First class criminals need first class liars.
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
First class criminals need first class liars.
Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
150,000 March and Rally in the UK in Solidarity with Gaza on August 9, 2014Israel has got them. They are a true wonder to behold.
By the way, this is what the Torah says about today's events:
"If one prosecutes a war, in a place where innocents have no place safe to flee to, and no way to leave, then that becomes murder."
Let's stop the utter nonsense that Israel has anything to do with Judaism.
These are gangsters pure and simple. - See more at: http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html#sthash.OoZXoL3B.dpuf
Stop the War
Coalition
We said it would be the UK's biggest
demonstration for Gaza ever and it was. On Saturday 9 August, 150,000 marched
from BBC Broadcasting House to Hyde Park, passing the US Embassy on the way.
So many people turned up that when the
front of the march reached Hyde Park, the back still had not left the BBC. We
marched to demand an end to Israel's barbaric assault on Gaza, to call on the
British government to implement an immediate embargo on arms sales to Israel,
and to show Palestinians facing Israel's war crimes that they are not alone.
See photos and video's here:
http://stopwar.org.uk/resources/reports/9-august-2014-the-biggest-ever-uk-demonstration-for-gaza
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Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Historic Film on Palestine Liberation Struggle
"We Are the Palestinian People"
Wed. Aug. 13, 7pm
2969 Mission St. at 26th St., SF
near 24th St. BART; #14, 49 MUNI
With discussion led by Richard Becker, author of “Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire.”
Made in 1973, this film includes an excellent chronology of the events leading to the establishment of the state of Israel by the Zionist forces utilizing rare historical footage. It explains the role of Britain and the U.S. in establishing and supporting the Israeli state, and documents the long history of resistance by the indigenous Palestinian people to colonial settlement and expulsion. Beginning with the rise of political Zionism, the film goes on to describe the Arab rebellion against Turkish rule during World War I, the general strike and armed rebellion against British control of Palestine in the 1930's, the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 and afterwards, as well as the development of the Palestinian liberation movement following the 1967 Six Day War. Produced by CineNews, 1973, 55 min.
$5-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Wheelchair accessible. Refreshments provided.
More info: 415-821-6545 or www.ANSWERsf.org
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.AnswerCoalition.org
http://www.AnswerSF.org
Answer@AnswerSF.org
2969 Mission St.
415-821-6545
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Thursday, August 21, 7:30am-9:30am
Mexican Consulate, San Francisco
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.Protest the wrongful imprisonment of Nestora Salgado, a U.S./Mexican indigenous woman held in prison on trumped up charges. Salgado helped the poor in her Guerrero hometown to form a defense squad to protect themselves from narco-traffickers and their gangs. This angered corrupt politicians and mining companies who are colluding to drive the local people off their land. Nestora represents hundreds of people in self-defense groups who have been jailed for defending their communities against powerful, politically connected criminal cartels.
August 21 is the one year anniversary of Nestora’s incarceration.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Endorsers include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299, University of California, Chiapas Support Committee, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), SF, Latin-American and Latino/a Studies Department, CCSF; Socialist Action; National Lawyers Guild and more.
To endorse or for more information, contact Bob at 415-864-1278 or FreeNestora.SanFrancsico@gmail.com www.freenestora.org
Click here to see the current Freedom Socialist. To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here or send $10 for one year or $17 for two to Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118.
To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here.
Please contribute to sustain our work. You can donate now via PayPal
To see the booklist at Red Letter Press or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to www.socialism.com, or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you!
Friend on Facebook | Forward to a friend
Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party
Keep up with FSP's activities
Our mailing address is:
747 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
Telephone: 415-864-1278
baFSP@earthlink.net
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Date/Time/Location TBD
Info: sf@defendwomensrights.org or 415-375-9502
Take Action for Women’s Equality Day
Say NO to the Status Quo—Full Equality for All Women!
Full Reproductive Rights Now!
Free Marissa Alexander!
Equal Pay for Equal Work!
End Violence Against Women!
Aug. 26 marks Women’s Equality Day—a celebration of the hard-fought struggle for women’s suffrage that was won in 1918. Today, almost 100 years later, women have made many gains in the struggle for equality. Almost 100 years later, the struggle for full equality continues.
There is much that has not been won. In 2014, women are still paid less than men for equal work; Latina women are paid 55 percent of what men earn, Black women 67 percent and white women 78 percent. Worldwide, 35 percent of women experience sexual violence. Society then sweeps sexual violence under the rug—shaming victims and protecting attackers.
Marissa Alexander’s case—among many others—highlights the contradictions of a society that punishes victims of abuse when they defend themselves. Marissa Alexander is a 33-year-old African American woman, mother, and survivor of domestic violence. Under mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against an abuser in the same state that let George Zimmerman walk free. Though the original sentence was thrown out by the judge, Marissa is still being prosecuted and State Prosecutor Angela Corey has announced she intends to seek a 60-year sentence. All charges against Marissa should be dropped! We must stand with Marissa, demand her freedom, and fight to end all forms of violence against women!
Recently, reactionary politicians and groups have targeted our reproductive rights—trying to overturn Roe v Wade through federal and state legislation that denies women the right to abortion, denies us access to birth control and criminalizes certain behaviors for pregnant women. There is an ongoing offensive to defund Planned Parenthood and other centers that provide not only reproductive health care, but also critical preventative health services. The latest attack has come in the form of the Supreme Court’s decision that Hobby Lobby’s owners’ religious convictions were more important than the reproductive health care of the women who work there.
Women’s bodies belong to no one but themselves. We should have the right to control our own bodies, and determine how and when we get pregnant and give birth. Access to abortion and birth control are part and parcel of reproductive health care—and shouldn’t be isolated from health care in general. Likewise, women look forward to the day when we are safe to walk down the street, and when our bodies are not objectified and commodified. We are struggling for a day when we are not paid less just because of our gender or more likely to live in poverty because of it.
That day is entirely possible. But is only possible if we organize and mobilize to challenge the status quo that perpetuates and institutionalizes inequality. Join WORD in building the struggle for full equality.
On Women’s Equality Day, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend) will be holding speak-outs, forums and other actions to celebrate the gains demanding “Say no to the status quo—full equality for all women!” Join us in cities across the country between Saturday, August 23 and Friday, August 29, 2014. Attend an event in your city or organize one.
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Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, July 22, 2014
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
August 16 Gaza Port Blockade Against Israeli Ship
Israelis aren't the only ones who know how to blockade. They use military force to impose their illegal blockade of Gaza. We use moral force and the power of people mobilized to act for justice and peace.
JOIN THIS PEOPLE'S BLOCKADE. [Please share widely]
TURN THE SHIP AROUND
Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014 Port of Oakland
West Coast Blockade of the Israeli Zim line ship
5:00 A.M. meet at W. Oakland Bart and march to Berth 57
No parking in the port.
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Transport Workers Solidarity Committee
http://www.transportworkers.org/
http://www.transportworkers.org/
FOR GLOBAL ACTION NOW!
STOP THE ISRAELI
MASSACRE IN GAZA!
Saturday, August 16, 2014
The Port of Oakland
As
the Zionist genocidal war against the Palestinian people continues unabated,
workers around the world are stunned by the death and destruction rained down
in Gaza. Transport workers, because of our key position in the global economy, have
the power to stop the wheels of the Israeli war machine, the power to stop it
dead in its tracks.
In
2009, dockworkers in Durban, South Africa refused to unload the Israeli ship
Johanna Russ to protest what they called “apartheid Israel’s massacres in
Gaza”. The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union then called on
other unions to follow their exemplary solidarity action with the oppressed
Palestinian people.
Then,
dockworkers in Oakland, California of the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) honored a mass picket line of
1,200 port demonstrators against a Zim Lines ship protesting the Israeli
army’s killing of humanitarian aid workers on the Freedom Flotilla to
Gaza. In 1984, ILWU had boycotted a
South African apartheid ship.
Saturday
August 16 is the date set for the next protest against an Israeli Zim Lines
ship in the port of Oakland. This date
commemorates the Tripartite South African government killing of 34 striking
miners. Known as the Marikana Massacre, it has become a seminal event in the
history of South African working class struggles.
The
Palestinian General Confederation of Trade Unions has appealed to workers the
world over to refuse to handle Israeli goods. The TWSC calls for action on
August 16 in solidarity with Palestinians and striking South African workers.
Picket Israeli ships, planes and Zim Lines offices. If we can stop the Israeli
capitalists’ profits, even for a day, we send a powerful message to the racist Zionist
regime that we will not oil their bloody war machine. An injury to one is an injury to all!
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Free Nestora Salgado Rally
Thursday, August 21, 7:30am-9:30am
Mexican Consulate, San Francisco
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San
Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical
Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.Protest the wrongful imprisonment of Nestora Salgado, a U.S./Mexican indigenous woman held in prison on trumped up charges. Salgado helped the poor in her Guerrero hometown to form a defense squad to protect themselves from narco-traffickers and their gangs. This angered corrupt politicians and mining companies who are colluding to drive the local people off their land. Nestora represents hundreds of people in self-defense groups who have been jailed for defending their communities against powerful, politically connected criminal cartels.
August 21 is the one year anniversary of Nestora’s incarceration.
Mexican Consulate: 532 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA (between 1st & 2nd) Sponsored by Bay Area Radical Women, Yo Soy 132, and Freedom Socialist Party.
Endorsers include American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299, University of California, Chiapas Support Committee, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), SF, Latin-American and Latino/a Studies Department, CCSF; Socialist Action; National Lawyers Guild and more.
To endorse or for more information, contact Bob at 415-864-1278 or FreeNestora.SanFrancsico@gmail.com www.freenestora.org
Click here to see the current Freedom Socialist. To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here or send $10 for one year or $17 for two to Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118.
To subscribe to the FS by postal mail, email, or audio CD, visit here.
Please contribute to sustain our work. You can donate now via PayPal
To see the booklist at Red Letter Press or to find out more about the Freedom Socialist Party, go to www.socialism.com, or reply to this message. We would love to hear from you!
