Monday, December 14, 2015

BAUAW NEWSLETTER, MONDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2015

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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter

Table of Contents:

A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS

B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS



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When Drone Whistleblowers are Under Attack,

What Do We Do?

STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!



 We honor Stephan, Michael, Brandon and Cian!

These four former ex-drone pilots have courageously spoken out publicly against the U.S. drone assassination program.  They have not been charged with any crime, yet the U.S. government is retaliating against these truth-tellers by freezing all of their bank and credit card accounts.  WE MUST BACK THEM UP!
Listen to them here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43z6EMy8T28

PLEASE HELP THEM:

1.  Sign up on this support network:
         www.facebook.com/events/1502272456740302/

2.  Sign this petition  NOW:
               https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-congress-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-protect-the-drone-assassination-program-whistleblowers?recruiter=436431670&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

3.  Call and email officials TODAY, listed below and on FB site.

4.  Ask your organization if they would join our network.


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Statement of Support for Drone Whistleblowers
(Code Pink Women for Peace: East Bay, Golden Gate, and S.F. Chapters 11.28.15)

Code Pink Women for Peace support the very courageous actions of four former US drone operators, Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland, and Stephan Lewis, who have come under increasing attack for disclosing information about “widespread corruption and institutionalized indifference to civilian casualties that characterize the drone program.” As truth tellers, they stated in a public letter to President Obama that the killing of innocent civilians has been one of the most “devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”* These public disclosures come only after repeated attempts to work privately within official channels failed.

Despite the fact that none of the four has been charged with criminal activity, all had their bank accounts and credit cards frozen. This retaliatory response by our government is consistent with the extrajudicial nature of US drone strikes.

We must support these former drone operators who have taken great risks to stop the drone killing. Write or call your US Senators, your US Representatives, President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and CIA Director John Brennan demanding that Michael Haas, Brandon Bryant, Cian Westmoreland, and Stephan Lewis be applauded, not punished, for revealing the criminal and extrajudicial nature of drone strikes that has led to so many civilian deaths.

Petition

URGENT: Sign and Share NOW! Drone Whistleblower Protection Petition
https://www.change.org/p/barack-obama-congress-attorney-general-loretta-lynch-protect-the-drone-assassination-program-whistleblowers?recruiter=436431670&utm_source=share_for_starters&utm_medium=copyLink

Contacting your Government
- White House comment line: 202-456-1111
 
- Email President Obama: president@whitehouse.gov and cc info@whitehouse.gov
 
- White House switchboard: 202-456-1414 for telephone numbers of your Senators and Representatives.

- Email your Senators and Representatives:
http://www.house.gov/representatives/
http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

-Contact Ashton Carter Secretary of Defense: Go to http://www.defense.gov/About-DoD/Biographies/BiographyView/Article/602689 and select appropriate icon.

- Contact John Brennan, CIA Director: Go to
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/leadership/john-o-brennan.html and select appropriate icon.

For more information on the 4 Drone Whistleblowers:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1502272456740302/
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43z6EMy8T28
(Must see Democracy Now interview with the 4 drone operators)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/18/life-as-a-drone-pilot-creech-air-force-base-nevada

*http://thefreethoughtproject.com/drone-pilots-bank-accounts-credit-cards-frozen-feds-exposing-murder/#fqt0crLvckG2OdbD.99

Code Pink Women for Peace: eastbaycodepink@gmail.com








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Save Ashraf Fayadh

Palestinian poet sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.

Ashraf Fayadh, Palestinian refugee poet and artist living in Saudi Arabia, has been sentenced to death by a Saudi court, on charges of apostasy or abandoning his faith in Islam. The charges appear to be based on his poetry and writing and also maybe a form of retaliation for posting an online video showing Saudi religious police lashing a man in public.

Fayadh is a Palestinian refugee who was born in Saudi Arabia and has become a leading member of the young Saudi art scene. He was arrested in January 2014, his identity documents confiscated, and held for a lengthy period without charge. He was then sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes; after he appealed; he was re-tried last month and sentenced to death. He did not have legal representation.

Fayadh is being sentenced to death after having been jailed for more than 22 months in the Saudi city of Abha without clear legal charges beyond “insulting the Godly self” and having “ideas that do not suit the Saudi society.” These charges are based on the complaint of a reader’s interpretation of Fayadh's 2008 poetry collection titled, Instructions Within.

“According to Fayadh’s friends, when the police failed to prove that his poetry was atheist propaganda, they began berating him for smoking and having long hair,” reported the Guardian. Fayadh said his poetry book, Instructions Within, is “just about me being [a] Palestinian refugee…about cultural and philosophical issues. But the religious extremists explained it as destructive ideas against God.”

This is not the first time that Saudi authorities have arrested Ashraf Fayadh. The poet was detained before after a Saudi citizen filed a complaint with the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice accusing Fayadh of having “misguided and misguiding thoughts.” Fayadh was bailed out of jail at the time, only to get arrested again. According to sources close to Fayadh, the poet has been denied both visitation and legal representation rights.

Amnesty international stated, “We condemn these acts of intimidation targeting Ashraf Fayadh as part of a wider campaign inciting hate against writers and using Islam to justify oppression and to crush free speech. We express our solidarity with Fayadh, hoping to increase support for the poet as well as pressure to release him. Our efforts should come together to ensure the proliferation of free speech and personal freedoms. We specifically call on Saudi intellectuals to express solidarity with Fayadh against Takfiris’ intimidation practices meant to silence poets, writers, and artists like him. Let the flag of creativity fly free and remain innovative. Remaining silent towards Fayadh’s detention is an insult to knowledge, literature, culture, and thought as well as to freedom and human rights.”

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network joins the call for the immediate freedom of Ashraf Fayadh. His imprisonment, persecution and death sentence by the Saudi regime reflects the deeply reactionary and far-right role played by the Saudi regime in the region—alongside its close imperial partners in the United States, Canada and Europe—that threatens Palestinian and Arab culture, life, and movements and works to block and suppress any struggle for liberation.

One hundred Arab intellectuals have called for Fayadh’s release and so far over 10, 000 people have signed an AI petition to save his life. Please sign and share the petition. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Amnesty_international_Save_the_palestinian_poet_and_artist_Ashraf_Fayadh/?tUPvwdb

To take further action:

1. Call the Saudi Embassy in your area and demand freedom for Ashraf Fayadh. In the United States, call 202-342-3800. In Canada, call 613-237-4100. Find the embassy in your country here: http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/saudi-arabia

2. Protest at the Saudi Embassy in your area for freedom for Ashraf Fayadh. Print signs and materials, and gather outside the Saudi embassy with Palestine rights activists, artists and others to demand his freedom. See the list of Saudi embassies here: http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/saudi-arabia

3. Contact your government officials. The Saudi regime is a close partner of the United States, Canadian and various European governments. Demand that your government pressure the Saudi regime to release Fayadh. In Canada, Call the office of the Foreign Minister, Stéphane Dion, at 613-996-5789 and demand Canada pressure Saudi Arabia to release Fayadh, or email: stephane.dion@parl.gc.ca. In the U.S., call the White House (202-456-1111) and the U.S. State Department (202-647-9572); demand the U.S. pressure Saudi Arabia to release Fayadh. In the EU, contact your Member of the European Parliament—you can find your MEP here:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/map.html

Please also write letters, Facebook posts, emails or send Facebook messages to your local politicians, newspapers and friends to publicize this dire case and spread the information about the situation of Ashraf Fayadh.

—Steven Katsineris

Information from Amnesty International, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network and AVAAZ.

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Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence

Sign the Petition:
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/petition.php


Urge Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction, and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International opposes all executions, unconditionally.

"The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case

Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.

In 1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue of his preliminary hearing.

Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.

Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.

Following his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."

Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.

Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.

In 2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.

In solidarity,

James Clark
Senior Death Penalty Campaigner
Amnesty International USA

News Updates

  • Death Row Stories
    Kevin Cooper's case will be the subject of a new episode of CNN's "Death Row Stories" airing on Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. The program will be repeated at 10 p.m. PDT. The episode, created by executive producers Robert Redford and Alex Gibney, will explore how Kevin Cooper was framed by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and District Attorney.Viewers on the east coast can see the program at 10 p.m. EDT and it will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. EDT on July 27. Viewers in the Central Time zone can see it at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT. Viewers in the Mountain Time zone can see it at 8 p.m. and ll p.m MDT. It will be aired on CNN again during the following week and will also be able to be viewed on CNN's "Death Row Stories" website.
Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up - from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
 
Kevin Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.

Convicted in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin.  He has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence.  In a dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d 581.

There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:

  The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons, and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults (including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their bedsides?

  The sole surviving victim of the murders, Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr. Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's not the man who did it."

  Josh Ryen's description of the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.

  These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.

  The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.

Lacking a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder scene.

The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to convict.

The evidence the prosecution presented at trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been discredited…         (Continue reading this document at: http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)

     This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015

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For Immediate Release – Thursday, October 29, 2015 
Solitary Prisoners' Lawyers Slam CDCR for Sleep Deprivation

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, lawyers for prisoners in the class action case Ashker v. Brown submitted a letter condemning Pelican Bay prison guards' "wellness checks," which have widely been viewed as sleep deprivation. The letter was submitted to United States Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, and calls on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to put an end to the checks.

Last month, prisoners achieved a historic victory in the settlement of Ashker v. Brown where the indefinite long term solitary confinement was effectively ended in California, with Magistrate Judge Vadas currently monitoring implementation of the settlement terms.

The guards at Pelican bay Security Housing Units have been conducting disruptive cell checks every 30 minutes around the clock for three months, causing prisoners widespread sleep disruption. The process is loud and according to prisoners, "the method and noise from the checks is torture."

Attorneys representing Pelican Bay SHU prisoners have just completed extensive interviews with prisoners who demand that "the every 30-minute checks have to be stopped or people are going to get sick or worse." In addition, they report that regular prison programs have been negatively impacted.

"To sleep is a fundamental human right," said Anne Weills, a member of the prisoners' legal team and one of the attorneys who conducted the interviews with prisoners in Pelican Bay. "To take away such a basic human right amounts to severe torture, adding to the already torturous conditions of being in solitary confinement."

Most prisoners report low energy, exhaustion and fatigue. Most state that they have trouble concentrating. They try to read, but they nod off and/or can't remember what they have read. Their writing is much slower ("I can't think to write"), and describe the constant welfare checks as having a negative impact on their mental state.

While this recent attorney survey was specifically focusing on sleep deprivation and its effects, prisoners volunteered information about the negative impact of these frequent checks: yard policy and practice has reduced access to recreation, access to showers has been reduced, programs and meals are being delayed, and property for those newly transferred to Pelican Bay is still being delayed and withheld.

Sleep deprivation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners and their attorneys are demanding that these checks be halted.
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org


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UPDATE:

Albert Woodfox, Angola Inmate, Can Be Tried 3rd Time, Court Rules

By ASHLEY SOUTHALL  
NOV. 9, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/angola-inmate-can-be-tried-3rd-time.html?ref=us


Free Albert Woodfox!

On June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has appealed.

Today, Albert is still behind bars after spending four decades in cruel, unjust solitary confinement. He believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert King, were first placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their activism. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party. Together, they came to be known as the Angola 3.

