Leonard Peltier ALERT

[MC Moot]

FROM THE Leonard Peltier Defense Committee HEADQUARTERS

This morning, July 1, 2005, Cyrus Peltier, grandson of Leonard went to
visit his grandpa as he has for the last 13 years. He was stopped at
the visiting area and was told, "He's gone". Upon questioning, he was
told that Leonard was transferred and after further inquiries, finally
found out that Leonard has been moved to USP Terre Haute, Indiana. At
this time, Leonard is in the hole and is being kept there indefinitely.
NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT.


It is basic procedure to keep transferred inmates in the hole while
processing takes place, however we do not know how long that will take.
We are asking anyone and everyone to get on the phones and get out their
pens and paper. Let's flood the telephones with calls regarding
Leonard! Let's stuff their mailboxes with letters about Leonard! Urge
the prison to allow Leonard to contact his family as soon as possible.
Ask how he is, ask where to write, ask if he's OK, ask about his health,
his privileges (phones, letters, visits, religious rights, ability to
paint, etc.) inquire as to his safety-anything-just keep calling and let
the prison know that the entire world is watching and is concerned about
Leonard. Please be sure to be courteous and professional, as we do not
wish to complicate Leonard's situation.

The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Peltier Legal Team and Leonard's
family are working hard to ensure Leonard's safety and we will keep you
informed as things develop.

Mitakuye Oyasin.

LPDC, Inc


USP Terre Haute
U.S. Penitentiary
4700 Bureau Road South
Terre Haute, IN 47802
Phone-812-244-4400
Fax----812-244-4789
THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20534
202-307-3198
info@bop.gov

http://www.freepeltier.org/

[GreenEarthAl]

The same exact thing has just now happened to Oscar López Rivera:

================================================== ===

Posted Tuesday, June 28, 2005

April of this year marked the 25th anniversary of the arrest of eleven
Puerto Rican political prisoners. April also marked the opening of an art
exhibit featuring paintings and ceramics created by two remaining Puerto
Rican political prisoners, Oscar López Rivera and Carlos Alberto Torres...
an exhibit scheduled to travel throughout the United States and Latin
America. Not coincidentally, after having served 24 years of a 70 year
sentence, April also marked Oscar’s unsolicited transfer from one maximum
security prison to another... a prison where he not only has more difficulty
maintaining his health and his family and community ties, but where painting
is virtually impossible.

While prison officials would undoubtedly deny that Oscar’s transfer was
punitive, its consequences are undeniably punitive. The new prison is not
simply a disruption of his routine, not a mere matter of the inconvenience
of the new requirements to be always fully dressed in khaki uniform and
boots (U.S. military castoffs, all), or weathering the elements—without
benefit of rain gear—as he makes his way from the cellblock to chow, or
sleeping on the small plastic mattress that makes noise with every move. The
new prison even further restricts his already restricted contact with the
outside world. Visits from friends and family, never encouraged, are
actively discouraged at the new prison. In June, his family was made to wait
close to three hours before granted entry, while a sole officer ploddingly
processed other visitors through drug testing and paper pushing, leaving
only a few hours for the visit. And they were lucky, as some families were
turned away completely, either for mistaken drug test results— which has
previously happened with Oscar’s family---or because the officer took so
frightfully long processing other families, the visiting day ended before he
reached many of those waiting.

News media, which have interviewed Oscar in virtually every prison in which
he has been held, is turned away. For example, Univision’s May request to
interview him was spurned, allegedly due to “security,” although media was
granted access to him in the more maximum security prisons in years
previous. Such a ban only increases the risk to Oscar and others held there,
as it lulls prison authorities to act with impunity and prevents public
access to a public institution. Witness recent disclosures of the military’s
refusal to allow media or United Nations access to staff or detainees at
Guantánamo, not only hiding from public light their ongoing torture, but
ensuring that it may continue with impunity. Ever since the United States
began to use Guantánamo as a “terrorist” detention camp, United Nations
human rights investigators have sought to visit Guantánamo and obtain full
access to the facilities and prison population, but the U.S. has never
allowed such access. The military refused to give the New York Times
permission to interview physicians at Guantánamo about their having aided
interrogators in conducting and refining coercive interrogations of
detainees, including providing advice on how to increase stress levels and
exploit fears, with a purpose of helping interrogators break the detainees.

