Extraordinary Rendition, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power, Uncategorized
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Update – Donald Rumsfeld Resigns
Examining the Foundation of a Police State: Tracking the Disappeared
In this second part of this four-part series, we take a look through the eyes and experiences of our guest attorneys representing “enemy combatants” indefinitely detained in this country and abroad. You’ll hear their first hand accounts of deplorable conditions and torture techniques implemented under the umbrella of twisted legislation.
Rather than setting up a narrow intelligence-based effort to prosecute the perpetrators of a criminal action, the Bush administration exploited the tragic events of 9/11 as an excuse to cast a broad net used to justify the demonization of all Muslims. This, as the use of CIA torture techniques sent shock waves rippling through the conscience of all Americans. You will get the sense of how the US government has institutionalized racial profiling, detention prisons, and torture in its fervent effort to implement the so called war on terror.
In the third part of this series we’ll look at the crackdown of dissent in this country, including how the government has set up a “terrorist” database to categorize and target domestic activists. As attorneys on the front lines we bring you exclusive cases of domestic surveillance of protestors. Our final episode will be devoted to the unjust and illegal war in Iraq. We believe that taken together, the four-part series reveals how the plans for a police state and martial law are being cemented. Law and Disorder will call attention to this emergence by bringing you the voices of strength and opposition from activists, authors and attorneys who are well informed, not silent and standing up against the strangling of democracy.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States government has held hundreds of men at Guantanamo Bay as part of its ‘global war on terrorism.’ However, the secrecy and questions about the legality of the imprisonments have drawn concern from lawmakers, foreign governments and human rights groups. The indefinite detentions without trial are seen by many as violations of the Geneva Conventions, they inspire anti-Americanism, and infringe upon the very foundations of our civil rights.
Guest – Gita Guitierezz – attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights defending Guantanamo Bay detainees. Gita has made more than 10 visits to Guantanamo Bay and has represented prisoners such as Mohamed Mani Ahmad al-Kahtani.
Jarallah Al-Marri
Al-Marri, a 32-year-old father of three, and Qatar citizen. He was taken into custody during an early morning raid in Pakistan in December of 2001, just months after the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. He then spent the next several weeks at the US Air Force Base in Bagram, Afghanistan. Al-Marri has since spent four years in Guantanamo Bay military prison mostly in solitary confinement. For nearly two years his only human contact has been with interrogators, prison guards and our guest Jonathan Hafetz.
Guest – Jonathan Hafetz, associate counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He is an expert on the history of habeas corpus. His articles and legal briefs on habeas corpus are widely cited by scholars and courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Hafetz’s legal practice focuses on the detention of enemy combatants and other issues of executive power.
Hafetz says Al-Marri interrogators slammed his head into a concrete wall, hit him with a 2-by-4 foot piece of wood, and forced him to remain in physically painful positions for long periods of time.
Jose Padilla
Jose Padilla was first detained in 2002 at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport after he returned from a trip to Pakistan. At the time Attorney General John Ashcroft warned the government had “disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot to attack the United States by exploding a radioactive “dirty bomb.” President Bush declared he was an enemy combatant who could be jailed in solitary confinement indefinitely without charges – even though he was a U.S. citizen. Only recently have the “dirty bomb” charges been dropped.
Guest – Andy Patel, one of the attorneys representing Jose Padilla.
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Laying the Foundation for a Police State – Part 1 – Building Blocks
Since July of 2004, Law and Disorder has brought Pacifica listeners the voices of activists, authors and attorneys from the front lines.
In the weeks to come, Law and Disorder hosts will examine in a four part series, the foundation for what many see as a police state in the United States. In this series they will talk with guests about the post 9/11 blueprint of this dictatorship/ police state and how the nefarious turn to war, the use of torture and the domestic propagation of fear unfolded.
Law and Disorder hosts have covered at length topics such as torture, domestic surveillance, criminalizing dissent, racial profiling, indefinite detentions and the destruction of constitutional rights as vital information to bring an understanding to listeners as to how it happened and where we go from here.
In this first series, the hosts begin with a look back at where they were on the day of September 11th, and how the Patriot Act was pushed through the Legislature immediately after the attacks on that day. They look at the racial profiling and roundup of Muslims and the rush to invade Afghanistan and Iraq using the Authorization for Use of Military Force.
