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The following information is from the Winds.
The idea of political prisoners and the abuse they suffer at the
hands of their government is not a new one to the majority of the
American public. When the concept is presented, it usually brings
forth visions of the old Soviet gulags or the horrors of Southeast
Asia. The possibility that America would have such a thing as a
"political prisoner" within its own borders would be, to the majority of
this nation's citizens, considered the substance of right wing, militia
or separatist paranoia.
A former twelve-term Republican congressman from Idaho,
however, has different ideas as to where one could find this
scenario being played out. Former GOP Congressman, George
Hansen, has been referred to on as many as 2,500 talk-radio
stations across the country as "America's most famous political
prisoner", according to the "U.S. Citizens Human Rights
Commission."
"The odyssey of George Hansen in the nation's legal system,"
claims the Mission Statement of that organization, "is so brutal that it
makes him the natural spokesman to the nation and the world of the
terror experienced by thousands of Americans each year as they
are ground under the heel of a ruthless justice system run amok."
The group, as its name implies, was established to provide recourse
to remedy against suspected or actual human rights violations.
Their Mission Statement, however, denotes a different approach to
the subject than most are familiar with. Instead of the standard
application to human rights, i.e., addressing immigrants', minorities'
or children's rights, etc., their declared purpose is for "publicly
exposing and eliminating the wave of violence and killings of
Americans everywhere at the hands of government law enforcement
officers and officials of the judiciary."
Such claims would seem questionable, at best, were it not for the
fact that this fourteen-year veteran of Congress and former Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agriculture under Nixon
has himself been the focus of "political retribution."
The newspaper, The Idaho Observer, stated that "Seven-term U.S.
Congressman, George Hansen (R. Idaho) was punished severely
for having the audacity to implement a plan which would make
Congress instantly accountable to the American public.
"Hansen, author of To Harass Our People, an indictment of the IRS,
was also the architect of the Congressional Accountability Project
(CAP) which was...to use national TV and a 1-900 number to
instantly post congressional floor votes and public response to
them."
This legislation met with a hostile congressional response and
began a series of events in the life of the congressman that makes
the term "bizarre" seem woefully inadequate.
The real substance of Rep. Hansen's nightmare began when
James Cole, special counsel to the House Ethics Committee (the
same special prosecutor assigned to deal with Newt Gingrich's
ethics case), went after Hansen on alleged violation of Title 18 sec.
1001 of the United States Code. He was accused of lying to the
government by omitting specific information on his financial
disclosure statement. Even after the Supreme Court handed down
its decision, years later, vacating Hansen's conviction and calling the
litigation a "wrongful prosecution", Cole was still presenting his
handling of the Hansen case as his preeminent qualification in order
to be assigned the Gingrich matter. After successfully receiving the
case, a story published by Associated Press included a photograph
of Cole with the caption, "APPOINTED. Special counsel James M.
Cole made a name by prosecuting a congressman who falsified his
disclosure forms,"--the AP still apparently ignorant that Hansen was
declared innocent of the charge by the highest court in the land.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
In an extensive interview with The WINDS, Rep. Hansen detailed
the chronology of events, up to and including his torture and
incarceration by federal marshals. The following is that chronology.
Congressman Hansen's trouble really began, he told this reporter,
about 1964. "I'd been in a running battle with the Feds for years
because I don't like what they do to people--so they tried to take me
down. The big part started in 1975.
"The IRS came after me with their criminal division." Other
congressmen, Hansen alleges, "had the IRS foil their re-election
bids claiming they evaded taxes, thus labeling them as 'scoff- laws',
a term used to imply that the legislators thought that they were
above the law, "something the American people don't like". "In my
case," Hansen says, "my people [his electorate] knew better. They
[the IRS] were after me with criminal [proceedings] for three years
and they finally had to give me back $10,000 in overpaid taxes.
Then they got their 'big brother', the Department of Justice, to come
after me on campaign contributions. When that didn't work, they
[pursued] ethics violations like they did with Newt Gingrich which
also didn't work.
Then they claimed I didn't report my wife for [income] tax purposes."
The method the government used that finally resulted in a
"successful" prosecution, the congressman told The WINDS, was
when they took him to downtown Washington, D.C.
