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For Immediate Release:
Press Contact: Mya Shone 707.694.5695
HISTORIC FIRST VIGIL AT THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS
TO DEMAND COMPASSIONATE RELEASE
FOR RENOWNED ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART
Federal Bureau of Prisons Headquarters, 320 1st St NW, Washington, DC
(corner 1st Street and Indiana Avenue, NW)
Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at Noon
Dick
Gregory and Louis Wolf join imprisoned attorney Lynne Stewart’s husband
Ralph Poynter and supporters for a historic vigil at the Federal Bureau
of Prisons Headquarters in Washington, DC. Seven weeks have elapsed
since Warden Jody Upton of FMC Carswell approved Compassionate Release
for 73-year-old Lynne Stewart based upon medical findings of Stage 4
cancer that had spread to Stewart’s scapula, lymph nodes and lungs.
The
Warden's recommendation and documentation have been fully vetted at the
Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC. Filing the motion for
Compassionate Release with Judge John Koetl, the sentencing judge,
awaits solely the ratifying signature of Director Charles E. Samuels,
Jr.
“Every
minute's delay compromises Lynne Stewart's life and her access to the
comprehensive treatment plan prepared for her at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center in New York,” Poynter declared, adding that “Her
weakened condition and the ominous drop in her white blood cell count
required the prison to place Lynne in isolation, as she faces the risk
of generalized infection.”
Over
twenty thousand people of conscience in the United States and
internationally — including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, Pete Seeger,
Alice Walker, Ed Asner, Cornell West, Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Berrigan,
Richard Falk and Bianca Jagger — have been mobilized by the prospect
that Lynne Stewart will perish in prison, or so shortly after release
that she would be on the verge of death, denied the comfort and joy of
being with those closest to her: her husband Ralph Poynter, many
children, grandchildren, a great grandchild and lifelong friends. They
have sent email messages, individual letters and made telephone calls to
the FMC Warden and the Bureau of Prisons Director in support of Lynne
Stewart’s application for Compassionate Release.
Dick
Gregory, whose concern for Lynne Stewart led him to fast since April 4,
the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
declared:
“I cannot stand by as this legendary lawyer is forced to walk with 10
pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains,
and is shackled wrist and ankle to the bed whenever she receives medical
treatment. I
am determined to refuse all solid food until Lynne Stewart is freed and
receives medical treatment in the care of her family and with
physicians of her choice without which she will die.”
“Justice
delayed is justice denied,” explains Lynne Stewart’s husband Ralph
Poynter. “Lynne dies a little more each day.” Poynter has come to
Washington, DC from New York City to organize vigils in support of
Compassionate Release for Lynne Stewart at the White House and the
Bureau of Prisons. “I am prepared to stay,” Poynter remarked, “until
Director Samuels puts pen to paper and the Compassionate Release
application moves forward.”
Who is Lynne Stewart:
As
a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years, Lynne Stewart defended the
poor, the disadvantaged and those targeted by the police and the State.
Such has been her reputation that judges assigned her routinely to act
for defendants whom no attorney was willing to represent. One of these
was the blind Egyptian cleric
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who Stewart represented with co-counsels
former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara.
In
2002, Lynne Stewart was targeted by then-President George Bush and
Attorney General John Ashcroft for providing a vigorous defense of her
client. She was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a
terrorist activity after she exercised both her and her client’s first
amendment rights by presenting a press release to a Reuters journalist.
In
2006, while the Department of Justice demanded a 30-year sentence,
Judge John Koetl, handed down a 28-month sentence noting: “By
providing a criminal defense to the poor, the disadvantaged and
unpopular over three decades, it is no exaggeration to say that Ms.
Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to the
nation.”
That
sentence, however, was not to stand as the Second Circuit Appellate
Court, withdrew Lynne Stewart’s bail — even though her case is still
before the courts — and remanded the case back to Judge Koetl with the
harsh demand that he revisit his sentence and issue a severely enhanced
one. On July 15, 2010, Judge Koeltl increased Stewart’s sentence from 28
months to 10 years imprisonment. This has become a virtual death
sentence for Lynne Stewart as breast cancer that had been in remission
prior to her imprisonment metastasized.
Under
the 1984 Sentencing Act, after a prisoner request, the Bureau of
Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences “for
extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is
foremost among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane
criterion for compassionate release.
Urgent: Please sign the petition for compassionate release for Lynne Stewart
http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life-release-her-now-2Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504-054
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
PO Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
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Stop the media blackout on Bradley Manning's trial!
Sign our petition demanding that he ensure journalists can record Bradley Manning's court martial proceedings! When you sign our petition, our e-mail system will send a message on your behalf to the office of Secretary of Defense.http://www.bradleymanning.org/featured/stop-the-media-blackout-on-bradley-mannings-trial
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New Documentary Film Focuses on Mumia's Innocence: Manufacturing Guilt
How Philadelphia's Police and DA actively manufactured Mumia's guilt, and suppressed his innocence
A short film by Stephen Vittoria, writer/director of "Mumia - Long Distance Revolutionary,"
with Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia, legal consultant on this film
TWO SHOWINGS IN THE BAY AREA!
with speakers: Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia,
and a Member of Mumia's Family
Speaking on:
INNOCENT: the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Oakland: 7 PM, Friday 05 July
East Side Arts Alliance,
2277 International Blvd, Oakland
Between 22nd and 23rd Ave.
From 14th and Broadway (12th St. BART) downtown Oakland.
Take the IR Bus/IR Rapid Bus to 23rd & Int'l Blvd.
San Francisco: 7 PM, Sunday 07 July
518 Valencia St., SF
Between 16th & 17th Streets
Take BART to 16th St & Mission
Both events feature showings of Manufacturing Guilt,
How Philadelphia's police and DA actively manufactured Mumia's Guilt, and suppressed his innocence
Both events will appear on the LaborFest calendar
Sponsored by: The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC),
and Oakland Teachers for Mumia
Info on these events: 650 996-7888
This message from: The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • www.laboractionmumia.org • June/July 2013
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Thank NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden
Our country is in the midst of a struggle between the growing surveillance state and our precious civil liberties. Now a whistleblower has boldly stepped forward to expose the National Security Agency’s vast spying on our phone records and online communications.Explaining his actions, the 29-year-old computer expert said: “I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building."
We thank Edward Snowden for his principled and courageous actions as a whistleblower, informing the public about vast surveillance by the National Security Agency that undermines our civil liberties.
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8083
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) New Leak Indicates Britain and U.S. Tracked Diplomats
By SCOTT SHANE and RAVI SOMAIYA
A new set of classified documents disclosed Sunday suggested that Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has provided a trove of documents to The Guardian newspaper, had obtained a wider range of materials about government surveillance than had been known, including one document revealing how American and British intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on world leaders at conferences in London in 2009.
The latest disclosures, appearing again in The Guardian, came the night before a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized nations was to open in Northern Ireland, where some of the leaders who were intelligence targets four years ago will be in attendance.
The newspaper reported Sunday night that Government Communications Headquarters, or G.C.H.Q., the British eavesdropping agency that works closely with the N.S.A., monitored the e-mail and phones of other countries’ representatives at two London conferences, in part by setting up a monitored Internet cafe for the participants. In addition, the United States intercepted the communications of Dmitri A. Medvedev, then the Russian president and now the prime minister, the newspaper said.
The Guardian posted some G.C.H.Q. documents on its Web site with part of the contents blacked out. A spokesman for The Guardian said Sunday that the paper decided to redact the documents, and that enough was published “to show the authenticity of the report.”
The documents indicated that e-mail interception and key-logging software was installed on the computers in the ersatz Internet cafe, that foreign diplomats’ BlackBerry messages and calls were intercepted, and that 45 analysts tracked who was phoning whom at the meeting.
Richard J. Aldrich, a professor of international security at the University of Warwick and the author of a history of the G.C.H.Q., said the logos of the N.S.A. and Canadian intelligence on one of the British documents suggested that they were accessible to Mr. Snowden “under the auspices of a joint program.”
He said Mr. Snowden’s leak showed that British and American diplomats and politicians got a real-time feed of intelligence on their counterparts at major summit meetings. “Now this is integrated into summit diplomacy, almost like a newsreader getting a feed in their ear,” he said.
American intelligence officials have expressed alarm at the variety of highly classified material Mr. Snowden obtained, suggesting that his actions revealed a shocking breach in the fundamental principle that intelligence officers should have access only to the material they need to do their jobs. On Sunday, a spokesman for the British foreign service said he would not comment on intelligence matters.
Mr. Snowden, 29, who left the N.S.A. station in Hawaii this spring and is now thought to be hiding in Hong Kong, delivered hundreds of N.S.A. documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Their initial reports covered the routine collection of data on all phone calls handled by the major American telephone companies and an N.S.A. program called Prism that collects the e-mails and other Web activity of foreigners using major Internet services like Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
Disclosures linked to Mr. Snowden now rank among the most significant breaches in the strict secrecy of the N.S.A., the largest American intelligence agency, since its creation in 1952. It suffered a handful of defections during the cold war; more recently, insiders have revealed warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States.
By contrast, the latest disclosures have exposed surveillance approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and shared with Congress.
A letter delivered to Congress on Saturday from the office of James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said that the surveillance programs had helped thwart “dozens” of terrorist plots in the United States and more than 20 other countries.
While the N.S.A. collects and stores the phone records of millions of Americans each year, it examines the records only when there is suspicion of a connection to terrorism, the letter said, adding that in 2012, fewer than 300 phone records were reviewed.
The Guardian’s latest reports offered a rare window onto the everyday electronic spying that the agency does in close cooperation with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Matthew M. Aid, an intelligence historian in Washington, said the reports have “confirmed longstanding suspicions that N.S.A’s surveillance in this country is far more intrusive than we knew.” He added, “We desperately need to have a public discussion about the proper limits on N.S.A.”
But he said the reports of spying on world leaders, while distressing to the eavesdroppers because it will make their targets more wary, contained no surprises. “This is just what intelligence agencies do — spy on friends and enemies alike,” he said. “Only because the shroud of secrecy that covers all of N.S.A. operations is so thick does a glimpse like this come as a shock.”
While some members of Congress have raised questions about the sweep of the N.S.A.’s collection of data on Americans, leaders of both parties have defended the programs and denounced Mr. Snowden before The Guardian published its latest report.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” former Vice President Dick Cheney praised the agency and called Mr. Snowden a criminal and a traitor. “I think it’s one of the worst occasions in my memory of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States,” he said.
The White House chief of staff, Denis McDonough, appearing on “Face the Nation” on CBS, said leaking information about American surveillance “in effect gives the playbook to those who would like to get around our techniques and our practices, and obviously that’s not in our interest in the long haul.”
John M. Broder contributed reporting from Washington, and John F. Burns from London.
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2) Turkey Expands Violent Reaction to Street Unrest
By TIM ARANGO, SEBNEM ARSU and CEYLAN YEGINSU
ISTANBUL
— The Turkish authorities widened their crackdown on the antigovernment
protest movement on Sunday, taking aim not just at the demonstrators
themselves, but also at the medics who treat their injuries, the
business owners who shelter them and the foreign news media flocking
here to cover a growing political crisis threatening to paralyze the
government of Prıme Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
After an intense night of street clashes that represented the worst violence in nearly three weeks of protests, Mr. Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of his supporters on Sunday — many of them traveling on city buses and ferries that the government had mobilized for the event — at an outdoor arena on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. In some of his toughest language yet, he called his opponents terrorists and made clear that any hope of a compromise to end the crisis was gone.
“It is nothing more than the minority’s attempt to dominate the majority,” he said of the protesters. “We will not allow it.”
The escalating tensions have raised the risk of an extended period of civil unrest that could undermine Turkey’s image as a rising global power and a model of Islamic democracy, which Mr. Erdogan has cultivated over a decade in power.
As he spoke, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators in Istanbul and in several other cities. In at least two strongholds of support for Mr. Erdogan, the nature of the confrontation seemed to take a more dangerous turn, as antigovernment protesters clashed with his civilian backers. In Mr. Erdogan’s childhood neighborhood in Istanbul, a group of government supporters joined the police with sticks and fought against protesters, according to one witness. In Konya, a conservative town in the Anatolian heartland, government supporters also clashed with protesters, according to a local news report.
Even before Mr. Erdogan took the stage to deliver his nearly two-hour-long speech, the master of ceremonies had bashed the foreign news media, which the prime minister has suggested is part of a foreign plot, along with financial speculators and terrorists, to topple his government.
“CNN International, are you ready for this?” shouted the announcer to the sea of people waving flags bearing Mr. Erdogan’s face and the yellow and white logo of his Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as A.K.P.
Mr. Erdogan then singled out BBC, CNN and Reuters, saying, “for days, you fabricated news.”
“You portrayed Turkey differently to the world,” he continued. “You are left alone with your lies. This nation is not the one that you misrepresented to the world.”
At least 400 people were detained on Sunday, according to the Istanbul Bar Association, with local news reports saying that some journalists had been among them. One foreign photographer documenting the clashes Saturday night said a police officer had torn his gas mask off him while in a cloud of tear gas, and forced him to clear his memory card of photographs.
Some doctors and nurses who treated protesters were detained by security forces on Sunday, according to the legal offices of the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors. Lawyers have been held by the authorities in recent days. Mr. Erdogan said Sunday that even the owners of luxury hotels near Taksim Square who had provided refuge to protesters fleeing the chaos of the police raid were linked to terrorism.
