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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS THIRD SUMMONS TO GRAND JURY OF DR. SAMI AL-ARIAN PUNITIVE GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 4, 2008Contact: Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
Peter Erlinder, Counsel for Al-Arian, peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu, 651-290-6384
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS THIRD SUMMONS TO GRAND JURY OF
DR. SAMI AL-ARIAN PUNITIVE GOVERNMENT HARRASSMENT
New York. Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, who has spent the past four years in jail despite a jury’s failure to return a single guilty verdict against him, has been called before a third grand jury despite the fact that Al-Arian signed a “no-cooperation” agreement with the government providing that he would not be required to appear before any grand jury. The announcement came yesterday, one month before his scheduled release.
Past-National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder, Al-Arian's counsel in 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit appeals, and on the "acquitted conduct" Supreme Court cert petition said, "The duplicity of the Justice Department and the failure of the courts to recognize basic contract-law principles in this case is an example of how politically-motivated "war on terror" prosecutions are distorting the American legal system. In the Al-Arian case, the Justice Department and the courts have made a mockery of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial which should outrage all Americans as deeply as the Tampa jury that acquitted Dr. Al-Arian more than two years ago."
It is now likely that when Dr. Al-Arian again refuses to testify because of the "no-cooperation" agreement, he will be charged with obstruction of justice and could receive several additional years in prison. If he testifies, he faces a "perjury" trap based on Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg's past practice with other acquitted Palestinian defendants.
When he was arrested in February 2003, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a prominent Palestinian academic and a leading member of the Muslim community in south Florida and one of the most prominent Palestinian academics and activists in the United States. He was acquitted on eight of 17 charges against him December 2005 after a six month trial with three co-defendants. In April 2006 he pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy, involving assisting his brother in law in his immigration matters and denying to a reporter that he knew of a colleague's association with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In return, federal prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining eight charges on which the jury had "hung" 10-2 for acquittal and to recommend a time-served sentence with release and deportation in May 2006. The Tampa AUSA admitted, on the record, that the usual "cooperation clause" was removed from the plea agreement because Dr. Al-Arian and his lawyers would not agree to any form of cooperation.
At sentencing on May 1, 2007, Tampa Federal Judge James Moody gave him the constitutional maximum sentence of an additional year, citing the very offenses of which the jury had acquitted him. Despite the "no-cooperation" agreement, and while the appeal of his acquitted conduct sentence was pending on appeal, Al-Arian was found in civil contempt in January 2007. In December 2007, a federal judge in lifted the civil contempt and Al-Arian's new release date was April 2008.
After the contempt detention Dr. Al Arian went on a 100-day hunger-strike because of the government's refusal to honor the plea agreement. (He has just begun another hunger-strike.) Before trial Dr. Al-Arian was held in Super-Max solitary and was subjected to inhumane and punitive conditions, including 23-hour lockdown, abuse from prison staff, unsanitary conditions with exposure to vermin, denial of adequate winter clothing, bedding and religiously appropriate diet, all in breach of Article 10 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is a party and has triggered an on-going investigation by the DOJ Inspector General.
“This latest decision to call Dr. Al-Arian before a grand jury clearly breaches his plea bargain and seems a political maneuver to lengthen his prison term,” said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild. The prosecutor in charge of the grand jury case in Virginia uttered anti-Islamic remarks when discussing postponing Dr. Al-Arian’s transfer to Virginia during Ramadan. “Anti-Islamic remarks by the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Gordon Kromberg are further cause for concern that Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to especially punitive treatment based on his religion,” continued Boghosian.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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New York, NY – Thursday, February 28, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
National Lawyers Guild Student Chapters Call for Abolition of the Death Penalty
Contact:
Míchel Angela Martinez, NLG National Student Organizer, 212.679.5100 x12
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212.679.5100 x11
Across the United States, in observance of the March 1-International Death Penalty Abolition Day, student members of the National Lawyers Guild are speaking out in opposition to the death penalty. Every year, law school chapters participate in the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Student Day Against the Death Penalty by organizing panel discussions, debates, film screenings, and other events. There are currently more than 3000 people on death row.
Míchel Angela Martinez, NLG National Student Organizer, says, "In poll after poll last year, more US citizens than ever stated that they opposed the capital punishment. The reason is not a sudden epiphany: it is that students like those in the National Lawyers Guild make the death penalty an issue. We find state-sanctioned murder abhorrent, and holding events and demonstrations makes information available to the public, revealing the true nature of this barbaric practice." The NLG calls for the immediate abolition of the death penalty.
National Lawyers Guild students focus not only on the cruel and unusual nature of capital punishment, but on its economically and racially biased application. Students educate the public about the social and psychological impacts the death penalty has on those in the prison system, as well as families and communities. Capital punishment is being increasingly scrutinized as death row inmates are exonerated and states such as New Jersey officially outlaw the practice.
The National Lawyers Guild, an organization of attorneys, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers, is part of the growing national and international movement opposing the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated bar organization, the NLG today comprises over 200 chapters and committees using the law in the service of the people.
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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD ANNOUNCES OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL JUDICIAL NOMINATION OF CCA GENERAL COUNSEL GUS PURYEAR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 22, 2008
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Contact: Paul Wright, NLG Jailhouse Lawyer VP, pwright@prisonlegalnews.org, 802-257-1342
NLG Opposes Gus Puryear's Judicial Nomination
On June 13, 2007, President Bush nominated Gustavus Adolphus Puryear IV for a position on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mr. Puryear currently serves as vice president and general counsel for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit private prison company. If appointed he would serve as a federal judge in the same jurisdiction where CCA is headquartered.
