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Today's Stories December 17 / 18, 2005 Gabriel Kolko The Decline of the American Empire December 16, 2005 Tom Kerr CNN's Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace? Mark Engler The WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty? John Bomar When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs Patrick Cockburn Iraq Votes; Now What? Pierre Tristam Iraq, Ourselves William S. Lind The Fine Art of Withdrawal Cyril Neville Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans Robert Jensen Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design Saul Landau Bolivian Democracy and the US: a History Lesson Website CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies   December 15, 2005 Oren Ben-Dor The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine Stan Cox "Agroterrorists" Needn't Bother Joshua Frank Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics Ben Terrall Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals Patrick Cockburn Silence Descends on Baghdad Monica Benderman What Peace Needs Walter A. Davis Fear and Loathing in San Quentin Vijay Prashad Our Torture Problem Website of the Day Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery" December 14, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Iran Poised to Win Iraqi Elections Paul Craig Roberts Lethal Developments Lawrence R. Velvel A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward Wayne Garcia The Summer of Sami John Sugg Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors Gary Leupp Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper" Ray McGovern Torture: a Defining Moment Alan Maass They Murdered a Peacemaker April Hurley, MD NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead Kevin Alexander Gray Richard Pryor's Mirror on America   December 13, 2005 Stephen T. Banko, III Heroes Patrick Cockburn America's War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong Laura Carlsen What's at Play at the WTO Karl Grossman Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Original Sin Kevin Zeese Report from the International Peace Conference in London Norman Solomon At the Gates of San Quentin Michael G. Smith Ending the Death Penalty Stew Albert California Killers Bob Dylan Song for Tookie: George Jackson Phil Gasper California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin Website of the Day Boot Hill   December 12, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts The Defenders of Torture Lawrence R. Velvel George the Disconnected Jessica Stewart My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo George Bisharat Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds Nate Mezmer Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does It Make a Sound? Earl Ofari Hutchinson Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy Alison Weir My Bethlehem Experience Seth Sandronsky Thank You, Richard Pryor Patrick Cockburn Iraq: the Beginning of the End Website of the Day Wrestling for Peace December 10 / 11, 2005 Alexander Cockburn All the News That's Fit to Buy Landau / Hassen The Condemned of Nablus Ralph Nader The Widening Wasteland of American Media Linn Washington, Jr The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore Bill Christison Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day Mike Ferner The Courage of Jim Loney Elizabeth Schulte Abortion and the Bush Court Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner Murder in Jerusalem Linda S. Heard Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd Ingmar Lee A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest Ray McGovern Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice John Chuckman Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice John Ryan An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and US Foreign Policy Dick J. Reavis From Waco to Baghdad Christopher Brauchli Bush's Hired Pens Behzad Yaghmaian Trapped at the Gates of the European Union Aseem Shrivastava The Winter in Delhi, 1984 John Ross Bushlandia in Black and White Ben Tripp War, What is It Good For? St. Clair / Pollack / Vest / Despair Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel Website of the Week Burn a Brick for Bush   December 9, 2005 Linn Washington, Jr. Roots of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home Dave Zirin / Mike Stark On Seeing Wesley Baker Die Patrick Cockburn Blair Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft Alexander Cockburn Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush Lila Rajiva Shooting the Mentally Ill Gary Leupp White House Liars on the Defensive Jason Leopold Rove Running Out of Answers, Time Bruce K. Gagnon So These Are the Democrats? Andrew Cockburn Meet Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper Website of the Day "X-mas Time for Visa"   December 8, 2005 Kathy Kelly Blessed are the Merciful in Baghdad James Petras The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again) William S. Lind Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory Laura Carlsen The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico Justin Akers Bush's Border War Thomas Graham, Jr