How did I miss — Lynne Stewart’s birthday reflections

 “I believe I am one of an historical progression that maintains the struggle to change the perverted political landscape that is the U.S. It seems that being a political prisoner must be used as a means of focusing people’s attention on the continuing atrocities around them. Nothing seems to be too shocking or corrupt to blast the complacency. Like my client Richard Williams used to say, I might think I hadn’t been doing my utmost if they didn’t believe I was dangerous enough to be locked up!” Lynne Stewart, September 5, 2011

Excerpts, minor edit by Carolyn Bennett  

Among the bravest and truest among us, rights attorney Lynne Stewart wrote this from prison as she approached her 72nd year.

“…In order that my Prison Readers shouldn’t think that I have mellowed, I must say that if Amy [Goodman of Democracy Now] is to be trusted, the Wall Street occupation looks like it has some legs — whether those legs are reformist or radical, we will see.”

A month earlier Lynne Stewart reflected on universal rights and the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution, abuse of power and human rights advocacy.

Bill of Rights U.S.

“… The Bill delineates the ways that Government may not encroach on our ability to operate freely. It is a prohibition on the Government limiting free speech, religion, the right to bear arms, and the right to free assembly. It delineates the rights within the legal system.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees fundamental human entitlements—freedom from hunger, freedom from fear, freedom to choose, freedom to live in an environment that doesn’t kill us, and our children.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

“We obviously fight for more than the political guarantee to be free of government interference—it is to be able to live an open and generous and contributing life toward the betterment of people on the entire planet.

“…Advocating for human rights must always delineate that our struggle is not one of ‘self interest.’ It is a fight for all of us.

“This raises the always-troubling question of the recognition that for some this may mean sacrificing their entitlements (i.e. skin privilege, class privilege) to better others’ lives. Nobody wants to give up what they feel that they have achieved legitimately, ‘within the system.’

“But without the recognition that one has benefited unfairly by the unwritten ‘code’ that has favored certain groups over others, change cannot occur.”

Lynne Stewart continues her birthday message considering resistance movements.

“I don’t think we can look forward to parading out the Banksters and Goldman Sachs to face ‘Peoples Justice’ just yet but there seems to be a spark and that gladdens my Heart.

“I will be 72 on the 8th — the day of the Heroic Guerilla, the day they killed Che — [and]  I still hold strongly to my beliefs, my love of the people and that there will be redemption from the nightmare with which we are all struggling.  

“I wish you all a Happy Birthday. Struggle ON!” 

Love Lynne

Notes

Write Lynne!

LYNNE STEWART
53504-054
FMC CARSWELL
FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER
P.O. BOX 27137
FORT WORTH, TX 76127

Contact Information: at 1lawyerleft at gmail.com

http://lynnestewart.org/

Human Rights Coalition Interview with Lynne Stewart

September 5, 2011, Interview with Lynne Stewart by Patricia Vickers, Human Rights Coalition

http://lynnestewart.org/2011/09/05/human-rights-coalition-interview-with-lynne-stewart/#more-289

Further excerpt: Lynne Stewart

“There are two aspects to my ‘situation’ …

Lynne Stewart

“First, I was prosecuted for doing what I believe is the duty and work of an attorney—to represent the client zealously and conscientiously. In the case of the original trial (1995) of the blind Sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, of Egypt, we wanted to keep his name alive so that we could eventually try to negotiate a return for him even if it meant jail in Egypt. In that spirit I made a press release public, and to Reuters, expressing his point of view on a unilateral cease fire then in effect in Egypt. I believed that this was part of salvaging him from the torture of his solitary confinement and also that it was part of the work I had sworn to do. I was tried and found guilty for materially aiding ‘terrorism.’

“After I received a sentence of two-and-one-half-years, as opposed to the 30 years the government wanted, on appeal, the Second Circuit Court sent the case back for the Judge to give me more time. Without much ado, he sentenced me then to ten years, partially based upon statements I made after the sentencing and before I surrendered in November 2009. That sentencing is currently on appeal and will be argued in the fall in New York City.”

http://hrcoalition.com/

Lynne Irene Stewart b. October 8, 1939 now in prison is an attorney who represented poor and often unpopular defendants.

In 2005, a U.S. court convicted Lynne Stewart on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to ‘terrorists’ and sentenced her to 28 months in prison.  The felony conviction of helping pass messages from her client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric convicted of planning terror attacks, to his followers in al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States Secretary of State meant government revocation of Stewart’s license to practice law. 

