[Peace-discuss] USG takes oppositon seriously

[C. G. Estabrook]

   First Federal Conspiracy Trial of Anti-War Protesters 
   Since Vietnam Begins Sept. 19
   9/15/2005 10:30:00 AM
   Contact: Tarik Abdelazim, 607-651-9109 (office) or 
   607-239-1219 (cell), mailto:info at stpatricksfour.org

NEW YORK, Sept. 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Four peace activists 
face up to eight years in federal prison and $275,000 fines 
each for their non-violent protest of the Iraq war if 
convicted of the federal charges filed against them in U.S. 
District Court. The trial, which begins Sept. 19 in 
Binghamton, N.Y., is the first time the Federal government 
has pressed conspiracy charges against civilian Iraq war 
protesters.

"Federal intervention in this case represents a blatant act 
of government intimidation and will have a chilling effect 
on expression of the first amendment rights of any citizen 
to protest or speak out against their government," said Bill 
Quigley, acclaimed public interest lawyer and law professor 
at Loyola University School of Law, who is acting as legal 
advisor to the defendants.

The St. Patrick's Four have been charged with "conspiracy to 
impede an officer of the United States by threat, 
intimidation and force" and other lesser charges for their 
actions at their local military recruiting station on St. 
Patrick's Day, March 17, 2003, two days before the US 
military invasion of Iraq began.

A previous trial in county court on charges of criminal 
mischief and trespassing resulted in a hung jury, with nine 
of twelve members favoring acquittal.

The four peace activists, all parents and members of the 
Ithaca Catholic Worker Movement, entered their local 
military recruiting station, knelt, said a prayer for peace 
and then carefully poured a small amount of their blood on 
recruiting center posters, walls and flag to symbolize the 
violence of war and the sanctity of life.

"International law demands that we try to avert our nation's 
aggressive criminal behavior. If we do not, we become guilty 
of the crimes of our nation," wrote the St. Patrick's four 
in an Ithaca Journal Op-ed article. "We long for the day 
when the killing of people upsets us as much as the sight of 
blood poured on the flag."

In the evenings, concomitant with the first week of trial, 
supporters of the St. Patrick's Four will host a "Citizen's 
Tribunal On Iraq" which will present the legal, historical, 
and moral defense for civil resistance to illegal war.

Speakers at the Citizen's Tribunal on Iraq include: Ray 
McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst and advisor to Veteran 
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity; Ann Wright, former 
U.S. diplomat, who resigned after 30 years of service 
because she disagreed with administration policy on Iraq; 
Jon Bonifaz, constitutional lawyer and co-founder of 
AfterDowningStreet.org; Medea Benjamin, co- founder of Code 
Pink-Women for Peace and Global Exchange; Jimmy Massey, 
co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Camilo Mejia, 
Iraq war veteran who served nine months in confinement for 
refusing to return to Iraq after a two-week leave; former 
U.K. Environmental Minister, Michael Meacher, who resigned 
from the Blair administration in protest of the Iraq war, 
and many others.

For more information visit
http://www.StPatricksFour.org
http://www.usnewswire.com/

*****

   15-09-2005
   The St. Patrick Four: The feds confront 
   the Anti-War Movement
   by James Petras
   Rebelión

On September 19 the first federal conspiracy trial of 
civilian war resisters to the US invasion of Iraq will take 
place in Binghamton, New York, a declining and decaying city 
in upstate New York, 3 hours northwest of New York City. 
This is the second trial of the "St Patrick Four" -- they 
were acquitted a year earlier by a jury in Ithaca, New York 
by a 9 to 3 vote in which the presiding Judge David Peeble 
conceded that the four had represented themselves "probably 
better than some of the attorneys that practice in this court."

The trial of the St. Pat Four has national significance 
because it raises several fundamental issues regarding 
constitutional freedoms and the Bush-Gonzalez ongoing 
campaign to silence and intimidate dissent and public 
expressions of opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 
The trial of the St. Pat Four will establish whether the 
Federal Government can jail dissenters engaging in civil 
disobedience for up to six years and fine them up to 
$250,000 on feckless charges of "conspiracy to impede an 
officer of the United States by threat, intimidation or 
force". Even more ominous, in terms of the procedures for a 
fair trial, the senior US District Judge for Northern New 
York, Thomas McAvoy, has ruled that the defendants cannot 
discuss the reasons and motivation for their action. 
According to McAvoy, "This court offers no opinion on the 
war in Iraq as it is entirely irrelevant to this matter ...
assuming an illegal war, it does not provide a 
justification for violating the criminal laws of the United 
States."

