----- Original Message ----- >From: Perrine Kelly >To: EB-COSSI >Sent: 4/23/2013 3:29:56 PM >Subject: [eb-cossi] Mya Shone, Ralph Schoenman, Ed Asner & Chris Hedges for >LynneStewart > > > > >AN UPDATE FROM MYA SHONE AND RALPH SCHOENMAN CO-COORDINATORS WITH RALPH >POYNTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PETITION CAMPAIGN TO SAVE THE LIFE OF LYNNE >STEWART > >As the campaign builds, Lynne Stewart¹s condition has taken a concerning >turn for the worse. Her white blood cell count has dropped sharply. Lynne is >in isolation currently and will be sent to a Fort Worth hospital for tests. > >This news has lent a dramatic urgency to The International Petition Campaign >to Save the Life of Lynne Stewart, even as it has crossed a new threshold: >Over 10,000 people have signed the petition as signatories pour in daily >from across the world. > >Noted associate of President Kwame Nkrumah, Ambassador Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, >Ghana¹s former ambassador to China, Vietnam, Cuba and Nicaragua, has called >upon all who fought for self-determination and freedom to raise their voices >now for ³our dear sister in struggle, Lynne Stewart, even as she has fought >for us over a lifetime.² > >The Socialist Forum of Ghana has launched a national campaign to save the >life of Lynne Stewart. > >We must intensify our efforts in this battle for her freedom and her life. > >Ed Asner, Richard Falk, Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, David Ray Griffin, >Richard Gage, Ward Churchill, Natsu Saito, Cindy Sheehan, Bonnie Kerness, >Zachary Sklar, Alice Walker, Katha Pollitt, Michael Ratner, Sara Kuntsler, >Heidi Boghosian, Wallace Shawn, San Francisco Supervisor John Avelos, Peter >Kinoy, Peter Dale Scott, Wilhemina Levy, Cynthia McKinney, Pam Africa, and >Louis Wolf are among current signers. > >We urge all to contact five people and ask each of them to contact five >more, allowing each of us, thereby, in five stages to reach five thousand >people. > >Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist and Occupy Wall Street leader Chris Hedges >has published today an evocative and compelling article entitled ³The >Persecution of Lynne Stewart² that captures Lynne¹s stirring eloquence, >abiding humanity and quiet courage. (See below) > >The petition is at: >http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life >-r elease-her-now-2 > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >The Persecution of Lynne Stewart > ><http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_persecution_of_lynne_stewart_201304 >21/?ln> > >Posted on Apr 21, 2013 > >By Chris Hedges > >Lynne Stewart, in the vindictive and hysterical world of the war on terror, >is one of its martyrs. A 73-year-old lawyer who spent her life defending the >poor, the marginalized and the despised, including blind cleric Sheik Omar >Abdel Rahman, she fell afoul of the state apparatus because she dared to >demand justice rather than acquiesce to state sponsored witch hunts. And >now, with stage 4 cancer that has metastasized, spreading to her lymph >nodes, shoulder, bones and lungs, creating a grave threat to her life, she >sits in a prison cell at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, >Texas, where she is serving a 10-year sentence. Stewart¹s family is pleading >with the state for ³compassionate release² and numerous international human >rights campaigners, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have signed a >petition calling for her to be freed on medical grounds. It is not only a >crime in the U.S. to be poor, to be a Muslim, to openly condemn the crimes >committed in our name in the Muslim world, but to defend those who do. And >the near total collapse of our judicial system, wrecked in the name of >national security and ³the war on terror,² is encapsulated in the saga of >this courageous attorney‹now disbarred because of her conviction. > >³I hope that my imprisonment sends the wake up call that the government is >prepared to imprison lawyers who do not conduct legal representation in a >manner the government has ordained,² she told me when I reached her through >email in prison. ³My career of 30 plus years has always been client >centered. My clients and I decided on the best legal course, without the >interference of the government. Ethics require that the defense lawyer >DEFEND, get the client off. We have no obligation to obey [the] Œrules¹ >government lays down. > >³I believe that since 9/11 the government has pursued Muslims with an ever >heavier hand,² she wrote, all messages to her and from her being vetted by >prison authorities. ³However, cases such as the Sheikh¹s in 1995 amply >demonstrate that Muslims had been targeted even earlier as the new >ENEMY‹always suspect, always guilty. After 9/11, we discovered that the >government prosecutors were ordered to try and get Osama Bin Laden into >EVERY Muslim prosecution inducing in American Juries a Pavlovian response. >Is it as bad as lynching and the Scottsboro Boys and the Pursuit of Black >Panthers? Not as of yet, but getting close and of course the incipient >racism that that colors‹pun?‹every action in the U.S. is ever present in >these prosecutions.² > >Stewart, as a young librarian in Harlem, got an early taste of the insidious >forms of overt and covert racism that work to keep most people of color >impoverished and trapped in their internal colonies or our prison complex. >She went on to get her law degree and begin battling in the courts on behalf >of those around her for whom justice was usually denied. By 1995, along with >former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara, she was the lead >trial counsel for the sheik, who was convicted in September of that year. He >received life in prison plus 65 years, a sentence Stewart called >³outlandish.