Palestinian Prisoners’ Mass Hunger Strike Concludes After Agreement is Reached

http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=481

Ramallah, 15 May 2012 – After nearly a full month of fasting, around 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners ended last night their mass hunger strike upon reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) to attain certain core demands. Addameer lauds these achievements of the prisoners’ movement and can only hope that Israel will implement any policy changes in good faith. Addameer especially commends those individuals who engaged in open hunger strike for over two months, displaying remarkable steadfastness in the struggle for their most basic rights.
The demands raised in the collective hunger strike, which was launched on 17 April, included an end to the IPS’ abusive use of isolation for “security” reasons, which currently affects ­­­­19 prisoners, some of whom have spent 10 years in isolation, and a repeal of a series of punitive measures taken against Palestinian prisoners following the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, including the denial of family visits for all Gaza prisoners since 2007 and denial of access to university education since June 2011. Prisoners also called for an end to Israel’s practice of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial in administrative detention. Eight prisoners, including five administrative detainees, had already begun their hunger strikes as early as the end of February.
 
The details of the agreement signed last night by the prisoners’ committee representing the hunger strikers was recounted today to Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad in his visit to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, who is a member of the committee, and to Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan during his visit to Ahmad Sa’adat in Ramleh prison medical clinic, who conveyed what he was told last night when members of the committee came to Ramleh to announce the end of the hunger strike.
 
According to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, the nine members of the hunger strike committee met yesterday with a committee consisting of IPS officials and Israeli intelligence officers and determined the stipulations of their agreement. The written agreement contained five main provisions: the prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the agreement; there will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons, and the 19 prisoners will be moved out of isolation within 72 hours; family visits for first degree relatives to prisoners from the Gaza Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visit based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated within one month; the Israeli intelligence agency guarantees that there will be a committee formed to facilitate meetings between the IPS and prisoners in order to improve their daily conditions; there will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contains “very serious” information.
 
For the five administrative detainees on protracted hunger strikes, including Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, who engaged in hunger strike for a miraculous 77 days, their administrative detention orders will not be renewed and they will be released upon the expiration of their current orders. These five have been transferred to public hospitals to receive adequate healthcare during their fragile recovery periods. In regards to Israel’s practice of administrative detention as a whole, Ahmad Sa’adat further noted that the agreement includes limitations to its widespread use in general. Addameer is concerned that these provisions of the agreement will not explicitly solve Israel’s lenient and problematic application of administrative detention, which as it stands is in stark violation of international law.
 
Addameer has observed that Israel has consistently failed to respect the agreements it executes with Palestinians regarding prisoners’ issues. For this reason, it will be essential for all supporters of Palestinian political prisoners to actively monitor the events of the next few months to ensure that this agreement is fully implemented. As a human rights organization committed to the international standards of the rights of prisoners, Addameer will also continue to monitor closely the conditions inside Israeli prisons in order to assure that conditions meet compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law.
 
On the day commemorating 64 years since the Palestinian Nakba, it is regrettable that it has taken the near-starvation of Palestinian political prisoners en masse to call attention to their plight; it is therefore imperative to take this opportunity to not only applaud their achievements but also to push forward lobbying efforts on their behalf and demand a just and permanent resolution for their cause. Addameer extends its utmost gratitude to the dedicated activists and institutions, including members of civil society and the diplomatic community, who have supported the Palestinian prisoners in their campaign for dignity.

Statement No. 7 of the Strike Leadership

by samidoun

Statement No. 7 by the Prisoners’ leadership was released Sunday, May 13, 2012:

We have only two options: to achieve all of our demands, or to die

Free Palestinian people, masses of our nation, free people of the world….

We have entered a stage of legendary and draining human struggle, where we face real danger which threatens our lives. We are now very close to martyrdom, which is more precious and one of the best options for us.

We are now at the state of a great test of wills and we reject completely the attempts of the Prison Service management to force us to accept partial settlements in order to bring an end to this epic humanitarian struggle for justice. Here, we emphasize the following points:

We have only two options to achieve all of the following.

First, we swear not to go back without achieving our demands. We are waiting for martyrdom for the sake of our dignity, and we have prepared ourselves to confront our only two options – the victory of our humanity and our dignity, or our martyrdom without it.

Second, we strongly and firmly swear that we will continue with our battle of the empty stomachs, whatever the costs may be, until we achieve the minimum of our demands, particularly the immediate end to the horror of solitary confinement and isolation, and to allow prisoners from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who have been denied family visits to receive them, and to return prison conditions to their pre-2000 state.

Third, we greatly appreciate the role of our great sister Egypt with regard to compelling “Israel” to implement the second part of an agreement and fulfilling its commitments, and we are confident that Egypt is an Arab leader that will not leave us to face this battle alone. We also affirm categorically that we will not end our strike without promptly achieving our demands. We are confident of the depth of support in our nation, and particularly in Egypt.

Finally, we are ready for martyrdom. We are not amateurs in hunger. Death is easier than disrespect for our dignity, so we swear we will live with dignity or die.

The Central Committee of the Leadership of the Strike
May 13, 2012

URL: http://wp.me/p2cx3f-jw

Statement No. 5 of Strike Leadership

by samidoun

The following statement was issued early Friday morning, May 11, by the leadership of the hunger strikers in prisons, following their negotiations with IPS officials:

Statement No. 5

Issued by the Central Committee of the Leadership of the Strike

To the masses of the Palestinian people….you are free before our nation…you are free before the world.

On our twenty-fifth day of an epic hunger strike, we continue to trust in God. Our empty stomach continue in the spirit of Palestinian steadfastness that overcomes Israeli oppression. To the free people of the world…

We have held a lengthy meeting with the leadership of the Prison Services in Nafha prison last night, including all members of the Central Committee of the Leadership of the Strike. The Prison Service attempted through prevarication and procrastination to pressure us to break the strike with unverifiable promises. After a round of stubborn negotiations between humanity and brutality, we report the following:

First – we have conveyed our position unequivocally, which is, we will not accept any partial solutions that do not guaranteed, as a minimum our demands:
a. An immediate end to the tragedy of isolation and solitary confinement
b. Prisoners from the Gaza Strip allowed family visits
c. The return of prison conditions to pre-2000 conditions.

Second – we are living through an exceptional period of struggle with a strong consensus to continue our strike at any cost and achieve our demands, and we have the highest readiness and willingness to sacrifice for that goal

Third – we have decided to refrain from taking vitamins and to boycott the prison clinic, and we are going to take bold, serious and dangerous steps that we will announce at the time. There will be unprecedented steps over the next few hours and days.