Later in the second, third and fourth parts of the series – a discussion on the recent signing of the military commission act of 2006 and the abolishment of habeas corpus. This, as well the Insurrection Act and the buildup of detention prisons in the United States. The plans for a police state and martial law are slowly locking into place. Law and Disorder will bring attention to this emergence by bringing you the voices of strength and opposition from activists, authors and attorneys who are well informed, not silent and standing up against the strangling of democracy.
Co-host Dalia Hashad describes her experiences as an attorney formerly with the ACLU right after September 11th as thousands of Muslim-Americans were rounded up or corralled because of their ethnicity or political affiliation.
Tracked in America – Samina Sundas
Samina Sundas with American Muslim Voice helped her fellow Muslims and Pakistani-Americans integrate into mainstream American society, and her role intensified after 9/11. When the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS, also known as the Special Registration program) was instituted in September 2002, Muslims all over the United States contacted her confused and worried about how it would affect them. She couldn’t get clear answers from federal immigration officials despite several meetings. After that, she set up an ad hoc hotline that has since become part of an organization called American Muslim Voice.
Framework of Police State laws since 9/11
Co-host Michael Ratner leads the way through the timeline from setting up the legal basis for a global war on terror to justifying a secret system of prisons and interrogation techniques that evade historic safeguards in the Geneva Convention.
Guest – Scott Horton, Chair of International Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association and adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia University. He is also the author of over 200 articles and monographs on legal developments in nations in transition.
Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Law and Disorder hosts welcome back co-host Dalia Hashad. Dalia describes experiences while on a “Taser Tour” through the UK with Amnesty International, an effort to bring awareness among Scottish law enforcement about the use and physical hazards of Taser weapons.
Law and Disorder Taser series – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Tracked In America
Here on Law and Disorder we will be showcasing the voices from a documentary project called Tracked in America. The project introduces the stories of 25 individuals who have been targeted by the US government. The stories span from World War I to the post-9/11 reality. This week, Law and Disorder hosts talk with Eric Shaw.
As covered extensively on Law and Disorder, the post-9/11 period has seen a dramatic expansion of government surveillance. Law enforcement has received extensive funding for this purpose. With little regulation and poor understanding of constitutional protections, the authorities have overstepped their bounds, especially in monitoring political activity. Eric Shaw is one of those citizens monitored by the US government.
Eric Shaw joined the U. S. Marines to foster those ideals at home and abroad and when he returned to civilian life years later, he lost respect for the U.S. government during the buildup to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In this interview Eric describes how he organized anti-war demonstrations and the intimidating surveillance tactics. He was stunned when riot police shot at him and other peaceful protesters at a very well known demonstration in Oakland, California but Shaw refuses to be silenced.
Boston subway search policy – No Probable Cause?
The Massachusetts MBTA recently enacted a search policy whereby transit police can search any passenger on the public transit system for any kind of device or substance that could be used as a weapon. They can use canine units to sniff through your belongings, electronic scanners and perhaps most frightening, they can do so without probable cause.
In response to this new search policy, volunteers have formed the Safe-T Coalition to education commuter at selected subway stations about how this recent policy severely infringes our civil liberties. The “T” is what Bostonians call their transit system. The coalition is handing out informational fliers and buttons that read “I Do Not Consent to a Search.”
Guest – Jeff Feuer, co-chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.
A Question of Torture – Al McCoy – Station Affiliates
We hear an excerpt from the nearly one hour interview Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith conducted with author Al McCoy.A Question of Torture is a revelatory account of the CIA’s secret, fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guant?namo. Far from aberrations, as the White House has claimed, A Question of Torture shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation.
Developed at the cost of billions of dollars, the CIA’s method combined “sensory deprivation” and “self-inflicted pain” to create a revolutionary psychological approach—the first innovation in torture in centuries. The simple techniques—involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold, and manipulation of time—constitute an all-out assault on the victim’s senses, destroying the basis of personal identity.
Lynn Stewart Sentencing – WBAI listeners
An afternoon in front of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse awaiting Lynne Stewart’s sentencing
Law and Disorder brings you the voices, attorneys and Lynne Stewart’s first statements following her sentencing from the steps of the courthouse near Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, New York City. Hundreds of Lynne Stewart supporters were corralled into a pen on the sidewalk and you’ll hear police shouting at supporters. We begin with comments from demonstrator Irene Sadek, Lynne Stewart supporter – Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner, excerpts from the Lynne Stewart press conference and conclude with amazing details from inside the courtroom in an exclusive Law and Disorder debriefing of attorney Jeff Mackler.