“We know very well the ones that sheltered in their hotels those who cooperated with terror,” he said at the rally. “Will they not be held accountable? If we do not hold them accountable, then the nation will hold us accountable.”
The last three weeks have laid bare Turkey’s deep divisions between the religious, largely conservative masses who support Mr. Erdogan and the mostly secular and middle class who have joined the protest movement. Their contesting visions of the country played out clearly across Istanbul on Sunday. As Mr. Erdogan’s supporters flocked to his rally, police forces were already firing tear gas at protesters who were trying to march to Taksim Square, which had become the center of the movement before the police cleared the area.
With a helicopter flying overhead, the police set up barricades and positioned armored vehicles, their water cannons aimed down side streets leading to Taksim. The center of the city once again resembled a war zone, as shops were closed and heavy clashes in central Istanbul continued long into the night.
At Mr. Erdogan’s rally on the seashore, near the walls of the ancient city, enthusiastic government supporters voiced anger at its opponents. Walking up to the rally grounds, people chanted, “Go gas them, Captain! Break their hands!” A helicopter flew overhead to provide panoramic footage for state television. Later, as Erdogan supporters rode buses and trains back to the city center, many removed their A.K.P. hats and discarded their flags, fearful of being targeted by antigovernment demonstrators.
Sabitha Altin, 62, a retired teacher wearing a fuchsia head scarf, said, “I’ve never been to a rally in my life, but today I came because the country is in turmoil and I believe this is the only man who can save it, with our support.”
Ms. Altin acknowledged Mr. Erdogan’s harsh crackdown on protesters, but she said it was necessary to preserve his accomplishments over the last 10 years. “He may seem like he has been coming down on people hard these past few weeks,” she said. “But what do you expect when everything he has built for us over 10 years is torn apart and counts for zero. Anyone would be angry and act in this way.”
Many at the rally took at faith what Mr. Erdogan has been saying for days: that the unrest gripping Turkey is the work of foreigners, and not reflective of the legitimate grievances of the Turks who did not vote for him.
“This whole thing is not as bad as it looks,” Fatma Aygun, 33, said. “It is just a game of the foreign media.”
She added, “Things will be back to normal in three to four days. Taksim will look like this: happy, colorful and festive. We are the majority, and we will make sure of it.”
Mr. Erdogan’s decision on Saturday to order a decisive police raid on protesters camped out in a part of Taksim known as Gezi Park, the last significant green space in the center of Istanbul that protesters mobilized to save from being turned into a mall, marked a turn in the crisis and set off clashes in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities that continued to Sunday night. Days after he appeared ready to compromise by offering the protesters a referendum in which residents of Istanbul would decide the park’s fate, Mr. Erdogan seemed to have run out of patience.
Saving the park from a government plan to replace it with a commercial replica of an Ottoman-era army barracks was the first cause of the protesters. But the movement quickly attracted other disillusioned Turks, who have chafed at what they viewed as the government’s rising authoritarianism, and the movement evolved in to a broader challenge to Mr. Erdogan’s government.
In responding to the crisis, Mr. Erdogan sought to divide the protest movement last week by offering concessions on the park. But by then, it was too late: the movement had already become about much more. By Sunday, Mr. Erdogan sought to thoroughly delegitimize any opposition to his governance, linking the effort to save the park to a recent terrorist attack in Reyhanli, in southern Turkey, which was connected to the Syrian civil war and killed dozens.
“I wonder what these foreigners who came to Taksim Square from all corners of the world were doing,” he said. “We have seen the same plots in Reyhanli.”
After an intense night of street clashes that represented the worst violence in nearly three weeks of protests, Mr. Erdogan rallied hundreds of thousands of his supporters on Sunday — many of them traveling on city buses and ferries that the government had mobilized for the event — at an outdoor arena on the shores of the Sea of Marmara. In some of his toughest language yet, he called his opponents terrorists and made clear that any hope of a compromise to end the crisis was gone.
“It is nothing more than the minority’s attempt to dominate the majority,” he said of the protesters. “We will not allow it.”
The escalating tensions have raised the risk of an extended period of civil unrest that could undermine Turkey’s image as a rising global power and a model of Islamic democracy, which Mr. Erdogan has cultivated over a decade in power.
As he spoke, the police fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators in Istanbul and in several other cities. In at least two strongholds of support for Mr. Erdogan, the nature of the confrontation seemed to take a more dangerous turn, as antigovernment protesters clashed with his civilian backers. In Mr. Erdogan’s childhood neighborhood in Istanbul, a group of government supporters joined the police with sticks and fought against protesters, according to one witness. In Konya, a conservative town in the Anatolian heartland, government supporters also clashed with protesters, according to a local news report.
Even before Mr. Erdogan took the stage to deliver his nearly two-hour-long speech, the master of ceremonies had bashed the foreign news media, which the prime minister has suggested is part of a foreign plot, along with financial speculators and terrorists, to topple his government.
“CNN International, are you ready for this?” shouted the announcer to the sea of people waving flags bearing Mr. Erdogan’s face and the yellow and white logo of his Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials as A.K.P.
Mr. Erdogan then singled out BBC, CNN and Reuters, saying, “for days, you fabricated news.”
“You portrayed Turkey differently to the world,” he continued. “You are left alone with your lies. This nation is not the one that you misrepresented to the world.”
At least 400 people were detained on Sunday, according to the Istanbul Bar Association, with local news reports saying that some journalists had been among them. One foreign photographer documenting the clashes Saturday night said a police officer had torn his gas mask off him while in a cloud of tear gas, and forced him to clear his memory card of photographs.
Some doctors and nurses who treated protesters were detained by security forces on Sunday, according to the legal offices of the Istanbul Chamber of Doctors. Lawyers have been held by the authorities in recent days. Mr. Erdogan said Sunday that even the owners of luxury hotels near Taksim Square who had provided refuge to protesters fleeing the chaos of the police raid were linked to terrorism.
“We know very well the ones that sheltered in their hotels those who cooperated with terror,” he said at the rally. “Will they not be held accountable? If we do not hold them accountable, then the nation will hold us accountable.”
The last three weeks have laid bare Turkey’s deep divisions between the religious, largely conservative masses who support Mr. Erdogan and the mostly secular and middle class who have joined the protest movement. Their contesting visions of the country played out clearly across Istanbul on Sunday. As Mr. Erdogan’s supporters flocked to his rally, police forces were already firing tear gas at protesters who were trying to march to Taksim Square, which had become the center of the movement before the police cleared the area.
With a helicopter flying overhead, the police set up barricades and positioned armored vehicles, their water cannons aimed down side streets leading to Taksim. The center of the city once again resembled a war zone, as shops were closed and heavy clashes in central Istanbul continued long into the night.
At Mr. Erdogan’s rally on the seashore, near the walls of the ancient city, enthusiastic government supporters voiced anger at its opponents. Walking up to the rally grounds, people chanted, “Go gas them, Captain! Break their hands!” A helicopter flew overhead to provide panoramic footage for state television. Later, as Erdogan supporters rode buses and trains back to the city center, many removed their A.K.P. hats and discarded their flags, fearful of being targeted by antigovernment demonstrators.
Sabitha Altin, 62, a retired teacher wearing a fuchsia head scarf, said, “I’ve never been to a rally in my life, but today I came because the country is in turmoil and I believe this is the only man who can save it, with our support.”
Ms. Altin acknowledged Mr. Erdogan’s harsh crackdown on protesters, but she said it was necessary to preserve his accomplishments over the last 10 years. “He may seem like he has been coming down on people hard these past few weeks,” she said. “But what do you expect when everything he has built for us over 10 years is torn apart and counts for zero. Anyone would be angry and act in this way.”
Many at the rally took at faith what Mr. Erdogan has been saying for days: that the unrest gripping Turkey is the work of foreigners, and not reflective of the legitimate grievances of the Turks who did not vote for him.
“This whole thing is not as bad as it looks,” Fatma Aygun, 33, said. “It is just a game of the foreign media.”
She added, “Things will be back to normal in three to four days. Taksim will look like this: happy, colorful and festive. We are the majority, and we will make sure of it.”
Mr. Erdogan’s decision on Saturday to order a decisive police raid on protesters camped out in a part of Taksim known as Gezi Park, the last significant green space in the center of Istanbul that protesters mobilized to save from being turned into a mall, marked a turn in the crisis and set off clashes in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities that continued to Sunday night. Days after he appeared ready to compromise by offering the protesters a referendum in which residents of Istanbul would decide the park’s fate, Mr. Erdogan seemed to have run out of patience.
Saving the park from a government plan to replace it with a commercial replica of an Ottoman-era army barracks was the first cause of the protesters. But the movement quickly attracted other disillusioned Turks, who have chafed at what they viewed as the government’s rising authoritarianism, and the movement evolved in to a broader challenge to Mr. Erdogan’s government.
In responding to the crisis, Mr. Erdogan sought to divide the protest movement last week by offering concessions on the park. But by then, it was too late: the movement had already become about much more. By Sunday, Mr. Erdogan sought to thoroughly delegitimize any opposition to his governance, linking the effort to save the park to a recent terrorist attack in Reyhanli, in southern Turkey, which was connected to the Syrian civil war and killed dozens.
“I wonder what these foreigners who came to Taksim Square from all corners of the world were doing,” he said. “We have seen the same plots in Reyhanli.”
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3) Crowds Protest as Indonesian Lawmakers Consider Raising Fuel Prices
By JOE COCHRANE
June 17, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/business/global/indonesia-budget-fuel-prices.html?ref=world
JAKARTA — The Indonesian House of Representatives met Monday evening to debate a revised budget that includes a highly contentious increase in the price of subsidized gasoline, which drew thousands of protesters into the streets of the capital.
The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wants to raise gasoline prices 44 percent, from 4,500 rupiah, or 45 cents, a liter, or 0.26 gallon, to 6,500 rupiah to help close a widening budget deficit. The country’s Finance Ministry has said spending on fuel subsidies could reach $23 billion in 2013, compared with about $20 billion last year, if urgent action is not taken.
Amid heavy rain, protesters including members of labor groups — the Jakarta police estimated as many as 4,000 — staged rallies and burned tires Monday outside the national legislative complex in south Jakarta to voice opposition to any price increases. The police said they had deployed nearly 20,000 officers to maintain order, given violent protests that had erupted during past fuel price debates.
Demonstrations by students and other groups were also reported in other cities around Indonesia.
International lenders like the World Bank have urged the Indonesian government to eliminate subsidies altogether, as savings could go to crucial social programs, including health care, as well as much-needed infrastructure investment.
However, with national legislative elections scheduled for April 2014 and a presidential election three months later, fuel subsidies are a hot-button political issue.
‘'They have to increase the prices because we are bleeding in our budget,'’ said Didik Rachbini, a prominent economist and member of Mr. Yudhoyono’s National Economic Council, which comprises economists and leading businessmen and advises the president on economic policy. ‘‘But this is political, a very political issue.'’
Indonesian lawmakers may have to put politics aside, however, if they want to avoid harming one of Asia’s best-performing economies.
Hand-wringing on the fuel subsidy issue dating to April has caused foreign investors to abandon Indonesia’s capital and debt markets in recent days and has created growing trade and current account deficits. The rupiah, meanwhile, has fallen to nearly 10,000 against the dollar.
Although Indonesia has plenty of oil production fields and is among the top 25 oil-producing nations in the world, it is a net importer of petroleum. Gasoline is so heavily subsidized that at the end of 2012, the country had the lowest fuel prices of any net oil-consuming nation in the world, according to the World Bank. The second-lowest was the United States, where a gallon sold for $3.29 on Dec. 31 — nearly twice as much as in Indonesia.
The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or P.D.I.P., the country’s largest opposition party, has rejected any plan to raise gasoline prices, saying there are other ways to plug holes in the state budget.
‘'My party has done calculations and we suggest the government instead work on improving cost recovery in the oil and gas sector by about 153 trillion rupiah,’’ said Eva Sundari, a P.D.I.P. lawmaker. ‘‘At the same time we recommend improvements in the taxation collection process. There is more potential revenue if we intensify efforts.'’
She said she continued to support artificially low gasoline prices ‘'because I am a leftist.'’
Most members of Mr. Yudhoyono’s governing coalition have agreed to support the plan, which would also increase diesel prices 1,000 rupiah. The government also reached an agreement with House Commission XI, which oversees financial issues, on raising both fuel prices and the state budget purchase quota for subsidized fuel, as well as increasing the budget deficit target from 1.6 percent to 2.4 percent.
A final vote was expected Monday night, yet the outcome remained far from certain.
In March 2012, Mr. Yudhoyono proposed raising fuel prices, but even members of his own governing coalition revolted at the last minute, quashing his plan at a raucous House session as student and labor groups outside clashed with police officers on live national television.
The revised state budget includes the renewal of a cash compensation program for poor Indonesian families to cushion the blow from the subsidy decision and a resulting increase in inflation, as was done when gasoline prices were raised in 2008. However, many working class Indonesians have said that any increase in the price of gasoline automatically creates higher costs for numerous items, including food staples, clothing and public transportation.
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4) Budget Cuts Reach Bone for Philadelphia Schools
By TRIP GABRIEL
PHILADELPHIA — When a second grader came to the Andrew Jackson School
too agitated to eat breakfast on Friday, an aide alerted the school
counselor, who engaged him in an art project in her office. When he was
still overwrought at 11, a secretary called the boy’s family, and soon a
monitor at the front door buzzed in an older brother to take him home.