To our people and the masses of our people…

We do not review our coming steps in this statement. We do this not to rouse emotions, but because we are very serious about continuing this battle and are fully aware of the consequences. We have prepared ourselves for all stages without hesitation. We call on the masses of our people and our nation to act now and strongly before it is too late. We look forward to a unified, strong Palestinian position that is united across geographic lines and engages in concerted efforts to force the occupation government to respond to our demands with respect for our lives.

We look to Tahrir Square in sister Egypt, to our people in Jordan and in beloved Tunisia and all of our Arab and Muslim brothers and to our people in the Diaspora and around th world. Finally, we promise again that we will not retreat without securing our just human rights. We are all willing to be martyrs for the sake of our dignity and our rights, and therefore we promise you that we will live with our dignity or die.

Central Committee of the Leadership of the Strike
May 10, 2012

samidoun | May 12, 2012 at 10:36 am  URL: http://wp.me/p2cx3f-j9

Hunger-striker Bilal Diab writes will to family

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=484990
Published yesterday (updated) 12/05/2012 21:12

JENIN (Ma’an) — Hunger-striker Bilal Diab has sent a will to his family in the northern West Bank on his 75th day without food, relatives said on Saturday.

Diab, 27, has refused food since Feb. 29 to protest his detention without charge in Israeli jail.

His family, from Jenin-district town Kufr Rai, said they received his will on Saturday detailing his wishes in case of his death.

“We will have victory, but only through either martyrdom or immediate release — not any partial solution as claimed by the prisons administration,” Diab wrote.

Last week, representative for Fatah prisoners Jamal al-Rjoob said detainees affiliated to Fatah had accepted half the proposals offered by Israeli authorities in response to the strike.

But Yousef Rizqa, political adviser to Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, warned on Monday that Israel was trying to use party affiliations to sow rifts between the hunger-strikers.

“On the 75th day of my hunger strike, I am still determined, patient and focused on continuing against conspiracies, threats and solitary confinement by the fascist Israeli prison administration,” Diab wrote.

Diab instructed his family keep his grave at ground level, in accordance with Islamic teaching, and distribute sweets at his funeral as a sign of celebration.

He asked his brother Homam to perform prayers for him, and freed hunger-striker Khader Adnan to lower him into his grave.

The young hunger-striker thanked all Palestinians, and Arab and Islamic nations for their support.

Diab wrote the will to his family on his 75th day on hunger-strike

The PA minister of prisoners affairs said Saturday that a comprehensive solution to widespread hunger strike action by prisoners is being discussed between Palestinian, Israeli and Egyptian officials.

PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad visited a solidarity tent in Bethlehem and applauded the hunger-strikers, assuring prisoners’ relatives that they would achieve success.

In the past month, around 2,000 prisoners joined a group of administrative detainees on hunger-strike, according to prisoners groups’ estimates.

They are calling for improved conditions in Israeli custody, such as an end to solitary confinement and bans on family visits, in addition to ending administrative detention.

Diab and Thaer Halahla, 33, from Hebron — both held without charge — joined earlier hunger-strikes after Khader Adnan and Hana Shalabi won release from detention without charge by refusing food.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and Physicians for Human Rights – Israel have urged Israel to transfer the prisoners to hospital after warning their health condition is now critical.

Call – E-Mail – Write Newspapers via NRA link – Action For Marissa Alexander

Marissa Alexander faces a 20 year sentence on Friday May 11th 2012.  Angela Corey has the power to remove the mandatory 20 year sentence

Please call and/or e-mail the following individuals on Tuesday May 8, 2012 through Friday May 11, 2012 and ask that Marissa Alexander’s penalty is lessened.  You may obtain additional information regarding her case at: www.justiceformarissa.blogspot.com

• Judge J. Daniel – 904-630-7154

Please call and e-mail State Attorney Angela Corey Angela Corey – (Better known as special prosecutor for George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin Case)

• E-mail - Acorey@coj.net

                Angela Corey phone (904) 630-2400

• Governor Rick Scott

            phone – 850-488-7146

• Please e-mail Governor Scott at the following website

             http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/

• Please write a Florida Newspaper via the NRA link below – click on the state of Florida and choose 5 newspapers

          http://www.nraila.org/get-involved-locally/grassroots/write-the-media.aspx

–
Nancy Lockhart, M.J.
http://www.nancylockhart.net

Interview with Vo Nguyen Giap Viet Minh Commander

Q: Was Diên Bin Phû a conventional military victory or was it a victory for military warfare?

Giap: The victory at Diên Bin Phû was a victory for the people. But then, of course, while the concept of a people’s war and guerrilla warfare are not entirely separate, they are separate nonetheless. In this case, it was the people’s war that was victorious. And guerrilla warfare was one aspect of that people’s war. It’s all quite complicated…. What is the people’s war? Well, in a word, it’s a war fought for the people by the people, whereas guerrilla warfare is simply a combat method. The people’s war is more global in concept. It’s a synthesized concept. A war which is simultaneously military, economic and political, and is what we in France would call “synthesized.” There’s guerrilla warfare and there’s large-scale tactical warfare, fought by large units.

Q: What was new about the idea of the “People’s War”?

Giap: It was a war for the people by the people. FOR the people because the war’s goals are the people’s goals — goals such as independence, a unified country, and the happiness of its people…. And BY the people — well that means ordinary people — not just the army but all people.

We know it’s the human factor, and not material resources, which decide the outcome of war. That’s why our people’s war, led by Ho Chi Minh, was on such a large scale. It took in the whole population.
 

Q: What do you think about the significance of Diên Bin Phû for the world?

Giap: The history of the Vietnamese people goes back thousands of years. During that time we’ve repelled thousands of invaders. Only, in former times the countries that tried to invade us were on the same economic level as we were. Theirs, like ours, was a feudal society. That was the case, for example, when we fought the Chinese in the 13th century. But Diên Bin Phû was a victory in another era. What I mean is that in the latter half of the 19th century, when western imperialism divided the world into colonies, a new problem emerged. How could a weak, economically backwards people ever hope to regain its freedom? How could it hope to take on a modern western army, backed by the resources of a modern capitalist state? And that’s why it took us 100 years to fight off the French and French imperialism. Diên Bin Phû was the first great decisive victory after 100 years of war against French imperialism and U.S. interventionism. That victory that put an end to the war and marked the end of French aggression. From an international point of view, it was the first great victory for a weak, colonized people struggling against the full strength of modern Western forces. This is why it was the first great defeat for the West. It shook the foundations of colonialism and called on people to fight for their freedom — it was the beginning of international civilization.