It is time for the State of Louisiana to stop standing in the way of justice. Call on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to ensure Albert's cruel and unjust confinement is not his legacy. Learn more

http://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=35593&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1506EAIAR2&ea.url.id=414689&forwarded=true

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Amnesty for all those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

 

Amnesty for ALL those arrested
demanding justice for Freddie Gray!

Sign and distribute the petition to drop the charges!
Spread this effort with #Amnesty4Baltimore

"A riot is the language of the unheard"
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

An estimated 300 people have been arrested in Baltimore in the last two weeks. Many have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists, medics and legal observers.

One individual arrested for property destruction of a police vehicle is now facing life in prison and is being held on $500,000 bail. That's $150,000 more than the officer charged with the murder of Freddie Gray.  

The legal system has made it clear that they care more about broken windows than broken necks; more about a CVS than the lives of Baltimore's Black residents.

They showed no hesitation in arresting Baltimore's protesters and rebels, and sending in the National Guard, but took 19 days to put a single one of the killer cops in handcuffs. This was the outrageous double standard that led to the Baltimore Uprising.

 Sign the petition to drop the charges on all who have been arrested.

Petition to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake

Download PDF of Petition 

http://www.answercoalition.org/amnesty_for_all_those_arrested_demanding_justice_for_freddie_gray?utm_campaign=baltimore_amn1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=answercoalition

Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
City Hall, Room 250,
100 North Holliday St.,
Baltimore, MD 21202

Dear Mayor Rawlings-Blake:

I stand in solidarity with those in Baltimore who are demanding that all charges be dropped against those who rose up against racism, police brutality, oppressive social conditions and delay of justice in the case of Freddie Gray. The whole world now recognizes that were it not for this powerful grassroots movement, in all its forms, there would be no indictment.

It is an outrage that peaceful protesters have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested include journalists and legal observers.

Even the youth who are charged with property destruction and looting should be given an amnesty. There is no reason a teenager -- provoked by racists and justifiably angry -- should be facing life in prison for breaking the windows of a police car.

The City of Baltimore should work to rectify the conditions that led to this Uprising, rather than criminalizing those who took action in response to those conditions. Drop the charges now!

Sincerely,
[add your name below]

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CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!

Sign the Petition:

http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=kos


Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:


Americans now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for more than 40 million Americans and their families.

I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.

American Federation of Teachers
Campaign for America's Future
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Democracy for America
LeftAction
Project Springboard
RH Reality Check
RootsAction
Student Debt Crisis
The Nation
Working Families






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URGENT ALERT

MAJOR TILLERY IN 

HOSPITAL!







Sometime yesterday Major Tillery, a 65 year-old man, was rushed to the hospital from SCI Frackville. Since hearing this yesterday evening through the prison grapevine, family and attorney have tried to learn more.

Today, the only thing we have been told by Superintendent Brenda Tritt is that this was "a routine admission" and Major is "receiving the appropriate medical attention." Nothing more to to Major Tillery's daughter, Kamilah Iddeen--not the hospital, the reason for rushing Major to the hospital, no agreement for family and legal visits.
Major Tillery has liver disease and a liver shunt, arthritis with chronic back and hip pain, and a festering skin rash and open sores. Major Tillery has filed grievance after grievance objecting to the lack of medical treatment and refusal to renew needed medical devices.

Major Tillery has been imprisoned for 30 years, 25 in the hole and in the most severe super max prisons in the country. For prison officials his crime is his advocacy for other prisoners and leadership capabilities, including challenging abusive prison conditions and inadequate medical treatment. He has been subject to retaliation by prison authorities since he began his successful legal effort to stop the overcrowding and curb the inhumane conditions in SCI Pittsburgh over 25 years ago. See, Tillery v. Owens (1990)

In early 2015, Major complained about the spreading skin disease at SCI Mahanoy, where he was then imprisoned. He stood up for Mumia Abu-Jamal and other prisoners who were suffering from this. For his acts of solidarity, Major Tillery was transferred to SCI Frackville and then put in the hole on falsified charges. After four months with limited food rations, deprived of commissary, contact visits and allowed less than one-hour a day of exercise, Major was released into general population. This was two months less than his prison sentence of six months in the hole – the prison's response to an international campaign for Major!

Now Major is in the hospital. He is not being allowed contact with his family or attorney. They are not being given any real information on his condition.

Call prison officials and demand:
Visits with Major Tillery by his family and lawyer. Full medical information and treatment should be provided to his family and lawyer.
Stop the Retaliation Against Major Tillery. He should be exonerated for the false charges of drug possession and this misconduct removed from his record.
Transfer Major Tillery from SCI Frackville back to SCI Mahanoy or to another facility in eastern Pennsylvania to remain near his family.

Dept. Of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel           (717) 728-4109
Superintendent Brenda Tritt, SCI Frackville           (570) 874-4516

Write to
Major Tillery AM 9786
SCI Frackville
1111 Altamont Blvd.
Frackville, Pa. 17931

For More Information, Go To: Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot
Call/Write:
Kamilah Iddeen (Major Tillery's daughter) (717) 379-9009, Kamilah29@yahoo.com
Nancy Lockhart (843) 412-2035, thewrongfulconviction@gmail.com
Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq. (917) 689-4009, RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com


Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot





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Support Mumia in Court on Dec. 18
Demand that Mumia and 10,000 other PA Prisoners Receive Lifesaving HCV Treatment

Your support is needed once again for renowned political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, this time to demand immediate treatment for the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

In the wake of thousands of signed petitions, phone calls, emails plus meetings, street actions and pressure from sympathetic state officials, Federal Court Judge Robert Mariani has ordered a full evidentiary hearing on Friday, Dec. 18 to determine if the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) must provide, as Abu-Jamal's legal team requests, the new, direct-acting, anti-viral medication with a 95 percent cure rate for HCV .

The DOC currently has no standard of care for treating prisoners with HCV. Prison authorities willfully ignored Mumia's health crisis until supporters initiated a campaign which eventually revealed medical proof that his ailments stem from untreated HCV he contacted via a blood transfusion when he was shot by police 34 years ago. The DOC is denying the lifesaving treatment "until the final stages of the condition" - when it would be too late to save Mumia's life!

Abu-Jamal's legal team will make a strong case during the hearing on why Mumia and the other 10,000 HCV-infected prisoners in Pennsylvania need immediate treatment.  Most leading hep C specialists and national HCV organizations now recommend immediate treatment with this drug. Abu-Jamal will testify via videoconferencing - the first time in decades he will be given the opportunity to testify in court   If he is successful in winning the new hep C treatment, it will set a precedent that can potentially help infected prisoners throughout Pennsylvania and other states.

Statistics show that HCV, if left untreated, is spread when prisoners return home, creating a public health crisis which has a disproportionate impact on people of color and impoverished communities who are also impacted negatively by the outrageously high prices charged by Gilead Sciences for this lifesaving medicine.

Join activists from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York City and other East Coast cities in a rally outside the courthouse in Scranton and perhaps witness the court proceedings inside (seating is very limited).  Your participation on Dec. 18 can prove once again that people's power can successfully force the capitalist state to consent to the right to proper health care for Abu-Jamal and all prisoners with HCV.

International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC), Educators for Mumia, Campaign to Bring Mumia Home, International Action Center and Mundo Obrero-Workers World Party are all organizing to attend. 

9:30 am Friday, December 18,
U.S. Court House
235 N. Washington Ave, Scranton, PA 18501

There's a chance the proceedings may continue into a second day,
Monday, Dec 21.

If you need a ride or can offer a ride from Philadelphia to Scranton,
contact 484.343.2172,  215.724.1618
or HepCcure4Mumiaallprisoners@gmx.com.

From NYC, call 212.330.8029 to reserve a seat on the bus.

If you cannot be in Scranton please call the following officials on Dec. 18 to demand immediate anti-viral HCV medication for Mumia
and the other prisoners:

 Gov. Tom Wolf, 717.787.2500
John Wetzel, Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, 717.728.4109
John Kerestes, Superintendent SCI Mahanoy,
570.773.2158 ext. 8102




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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
 
Updates from the New "Team Free Lorenzo Johnson":
Thank you all for your relentless effort in the fight against wrongful convictions and your determination to stand behind Lorenzo.

To garner even more support for Lorenzo Johnson, we have been hard at work updating the website and developing an even more formidable and dedicated team. Please take a moment to visit the new site here.

During the month of July, Lorenzo wrote two new articles for The Huffington Post titled "When Prosecutors Deny Justice for the Innocent," and "Hurry Up and Wait for Justice: The Struggle of Innocent Prisoners." In these articles, Lorenzo discusses the flaws in the criminal justice system, which he deems is a "serious problem in this country."

Lastly, Lorenzo has a message to you all.

A Letter from Lorenzo:

July 23, 2015
Dauphin County Prison
Harrisburg, PA

Dear Supporters,

I hope all is well with everyone and your families. As for myself, I'm still on my journey in pursuit of my vindication. Sorry for my website being shut down for a couple of weeks. It was being transferred to a new provider and management. I'm back and will do my best to keep everything up to speed with what's taking place.

I would like to thank ALL of my loyal supporters in the U.S. and in the MANY different counties that have signed on to support my innocence. Thanks for all of the letters, emails, photos, etc. Like I always say, I get energy to carry on and inspiration hearing form you, please stay engaged in my struggle.

As of this moment, nothing has changed, but – the continued delay tactics are constantly being used by my prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos. With the mounting of evidence that supports my innocence and police and prosecution misconduct claims that is steadily piling up, you would think that I would be having a couple of evidentiary hearings on my actual innocence appeal that have been pending since August 5, 2013.

At the time of this writing, I've been moved from SCI-Mahanoy to Dauphin County Prison and locked down for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. In the 20 minutes I get to come out, I get to take a shower and make a short call. Prosecutor Stoycos had me moved so I can be a witness in his attempt to have my codefendant Corey Walker's attorney removed from representing him. How dare he call into question an attorney who is seeking justice for her client, when prosecutor Stoycos himself violated multiple constitutional rights of mine and Mr. Walker, that led to us being in prison for 20 years and counting.

Prosecutor Stoycos is continuously abusing his power and his endless resources he has at his disposal. He is not tough on crime, he's tough on Innocent Prisoners. Prosecutor Stoycos is doing everything in his power to prevent justice from taking place. I encourage everyone to continue to speak out against my nightmare, invite others to get involved by going to my website and signing my Freedom Petition and whatever else they're willing to do.

On a positive note, I just enrolled in warehouse management trade and started on July 13th. Unfortunately, you're only allowed to miss a couple of days and Prosecutor Stoycos had me temporarily transferred on July 14th … It's extremely hard on Lifers to get into these trades due to the fact that Lifers are placed at the back of the list of ALL vocational classes. I try to further my education every chance I get, so when I do come home, I will be certified in different work.

The month of the hearing has come and left, without me being brought to the courthouse … I'm one of MANY innocent prisoners who endures this non-stop madness in our pursuit of Justice and Freedom. Now that my webpage is almost caught up to speed, I promise prompt updates and as everyone knows that contacted me directly, I personally reply to those in the states and out of the country. For those who can make a financial contribution, everything counts. Take care and let's continue to fight until we achieve Freedom, Justice, and Equality for all innocent prisoners.

"The Pain Within"

Free the Innocent
Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson

[Note: Lorenzo has since been transferred back to SCI Mahanoy and can be reached at his usual address.]

Thank you all for reading this message and please take the time to visit the new website and contribute to Lorenzo's campaign for freedom!

