They held him without trial for several years. They left him nude to humiliate and embarrass him. Oh wait, that's Bradley Manning and we're talking about America in this paragraph, not North Korea.
To quote from Mary Queen of Scotts, "A bastard profanes the English throne" -- and apparently one does the same in the United States.
Before the start of this century, when people spoke in an informed manner about political prisoners, they did so like J. Soffiyah Elijah (Harvard Blackletter Law Journal), noting, "Many of today's political prisoners were victims of an FBI counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO consisted of a series of covert actions directed against domestic dissident groups, targeting five perceived threats to 'domestic tranquility'." But that's changed. Under Barack, when we talk about political prisoners, we're no longer pointing to the supposed long-ago-days of COINTELPRO.
In 2010, Workers World reported on a talk about US political prisoners given by Gloria Verdieu who noted Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Sundiata Acoli, Move 9 Charles, Debbie, Delbert, Edward, Janet, Janine, Michael and William Africa, Cuban Five Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez and Oscar Lopez Rivera, among others. All detained since before the start of the 21st century. Verdieu also spoke of one who was imprisoned after Barack Obama became president:
The activist lawyer, Lynne Stewart, was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mumia's essay entitled, "Punishing Lynn," said, "This outstanding lawyer, a 70-year-old grandmother, who is facing the serious threat of breast cancer, was originally sentenced to two years and four months, but the federal appeals court felt that wasn't enough."
Why wasn't it enough? Maybe because Lynne's lifework of being The People's Attorney made her Political Enemy Number One of many in government? Andrea Bauer (Freedom Socialist Party) offers some history:
On March 10, I spoke by phone with Lynne’s partner, Ralph Poynter. The two met while working at a public elementary school in Harlem in the 1960s, she a young white librarian and he a slightly older Black teacher, a unionist fighting for labor rights and improvements in Black lives.
Lynne’s legal career was spent defending the poor, the outcast, and the targets of the ruling class, from teenagers accused of dealing drugs to Black Panthers and Weather Undergrounders. She believes, as Poynter told me, “We must be consistent in seeking justice for everyone.”
There’s a terrible irony here. While Stewart understands the racist, sexist, and anti-working class nature of the justice system, she fearlessly fights for its supposed principles, like innocent until proven guilty; equality under the law; the right of the accused to a capable, vigorous defense.
And for this the system punished her.
That's why she fought for so many.
But what about the crime that landed her in prison?
Lynne is guilty of no crime. She broke no law. No law can be cited. She broke an agreement in the Clinton era. Defending one client, she agreed to a set of rules the Justice Department had come up with. The Justice Department cannot write or pass laws. Only Congress can. When Lynne issued a press release to Reuters, that broke an agreement. It did not break a law. Nor could it. The Free Speech Clause in the First Amendment would make it impossible for a law to be issued denying someone the right to speak.
This was when Bill Clinton was President. Janet Reno was Attorney General. Reno had the Justice Department look into the matter. They did. No big deal. They said, "Lynne, please agree not to do this again." Lynne said she'd try.
But then the Supreme Court installed Bully Boy Bush who appointed John Ashcroft to be Attorney General. Instead of addressing the issues of the day, Ashcroft worked on getting Lynne. The same action from the 90s was used, after 9-11, by Ashcroft to prosecute her.
Invoking 9-11 and holding the trial near Ground Zero, the Justice Department was able to scare up a conviction in February 2005. Sentencing came in October of 2006: 28 months.
Again, no law was broken.
She was appealing the decision. And Bully Boy Bush would be leaving the White House. A new day would be dawning.
Indeed.
Lynne's attorney Jill Shellow told Charlotte Silver (Al Jazeera), "I had high hopes for [the Obama] administration that have been repeatedly dashed. I'm extremely disappointed."
Extremely disappointed?
Her attorney should be f**king outraged because things were bad under Bully Boy Bush, they got a lot worse under Barack.
Barack Obama was sworn in as US President in January 2009. Things changed for Lynne. They got much worse. She was no longer allowed to remain on bail while appealing. In November 2009, she was thrown in prison. Not only that, under President Obama, the Justice Department went to court to have her 28 months sentence changed to 10 years. Which did happen in July of 2010.
