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Is Briana Waters a terrorist?
In an alarming case, U.S. attorneys exploited post-9/11 counterterrorism policies to pursue and prosecute an environmental activist.
By Tracy Tullis [2008-03-27]

  • @ stackey-dackey: but it seems to me that the two woman who made a deal were probably equal to Waters in culpability

    Let's clarify something: the two woman were plea bargaining - they pled guilty. Waters pled not guilty. We have an admission of guilt from the two informants as to their culpability and we also have the fact according to Ms. Tullis that "the government's case against Waters rested heavily on the testimony of two informants". They implicated Waters for a reduced sentence, one of them only after four or five interviews in which she hadn't.

    That doesn't mean absolutely that Waters wasn't involved but you get it backwards when you say they "were probably equal to Waters in culpability". She may, in fact, have been unjustly accused.

    But you're right to bring up the efficacy of the "roll over" method. The idea has been corrupted and rather than being utilized, especially in drug cases, to move up the food chain to nab "kingpins" it has become a way for people caught red-handed to reduce their sentences simply by implicating someone else which, besides easing their burden, also ensures more convictions for prosecutors.

    Here's what Ofra Bikel producer of "Snitch" said in an interview:

    What disturbed you the most about these laws?

    A lot of things disturbed me. Starting with the fact that the only way to escape a huge sentence is to rat on someone, and ending with the fact that you don't have to have any drugs in evidence in order to be convicted on federal drug charges. Informants' testimony is enough. You can get 30 to life in prison because some people said they used to deal drugs with you, nothing more. This was very hard for me to accept. It made me think of all the things that we hated so much in the Soviet system: family members informing on family members, a friend rats on a friend. Now we are encouraged to do it, and we are doing it. We are quickly becoming a society of informants, and this can't be good for us.

    You can check it out here:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/

    -- Reilly
    [Read Reilly's other letters]
    Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:30 AM
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