Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, Uncategorized
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Global Warming Litigation – 3 Main Cases
Since 1947, the Doomsday clock has been used as a symbolic reference to measure the degree of nuclear threat. On January 27th of this year it was set to five minutes to midnight. It was advanced by two minutes on January 17, 2007 by experts assessing the dangers posed to civilization from catastrophic climate change.
Meanwhile the Bush administration continues to play down the threats of extreme weather and dramatic shifts in climate. Last May Law and Disorder aired speeches from the Catastrophic Climate Change Forum at Albany Law School including speakers such as Dr. James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies . Hansen cited hard evidence – building the case that global climate change is at a tipping point and emissions from power plants and vehicles are mainly to blame.
Of the main contributors to this one percent tipping point of greenhouse gases are utility companies, automobile emissions and housing stock. This one percent of man made emissions that can be regulated say attorneys involved in 3 major climate change cases.
Guest – Eleanor Stein Adjunct Professor of Law Albany Law School at Union University
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Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey
A film documentary that chronicles one man’s influence on the American judicial system. The first black attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Kennedy Justice Department, Thelton Anderson was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter as one of the first African American federal judges in the United States. His decisions have been informed by a profound sense of fairness, distinguished also by his tenacity in seeing that they are enforced even in the face of great political opposition. Soul of Justice includes rare archival footage, and interviews with lawyers and a Supreme Court justice.
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Guest – Abby Ginzberg, an award winning filmmaker producing films for the last 22 years. Her films focus on race, equality of opportunity and model programs for at-risk youth.
Soul of Justice – NYC screenings: Monday Feb 26, Columbia Law School 116th St. & Amsterdam Ave, 6pm, Rm 107
Tuesday Feb 27, NYU Law School, Tishman Auditorium in Vanderbilt Hall at 40 Washington Square. doors open at 5:30, film at 6pm
Law Students for Government Accountability
LSGA was created out of the Student Hurricane Network run by law students (with some assistance by various attorneys, experienced lobbyists, an international strategy consulting firm, and an international PR firm). Its purpose is 1) to continue to educate the public about the causes and costs of the hurricanes Katrina and Rita to the Gulf Coast region and the nation at large, 2) to obtain the support of the 110th Congress for a Statement of Principles to ensure that such a disaster never happens again on the Gulf Coast through providing its necessary rebuilding and renewal, or any American soil through a comprehensive federal catastrophe prevention and response plan, and 3) work in partnership and solidarity with the thousands of voices advocating for those directly harmed by this disaster to ensure that the legislation passed by Congress provides a clear and coherent plan to prevent this from ever happening again.
Right now, LSGA is working on recruiting 1000 law students to participate in a March 14 National Lobbying Day in DC, to get their representatives to sign the Statement of Principles, guaranteeing wetland restoration, Category 5 levee and flood prevention, improvement of the management of the Mississippi River that would facilitate the restoration of the land and ensure ecological and economic security, the full recovery of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and address the underlying issues of poverty and racism.
Guest – Andrew Doss – LSGA Board Member
Iraq War, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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WBAI Listeners Please Scroll Down For Program Rundown
LA 8
Days after the 20th anniversary of the arrest of the so-called Los Angeles Eight, on January 31, Immigration Judge Bruce Einhorn ordered an end to deportation proceedings against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, members of the LA8. The government has been seeking to deport Hamide and Shehadeh since January 1987 based on their alleged support for the Popular Liberation Front for Palestine (“PFLP”), a group within the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Judge Einhorn terminated the proceedings because the government’s refused to comply with his 2005 pre-trial order to turn over exculpatory evidence
regarding Hamide and Shehadh’s alleged support for the PFLP.
Guest – San Francisco attorney Marc Van Der Hout of the law firm of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale. Marc has been representing the LA8 on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild since the case began 20 years ago.
King Leopold’s Ghost – Adam Hochschild
Hosts Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian talk with author Adam Hochschild about the similarities between King Leopold’s disastrous invasion of Congo and the war in Iraq. In an interview George W Bush commented that he couldn’t understand why so many people think he doesn’t read books and toward the end of the interview he mentioned having just finished ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’.”
