Law and Disorder May 12, 2008 [57:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Updates:

• Massive Civil Disobediance Protesting The Murder Of Sean Bell
• Lawyers Continue Move To Get Torture Memo Author Yoo Tried As War Criminal
• NYCLU Study: NYPD Arrests And Jails Nearly 400 Thousand For Marijuana In 10 Years.

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Taking Back The Right To Dissent: The Case of the Bangor Six

Recently, jurors in the Case of the ‘Bangor Six’ brought back a decisive verdict of ‘not guilty.’ The six veterans for peace, anti war protesters were arrested in March of last year after refusing to leave the federal building where their senator, Republican Susan Collins has her office. The six activists were among 12 that say they were protesting Bush’s proposal to increase troops in Iraq to support a military strategy known s the surge and also urged Collins to vote against continued funding for the war. Collins did not vote against funding for the war and did not meet with activists. Six of the activists were later arrested. (Collins Watch)

Now, during this trial, the jury was allowed by the judge to decide whether the defendants believed that they were not guilty in making a conscious choice to break Maine law because they thought international law was being violated. The jurors decided unanimously that the protesters did believe they had the ‘license and privilege’ to act as they did, in rendering the ‘not guilty’ verdict.

Guest - Bar Harbor attorney Lynne Williams, also with Maine Lawyers for Democracy a group of 65 Maine lawyers, calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

List of Bangor Six - Jonathan Kreps, 57, of Appleton, Henry Braun, 77, of Wells, James Freeman, 59, of Verona, Dudley F. Hendrick, 66, of Deer Isle, Douglas Rawlings, 61, of Chesterville, and Robert Shetterly, 61, of Brooksville,
chose to go to trial. The other six pleaded guilty and paid fines.

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2008 Left Forum Opening Plenary: Adam Hochschild and Naomi Klein

We go now to hear two speeches from this year’s Left Forum Opening Plenary from author/ professor Adam Hochschild and writer/ filmmaker Naomi Klein author of The Shock Doctrine. The Left Forum was titled Cracks In The Edifice. The many panels at the 2008 Left Forum addressed and challenged the current economic and political catastrophes in the United States and discussed possibilities for social movements to build better world in its place.

We’ve interviewed Adam previously on Law and Disorder about his books, King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury The Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. He’s the co-founder of Mother Jones magazine and teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley. In his speech Hochschild uses the ideas of early activism to abolish slavery as models for the current civil rights movement.

In her speech, Naomi Klein discusses how the lack of response in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are intentional strategies she calls “disaster capitalism.” At the 2008 Left Forum Naomi suggests that many in the United States have woken up to roughshod profiteering of disaster capitalism.

A special thank you to Lisa Rudman with Making Contact for recording the Left Forum Opening Plenary

 

 Law and Disorder April 21, 2008 [56:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hosts Update:

• Bush Admits To Knowledge of Torture Authorization by Top Advisers
• Follow Up: Hedge Fund Managers Reap Billions Amid Slump
• Related: Torture Questions Hover Over Chertoff
• Related: The Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
• Related: US General ‘duped’ Over Guantanamo Bay

Less Lethal Weapons

Here on Law and Disorder we’ve discussed and examined the effects of taser stun guns and related deaths. Late last year, the United Nations panel on torture proclaimed the Taser shock to be torture. We want to look at other “non-lethal” munitions such as acoustic weapons and heat rays known as Active Denial Systems. What are they? What injuries could demonstrators sustain as the military, government agencies and contractors roll out the next generation of weapon category and put them into the hands of local law enforcement.

Guest: Jurgen Altmann. He’s studied physics at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Less-lethal weapons and acoustic weapons have been his primary focus lately. Altmann also examines the interactions between civilian and military technologies in aviation research and development. In recent years, he has studied military uses of, first, microsystems technologies and then nanotechnology, with a view towards preventive arms control. He is a co- founder of the German Research Association Science, Disarmament and International Security FONAS, and currently is a deputy speaker of the Committee Physics and Disarmament of the German Physical Society.

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Colorado ACLU: Early Legal Preparation For August Democratic National Convention, Submits FOIA Request On Denver DNC Budget.

