Free lynne stewart resist the destruction of democratic rights in america

[Magda Hassan]

By email today.
FREE LYNNE STEWART RESIST THE DESTRUCTION OF

DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS IN AMERICA

Lynne Stewart has devoted her life to defending the poor and the
oppressed. After forty years of exposing government targeting of the
most vulnerable and exploited in our society, the government has now
acted to bury her alive.

The government prosecution, conviction and imprisonment of Lynne Stewart
is based solely upon the fact that she joined former Attorney-General
Ramsey Clark and attorney Abdeen Jabbar in defending Sheikh Omar Abdul
Rahman against the trumped up charge that he organized and implemented a
terrorist plot to blow up noted landmarks, including the George
Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel, Statue of Liberty and United Nations,
along with planning to assassinate then Senator Alphonse D?Amato and
former U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali.

These charges were false. The plot was entirely an FBI plan designed to
ensnare young men attending the mosque of the Sheikh in order to create
a climate of fear in the United States and to provide a pretext for wars
abroad and the drastic infringement of democratic rights at home.

These are the stakes in the government?s own conspiracy against all
defense lawyers who dare to represent those targeted by a criminal State.

Even federal investigators, high-ranking Justice Department lawyers and
Attorney General Janet Reno herself doubted the evidence. The /Los
Angeles Times /reported on August 28, 1993 that ?For weeks, federal
investigators privately voiced their doubts about the quality of the
evidence supporting the government?s case against Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman.?

?But in the end,? the article revealed, ?Attorney General Janet Reno
overcame her own misgivings, as well as those of her subordinates and
concluded that the alleged conspiracy was ?a case that had to be
prosecuted???

The then Attorney General was muscled into proceeding with false charges
against the Sheikh arising from a plot prepared by the F.B.I. itself, as
documented in the /New York/ /Times/, /Los Angeles Times/ and /London
Times/.

Lynne Stewart was herself convicted in a trial where endless hours of
footage of Osama

bin Laden and the attacks of September 11^th , 2001 ? all entirely
unrelated to the events of 1993 ? were allowed by the court to be
introduced in trial in a reckless and illegal attempt to frighten and
intimidate the jury.

In a case that is a watershed in the direct assault upon democratic
rights in the United States, Lynne Stewart has been railroaded to prison
in an ominous threat to any attorney who defends people falsely accused
and targeted by the U.S. government. If lawyers can be enfolded within
the crime imputed to the client they defend, merely for acting as their
attorney, no one can get a fair trial in the United States.

The basis of the government?s claim that Lynne Stewart ?aided and
supported terrorism? by defending Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman is that she
released a Press Release to Reuters and other news agencies containing
the views of the Sheikh on political events in Egypt!

Unconstitutional restrictions upon defense lawyers had been introduced
in the form of new prison administrative procedures called Special
Administrative Measures or SAMS. These measures required attorneys to
agree not to disseminate information pertaining to their clients.

Thus, while the government uses the Press without restraint to
orchestrate official propaganda promoting prosecutorial claims, defense
lawyers are to be denied the right to use the press to advocate for
their clients and to present their clients opinions and ideas.

The sole penalty for violating these arbitrary administrative
restrictions upon the constitutional rights of defense attorneys is that
the prison can deny access by the lawyer to the defendant until the
matter is resolved.

Even these SAMS ? designed to muzzle lawyers and prevent them from
exercising their free speech rights and to restrict illegally their
ability to defend their clients in the public arena ? are strictly
administrative rules.

To defy them ? as Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabbar elected to do ? no less
than Lynne Stewart - carries no legal consequences for the attorney. To
breach these administrative restraints is not a crime or an act for
which the perpetrator can be charged or prosecuted.

Yet in a mockery of the entire judicial process, the Second Circuit
Appellate Judges have deployed the breach of these prison administrative
rulings as a major crime ? one of ?enhancing terrorism? and of ?perjury?
for which decades of imprisonment are in order!

The comments by judges in the Second Circuit are without even the
pretence of a judicial or legal basis. They are political rants and
reckless threats to Judge Koeltl demanding that he increase the28 month
sentence of Lynne Stewart to decades in prison.

