Leonard Peltier – Free At Last

A Moment Of Personal Satisfaction And Joy

January 20, 2025

Thank you President Biden. This one’s kind of personal for me.

The 46^th president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, in one of the most compassionate yet surprising acts, in the final minutes of his historically successful presidency has granted railroaded Native American respected elder and one-time American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier clemency. I have been watching this shameful charade since it happened in the early to mid-1970s.

Leonard’s arrest after being extradited from Canada in 1976

Peltier was, wrongly accused, falsely convicted, and his appeals fought relentlessly by the FBI and denied by crooked prosecutors and judges. The entire episode for which Leonard was scapegoated was triggered by illegal acts by FBI agents on sovereign Native land in 1973, and replete with government officials perjuring themselves.

After 50 fucking years in maximum security prisons, despite exemplary behavior and pleas for his release from around the globe (including two completely ignored letters from yours truly to Barack Obama just before he left office to yuck it up with Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral). Peltier was consistently denied his religious freedom and critical medical care while behind bars.

The best Biden could do was grant clemency with Peltier spending the rest of his life under house arrest. Anything more could easily result in Biden being assassinated by the FBI.

Leonard Peltier – then and now

Well, not as much fun as usual, but a sort-of-happy ending, albeit long overdue.

I. Mangrey reporting. Hoka Hey.