Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Torture, Truth to Power
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Updates:
- Supreme Court Update – Hamden v. Rumsfeld.
- Signing Statements
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Israel’s Massive Assault Targeting Lebanese Civilians
Israel has warned hundreds of thousands of Lebanese to leave Southern Lebanon as they continue to target Lebanon’s infrastructure and bomb civilian neighborhoods. Meanwhile, a ground invasion begins, and more than 340 Lebanese have been killed most of have been civilians. We talk with author Phyllis Bennis, a Middle East analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus. She is also a senior analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies and a member of the Iraq Speakers Bureau. Among the issues discussed in this interview are the US origins of Israel’s weaponry and fuel, the language of propaganda from Israel and the Geneva convention law in the context of “an occupying power.” Links – http://www.electronicintifada.net/lebanon/
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During the Law and Disorder panel, Ten Minutes To Midnight, at the Left Forum in New York, our hosts covered a range of issues, among them presidential signing statements. While many people may not have heard of signing statements, they represent a signifcant threat to the separation of powers. The President, literally attaches a statement when he signs newly enacted legislation. These statements lay out his interpretation of the law, which may unfairly influence how the judiciary perceive these laws in the future.
In a report to be released today, an American Bar Association task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of presidential signing statements. Some task force members want to give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.
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Lynne Stewart – Part 1
Law and Disorder recently sat down with convicted civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to talk about her health, her approaching sentencing this September and the details leading up to her indictment and conviction.
Civil Liberties, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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NYCLU Demands Investigation Into NSA Spying
Verizon, AT&T and other large phone companies are suspected of providing the NSA with the personal emails and phone calling details of millions of customers. Aside from the lawsuits filed by the EFF, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the NYCLU is demanding from the top three New York protection agencies, thd Attorney General’s Office, the Public Services Commission, and the Consumer Protection Board to investigate this very serious invasion of our privacy and order the telephone companies to end this practice.
Guest – Cory Stoughton, NYCLU Staff attorney.
Turkmen V. Ashcroft Case Update
A recent decision by a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York has essentially ruled that immigrants can be indefinitely detained on the basis of religion, race or national origin. This decision paves the way for internment camp style prisons similar to those after World War II as long as the internment is limited to foreign nationals charged with visa violations (a group that at last count numbered about 11 million people).
Guests – Attorney Rachel Meeropol with the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Green Scare Panel – What is the Green Scare? – How the Government is Targeting Eco-Activists.
Here on Law and Disorder we’ve discussed at length about how police and FBI have spied and infiltrated activist groups. On December 26 of last year, Law and Disorder brought Eileen Clancy from Eye Witness video on to the program to talk about how her video coverage had exposed the NYPD covertly joining in with vigils and rallies of activists. We now take a deeper look at how the “conspiracy law” is being used to take down individuals within environmental protest groups in the United States and given harsh prison sentences. The National Lawyers Guild recently sponsored the event “What is the Green Scare” – How the Government is Targeting Eco-Activists. Listen to the entire panel here.
We’ll hear from three attorneys, first Daniel Meyers, a New York City criminal defense attorney, practicing since 1967, Secondly, attorney Andrew Erba who specializes in State and Federal criminal defense and civil rights actions and lastly Lauren Regan, a public interest attorney specializing in environmental law, civil rights and criminal defense. Daniel Meyers describes how political activists are targeted through the use of federal conspiracy statutes. He explains that once a charge of conspiracy is accepted by the judge, here-say is admissible, making conspiracy “the easiest charge to prove in court.”
Andrew Erba, lead counsel for the SHAC 7 – The Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Seven deepened the analysis with a discussion of the plight of defendants facing federal conspiracy charges such as accused drug dealers.
Lastly we hear an excerpt from Oregon attorney Lauren Regan, Regan is a public interest attorney specializing in environmental law, civil rights and criminal defense. During her talk, Regan illustrated the arbitrary nature of criminalizing dissent by listing numerous civil disobedience cases that were dismissed by judges as honorable actions.
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Civil Liberties, Supreme Court, Torture, Truth to Power
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Supreme Court Limits Protections For Government Whistleblowers.
Whistleblowers lose rights. The recent Supreme Court decision (Garcetti v. Ceballos) has removed key pieces from the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1986. The decision effectively limits First Amendment protection for government whistleblowers since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protections do not extend to government employees for comments made while performing their official duties, even when the employee is acting to expose alleged government wrongdoing.
Guest – Stephen Kohn – Chairman of National Whistleblower Center
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Chicago Torture Case Update – Chicago’s Guantanamo
A United Nations anti-torture panel has urged the United States to punish law enforcement officials who mistreated suspects in Chicago. The 10-member UN Committee Against Torture reported that the multimillion-dollar investigation into the alleged torture of 200 Black men in interrogation rooms during the 1970s and 1980s has not resulted in any prosecutions. According to a press release, nearly 200 African Americans were tortured by former Commander Jon Burge and detectives under his command at the Chicago Police Department. Among the torture techniques were electrically shocking genitals with cattle prods, suffocations with plastic bags and pistols jammed in mouths in a mock execution. Listen to Law and Disorder’s previous interview on this case.
