WAT 2012 – “HUNGERING FOR JUSTICE” DAY 4

Dear Friends,

As we prepare this daily update, folks are trickling back to the
church from a Clarification of Thought meeting on Witness Against
Torture with our friends at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  Laughter
is hushed as the lights are turned down, mattresses are spread out in
every direction across the floor.  Day 4 of our fast is coming to a
close.

We have all kinds of news to share with you today.  Shortly after our
morning began, the jury returned a guilty verdict for Judith Kelly.
Mike Levinson delivered a statement that gripped the whole courtroom
and was sentenced.  Brian, Judith and Carmen will be sentenced on
Thursday, January 12th.  While we await the sentencing of these
friends in Washington, DC, we also celebrate the release from prison
of other friends; Bonnie Urfer, Michael Walli and Steve Baggarly.
They each served eight months in prison for crossing the line at the
Y-12 Nuclear Facility in Oakridge, Tennessee.

Meanwhile, we read in the news (linked below) that Terry Carrico, one
of the first Guantánamo prison commanders, is now calling for the
detention center to be closed.  And yet, Shaker Aamer will not be
released until after the elections, so says a Senior White House
source to The Guardian, because “We’ve taken enough hits from the
right; we can’t risk any more.” Another said: “There will be no
rocking of boats from now on in.”

We are finding that, as this fast progresses, our emotions are coming
to the surface.  We are beginning to laugh at the slightest of goofs,
and many welled up with tears listening to Mike during his sentencing
statement when he repeated, slowly and clearly, three times in a row
before the court: “Torturing human beings is never acceptable.
Torturing human beings is never acceptable.  Torturing human beings is
never acceptable.”

As we get ready to go to sleep this evening, we are preparing to move
from our time in the court to our time in the street.  Tomorrow begins
a 24hour vigil with a “Guantanamo cell” that will continue until
January 11th, an anniversary that should be marked as a shameful part
of the past rather than a continuing stain on the present.

                               In Peace,

                                       Witness Against Torture


***In this e-mail you will find:
1)      MIKE LEVINSON – Closing Statement and Testimony
2)      DAY 4 – Update and Reflections (Compiled by Amy Nee)
3)      DAY 4 – Courtroom Analysis (By Molly Kafka)

       PLUS:
1)      “Jury Convicts Four Guantánamo Protesters Arrested in House
Gallery” (Blog of Legal Times)
http://tinyurl.com/7mukvax

2)      Frida Berrigan – “A Guantánamo Prisoner Has His Day In Court”
(Waging Nonviolence)
http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/01/a-guantanamo-prisoner-has-his-day-in-court/

3)      Johnny Barber – “Guantánamo and Inflaming Passions in the
Courthouse and the World"
http://2012.witnesstorture.org/node/27

4)      “Terry Carrico, Ex-Guantánamo Prison Commander, Says Facility
Should Close”  (The Daily Beast)
http://tinyurl.com/7ys6j2p

5)      “Last British Resident Held in Guantánamo Bay    Faces Another
Year's Captivity”  by Tracy McVeigh  (The Guardian)
http://tinyurl.com/7jj7cz6

===============================================

MIKE LEVINSON – Closing Statement and Testimony
WAT trial in D.C. January 3, 2012

Good day!  Happy New Year!  I also bring greetings from my mentor, Ralph Digia.

I welcome this opportunity to speak—I’ve been waiting to speak
throughout this entire ordeal!

My name is Michael R. Levinson; I live in New York; and I am 53 years old.

I am a political activist, and I am senior library clerk at a public
library in New York.

I've been a political activist since I was 12 years old.
I experienced a tremendous amount of violence and abuse in my life.
This led me to develop a strong empathetic attitude toward other
people in the world who are also being oppressed and abused.

I am an active member of the War Resisters League, and organization
that was founded in 1923 by activists who had opposed World War I.

I am also active in an organization called Witness Against Torture.
The purpose of Witness Against Torture is to stop the United States
Government and military from torturing people around the world, and to
close down the Guantánamo torture center in the Caribbean.

