THE WHITE HOUSE�Pressure is mounting in official circles here as activists, human rights organizations and celebrities step up their month-long call for the immediate release of Native American Leonard Peltier by way of executive clemency, parole or pardon. At the same time, law enforcement groups demand his continued incarceration.

Members of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, the Canadian Assembly of First Nations, and the National Congress of American Indians met for nearly an hour, presenting documentation of government misconduct in the 24-year-old case to Jackie Agtuca, deputy director of the Office of Tribal Justice Nov. 12, after they stormed the lobby of the Department of Justice and refused to leave.

"They didn�t expect us to show up in person today, but no doesn�t mean no when an innocent man�s life is on the line," Jean Ann Day, of the Peltier Defense Committee told reporters after the session. "We want executive clemency, pardon or parole for Leonard. We were not disruptive. We stood firm and refused to leave the lobby until we were heard."

The National Association of Police Organizations urged President Clinton to reject all clemency requests for Mr. Peltier. The American Indian Movement leader was convicted of murder in 1976 for involvement in a June 1975 shootout in which two FBI agents and a Native American were killed at the Pine Ridge Reservation at Wounded Knee, S.D.

"I�m not going to comment on any clemency or pardon process while it�s ongoing," White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart told reporters Nov. 10. "The Department of Justice has a process that they administer. The president makes his decisions and we�ll let you know if he has got anything coming."

The month-long support activities for Mr. Peltier, of the Ojibwa-Sioux nation, were kicked off with a rally in Lafayette Park in front of the White House Nov. 1 and a prayer vigil two days later featuring actor Danny Glover.

Mr. Glover�s appeal was added to those from Amnesty International USA, and other celebrities who have called for a new trial for Mr. Peltier.

Peltier supporters are alarmed at Mr. Peltier�s deteriorating health inside the maximum security federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan. Mr. Peltier has a painful form of lockjaw that prevents him from eating properly, according to published reports. His jaw is atrophied at a half-inch opening and he eats by shoving food through a missing front tooth and mashing it against his teeth with his tongue.

Two previous operations on Mr. Peltier�s jaw by prison doctors were botched, his supporters say.

Mr. Peltier�s supporters say evidence proving his innocence and government wrongdoing in his extradition from Canada for trial is mounting. Two other Indian defendants were acquitted at trial after claiming self defense.

Despite an appellate court�s finding that some of Mr. Peltier�s trial judge�s rulings "clearly hampered the defense," Mr. Peltier was convicted. Later, Judge Gerald Heaney, who reluctantly rejected Mr. Peltier�s appeal, lambasted the FBI and urged executive clemency.

Amnesty International USA agrees. "We have not seen a satisfactory resolution to the unending questions around the fairness of his trial or his extradition, and it�s time now, to just let him out. There�s far too many questions, that have lingered for far too long. The man�s done 23 years in prison," spokesperson Janice Christensen told The Final Call.

The FBI fraudulently obtained Mr. Peltier�s extradition from Canada, according to William Muldrow, retired former director of the Rocky Mountain Regional office of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who examined the case, during a Peltier rally.

FBI agents also concocted and dictated an affidavit fraudulently sworn to by Myrtle Poor Bear, who claimed that she was Mr. Peltier�s girlfriend and that she had witnessed him kill the wounded FBI agents. Later it was revealed that Ms. Poor Bear was mentally incompetent, had never met Mr. Peltier, and was not on the Pine Ridge reservation.

"In Indian communities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a totally different entity than you see here in Washington, D.C. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the oppressor," said AIM member Carter Camp.

During the Pine Ridge incident, "the (FBI) was on our reservation in helicopter gun ships and wore combat fatigues and carried M-16s. They don�t come in a suit and tie like they do in white America," he said.