"where," Hansen says, "you could indict a ham sandwich," and was
indeed indicted for "failure to report" under the previously stated
U.S. Code. "As a result of this I ended up in and out of jail for a
ten-year period--four years solid time behind prison bars. Finally the
Supreme Court" handed down a decision in May of 1995 claiming
that the case was a "wrongful prosecution"--translation: it should
never have been brought to court.
During his incarceration Rep. Hansen was subjected to what
federal inmates refer to as "Diesel Therapy," so named because of
the continuous transport by diesel-powered vehicles. This takes
place in transit to or from whatever detention facility to which the
prisoner is ultimately assigned. The congressman detailed this form
of "institutionalized torture" for The WINDS. The reader should be
advised that the incidents described therein depict graphic details
that some may find extremely disturbing. Also in the following
account it is well to remember that this treatment was being
perpetrated upon a 63 year-old man.
"When they chain you up, legs and wrists, they put a thing called a
stiffener on those they don't like. That's a small black box slightly
larger than a pack of cigarettes. This is placed on the chains
between the handcuffs and makes them rigid so your arms can't
move. Then they run a chain from your arms and fasten it to your
waist. When they do that it pulls your arms from a normal 180-
degree angle to 90 degrees, putting your arms in a bind which cuts
into the nerves of your wrists so badly that, the result is, after an
extended period of time like that, it requires weeks and sometimes
months to get feeling and circulation back to your hands--and pretty
much the same for your feet."
After placing these manacles on hands and feet, "they strap you into
a seat and you're so bound up with chains that if you have to go to
the bathroom, you can't do anything about it. You can't pull your
pants down or do anything to relieve yourself."
According to Hansen, the vehicles he was transported in reeked of
urine and feces because the prisoners were chained in that position
for twenty hours a day, forcing them to accommodate their bodily
functions without access to sanitation facilities.
"The best thing you could do," Hansen advised others, "is the
Biblical act of fasting. If you don't eat and don't drink, you don't have
to go to the bathroom. They do this to you for four or five weeks at a
time; they put you in chains about two in the morning, you get out
about ten at night. And when you're bigger than average [Rep.
Hansen is 6'6"], you're wedged in, sitting there twenty hours a day
and you can't move your legs. Because the shackles cut off the
return blood flow from your lower extremities, soon your legs fill with
blood, especially when you're 63 years-old as I was then. Then you
get to walk around with two barrels full of blood where your calves
and lower legs should be.
"The result of this is that your feet swell and become two to three
sizes too large for your shoes. [Hansen claims that the marshals
intentionally provided him with shoes several sizes too small]. This
causes your toes to jam into the ends of your shoes and blood
blisters form underneath your toenails. They then start growing
straight up and to the side in the most grotesque manner. You can't
believe what happens under those conditions. Your toes turn to
knobs, becoming very disfigured, making it impossible to wear
shoes. The only way I could get shoes on was to pull my toenails
out by the roots, myself, with pliers. I now have ten toes without
nails.
"Because of the blood pooling in my shins for such extended
periods of time, if I just skinned them, on the back of a seat or
something, it formed open sores that didn't heal for as long as a
year and a half. I couldn't get any medical attention because of their
attitude toward me. They were trying to send me a message.
"I found a foil container in the garbage with a couple of, what used to
be, iodine swabs all dried out. I put some water on it to try to
activate what was left of the iodine and applied that to the sores. It
did cause some coagulating and eventually, after some time, healed
over.
"My legs looked like they were beaten with two-by-fours. When I
went to Iran several years before, I was the only public official to get
into the country during the hostage crisis, and that's what they
showed me the Shah had been doing to his people.
If they didn't like what you were doing, they would smash your shins
with boards and pull your nails out and break your teeth. I went to
Congress recently and detailed what happened in Iran and told them
I didn't even have to leave the country--I got the job done down the
road about a hundred miles--right here in the United States of
America. It shook them up pretty badly.
"The way they smashed my teeth out is they isolated me, arbitrarily,
to a place where I had no communication with the outside world.
They placed me where I had to do chemical testing on extremely
hazardous substances with absolutely no protection.
