Release Withheld FBI Documents in Leonard Peltier Case

To:  Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology & Homeland Security

United States Senate
Subcommittee on Terrorism,Technology, and Homeland Security
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

I am writing in regard of Leonard Peltier. Mr. Peltier is a Native American activist who is currently imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Peltier has been incarcerated for over 27 years as a result of a shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Reservation on June 26, 1975 that resulted in the deaths of three men: two FBI agents & a young Native American man.

Currently, Mr. Peltier's attorneys are attempting to secure his files from the FBI under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). FOIA requests have been made on Mr. Pelter's behalf to FBI Headquarters as well as to a number of FBI field offices around the country. Unfortunately, the FBI has used a number of methods to circumvent its obligation under the FOIA.

In June 2002, the FBI was forced to release close to 30,000 pages of documents relating to Leonard's case, referred to by the FBI as "RESMURS," for Reservation Murders. The documents were released to Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), who said he was "only doing his job" by responding to constituent requests for the release of the documents. Despite the release of these documents as a result of Mr. Franks efforts, up to an additional 100,000 pages of documents are still withheld.

FBI field offices have said that the scope of the inquiries outstrips their capacity to process the documents, referring the requests to FBI headquarters. This is clearly a stalling tactic.
The FBI Legal Attache in Ottawa, Ontario has not responded to Mr. Peltier's request of January 9, 2002. FBI Field Offices in Albany, Pittsburgh, Portland, & San Francisco claim that the files relating to Mr. Peltier have been destroyed, in one case as early as September, 1976. In instances where the FBI field offices acknowledge possessing records regarding Mr. Peltier, the FOIA requests are referred to FBI Headquarters for processing. This action has served to delay the handling of the FOIA requests.

Previously released FBI documents released under the FOIA document FBI abuse of domestic security investigation of the American Indian Movement & have forced the government to admit that it does not know who shot their agents.

I urge your committee to hold a public hearing on the manner in which the FBI is handling Mr. Peltier's FOIA requests. Some of the sought-after data dates back nearly 28 years. Congressional hearings have long been called for by Amnesty International & the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

The FBI must be required to divulge the exact number of documents it maintains on Mr. Peltier, the location offices that maintain these records, the total number of documents concerning him that have been disposed of, the date & authority under which records have been destroyed. As well, please determine whether any records dealing with Mr. Peltier have been transferred to any other agency(ies)
& the name(s) of the agency(ies) that received this material, along with the date(s) on which the transfer occurred.

Thank You.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Release Withheld FBI Documents in Leonard Peltier Case Petition to Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology & Homeland Security was created by BA-LPSG and written by John Gallagher (Johnniecakes@hotmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.