Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Israel Is Terrified The World Court Will Decide Its Committing Genocide
Since Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis on October 7, Israel has launched a full-scale genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. As of this broadcast, Israeli forces have killed at least 22,100 Gazans, about 9,100 of whom are children. At least 57,000 persons have been wounded and at least 7,000 are reported missing. Untold numbers of people are trapped beneath the rubble. Israel has expelled and forcibly displaced more than 85% of Gaza’s population from their homes, and has cut off their access to food, water, fuel and electricity.
Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating what it refers to as the “Situation in the State of Palestine” for nearly three years, calls for prosecution of Israeli officials have been ignored. This blind eye comes as the chief prosecutor of the ICC demonstrates blatant bias in favor of Israel.
The ICC’s Rome Statute provides for the prosecution of individuals who commit, or aid and abet the commission of genocide. By contrast, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or “World Court”) — the judicial arm of the UN system — resolves disputes between countries.All the 153 countries that have ratified the 1948 Genocide Convention have a duty to prevent and punish genocide and they can submit the issue of Israel’s genocide to the ICJ.
On December 29, South Africa launched a well-documented case at the ICJ, alleging that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza amounts to genocide. South Africa is asking the court to order provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention.” It also asks the court “to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide.”
A hearing in the ICJ on South Africa’s application is scheduled for January 11 and 12. Other parties to the Genocide Convention are being approached to join South Africa’s petition.
Marjorie’s recent article : Israel Is Terrified The World Court Will Decide Its Committing Genocide
Guest – Marjorie Cohn – Law and Disorder co-host Marjorie Cohn, who is Dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and a member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She is Professor of Law Emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild and she has written extensively about the Israeli genocide in Gaza for Truthout.
—-
Remembering Australian Journalist John Pilger
Today we re-broadcast a recent interview we did with the great Australian journalist John Pilger about his film titled The Coming War On China. With the exception of a short break at the conclusion in 1975 of the Vietnamese war, the United States has been at war continually. The momentum of what President Eisenhower warned us against and described as being led by, “the military industrial complex” has been going on with successive wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and now the American proxy war in Ukraine. The military industrial complex has been augmented by support from the CIA, Congress, and the corporate media.
As Pilger demonstrates, the United States, is building up for a war against China. This build up is both military and ideological and shaped by hostile propaganda. In this respect, an alarming full page New York Times article, 11 weeks in the making, and written by seven reporters, appeared on August 5, 2023. The article targeted the American peace organization CODEPINK as well as one of its financial backers. It is a hit piece that has alarmed many of us in the movement. John Pilger gives us the background to it.
Guest – John Pilger covered that war as a young reporter and understood that it was based on the lie that Lyndon Johnson told falsely stating that the North Vietnamese had attacked an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Another 1 million people died in the Iraq war That war was based on the now well known lie that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that he was going to use against us and that he was responsible for 911. A similar campaign of fear mongering is going on now about China. The major news media parrot the government’s fact free line that China is our enemy. In his article “The Coming War With China” John Pilger wrote “a US war against China beckons and we have a responsibility to speak out. We know what is coming. Silence must be broken.”
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith, Maria Hall, Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn
—————————————-
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Truth to Power, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
What Kind Of Nation?
What kind of nation cuts off of food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel to 2 1/3 million Palestinians and then bombs them as they sit trapped in the open air prison which is the Gaza Strip? What kind of national leader in his capacity as Israeli Minister of Defense, says “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.“ Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu promised that “We will turn Gaza into a deserted island.”
What kind of a nation vetoes a cease-fire as the US did in a 13 to 1 vote when it was proposed at the United Nations Security Council? The Israeli and American nations finds themselves morally isolated on the world stage.
The American government supplies the weapons of war to a nation that has so far annihilated at least 20,000 people, including 8000 children. The Israelis use weapons made in the US and paid for by our tax dollars.
American foreign policy is driven by the military industrial complex. It’s a country whose weapons industry is closely allied with the weapons industry of Israel and a country whose government is heavily influenced by the Israeli lobby, a lobby that should be forced to register as an agent of a foreign country.
Guest – Aaron Maté about the continuing genocide in Gaza, which is now approaching 100 days. He is a journalist with The Gray Zone where he hosts “Pushback“. He is the co-host of Useful Idiots. In 2019 Aaron Maté won the Izzy award for outstanding achievement in independent media for his Russiagate coverage in The Nation.
—-
Unilateral Sanity Could Save The World: Nothing Can Be Changed Until Its Faced
As we begin 2024, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists just reset its nuclear doomsday clock for the 24th time in its 76-year history. They created the doomsday clock just after WW2 to visually represent the threat of global nuclear annihilation. Although the precise time won’t be announced until later this month, the most recent change was just one year ago: in January 2023, when the clock was moved forward to 90 seconds til midnight – the closest to midnight ever.