Guest – Author Adam Hochschild replies to the president in the LA Times. King Leopold’s Ghost is a riveting retelling of the Belgian genocide-for-rubber campaign in the Congo with incredible similarities to war profiteering of today. Read LA Times commentary by Adam Hochschild to the President.
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Michael Schwartz – Iraq, Sectarian Violence and Barack Obama
Anti-war activists and students crammed into a small fifth floor abandoned office to confront and discuss the recent escalation of troops and funding of Iraq War. Mostly standing, they listened to Michael Schwartz professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In his talk Schwartz says the United States is fomenting the sectarian violence in Iraq by fighting two sides. Schwartz also comments on a speech Barack Obama delivered regarding Iraq and the withdrawal of troops.
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Margaret Prescod – Friends and Family of Lt Ehren Watada Tour
A military judge in Fort Lewis, Washington, declared a mistrial in the court-martial of Lieut. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer prosecuted for refusing to go to Iraq. A new trial is believed to be unlikely before summer, if at all. The mistrial represents a significant victory for Watada, for the rights of military resisters and for the movement of civil resistance to US war crimes in Iraq. We go now to hear a powerful speech by Margaret Prescod one, of the founders of Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike, and campaign coordinator with Friends and Families of Lt. Watada. Law and Disorder caught up with tour in early December. Since then, the tour garnered incredible support from organizations, politicians, actors and luminaries around the world.
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WBAI Broadcast February 21, 2007
“Servants of Wealth: The Right’s Assault on Economic Justice
“Freedom and democracy” are two words we’ve been hearing from the right wing in this country for 25 years. In their quest to shore up support for the politics of wealth and privilege, the Right has organized patiently and consistently by focusing on a core ideology to amass a formidable base. The Right’s commentary on world affairs, morality, the state, and the economy, though, has had an overarching focus, namely to eliminate social equality as a legitimate public policy goal. Its success has resulted in one of the most dramatic, undemocratic, and insidious transfers of wealth and power in recent American history.
Guest – political scientist John Ehrenberg, author of the book “Servants of Wealth: The Right’s Assault on Economic Justice.” A professor of political science at Long Island University, in this, his third book, critically analyzes the rise of an ideologically coherent Right. He dissects their themes of military weakness, moral decay, racial anxiety, and hostility to social welfare to reveal their central organizing objective of protecting wealth and assaulting equality.
LA 8
Days after the 20th anniversary of the arrest of the so-called Los Angeles Eight, on January 31, Immigration Judge Bruce Einhorn ordered an end to deportation proceedings against Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh, members of the LA8. The government has been seeking to deport Hamide and Shehadeh since January 1987 based on their alleged support for the Popular Liberation Front for
Palestine (“PFLP”), a group within the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Judge Einhorn terminated the proceedings because the government’s refused to comply with his 2005 pre-trial order to turn over exculpatory evidence
regarding Hamide and Shehadh’s alleged support for the PFLP.
Guest – San Francisco attorney Marc Van Der Hout of the law firm of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale. Marc has been representing the LA8 on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild since the case began 20 years ago.
King Leopold’s Ghost – Adam Hochschild
Hosts Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian talk with author Adam Hochschild about the similarities between King Leopold’s disastrous invasion of Congo and the war in Iraq. In an interview George W Bush commented that he couldn’t understand why so many people think he doesn’t read books and toward the end of the interview he mentioned having just finished ‘King Leopold’s Ghost’.”
Guest – Author Adam Hochschild replies to the president in the LA Times. King Leopold’s Ghost is a riveting retelling of the Belgian genocide-for-rubber campaign in the Congo with incredible similarities to war profiteering of today.
Read LA Times commentary by Adam Hochschild to the President.
Civil Liberties, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Muhammad Salah Cleared Of Federal Charges
For more than a year, Law and Disorder has followed the case of Muhammad Salah and co-defendant Abdelhaleem Ashqar. In a major victory both were recently acquitted on charges that they engaged in a “racketeering conspiracy” to provide support to the Palestinian organization Hamas in the early 90s. The two were convicted of several lesser charges unrelated to terrorism. Salah says his confession to Israeli Security agents was false and the end product of 53 days in custody, during which Salah’s lawyers say he was tortured. He was kept awake, beaten and forced to sit in excruciating positions for long periods of time.
