Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Torture
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Rewriting Geneva Conventions
Law and Disorder’s Michael Ratner Updates Related article – NY Times
Cuban Five – Eleventh Circuit Court Decision
Recently this month, the Eleventh Circuit decided the case of “US v. Campa” the case of the so-called “Cuban Five. This decision affirmed the trial court’s finding that the venue shouldn’t have been changed from its location in Miami and that new trial should not be ordered. This gives enormous power over to the government to bring politically motivated prosecutions and to select a favorable venue where community prejudice will favor the government, and as in this case, allow the government to obtain a conviction where evidence did not support a conviction. This decision is not the end of the case, however. If the lawyers in the case decide to, they can take it to the US Supreme Court by petitioning the court, by write of certiorari, to hear the case.
To remind listeners, this is the case where five Cuban men have been serving harsh prison sentences after they infiltrated anti-Cuban right wing (terrorist) groups in South Florida, were arrested by US authorities in 1998, and received a highly-politicized trial in Miami that was barely reported on in any US media. We’ve covered developments in this case on Law and Disorder on March 6th of this year and on our August 15th show in 2005.
Guest – Attorney Bruce Nestor, former president of the National Lawyers Guild.
Union organizing at Starbucks
Union member Daniel Gross was fired from his job at Starbucks last week after nearly three years of union organizing. Daniel was terminated when he backed a co-worker and fellow union member at a union picket line and asserted he shouldn’t be fired. Daniel is the fourth Industrial Workers of the World member to be fired by Starbucks in less than a year. Starbucks and other large corporations such as Walmart and Borders have been known to be hostile to the social movements of their workers. This is also a turning point for some card carrying IWW baristas at Starbucks who promise to keep the union organizing alive.
Guest – IWW member Daniel Gross
New York Cyclists’ Civil Liberties At Risk
The NYPD has proposed a rule that would dictate how many people could legally ride their bikes or walk down the sidewalk together without a permit. Since the taping of this interview, the NYPD has retracted their proposal dure to overwhelming response during the public comment period. The proposed rule would have actively discourage cycling and make it more difficult for cyclists to ride together for safety.
Guest – Gideon Oliver, an attorney for Critical Mass
Guest – activist/Law Student Mark Taylor
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Civil Liberties, Torture, Truth to Power
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Court Papers Reveal Political Reasons To Ban Protests in Central Park’s Great Lawn.
Internal emails and memoranda reveal that New York City officials including Mayor Michael Bloomberg were active participants in a pre-arranged plan to deny large political protests on the Great Lawn in Central Park. (Read NY Times article here) In one such email, the Parks Department wrote “it’s very important that we do not permit any big or political events for the between August 23 and September 6, 2004. It’s really important for us to keep track of any large events (over 1,000 people) and any rallies or events that seem sensitive or political in nature.”
Guest – Mara Verheyden Hilliard, one of the attorneys litigating the case, she’s also with the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense.
Chicago Torture Cases Update – Chicago Mayor Richard Daley Involved.
The case includes a four-year investigation focused on allegations that 148 black men were tortured in Chicago police interrogation rooms in the 1970s and ’80s. The men say detectives under the command of Lt. Jon Burge beat them, used electric shocks, played mock Russian roulette and started to smother at least one to force confessions. Prosecutors described this “type” of criminal justice system where top officials in a position to put a stop to police torture appeared blind to the abuse. Among them Mayor Richard Daley, when he served as Cook County state’s attorney.
Guest – Flint Taylor – attorney with the People’s Law Office
Humanitarian Aid A Crime? – Humanitarian Aid Activists Charged With Felony
Two border activists face 500 thousand dollar fines, felony charges and prison terms up to 15 years for providing humanitarian aid to 3 migrants reported to have been suffering from extreme thirst and hunger. Last summer, Daniel Strauss and Shanti Sellz volunteered in Arizona with the group “No More Deaths”, a network set up primarily to prevent deaths of migrants. Daniel and Shanti were driving the three men to get treatment by volunteer medical professionals in Tucson when they were stopped by the United States Border Patrol and arrested
The two activists Daniel say they will defend their actions in trial and take on the United States. This trial is the first of its kind and will set ground rules for what can and cannot be done to assist people coming into the country.
Civil Liberties, Truth to Power
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Miami Cubans React to Fidel Castro’s Illness
With international headlines monitoring the health of Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuban’s revolutionary history for the past 50 years, Law and Disorder hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith take in a long view to discuss the imperial ambitions aimed at a post-Fidel Cuba.
US Supplies Israel With Weapons and Fuel
The United States supplies Israel with some of the most sophisticated and exotic weaponry to slaughter Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. This is in violation of the US Arms Export Control Act. A law that requires military items such as bombs that are transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used for internal security and legitimate self-defense. We’ll talk more about this with our next guest.
Marjorie Cohn joins Law and Disorder today. Marjorie is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. She has also written extensively on the Middle East conflict – read her latest articles at Commondreams and Counterpunch – here on July 4th, July 19, July 25 and July 31st.
