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Peltier vote.com * Pu Production Expands Peril * Peru Challengd by Political Prisoners

1) Peltier Poll on vote.com

2) Plutonium Production Expands Peril at Everyone's Expense

3) Peru Alert for Human Rights and Political Prisoners
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1) Peltier Poll on vote.com


Fwd from: "LPDC" (Leonard Peltier Defense Committee)
Subject: Peltier Poll on vote.com
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2000 16:39:41 -0600


Dear friends,

The website http://www.vote.com has a poll up with the question "Should President Clinton Pardon Leonard Peltier, Who Was Convicted Of Killing Two FBI Agents?"

The current total is about 6,500 votes no and 350 votes yes. Clearly the FBI found out about the poll before we did, but we can fix that!

For each person that votes, "vote.com" sends an email to President Clinton, telling him how he/she voted.

[Vote.com was created by Dick Morris (who was President Clinton's chief strategist and advisor in the 1996 campaign. He's now a commentator on the Fox News Channel and writes a weekly column in the New York Post) and Eileen McGann is an attorney and former public interest lobbyist.]

We are asking all Peltier supporters to go to this website and vote in support for Clemency for Leonard Peltier.

In solidarity,

--- LPDC

To subscribe for lpdc updates, send a blank message to
lpdc-on@mail-list.com

Have you signed the on-line petition supporting clemency for Leonard Peltier? The LPDC will send it to President Clinton on Monday. Over 22,000 people have signed! http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html

Following is its statement:

To: All People

Mr. President:

We the undersigned come together before you to request the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Leonard Peltier from Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.

Mr. Peltier was convicted for the June 26, 1975 murders of 2 FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. There were 4 defendants originally charged before the Grand Jury. Two of the defendants were tried before the court and found Not Guilty by reason of self-defense.

Charges were dropped on the 3rd defendant. Mr. Peltier was tried after a change of venue to North Dakota. In this trial Mr. Peltier wasn't able to put up a self-defense argument. Any evidence that could have proven Mr. Peltier's innocence was not allowed in his trial or if it was allowed it was not allowed in front of the jury. Witness testimony wildly diverged between Grand Jury testimony and trial testimony; further, several of the witnesses recanted their testimony after the trial, claiming perjured testimony because of threats from the FBI. Despite testimony, prosecuting attorneys have stated on several occasions that they don't know who shot the agents that day.

The FBI coerced Myrtle Poor Bear into signing three mutually exclusive affidavits in order to extradite Mr. Peltier from Canada. In Mr. Peltier's trial Ms. Poor Bear testified that she never knew Mr. Peltier, that she had never seen Mr. Peltier prior to the trial. She testified that she signed the affidavits as a result of intimidation by agents interviewing her. The jury never heard her testimony, despite the fact she had originally been scheduled as a government witness, her testimony was excluded on the basis of her "incompetence".

A few FBI officials and/or agents have launched campaigns to publicly proclaim the guilt of Mr. Peltier. Thus perpetuating the original cover up through dissemination of misinformation in editorials, web sites and full page newspaper ads in what is seen as an effort to discredit the common sense and creditability of many national leaders and their organizations. These leaders have studied the case in-depth for over twenty-three years since the reign of terror on the Pine Ridge reservation and areas supposedly under the protection of this county.

Mr. President and elected officials of all people, we ask that you no longer ignore the voices of the tens of millions of signatures and letters of the last twenty three years, and the results of the most recent polls in favor of his immediate release. We ask all politicians and officials to support true justice. Honor the voices of your constituents. Call for immediate unconditional executive clemency for Mr. Peltier.

Sincerely,


PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION
http://www.petitiononline.com/Clemency/petition.html

AND CALL THE WHITE HOUSE COMMENT LINE WEEKDAYS
1-202-456-1111 press 0 to bypass taped message

VOTE FOR CLEMENCY >>>>>>> http://www.vote.com
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2) Plutonium Production Expands Peril at Everyone's Expense


OAK RIDGE MAY PRODUCE PLUTONIUM

The Tennesseean -- December 25, 2000

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to be tapped next month to help in plutonium production for the space program, a development that would bring $34 million for renovations to the nuclear lab.

The U.S. Department of Energy has identified Oak Ridge as one of two sites under consideration to help produce plutonium-238 and serve as the primary processing facility of radioactive material.

Oak Ridge's High Flux Isotope Reactor and the Advanced Test Reactor at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab would split the production role, according to the latest DOE proposal.

For Oak Ridge, the new project would mean long-term work for about 70 people, and it would help solidify the lab's nuclear mission. Once the decision is final, plans will proceed for upgrades to the
Radiochemical Engineering Development Center, a two-building nuclear complex.

Gordon Michaels, director of nuclear technology programs at Oak Ridge, said the staff is excited about the new work, which would bring "an interesting and challenging scientific operation."

NASA needs plutoniuim-238 to fuel probes in deep space.

Oak Ridge workers would purify the plutonium, which then would be shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory where it would be formed into pellets used in space power systems.

Oak Ridge has never handled plutonium in large quantities, but the lab has experience in handling other highly hazardous. If approved, Oak Ridge is expected to begin plutonium production in late 2006 or early
2007.


To work with others to help stop Plutonium development for space,
Contact: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator; PO Box 90083 Gainesville, FL. 32607
Telephone:(352) 337-9274 Internet: http://www.space4peace.org
E-mail:
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3) Peru Alert for Human Rights and Political Prisoners

Fwd.
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 14:01:28 -0600
Subject: PERU-URGENT - PLEASE CIRCULATE
From: Pio Celestino


PERU ALERT - URGENT ACTION

It was announced today, Thursday, December 21, 2000, that all the political prisoners belonging to Peru's Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru, M.R.T.A., who are imprisoned in the jail of Puno have begun a take over of the jail in protest for the conditions of detention to which they are subjected. Four principal demands have been raised:

1.- A denunciation and demand for punishment of the military personnel involved in Human Rights violations.

2.- The immediate closure of the high security prisons of El Callao, Naval Base, Yanamayo and Chorrillos.

3.- Repeal of the anti-terrorist laws installed by the ex-dictator Fujimori.

4.- Liberation and deportation to their respective countries of all foreign political prisoners presently jailed in Peru.

Puno, Peru, December 21, 2000.

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS INFORMATION

We ask you to spread this to all human rights organizations and to socio-cultural and political institutions as well. Please contact with letters, telephone calls or e-mails to the Peruvian Consulate or Embassy nearest you; write, call or e-mail the following authorities:

>Defensoria del Pueblo, Apartado 3906, Jiron Ucayali 88, Lima 1, PERU
FAX: 511-4267889; E-mail:

>Miguel Aljovin Swayne, Fiscal de la Nacion, Avenida Abancay, 5ta.
Cuadra, S/n., Lima 1, PERU
FAX: 511-4269421; E-mail:

>Jorge E. Taiana, Executive Secretary,
Interamerican Commission of Human Rights,
1889 F Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20006;
FAX: 202-458-3992; E-mail:

>Patricio E. Chellew,
Director, OAS, PERU,
Calle Los Laureles 370, San Isidro, Lima 27, PERU
Telephone: 511-4416214; FAX: 511-4416715; E-mail:

Translation by LSB and PLC, REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, US, from versions provided by REVISTA TIEMPOS MODERNOS, Gonzalo Toro, and by the COMITE DE REFUGIADOS PERUANOS EN CHILE,

RDRG-12.23.2000

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