NIGHTWATCH
Member
I just purchased this excellent documentary from Amazon.com and viewed it for the first time. I highly suggest adding it to your library.
An Online Review...
As you probably already know, this film concerns the blatantly unfair trail and conviction of Leonard Peltier, for the alleged crime of murdering two FBI agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975. The documentary begins by putting the incident in its proper perspective by showing that the Pine Ridge Reservation, at that time, had one of the highest per capita murder rates in the entire US, with the vast majority of those crimes, even today, still filed as "unsolved" (Check out Ward Churchill's "Indians are Us" and Agents of Repression for a detailed account of the killings in question). In fact, from 1973 to 1976 at least 69 Aim members and supporters were murdered and not one person was ever convicted, or even investigated, for these brutally horrific crimes. Why were these deaths not investigated you may ask. It is because the victims were primarily American Indians involved with AIM who were actively involved in the struggle to retain the lands lawfully granted to them in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 against the federal gov't and the corrupt, unelected BIA administration of Dick Wilson. Many have openly claimed that Wilson and his so-called "goon squad" were responsible for these killings, but no investigation was ever conducted by State law enforcement officials or by the FBI; and yet the incident that led to the shooting that left two agents and one Indian dead, centered around an investigation concerning a pair of STOLEN COWBOY BOOTS. You can draw your own conclusions from that.
Although three men were originally charged with the murder of the agents in a separate trial preceding Peltiers illegal extradition from Canada, the first two defendants were determined to be not guilty of all charges their acts viewed as self defense. After this embarrassment the FBI decided that Peltier would be convicted at all costs and set about the task of constructing a case against him. After a trial marred by official perjury, witness intimidation and clearly manufactured evidence, Leonard Peltier alone was convicted, but then, only after the original judge was inexplicably removed from the case and replaced with one "friendly" to the FBI by a prejudiced jury of his white peers. This film shows the disturbing details surrounding how Peltier was ultimately convicted by this court presided over by an obviously prejudiced judge and jury on what amounts to a mountain of manufactured evidence, witness tampering, and lies.
As the film and the FBI's own evidence shows there is absolutely no proof that has not been exposed as fraud, that links Peltier to the murder weapon or the red van (Peltier drove a pickup truck) that the agents reportedly followed onto the reservation. The FBI goes so far as to argue that people in this part of the country call a pickup truck a van and vice versa to explain just one glaring inconsistency in the governments case. The FBI's own statements are filled with inconsistencies and outright falsehoods, which resulted in the Federal Judge Edward McManus of the first trial harshly rebuking them for their shameful, reckless and unlawful behavior. In the video the FBI spokesman's dishonesty is clearly, if not painfully, apparent. Simply watch this video and decide for yourself. You will be surprised and certainly appalled by what you see.
Why, they'd NEVER do such a thing! /sarcasm
