Attacks on lawyers like Lynne Stewart are, of course, attacks on those who are represented by them, many of whom are immigrants and/or people of color.
>She had a trial by a New York City jury -- which even she admits was
>as good as she could get -- and they still looked at the evidence,
>deliberated for weeks for full consideration, and decided she had
>done wrong. This wasn't a railroading trial, so at some point you
>are at complete war with democracy and the idea that one should
>respect a fair jury's deliberations.
Jurors can be pressured into supporting the government against their own conscience:
"The anonymous juror, referred to as No. 7, could be seen wiping tears from her eyes as the verdict was read. And when the individual members of the jury were asked if the verdicts as announced by the foreman were accurate, the juror looked stricken, and twice only mouthed the word 'yes'" (Mark Hamblett, "N.Y. Lawyer Lynne Stewart Convicted of Helping Terrorists," New York Law Journal, <http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1107783339751>, February 11, 2005).
It's clear that convicting Lynne Stewart and her co-defendants conflicted with some jurors' consciences.
Lance Murdoch lancemurdoch at gmail.com, Mon Feb 21 19:15:46 PST 2005:
>Yaa, he's so horrible the CIA is who brought him to this country.
>Now the same government is prosecuting his lawyer, Grandma Stewart.
"The [20-year veteran FBI field] agent pointed out that the sheikh [Omar Abdel Rahman] had been granted a tourist visa, and later a green card, despite the fact that he was on a State Department terrorist watch-list that should have barred him from the country" (Robert I. Friedman, "The CIA and the Sheik," _The Village Voice_, March 30, 1993).
<blockquote>The Gamaa [al-Islamiya, or Islamic Group] is organized in cells, making it very hard to monitor and suppress. It also has separate military and da'wa, or "call," wings. The da'wa preachers are charismatic local sheikhs who avoid involvement in violent operations. The military wing seems to have been strengthened by the return of Egyptian volunteers from the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. Known as "the Afghanis," these militants are said to be the Gamaa's toughest and most effective fighters. The Afghan connection raises Egyptian suspicions of CIA involvement. In the late 1980s [Sheikh Omar] Abdel Rahman was a visitor to Peshawar, Pakistan, the staging area for the CIA-supported effort to defeat the Soviets. Many Egyptians believe Abdel Rahman was a CIA recruiter and that the agency is protecting him. Reports that a CIA official signed his U.S. visa approval in Khartoum strengthen such suspicions. The Egyptian Islamic groups have maintained offices and training centers in Peshawar, and some of their leaders, including Mohammed Shawki Islambouli, the brother of Khaled Islambouli who led the squad that killed Sadat, were based there. Recently the Egyptians persuaded the Pakistanis to close many of these offices. (Stanley Reed, "The Battle for Egypt," _Foreign Affairs_, September-October, 1993)</blockquote>
Until recently, Rahman must have been a CIA asset. -- Yoshie
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