Category: Margaret Stevenson
Four ‘John Doe’ Librarians Break Silence
JOHNDOE
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
September 27, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 27—Four Connecticut librarians previously known as “John Doe” were honored Thursday for taking a stand to protect the First Amendment.
“We are librarians,” said Peter Chase, president of the Library Connection, a non-profit consortium of 27 Hartford region libraries, and one of the librarians involved. “We believe deeply in intellectual freedom.”.
All four, who make up the executive board of the Library Connection, successfully challenged the FBI after it was authorized to access patron information without a court order in July of 2005.
The librarians, honored during Banned Books Week at the National Press Club, were Chase, Barbara Bailey, George Christian, and Janet Nocek.
“It’s our obligation to protect patron privacy and to protect the freedoms we hold dearly,” said Christian, the executive director of the Library Connection .
The librarians said the FBI, using a tool known as a National Security Letter, requested a record of a particular time of internet use. They refused to give up the information.
“We believe that people should be able to go to their library and read from a wide variety of views, and make up their own mind,” said Chase.
Under the 2001 Patriot Act, anyone who receives a National Security Letter is obliged to disclose the requested information and is barred from disclosing its contents.
“They couldn’t even talk to their families and their bosses,” said Peter Ciparelli, director of the New London Library.
“When we received it, we were aware that a Federal District Court in New York had already declared that these letters violated the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution and because of those reasons we refused to comply with it,” Chase said.
They contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which decided to represent them for no cost in a law suit against the U.S. attorney general.
Christian said they were opposing a police force that operated in secret and never allowed those involved to tell anyone.
“It’s so counter to our free and open society—it had to be resisted,” said Christian.
Chase said they were ordered not to speak about the lawsuit, but that the names of the four were released to the public because court documents were not blacked out where they were supposed to have been.
Chase described the ordeal, saying that he could not even tell his son about the lawsuit and what was going on at the time.
“We couldn’t tell the ones we loved most – if you tell them, you put them in danger,” Chase said.
During the case, the Patriot Act was revised and while ACLU officials say that some of their concerns have been addressed, they say that it makes gag orders more oppressive.
“About six weeks after the Patriot Act was signed into law, the government dropped our gag order and eventually withdrew the National Security Letter,” Chase said.
Chase said there is another “John Doe” in New York who is seeking to overturn the revision of the Patriot Act.
The March 2006 revision of the law was spurred by two cases, one involving an Internet provider and the case of the four librarians.
“They did something wonderful—someone had to take a stand on it,” said Ciparelli, the director of the New London Library.
According to Christian, of the 150,000 National Security Letter recipients, these four librarians are the only National Security Letter recipients with the freedom to speak out about it.
Chase said they never released any of the information the government asked for.
“I’m pleased with what they did,” said Ciparelli. “As far as protecting the rights of patrons, I suppose they are heroes.”
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Sen. Lieberman Co-Hosts Meeting with Iraqi President
IRAQIPRES
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
Sept. 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26—Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others offered Iraqi President Jalal Talabani their qualified support in a meeting Tuesday to discuss that country’s state of affairs.
“I can assure you there will be no civil war,” Talabani said after the meeting.
"We told President Talabani our support for a free, independent and unified Iraq is strong but it is not unconditional or unlimited,” Lieberman said.
Also attending the private meeting, which took place on the second floor of the Capitol, were Talabani’s top advisers, Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie, and Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and George Allen (R-Va.).
"We received an encouraging and progressive report,” Lieberman said. “There are honest challenges and work to be done. President Jalal Talabani is committed to working for a unified, democratic Iraq that preserves the rights and promotes the security of all its citizens.”
Lieberman told reporters that they spoke about deadlines at the meeting.
He said when progress was made, timelines could then be discussed.
The Iraqi president, according to Lieberman, told his listeners, “We look forward to the day when we can take over ourselves, and most of the American troops can go home.”
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Connecticut Cancer Suppporters Go to Washington
AWARENESS
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
September 20, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 -- Thousands of people from every state flooded the National Mall and Capitol Hill Wednesday to promote funding and research for cancer.
The event, titled “Celebration on the Hill,” included 39 Connecticut “ambassadors” from the American Cancer Society, plus supporters who came along to help. The “ambassadors” from each state were there to meet their congressional representatives.
"We're asking our senators and congressmen, if they have not signed the ‘Congressional Cancer Promise’ yet, to sign it and also to reaffirm their commitment if they already signed it,” Joe Barbetta of Norwalk said, referring to the group’s legislative agenda, aimed at ending suffering and death from cancer by the year 2015.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., met with some of the Connecticut supporters and signed the group’s pledge.
“I listened to their stories,” said Lieberman, who lost his father to cancer. “It was very emotional.”
The event was kicked off by a parade of cancer survivors. Live music filled the air as the activists busied themselves, handing out cards representing their state and waving flags with their state name.
Carol Palonen of Canterbury, a registered nurse at Windham Hospital in Willimantic, said she wants increased funding for her program, the Connecticut Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program. Palonen said the goal of the program is to ensure all women, regardless of their insurance, get the proper breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Palonen, who lost her father to cancer last February after a 10-year battle, said the group’s pledge will help to get things done faster.
North Haven resident Caryl Sasser, one of the group’s “ambassadors,” said she hasn’t stopped fighting for the goal. Sasser, dressed in a sash that read “Survivor,” beat breast cancer seven years ago and said she is still fighting for more funds and research today.
