CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Impeachment, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Impeachment Inquiry With Constitutional Law Professor Marjorie Cohn
Nearly 300 former U.S. national security and foreign policy officials signed an open letter on October 6, calling for an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
The signatures were gathered by National Security Action, an organization that former Obama administration officials formed out of concern for Trump’s “reckless leadership.” The list includes many others who served as career officials in Republican and Democratic administrations.
The former national security professionals said they had largely avoided politics during their public service, but said allegations revealed in the recent whistleblower complaints warranted an additional investigation.
“The revelations of recent days, however, demand a response,” the statement says. “President Trump appears to have leveraged the authority and resources of the highest office in the land to invite additional foreign interference into our democratic processes.”
Guest – Attorney Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught for 25 years. The former president of the National Lawyers Guild and criminal defense attorney is a legal scholar and political analyst who writes books and articles, and lectures throughout the world about human rights, US foreign policy, and the contradiction between the two. She has testified before Congress and debated the legality of the war in Afghanistan at the prestigious Oxford Union. MarjorieCohn
—-
Trump Impeachment Inquiry
Like President Richard Nixon before him President Donald Trump made the mistake of using his power as president to go after the wrong target.
Nixon had his people burglarize the Democratic Party’s headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington DC. President Trump himself used his power to try to get the president of the Ukraine to investigate his, Trump’s, main Democratic Party rival, Joe Biden.
This transgression, not Trump’s caging of children, violating the separation of powers, or violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution, was viewed by the mainstream of the Democratic Party and their leader Nancy Pelosi as a “high crime and misdemeanor” violative of the constitution and worthy of an impeachment inquiry. Joe Biden is the preferred candidate of the Democratic establishment.
By impeaching Trump they want to preempt any possible attack on Biden, or on themselves, that could emerge from the Ukraine. It is to be remembered that the Obama Biden Clinton administration orchestrated and overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014, replacing it with the current government, which, for the first time since World War II has actual fascists in the Ukrainian government.
The impeachment process as it gains momentum could spread to other figures in the Trump administration. Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani seems likely to get indicted for violating election finance laws.
The impeachment inquiry could also expose the reality of the democratic party itself which under Obama, Biden, and Hillary Clinton organized the overthrow in 2014 of the democratically elected government of Ukraine and opened the door to American investment in the country, especially in natural gas. Hunter Biden, Joe’s son, as is now widely known, got a seat on the board of Berksems, the largest natural gas company in the Ukraine. This evident sinecure netted him $50,000 a month for a period of several years.
Guest – Ron Jacobs, author of Daydream Sunset: Sixties Counterculture in the Seventies published by CounterPunch Books. His latest offering is a pamphlet titled Capitalism: Is the Problem.
—————————————–
—————————————–
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
U.S. Judge Sides With Chevron, Blocks $9.5 Billion Judgement, Donziger Arrested.
In 2012 the Ecuadorian Supreme Court ordered the oil giant Chevron to pay $9.5 billion in damages to five indigenous tribes of the Amazon rain forest. It was one of the largest judgments in history.
The court ruled that Chevron systematically contaminated a patch of the Amazon forest the size of Rhode Island. The people there are suffering from cancer and other diseases and forced to drink toxic water and grow crops on poisoned land.
Chevron retaliated. They sued in federal court in the Southern District of New York, got Judge Louis Kaplan, an extremely pro corporate judge, who sided with the second largest oil company in the world, blocked the judgment from being enforced, and instead had the peoples’ attorney Steven Donziger charged with racketeering arrested, confined to his home, forced to wear an ankle bracelet, and suspended from the practice of law.
On March 4, 2019 the judge declared the judgment null and void. He said it was the fruit of an illegal shakedown, the result of “a five-year effort to extort and defraud Chevron.“ Donziger responded saying that the judge was an accomplice in “the biggest corporate retaliation campaign in history.“ He told Rolling Stone magazine that “Chevron has spent over $2 billion trying to wear us out and shut us down.”