The statements by several Second Circuit Judges are injudicious,
hysterical assertions that the Sheikh is one of the most dangerous
terrorists in the world. The Second Circuit judges cite a speech that
Lynne Stewart gave to a public meeting of law students ? patent hearsay
derived from newspaper reports - in which Lynne is quoted as stating
that she had done nothing wrong in advocating for her client and would
do it again.

Second Circuit Judges assert that their statements are ?a wink and a
nod? to Judge Koeltl, letting him understand that unless he increases
the sentence of Lynne Stewart to decades in prison, the U.S. government
will appeal again and send the case right back to the Second Circuit, at
which time these Second Circuit judges will take matters into their own
hands and mandate a sentence of decades in prison.

On the basis of this speech, these judges label Lynne a ?recidivist
enhancer of terror? and a ?perjurer.? Rarely has their been so brazen an
abandonment of judicial impartiality and respect for the law as
exhibited by these hanging judges of the Second Circuit.

It is a measure of the subversion of the entire judicial process and of
constitutional protections and basic democratic rights that these judges
emulate Alice in Wonderland with scarcely veiled threats to Judge Koeltl
as they proclaim ?Off with her head!?

Lynne Stewart at 70 years of age has survived cancer, suffers from high
blood pressure, has been deprived of her medication and denied the
surgery that was scheduled prior to her being remanded to prison in a
crass display of contempt for common decency.

The Second Circuit judges revoked her bail in November 2009 ignoring the
fact that her Appeal remains under review and a potential Appeal to the
Supreme Court is pending.

* *

* *Mobilize in defense of Lynne Stewart and against the architecture
of the fascist State under rapid construction in America.*
* *Proclaim that Lynne Stewart?s is the Dreyfus Case of our time and
that today as then a criminal state wages wars of genocide abroad
and authoritarian repression at home while seeking to scapegoat a
heroic defender of the oppressed, thus betraying the legacy of the
American revolution.*

* *

* *Organize large numbers of people to gather outside and inside
Judge Koeltl?s Courtroom at 500 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan
when Lynne Stewart is scheduled to be re-sentenced on July 15.*

* *

* *Write personal letters to Judge Koeltl opposing the destruction
of democratic rights and the threat to all attorneys embodied in
the reckless persecution and prosecution of Lynne Stewart*

* *

* *Remind the Judge that Lynne Stewart has, in his own words, been a
national treasure reflecting a lifetime of devoted public service
and that he should treat her accordingly and reserve draconian
sentencing for the torturers and the wagers of wars of aggression.*

* *

* *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@yahoo.com
<mailto:Ralph.Poynter@yahoo.com> / info@lynnestewart.org
<mailto:info@lynnestewart.org>./takingaim@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*

[Austin Kelley]

I'm certainly not for state repression, but I've got to admit that I've got unresolved questions about this case.

Wasn't the "blind cleric" aided and abetted by elements of the American Cryptocracy, as for example to even get his visa to come and organize out of the mosque in Jersey City?

And isn't Ramsey Clark, despite his lefty credentials, someone who we really should be concerned about?

[Magda Hassan]

I'm certainly not for state repression, but I've got to admit that I've got unresolved questions about this case.

Wasn't the "blind cleric" aided and abetted by elements of the American Cryptocracy, as for example to even get his visa to come and organize out of the mosque in Jersey City?

And isn't Ramsey Clark, despite his lefty credentials, someone who we really should be concerned about?

Yep. There are many questions. I know Ramsey Clark has not always been what he is now and what is he now anyway? His role in the JFK area was quite different to what he did in the NATO attack on Yugoslavia just for one glaring difference. Your reference to the 'blind cleric' and the cryptocracy is, I think, why Lynne Stewart is in jail. She and others say that the operation, like many others, was an FBI job. They supplied the plan, the material to carry out the plan. Everything. They want her silenced and disappeared. Like all others who dare to say the Emperor Has No Clothes and point to the secret government.

[Ed Jewett]

Last I heard, the accused in the American court of justice is entitled to a fair defense under the principles of court and case management as evolved over time. But that was some time ago; I think Joe Friday was the Attorney General then. Since then, the American system of justice has been eroded incrementally ... and we are in a "place" in which this lawyer may be named in such a way so as to be disappeared to a "black" prison, waterboarded and otherwise tortured, her mind destroyed, or her life even taken ... all without recourse.

