Democracy Now! Monday, October 12, 2026

0:00Music From New York this is Democracy Now. I'm still an activist and a warrior for people and I will continue till 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 Leonard Peltier. There's some firing now. What do you remember about this year? I felt a boat's going on ahead. This rate is surely going to be some blood spilled here. I want to ask you about the der 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.

1:07The opposition is asking one question. Proof to us that you are not cheated in the election. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now. Democracy Now. Or the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy 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 Khaled 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.

2:11Meanwhile, Houthi Al-Ain media report Saudi warplanes bomb Sana International Airport and other sites around Yemen's capital. The Pentagon's once again raised its count of US troops killed and wounded in operations tied to the US 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 US 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 Hegseth. The Democrats wrote quote, were deeply alarmed by the continued pattern of civilian casualties resulting from US operations in the war in Iran and the apparent lack of action and accountability from the Department.

3:25Acknowledging such incidents, accepting responsibility and learning from them makes our forces stronger, more effective and an example to the world. When we failed 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 strike Sunday that killed three Palestinians and a tent in the Almawasi area of Hanyunis, 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 US-brokered so-called ceasefire agreement. The Palestinian officials say Israel violated the deal more than 5,100 times in attacks that killed at least 1,471 Palestinians in injured nearly 5,200 others.

4:29This is Neil Al-Buhasi, 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 the 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's no choice left for humans. There's 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 Russian Ukraine. Both parties have agreed, he said.

5:34Ukrainian 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 discalation.

6:41We are ready for energy ceasefire, not to attack energy, boosts the size. 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 Lead Cockroach Janta Party, Abhijitipka, Sarvdas, and Ashtosh 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.

7:44So, 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 rule, 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. The field is infectious, of course, but hope is also infectious. We'll go to New Delhi after headlines. The US Justice Department is looking into whether the five major TV networks that make up the White House TV press will broke federal antitrust law last month. In September, news departments at ABCC, CNNNBC, 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.

8:47Last month, CNNM is now in political suit 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 their likely unlawful. In her ruling, US District Judge Jennifer Rochon 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 arrangement for the airing or dissemination of the challenge 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.

9:50The 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 Bergogl. The 28-year-old man shot by an ICE agent on Thursday in the Marblehole 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. Bergogl 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 playing close ICE agents approach the vehicle with weapons drawn. On Saturday, hundreds of people including families and children rallied and hurled square to protest ICE and to demand accountability.

10:52Demonstrators marched to call for an end to ICE operations in New York City and Justice for immigrant families. This is protestor Tanya Nenez. We demand justice for Oscar and all the do's of Alistair. To identify and arrest the ICE agents involved in the shooting. And to attack the first day, we demand these ICE agents are arrested. And for that is not enough. In Houston, Texas, ICE agents struck an injured man with their vehicle on Saturday after he ran from them on foot. And I spoke to person said agents were trying to stop a vehicle carrying Jose Mendosa Savantes. The person the operation was targeting. Miguel Pada Hernandez in the footage, the ICE vehicle can be seen running over Pada Hernandez. They broke his legs.

12:00And 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 Muhammad calling him a jihadist. Like, like, Muhammad Al Sayed. I call him Muhammad. Somebody said his name is in Muhammad. It's Abdul. I said to me it's Muhammad. I'm the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want. To me he's Muhammad. 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. In Tennessee, Christopher Pike was discharged from a hospital Saturday and sent back to death row at the Debra Johnson Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. Pike survived two doses of Pento Barbatol, meant to kill her at a botched execution attempt on September 30th.

13:08Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has postponed executions through the end of the year pending an investigation. He's not responded to calls from Christopher Pike's lawyers to commute her sentence from death to life in 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 US 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 P. Lay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The court condemned the sanctions and urged as 125 member countries to come to its defense. The US has already sanctioned 17 ICC judges and officials to see our interview about Navi P. Lay, the new Nobel Peace Prize winner go to democracy now.org.

14:18And President Trump appointed conservative commentator Katie Zakaria to serve as White House Press Secretary replacing Carolyn Levin. Zakaria has spread anti abortion disinformation, including a conspiracy theory linking the abortion pill, Mepha Pristone to Nazi Germany. In a November 2025 post on X, Zakaria falsely claimed Mepha Pristone is quote connected to the manufacturer of the deadly gas Ziklohn B. 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.

