"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 31 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Change Comes To The Most Theft-Oriented Medical System In The World - It's NOT Just "Does The Health Care Bill's 'Public Option'" Matter... Does "Public Opinion" Matter To America's Politicians?
In The News: Note: Today, Da Buffalo has gone 'hog wild'. There are THREE videos for your informational viewing enjoyment.
There are seven major fires burning in California right now. Two in the Los Angeles area, outside of Auburn near the state capitol Sacramento 30-40 homes burn, one fire is burning in Yosemite, and more. There's a snowball's chance in a forest fire of controlling them all. Details. CalFire/CDF fire info here.
In Afghanistan there are now 300 or 301 dead Americans in our war on Afghanistan and the election results are still being counted amidst SEVEN THOUSAND COMPLAINTS, with six or seven hundred complaints of a serious enough nature to affect the outcome of what passes for 'electoral democracy in the country. Two thirds of the people in the country aren't going to 'buy' the results anyway. Also, the Taliban have assassinated the anti-terrorism police commander on his way home from work in the capital Kabul
Meanwhile, The U.S. Invades and Occupies Pakistan, and since unemployment in the US is hovering around 11 - 12 percent (of the people WHO ARE eligible for benefits), and not everyone has the physical or mental capability to be a foot Soldier trudging thru the hinterlands of Afghanistan, Waziristan, 'Themistan', to earn a government paycheck (if you stay alive...), it is notable there ARE other jobs available to help with the war effort in Central Asia since the "Rendon Plan" failed due to adverse publicity.
Pentagon Cancels Rendon Group Contract
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes is reporting the Pentagon is canceling its contract with the private public relations firm The Rendon Group to produce background profiles of journalists seeking to cover the war. One journalist profiled was Nir Rosen, who got a hold of his profile. The Rendon Group reported to the Pentagon that Rosen’s reporting in Afghanistan was “highly unfavorable to international efforts” and “mainly negative in tone, portraying the situation as hopeless and doomed to failure.” The Rendon Group profile also mentioned Rosen’s appearance on Democracy Now!, when he stated his belief that the war is unwinnable and that the US should withdraw. [In Full]
Listen Up Folks! The Pentagon has JUST the job for YOU! Apply here
The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Discovery were having docking problems due to a leak in the fine control thrusters (AKA "...fine-control vernier engines...") on the shuttle but they worked it with the main units, and now they have the Stephen Colbert Memorial Treadmill, AND a "Mouse Hotel".
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 28 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Two Words... "Out Now!" We've Been In Afghanistan Twice The Length Of World War Two And All We Got Was This Lousy War Of Attrition
Next door in Waziristan UAV strikes attempt an assassination on the new leader of the Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud. We're having some success in our drone war, if you consider destroying multiple structures and homes in our attempts to assassinate one person "success".
Inter Press Service News Agency Saturday, August 29, 2009 04:33 GMT
SOUTH AMERICA: Uribe Defends US Base Deal from Neighbours
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Aug 28 (IPS) - At a special summit Friday in Argentina, the presidents of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) questioned the agreement under which Colombia will allow the United States to use seven military bases in its territory.
After a debate that dragged on for nearly seven hours, instead of three as planned, the leaders meeting in the ski resort town of Bariloche in southern Argentina agreed that their defence ministers will carry out an in-depth analysis of the implications of the controversial bilateral agreement between Colombia and the U.S., and propose steps to be taken.
The actual contents of the deal to be signed by the governments of Colombia and the United States have not yet been divulged.
Although the climate was not as hostile as expected, the presidents and other representatives of the 12 UNASUR nations expressed their fears and concerns over the bilateral agreement, with varying degrees of vehemence and bluntness... [In Full]
[Join us on the Caravan heading towards the end of a worthless war... It begins after the commentary. Courtesy of Loreena McKennitt, the respective artists, and KPIG radio Freedom California Earth]
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 27 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Tempering The Paeans Of Praise - Teddy Kennedy, Let Us Return Now To Those Terrible Days Of Yesteryear
In The News: The passing of Senator Edward Kennedy is giving added ammunition to the Health Care Bill proponents in the Senate. One of the major splits between he and the incumbent president Jimmy Carter, whom he ran a primary campaign against in 1980, was over the urgency of heath care reform. There has been a resolution By Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia (The last of the red-blooded Constitutional Conservatives) to call it the Edward M. Kennedy Heath Care Reform Bill. HOWEVER, the bill is still under fire and the Democrats need ONE republican vote to make it filibuster-proof. Perhaps they can bypass Republican opposition.
