Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Pardons, Reduction of Mass Incarceration And Judy Clark’s Clemency
The United States of America has more prisoners behind bars given it its population than any other country in the world. This policy of mass incarceration is now under challenge. On December 30 of last year New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a broad and bold commitment to grant conditional pardons, clemency, and full pardons to New York state prisoners. Judy Clark, age 67, was one of the recipients and is now being allowed to go before the parole board. Clark has been in prison for 35 years, sentenced to 75 years to life for her role as the getaway driver in the infamous Brinks robbery in RocklandCounty, New York, where two policeman and one guard were shot and killed.
Changing Minds The Impact of College In A Maximum Security Prison Film: What I Want My Words To Do To You.
Guest – University of New York Distinguished Professor Michelle Fine. For 20 years she taught and conducted research with women and men in prison, most significantly at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility where Judy Clark is behind bars. Professor Fine participated in writing the influential report “changing minds: The impact of college in a maximum security prison for women. She worked closely with Judy Clark. Judy Clark Facebook.
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Reflections from A Southern People’s Lawyer You’ll Like: David Gespass
This year Martin Luther King Day had a special resonance for many given its lead-up to the Trump inauguration. That the president-elect engaged in social media attacks on civil rights icon John Lewis prompted a flurry of reactions of Twitter, especially emotional given that the timing coincided with MLK day. As we prepare for a changing of the guard, we talk to longtime civil liberties attorney David Gespass, from Birmingham Alabama. Read articles by David Gespass
Guest – Attorney David Gespass began his law practice in Washington, DC in 1971. A past president of the National Lawyers Guild, he also served as editor-in-chief of the Guild’s scholarly journal, the NLG Review, and was a founder and steering committee member of the Military Law Task Force. His practice includes police misconduct and prisoner rights’ litigation, Social Security disability and personal injury. He has been a member of the National Police Accountability Project since its founding in 1999. David has been practicing law in Birmingham, Alabama since 1978.
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Academic Freedom, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Hacktivist Advocate
Long before news reports of Russians hacking, the Democratic National Convention dominated the news, a handful of lawyers across the nation were defending socially-minded hackers, or hacktivists, against harsh computer-related prosecutions. The term hactivism refers to persons who use computers to advance political agendas, often related to freedom of information, free speech and human rights.
Guest – Attorney Jay Leiderman, the Atlantic Magazine has called attorney Jay Leiderman the “Hacktivist’s Advocate” for his work defending individuals accused of computer-related crimes, especially those associated with Anonymous. An experienced defense attorney, Leiderman lectures nationally on a range of criminal defense issues. He is a founding member of the Whistleblower’s Defense League, formed to combat FBI and Justice Department tactics of harassment and over-prosecution to chill and silence those who engage in journalism, Internet activism or dissent.
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Attacks On Journalists, Hackers And Information Activists
In the past decade we have seen an unprecedented attack on hackers, journalists, whistleblowers, and other “information activists” who dare to let the public know what goes on within the corridors of corporate and governmental power structures.
Both sectors have launched an all-ought war on the ability of the public to access newsworthy information. Yet as this takes place, the public is being told that we no longer have a right to privacy, especially online privacy. Here to discuss trends in the laws and the often lawless acts that are used to suppress the public’s right to information and ultimately the possibility of democracy is attorney Abi Hassen.
Guest – Attorney Abi Hassen, is a consultant and cofounder of the Black Movement-Law Project. He was formerly the mass defense coordinator at the National Lawyers Guild. He has a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and an undergraduate degree in computer science from The Evergreen State College. With his extensive background in labor, political and community organizing, Abi has been active at the intersection of law, technology and organizing for social justice for more than a decade.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Wildlife Preservation And The Trump Administration
The protection of endangered species and wildlife trafficking have not traditionally been big ticket campaign issues for presidential candidates. However, national security, the economy, trade and the environment are all impacted by wildlife preservation. Illegal wildlife trade–animal smuggling–is a multibillion-dollar business that is fueled on corruption and terrorism and that destabilizes developing countries.
Trafficking of rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and other products is increasingly becoming organized crime. Despite recent headlines of animals being added to the endangers list, the Trump administration may change how the United States seeks to protect wildlife domestically and internationally. Animals protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which could be weakened by the new president and a Republican-controlled Congress, may be increasingly imperiled.