Friend on Facebook | Forward to a friend
Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party
Keep up with FSP's activities
Our mailing address is:
747 Polk St., San Francisco, CA 94109
Telephone: 415-864-1278
baFSP@earthlink.net
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Women Organized To Resist and Defend
Join Week of Action: Sat., Aug. 23 – Fri., Aug. 29, 2014
San Francisco, CA
Date/Time/Location TBD
Info: sf@defendwomensrights.org or 415-375-9502
Take Action for Women’s Equality Day
Say NO to the Status Quo—Full Equality for All Women!
Full Reproductive Rights Now!
Free Marissa Alexander!
Equal Pay for Equal Work!
End Violence Against Women!
http://www.defendwomensrights.org/
Aug. 26 marks Women’s Equality Day—a celebration of the hard-fought struggle for women’s suffrage that was won in 1918. Today, almost 100 years later, women have made many gains in the struggle for equality. Almost 100 years later, the struggle for full equality continues.
There is much that has not been won. In 2014, women are still paid less than men for equal work; Latina women are paid 55 percent of what men earn, Black women 67 percent and white women 78 percent. Worldwide, 35 percent of women experience sexual violence. Society then sweeps sexual violence under the rug—shaming victims and protecting attackers.
Marissa Alexander’s case—among many others—highlights the contradictions of a society that punishes victims of abuse when they defend themselves. Marissa Alexander is a 33-year-old African American woman, mother, and survivor of domestic violence. Under mandatory minimum sentencing laws, Marissa was sentenced to 20 years in prison for defending herself against an abuser in the same state that let George Zimmerman walk free. Though the original sentence was thrown out by the judge, Marissa is still being prosecuted and State Prosecutor Angela Corey has announced she intends to seek a 60-year sentence. All charges against Marissa should be dropped! We must stand with Marissa, demand her freedom, and fight to end all forms of violence against women!
Recently, reactionary politicians and groups have targeted our reproductive rights—trying to overturn Roe v Wade through federal and state legislation that denies women the right to abortion, denies us access to birth control and criminalizes certain behaviors for pregnant women. There is an ongoing offensive to defund Planned Parenthood and other centers that provide not only reproductive health care, but also critical preventative health services. The latest attack has come in the form of the Supreme Court’s decision that Hobby Lobby’s owners’ religious convictions were more important than the reproductive health care of the women who work there.
Women’s bodies belong to no one but themselves. We should have the right to control our own bodies, and determine how and when we get pregnant and give birth. Access to abortion and birth control are part and parcel of reproductive health care—and shouldn’t be isolated from health care in general. Likewise, women look forward to the day when we are safe to walk down the street, and when our bodies are not objectified and commodified. We are struggling for a day when we are not paid less just because of our gender or more likely to live in poverty because of it.
That day is entirely possible. But is only possible if we organize and mobilize to challenge the status quo that perpetuates and institutionalizes inequality. Join WORD in building the struggle for full equality.
On Women’s Equality Day, WORD (Women Organized to Resist and Defend) will be holding speak-outs, forums and other actions to celebrate the gains demanding “Say no to the status quo—full equality for all women!” Join us in cities across the country between Saturday, August 23 and Friday, August 29, 2014. Attend an event in your city or organize one.
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Jews Say: End the War on Gaza
No Aid to Apartheid Israel! BDS!
(With 200 initial signers)
Jews Say: End the War on Gaza — No Aid to Apartheid Israel!
On July 12, 2014, Gaza civil society issued an urgent appeal for solidarity, asking: "How many of our lives are dispensable enough until the world takes action? How much of our blood is sufficient?"
As Jews of conscience, we answer by unequivocally condemning Israel's ongoing massacre in Gaza, whose victims include hundreds of civilians, children, entire families, the elderly, and the disabled. This latest toll adds to the thousands Israel has killed and maimed since its supposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
In response to this crisis, we urgently reaffirm our support for a ban on all military and other aid to Israel.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opposed the Vietnam War with his famous declaration: “For the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Today, *we* cannot be silent as the “Jewish state" -- armed to the teeth by the U.S. and its allies -- wages yet another brutal war on the Palestinian people. Apartheid Israel does not speak for us, and we stand with Gaza as we stand with all of Palestine.
In the face of incessant pro-Israel propaganda, we heed Malcolm X's warning: “If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
For Israel's relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of "self-defense" than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).
Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide -- including Israel's very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba. Indeed, eighty percent of the 1.8 million people sealed into Gaza are refugees.
Like any colonial regime, Israel uses resistance to such policies as an excuse to terrorize and collectively punish the indigenous population for its very existence. But scattered rockets, fired from Gaza into land stolen from Palestinians in the first place, are merely a response to this systemic injustice.
To confront the root cause of this violence, we call for the complete dismantling of Israel's apartheid regime, throughout historic Palestine -- from the River to the Sea. With that in mind, we embrace the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which demands:
* An end to Israeli military occupation of the 1967 territories
* Full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel
* Right of return for Palestinian refugees, as affirmed by UN resolution 194
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Please forward widely…
Reminder: Planning meeting Everyone welcome!
Endorsements/co-sponsors welcome (See below)
Join us on Tues., August 12, 7 pm, Niebyl-Proctor Library 6501 Telegraph Ave,
Oakland, to plan the…
Northern California
PEOPLE'S CLIMATE RALLY
in solidarity with the historic September 21 NYC event called by 350.org and
hundreds of local and national environmental, trade union and social justice
organizations across the country.
All Out for Sun., Sept. 21
2 pm – 5 pm
Oakland's Lake Merritt Park Amphitheater
Amphitheater is the new grassy area at the end of Lake Merritt near 12th
Street,
across from the Henry J. Kaiser Center, a few blocks from Lake Merritt BART
Station.
The historic NYC protest on Sunday, September 21 is 2 days before the UN
Climate Summit of world leaders. Tragically, more inaction or inadequate
action can be expected. We want to show the world that the climate crisis
can no longer be ignored, that the planet earth is burning, that massive &
unprecedented measures must be taken now to assure humanity’s future.
The People’s Climate March is shaping up to be one of the largest climate
justice mobilizations in history, with organizers of the march setting a goal of getting a half million people to demonstrate in NYC.
For additional information: http://peoplesclimatemarch.org
While people all over the country are mobilizing for New York, many of us will
gather in support in Oakland.
Let's make the West Coast Solidarity action a great success!
• For a world with an economy that works for people and the planet
• For a world safe from the ravages of climate change
• For a world with good jobs, clean air and water, peace and justice and
healthy communities
Bay Area September 21 Coalition: Co-sponsors (Very initial list! Add your
organization now!): 350 Bay Area; Sunflower Alliance; System Change Not
Climate Change; KPFA; Peninsula Peace and Justice Center; Social Justice
Committee/Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; Our Place in the
World; Adam Hochschild, author/founder Mother Jones magazine; Green Party of
Alameda County; United National Antiwar Coalition; Democratic Socialists East
Bay; Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party; No. Calif. Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Socialist Action; Mobilization to
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Oakland Socialist Group; Bay Area Solidarity; Dr. Jack
Rasmus, Host, Alternative Visions Radio Show/Progressive Radio Network;
International Socialist Organization; San Francisco Bay View newspaper; One
Hundred Thousand Poets for Change; CodePink Bay Area; Multifaith Voices for
Peace & Justice; Food & Water Watch; Cesar Chavez Holiday Parade and Festival;
San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Bay Area IWW; 350 Santa Cruz; SF Sierra
Club; Peace Action of San Mateo County; Solar Justice; Sonoma County Peace and
Justice Center; Project Censored
Send your endorsement to: endorse@BayAreaSept21.org
Please forward widely…
Reminder: Planning meeting Everyone welcome!
Endorsements/co-sponsors welcome (See below)
Join us on Tues., August 12, 7 pm, Niebyl-Proctor Library 6501 Telegraph Ave,
Oakland, to plan the…
Northern California
PEOPLE'S CLIMATE RALLY
in solidarity with the historic September 21 NYC event called by 350.org and
hundreds of local and national environmental, trade union and social justice
organizations across the country.
All Out for Sun., Sept. 21
2 pm – 5 pm
Oakland's Lake Merritt Park Amphitheater
Amphitheater is the new grassy area at the end of Lake Merritt near 12th
Street,
across from the Henry J. Kaiser Center, a few blocks from Lake Merritt BART
Station.
The historic NYC protest on Sunday, September 21 is 2 days before the UN
Climate Summit of world leaders. Tragically, more inaction or inadequate
action can be expected. We want to show the world that the climate crisis
can no longer be ignored, that the planet earth is burning, that massive &
unprecedented measures must be taken now to assure humanity’s future.
The People’s Climate March is shaping up to be one of the largest climate
justice mobilizations in history, with organizers of the march setting a goal of getting a half million people to demonstrate in NYC.
For additional information: http://peoplesclimatemarch.org
While people all over the country are mobilizing for New York, many of us will
gather in support in Oakland.
Let's make the West Coast Solidarity action a great success!
• For a world with an economy that works for people and the planet
• For a world safe from the ravages of climate change
• For a world with good jobs, clean air and water, peace and justice and
healthy communities
Bay Area September 21 Coalition: Co-sponsors (Very initial list! Add your
organization now!): 350 Bay Area; Sunflower Alliance; System Change Not
Climate Change; KPFA; Peninsula Peace and Justice Center; Social Justice
Committee/Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists; Our Place in the
World; Adam Hochschild, author/founder Mother Jones magazine; Green Party of
Alameda County; United National Antiwar Coalition; Democratic Socialists East
Bay; Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party; No. Calif. Committees of
Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism; Socialist Action; Mobilization to
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Oakland Socialist Group; Bay Area Solidarity; Dr. Jack
Rasmus, Host, Alternative Visions Radio Show/Progressive Radio Network;
International Socialist Organization; San Francisco Bay View newspaper; One
Hundred Thousand Poets for Change; CodePink Bay Area; Multifaith Voices for
Peace & Justice; Food & Water Watch; Cesar Chavez Holiday Parade and Festival;
San Jose Peace and Justice Center, Bay Area IWW; 350 Santa Cruz; SF Sierra
Club; Peace Action of San Mateo County; Solar Justice; Sonoma County Peace and
Justice Center; Project Censored
Send your endorsement to: endorse@BayAreaSept21.org
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1) Stop
the Massacre in Gaza
RMT issues call for support for latest demonstrations to stop the massacre in Gaza
2) Snowden Said to Be Allowed 3 More Years in Russia
3) Conflict Leaves Industry in Ashes and Gaza Reeling From Economic Toll
5) Evidence Emerges of Israeli “Shoot To Cripple” Policy In the Occupied West Bank
7) Obama Warns of ‘Long-Term’ Iraq Strikes
8) A Boy at Play in Gaza, a Renewal of Warfare, a Family in Mourning
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/boy-killed-in-israel-gaza-strip-conflict.html?ref=world
9) Police: Black Teen Shot After Altercation
"You're not God, you don't get to decide when you get to take somebody from here..."
