Lynne Stewart and the Guantanamo Lawyers:
Same Fact Patterns, Same Opponent; Different Endings?
Lynne Stewart will be re-sentenced sometime in July, in NYC.
In the Spring of 2002, Lynne Stewart was arrested by the FBI, at her home in Brooklyn, for materially aiding terrorism by virtue of making a public press release to Reuters on behalf of her client, Sheik Abdel Omar Rahman of Egypt. This was done after she had signed a Special Administrative Measure issued by the Bureau of Prisons not permitting her to communicate with the media, on his behalf.
In 2006, a number of attorneys appointed and working pro bono for detainees at Guantanamo were discovered to be acting in a manner that disobeyed a Federal Judge’s protective court order. The adversary in both cases was the United States Department of Justice. The results in each case were very different.
In March of 2010, a right wing group, Keep America Safe, led by Lynne Cheney, hoping to dilute Guantanamo representation and impugn the reputations and careers of the volunteer lawyers, launched a campaign. Initially they attacked the right of the detainees to be represented at all. This was met with a massive denouncement by press, other media, civil rights organizations, and rightly so, as being a threat to the Constitution and particularly the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
A second attack on the Gitmo lawyers was made in the Wall Street Journal of March 16. This has been totally ignored in the media and by civil and human rights groups. This latter revelation about the violations, by these lawyers, of the Judge’s protective orders and was revealed via litigation and the Freedom of Information Act. These pro bono lawyers serving clients assigned to them at Gitmo used privileged attorney client mail to send banned materials. They carried in news report of U.S. failures in Afghanistan and Iraq. One lawyer drew a map of the prison. Another delivered lists to his client of all the suspects held there. They placed on the Internet a facsimile of the badges worn by the Guards. Some lawyers “provided news outlets with ‘interviews’ of their clients using questions provided in advance by the news organizations.” When a partner at one of the large Wall Street law firms sent in multiple copies of an Amnesty International brochure, which her client was to distribute to other prisoners, she was relieved from her representation and barred by the Military Commander from visiting her client.
This case is significant to interpret not because of the right wing line to punish these lawyers and manipulate their corporate clients to stop patronizing such “wayward” firms. Instead it is significant because, Lynne Stewart, a left wing progressive lawyer who had dedicated her thirty-year career to defending the poor, the despised, the political prisoner and those ensnared by reason of race, gender, ethnicity, religion—who was dealt with by the same Department of Justice in such a draconian fashion—confirms our deepest suspicions that she was targeted for prosecution and punishment because of who she is and who she represented so ably, and not because of any misdeed.
Let me be very clear, I am not saying that the Gitmo lawyers acted in any “criminal” manner. The great tradition of the defense bar is to be able to make crucial decisions for and with the client without interference by the adversary Government.
I believe that they were acting as zealous attorneys trying to establish rapport and trust with their clients. That said, the moment the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice tried to remove Julia Tarver Mason from her client, the playing field tilted. Ms. Tarver Mason was not led out of her home in handcuffs to the full glare of publicity. There was no press conference. The Attorney General did not go on the David Letterman show to gloat about the latest strike in the War on Terror, the purge of the Gitmo lawyer...NO.
Instead an “armada” of corporate lawyers went to Court against the Government. They, in the terms of the litigation trade, papered the U.S. District Courthouse in Washington D.C. They brought to bear the full force of their money and power—derived from the corporate world—and in 2006, “settled” the case with the government, restoring their clients to Guantanamo without any punishment at all, not to say any indictment. Lynne Stewart, without corporate connections and coming from a working class background, was tried and convicted for issuing, on behalf of her client, a public press release to Reuters. There was no injury, no harm, no attacks, no deaths.
Yet that same Department of Justice, that dealt so favorably and capitulated to the Gitmo corporate lawyers, wants to sentence Lynne Stewart to thirty (30) YEARS in prison. It is the equivalent of asking for a death sentence since she is 70 years old.
This vast disparity in treatment between Lynne and the Gitmo lawyers reveals the deep contradictions of the system—those who derive power from rich and potent corporations, those whose day-to-day work maintains and increases that power—are treated differently. Is it because the Corporate Power is intertwined with Government Power?
Lynne Stewart deserves Justice—equal justice under law. Her present sentence of 28 months incarceration (she is in Federal Prison) should at least be maintained, if not made equal to the punishment that was meted out to the Gitmo lawyers. The thirty-year sentence, assiduously pursued by DOJ under both Bush and Obama, is an obscenity and an affront to fundamental fairness. They wanted to make her career and dedication to individual clients a warning to the defense bar that the Government can arrest any lawyer on any pretext. The sharp contrasts between the cases of Lynne and the Gitmo lawyers just confirms that she is getting a raw deal—one that should be protested actively, visibly and with the full force of our righteous resistance.
Ralph Poynter is the life partner of Lynne Stewart. He is presently dedicated 24/7 to her defense, as well as other causes.