Bring Lynne Stewart home

SUPPORTERS OF Lynne Stewart, the radical lawyer unjustly incarcerated on "terrorism" charges, are calling for a renewed campaign to pressure the federal government's Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to grant her petition for compassionate release before it is too late.

Stewart was a breast cancer survivor when she was sent to prison in 2009. The cancer returned and spread since, and Stewart has been unable to get effective treatment. The warden of Carswell, the federal prison hospital where she is being held, has twice approved a petition asking for Stewart's release on medical grounds and forwarded it to the BOP in Washington. But BOP officials rejected the petition once before and appear to be dragging their feet a second time.

The Justice for Lynne Stewart campaign is asking supporters to call the White House, Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons in the coming days to appeal for her release. Stewart herself sent this message earlier this month:

I need to once again ask for your assistance in forcing the Bureau of Prisons to grant my compassionate release. They have been stonewalling now since August, and my life expectancy, as per my cancer doctor, is down to 12 months.

They know I am fully qualified, and that there are 40,000-plus people who have signed on to force them to do the right thing, which is to let me go home to my family and receive the advanced care in New York City, my home. Yet they refuse to act.

I must say it is entirely within the range of their politics and their cruelty to hold the political prisoners until we have days to live before releasing us--witness Herman Wallace of Angola and Marilyn Buck. We are fighting not to permit this and are actually calling for a BIG push–e-mail, mail and telephone to Obama (the gutless wonder), Attorney General Eric Holder (big speech, no action) and the BOP on December, 10, 11 and 12. Bring Lynne home by the holidays. We are many, they are few!!

And lastly, as you discuss political prisoners, remember that I am a virtual newcomer, having just finished four years inside. Not far from here, in Coleman, Fla., at the federal prison there, is the heroic defender of his people, Leonard Peltier. He is as far from his nation, the Turtle Mountain Band in North Dakota, as it is possible to be.

EVERYBODY HOME!! FREE LEONARD!! FREE SEKOU!! FREE MUMIA!! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!!

IT IS a sickening injustice that Lynne Stewart is in prison at all. She was put on trial by the vengeful fanatics of the Bush administration to send a message that dissent against the "war on terror" hysteria would be punished.

She was accused of "supporting terrorism" for the crime of releasing a statement to the press on behalf of her client, imprisoned Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. After a show trial during which prosecutors, while admitting that no violence at all occurred as a result of Stewart's action, played videotapes of Osama bin Laden, the jury voted to convict her.

If the judge's original sentence of 28 months in federal prison had stood, Stewart would have been freed nearly two years ago. But prosecutors demanded that the judge extend the sentence to 10 years, and he complied.

The government's original sentencing recommendation of 30 years in prison concluded a long prison term would "not only punish Stewart for her actions, but serve as a deterrent for other lawyers who believe that they are above the rules and regulations of penal institutions or otherwise try to skirt the laws of this country."

In other words, Stewart's prosecution and harsh sentencing--effectively, a sentence to die in prison for a woman in her 60s suffering from cancer--was really to send a message to anyone who dares to protest or dissent.

Everyone who cares about justice needs to participate in the campaign to win her freedom now, before cancer takes the life of a crusader for all our rights.