I could sense his inertia, even if I did not understand what triggered his passivity. But what could be done?
Ted Lindauer jumped on it.378 (See Affidavit in Appendix). He made a special effort to contact Eddie MacKechnie, and quickly verified the chief elements of my story, including MacKechnie’s validation of Dr. Fuisz’s CIA credentials and our work on the Lockerbie Trial. Once we established those CIA connections— and our work together on anti-terrorism, my defense would be locked in. That was the key requirement.
MacKechnie would be a gem of a witness, priceless for any defendant. As Scottish solicitor, he’d won acquittal for one of the two Libyans accused of the Lockerbie bombing, an extraordinary victory. It helped that Al-Amin Fhaima was innocent, but MacKechnie had an uphill fight to overcome Scottish prejudice. He triumphed spectacularly in a landmark terrorism trial at a special court at Camp Zeist.
And Sam Talkin would not reply to his emails.
Uncle Ted was far more gracious.
After his conversation with MacKechnie, Ted called me, jubilant. “You are totally safe,” he said.
“You’re going to win this thing. You can prove everything you’ve told me.”
Eddie MacKechnie was a powerhouse witness, alright. Ted confessed that he felt greatly relieved by the superiority of my witness line up.379
Ted also spoke with Parke Godfrey, who confirmed the authenticity of my 9/11 warning380 and Paul Hoven, who doubly validated the CIA identity of Dr. Fuisz and our long working relationship. To this point, we know that Hoven told the truth about our work, though the intelligence community urgently wanted my case to go away.381
Needless to say, I was very pleased.
That should have been the undoing of psychiatry in my case. Indeed, on the basis of Ted’s interviews, we could have argued for dismissal of the major charges.
Meeting Dr. Kleinman for the first time, I felt remarkably at peace. I could handle a trial, I assured him. I had no intention of pleading guilty. Ted had finished his interviews the week before, and I enjoyed the supreme calm of knowing that I could rise to the standard of proof required by Judge Mukasey. That’s what I told Dr. Kleinman.
Alas, I had not read Dr. Drob’s evaluation. I had no idea Dr. Drob had sabotaged me viciously, attacking the integrity and superior quality of my witnesses. I presumed his evaluation was still in planning stages. So after my conversation with Dr. Kleinman, I made a special effort to alert Dr. Drob to Uncle Ted’s success on my behalf, as well.
By the time I hung up the phone, Dr. Drob was fully aware of the supreme caliber of my Scottish witnesses from the Lockerbie Trial. And he heard my sharp criticism of psychiatry for distracting my attorney, such that family members felt compelled to jump in to help me. I concluded that I was very lucky my uncle had practiced law for 40 years at such a senior level.
Alas, one crucial mistake would cost me everything. I trusted the integrity of psychiatry.
I imagined that once psychiatry received validation of my story, the evaluations would have to acknowledge that truth. If Dr. Drob had questions, he could have spoken with Ted directly, who would vouch for it. If the evaluation was finished, wouldn’t Drob have an ethical obligation to correct mistakes in his conclusions?
Alas, I did not understand the corrupt practices of psychiatry in the courtroom.
Combating Psychiatry in the Courtroom
Learn from my mistakes, people, and remember these few tips. These suggestions might save your freedom and your reputation some day. If only somebody had warned me, I could have protected myself. These simple rules apply to everything from criminal cases to custody battles.
You have a right to protect yourself. There are ways that you can.
Rule Number 1: Never do a psych evaluation on an empty stomach, or if you’re tired. If you’re already at court, your attorney should get you a sandwich before starting. On the night of my arrest, I was so exhausted and hungry that I kept falling asleep. The jerk psychiatrist kept banging on the table to wake me up. Wisely, my attorney insisted on postponing the evaluation until the following day, so I could get some food in my stomach, and a good night sleep. Still the psychiatrist tried to smear me. That cost me.
Rule Number 2: Always take a tape recorder. Never attend any psych evaluation for any reason without a recording device. My case is littered with examples of psychotic shrinks inventing things. They’ll tell you straight up– “It’s my word against yours. Who do you think they’re going to believe, you or me? I am a doctor.”
