[Ppnews] Leonard Peltier - The FBI Rears Its Ugly Head

[Political Prisoner News]

Sunday, January 18, 2009



<http://freepeltiernow.blogspot.com/2009/01/fbi-rears-its-ugly-head.html>The 
FBI Rears Its Ugly Head


"If people are going to get back into balance, one of the
things they have to do is seek the truth. They 
have to start really speaking the truth 
themselves, and that's a difficult thing to do. 
The way it is now in the world, we don't mind 
lying." --John Peters (Slow Turtle), WAMPANOAG



Enter former agent of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation (FBI) Joseph Trimbach. As some of 
you know, Joseph Trimbach recently issued a press 
release, “Urgent: Fight to Keep Leonard Peltier 
Behind Bars”. The guy’s been up to no good for 
about a year now and together with others of his 
ilk who also have a beef with the American Indian 
Movement (AIM)--more often than not based on 
purely personal disputes--he has no problem with 
stretching the truth or telling an outright lie.

But who is this "champion of justice"?

In February 1973, tension grew on the Pine Ridge 
Reservation. Activists had formed the Oglala 
Sioux Civil Rights Organization to challenge the 
corrupt leadership of Dick Wilson, Tribal 
Chairman. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) 
officials saw this organization as an extension 
of AIM, whose presence they believed increased 
the tensions. However, those most responsible for 
increasing tensions were the 63 U.S. Marshals 
assigned to the reservation “to help,” joining an 
undisclosed number of FBI agents led by none 
other than Joseph Trimbach, Special Agent in 
Charge of the regional FBI office in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

When the siege began at Wounded Knee that year, 
this was the man who assured then Lieutenant 
Colonel Volney Warner (82nd Airborne, a division 
with special training in putting down civil 
disturbances) that the standoff was a case for 
the U.S. Army. He requested that 2,000 soldiers 
be deployed at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge 
Reservation, to restore order. After that, the 
FBI would move in and make arrests, he said. But 
did Trimbach really believe any Indians would be left standing to arrest?

Thankfully Warner recommended against any such 
action because the Indians were not trying to 
harm anyone. He also recommended that the FBI 
change its standing orders from shoot-to-kill to 
shoot-to-wound. Colonel Warner was likely single 
handedly responsible for preventing a second 
Wounded Knee massacre (the first being in 1890, 
when two hundred or more unarmed Minnecojou men, 
women, and children, with a few fugitives from 
Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa band, were slaughtered by 
the Seventh Cavalry) since he blocked the all-out 
attack that the FBI had in mind.

During the Wounded Knee trial of Dennis Banks and 
Russell Means, Trimbach denied that he had 
applied to a court for wiretaps on the Wounded 
Knee telephone, despite the presence of his signature on the application.

A surprise witness at that trial was former AIM 
member Louis Moves Camp. Prosecutor Hurd himself 
reviewed affidavits produced by the FBI. After 
meeting Moves Camp, he apparently had some doubts 
as to the witness’ honesty. So much so, that he 
requested that a lie detector test be administered. Trimbach refused.

Also, during the trial, Trimbach testified that 
the FBI had no informers infiltrating the defense 
team. His lie was exposed when Douglas Durham’s 
infiltration of AIM became known.

A couple of months later, during the trial of 
Leonard Crow Dog, Trimbach testified that he had 
no idea that Durham had been an informer, 
although one of the three agents in his own 
Minneapolis office, who followed him to the 
stand, acknowledged that Durham had contacted him 
at a special phone number at least 30 times 
during the Banks-Means trial; this agent said 
that Durham had been known to Trimbach from the 
start, and that he had notified Hurd and the other U.S. attorneys about Durham.

After the Oglala shoot-out on June 26, 1975, 
Trimbach could hardly wait. He assembled a 
special sniper team and was en route to Rapid 
City, SD, within an hour of the first shots 
fired. He bragged in his “press release” about 
shooting at mostly unarmed women and adolescents 
as they escaped and was horrified that someone 
shot back in defense? He was soon consulting with 
Governor Richard Kneip about bringing the 
National Guard into Oglala, and meanwhile he 
radioed for high explosives, which arrived by 
Marine jet. The next day, SAC Trimbach, who had 
taken command in Rapid City was replaced. It 
would seem that even the FBI lacked confidence in Trimbach’s leadership.

At the Cedar Rapids trial of Dino Butler and Bob 
Robideau, Trimbach denied knowing that Banks or 
the AIM group were on the Jumping Bull land. Another lie.

These facts indicate that Trimbach had a thirst 
for blood and the destruction of Indian lives. 
They also prove his propensity for not telling the truth, even under oath.

In his “press release,” he faults the late 
Coretta Scott King for supporting Peltier. She 
wasn’t an intelligent human being who dealt in 
fact, we’re led to believe, but “misguided”. Be 
careful Joe. Your racism is showing again.

He says Peltier was convicted of “aiding and 
abetting”. Then he calls Peltier a “cop killer”. 
Well, Joe, it’s one or the other. Oh, but as you 
stated, Peltier didn’t pull the trigger.

The jury in the trial of Leonard's 
co-defendants­Dino Butler and Bob 
Robideau­recognized that the will to survive is 
instinctive and the right to self-defense is 
fundamental. The Indians had a right to be on the 
Jumping Bull property and they were not engaged 
in unlawful activity. There was no evidence that 
they either provoked an assault or were the 
aggressors in one. In light of the terror on the 
Pine Ridge Reservation during the previous three 
years, the history of official misconduct on the 
part of the FBI in its war against AIM, and the 
reckless behavior of the agents on June 26, 1975, 
the jury decided Butler and Robideau had a 
reasonable belief that their actions­meeting 
force with force, even deadly force­were 
necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm 
to themselves or others. The jury acquitted 
Butler and Robideau on grounds of self-defense.
The Butler/Robideau verdict indicates that the 
defendants' actions on June 26, 1975, did not 
constitute a crime. Yet, Leonard is imprisoned, 
the government now claims, for "aiding and 
abetting" a crime. What crime? Self defense? Who 
did Peltier aid and abet? Innocent men?

