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Coming Soon! From Common Courage Press Recent Stories June 2, 2003 Arundhati Roy Day of the Jackals Norman Madarasz Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom Alain Frachon and Daniel Vernet The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter Anthony Gancarski Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now Standard Schaefer Wasted at the Pentagon Jason Leopold Rocky's Advice to the Dems Guthrie & Albert HUAC 58 Years Letter Steve Perry The Politics of Terror Alerts   May 31, 2003 Alexander Cockburn A Whiner Called Horowitz Gary Leupp The Frauds of War Dave Lindorff Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment Tom Stephens Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied? Sasan Fayazmanesh Who Is Next? Joanne Mariner Trivializing Terrorism Wayne Madsen Ayatollah Rumseld's Busy Week Larry Magnuson Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard? Elaine Cassel Wake Up, America! Gila Svirsky Waiting for the Lament to End Susan Davis Kitchen Dreams Chris Clarke Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite Chris Floyd Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God Adam Engel Gravity's End Zone Poets' Basement Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert   May 30, 2003 Ben Tripp Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda Neve Gordon The Bad Fence Todd Steiner Endangered Ocean Robert Freeman Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity Sean Carter Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions Daniel Bacher How Bush's War Violated International Laws Tariq Ali Re-Colonizing Iraq Steve Perry Bush Wars Web Log   May 29, 2003 CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Jason Leopold Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime Ron Jacobs Popular Uprising, Inc. Michelle Ciaccorra Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do Yves Engler The Economics of Health Care in America: Pay More to Die Sooner Kimberly Blaker Vouchers for Jesus Harry Browne Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at the Top of the IRA Stew Albert Cops of the World Steve Perry Greens 04: In or Out?   May 28, 2003 David Vest DubyaCo.: It's Not So Funny Any More Dave Lindorff My Grandfather's Medal John Stanton America's Dying: Arts and Philosophy Hold the Key Bernard Weiner A PNAC Primer Robert Jensen Texas Dems Set a Standard for the Rest of the Party Ahmad Faruqui The Oil Business of Regime Change: the CIA and Iran Hammond Guthrie Disarming Conundrums Steve Perry What If There's No Such Thing as Al-Qaeda?   May 27, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli Myths Anthony Gancarski Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love? Patrick Cockburn Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad John Chuckman an Interpretation of Bush's Character Kathleen Christison What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets Jeffrey Blankfort AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap Steve Perry Trouble in the Hinterlands   May 26, 2003 Franklin C. Spinney Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism Elaine Cassel Supreme Sacrifice Sam Hamod When Trained Killers Return Home Stew Albert The Final Conflict   May 24 / 25, 2003 Gary Leupp The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss and the Neo-Cons Uri Avnery The Hannibal Procedure Diane Christian Who's the Real Enemy? "Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards" Alexander Cockburn Derrida's Double Life William S. Lind Is Saddam Really Out of the Game? William Cook Road to Nowhere David Krieger Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice Ilan Pappe Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel Wayne Madsen American Idle Noah Leavitt Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields Walt Brasch Americans are Liars Lenni Brenner John Brown and Dutch Bill Mickey Z. Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda Michael Ortiz Hill Grievous Harm Here and Abroad Adam Engel Towers of Babel Poets' Basement Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski   May 23, 2003 Standard Schaefer Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits? Ron Jacobs Long Live People's Park! Michael Greger, MD Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply at Risk Elaine Cassel Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt." Sam Hamod The Shi'a of Iraq Christopher Greeder After the Layoffs (poem) Steve Perry Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23         Hot Stories CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