You won’t believe it until it happens. Then it’s too late to save yourself.
Get a tape recorder. I would pay a terrible price for not recording the first two psych interviews with Dr. Drob and Dr. Kleinman. Once I stopped relying on the professional integrity of psychiatry, my second attorney, Brian Shaughnessy pounded them again and again. They would shift from one falsification to another. We’d expose the nonsense, and they’d move right on to the next lie. And we’d blow them apart again.
Only now, because it was All On Tape, they couldn’t lie so easily any more. Once I got it recorded, their appetite for lies dropped substantially.
Stick to your guns on this one. Any psychiatrist who fears tape recording a conversation is going to burn you in court. If they say no recording, you say no meeting. No Judge is going to stop you from protecting yourself by recording what you’ve said in a conversation.
It’s okay if they want a copy of the tape. But you must forbid the psychiatrist from handing it over to the Prosecution or spousal attorney in a custody case. You have protections under the 5th Amendment. Specify on tape at the start of the interview that you would appeal to the Higher Courts to stop the Prosecution from violating your rights against making forced statements to its surrogates. And you reject any request to share that tape. If your attorney over-rides you, you’ll file a complaint to the Bar Association.
Get that on tape!
Rule Number 3: Demand to see all documents cited in the evaluation. Warn the loony Psychiatrist that you are prepared to challenge their conclusions, even to the point of seeking financial damages in a malpractice lawsuit. Hey, real doctors have insurance! Be warned: Some of my private papers got rewritten by psychiatrists to appear more outlandish. Always double check. If you have supporting evidence, like my 12 months of observation notes from Family Health Services in Maryland, specify that those must go to the Court, too. Put the psychiatrist on notice why it’s important.
Rule Number 4: Never meet a Prosecution psychiatrist outside the presence of your attorney. Their job is to screw you. That’s what they’ve been hired to do. Everything you say ends up with the Prosecution. If there are topics you want to avoid, you have every right to refuse to discuss them. Do not present your defense. By showing the Prosecutor how you intend to rebut the charges, you are providing leads for how to attack your defense in Court. Always invoke your 5th Amendment rights under the Constitution. Unless you’re pleading guilty, refuse to answer questions regarding events tied to your alleged crime. They will try desperately to compel or manipulate you to talk.
You’ve got to be firm, but you must refuse.
If your attorney attends the interview, he can stop a psychotic shrink from asking the same questions twenty times, which they do. It means they don’t like your answer, and they want you to say something different, so they can twist it.
Stay alert. The first answer is the right answer. After you’ve replied to the same question twice, you have a right to politely decline to answer it a third time.
The proper way to handle this is to say, “We’ve already discussed this issue. Do you have any other questions? Or shall we end the interview?”
Rule Number 5: If something’s off topic, don’t discuss it. The simple response is, “this matter has no relevance to the current legal situation. I’m not going to discuss it. If you’re going to pursue that line of questions, then we’re finished with the interview. Are there any other topics, or are you done?”
/> They’re fishing. Don’t give them anything. Later, they would try to attack my faith in God and my spirituality. Because we never discussed my religious beliefs in our interviews, they had nothing to work with. Mums the word of the day! Don’t offer up anything. Keep your comments to the barest minimum. And remember that you don’t have to answer their questions.
Rule Number 6: Never presume that a psychologist who appears reasonable and benevolent in discussing your life is actually rational in their own thinking. Psychology can attract individuals who are seriously disturbed in their own lives. A court-ordered psych evaluation is a power trip. They think they look important if they’re screwing people. It sounds unbelievable until it happens to you.
That’s why you must get it on tape. Going into an evaluation without some form of recording device could be the greatest mistake of your life.
It could destroy you.
Think I’m paranoid?
What happened next was the most frightening nightmare of my life. It would scare the hell out of anyone.
Clearly I was not paranoid enough.
