URGENT ACTION ITEM

Thu Dec 14 13:58:56 PST 2000

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URGENT ACTION ITEM!
FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
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Watergate Office Building
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
Website: www.LP.org
Email: pressreleases at hq.LP.org
For information: (202) 333-0008 ext. 222
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December 14, 2000
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        FBI agents plan protest at White House on Friday;
        Libertarians organize counterprotest!

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"Protest against the FBI! 
Meet us at 11:30am on Friday in Lafayette Park
in front of the White House."
(Further details below.) 

**************************** 

        Dear Friends:

        A group of FBI agents plans to protest at noon tomorrow 
(Friday, Dec. 15) outside the White House to persuade President Clinton 
not to pardon Leonard Peltier, an American Indian leader convicted of 
killing two FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975. (See the article in 
Thursday's USA Today on page 19A, or go to
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20001214/2915953s.htm

        Americans who believe in equal justice under the law plan a 
peaceful counterprotest. Our point: If people who kill FBI agents 
belong in jail, don't FBI agents who kill ordinary Americans belong in 
jail as well? We are inviting you and your friends and colleagues to 
join us. 

        We believe that equal justice under the law requires equal 
prosecution and equal punishment as well. Americans who commit criminal 
acts should be prosecuted -- regardless of whether they happen to work 
for the federal government. If Peltier remains in jail, justice 
requires that federal agents who have committed murder be sentenced to 
jail time as well. If they go free, so should he.

        Now imagine a huge group of us holding signs that say: 

        "Thou shalt not kill.
         FBI, that includes you!"

   And: "Who pardoned Horiuchi?"

        We believe that's perfectly fair, because unfortunately, FBI 
and other federal agents who have killed innocent Americans have 
repeatedly gone free, in some cases free to kill again. Some examples: 

        * FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi assassinated Vicki Weaver as she held 
her infant in her cabin at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992. When it appeared 
Horiuchi would face state manslaughter charges, dozens of his FBI 
colleagues signed a petition to the court asking that he be set free 
because a trial would be "a traumatic ordeal for Lon and his family."  
FBI bureaucrats quietly managed to get the case transferred to a 
federal court, where a federal judge decided Horiuchi deserved 
"sovereign immunity" because he was acting "in his capacity as a 
federal law officer." Horiuchi was set free -- and the trigger-happy 
sniper later reappeared at Waco.

        * Dozens of FBI and BATF agents were involved in the shooting 
and burning deaths of 86 people, including 24 children, at Waco, Texas, 
on April 19, 1993. Despite photographic evidence that the FBI fired 
into the burning building, all government agents were exonerated by the 
government after a government investigation by the Danforth Commission 
earlier this year.  (Is there a pattern here?)

        * On May 20, 1997, four Marines on an anti-drug patrol gunned 
down Esequiel Hernandez, Jr., a high school sophomore, as he herded 
goats on his own property in Redford, Texas, near the Mexico border. 
The Justice Department later described the killing of the boy, who was 
never even accused of drug smuggling, as a "tragic event" but refused 
to charge the Marines with a crime because there was "insufficient 
evidence that his constitutional rights were intentionally violated."

        We could cite countless other instances of agents for the FBI, 
BATF, FBI, DEA, and other agencies literally getting away with murder, 
but you get the point. It's outrageous enough that none of these 
government killers have been brought to justice -- but it's almost 
beyond belief that their colleagues have the nerve to demand that an 
individual who *has* been convicted and has served 24 years in prison, 
Leonard Peltier, should remain there while their own guilty colleagues 
go free.

        Because we don't want the FBI's ludicrous position that only 
non-federal agents should be jailed for committing murder to go 
unanswered, we'll be protesting their protest outside the White House.

        When 200 FBI agents protest outside the White House, that's 
news -- so if we're there we'll be news, too! We anticipate significant 
media coverage for our event, so please:

        * Dress well (and warmly)

        * Be there on time: 11:30am on Friday in Lafayette Park across 
from the White House. Note: Due to construction activities in the park, 
we may have to meet in our alternate location instead: right in front 
of the Old Executive Office Building, which is next to the White House. 
Look for the signs!

        * Bring as many other people as possible.

        * DO NOT BRING STICKS to attach to signs, because police can 
confiscate them as a "weapon" and arrest you. 

        Please pass this e-mail on to your friends immediately, then 
follow up with a phone call. Time is short and we need to have a good 
turnout to take advantage of this guaranteed media opportunity.

        For more information, call George Getz at 202-333-0008 ext. 
222.

        Thank you!

        George Getz
        Press Secretary
        Libertarian Party

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