CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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- Updates: Host Reunion: Epstein Update
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CCR Update With Legal Director Baher Azmy
Three years ago Donald Trump ran on a racist nativist platform scapegoating Muslims and Mexicans. He lost the popular vote but won the election through the electoral college and began implementing his scapegoating. First he banned Muslims because the Supreme Court ignored his campaign statements and ruling that he had a right to do it under national security.
The Trump policy has been deliberately cruel, separating children from families, caging immigrants in cold cement floored cells, rightly called concentration camps, and now attempting to deny non-citizens who are here illegally, medical care and other benefits.
Guest – Attorney Baher Azmy legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The CCR is involved in a number of cases seeking to protect immigrants. We will also speak with Attorney Azmy about the current status of the offshore prison island in Guantánamo Bay Cuba and the men who are trapped there in limbo, who have yet to receive trials. Last, we will speak with him about the Al Shamari v. CACI case where the US government farmed out torture to a private corporation.
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Update: Venezuela Under Economic Embargo
In the midst of escalating U.S. aggression toward Venezuela, antiwar activist Gloria LaRiva recently spent a month in that country to observe firsthand the impact on its people.
Gloria joins us today to discuss the crucial issues facing Venezuelans: the U.S. economic sanctions, the U.S. media blockade, and the people’s organizing efforts to overcome the aggression. She’ll talk about the Bolivarian revolution, and how Venezuela is holding up under an economic embargo. https://www.answercoalition.org/
Guest – Gloria LaRiva is an American socialist activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Peace and Freedom Party. She ran for president in 2008 and again in 2016 with Eugene Puryear and Dennis Banks as her running mates. She has been a driving force in the campaign to Free the Cuban Five and a longtime friend of Law and Disorder. Liberationnews.org
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Censorship, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Human Trafficking, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Torture, Truth to Power
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Victory In New York City Wikileaks Case
Truth telling journalist and publisher Julian Assange and his organization Wiki-leaks won a significant First Amendment victory in federal court in New York City on July 29.
As reported by Oscar Grendel in the World Socialists Website, “The decision by Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected that Assange colluded with Russia. It upheld his status as a journalist and publisher and dismissed claims that WikiLeaks 2016 publication of the leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee was illegal.
We speak today with WikiLeaks lawyer Josh Dratel, who represented WikiLeaks, about this victory for civil liberties and freedom of the press and the right of people to know.
Assange is in terrible and declining health in Belmarsh prison in London waiting extradition to the United States to be tried on 17 counts of espionage for publishing in 2010 troves of information leaked to him by Chelsea Manning demonstrating United States committed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The July 29 victory came about when the Democratic National Committee of the Democratic Party attempted to sue Assange and WikiLeaks for publishing DNC Emails on the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. They showed that the DNC rigged the primary election against Sanders. Clinton was exposed for taking a $675,000 speakers fee, which some described as a bribe, from the investment banking house of Goldman Sachs to whom she pledged loyalty.
The case the DNC brought against The Russian federation, WikiLeaks and Assange, among others, in 2016 was thrown out of court, with prejudice, by federal judge John Koeltl, a Clinton appointee. Attorney Joshua Dratel defended WikiLeaks.
Please write Julian Assange at this address:
Mr Julian Assange
DOB: 3/07/1971
HMP Belmarsh
Western Way
London SE28 0EB, UK
(Follow These Details In Preparing Letter)
Guest – Attorney Josh Dratel heads a renowned New York City law firm and has a national reputation as a trial and appellate lawyer. He graduated Harvard law school in 1981. Dratel is the past president of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. His many honors include the Frederick Douglass award and the Clarence Darrow award from the ACLU of Idaho. He is the co-editor of the book The Torture Papers: the Legal Road to Abu Graib.
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The Case Of Espionage And Billionaire Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
When he was alive, the major news media characteristically covered the story of Jeffrey Epstein’s huge pedophile sex ring for a brief news cycle. He was in a federal jail in Manhattan awaiting trial and was dropped out of public view. The salacious aspects of his story were covered briefly. Then he died under mysterious circumstances. The story was briefly revived but diverted to conditions in the jail. But there is much more to it.
In 2007 Florida federal prosecutor Alex Acosta went along with a plea deal which allowed Epstein to plead guilty to a Florida state charge involving prostitution with children and was given an extraordinary light sentence. Acosta dropped federal charges were dropped.
When questioned about this Acosta told a Senate committee inquiring about his credentials to become the secretary of labor in the Trump administration that he, Acosta , was told to back off because Epstein was part of the “intelligence community.“
Was he part of an espionage and blackmail operation? For whom did he work?
Guest – Phillip Giraldi, former CIA agent and counterterrorism specialist and military intelligence officer with the CIA. He is currently executive director of the Council for the National Interest. Geraldi has a masters degree and a PhD.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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The Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht
It’s been four years since a jury found that then 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht guilty on charges related to operating a Dark Website called the Silk Road that sold, among other things, illicit drugs.
