Terrorist lawyer Lynne Stewart finally ordered to prison four years after her conviction

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On Tuesday, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered convicted criminal defense attorney Lynne Stewart to begin her prison sentence, as the court upheld her 2005 conviction for aiding imprisoned terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman.

Despite the conviction for such a serious crime, Stewart had been allowed to remain free for the last four years, while her appeal was pending. During that time, she made speeches and numerous public appearances in which she often thumbed her nose at the country she betrayed, while describing terrorists as “liberationists.“

On February 10, 2005, Lynne Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the federal government. Stewart was contacting al-Gamma'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group) on behalf of Abdel-Rahman. In addition to master-minding the 1993 plot to bomb the World Trade Center which killed six people and left more than 1,000 injured, the blind sheik was convicted of planning to destroy other New York City targets including the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the United Nations building, and the George Washington bridge. The Islamic Group dubbed the multiple target attack plan "The Day of Terror."

Stewart was caught passing messages between her client Omar Abdel-Rahman and the Egyptian terrorist group of which he is the leader. Rahman also known as the "blind sheik," was the mastermind behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was also found to be behind a plot to attack other New York City landmarks. Lynne Stewart knowingly aided a convicted terrorist and avowed enemy of the United States during a time of war and deserves to be executed for her crimes.

It was also discovered that Rahman planned to execute Egyptian President Mubarak. In light of Rahman's criminal history and ability to execute attacks on the United States with his henchmen in The Islamic Group, the blind sheik was forbidden to communicate with his followers.

However, Lynne Stewart aided Rahman's communications with his followers and even personally issued decries on his behalf. Stewart had defended Rahman in his 1995 trial and continued to visit Rahman in prison. Apparently at some point, Stewart ended her role as his lawyer and began one as his co-conspirator.

On her many visits, Stewart only pretended to discuss Rahman's case with him. In fact, he was actually discussing with his interpreter (Mohammed Yousry) how the cease-fire between his terrorist organization and the government of Egypt should be broken. Under the guise of giving legal counsel, Stewart helped pass along a fatwah from Rahman to his followers which commanded: "brother scholars everywhere in the Muslim world to do their part and issue a unanimous fatwah that urges the Muslim nations to fight the Jews and to kill them wherever they are."

An FBI affidavit states that during Rahman's conversations with Mohammed Yousry, Stewart "made random comments out loud for the prison guards to hear in order to conceal the real conversation."

During one particular session, Stewart pretended to take notes and attempted to mislead prison guards by saying: "Yes, the um...I am talking to you about...him going on a, uh chocolate eh...heart attack here." An FBI wiretapped conversation between Stewart, Yousry, and Rahman caught the three conspirators later laughing about Stewart's improvisation. Stewart said that she could "get an award for it, with the blind sheik contributing, "as long as the government is using secret evidence we will use secret doves (referring to Stewart)."

On June 14, 2000, Stewart even went so far as to issue a press release on behalf of The Islamic Group. She stated that Sheik Abdel-Rahman was "withdrawing his support for the cease-fire that currently exists."

In Rahman's 1995 trial, Stewart argued that issuing the order to destroy the World Trade Center was merely a necessary part of his religious duties as a Muslim leader. After Rahman was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 65 years, Stewart was seen weeping uncontrollably inside the courtroom.

Federal prosecutors filed court papers which said Stewart's crime was in fact, "egregious, flagrant abuse of her profession, abuse that amounted to material support to a terrorist group, which deserves to be severely punished."

Amazingly, while U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl said Stewart's actions could have had "potentially lethal consequences" and represented "extraordinarily severe criminal conduct," the Clinton-appointed judge waited until October 2006 to sentence Stewart…A full 20 months after her conviction.

Though Stewart could have received a 30 year sentence under federal guidelines (which the prosecution sought), Judge Koeltl only sentenced her to 28 months. In an insulting move to the victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, he has even allowed her to remain free while her appeal is pending.

While 30 years is the maximum sentence Stewart could have received, there is precedence for Stewart's crime to be punished with at least life in prison. In 1947, Hans Max Haupt was tried for and convicted of treason, and sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Haupt was discovered aiding his son (Herbert Hans Haupt) who was a German spy. The elder Haupt only gave his son a place to stay and bought him a car, though he was fully aware that his son was spying for Nazi Germany.

