Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-10-12 Monday

Episode Date: October 12, 2026

Democracy Now! Monday, October 12, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. I'm still an activist and a warrior for the people, and I'll continue until I die. Today is Indigenous People's Day. We'll speak to Native American activist Leonard Peltier at his home on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in North Dakota. And we'll speak to the director of a new film called Free, Leland. Senator Peltier. There's some firing now. Where do you remember about to shoot out?

I felt the bullets going by my head. This rate, there's surely going to be some blood spill here. I want to ask you about the dead agents. Did you kill them? No, I did not kill them. But first to India, where thousands have been arrested amidst massive protests against the government of Narendra Modi. The opposition is asking one question.

To prove to us that you have not cheated in the election. All that unmermered. more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Mimi Goodman. In Saudi Arabia, one person was killed and 11 others wounded Sunday when a missile fired by Houthi fighters in Yemen hit a passenger terminal in King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. The attack came just one day after another Houthi strike in the same terminal, killed at least 12 people and injured more than 300 others, many of them critically. Saudi officials responded by canceling flights and suspending airport operations.

Meanwhile, schools across Riyadh have canceled in-person classes and switched to distance learning for the second time in less than a month due to the threat of Houthi attacks. Meanwhile, Houthi-aligned media reports Saudi war planes bomb Sana International Airport and other sites around Yemen's capital. The Pentagon's once again raised its count of U.S. troops killed and wounded in operations tied to the U.S. war on Iran. The Pentagon quietly updated the figures without a public announcement Friday. The Defense Casualty Analysis System website now lists 21 service members killed, up from 18, and 865 wounded, 98 more than in August. This comes as 74 Democrats in Congress are pushing the Pentagon for answers about U.S. air strikes in Iran that killed civilians.

They're focusing on a September strike on a wedding in Iran that killed five people, three adults and two children, and injured about 70 others. In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef, the Democrats wrote, quote, were deeply alarmed by the continued pattern of civilian casualties resulting from U.S. operations in the war in Iran and the apparent lack of action and accountability from the department. Acknowledging such incidents, accepting responsibility and learning from them makes our forces stronger, more effective, and an example to the world. When we fail to do so, it has the exact opposite effect, they said. In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed. today as an Israeli drone struck vehicles in the southern city of Rafa. This follows an Israeli air strikes Sunday that killed three Palestinians in a tent in the

Al-Mawesi area of Khan Yunus, which Israel previously designated as a so-called safe zone. On Saturday, separate Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Gaza. Those attacks came on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. brokered so-called ceasefire agreement. Palestinian officials say Israel violated the deal more than 5,100 times in attacks that killed at least 1,471 Palestinians and injured nearly 5,200 others. This is Neil Abouhese, whose home was damaged in Israeli strike. Where would they go? They will stay in the streets. Where?

There's no shelter or anything. All empty areas are filled. All is filled with tents in the north, the south, and in the middle where we are living. We started living this tragedy as well. There is no choice left for humans. There is no desire to live with this situation that we are in. Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least six civilians Sunday, including a strike on a grocery store in Kharkiv,

that killed three people and 20 injured. That followed Russian missile strikes on the southeastern Ukraine on Saturday that killed 20 people, including three children. Elsewhere, Russia bombed a power plant in the city of Kharkiv Sunday, setting it on fire. The attack came after President Trump wrote on truth social, quote, effective immediately, there's an energy ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed, he said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the announcement caught him off guard, calling it, quote, news to me. unquote. On Saturday, President Trump told reporters at the White House he thinks, quote,

it's time for Ukraine to get a new president, unquote. Trump's remarks came after the White House said it had reached a deal with the Kremlin to suspend sanctions on Russian diesel exports until April in order to lower fuel prices before the midterm elections. Speaking to ABC News, President Zelensky said he would organize elections and stop attacking Russian energy sites of President Putin agreed to a 60-day ceasefire. Tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organize elections. Of course, we will be ready for any choice of our people. Exactly.