CHAPTER 20:
INCOMPETENT
TO STAND TRIAL
Franz Kafka, Meet Susan Lindauer
–WelcomebacktoPottersville.com
There was no warning. Just a message that Judge Mukasey wanted to see us in Court the following week. Talkin swore he had no idea why.
I was not stupid. I had not been called to Court in 17 months, since shortly after my arrest as an “Iraqi Agent.” Something was up. My uncle, Ted Lindauer, was concerned too, and immediately promised to fly out from California to come with me.382 It was inconvenient, for sure. Ted was in the midst of relocating to Illinois to become Chief General Counsel for a corporate client. But both of us sensed something was not right. Not for the last time, Ted dropped everything to help me. Andy Card and the White House might be against me, but I was not without loyal family support.
I’d been pestering Talkin for months about when we could see the psych evaluations. I’d met Dr. Sanford Drob for the defense in January, and Dr. Stuart Kleinman for the prosecution in April.
It was now September. According to Talkin, Dr. Kleinman still had not submitted his evaluation. As for the court meeting, maybe Judge Mukasey was getting anxious about the psych reports, too, he shrugged. Maybe the Court wanted to hold the Prosecution’s feet to the fire, and get things moving.
So did I! I still had no idea if Dr. Drob had updated his evaluation after learning of my uncle’s success. I had explained Ted’s law credentials. I did not offer Ted to Dr. Kleinman. Still, I trusted both psychiatrists to have the integrity to acknowledge my authenticity. The FBI and the Prosecutor had verified my background, too.
Pretending my story lacked independent validation would be perjury at this stage. It would amount to gross prosecutorial misconduct by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and an ugly breach of ethics by Drob and Kleinman, equivalent to professional malpractice.
As for Talkin’s incompetence, I’d have to rely on Dr. Drob’s perceptiveness to read between the lines. Surely an insightful psychiatrist would recognize that calling on family help for something as significant as witness interviews suggested my court-appointed lawyer was under performing. Talkin required extra help. I had recognized my attorney’s need, and answered it effectively.
Score ten points for the defendant!
Unhappily, I was used to Talkin mumbling alibis for why something important had not got done. So when he demurred that he had no idea why Judge Mukasey was calling us to Court, I figured Talkin really had no clue. Surely the Court could see that nothing was moving. I thought it was a good bet Judge Mukasey wanted to force the question.
I expected Mukasey to haul us into court and apply some arm-twisting for a plea bargain. In which case, Ted’s appearance could be critical. If the Prosecutor believed Talkin was the extent of my legal defense, I would get royally screwed. O’Callaghan had to know Talkin was dickering around. It was much better to have a tough attorney like Ted Lindauer on the scene to challenge the merits of the indictment, based on hard facts of alibis and witness corroboration for my story.
That’s what should have happened.
Tragically, I had no concept of how psychiatry has become highly skilled at manipulating the courts. Or how defense attorneys, not functioning to the best of their abilities, are eager to help them do it.
Still, neither Uncle Ted nor I was prepared for what awaited us that September afternoon in the Southern District of New York.383
When Ted Lindauer and I arrived together at Talkin’s office in the Wall Street District, Talkin swore a thousand times that Dr. Kleinman’s evaluation was not available to the defense. He flat out denied having read it. Talkin speculated that it would be ready in time for our meeting with Judge Mukasey.384
Ted’s appearance unnerved Talkin. He expected me to appear alone, without family guidance and support. By contrast, Ted projected legal muscle, aggressively filling the role that Talkin should have performed himself. Ted’s companion, Ashala, was traveling with him in New York, so there was a third party witness to all of what transpired that afternoon.
Almost immediately Talkin started whining. While insisting he had absolutely no idea what Dr. Kleinman’s report said, if it was negative, he said the prosecution would probably ask for some sort of psychiatric detention to explore my competence further.
Ted Lindauer jumped on point: “That’s bullshit! Susan’s not incompetent. There’s no way that’s going to fly. We will fight it. She’s not going anywhere until that happens.”
