All hands on deck to help Leonard Peltier's fight for freedom #humanrights #indigenous

The fight for the freedom of Leonard Peltier Continues Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

All Hands on Deck   We write today to make both an announcement and a request.  The announcement is that we have asked Indigo Cantor to take a larger role in the strategic operations of the LPDOC as a liaison. Indigo will help co-ordinate projects and supporters to help reach maximum effectiveness toward Leonard's freedom. She is very open to ideas and suggestions that you may have. Communication is KEY, so talk with her when you need things or have ideas. We believe she is an innovator and that her very positive energy will be just what we need at this time. She will also help with Congressional and legal efforts and will report directly to the board.  "Indigo is an extremely important asset to the Committee, everyone please welcome her with open arms; we need everyone's cooperation in working with her, she is very valuable to us, has come in at a critical time, and we're grateful for her."- LP Many good people have come and gone in these long years and each and every one has contributed to the effort and has made a difference. The job has been daunting and many have stayed as long as they could but were eventually compelled by life and its responsibilities to move on. Most have been steadfast in the fight for many, many years. The gratitude we have for ALL of Leonard's supporters has NO bounds. Yet here we are, and Leonard is still locked up in a steel cage almost 2000 miles from his family and home.   You know it and we know it. It's time. SO, here is the request: we would like to issue a call for All hands on deck!!  As of May 2013, there are a number of strategic efforts in the works, some of which are not being made public at this time in order to properly launch them for maximum benefit to Leonard.  Leonard and the board have extreme confidence these strategies will bring forth exciting results you will all be proud and energized to be a part of.  After 38 years of working toward a goal and not realizing it, frustrations and tempers are bound to grow and need a place to go.  We must transform any negative energy or frustration into POSITIVE action! Leonard DEPENDS on it, his life and well-being DEPEND on us working in unity and cooperation. There can be NO other way. Remember, All hands on deck. Many of you have special skills you can offer, be it writing, technical, organizing, marching, etc.   The time is NOW, to put our efforts together and push in the same direction at the same time. This is, quite likely, Leonard's last real chance for freedom.  When his transfer was denied last month the Prison casually told him he could reapply in two years. Leonard's health and age may not allow for that.  In two years he may not have the stamina to apply for anything. Or worse.  In the Spirit of Getting Leonard out of Prison!!! -The LPDOC Board of Directors.  Friend on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend

| friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2013  The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee ( LPDOC), All rights reserved. To find out more about Leonard Peltier, Please visit his official website at: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

History Before Our Eyes - Guatemalan Dictator and SOA Graduate Found Guilty of Genocide!