That caused my bones and teeth to go soft. I ended up with twenty-
four teeth breaking off at the gum line. For three years I was not
allowed to see a dentist. So far, it has cost me about $14,000 to try
to repair my mouth. My dentist says I'm a dental cripple for life
because the chemicals eroded not only my teeth, but my jawbone
and gums. I went through about the same thing they do in a foreign
prison. I got it done a little differently, but the results were the
same."
The actual "diesel therapy", Hansen says, is for the purpose of
isolating a prisoner from the rest of the world for extended periods of
time by keeping him in transit.
This is a form of physical and emotional torture somewhat akin to
sleep deprivation and brainwashing, but with much more serious
physiological consequences.
"I saw the U.S.A. in a different way," he continued, "I surrendered to
custody in Pocatello, went to Blackfoot [Idaho], down to Salt Lake
City, Davis County jail, was put on an airplane, went to Seattle,
down to Sacramento, to Phoenix, over to Lompoc, down to Los
Angeles, back to Phoenix then to Lompoc again then to Los Angeles
and San Diego--all at taxpayer expense- -then up to Denver and
down to Oklahoma City to El Reno [detention facility] then to Atlanta,
then hopscotched up the coast by bus to several jails and prisons till
I reached Petersburg Federal Correctional Institution in Virginia
where I stayed. That was one "diesel therapy" trip," which, Hansen
said, took over a month.
When later released, the process was done in reverse, the
congressman told this office, to transport him to a parole hearing in
Boise.
Upon presentation of the requirements and restrictions of his parole,
Rep. Hansen informed the parole board he would not accept the
terms of financial reporting because it would reveal the names of
people he was representing who were experiencing difficulties with
the government. This would result in the betrayal of those people,
Hansen claimed, and he told them if they didn't like it, "I'll just stay
here and serve more time." The parole board acceded to his
demands in writing then, according to Hansen, "ten days later they
told me, 'we can't do that.' I said, 'You already did'. I was already
released. I told them that if they didn't like it, to put me back in
prison. They said they couldn't unless I violated the terms of my
parole. 'I'll tell you what,'" he informed the parole board, "'I will live
up the terms I signed out on and you do what you want to do.'"
When asked what they would do if he violated their version of his
parole--whether they would notify him so he could present himself
and surrender, or if they would send the marshals after him with
guns and chains, they told him they would notify him to surrender.
"That was a lie," Hansen said.
HANSON GETS ARRESTED FOR GOING TO CHURCH
"I went to my own church on a Sunday morning and sat right beside
a federal marshal who was also a member of the congregation.
That became my parole violation—going to my own church in my
own home town--because they didn't approve my travel, even
though they signed an agreement that said they wouldn't restrict my
travel. They just make up the rules as they go along," he said.
While addressing a church congregation in Omaha, Nebraska,
Hansen claims black cars began prowling the parking lot,
helicopters appeared overhead, "the next thing I knew," he said, "I
was in chains and they had changed my name to Fredrick Smith,
heisted me off in the dead of night in a Lear jet, all at the expense of
the taxpayer. They took me to an abandoned jail where I spent
Good Friday and Easter Sunday. My wife couldn't find me,
Congress couldn't find me, my attorney couldn't find me and the
media couldn't find me. I was just a lost soul for several days while
they had me strapped to a wall in an old jail."
"That's our government," the congressman added with a note of
sadness.
The purpose of the aforementioned treatment, he claims, was to
send him a message not to mess with their system. "They take you
out on the road where you have no communication with anybody.
You can't write, you can't call, you can't be called--you're lost" where
no legal process can intervene. "They get away with it because it is
also a form of transferring prisoners."
It could be effectively argued that "diesel therapy" is an ingenious
method of blowing a very large hole in Article 1, Section 9 of the
Constitution which says, "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or
invasion the public safety may require it." When a legal system does
what Rep. Hansen claims was done to him, it has effectively
abolished the "privilege of the writ of habeas corpus" which
historically extends through the U.S. Constitution back in time to the
Magna Carta, A.D. 1215.
"When they kill people out there, and they do, " Hansen continued,
"and there are instances I'm thoroughly familiar with where they've
killed people while they've been in transit--what they will do then is to
take everyone who has witnessed the killing and scatter them
throughout the huge jail system they run around the country so they
can't communicate with one another. They then give themselves
enough time for a court hearing to substantiate that the death was
accidental."