Since 2000, at least 260 federal lawsuits naming CCA, company subsidiaries or CCA employees have been filed in the Middle District of Tennessee. Such cases would constitute a conflict of interest for Mr. Puryear, and assigning them to other judges would not be an effective use of judicial resources.
Of greater concern is that Mr. Puryear lacks familiarity with the federal courts and has little trial or litigation experience. By his own admission he has tried only two cases to verdict; he has been personally involved in only five federal cases, most recently a decade ago. He is not admitted to practice before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is over the Middle District of Tennessee, and received only a "qualified" rating from the American Bar Association rather than a "highly qualified" rating.
Both Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker strongly support Mr. Puryear's nomination. Neither Senator has acknowledged the substantial financial contributions received from Mr. Puryear and his employer, CCA – which include over $80,000 to Senator Alexander and $27,000 to Senator Corker since 2004.
Further, Mr. Puryear mentioned in disclosure statements that he is a member of the Nashville-based Belle Meade Country Club. The fact that Mr. Puryear maintains membership in an exclusive, predominately white club that did not admit its first minority member until 1994, and reportedly does not afford voting privileges to female members but only to male members, is a matter of significant concern for a federal judicial nominee.
In an Associated Press national wire article concerning Mr. Puryear's nomination, Vanderbilt Professor Stefanie Lindquist was quoted as saying his judicial appointment "might slide through as a compromise." The National Lawyers Guild does not believe the people of Tennessee should have to compromise or settle for a less-than-qualified federal judge to represent their interests in U.S. District Court.
The National Lawyers Guild calls on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to vote down this unqualified, conflicted and controversial judicial candidate.
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The National Lawyers Guild, with 6,000 members, is composed of lawyers, law students, legal workers, law professors and jailhouse lawyers dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our nation's political and economic system.
For more information: www.againstpuryear.org
(no affiliation with the National Lawyers Guild)
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NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA TO RECUSE HIMSELF FROM INTERROGATION-RELATED CASES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 15, 2008NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA TO RECUSE HIMSELF FROM INTERROGATION-RELATED CASES
Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
New York. The National Lawyers Guild calls on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself from any case coming before the Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of torture as an interrogation technique. In a BBC interview that aired on Tuesday, Scalia defended the use of torture to extract information from persons in custody by law enforcement officials in some cases. Although no case involving the use of torture is currently before the Court, recent events suggest that such a case may be forthcoming.
Guild President Marjorie Cohn said: “The Guild is appalled that a sitting Justice of the United States Supreme Court has ventured in a public forum his belief that it is justifiable to attempt to extract information from persons in custody by the use of torture. A justice of the highest court in the land, sworn to uphold the Constitution, whose views so undermine the fundamental right of security of the person guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, is unfit to sit on that Court.”
The thrust of Scalia’s recent remarks is that he does not believe it is clear that the government is precluded from using coercive interrogation to prevent an imminent terrorist attack. He says that the Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment, but if torture is not meant as punishment, it may not be unconstitutional. Surely Justice Scalia knows that torture is unlawful under the U.S. Torture Statute (18 USC 2340) and the U.S. War Crimes Act (18 USC 2441).
Two years ago, five retired U.S. military officers who had entered a case before the Supreme Court for Salim Ahmed Hamdan sought Scalia’s recusal after he publicly voiced skepticism abut the rights of Guantanamo detainees. Scalia declined to recuse himself.
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the Guild said: “Justice Scalia’s remarks inevitably pre-judge the issues in every case in which the Constitution might dictate suppression of evidence because of illegal police interrogation techniques, or the right to compensation of a person subjected to a violation of civil rights. We therefore call upon Justice Scalia to recuse himself from any case which comes before the Court in which such issues are at stake.”
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Senate Grant of Immunity to Lawbreaking Telecommunications Companies
The National Lawyers Guild Condemns Senate Grant of Immunity to Lawbreaking Telecommunications CompaniesFebruary 13, 2008
Marjorie Cohn, President, National Lawyers Guild, marjorie@tjsl.edu, 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-5100 x11
Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Senate voted on February 12 to give retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that have turned over our telephone and Internet communications to the government. These companies have violated several laws, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Title III, the Communications Act, and the Stored Communications Act, as well as the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution.
The Bush administration has been illegally engaging in warrantless surveillance since early 2001, through its "Terrorist Surveillance Program." Over 40 lawsuits against the telecommunications companies challenging the legality of the program are pending.
On the eve of Congress's Labor Day recess last year, the Bush administration had rammed that the "Protect America Act" through a Congress still fearful of appearing soft on terror. It was a 6-month fix to the 1978 FISA, which didn't anticipate that foreign intelligence communications would one day run through Internet providers in the United States. But the temporary law went further than simply fixing that glitch in FISA; it granted immunity to telecommunications companies that provided consumer telephone and computer data to the government.
The day before the Senate took up this issue, Vice President Dick Cheney invoked the memory of September 11, 2001 twelve times in his address to the Heritage Foundation, and urged Congress to make the Act permanent. In the face of lawsuits against the telecom companies, Attorney General Michael Mukasey described the need for the companies to defend against litigation as "an enormous burden." Indeed, defending these lawsuits has likely cut in to their enormous profits.
Although President George W. Bush claims that making the Act permanent was critical to keeping us safe, he threatens to veto the bill unless it includes the immunity provision. Apparently protecting corporate profits trumps national security.
The House of Representatives passed a bill without immunity for the telecoms. The two bills will have to be harmonized. The National Lawyers Guild urges Congress to adopt the House version that omits immunity. Litigation against the telecommunications companies is the only remaining avenue of accountability for the administration's lawbreaking.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.
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