Ted continued: “I’ve been reading the laws on psychiatry. She’s entitled to a hearing before the government takes action against her. She’s entitled to call rebuttal witnesses, and show evidence that she’s been wrongfully attacked. We intend to exercise her full rights under the law. Her family will not allow this to go unchallenged.”385
Sam Talkin started to sweat. And whine.
“I don’t have a single piece of evidence that proves her story’s true.”
Ted Lindauer turned to me: “Fire this man. Right now.”
He turned back to Talkin. “I have spoken to Susan’s witnesses— I had no trouble locating any of them.386 They were all eager to help. She’s got a great case, Sam. If you’d interviewed them yourself—” Ted growled—“you would know that. You could have pushed for dismissal months ago.”
Then Talkin got scared. “I don’t know what the Prosecutor’s going to do. I just think maybe, it could be, that the Prosecution would want her to go to some facility for a few months, just to see if she’s okay. If something can be done to make her competent, we can go ahead with a trial like she wants.”387
Ted jumped in again: “Are you fucking nuts? Do you understand what you’re dealing with here! Andy Card and his cronies at the White House will never let her go, once she’s locked up in some prison psych ward.”
“Andy’s my own flesh and blood. But I will tell you frankly, he’s a hatchet man for the Bush family, going back decades. His worked for Daddy Bush in Massachusetts. He was Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House and Secretary of Transportation for Daddy Bush. That’s before he went to work for George, Jr.”
“And he didn’t get those jobs by being a nice guy, Sam. Andy Card is vicious. And his friends are vicious. That’s the only life in politics they know. Somebody like Susan would get screwed to the wall if these people get a chance at her. They wouldn’t give a damn that they have stomped somebody so small. Have you read the indictment?” Ted glared at Talkin. “Susan’s in their way because of what she knows about Iraq. If she goes into some psych prison, they are never going to let her out. She’s going to be fucked!”
“She’s going to get trapped there, Sam!”
Mercifully, on that awful day I had no idea how accurate his prediction would be.
Talkin started whining: “I don’t know what’s going to happen yet. We have to wait and see the report.”
Ted st
ayed on point: “No matter what that report says, Mr. Talkin, I am telling you right now— We, her family, are demanding a hearing. We are going to challenge the reliability of those psych evaluations. We’re not going to lay down and let the Prosecution screw her.”
I turned to Ted, grabbing for that hearing. “Ted, we’ve got a year’s worth of session notes from Dr. Taddesseh at Family Health Services. He’s on record saying there’s nothing wrong with me. No depression. No mood disturbances. No psychosis. No delusions. Nothing! Those are current records, which show that I’ve exhibited no “psychiatric symptoms” throughout my indictment. We’ll get those papers to the Judge. And we’ll get Dr. Taddesseh to testify at the hearing.”
“It’s all political. And we can prove it!”
Ted was fierce and unwavering: “Mr. Talkin, you are going to tell the Judge that we demand a hearing.”
“If you don’t tell him, then I will.”
“Susan, you must tell the Court that as of right now, I am acting as co-counsel in your defense.388 Then I can address the Court myself on your behalf. If you can’t handle this case, Mr. Talkin, then we’re going to replace you. We’ll do that today if we have to, as well.”
Talkin sputtered how it was too early to get excited.
It was a short walk to the Federal Courthouse on Pearl Street, but I felt like I was on death row walking to my execution. This was far worse than anything I had imagined. It was surreal that my public attorney would lay down the fight, so the Justice Department could trample us. Uncle Ted looked numb.
Not for the last time, I thanked God for Uncle Ted. I tried to breathe, and stay calm in the face of this shocking turn of events.
A funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Talkin vanished. He told us he had to make a couple of phone calls to check the status of the Kleinman report. I’m sure he wanted to warn O’Callahan that I brought the cavalry with me, ready for battle. I was not traveling alone to New York, as they expected. Whatever worst scenario they’d plotted, they had a strong challenger in my Uncle Ted. He’s more of a powerhouse in the courtroom than either of those two lightweights put together.
EXTREME PREJUDICE: The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq Page 38