10) Night of Unrest Over Police Killing of St. Louis Teenager
By JULIE BOSMAN and EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
AUG. 11, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/us/looting-and-unrest-follows-vigil-for-st-louis-teenager.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
RMT issues call for support for latest demonstrations to stop the massacre in Gaza
By
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
RMT.org.uk, August 5, 2014
http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/support-for-demonstrations-to-stop-the-massacre-in-gaza/
3) Conflict Leaves Industry in Ashes and Gaza Reeling From Economic Toll
By JODI RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM
5) Evidence Emerges of Israeli “Shoot To Cripple” Policy In the Occupied West Bank
Israeli soliders use live fire and expanding bullets to shatter the legs of West Bank protesters.
August 8, 2014
http://www.alternet.org/world/evidence-emerges-israeli-shoot-cripple-policy-occupied-west-bank?akid=12111.229473.FGFzMC&rd=1&src=newsletter1014782&t=6
6) Violence, Casualties Continue as Israel Resumes Airstrikes on Gaza
As
72-hour ceasefire ends, international community calls on Israeli and
Palestinian representatives to return to the negotiating table
August 8, 2014
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/08/violence-casualties-continue-israel-resumes-airstrikes-gaza 7) Obama Warns of ‘Long-Term’ Iraq Strikes
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and TIM ARANGO
“What,
the boy was shelling Israel with this wood?” said a scowling neighbor,
Mahmoud el-Amoudi, 31, pointing to two-by-fours from the scaffold. “I’m
sure Israel will say he killed himself.
“Where is Barack Obama? Where is Human Rights Watch? Where is the free world, just crying on TV?”
By JODI RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/boy-killed-in-israel-gaza-strip-conflict.html?ref=world
9) Police: Black Teen Shot After Altercation
"You're not God, you don't get to decide when you get to take somebody from here..."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
10) Night of Unrest Over Police Killing of St. Louis Teenager
By JULIE BOSMAN and EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
AUG. 11, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/us/looting-and-unrest-follows-vigil-for-st-louis-teenager.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
11) In Gaza, Grief, Anger — and No Small Measure of Pride
12) F.B.I. Opens Inquiry Into Police Killing of St. Louis Teenager
By JODI RUDOREN
By JULIE BOSMAN and ALAN BLINDER
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1) Stop the Massacre in Gaza
RMT issues call for support for latest demonstrations to stop the massacre in Gaza
By
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
RMT.org.uk, August 5, 2014
http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/support-for-demonstrations-to-stop-the-massacre-in-gaza/
With nearly 2000 Palestinian’s killed, 10,000 injured and schools, refuges and hospitals targeted, RMT is urging all member’s to join the protests and to ensure a massive and continuing trade union presence on the streets as the PSC campaign forces the voices of opposition into the mainstream media.
As the Palestine Solidarity Campaign says:
“Whole neighborhoods have been flattened, and almost half of the Strip was already a ‘no go zone,’ before the horrific shelling of Rafah yesterday.
“The horror is overwhelming, with Palestinians struggling to dig out the bodies of the dead, hospitals struggling to cope with the bloodshed and death, and shelters struggling to cope with the hundreds-of-thousands attempting to seek refuge. Ambulances, hospitals and UN schools sheltering refugees have all been targeted by Israeli bombs.
“The British government has blood on its hands, reports on the £42 million worth of arms export licenses being granted since 2010 to sell military equipment to Israel, including ammunition, and components for the Hermes drone, which has been widely used to monitor Palestinians and guided missile strikes. It has also licensed a UK company to supply components for Israel’s main battle tank.
“International outrage has escalated, with thousands blocking the streets outside the Israeli Embassy in London, and protests taking place across Britain against the slaughter.”
This Saturday, August 9, a major demonstration will assemble in London at noon at a location to be confirmed and is expected to be massive as the British public send out the clearest possible message to David Cameron and his Government to take action to end the bloodshed. Local demonstrations are being called all the time and a full list, along with updated details of Saturday’s London Demo can be found at www.palestinecampaign.org
RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“RMT is mobilizing our members in support of the people of Gaza. Our union has a clear policy for the boycott of Israeli goods as one of the ways that we can register our outrage and horror at the massacre that has been unleashed on the Palestinian people.
“The images and reports that we have seen and heard are just pure butchery of innocent people who stand no chance against the arsenal of weapons supplied to the Israeli forces by our Government, the Americans and others around the globe who have blood on their hands.
“Trade unions have a key role to play in harnessing and mobilizing the opposition to the massacre in Gaza and that is exactly what we are doing.”
—RMT.org.uk, August 5, 2014
http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/support-for-demonstrations-to-stop-the-massacre-in-gaza/
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2) Snowden Said to Be Allowed 3 More Years in Russia
MOSCOW — Edward J. Snowden, the American intelligence contractor who divulged a raft of secret documents and then fled to Russia, has been granted a three-year residence permit here, his lawyer announced Thursday.
Anatoly G. Kucherena, the lawyer, told a news conference that Mr. Snowden had not been given asylum in Russia, but rather had been granted permission to live here until 2017, Russian news media reported.
His new status includes the right to leave Russia for up to three months, Mr. Kucherena said. Mr. Snowden, 31, had originally planned to head to Latin America for asylum. Anger in Germany at American surveillance has also prompted some discussion there about whether Mr. Snowden should be allowed to live there. But he has so far avoided setting foot outside Russia lest the United States find a way to arrest him.
His previous, yearlong residence permit, granted last August, expired on July 31 and a new one had been expected. His lawyer filed the necessary paperwork earlier this summer.
Mr. Snowden is wanted by the United States government for exposing numerous secret intelligence documents, including a program by the National Security Agency to monitor millions of email messages.
Senior government officials have called him a traitor, while Mr. Snowden maintains that he is a whistle-blower who exposed an illegal government surveillance program.
Without going into too many details, Mr. Kucherena said that Mr. Snowden was living on a salary earned from an unspecified job in the information technology field, and on donations into an open fund from individuals and nongovernmental organizations. The lawyer said that his client was learning to speak Russian, and that he would be eligible to become a citizen after living here for five years, counted from his first residence permit granted in 2013.
Asked about Mr. Snowden’s living arrangements in Moscow, Mr. Kucherena said that he could not comment in detail but indicated that Mr. Snowden was not on the Russian government dole.
“The government cannot provide him with housing, despite the fact that he was granted a residence permit,” Mr. Kucherena said. “He leads a rather modest lifestyle.”
Mr. Kucherena also denied that Mr. Snowden was protected by government bodyguards, saying that there would be all manner of “bureaucratic delays” for such protection to be organized. But Mr. Snowden did live with private security, a priority given hostile American government statements about him, the lawyer said.
The welcome mat for Mr. Snowden was in sharp contrast to that of another American citizen living in Russia, Jennifer Gaspar, 43, who has been ordered deported by the Russian federal security service, or F.S.B., the successor agency to the K.G.B. In the deportation order issued by the Federal Migration Service that arrived at her St. Petersburg home on Tuesday, she was described as “a threat to national security.”
Ms. Gaspar’s husband, Ivan Y. Pavlov, who is Russian, is an outspoken human rights attorney who has pushed for a more transparent government, the very argument that Mr. Snowden has been making about the American government in his own defense.
The couple, who have a 5-year-old Russian daughter, think Ms. Gaspar is being deported as a means to push Mr. Pavlov into exile. The government agencies involved have declined to comment. The couple are appealing the deportation order.
Mr. Snowden spent some 40 days in the transit lounge of Sheremetyevo Airport, Moscow’s main international gateway, after he was stuck there when the United States revoked his passport. The initial residence permit granted to him considerably soured relations between Washington and Moscow, prompting President Obama to cancel a summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin.
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3) Conflict Leaves Industry in Ashes and Gaza Reeling From Economic Toll
By JODI RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — For nearly four decades, Al Awda Co. has stocked Gaza’s shelves with sweets and snacks, starting as a humble refugee-camp bakery and growing into a 180,000-square-foot factory with 600 workers.
On Wednesday, all that was left was a faint whiff of chocolate amid the sour smell of a fire that burned for three days.
A barrage of Israeli artillery turned Al Awda into a charred graveyard of machinery and material. The $1.3 million German control panel that powered the place became a metal cabinet of fried wires. Some 300 tons each of sugar, flour and margarine — gone. Metal roofs collapsed, cinder-block walls had gaping holes, floors were carpeted in rubble.
“I didn’t even go to the third floor; I don’t want to see what’s there,” said Mohammed Al Telbani, 61, who founded the business in 1977. “I’m used to building. I’m not used to destruction.”During Israel’s monthlong air-and-ground assault on the Gaza Strip, the world’s attention has focused on the more than 1,800 Palestinians killed and the more than 30,000 homes destroyed or damaged. But as a temporary truce held and talks toward a longer-term cease-fire began Wednesday, business leaders said that 175 of Gaza’s most successful industrial plants had also taken devastating hits, plunging an already despairing economy into a deeper abyss.
Ali Hayek, head of Gaza’s federation of industries, said these factories directly provided perhaps 5,000 of the most stable jobs in this impoverished Palestinian sliver, where the latest estimates of unemployment are as high as 47 percent. The collateral damage is exponential: Sabha, Gaza’s only producer of tomato paste, has contracts with 5,000 farmers, Mr. Hayek said. Legions of drivers will be without cargo. Rebuilding anything is that much harder with 63 construction companies offline, including several cement makers.
