Bush Political Prisoner Gets Her Day in Court

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Bush Political Prisoner Gets Her Day in Court

Susan Lindauer, accused "unregistered" agent and
the judge who rescued her from forced psychiatric
medication, now U.S. Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey.

American Cassandra: Susan Lindauer's Story

Michael Collins
Washington, D.C.

Susan Lindauer has a scheduled hearing at the federal district court in Manhattan on June 17, 2008. Just a year after the Iraq invasion, April 2004, Lindauer was charged with serving as an "unregistered agent" for that nation's government prior to the U.S. invasion. Lindauer countered that she'd worked as an asset for U.S. intelligence and had simply done her job by predicting the risks and negative outcomes of the planned invasion.

She later came to the conclusion that her indictment was a harsh example for any intelligence operatives or figures thinking about taking on the Bush administration in public - stay silent or you'll experience the same fate.

"Above all, you must realize that if you go ahead with this invasion, Osama bin Laden will triumph, rising from his grave of seclusion. His network will be swollen with fresh recruits and other charismatic individuals will seek to build on his model multiplying those networks. And the United States will have delivered the death blow to itself." Susan Lindauer's last letter to Andrew Card, Jan. 6, 2003

The passage above is from the last of ten letters Lindauer sent to her second cousin, Andrew Card, then White House Chief of Staff, from 2001 through 2003. She also delivered the last letter to then Secretary of State Collin Powell (who lived next door to her CIA handler).

A year after her last letter to Card, Lindauer contacted staff for Senator John McCain and Senator Trent Lott offering to testify before the committees investigating intelligence activities prior to the Iraq invasion. At that point, the government turned her file over to a grand jury. Lindauer notes, "They failed to tell the grand jury that I'd been working for them for nine years." (Image cc)

Lindauer was convinced that the charges would be resolved in her favor through the legal process. Instead, she was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation despite her strong objections. She was never tried. Court appointed psychiatrists told her that claims of innocence constituted a delusion. She offered these mental health professionals contacts and other evidence to prove her claim that she worked for the U.S. government. No one got back to her.

After a period of freedom under court supervision, Judge Michael V. Mukasey (the future U.S. Attorney General), ordered Lindauer to spend no more than four months in the federal prison facility at Carswell Air Force Base, Ft. Worth, Texas.

During her time at Carswell, the staff psychiatrist repeatedly suggested to her that she take powerful psychiatric medication to cure what were called "delusions," her claims that she'd worked as a U.S. asset and was innocent of all charges. She refused, all the while maintaining her innocence.

The U.S. Attorney's office, Southern District, Manhattan, then moved for the forced administration of unspecified psychiatric medication to allow for a "fair trial." The prosecutor argued that a fair trial was not possible without this medical intervention directed at her "delusions" of innocence..

Judge Mukasey presided over the hearing. After evaluating the evidence, he refused to order the forced administration of medication. He ordered that Lindauer be set free. The case was continued.

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