June 6, 2003 Indicting Martha Stewart Why Martha and Not Ken Lay? By SEAN CARTER Shortly after Martha Stewart's indictment for obstruction of justice, perjury and securities fraud, the questions started: "Is she being unfairly singled out for a common crime? Is she the victim of a male-wing conspiracy? Can you really build a home entertainment center out of Popsicle sticks and a bottle of Elmer's Glue?" Well, after reading the criminal indictment, I have to say that the answer to the first two questions seems to be "Yes." According to the federal government, Martha Stewart sold shares of a biotech company, ImClone, after receiving a tip from her broker's assistant that the company's CEO was selling all of his shares. Even if these allegations are true, it only proves one thing - I need a new stockbroker. I can only dream about having such a helpful stockbroker. I can't even get my broker to return my calls; nevertheless tip me off about bad news before it happens. When Stewart's broker finally gets out of jail, he will have at least one client - me. Nevertheless, if these allegations are true, then Stewart is guilty of insider trading. As a general rule, the crime of insider trading occurs when someone buys or sells shares of a company based on non-public (or inside) information. So why wasn't Stewart charged with this more serious crime of insider trading? I suspect the reason is because federal prosecutors aren't convinced that they can prove her guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt." Instead, the SEC filed a civil complaint against Stewart for insider trading. The standard of proof in a civil action is not beyond a reasonable doubt but rather by a preponderance of the evidence. Or in other words, in the civil case, the SEC will only have to prove that Stewart likely committed insider trading. Nevertheless, despite the fact that a civil verdict against Stewart could impose hefty fines, federal prosecutors feel they need to make more of a statement in this case. Therefore, they are charging Stewart with covering up the crime that she hasn't been formally accused of committing. According to the indictment, Stewart lied to investigators, falsified records and conspired with her stockbroker to concoct a bogus story. In other words, she is accused of acting like a normal human being. The most human thing in the world is to cover up our wrong doings. In fact, I think it was Ben Franklin who said, "If at first you're not believed, lie, lie again." Or maybe it was Bill Clinton. And although I can't condone Stewart's actions, I'm not sure that they should be treated as separate crimes. For instance, let's take the allegation that she lied to the FBI. Of course, she lied to the FBI. What sane person admits to the FBI that they've committed a crime? Yet, lying to investigators isn't usually considered a separate crime. For instance, O.J. Simpson wasn't charged with a separate count of obstruction for coming up with that ridiculous "I was in the backyard chipping golf balls in the dark" alibi. Second, Stewart is accused of deleting phone records to prevent the FBI from learning the truth. Once again, this is pretty common. For instance, bank robbers often dump the getaway car. However, we don't charge them with obstruction of justice for doing so. We understand that they are supposed to dump the getaway car - it's one of the rules. Likewise, Stewart was simply playing by the rules. The government's job is to capture criminals and the criminal's job is to avoid capture. However, in this case, Stewart is being charged with the crime of not helping the government convict her. This seems strange even by John Ashcroft standards. Now, please don't misunderstand me. I'm not condoning insider trading. However, the government can't seem to prove its criminal insider trading case. Therefore, it has fallen back on obstruction, perjury and securities fraud as a way to get a conviction of some kind. But why? Is Martha Stewart a dangerous person that we must somehow get off the streets? Sure, Stewart is annoying, smug and greedy but so are most of our children. Yet, we don't usually indict them (although perhaps we should). The simple truth about this case is that there are lies, damn lies and obstruction of justice. Of the three, obstruction of justice is by far the most understandable. Therefore, instead of spending countless hours trying Martha Stewart, perhaps federal prosecutors could better spend that time pursuing real criminals on Wall Street like the people behind Enron, Adelphia and my stockbroker. Sean Carter is a lawyer, comedian, public speaker and the author of If It Does Not Fit, Must You Acquit? Your Humorous Guide to the Law. He can be reached at www.lawpsided.com. Today's Features Arundhati Roy Day of the Jackals Norman Madarasz Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato, Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom Alain Frachon and Daniel Vernet The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter Anthony Gancarski Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now Standard Schaefer Wasted at the Pentagon Jason Leopold Rocky's Advice to the Dems Guthrie & Albert HUAC 58 Years Letter Steve Perry The Politics of Terror Alerts   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /