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
The
Torah says, "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."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
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/israelpalestine/the-israeli-lying-machine.html
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
[Note:
The population in Gaza is.was, 1, 816,000. Israeli has called up a
total of 86,000 troops. That is, roughly, one soldier for every 21 people in Gaza.
Talk about mass murderers! ...bw]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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
Initial Signers (list in formation; organizations,
schools and other affiliations shown for identification only:
*Co-founder, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return) ; Avigail Abarbanel,
Psychotherapist; editor, Beyond Tribal Loyalties: Personal Stories of Jewish
Peace Activists (2012, Cambridge Scholars), Inverness, Scotland; Noa Abend,
Boycott From Within; Stephen Aberle, Independent Jewish Voices; Vancouver,
BC; Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D. Social Justice Program, University of Minnesota; Anya
Achtenberg, novelist and poet; teacher; activist; International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Mike Alewitz, Associate Professor, Central CT State
Unversity; Artistic Director, Labor Art & Mural Project; Zalman Amit, Distinguished
Professor Emeritus; Author, Israeli Rejectionism; Anthony
Arnove, International Socialist Organization; Gabriel Ash, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network, Switzerland; Ted Auerbach, Brooklyn for Peace; Anna
Baltzer, author and organizer; Ronnie Barkan, Co-founder, Boycott
from Within, Tel-Aviv; Judith Bello, Administrative Committee, United
National Antiwar Coalition; Lawrence Boxall, Independent Jewish Voices, Canada;
Vancouver Ecosocialist Group; Linda Benedikt, writer Munich, Germany; Nora
Barrows-Friedman, journalist; Oakland; Prof. Jonathan Beller, Humanities and
Media Studies Graduate Program in Media Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; Medea
Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK; Rica Bird, Joint Founder, Merseyside Jews for
Peace and Justice; Audrey Bomse, Co-chair, National Lawyers Guild Palestine
Subcommittee; Prof. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC
Berkeley; Lenni Brenner, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators;
Elizabeth Block, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Max Blumenthal, Author, Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel; and Senior Writer for Alternet.org; Mary
P. Buchwald, Jewish Voice for Peace-New York; Monique Buckner, BDS South
Africa; Maia Brown, Health and Human Rights Project-Seattle & Stop Veolia
Seattle; Estee Chandler, Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles; Rick
Chertoff, L..A. Jews for Peace; Prof. Marjorie Cohn, Thomas Jefferson
School of Law; past president, National Lawyers Guild; Ally Cohen, Ramallah,
Palestine; International Solidarity Movement media coordinator; Ruben Rosenberg
Colorni, Youth for Palestine, Netherlands; Mike Cushman, Convenor, Jews for
Boycotting Israeli Goods (UK); Margaretta D'arcy, Irish actress, writer,
playwright, and peace-activist; Natalie Zemon Davis, Historian; Warren Davis,
labor and political activist, Philadelphia, PA; Eron Davidson, film maker; Judith
Deutsch, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Science for Peace; Roger Dittmann, Professor
of Physics, Emeritus California State University, Fullerton; President,
Scholars and Scientists without Borders Executive Council, World Federation of
Scientific Workers; Gordon Doctorow, Ed.D., Canada; Mark Elf, Jews Sans
Frontieres, London, UK; Hedy Epstein, Nazi Holocaust survivor and human rights
activist; St. Louis, MO; Marla Erlien, New York NY; Shelley Ettinger,
writer/activist, New York, NY; Inge Etzbach, Human Rights Activist, Café
Palestina NY; Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton
University; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestine, 2008-2014; Malkah
B. Feldman, Jewish Voice for Peace and recent delegate to Palestine with
American Jews For A Just Peace; Deborah Fink, Co-Founder, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods UK; Joel Finkel, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago; Sylvia Finzi,
JfjfP; Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost, EJJP. (Germany); Maxine
Fookson, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner; Jewish Voice for
Peace, Portland OR-; Richard Forer, Author, Breakthrough:
Transforming Fear Into Compassion - A New Perspective on the Israel-Palestine;
Sid Frankel, Associate Professor, University of Manitoba; Prof. Cynthia
Franklin, Co-Editor, Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, University of
Hawai’i; Racheli Gai, Jewish Voice for Peace; Herb Gamberg, Independent
Jewish Voices, Canada ; Ruth Gamberg, Independent Jewish Voices,
Canada ; Lee Gargagliano, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl
Gaster, social justice activist and human right lawyer, Toronto ON; Alisa
Gayle-Deutsch, American/Canadian Musician and Anti-Israeli Apartheid Activist; Jack
Gegenberg, Professor of Mathematics, University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton NB; Prof. Terri Ginsberg, film and media scholar, New York; David
Glick, psychotherapist; Jewish Voice for Peace; Sherna Berger Gluck, Emerita
Professor, CSULB; Israel Divestment Campaign; Neta Golan, Ramallah, Palestine;
Jews Against Genocide; Co-founder, International Solidarity Movement.; Tsilli
Goldenberg, teacher, Jerusalem, Israel; Steve Goldfield, Ph.D.; Sue Goldstein,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Canada; Marty Goodman, former
Executive Board member, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Socialist Action; Rabbi
Lynn Gottlieb, Freeman Fellow, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Hector Grad,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Spain; Prof. Jesse Greener,
University of Laval; Cathy Gulkin, Filmmaker, Toronto ON; Ira Grupper,
Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY; Jeff Halper, The Israeli Committee
Against House demolitions (ICAHD); Larry Haiven, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada, Halifax; Evelyn Hecht-Galinski, publisher, Germany; Stanley Heller, The
Struggle Video News TSVN; Shir Hever, Jewish Voice for Just Peace, Germany; Deborah
Hrbek, media and civil rights lawyer, NLG-NYC; Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass, Jews
for Palestinian Right of Return; Adam Horowitz, Co-Editor, Mondoweiss; Gilad
Isaacs, Economist, Wits University.; Selma James, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Jake Javanshir, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto; Riva
Joffe, Jews Against Zionism; Val Jonas, attorney, Miami Beach; Sima Kahn,
MD; President of the board, Kadima Reconstructionist Community; Yael Kahn,
Israeli anti-apartheid activist; Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network (UK); Dan Kaplan, AFT Local 1493; Susan Kaplan, J.D.
National Lawyers Guild ; Danny Katch, activist and author; Bruce Katz,
President, Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU), Montreal, Canada; Lynn Kessler,
Ph.D., MPH, psychologist/social justice activist; Janet Klecker, Sonomans for
Justice & Peace for Palestine, Sonoma CA; Prof. David Klein, California
State University, Northridge; USACBI; Emma Klein, Jewish Voice for Peace,
Seattle WA; Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Harry
Kopyto, Legal activist Toronto ON; Richard Koritz, veteran postal trade
unionist and former member of North Carolina Human Relations Commission; Yael
Korin, PhD., Scientist at UCLA; Campaign to End IsraelI Apartheid, Southern
California; Dennis Kortheuer, CSULB, Israel Divestment Campaign; Steve
Kowit, Professor Emeritus, Jewish Voice for Peace; Toby Kramer, International
Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Jason Kunin, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Dr.
