Fwd from: Chuck ======================================================================= Date: 29 Jul 96 13:17:02 EDT From: Nancy Lord To: Chuck Subject: Macon Editorials Please forward: Georgia Update 28 Jul 96 At 5:00 p.m. EST on July 26, U.S. District Judge Duross Fitzpatrick issued a gag order on both the prosecution and defense attorneys of the Starr/McCranie/Spain case "in order to insure an impartial jury". Both sides are now allowed to only state the facts of the case or face sanctions. This gag order was delivered on Robert Starr's attorney Nancy Lord at 6:00 p.m. via WMAZ TV 13 (CBS affiliate) via fax. In light of this information... **************************************************** Macon Telegraph Saturday July 27, 1996 Page 6A - Readers Forum Title: Public dare not keep quiet about how the government is treating Starr, McCranie Editors: I don't know Georgia militia leader Bob Starr or James McCranie but by the Telegraph's own coverage they are being accused of and imprisoned for dubious charges not substantiated by the testimony of their BATF accusers in the judicial hearings held in Macon on May 6. I would appear to an outside observer, a citizen such as myself, that their constitutional rights have been flagrantly violated and an egregious injustice perpetrated by an accusatory federal agency, the BATF, which increasingly is seen by concerned citizens as a sort of rogue national police run amok. Starr's sudden and secret transfer to a higher security prison in Atlanta a few weeks ago, his unexplained placement in solitary confinement and his virtual severance of communication with his family and of legal advice from his attorney, Nancy Lord, provide disturbing evidence that we are moving toward a police state where the rights of citizens can be abrogated with impunity by the omnipotent state whenever it likes. I know. I escaped from a totalitarian hell (communist Cuba) at the age of 13, 30 years ago, leaving behind family and the treasured possessions of generations to reach this country I call home, "the land of the free and the home of the brave"-- or is it? Norman Vincent Peale once said "Americans used to roar like lions for liberty, now we bleat like sheep for security." How cowardly and unpatriotic we Americans are becoming! While real criminals, repeat offenders convicted of crimes ranging from aggravated rape and assault to homicide, are coddled, go through our revolving criminal justice system and are thrown back into the streets to commit more heinous crimes, here we have two men accused of dubious charges, treated as if they were Jews trapped in the nightmare of the Holocaust form the pages of the German Third Reich. The last time I checked, our American system of jurisprudence considered an accused person innocent until proved guilty and offered an opportunity for the accused to confront his accuser (the informant or more likely, the agent provocateur who, by the evidence disclosed to the public, himself planted the alleged bomb components in the accused man's back yard). I will no quote the Declaration of Independence, considered by many modern liberals to be too radical a document, but I will briefly quote the U.S. Constitution which provides for all citizens a Bill of Rights that among countless natural rights included the following constitutional protections: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievance (First Amendment)." "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation ... (Fourth Amendment)" "... Nor be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law (Fifth Amendment)." "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury ... and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of Counsel for his defense (Sixth Amendment)." "... nor denied to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws (14th Amendment)." It would appear to this informed and vigilant citizen, a neutral but moral observer, that the civil rights of these accused citizens have been violated; that the people of this great nation have reason to be concerned and fearful of their own government; the George Orwell was correct when he wrote, "Big Brother is watching you"; and that we must remember what the government does to one of us, it can do to any of us. Thus, it is appropriate to close with a quote from a Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoeller, who was sent to and interned in the Dachau Concentration Camp in 1938: "In Germany, the Nazis first came ... for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Finally they came for me, but there was no one left to speak up." Unless the American people awaken from their current state of apathy and regain control over their own government and require their elected officials to abide by the constitutional laws they are sworn to uphold and force them to protect our liberties -- the future certainly will be, as Orwell predicted, a human face with a boot forever stamped on it. Miguel A. Faria Jr., M.D. Macon Fwd from: J.J. Johnson, Citizens' Defense League of Georgia ===================================================================== Macon Telegraph Saturday July 20, 1996 Page 12A - Readers Forum