NATO 3 Being Tortured with "Sensory Deprivation," Posted Police Harassment Video, Now Charged

National Lawyers Guild releases photo of alleged police infiltrator

The National Lawyer's Guild attorney for the three men charged with a major terrorist plot at the NATO summit in Chicago says they are being subjected to severe sensory deprivation.  On the same day, the prosecution requested, and was granted, a delay of a preliminary hearing until June 12, in order, the Chicago Tribune reports, "to give prosecutors more time to assemble the case against them."

The Chicago Tribune writes:

Michael Deutsch, an attorney for the National Lawyers Guild, said at a brief court hearing for the three that they have been held since bond hearings Saturday in “hospital-white” cells for 24 hours a day and have not been allowed to communicate with anyone.

“They are totally in isolation from everyone else in the jail and each other,” Deutsch said. “They have nothing to read. They have no writing material. It’s a kind of sensory deprivation situation.”

Even short periods of complete sensory deprivation, and being held in absence of any daylight cycles, sound, human contact, or mental stimulation such as reading, are known to cause extreme stress and can lead to permanent psychological damage.  The issue of isolation and sensory deprivation being used as a form of torture which leaves no physical marks was explored thoroughly in the case of Bradley Manning.  Stuart Grassian MD, wrote in "Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement":

 "in adult rhesus monkeys even brief periods of social isolation produce compromised cognitive processing."

In testimony introduced at the trial of Fahad Hashmi in 2010, doctors said that:

"after 60 days' solitary detention people's mental state begins to break down and gradually develops into psychosis as the mind disintegrates."

The UN has called sensory deprivation and isolation a form of torture.

The activists, Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire, and Brent Betterly, 24, from Massachusetts, had posted a video on Youtube of their harassment by Chicago Police on May 10, 2012, in which police can be heard saying "we'll come looking for you, each and every one of you."  The officers also referred to the Democratic National Convention of 1968 in Chicago by taunting "billyclub to the fucking skull."  Six days after the video was posted online, the three were arrested and then charged with a plot to attack various police stations, Rahm Emmanuel's house in Ravenwood, some banks, and Obama campaign headquarters with Molotov cocktails made out of beer bottles and bandanas.

Video posted on May 10, 2012:
(Unedited version 27 minutes)

Police had confiscated home beer brewing equipment from the apartment where the three were staying, and after charges were handed down accusing the defendants of filling beer bottles with gasoline, the men's attorneys at the National Lawyer's Guild (NGL) released a photo of the home brewing equipment in fact filled with beer (see "3 NATO Activists Charged with Terror Plot After Posting Video of Police Harassment".)

The NGL has charged that the case has been fabricated.  Supporters say the charges are retaliation for posting the harassment video.  

In a new development, the National Lawyers Guild has released a photo of one of the two men believed to have been posing as a protester but was actually a police infiltrator, who the NLG says took part in planting weapons alleged in the indictment to be stockpiled in the apartment.  The indictment has been posted on the Internet..  

Yahoo News AP:

Defence lawyer Michael Deutsch on Saturday accused police of setting up their clients in an attempt to frighten peaceful protesters. He said undercover officers brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested.

Two undercover officers, known as "Mo" and "Gloves" to the protesters,  are accused by the NLG of planting evidence.  The NLG said in a press release:

National Lawyers Guild Releases Photograph of Suspected Police Informant Involved in Terrorism-Related Cases

Chicago, IL – Investigations by the NLG have uncovered infiltration by law enforcement in each of the 5 terrorism-related cases charged so far. The NLG believes that at least two undercover police or confidential informants, “Gloves” and “Mo,” were used in a law enforcement operation that resulted in 9 arrests from a Wednesday house raid in Bridgeport as well as two additional arrests on Thursday. Gloves and Mo were apparently arrested with the 9 protesters from the house raid, but were released soon after.

The image below is of Mo as he is being arrested during an Occupy Chicago action on April 17, 2012 at 63rd & Woodlawn to protest the closure of a mental health clinic.

Photograph of “Mo,” a suspected informant involved in the NATO terrorism-related cases:  (To NLGChicago.org image uploads)

Fox News Chicago ran a report on this new turn in the story, on "Mo" and "Gloves," on May 22.  Protesters assert that "Mo" had showed up at an Occupy Chicago orientation meeting, and said he wanted to learn more about Occupy.  The protesters allege that he later tried to goad them into violence , and that after they refused, he and "Gloves" planted evidence.  The Fox News report states that the CPD did not deny the placement of undercover informants within the group of protesters which included the NATO 3, and in fact defended it as a legitimate tactic.

Among the weapons mention as found in the indictment are swords, throwing stars, hunting bows, and a mortar tube.  

Fox News Chicago

A Huffington Post alert also reports:

Attorneys representing five men charged with attempting to build bombs or make terrorist threats during the NATO summit in Chicago allege their clients were set up by undercover police officers.

ACTION: INNOCENT UNTIL FOUND GUILTY!  STOP THE TORTURE OF THE NATO 3!

Please call Cook County Department of Corrections, Sheriff Thomas Dart

Cook County Sheriff’s Office
50 W. Washington
Chicago, Illinois  60602
(312) 603-6444
sheriff.dart@cookcountyil.gov

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