Emergency Committee to Defend the Human and Legal Rights of Political Prisoners

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Also see May 19th Communist Organization, Weather Underground Organization and Black Liberation Army, as well as cross-references to the Nyack, NY armored car robbery/killings and the so-called Resistance Conspiracy Case

Template:TOCnestleft The Emergency Committee to Defend the Human and Legal Rights of Political Prisoners

One of a related series of court cases concerning both captured and indicted communist terrorist activists and supporters, a case known as The Resistance Conspiracy Case which will be described by their supporters below. They were charged with various acts of terrorism including bombing government and military buildings from 1983-85, and turned out to be affiliates of a large recombinant Weather Underground Organization and Black Liberation Army, collectively known as the May 19th Communist Organization.

The M19C were found guilty of the brutal robbery killings of a policeman and two Brinks armored car guards during a robber in Nyack, New York in 1981? Evidence and captured participants revealed a merger of the long, underground Weather Underground Organization and a black Marxist extremist group known as the Black Liberation Army, once made up of New York and Mississippi citizens, some of whom were affiliated with another Maoist-oriented extremist black group, the Republic of New Africa, which also functioned in New York City.

A very interesting flier came out in 1989, issued by an Emergency Committee to Defend the Human and Legal Rights of Political Prisoners, to be referred to here as the Emergency Committee. They supported the indicted member of a group roughly called "The Conspiracy Resistance", whose members and affiliations will be developed as part of this report.

One common feature of this support group was that it united old-time Communist Party USA members with some of the newer Marxist Left, as well as the black extremist movements. All this will be explained below.

In order to put this in the proper context, the full statement of this flier, "Open Letter to the Progressive Community," will be reproduced in full, and then the flip-side appeal to readers to "Support the Resistance Conspiracy Case, Sign the Open Letter to the Progressive Community", which featured a list of such supporters.

Ironically, the story of the indicted individuals continues on, even thru 2011, when one of the old WUO terrorists, ?Susan Rosenberg?, published a book about herself and some of these mentioned events. Earlier, President Clinton, with the help of then Assistant Attorney General? of the U.S. Eric Holder, had pardoned two of these convicted terrorists, SDS/WUO member Linda Evans and Susan Rosenberg??

This interweaving of Marxist terrorist groups from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and beyond, provide a good insight into the underground Marxist movements and their support networks during that period of time. The destruction of all congressional investigative committees/subcommittees dealing with internal security (HCUA/HISC, SISS), plus the deliberate avoidance of such investigations by the hard Left on congressional committees who could have investigated this issue, left the American people blind as to what actually was going on.

Some earlier materials on these groups was published by the late Rep. Larry McDonald D-GA, until his death on Flight KAL 007, shot down by Soviet jets in 1983. The SISS, led by Admiral/Senator Jeremiah Denton, was soon sent to its death by Sen. Ted Kennedy and other Senate Democrats, thus silencing two very effective exposers of what was going on in the communist underground in the U.S.

Open Letter to The Progressive Community

The full text of the letter is below:

