...defending a true American who has for years unselfishly defended this land and the animals that share the wilderness and oceans with us. Last October she was called before a Federal Grand Jury in Seattle where she was ordered to provide information on individuals in the animal rights and environmental movement.
In 1999, she drove her inflatable zodiac between a defenseless Gray whale and the Makah whaling boat which was armed with harpoons and .50 caliber rifles. The whale escaped.
More recently, in November 2003, she dove into the bay at Taiji, Japan, to cut the nets holding 15 condemned dolphins and Pilot whales. They escaped, and Allison was jailed for three weeks for this act of compassion.
She has dove into the ocean to rescue turtles and sharks on cruel longlines and she has for years been on the frontlines in opposing the bloody fur trade.
Now she needs our help.
Last October she was called before a Federal Grand Jury in Seattle where she was ordered to provide information on individuals in the animal rights and environmental movement. More to the point, she was ordered to provide personal information on people she knew.
She refused as a matter of principle, told them that the Grand Jury was nothing more than an anti-democratic star chamber and was a violation of her constitutional rights to privacy and freedom of association. As a consequence, she has been charged with refusing to cooperate with the Grand Jury.
The Federal prosecutor told her she was not the subject of a criminal investigation herself. They said they had no evidence and no reason to believe she had committed any crime.
However, they told her that people she knew were the object of an investigation and unless she provided information on them she would be charged with failure to cooperate with a Federal Grand Jury.
They have set a trial date for her in September and if convicted she faces up to three years in prison.
This is not justice my friends. This is an inquisition. It is nothing more than guilt by association where a citizen is forced by the State to basically rat on her friends.
The Federal prosecutors even threatened to target the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society unless she cooperated.
Three of the individuals under investigation are former Sea Shepherd crewmembers, and although none of the activities they are being investigated for have any connection with Sea Shepherd, the Feds have once again implied guilt by association.
It is also interesting that none of the individuals targeted by the Federal Grand Jury have been arrested or charged.
Yet the Federal Prosecutors are attempting to imprison a woman for refusing to provide information about citizens who have not even been charged with a crime.
These are scary times in our nation, where today the Patriot Act is quickly infecting the parchment of the Constitution with the decaying acid of totalitarianism. We have forgotten the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt who said that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Under President George W. Bush, the spirit is that we must be afraid of everything including each other and this is fostering a climate of suspicion and paranoia where citizens are forced to spy upon and provide information on other citizens.
Allison is the daughter of a Los Angeles policeman who taught her that justice was more important than the law and that it is the duty and the responsibility of a citizen to stand up for freedom and the constitution against the tyranny of government.
With your help, Allison and I would like to stand up in defense of the Constitution of the United States of America by fighting this freedom-denying charge.
We have already exhausted our own funds, spending $55,000 of our own money on this defense, money we had to borrow by mortgaging our home. We need to raise at least another $30,000 in order to prevail in the court in September.
We could have taken on a court appointed attorney and guaranteed a victory for the Federal prosecutor, but in this country where money talks, we have retained a top attorney, skilled and experienced in Federal law who is fighting not just for Allison’s freedom but also for the defense of the basic rights that the government is working to deprive us all of.
We are fighting not just for Allison’s liberty but for all of us by opposing the Patriot Act and John Ashcroft’s biblical apocalyptic vision for this nation where citizens are being drafted and coerced into being informers and accusers.
The witch-hunt is in progress my friends and in defending her, we defend ourselves.
Therefore I am making this plea for support with a request from Allison and I for a contribution towards the Allison Lance Watson Defense Fund.
Please send a contribution today to:
The Allison Lance Watson Defense Fund
P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
USA
allison@seashepherd.org For further information, please call Allison directly at 360-370-5650.