A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space? Norman Solomon Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn The Lost John Lennon Interview Website of the Day Pigs at the Trough of War   December 7, 2005 John Ryan Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate Gary Leupp Suicide Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq Fran Quigley How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith Bush War Crimes: the Posse Gathers Joshua Frank Bird Dogging Hillary William W. Morgan Rendition, Torture and Democracy Dave Lindorff A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal Patrick Cockburn Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage" Harold Pinter Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture Website of the Day Witnesses to Torture   December 6, 2005 Ron Jacobs No One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel Patrick Cockburn Inside Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder Yifat Susskind Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's AIDS Policy Mike Whitney How Greenspan Skewered America Pat Williams Public Land Should Stay Public Paul Craig Roberts Condi to Europe: Trust Us Website of the Day Debunking Woodward   December 5, 2005 John Walsh The Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did They Know It? Brian Cloughley The Poor Dead: the Relative Value of Human Lives Mokhiber / Weissman The Corporate Crime Quiz Robert Jensen How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment Norman Solomon Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan Peter Rost, MD An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated Federal Laws When They Fired Me Lila Rajiva The Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons Website of the Day National Day of Counter-Recruitment December 3 / 4, 2005 Alexander Cockburn The Revolt of the Generals Lawrence R. Velvel Iraq, Brains and Lies Rev. William Alberts The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod Saul Landau Latino Troops Have Parents Ralph Nader Consumerama Paul Craig Roberts Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts Mike Whitney Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America Allan Lichtman The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government Dave Lindorff A Sudden Rush for the Exits? Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections Fred Gardner Oregon NORML Honors Growers Manuel Garcia, Jr. On Freeing the CPT Carol Wolman Remembering the 60s St. Clair / Vest / Walker / Pollack Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Albert, Engel and Orloski Website of the Weekend Free the CPT   December 2, 2005 Stan Goff An Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad Mike Ferner Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings Over Baghdad? Christopher Brauchli Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma Niranjan Ramakrishnan Questions for the President Manuel Talens The Chávez Theorem Peter Phillips Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Alabama's Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy Website of the Day Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!   December 1, 2005 John Walsh, MD The God Gaps Ron Jacobs Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq? Jenna Orkin EPA's Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero Joshua Frank Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine Tiffany Ten Eyck Rank and File Resistance to Delphi Missy Comley Beattie Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play Eli Stephens The Reed and Kerry Show Elaine Cassel A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla Website of the Day Rare Erotica   November 30, 2005 Allen / D'Amato Incident at Oglala 30 Years Later: the Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier Mike Whitney The Cheerleader at Annapolis Kevin Zeese The Hallucinations of Joe Lieberman Norman Solomon Colin Powell: Still Craven After All These Years Ramzy Baroud Sharon's New Party Dave Lindorff What Happened to All Those Bush/Cheney Bumperstickers? Stephen Soldz Mental Health Workers in Iraq   November 29, 2005 Phil Gasper Live from Death Row: an Interview with Tookie Williams Behzad Yaghmaian The Ghost of Sangatte Joshua Frank Jack Abramoff's Bi-partisan Sleaze Walter A. Davis Life on Death Row: a Monologue Gary Leupp Bush the Dupe? Len Colodny Woodwardgate: Still Protecting the Rightwing Jeffrey St. Clair The Duke and the Enterprise: Randy Cunningham's Crash Landing Bill Quigley Human Rights Leaders Call for Release of Haiti's Political Prisoners Website of the Day Watch Chomsky vs. Dershowitz Live, Tonight at 7PM, EST!   