Convictions in the News

Lynne Stewart gets a wrist slap

NYC civil rights lawyer gets just over 2 years in prison for aiding terrorist with communique

She could have gotten 30 years for passing messages to a terrorist. Aiding and abetting a terrorist in my book makes you a terrorist.

The judge said there was ample evidence she had smuggled messages between her client, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, and senior members of an Egyptian-based terrorist organization — messages he said could have had "potentially lethal consequences." But the judge noted no one was harmed as a result.

"This is a great victory against an overreaching government," she told dozens of supporters outside the lower Manhattan courthouse after winning extraordinary leniency from U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl.

The 67 year old radical, terrorist Lynne Stewart is free pending her appeal of a mere 28-month sentence while eleven U.S. soldiers have have been convicted of crimes stemming from detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Among the most prominent:

— Former Sgt. Santos A. Cardona, an Army military police dog handler from Fullerton, Calif., was convicted of dereliction of duty and aggravated assault for allowing his Belgian shepherd to bark within inches of the face of a kneeling detainee. Cardona was sentenced to 90 days of hard labor with no prison time, reduced in rank one grade to specialist and forfeited $600 a month for 12 months.

— Pfc. Lynndie England, an MP reservist from Fort Ashby, W. Va., was sentenced to three years in prison after a jury convicted her of conspiracy, maltreating detainees and committing an indecent act.

— Former Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, an MP reservist from Buckingham, Va., was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees and other charges. Frederick said he helped place wires on a detainee's hands and told him he would be electrocuted if he fell while standing on a box.

— Former Cpl. Charles Graner Jr., an MP reservist from Uniontown, Pa., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault, battery, conspiracy, maltreatment, indecent acts and dereliction of duty. Prosecutors described Graner as the ringleader of a group of guards who mistreated detainees.

— Former Sgt. Michael J. Smith, a military police dog handler from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was sentenced to 179 days in prison for offenses that included maltreatment, conspiracy and dereliction of duty. The jury convicted Smith of conspiring with dog handler Santos Cardona to frighten detainees.

If these soldiers received just sentences, Lynne (the terrorist) Stewart should have gotten the maximum thirty years.

Obviously Courts Martial hand down tougher sentences than Federal judges so hopefully this is good news:

WASHINGTON — President Bush is signing into law today new standards expediting interrogation and prosecution of terror suspects, a bill the White House says strengthens his hand in a time of war.
The bill ready for signing would protect detainees from blatant abuses duriniable. Hearsay is barred from civilian courts.

The legislation also says the president can "interpret the meaning and application" of international standards for prisoner treatment, a provision intended to allow him to authorize aggressive interrogation methods that might otherwise be seen as illegal by international courts. Snow said Bush would probably eventually issue an executive order that would describe his interpretation.

Many Democrats opposed the legislation because they said it eliminated rights of defendants considered fundamental to American values, such as a person's ability to go to court to protest their detention and the use of coerced testimony as evidence.

Earlier this year, an anti-torture panel at the United Nations recommended the closure of Guantanamo and criticized alleged U.S. use of secret prisons and suspected delivery of prisoners to foreign countries for questioning.

The legislation nonetheless won overwhelming approval in the House and Senate.

FUBAR.

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The sad thing about the new legislation; You don't know if you can believe a word of it.