We are ready for a ceasefire. We are ready to begin from any kind of steps of de-escalation. we are ready for energy ceasefire not to attack energy both sides. In India, protests against the right-wing government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi rocked Delhi over the weekend. Police detained thousands of people Saturday, including the three leaders of the youth-led cockroach Janta party, Abidji Tipka, Sarv Das, and Ashutosh Ranka. Authorities had intercepted their flight from Mumbai to New Delhi to prevent. a large demonstration. A magistrate judge ordered them release Sunday on the condition that they

not breach peace for one year. After their release, the leaders vowed to continue protesting, even as they accused Modi's government of waging war on its own citizens and creating an atmosphere of fear. Today, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress parties, leading a march towards the Supreme Court. This is Nehabora, the national president, of the All India Students Association. So I think there is hope, and that's the only reason why people have the courage to come down onto the streets now, because there is hope that not only can you fight against these people who claim to rule with an iron fist, and they did rule with an iron fist, not only can you fight

them, you can also defeat them in some way or form. And this hope is infectious, and that is why it keeps spreading in this entire country. Fear is infectious, of course, but hope is also infectious. We'll go to New Delhi after headlines. The U.S. Justice Department is looking into whether the five major TV networks that make up the White House TV press pool broke federal antitrust law last month. In September, news departments at ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News briefly halted their shared rotation of White House coverage after CNN was pulled from a scheduled assignment from the White House. The networks reportedly found out about the probe on Friday when the Justice Department's anti-trust division sent letters demanding records of internal communications. Last month, CNN MS Now and

Politico sued over their ban from the White House. A Trump-appointed federal judge issued a temporary order requiring the White House to restore their access with a ruling on a potential longer-lasting injunction expected Tuesday. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop running government-funded TV ads that promote President Trump, finding they're likely unlawful. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Roshan of New York blocked the Trump administration from spending public funds to distribute the ads. She also said it must cancel, quote, any slot, placement, reservation, or a

arrangement for the airing or dissemination of the challenged advertisements, unquote. The ruling took effect immediately, covering any ads that were set to air later Sunday night. But the Justice Department in a weekend filing said the ad buy was slated to end on Sunday. The ads began running on national TV in September using millions of dollars from the Department of Homeland Security. A federal judge issued a temporary order on Friday blocking the deportation of Oscar Bergal, the 28-year-old man shot by an ICE agent on Thursday in the Marlboro Hill neighborhood of New York City. The order also prohibits federal agents from moving him to any facility outside the southern or eastern districts of New York or the district of New Jersey, unless the court approves it first.

Borgoe was behind the wheel of his car. when he was shot in the neck with his five-year-old son in the back seat as plain-clothes ICE agents approached the vehicle with weapons drawn. On Saturday, hundreds of people, including families and children, rallied in Herald Square, to protest ICE and to demand accountability. Demonstrators marched to call for an end to ICE operations in New York City and justice for immigrant families. This is protester, Tanya, Nune. In Houston, Texas, ICE agents struck and injured a man with their vehicle on Saturday after he ran from them on foot.

An ice spokesperson said agents were trying to stop a vehicle carrying Jose Mendoza-Servantes, the person the operation was targeting. And Miguel Pado Fernandez, in the footage, the ICE vehicle can be seen running. running over Padda Hernandez. They broke his legs. And he was scheduled to undergo surgery on Sunday. During a rally in Tennessee Saturday, President Trump repeatedly misnamed Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate, Dr. Abdul al-Sayed, as Mohammed, calling him a jihadist. Like Mohammed al-Siyadh. I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, his name isn't Mohammed.

It's Abdul. I said, to me it's Mohammed. I'm the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want. To me, he's Mohammed. And he's a radical jihadist. Dr. Abdul al-Sayed responded to the attacks by saying, quote, he knows my name is Abdul.

He says it every day. But he's not just attacking me. He's attacking all of us, unquote. In Tennessee, Krista Pike was discharged from a hospital Saturday and sent back to death. row at the Deborah Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital meant to kill her at a botched execution attempt on September 30th. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has postponed executions through

the end of the year pending an investigation. He's not responded to calls from Krista Pike's lawyers to commute her sentence from death to life and prison. If he takes no action before leaving office January 16th, the decision will fall to the victor of Tennessee's gubernatorial race in November. Democrat Jerry Green has called for a moratorium on executions, while Republican candidate, current U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, wrote, quote, The answer is simple, bring back the electric chair and deliver justice for these victims swiftly, she said.

The Trump administration placed sanctions on the International Criminal Court Friday, just hours after a former ICC judge, Navi Pellé was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The court condemned the sanctions and urged its 125 member countries to come to its defense. The U.S. has already sanctioned 17 ICC judges and officials. To see our interview about Navi Pila, the new Nobel Peace Prize winner, go to Democracy Now.org. And President Trump appointed conservative commentator Katie Zakaria to serve as White House Press Secretary replacing Carolyn Leavitt. Zaccaria has spread anti-abortion disinformation, including a conspiracy theory linking the abortion pill Mephipristone to Nazi Germany. In a November 2025 post on X, Zaccariah falsely

claimed Mepristone is, quote, connected to the manufacturer of the deadly gas Zyklung B, unquote. Zakaria is a former Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, current advisor to Trump Media and Technology Group. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. Coming up, we go to India where thousands have been arrested against, midst massive protests against the government of Narendra Modi. Stay with us. Helene Corriending and a new collaboration by Helado Negro and reina tropical. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org.