The oil companies sole witness to its central charge of bribery was a corrupt Ecuadorian ex-judge named Alberto Guerra. They gave him $2 million, got him American citizenship, and installed him and his family in a home in the United States.
ChevronToxico.com
ChevronInEcuador.com
Guest – Attorney Martin Garbus, one of three pro bono lawyers representing Donziger in an attempt to get his law license restored.
Guest – Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director at Amazon Watch since 2007, and a professional human rights, corporate accountability and environmental justice advocate.
—-
McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks By Raymond Caballero
Clinton Jencks was a decorated World War II hero, who in 1950 led a local of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers in the famed Empire Zinc strike. It was memorialized in the blacklisted 1954 film Salt of the Earth—in which wives and mothers replaced strikers on the picket line after an injunction barred the miners themselves. Jencks was also a target of Senator Joe McCarthy’s anticommunist hysteria in which thousands lost their jobs, careers and reputations, even though none had committed a crime. Three years after the strike, Jencks was arrested and charged with falsely denying that he was a Communist. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
The Supreme Court in Jencks v. United States (1957), overturned his conviction in a landmark decision that mandated providing an accused person any previously hidden witness statements so that cross-examinations could be effective. In the new book McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks, scholar Raymond Caballero reveals for the first time that the FBI and the prosecution knew all along that Clinton Jencks was innocent.
Jencks’s case typified the era, exposing the myriad of injustices many suffered at the hands of McCarthyism. His journey for justice offers a new window into the McCarthy era’s oppression, which irrevocably damaged the lives, careers, and reputations of thousands of Americans.’
Guest – Raymond Caballero, author of Orozco: The Life and Death of a Mexican Revolutionary. Human rights attorney Michael E. Tigar wrote the introduction to McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.
————————-
————————-
Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Case Update October 2019
In our society, nuclear weapons that can destroy all creation are taken as a normal, even an inevitable part of life. In a dramatic action to break what they call “the crime of silence” seven Catholic peace activists entered the Kings Bay trident submarine base in Georgia last April to perform an act of symbolic disarmament. They used hammers to follow the prophecy of Isaiah “to beat swords into plowshares” and poured blood to make holy what was evil in a sacramental action. Kings Bay is homeport to six ballistic missile trident submarines, each of which deploy 16 trident missiles carrying four or more warheads of at least 100 kilotons. The Hiroshima bomb was 14 kilotons. Each submarine thus has the destructive power of at least 500 Hiroshima bombs. The plowshares seven face up to 25 years in federal prison. Their trial is coming up. Theirs was the latest of 100 plowshares actions around the world since 1980.
Guest – Martha Hennessey, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 co-defendant, activist and volunteer with the New York Catholic Worker.
Guest – Patrick O’Neill, Kings Bay Plowshares 7 co-defendant, activist and volunteer with the New York Catholic Worker.
—-
Flint Water Crisis Case and Michigan Private Prisons Update
The notorious Flint, Michigan poison drinking water case has been in litigation for more than three years. Detroit constitutional attorney Bill Goodman joins us to give an update on the case.
Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, high-ranking former members of his staff and other state employees are the target of a federal civil rights lawsuit over the city of Flint’s water crisis. The lawsuit, which also targets the city, alleges that the officials tried to balance the City’s budget through a pattern of devious and race-based activity that targeted the people of Flint. It claims that these public official lied to the people of Flint by continuing to mail water bills to Flint residents, which they allege fraudulently misrepresents that the city is providing safe, clean water to its residents.
A group of Flint residents filed the lawsuit on behalf of all the citizens of Flint seeking financial compensation for injuring virtually every adult and child in that beleaguered city – for lead poisoning and brain damage to the kids, for severe skin ailments and hair loss for everyone, for death from Legionnaires disease, and countless other injuries; in addition, there had been tremendous psychological injury to the entire population. Beyond that, people in this community have sustained massive property damage, loss of business, and financial losses. In addition to compensation, they demand life-time future medical care.
This case asserts that this disaster was caused when a multitude of public officials decided to change the source of water from clean safe water, to dangerous, untreated water, knowing – at all times of the danger – and yet lying to the public and claiming that they water was safe when they knew that it was dangerous and poisoned.