Write: Lorenzo Johnson
            DF 1036
            SCI Mahanoy
            301 Morea Rd.
            Frackville, PA 17932

 Email: Through JPay using the code:
              Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
                                     or
              Directly at LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com

Have a wonderful day!
- The Team to Free Lorenzo Johnson


freelorenzojohnson.org

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 Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!

Click HERE to view in browser

http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/


On December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton Harbor.

The prosecutor, with the judge's approval, repeatedly told the jury "you don't need evidence to convict Mr. Pinkney." And ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV. PINKNEY TO THE 'ALTERED' PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led away in handcuffs and thrown into Jackson Prison.

This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.

With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney's appeal.

Checks can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney.  Mail them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.

Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.

For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search "Pinkney").

We urge your support to the efforts to Free Rev. Pinkney!Ramsey Clark – Former U.S. attorney general,
Cynthia McKinney – Former member of U.S. Congress,
Lynne Stewart – Former political prisoner and human rights attorney
Ralph Poynter – New Abolitionist Movement,
Abayomi Azikiwe – Editor, Pan-African News Wire<
Larry Holmes – Peoples Power Assembly,
David Sole – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Sara Flounders – International Action Center

MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY

I am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...) ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2 days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this racist."

Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney

Michigan political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower.

No material or circumstantial evidence was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan.

In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an "Occupy the PGA [Professional Golfers' Association of America]" demonstration against a world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The course was carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the city of Benton Harbor decades ago.

Berrien County officials were determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor Hightower, who opposed a program that would have taxed local corporations in order to create jobs and improve conditions in Benton Harbor, a majority African-American municipality. Like other Michigan cities, it has been devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.

The Benton Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent charges to stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist white officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black city. Rev Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian ministers do, was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper column. This outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do this again!

To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.

Contributions for Rev. Pinkney's defense can be sent to BANCO at Mrs Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022

Or you can donate on-line at bhbanco.org.

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COURAGE TO RESIST

 http://couragetoresist.org/

New Action--write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea!

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning's clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.

Please write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks' whistle-blower former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning's release from military prison.

It is important that each of these authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in Manning's outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this stage.

Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea's clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:

Secretary of the Army John McHugh

101 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-0101

The Judge Advocate General

2200 Army Pentagon

Washington, DC 20310-2200

Army Clemency and Parole Board

251 18th St, Suite 385

Arlington, VA 22202-3532

Directorate of Inmate Administration

Attn: Boards Branch

U.S. Disciplinary Barracks

1301 N. Warehouse Road

Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304

Suggestions for letters send to DoD officials:

The letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning's sentence is reduced.  The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be unlikely to help.

A suggested message: "Chelsea Manning has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the course of being true to her conscience.  I urge you to use your authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning's sentence to time served."  Beyond that general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you believe Chelsea deserves clemency.

Consider composing your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself (here are templates and some tips for doing that).

A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above

This clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning's upcoming appeal before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning's new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year's trial at Ft. Meade, Maryland.

Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees at this critical stage!


Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org


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B. ARTICLES IN FULL


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1) New York Police Officer Fatally Shoots Unarmed Man After Chase Into Westchester
By and

A uniformed New York City police officer shot and killed an unarmed man on Tuesday after a car chase that began in the Bronx ended with a foot pursuit and a confrontation in a wooded area of Yonkers just off the Saw Mill River Parkway, the authorities said.A law enforcement official identified the fatally wounded man as Miguel Espinal, 36, who a relative said had been driving his father’s car on Tuesday.

“No weapon has been recovered,” said Stephen Davis, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, who added that the circumstances that led to the shooting remained under investigation.

The police chase began shortly before noon, when two officers from the 50th Precinct in the Bronx, on patrol in a marked car, saw a gray 2009 Nissan Z driving erratically and began to follow it. The officers tried to pull the car over at 242nd Street and Broadway; instead it was driven off at high speed, officials said. The officers followed the car but lost sight of it on the parkway, just over the border in Westchester County.

When they spotted the Nissan again, it was coming back toward them, going against traffic and heading southbound on the northbound side of the roadway, the officials said. It passed them, they said, then crashed into a median and three other vehicles a short distance away.

At that point, the officials said, Mr. Espinal climbed out the window, crossed three lanes of traffic, jumped a guardrail and fled on foot into the woods of Tibbetts Brook Park, as the officers circled back in their car. Officials said a second man in the Nissan, whom a law enforcement official identified as Akeem Smith, 25, was injured in the crash and taken into custody.

Mr. Smith is on federal probation on a drug charge, said Richard B. Lind, his lawyer in the case. “He was a mule,” Mr. Lind said.

One driver on the roadway suffered minor injuries in the crash, said Kieran O’Leary, a spokesman for the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, which is leading the police investigation.

Representatives from the New York attorney general’s office, which now investigates all killings by the police in the state in which a suspect may have been unarmed, and the Westchester district attorney’s office were at the scene, Mr. O’Leary said.

It was not immediately clear which of the two officers — identified by officials as Garthlette James and Romeo Francis — fired. Neither had been involved in a prior shooting while on duty, officials said.

A second law enforcement official said the shooting took place after a confrontation roughly 75 feet from where the Nissan crashed, down a steep rock embankment in a wooded gully. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the early details of the preliminary investigation.

“One shot was discharged from one New York City police officer’s weapon,” George Longworth, the commissioner of the county’s public safety agency, said at a news conference.

Mr. Espinal was pronounced dead at the scene.

Soon after the crash, at 12:22 p.m. the Yonkers Police Department issued an alert stating that a portion of the winding parkway had been shut down as its officers and those from the New York Police Department searched for a suspect who had fled into the park and “may also be armed.”

The second official said at least one witness told the police after the shooting that the suspect had possessed a gun, but the official cautioned that it was not clear whether the city officers had heard anything about a weapon when they gave chase in the woods; neither had been interviewed as of Tuesday evening.

Mr. Espinal’s uncle, Carlos, who lives in Florida, said that he had spoken to his sister, Mr. Espinal’s mother, in a phone conversation on Tuesday afternoon and that she had told him that Mr. Espinal had taken his father’s car to drive. “She sounded fine,” he said of the conversation.

He said it had been many years since he had seen Mr. Espinal, who grew up in Queens and had served two terms in New York State prison, one for robbery and a later one for burglary. He said he was unaware of his nephew’s criminal history.

Mr. Espinal had open warrants in Florida for assault and burglary, according to a law enforcement official, and a listed address in Boca Raton.

Several of Mr. Espinal’s relatives gathered at his mother’s apartment in Jamaica, Queens, on Tuesday night, saying they had been informed of the shooting but not told of his death. His mother, Maria Espinal, said he did not live in New York City. “He lived in Florida,” she said.

According to public records, a Suffolk County man filed a federal civil rights suit in March against Officer Francis and several other officers, claiming they had used excessive force during an arrest in Queens, for which the charges were later dismissed.

“It is an active case so I cannot comment on his direct involvement, but he was the arresting officer,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer, Elizabeth Crotty, speaking of Officer Francis, an eight-year veteran of the department.

Neither officer could be reached by phone for comment on Tuesday.

“He’s a great cop,” Denise James, the mother of Officer James, who has been on the job for just under four years, said of her son in a brief phone interview. “He’s out there to protect the people.”

Helicopters hovered in the air above the Saw Mill River Parkway where police lights flickered near Wendover Road on Tuesday evening. On the northbound side of the parkway, the gray Nissan, its front smashed, sat up against a white Yukon, both facing north.

Isabel Ross, 54, whose house looks out on the parkway through a thin stretch of trees, said she had heard the crash and at first she thought it was just “another accident,” like one that occurred there a few weeks ago.

“And we were like, ‘O.K.,’ ” Ms. Ross said. “But we’re not seeing the ambulance or anything. More cops and more cops and more cops coming. And we realized, ‘O.K., it’s something else.’ ”

Reporting was contributed by Angela Macropoulos, Benjamin Mueller, Noah Remnick and Eli Rosenberg, and research by Doris Burke.





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2) Dow Chemical and DuPont Set Merger and Plans to Split
By LESLIE PICKER and

DuPont and Dow Chemical, with more than three centuries of history between them, said on Friday they had agreed to merge, in one of the biggest deals of the year.The combined company, which would be known as DowDuPont, would result from an all-stock merger of equals. Once the two are combined, they plan to split into three separate companies, consisting of agricultural chemicals, specialty products and materials, like plastics.

Dow also said on Friday that it planned to restructure its ownership with Dow Corning by becoming a full owner, up from a 50-50 joint venture.

Joining together to break into three separate companies later would give Dow and DuPont the ability to choose the best products in their research pipeline and shutter the rest, according to a note by Jeffrey Stafford, an analyst with Morningstar.

Job reductions are expected to result from the merger. Dow employs 53,000, while DuPont had 63,000 employees as of the end of 2014. The companies did not mention layoffs in their announcement, but DuPont, in a separate statement, said it expected to record a charge before taxes of $780 million, consisting of roughly $650 million in employee separation costs. DuPont said 10 percent of its global work force would be affected.

Despite the eventual breakup, the deal would undergo rigorous antitrust scrutiny for all three companies, particularly the agricultural chemicals company.

The two companies, which generated a combined $92 billion in sales, would be the second-largest chemical company in terms of revenue after BASF of Germany. In their statement, the companies said they would have a combined market capitalization of approximately $130 billion at announcement. Under the merger’s exchange ratio, DuPont shareholders would receive $70.38 a share, based on Thursday’s closing prices, or a total of $61.7 billion.

“This transaction is a game-changer for our industry and reflects the culmination of a vision we have had for more than a decade to bring together these two powerful innovation and material science leaders,” Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive, said in the statement.

Mr. Liveris would become executive chairman of the combined company, while Edward D. Breen, the chief executive of DuPont, would become chief executive of DowDuPont. The board of the new company would have 16 directors, evenly divided between current Dow and DuPont directors.

The deal appears to be a rare example of a true merger of equals. Not only would the board be split evenly, but shareholders of each company would hold roughly 50 percent of DowDuPont.

Under the terms of the merger, Dow shareholders would receive one share of the new combined company for every one of their shares, while DuPont shareholders would receive 1.282 shares each.

The merger would cap an extraordinary year in deal-making. More than $4 trillion worth of deals have been struck so far this year, overtaking the 2007 as the busiest year for acquisitions on record.

The transaction between Dow Chemical and DuPont follows a push by investor activists, who have called for both companies to find better ways to return shareholder value.In May, DuPont successfully repelled Trian Fund Management’s Nelson Peltz, although after the proxy battle, the chief executive, Ellen J. Kullman, quickly departed. She was replaced by Mr. Breen, who was previously the chief executive of Tyco, where he oversaw its separation into three separate companies.

The companies have two of the best-known names in American corporate history. Dow was founded in 1897 as a bleach producer in Michigan. DuPont was founded in 1802 in Delaware by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, a French political economist who had fled to the United States during the French Revolution.

The new company would have dual headquarters in Wilmington, Del., and Midland, Mich.

Michael S. Klein’s advisory firm, Klein and Company; Lazard; Morgan Stanley; and the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges are advising Dow.

Evercore, Goldman Sachs and the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom are DuPont’s advisers.


DuPont and Dow Chemical Products

Once combined, DowDuPont plans to split into three separate companies.