We’ve talked with Jurgen Altman about the types of less lethal weaponry that could be used against protestors. We look now at the context in which these weapons could be deployed. In this election year, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Denver, Colorado will be hosting the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention respectively. In New York during the 2004 Republican National Convention, police violated the rights of thousands of protestors. The violations include roundups of demonstrators spying on non-violent political activists, the use of agent provacateurs and the faking of police video evidence. Sonic weapons were also present in the streets of New York City. For this election year of 2008, lawyers in both cities are working to prevent similar tactics.

Guest: Mark Silverstein Legal Director of the ACLU in Colorado about preparations to protect the rights of demonstrators including protections against less lethal weapons such as Long Range Acoustic weapons and heat rays, known as the Active Denial System.
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Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S. - Local Law Enforcement To Access Military Grade Spy Technology

Civil liberties and privacy concerns are raised as Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff announced the activation of a new domestic satellite surveillance program. Though the department says the program will not intercept communications, these powerful, high resolution satellites can now be used to view and track individuals, homes and vehicles domestically.

Critics cite that Chertoff’s statements mark a determination to coordinate military assets with domestic law enforcement, turning new or undeveloped technologies against Americans without public debate or consent.

Guest: Melissa Ngo, Senior Counsel and Director of EPIC’s Identification and Surveillance Project. EPIC is the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Melissa has focused on federal and state surveillance programs and their costs to civil liberties. She is also the author of a chapter entitled You Are Being Watched But Not Protected: The Myth of Security Under Camera Surveillance in the book “Intersection: Sidewalks & Public Space”

Related stories: Bin Brother is Watching You - Trash Cans With RFID Readers / Concerns raised as government demands universal wiretapping.

 

 Law and Disorder March 31, 2008 [55:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Updates:

• Anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s resignation
  40 Years Ago, Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
  Supreme Court Case Hears Key Case: Detainee Rights

Sara Jane Olson Released Then Rearrested

Former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson was paroled March 17 after serving six years in prison related to the attempted bombings of LA police cars in the 1970s and the shooting of a customer during a bank robbery. The 61 year old Olsen was rearrested at LA International Airport shortly after her release after discovering that they had miscalculated her sentence by a year.

Olsen’s attorneys say she should be freed from prison immediately because California corrections officials had no authority to re-arrest her after she was paroled last week, her attorneys argued in a court motion filed today.The motion filed in Sacramento County Superior Court claims that Olson’s due process rights were violated when she was returned to prison Saturday to serve at least another year behind bars. According to the lawyers filing: Once an inmate is released on parole, the board can only suspend or revoke her parole. It has no legal authority to arrest her and re-incarcerate her.

“After being released from prison for five days, Olson was literally snatched by the board in the dark of night and imprisoned without notice, without a hearing and without an explanation,” her lawyers say in their motion. “Such an experience is certainly horrific and may have caused lasting psychological damage.”

San Francisco attorney David Nickerson, who filed the motion, said a judge will have three options: deny the motion; order the parole board to show why Olson should not be released; or ask the parole board for an informal response to explain what happened.

Prosecutors and family members of the woman who was gunned down in the Carmichael bank robbery objected to Olson’s release from prison, prompting the corrections department to review her sentence and ultimately determine that she had been released too soon. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began an internal affairs investigation Monday into what officials said was a clerical error that led to Olson’s release.

Officials said Olson was supposed to serve two years for the Sacramento County murder in addition to the 12 years she was to serve for the Los Angeles County crimes. Instead, her records showed that she was to serve the sentences at the same time. The SLA, an urban guerrilla group started in 1973, was best known for kidnapping Patty Hearst, heir to the media chain. The group also carried out bombings and bank robberies, and six of its members died during a shootout with Los Angeles police in 1974.

Guest: Susan B. Jordan, criminal defense lawyer and civil litigator. Susan is well known for her work in defending women charged with violent crimes and is credited with the creation of the battered spouse defense. Susan represented Sara Jane Olson (Kathleen Soliah), Los Angeles Superior Court, 1999-2002. This case involved the defense of Sara Jane Olson, captured after 23 years, alleged to be a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), charged with conspiracy to bomb police officers. Defendant entered pleas of guilty. Check out Susan’s noted cases here.