Under a draconian budget passed by the Philadelphia School District last month, none of these supporting players — aide, counselor, secretary, security monitor — will remain at the school by September, nor will there be money for books, paper, a nurse or the school’s locally celebrated rock band.
“I am worried sick,” said Lisa Ciaranca Kaplan, the principal, whose homey school in South Philadelphia serves 410 students, speaking 14 languages, all of whom qualify for free meals. “How do I relieve teachers for lunch if I have no one in the lunchroom? I’ll be the only person in this building who’s not in a class.”
Pink slips were recently sent to 19 percent of the school-based work force, including all 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides. Principals are contemplating opening in September with larger classes but no one to answer phones, keep order on the playground, coach sports, check out library books or send transcripts for seniors applying to college.
“You’re not even looking at a school that any of us went to,” said Lori Shorr, the mayor’s chief education officer. “It’s an atrocity, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves if the schools open with these budgets.”
William R. Hite Jr., the first-year superintendent, said the $2.4 billion budget reflected the consequences of shortsighted fiscal decisions in the past. “The point is there’s not enough revenue to adequately serve the children of the city,” he said.
Mr. Hite and Mayor Michael A. Nutter are seeking $304 million in extra revenue from the city, the state and teachers’ givebacks. So far the parties that have been asked to contribute have fallen short of coming up with the requested money.
Despite five visits to Harrisburg to lobby Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, and the General Assembly, the mayor made little progress: last Thursday the House passed a budget with just $10 million extra for Philadelphia schools.
“At this moment there’s no obvious path to reach the outcome being sought by the Philadelphia School District,” said Erik Arneson, a spokesman for the Republican majority in the Senate.
The superintendent, citing the need for “shared sacrifice,” is asking for salary cuts from teachers of 5 to 13 percent and a wage freeze through 2017. Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, called the cuts unreasonable. “Our members have done a tremendous amount of sacrificing,” Mr. Jordan said. “They were sacrificing before we started sharing.”
Philadelphia’s schools, whose chronic budget problems led to a state takeover in 2002, have not been this close to the abyss in memory. The troubles have many causes: rising pension costs, high debt payments for past borrowing that papered over budget gaps, a flight to charter schools and a block-grant formula for state aid that has fallen behind enrollments, which have increased 5,000 a year between charter and traditional schools, according to Mr. Hite.
State aid to Philadelphia schools declined by $274 million in the past three years, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
“The state has never funded the city of Philadelphia and its schools very well,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. “For decades now it has been the subject of lawsuits and partisan politics and pushing and shoving, and the chickens are finally coming home to roost.”
With 33 percent of its 200,000 students in charter schools, the district made a long-delayed decision in March to close about 30 underused schools, over the objections of hundreds of protesters and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who was arrested during a demonstration.
The mayor is making the most progress in coming up with more money. With a goal of $95 million, the city identified $28 million it would go after from delinquent taxpayers. On Friday, the City Council approved a $2 fee per pack of cigarettes, expected to raise $40 million. But the day before, a bill to raise the alcohol tax, opposed by bar owners, stalled.
“We are at a critical moment in terms of the future of this city,” said Mark McDonald, the mayor’s spokesman.
So far the new revenues fall far short of what is needed to recall the 3,783 laid-off school staff members and reverse the cuts to supplies and programs. The morale of teachers and principals ranges from grim resolve to near despair. “I’ve been a no-nonsense, really dedicated principal; I’ll get the job done,” said William Wade, principal of Martin Luther King High School, who is losing 48 staff members.
Marielle Casanova, the counselor at Andrew Jackson School, whose morning was given over to the unruly second-grader, predicted chaos. “There’s only so much a classroom teacher can do for behavior issues or emotional outbursts,” said Ms. Casanova, who has received a pink slip along with all 282 counselors in the district.
Ms. Kaplan, the principal, returned often to the same word to describe the cuts: “devastating.”
“Do we just want a building that houses children until they get to the new prison they’re building?” she said.
As parents arrived for an international literacy day on Friday, they set out a potluck lunch of Mexican empanadas and Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. Ms. Kaplan greeted the room of about 40 mothers and a few fathers in three foreign languages: “Hola. Ni hao. Salaam aleikum.”
The real purpose of the gathering was to encourage parents to read to children over the summer because the budget cuts had eliminated summer school. It was a serious blow because research shows that children lose a significant level of skills during the summer when not in class.
“Make sure your children read and you read with your children,” said Ms. Kaplan as student helpers passed out donated coloring books and three Hannah Montana adventures.
“I’m sorry if you have boys,” she said. “These were all I could get. They were free.”
Under a draconian budget passed by the Philadelphia School District last month, none of these supporting players — aide, counselor, secretary, security monitor — will remain at the school by September, nor will there be money for books, paper, a nurse or the school’s locally celebrated rock band.
“I am worried sick,” said Lisa Ciaranca Kaplan, the principal, whose homey school in South Philadelphia serves 410 students, speaking 14 languages, all of whom qualify for free meals. “How do I relieve teachers for lunch if I have no one in the lunchroom? I’ll be the only person in this building who’s not in a class.”
Pink slips were recently sent to 19 percent of the school-based work force, including all 127 assistant principals, 646 teachers and more than 1,200 aides. Principals are contemplating opening in September with larger classes but no one to answer phones, keep order on the playground, coach sports, check out library books or send transcripts for seniors applying to college.
“You’re not even looking at a school that any of us went to,” said Lori Shorr, the mayor’s chief education officer. “It’s an atrocity, and we should all be ashamed of ourselves if the schools open with these budgets.”
William R. Hite Jr., the first-year superintendent, said the $2.4 billion budget reflected the consequences of shortsighted fiscal decisions in the past. “The point is there’s not enough revenue to adequately serve the children of the city,” he said.
Mr. Hite and Mayor Michael A. Nutter are seeking $304 million in extra revenue from the city, the state and teachers’ givebacks. So far the parties that have been asked to contribute have fallen short of coming up with the requested money.
Despite five visits to Harrisburg to lobby Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican, and the General Assembly, the mayor made little progress: last Thursday the House passed a budget with just $10 million extra for Philadelphia schools.
“At this moment there’s no obvious path to reach the outcome being sought by the Philadelphia School District,” said Erik Arneson, a spokesman for the Republican majority in the Senate.
The superintendent, citing the need for “shared sacrifice,” is asking for salary cuts from teachers of 5 to 13 percent and a wage freeze through 2017. Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, called the cuts unreasonable. “Our members have done a tremendous amount of sacrificing,” Mr. Jordan said. “They were sacrificing before we started sharing.”
Philadelphia’s schools, whose chronic budget problems led to a state takeover in 2002, have not been this close to the abyss in memory. The troubles have many causes: rising pension costs, high debt payments for past borrowing that papered over budget gaps, a flight to charter schools and a block-grant formula for state aid that has fallen behind enrollments, which have increased 5,000 a year between charter and traditional schools, according to Mr. Hite.
State aid to Philadelphia schools declined by $274 million in the past three years, according to the Pennsylvania State Education Association.
“The state has never funded the city of Philadelphia and its schools very well,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools. “For decades now it has been the subject of lawsuits and partisan politics and pushing and shoving, and the chickens are finally coming home to roost.”
With 33 percent of its 200,000 students in charter schools, the district made a long-delayed decision in March to close about 30 underused schools, over the objections of hundreds of protesters and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who was arrested during a demonstration.
The mayor is making the most progress in coming up with more money. With a goal of $95 million, the city identified $28 million it would go after from delinquent taxpayers. On Friday, the City Council approved a $2 fee per pack of cigarettes, expected to raise $40 million. But the day before, a bill to raise the alcohol tax, opposed by bar owners, stalled.
“We are at a critical moment in terms of the future of this city,” said Mark McDonald, the mayor’s spokesman.
So far the new revenues fall far short of what is needed to recall the 3,783 laid-off school staff members and reverse the cuts to supplies and programs. The morale of teachers and principals ranges from grim resolve to near despair. “I’ve been a no-nonsense, really dedicated principal; I’ll get the job done,” said William Wade, principal of Martin Luther King High School, who is losing 48 staff members.
Marielle Casanova, the counselor at Andrew Jackson School, whose morning was given over to the unruly second-grader, predicted chaos. “There’s only so much a classroom teacher can do for behavior issues or emotional outbursts,” said Ms. Casanova, who has received a pink slip along with all 282 counselors in the district.
Ms. Kaplan, the principal, returned often to the same word to describe the cuts: “devastating.”
“Do we just want a building that houses children until they get to the new prison they’re building?” she said.
As parents arrived for an international literacy day on Friday, they set out a potluck lunch of Mexican empanadas and Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. Ms. Kaplan greeted the room of about 40 mothers and a few fathers in three foreign languages: “Hola. Ni hao. Salaam aleikum.”
The real purpose of the gathering was to encourage parents to read to children over the summer because the budget cuts had eliminated summer school. It was a serious blow because research shows that children lose a significant level of skills during the summer when not in class.
“Make sure your children read and you read with your children,” said Ms. Kaplan as student helpers passed out donated coloring books and three Hannah Montana adventures.
“I’m sorry if you have boys,” she said. “These were all I could get. They were free.”
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5) Supreme Court Lets Regulators Sue Over Generic Drug Deals
By EDWARD WYATT
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators can
sue drug companies for antitrust violations when brand-name drug makers
pay generic competitors to keep cheaper, rival copies of a drug off the
market, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
In a decision that shifts the balance of power in the drug business, manufacturers will now have to defend the agreements against charges that they violate anticompetition laws, perhaps exposing the companies to a greater likelihood of aggressive competition from generic drugs and to lawsuits from drug retailers and wholesalers, insurers and others. Consumers also could benefit from sharply lower drug costs.
The court did not address whether the agreements, called pay-for-delay or reverse payments, were presumptively unlawful. But it laid out a number of possibilities under which the contracts could be attacked by antitrust officials.
In a 5-to-3 vote, with one abstention, the justices invalidated lower-court rulings that the agreements were legal as long as they did not keep a generic drug off the market for longer than the scope of the brand-name drug’s patent, even if the generic company had sued to have that patent invalidated.
The case pitted a company’s constitutional right to protect its intellectual property — through reliance on a patent that excludes competitors — against antitrust law, which holds that a company cannot unfairly exclude others from legitimately entering a business with a rival product.
In the case, Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, No. 12-416, the F.T.C. charged that a payment to Actavis by Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the holder of a patent on a testosterone gel known as AndroGel, represented an unlawful restraint of trade because it was intended to keep Actavis from producing its generic version of AndroGel for a certain number of years.
That also raises the cost that consumers pay for prescription drugs, the agency argued.
In a standard patent infringement lawsuit, a settlement payment would be made by an infringer to the patent holder. Solvay’s deal with Actavis is known as a reverse-payment agreement because payment flows from the brand-name drug company to the generic competitor that is challenging the patent.
The stakes in the case are significant. Pharmaceutical sales in the United States totaled roughly $320 billion in 2011, according to IMS Health, a research company whose statistics the agency cites in its arguments.
Brand-name drugs accounted for 18 percent of the total prescriptions written by doctors in 2011 but 73 percent of consumer spending, IMS reported. When a generic version of a brand-name drug comes onto the market, the F.T.C. said, it costs about 15 percent of the original, causing the brand-name drug maker to quickly lose about 90 percent of its market share.
Congress saw the difference that generic drugs could make in health care spending when in 1984 it passed the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, also known as the Hatch-Waxman Act.
That law, together with amendments passed roughly 20 years later, encouraged generic drug makers to challenge the patents protecting lucrative brand-name drugs.
The reverse-payment trend resulted from a sort of loophole in the Hatch-Waxman law. But during arguments at the court in March, at least two justices indicated that they were either reluctant to fix that problem for Congress or that they did not want any solution to apply broadly to cases that did not involve drug patents.
In a decision that shifts the balance of power in the drug business, manufacturers will now have to defend the agreements against charges that they violate anticompetition laws, perhaps exposing the companies to a greater likelihood of aggressive competition from generic drugs and to lawsuits from drug retailers and wholesalers, insurers and others. Consumers also could benefit from sharply lower drug costs.
The court did not address whether the agreements, called pay-for-delay or reverse payments, were presumptively unlawful. But it laid out a number of possibilities under which the contracts could be attacked by antitrust officials.
In a 5-to-3 vote, with one abstention, the justices invalidated lower-court rulings that the agreements were legal as long as they did not keep a generic drug off the market for longer than the scope of the brand-name drug’s patent, even if the generic company had sued to have that patent invalidated.
The case pitted a company’s constitutional right to protect its intellectual property — through reliance on a patent that excludes competitors — against antitrust law, which holds that a company cannot unfairly exclude others from legitimately entering a business with a rival product.
In the case, Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, No. 12-416, the F.T.C. charged that a payment to Actavis by Solvay Pharmaceuticals, the holder of a patent on a testosterone gel known as AndroGel, represented an unlawful restraint of trade because it was intended to keep Actavis from producing its generic version of AndroGel for a certain number of years.
That also raises the cost that consumers pay for prescription drugs, the agency argued.
In a standard patent infringement lawsuit, a settlement payment would be made by an infringer to the patent holder. Solvay’s deal with Actavis is known as a reverse-payment agreement because payment flows from the brand-name drug company to the generic competitor that is challenging the patent.
The stakes in the case are significant. Pharmaceutical sales in the United States totaled roughly $320 billion in 2011, according to IMS Health, a research company whose statistics the agency cites in its arguments.