November 28, 2005 Chris Reed The "Bomb Al Jazeera" Documents Trial David Isenberg Cooked Intelligence: the Dog that Didn't Bark Ron Jacobs Contraindications: a Review of Blood on the Border Norman Solomon The Woodward Scandal Must Not Blow Over Justin E.H. Smith Schwarzenegger's Curious Power Mickey Z. Abbie Hoffman at 70: Steal This City Mike Whitney The Pentagon's Domestic Spying Operation David Swanson Is Impeachment an Election Issue? Paul Craig Roberts The Grave Threat of the Bush Administration Website of the Day "Don't Bomb Us!": a Blog by Al Jazeera Staffers   November 26 / 27, 2005 Alexander Cockburn How the Democrats Undercut John Murtha Saul Landau Who We Are: Torture and the Empire Ralph Nader Junk Television: Excluding Voices That Save Lives Brian Cloughley What Are They Dying For? John Ross When a Language Dies Gary Leupp The Nepal Pact Fred Gardner Dr. Denney Goes to Arkansas Christopher Brauchli Compassion for Corporations: Northrup Grumman and Katrina's Victims Dave Lindorff US War Crimes List Keeps Growing P. Sainath See, Neoliberalism Really Works: Net Worth of India's Billionaires Soars! Timothy J. Freeman The Price of Freedom Lila Rajiva Of Mice, Men and GM Peas Eric Ruder Beat the Needle: Saving Tookie Williams Seth Sandronsky Working Toward Whiteness: an Interview with David Roediger Joaquin Bustelo What Really Happened at Mar del Plata Lewis Alper Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?: an Evangelical Christian Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation Will Youmans In Search of Paradise Phyllis Pollack The Stones' Rough Justice in Bush Time St. Clair / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Barbara LaMorticella Poetry and the City of Ideas Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Buknatski, Engel, Albert and Davies Website of the Weekend NLR: The Chequered Rainbow     November 25, 2005 David Price How US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons Against the Japanese Brian McKenna Will Bush Miss the Next Bhopal? Jeff Halper Peretz or Bust? Ray McGovern Will the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal? Leigh Saavedra Thanksgiving at Camp Casey Ingmar Lee How Have the Mighty Fallen? Website of the Day Saving Cathedral Grove   November 24, 2005 James Petras How to Think About War and Peace Bob Shirley Thanksgiving Torture: What the Puritans Fled Mike Fox Torture Survivors Speak for Themselves Niranjan Ramakrishnan Adrift? Perhaps. A Draft? Never! Greg Moses Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality Alexander Cockburn Turkeys in the Larger Scheme of Things   November 23, 2005 Ramzy Baroud The Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean? Mike Whitney Bush, Padilla and Thomas More Stan Cox Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach Americans About Life Under Occupation Linda S. Heard Targeting Al Jazeera November 22, 2005 Kevin Gray / Mike Hersh Maxine Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus Ralph Nader What Do Dems Stand For? Michael Donnelly The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik Mike Ferner The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight Pierre Tristam The Justice Deficit Marshall Auerback Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate Nor Conservative Website of the Day I Don't Like Geldof   November 21, 2005 Mike Marqusee Clinton's Hypocrisies on Iraq Josh Frank Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement Mike Whitney Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations Norman Solomon Getting Out of Iraq Russ Baker Woodward's Weakness Robert Jensen A National Day of Atonement Paul Craig Roberts Lies and Official Secrets   November 19 / 20, 2005 Fred Gardner The Raid on MendoHealing Rep. Cynthia McKinney The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics; Get the Troops Out Now Ron Jacobs A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It? David Vest The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement John R. Bomar Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam Vet on Iraq John Ross The Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico Phillip Cryan Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca Dave Lindorff RIP In These Times Dick J. Reavis The Future of the Daily Press Jeremy Scahill Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal Opposition Dan Wright Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay John Stanton Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism St. Clair / Vest / Walker Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Phyllis Pollack The Stones: Rarities Dr. Susan Block Our Night of Weimar Love Poets Basement Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise   November 18, 2005 Michael Neumann The Palestinians and the Party Line Dave Lindorff Murtha and the L Word Michael Donnelly Black November 15 Mark Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer Uncrucify Them Don Monkerud A Decent Workplace Tom Kerr Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams Trish Schuh Faking the Case Against Syria   November 17, 2005 John Walsh A Fractured Anti-War Movement Rep. John Murtha Iraq Must Be Freed from the US Occupation Brian J. Foley We Are All In GITMO Now CounterPunch News Service Guardian Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes' Slurs Dave Lindorff In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians Mark T. Harris Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport Cockburn / St. Clair From Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward   November 16, 2005 John F. Sugg Al-Arian Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear Noam Chomsky Putting Out the Englightenment