David Landy, Trinity College, Dublin; Jean Léger, Coalition pour la
Justice et la Paix en Palestine, membre de la Coalition BDS Québec et de
Palestiniens et Juifs Unis; Lynda Lemberg, Educators for Peace and Justice,
Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; David Letwin,* activist and teacher,
Al-Awda NY; Michael Letwin,* former President, Association of Legal Aid
Attorneys/UAW Local 2325; USACBI; Al-Awda NY; Les Levidow, Jews for Boycotting
Israeli Goods (J-BIG), UK; Corey Levine, Human Rights Activist,
Writer; National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish
Voices Canada; Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of
Massachusetts Amherst; Lesley Levy, Independent Jewish Voices, Montreal; Mich
Levy, teacher, Oakland CA; Abby Lippman, Professor Emerita; activist; Montreal;
Brooke Lober, PhD candidate, University of Arizona, Gender and Women's Studies
Department; Antony Loewenstein, journalist, author and Guardian columnist; Jennifer
Loewenstein, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Wisconsin,
Madison; Alex Lubin, Professor of American Studies, University of New Meixco; Andrew
Lugg, Professor Emeritus, University of Ottawa, Canada; David Makofsky, Jewish
Voice for Peace, Research Anthropologist; Harriet Malinowitz, Professor of
English, Long Island University, Brooklyn; Mike Marqusee, Author, If I
Am Not for Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew; Miriam Marton, JD; Dr.
Richard Matthews. independent scholar, London ON; Daniel L. Meyers, Former
President National Lawyers Guild-NYC; Linda Milazzo, Writer/Activist/Educator,
Los Angeles; Eva Steiner Moseley, Holocaust refugee, Massachusetts Peace Action
board member and Palestine/Israel Working Group; Dr. Dorothy Naor, retired
teacher, Herzliah, Israel; Marcy Newman, independent scholar; Author; The
Politics of Teaching Palestine to Americans; Alex Nissen, Women in Black; Dr.
Judith Norman, San Antonio, TX; Henry Norr, retired journalist, Berkeley CA; Michael
Novick, Anti-Racist Action-Los Angeles/People Against Racist Terror; Prof.
Bertell Ollman, NYU; Karin Pally, Santa Monica, CA; Prof. Ilan Pappé, Israeli
historian and socialist activist; Karen Platt, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany
CA; Dr. Susan Pashkoff, Jews Against Zionism, London UK; Miko Peled, writer,
activist; Author, The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine ;
Prof. Gabriel Piterberg, UCLA; Mitch Podolak, Founder, Winnipeg Folk Festival
and Vancouver Folk Music Festival; Karen Pomer,* granddaughter of Henri B. van
Leeuwen, Dutch anti-Zionist leader and Bergen-Belsen survivor; Lenny Potash,
Los Angeles CA; Fabienne Presentey, Independent Jewish
Voices, Montréal; Diana Ralph, Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Roland
Rance, Jews Against Zionism, London; Karen Ranucci, Independent Journalist,
Democracy Now!; Ana Ratner, Artist, Puppeteer, Activist.; Michael Ratner,
President Emeritus, Center for Constitutional Rights; Prof. Dr. Fanny-Michaela
Reisin, Jewish Voice Germany; Diana M.A. Relke, Professor Emerita,
University of Saskatchewan; Prof. Bruce Robbins, Columbia University; Stewart
M. Robinson, retired Prof of Mathematics; Professor Lisa Rofel, University of
California, Santa Cruz; Mimi Rosenberg, Producer & Host, Building Bridges
and Wednesday Edition, WBAI 99.5 FM; Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW
Local 2325; Lillian Rosengarten, Author, From The Shadows Of Nazi
Germany To The Jewish Boat To Gaza; Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, British
Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP); Yehoahua Rosin, Israel; Ilana
Rossoff, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Martha Roth, Independent
Jewish Voices; Vancouver BC; Marty Roth, Emeritus professor of English,
University of Minnesota; Ruben Roth, Assistant Professor, Labour Studies,
Laurentian University; Independent Jewish Voices Canada; Emma Rubin,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Middle East
Scholar; Editor, Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict;
Author, The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace; Josh Ruebner,
Author, Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian
Peace; Mark Rudd, retired teacher, Albuquerque NM; Ben Saifer, Independent
Jewish Voices Canada; Evalyn Segal, Rossmoor Senior Community; Sylvia
Schwarz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; Yossi Schwartz,
Internationalist Socialist League; Haifa; Carole Seligman, co-editor, Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Yom Shamash, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver,
Canada; Tali Shapiro, Boycott from Within; Israel; Karen Shenfeld, Poet,
Toronto ON; Sid Shniad, National Steering Committee, Independent Jewish Voices
Canada; William Shookhoff, Independent Jewish Voices, Toronto ON; Melinda
Smith, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albuquerque NM; Kobi Snitz, Tel Aviv; Marsha
Steinberg, BDS-LA for Justice in Palestine, Los Angeles; Lotta Strandberg,
Visiting Scholar, NYU; Carol Stone, Independent Jewish Voices, Vancouver BC; Miriam
(Cherkes-Julkowski) Swenson, Ph.D.; Matthew Taylor, author; Laura Tillem, Peace
and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas; Peter Trainor, Independent
Jewish Voices, Toronto; Rebecca Tumposky, International Jewish
Anti-Zionist Network; Darlene Wallach, Justice for Palestinians, San Jose
CA; Dr. Abraham Weizfeld, JPLO; Bonnie Weinstein, Co-Editor of Socialist
Viewpoint magazine; Publisher, Bay Area United Against War Newsletter; Sam
Weinstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Labor; former President,
UWUA Local 132; Judith Weisman, Independent Jewish Voices; Not in Our Name
(NION); Toronto ON; Paul Werner, PhD, DSFS Editor, WOID, a journal of visual
language; Noga Wizansky, Ph.D., artist, instructor, and researcher;
Administrator, Institute of European Studies, UC Berkeley; Marcy Winograd,
public school teacher, former congressional peace candidate; Bekah Wolf, UC
Hastings College of Law Student; Co-founder, Palestine Solidarity Project; Sherry
Wolf, International Socialist Organization; Dave Zirin, Author, Game
Over: How Politics Have Turned the Sports World Upside Down.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Obama signs bill giving Israel $225 million for missile defense system
By Katie Zezima
August 4, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/04/obama-signs-bill-giving-israel-225-million-for-missile-defense-system/
2) Civilian or Not? New Fight in Tallying the Dead From the Gaza Conflict
By JODI RUDOREN
By JODI RUDOREN
By ISMAIL KHAN and DECLAN WALSH
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and AHMAD SHAKIB
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and MICHAEL WINERIP
10) Solidarity with Palestine
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to intensify campaign in solidarity with Palestine
Statement by COSATU
Congress of South
African Trade Unions, August 5, 2014
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=9277#sthash.rlBVAdnx.dpuf
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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Obama signs bill giving Israel $225 million for missile defense system
By Katie Zezima
August 4, 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/04/obama-signs-bill-giving-israel-225-million-for-missile-defense-system/
President Obama on Monday signed a bill that will give Israel $225 million to restock its Iron Dome missile defense system.