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The Arrival of the American Police State - Left Forum 2008

“However narrow and restricitive American bourgeois democracy was before 9/11, it’s jridical and institutional underpinnings have been transformed by the Bush Administration (with the complicity of the Democratic Party) intor what can now most accurately be described as a police state.”

We hear from our own Michael Steven Smith he was one of the speakers on the panel. We will hear from the other speakers in later programs, they include C. Clark Kissenger and Lynne Stewart.

Watch and listen to entire panel here

 

 Law and Disorder February 25, 2008 [58:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Hosts Update: Fidel Castro and Cuba in the news.
  

Encore Segment: Naomi Wolf - The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

Law and Disorder hosts were live in the studio with Naomi Wolf. Naomi Wolf is a feminist, social critic and political activist. The New York Times called her book, The Beauty Myth, one of the most important books of the 20th century. Wolf is the co-founder of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, teaching young women to become leaders and agents of change. Naomi Wolf blog in the Huffington Post

Her latest book The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot is a call to return to the beliefs of our founding fathers. Wolf’s new book illustrates ten steps historically taken by leaders who are attempting to dismantle a democracy. Wolf jokingly called it the The Greatest Hits of Facism.

In The End of America, Wolf gives voice to the cause of every American patriot: the preservation of the Constitution and the liberties it embodies and protects.

“Recent history has profound lessons for us in the U.S. today about how fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies. The secret is that these leaders all tend to take very similar, parallel steps. The Founders of this nation were so deeply familiar with tyranny and the habits and practices of tyrants that they set up our checks and balances precisely out of fear of what is unfolding today. We are seeing these same kinds of tactics now closing down freedoms in America, turning our nation into something that in the near future could be quite other than the open society in which we grew up and learned to love liberty,” stated Wolf.

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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 - 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.

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 Law and Disorder February 18, 2008 [57:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

• Hosts Update on spy legislation that would give immunity to utility telecom companies in recent eavesdropping bill. Companies such as Verizon would be protected from lawsuits after handing private consumer data (emails / phone conversations) to the federal government without a warrant.

USA vs. Al-Arian

USA vs. Al-Arian is the name of the new documentary that chronicles the arrest and trial of Dr. Sami Al0Arian, a Palestinian computer engineer and former university professor, who was convicted of conspiracy to aid terrorism. Norwegian film-maker Line Halvorsen interviews law professors and reporters and most of Al-Arian’s family to assemble a disturbing picture of a paranoid post-9/11 climate. The film tells the story from the day the FBI storms into Al-Arian’s home to arrest him in February of 2003. Hosts talk with Dr. Al-Arian’s oldest daughter Laila live in studio.

In the film we see the jury found Al-Arian not guilty on all counts yet, the judge hands down a prison sentence and deportation. Dr Al-Arian is still in prison.

Guest - Laila Al-Arian, Dr. Al-Arian’s oldest daughter

Guest - Film maker Line Halvorsen

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The Slave Ship - A Human History
“This has been a painful book to write,” he said, “and if I have done any justice to the subject, it will be a painful book to read. There is no way around this, nor should there be.” says Marcus Rediker author and history professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Rediker has scoured through letters, diaries, memoirs, captain’s logbooks, shipping company records to piece together the intimate realities of these 18th-century sailing vessel carrying enslaved Africans. Rediker draws startling parallels to global economy structures then and now, tracing back as New England timber was used to build Slave Ships yet nails and ropes were purchased from Liverpool at discounts, ship captain stock options and more. In his book, Marcus also documents revolts among underpaid sailors and the solidarity that evolves amid slaves and servants.

One review describes Slave Ship as “ a tale of tragedy and terror, but also an epic of resilience, survival, and the creation of something entirely new. Marcus Rediker restores the slave ship to its rightful place alongside the plantation as a formative institution of slavery, a place where a profound and still haunting history of race, class, and modern economy was made.”

Guest - Author and Professor Marcus Rediker.