Guest – Erika Mansourian, Executive Director of Elephant Family-USA, the American arm of the UK-based Elephant Family. Elephant Family’s mission is to save the Asian elephant—massive habitat loss has caused their numbers to plummet, and 90% of wild Asian elephants have been wiped out in the last century. Erika is also on the board of Veterinarians International and Tanzania’s PAMs Foundation, as well as the advisory board of the Humane Society of New York. She’s worked with Animal Defenders International and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
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Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Policy and the Trump Administration
What are the prospects for nuclear arms control with the Trump administration? The United States is the only country to have used nuclear bombs. It dropped them on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and several days later on Nagasaki in 1945, in order to intimidate the Russians at the end of World War II. Presently, the United States has 4500 nuclear warheads, 400 of them situated in intercontinental ballistic missiles and placed on a hair trigger alert. The U.S. also has weapons placed on submarines and on aircraft. Obama has started a process by which one trillion dollars will be spent in the next decade on modernizing Americas nuclear capacity.
Guest – Attorney John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Policy. John Burroughs represents LCNP and IALANA in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review proceedings, the United Nations, and other international forums. Dr. Burroughs is contributor, Unspeakable suffering – the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons (2013) (available here); contributor, Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World (2012) (available here); co-editor and contributor, Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace (2007) (available here); co-editor and contributor, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties (2003); and author of The Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons: A Guide to the Historic Opinion of the International Court of Justice (1998). He has additionally published articles and op-eds in journals and newspapers including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the World Policy Journal, and Newsday. Dr. Burroughs has taught international law as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He has a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Harvard University.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Surveillance
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Trumpocalypse
Donald Trump will be sworn into office on January 20 as the 45th President of United States. He will begin his term with a Republican Congress. What can he do? What powers does he possess that would victimize immigrants, women, minorities, the infirmed, political activists, and journalists? We speak today with journalist Max Rivlin- Nadler. He’s the author of the recent article which appeared in The Gothamist called Trumpocalypse Now: What’s The Worst That Could Happen In NYC?
Guest – Max Rivlin-Nadler is an independent journalist based in New York City focused on urban affairs and criminal justice issues. He’s reported on the abuse of civil forfeiture laws by the NYPD, financial mismanagement and environmental neglect by the Port Authority, and the 2016 presidential election. His reporting has appeared in the New York Times, Gothamist, and the Village Voice.
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DAPL Aerial Chemical Attack Report: Oceti Sakowin Encampment
Water Protectors numbering in the thousands including members of more than 100 Native American tribes at Standing Rock, North Dakota have been brutally and continually attacked since they began their encampment months ago. They’re stationed in the freezing North Dakota weather and have succeeded in halting the construction of a 1200 mile oil pipeline that is scheduled to go through sacred Indian lands and beneath the Missouri River and then through South Dakota, Iowa, and into Illinois. Pipelines frequently break and if and when this one does it will contaminate the water supply of some 15 million people. Water from the river was sprayed on the protesters in 26° weather causing many of them to get life threatening hypothermia. Recently there have been reports of low flying aircraft releasing poison on the tents where the people are encamped. There have also been reports of snipers training their rifles on the people in the camp. President Obama has temporarily stopped the construction of the pipeline. Its a 3.8 billion-dollar project owned by the Energy Transfer Partners, an outfit in which Donald Trump has a large investment.
DONATE TO WATER PROTECTORS
Guest – Angela Bibens, an attorney from Denver, Colorado, Angela practices criminal, juvenile and family law with a specialty in the Indian Child Welfare Act. She earned her law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2006. She is a wife and mother of three. Angela has been the ground coordinator for the Water Protector Legal Collective at Oceti Sakowin Camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for the past three months.
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Zachary Sklar: Snowden
National Security Director James Clapper was questioned by Congress. The media was there. He looked at the camera, right in our eyes. The question was: Does the NSA spy on Americans? He Answered “not wittingly”. This was a lie. The NSA was spying on every computer keystroke and telephone conversation made by every American. Edward Snowden blew the whistle on this totalitarian practice that turned democracy upside down. Instead of the government serving the people the government was spying on the people it should serve. He has been indicted under the 1917 Espionage Act and is presently living in Russia, stripped of his passport, unable to come home where he faces decades in prison or worse. Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone’s just released movie tells Edward Snowden’s story.