Title: Father says jailed son denied his basic constitutional rights Editors: The constitution says we have certain unalienable rights and one of those rights is that we are innocent until proven guilty. William James McCranie Jr. is innocent. He has not been convicted of any crime. Yet he is being denied his 1st, 6th, 8th and 13th Amendment rights. He has been denied bond, even though he and the others being detained have no prior records of ever being violent or dangerous. Nor have they shown during captivity any intent to harm anyone. His attorneys have been constantly hampered, side-stepped, misled and lied to by the powers that be. He has been denied his right to help in defense of his own case, a denial of constitutional rights. He has been moved from place to place without informing his counsel prior to the moves. (Each place is worse than the last.) He has been stripped of his dignity, searched after his lawyer visits him, denied his underclothing, forced to sleep on the cold floor of a jail, refused even a pastor to visit him or a Bible to read for comfort. He has been denied the use of a phone to contact his family or his attorneys. His attorneys must make an appointment before visiting him for legal counsel. He has been and is being treated as though he has been convicted and sentenced without the luxury of a trial. They have moved him form jail to jail by design to inflict pain and make him an example to others. In Laurens and Bibb counties he was in the open population with the other detainees for over a month and a half without any problems. Yet when he was snatched up at a moment's notice and moved to Columbus (Muscogee County) jail, he was all of a sudden placed in a high security area and denied the use of a phone to contact his lawyers, which denied him the right to help in defense of his own case. He was placed in solitary confinement, without a reason given to his attorneys or family members. He was fed only twice a day, and housed in a cell no bigger than a good-size broom closet. All this is a gross misuse of judicial power under the guise of law against citizens of the United States. They question my son's intentions and integrity as one who speaks out openly when he sees something wrong with his country. After the track record against citizens of the United States established by the BATF and the FBI at Waco, Ruby Ridge and other publicized horror stories, I have to wonder just who they are protecting. Most of you do not know my son or me, so I provide the following so you may have some inkling as to what he and his family are going thorough and what type of person he is. We are a family like most, whose members work hard and believe in God, family and freedom. My son is in no way the individual so grossly portrayed and marketed. His civil and constitutional right have been violated. I and my family ask for your help in this matter by contacting your congressman and/or state representative and voicing your disapproval to this injustice. Just put yourself in this situation for a moment: One day out of the blue you are swarmed by a squad of BATF or FBI agents, handcuffed in front of your co-workers, paraded all over the county in front of media cameras for a political agenda, being made to look like America's most wanted. You are innocent, and you know you have done nothing wrong, but because of the paranoia in the country about terrorist groups, mad bombers, the boogie man, etc., and political agendas for political gains, no one will listen. Members of your family (not guilty on anything either) are roughed up and treated like common criminals during the so-called search process. Items in your home are broken or destroyed, without the least bit of remorse from the intruders. Then, after months of agony inflicted upon you and your family, after suffering loss of credibility, embarrassment and incurring deep financial debts, you are found innocent of any wrongdoing. How will you make a living and support your family? How will you pay your legal bills? How will you ever get your life back? But those who have imposed their will on you and persecuted you simply walk away after being paid with your own tax money to destroy you. I am not now nor have I ever been a militia member; but such organizations are looking better to me every day. They may well be our only hope and last line of defense against tyrannical powers. If we can't get our United States senators and state representative to be our voice in time of need, then the citizens of this state and county are in big trouble. The situation my son and daughter-in-law, I, my wife and family members are going through has opened my eyes to the major injustices of citizens of a free nation and the corruption that surely must be rooted in a justice system that is sworn to uphold and defend our constitutional rights. William James McCranie Sr. Macon *********************** Any further editorials will be posted. Stay tuned... J.J. Johnson - Citizens' Defense League of Georgia ===================================================================== This article and others on the same subject are archived at http://constitution.org/mil/ga/mil_usga.htm