Instead of Pardoning a Turkey This Year, Obama Should Free This Man
Instead of Pardoning a Turkey This Year, Obama Should Free This Man
Posted on Oct 29, 2015
By John Kiriakou /
OtherWords
As Thanksgiving approaches, Ive got a suggestion for President Barack Obama.
Instead of following the White House tradition and pardoning a turkey destined for a holiday dinner table, Obama should extend that courtesy to some of the thousands of human beings caged up in Americas federal prisons.
Leonard Peltier should be one of them.
Peltier was a Native American activist on South Dakotas Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents went to Pine Ridge to look for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for robbery. Soon after they spotted his car, a shootout ensued.
Both agents and one of the occupants of the car were killed. A later shootout at the gunmans home ended in two more deaths.
An FBI investigation turned up a gun with Peltiers fingerprints on it, although there was no evidence hed been involved in the murder of the agents. Peltier was placed on the FBIs most wanted list and eventually captured in Canada.
His trial was controversial. ................(more)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/instead_of_pardoning_a_turkey_obama_should_free_this_man_20151029