Guest – Michael Deutsch from the People’s Law Office in Detroit. Mr. Deutsch says this verdict is a significant breakthrough in that the jurors were not swayed by government attempts to apply the terrorism label without adequate evidence.
Dear listeners to send letters of support – Please make them out to the Honorable Amy J. St. Eve Addressed to: Michael Deutsch People’s Law Office 1180 N. Milwaukee Chicago, IL 60622
Coerced confessions based on torture are at the center of many cases discussed on this program. From French revolutionary Henri Alleg to the recent victory in the Muhammad Salah case in Chicago. Black Panthers were no exception, in the early seventies eight former Black Panthers were arrested in California, New York and Florida on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Two men charged have been held as political prisoners for over 30 years ? Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim are both in New York State prisons. But a judge tossed out the charges, finding that Taylor and his two co-defendants made confessions after police in New Orleans tortured them for several days employing electric shock, cattle prods, beatings, sensory deprivation, plastic bags and hot, wet blankets for asphyxiation.
Guest – attorney Bob Bloom speaks on new developments in the case.
To hear the voices of Harold Taylor, John Bowman and Hank Jones describe how they were tortured visit the Listening Library and scroll down here the event from March 2006 at the Riverside Church sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights.
US Government Not Allowing Families of Cuban Five Prisoners Visitation
Amnesty International calls for temporary visas to be granted to two wives of the ‘Cuban Five’
In the past month several legal developments have occurred in the case of the Cuban Five. In January the defense argued four key issues in a supplement brief. Those issues are: first, the conspiracy to commit murder charge should be discharged; second, the conspiracy to espionage should be reversed for insufficiency of evidence; third, the sentencing on the espionage charges were grossly out of line with existing law; and forth, the prosecution committed misconduct. Finally application of the Classified Information Procedures Act provisions was wrong in this case. Here’s the situation: If the two judges can’t agree, the chief judge of the 11th Circuit appoints a third judge to join in the decision-making. You must have two judges in agreement in order to have a valid decision by the appellate court. If the two judges agree, however, that’s the end of it. For more information visit They Will Return.
Guest – Leonard Weinglass, lawyer for Antonio Guerrero, to talk about yet an additional aspect that has plagued the case since the five were incarcerated: the US government’s failure to allow families to visit the Five.
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Jimmy Carter’s Recent Book – Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid – Drawing Criticism
With the release of former President Jimmy Carter’s new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, controversy has arisen about the use of the word “apartheid” to describe the occupied Palestinian territories. The contention is that Carter begins with the premise, “inside Israel there is equality while in the occupied Palestinian territories there is not.”
Guest – Jamil Dakwar, a former senior attorney with Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.
Just as the US and Europe once opposed apartheid in South Africa, Israel’s discrimination against Palestinians must be similarly exposed and dismantled. – – Read Jamil Dakwar’s commentary It’s Simple Apartheid.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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Today on Law and Disorder we run excerpts from an event sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights. From Pinochet to Rumsfeld: Accountability of US officials for torture. Speakers include Janis Karpinski, former US Army Brigadier General at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq. She was the commander of three large US- and British-led prisons in Iraq in 2003, eight battalions, and 3400 Army reservists. In October 2005 she published an account of her experiences, One Woman’s Army, in which she claims that the abuses were perpetrated by contract employees trained in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and sent under orders from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and that her demotion was political retribution.
Also on this program, Law and Disorder co-host Michael Ratner president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Scott Horton, chair of the International Law Committee, New York Bar Association. We hear about the long term effects of torture from another perspective. Kate Porterfield, Ph.D. who works with torture survivors describes the health consequences of torture.
In the wake of CCR’s groundbreaking filing of war crimes charges against Donald Rumsfeld, this Center for Constitutional Rights event aimed to examine different strategies for holding international officials accountable for their actions. We’ll hear an exploration of the devastating effects of torture techniques employed by the U.S. Government. Certainly not for the faint of heart but important in beginning to understand how torture used in the name of the people in the United States must end immediately.