The House voted 395-8 to pass the bill Friday night.
The missile shield system was developed jointly by the United States and Israel and is said to have intercepted dozens of rockets fired from Gaza during the conflict that began July 17. The system uses advanced tracking technology to determine if a rocket is headed for a population center; if it is it destroys the rocket mid-flight.
Israel and Hamas agreed late Monday to an Egyptian-sponsored 72-hour cease fire.
At a news conference Friday, Obama underscored Israel's right to defend itself and noted American support for the Iron Dome.
"And so, not only have we been supportive of Israel in its right to defend itself, but in very concrete terms -- for example, in support for the Iron Dome program that has intercepted rockets that are firing down on Israeli cities -- we've been trying to cooperate as much as we can to make sure that Israel is able to protect its citizens," Obama said.
An Israeli airstrike Sunday killed 10 people outside a U.N. school in Gaza, prompting some of the harshest American criticism of Israel since the conflict began.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that “the United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling” and urged Israel to do more to “avoid civilian casualties” and to protect U.N. facilities.
Before the cease-fire announcement Monday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the United States continues to push for a cease-fire and that it has expressed its concerns about the Israeli military living up "to their own standards" about protecting civilians.
"We do continue to believe that the violence in Gaza should end as soon as possible," Earnest said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Civilian or Not? New Fight in Tallying the Dead From the Gaza Conflict
By JODI RUDOREN
By Tuesday, this is what they had come up with: 1,865 “martyrs” from “Israeli aggression” since July 6: 429 under age 18, 79 over 60, 243 women. The Palestinian Ministry of Health does not categorize victims as civilian or combatant, but others do: The United Nations — which had a lower death toll, 1,814 — said that at least 72 percent were civilians, while two Gaza-based groups put the percentage at 82 (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights) and 84 (the Palestinian Center for Human Rights).
Israel
has a very different assessment. The military says it took the lives of
900 “terrorists,” but it did not provide specifics beyond the 368 cases
listed in 28 entries on its blog. Politicians have been saying that 47
percent of the dead were fighters, citing a study by an Israeli counterterrorism group
that is impressive in its documentation, using photographs and Internet
tributes, but analyzes only the first 152 casualties, when the assault
was exclusively from the air.
Even
as the war appears to draw to a close, the battle over casualty
statistics rages on. No other number is as contentious as the ratio of
civilians to combatants killed, widely viewed, including in Israel, as a
measure of whether the commanders in the field acted proportionately to
the threat posed by militants — or, in the eyes of Israel’s critics,
committed war crimes.
“There are big problems in the numbers because there are such huge numbers,” said Samir Zaqout, who runs a team of 10 Al Mezan field workers who interview relatives, neighbors and doctors to compile dossiers on each attack. “We do our best in this horrible situation to be very clear.”
Palestinians and their supporters contend Israel massacred innocents with indiscriminate assaults with heavy weapons, citing numerous strikes that killed multiple family members in their homes and several that hit schools sheltering those who had sought refuge.
Israel, in turn, says that Hamas, the militant group that dominates Gaza, purposely sacrifices its own citizens by fighting in their midst, in order to raise the world’s ire against Israel. It says that the ratio of combatants killed in a densely populated urban environment supports its assertion that it conducted the attacks as humanely as possible.
To combat the heart-wrenching photographs of dead children, Israel has published extensive video images of warplanes aborting missions to avoid collateral damage, and provided summaries of warnings it gave residents before attacking buildings.
Accurate accounting for this bloody battle is problematic, especially since the fighting just stopped. Mr. Zaqout of Al Mezan expects that scores more bodies will be pulled from the rubble, many of them militants, in places like Shejaiya, Rafah and Beit Hanoun that saw the hottest combat.
An analysis of the statistics provided by both sides suggests that a majority were probably noncombatants. Through last Thursday, according to a New York Times analysis of a list provided by the Health Ministry, more than a third were women, children under 15 or men over 60.
But the difference between roughly half the dead being combatants, in the Israeli version, or barely 10 percent, to use the most stark numbers on the other side, is wide enough to change the characterization of the conflict.
It seems unlikely that there will ever be a definitive breakdown both sides accept: Israel contends that some of the casualties were caused by errant Hamas rockets or mortars. Human rights groups acknowledge that people killed by Hamas as collaborators and people who died naturally, or perhaps through domestic violence, are most likely counted as well.
Then there is the question of who counts as a “combatant.”
There are uniformed men actively firing weapons. But Hamas also has political figures, members of its security service and employees of its ministries. In some eyes, anyone affiliated with the organization, which professes a goal of destroying Israel, is a combatant.
“Israel has a very liberal definition of who qualifies,” said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s labeling of certain individuals as ‘terrorists’ does not make them military targets as a matter of law.”
But the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the Israeli group that analyzed the first Palestinian deaths, accused the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry of “concealment and deception” in order “to create an ostensibly factual infrastructure for a political, propaganda and legal campaign against Israel.”
The Times analysis, looking at 1,431 names, shows that the population most likely to be militants, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the death toll: They are 9 percent of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, but 34 percent of those killed whose ages were provided. At the same time, women and children under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71 percent of the population and 33 percent of the known-age casualties.
The portion that were female rose steadily over that period, to 27 percent July 26-31. There were six infants under age 1 on the list, and 82 children ages 1 to 5. The oldest victim, Muhammad Mazin Faraj Daher, was 99.
Some have not yet been identified, and may never be. “Some of the bodies are just in pieces,” said Julie Webb, 61, a New Zealander who has lived in Gaza for three years and assists the Health Ministry. Others, like Syrian refugees, have not been verified because they are not in the Palestinian population registry.
Though her team in the hospital library is not involved in counting combatants, Ms. Webb doubts that many have been missed. “The resistance factions claim their dead, and they have big funerals,” she said. “They would never hide it, because it’s a thing of pride.”
News reports generally rely on the United Nations’ estimate of civilians killed. Matthias Behnke, a United Nations official, said those numbers came from cross-referencing research by several human rights groups, though he declined to say how many, which ones or what methods they used.
“Getting information about people who are dead is not that complicated because everybody knows everybody” in Gaza, Mr. Behnke said. “Organizations go out and collect information independent of each other. That is quite a good basis for doing the analysis.