The trial is not only about the right to dissent but the 
right of defendants to represent themselves and to secure 
due process, through a proper defense in which all relevant 
evidence can be presented to the jury. In true Kafkaesque 
style -- the federal government seeks to criminalize 
dissent, by inventing a bogus accusation of conspiracy and 
intimidation of federal officials.

There was nothing conspiratorial or intimidating about the 
act of civil disobedience committed by the "Four". On March 
17, 2003, two days before the invasion of Iraq, four 
pacifists, members of the Catholic Workers movement, walked 
into a military recruiting center near Ithaca, New York and 
poured a pint of their own blood around the vestibule. They 
then knelt down, prayed for peace and awaited the police. 
There were no secret plots: it was a public act about which 
there was nothing threatening to the officials unless 
sending a divine message of peace can be interpreted as 
evoking the wrath of heaven on the war makers. During their 
April 2004 trial on charges of criminal mischief and 
trespassing the four defendants' eloquent testimony 
resonated with the local citizen's jury. Peter De Mott, a 
Vietnam veteran spoke to his witnessing the horrors of war 
and the long-term psychological scars on returning soldiers. 
Danny Burns explained how the US invasion of Iraq was in 
violation of international treaties and the UN Charter. 
Clare and Teresa Grady spoke to their religious obligation 
to oppose the Iraq war which would disproportionately harm 
infants who posed no threat to US security.

Having failed to secure a conviction of the "Four" in a 
local court, the Bush Administration upped the ante from 
criminal mischief to the far more serious charge of 
conspiracy and intimidation charges and moved the venue of 
the second trial away from the sympathetic university town 
of Ithaca to Binghamton, a city which has lost 30% of its 
workforce due to capital flight over the past 25 years. The 
Feds are betting that a guilty verdict in Binghamton will 
establish a judicial precedent for intimidating and 
prosecuting anti-war dissidents throughout the US.

Despite outward appearances, the choice of Binghamton, a 
depressed, de-industrialized, non-union upstate city, as a 
docile venue for a federal 'show trial' could backfire. This 
July, the Binghamton City Council passed a resolution 
opposing the Iraq War by a 5 to 4 vote and the city has 
consistently provided a majority of votes for Congressman 
Maurice Hinchey, one of the most progressive anti-war 
representatives in the US Congress. During the past 
Presidential elections, Nader got over 10% of the vote in 
some Binghamton precincts. In other words, despite the 
visible and vocal presence of right-wing Legionnaires, it is 
not a forgone conclusion that the jury will buy into a 
guilty verdict, especially since its neighbors in Ithaca 
voted to acquit the "Four" last year.

To counter the Feds gag order on the defendants, local 
supporters of the St. Pat Four have organized a national 
network of solidarity and education through a five-day 
Citizens Tribunal on Iraq. The Tribunal will hear expert 
testimony on the illegality of the invasion and occupation 
of Iraq as well as a legal and moral defense of civil 
disobedience to oppose crimes against humanity.

Former CIA agent, Ray McGovern, Global Exchange director, 
Medea Benjamin, anti-war soldier, Camilo Mejia and many 
other critics of the war have accepted the invitation to 
participate in panels to counter the pro-war case of the 
government and local media.

The city of Binghamton is a microcosm of the increasingly 
polarized country; the outcome of the trial in this obscure 
corner of New York however will have a major impact on 
whether the Bush Administration will have the judicial 
weapons to intimidate the opposition and proceed with its 
war plans or suffer another defeat in the courts as well as 
in the streets.

September 9, 2005

For information on the trial of the St. Patrick Four and the 
Tribunal and to organize support visit the website 
http://www.stpatricksfour.org or call 607-651-9109.

*****

   'St. Patrick's Four' Speak in Church
   September 15, 2005
   by Brian Kaviar
   Cornell Daily Sun Staff Writer

At St. Catherine of Siena Parish Center in Cayuga Heights 
last night, the "St. Patrick's Four" spoke along with Sister 
Marilyn Pray of Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester at an 
event titled "Civil Disobedience and Catholic Teaching." The 
Four, local members of the Catholic Workers movement, await 
federal trial in Binghamton this Monday for entering a local 
military recruitment center and pouring their own blood 
around the vestibule two days before the start of the 
current Iraq War.

