CREDENTIALS

“There’s only one Committee. The ILPDC is planning/managing the only official freedom campaign for Leonard Peltier (in concert with Leonard and his attorneys). You may see public or Internet-based fundraising efforts not endorsed or managed by the ILPDC. Beware. These are not approved actions and the fundraising isn’t being done on behalf of the Committee. Only credentialed chapters of the ILPDC and selected partners are authorized to raise funds in Leonard’s name. Therefore, we encourage donors to always ask for a fundraiser’s credentials and/or check with the ILPDC as to the legitimacy of any fundraising effort conducted by an individual or organization other than the ILPDC. Thank You.”

Asking for credentials, the above quote from the ILPDC’s latest fundraising attempt.

Not a bad idea when donating money to any cause or charity. But should it end there, or should there be some sort of transparency and accountability?

I’d say the obvious answer is yes, yet we all know that really isn’t often the case and a donation should be the result of faith – an understanding that it will go directly to the expressed purpose.

Charities and fundraising are big business with literally millions of dollars accumulated annually and when digging a little deeper people are often shocked to discover that the majority of money goes to “overhead”.

A kind of metaphor for salaries, what amount to perks, and even questionable activities.

The Peltier fund raising machine has been called upon for literally decades to open the books, to display regard so for those who have contributed by doing so, to give a full accounting, and yet that hasn’t been the case.

During the combined history of the LPDOC and ILPDC issues have been raised about whether either qualified as a “charity” and donations were in fact tax deductible.

I believe the charity and tax deductible approach has found a work around by collecting it through the so called Indigenous Rights Center as a legal and educational fund.

Secrecy has been a hallmark of Peltier, a lot of talk and accusations about conspiracies and foul play.

Among those accusations have been Peltier’s treatment as a “political prisoner” while incarcerated – that it has been unjust and Peltier is routinely targeted by his keepers either when it comes to disciplinary actions or medical needs.

If such claims are valid verifying them to some extent or another would in theory be possible by Peltier signing off on the release of both his disciplinary and parole board hearing records – yet secrecy seems to have dictated that he does not and the question should arise why is it so difficult to merely affix one’s signature to a piece of paper?

Comparatively it could be asked why was it so difficult to abandon the Mr.X did it story? The obvious answer is in doing so other questions arose and it could well be the same with transparency related to fund raising and those records Peltier refuses to sign off on.

Peltier’s approach has taken another turn – he now says what transpired at Jumping Bull was tragic, that it never should have taken place, that he feels a certain amount of remorse – but what he’s saying is the bottom line is not whether you believe he is innocent or guilty only that he has spent forty years behind bars, and even if you believe he is guilty he deserves to be set free on the basis of that alone.

Peltier is in the eleventh hour of life now, time is running out and there is little left to salvage – he can either come clean and in doing so secure his position of having been little more than a thug all of his life or he can stay the course in the hope of being remembered as the “warrior” he never was.

I have no sympathy for Peltier, he made the bed he’s been lying in and unlike his victims his bed has been above ground.

I further believe Annie Mae Pictou Aquash can be added to list of Peltier victims whether he pulled the trigger or not – had it not of been for his boasting in front of her and others that he indeed shot at point blank range at least one federal agent after previously branding her an informant, interrogating her at gunpoint, and bemoaning the fact that he didn’t have truth serum to administer, not to mention the coercion of Annie by he and Dave Hill in the making of bombs she might well be alive today – a grandmother doting on her grandchildren and regaling them with stories of when she was a little girl.

Peltier has spent forty years in prison for murder(s) he committed, call it karma, justice, a travesty, or whatever you like – but what do you call the same forty years of Peltier spitting on the graves of victims, trashing the nations traditions, and pretending to be something he is not?

What do you call the grief of children growing up without their parent or the grief of spouses and family?

The real question is what exactly are Leonard Peltier’s credentials?