Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Alamo Car Rental – Discrimination Verdict
In our ongoing coverage of racial profiling and religious bias since 9/11, we go now to look at a case that ended in a big verdict for an employee who was fired for wearing a head scarf. Recently, a federal jury in Phoenix awarded more than 280 thousand dollars in a religious discrimination suit against Alamo Car Rental. The suit was brought by U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Alamo Car Rental was charged on a post-9/11 backlash discrimination based on religion.
The case involved Bilan Nur, a woman of Somali descent who was let go from her customer service position in December 2001 after the Alamo car rental office she worked at in Phoenix refused to let her wear a headscarf to work.
Guest – Valerie Meyer, EEOC Attorney in Phoenix, Arizona.
Guest – Bilan Nur
—–
Verdict in Post 9/11 Roundup
Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller may be sued from ethnic and religious discrimination after 9/11. Former detainee, Javaid Iqbal was among the hundreds of muslims rounded up after 9/11 being held in maximum security conditions after they were identified as being of high interest to the investigation.
Iqbal, a Pakistani Muslim, was arrested at his Long Island home on Nov. 2, 2001, and was charged with nonviolent federal crimes unrelated to terrorism. Two months later, he was moved to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he was held in solitary confinement for more than 150 days without a hearing, his lawsuit alleged.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan recently recognized that Iqbal had the right not to be subjected to needlessly harsh conditions of confinement, the right to be free from the use of excessive force and the right not to be subjected to ethnic or religious discrimination.
Guest – Alex Reinert, Attorney and Law professor at the Cardoza School of Law.
———–
Law and Disorder Co-host Michael Ratner Launches Blog
Just Left
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Military Tribunal, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
Ali al-Marri Update: Reversing the Bush Administration’s War on Terror Policy
In a reversal of the Bush Administration’s effort to detain people around the globe, last week, a federal appeals court in Virginia, which is a very conservative court ruled that the government cannot subject Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri to indefinite detention, though he was subject to indefinite detention by a 2003 presidential order.
A legal US resident – though not a citizen – al-Marri had studied computer science at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois in 1991, and returned on 10 September 2001 to pursue post-graduate studies, bringing his family – his wife and five children – with him. Three months later he was arrested and charged with fraud and making false statements to the FBI, but in June 2003, a month before he was due to stand trial for these charges in a federal court in Peoria, the prosecution dropped the charges and informed the court that he was to be held as an “enemy combatant†instead.
As some listeners may recall, here on Law and Disorder we’ve discussed Ali al-Marri’s case and how he was held incommunicado, indefinitely in a military prison without charges. He’s been in solitary confinement for more than 2 years, no access to reading material, except the Qur’an. According to his lawyers, he was constantly harassed, abused and any medical treatment he received was very poor.
Now, because the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that U.S. residents cannot be locked up indefinitely as “enemy combatants†without being charged, al-Marri can challenge his detention. Al-Marri is the only “enemy combatant” still in detention without charge in the United States itself.
Guest – Jonathan Hafetz, Litigation Director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Project and the lead counsel for Al-Marri. He is the author of numerous articles in scholarly and popular publications, including the Yale Law Journal, California Western Law Review, and Fordham Journal of International Law, Legal Affairs, and the New York Law Journal.
——
Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the War on Terror
Children as young as seven years old detained in secret CIA prisons are some of the startling details unearthed by a recent report drafted by six human rights groups including Amnesty International (PDF file), the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law.
The report titled Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the War on Terror, details aspects of the CIA detention program that the US government has actively tried to conceal, such as the locations where prisoners may have been held, the mistreatment they endured, and the countries to which they may have been transferred. The report names 39 people believed to be disappeared from countries such as Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, and Spain.
Guest – Meg Satterthwaite, director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the (NYU) Law School. Satterthwaite has published reports and articles on human rights topics in scholarly and advocacy contexts. Her research interests include human rights in the “war on terrorâ€; gender, sexuality and human rights; and the human rights of migrants. She is Co-Chair of the International Human Rights Interest Group of the American Society of International Law, a member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA, and a member of the International Law Committee of the City Bar of New York.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Truth to Power
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Habeas Corpus Update – Take Action
Co-hosts Michael Ratner and Dalia Hashad update listeners on recent decisions regarding Guantanamo prisoners and habeas corpus. Dalia Hashad alerts listeners to upcoming event supported by a coalition of civil liberties groups.
War Czar.
Michael Ratner and Dalia Hashad discuss the position of War Czar and what it means regarding the longevity of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why Did 3 Generals Refuse This Position?
——–
Demonstrators Worldwide Protest the Release of Luis Posada Carriles
In Canada, Mexico, Central and South America and across dozens of major cities in the United States, demonstrators worldwide took to the streets to protest the release of admitted former CIA operative, Luis Posada Carriles. He’s accused of being one of the masterminds of a l976 mid-air explosion that demolished a Cuban airliner, killing 73 people. Meanwhile the Cuban Five remain in prison. Look at photographic evidence here against Luis Posada Carriles / Washington Post Article – Free Ride For A Likely Killer
A message from Mumia Abu-Jamal : For over four decades, the US empire has been waging a secret and deadly war against Cuba. They have bombed fields, poisoned grain, hijacked planed, and plotted invasion. They have trained, paid and protected terrorists who have cost the lives of thousands of Cubans and virtually crippled their economy through a seemingly everlasting embargo. The Cuban Five, young men who tried to protect their people from these instances of U.S. state terrorism, who have bombed on one, nor planned to, who poisoned no one, nor planned to, who hurt non one, nor planned to, who merely reported the plotting of crimes against their people, face the full foul fury of the empire’s judiciary for trying to stop crimes. We must all, all of us protest the unjust convictions of Rene Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez and Ramon Labanino.
We hear the voices of activists and lawyers speaking at the New York protest, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark and our own Heidi Boghosian.
Demonstraters Show Support For Mumia Abu-Jamal
Oral arguments were heard by 3 judges last week who will decide the fate of imprisoned former Black Panther and award winning journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal at the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Abu-Jamal has been on death row for 25 years after being convicted of killing a police officer following a controversial trial before a predominantly-white jury. The Third Circuit Court heard oral arguments that will rule whether Abu-Jamal gets life in prison, a new trial or execution. Our own Heidi Boghosian was in the courts and the streets with the hundreds of demonstrators. We hear the voices of lawyers and activists Heidi interviewed on that day outside the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia.
Hip Hop News Update / International Herald Tribune / Crime Scene Photos