Dave Lindorff Shake and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah Evelyn Pringle Laurie Mylroie's War Sam Husseini Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye Pierre Tristam Toturers' Theater Greg Bates Waffling Alito Charms DiFi Farrah Hassen Moustapha AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast Bill Christison Evidence Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars Website of the Day Violent Oscillations   November 15, 2005 Todd Chretien My Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco Leah Caldwell Death of the Jailhouse Press Frederick Hudson Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams Harry Browne Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares Case Jason Leopold Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat Ingmar Lee Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species Diana Barahona Showdown on the Silver Coast Tom Andre New Orleans, Two Months Later Website of the Weekend Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005   November 14, 2005 Diana Johnstone The Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky Paul Craig Roberts Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus Conn Hallinan Provoking Syria: Cambodia All Over Again? Joshua Frank Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel Christopher Reed The Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan   November 11 / 13, 2005 Alexander Cockburn First the Lying, Then the Pardons Gwyneth Leech Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ in the Wake of Abu Ghraib Elmas Mallo Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System Michael Neumann The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation Saul Landau Leakgate: the Screenplay Sam Husseini Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them Brian Cloughley Sleaze, Deceit and Torture Ron Jacobs Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction? Lila Rajiva Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson Michael Donnelly Hypocrisy Watch Joe Allen Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto? Roland Sheppard Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott Justin E.H. Smith Another Monkey Trial? Ben Tripp The Cost of War St. Clair / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel Website of the Weekend Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!     November 10, 2005 Peterside, Ogon, Watts and Zalik Delta Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone Pat Williams Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate? Steve Higgs Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging Jimmy Massey Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth? Lucson Pierre-Charles Haiti: Insanity Takes Over Anthony Newkirk Syria in the Crosshairs Lawrence R. Velvel Why Did Libby Lie? Website of the Day Imperial Margarine November 9, 2005 Gary Leupp The Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology Tariq Ali Blair Defeated on Terror Laws Chris Floyd The Philosopher's Stone Elaine Cassel The Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu Ali Joshua Frank Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day Alison Weir Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You Give Israel a Pass? Diana Johnstone Rage in the Banlieue November 8, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts Still No Jobs Roger Burbach Bush v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat Ron Jacobs An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising Ralph Nader "The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet" Jim McGrath Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day David Bloom McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight Stan Goff Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism         Subscribe Online

December 17, 2005 When Prosecutors Deceive Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis? By FRED GARDNER The judge who sentenced Bryan Epis to 10 years in federal prison now realizes that Epis was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct, according to Brenda Grantland, the lawyer handling Epis's appeal. Epis, 38, was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy to cultivate more than 1,000 cannabis plants. He was granted bail in August 2004, after serving more than 25 months. The government is intent on sending him back to prison. Grantland charges that at Epis's trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong misled the jury and U.S. District Judge Frank Damrell about a crucial piece of evidence--a spreadsheet Epis had drafted in early 1997 when he briefly contemplated opening a dispensary in Silicon Valley. Epis's 16-page business plan for the Silicon Valley dispensary was on the computer that DEA agents confiscated in June, 1997, along with 485 plants, when they raided the 15'-by-15' grow-site Epis maintained in his basement in Chico. Epis had been growing for himself and four other documented medical users, and providing a small surplus (for which he was never remunerated) to a dispensary called Chico Medical Marijuana Caregivers (CMMC). The U.S. Attorney offered Epis a four-year prison