Innocent Civilians Still Targets
It was exactly a week ago today that Israeli warplanes bombed the village of Qana killing at least 57 people, most of them children. According to reporters at the scene, an Israeli missile hit a three-story building where relatives from two extended families were seeking refuge. There were only eight survivors. The youngest of the dead was 10 months old. The oldest was 95. This and other attacks have brought the number of Lebanese deaths to more than 750, most of them civilians, since Israel began its strikes in mid-July in response to the kidnapping of two soldiers. A total of 51 Israelis, 18 of them civilians, have been killed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Security Cabinet agreed to expand and deepen its ground attack in Southern Lebanon as innocent civilians and communities absorb horrific destruction. Recently, Hizbollah has demanded that changes be made to the UN resolution on the conflict between Israel and Lebanon to include that Israel pull out of Southern Lebanon.
Law and Disorder hosts talk with Manhattan human rights attorney Jamil Dakwar, he’s a Palestinian citizen of Israel, he was raised in the northern Israeli city of Haifa and still has family there. Jamil is a member of the editorial board of the journal of Palestine studies.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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State Secrets Panel – Center forState Secrets Panel – Center for Constitutional Rights
We bring the voices of lawyers who are suing the government for keeping state secrets. What is a state secrets privilege and why should we be concerned? State secrets have been used by the Bush administration to dismiss public interest lawsuits, such as when in April of this year the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenged the legality of the NSA’s domestic spying program or the wrongfully-accused and tortured victim Maher Arar who sought to sue Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in deporting him to Syria to face torture and extract false confessions.
Most recent, the Justice Department moved to preempt the Center for Constitutional Rights challenge to warrantless domestic surveillance by invoking the state secrets privilege. The Bush Administration is arguing that CCR’s case could reveal secrets regarding U.S. national security, and thus the presiding judge must dismiss it without reviewing the evidence. We go now and listen to a segment of the State Secrets panel.
We play excerpts from a speech by Bill Goodman, legal director with the Center for Constitutional Rights where he’s led a team of attorneys challenging the worst excesses of the Bush administration since 9/11 and representing Guantanamo detainees before the Supreme Court. Bill Goodman was one of the first to take on the Patriot act and having a portion of it ruled unconstitutional. He also sued against private military contractors at Abu Garaib.
We also hear from Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Shane Kadidal. He breaks down the history of the state secrets privilege and how the Bush administration is using it. Shane has worked on a number of cases since September 11th, including working on two cases of citizens detained as enemy combatants and a case on behalf of a class of hundreds of immigrants held in detention long after their final deportation. He’s also counsel on CCRs pending challenge to the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program in CCR versus Bush.
Amnesty International’s General Meeting – Audio Collage
During this year’s Amnesty International’s General Meeting in Portland, Oregon, Law and Disorder co-host Dalia Hashad and producer Geoff Brady collected audio from various interviews, panels and rallies being held at the 2006 General Meeting.
In this recording many Amnesty International staff members and activists gathered to speak out, listen and share their stories. This is an audio compilation from the anti-torture rally in Portland’s historic Pioneer Square mixed and produced by Geoff Brady
Attorney Paul L. Mills on Tasers – Part III
In our last interview from the Law and Disorder Taser series, co-host Dalia Hashad talked with Paul L. Mills, attorney and co-director with L.A. Police Watch about how police misuse the Taser weapon, the case of a 33 year old man who while being handcuffed was stunned by police with a Taser and later died and the future of Taser include wireless implants into human beings.
Lynne Stewart – Part 2
Law and Disorder recently sat down with convicted civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to talk about her health, her approaching sentencing this September and the details leading up to her indictment and conviction. We play the second part of that interview.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Torture, Truth to Power
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Updates:
- Supreme Court Update – Hamden v. Rumsfeld.
- Signing Statements
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Israel’s Massive Assault Targeting Lebanese Civilians
Israel has warned hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to leave Southern Lebanon as they continue to target Lebanon’s infrastructure and bomb civilian neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a ground invasion begins, and more than 340 Lebanese have been killed most of have been civilians. We talk with author Phyllis Bennis, a Middle East analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus. She is also a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies and a member of the Iraq Speakers Bureau. Among the issues discussed in this interview are the US origins of Israel’s weaponry and fuel, the language of propaganda from Israel and the Geneva convention law in the context of “an occupying power.” Links – http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/
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During the Law and Disorder panel, Ten Minutes To Midnight, at the Left Forum in New York, our hosts covered a range of issues, among them presidential signing statements. While many people may not have heard of signing statements, they represent a signifcant threat to the separation of powers. The President, literally attaches a statement when he signs newly enacted legislation. These statements lay out his interpretation of the law, which may unfairly influence how the judiciary perceive these laws in the future.
In a report to be released today, an American Bar Association task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of presidential signing statements. Some task force members want to give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
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Lynne Stewart – Part 1
Law and Disorder recently sat down with convicted civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to talk about her health, her approaching sentencing this September and the details leading up to her indictment and conviction.