Hallelujah, and pass the remote; some vapid drug-addled Disney adolescent is due to come out and shake her booty any minute now.

[Peter Lemkin]

I'm certainly not for state repression, but I've got to admit that I've got unresolved questions about this case.

Wasn't the "blind cleric" aided and abetted by elements of the American Cryptocracy, as for example to even get his visa to come and organize out of the mosque in Jersey City?

And isn't Ramsey Clark, despite his lefty credentials, someone who we really should be concerned about?

Yep. There are many questions. I know Ramsey Clark has not always been what he is now and what is he now anyway? His role in the JFK area was quite different to what he did in the NATO attack on Yugoslavia just for one glaring difference. Your reference to the 'blind cleric' and the cryptocracy is, I think, why Lynne Stewart is in jail. She and others say that the operation, like many others, was an FBI job. They supplied the plan, the material to carry out the plan. Everything. They want her silenced and disappeared. Like all others who dare to say the Emperor Has No Clothes and point to the secret government.

There is NO reason to doubt the integrity of Lynne Stewart nor her innocence in this case. You should listen to her describe how she saw and acted in this case - to give her client the best legal defense possible. She didn't take sides. Our system of justice depends on the lawyer after taking a case to do their best to represent their client - which she tried to do. Yes, there are many complexities with the larger case and personalities, but not with Stewart. One only needs to look at the caliber of persons who have come to support her to see what is really going on here. This is an attempt to silence lawyers who would even think to take cases of persons labeled as terrorists. It is meant to have a chilling effect on all good lawyers who'd dare defend a declared enemy of the American State - which easily could be me....or some of you. The Center For Constitution Rights and the cream of the progressive legal profession are backing her. Take a look at her defense committee website and reconsider your doubts.

[Peter Lemkin]

A shocking injustice, perhaps a death sentence

Reported by Stephen Lendman
Date: July 17, 2010
Subject: Justice and Judges

Darkness in America: Lynne Stewart's Resentencing - by Stephen Lendman

Describing Lynne, one of this writer's previous articles said the following:

She worked selfishly, tirelessly, and heroically for 30 years as a human rights champion, defending America's poor, underprivileged, and unwanted - people never afforded due process and judicial fairness without an advocate like her. She knew the risks, yet took them courageously until bogusly indicted on April 9, 2002 for:

--"conspiring to defraud the United States;

-- conspiring to provide and conceal material support to terrorist activity;

-- providing and concealing material support to terrorist activity; and

-- two counts of making false statements."

Detailed information can be gotten from this writer's previous articles, accessed through the following links:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2006/10/ly...honor.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/04/ly...e-for.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/11/ly...ights.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/04/up...uggle.html

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/06/up...uggle.html

A brief timeline was as follows:

-- indicted on April 9, 2002;

-- on February 10, 2005, convicted on all counts;

-- on October, 17, 2006, sentenced to 28 months;

-- on November 17, 2009, a US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit three-judge panel upheld the conviction, shamelessly accusing Lynne of "knowingly and willfully making false statements," redirecting her case to District Court Judge John Koeltl for resentencing, instructing him to consider enhancements for terrorism, perjury, and abuse of her position as a lawyer - an outrageous mandate intimidating Koeltl to comply.

-- on November 19, 2009, Stewart jailed at MCC-NY, 150 Park Row, New York, NY; and

-- on July 15, 2010, Stewart resentenced to 10 years imprisonment for doing her job honorably, ethically, and admirably with distinction for 30 years.

New York Times writer John Eligon headlined the news, saying:

"Sentence Is Sharply Increased for Lawyer Convicted of Aiding Terror," adding:

After her sentence, a "collective gasp went up from (her) supporters, who packed the broad, high-ceilinged courtroom....followed by a few shrieks and sobs; some held their hands over their mouths."

Allowed to speak, Lynne said:

"I'm somewhat stunned, Judge, by the swift change in my outlook. We will continue to struggle on to take all available options to do what we need to do to change this. I feel like I let a lot of my good people down," after which supporters shouted, "We love you!"