The destruction of Al Awda alone threatens its suppliers of milk, plastic wrapping, flour and cardboard boxes. Then again, Hamada, a huge flour mill in Gaza City, and Khozendar, Gaza’s only carton-maker, are also gone, Mr. Hayek said, along with 21 food companies, 10 clothing manufacturers and the entire industrial zone in the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
“After 30 days of war, the economic situation has become, like, dead,” said Mr. Hayek, whose group represents 3,900 businesses employing 35,000 people. “It seems the occupation intentionally destroyed these vital factories that constitute the backbone of the society.”
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said Wednesday that he did not have a specific explanation for the attack on Al Awda, but that “categorically, we do not target factories.”
“We target facilities that have been involved in rocket manufacturing,” he said, “or locations that rockets have been launched from.”
Palestinian officials plan to ask international donors for $6 billion to rebuild Gaza this fall. But after Israel’s 2008-9 Operation Cast Lead, in which more than 1,000 small businesses and workshops were wiped out, a promised $4.7 billion never materialized, people in Gaza say.
Omar Shaban, an economist who lives in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah and has known Al Awda and its owner since childhood, has long been talking about the structural dysfunction in Gaza. Israel severely restricts imports, exports, farming and fishing. The government payroll is bloated and a black market had thrived, fueled by hundreds of tunnels to Egypt, used for smuggling goods. Exacerbating the crisis, the new Egyptian government closed most of those tunnels last summer, idling even internationally funded construction projects. The Hamas-run government lost millions in tax revenue, its employees lost paychecks, and prices for diesel, cars and consumer products shot up.
Now, after the loss of the factories, Mr. Shaban said, “The condition of our society needs new terms that do not exist in any textbook.”
“We should stop asking about the percentage of unemployment and start talking about the percentage of employment,” he said. “I try hard to draw the boundary of the problem — it’s borderless. It’s a long list of cause and result, cause and result; this will lead to that and will lead to that. It’s a circle of impacts that will cause another problem.”
Though he is wealthier than all but a few of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, Mr. Telbani’s story is Gaza’s story. Like some two-thirds of the population, he is classified as a refugee, his family having lost its home in Beersheba at Israel’s founding (his company’s name, Al Awda, means “return”). Like many men of his generation, his first jobs were inside Israel, in restaurants and construction projects.
But after years of exporting its snacks and sweets to the United States, Europe and the United Arab Emirates, Al Awda has only managed to get a few trucks of inventory to the West Bank over the last decade because of Israel’s blockade.
In Gaza, Al Awda is more than a staple of pantry shelves and party platters. Schoolchildren take factory tours as field trips. It is a symbol of Palestinian resilience and entrepreneurial possibility.
Mr. Telbani said the company had more than $1 million in sales each month for its dozens of products — the classic Family Wafers in strawberry, lemon and other flavors, along with biscuits, pretzels, chocolate-covered marshmallow creams, corn puffs, ice cream and juice. He estimated it would take $20 million to rebuild the factory.
Eyad Mohammed Telbani, 37, the oldest of Mr. Telbani’s 12 children and deputy chief of the business, said that when the war began, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he and three brothers-in-law had slept at the factory’s entrance and taken their pre-dawn breakfasts and post-fast iftar dinners there.
A few shells hit the six-building factory, just east of the main Saladin Street in Deir al-Balah, 10 or 12 days ago, the younger Mr. Telbani said. Then, on Thursday — exactly a year after his brother Alian, 26, was killed at the factory during a robbery — the real assault came, at about 8 a.m.
More shells came while firefighters tried to extinguish the flames, he said. The next day, even more.
Above the administrative office, the third-floor apartment where one of the elder Mr. Telbani’s three wives lived with her three small children is in ruins. Metal pots lie amid the broken tiles in what was the kitchen; a standing fan is half buried in a small bedroom. A red fire extinguisher sits in the doorway.
On the second floor, Mr. Telbani’s own grand quarters are intact: A woman mopped the broad tile floor under faded ceiling friezes and chandeliers. But his bedroom overlooking the shipping area reeks of smoke.
The minarets of the mosque next door, which Mr. Telbani paid to build six years ago and named Al Awda, were also hit. Two containers of medicine that the Red Crescent society had stored in the ice cream factory when it ran out of refrigerator space were destroyed, along with 40,000 treats.
On Wednesday, the second day of a promised three-day halt in hostilities, a couple of dozen men were on site, sliding boxes of “The First Wafers” down a makeshift metal chute and onto trucks. But even these may be unusable because of smoke damage.
Ahmad Tawashi, 30, has been working at Al Awda as a technician for five years, making the minimum rate, about $250 a month. His wife is about to deliver their fourth child, and he wonders how he will pay the hospital bill.
If his home had been destroyed, Mr. Tawashi said, he could work to earn enough money to rebuild. But without the factory, he said, “I don’t know what will happen.”
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4) IDF Whistleblower Who Posted ‘Israeli Troops Killed Gaza Civilians in Revenge,’ Now Under Arrest
August 5, 2014
http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/08/idf-whistleblower-who-posted-israeli-troops-killed-gaza-civilians-in-revenge-now-under-arrest/
Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) combat soldier and company sergeant Eran Efrati,
28, has become the Edward Snowden of Israel. This brave whistleblower
has now found himself arrested and interrogated by the Israeli
authorities nothing more than speaking out agains the use of illegal
weapons in Gaza, and the carte blanche killing of Palestinian civilians by rogue members of the IDF.
Last week, on Tuesday, July 29, Efrati announced on Facebook that his confidential sources within the IDF had informed him that the “real reason” for the recent IDF Shuja’iyya massacre, which had been carried out just over a week earlier, on July 20, was that IDF soldiers were deliberately targeting civilians as “punishment” and “retribution” for the deaths of fellow soldiers in their units.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*Last week, on Tuesday, July 29, Efrati announced on Facebook that his confidential sources within the IDF had informed him that the “real reason” for the recent IDF Shuja’iyya massacre, which had been carried out just over a week earlier, on July 20, was that IDF soldiers were deliberately targeting civilians as “punishment” and “retribution” for the deaths of fellow soldiers in their units.
In recent weeks I was on the border of Gaza and getting reports from soldiers in the Gaza Strip who leak information out to me. I am in the process of publication of two big stories in major U.S. newspapers, but there are some things I can share with you right now: Soldiers in two different units inside Gaza leaked information about the murdering of Palestinians by sniper fire in Shuja’iyya neighborhood as punishment for the death of soldiers in their units. After the shooting on the Israeli armored personnel carriers, which killed seven soldiers of the Golani Brigade, the Israeli army carried out a massacre in Shuja’iyya neighborhood. A day after the massacre, many Palestinians came to search for their relatives and their families in the rubble. In one of the videos uploaded to YouTube, a young Palestinian man Salem Shammaly calls the names of his family and looking for them between the ruins when he is suddenly shot at in his chest and falls down. A few seconds after that, there are two additional shootings from snipers into his body, killing him instantly. Since the video was released, there was no official response from the IDF spokesperson.Since then, he explains that he has been detained, arrested and interrogated for nothing more than posting on Facebook. Efrati had both his Facebook and email accounts blocked, apparently through the government imposing censorship through his Internet Service Provider (ISP). Since then, he has further received brutal death threats intended to silence him further. He describes this update on the first of August, saying:
Today I can report that the official command that was handed down to the soldiers in Shujaiyya was to capture Palestinian homes as outposts. From these posts, the soldiers drew an imaginary red line, and amongst themselves decided to shoot to death anyone who crosses it. Anyone crossing the line was defined as a threat to their outposts, and was thus deemed a legitimate target. This was the official reasoning inside the units. I was told that the unofficial reason was to enable the soldiers to take out their frustrations and pain at losing their fellow soldiers (something that for years the IDF has not faced during its operations in Gaza and the West Bank), out on the Palestinian refugees in the neighborhood. Under the pretext of the so-called “security threat” soldiers were directed to carry out a pre-planned attack of revenge on Palestinian civilians. These stories join many other similar ones that Amira Hass and I investigated in Operation Cast Lead. The death toll that continues to rise is steadily reaching the numbers of the massacre of 2009.
More than 1,100 have been killed in Gaza, at least 80 percent of them civilians. Today it is cleared for publication that at least 4 soldiers were killed by a rocket in a gathering area outside of Gaza, and another soldier was killed in Gaza. They join 43 soldiers that have already been killed. We know that more acts of revenge will come soon and it is important that we not stay silent. This is the time to take to the streets and to social media. Demand from your representative wherever you are to stop supporting this massacre and to immediately boycott the state of Israel until the occupation ends, the blockade is lifted and Palestinians will be free. We all want to be in the right place at the right time when history knocks on our door, and history is knocking in Gaza right now. You need to decide on which side you want to go down in history.
Efrati is indeed counting on all of us. Silence is what the Israeli military and State are counting on. Help get the word out. With more eyes on Efrati’s case, it will be harder for him to be silenced, or disappeared into a prison cell for nothing other than speaking out about the illegal activities he witnessed.In recent days I was arrested by authorities and questioned about my research regarding the use of illegal weapons in Gaza, my mail and Facebook accounts were blocked, And I received strong hints that my life is at risk and I need to be silent and keep low. But I’m not going anywhere.They may close my communication channels again,but that does not mean I’m not here, I’ll find a way to get the information out to you,and I trust you will echo it on, go down with it to the streets ,And demand your representatives, your government to stop funding the slaughter in your name,to boycott Israel and to stop the bloodshed in Gaza. The whole world is watching now, history is being made.
I’m counting on you.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Evidence Emerges of Israeli “Shoot To Cripple” Policy In the Occupied West Bank
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Violence, Casualties Continue as Israel Resumes Airstrikes on Gaza
As
72-hour ceasefire ends, international community calls on Israeli and
Palestinian representatives to return to the negotiating table
August 8, 2014
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/08/violence-casualties-continue-israel-resumes-airstrikes-gaza
A 10-year-old Palestinian boy was among the first in new round of casualties on Friday as Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza after a 72-hour ceasefire.
The truce formally ended at 8 am Friday, at which point Hamas reportedly began firing rockets into Israel, Reuters reports. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed the boy near a mosque in Gaza City, according to the BBC.