The Veterans Administration finally decides to treat 'Gulf War Syndrome' as a real disease instead of denying and rationalizing it's multitude of symptoms as non-service related. The VA is also cancelling a five-year research contract worth $75 million with Texas Southwestern Medical Center after just 2 of the 5 years due to 'persistent non-compliance' and 'performance deficiencies'.
A U.S. helicopter has been fired on while observing a pirate "Mother Ship" (Per AFP, "aboard a captured vessel") near the coast of Somalia.
July was the worst month of our eight year war on Afghanistan, it's culture, and people... But this month is shaping up to be a killer too with August figures rising to 44, last month's record, with five days to go. Meanwhile the TimeOnline UK thinks if we were winning, no body count is too high: "Success in Afghanistan could overcome qualms about the body count"
In the commentary this morning Travus describes an important part of modern US history, and some say the falling out between Kennedy and then president Carter was responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan, and what came afer... inclusive of the outlaw Bush 'administration'.
I have 'boilerplated' some entries from Wikipedia about Senator Kennedy, former president Jimmy Carter, and the 1980 presidential campaign that illustrate the rift, for your perusal and further research.
But first, some praise, from the Economist, UK:
At his best, Mr Kennedy was a fine orator. Less than an hour after President Reagan nominated Robert Bork, a fierce conservative, to the Supreme Court, he was skewering him on the Senate floor. “Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution…and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens,” he thundered. “There was not a line in that speech that was accurate,” wailed Judge Bork afterwards. [In Full]
Wikipedia's pertinent comments about Senator Edward Kennedy:
The Carter administration years were Kennedy's least successful as a politician.[70] He had been the most important Democrat in Washington ever since his brother Robert's death, but now Carter was, and Kennedy at first did not have a committee chairmanship with which to wield influence.[70] Despite generally similar ideologies, their priorities were different, and Carter did not push Kennedy's top issue of national health insurance.[70]
Kennedy and his wife Joan separated in 1977, although they still staged joint appearances at some public events.[71] Kennedy visited China on a goodwill mission in late December 1977, meeting with leader Deng Xiaoping and eventually gaining permission for a number of Chinese to leave the country; in 1978, he also visited the Soviet Union and Brezhnev and dissidents there again.[72]
Kennedy did become chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1978, by which time he had amassed a wide-ranging senate staff of a hundred.[73]
Carter and Kennedy had another falling out on national health care during 1978, capped by Carter's concern about the proposed $60 billion cost and Kennedy's speech at the Democratic mid-term convention saying "Sometimes a party must sail against the wind."[74][75][76]
The 1980 convention was notable as it was the last time in the 20th century, for either major party, that a candidate tried to get delegates released from their voting commitments. This was done by Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Carter's chief rival for the nomination in the Democratic primaries, who sought the votes of delegates held by Carter... [In Full @ Wikipedia]
Finally, for perspective, the 1980 Demcratic Primary, and a backgrounder, from the Democratic Underground:
"One of the issues that has been raised since Senator Edward Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama is the 1980 democratic primary, when Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter. There are people who have an agenda which includes using that to discredit Kennedy, by blaming him for Carter’s eventual loss to Ronald Reagan. The implication is, of course, that Senator Kennedy is again taking an underhanded action that harms the legitimate democratic candidate, and is selfishly putting our nation at risk of another republican victory.
Kennedy’s challenge of Carter is an interesting and important episode in the democratic party’s history. A real discussion of the events that led to Ted Kennedy entering the primary should be encouraged. It is important, however, to consider the event in a larger context, rather than in the simple semi-mythical story that intends only to arouse emotions.
A couple of issues that were important include events surrounding Iran, and the domestic economic problems that the Carter administration seemed incapable of dealing with. I’m going to attempt to put some of this in a context that might help people who are either too young to remember, or who perhaps have forgotten some of this, to understand not only "how" it happened – but more importantly, "why."
