Nurse Investigated for Sedition for Criticizing Bush

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Thu, 9 Feb 2006 14:38:24 -0800 (PST)

Nurse Investigated for " Sedition " for Criticizing Bush

 

 

 

 

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VA Nurse Investigated for " Sedition " for Criticizing Bush

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By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

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February 8, 2006

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Laura Berg is a clinical nurse specialist at the VA Medical Center in

Albuquerque, where she has worked for 15 years.

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Shortly after Katrina, she wrote a letter to the editor of the weekly paper the

Alibi criticizing the Bush Administration.

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After the paper published the letter in its September 15-21 issue, VA

administrators seized her computer, alleged that she had written the letter on

that computer, and accused her of " sedition. "

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> > Here's what her letter said.

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> > " I am furious with the tragically misplaced priorities and

criminal negligence of this government, " it began. " The Katrina

tragedy in the U.S. shows that the emperor has no clothes! " She

mentioned that she was " a VA nurse " working with returning vets. " The

public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial

costs of post-traumatic stress disorder, " she wrote, and

she worried about the hundreds of thousands of additional cases that

might result from Katrina and the Iraq War.

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" Bush, Cheney, Chertoff, Brown, and Rice should be tried for criminal

negligence, " she wrote. " This country needs to get out of Iraq now and

return to our original vision and priorities of caring for land and

people and resources rather than killing for oil.

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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.

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Otherwise, many more of us will be facing living hell in these times. "

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After her computer was seized, Berg wrote a memo to her bosses seeking

information and an explanation.

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Mel Hooker, chief of the human resources management service at the

Albuquerque VA, wrote Berg back on November 9 and acknowledged that

" your personal computer files did not contain the editorial letter

written to the editor of the weekly Alibi. "

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But rather than apologize, he leveled the sedition charge: " The Agency

is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially

represents sedition, " he said. " In your letter . . . you declared

yourself 'as a VA nurse' and publicly declared the Government which

employs you to have 'tragically misplaced priorities and criminal

negligence' and advocated, 'act forcefully to remove a government

administration playing games of smoke and mirrors and vicious deceit.' "

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Berg, who is not talking to the press, is " scared for her job " and

" pretty emotionally distressed, " says Peter Simonson, executive

director of the ACLU of New Mexico.

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" We were shocked to see the word 'sedition' used, " Simonson tells The

Progressive. " Sedition? That's like something out of the history books. "

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In a press release, Simonson also said: " Is this government so jealous

of its power, so fearful of dissent, that it needs to threaten people

who openly oppose its policies with charges of 'sedition'? "

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The ACLU of New Mexico is working in Berg's behalf. It has filed a

Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to this

incident. And it is asking " at the very least " that Berg " receive a

pubic apology from Mr. Hooker to remedy the unconstitutional chilling

effect on the speech of VA employees that has resulted from these

intimidating tactics, " according to a letter from the New Mexico ACLU

to the VA's Office of Regional Counsel.

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Hooker refused to return a phone call, and the VA's Office of Regional

Counsel refused to comment but referred questions to public affairs.

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" While VA does not prohibit employees from exercising their freedom of

speech, we do ask that such activity occurs outside government

premises and not during their official tour of duty, " says Bill

Armstrong, a public affairs specialist for New Mexico's VA Health Care

System. " When we have reason to believe that this policy is not being

adhered to, we have the obligation to review an individual's computer

activity. "

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The VA in Washington also refused to comment on the sedition charge.

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" We don't discuss internal personnel issues, " says Phil Budahn, a VA

spokesman in Washington, D.C.

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Berg has an additional concern: that the VA may have got the FBI on

her case.

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A union employee " shared with me that Mel Hooker conveyed to him that

my letter had been reported 'up through VA channels' to the FBI in

Washington, and that this had been discussed and confirmed " with union

officials at the national office, Berg wrote in her November 2

complaint. (The union she belongs to is the American Federation of

Government Employees.)

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Hooker denied that the VA had contacted the FBI.

" The Agency has no knowledge of any report alleged to have been made

to the FBI regarding you or your letter, " he said in his November 9

memo.

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Meanwhile, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, has taken up

the Berg case.

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" I am writing to express my deep concern regarding news reports that

Ms. Laura Berg . . . was investigated for sedition after writing a

letter that was critical of the current Administration, " Senator

Bingaman wrote to R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs,

on February 7. " In a democracy, expressing disagreement with the

government's actions does not amount to sedition or insurrection--it

is, and must remain, protected speech. "

 

 

 

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