CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Charges Dropped Against Pipeline Activists
The climate movement won a significant victory on July 13 when all charges were dropped against 16 pipeline protesters and a journalist. The local district attorney in Saint Martinsville, Louisiana rejected all criminal charges and vowed not to prosecute them for alleged violations of Louisiana’s anti-protest amendments to their critical infrastructure law.
The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the tail end of the infamous 1172 mile long Dakota access pipeline which brings dirty oil from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico. The end of the pipeline runs from Texas to Louisiana.
In 2018, in the midst of fierce opposition to the Bainbridge Pipeline and at the urging of an industry association to Louisiana legislator added pipelines to the definition of critical infrastructure to significantly raise the penalties for people protesting pipeline project. Those found guilty could be punished with five years in prison with or without hard labor.
This critical infrastructure law is part of a national effort to crack down an environmental activists across the US. The law in Louisiana was adopted from model legislation put forward by ALEC, the corporate funded politically conservative group. Similar legislation aimed at pipeline protesters has been introduced more than 23 times in 18 states since 2017 and is in effect in 15.
Karen Savage, an independent journalist who was arrested, said that “the first amendment guarantees water protectors the right to protest and protects my right as a journalist to report those protest without fear of retribution.“
Guest – Anne White Hat, one of the people arrested and charged under the law. Whitehat Botanicals
Guest – Attorney Pam Spees, one of the team of attorneys that handled the criminal defense case. She’s also representing Anne White Hat in a case challenging the constitutionality of the Louisiana law. Whitehat v. Landry
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Continued Erosion Of Voting Rights In The United States
We are in the middle of a second great disenfranchisement in America. The first was after the Civil War reconstruction ended and Black people were stripped of their right to vote and their ability to hold office. This disenfranchisement lasted almost 100 years until the modern civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Legislatures in Republican run states are imposing new voting restrictions particularly on non-white voters. The Brennan Center found that as of June 20th, 17 states enacted 28 new laws restricting the ability to vote since the start of the year.
Republican run states hastened to restrict voting by mail and in person, voting hours and locations, and the implementation of voter registration and voter ID requirements.
Georgia banned giving food or water to voters waiting in long lines, lines that were caused by reduced access to ballot casting locations in Black precincts. They get away with this by raising the imaginary problem of voter fraud.
The Supreme Court has six reactionary judges and three liberals. Three of the reactionaries were added to the court by Donald Trump. The reactionaries recent decision in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee delivered a huge hit to American democracy, such as it is. The decision makes the Court look like an obvious political institution where justices are simply partisan politicians with robes.
In the recent Brnovich decision, the court eviscerated the strongest remaining sections of the Voting Rights Act rights of 1965 which held that election laws and voting rules that actually had a racially discriminatory impact could be blocked.
The first major blow to the voting rights act was in 2013 when the court held in Shelby versus Holder that federal authorities could no longer block regressive new election laws or voting rules in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.
“Effectively, most of the Voting Rights Act is now dead,” declared Hamlin University scholar David Schultz who specializes in elections.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught from 1991-2016, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures, writes, and provides commentary for local, regional, national and international media outlets. Professor Cohn has served as a news consultant for CBS News and a legal analyst for Court TV, and a legal and political commentator on the BBC, CNN, NPR, and other major stations.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Political Prisoner, Surveillance, Torture
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Building Support To Free Wikileaks’ Julian Assange
Whistle blowing Australian journalist and the publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange sits in a jail cell in solitary confinement in London’s infamous Belmarsh prison. There he awaits the decision of the British High Court as to whether at the behest of the Trump and now Biden administrations he will be extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage under the recently resurrected 1917 Espionage Act which was originally enacted to be used against spies. He will certainly be sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life at a super maximum-security prison where communications with the outside world will be cut off.
His case is on appeal to the British High Court. At the recent extradition hearing British magistrate Vanessa Baraitser ruled in favor of the United States on all 17 counts of espionage lodged against him by the Trump administration. She did however rule that Julian Assange would be subjected to terrible conditions in American maximum-security prison and therefore should not be extradite. The Biden administration has appealed this ruling.