In 1972, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were attempting to deal with changes in the Middle East. They traveled to Teheran, where Nixon asked the Shah of Iran to act as the protector of US interests in the region. (I am assuming that DUers have an understanding of the US history with the Shah.)
The Shah agreed to help Nixon, in return to an almost unlimited supply of sophisticated military weapons. Nixon, of course, would soon be removed from the picture; Kissinger continued to play a role in US policy, and the support to the Shah would continue without limit during the Ford years. We will return to this topic soon.
One of the democrats that Richard Nixon was most concerned with was Senator Ted Kennedy..." [IN FULL]
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 26 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: 'Tempered By The Fires Around Him' - Edward Kennedy, 'The End Of An Era' In So Many Ways... Including The 'Ethnic Era' Of American Politics
In The News: Senator Teddy Kennedy dies of brain cancer at 77 years old. He had a distinguished senate carrer since his first election in 1962, and some behavioral problems too. Womanizing, alcoholism, and he sold out/helped destroy Jimmy Carter's presidency...
The Space Shuttle Discovery launch is delayed again due to a leaking valve. There are 17 tons of 'product' awaiting delivery
The death count in Afghanistan continues to rise as FIVE car bombs go off in Kandahar killing at least 30 and wounding over 100 people. Also, Taliban on motorcycles stormed a hospital in eastern Paktika province (VOA).
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 25 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: TOO MUCH INFORMATION! Nagging Suspicions That My Perceptions Are Mistaken About The Importance Of The 'Pursuit Of Information'
In The News: Sorry so late folks... Internet connectivity problems. Thanks this morning to ChrisM, my MP3Angel, for supplying backup copies of the commentary and news.
The Right Wing is saying that the upcoming probe of the CIA and contractor abuse is a distraction from the Health Care issue before the public mind, but Attorney General Holder's hand was forced on the issue after FIVE YEARS by a court ordered release thanks to an ACLU suit. More
If you'd like to read the report, it's HERE. (Scribd embed, Javascript required)
Here's an interesting perspective, from the National Security Archive at Georgetown University:
What were they hiding? A side-by-side Comparison of the Bush and Obama Versions of the CIA Inspector General's Report on Torture
Get the 'Picture'? See it all [HERE] (They are also archiving ALL the documentation HERE)
The young man held for over 7 years at Guantanamo without charges because he happened to be nearby when a hand grenade was tossed at US troops has FINALLY been released to his family. Bill Fisher has more, wherein he quotes the federal judge ruling on the case:
"...for seven years the guy sat down there, being subjected to the conditions that the United States Government has subjected him to since the day they picked him up in Afghanistan… It is not fair to keep dragging this out for no good reason... We're not going to wait and wait until you come up with another piece of evidence… This case is an outrage to me…
There is only one question here, did the guy throw a grenade or didn't he throw a grenade. That's the issue. Right?
If he didn't do that, you can't win. If you can't prove that, you can't win." [In Full]
The president's science council has come up with a worst case scenario for Swine Flu this year... Twice the normal deaths. Wash your hands, cover when you cough, and if you work around people or go to school... Isolate yourself.
Leonard Peltier has been denied parole for the second time. His next parole hearing will be in 2024 at age 79
Yours truly, Da Buffalo, did an extensive posting the other day on the history of this legal travesty HERE.
...and then there's this: Iraq: The Incredible Shrinking (News) Story... Interactively Charting a 92% Drop In Reporting From 2007-2009 (Click the image for more)
[After the commentary, feel free to "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream..." Courtesy of the respective artists and KPIG radio Freedom California Earth]
I quote myself, from June 30 2009, Iraq's "Sovereignty Day":
Iraq is KIND OF for Iraqis - Technically US troops are OUT of Iraq's cities (On a more circumspect note, when searched, Google said "Did you mean to search for: US troops are OUT of Iran's cities") today, however US Troops WILL remain in and around the cities of Iraq on 'standby' until 'requested' by Iraqi commanders.
Expect those incidents to be un-reported to the US press, who will most likely NOT be present in any manner where they could physically observe US troop movements themselves, or for that matter be aware of ANY activity by the 132,000 'contractors' (cf. mercenaries) remaining in Iraq. In Da' Buffalo's opinion, the dirtiest part of the Iraq war is just beginning... under the radar, and without press observation, even as the US appears to be withdrawing. [Source]
More today on that suppression of factual information:
"A public relations firm that organized the opposition to Saddam Hussein during the 1990s and “coerced” journalists during the run-up to the Iraq war is now vetting at least some embedded journalists in war zones to keep out those who have a history of writing negative stories about the US military, a new report claims."
