crime fighting

agency, the FBI then as now (and you have only to look at the U.S. Patriot

Act to know this is true) functioned primarily as America's political

police. This role includes not only the collection of intelligence on the

activities of political dissidents and groups, but often counterintelligence

operations to thwart those activities. At its most extreme dimension,

political dissidents have been eliminated outright or sent to prison for the

rest of their lives. These activities are well documented. Fact, not

fiction.

Many activists were "neutralized" by intimidation, harassment, discrediting,

and a whole assortment of tactics, including "snitch jacketing" where the

FBI made the target look like a police informant or a federal agent. This

served the dual purposes of isolating and alienating important leaders, as

well as increasing the general level of fear and factionalism in the group.

Just like the fear described in that courtroom last week. Yet, you heard

agents of the FBI, deny there ever was such a thing as snitch jacketing,

didn't you? This and other tactics used by the FBI also are

well-documented. Fact, not fiction.

The trial was well-orchestrated - not to convict the man on trial, but to

convict AIM activists and prosecute Leonard Peltier all over again (another

violation of his constitutional rights, I would argue) in the court of

public opinion.

The style and content of the articles being published last week

(machine-gun-toting Indians?) focused on Peltier, specifically, who is due

for a full parole hearing in 2008. These articles were reminiscent of

articles published at the request of particular FBI agents during the

campaign in 2001 to convince President Clinton to grant Mr. Peltier's

petition for Executive Clemency. This is why Leonard Peltier has filed a

civil suit against the FBI, naming former director Louis Freeh, current

director Robert S. Mueller, and a dozen or so active and retired agents of

the Bureau. Allegations contained in the suit include providing to the

media as fact "numerous [...] knowingly false and unsupported accusations

[...] against the Plaintiff designed solely to deny him the right to due

process both before the [U.S.] Parole Commission and in petitions for

Executive Clemency".

Nothing has changed, it seems. The only difference now is that the FBI and

federal prosecutors are using a court of law to advance these false and

unsupported accusations - when they know and have admitted twice before the

appellate bench that they can't prove Peltier's guilt. They believe they're

not culpable now because they are only indirectly providing false

information to the press.

In our system of justice, trials are open and public. This is, in part, to

guard against official misconduct and to ensure that only justice is done.

In our mature society, this means that the print and electronic media are

the witnesses to due process - the public's eyes and ears, so to speak. This

means that you have the responsibility to tell the truth, the whole truth.

This means you must remain independent observers and guard against

manipulation by the FBI and government prosecutors who fight only to win,

not for the sake of justice. Might does not make right, ladies and

gentlemen. And the end does not justify the means.

Barry Bachrach

Attorney at Law

BBACHRACH@bowditch.com

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Please visit the website of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

www.leonardpeltier.org