On July 15, 2010, the court re-sentenced Lynne Stewart to 10 years in prison; current location FMC Carswell, Fort Worth, Texas. Edited from Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Stewart_Trial

_________________________________

Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

_________________________________

“RESIST” State terror on activists

Excerpt (from Fight Back), minor editing by Carolyn Bennett
“Subpoenas”
By veteran Civil Rights lawyer Lynne Stewart from Carswell Federal Prison

“I began my career as a political movement lawyer. The government was rounding up the last of the diehard militants, many of whom had been underground, and prosecuting them as a part of the pincer movement.

“The government also subpoenaed anyone with any tangential relationship to those arrested — their daters, their lovers, their teachers, their religious leaders, their estranged relatives, those who had attended meetings, rallies, etc.

“… The government's purpose — To intimidate that branch of the movement that could be counted on to support militancy; [to] troll for even the most insignificant crumbs of information that might be fitted together to enmesh suspects.

“What happened — Most people who had been tapped by the government lawyered up with movement lawyers, guided in part by the legal work of Bob Boyle and Guild lawyers who had written legal representation before Grand Juries. This work remains the standard on what to do and when to do it.

“A person subpoenaed is in the unenviable position of having only the vaguest idea of what the government may want and is faced ultimately with the choice of testifying against comrades or spending long months in jail.

“A person may even face a possibility of being indicted for contempt and facing a sentence that is completely up to a judge. In the face of this challenge, in that day, I can only say that most people chose not to testify and to wait out the government. They gave up an existence as they were living it — jobs, relationships, all that constitute daily life; and they went to jail. They stayed in jail for many months, and they didn’t give in.

“Now we are in another era — one not rising from the euphoria and idealism of the 1960s — and the government is once again arresting, subpoenaing and tormenting movement people, hoping they will become informants.

“The reaction of the movement — We resist.

“We stand strong with the resisters who elect not to become part of the same prosecution team that has terrorized the world. Now the so-called Department of Justice (ha!) has decided to focus on support groups of the world’s peoples, also on eco-terrorism. Why? Because they can! [They are sending] a message to the people that [resistance] is dangerous: 'Don’t join.' 'Don’t resist.'

“The State's message must once again be shouted down: first by the resisters who will go to jail; second by us — the movement that must support them by always filling those cold marble courtrooms to show our solidarity and by speaking out so that their sacrifice is constantly remembered.

“Our principle of non-collaboration has so far proved robust. There has been no wavering. Our support must continue to convince everyone involved that these are issues of principle. There can be no compromise.

“Resisters must be defended to the utmost of our strength and abilities.”


Alissa Clare wrote of lawyers in 2005 —
“We Should Have Gone to Med School: In the Wake of Lynne Stewart, Lawyers Face Hard Time for Defending ‘Terrorists’”

On February 10, 2005, “A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Lynne Stewart, a New York civil rights lawyer and self-proclaimed radical, ‘on on all five counts of providing material aid to terrorism and of lying to the government when she pledged to obey federal rules that barred her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, from communicating with his followers.’

“With this conviction, the Justice Department scored a major victory in its War on Terror, by applying to attorneys the statute proscribing material support to terrorism. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez stated, ‘these convictions send a clear, unmistakable message that this department will pursue both those who carry out acts of terrorism and those who assist them with their murderous goals.’ Stewart faces thirty years in prison and was immediately disbarred as a result of her felony conviction.

“…Stewart’s case implicates diverse political, constitutional, and ethical issues. Her conviction creates a grave danger of chilling legal representation for accused terrorists due to the lack of clear guidelines and notice regarding the application of criminal statutes to the lawyers who defend them.

“Times of national crisis exacerbate the persistent tension between civil liberties and national security. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, sparked our current national crisis, upsetting the balance ...”


Sources and notes
“‘Subpoenas’” (Lynne Stewart, Carswell Federal Prison) — “Lynne Stewart’s message to January 25 protests” Fight Back News Service is circulating on the day of protests “against the FBI and Grand Jury witch hunt that has been unleashed on anti-war and international solidarity activists.” Lynne Stewart [is] a heroic and long-time progressive lawyer [now] serving a ten-year prison sentence in Fort Worth, Texas, for allegedly helping terrorists. Her courage and determination stand as an example to all of us who are working for peace, justice and equality. http://www.fightbacknews.org/2011/1/25/lynne-stewart-s-message-jan-25-protests

CURRENT DEVELOPMENT 2004-2005: “We Should Have Gone to Med School: In the Wake of Lynne Stewart, Lawyers Face Hard Time for Defending Terrorists,” Summer, 2005, 18 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 651, Author ALISSA CLARE, Excerpt INTRODUCTION
________________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
________________________________________________