Here on Law and Disorder we’ve examined numerous cases involving overzealous prosecutions of Muslims suspected of terrorism. We take a look at another case, the case of Fahad Hashmi. He was born in Karachi, immigrated with his family to New York City more than 20 years ago. Fahad a devout Muslim, established himself as an Islamic activist in his community and by 2003 had enrolled in the London Metropolitan University in London to pursue a master’s degree in international relations. In the summer of 2006, Fahad was jumped by UK police in Londons Heathrow airport, then arrested. He was arrested for providing material support to al Qaeda.
The US charges were based on allowing an acquaintance “Janaid Babar” to store rain gear in the closet of his London flat. Janaid Babar was a paid government cooperator who has been used to testify against Muslims around the world. Nicknamed ‘Supergrass’ by the British media, Babar was used by the UK government to testify against Omar Khyam and several other Muslim men in the so-called Fertilizer Case. Meanwhile Fahad is being held in a Manhattan, NY prison, after spending a year in one of Britain’s most notorious, the Belmarsh Prison. His trial will be public, the prosecution will use Junaid’s evidence and may exaggerate to demonize Fahad in the public.
Guest – Syed Anwar Hashmi (Fahad’s father) and attorney Sean Mayer.
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Left Forum 2008: Torture And The Decline Of Empire
We hear a speech delivered by our own co-host Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. His book International Human Rights Litigation in US Courts was recently re-published. Torture yields intelligence of dubious value, but its development and use is increasing by the US government as its grip on empire is challenged. We will be hearing from the rest of the speakers on this panel in later programs. Speakers: Alfred McCoy – Author of A Question of Torture and professor at the University of Wisconsin / Marnia Lazreg – Author of Torture and the Decline of Empire: From Algiers to Baghdad. Marnia also teaches at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. Moderated by our own Michael Steven Smith.
Michael Ratner exposes the New York Times complicity on the Iraq War, he outlines how the US government has allowed torture to be used and describes why it’s important to push to stop the use of torture. Below – watch the entire Left Forum panel – Torture And The Decline Of Empire
New York City artist and activist Laurie Arbeiter joins hosts to update on upcoming anti-war events in Washington DC. Laurie and her colleague Ann have previously been on the program discussing their counter-civilian psy-ops campaign of thought provoking anti-fear placards and posters. These posters are memorable, such as the one using similar layout and font as the IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING subway poster.
Guest – Artist, activist – Laurie Arbeiter
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Torture and Democracy
Here on Law and Disorder we’ve taken an in depth look at torture with various authors and guests including authors Al McCoy, Marnia Lazreg and Henri Alleg. Today we speak with Reed College professor Darius Rejali, author of the book Torture and Democracy. In this book, Rejali tracks behaviors, trends and traditions that have brought torture to where we see it has emerged today. Rejali, a leading expert on government interrogation techniques, argues that torture is an ancient craft and technique passed on from teacher to apprentice. He says knowledge of the torture craft often flows both ways between colonial powers and occupied peoples. This is a powerful book filled with information on techniques. One review writes, this book lays the groundwork, torturers and their keepers may find it useful, not as an academic study but as a field manual. Guest – Professor Darius Rejali
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FIRST NATIONAL TEACH-IN ON FREEDOMS AT RISK IN AMERICA
We listen to our own Michael Smith, New York City Attorney and author. Michael is on the Executive Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He recently edited William Kunstler’s publication “The Emerging Police State.†We’ll also hear from civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, and Mark Crispin Miller, professor of Media Studies at NYU and author of Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections, in later programs.
In Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, author Saidiya Hartman returns to Ghana and takes the reader with her to gain another perspective on one of the oldest and deepest divides in America: Slavery.
Saidiya Hartman is an expert on the African slave trade. She chose Ghana because it was the center for the slave trade with several key ports. Every man, woman, and child is measured against quantities of tobacco, sugar, coffee, copper pots, or brass bracelets. Reviews have described Lose Your Mother as a travel memoir on the surface but deeper in the thought-provoking chapters are angry meditations on slavery and its legacy.
Today we’re joined by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists Yonathan Shapira and Bassam Aramin, both members of a group called Combatants for Peace. It’s made up of former fighters from both Israel and the Occupied Territories. Shapira is a former elite commando with the Israeli military. Aramin was an armed member of Fatah and spent seven years in an Israeli prison. His ten-year-old daughter Abir was shot dead by an Israeli soldier last year. We’re also joined by Donna Baranski-Walker – executive director of Rebuilding Alliance, that is partnering with Combatants For Peace. Below are images of Abir and funeral procession.