Stewart added: "Over the last eight months, prison has diminished me. Daily, I confront the prospect of death."

So does her husband, Ralph Poynter, calling it "a death sentence," - a shocking miscarriage of justice, symbolizing America's descent to hell, its moral remnants lost, its democracy a convenient illusion, its despotic reality ruthless, corrupted, brutish and merciless, favoring power over populism under a Constitution political philosopher Sheldon Wolin describes as "conscripted to serve as (its) apprentice rather than its conscience."

On July 16, New York Law Journal's Mark Hamblett headlined, "Lynne Stewart Gets a New 10-Year Prison Sentence," saying:

Koeltl imposed a longer sentence, saying "comments by Stewart in 2006, including a statement in a television interview that she would do 'it' again and would not 'do anything differently' influenced his decision....indicat(ing) the original sentence 'was not sufficient' to reflect the goals of sentencing guidelines."

Forgotten were Koeltl's October 2006 comment, calling Lynne's character "extraordinary," saying she was "a credit to her profession," and that a long imprisonment would be "an unreasonable result," citing "the somewhat atypical nature of her case (and) lack of evidence that any victim was harmed...."

Calling terrorism enhancement "dramatically unreasonable (because it grossly) overstate(d) the seriousness of (her) conduct (and would equate her with) repeat felony offenders for the most serious offenses including murder and drug trafficking."

He did consider Stewart's age (70), her health (poor), her distinguished career representing society's disadvantaged and unwanted, and the unlikelihood she'd commit another "crime."

"But (he) clearly got the message from the 2nd Circuit," and complied, his own career perhaps on the line otherwise.

The American Bar Association's Model Code of Judicial Conduct

Updated in February 2007, its preamble calls for:

-- "An independent, fair and impartial judiciary," calling it "indispensable to our system of justice, (composed of) men and women of integrity;

-- Judges should....at all times (ensure) the greatest possible public confidence in their independence, impartiality, integrity, and competence;

-- The Model Code....establishes standards (of) ethical conduct, (including) overarching principles of judicial ethics (and fairness), consistent with constitutional requirements, statutes, other court rules, and decisional law, and with due regard for all relevant circumstances;" above all, the truth, not a corrupted prosecutorial version of it, the kind sending innocent people to prison, including society's best, none better than Lynne.

Mark the date - July 15, 2010, a day of infamy, activist/writer Elaine Brower saying "The Veil is Lifted, The Gloves Are off," Stewart's lynching showing America's true face - cruel, unfair, lawless and debauched, a nation no longer fit to live in.

A Final Note

Jeff Mackler, West Coast Director of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee, reports she'll "serve her sentence in Danbury, Connecticut's minimum security prison....a brilliant and dedicated fighter sacrificed on the alter of an intolerant class-biased system of repression and war."

A giant among us, she won't be forgotten, a Supreme Court appeal expected, despite little chance for compassion or judicial fairness, qualities absent in the Roberts court.

[Peter Lemkin]

May I humbly suggest you rummage around here and what the Center for Constitutional Rights [and other such] say about her. She was set-up and she was made an example of, so that progressive lawyers would be afraid to defend you or me....only 'defense' now is 'allowed' for those who would move ahead with the New Pearl Harbors initiatives for a Police State and Nation of Fear :adore:

[Keith Millea]

This is an interview from 2004

Guns and Butter - "Lynne Stewart: In Her Own Words"

Bonnie Faulkner interviews criminal defense attorney, Lynne Stewart, before the start of her trial in 2004. In the first half of the program Lynne Stewart explains the government's case against her client, Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman. In the second half of the program she describes her own arrest and the charges brought against her in her legal representation of him.

http://kpfa.org/archive/id/62727

[Peter Lemkin]

That Lynn Stewart could be sentenced to ten years in prison for doing nothing more than her job as it is expected to be done....lets me know that if I do my job 'as expected' I can expect the same, in the worst case.....as can you....wake up!