Trimbach refers to the testimony of a paid 
informant, one who only surfaced five years ago, 
to now “prove” Peltier’s guilt when prosecutors 
have already admitted that they "did not and 
cannot prove" that Peltier caused the deaths of 
their agents or what role he "may have played" in 
the incident on June 26, 1975.

What does Trimbach NOT talk about, though? The 
other suspects in the Peltier case who were never 
investigated... others who bragged about having 
killed the two FBI agents... or how about the 
proof that the FBI decided they would pin the 
whole thing on Peltier and then proceeded to 
build a case around him whether he was guilty or not.

Trimbach also doesn’t talk about the trusted FBI 
informant John Stewart who, on July 2, 1975, 
drove Peltier and a group of people to the 
Rosebud Reservation. During that drive, he 
reported to the FBI, Peltier told the group (all 
of whom were present during the Oglala shootout) 
that his gun had jammed during the firefight. No 
one in that vehicle disputed Peltier’s statement.

Most important, Trimbach doesn’t say one word 
about the exonerating evidence in this case: the 
ballistics evidence that proves Leonard Peltier 
did not shoot the agents. (See 
<http://www.freepeltiernow.org/java/ballistics.htm>http://www.freepeltiernow.org/java/ballistics.htm.) 
But Trimbach won’t be satisfied until Peltier 
admits to a crime he didn’t commit.

As to the remorse Trimbach claims Peltier lacks, 
it’s a matter of public record (even stated in 
Peltier’s own book, “My Life Is My Sun Dance”) 
that Peltier grieves for the loss of life that 
day in 1975... for the agents... and for Joe 
Stuntz, who also lost his life and whose death has never been investigated.

Trimbach’s book? A venomous attempt to re-write 
history and restore his good name which no one 
but Trimbach himself is responsible for having 
destroyed. He’s a victim, yes, but of his own 
misdeeds. And like the devil himself would... 
much like George W. Bush does now... Trimbach 
believes everything he said or did back in the 
day was the right thing to do. With that book of 
his he proves only one thing and that is that he’s a legend in his own mind.

Trimbach’s book is short on supported fact­he 
even disputes court records­as well as downright 
slanderous. No publishing house would touch it, 
so ol’ Joe published it himself. There’s been a 
lot of that going around­so-called “investigative 
journalist” Paul DeMain, for example, who owns 
his own newspaper (News from Indian Country) and 
therefore can print any piece of gossip, rumor or 
innuendo as fact without any editorial oversight 
or adherence to the journalism code of ethics­yellow journalism at its finest.

Trimbach mentions a video posted on his Web site. 
The truth about that video is it was edited. 
Footage was manipulated to put Peltier in the 
worst possible light. Any film footage can be so 
treated. In fact, an amateur did do it­Richard 
Two Elks, another guy with a personal ax to grind with AIM.

Trimbach used the word “pardon” in that press 
release of his. Leonard Peltier wouldn’t be 
eligible for a presidential pardon until he’s 
been on the streets (without re-offending) for a five-year period.

Trimbach demands that Peltier serve his full 
terms, two life sentences plus seven years. But 
when Peltier was sentenced there was such a thing 
as parole in the federal system and Peltier has 
been eligible for parole since the early 90s.

Thankfully, not everyone shares Trimbach’s opinions.

Former FBI agent M. Wesley Swearingen, in support 
of parole for Leonard Peltier, once stated: “I 
was an FBI agent in Los Angeles when Leonard 
Peltier was convicted, and I know from FBI 
documents that I read and from statements made by 
fellow FBI agents, that Peltier was wrongfully 
convicted of murdering two FBI agents just 
because the agents investigating the case wanted 
someone to pay for killing the two FBI agents. I 
know, for a fact, that the FBI is also covering 
up its culpability in the death of the two FBI 
agents.” (This is the same agent who exposed the 
FBI misconduct in the case of Geronimo Pratt 
whose conviction was eventually overturned.)

Even author Steve Hendricks, a Trimbach 
compatriot and no friend of Leonard Peltier, 
recently stated: “Peltier has been imprisoned 
these 32 years for killing two FBI agents, an act 
he may or may not have done. What is certain is 
that he and his people returned the FBI's fire 
only after years of savage provocation, that his 
trial was one of the grossest railroadings in the 
history of American courts, and that our 
government's guilt far outstripped anything he 
stood accused of. The man has done time enough.”

So what’s Trimbach talking about? Executive 
Clemency. A pardon is one form of clemency. 
Commutation of a sentence is another. But what 
Trimbach fails to comprehend is that clemency 
isn’t about guilt or innocence and never has been. It’s about mercy.

The authority to grant clemency by way of a 
commutation of a sentence imposed by a federal 
court belongs only to the President (under 
Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution). 
The decision to grant clemency is the President's and the President's alone.

What should Peltier supporters do now? Write to 
President-Elect Obama’s transition team at 
<http://www.change.gov/>www.change.gov, for a start.

Write to Obama himself:

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President, United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Beginning on Tuesday, January 20, you can fax your letter to 202-456-2461.

Or call the White House and leave comments at 202-456-1111.

Or send an e-mail message: 
<mailto:president at whitehouse.gov>president at whitehouse.gov.

Do it and keep doing it.


Friends of Peltier
Time to Set Him Free... Because it’s the right thing to do.
<http://www.freepeltiernow.org/>www.FreePeltierNow.org




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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