² The cleric, in poor health, is serving a life sentence in the >medical wing of the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina. >Stewart continued to see the sheik in jail after the sentence. Three years >later the government severely curtailed his ability to communicate with the >outside world, even through his lawyers, under special administrative >measures or SAMs. > >In 2000, during a visit with the sheik, he asked Stewart to release a >statement from him to the press. The Clinton administration did not >prosecute her for the press release, but the Bush administration in April >2002, the mood of the country altered by the attacks of 9/11, decided to go >after her. Attorney General John Ashcroft came to New York in April 2002 to >announce that the Justice Department had indicted Stewart, a paralegal and >the interpreter on grounds of materially aiding a terrorist organization. >That night he went on ³Late Show with David Letterman² to tell the nation of >the indictment and the Bush administration¹s vaunted ³war on terror.² > >³Rev up the military industrial complex,² Stewart wrote when I asked her >what purpose the ³war on terror² served. ³Keep the populace terrorized so >that they look to Big Brother Government for protection. Cannon Fodder for >the Œthrowaways¹ in our society‹young, poor, uneducated, persons of color.² > >Stewart¹s 2005 trial was a Punch-and-Judy show. The state demanded an >outrageous 30-year prison sentence. It showed the jurors lurid videos of >Osama bin Laden and images of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center >towers, and spun a fantastic web of Islamic, terrorist intrigue. To those of >us who covered groups such as al-Qaida and the armed Islamic groups in >Egypt‹I was based in Cairo at the time as the Middle East bureau chief for >The New York Times‹the government scenarios were utterly devoid of fact or >credibility. The government prosecutors, for example, blamed numerous >terrorist attacks, including the killing of 62 people in 1997 in Luxor, >Egypt, on the sheik, although he publicly denounced the attack and had no >connection with the radical Islamic group in Egypt that carried it out. And >even Manhattan District Judge John Koeltl instructed the jury more than 750 >times that the photos of Osama bin Laden and the 2001 World Trade Center >attacks were not relevant to the case. Stewart was sentenced to 28 months. >The Obama administration appealed the ruling. The appeals court ruled that >the sentence was too light. Koeltl gave her 10 years. She has served three. > >Her family¹s appeal for a ³compassionate release² must defy the odds. Human >Rights Watch and Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) noted in a 2012 >report, ³The Answer is No: Too Little Compassionate Release in US Federal >Prisons,² that the Federal Bureau of Prisons rarely even bothers to submit >compassionate release requests to the courts. Since 1992, the bureau has >averaged two dozen motions a year to the courts for compassionate release. >The bureau does not provide figures for the number of prisoners who seek >compassionate release. > >³No messy side effects‹vomiting, diarrhea‹thank goodness,² Stewart wrote to >me about her cancer care. ³I have one more treatment and then they have used >all the poison it¹s safe to use. I am bald but the hardest for me to endure, >who has always relied on her memory and quick wit, is the chemo brain that >slows and sometimes stops me. > >³I am up at 4:30 [a.m.] and wait till the ŒCount¹ is over and have a shower >etc.,² she noted of her daily routine. ³I get dressed and take a short rest >(feet up) until breakfast at 6 am. I am in a room with 6 other women‹the >unusual mix of inmates and I rely on them to help me with just about >everything‹getting to the clinics, picking up meds, filling my ice bucket, >helping with my laundry, etc. At 9:00 every day, they laughingly say, I go >to the Œoffice.¹ That means email or the law library where I correspond and >meet with women who need my help. I go back up by 10:30 and take a short nap >till lunch. Meals here are meager and not well prepared. Of course, I have >favorites‹the hamburgers (beef THIN patty) served every Wednesday in every >federal prison for lunch. Some of the women count their time in terms of how >many hamburger days they have left! We are served cut up iceberg lettuce >with a little red cabbage and carrots with meals and I have used my >commissary purchases to concoct some more exotic dressings than those >offered here. > >³After lunch I go back to bed for a longer nap and then up for mail >call‹lots of letters, newspapers, magazines etc.² she wrote, ³a time of the >day I sometimes shed a few tears at the love and intensity of those who have >written to state their support. Then supper and back to bed and reading‹pure >pleasure‹much fiction (mysteries, Scottish etc. and authors I love Morrison, >Sarmargo). [There is] some conversing with my roommates and then after the >9:00 pm count I am off to sleep. I have a hospital bed that is next to large >windows‹no bars. I can see the Trinity River, barely. Trees. This view of >nature is responsible for keeping me alive in the real sense. > >³I hoped that there would be common cause among the women here because we >are all confronted by totally arbitrary authority every minute of every >day,² she went on. ³Prison is a perverse place of selfishness and sometimes >generosity but not much unity. There are a few and we recognize each other >but by and large the harsh realities of people¹s origins and the system have >ruined most of us. It is particularly horrendous to realize the number of >children that the prison system rips from their mothers¹ arms, thus creating >yet another generation to feed the beast of prison industrial complex. > >³I fear we are headed into a period of ever increasing cruelty to those who >can least stand it,² she wrote. ³As corporate agendas become national >agendas there is a profound disrespect for all those who are not able to >even get to the starting line. We do not love the children except when they >are massacred‹the daily mental, emotional deaths in the public schools are >ignored. We are now a nation of Us and Them. I would HOPE that the people >would recognize what is happening and make a move. After all, who in the >fifties could have predicted the uprisings of the sixties? There must be a >distaste and willful opposition to what is happening and a push to take it >back‹local movements scaring the HELL out of the Haves.