Brand-name drugs accounted for 18 percent of the total prescriptions written by doctors in 2011 but 73 percent of consumer spending, IMS reported. When a generic version of a brand-name drug comes onto the market, the F.T.C. said, it costs about 15 percent of the original, causing the brand-name drug maker to quickly lose about 90 percent of its market share.
Congress saw the difference that generic drugs could make in health care spending when in 1984 it passed the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act, also known as the Hatch-Waxman Act.
That law, together with amendments passed roughly 20 years later, encouraged generic drug makers to challenge the patents protecting lucrative brand-name drugs.
The reverse-payment trend resulted from a sort of loophole in the Hatch-Waxman law. But during arguments at the court in March, at least two justices indicated that they were either reluctant to fix that problem for Congress or that they did not want any solution to apply broadly to cases that did not involve drug patents.
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6) In Embattled Detroit, No Talk of Sharing Pain
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH and STEVEN YACCINO June 17, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/business/in-embattled-detroit-no-talk-of-sharing-pain.html?hp
When New York City threatened to declare bankruptcy in 1975, the idea so terrified everyone that it forced the city, its workers and its recalcitrant bankers to sit down and find ways to share the pain.
Now another large city, Detroit, appears to be on the brink of filing for bankruptcy, but there is little talk of sharing the pain. Instead, the fiscal crisis in Michigan is setting up as a gigantic clash between bondholders and city retirees.
The city’s proposals, which could give some bondholders as little as 10 cents on the dollar, are making some creditors think they would be better off in bankruptcy. They see the specter of a federal judge imposing involuntary losses as less ominous than it was for New York.
“The haircut is so severe,” said Matt Fabian, a managing director of Municipal Market Advisors, “I think it’s scaring them into bankruptcy, rather than away from bankruptcy.”
But city retirees, facing the prospect of sharply reduced benefits whether in bankruptcy or under Detroit’s restructuring proposal, think they stand squarely on the moral high ground because despite the poverty of many current and retired members, they have already offered big concessions.
“It’s not the employees that are costing the city money,” said Edward L. McNeil, an official with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who is leading a coalition of 33 unions that will be affected by any restructuring of Detroit’s debts, which total roughly $17 billion. Just last year, he said, those unions offered concessions that could have saved the city hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But Detroit “botched the implementation,” he said.
And Michael VanOverbeke, interim general counsel for the general workers’ retirement plan, said bondholders were investors hoping for returns, who should expect “a certain amount of risk.”
“Planning for retirement and working for employers was not an investment into the market,” he added. “These are people who are on a fixed income at this point in their life. They can’t go back to work and start all over again.” He said it was unthinkable to cut retirees’ pensions outside of bankruptcy.
A bankruptcy in Detroit would have no precedent, despite an unusual flurry of municipal bankruptcies after the financial crisis. Rhode Island hurriedly passed a law giving municipal bondhholders priority over other creditors, including retirees, just before the small city of Central Falls filed for bankruptcy. That helped Central Falls resolve its bankruptcy quickly, but no one thinks Michigan could pass such a law. In Jefferson County, Ala., a large majority of the financial trouble grew out of debt issued to rebuild a sewer system, not pensions or other employee benefits. The rights of public workers and bondholders are in conflict in the bankruptcy of Stockton, Calif., but that case is not yet far enough along to be of any guidance to Detroit.
With talks on labor issues scheduled for Thursday, municipal bond market participants say one of their main concerns is that the city’s proposal would flatten the traditional hierarchy of creditors, putting say, a retired librarian on par with an investor holding a general obligation bond. That does not square with the laws and conventions of the municipal bond market, where for decades small investors have been told that such bonds are among the safest investments and that for “general obligation” bonds cities could even be compelled to raise taxes, if that’s what it took to make good. The “full faith and credit” pledge was supposed to make such bonds stronger than the other main type of muni — revenue bonds, which promised to pay investors out of project revenue.
Public finance experts have warned that broad societal problems could follow a loss of faith in municipalities’ commitments to honor their pledges. In a major report on the state of the muni market last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned that communities would find it increasingly costly to raise money, throwing into question the time-honored practices of building and financing public works at the local level.
Detroit’s proposal shows how much things have changed since the days when the municipal bond market consisted of two types of debt and little else. The emergency manager, Kevyn D. Orr, issued a complicated list of debts with a wide range of gradations, with general obligation bonds now inferior to revenue bonds.
Mr. Orr classified Detroit’s general obligation bonds into two groups — secured and unsecured — with the secured ones backed by outside sources of money, like state aid or federal block grants. The unsecured bonds are those that rely only on Detroit’s “full faith and credit” pledge. As a practical matter, much of Detroit’s bond debt is insured, so bondholders will feel no immediate pain as the city moves forward with its planned defaults. But the bond insurers have the right to do battle in the bondholders’ place, and other market interests are likely to join them.
Mr. Fabian said bondholders knew perfectly well that Detroit was broke and could not raise taxes and fees enough to cover all its bonds, but were still shocked by the proposed treatment.
“It’s not that people just want to get more money out of Detroit,” he said. “It’s the violence that’s being done to the city’s capital structure. It creates a new paradigm for investing in Michigan bonds.”
In the past, he said, the ratings agencies included the various debt structures in their evaluations of municipal bonds. An “unlimited-tax general obligation bond,” for instance, might be rated one or two notches higher than a “limited tax” version of the same bond. Investors would look at the rating, know what they were getting and pay more for the safer debt.
“Michigan is saying all that will go out the window,” Mr. Fabian said. “In effect, they’re saying that structure only matters when you don’t need it” — when everything is normal and the debt is being repaid.
“And when you need to rely on those legal differences, then they don’t matter,” he added. “It’s distressing.”
Municipal market participants are also rattled by a big, sudden increase in Mr. Orr’s measurement of Detroit’s pension shortfall, which he is also classifying as unsecured, leaving workers and bondholders to compete for whatever pool of money is left over. As of June 30, 2011, the city’s most recent actuarial snapshot showed that its two big pension funds were in pretty good shape — short by just $644 million, because the city had issued securities called “certificates of participation” in 2005 and 2006, and put the proceeds into the pension funds.
But Mr. Orr’s report said that estimated shortfall had been “substantially understated” through aggressive assumptions and other distortions. After correcting those, the two funds’ shortfall was closer to $3.5 billion.
And as for those certificates of participation, issued to produce money for pensions, they turn out to be among Detroit’s shakiest debts. The city already skipped a payment due last Friday, and Mr. Orr said the city had found “certain issues related to the validity and/or enforceability” of the debt. His report did not specify what the issues were, but said further investigation might be warranted.
The report said that to some extent, the trustees who sit on Detroit’s pension boards had worsened the pension trouble by promising workers “ad hoc sweeteners” and diverting investment income to other uses. As state-appointed emergency manager, Mr. Orr has authority to remove pension trustees.
But Mr. VanOverbeke said the trustees were not going anywhere. In fact, they have already set aside $5 million for a legal challenge in case Mr. Orr puts them “in a position that they would not have the resources necessary” to protect the pensioners, Mr. VanOverbeke said.
“It wasn’t put aside to do battle,” he said. “They were set aside so that as fiduciaries they can make the appropriate decisions and take the necessary actions as it is deemed appropriate.”
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7) Turkey Arrests Dozens in Crackdown on Protests
By KAREEM FAHIM and SEBNEM ARSU
ISTANBUL — Turkish antiterror units arrested dozens of people in several cities early Tuesday as part of an intensifying crackdown against anti-government protests that have persisted for weeks.
The semiofficial Anatolian news agency said 84 people were arrested in the sweeps aimed at “members of terror organizations who destroyed public property, incited the public and attacked the police.” The names of the detainees, or the specific charges against them, were not released.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reacted with growing annoyance to the protests, which have given him his most serious domestic challenge in a decade and embarrassed him abroad. In recent days, Mr. Erdogan has seemed to rule out a compromise with a movement that started with protests against the planned destruction of an Istanbul park and that grew by tapping into broader complaints over what critics see as Mr. Erdogan’s authoritarian manner.
The sweeps on Tuesday came after days of increasingly bellicose rhetoric from Turkish officials. On Monday, the interior minister, Muammer Guler, said that new regulations were being prepared to police social media outlets, aimed at people who use Twitter or Facebook, for “inciting people or coordinating and directing events that would cause social incidents or endanger material and physical public safety through manipulative, false news.”
Separately, the deputy prime minister, Bulent Arinc, raised the possibility that the military could be called in to help quell the unrest.
Mr. Arinc said the “innocent protests had ended” and that the continuing demonstrations were illegal. If the police were unable to contain the unrest, he said, the army could be called in, according to the Anatolian news agency.
The suggestion of any role for the military accentuates the challenge the protests pose to the government. It also highlights both the transformations in Turkey during Mr. Erdogan’s tenure and his opponents’ criticisms that he wields too much power.
The military, which carried out three coups over the past 50 years and forced another government from power, was once regarded as the primary obstacle to civilian rule in Turkey.
Mr. Erdogan blunted its influence with constitutional and institutional overhauls, and two years ago, its commanders resigned after a crackdown by the judiciary — solidifying the prime minister’s hold on the state’s institutions.
Mr. Arinc’s comments suggest that the government remained convinced of the military’s loyalty, but some protesters hope that soldiers can be swayed: When army vehicles were spotted in Istanbul during demonstrations last week, dozens of protesters who were trapped in a hotel by the police started chanting pro-military slogans, hoping the soldiers would intervene on their behalf, though they did not.
Mr. Erdogan on Monday offered his latest appraisal of the protest that have forced a public reckoning of his performance.
“Turkey’s democracy has been put to a very important test,” he said during a televised speech, adding that because of the country’s strong foundations, “neither our economy nor our democracy was hurt in these attacks.”
A poll released Monday suggested that Mr. Erdogan’s popularity had fallen. According to the poll, by the Metropoll Strategic and Social Research Center, based in Ankara, Mr. Erdogan’s approval rating dropped to 53.5 percent in June from 61 percent in April.
Monday brought more signs of a growing intolerance for protests. After days of violent clashes in Taksim Square, in Istanbul, a man stood for hours there on Monday in a silent vigil. A few other people joined him, until the authorities arrested several of the quiet protesters.
Ceylan Yeginsu contributed reporting.
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8) Thousands Gather for Protests in Brazil’s Largest Cities
By SIMON ROMERO
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Protesters showed up by the thousands in Brazil’s largest cities on Monday night in a remarkable display of strength for an agitation that had begun with small protests against bus-fare increases, then evolved into a broader movement by groups and individuals irate over a range of issues including the country’s high cost of living and lavish new stadium projects.
The growing protests rank among the largest and most resonant since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985, with demonstrators numbering into the tens of thousands gathered here in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and other large protests unfolding in cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Belém and Brasília, the capital, where marchers made their way to the roof of Congress.
Sharing a parallel with the antigovernment protests in Turkey, the demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst.
“The violence has come from the government,” said Mariana Toledo, 27, a graduate student at the University of São Paulo who was among the protesters on Monday. “Such violent acts by the police instill fear, and at the same time the need to keep protesting.”
While the demonstration in São Paulo was not marred by the widespread repression that marked a protest here last week, riot police officers in Belo Horizonte dispersed protesters with pepper spray and tear gas. In Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, police officers also used tear gas against protesters.
In Rio de Janeiro, where an independent estimate put the number of protesters around 100,000, televised images showed masked demonstrators trying to storm public buildings including the state legislature, a part of which was set on fire. In Brasilía, the police seemed to be caught off-guard by protesters who danced and chanted on the roof of Congress, a modernist building designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer.
Such broad protests are relatively uncommon in Brazil, with some Brazilian political analysts describing what appeared to be a political culture more accepting of longstanding high levels of inequality and substandard public services than citizens in some neighboring countries in South America.
“The dangerous news announced on the streets, the novelty that the state tried to crush under the hooves of the horses of São Paulo’s police, is that at last we are alive,” the writer Eliane Brum said in an essay about the protests.
Brazil now seems to be pivoting toward a new phase of interaction between demonstrators and political leaders with its wave of protests, which crystallized this year in Porto Alegre. There, a group called the Free Fare Movement, which advocates lower public transportation fares, organized demonstrations against a hike in bus fares.
Similar protests emerged in May in Natal, a city in northeast Brazil, and this month in São Paulo, after the authorities raised bus fares by the equivalent of about 9 cents to 3.20 reais, about $1.47, prompting a wave of demonstrations that have grown in intensity.
While the hike came at a time of growing concern over inflation, which remains high even as economic growth has slowed considerably, the anger over the increase also reflects broader indignation over public transportation systems in São Paulo and in other large cities, which are plagued by inefficiency, overcrowding and crime.
“Today’s protests are the result of years and years of depending on chaotic and expensive transportation,” said Érica de Oliveira, 22, a student who was among the demonstrators.
A large number of protesters in São Paulo on Monday were university students, but middle-aged professionals and parents with children in strollers were also present. The scene seemed at once furious and festive. Some protesters had draped Brazilian flags over their shoulders; one held up a sign that read, “Brazil Colony, until when?”
While the protest in Brasília included strong criticism of congressional leaders, many placards here in São Paulo did not direct anger at Congress, at the federal government in Brasília or even at local authorities on the state or municipal level. Still, protesters in various cities focused on symbols of government power. Here in São Paulo, they marched to the governor’s palace; in Rio, to the state legislature; and in Brasília, to the Congress.