Painting, one of the few outlets of creative expression available to him at
the previous penitentiary, was simply not available when he arrived.
Officials “lost” the majority of his painting supplies in the move to the
new prison, but those can be replaced, albeit at great expense. The problem
lies in the supposed lack of space. The problem is that, in the huge new
prison, fashioned of large buildings, officials have refused to designate
adequate space for this positive activity, creating in its place
frustration. Having seen the tiny space available, he writes, “The area
designated for us to paint is about the size of a cell, without any
ventilation, sink or proper lighting. There are four easels standing and
there’s no more room. There are about ten prisoners who paint. So right now
I don’t know if I’m going to be able to continue painting.”

Exercise, another of the few outlets available in the previous penitentiary,
has likewise been limited. At age 62, Oscar has managed to remain healthy,
energetic, and productive in spite of, not because of, his surroundings. At
the new prison, however, his ability to maintain his health is threatened by
new limitations, such as no equipment to exercise the upper body (no
weights, pull-up bars, dip bars), and a hard surface track that is bound to
injure the joints with repeated use. His skin, extremely sensitive since his
exposure to Agent Orange in Viet Nam, requires special soap which he is not
sure will be available through the commissary of the new prison. He already
knows that dental floss, so necessary for the prevention of tooth decay and
gum disease, is considered a security risk and is therefore not available.

These conditions must be put in the overall perspective of the new
penitentiary. The team responsible for designing and building it proudly
describes their project: “Twenty-first century correctional facility design
emphasizes security, function and workability, new technologies, staff
efficiency and livability.” A construction magazine glorifies the structure
as follows: “An inwardly focused series of more than a dozen buildings
offers inmates little opportunity to look out of the site and dream of
escape.” “A secured corridor of enclosed space surrounds the compound. The
corridor's interior wall is the back sides of the housing pods, and the
exterior wall is composed of precast concrete wall panels, described the
construction company’s vice president. Beyond that is "no man's land" and
three circuits of taut-wire fencing. Six guard towers with sight lines into
the compound are just outside the fencing, and a seventh guard tower is back
in the middle of the compound.” “Closed-circuit TV cameras monitor the
prison's critical areas, and a control room outside the secured perimeter
can open and close key access points into structures that include the
housing pods, the secured corridor and the main entrance.

The 960 cells measure approximately 7 feet wide by 14 feet long, fabricated
of precast concrete. The cells are formed as five-sided boxes - four walls
and a roof. Two cells, one atop another, make up a unit. A balcony fronts
the upper cell.

And, yes, the new prison includes a “special housing unit” where the federal
death penalty will be carried out.

Oscar is ever clear in the reason why he is where he is, sure of who he is,
and of his commitment to the independence of his nation, and even though he
patiently and optimistically adjusts to the new surroundings, all the while
resisting the encroaching limitations, living the salutation all his letters
bear: “en resistencia y lucha” [in resistance and struggle]. However, since
911, prison conditions have worsened across the board, especially
jeopardizing the health, safety and lives of our political prisoners. A
reporter with extensive experience covering U.S. prisons and jails,
remarking on the revelations of torture in Abu Ghraib, said, “the images
from Iraq looked all too American to me,” noting similar patterns of
physical and psychological abuse in the atmosphere of increasing
militarization of imprisonment in the U.S. We must therefore be vigilant of
his human rights while we make every effort to achieve his and Carlos
Alberto’s release.

The new address:

Oscar López Rivera
#87651-024
USP Terre Haute
P.O. Box 12015
Terre Haute, IN 47801

Financial contributions in the form of postal money orders to help him
purchase art supplies and pay for telephone calls must be sent to:

Federal Bureau of Prisons
Oscar López Rivera #87651-024
P.O. Box 474701
Des Moines, IA 50947-0001