“We are by no means saying these figures are absolute and final,” he added. “They will be subject to verification.”
At Al Mezan’s office here, Mr. Zaqout and his aides were using highlighters to update handwritten logs on Tuesday evening and issuing small corrections to earlier news releases. He said he did not rely on the Health Ministry data, though it had improved since Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9, when telephone, cellular and wireless Internet networks were cut off.
Instead, his 10 field workers collect names directly from Gaza’s 13 hospitals (four have been closed because of bombing) and five morgues, and go to the site of virtually every strike to conduct interviews and fill out detailed questionnaires in support of war-crimes accusations. Surviving children might deny that their father was a fighter, but a medical worker might say he arrived at the emergency room with a weapon in hand.
“Each incident that we have which the Israelis targeted for airstrike, always we have this kind of thinking that maybe there is a fighter,” Mr. Zaqout said. “When we’re talking about the fighters who are fighting on the border or the tunnels, we couldn’t know, because their bodies are not coming to the hospital. I think these numbers will increase in the next days.”
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, Alicia Parlapiano from Washington, and Gabby Sobelman from Israel.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*“There are big problems in the numbers because there are such huge numbers,” said Samir Zaqout, who runs a team of 10 Al Mezan field workers who interview relatives, neighbors and doctors to compile dossiers on each attack. “We do our best in this horrible situation to be very clear.”
Palestinians and their supporters contend Israel massacred innocents with indiscriminate assaults with heavy weapons, citing numerous strikes that killed multiple family members in their homes and several that hit schools sheltering those who had sought refuge.
Israel, in turn, says that Hamas, the militant group that dominates Gaza, purposely sacrifices its own citizens by fighting in their midst, in order to raise the world’s ire against Israel. It says that the ratio of combatants killed in a densely populated urban environment supports its assertion that it conducted the attacks as humanely as possible.
To combat the heart-wrenching photographs of dead children, Israel has published extensive video images of warplanes aborting missions to avoid collateral damage, and provided summaries of warnings it gave residents before attacking buildings.
Accurate accounting for this bloody battle is problematic, especially since the fighting just stopped. Mr. Zaqout of Al Mezan expects that scores more bodies will be pulled from the rubble, many of them militants, in places like Shejaiya, Rafah and Beit Hanoun that saw the hottest combat.
An analysis of the statistics provided by both sides suggests that a majority were probably noncombatants. Through last Thursday, according to a New York Times analysis of a list provided by the Health Ministry, more than a third were women, children under 15 or men over 60.
But the difference between roughly half the dead being combatants, in the Israeli version, or barely 10 percent, to use the most stark numbers on the other side, is wide enough to change the characterization of the conflict.
It seems unlikely that there will ever be a definitive breakdown both sides accept: Israel contends that some of the casualties were caused by errant Hamas rockets or mortars. Human rights groups acknowledge that people killed by Hamas as collaborators and people who died naturally, or perhaps through domestic violence, are most likely counted as well.
Then there is the question of who counts as a “combatant.”
There are uniformed men actively firing weapons. But Hamas also has political figures, members of its security service and employees of its ministries. In some eyes, anyone affiliated with the organization, which professes a goal of destroying Israel, is a combatant.
“Israel has a very liberal definition of who qualifies,” said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s labeling of certain individuals as ‘terrorists’ does not make them military targets as a matter of law.”
But the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the Israeli group that analyzed the first Palestinian deaths, accused the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry of “concealment and deception” in order “to create an ostensibly factual infrastructure for a political, propaganda and legal campaign against Israel.”
The Times analysis, looking at 1,431 names, shows that the population most likely to be militants, men ages 20 to 29, is also the most overrepresented in the death toll: They are 9 percent of Gaza’s 1.7 million residents, but 34 percent of those killed whose ages were provided. At the same time, women and children under 15, the least likely to be legitimate targets, were the most underrepresented, making up 71 percent of the population and 33 percent of the known-age casualties.
The portion that were female rose steadily over that period, to 27 percent July 26-31. There were six infants under age 1 on the list, and 82 children ages 1 to 5. The oldest victim, Muhammad Mazin Faraj Daher, was 99.
Some have not yet been identified, and may never be. “Some of the bodies are just in pieces,” said Julie Webb, 61, a New Zealander who has lived in Gaza for three years and assists the Health Ministry. Others, like Syrian refugees, have not been verified because they are not in the Palestinian population registry.
Though her team in the hospital library is not involved in counting combatants, Ms. Webb doubts that many have been missed. “The resistance factions claim their dead, and they have big funerals,” she said. “They would never hide it, because it’s a thing of pride.”
News reports generally rely on the United Nations’ estimate of civilians killed. Matthias Behnke, a United Nations official, said those numbers came from cross-referencing research by several human rights groups, though he declined to say how many, which ones or what methods they used.
“Getting information about people who are dead is not that complicated because everybody knows everybody” in Gaza, Mr. Behnke said. “Organizations go out and collect information independent of each other. That is quite a good basis for doing the analysis.
“We are by no means saying these figures are absolute and final,” he added. “They will be subject to verification.”
At Al Mezan’s office here, Mr. Zaqout and his aides were using highlighters to update handwritten logs on Tuesday evening and issuing small corrections to earlier news releases. He said he did not rely on the Health Ministry data, though it had improved since Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-9, when telephone, cellular and wireless Internet networks were cut off.
Instead, his 10 field workers collect names directly from Gaza’s 13 hospitals (four have been closed because of bombing) and five morgues, and go to the site of virtually every strike to conduct interviews and fill out detailed questionnaires in support of war-crimes accusations. Surviving children might deny that their father was a fighter, but a medical worker might say he arrived at the emergency room with a weapon in hand.
“Each incident that we have which the Israelis targeted for airstrike, always we have this kind of thinking that maybe there is a fighter,” Mr. Zaqout said. “When we’re talking about the fighters who are fighting on the border or the tunnels, we couldn’t know, because their bodies are not coming to the hospital. I think these numbers will increase in the next days.”
Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, Alicia Parlapiano from Washington, and Gabby Sobelman from Israel.
3) A ‘Culture of Violence’ at Rikers Island
A much-anticipated investigation by the Justice Department has uncovered what amounted to a chamber of horrors at Rikers Island, where teenagers were beaten and battered for minor infractions by correction officers who acted without fear of discovery or punishment by senior officials. The report, released on Monday by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, documents “a deep-seated culture of violence” that demands immediate remedial action by New York City, which is now at risk of facing a federal lawsuit if it does not take the steps outlined in the report — which wisely calls for removing adolescents from the jail complex altogether. The investigation, which focused mainly on conduct from 2011 through 2013, said that the “number of injuries sustained by adolescents is staggering ” and that the youths were in constant danger of physical harm even when they presented no risk to the system or safety of the staff. Nearly 44 percent of the adolescent male population in custody as of October 2012 had been subjected to the use of force by the correctional staff.