Fabio Malini, a scholar who analyzes data patterns in social media at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, said he was impressed by the movement’s refusal to be defined by a single objective and by its extensive use of social media, which has enabled it to evolve fast in response to various sources of social and political tension in Brazil.
One issue surging to the fore involves anger over stadium projects in various cities ahead of the 2014 World Cup, which Brazil is preparing to host. Some projects have been hindered by cost overruns and delays, the unfinished structures standing as testament to an injection of resources into sports arenas at a time when schools and public transit systems need upgrades.
“The largest protests are happening in cities which will host World Cup games,” Mr. Malini said. “Brazilians are mixing soccer and politics in a way that is new, and minority voices are making themselves heard.”
Paula Ramon contributed reporting from São Paulo, and Taylor Barnes from Rio de Janeiro.
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9) Wave of Protests Engulfs Greece
By LIZ ALDERMAN
ATHENS — It seemed almost too good to be true: For months, relative stability had returned to Greece, and fears that the country would exit the euro had faded like a bad dream. But a political firestorm that ignited here last week after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras dared to fire a swath of once-untouchable civil servants may threaten to undo all that.
On Monday, Greece faced the most serious political crisis since Mr. Samaras took power exactly a year ago. After issuing an order last week to immediately close the state-run Hellenic Broadcasting Corp. — setting off a wave of protests and sympathy strikes — his government coalition narrowly avoided unraveling, at least for now.
Whether or not that happens — and Mr. Samaras may yet find a resolution with his governing partners and skirt the temptation to call an early election — the latest drama underscores how instability continues to plague the government despite a growing narrative among European leaders and in financial markets that Greece is turning a corner.
On Monday night Mr. Samaras was forced to face down the members of his fragile coalition, who were seeking to reverse a decision that some of them have called an authoritarian maneuver designed to keep Greece in the good graces of its much-despised creditors.
As the government met behind closed doors, one of Greece’s highest courts ruled that Mr. Samaras acted legally in ordering the dismantling of the state broadcaster, ERT, a move aimed at cutting some of the thousands of civil service job cuts demanded by Greece’s creditors. But judges decided that it was illegal for ERT to be taken off the airwaves.
The decision bought Mr. Samaras some breathing room: His junior coalition partners, the Socialist Pasok party and the Democratic Left, said after the meeting that they would meet again on Wednesday to discuss how to get a temporary version of ERT back on the air until a new, slimmed-down operation is re-opened in the coming months. That was an indication that although the coalition had not collapsed, it was struggling to hammer out a compromise.
“The discussion was about ERT,” the Pasok leader, Evangelos Venizelos, said. “But the key issue is the government to operate as a real coalition government not with New Democracy simply tolerating its partners,” he added, referring to Mr. Samaras’ dominant, conservative party.
Meanwhile, the maverick politician Alexis Tsipras, leader of the opposition Syriza party, held a large rally, attracting thousands in Syntagma square, near where the government met, to denounce what he called Mr. Samaras’ “despotic politics.”
Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Center for European Reform in London. said, “The idea that Greece is somehow out of the woods seems complacent,” adding, “It reflects a readiness to ignore the large-scale political challenges facing Greece.”
Those challenges are what Mr. Samaras appears to be trying to tame. With his set jaw, dark-hued suits and ties, and an apparent willingness to force unpalatable changes to the Greek state, he has made it his mission to restore Greece’s image on the international stage. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras, who attended the talks on Monday, indicated as much. “The big issue for the government is for radical reforms to continue,” he said.
Since gaining power, Mr. Samaras has won the sympathies, if not the outright backing, of Europe’s ruling class, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who telephoned him on Sunday to urge him to stay the course.
But Mr. Samaras’s approach is increasingly stoking ire among politicians in his governing coalition, Greece’s raucous unions, as well as average Greeks, who see Mr. Samaras as operating in an increasingly unilateral manner.
In the last several months, he has stepped up his use of emergency decrees and edicts to impose changes that other political parties and Greece’s raucous unions have a long history of trying to thwart. Last month, he issued an emergency edict to force schoolteachers on the verge of striking during exams to return to work. Earlier, he used the same tactic to stop strike action by seamen and subway workers. He also introduced emergency decrees imposing stricter supervision on ministries and state bodies and bringing the pensions of Parliament staff into line with those of less privileged employees in the civil service.
But by pulling the plug on the state broadcaster, ERT, and forcing the first real job cuts to Greece’s bloated civil service since the country was forced to take an international bailout more than three years ago, Mr. Samaras appears to be engaging in a high-stakes game of chess.
To his detractors, it was a step toward quasi-authoritarian action, since he bypassed any consensus decision from his coalition partners as well as a Parliamentary vote. Many Greeks feel little sympathy for the agency, which has a reputation in Greece for being stacked with political appointees who reel in salaries well above the incomes of most Greeks, while working fewer hours. Yet they felt concerned about whether Mr. Samaras was skirting democracy by unilaterally ordering the shutdown.
But since many Greeks appeared to have little love for employees of ERT, their concerns were not enough to push them into a new wave of mass protests. “Everyone knows they were living on our tax money and many people got jobs through political favors,” said Kostas, a former hardware merchant whose store went bankrupt in the crisis and now drives a taxi 12 hours a day to make ends meet. “It’s better to close it down than to force the rest of us to take more cuts to our salaries and pensions.”
As Mr. Samaras prepared to meet with his governing coalition Monday night, he said he did not want to force the country toward new elections, which could renew questions about Greece’s stability, at least in the short term.
On Monday, a day after Mrs. Merkel phoned Mr. Samaras to encourage him to press ahead following the upset over ERT, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister who not so long ago chastised Greece for threatening to bring down the whole euro zone, said he would travel to Greece soon to encourage continued stability.
“Merkel’s motivation is clear: She’s desperately trying to head off any problems in the head-up to the German elections,” Mr. Tilford said.
But if Mr. Samaras does decide eventually to force new elections, analysts said, it would mainly be because he sees an opening to consolidate his power in order to push through more reforms and face down Greece’s increasingly weak unions, which he has managed to catch off guard through his use of emergency edicts.
“People see that we are in a pivotal moment,” Harry Papasotiriou, the director of the Institute of International Relations at Panteion University in Athens said. “If the process of reforming Greece gets stalled because of political fighting, more austerity must be pushed on a society that can no longer take it,” he said. “So he needs to try to have an election that will realign his power.”
Mr. Samaras’s increasingly unilateral action, he said, was aimed at thwarting public sector unions that are weakened but still have the power to engage in strikes that Mr. Samaras sees as further crippling an already hobbled economy. “He takes them by surprise so that they don’t have time to engage in mass mobilization,” Mr. Papasotiriou said.
Earlier this year, an official close to Mr. Samaras, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Samaras was trying to demonstrate that the government will be willing to move forcefully against other groups — including militant trade unions that might stand in the way of his efforts to carry out painful economic reforms.
“We want to present ourselves as successful, to start legitimizing Greece again in the eyes of the international community,” the official said. “How can we impose new laws, or move ahead with reforms, when laws are being broken? It is time to get our house in order.” Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting.
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10) Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders
By SIMON ROMERO
June 19, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/world/americas/brazil-protests.html?hp
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A wave of new protests swept through areas of São Paulo, the country’s largest city, early on Wednesday as groups of demonstrators shut roads leading into the city, snarling traffic and increasing pressure on political leaders.
Shaken by the biggest challenge to their authority in years, Brazil’s leaders made conciliatory gestures on Tuesday to try to defuse the protests engulfing the nation’s cities. But the demonstrators have remained defiant, pouring into the streets by the thousands and venting their anger over political corruption, the high cost of living, and huge public spending for the World Cup and the Olympics.
Protesters denounced their leaders as dedicating excessive resources to cultivating Brazil’s global image by building stadiums for international events, when basic services like education and health care remained woefully inadequate.
“I love soccer, but we need schools,” said Evaldir Cardoso, 48, a firefighter at a protest here with his 7-month-old son.
On Wednesday, the state news agency, Agência Brasil, said that a branch of the federal police deployed in cases of social unrest would be sent to five of the cities hosting the Confederations Cup soccer tournament to help with security.
The demonstrations initially began with a fury over an increase in bus fares, but as with many other protest movements in recent years — in Tunisia, Egypt or, most recently, Turkey — they quickly evolved into a much broader condemnation of the government.
By the time politicians in several cities backed down on Tuesday and announced that they would cut or consider reducing fares, the demonstrations had already become a more sweeping social protest, with marchers waving banners bearing slogans like “The people have awakened.”
“It all seemed so wonderful in the Brazil oasis, and suddenly we are reliving the demonstrations of Tahrir Square in Cairo, so suddenly, without warning, without a crescendo,” said Eliane Cantanhêde, a columnist for the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. “We were all caught by surprise. From paradise, we have slipped at least into limbo. What is happening in Brazil?”
Thousands gathered at São Paulo’s main cathedral and made their way to the mayor’s office, where a small group smashed windows and tried to break in, forcing guards to withdraw.
In Juazeiro do Norte, demonstrators cornered the mayor inside a bank for hours and called for his impeachment, while thousands of others protested teachers’ salaries. In Rio de Janeiro, thousands protested in a gritty area far from the city’s upscale seaside districts. In other cities, demonstrators blocked roads, barged into City Council meetings or interrupted sessions of local lawmakers, clapping loudly and sometimes taking over the microphone.
The protests rank among the largest outpourings of dissent since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985. After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday.
“These voices, which go beyond traditional mechanisms, political parties and the media itself, need to be heard,” Ms. Rousseff said. “The greatness of yesterday’s demonstrations were proof of the energy of our democracy.”
Her tone stood in sharp contrast to the approach adopted by Turkey, where similar demonstrations over what might also have seemed an isolated issue — the fate of a city park in Istanbul — quickly escalated into a broad rejection of the government’s legitimacy from a vocal section of the population.
But while Turkey’s prime minister has dismissed the protesters as terrorists, vandals and “bums,” Ms. Rousseff seemed acutely aware of the breadth of frustration in Brazil over the gap between the nation’s global aspirations and the reality for many millions of its people.
The protests in Brazil are unfolding just as its long and heralded economic boom may be coming to an end. The economy has slowed to a pale shadow of its growth in recent years; inflation is high, the currency is declining sharply against the dollar — but the expectations of Brazilians have rarely been higher, feeding broad intolerance with corruption, bad schools and other government failings.
“These protests are in favor of common sense,” said Roberto da Matta, a leading cultural commentator. “We pay an absurd amount of taxes in Brazil, and now more people are questioning what they get in return.”
One of Ms. Rousseff’s senior aides said Tuesday that tax measures already adopted by the authorities would allow São Paulo to lower bus fares considerably, though it was unclear whether the concession was too late and too limited to derail the protest movement.
One of the major complaints among demonstrators is government corruption, as evidenced by the trial involving senior figures in the governing Workers Party in one of Brazil’s largest political scandals in recent memory.
None of the officials sentenced in the trials has yet gone to prison, despite the prosecution’s contention that they should have begun serving their sentences immediately after the high court announced them in November.
“We’re furious about what our political leaders do, their corruption,” said Enderson dos Santos, 35, an office worker protesting in São Paulo. “I’m here to show my children that Brazil has woken up.”
Some of the stadiums being built for the World Cup soccer tournament, scheduled for next year, have also been criticized for delays and cost overruns, and have become subjects of derision as protesters question whether they will become white elephants. One in Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, will have capacity for 43,000, but it is in a city where average attendance at professional soccer games stands at fewer than 600 fans.
Government institutions seem prepared to continue plowing public funds into the projects. A Brazilian newspaper reported Tuesday that the national development bank had approved a new loan of about $200 million for Itaquerão, a new stadium in São Paulo that is expected to host the opening match of the World Cup.
“When you see the investments in health and education and then you compare that to the massive investments to carry out the World Cup, it is clear that this provokes a certain indignation,” said Adão Clóvis Martins dos Santos, a sociologist at Catholic University in Porto Alegre.
But near Avenida Paulista, São Paulo’s most prominent thoroughfare, the scene was festive. Some protesters sipped cans of beer. Marijuana smoke emanated from parts of the crowd. Many painted their faces with green and yellow stripes, the colors of the Brazilian flag.
“People are going hungry and the government builds stadiums,” said Eleuntina Scuilgaro, an 83-year-old pensioner at the protests here in São Paulo. “I’m here for my granddaughters. If you’re tired, go home, take a shower and return. That’s what I’m doing.”
Paula Ramon contributed reporting from São Paulo, and Taylor Barnes from Rio de Janeiro.
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11) The F.B.I. Deemed Agents Faultless in 150 Shootings
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
WASHINGTON — After contradictory stories emerged about an F.B.I. agent’s killing last month of a Chechen man in Orlando, Fla., who was being questioned over ties to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the bureau reassured the public that it would clear up the murky episode.
“The F.B.I. takes very seriously any shooting incidents involving our agents, and as such we have an effective, time-tested process for addressing them internally,” a bureau spokesman said.
But if such internal investigations are time-tested, their outcomes are also predictable: from 1993 to early 2011, F.B.I. agents fatally shot about 70 “subjects” and wounded about 80 others — and every one of those episodes was deemed justified, according to interviews and internal F.B.I. records obtained by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The last two years have followed the same pattern: an F.B.I. spokesman said that since 2011, there had been no findings of improper intentional shootings.
