Season's Greetings from Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier sends seasons greetings as the government's crime against him continues unabated.

The following is from Radio Havana Cuba.

Season's Greetings from Leonard Peltier: U.S. Political Prisoner

Lewisburg, December 25 (RHC)-- American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, one of the longest-held political prisoners in the United States, has sent a holiday message to his supporters around the world. Leonard Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who was unjustly convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI agents. The agents died during a gun battle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975, but Leonard Peltier didn’t kill them.

Having been locked up for more than 33 years, Leonard is one of the longest held political prisoners in the U.S. and is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

The special holiday message from Leonard Peltier reads:

Greetings and Happy Holidays. I hope this letter finds you all enjoying the spirit of the season with family and friends.

My August parole denial was appealed in short order. We are expecting a response to that appeal sometime very soon. It has occurred to me that the viciousness of this system knows no bounds, and so I believe strongly in the coming days we will hear of another loss, another denial. This one will be timed and intended specifically as a twisted Christmas present for me, such is the nature of those in charge. With no sense of balance, fairness, or decency, I await my own personal stocking stuffer.

We all know the so-called justice system of this country is more about revenge and retribution than finding true and just resolution. It doesn’t take into account the plight of the wrongfully convicted, nor does it allow flexibility as human endeavors always require. This system has always been about making money at the top, furthering careers in the middle, and forgetting those at the bottom.

Their reason for denying my parole is that I refuse to admit guilt and show remorse for the deaths of two FBI agents. I know the righteousness of my situation. I know what I did and didn’t do. I will never yield.

I also know what this country did and continues to do to me and many others. While they demand I make a false confession for the sake of my freedom, they show no remorse for the loss of much of my life, or the lives of Joe Stuntz and countless others they have murdered over the generations simply for being who they were. Those lives are meaningless when compared to their precious FBI, I guess. And now, some of the very ones responsible for the deaths and suffering of so many of my people, are peddling books and claiming to be a friend of the Indian. We’ve seen this before, and I’ll speak more about this soon.

I remain proud of what I have stood for and mindful of what real justice is. In this season of love and forgiveness, please say a prayer for all of those who never knew justice and others who have such difficulty in finding it still today.

My love and my prayers go out to all of you.

Happy Holidays.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Leonard Peltier