Sunday, October 23, 2016

PELTIER: The List & the IRS

Dear Supporters:

The List:

October is coming to a close with mere weeks before President Obama leaves office.

The President continues his plan to grant pardons and clemency (commutation of sentence) to those who have received excessive sentences for some drug convictions.

Thus far, some sentences have been reduced, while others have been released or will be in the near future. Not all though are just being set free. For example; Jefferson Levine, convicted in 2001 for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base had his life sentence reduced to 22 years, so he’ll be released sometime in 2023, or Charles Stokes, convicted in 1996 for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, sentenced to life but commuted to 360 months, with a release date in 2026.[i]

What The List does not contain is a convicted felon for a brutal double-murder of two already attacked and critically wounded (an attack in which he and other Cowards of Jumping Bull instigated), a felon involved in an armed escape from federal prison, one who has claimed to be a brave warrior and at the same time a pathetic victim, one who has adulterated an otherwise proud Native American culture, made many, even recent, public admissions that only serve to reinforce his guilt beyond all doubt, and in the process, scam unsuspecting or unknowing supporters into believing that he is in some perverse way entitled to any consideration of his clemency petition.[ii]

Leonard Peltier remains a remorseless and unrepentant cold-blooded killer who should be shown the same mercy he gave to FBI Agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams: And that would be none.                          

The IRS [iii]

 Anyone who has spent just a little time examining Leonard Peltier’s claims of charitable activities and fund raising and illegitimate (illegal) claims of “tax deductible” donations can easily see through the scam. Moreover, by the way, so has the IRS, (which was evident, although Peltier and the ILPDC would never admit it), as Peltier over the years has removed, then tried another scheme to claim in some groundless and distorted manner that he, of all people, is a charity case.

Please see this Editorial Essay for some background.[iv]

* * *
In response to a complaint to the IRS[v], the following was received:

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Tax Exempt and Government Entities
Exempt Organizations: Examinations
1100 Commerce Street
Dallas, TX 75242

                                                                        October 3, 2016

Dear Ed Woods:

Thank you for the information you submitted regarding the INTERNATIONAL LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE. The IRS has an ongoing audit program to ensure exempt organizations comply with applicable provisions of the Internal Revenue Code (the Code). We’ll consider the information you submitted in this program.

Section 6103 of the Code requires that tax returns and return information shall be confidential…If you later have additional information you think is relevant to this matter, attach a copy of this letter to the information and send it to the address shown above.

We appreciate your bringing this matter to our attention. If you have questions, call IRS Customer Account Services at (867) 829-5500

                                                                        Sincerely,
                                                                        Margaret Von Lienen
                                                                        Margaret Von Lienen
                                                                        Director, Exempt Organizations
                                                                        Examinations

* * *
Peltier history demonstrates that this has been an ongoing issue, (finances and fundraising that is), as people within his own “committee” called for transparency.[vi]

Obviously, that never happened and has remained Peltier’s long-standing, dirty little secret.  

January 20, 2017 will come and go without effect for USP Coleman inmate #89637-132.

It will be interesting to see how the tax-deductible fundraising will continue after that point, providing the IRS doesn’t shut it down altogether and Peltier becomes what he is in reality, a footnote in the sordid history of the American Indian Movement.

“In the Spirit of Coler and Williams”
Ed Woods