Further, the report said, force was routinely used not so much to keep order but for the express purpose of “inflicting injuries and pain.”
“Inmates are beaten as a form of punishment, sometimes in apparent retribution for some perceived disrespectful conduct,” it said, adding: “Correction officers improperly use injurious force in response to refusals to follow orders, verbal taunts, or insults, even when the inmate presents no threat to the safety or security of staff or other inmates.” Correction officers “frequently continue to strike inmates after they are clearly under control and effectively restrained, often attempting to justify their actions later by reporting that the inmate continued to resist.”
Officers who had made up their minds to inflict punishment carried out the beatings in areas they knew to be free of security cameras. The report also noted that “an astonishing number of incidents” took place in school areas, classrooms and hallways. Staff members who committed these heinous acts deserve to be prosecuted. A departmental code of silence aided and abetted this brutal regime and shielded its practitioners from discovery and official rebuke. A departmental directive requiring staff who use or witness force — or who have been alleged to employ or witness force — to prepare a written report on the incident “prior to leaving the facility unless medically unable to do so” appears to have been “frequently and intentionally ignored.” In one instance in 2012, for example, it took an officer three months to file a memo on a beating incident. The investigating officers found the beating justified and made no mention of the officer’s failure to submit the report contemporaneously.
The report rightly calls for a complete overhaul in departmental operations. It recommends, for example, that adolescents be removed from Rikers Island, which houses mainly adults, and placed in a facility elsewhere. It insists that the city improve officer training, and that the procedures be followed for promptly and accurately reporting force incidents.
Most important, it calls on the city to completely reform the institutional culture of the jail system to ensure that violence is no longer tolerated. The United States attorney will need to stay engaged until these goals are met.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) As U.S. Speeds the Path to Deportation, Distress Fills New Family Detention Centers
After declaring the surge of Central American migrants crossing the border a humanitarian crisis, the Obama administration has shifted sharply to a strategy of deterrence, moving families to isolated facilities and placing them on a fast track for deportation to send a blunt message back home that those caught entering illegally will not be permitted to stay.
In a far corner of the New Mexico desert, in the town of Artesia, more than 600 women and children are being held in an emergency detention center that opened in late June. On Friday, officials began filling up a new center in Karnes City, Tex., for up to 532 adults and children, and they are adding beds to a center for families in Pennsylvania that now holds about 95 people.Most of the debate over the illegal influx has centered on about 57,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended since October. But the number of minors with parents has increased even faster, nearly tripling to more than 22,000 so far this year from about 8,500 in all of 2013, according to the Pew Research Center. More than 40,000 adults and their children — an unprecedented number — were caught along the southwest border, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Until recently, most families were released to remain in the United States while their deportation cases moved slowly through the courts. But that policy fueled rumors reaching Central America that if parents arrived with young children, they would be given permits to stay. To stop such talk, officials said, they are moving swiftly to expand family detention.
“Our borders are not open to illegal immigration,” said the Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, emphasizing his point when the Karnes City center started up last week.
The migrants in Artesia were apprehended in South Texas, then moved more than 700 miles to the hastily arranged barracks behind the walls of a law enforcement training campus. Homeland Security officials said the plan is for them to be held for no more than 10 days before being sent on flights back home.
But the administration’s plan has been complicated by the assertions of many migrants who say they are frightened of being sent back into deadly gang violence, setting off required reviews to determine if they have valid asylum claims. Some migrants have refused to sign travel documents required for deportations. At least two women and their children in Artesia were taken off deportation flights on the tarmac after they insisted they would face harm at home, according to legal advocates who visited the center.
“They told me I was certain to be deported, but I don’t want to go back there,” Katy Serrano, 22, a Salvadoran mother with a 15-month-old, said in a hurried cellphone interview from the detention center, where telephone communications are limited. “All my family is here, and back there is only a gang that said they would hurt my son.”
At the end of July, 283 women and 344 minors were in Artesia, including dozens of infants and toddlers, almost all from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The administration is making it difficult for migrants to press asylum claims and is denying bond to anyone, including children, who has qualified legally for release, according to lawyers and social workers.
Five immigration officers based in the center are interviewing migrants to assess their fears of persecution, and in a makeshift courtroom immigration judges far away are hearing asylum cases via video teleconferencing. But lawyers who have made the long drive to Artesia, which is 240 miles from Albuquerque and 200 miles from El Paso, have discovered that there was no protocol to let them in and no means to file even basic court documents.
“They just set up this big deportation mill in the middle of nowhere,” said Olsi Vrapi, an immigration lawyer based in Albuquerque. One woman he was assisting had her asylum claim swiftly denied by a judge while an associate from his office was standing outside the center, waiting to be let in.
In the Artesia center’s first month, 209 migrants were deported, officials said. The pace of deportations would have been faster, but nearly two-thirds of the mothers expressed fears that they would face violence back home and have been held for asylum reviews, officials and legal advocates said. Lawyers who have interviewed migrants in Artesia say many more have viable claims than Central Americans who came in the past.
With only weeks to organize the detention center, immigration enforcement officials scrambled to create a family-oriented space, with small bunk rooms for mothers and their children, high chairs in the cafeteria and a playroom with toys. Detainees receive medical screenings and vaccinations when they arrive, officials said. One child who came down with chickenpox last week was quickly quarantined while other detainees were vaccinated and deportations were temporarily halted.
But the center is not set up to hold young children for a long time. Ms. Serrano said her son, Mateo, had fallen ill repeatedly during four weeks in Artesia, including a cough and vomiting that had required an emergency trip to a nearby hospital. On Saturday, his fever spiked again. Officials have reiterated that she is scheduled for deportation and declined to release her and her child.“They don’t have the ability to care for these small children,” said Bryan Johnson, a lawyer for Ms. Serrano, who added that he was struggling to communicate with her from his offices in Bay Shore, N.Y., because there are no landline phones in the center. “They are putting these babies at risk to deter future people from coming.”
After years of litigation over poor conditions, the Obama administration closed its last big family detention center in 2009, the T. Don Hutto center in Texas.
Peter Boogaard, a Homeland Security spokesman, said Artesia and the other new family centers would “ensure more timely and effective removals” of adults with children “that comply with our legal and international obligations.”
Families in Artesia face an uphill fight to avoid deportation. Lisa Brodyaga, a lawyer based in the Rio Grande Valley, is representing a Salvadoran woman, detained with her 11-year-old daughter, whose police officer husband has refused to join forces with criminal gangs. The woman, whom Ms. Brodyaga identified only as O. to protect her privacy, had given a detailed account of her flight from gang members who camped out on the roof of her house and harassed her family in the food store, threatening to assault “that which you hold most dear” — her daughter.