Q: Was Diên Bin Phû an easy victory because the French made so many mistakes?

Giap: It’s not as simple as that. We believed that in the French camp, French general staff and the military chiefs were well informed. They’d weighed up the pros and cons, and according to their forecasts, Diên Bin Phû was impregnable. It has to be said that at the beginning of the autumn of ’53, for example, when our political headquarters were planning our autumn and winter campaigns, there was no mention of Diên Bin Phû. Why? Because, the Navarre plan didn’t mention it either. They had a whole series of maneuvers planned.

For us, the problem was that Navarre wanted to retain the initiative whereas we wanted to seize it. There is a contradiction that exists in a war of aggression whereby you have to disperse your forces to occupy a territory but rally your mobile forces for offensive action. We took advantage of this contradiction and forced Navarre to disperse his forces. That’s how it all started. We ordered our troops to advance in a number of directions, directions of key importance to the enemy although their presence wasn’t significant. So the enemy had no choice but to disperse their troops. We sent divisions north, northwest, toward the center, towards Laos; other divisions went in other directions. So to safeguard Laos and the northwest, Navarre had to parachute troops into Diên Bin Phû, and that’s what happened at Diên Bin Phû. Before then, no one had heard of Diên Bin Phû. But afterwards, well that’s history, isn’t it? French General Staff only planned to parachute in sufficient troops to stop us advancing on the northwest and Laos. Little by little, they planned to transform Diên Bin Phû into an enormous concentration camp, a fortified camp, the most powerful in Indochina. They planned to draw our forces, break us, crush us, but the opposite took place. They’d wanted a decisive battle and that’s exactly what they got at Diên Bin Phû — except that it was decisive for the Vietnamese and not for the French.

Q: Before Diên Bin Phû, do you think the French ever imagined you could defeat them?

Giap: Well, everyone at Diên Bin Phû, from the French generals and representatives of the French government to the American generals and the commanding admiral of the Pacific Fleet, agreed that Diên Bin Phû was impregnable. Everyone agreed that it was impossible to take. The French and then the Americans underestimated our strength. They had better weapons and enormous military and economic potential. They never doubted that victory would be theirs. And yet, just when the French believed themselves to be on the verge of victory, everything collapsed around them. The same happened to the Americans in the Spring of ’65. Just when Washington was about to proclaim victory in the South, the Americans saw their expectations crumble. Why? Because it wasn’t just an army they were up against but an entire people — an entire people.

So the lesson is that however great the military and economic potential of your adversary, it will never be great enough to defeat a people united in the struggle for their fundamental rights. That’s what we’ve learned from all this.

Q: Why was the National Liberation Front so successful in expanding the areas it controlled between 1960 and 1965?

Giap: Throughout our long history, whenever we’ve felt ourselves to be threatened by the enemy, our people have closed in the ranks. Millions of people, united, have called for “Unification above all,” for “Victory above all”…. The National Liberation Front was victorious because it managed to unite most of the people and because its politics were just.

Q: Did you change your tactics at all when the American troops began to arrive after 1965?

Giap: Of course, but even so, it was still a people’s war. And, a people’s war is characterized by a strategy that is more than simply military. There’s always a synthesized aspect to the strategy, too. Our strategy was at once military, political, economic, and diplomatic, although it was the military component which was the most important one.

In a time of war, you have to take your lead from the enemy. You have to know your enemy well. When your enemy changes his strategy or tactics, you have to do the same. In every war, a strategy is always made up of a number of tactics that are considered to be of great strategic importance, so you have to try to smash those tactics. If we took on the cavalry, for example, we’d do everything we could to smash that particular tactic. It was the same when the enemy made use of strategic weapons…. And, when the Americans tried to apply their “seek and destroy” tactic, we responded with our own particular tactic that was to make their objective unattainable and destroy them instead. We had to…force the enemy to fight the way we wanted them to fight. We had to force the enemy to fight on unfamiliar territory.

Q: Was your Têt offensive in 1968 a failure?

Giap: As far as we’re concerned, there’s no such thing as a purely military strategy. So it would be wrong to speak of Têt in purely military terms. The offensive was three things at the same time: military, political, and diplomatic. The goal of the war was de-escalation. We were looking to de-escalate the war. Thus, it would have been impossible to separate our political strategy from our military strategy. The truth is that we saw things in their entirety and knew that in the end, we had to de-escalate the war. At that point, the goal of the offensive was to try to de-escalate the war.

Q: And did the de-escalation succeed?

Giap: Your objective in war can either be to wipe out the enemy altogether or to leave their forces partly intact but their will to fight destroyed. It was the American policy to try and escalate the war. Our goal in the ’68 offensive was to force them to de-escalate, to break the American will to remain in the war….

We did this by confronting them with repeated military, as well as political and diplomatic victories. By bringing the war to practically all the occupied towns, we aimed to show the Americans and the American people that it would be impossible for them to continue with the war. Essentially, that’s how we did it.

Q: You are familiar with those famous pictures of April 1975, of American helicopters flying away from the American Embassy. What do those pictures mean to you?

Giap: It was as we expected. It marked the end of the American neo-colonial presence in our country. And, it proved that when a people are united in their fight for freedom, they will always be victorious.

When I was young, I had a dream that one day I’d see my country free and united. That day, my dream came true. When the political bureau reunited Hanoi with Laos, there were first reports of evacuation. Then the Saigon government capitulated. It was like turning the page on a chapter of history. The streets in Hanoi were full of people.

The pictures of the helicopters were, in one way, a concrete symbol of the victory of the People’s war against American aggression. But, looked at another way, it’s proof that the Pentagon could not possibly predict what would happen. It revealed the sheer impossibility for the Americans to forecast the outcome. Otherwise, they would have planned things better, wouldn’t they.

The reality of history teaches us that not even the most powerful economic and military force can overcome a resistance of a united people, a people united in their struggle for their international rights. There is a limit to power. I think the Americans and great superpowers would do well to remember that while their power may be great, it is inevitably limited…. Since the beginning of time, whether in a socialist or a capitalist country, the things you do in the interests of the people stand you in good stead, while those which go against the interest of the people will eventually turn against you. History bears out what I say.

We were the ones who won the war and the Americans were the ones who were defeated, but let’s be precise about this. What constitutes victory? The Vietnamese people never wanted war; they wanted peace. Did the Americans want war? No, they wanted peace, too. So, the victory was a victory for those people in Vietnam and in the USA who wanted peace. Who, then, were the ones defeated? Those who were after aggression at any price. And that’s why we’re still friends with the people of France and why we’ve never felt any enmity for the people of America….

