CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, FBI Intrusion, Human Rights, Iraq War, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Mass Support Needed For Julian Assange
Two weeks ago, WikiLeaks founder and internet publisher Julian Assange , who is holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, had his Internet access cut off due to pressure by the British and American governments on Ecuador. Ecuador had granted him political asylum in their embassy where he has been living in two small sunless rooms for five years. Ecuador gave him political asylum after he sought refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, which would have sent him to the US. Assange was under protracted investigation for a rape claim, made up by the Swedish police and Swedish prosecutor and denied by the purported women victim. Sweden finally dropped the case, but Assange remains subject to arrest in Britain jumping bail.
Assange and WikiLeaks had been steadily revealing the war crimes and illegalities of the American government since it first published the Iraq war logs eight years ago. The war logs included video footage of American soldiers assassinating Iraqi civilians and a Reuters journalist. Chelsea Manning, who was recently released after seven years in prison, furnished WikiLeaks with the war logs.
The United States government is seeking to capture Assange and bring him back to the United States to stand trial for espionage, a crime which carries the death penalty.
Guest – John Pilger, an Australian-British journalist based in London. John has worked in many facets of journalism, including a correspondent in the Vietnam War, the Middle East Desk for Reuters in London, a documentary film maker, and a producer for the Independent Television Network in London. Pilger is known for his conscience, bravery and acute historical insight. His articles appear worldwide in newspapers such as the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times.
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You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice: Intellectual Property
Laws protecting artwork and intellectual property are increasingly being put to the test amid claims from rising artists marketing their work online whose work is being copied by others.
Art piracy can include music posters, clothing design, book cover art, signage, record sleeve art, and typography. Under copyright law, one artist using another artist’s idea is generally legal, while one artist using another’s expression of that idea is generally illegal. Only a fact-intensive analysis can provide a bit of clarity, and even that is subject to a judge’s or jury’s review.
Sometimes copyright cases expand into major litigation. A New York judge recently ruled that graffiti, or aerosol artists, were entitled to a $6.7 million verdict after New York developer Gerald Wolkoff destroyed their well-known public work. The claim in the so-called FivePointz case arose under the Visual Artists’ Rights Act, or VARA. It’s the kind of case that attorney Scott Burroughs says rarely goes to trial. Several artists created aerosol art pieces on the walls of an abandoned development in the once downtrodden and now gentrified neighborhood of Long Island City, Queens. Wolkoff destroyed their art as part of a development plan. Read Scott’s Column Above The Law.
Guest – Attorney Scott Burroughs, an advocate for artists’ rights who curates the art law blog You Thought We Wouldn’t Notice and has a weekly copyright law column on legal website Above the Law.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Torture, Truth to Power
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Herman Bell Granted Parole After Serving 45 Years In Prison
A respected elder, Herman Bell, was granted parole having met all the criteria for release according to his sentence. The parole commissioners recognized his progress after serving nearly 45 years in prison and granted his parole application. He is looking forward to being reunited with his family and friends. Today we talk about some of the opposition, from politicians and the police union, to this decision. Support Herman Bell
Herman Bell – Twitter – #BringHermanHome
Guest – Laura Whitehorn , a former political prisoner who served 14 years for the distruction of government property in connection with a 1983 bombing at the US Capitol where no one was injured. She was released in 1999. Laura Whitehorn is a leader in the Release Aging People in Prison Organization and has been active in challenging the New York state parole board’s intransigence.
Check the RAPP Events Page
Guest – Jose Saldana, joins hosts and Laura Whitehorn to talk about Herman Bell. Jose was recently released from prison after serving 38 years. He’s worked with parole reform organizations and RAPP.
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10th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival
The Brooklyn Folk Festival is coming up April 6-8 at historic St. Anne’s church in downtown Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Folk Festival celebrates and presents the best in American and world folk music with more than performances, workshops, film screenings, jam sessions, vocal and instrumental workshops, a square dance, and their famous banjo toss contest. The festival was started nine years ago by Eli Smith, the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music. Its a substantial and unique community event.
Folk or old time music runs counter to the commercial establishment music scene. It is truly a people’s music. It is non-commercial, non-corporate, and not a generator of huge profits. As a result this music, which should be central to American culture, has been down played and sidelined.
