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Susan Lindauer Going Public
Continues to Fight for "The Trial"

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

(Wash. DC) Susan Lindauer has been busy making calls and sending faxes to Members of Congress outlining her role as a U.S. intelligence asset since the mid 1990's and her views of pre-invasion intelligence on Iraq. She's taken her case to Capitol Hill as a result of the ongoing actions by the New York federal court denying her a trial. Lindauer told "Scoop" Independent News, "I've gone to the House Judiciary Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, the offices of Senators Wyden's (D, OR) and Biden (D, DE), and the Majority and Minority leaders in House and Senate."

She's also very concerned about what she describes as unfair treatment by New York City based federal pretrial services.

The faxes and phone calls are a sequel to Lindauer's original offer made to Sen. John McCain's office to testify before the 2004 blue ribbon committee investigating pre-invasion Iraq intelligence. Very shortly after that offer, she was arrested and indicted for acting as an "unregistered agent" for Iraq. Lindauer planned to tell the committee that prewar Iraq intelligence was adequate to the task at hand. She sought a chance to detail the various offers made by the Hussein government to avoid a U.S. invasion.

Lindauer has consistently denied being anything other than a U.S. asset pointing to her record and the communication of her actions and travels in eleven letters delivered to Andrew Card, then George W. Bush's Chief of Staff. The letters spanned a two year period leading up to the U.S., invasion in March 2003.

She's demanded a trial since her arrest in 2004. In an unprecedented stance for prosecutors, the U.S. Attorney's office has delayed the trial for nearly five years claiming that Lindauer was not competent to assist in her own defense. She spent over a year in confinement. This included seven months during which she was held for "observation and evaluation" in federal prison facility located on Carswell Air Force Base.

In September 2006, Lindauer was released from confinement through an order and opinion by then Judge Michael Mukasey, now U.S. Attorney General.

During the period following her release, she's worked, replaced her court appointed attorney with a seasoned litigator from Washington, DC, Brian Shaughnessy, and made efforts to clear her name.

A condition of her release on bail requires that she call in weekly to federal pretrial services in New York City. This reporting relationship has been challenging and contentious at times. Lindauer says that her adamant claims of innocence are one source of the conflict with the other being the requirements for ongoing counseling. Lindauer has refused court mandated counseling for months since as she says, "I have no need of counseling. I’m seeking a trial."

Lindauer recently told pretrial services that she's demanding a congressional investigation of her case. She reported a disbelieving response on the part of federal personnel. Lindauer said, "I told pretrial services that I'm talking to (Congress). The next thing I know, the federal marshals are calling my attorney to warn that I'll be arrested again if I don't shut up." Lindauer recounted that the same New York pretrial services officer had recommended revoking her bond during each of the last three months of 2007.

She reported that last week someone claiming to be a lawyer called her current attorney, Brian Shaughnessy, and informed him that he was replacing Shaughnessy at Lindauer's request.

Lindauer expressed shock at what she called a deliberate attempt to subvert her legal representation, and asserted her ongoing confidence in Shaughnessy's work. "All I want is a trial and we'll see who's guilty of what, she said. She went on:

"Brian is outstanding. He's taken this case for a ridiculously small amount of money because I'm so poor after all these years of work. Brian is a highly seasoned attorney and is capable of dealing with such complexities. This overwhelming burden is like a bog. We're trapped in quicksand. The judge can't get out of it. I can't get out of it. They can't give me the trial because they'd have to admit they'd lied all these years."

All this raises a very important question regarding the five year delay of a "speedy and public trial." This delay was continued by Judge Loretta Preska in her Sept. 15, 2008 opinion upholding the ruling that Lindauer is incompetent to stand trial. Judge Preska took over the case form Mukasey after her retired from the bench in late 2006.

Why Won't the United States Government Allow Lindauer a Trial?

They would lose, without much doubt.

In his carefully crafted "Order and Opinion" of Sept. 6, 2006, now U.S. Attorney General, then Chief Judge Michael B. Mukasey said that the "high water mark" of the prosecution's case was the letter of Jan. 6, 2003 delivered to a U.S. official, then Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Lindauer’s second cousin. The other charges, meetings in New York, taped interviews with FBI agents, etc. had all been reviewed by Mukasey. This was a heavily researched opinion. He took four months from the May 2006 hearings until this decision to study and prepare his analysis and conclusion.

Take a look at the Jan. 6, 2003 letter from Lindauer to Card. It's just two pages but it outlines the hazards of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. Based on her meetings with Iraqis in Iraq and Iraqi diplomats in the U.S., Lindauer's letter informed Card that the Iraqi's would be hostile to the U.S. due to the years of bombing, the total embargo on trade with Iraq, and the resulting civilian deaths and injuries. She went on to tell Card that the Iraqis would resist any U.S. invasion and occupation on this account. Finally, she stressed that a U.S. invasion would breed a slew of charismatic bin Laden's and radical followers who would pose an ongoing threat to the United States.

These predictions all turned out to be true.

Lindauer wasn't the only source of this advice on these warnings, but she was one of the few to “speak truth to power,” namely to Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, both of whom received he Jan. 6, 2006 letter.

But even in the perverse interpretation that somehow this one letter was a tactic to undermine the United States, Mukasey undermined any use of the letter, the strongest evidence against Lindauer, when he said: "Appropriately diffident though I am, there is no indication that Lindauer ever came close to influencing anyone, or could have" (Order and Opinion," Sept. 6, 2006).

So according to the most extensive opinion written in this case, one that is regarded as an example of high level legal scholarship, the charges don't amount to anything, even if true, since Lindauer, according to Mukasey, was unable to influence any U.S. official.

Nothing has changed in the prosecutions charges. The "high water" mark, the meat of the case, is a letter that most citizens would find both interesting and compelling. The current Attorney General states that whatever the content of the letter, Lindauer couldn't have influenced anyone.

The weak case for the government was exposed clearly in the Mukasey order and opinion of Sept. 6, 2006.

Had Judge Preska studied Mukasey's decision before she cast aspersions on Lindauer's 95% probability that she'd prevail at trial? Did she know that her distinguished predecessor had virtually outlined the case for the defense? A letter that represents excellent advice was offered by Lindauer whom Mukasey found could not have influenced Card or Powell or the rest of them to begin with. (They'd made up their minds, hadn't they?)

The failure to grant Lindauer a trial is a violation of her sixth amendment rights. The extended confinement in a federal prison for psychiatric "evaluation" and threats of forced medication are violations of her human rights. The process of charging her for a warning letter that accurately predicted the calamities of the Iraq invasion is a violation of the rights of all citizens.

When will Susan Lindauer get her trial in open court?

END

This article may be reproduced in part or whole with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

Previously in "Scoop" Independent News:
American Cassandra: Susan Lindauer’s Story by Michael Collins 17 October 2007
Bush Political Prisoner Gets her Day in Court by Michael Collins June 11, 2008
An Exclusive Interview with Bush Political Prisoner Susan Lindauer by Michael Collins June 2008 911 Prediction Revealed at Susan Lindauer Competency Hearing by Michael Collins June 17, 2004
Did Justice Order Forced Psychiatric Medication? By Michael Collins, Sept. 12, 2008
American Kafka: Susan Lindauer Demands "The Trial" by Michael Collins Oct. 4, 2008

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