Come Support Briana Waters - She Testifies Wednesday
author: Civil Rights Outreach Committee
e-mail:civilrightsoutreach@gmail.com

Briana Waters is expected to take the stand in her own defense as early as Wednesday, February 27, in Tacoma's federal courthouse (1717 Pacific Ave.). Ms. Waters is on trial for allegedly acting as a lookout during the arson of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001. Ms. Waters, a 32-year-old mother and violin teacher, steadfastly maintains her innocence. Civil Rights Outreach Committee

If convicted, Waters faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 35 years in prison. This trial is another chapter in the federal government's "Operation Backfire," also dubbed the "Green Scare," in which the government has hounded the environmental activist community, overcharged a number of individuals, and branded them as terrorists, even though none of the events resulted in a single injury.

The prosecution rested its case against Ms. Waters on Friday, February 22, after two weeks. The government's case is not based upon any concrete or forensic evidence, but instead almost entirely relied on the testimony of two informants who confessed to setting the University of Washington fire and who will receive vastly reduced sentences in exchange for their testimony.

The defense began presenting its case on Monday, February 25, and is expected to conclude by the end of the week. The defense impeached several of the government's witnesses, including the informants, by demonstrating that their accounts are inconsistent and unreliable. "Several witnesses were clearly testifying in order to reduce or eliminate the government's threat of their own lengthy prison sentences," said attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center of Eugene, Oregon.