Sunday, June 26, 2016

PELTIER: DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA; 41st Anniversary

Dear President Obama:

Concerning any review of Leonard Peltier's recent clemency petition on this 41st anniversary of the unprovoked attack and brutal murder of FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, we would respectfully offer several crucial details.[i]

“Just After Noon, June 26, 1975”[ii]
This depiction of the crime scene reveals many of the critical facts from that fateful day at Pine Ridge.

For nearly twenty years, even captured on film in Incident at Oglala (“This story is true” said Peltier[iii]), Peltier’s only claimed alibi was that someone he and the others knew, the phantom Mr. X, was coming to the AIM camp to deliver dynamite and that he was the one who was followed by the agents onto the Jumping Bull property. Mr. X was the one who wounded them at a distance with rifle fire, then shot them both in the face at point blank range and drove off in the infamous red pickup truck.[iv]

This stood until it was proven a lie by one of his codefendants, his defense committee, and even one of his key attorneys.[v]

The reality is that Leonard Peltier was the actual killer and the real Mr. X.

The AR-15 was recovered on a Wichita turnpike in an exploded station wagon driven by codefendant Bob Robideau. It was damaged but the bolt mechanism was intact. 

Found at the scene of the murders in the trunk of Agent Coler’s vehicle was a .223 shell casing that was matched with extractor marks to Petlier’s AR-15, the murder weapon. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals stated, “When all is said and done, however, a few simple but very important facts remain. The casing introduced into evidence had in fact been extracted from the Wichita AR-15. This point was not disputed…” and, “The trial witnesses unanimously testified that there was only one AR-15 in the compound prior to the murders, that this weapon was used exclusively by Peltier and carried out by Peltier after the murders.” [vi]

We know from the crime scene and autopsies that Agents' Coler and Williams were both shot at point-blank range destroying their faces, yet their bodies were found rolled-over on the ground. This can only mean that in addition to stealing their weapons, the dead agents were also manhandled after death.

In addition to trial testimony there was an eyewitness. We know there were at least five people who knew exactly what happened at the agents' vehicles after they were initially attacked, severely wounded and then approached to be slaughtered: Dino Butler (who publically called the Mr. X alibi a lie, Bob Robideau, who said “they died like worms,” [vii] Leonard Peltier, (believed by the government, the jury, and courts of appeal to be the killer), and victims; Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

Ron Williams was a critical witness because he was able to tell a number of agents over the FBI radio exactly what was about to happen. They also heard him get shot at least one of the times as he told them that if they didn’t get there soon he and Jack Coler would be dead.

There are countless fabrications, myths and folklore surrounding Peltier as he and his supporters (who haven’t made the effort to understand all the facts or simply don’t care to know) have diminished and tainted an otherwise proud Native American culture into believing that in some tragically perverse way freeing Peltier would atone for the historic ill treatment of First Americans. Peltier’s criminal acts contradict that he is worthy of clemency.

Peltier’s latest attempt at any semblance of remorse in his latest petition can be seen for exactly what it is: the pitiful cry of a shameful panderer for sympathy. Leonard Peltier’s character and guilt is best defined by his own public admissions, “And really, if necessary, I’d do it all over again because it was the right thing to do.” (2010), and, “I don’t regret any of this for a minute” (2014). 

These are not the words of someone who has accepted any responsibility for his actions nor paid his debt to society.

There are others who are deserving of clemency consideration. However, Peltier’s petition should be cast aside as he did with the lives of two young men who were brutally murdered in the line of duty.

"In the Spirit of Coler and Williams" 
Ed Woods [viii]

[i] Leaders and members of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI held memorial services at the gravesites of Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in Los Angeles on June 26, 2016.
Not so ironically, but consistent with his decades-long fabrications and twisting of facts, Leonard                                      Peltier NEVER mentioned Mr. X in his autobiography, Prison Writings. http://www.noparolepeltier.com/debate.html#amazon
 Excerpted from the below NPPA Editorial Essay, January 20, 2001:
 Mr. X and actual guilt: If Peltier was indeed innocent as he has claimed, his statements of what happened that day at Pine Ridge should have been simple, straight forward and unchanged over these years. But instead, he has altered his story as if searching for the scenario that most would accept, and along with Robert Robideau and others, created the phantom killer who drove off in the red pickup truck. Now that Peltier and the LPDC have distanced themselves from this obvious fabrication, all Ms. Harbury can say is, "Mr. X, has long been a controversial topic, by both supporters of Leonard Peltier and those who oppose his release." No kidding, Ms. Harbury?
This is such an obvious lie, perpetuated for the better part of two decades, that the LPDC cannot sweep it away or ignore it. It is another glaring example of Peltier's guilt.
[vi] http://www.noparolepeltier.com/800.html (Section: The .223 casing)
[viii] This Blog was begun on Father’s Day 2016. The NPPA is not in a habit of referring to, or commenting on Leonard Peltier’s family; this is about him and him alone. However, Kathy Peltier, described as a “Daughter of Leonard Peltier,” posted an impassioned letter entitled “Help me free my father.” Although factually inaccurate and opinionated, she certainly has the right to express her feelings. A legitimate answer to her pleadings would be to offer a rhetorical reply: Wouldn’t Jack Coler’s widow, his two sons, and now his grandchildren, (but thanks to Peltier and other AIM cowards Ron Williams never had the chance to marry and have children of his own), have wanted to celebrate this day with their father? But that was stolen from them by Leonard Peltier.