American Radio Talk Show Host Andy Martin Will Help Defend Palestinian Marwan Barghouti

Talk show host/human rights activist Andy Martin will seek to join the legal defense team of Israeli prisoner Marwan Barghouti

FOR RELEASE: April 23, 2002

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST/RADIO TALK SHOW HOST
ANDY MARTIN OFFERS TO DEFEND PALESTINIAN
FREEDOM FIGHTER MARWAN BARGHOUTI

(NEW YORK) Human rights activist Andy Martin, the only American talk radio host who supports Palestinian rights, will devote a program Wednesday, April 24th to his offer to represent imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.
"Mr. Barghouti has a right to counsel," says Martin, "and the Israelis will deny and defeat that right to counsel, and seek to conduct a show trial. I have contacted the Israeli Embassy seeking access to my potential client, and I have asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to intercede as well. April 24rd I am devoting the 1:00 P.M. hour to Mr. Barghouti.
"The Palestinian fight for freedom is the foremost human rights issue in the world. Palestinians have captured the world's imagination with their battles against Israeli storm troopers with their American killing machines.
"When I see innocent people slaughtered by Israelis I am ashamed to be American. When I see my president disrespected by the dictator Sharon I am embarrassed for George Bush.
"Now Mr. Barghouti's life is on the line.
"Israelis torture prisoners; they have tortured Barghouti before. Torture did not work in Nazi Germany or Algeria; torture has never worked. Torture will never work. Barghouti is being held at the Israeli Auschwitz, Ketziot. I am seeking immediate access.
"Sharon has said he is 'at war.' Therefore, he must respect the Geneva Convention and observe the Convention in holding Palestinian prisoners, with access for the Red Cross, etc.
"Israelis are systematically destroying their nation by making themselves international outcasts through their Nazi tactics. My efforts on behalf of Barghouti are designed as much to save Israel, as they are to save Barghouti.
"While Barghouti needs local counsel, he also needs human rights counsel. As a human rights expert who has defended the rights of the despised I am placing myself at Barghouti's defense table. This will be the most important trial since the Nuremberg trials.
"Barghouti is an innocent man who has been engulfed by unspeakable Israeli evil. Every human being as an innate, God-given right to self-defense, and to free his homeland of invasion and oppression.
"Israel was offered the opportunity for peace, and chose war. Israelis have been infected by a collective madness. Making a martyr of Barghouti will only feed Israelis' suicidal frenzy for self-destruction. Only when Palestine is free can Israel also be free and live in peace.
"I will not demonize Israel, however, despite their demonic leaders. I learned many years ago in the Mekong Delta that the 'enemy is always human,'" says Martin. "They seem to have forgotten that fact in Israel."
In the 1980's Martin successfully protected the right of accused drug dealers not to be held incommunicado by the U.S. Government. After the death of Princess Diana, Martin's Human Rights Petition to the French Government helped free French photographers who had been imprisoned.
Martin's forums have become the fulcrum of foreign policy analysis on the internet. He has traveled through the Middle East; his family has been there a hundred years. His foreign experience includes Iran and Asia. Martin has been an adjunct professor of law and is a foreign policy consultant in the areas of military security and intelligence; he studied under the late Bernard Fall, was an assistant to U.S. Senator Paul H. Douglas and founded the Revolutionary War Research Center.
Martin's radio program, heard Monday-Friday over WPBR-AM, West Palm Beach, covers Florida issues from noon-1 P.M. and foreign policy from 1-2 P.M.
Media contact: Andy Martin (866) 706-andy. Radio call-in (561) 641-8256. Web site: andymartin.com. E-mail andy@andymartin.com. Internet radio: 1340wpbr.com.