In most of the shootings, the F.B.I.’s internal investigation was the only official inquiry. In the Orlando case, for example, there have been conflicting accounts about basic facts like whether the Chechen man, Ibragim Todashev, attacked an agent with a knife, was unarmed or was brandishing a metal pole. But Orlando homicide detectives are not independently investigating what happened.
“We had nothing to do with it,” said Sgt. Jim Young, an Orlando police spokesman. “It’s a federal matter, and we’re deferring everything to the F.B.I.”
Occasionally, the F.B.I. does discipline an agent. Out of 289 deliberate shootings covered by the documents, many of which left no one wounded, five were deemed to be “bad shoots,” in agents’ parlance — encounters that did not comply with the bureau’s policy, which allows deadly force if agents fear that their lives or those of fellow agents are in danger. A typical punishment involved adding letters of censure to agents’ files. But in none of the five cases did a bullet hit anyone.
Critics say the fact that for at least two decades no agent has been disciplined for any instance of deliberately shooting someone raises questions about the credibility of the bureau’s internal investigations. Samuel Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha who studies internal law enforcement investigations, called the bureau’s conclusions about cases of improper shootings “suspiciously low.”
Current and former F.B.I. officials defended the bureau’s handling of shootings, arguing that the scant findings of improper behavior were attributable to several factors. Agents tend to be older, more experienced and better trained than city police officers. And they generally are involved only in planned operations and tend to go in with “overwhelming presence,” minimizing the chaos that can lead to shooting the wrong people, said Tim Murphy, a former deputy director of the F.B.I. who conducted some investigations of shootings over his 23-year career.
The F.B.I.’s shootings range from episodes so obscure that they attract no news media attention to high-profile cases like the 2009 killing of an imam in a Detroit-area warehouse that is the subject of a lawsuit alleging a cover-up, and a 2002 shooting in Maryland in which the bureau paid $1.3 million to a victim and yet, the records show, deemed the shooting to have been justified.
With rare exceptions — like suicides — whenever an agent fires his weapon outside of training, a team of agents from the F.B.I.’s Inspection Division, sometimes with a liaison from the local police, compiles a report reconstructing what happened. This “shooting incident review team” interviews witnesses and studies medical, ballistics and autopsy reports, eventually producing a narrative. Such reports typically do not include whether an agent had been involved in any previous shootings, because they focus only on the episode in question, officials said.
That narrative, along with binders of supporting information, is then submitted to a “shooting incident review group” — a panel of high-level F.B.I. officials in Washington. The panel produces its own narrative as part of a report saying whether the shooting complied with bureau policy — and recommends what discipline to mete out if it did not — along with any broader observations about “lessons learned” to change training or procedures.
F.B.I. officials stressed that their shooting reviews were carried out under the oversight of both the Justice Department’s inspector general and the Civil Rights Division, and that local prosecutors have the authority to bring charges.
The 2,200 pages of records obtained by The Times include an internal F.B.I. study that compiled shooting episode statistics over a 17-year period, as well as a collection of individual narratives of intentional shootings from 1993 to early 2011. Gunfire was exchanged in 58 such episodes; 9 law enforcement officials died, and 38 were wounded.
The five “bad shoots” included cases in which an agent fired a warning shot after feeling threatened by a group of men, an agent fired at a weapon lying on the ground to disable it during an arrest, and two agents fired their weapons while chasing fugitives but hit no one. In another case, an agent fired at a safe during a demonstration, and ricocheting material caused minor cuts in a crowd of onlookers.
Four of the cases were in the mid-1990s, and the fifth was in 2003.
In many cases, the accuracy of the F.B.I. narrative is difficult to evaluate because no independent alternative report has been produced. As part of the reporting for this article, the F.B.I. voluntarily made available a list of shootings since 2007 that gave rise to lawsuits, but it was rare for any such case to have led to a full report by an independent authority.
Occasionally, however, there were alternative reviews. One, involving a March 2002 episode in which an agent shot an innocent Maryland man in the head after mistaking him for a bank robbery suspect, offers a case study in how the nuances of an F.B.I. official narrative can come under scrutiny.
In that episode, agents thought that the suspect would be riding in a car driven by his sister and wearing a white baseball cap. An innocent man, Joseph Schultz, then 20, happened to cross their path, wearing a white cap and being driven by his girlfriend. Moments after F.B.I. agents carrying rifles pulled their car over and surrounded it, Agent Christopher Braga shot Mr. Schultz in the jaw. He later underwent facial reconstruction surgery, and in 2007 the bureau paid $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit.
The internal review, however, deemed it a good shoot. In the F.B.I.’s narrative, Agent Braga says that he shouted “show me your hands,” but that Mr. Schultz instead reached toward his waist, so Agent Braga fired “to eliminate the threat.” While one member of the review group said that “after reading the materials provided, he could not visualize the presence of ‘imminent danger’ to law enforcement officers,” the rest of the group voted to find the shooting justified, citing the “totality of the circumstances surrounding the incident,” including that it involved a “high-risk stop.”
But an Anne Arundel County police detective prepared an independent report about the episode, and a lawyer for Mr. Schultz, Arnold Weiner, conducted a further investigation for the lawsuit. Both raised several subtle but important differences.
For example, the F.B.I. narrative describes a lengthy chase of Mr. Schultz’s car after agents turned on their siren at an intersection, bolstering an impression that it was reasonable for Agent Braga to fear that Mr. Schultz was a dangerous fugitive. The narrative spends a full page describing this moment in great detail, saying that the car “rapidly accelerated” and that one agent shouted for it to stop “over and over again.” It cites another agent as estimating that the car stopped “approximately 100 yards” from the intersection.
By contrast, the police report describes this moment in a short, skeptical paragraph. Noting that agents said they had thought the car was fleeing, it points out that the car “was, however, in a merge lane and would need to accelerate to enter traffic.” Moreover, a crash reconstruction specialist hired for the lawsuit estimated that the car had reached a maximum speed of 12 miles per hour, and an F.B.I. sketch, obtained in the lawsuit, put broken glass from a car window 142 feet 8 inches from the intersection.
The F.B.I. narrative does not cite Mr. Schultz’s statement and omits that a crucial fact was disputed: how Mr. Schultz had moved in the car. In a 2003 sworn statement, Agent Braga said that Mr. Schultz “turned to his left, towards the middle of the car, and reached down.” But Mr. Schultz insisted that he had instead reached toward the car door on his right because he had been listening to another agent who was simultaneously shouting “open the door.”
A former F.B.I. agent, hired to write a report analyzing the episode for the plaintiffs, concluded that “no reasonable F.B.I. agent in Braga’s position would reasonably have believed that deadly force was justified.” He also noted pointedly that Agent Braga had been involved in a previous shooting episode in 2000 that he portrayed as questionable, although it had been found to be justified by the F.B.I.’s internal review process.
Asked to comment on the case, a lawyer for Agent Braga, Andrew White, noted last week that a grand jury had declined to indict his client in the shooting.
In some cases, alternative official accounts for several other shootings dovetailed with internal F.B.I. narratives.
One involved the October 2009 death of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a prayer leader at a Detroit-area mosque who was suspected of conspiring to sell stolen goods and was shot during a raid on a warehouse. The F.B.I. report says that Mr. Abdullah got down on the ground but kept his hands hidden, so a dog was unleashed to pull his arms into view. He then pulled out a gun and shot the dog, the report says, and he was in turn shot by four agents.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit against the F.B.I. The group was concerned in part because the handgun had no recoverable fingerprints and because of facial injuries to Mr. Abdullah. It also contends that the dog may have been shot instead by the F.B.I. agents and the gun thrown down in a cover-up.
A report by the Michigan attorney general’s office, however, detailed an array of evidence that it says “corroborates the statements of the agents as to the sequence of events,” including that bullet fragments in the dog’s corpse were consistent with the handgun, not the rifles used by the F.B.I. agents. Such an independent account of an F.B.I. shooting is rare. After the recent killing of Mr. Todashev in Orlando, both the Florida chapter of the same group and his father have called for investigators outside the F.B.I. to scrutinize the episode.
James J. Wedick, who spent 34 years at the bureau, said the F.B.I. should change its procedures for its own good. “At the least, it is a perception issue, and over the years the bureau has had a deaf ear to it,” he said. “But if you have a shooting that has a few more complicated factors and an ethnic issue, the bureau’s image goes down the toilet if it doesn’t investigate itself properly.”
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B. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Please Sign Immediately and pass on!
EMERGENCY CALL! JOIN US IN STOPPING TORTURE IN US PRISONS!
June 21, 22 and 23 Will Be Days of Solidarity With the Struggle to End Prison Torture!
Tens of thousands of people imprisoned in the US are being subjected to torturous, inhumane conditions. Many are:
· Held in long term solitary confinement; locked in tiny, windowless, sometimes sound proof, cells; cut off from fresh air and sunlight for 22-24 hours every day and given small portions of food that lacks basic nutritional requirements.
· Denied human contact and violently taken from their cells for petty violations.
· Put in solitary arbitrarily, often because of accusations of being members of prison gangs based on dubious evidence, and have no way to challenge the decisions of prison authorities to place them in solitary.
Many are forced to endure these conditions for months, years and even decades! Mental anguish and trauma often results from being confined under these conditions. Locking people down like this amounts to trying to strip them of their humanity.
These conditions fit the international definition of torture! This is unjust, illegitimate and profoundly immoral. WE MUST JOIN IN AN EFFORT TO STOP IT, NOW!
People imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in California have called For a Nation-wide Hunger Strike to begin on July 8, 2013. They have also issued a call for unity among people from different racial groups, inside and outside the prisons. People who are locked down in segregation units of this society's prisons, condemned as the "worst of the worst," are standing up against injustice, asserting their humanity in the process. We must have the humanity to hear their call, and answer it with powerful support!
A Nation-wide and World-wide Struggle Needs to Be launched NOW to bring an End to this widespread Torture Before those in the Prisons Are Forced to Take the Desperate step of going on hunger strikes and putting their lives on the line!
To the Government: We Demand an Immediate End to the Torture and Inhumanity of Prison House America – Immediately Disband All Torture Chambers. Meet the demands of those you have locked down in your prisons!
To People in this Country and Around the World: We Cannot Accept, and We Should Not Tolerate This Torture. Join The Struggle to End Torture in Prisons Now!
To Those Standing Up in Resistance Inside The Prisons: WE SUPPORT YOUR CALL FOR UNITY IN THIS FIGHT, AND WE WILL HAVE YOUR BACKS!
June 21, 22 and 23 Will Be Days of Solidarity With the Struggle to End Prison Torture! There will be protests, cultural events, Evenings of Conscience, sermons in religious services, saturation of social media – all aimed at laying bare the ugly reality of wide spread torture in US prisons and challenging everyone to join in fighting to STOP it.
Send Your endorsements (name . and if you wish, organization and/or title, to:
StopMassIncarcerationBayArea@gmail.com
For more information and to join in this struggle contact the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at:
http://www.stopmassincarceration.org/support-california-prison-hunger-strikers.html
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New Documentary Film Focuses on Mumia's Innocence: Manufacturing Guilt
How Philadelphia's Police and DA actively manufactured Mumia's guilt, and suppressed his innocence
A short film by Stephen Vittoria, writer/director of "Mumia - Long Distance Revolutionary,"
with Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia, legal consultant on this film
TWO SHOWINGS IN THE BAY AREA!
with speakers: Rachel Wolkenstein, lawyer for Mumia,
and a Member of Mumia's Family
Speaking on:
INNOCENT: the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Oakland: 7 PM, Friday 05 July
East Side Arts Alliance,
2277 International Blvd, Oakland
Between 22nd and 23rd Ave.
From 14th & Broadway (12th St. BART) downtown Oakland.
Take the IR Bus/IR Rapid Bus to 23rd & Int'l Blvd.
San Francisco: 7 PM, Sunday 07 July
518 Valencia St., SF
Between 16th & 17th Streets
Take BART to 16th St & Mission
Both events feature showings of Manufacturing Guilt,
How Philadelphia's police and DA actively manufactured Mumia's Guilt, and suppressed his innocence
Both events will appear on the LaborFest calendar
Sponsored by: The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC),
and Oakland Teachers for Mumia
Info on these events: 650 996-7888
This message from: The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • www.laboractionmumia.org • June/July 2013
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Wealth Inequality in America
[This is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March 1, 2013
Alternet
The statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications. This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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For Immediate Release:
Press Contact: Mya Shone 707.694.5695
HISTORIC FIRST VIGIL AT THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS
TO DEMAND COMPASSIONATE RELEASE
FOR RENOWNED ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART
Federal Bureau of Prisons Headquarters, 320 1st St NW, Washington, DC
(corner 1st Street and Indiana Avenue, NW)
Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at Noon
Dick
Gregory and Louis Wolf join imprisoned attorney Lynne Stewart’s husband
Ralph Poynter and supporters for a historic vigil at the Federal Bureau
of Prisons Headquarters in Washington, DC. Seven weeks have elapsed
since Warden Jody Upton of FMC Carswell approved Compassionate Release
for 73-year-old Lynne Stewart based upon medical findings of Stage 4
cancer that had spread to Stewart’s scapula, lymph nodes and lungs.
The
Warden's recommendation and documentation have been fully vetted at the
Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC. Filing the motion for
Compassionate Release with Judge John Koetl, the sentencing judge,
awaits solely the ratifying signature of Director Charles E. Samuels,
Jr.
