Thank you. Thanks for those very nice comments. And media representatives, I don't know who all is here, but thanks for coming.

It's an important day. The first thing you might ask yourself is - "what is this case all about?" And in very simple terms, the Chinese government has stolen our Constitution and our Bill of Rights, and we want it back. That's the very simple way to look at this lawsuit. In one sense this case is about the Falun Gong movement--very nice people that I've come to know and respect. But in another sense it's not about the Falun Gong people. It could be any targeted class of Americans where a foreign government decides that "I'm going to launch a criminal," and I'm saying criminal, "I'm going to launch a criminal enterprise on US American soil, and I don't care about the Bill of Rights."

So in one sense it is about Falun Gong, but it's also about a foreign government targeting a class of people here in America. Sometimes lawyers get a chance to talk to other lawyers before a lawsuit is filed, and one of the reasons we do that is to just to talk to them about a particular case. And invariably I would mention some of the things that we've catalogued in this lawsuit. And invariably they'd say to me, "Well Martin, that stuff is going on in China. There's nothing you can do about that." So as Al wants to make clear and that all the plaintiffs here want to make clear - the stuff we're talking about--wholesale individual liberties being violated-- have all happened here in America. And let me go through some of the reasons why we think that the Chinese government has hijacked our Constitution.

If you stand outside an Embassy or a Consulate and you have Falun Gong material, you're going to get beaten up; your glasses are going to be ripped off your face. If you have a camera, that camera is going to be taken. Then your picture is going to be taken, and there's a good chance you're going to end up in the emergency room. One of the reasons that this occurs, the primary reason, is that the Chinese government, through some Ministries that we've named in this lawsuit, go out and hire thugs in various cities. We're talking Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Tempe, Arizona, and a lot of other places. And if you want to continue to exercise your First Amendment Rights as a Falun Gong practitioner--after you've been beaten up and you still have the courage to do that--well, what they will do is they'll get your car, because they've taken your picture and they'll find out where you live. Then they'll slash your tires, break your windshield, and if you continue to want to demonstrate, they'll set your car on fire. Members of the press, I'm talking about arson. Right in Chicago, a Falun Gong practitioner's car was set on fire. Now that's called arson. Typically people go to jail for about five years for that.

But that's the way they send the message to the Falun Gong practitioners that if they continue simply to demonstrate, they are going to be dealt with in a very severe, harsh manner. Now all of this started basically in July 1999. Why that's important is that's when the crackdown of the Falun Gong movement occurred in China, and President Jiang Zemin urged the defendants that we're suing in this case, "Listen, you take this program, and you go to America, and you eradicate the Falun Gong movement in America." And that's what this case is all about.

Now if you continue to exercise your First Amendment Rights, like Gail Raichlin back here--she lives in New York City, but the same thing occurred in Tempe, Arizona-- people will break into your apartment. Not once, not twice, but three times. They don't take your VCR, see, the Chinese government is not interested in that. They take information -- data. They're interested in an international databank which they are encouraging the promotion of and they are in control of regarding Falun Gong, not just practitioners, but also supporters and relatives. I have with me three police reports from Gail Raichlin that she filed in New York City. Three times her apartment was broken into. Also, the unit below her, in her apartment building where the telephone housing is connected, that was broken into, too. As you'll learn, what the Chinese government does, is that if you continue exercising your First Amendment Rights, your phones are going be tapped and your private conversations are going to be recorded. I could be walking down the street with Al--and this occurred at Au Bon Pain in Union Station--Al and I could be having a lunch at Au Bon Pain, and when I get back to my office, guess what, at 3 o'clock, there is my conversation with Al played back to me on the phone. So what the Chinese government is doing is recording private conversations and playing them back.

And sometimes to harass female practitioners, and to let them know, "Well you may be Chinese and you may be in America, but you still belong to us," they'll play that back at twelve midnight under very chilling terms. And in some cases, members of the media, it has gotten so bad, they have threatened on eight occasions Falun Gong practitioners with murder. In fact one of them was told if you file a lawsuit you'll be killed. Besides that they have threatened them with arson, and there's a hotel in California--we have that in the complaint, specifically San Jose--calls were made to that hotel threatening to burn it down. Do you know why? Because Falun Gong practitioners decided to have an event there. In other words, the Chinese government is so desperate that they would actually threaten to burn down an entire hotel to get at the Falun Gong people.

And if you continue doing and exercising your First Amendment Rights, God forbid you have relatives in China. Your mother's going to end up in a re-education camp, or your sister or your father's going to be sent to jail, and there's a good chance your mother will end up in some sort of mental institution. In fact in the complaint you'll see, there's a doctor in China who's telling us, "Look, this woman doesn't belong in a mental institution. She's not mentally ill. The only thing is she belongs to Falun Gong." And that's in our lawsuit.

So if you are, and that's why these people should be commended--forget about the attorney--these people are risking their lives, and the lives of their loved ones in China, for filing this lawsuit.