The event aimed to discuss the events of March 17, 2003 for 
which the Four await trial, as well as the larger role of 
non-violent civil resistance within the Catholic tradition 
and the Catholic Worker movement, a group founded in 1933 
and noted for its efforts to protest war as well as the 
unequal distribution of wealth.

If convicted, the Four face up to six years in prison and 
$275,000 in fines.

After a few words from Sister Mary O'Brien, pastoral 
associate at St. Catherine and the event's facilitator, 
Sister Pray presented passages of scripture and catechism, 
relating the Catholic tradition to social activism for the 
crowd of roughly 50 people.

"Civil disobedience should be an act of awareness raising, 
consciousness raising. It shouldn't be something done for 
ego or power or something like that. It should reveal ego, 
power, corruption, wrongful use of money," she said. "It 
should be a revelation and a calling."

The Four believe there is legal justification for their 
actions, as they explain in a press release. "At the time 
[the Four] went to the recruiting center, the U.S. was about 
to invade Iraq," it stated. "This invasion was a violation 
of international law, to which the U.S. is bound through the 
6th amendment and the Constitution, which says that treaties 
of the U.S. are the supreme law of the land and judges and 
public officials are bound by them. Specifically, the U.S. 
was in violation of the U.N. Charter which outlaws wars of 
aggression."

The Four also cite the Nuremburg Principles, New York state 
law that provides for the violation of a law to prevent a 
greater harm, as well as the possibility of jury 
nullification, what the Four describe as "the right of a 
jury to rule according to its conscience."

After a brief introduction, Daniel Burns, the first of the 
Four to speak, said, "I am very happy to be in a Catholic 
church speaking about this. This is the first time in all of 
this that we have been, at least that I have been, actually 
invited to speak to a Catholic group. So, thank you, it's 
good to be home." Similar sentiments were expressed by the 
remaining members of the Four: Teresa Grady, Peter DeMott 
and Clare Grady.

"I went to that recruiting center and I poured my own blood 
on the walls around it. It was an empty room. All the 
writings in that room were all clear, in English with proper 
grammar, but not one mentioned the fact that if you come in 
this room and you sign up you will be taught to kill," Burns 
said. "If you are not defending yourself, it is a crime and 
a sin [to kill]. So I went in there to bring a message, a 
message of love and a message of the legality of the war in 
the Iraq to the recruiters and the potential recruits."

"The blood on the wall was made visible by our visit, but it 
was there before we got there. And I only wish more people 
could have gone with us to do it," he said.

Teresa Grady read from the statement the Four presented the 
day of their protest, which concluded with, "We find hope in 
these dark times when sisters and brothers around the world 
resist the spirit of hatred and violence, lift up prayers 
for peace -- together with works of peace. And that is what 
we read as we knelt down after pouring our blood on the 
walls of the marine and army recruiting center, and our hope 
continues."

Teresa Grady also said that the Four hope to have productive 
dialogue result from their actions. "We prayed even at that 
last second that President Bush would experience a change of 
heart and conscience and issue a stop to the invasion. But 
as we know, the president did not. And now we are two and a 
half years into this war and there is no end in sight," 
DeMott said.

Clare Grady discussed scripture as well as her experiences 
as a relief worker in Iraq before the current war began, 
experiences which have led her to see the present conflict 
not as a new war, but an "escalation" of one that had 
already been going on.

After the Four spoke, a brief question and answer session 
followed.

Ithaca resident Dan O'Connell shared his experiences 
protesting recruiting centers in malls around his former 
home in Oregon. He has continued this form of protest, 
standing in silence outside the recruiting center in Ithaca.

John Del Gaizo '07 thought the meeting helped him understand 
the Four's viewpoint. "They looked at the Iraqi people like 
their own family, something that is a big part of the 
Catholic faith."

"It was pretty amazing that they were able to stay so calm, 
so relaxed and high-spirited despite the potential 
consequences of their actions" he said. "I don't feel my 
opinions on the war changed, but they made me feel more 
sympathy for the Iraqi people."

The event was sponsored by Catholic Charities of Tompkins 
County as well as St. Catherine of Siena Church. Numerous 
events will be held by the Four during their federal trial 
in Binghamton as part of a "Citizen's Trial on Iraq."

*****