As a member of Witness Against Torture, I’ve done many things with
other members of the organization.  We’ve made many, many conventional
attempts to pressure our government to stop torture and shut down
Guantánamo:  we've written letters, visiting elected and appointed
officials, organized public education programs, performed creative and
theatrical street events such as walking through the streets of US
cities dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods.

In the spring of 2010, many of us decided it was time to address our
congresspersons in Washington D.C. at the House of Representatives.
We obtained admission tickets to the house gallery thru the standard
procedure, picking them up at one of the various tourist offices in
D.C.   Then we waited on line outside the House of Representatives,
and then after a while entered the building.  We walked thru various
halls, waited on various lines until we came to a reception room
outside the house gallery.  After another wait and another line, we
finally entered the gallery.  The gallery is very much like the
balcony of a theatre:  down below is the stage, and in the
gallery/balcony is the audience waiting to watch the show.  And this
was very much the way it was at first—when we first entered the
gallery, many people were milling about, shifting about in their
chairs, making light talk such as, “when are things going to get
started already?”  The same could be said about what was going on the
floor of the house chamber:  a lot of people, presumably
congresspersons, milling about, making idle chatter, socializing, and
there were even small children running around.  And up in the gallery
I could here people around me saying, “When are things going to get
started down there?”

Finally, one of our members stood up and spoke.  He spoke out against
torture, against Guantánamo and legislation being considered to make
conditions for Guantánamo prisoners even worse.  He was escorted away
by official ushers in blazers and then handed over to uniformed
police.  A second member of our group stood up and spoke out against
torture, and was quickly escorted out.  Then a third, a fourth and so
on, until the total reached 14.  I was one of the last to speak. My
statement was short and simple: “Torturing human beings is never
acceptable!” I spoke this only once, and an usher approached me,
motioned for me to come with him, but he came for me, grabbed my arm
and escorted me out of the gallery, handing me over to uniformed
police in the hallway.  As the usher was leading me out, I repeated
three times:

“Torturing human beings is never acceptable!
Torturing human beings is never acceptable!
Torturing human beings is never acceptable!”

Regarding my sentence—without any admission of guilt, I appeal to your
creativity!  I have no hang-ups about paying a punitive fine, if I was
certain of exactly where the money would really go.  I, therefore,
offer the following arrangement:  a fine of up to a $150 contribution
to aids research, or another legal charity acceptable to both of us.

I leave you with this one prophecy—we in the peace movement will
surely win.  After all, they only have the guns and money, but nothing
else!

===========================================

DAY 3 – Update and Reflections   (compiled by Amy Nee)

Matt closed the circle last night talking about choices.  It was in
the context of giving a one word debrief about that day’s court
experience and in the context too of recognizing that we are coming to
a point of changing gears.  The trial was coming to a close and we
would have to make decisions about how we will spend our days, our
energy, our resources.  Knowing, as we make those decisions that “we
are acting on behalf of those with very little choice, very few to
listen…we have to choose to do what we can with the knowledge we
have,” and we have a lot to work through and with.

It was indeed a time of changing gears.  And because of the ambiguous
nature of the day’s schedule (dependent on the jury’s deliberation,
the sentencing preferences of the judge and prosecution) those changes
had to be made on the fly and with flexibility.  We began, as usual,
processing to court in hooded silence.  Almost immediately upon
entering the court house we were called in for a final verdict –
Judith Kelly, found guilty – sentencing delayed until noon and then,
aside from final sentencing for Mike L., delayed again until the 12th
of January.  Read more in depth about the court proceedings in Molly’s
update posted below.   In between sessions folks lingered in the
halls, writing letters to Guantánamo detainees and prisoners of
conscience.  Following the closure of the final session we caucused
back at First Trinity, rejuvenated ourselves with tea and juice, got a
clean bill of health from Dr. Larry, and made last minute plans to
conduct a three-way vigil with groups of 7-12 people bringing the
presence of the detainees via jumpsuit and hood to three different
locations of power – the Department of Justice, the White House, the
Capital/Supreme Court.