The case was a high profile one, and Rosshad come to be known by some as the face of the Dark Web. He was convicted on seven charges—including a “kingpin” charge—and now-retired Judge Katherine Forrest imposed two life sentences and 40 years… Ross is a young, non-violent, first-time offender serving two life sentences, plus forty years, without parole. He was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but rather of creating an e-commerce website that others chose to use for that purpose. No victim was named at trial, and prosecutors had not even sought such a long sentence.
Corruption, abuse, evidence tampering and multiple violations of Ross’s rights cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of Ross’s conviction and sentence within the legal community and with the public.
In a 2016 appeal, defense attorneys outlined a litany of improprieties and abuses in the investigation and trial. Perhaps most serious was that the court precluded information about two corrupt federal agents investigating Silk Road who are now both serving prison sentences for corruption. Last year the Supreme Court denied to consider the case.
Guest – Ross’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht joins us to talk about a petition for clemency to President Donald Trump. Free Ross Ulbricht.
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Attorney Client Privilege
What is the attorney-client privilege? And to whom does it apply? Generally speaking, the privilege is owned by the client and unless the client waived her rights her lawyer is barred not only from revealing any information about the client but even revealing who the client is.
An exception in the case of the FBI raid and Donald Trumps attorneys Office, Home, and hotel room was made on the grounds that there is a fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. Defenders of the attorney-client privilege, even if it has to do with protecting Donald Trump, have argued that it is illegal and unprincipled for the Justice Department to get a search warrant from a federal magistrate and violate the principle.
Guest – Minneapolis Attorney Carla Kjellberg, has worked with victims of child sexual assault who have sued priests, litigated sensitive family law matters, and worked with unions and political activists.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, FBI Intrusion, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Truth to Power
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Bronx 120 Report 2019 Questions Largest Gang Take Down
Three years ago, on April 27, 2016, SWAT teams and about 700 NYPD officers, with federal law enforcement present, raided the Eastchester Gardens public housing project and nearby homes in the Bronx. One hundred 20 people, almost all young black and Latino men, who were indicted after the pre-dawn raid. Prosecutors called the “largest gang take-down in New York City history.” At the time we covered it on Law and Disorder.
Preet Bharara, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the 120 were members of two violent, rival street gangs that had “wreaked havoc” in the neighborhood for years and were responsible for at least eight murders. The NYPD police commissioner at the time, William Bratton said: “These gang members do not belong on our streets…Instead they belong exactly where they are going, to federal prison, for many years, where they won’t be surrounded by their buddies, they won’t be close to their families, and they’ll no longer be free to terrorize the neighborhoods in which they grew up.”
Visit – Bronx120.Report
Although the press covered the raids for a few days, over the past 3 years, few journalists have followed up. A new report, published prior to the raid’s third anniversary reveals troubling facts about the prosecution. It also raises questions about due process, the abuse of federal conspiracy charges, and the criminalization of social relationships in communities of color.
Guest – Babe Howell, a co-author of the report and a professor at CUNY School of Law. Professor Howell studies gang policing practices and teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Trial Advocacy and Lawyering Skills. A graduate of Harvard College, Professor Howell received her J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden Snow Public Interest Scholar.
Professor Howell’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of the criminal justice system and race. She is particularly interested in the effects of policing of minor offenses and alleged gang affiliations and the impact such policing has on the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and communities of color.
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Period Equity Tax
Thousands of health and personal care items in the United States are exempt from sales tax. That includes items like shampoo, chapstick, and Viagra. But notably missing from that list are menstrual products. To-date only nine states include tampons and sanitary pads from their tax exempt list. Seven more have introduced legislation aimed at doing the same. Three of the seven — Nebraska, Virginia and Arizona — introduced their legislation this year.
In her book, Periods Gone Public, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf chronicles what she calls a lack of “period equity.” She writes that managing menstruation “is a critical aspect of the lives and civic participation of more than half the population,” and should be considered when making policy.
Much of her advocacy has focused on fighting against what’s dubbed the “tampon tax.” It’s an example of women paying a premium for various products, known as the “pink tax.”
While there is no specific tax on tampons, in states that don’t tax medical and health supplies, tampons are excluded from those tax-exempt categories.
Guest – Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a leading voice for equitable menstrual policy in America, her 2017 book Periods Gone Public lays out a pro-active policy agenda. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, the Nation and other publications, she serves on the boards of Support the Girls,The Cup, and Girls Helping Girls. Period., and is an Advisory Board member of ZanaAfrica Foundation, which provides menstrual health education and products to girls in Kenya. An attorney with expertise in nonprofit management and development, she is a vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
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Afghanistan War, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq Veterans, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Nancy Hollander
Occasionally Law And Disorder has featured interviews with significant attorneys. We call this segment of the show Lawyers You’ll Like. One such attorney is today’s guest, Nancy Hollander. She has been practicing criminal defense lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has been a partner since 1980 in the law firm of Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Goldman, Urias, and Ward.
Nancy Hollander‘s practice has largely been devoted to representing individuals and organizations accused of crimes, including those involving national security issues.
