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Facing Up To 30 Years in Prison, Civil Rights Attorney Lynne
Stewart Speaks Out As She Heads To Courthouse for Sentencing
Scott Ritter on "Target Iran: The Truth About the White
House’s Plans for Regime Change”
Facing Up To 30 Years in Prison, Civil Rights Attorney
Lynne Stewart Speaks Out As She Heads To Courthouse for Sentencing
Civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart is to be sentenced in
a federal court in Manhattan later today. She faces up to
thirty years in prison. Last year, Stewart was convicted of
five counts of conspiring to aid terrorists and lying to the
government. Stewart’s case has reverberated with defense
attorneys around the country. Many argue that the government’s
aim is to discourage them from representing unpopular clients.
[includes rush
transcript - partial]
Stewart was convicted of smuggling out messages from her
jailed client - Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman - also known as the
blind sheikh - who is serving a life sentence on terror-related
charges. Most notably, Stewart was convicted of helping Rahman
contact followers in Egypt with messages that could have ended
a cease-fire there and ignited violence. Stewart’s co-defendants
- Ahmed Sattar, a postal worker who acted as a paralegal for
Abdel-Rahman, and Mohammed Yousry - an Arabic translator,
were also convicted of all charges against them. This was
the first time that the federal government prosecuted a defense
attorney in a terrorism case.
The seven-month trial was held in the same New York federal
courthouse, just blocks from our firehouse studio, where the
Rosenbergs were tried for conspiracy to commit espionage more
than a half century ago. It featured very few witnesses as
the government’s case was based primarily on transcripts
from more than 85,000 secretly recorded audio and video clips
of meetings between Stewart and her client as well as the
home phone of Ahmed Abdel Sattar.
Last month, Stewart wrote a personal letter to the court
and acknowledged for the first time that she knowingly violated
prison rules and was careless, overemotional and politically
naive in her representation of her client... She has asked
for leniency from the court.
And Lynne Stewart joins me now here in the studio, just hours
before her sentencing.
- Lynne Stewart, human rights attorney
Scott Ritter on "Target Iran: The Truth About
the White House’s Plans for Regime Change”
Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter: “The path
that the United States is currently embarked on regarding
Iran is a path that will inevitably lead to war. Such a course
of action will make even the historical mistake we made in
Iraq pale by comparison.” [includes rush
transcript]
Twenty-five ministers from the European Union are expected
to meet tomorrow to ask the U.N. Security Council to impose
sanctions on Iran. They say sanctions are necessary because
of Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment. Though
Iran contends its nuclear program is for generating electricity,
the U.S. and some of its allies allege it is trying to develop
atomic weapons.
On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad
Ali Hosseini, said that Western threats to impose sanctions
were part of a "psychological war" and that the
Islamic Republic was more determined than ever to pursue peaceful
nuclear technology.
A new book by former weapons inspector - Scott Ritter - claims
that the Bush Administration is determined to wage war against
Iran. In "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House’s
Plans for Regime Change," Ritter examines the administration’s
regime-change policy and the potential of Iran to threaten
US national security interests.
- Scott Ritter, Ritter served from 1991 to 1998 as a United
Nations weapons inspector in Iraq in the United Nations
Special Commission (UNSCOM). His new book is, "Target
Iran: The Truth About the White House’s Plans for
Regime Change." His previous book is "Iraq Confidential."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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