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.
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.
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.
“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.”
Incarcerating 2.3 million people isn’t cheap. Paul Wright unearths astonishing facts on the private prison industry and it needs to maintain occupancy rates to make a profit. Prison Profiteers will tell you where your tax dollars are going as you help to bankroll the biggest prison machine the world has ever seen. Prison Profiteers was also written by Tara Herival, co-editor of Prison Nation.
37,000 Americans asked CCR to send a copy of the U.S. Constitution to George W. Bush as an early holiday present in the hope that he might actually read it. Santa made the trip down from the North Pole in his sleigh to try to deliver the law.
Law and Disorder hosts discuss details of this story. Articles say the CIA has destroyed hundreds of hours of video tapes of the likely 2002 water torture of three men. Although the CIA has not acknowledged that the videos are of water torture. The Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have launched a joint probe into the CIA’s destruction of at least two videotapes documenting prisoner interrogations at a secret CIA prison. House Votes to Outlaw Waterboarding.
As we all now know, the CIA has destroyed hundreds of hours of video tapes of the likely 2002 water torture of three men, allegedly involved with al-Qaida, by its agents. Although the CIA has not acknowledged that the videos are of water torture – often known euphemistically as “waterboarding†– a former CIA agent, John Kiriakou, has said that the waterboarding was authorised from the highest levels of the Bush administration. Read More at Just Left.
“In accepting this remarkable award I do not stand here alone. I stand with the generations that have gone before—those particularly at the Center for Constitutional Rights that have always been willing to upend the status quo and take personal and political risks. I stand especially on the shoulders of our founders of 40 years ago—William Kunstler, Morton Stavis, Arthur Kinoy, and Ben Smith. Read also Michael Ratner’s article in the Guardian UK
Hosts examine the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act with former National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder. Peter says the legislation 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.
RADICALIZATION– The term ‘radicalization’ means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically-based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.
IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE– The term ‘ideologically-based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs.
Professor Marnia Lazreg’s new book, links the use of torture to the demise of empire using two examples. France in Algeria and the United States in Iraq. Lazreg also points out how occupying nations justify the use of torture as a regrettable but necessary means of saving Western civilization from those who challenge their rule. She traces back most of the brutal torture techniques as borrowed material from totalitarian movements throughout history. One review writes how Torture and the Twilight of Empire holds disturbing lessons as the War on Terror is carried out.
United Nations Torture Panel Says Taser Shock Is Torture – Hosts discuss numerous reports of taser-related deaths including the incident in Vancouver, B.C
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Palestinian Activist Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison
Here on Law and Disorder we’ve followed the pivotal moments in the Mohammed Salah case. Earlier this year, Salah was cleared of terrorism charges but recently convicted of lying about his ties to the Palestinian group Hamas. He faces nearly two years in prison. The sentence for a minor charge of obstruction of justice comes as a major setback for prosecutors who have spent a decade investigating charges that could have put Salah behind bars for life.
Recently however Abdelhaleem Ashqar was sentenced to 11 years, 3 months in prison for refusing to testify before a grand jury about activities of Hamas. U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve told Ashqar that regardless of his political beliefs, he had an obligation to follow U.S. law. She said that once he was granted immunity, he could not refuse to testify before the grand jury.
We hear the first speech by our own co-host Michael Smith based on his own research into Che Guevara’s life. Michael tells the audience at the Brecht Forum about his travels to Cuba, his research work with co-host Michael Ratner and lays out the case of how Che could have been murdered. This was one of 3 compelling speeches held at the Brecht Forum. Author and historian Jane Franklin and attorney/civil rights activist Len Weinglass also spoke – Law and Disorder will air those speeches in the weeks to come.
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.â€
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.
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.
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.
I am writing this on November 13th. 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 . . . .
