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New Mexico: V.A. Nurse Investigated for Sedition for Letter to Editor
March 06, 2006
Update: April 21, 2006, New Mexico: According to an April 18 report, VA Secretary, R. James Nicholson, acknowleged that the agency was wrong to investigate Laura Berg for sedition. For the full story, please click here.
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Story Continued...
March 6, 2006, New Mexico: Last year, after witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Veterans Administration Nurse Laura Berg wrote a letter to the editor of her local weekly paper The Alibi to express her frustration with the Bush Administration’s handling of the disaster. In the letter, which was published September 15, 2005, she wrote:
“As a VA nurse working with returning . . . vets, I know the public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial costs of post-traumatic stress disorder; now we will have hundreds of thousands of our civilian citizens with PTSD as well as far too many young soldiers, maimed physically or psychologically—or both—spreading their pain, anger and isolation through family and communities for generations. And most of this natural disaster and war tragedy has been preventable ... how very, very sad!
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We need to wake up and get real here, and act forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.” (http://www.alibi.com/index.php?story=14092)
Within days, Berg’s office computer was seized and she became the subject of a V.A. investigation for sedition. Her union representative confirmed that Ms. Berg’s letter had been sent to the FBI for investigation as well. When Ms. Berg pressed the V.A. for more information about the investigation, she received a memo from the V.A.’s Chief of Human Resources, Mel R. Hooker, dated November 9, 2005, which affirmed that the V.A. had no evidence that Ms. Berg had written the letter on an office computer but claimed the agency was “bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition.” (http://www.alibi.com/index.php?story=14092)
Sedition under federal law is a plot or conspiracy to use force to overthrow the government, punishable by up to twenty years’ imprisonment. New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman called on Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson to investigate the V.A.’s actions regarding Ms. Berg. He wrote: “In a democracy, expressing disagreement with the government’s actions does not amount to sedition or insurrection. It is, and must remain, protected speech.” (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/02/148237&mode=thread&tid=25) However, the V.A. has yet to apologize for their actions or issue any clarification on their policies regarding their employees’ right to free speech.
Stephen Rohde, Chair of PEN’s Domestic Freedom to Write Committee said, “I thought the crime of sedition had been thoroughly discredited by history’s condemnation of the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798 and the Espionage and Sedition Act during World War I. We look back on those periods as shameful chapters in American history when the right to criticize the government was turned into a crime. Now more than ever we need robust First Amendment protection for anyone, whether they are a government or private employee, to speak out on the most important issues of the day.”
PEN USA believes that freedom of expression is at its height when used to responsibly call government to account for its actions. This right must not vanish at the moment an individual becomes a governmental employee.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Write to Veteran Affairs Secretary James Nicholson asking for an investigation into the V.A.’s policies and actions against Laura Berg. In addition, ask for a formal apology to Ms. Berg for violating her fundamental right to freedom of expression.
SAMPLE LETTER OF APPEAL
CLICK HERE FOR MS WORD VERSION
James Nicholson
Secretary of Veteran Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC 20420
Dear Secretary Nicholson:
I am writing on behalf of PEN USA, part of an international organization of writers with an 85-year history of defending freedom of expression through the written word.
I was alarmed to learn of the sedition investigation of V.A. Nurse Laura Berg in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As you may know, Ms. Berg wrote a letter to the editor of her local weekly paper in which she criticized the policies of the current administration in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This letter was forwarded to the FBI and prompted an V.A. investigation of Ms. Berg. In a November 9, 2005 letter to Ms. Berg, V.A. Chief of Human Resources, Mel R. Hooker, affirmed that the V.A. had no evidence that Ms. Berg had written the letter on an office computer but claimed the agency was “bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents sedition.”
PEN USA is concerned that the V.A.’s response to Ms. Berg’s letter stepped drastically over the line and violated Ms. Berg’s fundamental right to freedom of expression. Though little has come out the investigation, Ms. Berg is left with a frightening reminder that while she works in valuable service to her country, she may not actually have access to its constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.
If governmental agencies are allowed to restrict speech in this manner, without rational and measured response, the chilling effect nationwide will gravely undermine perhaps our most cherished constitutional provision of free speech. No one’s rights should vanish at the moment they become a governmental employee.
I therefore call for a thorough investigation into the V.A.’s handling of Laura Berg’s case as well as a public apology to Ms. Berg for the violation of her rights.
Sincerely,