I'm Mimi Goodman. And I'm Anjali Komet. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from across the country and around the world. In India, the right-wing government of Narendra Modi is facing its biggest challenge yet in 12 years in power as tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest what they call vote theft. At issue is the deletion of 130 million names from the voter rolls, and the vast majority of those deletions are believed to be opposed to Prime Minister Modi's ruling BJP Party. The protests are being led by students and the youth cockroach movement,

and joined by leaders from the opposition parties. They're demanding the resignation of the chief election commissioner, Guyanesh Kumar, and an overhaul of the electoral system. The cockroach movement started after the chief justice of India's Supreme Court compared unemployed youth to cockroaches earlier this year. Today, in one of the largest recent protests in India's capital of Dundali, India's main opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, of the Congress Party, is leading a march to the Supreme Court of India,

Speaking to reporters earlier today, Gandhi reiterated the call for the election commissioner to resign. Narendra Modi is blocking the whole town. Is putting 30,000 police people outside. For what? Because the opposition is asking one question. To prove to us that you have not cheated in the election. Toof to us that you've not cheated in the election. The Modi government put New Delhi in lockdown ahead of Saturday's protests,

canceling trains to the city, shutting down metro stations, even suspending mobile internet and large parts of Delhi. Tens of thousands of security forces, including paramilitary and police, were mobilized across the city. And at least 7,000 people were detained Saturday alone, including protest leaders, lawyers, and journalists. This is a protester speaking to reporters from inside a van where he was detained. The Modi government is scared of us.

That is why we have been picked up from halfway. We didn't even know where they were trying to bring us. This is just fear. And they are afraid of us because they have done something wrong. And you cannot do something wrong with the people of this country, man. Several cockroach movement leaders were also arrested right off the plane as they arrived in Delhi for the protest Saturday morning. After being released the next morning, Saravdas, one of the leaders of the cockroach people's party, vowed protests would continue.

The protests are on. The protests will go on. The youth of the country have woken up. The youth of the country are asking for accountability. The peaceful protests will go on until they fix accountability. And now the protests will not only happen in Delhi, but in the whole country. On Saturday, the United Nations Human Rights spokesperson expressed concern over the mass detentions in India.

In response, the Indian mission in Geneva responded on X that the UN's concerns were, quote, misplaced and constitute an unwarranted interference in the internal affairs of India, asserting that India is the world's largest democracy. For more, we're joined by two guests in Delhi. John V. Sen is the managing editor of the Wire and independent news website in India. And joining us from the streets of New Delhi, Shoeb Daniel, political editor of Scroll, another Indian independent news website. Shwab, you were arrested on Saturday. You are out now. Describe what's happening in the streets

and why these massive protests are happening and also the response to thousands being arrested. The protests are happening over one issue, Amy, which is the rigging of the voter rolls, as Anjali pointed out, 130 million Indians have got kicked up the voter rolls in a process that could at best be described as arbitrary. The deletions have affected Muslims far more than they have affected other Indians.

So there is a very, very racial element in what this program represents. And these protests are coming after months of this exercise going on. And they represent an outpouring of anger or frustration at what many Indians feel is the fact that their democracy has been taken away. We fought really hard for a democracy in 1947, and it feels like the right to vote is being taken away, and really everything else is downstream from that. On Saturday, we saw something unprecedented in India. Delhi was locked down, as you very correctly, praised it.

There were tens of thousands of policemen, paramilitary forces on the streets. The entire city was barricaded. The entire city center was barricaded. The internet was shut off. The police unleashed violence on... on these, you know, most of the protesters are actually kids. It's very much a Gen Z protest in many ways. The bulk of the protesters are young kids.

I just met a couple of kids who were 18 who were in first turns in college. They've come here. And again, they were brutalized. They were arrested this happening yesterday and the day before. And today we've had a kind of turning of the tide, so to speak, where the Congress party, which is in the main opposition, has actually put its bulk, has actually put its strength, Carter strength out onto the street.