We will also speak with him about his lawsuit against a private prison corporation for negligence in allowing a gang execution in one of the private prisons it owns. Attorney Goodman is counsel to the inmates at the Wayne County, Michigan jail in the oldest jail conditions case in the United States going back to 1971. Detroit is in Wayne County.
Guest -Attorney Bill Goodman is the former Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. He is the attorney for a number of victims of water poisoning in Flint, Michigan.
———————————-
———————————-
Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Truth to Power
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Power of Attorney: Can Progressive Prosecutors Achieve Meaningful Criminal Justice Reform?
Can progressive prosecutors achieve meaningful criminal justice reform? Returning guest reporter Andrew Cockburn addresses this question in his recent article in Harper’s magazine titled Power of Attorney.
Attorney Dave Clegg, running for the office of prosecutor in Ulster County, has written that prosecutors are the most powerful elected officials people probably know the least about. They are the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. People don’t realize how the DAs decisions impact people facing the criminal justice system and the long-term consequences suffered by their families and communities.
A DA serves with broad discretion and little oversight. For decades harsh decisions by “tough on crime“ DAs have made the USA the world leader in over-incarceration. Most District Attorney races go unchallenged and DAs can remain entrenched in power for decades. DAs have been active roadblocks to justice reform efforts, transparency, and change.
Hopeful prosecutors with good ideas have been running in cities across the country. What reforms are they advocating? What kind of resistance are they coming up against? The Daily Appeal
Guest – Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s magazine discusses the appearance of progressives running for prosecutors in cities as diverse as San Francisco California, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Baltimore Maryland, Queens New York, and Ulster county New York.
—-
The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World
In 1947 Congress passed the National Security Act which led to formation of the National Security Council and, under its direction, the CIA. Its original mandate was to collect and analyze strategic information for use in war. Though shrouded in secrecy, some CIA activities—such as covert military and cybersecurity operations—have drawn public scrutiny and criticism.
In 1948 the Security Council approved a secret directive, NSC 10/2, authorizing the CIA to carry out an array of covert operations. This essentially allowed the CIA to become a paramilitary organization. Before he died, George F. Kennan, the diplomat and Cold War strategist who sponsored the directive said that “in light of latter history, it was the greatest mistake I ever made.”
Since NSC 10/2 authorized violation of international law it also established an official policy of lying so as to cover up the lawbreaking.
Guest – Douglas Valentine, author of The CIA as Organized Crime: How Illegal Operations Corrupt America and the World. Mr. Valentine’s rare access to CIA officials has resulted in portions of his research materials being archived at the National Security Archive, Texas Tech University’s Vietnam Center and John Jay College. He has written three books on CIA operations, including The Phoenix Program which documented the CIA’s elaborate system of population surveillance, control, entrapment, imprisonment, torture and assassination in Vietnam. His new book describes how many of these practices remain operational today.
————————————
————————————
Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Human Rights, Iran, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
When at Times the Mob Is Swayed, A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic
Trump was elected by about 25% of the eligible voters. Half of the voters who could have, didn’t vote. He lost the popular election by 3 million votes. Since then, this appalling man has proceeded to aggrandize his power. Backed by large corporations to whom he gave huge tax breaks and for whom he cut regulations, the military to which he just gave a $750 billion budget, a Republican Supreme Court and the right wing media such as Sinclair Broadcasting and Fox News he has maintained a steady base of support in the population.
Increasing a sense of dread has spread across our country, it appears possible that Trump may get reelected. Democracy and the rule of law are increasingly threatened.
Guest – Constitutional Lawyer, Burt Neuborne is the former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and has argued many cases before the US Supreme Court. Attorney Neuborne’s book “When at Times the Mob is Swayed” has been recently published by the New Press. He is currently the Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties at NYU School of Law.