The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. James Goodale, who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon papers case, commented, “The charge against Assange for “conspiracy” with a source is the most dangerous I can think of with respect to the first amendment in all my years representing media organizations.”
It is crucial to build support for Assange and preventive his delivery into the hands of the Biden administration and its prosecutors.
Julian Assange’s crime was to expose the war crimes, murder, and the inner workings of the American empire to the world press. He might pay for this embarrassment with his life.
Homerun4Julian.com
Guest – John Shipton, Julian’s father who is visiting the United States from his native Australia touring to raise support for his victimized son.
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Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class
We need to know our enemy because the task of changing society begins with understanding who holds power. In 1915 the great Irish socialist James Connolly said, “O, yes! The ruling class are worthy of study. The natural history of the ruling class is a fascinating interest. You begin with interest, you proceed with awe and admiration, you deepen into hatred, and you wind up with contempt for the nature of the beast. You realize that – the capitalist class is the meanest class that ever grasped the reins of power”. Jacobin magazine’s Spring 2021 issue is devoted entirely to an examination of the ruling class.
Guest – Doug Henwood who has an article in Jacobin titled Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class. Doug Henwood is the editor of Left Business Review and the host of the radio program Behind the News.
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Censorship, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Torture, Truth to Power
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Attorney Ron Kuby Updates On Donziger Trial
Three weeks ago, environmental attorney Steven Donziger’s Chevron-funded trial for misdemeanor contempt trial drew to a close. Steven and his defense team are now waiting for what they claim is an inevitable verdict of “guilty” by Chevron-linked Judge Loretta Preska. As Steven has written to his supporters, Preska denied him a jury of unbiased fact finders by ordering a bench trial. She also ruled against Steven and his attorneys on 99% of all their courtroom objections. Steven also notes that Preska—a conservative judge and a former member of the Federalist Society’s advisory board—actually read the newspaper during witness testimony.
The defense team is preparing for its expected appeal after Preska delivers her ruling. They are following up on, and researching, additional revelations of corruption by Chevron and the high-paid lawyers challenging the original multi-billion-dollar fines for Chevron’s toxic pollution in Ecuador.
DonzigerDefense.com
ChevronToxico.com
ChevronInEcuador.com
Guest – Attorney Ron Kuby, who along with his law partner Rhiya Trevedi and noted First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus, comprise the Donziger defense team. Ron is the former law partner of William Kunstler, and his body of work continues to uphold their tradition of representing the poor, downtrodden, and wrongfully accused.
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Building Support To Free Wikileaks’ Julian Assange
Whistle blowing Australian journalist and the publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange sits in a jail cell in solitary confinement in London’s infamous Belmarsh prison. There he awaits the decision of the British High Court as to whether at the behest of the Trump and now Biden administrations he will be extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage under the recently resurrected 1917 Espionage Act which was originally enacted to be used against spies. He will certainly be sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life at a super maximum-security prison where communications with the outside world will be cut off.
His case is on appeal to the British High Court. At the recent extradition hearing British magistrate Vanessa Baraitser ruled in favor of the United States on all 17 counts of espionage lodged against him by the Trump administration. She did however rule that Julian Assange would be subjected to terrible conditions in American maximum-security prison and therefore should not be extradite. The Biden administration has appealed this ruling.
The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. James Goodale, who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon papers case, commented, “The charge against Assange for “conspiracy” with a source is the most dangerous I can think of with respect to the first amendment in all my years representing media organizations.”
It is crucial to build support for Assange and preventive his delivery into the hands of the Biden administration and its prosecutors.
Julian Assange’s crime was to expose the war crimes, murder, and the inner workings of the American empire to the world press. He might pay for this embarrassment with his life.
Homerun4Julian.com
Guest – John Shipton, Julian’s father who is visiting the United States from his native Australia touring to raise support for his victimized son.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Iraq War, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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Attorney Flint Taylor Update On The Marcus Smith Case In Greensboro, NC
Police in America kill more than 1500 citizens a year. That’s more than three a day and they’re disproportionately Black. Police killed more than 1500 people the year before the murder of George Floyd and in the year since his murder they’ve killed another 1500.