Q: Who invented the idea of People’s war? Whose idea was it originally?

Giap: It was originally a product of the creative spirit of the people. Let me tell you the legend of Phu Dong…which everyone here knows well. It’s a legend set in prehistoric times. The enemy was set to invade, and there was a three-year-old boy called Phu Dong who was growing visibly bigger by the minute. He climbed on to an iron horse and, brandishing bamboo canes as weapons, rallied the people. The peasants, the fisherman, everyone answered his call, and they won the war. It’s just a legend and like popular literature, the content is legendary, but it still reflects the essence of the people’s thinking. So, popular warfare existed even in legends, and it remained with us over the centuries.

Q: Why do you think Vietnam is almost the only country in the world that has defeated America? Why only Vietnam?

Giap: Speaking as a historian, I’d say that Vietnam is rare. As a nation, Vietnam was formed very early on. It is said that, in theory, a nation can only be formed after the arrival of Capitalism — according to Stalin’s theory of the formation of nations, for instance. But, our nation was formed very early, before the Christian era. Why? Because the risk of aggression from outside forces led all the various tribes to band together. And then there was the constant battle against the elements, against the harsh winter conditions that prevail here. In our legends, this struggle against the elements is seen as a unifying factor, a force for national cohesion. This, combined with the constant risk of invasion, made for greater cohesion and created a tradition — a tradition that gave us strength.

The Vietnamese people in general tend to be optimistic. Why? Because they’ve been facing up to vicissitudes for thousands of years, and for thousands of years they’ve been overcoming them.

Q: What was the contribution of Marxism and Leninism to your theory of a People’s War?

The People’s War in Vietnam pre-dated the arrival of Marxism and Leninism, both of which contributed something when they did arrive, of course.

When the USSR collapsed, we predicted that 60 to 80 percent of our imports and exports budget would be eliminated because we depended upon aid from the USSR and other socialist countries. So people predicted the collapse of Vietnam. Well, we’re still hanging on and slowly making progress. I was asked what I thought of Perestroika, so I answered that I agreed with the change and thought it was necessary in political relations. But Perestroika is a Russian word, made for the Russians. Here we do things the Vietnamese way. And we make the most of our hopes and the hopes of those in Russia, China, the USA, Japan, Great Britain — but we try to assimilate them all.

As I mentioned, the Vietnamese people have an independent spirit, stubborn people, I suppose, who do things the Vietnamese way. So now the plan is to mobilize the entire population in the fight against backwardness and misery. While there are the problems of war and the problems of peace, there are also concrete laws, social laws, great laws, which retain their value whether in peace or war. You have to be realistic. You have to have a goal. You have to be a realist and use reality as a means of analyzing the object laws which govern things. To win, you have to act according to these laws. If you do the opposite, you’re being subjective and you’re bound to lose. So, we learn from the experience, both good and bad, of Capitalism. But, we have our own Vietnamese idea on things. I’d like to add that we are still for independence, that we still follow the path shown us by Ho Chi Minh, the path of independence and Socialism. I’m still a Socialist but what is Socialism? It’s independence and unity for the country. It’s the freedom and well-being of the people who live there. And, it’s peace and friendship between all people.

Nafha prisoners: We will start second stage of our strike

http://samidoun.ca/2012/05/nafha-prisoners-we-will-start-second-stage-of-our-strike/

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike in the Israeli Nafha jail said in a message that they would start on Monday the second stage of their hunger strike.

They said in a message on Sunday that after 20 days of “legendary steadfastness” they decided to start the second stage of their hunger strike, which, they said, would contain a lot of surprises for the “Zionist enemy”.

They said, “We started our battle of empty stomachs on 17 April to let the world know of our tragedy and to demand our humanitarian rights”.

The prisoners said that the Israeli responses to the strike did not meet the minimum of their demands, affirming that they would proceed in their battle till those demands were met.

For its part, the Palestinian ministry of planning and foreign affairs in Gaza charged the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) with exercising the most “brutal forms of repression” against the Palestinian prisoners.

The ministry said in a statement on Sunday that the IOA practices are in violation of the international law and international agreements.

It said that the IOA was banning lawyers from visiting hunger strikers, quelling more and more of them in isolation cells, and cracking down on the solidarity rallies in addition to spreading rumors and waging psychological warfare against them.

Pointing out that more than 3000 Palestinian prisoners were on hunger strike, the ministry asked the Arab League, the world community, and human rights groups to seriously act to stop the IOA violent quelling measures and to provide a dignified life for those prisoners and to seek their release the soonest.

Justice requires action to stop subjugation of Palestinians

By Desmond Tutu, special to the Times
Desmond TutuTampa Bay Times In Print: Tuesday, May 1, 2012

 http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/justice-requires-action-to-stop-subjugation-of-palestinians/1227722

News

A quarter-century ago I barnstormed around the United States encouraging Americans, particularly students, to press for divestment from South Africa. Today, regrettably, the time has come for similar action to force an end to Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territory and refusal to extend equal rights to Palestinian citizens who suffer from some 35 discriminatory laws.

I have reached this conclusion slowly and painfully. I am aware that many of our Jewish brothers and sisters who were so instrumental in the fight against South African apartheid are not yet ready to reckon with the apartheid nature of Israel and its current government. And I am enormously concerned that raising this issue will cause heartache to some in the Jewish community with whom I have worked closely and successfully for decades. But I cannot ignore the Palestinian suffering I have witnessed, nor the voices of those courageous Jews troubled by Israel’s discriminatory course.

Within the past few days, some 1,200 American rabbis signed a letter — timed to coincide with resolutions considered by the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) — urging Christians not “to selectively divest from certain companies whose products are used by Israel.” They argue that a “one-sided approach” on divestment resolutions, even the selective divestment from companies profiting from the occupation proposed by the Methodists and Presbyterians, “damages the relationship between Jews and Christians that has been nurtured for decades.”

While they are no doubt well-meaning, I believe that the rabbis and other opponents of divestment are sadly misguided. My voice will always be raised in support of Christian-Jewish ties and against the anti-Semitism that all sensible people fear and detest. But this cannot be an excuse for doing nothing and for standing aside as successive Israeli governments colonize the West Bank and advance racist laws.

I recall well the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail in which he confesses to his “Christian and Jewish brothers” that he has been “gravely disappointed with the white moderate … who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action;’ who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom. …”

King’s words describe almost precisely the shortcomings of the 1,200 rabbis who are not joining the brave Palestinians, Jews and internationals in isolated West Bank communities to protest nonviolently against Israel’s theft of Palestinian land to build illegal, Jewish-only settlements and the separation wall. We cannot afford to stick our heads in the sand as relentless settlement activity forecloses on the possibility of the two-state solution.

