Michael Bray
\n29 February, 1996<\/p>\n
Press Release<\/p>\n
Re: Imprisonment of Rae Powell and Carol McAdoo yesterday in Newport News, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Four local citizens who oppose abortion were subpoenaed before the federal grand jury yesterday. Two answered various questions; two did not. The two women who invoked the Fifth Amendment were \u201cgiven immunity\u201d and charged with contempt for refusing to yield. They were thrown into the local jail to remain indefinitely. <\/p>\n
Questions from federal prosecutors pertained to \u201cthe Army of God Manual\u201d as well as alleged unsolved fires or arson attempts at two local abortion businesses. Any copies of the \u201cManual\u201d along with correspondence with anti-abortion prisoners and any correspondence with a former resident, Jennifer Sperle were demanded by the subpoenas.<\/p>\n
Janet Reno\u2019s VAAPCON (Violence Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy) Task Force has been seeking copies of since at least the beginning of the Alexandria, Virginia grand jury sessions which ended in January with no indictments after a 16-month probe. The Alexandria probe ended in January with the release of Cheryl Richardson of Arnold Maryland after she had been held in jail for \u201ccontempt\u201d for two months. The Washington Post (26 Jan.) reported: \u201cWithin a few months after a federal grand jury was convened, investigators looking for a national conspiracy . . . concluded that they couldn\u2019t prove it, but they continued the probe for about a year longer.\u201d The Post went on to refer to law enforcement sources who said that the reasons for keeping the grand jury on the issue \u201cinclude reluctance by Justice Department prosecutors to accept failure.\u201d Some investigators \u201csoured on the basic goal of the investigation. Playing off the code name . . . some called the probe \u201cCrapcon.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Note: The diminished supply of the anonymous \u201cmanual\u201d brought about by VAAPCON has made this literary work so scarce that an attempt to satisfy any demand for the literary piece was made by the publisher of a monthly newletter, Prayer and Action News. Publisher\/editor David Leach of Des Moines apparently reprinted the entire \u201cmanual\u201d in his January issue. Local media kept busy and Mr. Leach lost his job.]<\/p>\n
Questions regarding actual \u201cviolent\u201d deeds performed by abortion rights proponents (as distinguished from nebulous conspiracies) revolved around arson attempts at the Peninsula Women\u2019s Center in Newport News and the Tidewater Women\u2019s Health Clinic in Norfolk. Abortion opponents inquired after include Jennifer Sperle (relocated in Kansas), Ryan Martin, and Ed Hyatt. <\/p>\n
Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey called for hearings on the VAAPCON investigation after the release of Richardson, declaring that a \u201cfull accounting is needed to find out how much was spent\u201d and, as reported by the Washington Times, \u201cto determine how the probe was handled and what was learned\u201d (26 Jan). Nothing more from Rep. Smith or any other putative \u201cprolife\u201d or \u201ccivil rights\u201d congressmen has been heard on the matter. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mrs. Powell and Mrs. McAdoo sit in jail, waiting. <\/p>\n
Michael Bray is the editor of the quarterly Capitol Area Christian News and a pastor of Reformation Lutheran Church in Bowie, MD. The Church sponsored the White Rose Banquet on 21 January in Arlington, VA, honoring anti-abortion prisoners including Paul Hill and Shelley Shannon who inflicted bodily harm or death upon abortionists in the effort to defend children in the womb. <\/p>\n
Prisoners can be written at Western Tidewater Jail, 2402 Godwin Blvd., Suffolk, VA 23434<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Bray 29 February, 1996 Press Release Re: Imprisonment of Rae Powell and Carol McAdoo yesterday in Newport News, Virginia. Four local citizens who oppose abortion were subpoenaed before the federal grand jury yesterday. Two answered various questions; two did not. The two women who invoked the Fifth Amendment were \u201cgiven immunity\u201d and charged with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":989,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}