The latest outrageous case has come to the national fore in Greensboro, North Carolina where eight white cops killed Marcus Smith two years ago by hogtying him causing him to suffocate to death . Now they are being sued and they’re trying to cover it up and trying to silence the Smith family’s attorney Flint Taylor, drive him out of the state, and sanction him with heavy financial penalties.
So instead of banning hogtying, settling the case with the Smith family and issuing an apology, they are trying to silence the messenger.
Hogtying can be lethal. It’s done by handcuffing the victim behind his back, shackling his feet, and then tying the handcuffs to the feet bending him over backwards, chest first, in the street. Marcus Smith’s died of asphyxiation within a minute.
On September 8, 2018 Marcus Smith was suffering from a mental health crisis. He was brutally hogtied by the Greensboro North Carolina police officers. The family’s civil rights case is being litigated by Chicago Peoples Law Office attorneys Flint Taylor and Ben Elson, and by Greensboro lawyer Graham Holt. It is worthy of national attention.
The cops’ lawyers have been paid more than $1 million of taxpayer money to date to defend the case. They have escalated their attacks on the Smith family and are seeking to suppress all the damaging evidence that has come to light during the pretrial discovery in the case.
Guest – Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office. Taylor is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney. He represented the family of Fred Hampton demonstrating that the Chicago Police Department and the FBI were responsible for the assassination of the young Black Panther leader. He’s written the book “The Killing Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago”. He is one of the editors of the “Police Misconduct Law Reporter.
His recent publication The Torture Machine: Racism And Police Violence In Chicago.
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Phyllis Bennis: The Influence Of Think Tanks And IPS
With the growth of globalization on the heels of the Cold War, entities called Think Tanks grew rapidly during the late 1980s. Now, there are nearly 2,000 think tanks in the United States alone. Not surprisingly, more than 400 are located in the nation’s capital, with ready access to key policymakers. These entities play an outsized role in shaping the world we live in.
From national defense and technology, to social policy and economics, think tanks perform in-depth research on a range of topics. Some think tanks advocate for change by using this research and analytical reports to influence public opinion and help decision makers create policy agendas. It follows that many think tanks align along party lines. Funding for think tanks usually comes from endowments, government contracts, private donations, and sales of their reports.
While many think tanks are nonprofit organizations, some especially high-profile ideological ones advocate solutions that benefit their corporate donors. Often they are criticized for crossing the line between research and lobbying. Think tanks are classified according to their sources of funding and intended customers. Some think tanks, such as the Rand Corporation, receive direct government assistance; most others are funded by private individuals or corporate donors.
Guest – Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she is she is the director of the New Internationalism Project and works on anti-war, US foreign policy and Palestinian rights issues. She has worked as an informal adviser to several key UN officials on Palestinian issues. Her books including Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Truth to Power
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- Attorney Jim Lafferty Commentary on Solitary Confinement
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Steven Donziger Trial Set To Begin This Week
Sixty-year-old environmental lawyer Steven Donziger has been under house arrest without trial for the last 25 months on charges that normally have a max sentence of six months. To date this is the longest sentence imposed in New York on an attorney convicted of contempt. The contempt charges are from Donziger’s refusal to give his cellphone and computer to the court. We’ve been covering Chevron’s retaliation campaign against Donziger after he helped communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win a historic $9.5 billion judgment against the oil giant. His case showed how Chevron for deliberately dumped billions of gallons of carcinogenic oil water onto Indigenous ancestral lands. The multinational corporation enlisted 60 law firms and 2,000 attorneys to block Donziger’s advocacy. In the process they bankrupted his family, and intimidated environmental activists and allies internationally.
At last, Donziger’s trial is set to begin Monday, May 10. This case offers a play-by-play account of a private oil company set out to destroy an altruistic lawyer, environmental justice, corporate accountability, Indigenous rights, and free speech.
