I missed the Texas debate on Thursday night, but I watched part of it on YouTube last night. The biggest question that stuck out to me was the question of whether the candidates would meet with the new leader of Cuba.
In their answers, both candidates mentioned that Cuba needed to release its political prisoners. Obama stated this more than once, and Clinton made it one of the conditions for her even considering a personal trip to Cuba.
All I could think was, what about OUR political prisoners?
The US has many political prisoners, many of which are documented on prisonactivist.org. Perhaps the most well-known political prisoner is Leonard Peltier, who's release has been advocated by Amnesty International, the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, Nelson Mandela, the 14th Dali Lama, the European, Belgian, and Italian Parliments and Desmond Tutu, among others.
Peltier was convicted of murdering two FBI agents in a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge reservation which occurred on June 26, 1975. The Agents were in pursuit of Jimmy Eagle, who had assaulted a local store and robbed it of a pair of cowboy boots. They followed a red pick-up truck (the vehicle believed to be driven by Jimmy Eagle) to the Jumping Bull residence. Shots were fired, and some men from a near-by camp came and joined in the fight. They say that there were women and children and elders in the houses that were being fired upon, so they joined the fight to protect them. In the fight, the two FBI agents were murdered. One was killed by a defensive shot that went through his hand and head. The other was shot twice in the head execution-style.
As a bit of background, the reservation had been the scene of much recent violence. People lived in constant fear of being murdered. There was a fight going on between the traditionalists and those sympathetic to the US government. Dick Wilson, the president of the reservation's government, was one of those sympathetic to the US government. The traditionalists formed the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM was called into the reservation to help protect against the violence being perpetrated by Dick Wilson's squads, known as GOONs. Dick Wilson was intent on destroying AIM, as was the US Government. The GOONs carried automatic weapons provided to them by the US government.
It was in this state of violence and fear that two FBI agents, in plain clothes, driving unmarked, late-model cars, followed this red pick-up onto the Jumping Bull residence and opened fire. It is unclear who started the shooting, but once it started, the Indians believed themselves to be acting in self-defense.
After the incident, the men who had been involved in the shootings went on the run. The focus turned away from the red pick-up truck and turned onto three of the AIM leaders who were present that day: Bob Robideau, Dino Butler, and Leonard Peltier. Bob Robideau and Dino Butler were apprehended when their station wagon exploded on a Kansas highway. There were many weapons in the trunk that had been used at the Jumping Bull Residence, and they had gotten too close to a hole in the exhaust pipe. Robideau and Butler were tried in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and found not guilty for reasons of self-defense.
Meanwhile, Leonard Peltier was in Canada, fighting extradition. A woman that Peltier didn't even know claimed to be his girlfriend and signed an affidavit saying that Peltier had murdered the FBI agents, so the Canadian government extradited him to the US. The prosecution claimed that a casing found in the trunk of one of the agents' cars matched one of the weapons in the trunk of Robideau's and Butler's vehicle, and that this weapon was Leonard Peltier's. The red pick-up that the agents reported as following suddenly became a red and white van, which matched the description of Peltier's vehicle.
The judge and jury for this case were intimidated. The judge was told that AIM members were going to trash the courtroom, so there had to be extra security. He was told that AIM was bugging his office, so agents swept his office several times. The jury was escorted in and out of the courtroom by three SWAT teams, supposedly to protect them from AIM. They were driven in buses with black curtains over the windows to protect them snipers. They were all led to believe that AIM was incredibly violent and militant and that they were in grave danger.
It is in this environment that Peltier was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Later evidence showed that the first firing pin test on the rifle supposedly connected to Peltier came back negative. A later firing pin test was positive. However, the judge would not grant a retrial. Many appeals have been filed on Peltier's behalf by many different groups, none of which have been successful.
Rumors circulated at the end of Bill Clinton's term that he was going to grant Peltier clemency. This triggered a massive protest of 500 FBI agents and their families in front of the White House, and Peltier was not released. However, other known criminals, including former members of the Weather Underground (which has been in the news recently) along with the controversial billionaire felon Marc Rich.
Peltier has come into the spotlight recently in the presidential race. Billionaire and Hillary Clinton donor David Geffen withdrew his support for her and started giving to Obama. He says this is because he became disillusioned with Clinton after Bill Clinton's refusal to pardon Peltier in light of his other pardons.
It is good that the presidential candidates are advocating the release of political prisoners in Cuba. However, it remains to be seen whether either will ever acknowledge the political prisoners being held in their own country.
(For those wanting to learn more about the Peltier case, I highly recommend the documentary "Incident at Oglala" which interviews AIM members, witnesses, FBI agents, jurors, and attorneys, among others, who were involved in the case.)
(For those wanting sources for the information in this diary, I used Pelteirs Wikipedia entry and information from "Incident at Oglala".)