156 FIFTH AVENUE 11$ NEW YORK, N. Y. 10010 t$ committee 212 • 691-7410
Dear Friend:
On January 12, 1971, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the word REPRESSION took on new significance.
The federal government on that day took the first in a series of steps to repress, control and finally indict or cite 13 priests, nuns, professors and peace move ment organizers. These actions by the government served to isolate and silence 13 of its critics — critics who are known for their dedication to peace and non violence. Six of the Harrisburg Thirteen have been indicted and will be tried. The other seven, named but not indicted, have been smeared without any oppor tunity to reply. >- .C c » •-> o »2 5 The charges: that they had planned and would actually have implemented the — CD • — < T: > destruction of heating tunnels in federal buildings, and the kidnaping of Henry 2 • Q Kissinger. The "crime": saying NO to the war in Southeast Asia, and NO to
5 £ o injustice at home. Because they are part of a growing community of resistance •g « . which the government fears, it is clear that they have been singled out to stand ••= ^ § trial for ideas that many of us share. As a warning to the rest of us, a recent i_ » •; <2 FBI newsletter has urged agents to spread an aura of paranoia so that vocal m •£ Q 3 critics would believe that "there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox. " cö "• E" .* = c The Defense Committee, the national group authorized by the defendants, has S5 ? Î5 been formed to help the Harrisburg Thirteen explain their positions and wage t° c 2 the fight for a fair trial. We face an unequal battle, however. The government to ^ .SP L has unlimited financial resources; the Thirteen, almost none. It is clear what :§" o « jg1 we who care about peace and justice and fair trial and freedom from govern- £ £ — S mental repression can do — must do. We cannot serve our brothers' and £ < ë 2, sisters' sentences, or stand trial for them, but we can become part of the £ j- J »- community of resistance; we can assure that the necessary funds for legal "• Z Jj £ defense are available; and we can say with Daniel Berrigan:
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BOB FITCH - BLACKSTAR
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PHILIP BERRIGAN THE DEFENSE COMMITTEE For: Dr. Eqbal Ahmad, Father Philip Berrigan, Sister Elizabeth McAlister, Father Neil McLaughlin, Anthony Scoblick, Father Joseph Wenderoth and Father Daniel Berrigan, Sister Beverly Bell, Sister Jogues Egan, Marjorie Shuman, Father Paul Mayer, Tom Davidson and William Davidon 156 Fifth Avenue, Room 523, New York, N. Y. 10010 (212) 691-7410 rß/QVy^\ » JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT OF DEFENDANTS AND "CO-CONSPIRATORS' February 8, 1971 We are thirteen men and women who state with clear conscience that we are neither conspirators nor bombers nor kid nappers. In principle and in fact we have rejected all acts such as those of which we have been accused. We are a diverse group, united by a common goal: our opposition to the massive violence of our government in its war against South east Asia. It is because of this opposition that we have been branded a conspiracy. Our anguish for the victims of the brutal war has led all of us to non-violent resistance, some of us to the destruction of draft records. But, unlike our accuser, the Government of the United States, we have not advocated or engaged in vio lence against human beings. Unlike the Government, we have never lied to our fellow citizens about our actions. Unlike the Government, we have nothing to hide. We ask our fellow citizens to match our lives, our actions, against the actions of the President, his advisers, his chiefs of staff, and pose the question: who has committed the crimes of violence? It is, in fact, the Government which has engaged in kidnapping on an enormous scale: the deportation of millions of Vietnamese - - and now Cambodians and Laotians - - from their ancient homes by force; the abduction of American young men from their families under the Selective Service laws, sending them across state lines and international borders to be killed or maimed. It is the Government which has not only conspired but carried out the destruction by explo sives of three countries: Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, crippling these defenseless people with napalm and pellet bombs, destroying their forests and rice fields. If one is concerned with crimes against humanity, it is the officials of the U. S. Government who should be on trial. Throughout history, citizens of conscience have engaged in discussions as to how to oppose the overwhelming power of unjust governments. In such discussions the problems of violence and non-violence have been aired, and an infinite variety of strategies and tactics examined, accepted, or rejected. Such discussion is part of the tradition of free speech in a democratic society, protected by the First Amendment. When our Government moves against some citizens through wire-tapping, secret agents, and conspiracy laws, to turn this constitutional right into a crime, free expression is endan gered for all Americans. Our Government's disregard for the constitutional rights of individuals has marked every stage of the proceedings against us so far: the pre-indictment accusations by J. Edgar Hoover, the arrests without warrants, the excessive bail amount ing to ransom, the travel restrictions on defendants and an atmosphere of intimidation created by the Grand Jury which began historically as a shield to protect the innocent and has become instead a sword to oppress the defenseless. And most recently we have seen a deliberate act by the Attorney General to keep the defendants from meeting together. Does justice really exist for black people, for poor people, or for those who, like us, oppose the policy of war? Based on what has happened to us so far, we can only wonder. We believe in the holy commandment: thou shalt not kill - - a commandment which our Government has violated with impunity a million times. We urge our fellow citizens to join us in demanding that our Government stop the current secret invasion of Laos, end its expansion of the war in Southeast Asia immediately and bring its troops, planes, guns and bombs home without delay. We ask our fellow citizens to resist this war by refusing to fight, refusing to pay taxes, re fusing to cooperate in any way. Finally, we reaffirm our dedication to a world without violence — that violence which for so long has ravaged so many lands, so many souls. cVwf* LEE LOCKWOOD - BLACKSTAR THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MARCH 19,1971 Dan & Phü & Edgar & John By WILLIAM VAN ETTEN CASEY and to kidnap the Presidential adviser, index of that toteres.. An obscur« Henry Kissinger. ("Kidnap Kissinger?" little journal that devoted its latest WORCESTER, Mass.