“Every
minute's delay compromises Lynne Stewart's life and her access to the
comprehensive treatment plan prepared for her at Memorial Sloan
Kettering Cancer Center in New York,” Poynter declared, adding that “Her
weakened condition and the ominous drop in her white blood cell count
required the prison to place Lynne in isolation, as she faces the risk
of generalized infection.”
Over
twenty thousand people of conscience in the United States and
internationally — including former Attorney General Ramsey Clark,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, Pete Seeger,
Alice Walker, Ed Asner, Cornell West, Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Berrigan,
Richard Falk and Bianca Jagger — have been mobilized by the prospect
that Lynne Stewart will perish in prison, or so shortly after release
that she would be on the verge of death, denied the comfort and joy of
being with those closest to her: her husband Ralph Poynter, many
children, grandchildren, a great grandchild and lifelong friends. They
have sent email messages, individual letters and made telephone calls to
the FMC Warden and the Bureau of Prisons Director in support of Lynne
Stewart’s application for Compassionate Release.
Dick
Gregory, whose concern for Lynne Stewart led him to fast since April 4,
the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.,
declared:
“I cannot stand by as this legendary lawyer is forced to walk with 10
pounds of shackles on her wrists and ankles, with connecting chains,
and is shackled wrist and ankle to the bed whenever she receives medical
treatment. I
am determined to refuse all solid food until Lynne Stewart is freed and
receives medical treatment in the care of her family and with
physicians of her choice without which she will die.”
“Justice
delayed is justice denied,” explains Lynne Stewart’s husband Ralph
Poynter. “Lynne dies a little more each day.” Poynter has come to
Washington, DC from New York City to organize vigils in support of
Compassionate Release for Lynne Stewart at the White House and the
Bureau of Prisons. “I am prepared to stay,” Poynter remarked, “until
Director Samuels puts pen to paper and the Compassionate Release
application moves forward.”
Who is Lynne Stewart:
As
a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years, Lynne Stewart defended the
poor, the disadvantaged and those targeted by the police and the State.
Such has been her reputation that judges assigned her routinely to act
for defendants whom no attorney was willing to represent. One of these
was the blind Egyptian cleric
Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who Stewart represented with co-counsels
former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and Abdeen Jabara.
In
2002, Lynne Stewart was targeted by then-President George Bush and
Attorney General John Ashcroft for providing a vigorous defense of her
client. She was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a
terrorist activity after she exercised both her and her client’s first
amendment rights by presenting a press release to a Reuters journalist.
In
2006, while the Department of Justice demanded a 30-year sentence,
Judge John Koetl, handed down a 28-month sentence noting: “By
providing a criminal defense to the poor, the disadvantaged and
unpopular over three decades, it is no exaggeration to say that Ms.
Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to the
nation.”
That
sentence, however, was not to stand as the Second Circuit Appellate
Court, withdrew Lynne Stewart’s bail — even though her case is still
before the courts — and remanded the case back to Judge Koetl with the
harsh demand that he revisit his sentence and issue a severely enhanced
one. On July 15, 2010, Judge Koeltl increased Stewart’s sentence from 28
months to 10 years imprisonment. This has become a virtual death
sentence for Lynne Stewart as breast cancer that had been in remission
prior to her imprisonment metastasized.
Under
the 1984 Sentencing Act, after a prisoner request, the Bureau of
Prisons can file a motion with the Court to reduce sentences “for
extraordinary and compelling reasons.” Life threatening illness is
foremost among these and Lynne Stewart meets every rational and humane
criterion for compassionate release.
Urgent: Please sign the petition for compassionate release for Lynne Stewart
http://www.change.org/petitions/petition-to-free-lynne-stewart-save-her-life-release-her-now-2Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504-054
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
PO Box 27137
Fort Worth, TX 76127
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Petition to US White House and State Department: Condemn Israeli Aggression in Gaza
Please spread the word far and wide about this petition.
https://www.change.org/petitions/us-white-house-and-state-department-condemn-israeli-agression-in-gaza
Please invite all of your facebook friends to the "event" to sign the petition.
https://www.facebook.com/events/510061649012070/?context=create
If you are on twitter, sign the petition there as well and pass it around.
http://twitition.com/xpj6d/
In solidarity and peace,
BlackCommentator.com
African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa
Statement Regarding the Aggression Against Gaza
African Americans for Justice in the Middle East and North Africa (AAJMENA) strongly condemns Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The arguments offered by the Israeli government for its attack on Gaza are nakedly cynical in both form and content. That a truce had been negotiated, with the assistance of the Egyptian government, between Israel and Hamas only to be broken by the Israeli assassination of Hamas military commander Ahmad Jabari clearly indicates that the Netanyahu government is not interested in peace. Israel is responsible for the escalating violence and for this epic breach of human rights.
This crisis underscores a stunning power imbalance. Nuclear-armed Israel, by far the most powerful military force in the Middle East (and among the mightiest in the world), has unleashed its immense war making capacity on Gaza's captive population, mobilizing warships and tanks and launching more than 1,000 F-16 airstrikes since the attack began. The use of such weapons on civilians is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act.
The aggression against Gaza must be understood as the latest act in the decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. Blockaded Gaza has been plunged into misery by the Israeli-U.S. effort to thwart the democratic will of the Palestinian people as demonstrated in their 2006 legislative elections. When a coup was attempted against Hamas—and failed—the Israelis sealed Gaza, spinning events to make it appear that those not interested in peace were the Palestinians. As a result, Gaza is the largest open-air prison in the world, with 1.5 million people locked into a roughly 140-square-mile strip of land. This latest humanitarian crisis has caused the disproportionate death and suffering of Palestinians, but casualties on both sides will be the consequence of Israeli aggression.
Rather than taking a stand against Israeli's onslaught and issuing an unambiguous demand for an end to the bloodshed, the Obama administration has condemned alleged Palestinian terrorism, repeating the dishonest line that this violent attack is merely in defense of Israel (a position reinforced by the one-sided coverage of the corporate news media). This represents a massive failure on the administration's part. For all Obama's denunciation of the Assad regime in Syria, it appears that his administration regards the outright slaughter of civilians in Palestine as acceptable. It is crucial that we recognize the extent of U.S. complicity in the bloodshed; our tax dollars ($8.5 million a day) enable Israeli militarism at a time when those funds are desperately needed to fill gaps in services and infrastructure back home.
As African Americans and people of African descent in the U.S. from academia, activism and various social movements, we cannot remain silent. We call upon all people of good will to:
1. Endorse this statement.
2. Communicate with the White House and the U.S. Department of State to request that President Obama demand that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and the IDF cease the bombardment of Gaza and withdraw their armed forces immediately. Insist that the U.S. condition aid to Israel on compliance with U.S. and international law.
3. Contact the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and demand that Israel withdraw its forces and end the blockade.
4. Send your local media outlet a "letter to the editor" expressing outrage against the provocative and murderous acts of the Israeli government.
5. Join protests against Israeli aggression.
6. Support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (www.bdsmovement.net) and U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (www.usacbi.org), and back the efforts of labor unions and student groups to compel their employers and administrators to divest from companies that do business in Israel.
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You Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted 1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists – please click here to support the NLG.
We strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number (888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy. This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are contacted as well.
You Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement Encounters
What Rights Do I Have?
Whether or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your political activities.
Standing Up For Free Speech
The government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a "subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76 COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions. Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future. Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do I have to answer questions?
You have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you reside.
Do I have to give my name?
As above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do I need a lawyer?
You have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer. If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have something to hide?
Anything you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights and refusing to answer questions.
Can agents search my home or office?
You do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of your workspace without your permission.
What if agents have a search warrant?
If you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes, including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first. (Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant is present.)
Do I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No. If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What if the police stop me on the street?
Ask if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance. You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one has to answer any questions.
What if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as possible.
What if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer their questions?
A grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping ("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense attorney immediately.
The government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries, testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony, should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in your testimony.
Frequently prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the purposes of this pamphlet.
■ Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
■ Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney. If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be barred from returning.
Based on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or signing any DHS papers?
Yes. You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be. Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes. In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief for you.
Can I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes. Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the right to refuse help from your consulate.
What happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing is over?
You could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of your options to you.
What Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches, detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion, sex or ethnicity.
If I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop and search me?
Yes. Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes. Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get off the plane?
The pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What If I Am Under 18?
Do I have to answer questions?
No. Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What if I am detained?
If you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no cost.
Do I have the right to express political views at school?
Public school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can my backpack or locker be searched?
School officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property, but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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Letter from Lynne Stewart
9/27/12 9:15 am
Once again the 2d Circuit has turned me down–this time the whole Court, en
banc. Not surprising, I was well aware that we were dealing with the Company
Store and could expect very little. Nonetheless as a favorite line from Edna
St Vincent Millay:
"Pity me that the heart is slow to learn
What the Quick mind beholds at every turn"
I never lose hope that my case will be resolved as being too obvious a
contradiction to justice for them to sustain !
Our next stop is the petition for Certiorari to the Supreme Court, asking them
to hear us. We will be trying to impress them with the significant
wrongfulness of the whole prosecution itself and of the errors at trial and
later at sentencing. Our due date is some time in late December and we are
hoping to have Amicus support, so if you are part of a group that supports
lawyers or civil rights etc. please suggest it as early as possible. Contact
Jill Shellow, my lawyer by email, for further explanations.
Looking forward to my 73 birthday on October 8, the one bright ray of light is
that my husband, Ralph Poynter, will be speaking at the National Lawyers Guild
convention held in Pasadena, California from the 10th to 14th of October.
Addressing the Plenary he will speak of my case and that of other political
prisoners locked away for decades by a vindictive government. I wish I could
attend and meet and greet and hug and laugh with my lawyer buddies of many
years and many conventions but I will have to be content with my usual micro-
management style from afar — Texas, that is !!!
Meanwhile, I continue to tough it out. I am feeling quite well after the
surgery, an infection and then a severe iron deficiency — my usual vim and
vigor are back and ready for the fight with the Supreme Court who thinks
corporations are people—what will they make of me, a real person ??!! (smile)
Join me. Bring me Home, where I can join in some of the epic battles now at
hand.
Posted in BEHIND BARS, FROM LYNNE | No Comments »
"Court Denies Lynne Stewart Re-hearing" by Jeff Mackler
September 26th, 2012
Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
On Monday, September 24, 2012 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
rejected Lynne's appeal for a re-hearing before the entire court. Her original
conviction was upheld in 2009 by a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit.
The Second Circuit's opinion was not unexpected. This was the same court that
earlier pressed Federal District Court John Koeltl to re-consider his original
28-month sentence and instead sentence Lynne to ten years.
Lynne, a leading civil rights attorney for 30 years, was convicted in 2005 on
frame-up charges of conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism. Her crime? She
issued a press release on behalf of her client, the "blind sheik" Omar Abdel
Rachman, a leading Egyptian Islamic cleric, was also a victim of the U.S. "war
on terror" when a government-instigated frame-up trial convicted him of
conspiracy to destroy New York buildings. Typical of "conspiracy" convictions,
no evidence of wrongdoing was presented at his trial.
Rachman, a leading critic of the Hosni Mubarack dictatorship in Egypt, and now
serving a life sentence in Rochester, Minnesota, was the subject of national
attention a few months ago when Egypt's new president, Mohammad Morsi,
embarrassed the Obama administration by demanding his release.
Lynne's attorneys explained on Monday that "The clock now starts running on
our Petition for Certiorari to the Supreme Court. We have 90 days to get it
filed (with the possibility of a 30-day extension)."
Lynne is presently imprisoned at FMC Carswell outside of Fort Worth, Texas.
She has successfully recovered from a difficult surgery that was spitefully
delayed by prison authorities. For the past 45 days Lynne was denied all
visitors, mail and other basic prison rights on the trumped-up accusation that she violated prison rules in assisting a fellow prisoner certify a legal document.
Her spirits are high and she is now going through a backlog of some 100-plus
letters from friends and supporters.
Here's a brief summary/timeline of Lynne's case.
- indicted on April 9, 2002;
- on February 10, 2005, convicted on all counts of conspiracy to aid and
abet terrorism;
- on October, 17, 2006, sentenced to 28 months;
- on November 17, 2009, a US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit three-
judge panel upheld the conviction, shamelessly accusing Lynne of "knowingly
and willfully making false statements," re-directing her case to District
Court Judge John Koeltl for re-sentencing, instructing him to consider
enhancements for terrorism, perjury, and abuse of her position as a lawyer –
an outrageous mandate intimidating Koeltl to comply.
- on November 19, 2009, Stewart jailed at MCC-NY, 150 Park Row, New York, NY;
andon July 15, 2010, Stewart re-sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for doing
her job honorably, ethically, and admirably with distinction for 30 years.
Disgracefully, Judge Koeltl explained it, saying: ."(C)omments by Stewart in
2006, including a statement in a television interview that she would do `it'
again and would not `do anything differently' influenced (the)
decisionŠ.indicat(ing) the original sentence `was not sufficient' to reflect
the goals of sentencing guidelines."
Forgotten were Koeltl's October 2006 comments, calling Lynne's character
"extraordinary," saying she was "a credit to her profession," and that a long
imprisonment would be "an unreasonable result," citing "the somewhat atypical
nature of her case (and) lack of evidence that any victim was harmed."
He also considered her age (70), health (at times poor), distinguished career
representing society's disadvantaged and unwanted, and the unlikelihood she'd
commit another "crime." However, the Second Circuit Appeals Court intimidated
him to comply, his own career perhaps on the line otherwise.
