Stewart is a real "SDS'r.
Stewart defends using violence to overthrow gov'ts
BY PATRICIA HURTADO
NEWSDAY Staff Writer
November 8, 2004
Activist attorney Lynne Stewart yesterday defended using violence to overthrow oppressive governments and institutions that engender "entrenched ferocious capitalism" -- including those within the United States.
But Stewart, who is charged with passing messages from her imprisoned client, radical Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, said civilians should not be targeted.
"I don't believe in civilian deaths and wanton massacres such as Luxor," she said referring to the 1997 slaying of 58 tourists and four Egyptians at an archaeological site in Egypt by the sheik's followers.
"Institutions which perpetuate capitalism and institutions of government do have to be attacked," she said. "And for that reason it seems to me that at some ultimate point the institutions which perpetuate capitalism -- and by that I mean the institutions of government which protect it and make sure that it functions -- do have to be attacked."
Stewart, 65, is charged with passing the sheik's messages to his followers in Islamic Group, a terrorist organization. Prosecutors contend Stewart delivered a message from the sheik despite restrictions imposed after he was convicted in 1995 of a plot to bomb New York landmarks.
"Certain entrenched institutions cannot be changed except through violence," Stewart said when Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember asked her about published statements she made concerning her views on revolutions.
Stewart insisted, however, that she did not condone unchecked violence. She suggested that banking institutions could be attacked and cited the American Revolution and Civil War.
Stewart's lawyer, Michael Tigar interrupted Dember's questioning and asked for a break. Outside the jury's presence, he objected saying that his client's "abstract political views about some future events" were irrelevant.
"We're getting perilously close to buildings, bridges, tunnels and other matters that I respectfully submit are irrelevant," Tigar said.
U.S. District Judge John Koeltl said the questions were relevant.
When court reconvened, Dember asked Stewart about an interview in which she stated that sometimes the struggle against oppression led to violence and the deaths of innocent bystanders.
"People get killed, sometimes it's completely unfair, but others doing the attacking, they see their lives as completely unfair," Stewart said. "I'm saying some people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Something is wrong with the world but I don't see an easy solution to the problem."
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