And we've seen some pretty remarkable themes of the very same parts of Delhi, which were completely barricaded, is it completely blocked off, is it completely empty. They're filled with protesters today. And the police today have not or cannot do anything about it. I want to bring Janvi Sen into the conversation, managing editor of the Wire, another independent news website in India. Janvi, you've also been out in the streets. Can you explain why protesters are marching to the Supreme Court of India right now?

This began by a call from the leaders of the opposition who wanted to submit a memorandum to the Chief Justice of India about their concerns with what's happening within the Election Commission of India. And as you were mentioning earlier, you know, one of the chief demands, though, of course not the only demand, has been the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner and the opposition has been trying to go to different. constitutional authorities about this. They first tried to meet the Election Commission itself. They were in a way. They have had a meeting with the President of India,

Drapudy Murmoh. And then they wanted to go to the Chief Justice of India, who sits in the Supreme Court, to submit a memorandum to him. He has denied them a meeting. And that is why now this march has become a people's march, with all of them heading towards this constitutional authority, which they feel should safeguard the rights of Indian people, especially this very basic right to vote.

And Janvi, there's also concerns about excessive brutality from police and other security forces who were on the streets over the weekend, particularly on Saturday. Can you talk a little bit about this? And you were on the streets as well, what you witnessed. No, absolutely. I think it was, in fact, both on Saturday and Sunday, very heavy-handed behavior from the police and the military of different kinds, detaining people, putting them into police buses. and then several people were hit, they were mistreated, women were manhandled, there were also not just allegations. We saw this happen. Women protesters being taken into buses where there were no women constables, which is legal. Women protesters being detained after dark, which is also illegal.

And then what another tactic that the police has now perfected is to detain protesters and then to drive them around in these buses for hours and drop them off in, extremely far-flung corners of the city from where it's very difficult to make it back. Often it's difficult to contact people that you know. They have also tried to take people's phones and make them delete footage. One of the very concerning things that we've been seeing is also the detentions of journalists. You were mentioning how Shoeb-abu was detained on Saturday. My colleagues and I almost faced a similar situation.

And so many journalists, both yesterday and today, despite wearing press cards, saying again and again that they're from the media and they're here to come. what's happening, have been treated in this way, as have senior leaders of opposition parties. There were very stark and troubling visuals yesterday of a member of parliament from one of the left parties, the CPM, John Brittas, who said he was pinned down by paramilitary personnel inside one of these detention buses, then had trouble breathing. He had to be taken to the hospital. So really, yes, we have been seeing very heavy-handed behavior on the police. on the side of the police and the parliamentary military forces.

And they seem to be able to do this, despite the Supreme Court having a hearing early yesterday morning, where they said that, you know, no illegal detention should take place. Journalists and lawyers doing their job should not be detained. Despite that, we have not seen a change in that behavior over Sunday as well. Shoeb, I wanted to get your reaction to what the Indian mission in Geneva posted on X in response to criticism from the UN human rights. office expressing concern over the mass detention of protesters. And the response began by saying India is the world's largest democracy and the right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed by our

constitutions, safeguarded by robust institutions and independent judiciary and free media. Do the people on the streets agree with this? I think now increasingly what was a banal fact about India is now not true. And this is exactly what the protests about. We're seeing, I think this is true for democracies across the world. We have, India still maintains a veneer of democracy. We're still wearing the clothes of democracy. But inside there is something rotten.

So elections are held. The elections are multi-party elections. On paper, everybody has a right to contest. But of course, we are seeing right from things which are actually legal, which I think are there in other democracy like the US also, the fact that the BGP has so much money. So even if everything were above the board, the BJP just starts, you know, 100 meters ahead on the starting line when the race starts just on money. They have so much money.

But they also now have institutions. You know, you asked why people are marching the Supreme Court today. Now, these voter deletions were contested in the Supreme Court as they were happening. And the Supreme Court just did not do anything. It spun this incredibly legal complex lawyers web, but eventually it did not do anything to stop it. It gave a carte blanche to the Modi government and there is a lot of anger actually on the streets against the Supreme Court. As you pointed out, you know, this is one of the greatest ironies is that the cockroach movement actually arises from a stray comment made by the Chief Justice of India. So there is anger against the Supreme Court for not doing the job.

