January 31, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
CONTACT:
media@aclu.org ALBUQUERQUE —The
American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico today demanded an explanation from
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for investigating a federal employee who
published an editorial critical of the Bush administration in a local newspaper.
In her letter to the weekly Alibi, Laura Berg, a clinical nurse
specialist, criticized the Bush administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina
and the Iraq War, noting that, “as a VA nurse working with returning…vets, I
know the public has no sense of the additional devastating human and financial
costs of post-traumatic stress disorder.” She urged readers to “act
forcefully to remove a government administration playing games of smoke and
mirrors and vicious deceit.”
In September 2005, VA
Information Security employees seized Berg’s office computer because they
claimed “government equipment was used inappropriately…during government time
for drafting an editorial letter.” No evidence was recovered to support
that belief.
“The VA had no reason to suspect Laura Berg used
government resources to produce her editorial,” said ACLU of New Mexico
Executive Director Peter Simonson. “She signed the letter as a private
individual. From all appearances, the seizure of her work computer was an
act of retaliation and a hardball attempt to scare Laura into
silence.”
In a November 9th memorandum to Berg, Mel Hooker, Chief
of Human Resource Management Service at the VA, conceded that no evidence was
found implicating the use of Berg’s work computer in the writing of the
editorial. However, he justified the investigation by saying “the Agency
is bound by law to investigate and pursue any act which potentially represents
sedition.”
Simonson added: “The reference to ‘sedition’ is
shocking. Even if Laura had used the office computer it would change
nothing. None of her actions -- her criticism of the government, or her
appeal for a change in the heads of government -- approach an act of unlawful
insurrection. 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’?”
ACLU attorneys George Bach and Larry Kronen
plan to submit a request under the Freedom of Information Act for all documents
related to the VA’s actions towards Berg. They have asked Hooker for a
public apology “to remedy the unconstitutional chilling effect on the speech of
VA employees that has resulted from these intimidating
tactics.”
