EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW
              PO Box 17390, Washington, D.C. 20041
                         (202) 544-7010

International press release
For immediate release
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ALBERT PIKE LODGE MEMBER JUDGE LAMBERTH REFUSES TO RECUSE SELF;
   SENTENCES REV. JAMES BEVEL AND ANTON CHAITKIN TO JAIL !!!

WASHINGTON, April 19--This afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge
Royce Lamberth sentenced civil rights activist James Bevel and
historian Anton Chaitkin to 7 (seven) days in jail each for
"statue climbing," at the site of Ku Klux Klan founder Albert
Pike's statue, located at Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C.
   Albert Pike was chief judicial officer and founder of the Ku
Klux Klan. His statue is maintained by the National Park Service
at public expense. Reverend Bevel, the former Director of
Non-Violent Direct Action for Martin Luther King and the former
vice-presidential running mate of Lyndon H. LaRouche, has been
leading the fight, nationally and internationally, to remove the
Pike statue from Judiciary Square in the nation's capitol.
   Judge Lambert, despite his acknowledged membership in the
Albert Pike Lodge of the Masonic Order of DeMolay in San Antonio,
Texas, refused to recuse himself, based on a clear appearance of
bias and conflict of interest, when asked by Rev. Bevel and Mr.
Chaitkin. Following this, Judge Lamberth quashed every defense
motion for pretrial discovery, and subpoenas for testimony and
documents that would have proven the improper purpose of what
clearly was a selective prosecution of Chaitkin and Bevel.
   The defense had subpoenaed officials of the Anti-Defamation
League of the B'nai B'rith (ADL), the Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry, the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) and the numerous
officials of the National Park Service (which effected the
arrests), to testify. The ADL and the Scottish Rite have openly
campaigned for keeping the statue in place. "We have the right to
know if there is a secret clique operating against the
constitutional rights of the people and the citizenry. If we
don't know who is prosecuting this case, this would be farcical,"
argued defendant Anton Chaitkin.
   Representatives of those subpoenaed, present in the
courtroom, all moved to quash the defense's motion for discovery.
Attorney Mark Rasch, a participant in several cases against
political prisoner Lyndon LaRouche and his associates,
represented the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith in
support of the motion to quash.  Also present in the courtroom
was Charles S. Iversen, Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the
District of Columbia's Scottish Rite Freemasons, Southern
Jurisdiction, who also presented a motion to quash the defense's
motion for discovery.
   Rev. Bevel and Chaitkin, who acted as their own attorneys,
presented videotaped evidence and witnesses substantiating that
on several occasions prior to their arrests, many individuals had
regularly and repeatedly stood on the base of the statue, as they
had, during weekly demonstrations demanding its removal.
   Lamberth, after hearing this testimony, and that of two
government witnesses, the two officers of the Park Police SWAT
team that had conducted the arrests, all of which demonstrated
that such actions represented no threat to their own or the
public's safety, nor represented a threat to the statue,
nonetheless found both guilty of a violation of the Federal
ordinance. In doing so, he rejected all evidence of the First
Amendment character of the campaign Bevel and Chaitkin have led
to have the symbol of Freemasonic and Confederate control in
America removed.
   Then arguing that such an act was ``civil disobedience, in
having yourselves arrested to advance your political cause,''
which both the defendants had strenuously argued was not their
intent, nor the real issue in the case, Lamberth sentenced Rev.
Bevel and Mr. Chaitkin to seven days in the District of Columbia
jail. Both refused to allow the judge to exercise the option to
stay execution of their sentences pending appeal.
   Mr. Chaitkin, upon being judged guilty by Lamberth, stated:
"It's amazing that a man who swore allegiance to a white racist
secret society would not recuse himself from this case... You're
going to have to face the consequences of this disgusting
decision!"
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         John Covici
          cov...@ccs.covici.com