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Torture, tribunals and the death penalty - Michael Ratner: What is at stake is the future of justice in the US.

 

 Law and Disorder February 11, 2008 [57:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

US NLG Delegation in Pakistan Reports Back On the Rule of Law

A delegation from the National Lawyers Guild has released a preliminary report on its findings regarding the impacts of the Proclamation of the Emergency in Pakistan. The report found that anything short of restoring the judges deposed on last November 2007 will have long lasting negative impacts on the judiciary and rule of law in Pakistan. The delegation also noted structural problems in the pre-election climate such as lack of an independent judiciary, allowing free and fair elections nearly impossible. Here is the NLG Pakistan Delegation report.

The delegation’s findings are based on over 50 interviews with political party leaders, lawyers, members of civil society, government officials, judges, students and journalists in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Islamabad.

Guest - David Gespass, the Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild, he has led a delegation of American lawyers to Pakistan to show solidarity with the Pakistani lawyers demanding a return to the rule of law and to oversee and assist with preparations for the upcoming election in that country.

The National Lawyers’ Guild Calls for Demonstrations in Solidarity with Lawyers in Pakistan: Co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith speak with lawyers and activists on the street. — Listen to past program - Law and Disorder November 19, 2007

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Bricks in the Wall: How a U.S. Police State Is Being Built

We hear a speech by Nation correspondent Roberto Lovato who spoke at the Brecht Forum. The event examined the near completion since 9/11 of the infrastructure for a police state in the US, including its legal and ideological apparatus. Co-host Michael Steven Smith and Vince Warren Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. were also among the speakers.

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Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World

Here on Law and Disorder we’ve covered in depth the scope of surveillance bearing down on the lives of people in a post 9/11 society. From intrusive RFID technology to phone companies and airlines handing over private consumer data to the FBI. Webb constructs a clear sense of the emerging panopticon singularity. The Panopticon Singularity bears a strong resemblance to the concept of “ubiquitous law enforcement.”

Excerpt from book: “Surveillance in a world of risk preemption requires that everyone be evaluated as a potential suspect in order to eliminate risk to the furthest degree possible. In this paradigm, the criminal law and due process protections that have been developed over centuries in democratic societies - such as the presumption of innocence; habeas corpus and rights against arbitrary, indefinite detention; attorney-client privilege; public trial; the right to know the evidence against one and to respond; the right against unreasonable search and seizure; and the right to remain silent - are viewed as intolerable risks.”

Guest - Canadian human rights lawyer Maureen Webb, she is the author of Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World. In the book, Webb examines how governments worldwide follow the lead of the Bush administration in using quote terrorism as an excuse for public surveillance and information gathering.

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 Law and Disorder February 4, 2008 [57:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hosts Update - US Attorney General Refuses to Say Waterboarding Is Torture

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Hears Lynne Stewart’s Arguments

Law and Disorder hosts welcome back civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart. Lynne Stewart has been free on bail pending appeal since federal judge John Koeltl gave her a 28 month sentence in October 2006. As you may recall Lynne Stewart was initially facing up to 30 years after being found guilty of conspiring to aid terrorists. She was convicted of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client–Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman –also known as the blind sheikh–who is serving a life sentence on terror-related charges.

Here on Law and Disorder we’ve followed Lynne Stewart’s case as it contains key breaches of civil liberties such as government eavesdropping into attorney/ client conversations.

• New York Law Journal article on Lynne’s Appeals Hearing
• Click here to download the full Appeal Brief in Lynne’s case

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Pro-independence Puerto Ricans subpoenaed by NYC grand jury

Three Puerto Rican activists and artists have been ordered to appear before a Brooklyn federal grand jury. The activists are graphic designer Tania Frontera, social worker Christopher Torres and filmmaker Julio Antonio Pabon.

Federal grand jury investigations are secret by law. There are indications that it is part of a probe into the Popular Boricua Army (EPB)-Macheteros, a rebel pro-independence group whose leader, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was killed by FBI agents in Puerto Rico on Sept. of 2005. The FBI is also trying to locate Hector Rivera, one of the founders of the Welfare Poets, a New York-based collective of activists and poets, in order to serve him with a subpoena. Supporters of the three activists speculated that the FBI had aimed at harassing the Puerto Rican legal movement to obtain independence for the U.S. territory.