Efraín Ríos Montt Found Guilty of Genocide! The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards Justice. SOA Watch celebrates the guilty verdict against the former Guatemalan dictator and School of the Americas Graduate Efraín Ríos Montt, who was sentenced to 80 years in prison. We celebrate and stand in solidarity with the Ixil Mayans, the survivors of the genocide and crimes against humanity committed under his dictatorship (1982-1983). General Ríos Montt was the first ex-head of state to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in his home country. Doubts arose throughout the 7 weeks of harrowing trial testimony whether or not the Guatemalan justice system would be capable of withstanding dark political forces and threats of violence to deliver the only result supported by the evidence. We applaud the judge's bravery and strongly worded verdict, which has created an echo of hope throughout the Americas and the rest of the world. SOA Watch renews the demand that justice also visit those who trained, equipped, and facilitated his genocidal regime. School of the Americas graduates formed the backbone of the presidential cabinets under the dictatorships of both Montt and his predecessor, Romeo Lucas García. They were also deeply involved in the Guatemalan Intelligence Agency (D-2), in the formation of the notorious civil defense patrols, and in planning and executing "Operation Sofia". This military maneuver wiped out some 600 Mayan villages, part of a broader campaign "of genocide against groups of Mayan people," as concluded by the 1999 UN-backed truth commission. Montt is the first ex-president to be found guilty of genocide by a Latin American court---it indicates that the tide is turning against impunity in the region, however, we must also hold those in the United States accountable, who trained and equipped the right-wing military dictatorships and made the genocide possible. After a meeting with Ríos Montt in Honduras during the US-backed Dirty Wars in Central America, then-president Ronald Reagan stated that Ríos Montt was “a man of great personal integrity . . . totally dedicated to democracy”. The next day, December 6, 1982, the Kaibiles, the Guatemalan special forces which have extensive ties to the SOA, entered the village of Las Dos Erres, systematically raped the women, and killed 162 inhabitants, 67 of them children. Current President of Guatemala Otto Peréz Molina, also a graduate of the SOA, spent much of his time in military service as a member of the Kaibiles. This military unit was developed by the Guatemalan government in 1974, and its initial leader was a fellow SOA graduate by the name Pablo Nuila Hub. Also during the military career of Molina, he served as Montt's Ixil field commander, under the alias Major Tito Arias. For a more detailed SOA Watch report about the Kaibiles, click here.It was the current administration of Peréz Molina who, fearing Molina's complicity in much of the evidence brought forth in the trial against Montt, who stood to benefit from the temporary suspension of the trial. Thankfully justice prevailed and the trial resumed. But since today represents a new dawn for the Ixil, Guatemalans and other survivors of systematic violence, we celebrate with hope in our hearts and a renewed sense of purpose. SOA Watch continues to call for the closure of the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) and for an investigation into the connections between U.S. military training and human rights abuses in Latin America. We will continue fighting in the streets, as well as our judicial and legislative branches until we also see justice for the victims of the SOA. Please contact your Member of Congress to urge them to close down the SOA: Click here. As a commemoration to the inevitability of justice coming to light, we also point to our recent victory in the courtrooms of the United States, in which a federal judge from California has ordered that the State Department grant an SOA Watch request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demanding the release of the names of graduates and instructors from the SOA/WHINSEC, which we have previously been denied. Read more about the victory here. Human rights activists throughout the Americas are calling on President Obama to shut down the School of the Americas and for Congress to cut the funding for the school and to conduct a Congressional investigation into the connection between human rights abuses in Latin America and U.S. military training. From November 22-24, we will take this message with us to the gates of Fort Benning, where Ríos Montt and scores of other human rights abusers were trained. With the strength of social movements across the Americas, we will take direct action against the focal point of several atrocities committed under the banner of US foreign policy, the School of Americas/WHINSEC. P.S. Listen to "Guilty," by Rebel Diaz, perfect song for the occasion. SOA Watch @SOAWatch SOAW YouTube

The Jews of Nigeria

» Watch a trailer for Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria.	» Learn about Jews in India who believe they are a lost tribe.	» Hang with the Igbo Jews.	» Get your tickets to the film here.

May 10, 2013 Meet Nigeria's Jews If you thought the wonders of the Internet were best characterized by videos of cats on treadmills and Words With Friends, consider the experience of Shmuel Tikvah ben Yaacov. The web introduced him to his heritage. Shmuel, an Igbo (pronounced Ebo) from Southeastern Nigeria, grew up understanding that he was Jewish, but he knew little religious and cultural history. (Tradition has it that the Igbo are descendants of Gad, founder of one of the lost tribes of Israel.) But when the Internet came to Nigeria, Shmuel began researching, and what he learned convinced him of his Jewish heritage and inspired him to help build the country's small Jewish community. Writer/director Jeff L. Lieberman's Re-Emerging: The Jews of Nigeria is a fascinating portrait of a group that, until recently, had little contact with Jewish communities around the world. Despite a lack of resources and the Israeli government's disinclination to recognize the Igbo as Jews, Shmuel and his fellow community members are committed. And after a visit from a sympathetic American rabbi, Shmuel reveals his dream: to attend the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Despite the visa difficulties that ensue, Shmuel is determined to become a rabbi: "The community here needs my service." - Elizabeth Michaelson

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