Flashpoints Radio July 2: Mothers incarcerated; Leonard Peltier update

KPFA Flashpoints News Radio

'OUR DAUGHTER WAS KILLED BY A SUICIDE BOMBER'- from the Israeli founders of the Bereaved Family Forum
'but it is the terror of Israel's occupation that is to blame for her death. Every innocent victim from both sides is a victim of the occupation. The occupation is the cancer feeding Palestinian terror.' - (read more)

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Leslie Kean: introduction: Mothers incarcerated; Leonard Peltier update .
-00:40 now with Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: Bush administration picking up its balls, and calling peacekeepers home from East Timor and Bosnia over objections to the new International Criminal Court.. more details about what US troops brought to an Afghan wedding.. bombed (and strafed by US AC-130 flying gunship: the most complex air weapons system used today).. Philippine's minister resigns in protest over US military involvement..
-05:15 Dennis Bernstein: now w Bruce Ellison, one of Leonard Peltier's original attorneys.. Bruce: a brief account of Leonard's life.. one of the American Indian Movement's most active members, a leader in the struggle for Indian rights.. came to the Pine Ridge Reservation, of the Lakota Nation.. worked hauling water, fixing roofs, fixing cars, feeding the poor.. the FBI armed, funded, and supported a 'goon squad' of renegade Lakota.. to rape, kill AIM members.. Bruce: a scarey time.. finding myself in a warzone.. people were afraid.. gang violence.. Dennis: AIM was fighting to protect Native Americans from the violence of poverty.. Bruce: people were herded onto ever decreasing land tracts.. AIM pushing for equal justice, better education, health care.. to return the Lakota religion.. the government saw that as a threat.. Dennis: at the time the US fighting indigenous movements all over the world, in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Vietnam, and even in the USA.. Bruce: Congress has always refused to look at massacres of people of color.. trying to suppress dissent in our country..
-22:00 Dennis: about the firefight.. Bruce: what really happened..

[from FreePeltier.org].. On June 26, 1975 two FBI agents, Mr. Jack Coler and Mr. Ron Williams, entered the Jumping Bull Ranch, private property. They allegedly sought to arrest a young Native American man they believed they had seen in a red pick up truck. A large number of AIM supporters were camping on the property at the time. They had been invited there by the Jumping Bull elders, who sought protection. Many non-Aim persons were present as well. A shoot out began between the two vehicles, trapping a family with small children in the cross fire. From throughout the ranch, people screamed that they were under attack, and many hurried to return fire. When the skirmish ended, the two FBI agents were dead. They had been wounded, and someone had shot them at close range through the heads. Today, the United States Attorney admits that no one knows who fired the fatal shots. The red pick up truck *escaped from the ranch* and was never found or identified.
The more than thirty AIM men, women and children present on the ranch were then surrounded by over 150 FBI agents, SWAT team members, BIA police and local posse members, and barely escaped through a hail of bullets. When the gun fight ended, a young Native American named Joe Stuntz lay dead, shot through the head by a sniper bullet. His killing was never investigated.

ramifications of the incarceration of mothers with children.. and problems with the Adoptions and Safe Families Act.. now w Gale Smith of Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers.. and Cassie Pearson of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.. a mother jailed for as little as 15 months could find her parental rights terminated.. about problems with adoptive parents.. one child was sick in the hospital, the mother couldn't even call the hospital.. minorities are affected more than whites..

a federal judge today ruled the federal death penalty unconstitutional.. now w Stephen Bright of Southern Center for Civil Rights.. Bright: da judge told the gummit he was very concerned about the number of innocent people being executed.. gave the prosecutors time to convince him.. ruled today they failed.. DNA cases are a small number of cases.. most cases don't have DNA evidence.. extrapolated to all the cases, a huge number of innocent people have been executed.. the ruling will be appealed to the 2nd district appealate court.. Leslie: about the Supreme Court ruling against executing the mentally retarded.. by a 6-3 vote.. Bright: in Texas, the legislature passed a bill against executing the mentally retarded, but the governor vetoed it.. almost no other country in the world permits such executions [any executions actually].. about Jerome Bowden from Georgia.. had an IQ of 65.. gave a real childish statement before he was put to death.. embarrased everyone.. the Georgia legislature immediately passed a bill.. (hear Bowden's and other final statements/ audio) about 50 mentally retarded have been put to death in the US in the last 30 years.. most innocent people are convicted because because of mistaken identification, poor lawyering, racial bias.. the ultimate nightmare, a completely innocent person put to death by the state.. about frontier justice.

now to Abe Bonowitz (sp?), Citizens United For Alternatives for the Death Penalty.. at the ninth annual fast and vigil to abolish the death penalty.. outside the Supreme Court.. many of us are here fasting.. tables set up with petitions.. a number of large banners.. Florida leads in the nation in wrongful convictions.. 24 released..

Event: Fight the Patriot Act: come hear attorneys Lynne Stewart, Tony Serra and others, Thursday July 11, First Congregational Church at Channing and Dana in Berkeley, more info call Barbara Lubin, 510-548-0542