If we do not achieve two states in the near future, then the day will certainly arrive when Palestinians move away from seeking a separate state of their own and insist on the right to vote for the government that controls their lives, the Israeli government, in a single, democratic state. Israel finds this option unacceptable and yet is seemingly doing everything in its power to see that it happens.

Many black South Africans have traveled to the occupied West Bank and have been appalled by Israeli roads built for Jewish settlers that West Bank Palestinians are denied access to, and by Jewish-only colonies built on Palestinian land in violation of international law.

Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which “describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.” This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decadeslong Israeli domination over Palestinians.

These are among the hardest words I have ever written. But they are vitally important. Not only is Israel harming Palestinians, but it is harming itself. The 1,200 rabbis may not like what I have to say, but it is long past time for them to remove the blinders from their eyes and grapple with the reality that Israel becoming an apartheid state or like South Africa in its denial of equal rights is not a future danger, as three former Israeli prime ministers — Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and David Ben Gurion — have warned, but a present-day reality. This harsh reality endured by millions of Palestinians requires people and organizations of conscience to divest from those companies — in this instance, from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett Packard — profiting from the occupation and subjugation of Palestinians.

Such action made an enormous difference in apartheid South Africa. It can make an enormous difference in creating a future of justice and equality for Palestinians and Jews in the Holy Land.

Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, is archbishop-emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa.

[Last modified: Apr 30, 2012 05:41 PM]

Copyright 2012 Tampa Bay Times

EduBlog: Oso Blanco b.k.a. “Robin the Hood”

The Case

Byron is a wolf clan Cherokee/Choctaw raised in New Mexico, his Indian name is Oso Blanco and he became known by the authorities as “Robin the Hood” after the FBI and local gang unit APD officers learned from a CI that Oso Blanco was robbing banks to send thousands of dollars worth of supplies to the Zapatista Rebels of Chiapas on a regular basis during 1998 and 1999.

I am serving 80 years in Beaumont federal Penitentiary for bank robbery and firearms violation. I robbed from the banks and gave to the Hood and indigenous warriors. I was dubbed by the FBI as Robin The Hood. For my info on me all you need to do is Google my name you will find both the lies of main stream media and some independent interviews where I was able to give my accounts of the situation. Do this and then write me if your still interested in me helping others.

I guess when I get down to basic hope-
I just want people to be free-
and realize and discover the powerful
elements of the Great Creator-in all things living.
Free from destructive energy sources.
Free from political religious formats of control.
Free from lies.
Free from toxic chemicals.
Free from fast food.
Free from sin.
Free from the masters of political sheep control.
Free from gasoline.
Free from coal.

Free from TV and all the tech junk.
Free from make up.
Free from drugs.
Free from alcohol.
From all the things we humans have
locked our selves in…
Help the sick-the poor-the old-the handicapped.

I myself come from a violent wild west background and if I can
find a loop (hope) hole to compassion then a lot of people can
learn to think positive and take effective action.

Sometimes I feel the lonely pain and separation from my community and people. I’m locked down in a room. A cement cell 23 hours except twice a week or three days I get no recreation – 24 hours! I did not kill anyone, yet I was treated as a killer – because I defended my life. They got on a mic and told reporters I was the most dangerous criminal in NM. They claimed I was a junkie, they said I was a gang member – useless to the world. . . Now I’m like a free wolf. Chained to the floor like a sad dog, lonely in the cage. Being told, ‘hey wolf that’s your home for 80 years’. This is insane. Who have I killed – nobody. Who have I raped – nobody. Its unjust, the cost, the price of not only a revolutionary fighter but also the price of being a political prisoner.

- written in Leavenworth 2004 -

 

Byron is a wolf clan Cherokee/Choctaw raised in New Mexico, his Indian name is Oso Blanco and he became known by the authorities as “Robin the Hood” after the FBI and local gang unit APD officers learned from a CI that Oso Blanco was robbing banks to send thousands of dollars with of supplies to the Zapatista Rebels of Chiapas on a regular basis during 1998 and 1999. Chubbuck is now serving 80 years at the US Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, for bank robbery, aggravated assault on the FBI, escape and firearms charges. Byron engaged federal agents in a gun battle on August 13th 1999 at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although Chubbuck escaped, he was arrested later that day and sentenced to time in New Mexico’s state Penitentiary. After serving just over a year in New Mexico, he escaped from a prison transport van and almost immediately began robbing banks. He was recaptured a short time later. Byron never used a gun in any bank robbery, but he has a long history of living by the gun and will not hesitate to use it on the agents of repression or the occupiers of Aztlan whom force false laws on the true people of this land. Byron is not asking for monetary support, he’s only asking that people become aware of indigenous people’s issues. In an interview Oso Blanco claimed: “I am still able to hold my head up high and feel the gratification for my work in a world where money, power and destructive industries are regarded far above humanity, indigenous and impoverished peoples and cultures. I cannot help that I got deeply into my work….” A Few words from Byron: I guess when I get down to basic hope- I just want people to be free- and realize and discover the powerful elements of the Great Creator-in all things living. Free from destructive energy sources. Free from political religious formats of control. Free from lies. Free from toxic chemicals. Free from fast food. Free from sin. Free from the masters of political sheep control. Free from gasoline. Free from coal. Free from TV and all the tech junk. Free from make up. Free from drugs. Free from alcohol. From all the things we humans have locked our selves in… Help the sick-the poor-the old-the handicapped. I myself come from a violent wild west background and if I can find a loop (hope) hole to compassion then a lot of people can learn to think positive and take effective action.