Please write Lynne at:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
FMC Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Ft. Worth, Texas 76127
In solidarity,
Jeff Mackler, West Coast Coordinator
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
-->
Write to Lynne Stewart Defense Committee at:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information: 718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list;
wait til she or the lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on
weekends 8 to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the
machines. Brief Kiss upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting
forms it may be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of
you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for
email.
Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries"
(pens!) (A very big list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely
not from Antonys--more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money,
you do this by using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money
order or Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to
Federal
Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa
50947-001
(Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days.
Western
Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be
on the envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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Free Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write to Mumia:
Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, PA 17932
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August 21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
On August 13, 2012, without any notice and in violation of his constitutional rights and state law, Mumia Abu-Jamal was formally sentenced by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe to life imprisonment without parole. The impact of this illegal sentencing is to prevent a possible challenge to the slow death of life imprisonment. All sentences, including "mandatory" sentences, require a formal proceeding allowing the person to be sentenced the right to be heard and to challenge his sentence.
Mumia confirmed to his son Jamal and to attorney Rachel Wolkenstein during a visit with him on Sunday, August 19, 2012, that he had no prior knowledge of the re-sentencing. The record of this re-sentencing is contained in the official Court of Common Pleas Docket Sheet. In attempting to find out more details, Wolkenstein searched for the court file on August 20. But there is no file containing a record of this sentencing with the Criminal Division Court of Common Pleas Clerk. The information released so far by Elaine Rattliff, Deputy Clerk of Courts is that the sentencing followed a call from the Department of Corrections and further explanation awaits a call back from Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe.
Notably Judge Dembe is same judge who refused in 2001 to consider a legal challenge to "hanging judge" Albert Sabo's self-confessed racism and bias against Mumia during his trial and post-conviction appeals from 1995-1998. Court reporter Terri Mauer-Carter heard Sabo declare before the start of the trial, "I'm going to help them fry the n-----."
For thirty years Mumia was kept in solitary confinement on death row under a death sentence that was illegally and unconstitutionally imposed. Federal district court Judge William Yohn ruled in December 2001 that Judge Albert Sabo incorrectly and unconstitutionally instructed the jury in deciding on life or death. Despite this decision, Mumia was kept on death row, in solitary confinement for the next ten years, while the prosecution pursued two appeals in the Federal Court of Appeals and two attempts at U.S. Supreme Court rulings to uphold the death sentence. All that time, Mumia sat in solitary confinement. According to Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rappatour on Torture, solitary confinement for longer than 15 days is a form of torture! Mumia should be freed from prison, now!
This latest legal outrage comes nine months after the state conceded defeat in obtaining its desired "legal lynching" of Mumia. On December 8, 2011, Philadelphia District Attorney, Seth Williams—with the support of Maureen Faulkner, the Fraternal Order of Police and former District Attorney, Philadelphia Mayor and PA governor, Edward Rendell—announced that they were no longer seeking a death sentence for Mumia. This was their recognition that it was neither legally possible nor politically advantageous to hold a new sentencing hearing.
Mumia's 1982 trial contained violations of every single element of due process and a fair trial. But it began with framing an innocent man. Mumia was framed for a crime he did not commit. His crime in the eyes of the state is that he was and continues to be "the voice of the voiceless," a former spokesman for the Black Panther Party and continuing supporter of the MOVE organization.
In his first phone call from general population on January 28, 2012, Mumia relayed the following message to his wife, Wadiya Jamal: "My dear friends, brothers and sisters – I want to thank you for your real hard work and support. I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I'm in population. This is only Part One and I thank you for the work you've done. But the struggle is for freedom!"
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Police Attack Antiwar Protester
HANDS OFF NATE BUCKLEY!
http://vimeo.com/23300350#at=0
Police Brutality Against Anti War demonstrator Buffalo New York 2011
NFTA Police and anti terror task force assault anti war demonstration in Buffalo.
Nate Buckley maced while in handcuffs. His new trial date is October 16, 2012.
For updates or to donate please go to:
http://natebuckleydefense.wordpress.com/
Sign the petition:
https://www.change.org/petitions/district-attorney-drop-the-charges-against-nate-buckley
Watch a video of the incident:
http://vimeo.com/23300350#at=0
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Sign the petition for the NATO 5!
Drop all charges against the NATO 5 and all anti-NATO protesters!
Protesters are still being held in Cook County Jail in Chicago. Release them all
now!
Sign the Petition Here:http://www.iacenter.org/dropchargesonnatodefendants
The charges against the NATO 5 and the others are false. All these prisoners
urgently need your solidarity. Please sign our petition. Share it with your
family, friends and coworkers. Signing the petition will generate a direct email
to:
Illinois State's Attorney Anita Alvarez
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
and several other public officials, demanding all charges against the NATO5
be dropped.
Email addresses for the targets
mayor.emanuel@cityofchicago.org
garry.mccarthy@chicagopolice.org
statesattorney@cookcountyil.gov
sheriff.dart@cookcountyil.gov
Thanks for your ongoing interest in the fight against FBI repression of anti-war
and international solidarity activists!
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
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Tarek Mehanna - another victim of the U.S. War to Terrorize Everyone. He was
targeted because he would not spy on his Muslim community for the FBI. Under the
new NDAA indefinite military detention provision, Tarek is someone who likely
would never come to a trial, although an American citizen. His sentencing is on
April 12. There will be an appeal.
Another right we may kiss goodbye. We should not accept the verdict and continue
to fight for his release, just as we do for hero Bradley Manning, and all the
many others unjustly persecuted by our government until it is the war criminals
on trial, prosecuted by the people, and not the other way around.
Marilyn Levin
Official defense website: http://freetarek.com/
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HANDS OFF IRAN PETITION
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hands-off-iran/?utm_medium=email&utm_sour\
ce=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend
(For a complete analysis of the prospects of war, click here)
http://nepajac.org/unaciran.htm
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"A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship" book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana
state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herm\
an-wallace
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Write to Bradley
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends
Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=2071005093\
21891
Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning
has been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon
Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly
becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to
make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in
supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the
holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After"
demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up
as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to
spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to
mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE HANDS OFF
WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic
Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already
been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too. Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or
whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's
work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown
on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l
Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected
over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial
support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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D. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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NYC RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
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On Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
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Danny Glover Greetings to the Labour Start Global Solidarity Conference
Join Danny Glover in supporting Nissan Mississippi workers' right to have a free and fair union election. Go to: www.labourstart.org/nissan and send a message to Nissan to stop the union busting and DO BETTER. For more information go to: www.DoBetterNissan.org.
Danny Glover, the star of Lethal Weapon and other Hollywood blockbusters, delivered a message to the LabourStart conference which opened yesterday in Sydney, Australia.
I'd like to ask you to take a minute to watch the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nkZ6yi8xzY&feature=youtu.be
Then please sign up to the online campaign, here:
http://www.labourstart.org/nissan
Here's why:
Management at Nissan's plant in Mississippi is running an aggressive and sophisticated anti-union campaign against its employees who are forming a union to achieve a voice in the workplace.
Nissan is denying these workers a fair, democratic election, and management has sent a clear message to the workforce that considering a union could cost them their job.
Supported by workers, students, community leaders and human rights activists around the world, the United Auto Workers (UAW) have launched a campaign on LabourStart calling on Nissan's Chief Operating Officer, Toshiyuki Shiga, to intervene to make things right in Mississippi.
Speaking yesterday at the LabourStart conference now taking place in Sydney Jeffrey Moore, one of the Mississippi auto workers, said:
"Nissan workers are seeking union representation because they want fairness and a chance to be heard. They are seeking a voice on the job just like their colleagues in Japan and elsewhere."
"At Canton Mississippi, Nissan management is making propaganda against the UAW and intimidating workers depriving them from a free choice. This is unacceptable and against freedom of association," said Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union in support of the workers' campaign.
"UAW has offered Nissan a positive, collaborative approach, but the US management is refusing partnership despite the fact that most of Nissan's operations in countries such as Mexico, Spain, UK, Russia, Japan, Australia, South Africa and Thailand are unionized and enjoy constructive labour and management relations," said Raina.
Please spread the word -- let's make sure that Nissan is overwhelmed with messages of support for the workers in Canton, Mississippi. Please forward this message to your fellow union members, your friends and your family.
Thank you.
Eric Lee
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Fukushima Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima, Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the Japanese government.
This is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and then
when the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production Of Labor Video Project
P.O. Box 720027
San Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
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Labor Beat: SOJO - The Fight for Social Justice High School
["This is not an education plan, it's a business plan." quote from the video...bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEkn1wmxCcE&feature=youtu.be
The fight for community democratic control of Social Justice High School is an important battle waged during the countdown to a possible strike of the Chicago Teachers Union in early September, 2012. And on August 31, students and faculty achieved a victory in forcing SOJO (as the High School is known) to hire back two teachers who were earlier fired for opposing destructive changes in the school's programs. All this took place in the midst of a student sit-in, an intense mass meeting of the school community, and a powerful student protest campaign that got the fired teachers reinstated.
Here are scenes from that fight: The dramatic August 23 mass meeting, testimonies of student leaders (one who reads a poem she was earlier prohibited from reading by CPS toadies), a big Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign indoor rally featuring speeches by the two fired teachers Angela Sangha and Katie Hogan; the student protest march two days later; the reinstatement of the two fired faculty members.
Speaking/interviewed: Andrea Guzman (Little Village community activist); Professor David Stovall (Advisory Local School Council representative); Dennis Kosuth (Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign member); Angela Sangha (founding teacher, Social Justice High School); Katie Hogan (founding teacher, Social Justice High School); Professor Rico Gutstein (University of Illinois - Chicago).
Please make a Donation to Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) and help rank-and-file tv:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2F96...
Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat".
On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat has regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY. For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
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all the sons
By Tommi Avicolli Mecca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2jvlAk8-w&list=PL835C332FF6CFF1F3&index=1&feature=plcp
Published on Aug 27, 2012 by avimecca
Men have been going off to war for centuries. In the past couple centuries, they have been migrating to other countries (especially the U.S.) for work. They have been organizing, too, to fight oppression and stop the deaths of their sons and brothers.
"And I don't know why it has to be this way again."
I wrote this song for the mothers, too, who lose their sons to war and murder by police officers. Maybe someday "it doesn't have to be this way again."
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Labor Beat: Chicago Teachers Stand Strong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOLj6B4cF2w&feature=youtu.be
On May 23, 2012, Chicago Teachers Union held a massive rally at the Auditorium
theater to inform their membership about the coming contract struggle they face.
In the climate of school closings, budget cuts, a terrible new proposed
contract, and teacher-bashing on the part of Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and Chicago
schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizzard, CTU took to the streets to show their numbers
and appeal to the public, and within two weeks CTU was voting to authorize a
strike.
Meanwhile a few blocks away, Stand Up Chicago, Action Now, and many other
community organizations rallied against the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME,
the operator of the Chicago Board of Trade) and the $110 million tax break
they've been given by Illinois. CME is one of the most profitable companies in
the region, and yet now Illinois government is making broad cuts to social
programs needed by struggling families. These two marches converged at Jackson
and LaSalle in a unified demand for economic justice for Chicago's 99%.
Please make a Donation to Labor Beat (Committee for Labor Access) and help
rank-and-file tv:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9789970
Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is
a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer
Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For
other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat".
On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat has
regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia,
PA; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Guantanamo Bay Prisoners Were Tortured with Sesame Street
http://www.inquisitr.com/245285/guantanamo-bay-prisoners-were-tortured-with-sesa\
me-street/
Guantanamo Bay prisoners were reportedly tortured with the sounds of children's
Sesame Street songs, in an attempt to get them to talk.
Read more at
http://www.inquisitr.com/245285/guantanamo-bay-prisoners-were-tortured-with-sesa\
me-street/#HYqlyB1jssypzpFM.99
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
15 yr old Teen girl in jail beating video speaks out on cop attacking her in
Police brutality case
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDzQ8Vay3Pg&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1000 year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery. But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm. "How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A Film By SBS
Distributed By Journeyman Pictures
April 2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Photo of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate locations" in
Terror Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private prisons,
a recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing & Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
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The Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anti-War Demonstrators Storm Pentagon 1967/10/24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDiFkckszCw
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Liberal Hypocrisy on Obama Vs Bush - Poll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl_HGEXq_aM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Greek trade unionists and black bloc October 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMLD_Vql0o&feature=player_embedded#!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Battle of Oakland
by brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
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Officers Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By ANDY NEWMAN
February 1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
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Defending The People's Mic
by Pham Binh of Occupy Wall Street
The North Star
January 20, 2012
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=53
Grand Central Terminal Arrests - MIRROR
Two protesters mic check about the loss of freedom brought about by the passage
of the NDAA and both are promptly arrested and whisked out of public sight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Tj7tEVx8A&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to watch this
video and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Release Bradley Manning
Almost Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We Are the 99 Percent
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Drop All Charges on the 'Occupy Wall Street' Arrestees!
Stop Police Attacks & Arrests! Support 'Occupy Wall Street'!
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT:
http://bailoutpeople.org/dropchargesonoccupywallstarrestees.shtml
DROP ALL CHARGES ON THE OCCUPY WALL STREET ARRESTEES!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM that began December 30, 1936:
According to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story," it was
Roosevelt who saved the day!):
"After a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard. But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone. For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
- Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike was really won!
'With babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19 November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20: Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street
By adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform on WhiteHouse.gov.
The We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies, federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific case raised in this petition...
That's funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey, Vice
President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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