Guest – Zachary Sklar is a screenwriter, journalist, author, and editor. He is best known as co-writer (with Oliver Stone) of the Academy Award-nominated screenplay for the film JFK. Sklar has edited numerous non-fiction books about U.S. intelligence, including the number-one-bestselling On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison, from which the film JFK was adapted; Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network by former Israeli intelligence operative Ari Ben-Menashe; and Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA by former CIA case officer Ralph McGehee.
Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Truth to Power
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Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939 to 1962
Eleanor Roosevelt was a modest self deprecating forceful and effective advocate for human rights. She was married to the four term Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was in office throughout the Great Depression and World War II. During this time Eleanor Roosevelt grew into her own as an influential world figure. She helped in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the founding the United Nations. She fought for racially quality, economic security and world peace.
Guest – Blanche Wiesen Cook who is a distinguished Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Professor Cook has just published the third volume of her monumental biography of Eleanor Roosevelt titled, Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After, 1939 to 1962. She has worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Michael Ratner in getting public access to government documents through freedom of information act requests. Cook is also a contributor to the book “Imagine: Living In A Socialist USA.”
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One People’s Project: Daryle Lamont Jenkins
This past summer an ambitious volunteer-run organization has taken on clandestine Klan rallies, wives of prominent neo-Nazis running for judgeships, and rock bands with neo-Nazi connections. The One People’s Project has been called a “scrappier version of the Southern Poverty Law Center.”
Its timely mission is to research and report on right/far right/racist individuals and organizations in an effort to eradicate hate. Its members do not shy away from outing individuals associated with white supremacist groups, especially if that person holds a position of responsibility or prominence in a community. They are the first to admit that they are not polite in their pursuit. The Project’s website features a “Rogues Gallery,” an alphabetical list—with photos—of persons they claim to know to be white nationalists.
Guest – Daryl Lamont Jenkins, activist, founder and spokesman for One People’s Project.
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Law and Disorder Hosts Acknowledge List of Affiliate Stations
A big thank you to all of the affiliate radio and internet stations broadcasting Law and Disorder each week. Thank you again for support and feedback.
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Censorship, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Crony Capitalism, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, War Resister
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US Intelligence Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims
The major media has been filled daily with stories about how Russia and its Chief of State Vladimir Putin sought to and did influence the American election in favor of Donald Trump. It is alleged by the CIA and other American intelligence agencies, the Russians hacked into the computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and of Hillary Rodham Clinton. This conclusion, it is reported, is based on “overwhelming circumstantial evidence.” American public opinion is been shaped to support aggression against Russia. Despite a promise made to Russia that they would not do it, the promise was broken and NATO now has troops and weapons on the Russian border where military exercises have been carried out. Tensions have been a ratcheted up to an extreme level not known since the heights of the Cold War.
Guest – Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst who briefed President George Bush daily. He broke with the government under George W. Bush over the cooked intelligence used to rationalize America’s illegal war of aggression against Iraq and helped form the organization Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Last week his group issued a memorandum to President Obama which demonstrated that the Russians did not hack into the computers of the Democratic Party or Hillary Clinton and did not therefore influence the American election. They asserted that information that came out about the corruption of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party was leaked by an insider, not hacked.
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Civil Justice And The Trump Administration
Donald Trump has been critical of the U.S. intelligence community, both as a presidential candidate and as president-elect. He recently said he does not need to receive the presidential intelligence briefing every day, suggesting that such briefings are repetitive and that he is content to rely on those around him on matters of intelligence and national security. Trump’s infrequent briefings to-date are a departure from every modern president except Richard Nixon, who was so skeptical of intelligence agencies that he refused to accept briefings offered by President Johnson, even returning unopened envelopes containing classified material to the CIA.
In Washington DC, the public interest organization the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund has a new message on its website. It reads, in part: “At the PCJF, we stand with all those who are taking those steps forward – steps together – to face down what is coming, to protect those who are most vulnerable, and to make it clear that the people themselves are the force to be reckoned with.”
The PCJF has litigated First Amendment and other cases of constitutional import that have helped preserve and even expand the protections afforded individuals in different jurisdictions.