  • Agriculture: $19 Billion Revenue

    Herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, seeds and Omega-9 oils for frying food.

  • Specialty Products: $13 Billion Revenue

    Plastics and adhesive chemicals for packaging food, transportation and infrastructure.

  • Material Science: $51 Billion Revenue

    Electronics, health, bio-sciences and safety. Products include materials for circuits, semi-conductors, packages for sterile medical supplies, ethanol and Kevlar.
Source: Annual revenue based on 2014 S.E.C. filings.






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3) Irish Women Who Had Abortions Abroad Show Their Faces Online
Open Source
By
DEC. 10, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/world/europe/irish-women-who-had-abortions-abroad-show-their-faces-online.html?ref=world

A group of Irish women who have traveled abroad to have abortions posted images of their faces online on Thursday as part of a new social media campaign to destigmatize the procedure and build support to change the law that makes it nearly impossible to legally terminate a pregnancy in Ireland.

Images of 11 women appear on the home page of the new website, called the X-ile Project, along with a statement that encourages more women who felt cast out by their homeland at a time when they needed support to add their portraits to the gallery.

“Our objective is to give a much-needed face to women who have effectively been exiled from Ireland and ignored due to unduly strict abortion laws,” the women write.

“It is estimated that 12 women a day on average travel outside of Ireland to access abortion services,” two of the activists behind the project, Laura Lovejoy and Julie Morrissy, explained in an email. “Almost everyone in Ireland knows someone who has been forced to travel for an abortion, although for many the stigma prevents them from talking about it.”

“In showing these images, we aim to demonstrate that those who choose to travel to have an abortion are responsible, ordinary women who can and should be able to make important decisions about their own lives,” they added.

The women also said that the project’s name was a reference to a 1992 case in which a suicidal 14-year-old rape victim (publicly identified only as “X”) was blocked from travelling to Britain for an abortion by the attorney general of Ireland. After the girl’s parents appealed the travel ban, Ireland’s Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that abortion was permitted in cases in which the pregnancy poses a threat to a woman’s life.

After the site launched, one of the participants, Tara Flynn, an actress and comedian, encouraged other women to take part.

Abortion rights activists, who say that more than 170,000 Irish women have traveled outside the country to have abortions in the past four decades, are pressing for a referendum to repeal a constitutional amendment passed in 1983 that blocks the legalization of abortion.

As many as 10,000 supporters of a referendum took part in a March for Choice in Dublin in September.

As The Guardian reports, abortion could be a central issue in Ireland’s next general election, expected early next year, because the Irish Labour Party could make a referendum on the issue a condition of joining any new coalition government.

Still, there is passionate opposition to any change among Irish conservatives. Senator Jim Walsh denounced what he called “the abortion holocaust” taking place outside Ireland in remarks on Thursday.

In May, Mr. Walsh suggested that the money spent on a referendum that removed the country’s ban on same-sex marriage would have been better spent “to provide free H.I.V. testing to people who are homosexual.”



 


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4) Still in a Crib, Yet Being Given Antipsychotics
By

Andrew Rios’s seizures began when he was 5 months old and only got worse. At 18 months, when an epilepsy medication resulted in violent behavior, he was prescribed the antipsychotic Risperdal, a drug typically used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, and rarely used for children as young as 5 years.When Andrew screamed in his sleep and seemed to interact with people and objects that were not there, his frightened mother researched Risperdal and discovered that the drug was not approved, and had never even been studied, in children anywhere near as young as Andrew.

“It was just ‘Take this, no big deal,’ like they were Tic Tacs,” said Genesis Rios, a mother of five in Rancho Dominguez, Calif. “He was just a baby.”

Cases like that of Andrew Rios, in which children age 2 or younger are prescribed psychiatric medications to address alarmingly violent or withdrawn behavior, are rising rapidly, data shows. Many doctors worry that these drugs, designed for adults and only warily accepted for certain school-age youngsters, are being used to treat children still in cribs despite no published research into their effectiveness and potential health risks for children so young.

Almost 20,000 prescriptions for risperidone (commonly known as Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and other antipsychotic medications were written in 2014 for children 2 and younger, a 50 percent jump from 13,000 just one year before, according to the prescription data company IMS Health. Prescriptions for the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) rose 23 percent in one year for that age group, to about 83,000.

The company’s data does not indicate how many children received these prescriptions (many children receive several prescriptions a year), but previous studies suggest that the number is at least 10,000. IMS Health researched the data at the request of The New York Times.

The data did not indicate the condition for which these prescriptions were written. Doctors are generally free to prescribe any medication for any purpose they see fit, so some drugs can occasionally be used in unproven and debatable ways. But the volume and rapid rise in psychotropics such as antipsychotics and antidepressants in children 2 and younger suggest a trend.

In interviews, a dozen experts in child psychiatry and neurology said that they had never heard of a child younger than 3 receiving such medication, and struggled to explain it. They presumed that parents and doctors, probably desperate and well meaning, were trying to alleviate thrashing temper tantrums — the kind that get children kicked out of day care — or an overly depressed disposition, like being strikingly inhibited, nonverbal or lethargic.

“People are doing their very best with the tools available to them,” said Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason, a pediatrician and child psychiatrist at Tulane University School of Medicine. “There’s a sense of desperation with families of children who are suffering, and the tool that most providers have is the prescription pad.”

But Dr. Gleason said that children with ages measured in months had brains whose neurological inner workings were developing too rapidly, and in still unknown ways, to risk using medications that can profoundly influence that growth. She said the medications had never been subject to formal clinical trials in infants and toddlers largely because of those dangers.

“There are not studies,” Dr. Gleason said, “and I’m not pushing for them.”

Dr. Martin Drell, former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, said he was “hard-pressed to figure out what the rationale would be” for the prescriptions. Similarly taken aback, some experts wondered if the medicine was never actually consumed by the child, or if it was issued in the name of a child covered by Medicaid but in fact taken by an ill parent who was uninsured.

“But where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” Dr. Drell said. “For the protection of kids, we should evaluate this. We should identify who these cases are. Maybe it’s not 10,000, but I’ll be unhappy if it’s even in the hundreds.”

Most experts suspected that the trend of medicating younger and younger children for suspected psychiatric disorders was trickling down to very young children. Last year, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that health care providers had given a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder to at least 10,000 children age 2 or 3 and then prescribed medications such as Adderall outside American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines.

“I think you simply cannot make anything close to a diagnosis of these types of disorders in children of that age,” said Dr. Ed Tronick, a professor of developmental and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “There’s this very narrow range of what people think the prototype child should look like. Deviations from that lead them to seek out interventions like these. I think it’s just nuts.”

Prozac is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for depression in children 8 and older and for obsessive compulsive disorder in those age 7 and older. Most antipsychotics, which treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are indicated only for children 10 and older. Risperdal is approved for children as young as 5, but only for irritability associated with autism.

Some other psychiatric medications, such as the antianxiety drugs Valium or Klonopin, are widely accepted to control intractable seizures in the very young. Although their effects on the young brain remain unknown, stopping a child’s seizure warrants their occasional one-time use, said Dr. Amy R. Brooks-Kayal, the head of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital Colorado and president of the American Epilepsy Society.Antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, however, have no established use in young people beyond tempering chronically disruptive behavior, experts maintained, suggesting that the drugs were probably used for that purpose.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Academy of Neurology have no guidelines or position statements regarding use of antidepressants and antipsychotics in children younger than 3.

Finding specific examples of such children taking the drugs can be difficult, because of family privacy concerns or because the practice remains controversial. IMS Health records but does not release the names of prescribing physicians.

Mrs. Rios said that after Andrew began taking the epilepsy medication felbamate, he became strikingly erratic and aggressive: He pushed his siblings down and destroyed toys. She said that Andrew’s neurologist, at Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Dr. Lily Tran, then prescribed Risperdal, medication that can temper severe mood swings in older children.

Andrew took the medication for four months before his mother decided it was causing harmful side effects — behavior he had never shown before — and took him off it. “Everything became worse,” Mrs. Rios said.

Dr. Tran declined an interview request.

The use of Risperdal for children has been hotly debated among child psychiatrists, with some experts — many financially backed by the pharmaceutical industry — citing positive effects among suffering young people, and others criticizing their use as shortsighted responses to complex problems.

“There are behavioral ways of working with the problems rather than medication,” said Dr. Tronick, who runs a program that teaches health care providers to assist families with troubled children. “What is generating such fear and anger and withdrawal in the child? What is frustrating or causing stress in the parent? These are the things that have to be explored. But that takes time and money.”

Many experts say that the rise in the use of all psychotropics in children of all ages derives from the scarcity of child psychiatrists — only 8,350 practice in the United States, many of them with long waiting lists and higher cost than a family’s established pediatrician. Those pediatricians receive little training in child psychiatry but are then asked to practice it.



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5) San Francisco Police Chief Faces Calls for Resignation After Fatal Shooting
By

San Francisco has become the latest city where protesters are demanding the resignation of the police chief after the death of a young black man at the hands of the police.

Similar calls have been made by activists in Ferguson, Mo., Minneapolis, Baltimore and Chicago after deaths in those cities.

“Its universal. Ferguson is here,” the Rev. Amos C. Brown, president of the San Francisco N.A.A.C.P., said in a phone interview Thursday. “It’s all over this country. It’s time this country recognize it. ”

Protesters, outraged over the death last week of Mario Woods, 26, who was shot at least 15 times by police officers, spilled out of a packed hearing room in San Francisco’s City Hall on Wednesday, chanting “No justice, no peace.”

The protest temporarily shut down a meeting of the city’s police commission as the crowd called for Chief Greg Suhr to step down.

Mr. Woods was shot Dec. 2 after witnesses saw him shouting at people and mumbling to himself on a street in the Bayview neighborhood. A short time later, the police said, he stabbed a bystander in the arm.

Cellphone videos of the police response show a stooped Mr. Woods shuffling along a wall as at least seven officers surround him, yelling, with their guns drawn.

The police said Mr. Woods did not comply when told to put down a knife. Officers used pepper spray and a beanbag gun in an attempt to subdue him.

The videos show an officer step in front of Mr. Woods, who is walking away from the other officers, in an apparent attempt to stop him. Moments later, the officer fires at Mr. Woods, followed by shots from the other officers. Mr. Woods was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

Chief Suhr drew criticism when he told a meeting of about 100 people a few days after the shooting that the video showed that Mr. Woods was threatening the officer.

He said that the officer, “fearing for his safety,” had fired “in defense of himself, and the other four officers fired in defense of that officer,” according to The San Francisco Examiner.

At the meeting of the commission — a citizen panel appointed by the mayor to oversee police accountability — angry crowds filled the room and overflow rooms. Chief Suhr told the commission he had contacted other police departments to learn better practices, and intended to train officers in de-escalation techniques that could avoid future shootings.

He said he would also push for officers to be able to carry nonlethal stun guns, something San Francisco residents have repeatedly resisted.

But protesters say the chief has been slow to respond to concerns from black residents, and many want him to resign.

“The feeling in the community is very heated; it’s tense,” said Mr. Brown, who is also a pastor at a local Baptist church. “If the chief cannot re-establish trust, he needs to leave,” he said.




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6) John Trudell, Outspoken Advocate for American Indians, Is Dead at 69
By

John Trudell, whose outspokenness and charisma made him a leading advocate of Native American rights, and who channeled his message of righteous defiance into poetry and songwriting, died on Tuesday at his home in Santa Clara County, Calif. He was 69.The cause was cancer, said Cree Miller, the trustee of Mr. Trudell’s estate.