In Gaza, the Guardian reports that "tens of thousands of people who had returned to their homes during the 72-hour ceasefire rushed back to the UN-run shelters where many have been staying since the war began more than four weeks ago."
Palestinian officials said Friday afternoon that they were willing to resume negotiations on a new ceasefire. Hamas is calling for an end to the blockade on Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt and an opening of all the border crossings to allow the free flow of people and goods. The Israeli government said in a statement that “Israel will not hold negotiations under fire.”
In a statement responding to the renewed violence, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep disappointment that the parties were unable to agree to an extension of the ceasefire in their talks in Cairo. He condemns the renewed rocket fire towards Israel. More suffering and death of civilians caught up in this conflict is intolerable." He urged both sides to resume a humanitarian ceasefire and "to continue negotiations in Cairo to reach a durable ceasefire."
1,893 Palestinians have died, most of whom were civilians and over 400 of whom were children, and 9,805 Palestinians have been wounded since the latest round of fighting began in July. Israel's government says 64 soldiers have been killed, along with two Israeli civilians and a Thai national. Tens of thousands of Gazan homes have also been destroyed in the bombardment that has left hundreds of thousands of Gazans dispaced.
A 10-year-old Palestinian boy was among the first in new round of casualties on Friday as Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza after a 72-hour ceasefire.
The truce formally ended at 8 am Friday, at which point Hamas reportedly began firing rockets into Israel, Reuters reports. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed the boy near a mosque in Gaza City, according to the BBC.
In Gaza, the Guardian reports that "tens of thousands of people who had returned to their homes during the 72-hour ceasefire rushed back to the UN-run shelters where many have been staying since the war began more than four weeks ago."
At one school, 800 people who had left in recent days returned on Friday morning as news of the renewed fighting broke. One was Nidal Sultan, 21, who had driven with six members of his family from the northern town of Beit Lahiya.Egyptian officials called on both sides to return to the negotiating table, claiming "very limited sticking points" remain in reaching agreement on a long-term ending of hostilities, according to USA Today.
"We were in the school on the first day of the ceasefire and came back this morning," he said. "There were strikes and shelling in the last hour or so. It's not safe, so we have to come to the school however bad it is. We will stay now until the war stops.
Palestinian officials said Friday afternoon that they were willing to resume negotiations on a new ceasefire. Hamas is calling for an end to the blockade on Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt and an opening of all the border crossings to allow the free flow of people and goods. The Israeli government said in a statement that “Israel will not hold negotiations under fire.”
In a statement responding to the renewed violence, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep disappointment that the parties were unable to agree to an extension of the ceasefire in their talks in Cairo. He condemns the renewed rocket fire towards Israel. More suffering and death of civilians caught up in this conflict is intolerable." He urged both sides to resume a humanitarian ceasefire and "to continue negotiations in Cairo to reach a durable ceasefire."
1,893 Palestinians have died, most of whom were civilians and over 400 of whom were children, and 9,805 Palestinians have been wounded since the latest round of fighting began in July. Israel's government says 64 soldiers have been killed, along with two Israeli civilians and a Thai national. Tens of thousands of Gazan homes have also been destroyed in the bombardment that has left hundreds of thousands of Gazans dispaced.
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7) Obama Warns of ‘Long-Term’ Iraq Strikes
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and TIM ARANGO
WASHINGTON — Laying the groundwork for an extended airstrike campaign against Sunni militants in Iraq, President Obama said Saturday that the strikes that began the day before could continue for months as the Iraqis build a new government.
“I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem in weeks,” Mr. Obama told reporters before leaving for a two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. “This is going to be a long-term project.”
The president repeated his insistence that the United States would not send ground combat troops back to Iraq. But he pledged that the United States and other countries would stand with Iraqi leaders against the militants if the leaders build an inclusive government in the months ahead.Hours before Mr. Obama spoke, Sunni militants in northern Iraq ordered engineers to return to work on the Mosul Dam, the country’s largest, suggesting that the extremists who captured the dam last week after fierce battles with Kurdish forces will use it, at least for now, to provide water and electricity to the areas they control, and not as a weapon.
Prompted by the seizure of the dam by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, along with the dire circumstances of tens of thousands of civilians stranded in the mountains near Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq, President Obama quickly ordered airdrops of humanitarian aid and airstrikes on militant positions near the Kurdish capital, Erbil.
As ISIS consolidates its control of territory, it has acted brutally, carrying out executions and forcing out minority groups. But it has also displayed an intent to act strategically when it comes to natural resources, highlighted by the call on Saturday for engineers on the dam to get back to work.
Its control over the dam, however, also gives the group the ability to create a civilian catastrophe: A break in the fragile dam could unleash a tidal wave over the city of Mosul and cause flooding and countless deaths along the Tigris River south to Baghdad and beyond, experts have said.The ISIS order came as residents in Mosul reported that nearly two dozen bodies of ISIS fighters, said to be killed in American airstrikes, arrived at the city’s morgue, while at least 30 wounded fighters were being treated at a hospital.
In Baghdad, efforts by leaders to name a replacement for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, stalled, with Mr. Maliki clinging to power and rivals unable to decide on an alternative. A session of Parliament scheduled for Sunday — when leaders had been expected to nominate a new prime minister — was postponed until Monday, as some Shiite leaders rushed to Iran, which holds enormous power in Iraq, and Sunni politicians visited Erbil to confer with the Kurds.
“Until this moment, nothing has changed,” said Kamal al-Saadi, a member of Parliament from Mr. Maliki’s bloc. “We are sticking with our only candidate, Maliki.”
Earlier, Mr. Obama had suggested that wider American military support, including an expansion of the airstrikes, could come if Iraqi leaders formed a national unity government with meaningful roles for the country’s two main minority groups, Sunnis and Kurds. Without saying so explicitly, American officials have been quietly working to replace Mr. Maliki because they believe that he is incapable of uniting the country to face the militant threat.
On Saturday, Mr. Obama said an inclusive Iraqi government would give all Iraqis a reason to believe that they were represented and help give Iraqi military forces a reason to fight back against the militants.
His announcement prompted immediate criticism from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who said in an interview by telephone from Vietnam that the president’s vision for the campaign was insufficient to fight “the richest, most powerful terrorist organization in history.”
The United States continued on Saturday its efforts to address the crisis in Iraq, as three American military cargo planes, escorted by Navy F-18 fighter jets, dropped more food and water on Mount Sinjar to help refugees who fled there under threat from the Sunni militants.
The humanitarian assistance came after a day of military strikes by Navy warplanes and Predator drones on ISIS artillery positions. The planes — one C-17 and two C-130s — dropped more than 28,000 ready-to-eat meals and more than 1,500 gallons of fresh drinking water, the Pentagon said. That brings the number of meals delivered to the refugees to 36,224 in the last two days.
In London, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement on television that Royal Air Force planes would begin humanitarian airdrops in northern Iraq “imminently.”
Britain announced Friday that it would support the American relief effort there but would avoid military action. Britain was a close ally of the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in operations in Afghanistan, but its appetite for overseas military deployments has faded. Last year, Parliament refused to authorize military action in Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons in the civil war there.
ISIS’s advance northward over the last week appears to be a shift in strategy, as the group had previously announced its intent to march on Baghdad. That was stalled when Shiite militias quickly mobilized to defend the capital.
While ISIS has been the most prominent fighting force of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, its gains could not have come without the support of other Sunni groups, experts say, including fighters aligned with Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party, which is not sympathetic to the religious extremism of ISIS but is seen as more intent on taking the fight to Baghdad and trying to topple the central government.
In a recent statement, the Iraqi Baath Party condemned ISIS’s attacks on the Kurdish region, suggesting emerging fissures in the alliance of Sunni resistance. “We categorically reject the fight against Kurdistan,” the statement said. “Kurdistan and its government were a safe haven to all Iraqis.”
The statement added, “We call on all military brigades to move on Baghdad instead.”
As ISIS went to work securing the Mosul Dam on Saturday, its fighters appeared to make progress in an battle for control of the Haditha Dam, Iraq’s second largest, which sits on the Euphrates River farther south in Anbar Province. Security forces said militants had destroyed a strategic bridge near the town of Barwana, which government forces had been using to resupply fighting units.
Within ISIS-controlled territory, the new American involvement in Iraq has become a rallying cry. With the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has declared areas under his control in Iraq and Syria a new Islamic caliphate, calling for jihad against the United States, imams have called on citizens to fight the United States.
One preacher in Falluja, which has been under ISIS control since the end of last year, said at Friday Prayer: “We know there comes a day to fight the United States. We are ready to march towards Erbil and Baghdad. The Islamic State will not be defeated and we are willing to keep pursuing jihad, according to the plans.”
Michael D. Shear reported from Washington, and Tim Arango from Baghdad. Reporting was contributed by Helene Cooper and Jonathan Weisman from Washington, Omar Al-Jawoshy from Baghdad and Alan Cowell from London.
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8) A Boy at Play in Gaza, a Renewal of Warfare, a Family in Mourning
“What,
the boy was shelling Israel with this wood?” said a scowling neighbor,
Mahmoud el-Amoudi, 31, pointing to two-by-fours from the scaffold. “I’m
sure Israel will say he killed himself.
“Where is Barack Obama? Where is Human Rights Watch? Where is the free world, just crying on TV?”
By JODI RUDOREN and FARES AKRAM
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/boy-killed-in-israel-gaza-strip-conflict.html?ref=world
GAZA CITY — Sabah Dawawsa was in the kitchen Friday morning, frying the chicken livers her 10-year-old son, Ibrahim, had requested for the after-prayer meal. With Palestinian rockets having resumed at the 8 a.m. expiration of a 72-hour cease-fire, followed by Israeli airstrikes, Ms. Dawawsa said she had told Ibrahim to stay inside, in their house in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
Around 11 a.m., right as she realized that he had nonetheless gone to play at the mosque under construction down the street, Ms. Dawawsa heard the drone drop the missile.
It killed Ibrahim, leaving a pool of blood from his skull next to a crushed SuperCola can and an abandoned flip-flop. Two other boys were wounded.
