MR
24.11.09
Lynne Stewart: An American Story
Directed by Francis van den Heuvel

Just what good is freedom if no one is free,
And folks go to jail if they dare disagree?
And lawyers get punished for doing their jobs?
And folks are afraid of the White House lynch mob?
Lynne Stewart was doing what she had to do
Protecting her client and civil rights, too.
She said an attorney must fight to defend --
"I'd like to think that I would do it again."
                                                              -- Vicki Ryder

"I have done nothing wrong.  Everything I have done, I have done as a lawyer." -- Lynne Stewart

"The story of Lynne Stewart is the story of post-9/11 America.  It's a story of the federal government instilling fear, not only in Lynne Stewart but in freedom-loving people in the United States and lawyers, people who represent controversial clients." -- Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow!

"The actions she engaged in, she engaged in in 2000, and while I'm not going to name names or incriminate myself, it was not uncommon, at that time, that you would violate basically jail rules. . . .  When Sheikh Omar came to the United States, he was known to the government as a 'freedom fighter.'  He was part of an Islamic fundamentalist movement that prior administrations had embraced in their struggle against the Soviet Union." -- Ronald L. Kuby, Lawyer, New York

"The media likes a sexy story.  The media likes violence and conflict.  There were no commies out there any more.  We now had Muslims.  They wanted conflict stories of 'America Besieged,' so they picked it up and they ran with it." -- Lynne Stewart

"Today we are able to tell Lynne Stewart's story.  There have been many untold stories of Arab men, South Asian men, being taken from their homes, detained arbitrarily." -- Daniel Gross, Fordham Law School, New York

Lynne Stewart: An American Story (78 min.) is to be released in 2009.  The quotations above are taken from this video excerpt from Lynne Stewart: An American Story.  For more information about Lynne Stewart, go to <www.lynnestewart.org>.
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