Mr. Trudell, a Santee Dakota, was national chairman of the American Indian Movement during much of the 1970s, a turbulent stretch in the relationship between Native American activists and the federal government.

His tenure began after the episode at Wounded Knee, S.D., where, in February 1973, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge reservation, incensed by tribal corruption, and American Indian Movement activists, protesting the government’s treatment of their people, occupied the town in a 71-day standoff with federal marshals and F.B.I. agents.

Three men — Bob Robideau, Darelle Butler and Leonard Peltier — were tried in the killing of two agents during a confrontation in Oglala, S.D., two years later.

Mr. Trudell — “the most eloquent speaker in the Movement,” as Peter Matthiessen wrote in “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,” his 1983 book about the siege — held community meetings in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the trial of Mr. Robideau and Mr. Butler was held, and he testified for the defense. The two men were acquitted. Mr. Peltier, tried later, was convicted and remains in prison.

But well before that, Mr. Trudell had already made a name for himself as an effective champion of his people, decrying the indignities they had suffered for more than a century at the hands of the American government.

In November 1972, he was among the leaders of a group that occupied the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, demanding the enforcement of historical treaties that granted Native Americans sovereignty over their land.

Perhaps most famously, in 1969, he joined an occupation of Alcatraz Island, home of the former prison in San Francisco Bay, arguing that the terms of an old treaty gave American Indians the right to unused federal land.

The occupiers, calling themselves Indians of All Tribes, held the island for 19 months, demanding that they be given the right to develop it as a cultural and education center. Mr. Trudell, then in his 20s, emerged as the group’s spokesman, frequently delivering a broadcast called “Radio Free Alcatraz” and speaking at news conferences.

Rejecting a government proposal that the island be turned into a park with “maximum Indian qualities,” Mr. Trudell said: “We will no longer be museum pieces, tourist attractions and politicians’ playthings. There will be no park on this island because it changes the whole meaning of what we are here for.”

The F.B.I. compiled a substantial file on him.

In 1979, Mr. Trudell burned an American flag on the steps of the F.B.I. building in Washington, saying that the flag had been desecrated by the government’s behavior toward American Indians and other minorities, and that burning was the appropriate way to dispose of a desecrated flag.

The next day, his home in Nevada burned to the ground. The fire killed his pregnant wife, Tina Manning, who was also an activist, as well as their three children and Ms. Manning’s mother.

An investigation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs found that the fire was an accident. But some viewed the inquiry as perfunctory, and its findings were questioned by an investigator hired by Mr. Trudell, who suspected the fire had been deliberately set.

“I don’t want to say that the F.B.I. kills innocent kids and children,” Lindsey Manning, a cousin of Tina Manning, said in “Trudell,” an acclaimed 2005 documentary film by Heather Rae. “I just don’t want to say that. But you never know. You never know.”

The film asserted that the cause of the fire had never been established.

John Francis Trudell was born in Omaha on Feb. 15, 1946, and grew up partly there and partly on a reservation near the South Dakota border. His father, Clifford Trudell, was a Santee Dakota; his mother, the former Ricarda Almanza, was of Mexican-Indian descent. She died when John was a boy.

Mr. Trudell dropped out of high school and served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Afterward, he moved to Southern California, where he studied radio and communications at a community college before joining the Indians of All Tribes group on Alcatraz.

Mr. Trudell began to distance himself from the American Indian Movement after the fire at his house, and in the 1980s, he turned to writing. He published several volumes of poetry, including “Stickman” and “Lines From a Mined Mind,” often writing in protest of corporate power and government oppression. He also recorded spoken-word albums accompanied by traditional Native American music as well as contemporary pop. His latest album, “Wazi’s Dream,” was released this year.

The recordings earned him admirers in the music world, including Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and Kris Kristofferson.

Mr. Trudell also acted in feature films, including “Thunderheart” (1992), with Sam Shepard and Val Kilmer, in which he played a character drawn from a crucial figure in the events leading to Wounded Knee; and “Smoke Signals” (1998), based on Sherman Alexie’s poignantly comic novel about growing up on a reservation.

Mr. Trudell’s first marriage, to Fenicia Ordonez, ended in divorce. He is survived by a brother, Roger, and several children and grandchildren. Ms. Miller, his estate’s trustee, declined to say specifically where Mr. Trudell lived in Santa Clara County.

“If this is the land of the free,” Mr. Trudell said during the occupation of Alcatraz, summarizing the issue that would propel his life and work from then on, “we want to know why we don’t have the respect and dignity that all free men are accorded by other free men.”




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7) Muhammad Ali Defends Islam After Trump’s Proposal to Bar Foreign Muslims
By KATIE ROGERS and VICTOR MATHER

Muhammad Ali, one of the most famous athletes in American history and a convert to Islam in the 1960s, returned to the public spotlight Wednesday night to say that political leaders had a responsibility to foster understanding about his religion.His comments came after Donald J. Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, stoked anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States by, among other things, suggesting that foreign Muslims be barred from traveling to the country. Trump has also questioned President Obama’s affirmation that Muslim Americans are some of the nation’s sports heroes.

In a statement delivered to NBC, Ali did not speak about Trump directly but addressed his message to “Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States.”

“We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda,” Ali said in the statement. “They have alienated many from learning about Islam.”In February 1964, shortly after winning the heavyweight title — and before fully converting and changing his name from Cassius Clay — Ali, speaking to reporters, defended his choice to participate in the Nation of Islam movement.“I go to a black Muslim meeting and what do I see? I see that there’s no smoking and no drinking and their women wear dresses down to the floor,” Ali said at the time. “And then I come out on the street and you tell me I shouldn’t go in there. Well, there must be something in there if you don’t want me to go in there.”

American Muslims have often faced bumpy paths in sports. Ali stoked enormous controversy in 1967 when he said he would refuse to serve in the Army because of his Muslim beliefs. One of his remarks — “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” — became famous in the 1960s.

After his refusal to join the military, he was stripped of the world heavyweight title and lost his boxing license in New York. He was sentenced to five years in jail and was vilified by many fans.

“He became a Muslim in 1964 after defeating Sonny Liston for the title,” Morton Susman, a United States attorney, said at the time. “In my opinion, his trouble started with that — this tragedy and the loss of his title can be traced to that.”

Ali’s case went to the Supreme Court, which in 1971 reversed his conviction and agreed that he was deserving of conscientious objector status. After three years out of the ring, he returned to fighting and eventually regained his title.

The basketball player Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf became a flash point for controversy in 1996 when, playing for the Denver Nuggets, he declined to stand for the national anthem, citing American military aggression around the world.

“You can’t be for God and for oppression,” he said. “It’s clear in the Quran: Islam is the only way. I don’t criticize those who stand, so don’t criticize me for sitting. I won’t waver from my decision.”

After a brief suspension, he worked out a compromise that he would stand during the anthem but look downward and recite a Muslim prayer.

But Ali has long been the most visible Muslim athlete in the United States, even more so since Islam has become a political issue.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Ali appeared on a celebrity telethon to defend his religion. He pleaded for acceptance and addressed the threat of terrorism, saying that terrorists killing in the name of Islam were wrong.

“People recognize me for being a boxer and a man of truth,” he said. “I wouldn’t be here to represent Islam if it was really like the terrorists make us look.”

Fourteen years later, Ali’s statement echoed his original comments.

“Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is,” he said in his statement.

In the days since Trump questioned Obama’s statement that Muslims were among America’s sporting heroes, people responded on the Internet by compiling lists of Muslim athletes. The list included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a six-time N.B.A. champion who on Wednesday suggested on Time.com that Trump’s comments were more in line with Islamic State rhetoric than with a leading presidential candidate.

“Thus,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote, “Trump is ISIS’s greatest triumph: the perfect Manchurian Candidate who, instead of offering specific and realistic policies, preys on the fears of the public, doing ISIS’s job for them.”



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8) North Carolina: Officers on Leave After Man’s Death in Custody
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



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9) Doctors Without Borders Raises Death Toll in Kunduz Strike to 42
By

KABUL, Afghanistan — The number of those killed in an American airstrike that destroyed the Doctors Without Borders hospital in the northern city of Kunduz was much higher than previously thought, the medical organization announced Saturday.The death toll “has been confirmed to be at least 42 people,” the group, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, said in a news release. Previously, the United States military and the United Nations had put the death toll at 30.

In a separate statement issued on Saturday, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan announced the preliminary findings of its own investigation into civilian casualties in Kunduz, which was overrun by the Taliban at the end of September, and was the scene of bitter fighting for more than two weeks until the insurgents were forced out, purportedly by Afghan forces but with substantial help from American Special Operations forces and heavy American airstrikes.

According to the figures compiled by the United Nations, 289 civilians were killed from Sept. 28 to Oct. 13 in the Kunduz fighting, and 559 were wounded. “The vast majority of these casualties resulted from ground fighting that could not be attributed solely to one party,” the statement said.

Doctors Without Borders said the revised death toll was arrived at after an exhaustive investigation by the organization that included combing through the rubble of the hospital to find further human remains, interviewing family members of missing victims and crosschecking with other hospitals. The group said it concluded that the death toll was “at least 42 people”: 14 staff members, 24 patients and four relatives of patients.

“Although determining the death toll has been extremely difficult in the chaos of the facility’s wreckage following the attack, extensive efforts have been undertaken to identify those who have died,” the group’s statement said. “As well, additional human remains had been found in the hospital rubble over the course of the past two months.”

The United States military conceded, after an internal investigation, that the Oct. 3 airstrikes on the hospital were a mistake. It blamed human error and mechanical and systems failures, and it said that action would be taken against an unspecified number of American servicemen. However, the military did not release the report of the investigation, and so far there has been no announcement of what disciplinary or other actions, if any, have been being taken against those deemed culpable.

Doctors Without Borders has demanded an international investigation of the airstrikes that would be carried out under the Geneva Conventions, asserting that the military’s own investigation would inevitably be biased and lack credibility. But such an investigation could only take place if both Afghanistan and the United States consented to it.

Senior Afghan officials have continued to insist, in the absence of any credible evidence and even in contradiction of the United States military’s findings, that the hospital had been used by the Taliban during the fighting. The United States has so far declined to support an independent inquiry.

On Wednesday, Doctors Without Borders presented a petition to the White House signed by 547,000 people calling on President Obama to agree to the independent investigation. “Only a full accounting by an independent, international body can restore our confidence in the commitments of the United States to uphold the laws of war, which prohibit such attacks on hospitals in the strongest terms,” said Jason Cone, the group’s executive director in the United States.

The aerial bombardment by both American and Afghan forces killed at least nine other civilians, in addition to those killed at the hospital, according to the United Nations report, which did not incorporate the latest death toll announced by Doctors Without Borders. Even with the United Nations’ s lower figures, more than a tenth of all civilians killed in Kunduz during that period of fighting died in the hospital attack.

“This event was utterly tragic, inexcusable, and possibly even criminal,” Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations human rights commissioner, has said.

The United Nations’ report was by comparison only mildly critical of the United States military, saying that it had not responded to requests for information about what had happened. Instead, it was told by the military that information would come from various ongoing internal inquiries. The United Nations noted that so far, the complete reports of those investigations had not been made public.