We know of some of its famous proponents – Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan . . but there are many great unknown folk musicians whose art is perpetuated and expanded on at the Brooklyn Folk Festival.
Guest – Eli Smith, the founder and main organizer along with the Jalopy Theatre and School Music, of the Brooklyn Folk Festival. Eli Smith is a banjo player and folk musician. He plays with the band called the Downhill Strugglers. He is a Folkways recording artist and has played around the country including the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Uncategorized, War Resister
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Gina Haspel, Rule of Law And Torture
Nazi generals and Nazi leaders were prosecuted at the end of World War II for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide. These crimes were incorporated into international law.
The chief prosecutor was Robert Jackson, a Supreme Court judge. The Nazis defended themselves by arguing that they were just following orders. This defense was deemed unavailing. In many cases, they were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy prison terms or hung. He said that the war crimes tribunal at Nirenberg was not merely victors’ justice. But that the principles it followed would be universal and applied in the future, to all countries including the USA. And indeed, the United States signed on to the Geneva Conventions and Convention Against Torture and incorporate both the crimes and the concept of universal jurisdiction into its law.
Gina Haspel has been nominated by President Donald Trump to head the CIA. She is a war criminal. She violated both international and national law by running a black site secret detention center in Thailand where men were tortured. Although there were several court orders that the evidence be preserved, Gina Haspel had the videotapes of torture destroyed.
John Brennan, Obama’s ex head of the CIA, who was involved in the torture program, recently came to her defense, stating that she was just following orders: The Nazi defense.
Trump supports torture. He believes that torture works. This is both immoral and untrue. He says he is for waterboarding and worse. He now has a subordinate with whom he is in agreement.
Obama refused to prosecute the lawbreakers. Instead he threw CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou in prison for two years for disclosing American torture. He said we must look forward, not backward. This greenlighted what is going on now with Haspel.
Michael Ratner warned us about this eventuality. The European Center for Human and Constitutional Rights may seek Haspel’s arrest if she goes to Germany.
Such is the irony of history that the German fascist government that perpetrated the greatest crimes against humanity has been superseded by an American government which condones and is perpetuating them as well.
Guest – John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, he is the author of Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison. He spent 15 years working for the CIA including the period following September 11 2001. The next year he was invited to be certified in enhanced interrogation techniques and said no, rightly recognizing it as sanctioned torture. He was privy to all the details of the American torture program and personally knew Gina Haspel. In 2007 when ABC News asked him to rebut charges that he tortured and Al Qaeda prisoner he went on the air and disclose details about American torture policy. For this the CIA had him tried and convicted. He spent 23 months in prison.
Guest – Katherine Gallagher is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She works on universal jurisdiction and international criminal law cases involving U.S. and foreign officials and torture and other war crimes, and cases involving private military corporations and torture at Abu Ghraib. Her major cases include Al Shimari v. CACI, the international U.S. torture accountability cases, andSurvivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) v. Vatican, seeking accountability for the crimes against humanity of sexual violence by clergy and cover-up.
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The National Immigration Project And Protecting Haitian Refugees
The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn on March 15 to block President Trump’s cancellation of temporary protected status which had been granted to more than 50,000 Haitian refugees because of the terrible conditions in that country since the hurricane in 2010. The National Immigration Project declared President Trump’s actions to be unlawful, racially motivated, and evidence of a complete lack of knowledge of immigration law.
The TPS program exempts from deportation people from countries in turmoil due to war, natural disasters, and other extraordinary conditions.
The suit alleges that the federal government was arbitrary and capricious in his decision to end the program and was motivated by Donald Trump’s “racial and national origin animus towards patients.” The suit cites Trump’s demeaning remarks towards Haitians and Haiti. He has said that Haitians have AIDS and Haiti is a “s&*t hole” country. The Trump administration‘s position is that protecting Haitians is no longer necessary because conditions in Haiti have improved.
Guest – National Lawyers Guild Attorney Sejal Zota is the Legal Director of the National Immigration Project of the Guild. Sejal works on issues of removal defense, post-conviction, enforcement, and immigration consequences of crimes through litigation, education, and technical assistance. Previously, Sejal taught and wrote about the impacts of immigration on state and local government at University of North Carolina’s School of Government. She also regularly trained and advised defense attorneys throughout North Carolina on the immigration consequences of crime, and is the lead author of Immigration Consequences of a Criminal Conviction in North Carolina.