What will 2024 bring? Will we get swept up in momentum and fervor toward global catastrophe? Or can we muster the will and courage to act … and try to save one another – other animals, the earth, and ourselves?
In his article, Unilateral Sanity Could Save the World, our guest: author and political analyst Norman Solomon, invokes Antonio Gramsci’s philosophy of keeping a “pessimism of the intellect,” but “an optimism of the will.”
Guest – Norman Solomon is a long-time associate of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the national director of RootsAction.org, and the Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death; and his latest book, War Made Invisible: How American Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine which was published by the New Press in June 2023.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith and Maria Hall
—————————–
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Enforcing Insurrection Clause Against Former President Donald Trump
On December 19, Colorado’s top court became the first in the nation to rule that Donald Trump is disqualified from holding office because he engaged in insurrection against the Constitution on January 6, 2021. With this ruling, the Colorado secretary of state will exclude Trump’s name from the state’s Republican primary ballot.
Voters in three other states are also challenging Trump’s eligibility to appear on primary ballots based on the 14th Amendment’s Disqualification clause. It disqualifies from office any individual who has taken an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
In last week’s Colorado decision, a four-justice majority wrote that they were “mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” As the other three cases are being decide, some are concerned that enforcing the constitutional accountability clause could escalate political violence.
In a recent Newsweek editorial, Praveen Fernandes emphasized the importance of judges heeding the warning of legal scholar Sherrilyn Ifill. She notes that when judges have hesitated in the past to apply the provisions of the 14th Amendment, it has had the effect of undermining our democracy’s promise.
Guest – Praveen Fernandes serves as the vice president at the Constitutional Accountability Center in Washington, DC. The center is a public interest law firm and think tank committed to realizing the progressive ideals embedded in the Constitution’s text and history. Praveen brings to the table nearly two decades of experience working on issues related to law, democracy, and civil rights, both within and outside the government.
—-
Legacy of Peace and the Treaty of Ghent
On February 17, 1815, the United States and Great Britain both ratified the Ghent Treaty in Washington, officially ending the War of 1812. That year, David Low Dodge founded New York Peace Society, the nation’s first formal peace movement. It was followed by the Massachusetts Peace Society. England founded a peace movement around the same time, with Switzerland and France following suit in 1821 and 1830, respectively. Most other European countries established peace movements after 1850.
Successful nonviolent protest strategies in the U.S. are most often associated with the Civil Rights Movement in the South during the 1950s and ‘60s. Leaders such as Ella Baker, Martin Luther King, Jr., A.J. Muste, Bayard Rustin and John Lewis dedicated their lives to th philosophy of non-violence and studied its successful use by Mohandas Gandhi to free India from Britain’s colonial grip.
But as war and carnage wages in the Middle East and in Ukraine, and as political violence is on the uptick in the U.S., peaceful protests don’t seem to be as impactful as in earlier decades. Law & Disorder takes a look at the state of peace studies and peace actions in the United States and abroad.
Guest – Matt Meyer, historian and organizer, serves as Secretary-General of the International Peace Research Association. It is the world’s leading consortium of university-based professors, scholars, students and community leaders. Matt is also the Senior Research Scholar of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst’s Resistance Studies Initiative and has been active with the War Resisters’ International and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, and he serves on the A.J. Muste Institute board. The author/editor of more than a dozen books, Matt’s work focuses on 21st Century Decolonization, African Peace Studies, the Strategies and Tactics of Movement-building, the significance of support for political prisoners, and the Abolition of White Supremacy. SpiritofMandela
—————————–
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Unwavering U.S. Support Of Israeli War Atrocity
Israel, with indispensable American support, is destroying the people of Gaza. They are being bombed by American planes dropping American bombs and shot at by Israeli soldiers, using American weapons and ammunition. Israel has prevented them from getting food and water, medical supplies and fuel. They are sick and starving. 85% of the population of 2.3 million have had their homes destroyed and are living outside in the cold without food, fuel medicine or clean water
Already some 20,000 Palestinians have been murdered, the majority, women and children. At least 800 children have had their limbs amputated. It is a one-sided war. The American equipped Israeli Air Force and Army is the fourth largest military force in the world. The Palestinians are essentially defenseless against this. They have been herded to the south tip of tiny Gaza, their homes, schools, hospitals pulverized. They are living in the streets, in the cold, with no sanitation, awaiting their certain destruction by starvation, dehydration, and cholera.
The American government has fully supported this genocidal operation with military supplies, diplomatic, cover, and propaganda. Last week, the United States voted to block a cease-fire resolution at the UN Security council – 13 to 1. The US and Israel are looked upon as moral outlaws by the rest of the world.