Lynne Stewart seems to have a particular affinity for murderers and enemies of the state. Over her career, she has defended Black Panther Willie Holder, Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin, Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, and mafia hit-man Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Stewart has even expressed a desire to defend Osama bin Laden.

In a 2003 speech to the National Lawyers Guild, Stewart listed Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, and Mao Tse Tung as "heroes."

In 2002, Stewart told reporter Susie Day of Monthly Review: “I don't have any problem with Mao or Stalin or the Vietnamese leaders or certainly Fidel locking up people they see as dangerous. Because so often, dissidence has been used by the greater powers to undermine a people's revolution."

She went on to talk about her client Abdel-Rahman, by saying: "Now, certainly somebody like Sheikh Omar, who was a world figure, someone who was listened to by the entire Muslim population for being a very learned scholar, deserved to have a platform, deserved not to be entombed in the middle of America and not able to speak. They said the Sheikh was responsible for, I dunno, everything except flat feet. They made it sound like a worldwide conspiracy… He's a blind, elderly, sick man. He may be a spiritual head, he may be intellectually involved in [Islamic Group's] struggle [in Egypt]. But he's certainly not a combatant in any sense whatsoever.”

She also described terrorists to Day as “basically forces of national liberation.”
Stewart has also said publicly that she approves of the use of violence as a mean of activism. She made this point clear in a 1995 New York Times interview when she said: “I don't believe in anarchist violence but in directed violence. That would be violence directed at the institutions which perpetuate capitalism, racism, sexism, and at the people who are the appointed guardians of those institutions and accompanied by popular support."

Though she has been disbarred, Stewart has become a regular speaker at several law schools. In 2003, one such event at Oregon’s Portland State University Law School was billed as “Lynne Stewart vs. John Ashcroft." Another engagement at the Arizona State University School of Law was entitled “Emphatically Not Guilty.” A Stanford University speech was canceled by Law School dean Kathleen Sullivan, when she learned of Stewart’s advocacy of violence.

Stewart is certainly not without her admirers. According to the IRS, left-wing activist George Soros gave Stewart a $20,000 donation for her legal defense. In addition to money, Stewart also receives honors. In 2003, the law students at City University of New York voted to honor her with that school’s Public Interest Lawyer of the Year award. However, once news of the award was picked up by the press, the dean thought better of it and rescinded the offer.

Stewart has remained defiant and filled with hatred for the United States. Stewart's official website (www.LynneStewart.org) states that her prosecution is "an obvious attempt by the U.S. government to silence dissent, curtail vigorous defense lawyers and instill fear in those who would fight against the U.S. government's racism.”

In addition to soliciting donations for her legal defense fund, her website also provides a list of public appearances she will be making. Among other events, on March 24, 2009, Stewart is scheduled to be in Colorado, offering her public support for disgraced professor Ward Churchill's trial against the University of Colorado. She also gives details of her life with her longtime boyfriend Ralph, and their cozy adventures at their vacation home in the country.

Stewart is as hypocritical as she is unrepentant. She has said that she approves of Fidel Castro “locking up” dissidents, but complains that the U.S. government has prosecuted her to “silence dissent.” Apparently, imprisonment is fine when communists use it against those who speak out for their freedom, but somehow wrong when it is used by a democratic republic against their enemies.

However, while Stewart seems to relish the role of dissident martyr, she is neither a dissident, nor is she a martyr. She is in fact, a convicted felon who has aided and abetted a terrorist leader and his organization. Period.

It is more than outrageous that Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean who sat in prison for two years, for shooting a drug smuggler, were not allowed to remain free while their appeals were pending (as is customary for law enforcement officers charged with crimes relating to the performance of their job), though Lynne Stewart who knowingly and willfully gave aid to a terrorist was given that courtesy.

While a lengthy sentence for someone who has colluded with the enemy during a time of war is of course not without precedence, it is also not without precedence that one could be put to death for this crime. Had Lynne Stewart committed her crime during World War II or even the early days of the Cold War, she would have undoubtedly been hanged for her actions.

Stewart however, has been the beneficiary of a federal bench heavy with left-leaning judges and a political climate which now has a great tolerance for what our parents and grandparents knew to be treason.

Every single day which Lynne Stewart was allowed to give speeches, talk to magazines, attend swanky dinners for some leftist cause, and sign autographs for adoring college students was a terrible affront not only to those who were killed and maimed in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, but to every man and woman who has ever fought and died for this country.

Now, it appears that Stewart will finally join the many criminals she has so fervently defended.

 

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