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Brooklyn Folk Festival 2018
Co-host Michael Smith reminds listeners of this year’s Brooklyn Folk Festival.
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Academic Freedom, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Victory: West Virginia Teachers’ Strike
After nine days on strike, the West Virginia governor and the state legislature caved, granting the teachers and all school staff a 5% wage increase. The pay raise also covers all state employees.
In an attempt to save face the Republicans talked about funding the pay increase by cutting social services and Medicaid. But there is no such wording in the agreement that was signed by the West Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers , the two workers organizations.
One strike supporter in West Virginia stated that “At this point the teachers and school staff have all the momentum and they can fight to make sure the funds for the raise come from the rich, not working people when the budget is eventually passed. Strikers here are ecstatic, people are literally hugging strangers, and whipping enjoy. It’s in a stark victory for the working class. Hopefully it will be the first of many to come.”
The strike was caused by decades of stagnating pay and rising health costs. 3/4 of the teachers are women.They played leading roles in the strike. West Virginia, especially its southern counties, have a history of militancy, Especially in the coal mines. Teacher job actions and walkouts spread from these very same southern counties.
The West Virginia teachers have shown Americans what it takes to win a strike. This is especially important when the anticipated Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case comes down. That ruling will likely reduce the power of public employee unions by taking away their right to collect dues.
Guest – Dale Lee is a graduate of Clinch Valley College (Wise, VA) and obtained his special education certification through the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies (WV COGS). He is completing his Master’s degree through Salem International University. A veteran teacher of 22 years, Dale’s assignment was teaching special education at Princeton Senior High School
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Law Firm Files 911 Terror Lawsuit Against Saudi Arabia
Nearly sixteen years have passed since the 911 attacks. The truth of who was behind the attacks has allegedly come out in a class action lawsuit brought by over 6500 victims and survivors. The lawsuit alleges that it was elements of the Saudi Arabian government that attacked the United States on 9/11. The Defendant in the lawsuit is Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government hired 15 public relations firms to help them deny responsibility. They hired several Washington white shoe high powered connected law firms They hid behind the law of sovereign immunity, which had to be overturned by an act of Congress in order for the lawsuit to proceed. They were helped by the US government in the cover-up by the Bush and Obama administrations.
After more than sixteen years the case is now proceeding rapidly through the Federal courts and will either be dismissed, settled or tried. The object of the lawsuit is to obtain money explained Sharon Pemboli, one of the plaintiffs and leaders of a group of women from New Jersey known as “the Jersey girls” who lobbied to win passage of the law which made the lawsuit possible. She believes that if the Saudi Arabian government is deprived of funds it will not be able to fund Al Qaeda and the extremist Wahhabi clergy responsible for supporting the terrorism of Al Qaeda.
The American public has been led to believe mistakenly that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were behind 911. The attack on Iraq was a war of aggression. At the end of World War II, the United States set up the Nuremberg trials to try Nazi war criminals. They wanted to set forth principles that were not merely “victor’s justice.“ At the Nuremberg trials the Germans were found guilty of starting a war of aggression, which was called the greatest of all crimes because it has contained within it all other crimes.
Guest – Attorney Justin Green, Justin has successfully represented families in many major aviation cases. These include airline disasters, corporate airplane and helicopter accidents, and civil airplane and helicopter accidents. His practice has also included personal injury and wrongful death cases arising from other transportation accidents.
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Lynne Stewart Anniversary 2018
Hosts remember fearless activist and attorney Lynne Stewart. Heidi reads an excerpt from Michael’s yet to be published Lawyers You’ll Like. We’ll also hear a powerful speech by Chris Hedges delivered at Lynne’s memorial.
Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, War Resister
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The Granny Peace Brigade
If you’ve attended NYC protests over the past few years you might have seen a group of women that stand out from the crowd. A lot of credit is given to younger generations for their increasing presence in marches and protests, but this group is made up of women who have been protesting for decades. They call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade. The name is fitting in every way as the group is comprised of all older women who have been at the forefront of many anti-war, anti-military and counter recruitment movements.