“Any reporter seeking to embed with US forces is subject to a background profile by The Rendon Group..." H/t: Minstrel Boy
Rendon Group is the organization that staged the Saddam Hussein statue 'pulldown' in a nearly vacant Firdoz Square during the first days of our occupation of Baghdad, and supplied the flags Kuwaitis waved at us when we 'liberated' their country after Iraq's invasion over a territorial violation later to be found factual, Kuwait's 'slant drilling' into the neutral zone between their land and Iraq. More on Rendon Group HERE
(Click the image for the interactive, customizable version of this graph, courtesy of The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism)
The sidebar copy:
92% - Drop in Iraq coverage from the beginning of 2007 to the middle of 2009
June 30 was declared “National Sovereignty Day” in Iraq as U.S. soldiers pulled out from cities there. The date marked a major milestone in the six-year war, and for the week of June 29-July 5, 2009, events inside Iraq filled 5.6% of the newshole, the highest level of media attention to that subject this year. The situation inside Iraq is one aspect of the war that PEJ tracks along with the Iraq policy debate and the impact of the war on the U.S. home front. When all three Iraq threads are combined, the story filled 6.6% of the newshole from June 29-July 5.
Yet last week’s jump in coverage runs counter to a long and clear trend. Media attention to the war has declined dramatically since the News Coverage Index began measuring it back in January 2007. In the first quarter of that year, with Congress and President Bush locked in a battle for control of Iraq policy, the war was the top story, accounting for 22.3% of the newshole. By the second quarter of 2009 (which runs through July 5), it had declined by more than 90%—to only 1.7% of the newshole.
Coverage of the war has steadily dropped as the domestic debate over Iraq policy abated, the violence in that country diminished and the U.S. de-escalated its role in the past few years. For all of 2007, the three Iraq storylines filled 15.5% of the newshole, with the bulk of attention focused on the Washington war debate. (This thread filled 7.8% of the overall newshole). In 2008, Iraq coverage plummeted to only 3.6% of the overall newshole, with the biggest component (2.1%) focused on events within Iraq. In the first half of 2009, attention to Iraq fell even further, to just 2% of the newshole, with slightly more than half of that (1.1%) devoted to the events inside Iraq.
Tricia Sartor and Dana Page of PEJ
Note: *Q2 2009 runs through July 5, 2009 for this report
"All The News You Never Knew You Needed To Know ...Until Now."
August 24 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: So We're Losing... But What Are We Winning If We Won? Focusing On The 'Endgame' In Afghanistan
In The News: My Heart Be Still! The Pentagon tells the truth for the first time in as long as anyone can remember. Admiral Mullen comes out and says it. Things are deteriorating in Afghanistan and 25-50,000 additional troops (of unknown sourcing) are needed. (see: "More US troops to Afghanistan? Why Mullen won't answer" at the Christian Science Monitor) Which most likely won't make things 'better', but it'll sure raise the number of deaths and casualties for everyone involved.
In the commentary, Travus asks the question "What are we winning if we won?" The CIA World Factbook informs us (select the 'Economy' tab for a list of resources) of the resources, NOT the 'True Cost' of obtaining them. It's notable that Africa has a similar mix of extractive resources, and the Pentagon's shiny new command for the region, "AFRICOM" is seeing it's budget approximately doubled in the coming fiscal year if the military appropriations bill passes in it's current form. For instance, "The State Department budget... ...proposes raising the level of money provided to Kenya for the purchase of U.S. weaponry (alone) to $1 million—up from $250,000 in the current fiscal year" (source). More on AFRICOM Here, The Cost of Empire and here "AFRI(OIL)COM" at Foreign Policy In Focus.
A report ordered from the CIA FIVE YEARS AGO by a federal judge on interrogation, torture, and violations of the rules that were in place for those practices at the time has been delivered. It's been kept secret until now for reasons that may soon become quite clear to the American public... Criminal charges against CIA personnel may result from the report.