Why has the American government supported Israel? What is the history of this support for the Israeli colony which was set up in 1948 in the heart of the Arab world and has been expanding and displacing Palestinians ever since?
Professor Khalidi OpEd LA Times
Guest – Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi is a Palestinian American historian of the Middle East, the Edward Said professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and Director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. He was educated at Yale and Oxford universities and is the author of many books on the Middle East. He is also the author of Under Siege: PLO Decision Making During the 1982 War, Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East and recently The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017.
—-
Anti-Semitic or Pro Palestine, Quick Silencing Of Student Protests
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past week or so, you know about the firings and attempted firing of university heads at M.I.T, Harvard, and Penn in the wake of the new Israeli-Palestinian war. At M.I.T. and Penn, their top bosses were, in fact, fired. So far, Claudine Gay at Harvard has held on to her job, but many still think her days there are numbered. The moves to get rid of these university bosses flowed from the claim that they were not strong enough in their condemnation of the October 7th Hamas attack, and of the way their students sloganized in the course of their boisterous on-campus protests against Israel, because of the humanitarian crisis resulting from what Israel is doing in Gaza.
In short, they were deemed to be, if not out and out anti-Semantic themselves, clearly insufficiently pro-Israel in their over-all statements and actions since this latest Israeli/Palestinian war began. Of course, there have been conflicts at many, many other U.S. colleges and university arising from the war, often resulting in the outlawing on campus of campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Put simply, despite the fact that a very significant pro-Palestine bias may exist among students on our nation’s campuses of higher learning, these students’ grownups know what’s best…and that means unwavering support for Israel and the supportive role played by the U.S. in that war. And it means trying to silence criticism of Israel and bold support for Palestine. Shout our certain slogans, such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, or “down with Zionism, down with Israeli apartheid”, or “Israel, Israel you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide”, and the censors won’t be long in attacking you, or simply silencing you.
Aside for my grief and anger over what is happening to the Palestinian people in this war, there are a couple of other aspects of all of this that have me particularly disturbed, have me angry and greatly worried. One is the simplistic, quick to condemn, efforts to shut down the actions and slogans of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators. The other is how reminiscent this is of how the ruling elite in this country went after the leadership, and rank-and-filers, in the anti-Vietnam war movement of the 60’s and early 70’s. Then, the charges were that the slogans and the demonstrations were “anti-American” and, in fact, down right “communistic.” I, along with a handful of other anti-Vietnam War leaders, was then called before the new House Un-American Activities Committee, to testify about the supposed, and I quote, “Soviet money and leadership that was supporting U.S. antiwar groups and coalitions.”
Are today’s pro-Palestinian leaders now to be called to account and asked by the authorities, “are you now or have you ever been, an anti-Zionist”? “Are you getting money from the Islamists?” Yes, the growing danger to free speech in our country, and the right to defend those who the government may disfavor, or claim to be the enemies of our people, is to be greatly feared. It often grows slowly, at first, like some cancerous viruses, but once it gathers strength…well, remember our history.
Guest – Stephen Rohde is a noted constitutional scholar, retired civil rights lawyer and activist. He is the past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California; the founder and current chair of Interfaith communities United for Justice and Peace; the author of Freedom of Assembly and American Words of Freedom. Steve Rohde is also a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Review of Books, TruthDig, and a leader in the national campaign to free imprisoned investigative reporter, Julian Assange.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith, Maria Hall and Jim Lafferty
———————————————-
Censorship, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, FBI Intrusion, Gaza, Supreme Court
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Sealed Search Warrant After Raiding Journalist’s Home Leaves News Gatherers Timid
At 6 a.m. on May 8, seven FBI agents with guns drawn raided the home newsroom of Florida journalist Tim Burke. For nearly 10 hours, they seized computers, phones, video equipment and other devices. The raid came on the heels of Burke’s obtaining outtakes of Tucker Carlson’s interview with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). In those outtakes, Ye made antisemitic and other offensive remarks. The FBI investigation involves alleged violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA.
It is not clear why prosecutors believe Burke, who runs the media company Burke Communications, broke the law. That’s because the government successfully fought to keep the affidavit supporting the search warrant sealed from public view. As listeners may recall, the CFAA is the federal law that prohibits unauthorized access to a computer. Burke has said he got the outtakes from websites where Fox News uploaded unencrypted live streams to URLs that anyone could access, using publicly accessible login credentials.
In response to the raid, more than 50 organizations sent a letter to the Department of Justice in October demanding transparency about the government’s basis for believing that Burke’s newsgathering broke the law. Florida’s First Amendment Foundation and the ACLU took the lead on the letter, with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, PEN America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists, among others, also signing on.