term if he'd plead guilty to criminal cultivation. When Epis refused, a conspiracy-to-grow-more-than-a-thousand-plants charge was added (by factoring in plants he planned to grow in the future). None of his alleged co-conspirators were charged. When the case finally came to trial in 2002, the prosecution took a one-page spreadsheet from the Silicon Valley plan and introduced it as evidence of Epis's financial goals for his basement garden in Chico. Wong referred to Epis's "marketing plan" in his opening statement and a DEA agent and a former Butte County Sheriff's deputy made much of the "marketing plan" in their testimony. Epis himself didn't recognize the out-of-context excerpt of a document he'd created more than five years earlier, and he had a hard time on the stand trying to explain it. Epis had not read through the exhibits the prosecution provided the defense as part of pre-trial "discovery" proceedings, and apparently neither had his lawyer, Tony Serra. Epis studied a blow-up of the spreadsheet on the courtroom wall and said he thought it might be a projection of expenses and costs for a group of dispensaries seeking to bring the price down to $20 for an eighth-ounce. The spreadsheet undermined Epis's claim that his cannabis cultivation was not geared towards moneymaking. Wong asked if the spreadsheet was in fact Epis's "marketing plan," and when Epis said no, he introduced into evidence two more pages of the (Silicon Valley) proposal that referred to the spreadsheet as a "marketing plan." The jury took only four hours to find Epis guilty of conspiracy and cultivation (within 1,000 feet of Chico Senior High School). At a sentencing hearing in October 2002, Wong portrayed Epis as "no different than any other drug trafficker that this court has seen and sent to jail." Epis is now 38. At 17 he was in a near-fatal car crash that left him with two compressed vertebrae. Prescription painkillers sapped his energy; marijuana enabled him to function. He got a degree in electrical engineering at Chico State, then a law degree from Cal Northern School of Law. (Epis drafted the elaborate Silicon Valley proposal as an exercise of sorts, putting to use what he'd learned in law school about how to write a business plan.) He never practiced law and doesn't expect to. Damrell sentenced Epis to 10 years, the mandatory minimum, and denied him bail pending appeal. The Sacramento Bee pinpointed Wong's triumphant tactic: "The prosecutor argued that Epis's 'lame story about planning to make only $10 an hour' from the work he did for the dispensary is belied by profit projections on documents he created and which were found in a search of his home. 'What he saw in Proposition 215 was a license to grow and market marijuana to make money,' Wong told Damrell. 'Every time he wrote down something about marijuana, he wrote dollar signs next to it.'" Epis served 25 and a half months in federal custody. After the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December '03 that Angel Raich and Diane Monson could cultivate cannabis for medical use within California, Grantland was able to get Epis out on bail. (It took until August '04.) The Supreme Court's ruling against Raich-Monson in June '05 might have triggered his prompt return to prison if not for the appeal Grantland had mounted in connection with Wong's misconduct. Belated Discovery The night after he'd testified, Epis realized that the damning spreadsheet had been part of his Silicon Valley business plan. A frantic search of his papers turned up most of the 16 pages -but not the spreadsheet itself. Next day Serra submitted the incomplete version to the court as Defense Exhibit A, but Damrell did not accept that the unstapled, out-of-order pages created in WordPerfect were part of the same document as the spreadsheet, which was in color and created in Excel. Serra asked Wong if the Silicon Valley plan had been provided on discovery and Wong replied, according to the transcript: "the two-page document and the one-page document were turned over in discovery." During a recess Serra asked Wong if he could look through the discovery materials (his own set being back in San Francisco), and Wong would not extend the courtesy. In early 2003, Grantland began reviewing the case file. It was incomplete, she realized. She was told by the court reporter that all the government exhibits had been returned to Wong. The court reporter didn't recall there being any defense exhibits. Grantland was told by Serra that during the move of his office from Pier Five to North Beach, various items had been misplaced. (This is a tale of prosecutorial misconduct but the pre-Grantland defense doesn't come off covered with honor.) Among the items Grantland couldn't find was the marked copy of Defense Exhibit A that Serra tried to introduce as evidence at trial. Epis, from prison, "kept insisting that the whole proposal had been among the discovery materials," Grantland says. Also, Epis realized belatedly, a complete version would exist on his confiscated computer. Grantland decided to continue searching and, in a carton that appeared to be unrelated to the case, she found a red notebook full of articles about medical