May 3, 2003

Subject: news from the hole

Hi all. I just came from visiting Rob. I am sure you all must be curious what happened and why Rob was taken to the hole, so I will start with yesterday afternoon. I was visiting Rob in the outside area when a CO called him inside. Rob came back out looking white as a ghost. He told me the CO said I had to leave and that he had to go with the lieutenant. Apparently they immediately took him into a van and drove to the main prison next door. On his way there they were showing him printouts from the www.freerobrothberg.com web site. They told him he was in violation for writing the email during furlough which I later had added to the updates on the site. They also told him that I (yes, me) could be investigated by the FBI for illegally posting a photograph of the prison camp building on the site. He was threatened that he may loose his halfway house time and his "good" time (70 days) as well as other privileges such as camp status, commissary, visits, etc. Then they told him that there would be a meeting with a lieutenant about this on Monday.

I honestly don't think they have any legal right to do anything about the web site. And I don't believe Rob broke any rules by writing that email (which was never even sent until several hours after he was back in prison). But it sounds like Rob is about to be blackmailed into having me shut down the web site. The BOP basically own Rob until March 1, 2004 unfortunately. I feel really angry and powerless about what is happening to him right now, and I know he does too. But we will do whatever it takes to assure Rob the easiest route out of that place.


I will keep you posted...
Shannon