Guest – Seth Stern, Advocacy Director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF). Prior to joining FPF, Seth practiced media and First Amendment law in Chicago for more than a decade. Before that, he worked as a reporter and editor in the Chicago and Atlanta areas.
—-
The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America,
In late June 2022, a package of Supreme Court decisions drastically altered the nation’s legal landscape and divided the nation. It took just three days to roll back some of the most consequential gains for civil rights, voting, the separation of church and state, a woman’s right to choose, and more.
In his new book The SuperMajority : How the Supreme Court Divided America, Michael Waldman offers an in-depth analysis of the 2022 key rulings and the radical ways in which they were crafted. He provides historical context for how the Supreme Court has amassed power far beyond what the Framers intended, and how the current supermajority ascended to the high court. Waldman also points to previous Courts (on both the right and the left) that overreached and describes their consequences for the country. Significantly, he writes that the seizure of so much power by a few members of the Court, and their energetic wielding of it, poses a crisis for U.S. democracy.
A backlash against the Court is underway. Rather than seeking a supermajority of their own, Waldman writes that, “Liberals must fall out of love with the Supreme Court.” He recommends reform measures to curb the Court’s power while applying other pressure points – such as in the court of public opinion.
Guest – Michael Waldman is the president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. An expert on the Constitution and the courts, Waldman served on President Joe Biden’s commission on the Supreme Court. He is the author of The Fight to Vote and The Second Amendment: A Biography. Waldman was director of speechwriting during the Clinton administration. Sign up for newsletter – Briefing
Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn
———————————–
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Chris Hedges Returns From Gaza
Israel is a long time strategic ally of United States in the Middle East If you look at a map of the area Israel is shaped like an aircraft carrier: that’s its use to the USA.
Israel is given $3.8 billion a year of taxpayer dollars to use to purchase American military weapons. It has just been granted a multi billion dollar military aid package to facilitate its war efforts. The 2000 pound bombs being used to destroy the tiny Gaza Strip making it into a parking lot are made in the USA, so are Israel’s tanks, planes, armored personnel carriers, bullets, grenades and artillery shells.
On October 7, several hundred young Palestinians of the resistance movement Hamas broke through the fence of besieged Gaza killing Israelis and taking hostages. This was illegal and inhumane, but understandable given Israel’s historical blocking of a peaceful solution. The Netanyahu government used the attack and hostage taking as a pretext and an excuse to begin a genocidal war against the 2.3 million people in Gaza. Their slogan was “finish the Nakba,” the catastrophe Israel inflicted on Palestinians on 1948.
Through the use of murder and terror they then drove out 750,000 Palestinians and destroyed 531 of their villages. The Zionist took 78% of their land. Now they want the rest. They hope to level Gaza and drive the Palestinians across the border into Egypt. The USA is facilitating this process and is complicit in the genocidal war. There may be a paradigm shift in the 100 year war on the Palestinians.
We also hear a letter to the children of Gaza written by Chris Hedges, read by Eunice Wong, a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association: www.eunicewong.actor
Guest – Chris Hedges, an Arabic speaking former middle east bureau chief at the New York Times. Chris Hedges has just returned from Doha broadcasting on the crisis in Gaza for Al Jazeera as well as being in Egypt where he covered the war. Hedges spent 20 years as a war correspondent and reported on the past two Palestinian “intifadas”, or uprisings. He is a graduate of the Harvard Divinity school and the author of 14 books. Many people consider him not only a journalist, but a moral philosopher. His work can be found on chrishedges.substack.com
—-
Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Bill Goodman – In Remembrance
William (Bill) Goodman died in his home in Detroit on November 16, 2023. He was 83 years old. Bill was the son of Ernie Goodman, who was one of the founding members of the National Lawyers Guild and a partner in the first racially, integrated law firm in the United States
Bill was a past national president of the NLG, one of the founding officers of the NLG National Police Accountability Project, the former Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and a founding board member of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice,
He worked until his death and was a partner in the Detroit civil rights firm, Goodman, Hurwitz and James where he fought for the rights of victims of government and corporate abuse. Bill was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Wayne State Law School, where he taught Constitutional litigation.
Bill has successfully litigated numerous police and government misconduct cases as well as other high-profile cases on behalf of prisoners, toxic tort victims, the wrongfully convicted and victims of racism, always in the pursuit of constitutional, social and economic justice.
Host Attorney Julie Hurwitz: Bill was my law partner in Goodman Hurwitz & James and a former long-term partner in life – we knew each other a long time! In this interview, which we did last year, we will discuss two cases that we brought to confront the unconstitutional and inhumane conduct of individual police officers, but more importantly, the historically unconstitutional and inhumane ways in which police departments institutionally tolerate, promote and reward such behavior by their officers.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith, Marjorie Cohn and Julie Hurwitz
————————