The report and appendices are HERE (Scribd embed, Javascript required)
The Federal Government Claims That Goldman Has Stock Manipulation Software
The NYT had a bizarre piece in which it reported on the FBI's arrest of a former Goldman Sachs employee because he allegedly stole software from Goldman Sachs which the article says a federal prosecutor claims: "could be used to 'unfairly manipulate' stock prices."
The article is peculiar because it focuses on the intellectual property issues between Goldman and a former employee who had worked on developing the software. It almost completely ignores the more basic issue that the federal government effectively claims that Goldman Sachs has software that can be used to manipulate stock prices. If the software can be used for illegal purposes, why is it more serious that a relatively low level employee has access to it than Goldman Sachs' top executives? (source)
...and Finally! Some GOOD financial News!
Clusterfuck Nation Financial Crisis Called Off By James Howard Kunstler on August 24, 2009 7:49 AM
Whew, what a relief! Everybody from Ben Bernanke and a Who's Who of banking poobahs schmoozing it up in the heady vapors of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to the dull scribes at The New York Times, toiling in their MC Escher hall of mirrors, to poor dim James Surowiecki over at The New Yorker, to - wonder of wonders! - the Green Shoots claque at the cable networks, to the assorted quants, grinds, nerds, pimps, factotums, catamites, and cretins in every office from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to the International Monetary Fund - every man-Jack and woman-Jill around the levers of power and opinion weighed in last week with glad tidings that the world's capital finance system survived what turned out to be a mere protracted bout of heartburn and has been reborn as the Miracle Bull economy.
Our worries over. If you believe their bullshit. Which I don't.
All this goes to show is how completely the people in charge of things in the USA have lost their minds. They seem to think this mass exercise in pretend will resurrect the great march to the WalMarts, to the new car showrooms, and the cul-de-sac model houses, reignite another round of furious sprawl-building, salad-shooter importing, and no-doc liar-lending, not to mention the pawning off of innovative, securitized stinking-carp debt paper onto credulous pension funds in foreign lands where due diligence has never been heard of, renew the leveraged buying-out of zippy-looking businesses by smoothies who have no idea how to run them (and no real intention of doing it, anyway), resuscitate the construction of additional strip malls, new office park "capacity" and Big Box "power centers," restart the trade in granite countertops and home theaters, and pack the turnstiles of Walt Disney world...
...all this while turning Afghanistan into a neighborhood that Beaver Cleaver would be proud to call home. [In Full @ Clusterfuck Nation]
Can You Say: "International Human Rights Violation"?
The statement from his lawyer:
"...it is not true that Leonard Peltier participated in "the execution style murders of two FBI agents," as the Parole Commission asserts, and there never has been credible evidence of Mr. Peltier's responsibility for the fatal shots as the FBI continues to allege. Moreover, given the corrupt practices of the FBI, itself, it is entirely untrue that Leonard Peltier's parole at this juncture will in any way "depreciate the seriousness" of his conduct and/or "promote disrespect for the law." (From the response by Thomas J. Harrington, Executive Assistant Director, FBI Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branchto to the Parole board's decision ) We will continue to seek parole and clemency for Mr. Peltier..." [In Full]
The full set of legal documents relating to Leonard Peltier's trial and incarceration, plus FOIA information about COINTELPRO and the FBI's persecution of Peltier, AIM, and other Native activists can be foundHERE
Peltier denied parole By Gale Courey Toensing Indian Country Today August 21 2009
BISMARCK, N.D. — American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, imprisoned since 1977 for the deaths of two FBI agents, has been denied parole after authorities decided that releasing him would diminish the seriousness of his crime (...and the prosecutor himself conceding during an appellate hearing that, “We do not know who shot the agents.”), the Associated Press reported in mid-afternoon on Aug. 21.
Peltier had his first parole hearing in 16 years in July. He will not be eligible for parole again until July 2024, when he will be 79 years old. [In Full]
For all intents and purposes, it began with the Pan-Tribal occupation of Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay
The 1973 armed occupation of Wounded Knee (Original dead links in re Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge @ MRZine replaced) along with the siege at the Pine Ridge Reservation one year later (which led directly to the incarceration of Leonard Peltier) are etched deeper in the public consciousness in terms of recent Indian history, but is was the Alcatraz Island occupation that ushered in a new era of Native American activism.
