People on Twitter like me know the #FreeLeonardPeltier hashtag.
Well, per the AP, with more at Counterpunch, we can now retire that; Biden has commuted his sentence. That said, it's a half-kudo, as Huff Post has us read between the lines. (Donald Duck has apparently had his White House tech staff officially haul down the official executive order; I got a 404 Monday night; Puff Hoes has a link to a screengrab.)
This:
It also references Peltier’s “underlying crimes,” which were never proven. This can certainly be read as the White House throwing a bone to the FBI.
Is the between the lines.
NBC, meanwhile, has a much longer story, with full-of-shit FBI responses, including from Christopher Wray, the departing director. Most of them, and families of the two killed agents, said "we had him, legitimately." Wray carefully doesn't go that far.
I recommend two related books.
One is probably known by many in my circles: Peter Matthiessen's "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse."
The other deserves to be known much more. "The Unquiet Grave" is about the big picture of just how much COINTELPRO wrecked the American Indian Movement, but it's also about internal problems, like the same type of sexism that also was a problem with Black Power groups at this time. Author Steve Hendricks, to triangulate on Biden and Huff Post's Susan Bendery, thinks Peltier did fire the coup de grace shots. I think it likely, presumably with Robert Robideau, and / or Dino Butler and / or Joe Stuntz. Robideau and Butler were acquitted in an earlier trial, Stuntz had been shot dead in the firefight, and the FBI and a racist judge wanted somebody's coonskin on the wall.
As for why?
For all of Biden's other presidential, and general political, faults, I think that he really believes in "minority outreach" or whatever you want to call it, and this is one example. It's the same that makes Black Congresscritters like James Clyburn love him. It's the same, combined with reading or watching "Exodus" too many times, that makes him an ardent Zionist.
He's a true believer.
That said? Wounded Knee? Per Wiki's page on Peltier?
Beyond the trial being a travesty, the stop itself was unwarranted. Literally, as in no warrant, and also, as in lies about the type of vehicle and other things. All four names above, plus Norman Charles, were arguably (I won't say unarguably) acting in self-defense. That said, some combination of those names?
Some combination of the four I mentioned, per Hendricks? Robideau, decades after acquittal, said, "I pulled the trigger." Did he?
On the other side of the coin, though not addressing all the Wiki evidence, this "Trials of the Century" piece by whomever claims Matthiessen is weak tea. And, it's wrong there, and beyond there, starting with Mr. Linder getting the make and color of Peltier's vehicle wrong.
That said, to the above?
Trying Peltier, Robideau and Butler all at the same time, but in three separate cases, might have produced something interesting. Whatever the federal version of something like involuntary manslaughter might have been, charging all three on that, rather than murder, and also on accessory charges?
=
That said, Counterpunch wonders why no clemency, or even a pardon, for Reality Winner? I could see commutation but NOT a pardon.
The material she stole didn't prove Russiagate, but her actions and background show she was a Russiagte true believer. Whether that's more on her on her own, or more on the national security state, I don't know. Otherwise, the only thing I learned from the dreck-level "Bottoms Up" is that long before she stole the document, she had a psyche far more fragile than the then-Bradley, now Chelsea, Manning. And, let us hope the Winner biopic mentioned by Counterpunch doesn't depend too much on this book.
THAT said, this is another reason why Counterpunch ain't getting added to my updated blogroll:
There was reasonable suspicion that the 2004 election was stolen in Ohio, twice as galling after the Supreme Court gave Dubbya the 2000 election by stopping the Florida recount. Ohio was still a Purple bellwether state that could go either way back then, before the brain drain problem that turned it Red for Trump. 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry would later admit that he harbored suspicions about what went down, but chose not to raise them out of alleged fear that doing so would only toss the decision back to the Supreme Court again.
NONE of that is true. HERE (one-third down) is the reality. I link there to Mark Hertsgaard, and here, who demolishes 2004 claims about Ohio. Even Counterpunch admits that Brainworm Bobby was one of the two chief pushers of this — a conspiracy theorist. Another top pusher? Brad Friedman, an elections conspiracy theorist.
And, as I note here, if election fraud were that easy, why isn't it done more often?
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