In a separate development, elite Afghan police units on Saturday brought to an end an overnight siege of a residential annex to a building adjoining the Spanish Embassy in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul, killing the last of three attackers.

Seven people were killed, in addition to the three attackers, and at least seven others were wounded, Afghan officials said. Four Afghan police officers, two foreign citizens and an Afghan electrician who worked at the guesthouse were killed, said Fraidoon Obaidy, head of criminal investigation for the Kabul police.

The two foreigners killed were Spanish police officers, according to a statement from the Spanish Interior Ministry. It was the most deadly attack on a Western embassy here in many years.

It took so long to subdue the Taliban attackers, who entered the building after detonating a car bomb, because the authorities wanted to take care to minimize civilian casualties, said Abdul Basiur Mujahed, a spokesman for the Kabul police.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the insurgents, said on his Twitter account, “A guesthouse of invaders was targeted.”

Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.


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10) An Inmate Dies, and No One Is Punished
By and

DANNEMORA, N.Y. — Inmates who have served time at the Clinton Correctional Facility here tell of being taken aside by a sergeant soon after they arrive and given a warning: Cross the guards, and bad things can happen.And they do. Inmates describe being ambushed by guards and beaten, taunted with racial slurs, and kept out of sight, in solitary confinement, until the injuries inflicted on them have healed enough to avoid arousing suspicion.

One story in particular has been passed along over the last few years as a kind of parable of brutality and injustice on the cellblocks. Leonard Strickland was a prisoner with schizophrenia who got into an argument with guards, and ended up dead.

In the inmates’ telling, the guards got away with murder, ganging up on Mr. Strickland and beating him so viciously that he could barely move. The guards deny this, saying they acted only in self-defense and did what was necessary to subdue an out-of-control prisoner.But what came next is indisputable. In a security video obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Strickland is seen in handcuffs, barely conscious and being dragged along the floor by officers, while a prison nurse standing close by does nothing. Even as he lies face down on the floor, near death, guards can be heard shouting, “Stop resisting.”

By the time an ambulance arrived, medical records described Mr. Strickland’s body as cold to the touch and covered in cuts and bruises, with blood flowing from his ears.

The 2010 case fits a troubling pattern of savage beatings by corrections officers at prisons across New York State and a department that rarely holds anyone accountable, issues that have been highlighted in a series of articles over the past year by The Times and The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization.

Mr. Strickland’s death was only briefly noted in local newspapers, and probably would have been forgotten by all but the officers and inmates. But the escape of two murderers from Clinton in June attracted extraordinary attention to the maximum-security prison, and details about its inner workings, long held secret, have started to reach outsiders.

Investigations by The Times uncovered the serious security lapses that made the escape possible, as well as beatings by guards during the interrogations that followed. State officials have said they are investigating the abuse claims, but there is little to indicate any results will come of it.

The internal affairs unit of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision has long been mired in dysfunction. Its former director of operations is awaiting trial on charges of sexually harassing several subordinates.

Officials with the State Police and the local district attorney’s office could not recall the last time charges had been brought against an officer at Clinton for excessive force, if ever, though inmates have filed scores of brutality lawsuits in recent years. The United States attorney for the Northern District of New York, which has jurisdiction over nearly half of the state’s 54 prisons, has not brought a brutality case involving a state corrections officer in at least five years, according to a spokesman.

In the Strickland case, the police and the district attorney concluded there had been no criminal wrongdoing, though two state prison watchdog agencies, the State Commission of Correction and the Commission on Quality Care and Advocacy for Persons With Disabilities, issued highly critical reports documenting numerous misleading and false statements by officers.

The dozen or so officers and medical personnel identified in the investigations either still work at Clinton or other state prisons, or were promoted or retired with full benefits. In the years since the Strickland case, several of them have again been accused of brutality by inmates.

The Times was able to piece together the story behind Mr. Strickland’s death by reviewing internal corrections department reports, log book entries and statements by the officers involved, along with the autopsy report and records by paramedics and emergency room doctors. Separately, six inmate witnesses were tracked down and interviewed at four prisons around the state.

The Times was also able to obtain a copy of a hand-held security video recorded by an officer that documented the last 45 minutes of Mr. Strickland’s life. It was made public last month, after the newspaper petitioned the court and argued for its release in the course of a lawsuit filed by the Strickland family. Usually these suits are dismissed or settled before they reach trial. But the family’s decision to push ahead with the case compelled the officers involved to testify in court several weeks ago, and made public evidence that would normally be off limits.

Accountability is typically elusive in these kinds of cases. Officers rarely speak up about wrongdoing for fear of reprisals from their fellow guards and will lie to protect them, current and former corrections officials said. They are also shielded by a union that even high-ranking members of the corrections department acknowledge holds tremendous sway over what goes on inside the prisons.

A corrections department spokesman said officials could not comment on the Strickland case because of the pending litigation, and the acting commissioner, Anthony J. Annucci, declined a request for an interview.

At a news conference in September, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo dismissed the possibility that officer brutality in the state prison system was a serious problem, suggesting that force is sometimes necessary to keep order. “They have to make sure they get a certain amount of respect in the job, otherwise they get hurt,” Mr. Cuomo said.
The Bottom of the Stairs

Among the state’s 17 maximum security prisons, Clinton has a reputation for being particularly violent. While racial tension is a fact of life in many prisons, inmates say it is especially bad at Clinton, located in this rural area not far from the Canadian border. The prison is the biggest local employer and pays a good wage by regional standards. All but a few of the 950 guards, including those involved in the altercation with Mr. Strickland, are white.

A majority of the inmates, like Mr. Strickland, are black and come from New York City, 300 miles to the south; they say they face a constant barrage of racial slurs.

Two years before Mr. Strickland’s death, another black inmate, Bradley Ceasar, died under similar circumstances.

Mr. Ceasar, 52, who was developmentally disabled, got into a confrontation with guards on Aug. 11, 2008, and within hours was dead. Officers and a nurse ignored his repeated pleas for help and provided no medical care, investigators said. An autopsy later determined that his ribs had been so badly broken that his lungs could not inflate properly, and he suffocated.

The department determined that the officers’ actions were appropriate, and in the end, the only person disciplined was a prison nurse, Beth Farnan, who was fined $500. She remains employed at Clinton.

Like Mr. Ceasar, Mr. Strickland was not known as a violent inmate. While many of the prisoners at Clinton are serving sentences for murder, rape and other brutal crimes, Mr. Strickland had been convicted of criminal possession of a weapon.

He had not committed a serious disciplinary infraction during his previous four and a half years in prison, according to state records. At the trial, Sgt. Betsy Whelden-Berglund said that for six months in 2009 she had overseen the cellblock where he was housed and had had no problems with him.

Mr. Strickland, however, did have a history of behaving erratically. By summer 2010, he had stopped taking medication for his schizophrenia, according to prison records. At various times, his mother, Selena Strickland, said, he claimed that he had had a baby, that he was God, that he was a millionaire and that he was married to Beyoncé. That August, when his mother last visited him, she said, “he was talking out of his head.”

On the morning of Oct. 3, 2010, the 44-year-old Mr. Strickland was upset that a guard had confiscated a plastic hand mirror, according to several accounts. Not long after returning to the cellblock from breakfast, he got into a disagreement with an officer.

From this point on, the stories told by guards and inmate witnesses diverge widely.

In the guards’ version, described at trial, Mr. Strickland argued with an officer, Casey Strong, after being ordered to gather his possessions and go downstairs to be locked into a new cell.

Among inmates, Officer Strong was considered trouble. He had a history of violent confrontations. Over an eight-year period he had been injured during fights with inmates and gone on disability leave three times, he testified at the November trial. He said that he had retired last summer, at 36, and was unemployed and collecting disability insurance.

Officer Strong asserted in his trial testimony that Mr. Strickland punched him in the shoulder during the dispute. To defend himself, Officer Strong said, he punched Mr. Strickland twice in the head and once in the chest. He said he grabbed the inmate in a bear hug, and they struggled and both fell down the concrete stairs.

Officer Strong was able to stop himself halfway down, he said, but Mr. Strickland fell to the bottom. Despite the fall, several officers said, Mr. Strickland was able to jump to his feet and start fighting with a second guard, Cory Liberty. According to the court testimony, Officer Liberty then punched Mr. Strickland several times, while Officer Strong used his baton to hit him in the back and legs repeatedly.

By then nearly two dozen officers, responding to a call for backup, had surrounded Mr. Strickland.

And still he continued to “struggle violently,” Officer Liberty contended. Only when four guards grabbed a limb each and pinned him to the ground was he finally subdued, several testified.

A prison accident report filed shortly after the episode listed only minor injuries to the officers, mostly bruises and pulled muscles. The two guards who had repeatedly punched Mr. Strickland also had swollen right hands. (Another officer later testified at trial that she had suffered broken ribs, but this was not mentioned in medical documents.)

The officers said Mr. Strickland had no visible injuries. Nor, they said, did he ever complain about being hurt.

In interviews, inmates said the guards were lying.

Three — Kevin Goode, Walter Maddox and Frank Povoski — said they witnessed Mr. Strickland being pushed, not falling, down the stairs. And three — Mr. Goode, Mr. Povoski and another inmate who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution — said they saw him lying, badly injured, at the bottom. Two said that after being beaten by several guards, he was dragged away screaming.

Accounts by prisoners are often viewed skeptically. But the six were all interviewed separately; five were serving time in four different prisons and the sixth had been released. Their versions differed in some details. One said the events unfolded after they came back from breakfast; another said it was after recreation. One prisoner said Mr. Strickland was handcuffed before he was pushed down the stairs; another said it was after.

But the basic story the men told was the same: Mr. Strickland was pushed down a flight of stairs, and then beaten nearly to death by a large group of guards.

Mr. Maddox, whose cell was on the same tier as Mr. Strickland’s, watched events unfold from about 25 feet away, he said. He recalled Mr. Strickland’s making a sound as though he was terrified when he was shoved down the stairs.

Mr. Goode was head porter on the cellblock, and he said he was buffing the floor at the foot of the stairway that morning. He said that before Mr. Strickland was pushed, an officer yelled a racial slur. As Mr. Strickland fell downward, Mr. Goode said, his skull hit the concrete steps several times. At the bottom he pulled himself into a tight fetal position, as about 10 officers took turns kicking him in the head and the ribs, Mr. Goode said.

They “beat this kid to zero,” he said.

Mr. Povoski, who watched from a floor above, said Mr. Strickland lay so still he assumed he was dead.
‘Is He Breathing?’

After a physical encounter with guards, inmates, as a matter of standard practice, are taken to the prison emergency room to be examined.

When Mr. Strickland arrived, the officers said, he resisted them, disobeying their orders, refusing to stand or walk, and repeatedly kicking them. They testified that they responded professionally, transporting Mr. Strickland from the prison emergency room to the mental health ward, and providing appropriate first aid.

The officers’ sworn statements bear little resemblance to the images captured that morning on the 45-minute video.

Investigators from the commissions of both correction and quality care reviewed the video and wrote reports that were highly critical of the guards’ response, as well as the medical care provided by the prison nurse. “Strickland did not resist the officers, nor was he out of control,” the quality care commission report said.

As the video begins, Mr. Strickland is seen wearing white boxer shorts and a brown T-shirt, torn across his left shoulder. A large, purplish bruise is visible. He is cuffed from behind and pressed against a cinder block wall by two officers, Terry James and Kevin Trombley.