With space tight at the center, asylum officers interviewed the woman and her daughter together, Ms. Brodyaga said, and then ruled that their fears were not credible.
“It’s rough having your 11-year-old daughter present when you are explaining that she is the one who could be raped and killed if you were sent back,” Ms. Brodyaga said, adding that the woman is still fighting her deportation.
The few migrants who have qualified for release have been told that they would not be allowed to post bond. According to court documents, government prosecutors argued that releasing any detainees from Artesia “further encourages mass migration” and would create “significant adverse national security consequences.”
Laura Lichter, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association who helped mobilize a corps of lawyers to head to Artesia, said immigration officials appeared to be going through the motions of legal review. “The perception,” she said, “is that people come there to get deported.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Some Israelis Count Open Discourse and Dissent Among Gaza War Casualties
By JODI RUDOREN
JERUSALEM — The signs are everywhere.
At a recent demonstration in Tel Aviv against Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, counterdemonstrators chanted “Death to the left!” along with the more commonly heard “Death to Arabs!” Afterward, some of the right-wingers beat some of the leftists — using large poles that had held Israeli flags.
The Israel Broadcasting Authority blocked B’Tselem, a human rights group, from running a paid radio advertisement reading the names and ages of Palestinian children killed in Gaza.
Bar-Ilan University rebuked a professor who expressed empathy for all the war’s victims in an email to students.And at a recent screening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a fading bastion of liberalism, when some audience members stood for a moment of silence in memory of four Palestinian boys killed as they played soccer on a Gaza beach, others who kept their seats berated them with cries of “Shame on you — what about our boys?” and “You’re raping the audience,” according to several people who were there.
In Israel, open discourse and dissent appear to be among the casualties of the monthlong war in Gaza, according to stalwarts of what is known as the Zionist left — Israelis who want the country to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and help create a sovereign Palestinian state.Israeli politics have been drifting rightward for years, and many see that trend sharpening and solidifying now. Several polls find that as many as nine out of 10 Israeli Jews back the prosecution of the war by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When that support slipped a bit last week, it seemed to be because more people wanted an even more aggressive assault on Hamas, the militant Islamist faction that dominates Gaza. Israelis who question the government or the military on Facebook, or who even share photographs of death and devastation in Gaza, find themselves defriended, often by people they thought were politically like-minded.
“One of the victims of war is any nuance,” said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, who emigrated from New York in 1979. “The idea of having a nuanced position that recognizes the suffering on both sides and the complications is almost impossible to maintain.”
Rabbi Weiman-Kelman is the founder of Kol Haneshama, one of Israel’s largest and best-known Reform congregations, where every service ends with an adaptation of a traditional Hebrew prayer for peace that includes a line in Arabic borrowed from a traditional Muslim prayer. (Disclosure: I have occasionally attended those services.)
When Rabbi Weiman-Kelman recently circulated a petition condemning racist comments by a right-wing rabbi, a member of the synagogue’s board whose son was fighting in Gaza said the congregation should stay out of the matter and “focus on our boys,” he recalled. And during services Friday night, another leader of the congregation with lengthy leftist credentials stood up and said he no longer felt comfortable with a different prayer, which included a wish for “shalom” — peace — for “all who dwell on earth.” “The man said, ‘There really are bad people out there who I don’t wish shalom,’ ” the rabbi recounted. “It was a devastating moment.”
Some politicians, like the Labor Party chief, Isaac Herzog, have invoked an ethos of “Quiet, we’re shooting”: When sons and brothers are on the front line, the thinking goes, unity is more important than robust debate.
But the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz ran an editorial last week that referred to “McCarthyism spreading in Israel,” citing the Bar-Ilan University case.
“Less and less tolerance exists for such a multiplicity of voices,” wrote Naomi Chazan, an activist, academic and former leftist member of Parliament, in a recent column in the newspaper. “The cohesion of Israeli society is being torn asunder, as anti-Arab sentiments have gained traction and intolerance runs rampant.”
Daria Carmon, 33, who attended the Tel Aviv protest, said that slogans and viewpoints that used to be seen as extremist had become mainstream. She blamed the invective that Israeli leaders use toward Hamas, and the Israeli news outlets that cover every soldier’s funeral but rarely show video from Gaza. (Paula Weiman-Kelman, the rabbi’s wife, has taken to watching Al Jazeera.)
“It’s hard to fight against such a collectivist society, when all the messages are that everybody’s out to get us,” Ms. Carmon said. “It takes a lot to really resist that. It’s exhausting.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) U.S. Drone Strike Kills 6 in Pakistani Tribal Area
By ISMAIL KHAN and DECLAN WALSH
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — An American drone strike against a compound in the North Waziristan tribal district on Wednesday killed at least six people, Pakistani officials and local residents said. It was the latest in a series of strikes by C.I.A.-operated drone aircraft to coincide with a major offensive by the Pakistani military in the area, which is notorious as a sanctuary for militants.
Four missiles slammed into the compound near Datta Khel, about 20 miles west of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, according to a security official in Peshawar who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Pakistani ground troops are pushing toward Datta Khel as part of a drive to expel the Taliban and allied foreign militants from North Waziristan. The operation, which started on June 15, has displaced at least 800,000 civilians and resulted in at least 550 deaths.The Pakistani military says it has complete control of Miram Shah and North Waziristan’s other principal town, Mir Ali. But there has been relatively little direct ground fighting; rather, many of the deaths have been attributed to air and artillery strikes on residential compounds where militants were believed to be sheltering. Most militant fighters who were in North Waziristan’s towns and cities in June are believed to have fled to neighboring tribal districts, or to more remote parts of North Waziristan like Datta Khel, which remains under Taliban control.
The military said that airstrikes killed 30 suspected militants at six locations on Tuesday, including Datta Khel, the area where the drone struck on Wednesday. The military also said there was ground combat in the area.
“Our forces are now in Datta Khel, where we are facing some resistance,” a senior security official in Peshawar said. “Two of our men got killed in an encounter in Datta Khel bazaar a couple of days ago. Four Uzbeks were killed in that shootout.”
Still, the official said, the operation was making progress. “More than 80 percent of North Waziristan now stands cleared” of militants, he said.
Pakistani officials give slightly different accounts of the casualties inflicted by the latest American drone strike, the seventh this year. The official in Peshawar said six people died, including four Uzbeks and two members of the Taliban-allied Haqqani network. But a government official posted to North Waziristan, but currently living in an adjacent district, said he had received reports of seven deaths, all members of the Haqqani network. The discrepancy highlighted the difficulty of obtaining reliable information from the tribal districts.
The military operation began one week after a Taliban assault on the main airport in Karachi, the country’s most populous city. It followed the collapse of government efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban.
Human rights groups and local residents challenge the military’s claims that all 550 people reported killed in the operation so far were militants; they say some civilians have been killed in airstrikes as well. The military has declared North Waziristan off limits to journalists, and it is frequently impossible to independently confirm events and casualty reports there.