—-
Prominent Environmental Activist Maggy Hurchalla Loses Appeal Of 4.4 Million Dollar Jury Verdict
Issues of the environment, citizen advocacy, and the public’s right to know are converging in two South Florida court cases. One involves 78-year-old Maggy Hurchalla, a former Everglades Coalition’s Conservationist of the Year and winner of a National Wetlands Award from the Environmental Law Institute. Now she owes a developer $4.4 million for speaking out about a critical local environmental issue.
In 2012 Hurchalla learned that Lake Point Restoration was considering conveying water to West Palm Beach for a fee. She complained about the company’s operation in emails to Martin Country commissioners and after Lake Point lost out on some contracts. Lake Point claims Maggy lied and was intent on hurting the company.
In a second related case, the nonprofit Everglades Law Center requested a transcript of a closed door meeting of South Florida Water Management’s governing board. The response? They were hauled into court, with Maggie Hurchalla added to the lawsuit.
Guest – Professor Richard Grosso, director of environmental and land use practice at NOVA Southeastern University. Professor Grosso is a widely recognized legal expert, practicing attorney and policy advocate, with over 30 years of experience litigating and advocating on statewide and south Florida environmental issues.
——————————
——————————
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Crony Capitalism, Human Rights, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Amazon Ring Of Surveillance
When it comes to e-commerce, the multinational tech company Amazon.com has laid claim to a huge corner on the market. Now, it’s venturing into the business of surveillance.
Amazon is aggressively pursuing law enforcement partnerships. More than 400 police departments across the nation have already joined forces with the tech giant’s so-called smart doorbell program, called Ring. Part of Amazon’s outreach strategy in gaining new police partners is to play on fears of increasing property crime.
Ring doesn’t just show you who is at your door. It films and records any interaction or movement at owners’ doors, then alerts users’ phones. With partnerships between mega corporations and law enforcement to use new surveillance systems in the public–leaving out community input–come a host of civil liberties concerns, including racial profiling.
Guest – Matthew Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Matthew is a policy analyst working on issues of surveillance and privacy at the local, state, and federal level. He is a frequent contributor to the Freedom of Information-centered outlet Muckrock and his bylines have appeared in the Washington Post and Motherboard.
—-
North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five
North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five is the recent publication by our guest attorney Martin Garbus.
This case was one of the most significant ones in recent times. Attorney Len Weinglass had originally taken the case to appeal the matter for already convicted Cuban Five. The appeal was ultimately lost. Weinglass died and his dear friend our guest Martin Garbus stepped in to what looked like a lost cause. Four of the five men were in prison serving long sentences.
Cuba had been an American colony up until 1959 when the widely popular Cuban revolution succeeded in gaining the country’s independence from the USA.
To reverse this has been American policy ever since. The Helms-Burton Act was a counter- revolution as an American government policy written into American law.
Martin Garbus started representing Cuban Five member Gerardo Hernandez who at the time had then been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage against United States sometime in the future as well as murder.
Hernandez and his four comrades had been sent from Cuba to Miami by the government of Cuba to spy, not on the United States, but on the counter-revolutionary Cubans in Miami who were launching terrorist activities from Florida directed at persons and property in Cuba, attempting to sabotage the Cuban tourist economy which was in bad shape when a new Russian government cut them off.
The Cubans gathered information on the Miami-based terrorists, compiling a lengthy dossier on their murders activities, and turned it over to the FBI. They asked the US government to stop the terrorists, who were targeting the Cuban tourist industry by planting bombs at the Havana Airport, on buses, and in a hotel, killing an Italian vacationer. But instead of stopping the terrorists the US government used the dossier to figure out the identities of the Cuban five. They were arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced long prison terms.
While the Cubans were in Miami, a group of counter-revolutionary Cubans calling themselves “Brothers to the Rescue” were provocatively flying small planes over Havana dropping anti-Castro leaflets. They were warned by the Cuban government that if they persisted the planes will be shot down. They persisted. The planes were shot down. Hernandez was convicted of murder although he had no prior knowledge about the shoot down.
Guest – Martin Garbus is one of our great trial lawyers. He has appeared before the United States Supreme Court on leading First Amendment and constitutional law cases.
——————————————–
——————————————–
