On this day of celebration of "freedom" & "democracy," the Boston Area �?Leonard Peltier Support Group is calling for a boycott of PayPal & parent company eBAY.

The modest funds raised through the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC) & selected support group Web sites are used for public education programs, political & lobbying actions, & legal strategies undertaken on behalf of Leonard Peltier. We do these things to keep Peltier's hope for freedom alive. While such activities are likely inconvenient for the U.S. government, they are not illegal. On the contrary, these activities represent free exercise of our constitutional rights.

We've come to expect interference with our Web-based services over the years, i.e., interruption of service at critical times, for example. However, last week, both the LPDC & the Boston support group received notification from PayPal (our Web site credit card verification & payment processing service) that we are in violation of its Acceptable Use Policy. Designating Leonard Peltier as being "notorious for committing murderous acts," PayPal has now deprived us of our online fundraising capability. Our accounts have been closed preventing us from receiving donations electronically & we have been told that our funds collected through the online service may be frozen for up to 180 days.

Please note that PayPal doesn't monitor Web sites but depends on "members of the community" to bring alleged violations to its attention. We can only speculate as to who those "members of the community" were in this case.

An Indigenous Rights activist & prisoner of conscience, Leonard Peltier has been imprisoned for the past 28 years for a crime he did not commit. U.S. prosecutors have admitted that they did not & cannot prove that Peltier committed the crime of which he was accused. In fact, it was proved long ago that Leonard Peltier was convicted through the use of fabricated evidence & false testimony. Under nonpolitical circumstances, the courts would have been compelled to release Peltier due to prosecutorial misconduct & a flagrant abuse of power. Instead, 28 years later, Peltier languishes in the maximum security prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.

The U.S. Government even now refuses to release Peltier despite his becoming eligible for parole over a decade ago. In violation of their own congressionally mandated guidelines, Peltier won't even be considered for parole until he has served over twice the normal term for his alleged offenses.

Due to his political prosecution/persecution, Leonard Peltier has been called the Nelson Mandela of the United States. He has garnered worldwide support. Amnesty International & other human rights organizations have repeatedly called for his immediate & unconditional release. He is supported by numerous luminaries throughout the world, including Mandela himself, as well as past & present members of the U.S. Congress. In 1991 & again in 2000, Judge Gerald Heaney (formerly of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals) & author of one of the appellate decisions in the Peltier case wrote to Senator Daniel Inouye to recommend a grant of Executive Clemency to Peltier.

PayPal also claims to have done an exhaustive evaluation of the LPDC & Boston sites for "offensive" material. What did they find?

• The announcement of Leonard Peltier's nomination for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
• The legal updates concerning Leonard's case, including information on Peltier's recent victory over editor Paul DeMain in a defamation lawsuit filed in 2003.
• The position paper submitted by the Peltier legal team to the Committees on the Judiciary of the U.S. Senate & U.S. House of Representatives on official misconduct in Indian Country, in particular that against the American Indian Movement & Leonard Peltier.
• Material to mobilize support for the release of hundreds of thousands of documents still withheld after nearly 30 years by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, despite repeated Freedom of Information Act actions brought by Peltier's attorneys.
• Announcement of Leonard's presidential nomination for the Peace & Freedom Party in California.
• Political action materials as regards the upcoming presidential election, in general, & encouraging Indigenous & other U.S. voters to use their votes to help win Leonard's freedom, in particular.

  We consider this policy & PayPal's actions to be an attack on our political beliefs, interference with our right to participate in the "democratic" political process, & an intentional effort on the part of PayPal & its parent company eBAY to interfere with our (and your) constitutional rights. Such corporate actions -- as taken at the behest of the U.S. government, or not -- are an affront to activists everywhere & threaten our basic freedoms.

  We will NOT go away! Join our boycott of PayPal & its parent company eBAY. Spread the word to friends, family, colleagues & co-workers:

• Don't use the PayPal service on Web sites you own or manage.
• Don't donate to or purchase from sites that use the PayPal service.
• Don't buy or sell/auction items using eBAY.
• Send PayPal & eBAY the message that you find THEIR policy & actions "offensive".

  THE LPDC IS IN URGENT NEED OF FUNDS. WE THEREFORE URGE YOU TO IMMEDIATELY SEND DONATIONS BY SNAIL MAIL. NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL.

  LPDC
  PO Box 583
  Lawrence, Kansas 66044-0583
  USA
  

  Thank You.

  Released on: July 4, 2004
  Contact:
  

  Barry Bachrach, Esquire
  Bowditch & Dewey, LLP
  311 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01615-0156
  E-mail: [email protected]