The Taliban issued a thinly veiled threat against local journalists on Tuesday. In a statement addressed to two advocacy groups, Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Taliban accused the news media of “playing the role of war propagandists” and warned of possible attacks.
“If we get engaged in attacking them, then no crying and sobbing will be heard,” said the message, signed by the Taliban from the Mohmand tribal district. The leader of that faction, Omar Khalid Khorasani, is seen as a rising force in the movement, which has suffered two major splits in recent months.
Concerns about reprisals for the North Waziristan offensive prompted the military last week to take over responsibility for security in Islamabad, the capital. The offensive has also worsened political tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which accuse each other of clandestinely backing certain Taliban factions.
The Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, also faces new challenges at home from two political rivals, who said they would try to topple his government with street protests over the next few weeks.
Ismail Khan reported from Peshawar, and Declan Walsh from London. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Afghan Civilians Killed in Airstrike by American-Led Coalition
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and AHMAD SHAKIB
KABUL, Afghanistan — An airstrike by the American-led coalition killed at least four civilians, including two women, Afghan officials said Tuesday. The attack prompted a sharp rebuke from President Hamid Karzai, who has long bristled at the deaths of Afghans in military operations led by foreign forces.
The strike took place a day earlier in Shindand District, in western Afghanistan, after Taliban fighters fired rockets at an Afghan military air base that also houses coalition forces, said Abdul Qayum Noorzai, the district police chief. The insurgents escaped on a pair of motorcycles.
A short time later, around 7 p.m., a coalition aircraft targeted four people on two motorcycles, but those struck were civilians, not the Taliban fighters who had fired the rockets, Mr. Noorzai said. In a statement, the coalition said that it was aware of the allegations that it had killed civilians, and that it was “working hand in hand with Afghan authorities to resolve this as quickly as possible.” It did not provide any other details.
But Mr. Karzai condemned the airstrike, saying in a statement that “any type of military assault on innocent civilians or their houses is giving no value to the lives of Afghans.”
American commanders have tightened the rules governing airstrikes in recent years, and the number of deaths from them has dropped significantly. But the issue remains among the most contentious in the relationship between Mr. Karzai and his American backers, and Mr. Karzai has cited killings of Afghans by coalition forces as one of his main reasons for refusing to sign a long-term security deal with the United States.
American officials have said that without the deal, they will be forced to withdraw all United States forces from Afghanistan when the NATO combat mission formally ends this year.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) U.N. Reports Dire Impact on Children in Gaza Strip
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
GENEVA — As a 72-hour cease-fire took hold in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations official said Tuesday that Israel’s nearly monthlong offensive against Hamas, the militant Islamist organization that runs Gaza, had had a “catastrophic and tragic impact” on children in the territory and that reconstruction would require many hundreds of millions of dollars.
The conflict has killed 408 children and injured 2,502, Pernille Ironside, the head of the Unicef office in Gaza, said, briefing reporters in Geneva by telephone. About 373,000 children have had traumatic experiences and need psychosocial support, she said.
“There isn’t a single family in Gaza which hasn’t been touched by direct loss,” Ms. Ironside said. “The impact that has on the ability of children to cope cannot be overstated.”The weaponry used in the assault on Gaza caused amputations and maiming, she added. “This happened before the eyes of children,” she said. “They have seen their friends and their parents die.”
The United Nations and other humanitarian agencies are at the limit of their ability to cope with the fallout from the assault, which Ms. Ironside said had far surpassed the combined impact of two previous conflicts, in 2008-09 and in 2012. About 270,000 people have sought shelter at around 90 centers run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and at least 200,000 others have taken refuge with family members, friends or neighbors.
The damage inflicted on Gaza’s power and water infrastructure has led to acute shortages of clean water for several weeks. What is available is used only for drinking and is not sufficient for basic hygiene, Ms. Ironside said, giving rise to scabies and other contagious diseases.
Shelling and bombing have damaged 142 schools — 89 of them run by the United Nations — , and multiple strikes on Gaza’s sole power plant and other infrastructure have left it beyond repair, Ms. Ironside said. The cost of reconstruction will run to “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” she said.
But stringent Israeli controls on goods going into Gaza severely constrained past efforts at rebuilding, Ms. Ironside said. She urged an end to Israel’s blockade. “The international community cannot accept the rebuilding of Gaza on the same terms as before,” she said.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) No Charges for Rikers Officers in 2012 Beatings of 2 Inmates
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ and MICHAEL WINERIP
Even on the most violent cellblocks at Rikers Island, the beatings were astonishing in their severity. Two inmates were strapped to gurneys, taken to a clinic in a mental health unit and beaten so badly by correction officers that blood splattered the walls and witnesses described feeling sick to their stomachs.
Several witnesses, including civilian staff members, were so appalled that, in a rare occurrence at Rikers, they came forward to tell investigators what they had seen on that night in December 2012. The New York City Department of Investigation referred the case for prosecution twice, and The New York Times reported details of the assaults in an investigation into brutality by guards last month.
On Monday, a damning report by the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, about the “deep-seated culture of violence” against adolescent inmates at Rikers Island singled out the episodes as particularly deplorable. But in a striking case study of just how rare it is for Rikers guards to be punished, the Bronx district attorney’s office, which has jurisdiction over the jail, said on Tuesday that it was declining to prosecute the officers involved because of inconsistencies and contradictions in testimony.
The decision came just a day after the federal report placed much of the blame for the culture of brutality at Rikers Island on a failure to punish guards who use excessive and unnecessary force. Correction officers, according to the report, brutalize inmates routinely “with the expectation that they will face little or no consequences for their unlawful conduct.”
The report singled out the investigative division of the Correction Department for particular rebuke, saying the system for investigating attacks by guards was short-staffed and undermined by archaic paper-based record-keeping and an institutional bias against inmates.
But successful criminal prosecutions are also rare. In its investigation, The Times examined 129 cases from last year in which inmates suffered severe injuries in altercations with correction officers. In none of those cases had officers been prosecuted.
Out of 20 cases against correction officers opened by the Bronx district attorney’s office in the last five years, only four resulted in prison sentences, three of them for less than two years.
Even in severe assaults, with injuries ranging from concussions to broken bones, bringing criminal charges against officers can be difficult. Inmates are often considered unreliable witnesses and the federal report described a “powerful code of silence” among officers who often try to intimidate the jail’s staff into keeping quiet.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the clinic assault, witnesses later said in interviews with The Times, was how brazen it was.
The first inmate to be beaten was Tamel Dixon. On the night of Dec. 17, 2012, around 8 p.m., Mr. Dixon, 18, was removed from his solitary confinement cell, handcuffed to a gurney and taken to the jail clinic.
