From: Marc Perkel
Date: July 17, 2003
Subject: CIA Pressued to Lie for Bush

CIA Director George Tenet told members of Congress that a White House official insisted that Bush's State of the Union address include a claim that Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy nuclear material.

Senator Dick Durbin said Tenet named the White House official. The senator refused to say who it was for reasons of confidentiality, but suggested that Bush name the person responsible for one of the major lies used to start the war with Iraq.

I believe that although only one person from the White House actually pressured the CIA to create a lie for Bush, that the entire Bush regime supported the lies.

And in support of my belief I predict that Bush will not reveal who Tenet is referring to because it's all a lie.

The war is a lie.

The economy is a lie.

And American freedom is a lie. America is in really deep trouble -- and we are living a lie.

From: Robert Lederman
Date: July 17, 2003
Subject: A win for street artists and the First Amendment in New York City

The 2nd circuit Federal Appeals Court has just issued a ruling in Lederman et al v Giuliani completely in favor of the street artists. The ruling deals with the Parks Department artist-permit which a lower Federal court (Judge Lawrence M. McKenna) overturned in August 2001. This lawsuit has two parts, the Parks artist permit issue and a different issue involving Mayor Giuliani targeting Robert Lederman and other members of A.R.T.I.S.T. for false arrest at protests throughout the City. Lederman is best known as the creator of thousands of paintings and signs about Mayor Giuliani's policies resembling a police state. He was arrested more than 40 times during the Mayor's term in office and never prosecuted.

This ruling brings to an end 5 1/2 years of litigation challenging the Parks Department artist permit. The remaining section of this lawsuit about Mayor Giuliani, Robert Lederman and the other Lederman plaintiffs is still expected to go to trial.

The 2nd circuit ruling below confirms exactly what the plaintiffs told the City years BEFORE they created the artist permit in 1998; that it directly violated the 1996 Bery/Lederman decision following a similar lawsuit brought by many of the same plaintiffs (you can find more information at FindLaw.com).

Exactly as in the previous lawsuit, the Giuliani administration and its legal advisors determined their license/permit requirement was both Unconstitutional and illegal in that it directly violated existing NYC law.

The administration then aggressively pursued a knowingly-false arrest policy against street artists, repeatedly arresting them, confiscating and destroying their art then dismissing every single case.

Today is a great day for artists' rights. This new ruling further affirms the principle that visual art is fully protected by the First Amendment and that the City cannot arbitrarily create a license or permit scheme to restrict artists in violation of freedom of speech.

For more information and numerous articles and documents from this lawsuit, see http://baltech.org/lederman/.