marijuana and ... the entire Silicon Valley proposal, spreadsheet included. The notebook contained 150 pages that DEA agents had printed out from Epis's computer and turned over to the defense in discovery. Also included was a cover letter to Serra's office from Nancy Simpson, the assistant U.S. attorney who preceded Wong on the case, stating that DEA Agent Ron Mancini was in charge of the prosecution evidence. In October, 2003, Damrell conducted a special "Rule 10(e) hearing" to resolve discrepancies in the record. Wong protested Grantland's substitution of the Silicon Valley proposal she'd found among the print-outs for the partial version Serra tried to submit as evidence. Grantland protested Wong's refusal to provide the entire document and his original attempt to mislead the court about the nature of the spreadsheet. The focus of a 10(e) hearing is narrow: deciding whether challenged documents should be included or excluded from the record that the appeals court will review. New documents cannot be added during a 10(e) hearing. Wong tried to keep the new material out but Damrell said he'd allow it "for the purposes of this hearing only." Wong denied that the pages describing the business climate in San Jose were from the same document as the spreadsheet/"marketing plan" introduced at trial as proof of Epis's criminal activity in Chico. "Wong is lying to you as we speak," Grantland told Damrell. "The court has a duty to correct prosecutorial misconduct and false testimony at the moment it happens." Damrell made a finding that Wong's version of Defense Exhibit A -scrambled and missing several pages- was the real one for purposes of the record. Grantland was dismayed. In June 2004 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on the case. Wong opened himself up for questioning on the spreadsheet maneuver by saying "Miss Grantland falsely accuses me of prosecutorial misconduct." All three judges proceeded to examine him relentlessly. Soon thereafter Grantland filed a bail motion for Epis which the Ninth Circuit granted without asking Wong to respond. The appeals court also remanded Epis's case to Damrell for resentencing and retained jurisdiction over the appeal. Damrell heard oral arguments on the re-sentencing motion last week (12/5/05) Here's Grantland's account: " While I was sitting waiting for the judge to take the bench, AUSA Samuel Wong came up to me and handed me a memo which said: 'DEA Special Agent Brian Nehring is the new DEA agent assigned to the Bryan Epis case. Special Agent Nehring informs me that one of the agents assigned to this case after DEA Special Agent Ron Mancini's departure mistakenly allowed the documents seized from Bryan Epis' home to be destroyed. I am awaiting my receipt of reports on the destruction of the documents and will forward them to you upon my receipt. On behalf of the United States, I sincerely apologize for this error.' "Of course I was livid. We have been trying to get access to the 10 or 20 boxes (or more) of stuff they took from Bryan's house in order to look for more evidence of government wrongdoing. Plus we needed his medical records because the government is disputing that Bryan had a legitimate need for medical marijuana. "When the judge called the case, he asked me to start by telling him why I thought we needed an evidentiary hearing. I told him we needed to resolve the dispute over the two government exhibits which are the heart of our prosecutorial misconduct charge, and which the government is still asking the court to rely on in sentencing Bryan. (We now have evidence in the record to show that the documents were excerpts from a totally irrelevant proposal for a dispensary in Silicon Valley that was never started, and that the two agents lied when they said the exhibits showed that Bryan actually made or expected to make -off the tiny garden in his basement- $4 million dollars a week, or some such nonsense. That's what Wong argued in his opening statement, so it's clear that he coached them to say that.) "And then I told the judge about the memo I got from Wong today, saying the evidence had been destroyed except for the government's exhibits. The judge couldn't believe that could happen and wanted to hear about it from Wong. Wong said, yes it is unfortunately true that the evidence was inadvertently destroyed. Judge Damrell said [I'm paraphrasing]: 'That can't happen. I've never in my career known that to happen. Somebody has to give the order to destroy evidence. I'm not accusing you. Mr. Wong, but I can't see how this could have happened inadvertently.' Wong said they mistakenly thought the case was closed. Damrell said 'How could they mistakenly decide the case was closed? Especially a case like this? Someone would have to tell them that.' "After that, Wong's credibility pretty much shredded by his own lies and corruption, the judge granted my request to depose the officers who were responsible for safekeeping of this evidence and the decision to destroy it. He gave Wong two weeks to submit a declaration explaining the circumstances of the destruction, plus an inventory of all the evidence that was seized. I have an opportunity to reply after that, and we