“Inmate Strickland, you’re going to comply with a strip frisk, do you understand me?” said Sgt. Steven Sweeney, who was supervising.

Mr. Strickland looks unstable on his feet. His head is down. Over the next few minutes, he appears to grow weaker, at one point slumping over and trying to hold his head up with his right arm. It seems only the guards are keeping him from falling over.

Then he slumps to the floor.

The guards standing around him continue shouting throughout. “Stop resisting.” “Don’t push back.” “He’s still fighting.”

The lawyer for the Strickland family, John Seebold, contended that at this point in the video the officers were acting as if he was resisting to justify their brutal treatment of him earlier.

After five minutes, while Mr. Strickland seems barely conscious, the officers decide to take him upstairs to the mental health ward and give him an injection to calm him down.

There is a gurney a few feet away, but Officers James and Trombley grab Mr. Strickland by his arms, which are still handcuffed, and lift them until they are hyperextended behind his head. Then they drag him out of the room. (In Sergeant Sweeney’s subsequent report, he wrote, “I directed the officers to assist him to the elevator using professional techniques.”)

They drag him onto the elevator, take it to the third floor, then drag him off, dropping him face down in a hallway, still handcuffed. (“I again directed staff to assist inmate off the elevator in which staff complied,” Sergeant Sweeney wrote.)

While Mr. Strickland is left lying on the ground for more than two minutes, motionless, several officers step over him.

At 9 minutes 15 seconds into the video, someone is heard asking, “Is he breathing?”

For the next 35 minutes, as nurses and officers perform CPR, Mr. Strickland is unconscious and unmoving, yet remains handcuffed. (Asked at trial why the handcuffs were not removed, Sergeant Sweeney answered, “Medical’s involved, but he’s still a disciplinary problem for me.”)

The video concludes at 10:15 a.m., as Mr. Strickland is loaded into the back of an ambulance and the doors close behind him.
Still Handcuffed

State investigators were scathing in their assessment of the medical response by the prison nurse, Robert Fitzgerald. A report by the State Commission of Correction said Mr. Fitzgerald “showed complete disregard of the obvious signs of a nonresponsive inmate.”

On the video, Mr. Fitzgerald is seen standing nearby and doing nothing as Mr. Strickland collapses onto the emergency room floor, and is dragged to the elevator.

Instead of riding in the elevator along with the officers to provide care for Mr. Strickland, Mr. Fitzgerald took the stairs. Again he is seen on the video off to the side, watching for nearly three minutes while Mr. Strickland lies motionless in the hallway of the mental health clinic, near death.

When asked during a deposition why he did not intervene sooner, Mr. Fitzgerald said he had to wait for Sergeant Sweeney to determine that the inmate was no longer a safety risk.

But when Sergeant Sweeney was asked during the trial why it had taken him so long to give Mr. Fitzgerald permission to treat the inmate, he said that the decision on when to intervene was Mr. Fitzgerald’s.

“Medical should have did something,” the sergeant testified.

Thirty-one minutes into the video, Mr. Fitzgerald can be heard complimenting an officer administering CPR. “You’re doing great,” the nurse says.

In reality, those present were doing a poor job, according to the medical experts who testified for the plaintiff and the defense at the trial. Because Mr. Strickland was handcuffed from behind the entire time, his back was not flat against the floor, compromising the effectiveness of the CPR, both doctors testified. And instead of continuously applying CPR, the staff took numerous breaks.

Not until the ambulance crew arrived, 30 minutes after Mr. Fitzgerald first noted that Mr. Strickland had stopped breathing, did he suggest removing the handcuffs.

“Is there any way we can get those cuffs off the back of him?” Mr. Fitzgerald asked an ambulance worker.

“I don’t think he’s going to go anywhere,” she answered.

The ambulance arrived at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital at 10:40 a.m., and at 10:45 Mr. Strickland was formally pronounced dead.
A Curious Diagnosis

The medical report by the ambulance crew detailed extensive injuries: bruises all over Mr. Strickland’s body, including his forehead, head, left cheek and shoulders; a missing tooth on the upper left side of his mouth; blood and clear fluid coming from his ears; bloody abrasions on both knees; and markings suggesting that something may have been placed around his neck.

The autopsy by the county coroner concluded that Mr. Strickland had died of cardiorespiratory arrest due to cardiac ischemia, meaning his heart could not get sufficient oxygen and ceased to function.

At the trial, the medical expert for the Strickland family, Dr. Alan Schechter, an emergency room physician at Montefiore Medical Center, testified that based on the autopsy results he believed Mr. Strickland died when his heart gave out from “stress induced by the altercation.”

“If he did not have the stressful events, he would not have had a heart attack,” said Dr. Schechter, who handles quality care reviews of emergency room deaths at Montefiore.

Had Mr. Strickland received the proper medical care, the doctor testified, “more likely than not he would have survived.”

Dr. Donald Doynow, an attending physician in emergency medicine at St. Peters Hospital in Albany, was the medical expert for the state. He testified that the coroner’s autopsy results were incorrect, and that the inmate had instead died from a condition known as Excited Delirium Syndrome.

It is a controversial diagnosis, viewed with skepticism by many in the medical profession. The syndrome is not listed in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, nor is it recognized by the American Medical Association or the American Psychological Association.

It is, however, recognized by the American College of Emergency Physicians.

Dr. Doynow said studies had found that among the groups most vulnerable to Excited Delirium Syndrome were males who suffered from mental illness and stopped taking their medication. One of the most prominent symptoms, he said, is the loss of the ability to feel pain, which could explain how a prisoner might be able to repeatedly resist the physical restraints applied by corrections officers.

Dr. Doynow said the syndrome could bring about cardiac arrest.

When pressed about the syndrome, Dr. Doynow, who has been practicing medicine since 1988, testified that he himself had never seen a case of it.
Seeking Answers

At Clinton there is a committee of inmates designated to meet regularly with the prison management team as well as uniformed officers, to discuss issues of concern. Typically, the topics might include the handling of proceeds from bottle returns, or the distribution of stamps.

Not at the meeting held on Nov. 22, 2010. Mr. Strickland’s death, and brutality at the prison, were at the top of the inmates’ agenda.

Committee members complained that violence by the guards was out of hand. They asked that the administration provide them with a copy of the Strickland autopsy report and requested an investigation into the alleged beating of an inmate, Thomas Murphy, who they said had been badly injured 20 minutes before Mr. Strickland, by guards “wearing steel toe boots.”

Among the administrators present at the meeting were the prison’s superintendent, Thomas LaValley, and two of his deputies, along with Sergeant Sweeney.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the prison administrators responded that “all allegations of abuse are investigated,” and “when the autopsy is completed it will be public knowledge.”

Mr. Povoski, who was vice president of the inmates’ committee at the time, said the autopsy was never received and brutality at the prison continued, unabated.
A Brutal Legacy

In the years since, several officers involved in the Strickland case have been named in lawsuits filed by other inmates alleging brutality.

A suit filed last year by one inmate, Moshe Cinque Canty, claimed that a group of officers, including Sergeant Sweeney, handcuffed him, beat him and dragged him around by his dreadlocks. The officers shouted racial slurs, the suit claims. One guard yelled for the officers to pull the dreadlocks from Mr. Canty’s head and “choke the nigger with them,” the suit says.

According to Mr. Canty, who is serving time for attempted murder and robbery, when the beating was over Sergeant Sweeney told the others to straighten up their clothes, saying, “We have to look professional.”

In a legal filing, the officers denied all of Mr. Canty’s accusations.

Another pending suit from last year names Sergeant Sweeney along with Kevin Trombley, the officer who handcuffed Mr. Strickland and helped drag him to the elevator.

Edwin Banks, who is serving time for drug possession, said in the suit that Officer Trombley had repeatedly harassed him about his dreadlocks. One morning, after breakfast, according to Mr. Banks, Officer Trombley, Sergeant Sweeney and others severely beat him. Mr. Banks claimed that the sergeant then had the guards carry him by his limbs to the infirmary, with one officer grabbing his shirt collar so tightly that he passed out.

Lawyers for the officers have not yet filed a response to the accusations.

In each of these cases, inmates said they had filed grievances with the prison administration and written letters to Albany, including to the governor. Nothing came of them.

Within two weeks of Mr. Strickland’s death, several inmates said, they were questioned by the State Police and internal affairs investigators with the corrections department. Most said they did not know the names of the officers involved but would have been able to make identifications if they saw them again.

The Times has interviewed more than a dozen inmate witnesses in connection with several brutality cases in recent months, and not one had been shown photos of suspect officers by state investigators, they said.

Partly because the video evidence in the Strickland case was so compelling, investigators with the corrections department referred the case to the State Bureau of Labor Relations for possible departmental disciplinary action.

Nothing happened. The state agency that oversees licensing of medical professionals did not pursue the matter either.

The State Police concluded “that no criminal conduct of others contributed” to the death, and the Clinton County district attorney declined to present the case to a grand jury.

The officers and the nurse involved either continue to work for the corrections department or have retired with their full pensions. At the trial, Sergeant Sweeney said he left the department last May after 33 years of service, and is now working as a rural mail carrier.

The civil case is not likely to be resolved any time soon. Unless the parties settle first, the judge is expected to take up to a year to render his decision.

At a hearing this month in Albany, Daniel O’Donnell, the chairman of the State Assembly prisons committee, called for the creation of an independent oversight agency to monitor the state prison system. The meeting was adjourned, until an unspecified date, because the corrections department declined to testify.

During the civil trial, Mr. Strickland’s mother, a former nursing home aide who is 70 years old, testified that she used to try to make the six-hour bus trip from Brooklyn to visit her son once a month, but since he died she had moved to Georgia.

She was asked how she learned of her son’s death. She said a prison chaplain had called a minister that he knew in Brooklyn, who came to her house. She said that the next day, she phoned a counselor at Clinton to ask if there was any information about how her son had died. The counselor, she said, told her “no, because it was under investigation.”

There was no funeral, Mrs. Strickland told the court. “I had lack of funds.”

According to the death certificate, her son was buried on Oct. 15, 2010, in the Clinton Correctional Cemetery, a mile outside the prison wall.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

 

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11) Indianapolis Police Kill Man Who Had Knife
By LIAM STACK

Indianapolis police officers shot and killed a man on Saturday after he lunged at an officer with a knife following an unsuccessful effort to subdue him using nonlethal force, the department said in a statement.

The killing of the man, whose identity had not been released, was met with anger by some residents in the neighborhood, who briefly confronted police officers and smashed the windshield of a police car, The Indianapolis Star reported.

The statement from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said officers responding to a report of a suicidal person shortly before 11:30 a.m. Saturday found a knife-wielding man who ignored orders to drop his weapon.

They used a Taser but it “appeared to have no effect on him,” according to the statement. An officer then tackled the man but was unable to wrestle the knife from his hands. At that point, two officers fired at the man. Emergency medical workers pronounced him dead at the scene.

People who had gathered near where the shooting took place, which appeared in a cellphone video shot by a bystander to be a residential neighborhood, responded angrily to the shooting, cursing and screaming at police officers and smashing the windshield of a police car after a brief confrontation.

Some people in the crowd appeared to have known the man.

“He had a mental illness,” one person in the crowd shouted, according to The Star.

The police department said the officers involved in Saturday’s shooting had been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation.

