{"id":13924,"date":"2013-02-17T21:50:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T21:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=13924"},"modified":"2024-04-24T10:28:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T17:28:52","slug":"ryantolane","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13924","title":{"rendered":"Leo Ryan Letter to Mark Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><span lang=\"ES-US\">(<strong>Nota del editor:<\/strong> una traducci\u00f3n al espa\u00f1ol de esta carta se encuentra <a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=82072\">aqui<\/a>.)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Upon learning of Rep. Leo Ryan\u2019s plans to visit Jonestown in November 1978, Peoples Temple attorney Mark Lane wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13920\">a letter to the Congressman<\/a>, requesting that he postpone the trip and suggesting that failure to do so might be interpreted as part of a concerted attack against the Temple.<\/p>\n<p>It was a confrontational letter, and four days later, on November 10, Ryan wrote a <a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/RyanToLane.pdf\">letter to Lane<\/a> which responded in kind. After opening with an acknowledgment of Lane\u2019s \u201coffer of assistance,\u201d Ryan declared that he \u201cmust respectfully dissent from certain assumptions which were apparent in your letter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The most immediate issue was Lane\u2019s demand to be present when Ryan entered Jonestown, and on that score, Ryan intimated that he did not have to consider the lawyer\u2019s wishes. Congressional offices and committees work with the government of the nation which a representative intends to visit (which he did), his own policy is \u201cto deal with the principals in a given situation\u201d (which he did), and the Temple would be represented even without Lane, since \u201cI understand Mr. Jones has other legal counsel available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most directly, Ryan wrote, \u201cIn a situation when the [House International Relations] Committee schedule does not coincide with your own personal schedule, I must obviously resolve such a conflict&nbsp;of&nbsp;the United States House of Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter proceeds to refute Lane\u2019s assertions that the congressional visit might constitute \u201cpersecution\u201d or a \u201cwitch hunt,\u201d and says Lane\u2019s predicted result of an \u201cembarrassing situation\u201d arising from the visit was out of line. \u201c[It] does not impress me at all. If the comment is intended as a threat, I believe it reveals more than may have been intended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leo Ryan left for Guyana three days after writing this letter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Leo Ryan Letter to Mark Lane,<\/strong> RYMUR 89-4286-AA-1-f-3 \u2013 AA-1-f-3-5<br \/>\n<span class=\"tabbed\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/RyanToLane.pdf\">PDF<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"tabbed\"><a href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13925\">Text<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Array<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":13940,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13924","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13924"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126957,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13924\/revisions\/126957"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}