"One of the last actions Ed Meese took before leaving the U.S. Department of Justice was to order the indictment of six long-time political activists on charges of trying to protest U.S. domestic and international poitics through "violent and illegal means."
The case, formally called "U.S. v. Whitehorn, et. al.," and more popularly, "The Resistance Conspiracy Case," is the latest in a series of politically motivated prosecutions brought by the Reagan/Meese Justice Department. Like other recent political trials, it targets domestic opponents of illegal practices, such as the contra war against Nicaragua and the invasion of Grenada. The investigation of these defendants and this case is linked to the recent illegal FBI investigation of CISPES and the broader Central America solidarity movement, characterized by a pattern of massive FBI misconduction and illegality.
In the three years that have elapsed between the arrest of these defendants and the bringing of this indictment, the government has put the defendants through fourteen separate political prosecutions. As a result, five of the defendants go into this trial already serving sentences up to seventy years. The sixth has now been held in preventive detention for 2-1/2 years. If she were not a political prisoner, she would have been given bail when she was arrested in 1985.
The six - Alan Berkman, Tim Blunk, Marilyn Buck, Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg, and Laura Whitehorn - are charged with being part of a network of groups that claimed responsibility for a series of bombings of government and miltiary buildings in 1983-1985, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Capitol after the invasion of Grenada. No one was injured in any of these attacks. The government makes no claim to know what individuals actually carried out any of the bombings. Rather, they will try to convict the defendants by proving that they shared a "common purpose" of resisting illegal U.S. war crimes. This amounts to "guilt by political association." The government wants to stage a show trial that will have a chilling effect on activists here.
As the government prepared for this gratuitous trial, they use the guise of "security" to deny the prisoners their basic rights and ability to defend themselves. The government is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation to make a fair trial impossible. The Justice Department has built a bulletproof plexiglass wall in the courtroom, separating the defendants from their families and supporters. Surveillance cameras have been installed in the courtroom, clearly visible to the public and the press - the first time this has been done in the history of the Federal judiciary system. These measures smack of an immoral "star chamber" proceeding, expressly designed to alienate the concern of the public from the basic issues in this case.
The courtroom atmosphere being prepared for the trial in Washington is clearly a way to get around the charge that the trial is really political in nature. One must seriously question why the government is proceeding with this trial, which will cost millions of dollars, when all of the defendants already are serving sentences of unprecedented length for their prior convictions. (Ironically, it should be noted that KKK members charged with murder, neo-Nazis charged with violent crimes, and abortion clinic bombers, among others, are serving less than five-year sentences.) this is a political prosecution, not a criminal prosecution, and the targets of this attack are people who have shown their deep commitment to human rights and social justice over many years. There may be political disagreements among us, but we are all part of the community of people in this country who have opposed and tried to stop the murderous, inhumane, and illegal practices of the Reagan administration.
The defendants in this case, like the other political prisoners in this country, need to be returned to our communities and not disappear into the U.S. prison system. We ask you to join now in a campaign to halt the vindictive prosecution of these six activists, and to end the atmosphere of intimidation surrounding trial preparations. We must lend our voices and support to ensure their rights - and thereby, our own. An aroused citizenry, a timely protest, is fundamental in upholding the law of the land. Whether this is the last of these political cases, or whether it simply becomes the first of a series to be brought by the Bush administration depends in part on how we respond now. Stopping this last prosecution brought by Reagan and Meese can be an important first step in dismantling their legacy of a politicized criminal justice system and resurgent FBI.
We support the defendants' demands:
  • Drop this politically motivated indictment.
  • Sto Government interference in the preparation of the defense.
  • Release Laura Whitehorn on bail.
  • Stop preventive detention.
  • Remove the bullet proof wall and surveillance cameras from the courtroom.

The flip-side of this flier is reproduced immediately below with its own subtitle.

Support the Resistance Conspiracy Case Sign The Open Letter To the Progressive Community

"On April 11, 1989, 11 months from the date that Alan Berkman, Tim Blunk, Marilyn Buck, Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg and Laura Whitehorn were formally charged with resisting U.S. foreign and domestic policies, the Court dismissed the politically motivated indictment against three of them. judge Harold Greene in essence concurred with the defendants' position that the FBI/Justice Partment was overzealous in its attempt to repress these political activists by ruling that the continued prosecution of Alan Berkman, Tim Blunk and Susan Rosenberg amounted to double jeopardy. (Each had already undergone prior trials based on the same evidence). Although this decision is a tremendous political and legal victory, the fight continues. Despite the government's own admission that it has no direct evidence linking these defendants to political bombings which took place in the Washington area, the U.S. attorney is appealing the dismissal and continuing to prosecute the remaining three defendants."

"Your support is now needed more than ever. A financial contribution is necessary so that the OPEN LETTER may be published in one or more progressive periodicals. Please fill out the coupon, send in your contribution, and add your name to those that follow who have already endorsed the letter in support of the RESISTANCE CONSPIRACY DEFENDANTS:"

"Resistance is not a crime"

Emergency Committee to Defend the Human and Legal Rights of Political Prisoners, PO Box. 28191, Washington, D.C. 20038-8191

References

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