Lt. Richard Riddle, a spokesman for the police department, defended the officers’ decision to use lethal force, saying they “had no other choice.”

“We have homicides, we have stabbings, we have serious violent offenses that occur daily in this city via the use of a knife,” Lieutenant Riddle said at a news conference. “So a knife is deemed to be a deadly weapon in any vernacular and our officers were confronted with an individual who was armed with a knife and who refused to drop it.”

He estimated there had been 20 officer-involved shootings in the city so far in 2015, including nine or 10 fatalities.


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12) California: Civil Rights Suit Filed Over Man Shot to Death by Police
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



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12) LA Sheriff's Office Responds to Video of Deputies Shooting Man As He Crawls Away
By Tess Owen
December 13, 2015
https://news.vice.com/article/lynwood-police-shooting-nicholas-robertson-los-angeles-county-sheriff?utm_source=vicenewsemail

Police in Southern California are facing scrutiny after dramatic video footage emerged that appears to show two white officers repeatedly shooting a black man as he attempted to crawl away from them.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office held a press conference on Sunday afternoon to address the video and shooting incident, which occurred Saturday morning outside a gas station in Lynwood, about 15 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The sheriff's office identified the victim as Nicholas Robertson, 28, from Compton. He was reportedly a father of three.

The deputies involved in the shooting initially said that Robertson was armed and refused to drop his weapon, but video recorded by a bystander in a building across the street seems to contradict those claims. It appears to show two officers standing a short distance away from Robertson as he walks away from them with his back turned. The officers suddenly open fire and continue shooting as Robertson falls to the ground and attempts to crawl away.

The footage has prompted outrage in a city that is already sore from a number of controversial officer-involved shootings over the last two years. Crowds of protesters gathered at the site of the incident on Saturday night.

Ahead of Sunday's press conference on the shooting, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell urged the public to avoid drawing conclusions about the incident based on what the video shows.

"In this modern age of cellphone video and instant analysis on the Internet, I would ask that we keep in mind that a thorough and comprehensive investigation is detailed and time-intensive," McDonnell said in a statement "It will involve not just one source of information but numerous sources, potentially including multiple videos, physical evidence and eyewitness accounts."

Speaking at Sunday's press conference, Captain Steve Katz of the sheriff's office said that deputies received numerous reports before 11am on Saturday of an individual toting a handgun in the vicinity of a busy intersection in Lynwood, and that shots were fired in the area around that time. Katz shared video footage and photographs from a business overlooking the intersection by the gas station that he said showed Robertson "behaving erratically" and carrying a handgun.

Katz said Robertson was "yelling out expletives," and that a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun was found at the scene of the incident. It wasn't loaded, Katz said, but Robertson had additional rounds on his person. Katz said they had no evidence that Robertson fired at police deputies, but that they were certain it had been fired "multiple times" earlier in the day. The police official suggested a marital dispute or a "drug nexus" had made Robertson agitated.

Katz said the deputies fired 15 and 16 shots, respectively, during the encounter. He said the number of shots wasn't necessarily unusual, but that it would be evaluated as part of the investigation into the incident. He also described one of the officers involved as veteran, but when pressed on how he defined "veteran," he acknowledged the man had only been in the field for a year. Both officers involved will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The sheriff's office stressed their understanding of the "significant community concern" and "strong emotions" about the shooting, underscoring the fact that the investigation is in very early stages. Katz pleaded for patience, and said that "facts may change" as the investigation proceeds.




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13) In Talks Over Seized U.S. Property, Havana Counters With Own Claim
By

MIAMI — Some of the thorniest conversations in the long road toward full relations between Cuba and the United States have only just begun in recent days: The two sides are sitting down for the first time to discuss the American properties Cuba confiscated decades ago.The very idea of compensation for property and businesses seized in the wake of the Cuban revolution sent a quiver of excitement down the backs of the thousands of people who lost everything from sugar mills to family homes to oil refineries.

People started dusting off yellowing deeds. Lawyers were called.

But what if Cuba approaches these historic talks with a rather different unsettled claim in mind?

In 1999, a Cuban court found the United States government liable for deaths and damages caused by America’s “aggressive policies” against the island — namely, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the trade embargo prohibiting American citizens and companies from doing business in Cuba.Arguing that the United States had strangled Cuba’s economy and caused irreparable harm, the court ordered the United States to pay $181 billion in damages.


So while legal representatives from the State Department flew to Havana last week to make the case for American claims against Cuba, the Cubans made a presentation of their own.

“We know that they believe that they have billions of dollars of claims relating to human damage and economic damage resulting from the embargo,” said a State Department official who briefed reporters on the condition that she not be named. “And I think we can expect that we will hear more about that as we proceed with these discussions.”

The official would not say whether the Cubans demanded an exact figure in reparations. It is unclear how the Cuban government arrived at any of the many damage estimates bandied about.

At the United Nations this year, Cuba said it was owed about $121 billion. The Cuban government-run news media says the amount owed is $833.75 billion.

“This is an extremely complicated subject,” Josefina Vidal, head of United States affairs in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press after the first meeting of the bilateral commission this fall. “I imagine that when the two countries begin to meet, one of the first things we will have to do is to clarify all the accounts.”

(She noted that the Cuban court verdict was 15 years old, suggesting there were fresh numbers to crunch.)

The State Department official said last week’s meeting was both preliminary and professional, but she emphasized that the issue of compensation for the confiscated properties was crucial. More meetings are expected in the coming months.

“This meeting is the first step in a complex process that may take some time, but the United States views the resolution of outstanding claims as a top priority for normalization,” the American official said.

In Havana, the American delegation detailed how the Foreign Settlement Claims Commission arrived at the $1.9 billion in 5,913 certified American claims, which are estimated to be worth $8 billion with interest. Most of the money is owed to American companies, experts say. The claims do not include any from the many thousands of Cubans who lost property before leaving the island and becoming American citizens.

The State Department also laid out the 10 state and federal court judgments American courts have levied against the Cuban government, totaling another $2 billion or so, as well as “some claims of the U.S. government against Cuba,” the official said.

Experts said that American claimants should not be too worried about Cuba’s daunting counter-demands.

“Those are the opening positions,” said Richard E. Feinberg, a Latin America adviser during the Clinton administration who published a study on the claims issue this month for the Brookings Institution. “This is a negotiation.”

Mr. Feinberg noted that Cuban officials should be motivated to make a deal because they had no doubt paid close attention to the legislative elections last weekend in Venezuela, where the leftist government that keeps Cuba afloat financially took a beating at the polls for the first time in 17 years.

Cuba needs the United States to lift the trade embargo, and the best way to get that done is by settling the property claims, he said. The embargo was put in place in 1962 after a dispute that began precisely because Fidel Castro expropriated American oil companies that had refused to process Russian crude.

With an end to Venezuela’s financial aid a greater possibility, Cuba needs a new revenue stream. Soon.

“The fuse has been lit,” Mr. Feinberg said. “Time is running out.”

Mauricio J. Tamargo, a Washington lawyer who chaired the Foreign Settlement Claims Commission for eight years, said the two sides must come up with a bargain that is fair, or Congress would not vote to lift the embargo.

The claims have also been a stumbling block to re-establishing direct air travel between the two countries, because Cuba fears its planes could be seized to satisfy court judgments, Mr. Feinberg said.

Should the talks advance, there are plenty of models negotiators could look at.

Past examples of such settlements have varied considerably, with claimants receiving as little as 10 percent of their claims, with no interest. When the Berlin Wall fell, American claimants got 100 percent of the value of their properties, plus interest.

In Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, confiscated properties were sometimes returned to their original owners.

Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania offered compensation, “usually inadequate, and often symbolic and not necessarily monetary,” said Nicolás J. Gutiérrez, a consultant in Miami who has worked on the issue for decades after his family lost a $35 million empire in Cuba.

The Cuban case is trickier: Not only does the government have its own counterclaim, but the people who did the confiscating are still in power.

In that sense, the Cuba’s situation is more parallel with Vietnam and China.

In 1979, China agreed to pay $80 million to a China Claims Fund, which allowed American claimants 39 percent of the value of their lost properties, according to the Brookings study. Vietnam, to normalize relations with the United States, agreed in 1995 to apply its assets frozen by the United States government to pay claimants 100 percent of the principal and 80 percent of the interest they were owed.

Mr. Gutiérrez believes the claims should have been settled before the embassies were opened. He now fears that the two lists of demands are so lopsided that the American claimants will walk away with nothing.

The State Department negotiates on behalf of American claimants and does not have to seek their approval before reaching an accord.

“You can almost imagine Obama negotiators saying: ‘Look, we got them to drop the fantasy $120 billion!’” Mr. Gutiérrez said. “We drop the $8 billion, and no one gets anything.”

The George W. Bush administration paid the Creighton University School of Law in Nebraska $375,000 to come up with proposals. The university recommended creating a special tribunal — as President Jimmy Carter did in Iran. Cuba could pay with development rights, tax incentives encouraging foreign investment in Cuba, or in a lump settlement, which could be financed by the international community, said Michael J. Kelly, who co-wrote the report.

Mr. Kelly said the Cuban counterclaim for reparations should not be taken seriously.

“Those claims are not supported by international law,” he said in an email. “The property claims are.”

More are sure to surface. Already, a Tampa resident, Gary Rapoport, has publicly inquired about compensation for the Riviera, a 352-room waterfront hotel in Havana that was inaugurated in 1957 by Ginger Rogers. It was owned by Mr. Rapoport’s grandfather, Meyer Lansky, an organized crime figure.

In an interview with The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the mobster’s grandson, put it like this: “Cuba owes my family money.”



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14) Inquiry Into Egypt Plane Crash Hasn’t Found Evidence of Terrorism
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Investigators have not yet found any evidence to show that an “illegal or terrorist act” brought down the Russian jetliner that crashed on the Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, but they are still looking, Egypt's chief investigator said in a statement released Monday.

Russia has said an explosive device was detonated on the airplane, and the Sinai branch of the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the disaster. All 224 people on board the plane were killed, most of them vacationing Russians who were flying home to St. Petersburg from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh.

The crash led Russia to suspend all flights to and from Egypt, dealing a heavy blow to the country’s tourism industry, a vital part of its economy.

Ayman al-Muqaddam, the head of the investigatory committee looking into the disaster, said in a vaguely worded statement on Monday that the panel had completed a preliminary report on Sunday and that it was “continuing its work.”He said that the search for wreckage extended more than 16 kilometers, about 10 miles, from the main crash site, and that all parties to the investigation, including Russian aviation experts and the company that insured the plane, had the chance to examine the wreckage.

Mr. Muqaddam said the committee was arranging with the Egyptian air force to move the wreckage to a safe location in Cairo for further study. He said the committee had already analyzed the plane’s 38 computers and two engine computers, but was still combing through technical data about the plane and its repair history.

A spokesman for the Russian government, Dmitry Peskov, did not comment directly on the Egyptian statement, but reminded reporters that Russian experts had already concluded that the crash “was a terrorist action.”

The aircraft, an Airbus A321-200 operated by Metrojet, was manufactured in 1997 and owned by an Irish leasing company. The technical investigation of the crash includes experts from Egypt, Russia, France (where Airbus is based) and Ireland.

The Egyptian authorities are also investigating whether security had been compromised at the Sharm el Sheikh airport. That investigation has focused on baggage handlers, their security supervisors and workers involved in aircraft catering, security officials have said.



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