Washington Peace Letter
The Washington Peace Letter is published monthly for the social justice community of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It's purpose is to support local, national and international struggles against oppression. It seeks to present a radical analysis of current events, covering information not readily available in the corporate media.
The Peace Letter welcomes submissions of calendar announcements, articles, letters to the Editor , and artwork from the progressive community. Articles may be from 300-1200 words, but may be edited for space considerations. Preference is given to materials that cover actions or organizing campaigns in the D.C, metropolitan area.
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Activists Sentenced to Long PrisonTerms
by Holly Syrrakos
March 1999
Volume 36 Number 2
Kurt Stand and Terry Squillacote, convicted in October of espionage-related charges, were sentenced January 20 in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. Stand received a sentence of 17.5 years, Squillacote, 21.5 years. The case is being appealed to the 4th Circuit Federal Appeals Court based in Richmond, Va.
The convictions resulted from an FBI sting that used information on Squillacote’s mental state gathered through wiretapping and bugging of their home, authorized by the secret court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In a virtually unparalleled act of cruelty, the FBI exploited Squillacote’s emotional health as revealed through the surveillance, which included telephone conversations with her psychiatrist. The phone taps and secret searches of their home enabled the FBI to run a successful “false flag” operation in which an agent purported to represent the government of South Africa seeking Squillacote’s assistance. During the trial, the government admitted it had no evidence that the couple had ever passed classified information to a foreign power.
The defense asked Judge Claude Hilton to issue sentences substantially below the federal guidelines for espionage cases for several reasons. First, the documents Squillacote gave the undercover agent were largely in the public domain and no harm was done to the security of the United States. Furthermore, Squillacote suffers from borderline personality disorder and possibly depression, conditions that should mitigate the punishment otherwise due under the statute. Stand’s attorneys argued that his minimal role in the sting merited a downward departure from the guidelines.
The prosecutor and the Department of Justice, angered by the defendants’ decision to go to trial, requested sentences at the high end of the guidelines, along with fines. Judge Hilton sentenced Stand and Squillacote at the low end of the range and did not impose fines. Under federal “truth-in-sentencing” laws, Stand and Squillacote will have to serve 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for parole, unless granted a new trial at an appeals level.
For information on FISA and this case, write to the Fund for the Fourth Amendment, P.O. Box 5685, Washington, DC 20016 or call 202-829-6167.
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