15:18The court condemned the sanctions and urged as 125 member countries to come to its defense. And those are some of the headlines. If you know more about this, I know your love, my body, your feeling, I have to know more about this, I know more about this. Bye. Bye. Hello, tropical and a new collaboration by a lot of Negro and rena tropical. This is democracy now, democracy now.org. I'm Amy Goodman and I'm Angelic Cometh. Welcome to all our listeners and viewers from across the country and around the world.

16:23In 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 Ganesh 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.

17:28Narendra Modi is blocking the whole town. He's putting 30,000 police people outside for what? Because the opposition is asking one question. Proof to us that you have not cheated in the election. Proof to us that you have 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 paramilitarium police were mobilized across the city and at least 7,000 people were detained Saturday alone, including protest leaders, lawyers and journalists. 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.

18:33This 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. 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, Sarav Das, 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.

19:37For more, we are 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, Shwab Danyal, political editor of Skrol, another Indian independent news website, Shwab, you are 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 that are really pointed out. 130 million Indians have got kicked off 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.

20:40And these protests are coming after months of this exercise going on and they represent an outpouring of anger, of frustration. At what many Indians feel is the fact that the 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 these, you know, most of the protests 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 were in first terms in college. They've come here.

21:40And again, they were brutalized. They were arrested. It's happened yesterday and the day before. And today we've had a kind of turning of the tights, so to speak, where the Congress Party, which is in the main opposition, has actually put its bulk, has actually put its strength out onto the street. And we've seen some pretty remarkable scenes of the very same parts of Delhi, which were completely barricaded. It is a completely blocked off. It's a completely empty. They're filled with protestors today. And the police today have not or cannot do anything about it. I want to bring John V sent into the conversation, managing editor of the wire, another independent news website in India. John V 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 an memorandum to the Chief Justice of India about. There concerns with what's happening within the election commission of India.

22:42And 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 underway. They have had a meeting with the president of India, Draupadi Murmur. And then they wanted to go to the Chief Justice of India who sits in the Supreme Court to submit a memorandum. 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 John V 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, a very heavy handed behavior from the police police and the parliament, my military of different kinds, detailing people putting them into police buses.

23:52And then several people were hit. They were mistreated. Women were man-handed. They were also not just allegations. We saw this happen. Women protestors being taken into buses where there were no women constables, which is legal. Women protestors 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 flunk 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 who were mentioning how show-up do 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 cover what's happening, have been treated in this way.

24:54As 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 CPI and John Brittas, who said he was pinned down by a paramilitary personnel inside one of these detention buses and 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 side of the police and the paramilitary 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 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. Shuee, 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 Constitution, safeguarded by robust institutions and independent judiciary and free media.

26:09Do the people on the streets agree with this? I think now increasingly what was the banal fact about India is now not true and this is exactly what the protests about. We're seeing, I think this is super democracy is across the world. We have India still maintains a vineyard 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 BJP 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 there so much money but they also now have institutions. You know you asked why people are watching the supreme court today now these voterial 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.

27:22It gave a card 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 straight comment made by the Chief Justice of India. So there is anger against the supreme court for not doing the job supreme court is the guardian of the constitution it's meant to protect the rights and again like in other democracies I think American views it also empathize. The supreme court is just not seem to be doing that job and the side of the voterial division is seem to be really egregious part of that so in a way this march in the supreme court is really very interesting because Raul Gandhi and other protesters are trying to politicize the supreme court role in this matter. You know it's really interesting what's happening around the world a 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 prime minister to call for a snap election November 29th and he's dissolved the parliament and now you have these mass protests in India.

28:31I'm wondering what you think this means for the multi 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 party agenda party have been attempts to show that these this is just the opposition trying to get trying to make this an anarchic situation that they don't have in agenda that they're just trying to create a protest. 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 realize that building that narrative is not working. We have a chief election commissioner who faced some pretty damning pretty damn 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.

