Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Key Ruling Ahead for Death Penalty as mentally ill death row inmate Willie Brown is scheduled for execution by lethal injection this Friday April 21st .
Learn more about the issue here. U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard will decide if prison officials have resolved issues concerning the amount of pain involved in lethal injection. However, anesthesiologists may not be willing to participate. The professional code of ethics for doctors simply states that doctors are healers, not executioners. If Howard rules that the state of North Carolina must use an anesthesiologist and none are willing, the use of the death penalty may re-examined. Co-host Dalia Hashad joins the Law and Disorder hosts from her DC office.
Guest – Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn – Director of the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty – Amnesty International USA.
In the months since Puerto Rican Independista Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was assassinated by the FBI,
Protesters are demonstrating in the streets against the lingering FBI presence in San Juan and other regions of Puerto Rico. Last month, federal agents executing search warrants on the homes of independentistas were captured on video pepper-spraying journalists covering the story, with seemingly little or no provocation, further fueling anti-FBI sentiment. On February 10th, the FBI executed six search warrants on independence movement leaders to prevent ”a potential domestic terrorist attack” against ”privately owned interests in Puerto Rico,” according to an FBI statement. Law and Disorder hosts update listeners on this under-reported story.
Guest – Charlie Hay-Mestre – Civil Rights Attorney in Puerto Rico and board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also part of the investigating team looking into the murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios.
NSA Spying on Attorneys
CCR attorney Shane Kadidal speaks with Law and Disorder hosts about the near certainty of the government eavesdropping on conversations with attorneys and clients at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Co-Host Michael Ratner updates listeners on the recent story of AT&T funneling all internet traffic through NSA. Read it here.
Guest – Shane Kadidal – Center for Constitutional Rights.
Co-host Michael Ratner references the Salon article – Read the Salon article here.
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Civil Liberties, Truth to Power
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Racial Profiling
Hosts discuss the undercurrents of racism embedded in the fabric of daily life in the United States. As in Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s recent experience, Law and Disorder co-host, Dalia Hashad shares her own experience with listeners of what happened at the Houston Airport restaurant, Bubba’s Seafood Grill.
Racial Profiling in Georgia.
Update on the targeting of South Asian convenient store owners in Rome, Georgia. Click here to get involved to help stop the targeting of South Asian store owners in Georgia. – Stop Operation Meth Merchant
Guest – Vanita Gupta – with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Venezuelan Justice Fernando Ram?n Vegas Torrealba of the Supreme Court of Venezuela – In 1999, the Venezuelan people approved by popular vote a new constitution which includes many guarantees for formerly excluded sectors of society – the work of women in the home is recognized as contributing economic value and entitling them to social security; a worker’s right to a wage that provides a life with dignity is recognized; the rights of indigenous people and minorities are protected; and health care is a guaranteed right. Provisions are made for the protection of the environment. Political freedoms such as expression and assembly are articulated. Oil and mineral wealth is claimed as the property of the Venezuelan republic and new legislation has been passed that designates a portion of the profits from the oil industry to public welfare – health care, housing, low cost food and worker cooperatives. Private as well as cooperative forms of property ownership are recognized.
Guest – Justice Vegas Torrealba will discuss this new constitution and describes vivid first hand account of the US involvement during the 2002 coup de tat attempt. Justice also says that during the coup attempt US military ships were docked near the coast of Venezuela. Vegas says they were jamming cell phone signals, blacking out a swath of communication.
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The International Endowment for Democracy – Bertel Ollman – Bertell Ollman is a professor of politics at NYU, and has written and edited over a dozen books, including Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, Social and Sexual Revolution: Essays on Marx and Reich, Dialectical Investigations, How to Take an Exam…and Remake the World, and most recently Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method.
Civil Liberties, Supreme Court
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Updates:
- Supreme Court arguments regarding the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Hamdan, a Yemeni who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism. He claims he is an innocent father of two young daughters and worked as a driver for bin Laden in Afghanistan only to provide for his family. Co-host Michael Ratner also references Justice Antonin Scalia’s speech regarding war criminals and detainees. Scalia was recently asked to stay out of the case involving international detainees because of remarks such as this one
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Suspicious Robbery at the Brecht Forum.
Two inexpensive database computers were stolen from the offices at the Brecht. Hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner say it has all the ear marks of an intelligence gathering black-bag job. Hosts talk with the Executive Director of the Brecht Forum, Liz Mestres and also attorney Margaret Ratner-Kunstler about this robbery and suspicious robberies of progressive law offices in the past.
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Massive Demonstrations
Tens of thousands of students across the country staged walk outs last week protesting recent immigration reform proposals in the House that introduce sweeping changes for undocumented immigrants. More than 8000 students walked out of their LA county schools and thousands more in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Texas. In Washington DC, activists and religious leaders also protested measures in House Bill 4437 that would make it a crime for religious and charitable groups to aid undocumented workers.