"The occupiers," writes Ben Winton in the Fall 1999 issue of Native Peoples magazine, "were an unlikely mix of Indian college activists, families with children fresh off reservations and urban dwellers disenchanted with what they called the U.S. government's economic, social and political neglect." [ In Full @ MRZine]
"I didn't kill the agents," Peltier says. "I didn't order anyone to kill those agents. I am an innocent man. I am an innocent man."
Peltier is now more than fifty years old. Home to him is his cell in the Federal Prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, where 150 years earlier, another Indian warrior, Spotted Tail of the Lakota, was also a prisoner. Later Leonard Crow Dog would have his turn at Leavenworth as well.
Peltier paints beautiful pictures (Dead Link, See HERE) in a native style which are highly valued. He also dreams of freedom. This yearning is easily visible in Peltier's beautiful paintings.
Peltier awaits parole decision By Gale Courey Toensing
Story Published: Aug 17, 2009
LEWSIBURG, Pa. – There’s a digital clock on the official Leonard Peltier Web site marking the time the American Indian Movement activist has been in prison.
On a recent visit to www.leonardpeltier.net the clock read “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 43 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT,” then “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 44 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT,” “12241 days, 12 hours, 17 minutes, and 45 seconds of ILLEGAL IMPRISONMENT” and so on – a constant countdown that will either end within several days or continue for an unknown period of time, perhaps years, possibly until Peltier’s life ends.
The Federal Parole Board is expected to render a decision on whether Peltier will be released from prison after serving 33 years on two murder charges by Aug. 21.
Peltier was granted his second parole hearing since 1993 July 28, and appeared before the board to plead his case. The board has 21 days to decide whether to release Peltier or deny parole and keep him in prison indefinitely.
Peltier was convicted in 1977 and given two consecutive life sentences for the murder of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, who were killed during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota June 26, 1975.
The 64-year-old man has maintained his innocence, but controversy over whether he committed the murders, and over the fairness of his trial persist.
Those convinced of his guilt say he shot the two agents in cold blood and deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life.
Peltier’s supporters, which include a huge international component, say he is America’s most famous and longest serving political prisoner.
But Peltier’s attorney, Eric Seitz, said the only issue pertinent is the law and that Peltier is eligible for parole.
The events of June 26, 1975 took place against a backdrop of terror that had developed on Pine Ridge. The reservation was under internal siege at the hands of then Chairman Dick Wilson and his “GOON Squad” – the so-called Guardians of the Oglala Nation, who were supported by and collaborated with the FBI and BIA police.
The conflict has been characterized as a battle between Wilson’s secular group and traditional elders and others who were working for election reform on the reservation. More than 60 people from the traditional group had been killed in the two years before the 1975 shootout. None of those killings were investigated by local, state or federal law enforcement agencies.
By 1975 things were so bad that some of the tribe’s elders called AIM for help. A group of AIM activists, Peltier among them, responded and set up a camp on the reservation. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents in unmarked cars came onto the reservation apparently to serve a warrant to a boy who had stolen some boots. Soon after their arrival, shots were heard and the shoot-out began.
During the battle, the FBI agents and an Indian man named Joe Stuntz were shot to death. The activists fled, anticipating that the reservation would be overrun by FBI and other law enforcement people, which was exactly what happened. In the siege that followed, elders were beaten, houses were burned, people were terrorized and a lot of gun shots were fired.
Peltier escaped to Canada where he was later captured, extradited and brought to trial. Four of the AIM activists were indicted on murder charges, but only Peltier was convicted. Over the years and through numerous appeals, dozens of allegations and inconsistencies have come to light regarding the FBI and the prosecution’s handling of the case, including witnesses recanting testimony against Peltier and accusing the FBI of coercing and threatening them into testifying; the FBI tampering with evidence and withholding crucial evidence from the jury, including the results of a ballistics report saying the bullet casing from the crime scene did not match Peltier’s gun...
August 31 2009 Travus T. Hipp Morning News & Commentary: Change Comes To The Most Theft-Oriented Medical System In The World - It's NOT Just "Does The Health Care Bill's 'Public Option'" Matter... Does "Public Opinion" Matter To America's Politicians?
