My question is what attorney would you rather have? And more
importantly what kind of representation do you think people will get with the
malicious prosecutions of attorneys like Lynne Stewart and Paul Bergrin?
The trial of Paul Bergrin, one of the defense attorney's who represented
one of the soldiers in Abu Ghraib and who fought valiantly to expose the US
White House for its role in authorizing torture and in violating the
Geneva Conventions, is now facing outlandish murder charges. Jury
selection for his trial begins on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, in the Federal
Courts in Newark, New Jersey. The address of the court is 50
Walnut Street (located in the downtown section of Newark, not far from Penn
Station) and Judge William J. Martini will be residing over the case.
For more information and updates, please visit
www.paulbergin.org or call
(973)551-4235.
Some of the egregious acts of injustice that have
been committed against Bergrin while prosecuting this case are:
Athough not convicted of anything, Bergrin has been
sitting in a prison for 2 1/2 years awaiting trial.
After being denied bail, he was immediately put in
solitary confinement in a windowless cell for 23 hours a day WITHOUT
CAUSE! He was in solitary confinement for nine months and was
only taken out after Judge Martini issued a court order mandating it.
When the US Attorney's was questioned as to why he was put in solitary
confinement when he had done nothing wrong after being arrested, they
said they did it because they thought he might pose a risk to the other
prisoners.
He is being threatened with electric shocks based on his
movements while in the court room! Bergrin will be
defending himself, and although he has not violated any prison rules while in
prison,
he is being threatened with being forced
to wear an electric shock anklet if he veers too far away from
his designated podium and US Marshalls will then have the right to issue jolts
to him at their descretion (it should be noted that initially the
judge ruled that he would be forced to wear one, but then slightly changed his
mind. But nonetheless, the court is threatening him with electric
shocks based on his movement while defending himself)
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/10/judge_no_ankle_bracelet_for_ne.html
At His 2009 So Called Bail Hearings, Judge
Madeleinne Arleo, denied him bail, based upon partial transcripts of a
recording by a confidential informant. Gerald Shargel, his
attorney at that time, argued that they had not been given the complete
transcripts and that the judge did not have the complete transcripts either,
but to no avail. Furthermore, the DEA Agent, who issued a certified
statement about the evidence against Bergrin, upon cross examination could not
answer anything about what he had written and was forced to admit that his
statements were not corroborated and they were relying upon the statements of
confidential informants. Please go to
http://www.paulbergrin.org/What-Evidence-Do-They-Have-Against-Paul-.html to
see a the transcript of the cross examination of the bail hearing.
Lisa V. Davis
Abu Ghraib defense attorney faces murder charge
Enraged anti-war activists are being asked to pack the courtroom on Oct.
11 in support of Paul Bergrin, an attorney who has attempted to hold military
and government officials accountable for the torture administered at the Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Former President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are
certainly guilty of war crimes, along with former Vice-President Dick Cheney,
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House counsel Alberto
Gonzales (who later became U.S. attorney general). These high-level criminals
deliberately and intentionally lied, denying any knowledge of torture
techniques at Abu Ghraib. Torture is unlawful, in violation of the Geneva
Convention and the U.S. Department of Defense’s own rules of engagement
for detainment and interrogation.
Bergrin, a renowned defense attorney for the poor and people of color,
former military officer and former prosecutor, has been aggressively fighting
to put Bush and Rumsfeld on trial for the abuses in Iraq. Bergrin was one of
the first people to expose documents issued that authorized hooding, nudity and
the use of dogs at Abu Ghraib.
In 2004 and 2005 Bergrin sought to have Bush and Rumsfeld held
accountable. When Bush announced in 2004 that he wanted Abu Ghraib destroyed,
Bergrin got a court order to stop Bush’s actions, declaring the prison a
crime scene.
Bergrin also has been the only attorney in U.S. military history to win
the right to put a high-ranking military official, Col. Michael Steele, on the
stand. In 2006, Steele commanded a unit of the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.
Under his command, Iraqi civilians were repeatedly detained, and villages
regularly raided, by U.S. soldiers. One such raid, called Operation Iron
Triangle, involved the killing of four unarmed Iraqis on an island in northern
Salahuddin province. The soldiers, one of whom Bergrin is representing, were
given orders to shoot on sight any male Iraqi of military age. Incidentally,
the movie “Black Hawk Down” is based on Col. Steele’s
exploits in Somalia.
Steele was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony but has yet to
take the stand. In January 2007, a week before the case was to be heard in
court, Bergrin was arrested on unsubstantiated charges. As a result, the
Operation Iron Triangle case never went to trial. The soldier Bergrin was
defending, Corey Clagett, consequently took a plea bargain. He and two other
soldiers were courtmartialed, imprisoned and given 10- to 18-year prison
sentences.
In April 2009, Bergrin publicly announced in the Newark Star Ledger his
intention to reopen one of the Abu Ghraib cases after the Obama administration
released documents implicating the White House in the authorization of the Abu
Ghraib tortures. Bergrin again attempted to exonerate Clagett and further
demanded that Clagett be tried in the U.S., not Iraq, so that the U.S. public
could learn more about what was going on.
The following month Bergrin was arrested a second time under an array of
charges. At his bail hearing in Newark, N.J., prosecutors filed a detention
request by a Drug Enforcement Agency special agent, claiming that Bergrin
shouldn’t be released on bail because he had assets overseas, four false
passports and had ordered an FBI informant to kill a witness. The corporate
media have also been unjustly vilifying him.
Although none of the prosecutor’s statements were corroborated,
Judge Madeline Arleo denied the bail request and included a $50,000 fine.
Bergrin was immediately put in solitary confinement for nine months — and
remains in prison to this day.
On Oct. 11, Bergrin’s trial is scheduled to begin in a federal court
in Newark. The judge has ruled that he can defend himself, but will have to
wear an electric shock bracelet while in court so that U.S. marshals can shock
him should he get too close to the jury box or venture beyond his designated
podium.
Meanwhile, the Guantanamo Bay prison is still open for business. And the
killing and torturing of Middle Eastern civilians by the U.S. government has
become “acceptable under certain conditions” — all under the
guise of the so-called “war on terror.”