Guest – Jim Lafferty – Executive Director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild and host of the Guild Radio Show on Pacifica’s KPFK.
Guest – Cynthia Anderson Barker – Los Angeles attorney
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Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Muhammad Salah, accused of funding Mideast terrorism, says his confession to Israeli Security Agents is false and actually the end product of 53 days in custody, during which Salah’s lawyers say he was often kept cold and awake, threatened and beaten and forced to sit in painful positions. Another example of coerced confessions through torture.
Guest – Attorney Michael Deutsch from the People’s Law Office. Read the latest story in the Chicago Tribune here
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Storming The Court
Before Guantanamo Bay, Cuba became notorious for its human rights violations against Muslims, it was the holding center for thousands of HIV-positive Haitian refugees. More than ten years ago a team of Yale law students and activists took up this cause. They worked victoriously to stop the US government from detaining these refugees indefinitely at Guant?namo, without charges or access to counsel.
Guest – Lawyer Brandt Goldstein, author of Storming the Court, a look inside the controversy surrounding this story of the US Supreme Court and Haitians who were discharged from Guantanamo.
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Google Refuses To Turn Over Internet Data – The Bush Administration’s effort to scoop up and comb through massive amounts of internet data met the “firewall” when Google refused to turn over search engine data to the NSA. However, several other companies such as Yahoo has complied. A White House subpoena is still seeking the requests made using Google’s search engine.
Guest – Sherwin Siy – Siy works as Staff Counsel through EPIC’s Internet Public Interest Opportunities Program. EPIC – Electronic Information Privacy Center. Siy tells Law and Disorder hosts that while Google refuses to turn over search engine archives, there are privacy implications that loom in the future regarding the privacy of public internet activity.
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Music To Get Tortured By
In our second part of Music To Get Tortured By we’re joined by author and filmmaker Jon Ronson. Jon is the creator of a number of films, radio features and books, but among them is the book “Men Who Stare At Goats” which uniquely explores exotic and horrific interrogation techniques by the US military. Jon Ronson explains how these techniques were collected by the US military from the New Age movement in the 1970s.
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Civil Liberties, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Update:
- Hosts open with an update on the Zacarias Moussaoui case. Moussaoui is a French terrorist of Moroccan descent involved in the conspiracy that resulted in the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on August 16, 2001 after attending a flight school in Eagan, Minnesota where an instructor expressed concerns about the abilities and motivations of his student. After the attacks unfolded, he was described as a possible “20th hijacker”, though he maintained that he was uninvolved with that plan up until pleading guilty in April 2005 to charges brought against him. He is the only person in the United States to have been charged in connection with the September 11 attacks.
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Patriot Act Renewal
By a vote of 280-138, the House of Representatives has agreed to renew the USA Patriot Act with only minor new safeguards for civil liberties and several troubling new items. The legislation was quickly signed by President Bush, a disturbing new reality awaits citizens and non-citizens in the United States.
Guest – Caroline Fredrickson – the ACLU’s Director of the Washington Legislative Office
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING. . This New York City subway anti-terror campaign means basically, if you see something suspicious, tell an authority figure. It may seem like an effort to thwart planted bombs left in backpacks or bags in and around the subway, but some activists say it’s not useful in stopping terrorism, in fact, its a civilian psychological operation designed to instill fear as we become suspicious of one another. Joining us are two courageous New York City artists/activists, Laurie and Ann. They’ve taken the fear mongering MTA slogans and turned them into thought-provoking, anti-fear placards. Look out for these brilliant posters and postcards in and around the subway.
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Remembering Rachel Corrie – a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who traveled as an activist to the Gaza Strip during the Al-Aqsa Intifada. She was killed March 16, 2003 when she was hit and runover by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Caterpillar D9 bulldozer operating in a residential area of Rafah that the IDF had designated a security zone.
Law and Disorder Hosts talk with Rachel Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig about the cancellation of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie. This play is composed from Corrie’s journals and e-mails from Gaza and directed by British actor Alan Rickman, opened in London and ran until April 30, 2005. Following its success the play was to be transported to the New York Theatre Workshop. However, on February 27, 2006, it became clear the play was to be postponed indefinitely. Also in the discussion, an update on the Caterpillar Bulldozer lawsuit in which we’re joined by CCR attorney Maria LaHood. The lawsuit is against Caterpillar Inc. alleging liability over the death of Corrie and in connection with the equipment used in the home demolitions, which they say is a violation of international law.
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**We welcome our fourth host Dalia Hashad back to Law and Disorder. Dalia is now Amnesty International’s Director of the USA Program Focusing on Domestic Human Rights**