You will see in the lawsuit a wholesale invasion of privacy, as I mentioned, private conversations recorded, mysterious telephone calls, these playbacks. Also, one of the practitioners, to show that this is not just a figment of our imagination, after receiving some telephone harassment--well guess what? A week later two FBI agents came to her door, unsolicited. And they told her, "Look, if there's any problems with telephone harassment, or people are threatening your life or anything, you come to see us." And you know what she said? She said, "It's so refreshing." She started to cry, almost. "In China I'd be so worried as to what you were going to do. Here you are security police in America, FBI, and here you're worried about me." It's really a reversal for her.

So I think that the FBI knows about this. The bottom line too is that you're followed. You have to be careful where you walk and everything. And in fact we have some pictures of people--it happened right here in Washington DC--that if you're a Falun Gong follower and you come to one of these movements, you are going be videotaped, not by some tourist, but by some thug that the Chinese government has hired. And once they do videotape you or take your picture, you know what they do next? They learn where you live and you go into this international databank. Now, you may be a supporter, a relative, a friend of a Falun Gong practitioner, and you could even have a Visa to enter China; but when you go to an international airport or Shanghai, you know what happens? They look your name up in the international databank, and if they find your name there, you don't go into China, simply because you are known as a supporter of Falun Gong. And that's in our lawsuit.

Now the other way they've managed to do this is they have complete control of media access, as to what comes into America. And when the Falun Gong, and this is part of the commercial aspect of the lawsuit, when the Falun Gong has tried to use the resources locally, for example Channel 56, to get their message out, the Chinese Government has actively interfered with that. When we've gone to an entity to get broadband TV access, we've been shut out even though we're willing to pay. Why? Because we're Falun Gong. The Chinese government does not want anything to be going on here in America into certain markets where there are Chinese populations--anything to do with Falun Gong. And as I say, if you try to go in to a newspaper, and this has happened in five different cities, and you go in with your Falun Gong materials--and you have a contract with this person for two years--one day he tells you, "Look it, I got a call from the Embassy, and I can't publish anything on Falun Gong." So when they try to go to the newspapers they're also shut out. Sometimes, also as alleged in the complaint, they'll get a visit from a Consulate official who will remind them that again, "While you may be a US citizen, while you may be permanent resident here in America and entitled to certain rights, you know, you still belong to China."

They also attempted to influence state and local governments. Al can tell you about something that happened in Durham, North Carolina. One of the reasons I invited Al, or asked him to attend, is that it's small town America in one sense. Well, to the Chinese government, and you can check this out, it's in all of our papers, if you are a Falun Gong follower, and you decide to go to your city, a mayor in Southern California and you get a proclamation saying that the Falun Gong is going to be honored this week, well immediately they will be visited by Consulate and Embassy officials and they will be convinced to revoke those proclamations. Now that's what's happened already, and some mayors have already said, and it's in our lawsuit, "Look," as Al would comment, "Why is the Chinese Government coming down to a small town in California and interfering in our government?" And that's what these mayors have told us in various letters and everything, and they're very much part of our lawsuit. So, they have attempted to defame Falun Gong contact persons. They said, "You belong to this vicious cult. You encourage the murder and suicide of family members. You have engaged in various criminal activities." So they send to these mayors, to these Congressmen--it's all over the Hill-- various tapes: it's called a staged news event in which if somebody would look at that they would conclude that Falun Gong practitioners are the worst people in the world. Contrary to that I've learned that they're very nice people.

And you might add, what is it that they want from this lawsuit? Are they asking for a billion dollars? No. They are simply asking, as every one of these practitioners will tell you, "Will you please leave me alone? Will you please let me do my exercises in peace? Will you please let me talk to my friends without having conversations recorded? Will you please stop breaking into my apartment? Will you please stop following me around in different parts of my world?"

So that's the relief that they seek. And it's a little complicated lawsuit. I want to mention two things, and sorry I'm taking so much time. There is a statute called RICO, which is called the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act. Quite a mouthful. There is also something called the Civil Rights Act of 1871--that's right, you heard--1871, it's a 132-year old statute. And what we've done, because this is a national case, in other words, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, we've filed under these federal statutes; and again what we're complaining about is that the Chinese Government has launched a criminal enterprise here in America, and the bottom line is that you have your Constitutional liberties and freedoms and rights extinguished, if you're a Falun Gong practitioner.

I want to say something in closing about the plaintiffs. I should hand this up to you just to show you. This is a woman, this is a woman that scared the living daylight out of the Chinese Government. She happens to be a grandmother in Canada, and she does exercises like this--I don't know every day--and I've received something that she wrote up, but can you imagine how this woman, by engaging in peaceful activities is going to bring down the PRC?

Now, it's incredible to me. Something about the plaintiffs; some of them are not in this case for a reason--they're frightened to death. We couldn't get some plaintiffs to join. And maybe you know this, there's a way normally to address that: it's called using Jane and John Doe. They're still terrified; they don't want to become part of the lawsuit. So I again commend these people that are here in the lawsuit because they are going to suffer some consequences just for filing this lawsuit.

In closing, they may have different names than my Irish forbears--there's Lin Fang, and different Chinese names. Their skin color may be different than mine, but they're entitled to their First Amendment Rights, and it's about time somebody exposed the Chinese Government for what it is. Again, they have launched a criminal enterprise here in America; they've stolen our Constitution and our Bill of rights, and we want it back. Thank you very much. Sorry it took so long.

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Category: Karma & Virtue