After the Supreme Court declared Congressman Hansen innocent
of any wrongdoing and that his case should never have been
prosecuted, it still took the former legislator eight months to be
released. When he applied to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco for the vacating of his sentence, and his release was
imminent, the Justice Department, Hansen asserts, in one more bid
to harass the former Congressman claimed, "'we think there are
some technicalities you haven't looked at', and kept it going from
May to Christmas. Then, the lower court judge decided, rather than
to release me to travel on my own across the country to be present
at a release hearing, which was nothing more than a proforma
matter [administrative technicality], he had to jerk me around, put
me back on "diesel therapy" and go back through the whole system
again."
That lower court judge that Rep. Hansen claims made this final jab
at him was Edward Lodge, the same judge against whom petitions
for malfeasance of office are being presented to the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals for, among other things, his alleged judicial
mishandling of the Randy Weaver/Ruby Ridge affair.
This "odyssey" of former U.S. Representative George Hansen is
apparently not an isolated instance of abuse by federal authorities of
those to whom they desire to "send a message." Recently, such a
case has come to light concerning Whitewater defendant, Susan
McDougal.
SUSAN MCDOUGAL GETS THE TREATMENT
Whether or not one agrees with McDougal's refusal to testify before
the Whitewater investigators or whether Special Prosecutor,
Kenneth Starr was justified in pressing contempt of court charges on
her, McDougal's situation can certainly be scrutinized and cited as a
likely example of, as Rep. Hansen puts it, "a legal system run
amok."
A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (McDougal v.
Ramon) charges that:
Since December 1996, [McDougal] has been held in isolation, under
lock-down up to 23 hours per day, while other inmates, even those
charged with serious violent crimes, are allowed 12 hours a day
outside their cells; [she is] consistently kept in handcuffs when other
inmates have not been; variously denied visitation, medical visits,
worship services, reading materials, and even a Bible; forced to
wear a red jail uniform reserved for despised informants and baby
killers; forced to endure the spectacle of male prisoners taunting
her, exposing themselves and masturbating in front of her without
intervention from guards.
"The abusive treatment of Ms. McDougal by Mr. Starr's office," said
Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director of the ACLU Foundation of
Southern California, "must be the subject of a congressional
investigation to ensure that, in the future, no federal prosecutor be
permitted to wield authority in so brutish and inhuman a manner."
In July of this year, "the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit charging that
the United States Government was holding McDougal illegally in the
L.A. jail to punish her for refusing to testify to investigators in the
Whitewater affair. U.S. Marshall Michael Ramon was named in the
lawsuit because he had technical custody over McDougal."
Quoting from an ACLU press release, "McDougal's continued
confinement in the L.A. County jail, despite the state court order
releasing her, was designed to break her spirit and force her to
testify before the Whitewater Special Prosecutor."
Could it not be logically reasoned that all that kept Susan McDougal
from receiving the "diesel therapy" to which Hansen was subjected
was that she was a much higher profile figure, being more closely
scrutinized by the public? This certainly would make the degree of
abuse Congressman Hansen experienced impractical in
McDougal's case, from the point of view of the federal marshals.
When Rep. Hansen was asked if he had any future plans to regain
his congressional seat, the veteran legislator, who not once
displayed a note of bitterness over his ordeal, simply replied, "My
wife says if I ever run for anything again it had better be the border."
If one looks objectively at these instances, would it not seem to
stretch the fabric of statistical probabilities to the breaking point to
suggest that these occurrences are the only ones, and that they just,
by chance, came to public attention? Perhaps no more unlikely than
one viewing an iceberg and concluding that it stops at the waterline,
merely because the remainder of it is lost to view.
The description of Congressman Hansen's ordeal and that of Susan
McDougal as they were "ground under the heel of a ruthless justice
system run amok", most clearly depicts the methods of those
charting the course of the New World Order. They will brook no
departure from their purposes nor obstruction to them. They are
startlingly reminiscent of the biblical description from the pen of the
prophet Daniel when he described such a "ruthless" power:
After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron
teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with
the feet of it. Daniel 7:7
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