TAKING AIM
with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
April 7, 2010-
TakingAimRadio.com
Lynne Stewart has for forty years defended the poor and the oppressed against arbitrary authority and false charges.
Lynne Stewart, together with former Attorney-General Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabar defended Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who was tried and convicted of plotting to blow up noted landmarks, including the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel, Statue of Liberty, and to assassinate Senator Alphonse D’Amato and U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali.
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was innocent of these charges and had no part in the initiation, planning or execution of these presumptive plots.
Indisputable and massive evidence has demonstrated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, through its operatives, including Emad Ali Salem, was, in fact, the author of these plots and planned, initiated and financed these and other acts of terror, including the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 in a “false flag” operation.
Attorney General John Ashcroft launched a cynical campaign to persecute and prosecute Lynne Stewart for “aiding and abetting terrorism” based upon her serving as defense attorney for Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.
The Justice Department has undertaken the persecution and prosecution of Lynne Stewart because she defended her falsely accused client zealously and refused to be intimidated by the drumbeat of government propaganda arising from its false “war on terror”.
Lynne Stewart has been tried and convicted in District Court of Judge John G. Koeltl of aiding and abetting terrorism based solely on the fact that she defended a man demonized by the State for the purpose of creating a climate of fear in the United States and public acquiescence in global wars of conquest including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and beyond.
Judge Koeltl sentenced Lynne Stewart to 28 months in Federal prison, although the prosecution demanded 30 years imprisonment based upon government “sentencing guidelines”.
Lynne Stewart, at 70 years of age with serious medical issues, was remanded to prison, even though her appeal is under review and her potential further appeal to the Supreme Court is pending, and remanded her to prison despite the fact that Lynne Stewart had surgery scheduled at a major New York hospital, and that the prison authorities have denied Lynne Stewart her proper medication, disallowed her surgery as scheduled and subjected her to treatment in prison that places her survival in jeopardy.
Judges on the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have issued additional commentaries pressuring Judge Koeltl to increase the sentence of Lynne Stewart by decades for “enhancing terrorism,” a demand based solely upon Lynne Stewart’s presumptive “violation” of unconstitutional prison administrative measures that require attorneys to agree in advance to abrogate their right to disseminate publicly information pertaining to their client’s status, views or advocacy.
Judge Sack of the Second Circuit Appellate Court, who urged a far more severe sentence for Lynne Stewart, was for many years a law partner of Judge Mukasey, the judge who sentenced Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman to 100 years imprisonment, yet Judge Sack refused to recuse himself and led the charge demanding a massive increase in the sentence imposed on Lynne Stewart.
Judge Mukasey advocated in the Wall Street Journal, shortly before becoming Attorney General, that people accused of “terrorism” should be denied due process and condemned to indefinite detention in a “parallel judicial system” that treats such people as “mental deficients” to be ordered by administrative decree to mental institutions.
This persecution and prosecution of Lynne Stewart by a criminal state is a direct parallel to the historic Dreyfus Case that gave rise to the expose of the corruption and cynicism of the French government by Emile Zola in his historic declaration entitled “J’Accuse” (I Accuse!).
The persecution and prosecution of Lynne Stewart is a calculated threat to every lawyer in the United States who defends clients targeted and demonized by a criminal State.
The New York Times on March 8, 2010 in its lead editorial entitled “Are You or Have You Ever Been a Lawyer?” raises the alarm that “in this era, demagogues on the right are smearing loyal Americans as disloyal and charging that the government is being undermined from within”.
The New York Times editorial states that cynical and dishonest people “twist the role of lawyers in the justice system” and states emphatically that, “In representing Guatanamo detainees, they were in no way advocating for terrorism. They were ensuring that deeply disliked individuals were able to make their case in court, even ones charged with heinous acts — and that the Constitution was defended.”
The New York Times editorial concludes,”If lawyers who take on controversial causes are demonized with impunity, it will be difficult for unpopular people to get representation — and constitutional rights that protect all Americans will be weakened”.
The Justice Department of George W. Bush and Barack Obama in framing an innocent man, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, and the subsequent persecution, prosecution, conviction and draconian sentencing of Lynne Stewart, threaten not merely every defense lawyer, but every inhabitant of the United States with drastic curtailment of democratic rights and civil liberties, and seeks to eliminate our ability to expose and oppose criminal wars abroad and repressive measures at home.
Join in this urgent campaign and support public meetings involving a broad coalition of civil rights,human rights, anti-war, 9/11 Truth and labor organizations to defend Lynne Stewart and the fundamental democratic rights now at risk, to which her life has been devoted and that her case embodies.
– Call upon Judge Koeltl to defy attempts by judges on the Second Circuit to usurp his own proper judgment and jurisdiction by dictating a vengeful sentence that is a death sentence upon the U.S. Constitution.
– Write accordingly directly to: The Honorable Judge John G. Koeltl, United States District Judge, Southern District of New York, 500 Pearl Street, New York, N.Y. 10013.
– Email copies of your letter to Judge Koeltl to Ralph Poynter and Lynne Stewart at Ralph.Poynter [at] yahoo.com / info [at] lynnestewart.org./takingaim [at] pacbell.net and obtain ongoing information.
– Mail a copy of your letter to Judge Koeltl to the Lynne Stewart Defense
Committee at 350 Broadway, Suite 700, N.Y., N.Y. 10013