[Magda Hassan]

Court Confirms Ten-Year Sentence for Lynne Stewart

By Jeff Mackler, Justice for Lynne Stewart04 July 12 he U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today confirmed the 2010 decision of Federal District Court Judge John Koeltl to change his 28-month jail sentence for radical attorney and human rights activist, Lynne Stewart, to ten years. The court's June 28, 2012 decision was not unexpected.Following federal prosecutors' appeal of what was widely considered a "lenient sentence," the Second Circuit all but ordered a compliant Koeltl to re-sentence Stewart and harshly. Koeltl did just that, forcing Stewart to appeal to the very court that originally pressured Koeltl, in what was widely considered a "career decision" to do Stewart great harm.Stewart was convicted at an outrageous 2005 New York frame-up trial on five counts of conspiracy to aid and abet and provide material support to terrorism. Her crime? Representing the "blind Sheik," the Egyptian cleric, Omar Abdel Rachman, who had also been convicted on trumphed-up conspiracy charges. Stewart issued a press release from her client stating his views on how Egyptian Muslim oppositionists should react to the ongoing crimes and murders of Egypt's then President Hosni Mubarak.Stewart was convicted of violating a vaguely-worded court-ordered SAM (Special Administrative Measure) that barred her from revealing her client's opinions. The penalty for such violations had traditionally been a mild slap on the wrist, perhaps a warning to not repeat the "violation" and to bar attorney-client visits for a few months. Barring an unlikely Supreme Court reversal, she will now serve her ten-year sentence with perhaps a one-year or ten percent reduction for "good behavior." She is presently incarcerated at FMC Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas.Koeltl's original 28-month sentence statement, in the face of federal prosecutors demanding 30 years, noted that Stewart, known for representing the poor and oppressed for three decades with little financial remuneration, was a "credit to the legal profession." Stewart served as lead counsel for her client along with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who testified on her behalf during the trial. Clark himself had issued similar press releases with no punishment. Indeed, an indignant prosecutor during Stewart's trial suggested that Clark himself be charged with conspiracy, but his superiors decided that imprisoning the nation's former top attorney was not yet in their game plan and the suggestion was ignored.The Second Circuit decision was based on the allegations that Stewart demonstrated insufficient deference to the original sentence. The court claimed that her statement to the media immediately following her sentence that, "I can do 28 months standing on my head," demonstrated contempt for the legal system. I was standing next to Stewart at that moment and saw nothing other than a great expression of relief that she would not be sentenced, in effect to death, based on the 30 years that federal prosecutors sought. Stewart entered the sentencing hearing on that day, totally ignorant of whether her sentence would be the deeply punishing 30 years demanded by the federal prosecutors or perhaps something that she, 70 years old at the time, could "live with" and look forward to a normal life after having served the time. She carried nothing but a plastic bag, some medicines and a toothbrush.The Second Circuit also too umbrage at Stewart's courageous statement when she took the stand to make her closing remarks at her trial. Her attorney at that time, Michael Tiger, asked, referring to Stewart's issuing the press release on her client's behalf, "Lynne, if you had to do it all over again would you do the same thing?" With a tear in her eye, Stewart stated, "I would hope that I would have the courage to do it again" She paused and continued, "I would do it again." Stewart also insisted that her sworn duty to represent her client had to weighed against the formalities of laws or court orders that prevented such diligent representation.This refusal to bow to authority, to show the "required deference" to legal bullies with power, outraged her persecutors, who sought vengeance in the rigged criminal "justice" system.Stewart's now rejected appeal argued three essential points:I. In relying on Lynne Stewart's public statements to enhance the original sentence of 28 months, her First Amendment rights were abridged
II. The fourfold increase in the sentence was substantively unreasonable and failed to balance her lifetime of contribution to the community and country with the criminal act of which she was convicted.
III. The Judge's findings of Perjury and Misuse of her position as an Attorney on which he also based the increase, were error."Free Lynne Stewart" must remain the rallying cry of all those who cherish civil liberties and democratic rights. Stewart, like so many others, but perhaps among the first tier, was a victim of the government-promoted malicious and murderous "war on terror" aimed at stifling all dissent and imprisoning the innocent to justify its wars against working people at home and against the oppressed and exploited across the globe.Jeff Mackler is the West Coast Coordinator of the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
http://readersupportednews.org/news-sect...ne-stewart