Law and Disorder hosts also discuss with Bassam Aramin updates on the Israeli court case to re-open the investigation of the death of Abir Aramin, Bassam’s daughter. The investigation was previously closed for lack of evidence.
Today we welcome back civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart to discuss the recent stabbing death of Larry Davis in an upstate New York prison. Davis became known in the 80s when he was suspected of murdering drug dealers in the city. When police raided his apartment, Davis fired a pistol and shotgun from a darkened room and fled.
After more than a two week NYPD manhunt, Davis was captured. Davis’ legal defense included Lynne Stewart and prominent civil rights attorney Bill Kunstler who provided evidence of a frame up. In a recent New York Times article chronicling Davis’ story, it was written that Davis’ defense was quote made up of assertions without evidence.
Law and Disorder hosts were live in the studio with Naomi Wolf. Naomi Wolf is a feminist, social critic and political activist. The New York Times called her book, The Beauty Myth, one of the most important books of the 20th century. Wolf is the co-founder of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, teaching young women to become leaders and agents of change. Naomi Wolf blog in the Huffington Post
Her latest book The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot is a call to return to the beliefs of our founding fathers. Wolf’s new book illustrates ten steps historically taken by leaders who are attempting to dismantle a democracy. Wolf jokingly called it the The Greatest Hits of Facism.
In The End of America, Wolf gives voice to the cause of every American patriot: the preservation of the Constitution and the liberties it embodies and protects.
“Recent history has profound lessons for us in the U.S. today about how fascist, totalitarian, and other repressive leaders seize and maintain power, especially in what were once democracies. The secret is that these leaders all tend to take very similar, parallel steps. The Founders of this nation were so deeply familiar with tyranny and the habits and practices of tyrants that they set up our checks and balances precisely out of fear of what is unfolding today. We are seeing these same kinds of tactics now closing down freedoms in America, turning our nation into something that in the near future could be quite other than the open society in which we grew up and learned to love liberty,†stated Wolf.
“Freedom and democracy†are two words we’ve been hearing from the right wing in this country for 25 years. In their quest to shore up support for the politics of wealth and privilege, the Right has organized patiently and consistently by focusing on a core ideology to amass a formidable base. The Right’s commentary on world affairs, morality, the state, and the economy, though, has had an overarching focus, namely to eliminate social equality as a legitimate public policy goal. Its success has resulted in one of the most dramatic, undemocratic, and insidious transfers of wealth and power in recent American history.
Guest – John Ehrenberg, author of the book “Servants of Wealth: The Right’s Assault on Economic Justice.†A professor of political science at Long Island University, in this, his third book, critically analyzes the rise of an ideologically coherent Right. He dissects their themes of military weakness, moral decay, racial anxiety, and hostility to social welfare to reveal their central organizing objective of protecting wealth and assaulting equality.
Hosts Update on spy legislation that would give immunity to utility telecom companies in recent eavesdropping bill. Companies such as Verizon would be protected from lawsuits after handing private consumer data (emails / phone conversations) to the federal government without a warrant.
USA vs. Al-Arian is the name of the new documentary that chronicles the arrest and trial of Dr. Sami Al0Arian, a Palestinian computer engineer and former university professor, who was convicted of conspiracy to aid terrorism. Norwegian film-maker Line Halvorsen interviews law professors and reporters and most of Al-Arian’s family to assemble a disturbing picture of a paranoid post-9/11 climate. The film tells the story from the day the FBI storms into Al-Arian’s home to arrest him in February of 2003. Hosts talk with Dr. Al-Arian’s oldest daughter Laila live in studio.
In the film we see the jury found Al-Arian not guilty on all counts yet, the judge hands down a prison sentence and deportation. Dr Al-Arian is still in prison.
Guest – Laila Al-Arian, Dr. Al-Arian’s oldest daughter
Rediker has scoured through letters, diaries, memoirs, captain’s logbooks, shipping company records to piece together the intimate realities of these 18th-century sailing vessel carrying enslaved Africans. Rediker draws startling parallels to global economy structures then and now, tracing back as New England timber was used to build Slave Ships yet nails and ropes were purchased from Liverpool at discounts, ship captain stock options and more. In his book, Marcus also documents revolts among underpaid sailors and the solidarity that evolves amid slaves and servants.
One review describes Slave Ship as “ a tale of tragedy and terror, but also an epic of resilience, survival, and the creation of something entirely new. Marcus Rediker restores the slave ship to its rightful place alongside the plantation as a formative institution of slavery, a place where a profound and still haunting history of race, class, and modern economy was made.â€