“What shall I say? It was only a few minutes after he went out,” Ms. Dawawsa, 37, wailed as she clutched a picture of her son at 5 years old in a camouflage outfit. “It was only minutes, only minutes.”Hundreds of mourners gathered at another nearby mosque to pray over the body of the first casualty in the latest chapter of the monthlong battle that has claimed the lives of nearly 1,900 Palestinians, including more than 300 children, and, on the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians. The renewed violence came as an Israeli delegation left Cairo, where talks toward a more durable truce had made dubious progress.
Leaders of Hamas, the Islamist faction that dominates Gaza, had warned on Thursday that they would resume the battle if their demands to open border crossings, remove Israeli restrictions on trade and, especially, build their own seaport on the Mediterranean were not met. Israel had promised to return fire with fire. Both kept their word.
Gaza militants launched a rocket toward southern Israel exactly at 8 a.m. — it was intercepted over Ashkelon — and followed with about 40 others by midday, according to the Israeli military. Israel, in turn, fired artillery shells at Gaza’s already destroyed northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, dropped at least one bomb from an F-16, and struck a home in Gaza City belonging to a Hamas leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, and hit other targets in Gaza City, Jabaliya, Rafah and Khan Younis, killing four people in addition to Ibrahim before 8 p.m., Palestinian health officials and witnesses said.
“I was happy for the last three days — today I felt sick because the cease-fire ended,” said Amal al-Masri, 45, who bought a small bag of green grapes at the Jabaliya refugee camp to share among 30 relatives whose home in Beit Hanoun had been flattened. “We lost everything. If an earthquake happened here, it would be better.
“I don’t want the war to resume,” she added, “but who’s going to bring back our rights? This is the only way.”
As news spread that the cease-fire was over, many shops remained open, and cars and people were on the streets of Gaza City. Groups of teenagers roamed and men sat smoking on the sidewalks. In the Jabaliya camp, a man exercised seven camels on a leash, and young boys toted cartons of supplies on their heads back to the school where their families have been sheltering for weeks.
Heading north, it grew quieter. In Beit Hanoun, a ghost town of felled concrete buildings, Anas Kaferna, 25, and his sister and brother were tying thin mattresses and blankets atop a fading silver sedan. “I don’t want to be the last one in the town,” he said.
Since the first attack on Beit Hanoun weeks ago, Mr. Kaferna said they had been staying at the maternity hospital where he worked as a security guard, though it was also pocked by shelling. Now they were bound for Gaza City, though uncertain where they would stay. “It seems the situation will get harder,” he said. “Maybe yes and maybe no. I don’t understand politics.”
Back at the Jabaliya market, Amir el-Fassis, 17, and Muhammad Bahtini, 21, said they were awoken by a drone strike the Israelis refer to as a “knock on the door,” warning of a larger bombing to follow. It hit a six-story apartment building under construction next to their home, they said. They evacuated, but waited in a growing crowd nearby to see what would happen next.
“They are peaceful people, they sell tomatoes in the market,” Mr. Bahtini said of the Sherafi family, who own the apartment building and live on its ground floor. “When it is down, we will say, ‘May God get us revenge.’
“We have suffered, but we can endure for the sake of having a rest forever after that,” he added, invoking an Egyptian proverb, heard frequently around Gaza this week, that means, “Either we live in happiness or all of us die.”
Zuheir Dawawsa, 19, one of Ibrahim’s brothers, said he, too, was awoken by the too-familiar sound of a drone. He ran to the construction site where, three months ago, work began on a 13,000-square-foot mosque, called Al Nour, to replace the one destroyed by an Israeli strike during Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9.
Neighborhood children told him that his brother had been among the boys playing there when it was hit. Then a youth approached with Ibrahim in his arms.
“His skull was open,” said Mr. Dawawsa, who was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Nothing Is Impossible,” and could hardly speak. “He was already dead.”
Family members and neighbors said Ibrahim was an energetic boy, nicknamed Barhoum, who loved his PlayStation and soccer, like so many others. He was the second-youngest of eight children from his father’s two wives, and slept on a mattress in the spacious second-floor salon where his mother sat mourning on Friday. “He was a good heart,” said a sister, Raghda, cradling her own 7-month-old daughter. “He was always giving what was in his hand to others.”
Photographs of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and his predecessor, Yasir Arafat, hung above the women’s heads. In the next room was a map of British Mandate Palestine, with cities and villages labeled in Arabic. Outside, the house’s stone wall bore a painted mural of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City.
At the construction site, men and boys pointed up at the place where the missile had shaved off a concrete pylon and sundered the wooden scaffold before, apparently, hitting Ibrahim in the head. They had found several pieces of jagged-edge metal shrapnel.
The neighborhood leader, Nasser Abu Raid al-Ghoul, 60, said he was among about 30 men in the temporary mosque next to the site, reading the Quran in preparation for the midday prayer, when the missile hit. They first saw the two wounded boys, and 10 minutes later found Ibrahim’s bloodied body under the debris.
“What, the boy was shelling Israel with this wood?” said a scowling neighbor, Mahmoud el-Amoudi, 31, pointing to two-by-fours from the scaffold. “I’m sure Israel will say he killed himself.
“Where is Barack Obama? Where is Human Rights Watch? Where is the free world, just crying on TV?”
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9) Police: Black Teen Shot After Altercation
"You're not God, you don't get to decide when you get to take somebody from here..."
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FERGUSON, Mo. — An angry crowd of a couple hundred people marched into a suburban St. Louis County police department Sunday morning, demanding answers a day after a police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old black man.
Some in the crowd taunted police with chants of "Don't shoot me" as they held up their hands while walking into the Ferguson Police Department building. Officers stood at the top of a staircase and stopped the crowd without using force.
A news conference was held simultaneously in a different building. There, St. Louis County Police Jon Belmar said the incident began when the officer encountered two men on the street near an apartment complex on Saturday afternoon in a predominantly black suburb a few miles north of downtown St. Louis.
Belmar said one of the men pushed the officer back into his squad car and the struggle began. Belmar said at least one shot was fired inside the police car.
The struggle spilled out into the street where the teenager was shot. Police have not disclosed his name, but family members say it was 18-year-old Michael Brown.
Shell casings found at the scene matched the officers' gun. Belmar said the teen was shot multiple times, but it wasn't yet known how many.
"It was more than just a couple," he said.
Belmar said the officer has been with the Ferguson Police Department for six years and that he wasn't aware of other issues involving the man. The officer has been placed on paid administrative leave.
The protesters chanted "We want answers" and "no justice, no peace," Sunday morning and some carried signs saying "stop police terrorism" and "disarm the police."
John Gaskin, a member of the St. Louis County NAACP, said Saturday the FBI should get involved "to protect the integrity of the investigation."
He alluded to the 2012 racially charged shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was subsequently acquitted of murder charges, as well as the New York man who died from a police chokehold after he was confronted for selling individual cigarettes.
"With the recent events of a young man killed by the police in New York City and with Trayvon Martin and with all the other African-American young men that have been killed by police officers ... this is a dire concern to the NAACP, especially our local organization," Gaskin said.
State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that she would ask the U.S. Justice Department on Monday for a formal investigation.
Brown's grandmother, Desiree Harris, said she saw him running in her neighborhood Saturday afternoon. Just minutes later, she heard a commotion and went outside to check on it. She found Brown's body less than two blocks away.
"When I got up there, my grandson was lying on the pavement. I asked the police what happened. They didn't tell me nothing."
Harris said her grandson had recently graduated high school and was looking forward to the future.
"My grandson never even got into a fight," she said. "He was just looking forward to getting on with his life. He was on his way."
Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, had harsh words Saturday for authorities: "You're not God, you don't get to decide when you get to take somebody from here," she told KSDK.
___
Associated Press writer Maria Sudekum contributed from Kansas City, Missouri.
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10) Night of Unrest Over Police Killing of St. Louis Teenager
By JULIE BOSMAN and EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS
AUG. 11, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/12/us/looting-and-unrest-follows-vigil-for-st-louis-teenager.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSumSmallMediaHigh&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
A vigil on Sunday for an unarmed black teenager shot and killed by a police officer in a St. Louis suburb was followed by angry demonstrations overnight after protesters took to the streets, looting stores, vandalizing cars and confronting the police.
Hundreds of people gathered at the evening vigil in Ferguson, Mo., to light candles for the teenager, Michael Brown, 18, who had been planning to begin college classes on Monday. Later, a crowd of protesters flooded the streets near the scene of the shooting, some of them chanting “No justice, no peace.” They were met by hundreds of police officers in riot gear, carrying rifles and shields, as well as by K-9 units.Still images and videos captured on cellphones and posted on social media sites, as well as local news media reports, appeared to show people spray-painting and looting a number of stores. In one television report, people could be seen running away from a store with their arms full of shoes. A convenience store could be seen burning in a video posted by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Protesters also shattered windows and damaged several police cars, said Brian Lewis, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police Department. The police set up roadblocks in some areas. Pat Washington, a spokeswoman for the St. Louis County executive, Charlie Dooley, told The Associated Press that the police had used tear gas in one instance to control the crowd.
Mr. Brown’s family urged the protesters to go home, saying that the looting and vandalism were not what the teenager would have wanted. “The only thing the family wants is justice,” a spokesman, Doug Hollis, told a local television station.
By Monday morning, more than 200 officers had been involved in restoring control, Brian Shellman, an officer with the St. Louis County police, told the local news media, though there remained reports of scattered incidents. Officer Shellman said he did not know how many arrests had been made.
In Washington, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Dena Iverson, said on Monday that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had instructed lawyers in the Civil Rights Division to monitor developments in Ferguson.
The shooting of Mr. Brown by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday came after a struggle for the officer’s gun, police officials said, an explanation that met with outrage and skepticism in the largely African-American community.
Mr. Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, held a cardboard sign at the vigil that read, “Ferguson police just executed my unarmed son.”
At a news conference on Sunday morning, the St. Louis County police chief, Jon Belmar, said that a man had been shot and killed after he had assaulted a police officer and the two had struggled over the officer’s gun inside his patrol car. At least one shot was fired from inside the car, Chief Belmar said.