Guest – Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, co-chair of the Guild’s National Mass Defense Committee. co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in Washington, DC, she secured $13.7 million for about 700 of the 2000 IMF/World Bank protesters in Becker, et al. v. District of Columbia, et al., while also winning pledges from the District to improve police training about First Amendment issues. She won $8.25 million for approximately 400 class members in Barham, et al. v. Ramsey, et al. (alleging false arrest at the 2002 IMF/World Bank protests). She served as lead counsel in Mills, et al v. District of Columbia (obtaining a ruling that D.C.’s seizure and interrogation police checkpoint program was unconstitutional); in Bolger, et al. v. District of Columbia (involving targeting of political activists and false arrest by law enforcement based on political affiliation); and in National Council of Arab Americans, et al. v. City of New York, et al. (successfully challenging the city’s efforts to discriminatorily restrict mass assembly in Central Park’s Great Lawn stemming from the 2004 RNC protests.)
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2016 Political Prisoner Pardons
President of United States under the constitution has the authority to pardon or grant clemency to people after their conviction or even before. This does not include people convicted in state courts, only federal court. Although the United States denies it, it holds many people as political prisoners.
1. Leonard Peltier – We urge President Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier on humanitarian grounds and in the interest of justice. Peltier was a leader of the American Indian movement in the 1970s. At a confrontation at wounded knee South Dakota between AIM and the FBI two FBI agents were killed. The FBI had worked with a corrupt tribal leadership to suppress the American Indian movement. At his trial, the prosecution withheld evidence including potential key ballistic evidence. Leonard has served 40 years in prison and is not eligible for hid parole hearing until 2024. His son recently died and he was not allowed to go to the funeral. He is in very poor shape and his health is deteriorating. Please sign a petition to President Obama at this site.
2. Ethel Rosenberg was electrocuted at Sing Sing prison in 1953 after being convicted of being an atomic bomb spy and part of a ring that gave the secret of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. At that time the government knew she was not a spy. She left two boys ages six and 10. There was no secret to the atomic bomb, it was a matter of industrial capacity. The famous Rosenberg case was used to stir up the stereo against Russia. A huge body of evidence demonstrates that Ethel Rosenberg was innocent. Donald Trumps mentor, friend, and attorney Roy Cohn was one of the prosecutors who ruthlessly attacked Ethel and colluded with the judge to have her executed. Listeners can call the Whitehouse at 202-456-1111 or visit this website – Exonerate Ethel, Our Mother
3. Army Sergeant Chelsea Manning has been in Fort Leavenworth prison for six years now, a record for whistleblowers. He was convicted of leaking what has become known as the Iraqi war logs to WikiLeaks, which published them showing the truth about US war crimes in Iraq. Chelsea is a transgendered person whose confinement in an all male prison at Fort Leavenworth has been unusually harsh. This included 11 months of solitary confinement. She has twice attempted suicide. Her sentence is 35 years, the longest ever given to a whistleblower. She has already served more time in prison that any individual in US history who has disclosed information in the public interest. Write or call the Whitehouse.
4. Oscar Lopez, a Puerto Rican political prisoner has served 30 years in prison, convicted of seditious conspiracy – a thought crime involving no actual act – because of his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico. He was not accused or convicted of causing harm or taking a life. He was sentenced to 70 years and is one of the longest held political prisoners in the world. Oscar served in Vietnam, Was a wooded a bronze star, and came home to Chicago where he became a talented community organizer. He served 12 years in isolation in a Supermax prison. He comes up for parole when he will be 83 years old. A petition asking President Obama to commute Oscar’s sentence can be found at: Oscar’s Story Here boricuahumanrights.org
5. Edward Snowden blew the whistle about the USA’s illegal global master valence system. This scandalized the American government and caused it to partially rein in its surveillance for the first time in four decades. This would not have happened but for Snowdens courageous act, a public service as former Attorney General Eric Holder has admitted. Snowden is facing charges under the espionage act, a world war one law that put another great American hero Eugene Debs in prison for making a speech in opposition to the war. Snowden should be honored for his action, not forced into exile in Russia. The entire establishment favors prosecuting him. President Obama has wrongly stated that he can’t do anything to help Snowden until he has returned to this country and gone on trial. A petition urging the president to pardon Snowden can be found here: pardonsnowden.org
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