29:41But I think yes this the tactic of ignoring the tactic of trying to suppress narratives and suppress people has not been working we are seeing how today so many more people have gathered this the rally that show is at right now is very very large. And so I think you know in the unknown what narrative they try to build this is not going to go away. John Visen of the wire show a 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 its indigenous peoples day. We'll speak with the Native American activist Leonard Peltier who spent almost 50 years behind bars stay with us.

30:52Sunny sing in our democracy now studio this is democracy now democracy now dot org I mean the good men with angelic comment today is indigenous peoples 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 is a long time 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 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.

31:54I'm some firing now. Where do you remember about the shootout? 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, they're not children. Leonard turned 80 last week in a couple of months he'll begin his 50th year of incarceration. Native activists Leonard Peltier is an American Indian accused of murdering two FBI agents. You think that you'll ever be released from prison? If enough people would 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. The head kicked the door open. We found documents where the government had tried to illegally buy Indian lands. It's always because of the land. The government thought that they were going to use paramilitary forces and they wanted to be able to shoot the kill.

32:57As a result of that firefight 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, the schools, the US government and FBI conspires. They came across a telltite that contradicted the primary piece of evidence. We want to talk about what this FBI has been doing. What we want to discuss cause and reason. We only want the white man to live up to his own law. The feds were saying shoot to kill. That alone ought to be enough to make the authorities hang your head in the chain. 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 Shortwell and David France. And Friday I spoke to France and Leonard Peltier, who joined from his home on the Turtle Mountain Bend.

33:58I began by asking Leonard Peltier what Indigenous People's Day means to him. First of all, I would like to thank everybody for allowing me to be here and to make my presentation. But 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 tried to exterminate us because they wanted it all for themselves.

34:59Well, 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. They are trumping these organizations. They're talking about doing away with our reservations and our treaties and everything else. That's it. That's it for us. If we do those, we're done. What's over? We're vanished as they call this. In the 50s and 60s of vanishing Americans. And we have a right as much as anybody in the world, honored. To defend themselves. And that's what we do. We defend ourselves. We learn how to look for to go to war or hurt anybody or kill anybody. That's not what we were about. We want our freedom. Indigenous Day is another day for us.

36:02To express these feelings. To let the world hold on. 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 support us. 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 of days or a few hours, whatever left, whatever it was.

37:02He didn't have much time left. And that's when I actually heard that I was I had been. I was getting a commutation on their home confinement. At least it was out of a prison cell. But I'm still basically under jurisdiction of any legal conviction. I was never legally conviction. I was never legally indicted. So everything they put up evidence that's false. That's not a hearing. That's been proven over and over that the grand hearing was fake. The trial had admitted gracious on the jury. The judge was overturn numerous times for making racial statements against native people. So I never did get a trial. That's that's that was all fake. But I spend I still spend all day.

38:04I just wanted to make a dying person. So thanks to you the people, you're the ones that help get me out here. 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 aim activists. That's American Indian Movement activists. A rusted in connection with the shootout at Pine Ridge in 1975. They discuss 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. We heard it was attacked by some of the goons. I don't know really how the gunfight started. My main concern was the safety of our people.

39:05I ran into the house as a good cause there was little babies there. I brought me a showroom back there. I just happened so fast. That was Dino Butler, Bob Robado and Leonard Peltier. And then Norman Brown. This clip goes back to November 14th, 1975. Oregon State Police stopped a motor home. Leonard Peltier was inside. This is another clip from Freeliner Peltier. And just as he's getting on, Derek goes this mobile home. He decided to stop this, claim the court. The deputy sheriff says that he heard two shots. So he fires up the vehicle. Leonard saw that and running into the fields. The deputy sheriff fired it. The police gave it. And that was the voice of the aim leader,

40:06American Indian Movement leader, Dennis Banks. All in free Leonard Peltier. David France is the co-director with Jesse Shortbow. David, talk about the making of this film. Making it, it gets really for me, goes back almost 50 years. And he 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 his 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

41:08an indigenous team of filmmakers to lead in the making of the film. And when you talk about the longest manhunt in FBI history, a Leonard had escaped to Canada. Meanwhile, Bob Abado and Dean Abutler 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.

