Peltier attorney urges Congress to investigate official misconduct

March 29, 2004
Media Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Barry Bachrach, Esquire; Bowditch & Dewey, 311 Main Street,
Worcester, MA 01615; (508) 926-3403 or bbachrach [at] bowditch.com

Peltier attorney urges Congress to investigate official misconduct

"After 28 years, the courts still won't correct the wrongs of the past. In
November 2003, the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged
that '"Much of the government's behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and
in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government
withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not
disputed.' Yet, the court claimed it lacked power to address this issue.
We believe that a congressional inquiry on the misconduct in this case is
long overdue," said Barry Bachrach, lead counsel for American Indian
activist Leonard Peltier.

Bachrach and other members of Peltier's legal team this week submitted a
formal request to the U.S. Congress for an investigation into the Justice
Department's actions against Peltier and the American Indian Movement (AIM)
during the 1970s. The strife between the government and AIM culminated in
the June 26, 1975, shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI). Peltier, who still maintains his innocence, was
convicted of the killings and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. He
is currently imprisoned at the U.S. penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.

Human rights organizations worldwide have long called for hearings into the
use of the criminal justice system by the FBI for political purposes.
Amnesty International, convinced that Peltier has repeatedly been denied a
fair trial and other fair consideration for either parole or Executive
Clemency, has called for his immediate release on the grounds that he no
longer has adequate recourse to justice.

"Despite repeated calls for congressional hearings by the U.S. Civil Rights
Commission, Amnesty International and individual members of Congress, no
congressional committee has yet had the courage to investigate the FBI's
counterintelligence activities against AIM or the misconduct in the Peltier
case. We believe Indians must be heard on these matters. All Americans
have the right to know the truth about what occurred during that turbulent
era."

The request to Congress calls on legislators to fully investigate the FBI's
role in the politically motivated violence on the Pine Ridge Indian
reservation in South Dakota from 1973 to 1976, and the now documented
official misconduct against members of AIM during that period. In the case
of Peltier, the FBI's own documents show that the government illegally
obtained his extradition from Canada; as well as withheld critical evidence,
presented fabricated evidence, and intimidated witnesses into providing
false testimony at trial.

"We challenge Congress to finish the work the Church Committee began nearly
30 years ago. Uncover the COINTELPRO tactics employed against AIM. They
are not any less egregious than the tactics used against other activists of
the time - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example."
As discovered by the Church Committee and reported in 1976, the goals of the
COunter INTELligence PROgrams of the period from 1956 to the mid-1970s were
to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" those
persons or organizations that the FBI decided were "enemies of the State."
Presidential candidate and military veteran John Kerry was even placed under
surveillance for exercising his free speech rights in opposition to the
Vietnam War. The FBI's COINTELPRO activities officially ended in 1971, but
there have been examples of counterintelligence-type operations against
political dissidents since.

On May 30, 2002, Attorney General Ashcroft effectively abolished the
restrictions that were first imposed in 1976 on FBI surveillance of
Americans' everyday lives. These regulations, a direct result of the Church
Committee's inquiries, were specifically developed to counter the COINTELPRO
domestic spying program that had led to massive civil rights era abuses
during the 1960s and 1970s.

"COINTELPRO abuses are not a thing of the past. To understand the present,
we have to examine the past," Bachrach said.

"Such government misconduct against our citizens cannot be tolerated, not by
a society purporting to be founded on the principles of justice and freedom.
We trust that this inquiry will again lead to congressional oversight of FBI
domestic security investigations, as well as legislation designed to better
protect Americans' fundamental rights."

Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, PO Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044-0583
Telephone: 785/842-5774; 785/842-5796 (Fax); E-mail:
info [at] leonardpeltier.org