Barack's political prisoners. Like Lynne, like Bradley, like John Kiriakou. The Government Accountability Project has a page entitled Bradley Manning and the New Political Prisoners: Daily Whistleblower News. That's how bad things are.
And things are really bad for Lynne whose cancer has returned. There's a thing called "compassionate release." Lynne not being a threat to anyone should be an automatic for that. Yet there's been no move on the part of the government to give her a "compassionate release."
As Stephen Lendman (People's Voice) noted last month, "Obama Wants Lynne Stewart Dead:"
Lynne's 73. She's gravely ill.
Obama killed Chavez. He wants Lynne dead. Unjustifiable longterm imprisonment assures it.
She's a breast cancer survivor. It reemerged. It's spreading.
She's dying. Vital life-saving treatment is delayed or denied. Expert private care can save her. She needs it now.
Friday on Free Speech Radio News, Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone discussed Lynne's case with Dorian Merina:
Ralph Schoenman: Her physical health is very poor. It's a very desperate situation in truth. When asked on the stand, Dorian, when Lynne was being charged by the state, basically assimilated to the crime ascribed to the person she was defending merely for the act of defending him, was already suffering from breast cancer which was treated and in remission. But she was scheduled for major surgery at the time that they revoked her bail even though the case was still pending before the courts and arbitrarily railroaded her into prison while she still had the legal right to contest. And that prevented her from having to schedule surgery which they deliberately delayed, there's no other way to put it, by 18 months. The consequence of that was, as the surgeon said, she said it was the worst case of she'd ever encountered.
A bastard profanes the American White House. And shreds the Constitution. And punishes the people a free society would be applauding.
There is a petition calling for a compassionate release of Lynne due to her health. Ralph Poynter, her husband, notes:
5,600 and counting! Individuals are reaching out to their friends, family and colleagues. Organizations are reaching out to their members. People throughout the world are joining together in the effort to free Lynne Stewart.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent this Cri de Coeur: “It is devastating, totally unbelievable. Is this in a democracy, the only superpower? I am sad. I will sign. Praying God’s blessings on yr efforts.” +Desmond Tutu
Pete Seeger declared: “Lynn Stewart should be outa jail!” on a postcard signed “old Pete Seeger” accompanied by a drawing of his banjo.
Your outpouring of support has lifted Lynne’s spirits as she undergoes the ravaging effects of chemotherapy. On March 20, she sent this message to each and every one of you from her seven-person cell in the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, Texas:
“I want you, individually, to know how gratifying and happy it makes me to have your support. It is uplifting, to say the least, and after a lifetime of organizing it proves once again that the People can rise.
“The acknowledgement of the life-political, and solutions brought about by group unity and support, is important to all of us. Equally, so is the courage to sign on to a demand for a person whom the Government has branded with the ‘T’ word — Terrorist. Understanding that the attack on me is a subterfuge for an attack on all lawyers who advocate without fear of Government displeasure, with intellectual honesty guided by their knowledge and their client’s desire for his or her case, I hope our effort can be a crack in the American bastion. Thank you.” — Lynne
Lynne Stewart devoted over 30 years of her life to helping others as a criminal defense lawyer. She defended the poor, the disadvantaged and those targeted by the police and the State. Such had been her reputation as a fearless lawyer, ready to challenge those in power, that judges assigned her routinely to act for defendants whom no attorney was willing to represent.
Now Lynne Stewart needs our urgent help or she may die in prison. Our determination can compel the Bureau of Prisons to file the motion for compassionate release that will free Lynne Stewart.
Check out the Justice for Lynne Stewart website www.lynnestewart.org to view the signatories (up to 03/31/13), the postcard from Pete Seeger, Archbishop Tutu’s message as well as Lynne Stewart’s letter back to him, and much more.
Remind your friends to sign the petition and to disseminate it to others. Ask each person to get five people to sign, and each of those five to ask five people of their own. In five stages, you will have reached another 3,000 people!
Ralph Poynter