The Supreme Court is the guardian of a constitution. It's meant to protect our rights. And again, like in other democracies, I think American viewers would also empathize. The Supreme Court is just not seen to be doing that job and the Supreme Court. the voter role revision, it seemed to be a really egregious part of that. So in a way, this march to the Supreme Court is really interesting because Rahul Gandhi and other protesters are trying to politicize the Supreme Court's role in this matter. You know, it's really interesting what's happening around the world, John V. You have these mass protests in France led by the youth around

issues of affordability and education. You have mass protests in Spain that have led the primary to call for a snap election, November 29th, and he's dissolved the parliament. And now you have these mass protests in India. I'm wondering what you think this means for the Modi government. I think these protests are going to be impossible for the government to ignore, even though it seems to be trying really hard. All the messaging we've seen coming from leaders of Modi's party, that's the Bharati Janta Party, have been attempts to show that this is just the opposition trying to

to get, trying to make this an anarchic situation, that they don't have an agenda, that they're just, you know, trying to create chaos. But it's, it's not sitting. And I think one of the reasons why we also saw the targeting of journalists was that they realized that building that narrative is not working. We have a chief election commissioner who faced some pretty damning, a pretty damning, a pretty damning expose in a very big newspaper about the way he was functioning. And since then, we have heard absolutely nothing from him. We don't know where he is. And of course, this is in a country where the prime minister has not given a press conference ever since he was elected as the prime minister of this country. So perhaps the chief election commissioner is simply following

in his footsteps by quickly disappearing from public sight when things become a little difficult. But I think, yes, this tactic of ignoring, this tactic of trying to suppress narratives and suppress people has not been working. We are seeing how today so many more people, people have gathered this, the rally that Shoeb is at right now is very, very large. And so I think, you know, no matter what narrative they try to build, this is not going to go away. John Vesen of the Wire, Shoeb Danielle, from The Scroll, both independent news websites in India. Danielle was one of those thousands arrested on Saturday and will continue to cover these protests. coming up, it's Indigenous People's Day.

We'll speak with the Native American activist, Leonard Peltier, who spent almost 50 years behind bars. Stay with us. Pavan, Guru, Pani, Pita, Mata, Tartart, Mahat. Ditharat, Duhita, Duhita, Dhi Daidaehle, Sagaa Gala. Sunny Singh, and our Divin'A,

Democracy Now studio. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjali Comet. Today is Indigenous People's Day, a day to honor indigenous people, their history, their cultures, their ongoing struggles for justice and sovereignty. We turn now to Leonard Peltier, one of the world's most prominent champions for indigenous rights. He's a longtime political prisoner who spent nearly half a century behind bars for a crime, he says, he did not commit. Last year, in the final hours of his administration, President Biden commuted Leonard Peltier's sentence. Leonard is now home, but his conviction has not been overturned and he remains under home confinement. His story is the subject of a remarkable new documentary called Free Leonard Peltier.

The film draws on decades of archival footage to examine Leonard Peltier's case and the half-century-long movement to free him. This is the film's trailer. There's some firing now. Where do you remember about the shoot-up? I felt the bullets going by my head. This rate is surely going to be some blood spilled here. I want to ask you about the dead agents. Did you kill them?

No, I did not kill them. Leonard turned 80 last week. In a couple of months, he'll begin his 50th year of incarceration. Native activist Leonard Peltier is an American Indian accused of murdering two FBI agents. Do you think that you'll ever be released from prison? If enough people in... Look at the evidence.

Yes. They say we don't have no civil rights. They're terrorizing these people on the reservation. The American Indian movement. We have found it necessary to force the white man to listen. It kicked the door up there. We found documents where the government had tried to illegally buy Indian lands. It's always because of the land.

The government said that they were going to choose paramilitary forces, and they wanted to be able to shoot to kill. As a result of that firefighter, two FBI agents died. They needed to get a man. The government did so many things wrong. We want to wake up the little people. Expose the U.S. government and FBI conspiracy.

I came across a teletyte that contradicted the primary piece of evidence. We want to talk about what this FBI's been doing. We want to discuss cause and reason. We only want the white man to live up to his own life. The beds were saying shoot to kill. That alone ought to be enough to make the authorities hang their head and shame. We're continuing on this battle because we want to bring Leonard home. I am someone that's trying to make a better life for my people.

That's the trailer for the new documentary, Free Leonard Peltier. The film's being released today, Indigenous People's Day, co-directed by Jesse, Shortball, and David France. On Friday, I spoke to France and Leonard Peltier, who joined from his home on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. reservation in Bellcourt in North Dakota. I began by asking Leonard Peltier what Indigenous People's Day means to him. And Leonard, if you can talk about what happened in the last hours of the Biden administration, in fact, I believe it was announced when he was getting

in the car with Trump to go to Trump's inauguration that you heard that you would be released from prison? I actually didn't hear until, for certain, it was until Biden only had a couple days or a few hours, whatever it was, he didn't have much time left. And that's when I actually heard that I was, I had been, I was getting commutation on their home confinement. at least it was out of a prison cell.