Guest - Robert Boyle with the National Lawyers Guild.

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Michael Ratner on Real News : Will Bush’s Illegal Wiretapping Be Made Legal?

 

 Law and Disorder Dec.31, 2007 [58:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

On this last day of 2007, Law and Disorder will look at the stories that have taken civil liberties in this country many steps in the wrong direction. We start with the question of impeachment, what happened, why it stalled, we’ll look at damaging supreme court decisions and draconian legislation that took large bite out of the right to free speech and dissent in this country.

We begin by checking in with John Nirenberg, he’s marching from Boston to Washington DC. His goal, to walk 485 miles to deliver his message of impeachment to Nancy Pelosi. Nirenberg explains to hosts how after reading The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. One slogan from www.marchinmyname.org reads. . . “when voting isn’t enough, when letter writing isn’t enough, when signing petitions isn’t enough, when outrage isn’t enough.”

Guest - John Nirenberg former Professor of Organizational Behavior. He started his career as a Social Studies and American History teacher.

Impeachment?

Hosts discuss the “magnificent failure on impeachment followed by the continued approval for war funding in Iraq and Afghanistan and connect it with the Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.

Co-host Michael Ratner enumerates several key stories of torture in 2007, including the destruction of the CIA videotapes, the Mahar Arar case, and the confirmation of Attorney General Michael Mukasey who says he’s not certain if water-boarding is torture.

Law and Disorder hosts then talk about the recent Supreme Court arguments regarding the remaining Guantanamo Bay Cuba detainees and the horrible failure to restore habeas corpus. This case may determine once and for all whether there is a constitutional right to habeas corpus - that is, a fair hearing before a real court - for everyone detained by the U.S. government at Guantánamo.

Increases in surveillance powers were also on the list of wrong-turn stories this year, co-host Heidi Boghosian points out the legislation that extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In the wake of Congress approving a dramatic expansion of U.S. warrant-less wiretapping powers, the Center for Constitutional Rights has argued that the NSA’s program is unconstitutional and should be struck down. The argument in CCR v. Bush comes after Congress and the Bush administration passed the Protect America Act of 2007 which broadly expands the government’s power to spy on Americans without getting court approval.

Hosts also examine the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Legislation that appears an effort to re-create the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was a standing commission in the fifties and sixties to root out “un-American” ideas among political activists. This, with the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2007 is key to installing the police state apparatus and declaring martial law.

The New Supreme Court: The Trifecta 2007

• The 5-4 ruling that race cannot be a factor in the assignment of children to public schools. Free speech not an option for students regarding (Bong Hits For Jesus).
• Campaign Finance Reform - The Supreme Court has thrown out part of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that placed restrictions on corporations and unions from buying television ads close to elections
• The citizens’ ability to challenge government violations of the separation of church and state, Hein v. Freedom from Religion Foundation 5-4, the Justices ruled that taxpayers do not have standing to challenge the White House program on federal aid to faith-based organizations.
• On a lighter note, Supreme Court justices overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that judges cannot hand down a lighter punishment because they disagree with wide disparities for crack and powder cocaine sentences. Blacks account for about 80 percent of the federal crack cocaine convictions.

Michael Ratner’s Acceptance Speech

We end this year-end program with an acceptance speech delivered by co-host, attorney, author and Center for Constitutional Rights President Michael Ratner. Michael received the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.

“One of the country’s foremost defenders of human rights and civil liberties, Michael Ratner has led the fight to demand due process for Guantánamo detainees, adequate safeguards against intrusive government surveillance, and an end to torture and extraordinary rendition.”

 

 Law and Disorder Nov. 26, 2007 [57:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Law and Disorder Updates

• The Nation Institute and the Puffin Foundation Award Annual Prize to CCR President Michael Ratner.

• Joel Kovel - Overcoming Zionism Censorship Update - Previous article

• Death Penalty - United Nations Calls For Moratorium on Executions.