“The genesis of this was a physical confrontation,” Chief Belmar told reporters.
Elected officials and advocacy groups called for a full investigation and questioned the tactics of the police, who acknowledged that Mr. Brown had been unarmed. Antonio French, a councilman in St. Louis, was at the scene of the protests on Sunday and said in an interview that more than 100 people had gathered, most of them silently standing in groups, some leaving behind teddy bears and balloons to memorialize Mr. Brown.
Mr. French said he was unsatisfied with the Police Department’s explanation of the shooting.
“I find it hard to believe,” he said, adding that he was disappointed with the police response after the shooting, which he said had further distressed Ferguson residents and members of Mr. Brown’s family.
“It’s a textbook example of how not to handle the situation,” Mr. French said. “Ferguson has a white government and a white mayor, but a large black population. This situation has brought out whatever rifts were between that minority community and the Ferguson government.”
Esther Haywood, the president of the N.A.A.C.P. in St. Louis County, said in a statement: “We are hurt to hear that yet another teenaged boy has been slaughtered by law enforcement, especially in light of the recent death of Eric Garner in New York, who was killed for selling cigarettes. We plan to do everything within our power to ensure that the Ferguson Police Department as well as the St. Louis County Police Department releases all details pertinent to the shooting. We strongly encourage residents to stay away from the crime scene so that no additional citizens are injured.”
The police said on Sunday that they were still trying to sort out the exact details of the events, but they released what they said was the fullest account of the shooting that they could provide. Just after noon on Saturday, an officer in a patrol car approached Mr. Brown and another man, the police said. As the officer began to leave his vehicle, one of the men pushed the officer back into the car and “physically assaulted” him, according to the police account.
There was a struggle “over the officer’s weapon,” and at least one shot was fired inside the car, Chief Belmar said. The two left the car, and the officer shot Mr. Brown about 35 feet from the vehicle, the police reported. Several shots were fired from the officer’s weapon.
The medical examiner for St. Louis County is trying to determine how many times Mr. Brown was shot, the police said.
Chief Belmar said that the Ferguson police chief, Thomas Jackson, had called to ask that his department look into the shooting because Chief Jackson wanted an independent investigation. The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney will determine whether the shooting was justified or charges should be filed, Chief Belmar said.
The police have said that the officer who shot Mr. Brown had been on the force for about six years and was to be interviewed extensively by detectives on Sunday. They did not identify the officer by name or rank.
“Any other details, including the reason as to why the encounter occurred and the initial struggle ensued, are still a part of the continuing investigation,” the police said in a statement.
Mr. Brown’s family said that he had been walking to his grandmother’s house when the shooting occurred and that his body had remained in the street for some time, guarded by the police, while neighbors gathered in the area.
Mr. Brown had just graduated from high school and was planning to attend Vatterott College, his mother, Lesley McSpadden, told reporters. His family has retained Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who represented Trayvon Martin’s relatives.
“You took my son away from me,” Ms. McSpadden told the television news station KMOV. “Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many. Because you bring them down to this type of level, where they feel like they don’t got nothing to live for anyway. ‘They’re going to try to take me out anyway.' ”
Ashley Southall contributed reporting.
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11) In Gaza, Grief, Anger — and No Small Measure of Pride
By JODI RUDOREN
In the women-and-girls’ quarters, a camping stove sits atop a battered wooden desk. In the men’s area, the centerpiece is a small black radio on the floor that tells their future. The grown-ups spend hours fixated on the radio, waiting for the latest news of talks in Cairo about a more durable truce and a string of cease-fires that have brought temporary respite from rocket fire and airstrikes.
“We are tired, very tired, the kids are tired,” said one of the women, Ikram Saleima, who arrived here with her family and neighbors from Beit Hanoun a month ago to escape the fighting. “But we are already in,” she said, and having suffered so much, “We should come out with a result.”After more than a month of war, the people of Gaza are sad, of course, at 1,900 lives lost. They are angry, too: at Israel for destroying some 10,000 homes, at the Arab leaders who seem unmoved, the Western ones who seem unable to move, and even, quietly, at the Palestinian militants who built tunnels under their neighborhoods. But mostly they are spent — from weeks of being stuck inside with scant hours of electricity and waiting in line for potable water, but also from years of feeling stuck in what they universally describe as a prison.
Steadfastness is perhaps the most valued trait in Gaza, and in long conversations with three dozen residents over three days, most insisted they could withstand much more to achieve their goals of opening borders and removing Israeli restrictions on imports and exports. They struggled to make a coherent case for how continued fighting against a far more powerful enemy might translate, politically, into these achievements. Yet they were proud of the performance of militants led by the Islamist Hamas faction, who managed to kill 64 soldiers, repeatedly penetrate Israel underground, and even briefly shutter the airport in Tel Aviv.
Lima Diab, 27, said that under Hamas’s rule of Gaza over the past seven years “everything went bad,” and she sees the movement as “failed in politics.” But though she would prefer that rockets be fired from open areas to reduce risk to civilians, Ms. Diab described as “genius” the tunnels through which Gaza gunmen attacked Israeli soldiers and shook an entire society with new fear.
“I think they are brilliant, how they could manage to do this whole thing,” Ms. Diab, who is finishing a course in office administration, said as she lunched with two sisters at Matoug, a Gaza grilled-meat emporium, during the halt in hostilities Thursday. “They are well prepared, really, they think and work. Not just blah blah blah — they say and do.”
Asmaa al-Ghoul, a local journalist, used to write about Hamas “terrorism” and made international headlines in 2009 when she reported being harassed for walking on a beach without a head scarf in a mixed-gender group. After nine of her relatives, including a 24-day-old baby, were killed in the southern town of Rafah in an Israeli attack, Ms. Ghoul, 32, penned an Al Monitor column saying Israel had “created thousands — no, millions — of Hamas loyalists.” It ran under a headline borrowed from her last line: “Never ask me about peace again.”
A Hamas rally on Thursday during the temporary cease-fire drew only a few thousand people, and few have raised the movement’s green flags during the fighting. Open dissent, though, is seen as dangerous.
When Suhair al-Najjar, 32, said, essentially, “I curse both sides,” and described Hamas as “shoes,” a sharp insult, an older man strode over to scold her. “Don’t say ‘Hamas,’ say ‘the Arab leaders,’ ” he yelled.
Ms. Najjar, who lost 30 relatives along with her home in Khuza’a, a village of 10,000 on Gaza’s eastern border that was demolished, was not deterred. “I’m angry at the two sides,” she repeated. “I’m angry at everybody, all the countries.” The bearded man in a gray jalabiya came closer and demanded, “You need someone to teach you how to talk?”
The conversation unfolded on the steps of a crushed concrete house among rows of similarly destroyed homes lining a street whose asphalt was torn up by the Israeli invasion. The dome of a nearby mosque sat tilted on the ground, along with the town’s water tank. The metal archway that once spanned the street to welcome visitors was a twisted heap.
Ahmad al-Najjar, 44, used to drive a horse-drawn cart, but his horse was killed in an Israeli attack. So his four small children, including a yet-unnamed baby born during this war, slept in the horse’s shed during the brief truce. Mr. Najjar said he and his neighbors “do not allow the resistance to strike from here” and the idea that Hamas might have built tunnels under their homes “bothers me.” The fighting, he said, had only pushed Gaza backward from its goals.
“So far nothing has been achieved, we don’t know what they are doing there,” Mr. Najjar said of the Cairo talks, where the Palestinian delegation includes members of Hamas as well as the Fatah party of the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. “These are parties — Fatah, Hamas, Israel are parties. We are people. We are victims. If these parties have differences, why do we pay the price of their differences?”
Farther south in Rafah’s Al Showqa neighborhood, two bulldozers and a digger were searching for bodies in a tunnel used for an Aug. 1 attack that killed three Israeli soldiers, one of whom was thought captured by Hamas, prompting a huge assault that left more than 100 dead over two days. Near the tunnel’s mouth, Fadi Abu Al-Roos, who works as a clerk for the United Nations, returned to his peach-and-white tiled home to find “Storeroom position” written in Hebrew on what remained of the outside wall. Inside, a framed cross-stitch “God Bless Our Home,” in English, was hanging intact amid the ruins.
“I don’t see it as a victory or a defeat,” he said. “It’s only destruction.”
Perhaps a mile away, what had been two acres of orange, guava, olive and clementine groves were, in the wake of the Israeli attacks, mounds of sand marked by bulldozer tracks. On one hill, there were pieces of two uniforms — one Israeli, the other Hamas — an empty packet of Next cigarettes with Hebrew letters, and five fresh eggs where, Wissam Abu Asun surmised, “A chicken must have died.”
Mr. Abu Asun, 34, is a barber and father of six who loves to play soccer. The Israelis left behind food cans and other detritus at his home, too. He thinks they slept in his bedroom, whose outer wall was blown out; he found earphones, and figured they wanted to block the sound of their own bombs.
“It’s not worth it,” he said as he surveyed the damage. But a relative, Mahmoud Barbah, 28, countered: “The destruction is not important, the importance is that we kill Jews and capture them. Those who kill our children must be killed.”
Mr. Abu Asun complained that the tunnels were made from “the cement that we are demanding for our home.” Mr. Barbah said some tunnels were actually mud or wood, and that most went not into Israel but Egypt, to bring clothes and food “in order to provide for our children.”
But “there is no water or electricity,” the barber said later.
In Gaza, whose 1.7 million residents are intertwined through large families, everyone seems to have lost someone. For Mona al-Fara, a dermatologist in Gaza City, it was nine members of three generations descended from a cousin, whose house in Khan Younis was hit by a missile at 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 1. There was no funeral because of “heavy bombing,” she said. “All of us are postponing our grief.”
Dr. Fara, 60, has spent most of the war at the Red Crescent society, where she is vice president, diagnosing injuries, distributing hygiene kits to shelters, and setting up a hotline to answer medical questions.
On Thursday evening, she sat with several of the 30 relatives of the superintendent of her apartment building who had been camping in an empty flat there since they fled the shelling of the Shejaiya neighborhood on July 20.