—Two priests one of the defendants said incredu issue entirely to the Berrigans and are sitting in their prison cells in Dan- lously. "That's almost as ridiculous arrived on the scene at the time of bury, Conn., separated from all contact as our other plot to have Phil Berrigan the indictments is now a best seller. with the outside world and yet send elope with Martha Mitchell.") Dan An additional press run of 30,000 cop ing out shock waves across the coun Berrigan and six others were named ies bad to be printed to meet the try. This is an extraordinary achieve as co-conspirators but not indicted, a demand; Kösel publishing house of ment, even for Dan and Phil Berrigan, vicious legal maneuver in which the Munich will bring out a German edi hut they could never have brought it Government publicly accuses people tion this summen Avon Books will off alone. They needed accomplices. but admits that it has no evidence for publish an expanded edition for mass And these were eagerly supplied by its accusation. distribution in late spring. the F.B.I., the Justice Department and the White House. J. Edgar Hoover opened this latest Despite the incommunicado natura of their present confinement, the Ber The most troubling aspect for the chapter of the Administration's clumsy rigans are becoming increasingly Berrigans in their decision to bum war on dissenters when he announced known to more and more millions of draft board records and plead guilty to a startled nation' through his willing people .who would otherwise never was the knowledge that they would stooge, Senator Robert Byrd of West have heard of them or who have finally end up in the silent gloom of Virginia, that the Berrigans were the known them only in a corner of their some prison, totally cut off from their leaders of the conspiracy to bomb and consciousness. followers in the antiwar movement. kidnap. His senile professional vanity When articulate activists and charis had been badly wounded last spring The peace movement that had lately matic leaders like Phil and Dan go to when Dan Berrigan went underground fallen upon apathetic days is now jail, the movement that they have led for four months and made Keystone revving up as the Berrigan plight slowly grinds to a bait and their fol Kops of Hoover's agents as he led dramatizes the issue of the war at the lowers tend to break up into dis them a merry chase over the country very moment of its expansion in Laos. organized little groups. That's what side. He also feels personally hurt by The Berrigan followers have regrouped began to happen to the nonviolent these Catholic radicals because in the and are working hard at organizing Catholic Resistance when Dan and Phil past he knew he could always rely on defense committees across the disappeared behind Danbury's bars. Catholics to staff his agency and sup Phil and Dan are back. The port his simplistic anti-Communism. is alive and flourishing. And It was clearly in the best interest His bitterness can be gauged by the Clark, Hoover's "jellyfish- recently Of the Administration to preserve that fact that this was the first time the turned Portuguese man-of-war, sails status'quo. Keep Dan and Phil buried aging cowardly lion lost his cool and into battle. there in Danbuty until the war, or the turned public accuser of individuals 1972 election, was over, Whichever before indictments were returned. Oscar Wilde once said that the only came first That was the obvio>\« thing bad public notice is an obituary no to do. Attorney General John Mitchell tice. The Administration had the obit uary notice for the Berrigans in its But never underestimate the ability carried on the next phase of the war when he sought and obtained the hand when it buried them in Danbury of this Administration to snatch defeat prison, but in a colossal political blun from the jaws of victory. At some indictment against Phil and then personally announced it He lost out der it pulled them out of that morgue point it had to fall afoul of Alinsky*s with its indictment and put them back Third Law of Establishment-Dynamics on Dan, however. The decision to seek the indictment was undoubtedly on center stage where their personali which states that in any fight with the ties, their followers, their message and Establishment you can count on it for cleared all the way to the top by those shrewd politicians who gave us their cause are enjoying maximum ex at least one glorious gaffe that will posure to the world. bring renewed life to your languishing Haynsworth, Carswell, the Southern cause. Strategy and the 1970 campaign. Unbelievable. Thank you, Edgar and John and Dick. And you too, Martha. The Federal grand jury at Harris- The net effect so far of the Admin burg supplied that new life for the' istration's moves against the Berri Berrigan cause. It indicted Phil Berri gans and their followers has been to Father William Van Etten Casey is gan and five others for conspiring to produce an explosion of national and the editor of that "obscure little jour blow up the heating system of five international interest in the Berrigans. nal"—The Quarterly of Holy Cross Government buildings in Washington I can personally verify one dramatic College, Worcester, Mass.
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