• Victor Rabinowitz memoriam

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Guantanamo Update

Hosts deliver updates on a number of recent news stories about Guantanamo Bay Prison in Cuba, such as the “Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures Manual” that was leaked recently. Download the manual here. (PDF) According to this manual the Red Cross was not allowed access to certain detainees at Guantanamo. Also among topics discussed, an Amicus Brief that was filed recently and the Supreme Court’s review of the military’s process on how prisoners are released from Guantanamo.

Guest - Shane Kadidal, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. Check out Shane’s Blog

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Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror

Leading constitutional scholars David Cole and Jules Lobel have published a critique of the Bush administration’s post 9-11 policies. It’s called “Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror.”

They point out how less than one-tenth of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay have been found to have links to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Not one of the 80,000 Arab and Muslim men who underwent Special Registration has been convicted of terrorism-related crimes. Meanwhile, the department of homeland security continues to spend tens of millions installing surveillance camera systems in and throughout US cities.

One review of “Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror.” writes - - “ At home and abroad, the administration has cut corners on fundamental commitments of the rule of law in the name of preventing future attacks—from “water-boarding” detainees, to disappearing suspects into secret CIA prisons, to attacking Iraq against the wishes of the UN Security Council and most of the world when it posed no imminent threat of attacking us.”

Guest - Jules Lobel, vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He’s a law professor and constitutional lawyer teaching at the University of Pittsburgh. Jules Lobel is also expert on emergency powers and the laws governing war.

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A Question of Impeachment

A Question of Impeachment is the title for the Culture Project’s ongoing event series this month and into December. Authors, actors and luminaries gather to explore and debate the case for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Guests - Olivia Greer, Culture Project Producer and and Allan Buchman, Creative Director at the Culture Project.

Watch - A Question of Impeachment

 

 Law and Disorder November 19, 2007 [57:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

‘A Coup Has Occurred’ . . . Daniel Ellsberg

Law and Disorder hosts talk with Daniel Ellsberg about his recent speech. Ellsberg, former Defense Department analyst who leaked the secret Pentagon Papers in 1971, describes to listeners a dire scenario if the Bush administration attacks Iran.

Excerpt from his speech - “If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth.

Guest - Daniel Ellsberg, served in the Pentagon in 1964 under Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He then served for two years in Vietnam working for General Edward Lansdale as a civilian in the State Department, and became aware that the Vietnam War was unwinnable.

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The National Lawyers’ Guild Calls for Demonstrations in Solidarity with Lawyers in Pakistan

Co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith speak with lawyers and activists on the street. The National Lawyers Guild, NYC-NLG Chapter, Center for Constitutional Rights, SALT, Alliance for Justice, have called for demonstrations at Pakistani Consulates in New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles & Boston in solidarity with Lawyers in Pakistan.

Speakers include NLG NYC Chapter President Daniel L. Meyers; Michael Heflin, Amnesty International USA; Jeannie Mirer, Secretary General, International Association of Democratic Lawyers.

The National Lawyers Guild demands that President Musharraf immediately withdraw the emergency declaration of November 3, 2007, the Provisional Constitutional Order No. 1 of 2007 (PCO), which suspends Pakistan’s Constitution. This declaration includes suspension of the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, assembly and association, and equal protection of the law, all of which are guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928

James P. Cannon and the Origins of the American Revolutionary Left, 1890-1928 is meticulously and creatively researched. Palmer’s book situates American communism’s formative decade in the dynamics of a specific political and economic context, never losing sight of the mobilizations and militant strikes of the period. This study also locates this historical drama–to an unprecedented degree–alongside the personal life and particular experience of a native son of working-class radicalism. - University of Illinois Press

Guest - Bryan Palmer Canada Research Chair at Trent University and the editor of Labour/Le Travail. He is also the author of ten books, including Descent into Discourse and Cultures of Darkness.

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November 13, 2001: Coup d’etat in America by Michael Ratner

I am writing this on November 13^th. That day probably has little significance for most readers of this blog. But it is a day, as they say, that should live in infamy. On that date in 2001, two months after 9/11, President Bush issued Military Order Number 1. Read More . . . .