Civil Liberties, Gaza, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Palestine Legal Director Speaks On Recent Israel-Palestine Conflict
Zionism, the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was and is a settler colonial project that started 100 years ago. But Zionism had a problem. It’s illustrated by the story of an early Zionist Congress in Vienna sending three rabbis to Palestine to report on what they saw. The rabbis went and reported back that “the bride is beautiful but she’s married to another man.” Palestine was densely populated and had been for thousands of years. It was not, as Zionist propaganda would have it, a land without a people for a people without a land.
The Zionist goal then and now was to get rid of the Arabs. In this they have almost succeeded. But not quite.
The recent 11 day horrific slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, approved in advance by the Biden administration and conducted by Israel with American supplied weapons started when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to consolidate right wing support evicted Palestinians from their homes in a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister also had his military invade and shoot up the Al-Asqua mosque in Jerusalem while 300 Palestinians were there praying on the last day of Ramadan. In response on May 18th the Palestinians staged a general strike in Israel proper, the West Bank, and Gaza. This was the first time a general strike had been conducted by the Palestinians against their Zionist and British oppressors since 1936 which which was broken by the British and the Zionists.
The Zionist apparatus in the United States is extremely strong. Through lawsuits and political pressure they have carved out what Michael Ratner called – the Palestine exception to the First Amendment. Telling the Palestine story is quite difficult. To counter this Michael Ratner set up the organization Palestine Legal in Chicago. It is headed by Palestinian American attorney Dima Khalidi. Before the cease-fire, 1700 people in Gaza were injured and 210 killed, including 65 children.
Guest – Dima Khalidi, founder and Director of Palestine Legal. Her work includes providing legal advice to activists, engaging in advocacy to protect their rights to speak out for Palestinian rights, and educating activists and the public about the repression of Palestine advocates. She most recently has an article published online in Truthout.
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The Dallas 6: Andre Jacobs
In 2014 and 2016, Law and Disorder covered the case of the Dallas 6. They’re a group of prisoners who in 2010 protested the ongoing abuse from prison guards while locked in solitary confinement at the SCI Dallas prison in Pennsylvania. Abuse there included tasering genitals, being hog tied, cutting off of clothes and leaving the men in cages for hours at a time.
They witnessed another prisoner, Isaac Sanchez, being strapped into a restraint chair for hours even overnight. When guards threatened to do the same to them, the men tried to cover their cell doors with their bedding and refused to leave their cell in an effort to protect themselves and gain the attention of authorities. Prison guards stormed the six cells, armed with batons and electrified equipment. They left the men beaten, bloody, naked, eyes burning, their flesh scorched with pepper spray.
The Dallas 6 are Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Anthony Locke, Dwayne Peters, Derek Stanley, and Carrington Keys. The six men were forced to remain in the Restrictive Housing Unit, or solitary confinement for up to ten years.
Guest – Andre Jacobs, Andre served more than two decades in prison, was the victim of prolonged and tortuous prison guard abuse, became a successful jailhouse lawyer, and has been released from prison. He started the business Supreme Network Global to help and guide young men and women who have been in similar circumstances.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Prosecution of the Bush Administration, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer
Michael Ratner’s memoir Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer will be available at OR Books. As listeners know, Michael Ratner was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in our era. He spent his life fighting on behalf of those who state and empire sought to crush, from the leaders of the prison uprising at Attica to Muslim prisoners held in Guantanamo, to Julian Assange.
Michael Ratner (1943–2016) worked for more than four decades at the Center for Constitutional Rights becoming first the Director of Litigation and then the President of what Alexander Cockburn called “a small band of tigerish people.” He was also the President of the National Lawyers Guild. Michae Ratner handled some of the most significant cases in American history. This book tells why and how he did it. His last case, which he worked on until he died, was representing truth-telling whistleblower and now political prisoner Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks. Ratner “moved the bar” by organizing some 600 lawyers to successfully defend habeas corpus, that is, the ancient right of someone accused of a crime to have a lawyer and to be brought before a judge. Michael had a piece of paper taped on the wall next to his desk at the CCR. It read:
Four Key Principles Of Being A Radical Lawyer:
1. Do not refuse to take a case just because it is long odds of winning in court.
2. Use cases to publicize a radical critique of US policy and to promote revolutionary transformation.
3. Combine legal work with political advocacy.
4. Love people.
We hear interviews about Michael Ratner with Chris Hedges’s show On Contact, Attorneys Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy and David Cole.
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Afghanistan War, Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Iraq War, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims
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Jodie Foster Plays Attorney Nancy Hollander in The Mauritanian
In 2019 Law & Disorder interviewed Nancy Hollander for our Lawyers You’ll Like series. Nancy secured whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 to 7 years. Nancy was also an attorney in the landmark Holy Land Five Case. In her law practice she often represents individuals and organizations accused of crimes involving national security.
We also spoke with Nancy in 2018 about her client Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose release she obtained after he served 15 years in the American offshore prison camp in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, without ever being charged of a crime. Slahi wrote a memoir about his experience in prison called Guantanamo Diary, where he was tortured in ways personally approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Thanks to Nancy Hollander the book was published in 2015 and became an international bestseller. Fast forward to 2021. A new film, The Mauritanian, features Jodi Foster as Nancy. Foster has already won a Golden Globe for her performance, and the film sheds light on Nancy’s tenacious fight to free her client, the secretive prison camp and the illegal practices therein.
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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Stevens Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice by Bruce Levine
The 1861 to 1865 Civil War and the reconstruction period which followed it is widely considered to be the second American revolution. The slave-owning planter class in the south was defeated, at least for a while. Slave labor was abolished, but came back in other forms after reconstruction was crushed by 1877.