“We are trying to have people recognize who we are,” Sasser said. “We want them to know what we are fighting for. So far, we’ve received good responses.”
Most of them wore purple T-shirts with “American Cancer Society” printed on them. The society erected a temporary “Wall of Hope,” holding 5,000 banners with more than three million signatures representing the millions of lives that have been touched by cancer.
“It makes a difference when people see the faces of cancer,” said Jane Walsh, 64, of Ledyard. Walsh, whose husband has leukemia, is a caregiver and is lobbying the Connecticut delegation.
“To cut back on funds is not acceptable,” she said. “We are trying hard to get funds up.”
Walsh said one of their main goals was to increase funding by 5 percent each year in the years to come.
An evening candlelight reflection for the survivors those who had passed on also was planned for the event, which was expected to last until 10 p.m.
“This is a celebration of lives,” said Walsh.
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Rep. Simmons Speaks at National POW/MIA Recognition Day
POWMIA
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
Sept. 15, 2006
Rep. Simmons Speaks at National POW/MIA Recognition Day
WASHINGTON – U.S. Army Captain Arthur Holm’s helicopter was shot down over Vietnam June 11, 1972. After more than 30 years, his crash site has been located.
“It’s just great to have him coming back home,” Holm’s widow, Margarete Holm, said Friday at the 2006 National POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony at the Pentagon.
Bringing home prisoners of war and persons missing in action was the focus of the day’s events.
“We will not rest until they have all been accounted for and returned to the nation and the families for whom they sacrificed,” said Rep. Rob Simmons, the guest speaker for the ceremony held on the Mall Entrance Parade Field, adjacent to the Pentagon.
Also speaking were Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“America does not forget her heroes,” England said.
General Pace, who also called the POWs and MIAs heroes, said, “Families of those who are missing are serving the country everyday in a way that we can’t even imagine.”
Simmons, a Vietnam veteran, said he had taken a special interest in the case of Arthur “Arnie” Holm and his family when it came to his attention that Holm’s remains had never been found.
“I am a Vietnam vet,” Simmons said in an interview after the ceremony. “When I learned Holm was lost and the family had not had a funeral or a memorial—it became a cause for me.”
A few weeks back, Simmons said he was informed by Holm’s wife that the crash site they had been searching for had finally been located.
“Although they have been lost for a time, they have not been forgotten and they will never be forgotten,” said Simmons of all MIAs. “We will find them and we will bring them home.”
“Why do we care? We care because it’s about our buddies,” he said. “It’s about their families. It’s about coming to grips with loss, and death, and closure.”
Holm, who was a helicopter pilot, was shot down with crew members Pfc. Wayne Bibbs and Spc.4 Robin Yeakley.
Also in attendance at the ceremony were Arnold Holm’s sister, Margaret Brewster, Frank Walker, a helicopter pilot who had flown with Holm, and Pauline Yeakley, Robin Yeakley’s mother.
Simmons and his wife Heidi joined the joint task force that had begun searching for the crash site 13 years ago. They flew to Vietnam in April of 2003 and joined the force in the jungle but the crash site was not found.
Holm, originally from Waterford, Conn., had enlisted in the Army in 1962. It was while in the Army that he met his wife.
Mrs. Holm, 62, of Lebanon, Penn., said she was sad that other people had to go through the same thing she has gone through.
“It’s just really emotional,” she said. “It is a relief that this waiting will be over soon.”
The excavation of the crash site and the identification of remains is the final step before the families will have their closure.
Simmons said he has put in many requests with the Pentagon and the Vietnamese government to go to the next phase of excavating the site.
“We are going to move forward on this,” he said. “I am optimistic.”
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Connecticut’s Leaders Celebrate Its History in the Nation’s Capital
WASHINGTON -- Connecticut’s history was celebrated twice Tuesday in the nation’s capital. The state’s leaders gathered at the capitol to plant a tree symbolic of Connecticut’s liberty and later to unveil a piece of art portraying the Connecticut Compromise that established representation in the Senate and House.
First, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) hosted a ceremony on the Capitol’s East Front, where he was assisted by family, friends and colleagues in planting “The Charter Oak,” a tree symbolic of Connecticut’s history.
The seedlings are offshoots of the Great Charter Oak, the tree in which the state charter was hidden in 1687 to save it from British forces, and were brought to Washington in 2001.
“1..2..3…Hey!,” shouted Dodd, his family and his colleagues as they ceremonially tossed the dirt away from the new tree.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) called the tree “a symbol of liberty in our state.”
The group then celebrated the unveiling of the mural, by famed realist Bradley Stevens of Connecticut, in the Senate Reception Room.
The new painting depicts two Connecticut delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, who were instrumental in forging
the “Connecticut Compromise” of 1787 that gave two Senate seats to each state while House members would be elected on the basis of population.
Sen. Dodd spoke of Ellsworth and Sherman’s accomplishments and announced that some Ellsworth descendants were in the audience.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) spoke of the importance of accepting “responsibility to carry forward the values and principles embodied in the Connecticut Compromise.”
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) called the event, “a celebration of history and culture.”
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who has written a four-volume history of the Senate, said he was delighted by the unveiling.
“This mural brings to life – as perhaps nothing else would- the Connecticut Compromise- perhaps the most fundamental event at the Constitutional Convention,” he said.
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