Guest – Flint Taylor – attorney with The People’s Law Office
Tasers – Part 1
This is the first part of a three part series examining the use of Tasers by law enforcement. Lawsuit cases regarding the misuse of Tasers are numerous. Pages of these stories can be found in one Google news search using the search-term “Tasers.” Hosts Dalia Hashad and Michael Ratner interview Taser researcher and expert Ed Jackson formerly with Amnesty International. Jackson points out a critical lack of training among police officers using Tasers.
Guest – Ed Jackson – Former spokesman for Amnesty International.
Music – Sharon Jones – This Land Is Your Land / Phil Ochs – I Kill Therefore I Am / Jimmy Cliff – The Harder They Come
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Civil Liberties, Supreme Court
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Updates:
- Supreme Court arguments regarding the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Hamdan, a Yemeni who was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001, is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, murder and terrorism. He claims he is an innocent father of two young daughters and worked as a driver for bin Laden in Afghanistan only to provide for his family. Co-host Michael Ratner also references Justice Antonin Scalia’s speech regarding war criminals and detainees. Scalia was recently asked to stay out of the case involving international detainees because of remarks such as this one
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Suspicious Robbery at the Brecht Forum.
Two inexpensive database computers were stolen from the offices at the Brecht. Hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner say it has all the ear marks of an intelligence gathering black-bag job. Hosts talk with the Executive Director of the Brecht Forum, Liz Mestres and also attorney Margaret Ratner-Kunstler about this robbery and suspicious robberies of progressive law offices in the past.
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Massive Demonstrations
Tens of thousands of students across the country staged walk outs last week protesting recent immigration reform proposals in the House that introduce sweeping changes for undocumented immigrants. More than 8000 students walked out of their LA county schools and thousands more in Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Texas. In Washington DC, activists and religious leaders also protested measures in House Bill 4437 that would make it a crime for religious and charitable groups to aid undocumented workers.
Guest – Jim Lafferty – Executive Director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild and host of the Guild Radio Show on Pacifica’s KPFK.
Guest – Cynthia Anderson Barker – Los Angeles attorney
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Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Surveillance
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Patriot Act – Expansions
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 11 to 4 in a closed door session to approve an expansion of the USA PATRIOT Act. The new measure would make permanent eight provisions of the Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year. It would also increase government surveillance powers by granting investigators access to an individual’s business records and allowing wiretaps and searches without proving a link to terrorism or a federal judge’s permission.
Guest – David Cole, professor at Georgetown Law School and author of “Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedom in the War on Terrorism.” He has an article in The Nation magazine last month titled “The Missing Patriot Debate.”
Guest – Chip Pitts – International Attorney and chair of the US Amnesty International Board. Pitts was also at the Patriot Act Reauthorization hearing.
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Cuba’s Anti-Terrorist Conference
Hundreds gathered for an anti-terrorism conference in Cuba, but not to talk about al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. The Latin American personalities attending the event instead focused on the US government.
Guest – Michael Avery – President of the National Lawyers Guild and Law Professor at Suffolk University. He attended Cuba’s Anti -Terrorist Conference held earlier this month.
Guest – Jim Cockcroft – A three time Fulbright Scholar; former Ford Fellow and Peace Corps consultant; 1988 University of California Regents Lecturer; frequent guest professor/researcher in the Americas and Europe and public lecturer; participating editor of Latin American Perspectives; and State University of New York Internet Curriculum Designer and Professor.
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Supreme Court Ruling on Medical Marijuana
Guest – Pamela Lichty is the Vice President and Co-Founder of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, a non-profit organization established in 1993 to encourage discussion and promote public education about current and alternative drug policies and related issues.
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Special Registration – Americans Deported
After September 11th, the government required required men in the United States from 24 Muslim majority countries and North Korea to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned at immigration centers. Roughly 13,000 of the men who stepped forward were placed into deportation proceedings after immigration officers discovered that they were living here without legal status. Among them are men like Kamal, Hassan and Housseine Essaheb, three brothers from Queens who fit only the profile of classic immigrant success, minus the proper paperwork.
Guest – Julie Dinnerstein, immigration lawyer with Sanctuary for Families
Guest – Kamal Essaheb, law student at Fordham University who came to the United States from Morocco 13 years ago.
Commentary – Close Guanatamo – Michael Ratner
Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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Hosts interview key defense attorneys and discuss the civil rights implications of recent Supreme Court rulings on the Hamdi/Padilla cases and also recent prison torture cases involving two corporations, Titan & CACI.
Among the guests: Joe Margulis, Susan Burke, Donna Neuman and Barbara Olshansky