The promise of the declaration of independence that all men are equal before the law was fulfilled, at least for a while. Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens was the foremost political leader in the struggle, even more than Abraham Lincoln. Stevens helped to bring about the abolition of slavery and was a leader in the effort during Reconstruct to make the United States a biracial democracy This wise and eloquent revolutionary has been vilified and rendered rendered obscure during most of the years since he died 153 years ago.
The distinguished historian Bruce Levine in his just published biography of Stevens “Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice” has secured a place for him alongside his contemporary John Brown in the pantheon of American revolutionary figures.
Guest – Bruce Levine, emeritus professor of history at the University Illinois and the author of four previous books on the Civil War era.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Prosecution of the Bush Administration, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
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Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed some of Michael Ratner’s closest friends and colleagues as part of a special broadcast highlighting Michael Ratner’s legal work and mentorship. The special also marked the upcoming release of Michael Ratner’s autobiography Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer published by OR Books. In this one hour taken from the two hour fundraiser broadcast, we hear from attorneys including Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy, Ray Brescia, David Cole and Baher Azmy.
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Michael Ratner’s pathbreaking legal and political work is unmatched. He provided crucial support for the Cuban Revolution and won the seminal case in the Supreme Court guaranteeing the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees. Michael also challenged U.S. policy in Iraq, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Israel-Palestine. This book is a testament to his unflagging efforts on behalf of the poor and oppressed around the world.
– Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Michael Ratner personified lawyering that brought both radical and human values into challenges to the use of governmental power to violate the essence of the Bill of Rights. From the torture of prisoners after 911 to the massive racial profiling by the New York Police Department, Michael’s voice and vision continue to resonate. This book provides a powerful testament to the spirit of this extraordinary man.
– Attorney Bill Goodman
Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
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- Commentary On Julian Assange’s Case By Attorney Jim Lafferty
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Capital Punishment: Mumia Abu-Jamal And Heidi Boghosian
Journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal spent 40 years on death row in Pennsylvania. As listeners will recall, in 2012 his death penalty sentence was overturned by a Federal Court and he entered general population. While on death row he published 13 books and numerous commentaries on issues of social justice and the carceral state. In a special interview, Mumia joins us to reflect on capital punishment and its relationship to our modern society.
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CCR: A Rights Based Vision for the First 100 Days
Some political skeptics , distrusting of the incoming Biden administration, are saying that it’s “ out with the old in with the older.“ That is that the old neo-liberal crew from the Obama/Clinton days are back in power and that little will change, nothing fundamental.
They are especially concerned about the impending climate catastrophe, systemic racism, the threat of nuclear war, the shifting of wealth from the bottom to the top, and the never ending forever wars. The Center for Constitution Rights has developed a comprehensive program to challenge this. It is called A Rights Based Vision for the First 100 Days.
Guest – Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Director attorney Nadia Ben-Youssef, is a graduate of Princeton University and the Boston College of Law. She has worked with the Adalah Justice Project for Palestinian rights In the Negev in southern Israel.
Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
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Pen Pal: Prison Letters From a Free Spirit on Slow Death Row
Tiyo Attalla Salah-El died in 2018 on “ Slow Death Row” while serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. He was a man with a dizzying array of talents and vocations: author, scholar, teacher, musician, and activist: he was the founder of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons. He was also an extraordinarily eloquent correspondent.
Today we are going to talk with his friend Paul Alan Smith about the letters that Smith exchanged with Tiyo which were written over a decade and a half. We will also speak with Paul’s friend the actor Carl Weathers who read the letters for the audiobook. The book is called Pen Pal: Prison Letters From a Free Spirit on Slow Death Row. It has a preface by Mike Africa, Jr.
Guest – Carl Weathers, multi-talented director, actor and former professional football athlete. Carl Weathers learned about the life and letters of Tiyo and read the letters for the audio book version of Pen Pal.
Guest – Paul Alan Smith, an agent and manager representing directors working in both film and TV. He’s most recently known as the founder of New Deal Mfg. Co., which seeks to shift representation to a more client-centric approach, rather than focusing on the needs of corporations.
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Chris Hedges Analysis Of Pre-Election Society In The United States
We are living in extraordinary times. At the same time we face both tremendous danger and extraordinary opportunity. The danger comes from a failed state, a failed racist capitalist state they cannot afford safety let alone opportunity to its citizens. Our opportunity comes from the massive social mobilizations that we have not seen in 75 years. A young generation has risen up. White people are involved with black people who are providing leadership. Perhaps 20 million have taken to the streets.
Trump is desperate and resorts to stoking fear of violence, race baiting, lying, explaining to his followers that all the unrest is due to agitators, antifa, Marxist and socialists.
The Democratic Party has chosen to oppose Trump with Joe Biden. The best you can say about him is that he’s not Trump. He has vowed to veto a medicare for all bill if it comes across his desk and has suggested that police violence could be curbed if they shot people in the legs, not the chest. He is for giving police departments more money. The worst you can say about Biden and the Democratic Party is that they are not a bulwark against fascism.
The big financial backers of the Democratic Party crushed the Sanders campaign indicating they would rather have Trump than a social democrat who would cost them money and raise expectations. Sanders for his part missed his historic moment, twice, when he refused to break from the Democratic Party in both 2016 and 2020.
Instead he performs the function of a sheepdog herding people back into a moribund capitalist party that has nothing to offer as a way out of the combined climate, economic, race, the health crisis, and nuclear annihilation and nuclear annihilation
Guest – Chris Hedges about where we are at, how we got here, and what to do next. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. He was the foreign correspondent for the New York Times for 15 years and served as middle eastern bureau chief. He is the host of Emmy award nominated RT America show On Contact and the author of numerous books Including America: The Fairwell Tour, Empire of Illusion, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.
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