DonzigerDefense.com
ChevronToxico.com
ChevronInEcuador.com
Guest – Attorney Martin Garbus, one of three pro bono lawyers representing Donziger in an attempt to get his law license restored. Garbus has a long and distinguished career as a civil rights and first amendment litigator.
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International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence in the US
As issues of violent policing nag at the American public’s consciousness, a new report finds the US guilty of crimes against humanity and other violations of international law. On April 27, the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence in the US Released its final Report on Racist Police Violence in the US. The report pulls together weeks of live hearings chronicling cases of people killed by police with African descent. The report also contains recommendations addressed to national and international policy makers.
The International Commission of Inquiry was organized by the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the National Lawyers Guild. A distinguished panel of international legal experts from eleven countries served as Commissioners. The full 188-page document is available at the Commission’s website as are videos and transcripts from the live hearings in 44 cases.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught from 1991-2016, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures, writes, and provides commentary for local, regional, national and international media outlets. Professor Cohn has served as a news consultant for CBS News and a legal analyst for Court TV, and a legal and political commentator on the BBC, CNN, NPR, and other major stations.
Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Vaccine Passports, Privacy And Civil Liberties
New York State became the first in the country to premier a Covid-19 vaccine passport. They call it the Excelsior Pass and proponents say it’s a safe and efficient way for people to return to sporting events, concerts, Broadway theaters and other large group settings. You show a QR code proving a recent negative test or full vaccination.
The pass is voluntary and lets New Yorkers upload their official results—from a number of different vaccination sites and labs—into the system to verify that the person holding the pass meets the standards for entry. The state first used the pass at a Buffalo Bills football game in January after which they monitored attendees for 14 days after and discovered “almost negligible” transmission.
Registration in the program requires three pieces of information: Name, date of birth, and zip code. The pass is matched to vaccination and testing records using a series of questions to prevent fraud. When the person arrives at a venue, all they have to do is show a photo ID with their code, which will generate a green check mark at the venue.
New York state officials say they’ve been in close talks with surrounding states about integrating systems, but their neighbors say it’s not the priority. What are vaccine passports and who is considering implementing them? Connecticut, for example says it doesn’t have immediate plans to roll out a vaccine passport, although Governor Ned Lamont has said it’s possible to see private sector solutions if demand grows and if the technology is proven effective.
Guest – Attorney David J. McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. McGuire also is the chair of the Connecticut Special Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, serves on the state’s Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board, and is a member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System.
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Attorney Flint Taylor : Police Brutality And The Derek Chauvin Trial
The cruel and sadistic police murder of George Floyd last June on a Minneapolis sidewalk was videoed by a courageous 17 year old bystander. Her video was viewed by Americans across the country and the world. It captured Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, smirking, with one hand in his pocket as he knelt for 9 minutes and 29 seconds on George Floyd’s neck. Floyd was handcuffed behind his back and restrained by two other police officers at the time. He begged for his life, called for his mother, and repeatedly said “I can’t breathe!”
Onlookers gathered in protest as the murder progressed but their intersession was of no avail. George Floyd‘s life drained out of him. He lost his pulse. Still Chauvin persisted, kneeling on a dead man. An ambulance came to take away George Floyd’s corpse.
People responded, it was massive and sustained. In some two thousand cities across America 20 million people, white and Black , Black lead, protested in the streets. More than demanding that George Floyd’s killer be brought to justice, they demanded that police departments be defunded, that police be controlled by the community, and that ending police murders of Black people be brought to halt once and for all.
We are now in the midst of the trial of killer cop Derek Chauvin. Millions of Americans are watching the trial. It seems to them that this latest racist police outrage is the culmination of so many past murders. They are asking, what is to be done?
Guest – Attorney G. Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People Law Office in Chicago starting out over 50 years ago representing the family of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, Who was assassinated by the Chicago Police Department with the help of the FBI. He has represented numerous police torture survivors during the past 33 years. Taylor was one of the lawyers involved in the struggle for reparations and has chronicled the decade long fight against Chicago police torture in his award-winning book “The Torture Machine : Racism and Violence in Chicago.
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