PREVENTIVE DETENTION: PREVENTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS?

Abstract

Laura Whitehorn and Alan Berkman are two of the six political prisoners who are co-defendants in the Resistance Conspiracy Case (U.S. v. Whitehorn et al., 710 F.Supp. 803, D.D.C. 1989). The others are Susan Rosenberg, Marilyn Buck, Linda Evans, and Timothy Blunk. The six were indicted in May, 1988, for conspiracy to "influence change, and protest policies and practices of the U.S. government concerning various international and domestic matters through the use of violent and illegal means," and with carrying out a series of bombings against U.S. government and military targets, including the Capitol building following the invasion of Grenada and the shelling of Lebanon in 1983. According to Whitehom and Berkman, these actions constituted one part of the broader movements resisting racism, colonialism, and intervention in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and Puerto Rico. The message of the bombings was that the U.S. government's denial of the right of oppressed nations to self-determination must be exposed and fought.