set a status hearing for January 17. I guess I'll be conducting the depositions in the first half of January. "Judge Damrell also agreed to give us an evidentiary hearing on our prosecutorial misconduct claims, at a future date, to be set later. Wong of course is claiming that Bryan wasn't truthful in his debriefing last Monday, so he'll get to put on those claims at the evidentiary hearing. The judge said the new destruction of evidence issue might become part of the evidentiary hearing, but he would decide after he learns more about it. "At the Rule 10(e) hearing, Judge Damrell was agreeing with Wong that these are different documents, and that Wong really hadn't lied about it. Today, when Wong tried to tell Damrell that we had already been through this at the Rule 10(e) hearing and the judge had concluded that these were different documents, Judge Damrell said something like 'We didn't have a full hearing on this at the 10(e) hearing because it was beyond the scope. There was a lot of confusion then about these documents. Now I'm looking at these documents side by side, and they're all the same document.' Wong argued with him, saying... Gov. Ex. 27 [the one-page spreadsheet] related to the Chico grow. Judge Damrell said 'It's obvious now that they're all from the same document.' "Another good sign was, Judge Damrell was asking me what my research showed about the kinds of relief he could give us in this weird mid-appeal remand posture, if he were to find prosecutorial misconduct... "After the hearing Bryan and I went to the probation office to read the 330 letters the court has received so far asking for leniency in Bryan's case. (They're still trickling in, the probation officer says.) It took hours and we only got halfway through. We'll have to read the rest next time. It was very draining. There were many sad stories in there, and many people who said poignant things. And some funny ones... The probation officer who has read the entire 330 said that she didn't recognize any of the ones I brought in today. So the total number of letters is probably somewhere between 350-370! "Thanks for all your support. Most of all it shows the public cares about this travesty. And that a lot of people are watching the government's conduct here." A Note about Chico Chico is a small city near the Northern end of California's Central Valley where the farmers grow rice and olives on vast tracts. The main claim to fame of the local college, Cal State Chico, is binge drinking. When Bryan Epis went there in the mid-1980s, Cal State Chico regularly won Playboy's "party-school-of-the-year" award. One of the potentially important medical uses of cannabis is as an alternative to alcohol. Tod Mikuriya, MD has written on the subject: "Patients self-medicate with alcohol and/or cannabis in pursuit of similar short-term results, including disinhibition, analgesia, euphoria, and stress reduction. Although the desired results are apparently similar, the actual biological effects are as dissimilar as the two drugs' mechanisms of action. For example, alcohol 'helps' PTSD patients by obliterating disturbing memories -the patient speaks of 'becoming blotto'- whereas cannabis enables him/her to see and act upon past problems from a distance, and soberly. "Although medicinal use of cannabis by alcoholics can be dismissed as 'just one drug replacing another,' lives mediated by cannabis and alcohol tend to run very different courses. Even if use is daily, cannabis replacing alcohol (or other addictive, toxic drugs) reduces harm because of its relatively benign side-effect profile. Cannabis use is not associated with car crashes; it does not damage the liver, the esophagus, the spleen, the digestive tract. The chronic alcohol-inebriation-withdrawal cycle ceases with successful cannabis substitution. Sleep and appetite are restored, ability to focus and concentrate is enhanced, energy and activity levels are improved, pain and muscle spasms are relieved. Family and social relationships can be sustained as pursuit of long-term goals ends the cycle of crisis and apology." If ever there was a setting where cannabis use should be encouraged for harm-reduction purposes, it is Chico, California. Mikuriya's paper on "Cannabis Substitution for Alcohol" (O'Shaughnessy's, Summer 2002) suggests that a person's drug of choice is heavily influenced by social context in adolescence and early adulthood. It makes sense that the ratio of alcohol users to cannabis users would be lower if college students wishing to self-medicate in pursuit of dishinhibition, analgesia, euphoria and stress reduction had a legal setting in which to do so. If there are any administrators at Chico who really care about the students' well-being, they should let the sheriff and the DEA know that a cannabis club in Chico would be a boon to public health. Student Health Services should approve its use. Students at Cal State Chico can be expected to press this demand as the medical marijuana movement advances. Fred Gardner is the editor of O'Shaughnessy's Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group. He can be reached at: fred@plebesite.com

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