But I'm still basically under jurisdiction of an illegal conviction. I was never legally conviction. I was never legally indicted. So everything, when they put up evidence that's false, that's not a hearing. And that's been proven over and over that the grand hearing was fake.

The trial had admitted racist on a jury. The judge was overturned numerous times for making racial statements against native people. So I never did get a trial. That was all fake. But I still spend all the

They didn't want me to die in prison. So thanks to you, the people. You're the ones that help get me out here. First of all, I would like to thank everybody for a long meeting to be here and to make my presentation, let you know how I still feel, as I did 50 years ago or longer. I'm still an activist and a warrior for the people, and I will continue until I die. But Indigenous Day is a day that's long, been a long.

overdue for any type of recognition, any type of appreciation that the natives of this country, this continent had to offer to humanity. Some people became greedy and selfish and murderous, and they tried to exterminate us because they wanted it all for themselves. Well, 50 or 500 years later, we're still here, and I'm still talking, and I'm going to talk till I die. I am not going to give up because we are not free yet. We are in danger. Trump and these organizations are talking about doing away with our reservations and our treaties and everything else. That's it.

That's it for us. If we lose those, we're done. We're, we're over. We're vanished, as they called us, in the 50s and 60s. vanishing Americans. And we have a right as much as anybody in the world on earth to defend themselves. And that's what we do. We defend ourselves. We don't, we were out looking for to go to war or hurt anybody or kill anybody. That's not, that's not what we were about. We want our freedom. Indigenous Day is another day for us.

excuse me, to express these feelings, to let the world know that. We're still here and we're going to stay here. You're not going to get rid of us. I'm here on this day to say thanks to all of you who supported us. I want to go to two clips of the new film Free Leonard Peltier and then talk to the co-director. This clip features Leonard Peltier and three other AIMA activists. that's American Indian movement activists, arrested in connection with the shootout at Pine Ridge in 1975. They discussed how the fighting began.

Come on, you guys. Time to be warriors. Get your guns and go up there and protect the elders. We responded and we ran towards the jumping bowl. We were met by individuals that were firing upon the houses. We had no idea. who these individuals were. Bigger was an attack by some of the goons.

I don't know really how the gunfight started. My main concern was the safety of our people. I ran into the house because there was little babies there and bringing children. Got them out of there. It just happened so fast. That was Dino Butler, Bob Robido, and Leonard Peltier, and then Norman Brown. This clip goes back to November 14. 1975, Oregon State Police stopped a motor home. Lennar Peltier was inside. This is another clip from

Leonard Peltier. And just as he's getting on, here goes this mobile home. He decided to stop us. He claimed the glory. The deputy sheriff says that he heard two shots. So he fires up the vehicle. Leonard saw that when running into the fields. The deputy sheriff fired it. The peak escape. And that was the voice of the AIM leader, American Indian

movement leader, Dennis Banks. All in free, Leonard Peltier. David France is the co-director with Jesse Shortball. David, talk about the making of this film. The making, I guess, really for me goes back almost 50 years, because as you said, I was a witness to the news reports around the events of 1975 and then the efforts to find Leonard, which was and remains, I think,

the largest and longest FBI manhunt in history. It's a story that galvanized my understanding of justice, social justice, and when I realized that Leonard was approaching its 50th anniversary, I visited him in Coleman in central Florida and asked him for permission to tell his story. And it was a conversation that took some time before he agreed that we could do it. And one of those conditions was that we put together an indigenous team of filmmakers to lead in the making of the film. And when you talk about the longest manhunt in FBI history, Leonard had escaped to Canada.

Meanwhile, Bob Rabidou and Dina Butler were put on trial. Correct. And they were acquitted. They were found not guilty by reason of self-defense. And so the search by the state was for another jury, another court. What's really clear from the record is that after they lost that case against those two men, those co-defendants, they were prepared to do anything to convict Leonard Peltier. That included falsifying evidence, covering up exculpatory evidence, coercing people into giving false testimony.

And it was one crime against the justice system after another in order to frame Leonard for the assassination of these to federal agents. And although he and his team were able to prove over and over that every bit of evidence used against him in his conviction was brought into question, he was never able to get a retrial. He was never able to get a hearing before the Supreme Court. And it had become for him and for anybody watching it, one of the most Kafkaesque experiences in American history. Leonard Peltier, there was a moment when President Biden, this is before he commuted your sentence,

when President Biden apologized for the residential schools that people like you, indigenous children were put in, can you talk about growing up as a Native American in this country and what happened to you as a child. I was just, I grew up in a era when I was, we were just coming out of the times when this was actually a concentration camp. We couldn't leave the reservation without a pass. And that's even to go to shopping for groceries on the border towns of our nation. We're a nation.

We're not reservations. We're nations. And we had to pay for that pass. I never got to go to town until I was. about six years old, I think, some of my debt there, because we had to pay for it. We'd have money to pay for stuff like that.

So the racism was just so out. It was so out. I mean, it was just so obvious. It was not even trying to, they didn't even try to hide it.

Of course, to us younger people, they started, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be so vocal about it because they get their goddamn ass. And, because we start fighting back. My generation started fighting back real strong. Do you remember the first day you were taken to a residential school and what these residential schools were, where you were taken, where you were living? My grandfather died in 1952, who was my hero. He was a very cultural person.

He was very, very popular. And he passed. And my grandmother went up to the agency to see if they can get, my grandfather, my grandfather and grandmother was raising myself, my sister, Betty, and my cousin Pauline. And she went up to the agency to try to get some, them helped because she had no way to support us and feed us and everything. And so in retaliation, they took us to the boarding school in Wapton, North Dakota.

I mean, I tried to escape there from there at 10 years old. I fell in the Red River and almost drowned. So that was the type of conditions. When we got there, they put it, took. us at a barber room, the barbershop, and they was cut all our hair off, and then they took, we stripped us a wall of our clothes, took our, what clothes we had, and poured DDT over us.

Some people said that they had, in their generation, they poured kerosene over them, but DDT is poison. And then we went to the shower and took a shower after, after that, the brutality was it was so open for the least violation of any kind of rule and that's what and all we were

all we were being taught was that we were saved by the white man from who came to our to our shores because we were a bunch of savages here and we didn't know nothing and we did I mean it was just outright racism

and Leonard I wanted to go to the year 2000. It was election day when President Clinton called into our station, WBAI, to talk about getting out the vote. Because the president of the United States was on the phone and you were in prison. Yours was a case we had been covering for years. I got to ask him this question. President Clinton, since it's rare to get you on the phone, let me ask you another question. That is, what is your position on granting Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist, Executive Clemency? Well, I don't have a position I can announce yet.

I believe there is a new application for him in there. And when I have time, after the election's over, I'm going to review all the remaining executive clemency applications and, you know, see what the merits dictate. I will try to do what I think the right thing to do is based on the evidence. That was part of President Clinton's response. A quarter of a century ago, when I asked him about whether he would free you from prison, Leonard Peltier, it would take another quarter of a century. At that time, the FBI staged a major demonstration.

Talk about how rare that demonstration was. It was not only rare. That was illegal. They cannot march in the streets with weapons. This is against the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America. And this is what we've got to tell people. They were marching in the streets armed. It's absolutely true.

It was the first and only time that the FBI has staged a demonstration ever in public. And there were 500 people, FBI agents, former FBI agents, armed agents, who circled the White House in silent protest to warn the president of their position on any movement to free Leonard Peltier. And it was really a shocking display of the agency that had committed these crimes against Leonard, demanding that the civil government not overturn their campaign. And it was threatening and it was certainly very effective. I thought it was very interesting. The part of the film that deals with James Reynolds,

and I wanted to ask Leonard you about this, James Reynolds was the prosecutor in charge of the district that tried and convicted you. But he would go on to remove his name from the case. and he went on to sign a petition for your release based on FBI judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. He would campaign for your freedom. Yes.

Talk about that. Well, he wasn't the only one, the regional director of the FBI, Don Edwards. He was the third in line to be the director of the FBI. He was a community. committed supporter. He, he,

they asked him, how come he was supporting me? And he said, well, I work there. I know what they did to Leonard. And there's other FI agents also that, that came forward and,

and supported. I mean, and judges. Reynolds is just one of the latest ones that in the last 10 years came forward and mentioned about the legal things.

He said Leonard never committed no crimes on that reservation, which is true. Judge Haney, he was the main judge in Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on the murder weapon. He was sitting there and was going to overturn the case because the murder weapon was false.