Dr. Fara is haunted by a 3-year-old girl who arrived at a clinic with head injuries under the label “Anonymous No. 6.” Not only did the girl have no relatives to identify her, Dr. Fara thought, but there were five others before her in the same situation.
“I’m worried about this generation, what memories are in their mind, what will happen after a few years,” she said quietly. “No matter what you ask the children to draw, the drawings will come back with blood.”
Fares Akram contributed reporting.
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12) F.B.I. Opens Inquiry Into Police Killing of St. Louis Teenager
By JULIE BOSMAN and ALAN BLINDER
Special Agent Cheryl Mimura, of the F.B.I.'s office in St. Louis, said that the agency had begun an investigation into possible civil rights violations connected to the death of Michael Brown, 18, who had been planning to begin college classes on Monday.
The circumstances of Mr. Brown’s death remained in sharp dispute two days after he was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 northwest of St. Louis. The police have said an officer, who has not been identified, was “physically assaulted” before opening fire early Saturday afternoon. The authorities also said there had been a struggle “over the officer’s weapon.”But critics have questioned the police’s account and demanded that the officer face prosecution.
FERGUSON, Mo., — The Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday that it had opened an inquiry into the weekend shooting death of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer that sparked a night of looting and vandalism in this suburb of St. Louis.
Special Agent Cheryl Mimura, of the F.B.I.'s office in St. Louis, said that the agency had begun an investigation into possible civil rights violations connected to the death of Michael Brown, 18, who had been planning to begin college classes on Monday.
The circumstances of Mr. Brown’s death remained in sharp dispute two days after he was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 northwest of St. Louis. The police have said an officer, who has not been identified, was “physically assaulted” before opening fire early Saturday afternoon. The authorities also said there had been a struggle “over the officer’s weapon.”But critics have questioned the police’s account and demanded that the officer face prosecution.
On Monday, Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police said that an autopsy had shown that Mr. Brown had been “struck several times by gunfire.”
Chief Belmar’s agency has been leading the investigation, and Special Agent Mimura said the county police would continue their work as the F.B.I. conducted its review.
At a news conference on Monday, Chief Belmar pleaded for the public’s patience.
“I understand that the public has a right to be skeptical, and I appreciate that and I would expect that the public be skeptical oftentimes of government or some forms of it,” he said. “But I would also ask the public to be reasonable because it takes a long time to make sure we do this investigation the right way.”
In Washington, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Dena Iverson, said on Monday that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had instructed lawyers in the Civil Rights Division to monitor developments in the shooting.
Officials on Monday were also absorbing the consequences of what they said was an unprecedented night of chaos for Ferguson.
“I’ve been doing this 28 years,” the chief said. “Not only have I never seen anything like this, I’ve never even heard about it in the history of St. Louis.”
A vigil on Sunday for Mr. Brown was followed by angry demonstrations overnight after protesters took to the streets, looting stores, vandalizing cars and confronting the police. Crowd of protesters flooded the streets near the scene of the shooting, some of them chanting “No justice, no peace.”
Still images and videos captured on cellphones and posted on social media sites, as well as local news media reports, appeared to show people spray-painting and looting a number of stores. In one television report, people could be seen running away from a store with their arms full of shoes. A convenience store could be seen burning in a video posted by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The protesters were met by hundreds of police officers in riot gear, carrying rifles and shields, as well as by K-9 units. Chief Belmar said at the news conference that police stepped in after the looting and vandalism began. A small group, he said, broke off from the protest and began the violence
Officer Brian Schellman, a spokesman for the county police, said 32 people were arrested. He also said two police officers were injured, including one who was struck by a brick.
In a series of posts on Twitter, Chief D. Samuel Dotson III of the Metropolitan Police Department in St. Louis said the city’s officers were among the law enforcement officials working overnight “to calm the situation in Ferguson.”
St. Louis, Chief Dotson said, sent its tactical team to Ferguson and was also providing officers for southern St. Louis County, which was understaffed as officials worked to manage the violence elsewhere.
Law enforcement officials said they were mapping out plans Monday to prepare for the threat of renewed trouble, even as Mayor James Knowles III of Ferguson warned that reconciliation would be difficult if violence continued in his city.
“We have an issue here, we have a young man who is dead and we need to get to the bottom of it, and we need to heal as a community,” Mr. Knowles told CNN. “We’re not going to do that if people are rioting.”
Chief Belmar said posts on social media may have fueled Sunday’s outbreak of violence.
“Fifteen years ago, 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago, we wouldn’t have had the issue with social media’s impact on this crime spree,” he said.
Mr. Brown’s family said that he had been walking to his grandmother’s house when the shooting occurred and that his body had remained in the street for some time, guarded by the police, while neighbors gathered in the area.
Mr. Brown had just graduated from high school and was planning to attend Vatterott College, his mother, Lesley McSpadden, told reporters. His family has retained Benjamin Crump, the lawyer who represented Trayvon Martin’s relatives.
“You took my son away from me,” Ms. McSpadden told the television news station KMOV. “Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many. Because you bring them down to this type of level, where they feel like they don’t got nothing to live for anyway. ‘They’re going to try to take me out anyway.' ”
Julie Bosman reported from Ferguson, Mo., and Alan Blinder from Atlanta. Ashley Southall and Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting from New York.
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Free the Whistle-Blowers
An Appeal from Daniel Ellsberg
July 21, 2014 by Daniel Ellsberg
NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, a personal hero of mine, has recently filed to renew his asylum in Russia. Exiled thousands of miles from friends and family, he awaits his fate. He learned from the example of another top hero of mine, Chelsea Manning. Manning helped inspire his revelations that if he released his vital information while in this country he would have been held incommunicado in isolation as Chelsea was for over ten months—in Snowden’s case probably for the rest of his life. And facing comparable charges to Chelsea’s, he would have no more chance than Chelsea to have a truly fair trial—being prevented by the prosecution and judge (as I was, forty years ago) from even raising arguments of public interest or lack of harm in connection with his disclosures. Contrary to the hollow advice of Hillary Clinton or John Kerry, if he were to return to America he would not be able to “make his case” neither “in court,” nor “to the public” from a prison cell.I am immensely thankful to both these young whistle-blowers who have so bravely stood up against the powerful forces of the US government in order to reveal corruption, illegal spying and war crimes. They were both motivated by their commitments to democracy and justice. They both chose to reveal information directly to the public, at great cost to themselves, so that citizens and taxpayers could be fully informed of the facts. They also revealed the amazing potential of new technologies to increase public access to information and strengthen democracy. It saddens me that our current political leaders, rather than embracing this potential, have chosen to tighten their strangleholds on power and information, turning away from both progress and justice.
Shockingly, the Obama administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers under the Espionage Act than every previous president combined. These heroes do not deserve to be thrown in prison or called a traitor for doing the right thing. Obama’s unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of the Espionage Act—as if it were a British-type Official Secrets Act, never intended by Congress and a violation of our First Amendment—and Manning’s 35-year prison sentence will have a chilling effect on future citizens’ willingness to uncover hidden injustices. The government has already brought comparable charges against Snowden.
The only remedy to this chilling precedent, designed to effect government whistle-blowers as a whole, is to overturn the Manning verdict. Given that Manning’s court martial produced the longest trial record in US military history, it will take a top legal team countless hours to prepare their defense. But as an Advisory Board member for the Chelsea Manning Support Network, I was inspired by the way citizens around the world stepped forward to help fund a strong defense during Manning’s trial. I remain hopeful that enough people will recognize the immense importance of these appeals and will contribute to help us finish the struggle we started. That struggle, of course, is for a just political system and freedom for our whistle-blowers.
Chelsea Manning has continued to demonstrate uncommon bravery and character, even from behind bars. With the New York Times Op-Ed she published last month, she has cemented her position as a compelling voice for government reform. Working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Manning was privy to a special view of the inner-workings of our military’s propaganda systems. Despite her personal struggles, she felt compelled to share her knowledge of what was happening in Iraq with the Americans people. If the military hadn’t hidden the number of civilian casualties and incidences of torture detailed in the Iraq Logs she released, we would have known far sooner to expect the civil war that has gripped Iraq fully today. Her exposure of US knowledge of the corruption in Tunisia, by the dictator our government supported, was a critical catalyst of the non-violent uprising which toppled that dictator, in turn directly inspiring the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt and then the Occupy movement in the US
I personally am inspired by Chelsea Manning as I am by Edward Snowden, which is why I have spent countless hours advocating for both of them. I’m asking you to join me today in supporting what I believe to be one of the most important legal proceedings in our country’s history. We are fortunate to have a truly impressive legal team that has agreed to partner with us. Already, our new appeals attorney Nancy Hollander and her team have begun to research legal strategies, and are collaborating with Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the international news media to highlight the significance of this case.
Chelsea is only 26 now, younger than I was when I learned to recognize the injustices of the Vietnam War. She wishes to complete her education, as I did, and go into public service. Imagine what great things she could both learn and teach the world if she were free. Now imagine if our corrupt government officials are allowed to get their way, holding her behind bars until life has almost passed her by, and extraditing Snowden to suffer the same outcome. What a sad result that would be for our country and our humanity.
I have been waiting forty years for a legal process to at long last prove the unconstitutionality of the Espionage Act as applied to whistle-blowers (the Supreme Court has never yet addressed this issue). This appeals process can accomplish that, and it can reduce Chelsea’s sentence by decades. But unfortunately, without your help today it will not happen. We must raise $100,000 by September 1st, to ensure that Chelsea’s team have the resources to fully fight this stage of the appeals process.
Unless Manning’s conviction is overturned in appeals, Snowden and many other whistle-blowers, today and in the future, will face a similar fate. And with them will perish one of the most critical lifelines for our democracy. But you can join me in fighting back. I’m asking you to do it for Chelsea, to do it for Snowden, and to do it because it’s the right thing to do to preserve our democracy. We can only win this great struggle with your help. Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today.
It’s time we band together on the right side of history once again.
Daniel Ellsberg
Please contribute to help us fund Chelsea’s legal appeals today!
Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
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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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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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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
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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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WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.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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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]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Prison vs School: The Tour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogmtAQlp9HI
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Checkpoint - Jasiri X
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq6Y6LSjulU
Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
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Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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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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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
and 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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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