Officer Lameen Barnes prepared the official report on the episode, writing that Mr. Dixon had tried to throw an “unknown liquid substance” at the officers, and in response, they had searched his cell for contraband. When the officers entered, the report said, Mr. Dixon insulted them with profanity, refused to follow orders from Capt. Rod Marcel, “took a fighting stance” and “pulled and twisted” until officers were able to restrain him and handcuff him to the gurney. No contraband was found.
Mr. Dixon was “escorted to the main clinic for medical examination without any further incident of force used,” Mr. Barnes wrote.
Two clinician witnesses interviewed by The Times, whose stories matched an email written by a third, told a radically different story. They said that as Mr. Dixon was wheeled into an examination room out of range of video cameras, he kept screaming, “Don’t leave me, they’re going to kill me.” About a half-dozen officers were in the room, and one in particular kept pounding him, repeatedly, “as if in a trance,” one clinician said.
According to Mr. Barnes’s report, there were five other guards present. Captains Marcel and Budnarine Behari were overseeing the beating, the witnesses said, and a few times, Captain Marcel yelled, “Stop resisting.” After they finished with Mr. Dixon, a second inmate, Andre Lane, was wheeled in, and was so badly beaten, the clinicians said, that the next morning, the exam rooms were still blood-splattered.
A senior health official told investigators that an officer warned him to keep quiet, saying, “Sure is good there were witnesses to see that those guys hit their heads on the cabinets themselves.”
Both captains had long histories of using force with inmates. Captain Marcel alone had almost 100 serious incidents dating back to 1999, according to Correction Department records obtained by The Times.
Captain Behari, who has also used force on inmates on dozens of occasions in the last five years, was involved in another beating in April 2012, in which an inmate’s nose was broken and one of his vertebrae was fractured. Administrative charges were brought against him and five correction officers in that case, but the department’s internal disciplinary system is plagued by delays, a serious failing highlighted in the federal report. Indeed, 28 months later, there is still no decision in the case.
Witnesses to the clinic case reacted angrily on Tuesday when told that the district attorney was not going to prosecute.
“I’m furious,” said a social worker who was interviewed about the case by prosecutors from the district attorney’s office and the Department of Investigation. “I was a witness to the whole thing, I saw it happen,” she said, insisting on anonymity in fear of retribution from correction officers.
She said it was common practice — “normalized brutality” — for beatings to go on at the clinic, because there were no cameras there. Three health officials said in interviews that guards would come in with an inmate and order the medical personnel to the back of the clinic so they could not witness what was going on.
The clinician said she was interviewed by the district attorney’s office last summer, but then did not hear from anyone for a year. Only recently, following publication of the investigation by The Times, was she interviewed again.
Mark G. Peters, the Department of Investigation commissioner, said his office had referred the case for prosecution in July 2013 and again in June this year. He said he had referred the case on Tuesday to the Correction Department for disciplinary action against the officers.
A spokeswoman for the Bronx district attorney’s office said prosecution had been declined “because of inconsistent versions of events, contradictions between the witness statements and the forensics (injuries of the inmates), and the inability of witnesses to observe the events.”
Asked in an interview last month why it had taken 20 months to decide whether to prosecute the case, Robert T. Johnson, the Bronx district attorney, said that the lawyer originally assigned to the case had become bogged down in other cases and then left the office for private practice. He said he did not assign a second prosecutor sooner because “everybody’s got their own caseload.”
By the time a new prosecutor was assigned, he said, key witnesses were hard to find.
“Some of these cases, from Rikers Island in particular, some of the witnesses get scattered.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Solidarity with Palestine
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to intensify campaign in solidarity with Palestine
Statement by COSATU
Congress of South
African Trade Unions, August 5, 2014
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=9277#sthash.rlBVAdnx.dpuf
The meeting agreed to urgently step up its solidarity campaign and to coordinate it more effectively with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions, South Africa and many other civil society groups. We shall continue to demand the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to South Africa and the recall of the South African ambassador to Israel.
The main thrust of the campaign must now be to organize an economic, trade, investment and cultural boycott that bites. Lists are to be drawn up of all the Israeli companies operating in South Africa, and all Israeli-made products so that we can mobilize a mass movement to boycott them.
In order to hit the Israel economy where it hurts, we are also urging all our affiliates to use their investment and provident funds more effectively to support this campaign and target international companies propping up the regime by supplying Israel with goods and services, particularly those supplying finance, arms and infrastructure that enable it to operate in the Palestine occupied territories. That is the only language the Israeli rulers will understand.
We note and welcome the several countries and organizations all over the world that have taken steps to isolate the apartheid state of Israel and concretely supported the Palestine people’s struggle to end Israel’s colonial expansionism. We particularly applaud the solidarity action taken by Latin American governments.
Our campaign is to end apartheid and occupation now. There will be no peace in the Middle East unless the world acts with decisiveness, not just for piecemeal ceasefires, but to end the occupation and colonialism by the state of Israel.
The Special Central Executive Committee of COSATU next week will make further announcements on developing this program of action towards building a more sustainable and effective momentum in support of the Palestinian people’s struggles.
We shall be drawing on the experience of the international anti-apartheid campaign and studying similar campaigns against Israel in other countries to learn lessons on the best way to put pressure on the Israeli apartheid regime to stop its carnage
We urge all members and supporters to attend the mass rally in Cape Town on Saturday August 9, and all other rallies across the country.
Stop the Israeli apartheid state’s war against the people of Gaza!
Forward to a free and independent Palestine!
Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
—Congress of South African Trade Unions, August 5, 2014
http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=9277#sthash.rlBVAdnx.dpuf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) 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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
12) 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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
13) 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.”
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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)
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
To
unsubscribe go to: bauaw2003-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
ARCHIVE
-
▼
2014
(154)
- ▼ 06/29 - 07/06 (3)
- ► 06/22 - 06/29 (6)
- ► 06/15 - 06/22 (4)
- ► 06/08 - 06/15 (6)
- ► 06/01 - 06/08 (6)
- ► 05/25 - 06/01 (6)
- ► 05/18 - 05/25 (7)
- ► 05/11 - 05/18 (6)
- ► 05/04 - 05/11 (6)
- ► 04/27 - 05/04 (7)
- ► 04/20 - 04/27 (7)
- ► 04/13 - 04/20 (5)
- ► 04/06 - 04/13 (6)
- ► 03/30 - 04/06 (2)
- ► 03/23 - 03/30 (9)
- ► 03/16 - 03/23 (4)
- ► 03/09 - 03/16 (7)
- ► 03/02 - 03/09 (8)
- ► 02/23 - 03/02 (3)
- ► 02/16 - 02/23 (5)
- ► 02/09 - 02/16 (7)
- ► 02/02 - 02/09 (7)
- ► 01/26 - 02/02 (8)
- ► 01/19 - 01/26 (10)
- ► 01/12 - 01/19 (4)
- ► 01/05 - 01/12 (5)
No comments:
Post a Comment