Joline Gutierrez Krueger The Albuquerque Tribune “Utter Chubbuck”:

For the first time since his Albuquerque capture, the bandit known as Robin the Hood speaks out. About his respect for women. About those “minor” bank robberies. About earmarking drug profits for the poor people of Chiapas. And Byron Shane Chubbuck makes this vow: “I can’t be stopped forever.” Two hours after escaping from a prison transport van, Byron Shane Chubbuck was relaxing in a Motel 6, knocking back a beer, eating Burger King and watching TV coverage of the havoc he had wrought. And smiling a lot. It was all good, he said, except for the hamburger. “I told my people, ..We are New Mexicans. It’s Blake’s Lota Burger from now on,’” he said. “We’ve got to support our home state burger joint.” Loyalty, even for a local sandwich, is big with Chubbuck, whose bold bank robbery style and quixotic tales of aiding the poor with his ill-gotten gains earned him the name Robin the Hood – and 40 years in federal prison. Come Oct. 15, when Chubbuck is expected to be sentenced on additional charges stemming from that van escape last December, the 34-year-old bad boy of bank robberies could face an additional 40 years. Or more. But Robin the Hood will not go quietly. And, if he has his way, not for so long. “I can’t be stopped forever,” Chubbuck said recently in phone interviews and letters from his cell at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. “I will not be broken in my spirit of determination and will power. And if I were to escape again I’ll naturally be polite doing it, never hurting anyone, while smacking the federal government across their face of hypocrisy.” For the first time since he aired his jailhouse blues and his bravura last February on an Albuquerque radio rock station – an interview that ultimately led to his capture two days later – Chubbuck is speaking out about what he did while on the run, his reasons for robbing banks and the bullet that brought him down. “My life story is very full, long and complex,” he said. “I only wish someone would take an interest in the real story revolving around these 20 minor bank robberies and my reasons.” Somewhere therein lies the truth, big and bold like Chubbuck himself. Disarming charmer You either hate Byron Shane Chubbuck or you love him. And if you love him you might hate that you do. Or you might feel guilty. Or duped. “It was like, oh, my God, is this the same cute guy I knew?” said Carolyn Butterfield, an old girlfriend of Chubbuck’s from his mid -1980s Colorado days when he sported Marlon Brando leather and called himself a solo poet/sing-songwriter/artist. “If you meet him, you’re instantly charmed,” she said. “There’s a charisma about him, a magnetism.” Women staffers at Albuquerque’s Project Share, which feeds the poor, had also been charmed by the handsome stranger who arrived on their doorstep in 1997 as a federal parolee needing to do community service. They also were suspicious. “He was too good to be true,” said one woman there, who agreed to allow The Tribune to use the Project Share name but not her own, saying the situation was too sensitive for her to be connected so publicly to Chubbuck. “You could not have met a nicer guy. He was so helpful to us here, a total workhorse. People loved him here.” Chubbuck, whom they knew as “Blanco,” was the first to shake a hand, stock a shelf or serve a homeless person, she said. He knew to ingratiate himself with the staff, particularly the single women, sometimes taking 25 or more of them to elaborate lunches at Romano’s Macaroni Grill. “Everything was big with him,” she said. “He could never do just a little. He had to do it huge. “When bread or paper supplies dwindled, a massive donation of the needed goods would suddenly arrive. “He’d just say he knew some people and boom, there it was,” she said. “We joked that he probably was in the Mafia.” Chubbuck told them only that he was “connected.” While he was serving the hungry at Project Share, Chubbuck was also serving as jefe and social conscience of a local gang. “He’d tell us, ..Just because you’re in a gang doesn’t mean you’re bad,’” Brew Town Chris Perez said. “He always told us to be good examples, do positive things, help old people and like that. He’d do it, too. If he saw some homeless guy on the street begging for a dollar he’d give them $100.” In turn, Chubbuck said he found his brothers, his carnales, men and boys who would lay down their lives for him and the causes he said he championed. Siempre con honor, he told them. Always with honor. “When I found my brothers I was granted a chance to use my creative ideas to instill in the hearts of gangsters passion for a cause, compassion for the desperate and slick ways to make more money with the money we were rounding up,” Chubbuck said. Those slick ways would become his claim to fame. And his demise. Easy money Chubbuck said he never feared robbing a bank. “After I was past the first door, it was too late to turn back,” he said. He said he doesn’t remember how many banks he has hit but notes that Albuquerque isn’t the only place he has plied his nefarious trade. “I can tell you the FBI knows about one in Denver and some in Dallas,” he said. Chubbuck insists he robbed his first bank to help pay off a drug debt for a relative. The others, he said, paid for food and supplies for the indigenous people of the Mexican state of Chiapas. Chubbuck said he was in Mexico around 1998 looking to score two drums of ephedrine for making methamphetamine – the same activity that had gotten him sent to prison five years before – when he decided to pay a visit to a woman whose card he had kept since 1997 when he had seen her at a protest rally in Downtown Albuquerque. The woman was in Guatemala City caring for impoverished and broken children – Guatemala street children. “It touched my heart,” he said. “It made me want to be like her, help people like she did. “Chubbuck said he gave her $3,000. “I could only afford to buy one drum after that,” he said. Chubbuck said he began robbing banks, sometimes two a day, never brandishing a gun and always attempting to charm tellers with his polite polish and his handsome swagger and his talk about how the money would help feed starving children. But Rudy Espinoza, regional security officer for Wells Fargo banks, said Chubbuck was not as winsome as he thought. “I will tell you that his efforts were not without emotional consequences. “Espinoza said. Many of the tellers he interviewed after a Chubbuck heist asked to be relocated, retired or sought counseling, he said. Chubbuck said he purchased marijuana with the bank loot and then sold it, tripling and quadrupling the initial amount. The profits went to the Chiapas cause, he said; the rest went to him. “I’d keep about $10,000 and go help people in my barrio or spoil my wife, “he said. Robin the Hood’s run seemingly ended in August 1999 in a shootout with FBI agents at his Southeast Heights home. He pleaded guilty in October 2000 to the shooting and robbing an unprecedented 14 banks across Albuquerque. He received a 40-year sentence. Two months into it he was gone. Out Chubbuck says there was no master plan, no team of accomplices waiting in the wings for him to make his daring escape Dec. 21, 2000, from a prison transport van on its way back to the Santa Fe County Detention Center from a hearing in Albuquerque. “I didn’t go with some diabolical plan,” he said. “They’re making me out to be some mastermind. I was just desperate. I was getting beat up. I was getting gassed. I had to get out of there, and I had to tell people about the treatment we were getting in jail.” The van was nearing the intersection of Second Street and Monta§o Road Northwest when Chubbuck used a smuggled key to free himself from his handcuffs, waist chains and leg shackles, and kicked out a van window and the steel-bar grate covering it. “When I first got away from the van I ran to the ¹hood,” he said. “I didn’t know where I was going.” Chubbuck said he jumped over fences, cutting a hand already bloodied from the van escape. He exploded into the front door of a home in the 200 block of Gene Avenue Northwest, startling Stephanie Angus, 28, and a friend, her mother and her young children. “I said: ..Please help me. The cops are trying to kill me,’” he said. “I told her ..I need a ride out of the ¹hood right now.’ I did not command her to do anything. I asked and pleaded. I have respect for women, and when you’re looking at a woman as pretty as Ms. Angus, you better have respect.” Angus, he said, was his angel. Stephanie Angus said she was terrified. But Chubbuck’s charm and honest manner left her with an odd compassion for her captor, she said. “Looking back, it was the scariest experience of my life,” Angus said in a recent interview. “But I don’t think he was a bad person. I don’t think he would hurt anybody.” Chubbuck said Angus and her friend drove him out of the North Valley and the grip of a tightening dragnet. “I almost cried right in front of them because they had been sent by God,” he said. “They gave me $20 and a water and Chap Stick. I told them who I was and what I just did and what I’m about, and I asked them to pray for me.” After stays at a Motel 6 in midtown Albuquerque and at another “safe place,” Chubbuck said he stole a blue Camaro Z28 with a snowboard inside and drove to El Paso. “I saw myself in their paper, too,” he said – disappointed that, like the Albuquerque media, the El Paso newspaper was running a mug shot of a pudgier, surlier, shaved-head Chubbuck bloody and bitten from an earlier encounter with a police dog. After crashing the Z28 into a pole, Chubbuck said he made his way on foot for the next four days to Cuidad Juarez and later to Chihuahua, where he had friends. Eventually, he said he settled into a $300,000 home he had been paying off in Juarez. One day he hoped to share the home with his wife, Leticia Antillon, and their two sons, Carlos, 12, and Eduardo, almost 2. It all might have worked, too, had Chubbuck not returned to Albuquerque and resumed his Robin the Hood ways. From Jan. 12 to Jan. 30, at least six bank robberies were tied to Chubbuck, two more to his associates. Chubbuck said he had been forced to leave Mexico and return to Albuquerque after being robbed himself. Thieves broke into the home in Juarez, he said, taking radios, scales, BB guns and $11,000 in cash. “I give them credit,” he said. “They were pretty darn smart.” Chubbuck said he returned one last time to retrieve his wife and children. “The plan was to sneak back and get a multiband radio to my wife,” he said. When things were ready, I would give her the word and say, ..Babe, pack up the truck and the kids, it’s time to go.’” But Chubbuck could not sneak back silently. Going public Realizing and relishing the notion that he was now the hottest news in town, Chubbuck decided to use his notoriety to spread his gospel of aiding the poor, thwarting the government and fingering Santa Fe County Detention Center officials he said had made his incarceration so miserable. He chose as his conduit the unlikely T.J. Trout, long time morning drive-time disc jockey at KZRR-FM (94.1). Chubbuck wrote Trout several letters and asked fellow gang member James Thompson to send them off. He also spoke with Trout by phone Feb. 5. The conversation was broadcast several times the next day. But Chubbuck said he hadn’t expected Thompson to deliver his letters personally to the radio station and risk being identified. “I hit the roof when I found out,” he said. “I said: ..Are you kidding me? Oh, my God.’” Thompson’s image was captured by surveillance videotape at the radio station. Early the next morning, Chubbuck was in custody and in a hospital bed with a bullet wound through his chest, courtesy of the Albuquerque police. End of the line Last June, jurors took 35 minutes to reach guilty verdicts against Chubbuck on charges of escape, brandishing a firearm during a violent crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Then they had lunch. It was an anti-climactic ending to one of the more colorful criminal episodes in recent New Mexico history. A juror was reported as saying the defense simply rested its case without providing any statements or a version of the events that happened that night. Chubbuck still fumes over that. He remains angry at his attorney, Gary Mitchell, a longtime and well-respected Ruidoso lawyer who has served as counsel for some of the state’s most notorious felons. “He’s a snake, a con man and a sellout,” Chubbuck snarls. He accuses Mitchell of failing to seek a motion for a change of venue, for not seeking a motion to suppress testimony he had given under morphine while hospitalized. And for not having lab tests – fingerprints, DNA, blood – performed that might have proven Chubbuck never touched the Tec-9 semiautomatic weapon Albuquerque police said he aimed at them in the flurry of his Feb. 7 capture. “The state is not required to dig up exculpatory evidence – that’s my lawyer’s job,” he said. “And he seemed to refuse to accomplish or even try to take it on in order to fight the police claims.” Mitchell, though, said Chubbuck had a hand in every decision. “Obviously, I did the things I thought were in the best interest of my client after conferring with my client about those,” he said. “You don’t represent Chubbuck without Chubbuck being totally involved.” Chubbuck could be sentenced next month to up to 40 more years for the three new convictions. Six charges of bank robbery were previously dismissed to streamline the process, prosecutors have said. Prosecutors have also said they might seek a life sentence under the federal “three strikes” law, which targets repeat offenders. Mitchell is filing a motion seeking to be fired as Chubbuck’s attorney. It is Chubbuck’s request. But he won’t soon forget his charismatic client. “Shane’s a very interesting character,” he said. “If in fact he was robbing banks to give the money to poor people, well, that’s a little bit different scenario than somebody robbing banks to feed a drug habit. And you sort of like guys like that. We Americans are like moths to a light bulb when it comes to that kind of stuff.” Prison, again Letters from strangers, girls mostly, arrive for Chubbuck in prison, a small reminder of the charm he exudes, even from behind bars. He spends much of his time writing letters, poems, his life story. He makes ceramics. He prays for strength from the Great Creator. He has friends in prison. He cries that he hasn’t seen his sons since he arrived. He rails that he must be imprisoned longer than those who kill. Already he has been accused of concocting an escape plan, this one involving a helicopter, he said. He makes no apology for the crimes he has committed, no promise that he wouldn’t do it again if given the chance. “I am still able to hold my head up and feel the gratification for my work in a world where money, power and destructive industry are regarded far above humanity, indigenous and impoverished peoples or cultures,” he said. “I cannot help that I got into my work.”

