Democracy Now's Leonard Peltier Interview

posted by Wes Flexner
wesflexner@anonrocknroll.com

Democracy Now interviewed Native American activist Leonard Peltier last month.
Leonard Peltier was a legendary political prisoner until former President Joe Biden granted Peltier clemency...Peltier is still a legend..he just isn't in prison.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBvNsS0CeBA

Democracy Now via WCRSFM.org Columbus Community 92.7/ 98.3 :
Monday 8-9am
Monday 5-6pm
Tuesday 8-9am
Tuesday 5-6pm
Wednesday 8-9am
Wednesday 5-6pm
Thursday 8-9am
Thursday 5-6pm
Friday 8-9am
Friday 5-6pm..

https://www.democracynow.org

"AMY GOODMAN: In a Democracy Now! global TV/radio broadcast exclusive, we spend the hour with longtime Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. In February, he was released from a federal prison in Florida after spending nearly half a century behind bars for a crime he says he did not commit. President Biden, on his last day in office, commuted Peltier’s life sentence to home confinement. Biden’s decision came after mounting calls by tribal leaders and supporters around the world in a decadeslong community-led campaign fighting for his freedom.

In the ’70s, Peltier was involved with AIM, the American Indian Movement. In 1975, two FBI agents and one young AIM activist were killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Two AIM members were later arrested for killing the agents. At trial, the jury acquitted them. Leonard Peltier was arrested later, tried separately and convicted. Peltier has always maintained his innocence.

Notable supporters of Leonard Peltier over the years included Nelson Mandela, Pope Francis and Amnesty International. Supporters of Peltier say his trial was marked by gross FBI and federal prosecutorial misconduct, including the coercion of witnesses, fabricated testimony and suppressed exculpatory evidence.

After being released in February, Leonard Peltier returned home to live on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota. September 12th was Leonard Peltier’s 81st birthday. People gathered throughout the day, visiting him to celebrate this first birthday in almost a half a century where he was home. We got there on his birthday. The next day, Saturday, we spoke in his living room in his first extended TV/radio broadcast interview since his release from prison."