² > >In a 2003 speech at a National Lawyers Guild convention in Minneapolis, >Stewart eloquently laid out her mission as an advocate, and more important >as a mother and a member of the human race. > >³For we have formidable enemies not unlike those in the tales of ancient >days,² she told the gathering. ³There is a consummate evil that unleashes >its dogs of war on the helpless; an enemy motivated only by insatiable greed >- The Miller¹s daughter made to spin gold - the fisherman¹s wife: Midas, all >with no thought of consequences. In this enemy there is no love of the land >or the creatures that live there, no compassion for the people. This enemy >will destroy the air we breathe and the water we drink as long as the >dollars keep filling up their money boxes. > >³We now resume our everyday lives but we have been charged once again, with, >and for, our quests, and like Hippolyta and her Amazons; like David going >forth to meet Goliath, like Beowulf the dragon slayer, like Queen Zenobia, >who made war on the Romans, like Sir Galahad seeking the holy grail,² she >said. ³And modern heroes, dare I mention? Ho and Mao and Lenin, Fidel and >Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Che Guevara who reminds us ŒAt the risk of >seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a >great feeling of love.¹?Our quests like theirs are to shake the very >foundations of the continents. ³We go out to stop police brutality -?To >rescue the imprisoned -?To change the rules for those who have never ever >been able to get to the starting line much less run the race, because of >color, physical condition, gender, mental impairment,² she said. ³We go >forth to preserve the air and land and water and sky and all the beasts that >crawl and fly. We go forth to safeguard the right to speak and write, to >join; to learn, to rest safe at home, to be secure, fed, healthy, sheltered, >loved and loving, to be at peace with ones identity.² > >From prison Stewart wrote to me in closing, ³I have been fortunate to live a >charmed life‹parents who loved me without qualification (yes, we fought >about Vietnam and my African American husband but I never doubted that they >would always be there for me). I had children when I was young enough to >grow with them. Today they are the backbone of my support and love. I came >to politics in the early sixties and was part of a vibrant movement that >tried to empower local control of public schools to make the ultimate >changes for children and break the back of racism in minority communities. >My partner/husband Ralph Poynter was always‹60 years and counting‹in my >corner and when at a less than opportune moment I announced my desire to go >to law school, he made sure it happened. I had a fabulous legal career in a >fabulous city‹championing the political rights of the comrades of the 60¹s >and 70¹s and also representing many who had no hope of a lawyer who would >fight for them against the system. I have enjoyed good friends, loved >cooking, had poetry and theater for a joy. I could go on and on BUT all of >this good fortune has always meant only one thing to me‹that I have to >fight, struggle to make sure EVERYONE can have a life like mine. That belief >is what will always sustain me.² > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >Free Lynne Stewart: A Call to Action from Ed Asner > >"Given the enormous good that Lynne Stewart has done for humanity throughout >her life as a courageous lawyer for the poor, the oppressed and the unjustly >accused, I am shocked by the cynical perversity of a government that has >pursued her savagely and vengefully. > >Lynne Stewart's treatment by the government has been demonic. Prevented from >scheduled surgery, her breast cancer spread to her lymph nodes, bones and >lungs. Denied proper medical treatment, she has been bound with 10 pounds of >shackles and chains, even when in a hospital bed. > >In tormenting Lynne Stewart the government seeks to terrorize all lawyers >who would defend those targeted by State repression. The treatment of Lynne >Stewart is a threat to due process, an assault on fundamental rights that >date to Magna Carta. > >Lynne Stewart must be free. The law requires her compassionate release and >the medical care that can save her life. We must deny the State a death >sentence aimed at the freedom of us all. > >The State power that torments Lynne Stewart invades countries at will, >murders hundreds of thousands with impunity and creates a climate of fear >and repression to prevent the people of this country from calling those in >power to account. > >The fight to free Lynne Stewart is a front-line battle for basic rights >secured through the American Revolution and is a measure of our will to >reclaim a land of the free in the home of the brave." > >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > >"The government's treatment of Lynne Stewart during her trial was arbitrary, >politically motivated and made a mockery of our justice system. Its >treatment of her now while she is imprisoned and seriously ill, is shameful, >heartless and inhuman. I join with many thousands around the world to urge >her immediate release so that she can get proper medical attention." > >Zachary Sklar > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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