She was one of the attorneys in the landmark Holy Land Five case. She won whistle blower Chelsea Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 years to seven years. Although not currently representing Manning she has met with her recently. Manning has been jailed for two months for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury in Virginia which is investigating Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. Manning released the famous Iraqi war log video showing American war crimes in Iraq to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. He is in prison in London awaiting extradition and trial in Virginia where he faces 175 years in prison if convicted of Espionage Act violations. She represented Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose release she obtained after he served 15 years in Guantanamo without ever being charged.
Write to Chelsea Manning:
Chelsea Manning – AO181426
William D. Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Guest – Attorney Nancy Hollander has been a member of the firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan, P.A. since 1980 and a partner since 1983. Her practice is largely devoted to criminal cases, including those involving national security issues. She has also been counsel in numerous civil cases, forfeitures and administrative hearings, and has argued and won a case involving religious freedom in the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Hollander also served as a consultant to the defense in a high profile terrorism case in Ireland, has assisted counsel in other international cases and represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Nancy is co-author of WestGroup’s Everytrial Criminal Defense Resource Book, Wharton’s Criminal Evidence, 15th Edition, and Wharton’s Criminal Procedure, 14th Edition. She has appeared on national television programs as PBS Now, Burden of Proof, the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, CourtTV, and the MacNeill/Lehrer News Hour.
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Supreme Court: Cable Companies Can Limit Public Access
Last month United States Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision written by Brett Kavanaugh decided that TV cable companies can, in the words of our guest, losing plaintive DeeDee Halleck, “censor whatever, whoever, and whenever they want.”
Cable companies like Manhattan Neighborhood Network can now limit public access that carry TV shows to be available in hundreds of cities and towns.
The Supreme Court held that Manhattan Neighborhood Network is not subject to First Amendment constraints, that the free-speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits only governmental, not private abridgment of speech and that MNN is a private company.
Judges Cavanagh, Robert, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch is found against the free-speech argument of Halleck and her co-plaintiff Jesus Melendez. Judge Sotomayor wrote the dissent which was joined in on by Ginsberg, Breyer and Kagan.
Guest – Deedee Halleck one of the plaintiffs in this case and among the top media activists. She’s co-founder of Paper Tiger Television and also the Deep Dish Satellite Network, the first grass roots community television network. She is Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication at the University of California at San Diego.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry
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Keep the Wretches In Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW
Before World War I, the government reaction to labor dissent had been local, ad hoc, and quasi military. Sheriffs, mayors, or governors would elevate strike breakers to deputies or call out the state militia, usually at the bidding of employers.
At the time, one of the nations largest unions was the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the Wobblies. The IWW had members in critical industries across the country. In April 1917, when the United States entered the war, the government feared the threat of a labor strike from such a large number of workers that would put in danger or even hold up war production.
Officials in the relatively young Department of Justice determined that a more coordinated strategy would be necessary. To prevent stoppages, the DOJ embarked on a sweeping new effort – replacing gunman with lawyers. The department systematically targeted the IWW, resulting in the largest mass trial in US history. The first of four indictments named 166 defendants in September 1917. The Chicago trial started with 112 men accused, sitting on bleachers, with one small defense team and a judge and prosecutors who did not know their names or faces. As the case unfolded, it became an exercise in raw force, raising serious questions about its legitimacy and revealing the fragility of a criminal justice system under pressure from banks and industrialists who supported the war.
Guest – Attorney Dean A. Strang, criminal defense lawyer in Madison, Wisconsin, and an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law is author of the new book Keep the Wretches In Order: America’s Biggest Mass Trial, the Rise of the Justice Department, and the Fall of the IWW talks about how the case laid the groundwork for a fundamental different strategy to stifle radical threats and played a major role in the shaping of the modern Justice Department. He is also the author of Worse than the Devil: Anarchists, Clarence Darrow, and Justice in a Time of Terror
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Two Members Of MOVE 9 Released From Prison After 40 Years
After 40 years in prison, Janine Phillips Africa and Janet Holloway Africa were recently released from SCI Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania after a long fight for parole. Members of the so-called Move 9, 63-year-old Jane and 68-year-old Janet were arrested and imprisoned for a crime they say they did not commit after a police siege of their home in August 1978.The two were the last of four women to be paroled or to die behind bars.
Listeners may recall that Move members lived in Philadelphia in a communal house with founder John Africa. Move championed equal treatment for African Americans and an abiding respect for nature and animals.
Their attitudes brought them into conflict with neighbors and police. After a siege lasting several months, on August 8, 1978 officers went in to clear the group from the property. In the melee, Officer James Ramp was shot and killed. Despite the fact that Move claimed they were unarmed and that Officer Ramp was killed by friendly fire, the five men and four women were each sentenced to 30 years to life.
Guest – Attorney Brad Thomson with the People’s Law Office in Chicago. Brad was one of the attorneys securing the women’s release. Brad’s work at People’s Law Office has focused on civil rights litigation against the Chicago Police, including suits for wrongful conviction, false arrest, police shootings and other cases of police brutality. In addition, he has represented prisoners and criminal defendants, focusing on cases of people charged with crimes based on their political activity.
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