The robber generally plundered the rich, the governments generally plunder the poor and protect those rich who assist in their crimes. The robber doing his work risked his life, while the governments risk nothing, but base their whole activity on lies and deception. The robber did not compel anyone to join his band, the governments generally enrol their soldiers by force. .. The robber did not intentionally vitiate people, but the governments, to accomplish their ends, vitiate whole generations from childhood to manhood with false religions and patriotic instruction. (By Leo Tolstoy)

Oso Blanco/White Bear/Yona Unaga

I seek to inspire All warriors to work out a lot and get in top shape.

 

White Bear and Greg                     White Bear and Leonard Peltier

 

White Bear, Leonard Peltier and Tom Manning

The Cause

  

These words were sent to the Brown Berets:

1.) Ancient Indigenous spirit beings are Helping us. So are star beings all over the universe.

2.) People are born into New lives, “again” who were fighting the same enemy we fight in modern times. This age that they fought 500-300-250 years ago.

3.) Our goal is NOT to fix America. Our goal is to save the Earth and our Aztlán seed- “DNA”.

4.) Love is the Key. Prayer is the Doorway. Inside the Human/god/Heart is a vast, vast universe.

5.) Everyone must get in top fighting shape. Run-workout-survival trips in the desert and mountains.

6.) As long as we Believe and be true and loyal the Beings will help us.

7.) DO NOT use drugs at all! ZERO. “Small Alcohol”, is ok BUT NOT smart!

8.) Color of skin or eyes does NOT matter. Warriors of Aztlán are still who they are in spirit.

9.) There are many “signs” that pop up to tell you we are on the good track together in “relation”. These things, signs are spiritual. They are clues to keep us on “point”- in focus.

10.) We are in the Earth Plane to learn knowledge for our spirit, so we can save All life. To gain the steps, tools and energy to enter, higher thought.

We live many lives- some progress, some become more and more dumb and non-spiritual. NO COMPASSION, NO SEXUAL CONTROL, DOG BEHAVIOR.

WE are not like that, WE are back in Aztlán in “this life” to do the End Work for All life.

Brothers and sisters

The Southwest and most of Oregon – is Aztlán, a place – a land – a nation – a sacred zone that has been hidden from the scholars of history, the indigenous Mexica youth. Thanks to the Freemasons, the Vatican and Mormons high in the ranks of the Salt Lake Temple. Who are masons too. Brothers and sisters this is our Land and Its time the truth be let out for all to see. Aztlán is unlawfully occupied. But I need not explain all the treacherous ways they came trespassing upon Holy, set apart Aztlán. The days for that are over. Because now the destructive way of Life or existing as slaves in our Grandfathers own Land, is killing everything. – the way they control us is robbing the life from us – masking our Indigenous powers and massive medicine. We live easy yet “empty” we are “lazy” yet a very unhealthy lazy spiritually – emotionally – physically – and we must set our selves Free. We must return – the New Aztlán is now.

We shall no longer kill Mother Earth and everything else just to have modern technologies and pay for death as tax slaves. We shall rise up refusing to be slaves to commerce and political lies, in our own Land. “We shall be High master” – High master of the heart Realm of Higher Consciousness.

Please support the Brown Berets

Please send Aid to the EZLN

I AM OSO BLANCO de Aztlán

 

His address

Want to support Byron? Write him and pray for him.

NOTE: HE DOES NOT HAVE INTERNET ACCESS!!

Byron Shane Chubbuck # 07909051
USP LEWISBURG
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1000
LEWISBURG, PA  17837

Oso can only receive letters, cards, postcards, photos (not polaroid), (you might wanna copy your writings though as he does not seem to receive all that’s sent to him). He can not receive gifts or cds. Books/magazines (subject – Aztlán) must be sent from a bookstore (Amazon.com or allbookstore.com books ). Newspaper articles are not allowed however xerox copies of the articles are allowed.

 

Do not send him money, he does not want money. If one wants to send money, donate it to Chiapas schools – to the children.

Who I’d like to meet: True, real people who take a stand, rebels, and people ready to revolt.

(Yona Unaga is Cherokee for white bear as it sounds in English. Oso Blanco is white bear in Spanish, since Oso grew up in New Mexico he is used to Oso Blanco)

Keep track where Oso’s at: the BOP locator!

Justice for all? Ask Leonard Peltier

http://en.terra.com/latin-in-america/news/justice_for_all_ask_leonard_peltier/hof18758

Justice for all? Mmmm, I doubt it. Everyone is talking these days about the vigilante that shot Trayvon Martin in Florida. But there’s Leonard Peltier, the American Indian in jail for a murder he may not have committed.

Peltier, a Lakota Indian, was found guilty in 1977 of the murder of two FBI agents during a shootout in the Pine Ridge Reservation in Oglala, South Dakota, in 1975.

The trial was riddled with irregularities. Three witnesses that initially pointed to Peltier near the shootout site, later recanted. And the bullet case found near where the bodies laid, was never connected to Peltier’s rifle.

Neverthless, Peltier has been rotting in a prison cell, in poor health and with no possibility of a hearing parole until 2024. The government needed a guilty verdict for the murders and Peltier, an activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), seemed the right person.

The seventies were turbulent years for Indians in this country. A 71-day standoff between the FBI and dozens of Indians in 1973 in Wounded Knee in South Dakota, left numerous dead and strained the relationship between Indians and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

The violence then spread to the Pine Ridge Reservation were it is estimated that more than 50 people were killed in the next two years by paramilitary groups inside the reserve, lead by the notorious tribal member Richard Wilson.

On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, entered the Pine Ridge Reservation looking for an Indian accused of robbing in a nearby farm. The agents crossed paths with a red pickup truck whose occupants stared firing at them. Minutes later, both agents laid on the ground dead. The unknown shooters took off.

Peltier was at Pine Ridge, where he was trying to calm things down as violence spread by the ‘Goons’ (the paramilitary group) was leaving a bloody trail. Peltier was there as a representative of AIM.

In a couple of hours, dozens of FBI agents stormed the reserve and a manhunt began. Peltier ran away because he was being sought after by the FBI in connection with a murder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, years ago. He was afraid of being caught.

Peltier and some other men traveled through various states and ended up hiding in the province of Alberta, Canada. Finally, in February of 1976, he was apprehended and extradited to the United States where he was charged for the murders of Coler and Williams.

The trial was full of irregularities. The three witnesses that pointed that Peltier was seen at the site of the shootout later recanted and confessed that they were coerced by the FBI to incriminate Peltier.

A ballistic expert said during the trial that a bullet case found near the agent’s bodies was fired from Peltier¿s rifle but a few years later, when the records were made public thanks to a FOIA request, it was known that the expert was not able at the end to connect the bullet case to Peltier’s rifle, finding that was hidden from the jury.

These are just but a few of the inconsistencies and irregularities that riddled the case against Leonard Peltier.

Today, Peltier, 67 years old, is locked up in a prison cell at the Coleman Federal Correction Complex in Florida. He could be free in 2040. His next parole hearing would not happen until before 2024.

During his years behind bars, Peltier has become a symbol of the struggle for American Indians. His case attracted the attention of world leaders, like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, who requested his immediate release. Amnesty International has put his name in the list of ¿political prisoners¿ and has also requested his release.

The story of Leonard Peltier was at the center of a documentary directed by Michael Apted and produced and narrated by Robert Redford, “An Inciden at Oglala” (1992), which won numerous awards.

According to the 2010 Census, there are about 5.2 million American Indians in the US, about 1.7% of the total population.

Source: EDUARDO ORBEA
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