42:08And it was one crime against the justice system after another in order to frame Leonard for the assassination of these two 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 Kafka-esque 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,

43:11can you talk about growing up as a native American in this country? And what happened to you as a child? I grew up in an era when 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 he had 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 somebody died there. Because we had to pay for it. We had money to pay for stuff. We had to pay for stuff. The racism was just so obvious.

44:12They didn't even try to hide it. Of course, to us, the younger people, they started. They wouldn't be so vocal about it because they get to goddamn hell. 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 were raising myself, my sister Betty and my cousin Pauline. And she went up to the agency to try to get some help because she had no way to support us and feed us and everything.

45:23And so the NRED Tallyation, they took us to the boarding school in Wapten, 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 we got there. They put it, took us to the barber room and barbershop and they was cut all our hair off. And then 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, and their generation they poured care scene over them. But DDT is poison. And then we went to the shower and took a shower after that. But the brutality was, it was so, for the least violation of any kind of rule.

46:27And all we were, all we were being taught was that we were saved by the wait man from who came to our, to our shores because we were a bunch of savage of the year. We didn't know nothing and we did. I mean, it was just outright racism. Leonard, I wanted to go to the year 2000. I wanted to go to the 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. And 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, I don't have a position I can announce yet. I think if, I believe there is a new application for him in there.

47:30And when I have time after the elections over, I'm going to review all the remaining executive clemency applications. And 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 into streets with weapons. This is against a constitution and the laws of the United States of America. And this is what we got to tell people. They were marching into streets armed. It's absolutely true. It was the first and only time that the FBI has staged a demonstration ever in public.

48:34And 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 this 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.

49:38And 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 FBI. He was a committed supporter. He asked him, well, come, he was supporting me. And he said, well, I work there. I know what they did to Leonard. And there's other FBI agents also that came forward and supported. I mean, at judges, Reynolds is just one of the latest ones that the last 10 years came forward and mentioned about the legal things.

50:42He said, Leonard never committed no crimes on a reservation. Which is true. Judge Haney, he was the main judge and eight circuit court of appeals on the murder weapon. He was sitting there was going to overturn the case because the murder weapon was false. And I said, he denied it. And so we find a document later on where the FBI agent made a phone call to Washington, DC. And he said, I just left Judge Haney's office and it went very well for us in the peltier 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 withheld for me to this day over 50 years later? Can you talk about getting documents under FOIA, David France?

51:44There 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. You can't think of none except what we discovered that the United States declared that there 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.

52:46And 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 Maccaro, who was the 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 Bacera 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 kind of, I would say, suiting to know that we did have some victories. We are having some victories. It isn't total loss. Like it seemed to be for so many years that we were not getting, we were not making any gains. We were still living in the worst poverty in the danger.

53:55They 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. They didn't have to investigate when any woman was killed. And this is in 2025. They just tried to pass the 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 and digital day, the data is supposed to be honoring us. And at least leave us alone. Let us lead our own lives. Let us do our own thing. We're not here to overthrow the United States government.

55:01That's not what we're here for. We're, we just want to be left alone. Let us live our own lives. Let us, 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 and ever-dentained 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 only be part of that. That's what happened to us. So, you know, this is where it's supposed to celebrate indigenous day with, with the one 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.

56:07There 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 not in Coleman Prison or before that in 11 worth? Well, the conditions, I mean, is 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 native people bought from him, not the government. And David France, what are you hoping to do with this film free Leonard Peltier? I bring 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.

57:26The 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 in spirituality, the idea that in Leonard's lifetime it was illegal for indigenous people to practice their own religious ceremonies. But this happened within Leonard's lifetime 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 it's telling his story as he is constantly aware of is a way to to demand that kind of reckoning from the US government and the American people. That's David France, co-director with Jesse Shrupal, the new Netflix documentary free Leonard Peltier and long time indigenous activist Leonard Peltier himself has sentenced committed last year on the final hours of the Biden administration after almost 50 years in prison.

58:29Leonard spoke to us from his home in 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 the show. Still the story, please a documentary about to marks know will review of the online for the first time in exclusive special events starting Tuesday, October 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern time. If you live in US and Canada, check out stealbastory.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Angeloi Comet.