And all of a sudden he denied. it. And so we find a document later on where the FBI agent made a phone call to Washington, D.C., and he said, I just left Judge Haney's office, and it went very well for us in the healthier case. I will make a full report as soon as I get back to Washington. I want that report. That belongs to me. That belongs to my case. Why can't I get that? Why is this stuff being with heaven? for me to this day over 50 years later. Can you talk about getting documents under FOIA, David France?

There was a huge number of documents that have been released over the decades, but there are still tens of thousands of pages that have not been released and won't be released despite litigation around them on the basis of national security. That's the explanation that's been given to the courts. National security is keeping those documents from public view, including the ones that Leonard is seeking. You have to ask yourself what possible national security issue could be involved in this FBI campaign against Leonard and campaign against the American Indian movement. And I can think of none except what we discovered that the United States declared that it was in the national interest, strategic national interest to claim access to the minerals at Pine Ridge,

including the minerals necessary for making atomic bombs. And that might be their explanation. It certainly wouldn't hold up today. And yet they still maintain that they should not be released to the public. When I did the question and answer after the film here in New York, talking to Holly Cook, Macaro, who was a lobbyist with the NDN collective fighting for your freedom. She talked about the importance of Deb Holland, who's now running for governor of New Mexico, and Javier Viserra.

At the time he was health secretary under Biden, and he is now running for governor of California. The two of them working to have you freed. What did that mean to you, Leonard Peltier? well it was it was kind of a I would say suiting to know that we did have some victories we are having some victories it is in total loss like it seemed to be for so many years that uh we were we were not getting we were not making any gains we were still living in the worst poverty in the danger they just passed the law here six months ago where, maybe a little bit longer, where if a native woman is killed, they have to investigate immediately. Just think of that, too. I mean, you know, they didn't have to

investigate when any woman was killed. And this in 2025, they just tried to pass a law where we can't buy back our own land. I mean, we beat the law, we defeated it, but nevertheless, this is what we're still facing today. Today, Indigenous Day, the day that's supposed to be honoring us. And, you know, at least leave us alone. Let us lead our own lives. Let us do our own things.

We're not here to overtroying United States government. That's not what we're here for. We just want to be left alone. Let us live our own lives. Let us have our own society. We've had for thousands of years. What the hell? I mean, we don't want to be part of a government that's killing women, children,

babies, and bomb never denting it that they can, and talking about annihilating a race of people. You're talking about the war in Iran. That's right, right. Who wants to be part of that? I don't. We don't. We all be part of that.

That's what happened to us. So, you know, this is, we're supposed to celebrate Indigenous Day when we see this stuff still going on. And still happening to us? Leonard, I was hoping you'd be sitting here at the table. I was hoping that when the film came out in New York City, that you'd be there addressing the audience. There was a display of your artwork. We haven't even talked about the fact that you are an artist at the Friends Academy here in New York City. Can you talk about what the conditions of your confinement are, though you are?

though you are not in Coleman prison or before that in Leavenworth? Well, the conditions, I mean, there's a million times better than that prison cell. I mean, you know, six by nine feet with another person living with another person. That's not very much room. That's three feet of space. I now have a couple of acres here, and I got a nice little house. of people not for me, not the government. And David France, what are you

hoping to do with this film free Leonard Peltier? Bringing Leonard's story to the public again, because I think many years ago his story was very well known, to remind people that

the history, the horrible history, genocidal history of the United States government against indigenous people is not a thing of the distant past. The stories that Leonard tells about being confined to his reservation as a child, being taken away from his home to strip him of his culture and his connection to his people and spirituality, the idea that in Leonard's lifetime, it was illegal for indigenous

people to practice their own religious ceremonies. This happened within Leonard's lifetime, and And it's still happening in very important ways. And that's one of the reasons why he's still being repressed by the government. And telling his story, as he is constantly aware of, is a way to demand that kind of reckoning from the U.S. government and American people. That's David France, co-director with Jesse Shurpold, the new Netflix documentary Free Leonard Peltier. And longtime indigenous activist Leonard Peltier himself has sentenced commuted last year on the final hours of the Biden administration after almost 50 years in prison. Leonard spoke to us from his home on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in Belport, North Dakota.

This breaking news, federal officials have just carried out a dawn raid of Congress member Ilhan Omar's house. And that does it for this show. Steal the story, please. The documentary about Tomarchnell will be viewable online for the first time in exclusive special events starting Tuesday. October 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern time. If you live in U.S. and Canada, check out stealthustory.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Anjley Comet.