Tomorrow, the morning will be devoted to plans for how to press our
presence, and that of those detained, out from under the shadow of
places of power and into the public.  We will move from the veiled
linguistic intricacies of the courtroom, to transparent public action.
 Yet, our actions too are a language and the intent and manner of
delivery bears such weight on its reception.  How to present ourselves
creatively, truthfully, with conviction and kindness, with
effectiveness and faithfulness?  Chantal closed the morning circle
leading us in a song, “woke up this morning with my mind stayed on
freedom.” What we look to leads us.  A mind stayed on freedom aims
toward it, eyes looking for humanity, recognize it, hearts hungering
for justice are filled by it.

===========================================

DAY 3 – Courtroom Analysis   (by Molly Kafka)

The WAT activists sat down briefly in the courtroom 312 of the
Superior Court this Friday morning, day four of the trial, to hear the
jury’s verdict for Judith Kelly. At 10:30 a.m., Madame Foreperson
stood and informed the court that they found Judith Kelly guilty of
unlawful conduct. The jurors were then thanked for their service and
dismissed. Judge Fisher scheduled sentencing for noon and when the
courtroom emptied into the halls, a handful of jurors were willing to
speak to the defendants, their supporters, and their legal advisors.
The jurors to whom the defendants spoke seemed sympathetic to Witness
Against Torture’s efforts in reaching out to the public and the
government about the injustices occurring at Guantánamo. In justifying
their returned guilty verdicts, the jurors explained they stuck to the
elements of the statute. They believed in order for the WAT activists
to fully communicate with Congress at the time they tried, the
activists would have had to intend to disrupt the representatives from
what they were focusing on in the House Chamber.

A surprise juror also spoke to the defense. During the jury selection,
Judge Fisher asked the defense to pick a number between one and
thirteen. Carmen Trotta offered up the #11 in recognition of WAT’s day
of action taking place on January 11th. That number turned out to be
the number of the alternate juror.  Juror #11, who was sent home
yesterday after both the defense and prosecution rested their cases,
returned to the Superior Court just so he could speak to the defense.
Juror #11 disclosed that he currently works in federal law enforcement
and ten years ago he was a conservative Republican. His views in
recent years, however, have completely shifted.  Had he stayed on the
jury, he would have sided with the defendants to the point of forcing
a hung jury.

At noon, the courtroom filled again with the WAT community to support
their fellow-activists through their sentencing. The government
inititialy suggested a sentence for each of the defendants: 30 days
suspended jail time, 100 hours of community service, 6 months
unsupervised probation, and restriction from going onto or going near
the Capitol grounds. Even though the defense requested immediate
sentencing, the government requested a week postponement so they could
do proper background checks on the defendants. Apparently, the only
definitive background check they completed before trial was the one on
Mike Levinson. After Mike asked the judge for immediate sentencing
since the government did not question his record, Judge Fisher granted
his request. You can read Mike’s passionate and striking sentencing
statement above.

The defense’s legal advisor Mark Goldstone spoke after Mike and quoted
Justice Douglas’s opinion in the Terminiello case from 1949:
“Accordingly a function of free speech under our system of government
is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when
it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with
conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger…There is no room
under our Constitution for a more restrictive view. For the
alternative would lead to standardization of ideas either by
legislatures, courts, or dominant political or community groups.” He
told Judge Fisher that “roughly 600 people have been released from
Guantánamo Bay and roughly 200 remain detained without due process.
Just as the defendants deserved and received due process, so to should
the detainees at Guantánamo.”

Judge Fisher seemed moved by these two statements and even partially
(and surprisingly – as no one could remember a judge doing this)
accepted Mike’s invitation to sentence him to pay a fine to a charity
of his choosing.  Mike’s full sentence includes a 2 day suspended
prison term, 6 months of unsupervised probation, a $150 donation to a
charity of Mike’s choosing, a $50 fee to the victims of violent crimes
fund, and no illegal conduct on Capitol grounds.

The remaining three defendants will return Thursday, December 12th to
make their sentencing statements and receives the courts sentence.