After a group of them were arrested at the Times Square recruitment center in 2005, they made their official debut as the Granny Peace Brigade to defend their civil rights in court. In the next 13 years as new members joined, their message only grew louder. In conjunction with other groups over time, such as Code Pink and the Raging Grannies, the Granny Peace Brigade has worked to denounce and resist both local and global militarism, war and endless devastation to civilian life. Granny Peace Brigade Blog
Guests – Joan Plune and Barbara Harris, two longstanding members of the Granny Peace Brigade.
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Social Justice Sewing Academy
In 1989, an exhibition at the American Craft Museum offered a new appraisal of quilts in this country suggesting that quilting derives from African design, and even reflects the improvisational nature of the music of Africa.
Historians Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard claim that African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad. Such patterns as the “wagon wheel,” “tumbling blocks,” and “bear’s paw” were passed down from one generation to another, and seem to have held secret messages to assist in guiding slaves to freedom.
Sara Trail began sewing at age four and by 11 she was teaching others to sew. In 2012, Treyvon Martin was murdered in Florida. They were the same age, 17, and his death stirred in her a need to do something on behalf of social justice. She created an oversize portrait quilt of Treyvon and gave it to his mother at a Black Lives Matters event.
Sara began to study ways to apply her talent at sewing to social justice given its importance as a tradition during slavery. She saw the potential in quilting to encourage discussions about current social issues.
A grant from UC Berkeley for a 6-week summer program serving high school students of color from the Bay Area, helped her create the Social Justice Sewing Academy.
Guest – Sara Trail, Sara dedicates her art practice to social justice reform and created SJSA in efforts to engage students and activists across the United States who share a common vision of equity and justice. She uses art as a vehicle for motivation and awareness while providing people a platform to create activist art through fabric textiles. She encourages people to become artivists [art + activist] and designs community social justice quilts as a tool for social critique and action.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Uncategorized, War Resister
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Nuclear Posture Review
Not since 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union exploded thermonuclear bombs has the world been such a powder keg. Last week the Pentagon released its Nuclear Posture Review. It seeks to make use of nuclear weapons more acceptable and plausible. It recommends the spending of $1 trillion to upgrade America’s nuclear arsenal and it appears to end the United State’s commitment to pursue nuclear disarmament.
Last November Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, convened a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the limits of presidential authority to use nuclear weapons. President Trump had been making incendiary comments about North Korea, threatening to totally destroy the country and to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen.
There are no reliable limits on the president‘s power to order use of nuclear weapons. The International Court of Justice declared in 1996 ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law. The United States is not legally bound by the ICJ opinion. Moreover, the United Nations last summer adopted a Treaty On the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It states that the use of nuclear weapons would be against the principles of humanity in the dictates of public conscience. The United States is not legally bound by the new UN treaty either. The United States under President Obama and now Trump has vowed to increase the size of America’s nuclear arsenal. The United States will not agree to simply declare that it is against the first use nuclear weapons.
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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Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Five Foundation
In July 2004 federal agents raided the homes of five Palestinian-American families, arresting the five dads. The first trial of the Holy Land Foundation Five ended in a hung jury. The second, marked by highly questionable procedures, resulted in very lengthy sentences for supporting terrorism by donating to charities with whom the US government itself and several respected international agencies work.
Capitalizing on post 911 Islamaphobic hysteria, the US government used secret evidence and conflated charity with terrorism to convict the five men of providing material support for terrorism.
The destruction of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in the United States, constitutes one of the great judicial injustices in the so called war on terror
of which there have been many. The US government, relying on the testimony of anonymous Israeli security experts, convicted the five men of the crime of providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians suffering under an illegal and punishing occupation.
This case is one of several repressive post 911 US prosecutions that have been brought with the assistance of Israeli security police, targeting US-based Palestinian Muslim activists.
Guest – Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the US. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was the late Israeli General Matti Peled. Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative. He has written a book about his journey from the sphere of the privileged Israeli to that of the oppressed Palestinians. Peled speaks nationally and internationally on the issue of Palestine. He supports the creation of a single democratic state in all of Palestine, and a firm supporter of BDS. Author of Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Five Foundation and The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.