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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Updates:
- Military Commissions Act 2006
- Habeas Corpus
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An afternoon in front of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse awaiting Lynne Stewart’s sentencing
Law and Disorder brings you the voices, attorneys and Lynne Stewart’s first statements following her sentencing from the steps of the courthouse near Foley Square in downtown Manhattan, New York City. Hundreds of Lynne Stewart supporters were corralled into a pen on the sidewalk and you’ll hear police shouting at supporters. We begin with comments from demonstrator Irene Sadek, Lynne Stewart supporter – Reverend Anthony P. Johnson, Law and Disorder co-hosts Michael Smith and Michael Ratner, Lynne Stewart at press conference and conclude with amazing details from inside the courtroom in an exclusive Law and Disorder debriefing of attorney Jeff Mackler.
“The judge noted her past in issuing sentence saying: “She has represented the poor, the disadvantaged and the unpopular (and she had) enormous skill and dedication (earning little money for doing it). It is no exaggeration to say that Ms. Stewart performed a public service not only to her clients but to the nation.” Judge Koeltl cited the many hundreds of letters of support Stewart received from law professors, former prosecutors, retired judges and former clients. One or more of them came from Ramsey Clark, a man of such enormous stature and eminence himself, he can’t be ignored.”
Read more about Lynne’s case.
Lynne Stewart’s letter to Judge Koetl
“This is it guys, we’re talking about a Police State.” – Michael Ratner
Co-hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith discuss several key points inside the Military Commission Act.
The Military Commissions Act was recently signed into law. Law and Disorder hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith discuss the implications in the context of what this means for the Habeas Corpus law, US citizens, US non citizens and Guantanamo detainees. Hosts also discuss Halliburton and KBR contracts to build detention centers in the United States. Law and Disorder will have more on detention centers in the weeks to come. Death of Habeas Corpus – Keith Olbermann
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power, Uncategorized
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Law and Disorder would like to thank the listeners of WBAI for their support of listener sponsored radio!
Law and Disorder welcomes KWMD in Alaska to the affiliate list
Brecht Forum – If It’s Not Facism, What Is It? Who Benefits & Why Now?
Panelists: Mark Crispin Miller, Heidi Boghosian, Bertell Ollman, Moderated by Michael Steven Smith
There appears to be a major transformation in progress. Bourgeois democracy, however limited and constricted it has been, is being revamped. The separation of powers, first enunciated by the founders, hardly exists any more. The Executive branch has overpowered Congress and the Judiciary. Neither the corporate media, the two party system, nor the unions provide much of a countervailing force. With the defeat of the Soviet Union and the “Socialist Block” imperialism has launched wars to consolidate capitalism and oil control in Yugoslavia, Afganistan, Iraq and Lebanon. The standard of living for the American working class and middle class is being rolled back quickly; only profit margins of the large corporations and the top one per cent are expanding. Democracy is not an abstraction, but a tool and an aspect of the class struggle. Thus we are experiencing a consolidational of wealth and power that is historically qualitatively transformative. Understanding what is going on is the first step in fighting it.
This week we hear talks from:
Mark Crispin Miller NYU professor of media studies and author of Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections and Why They’ll Steal the Next One Too.
Bertel Ollman – We hear an excerpt from Bertel Ollman, professor of politics at NYU, and has written and edited over a dozen books, including Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society, Social and Sexual Revolution: Essays on Marx and Reich, Dialectical Investigations, How to Take an Exam and Remake the World, and most recently Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method. He is also founder of The International Endowment for Democracy
More on the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the resulting demise of Habeas Corpus. During the WBAI fundraiser Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian talked with attorney and incoming National Lawyer’s Guild president Marjorie Cohn.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn – attorney and incoming National Lawyer’s Guild president
Update on the Military Commissions Act – It allows over-arching executive power and is by definition a police state – “no meaningful distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.” Below are points highlighted from this CCR article.
- Shortly after September 11, 2001, hundreds of non-citizens were swept up in the United States and detained in connection to the terrorism investigation without any evidence to connect them to terrorism or crime.
- These men were arrested and detained based on their Muslim faith, their Arab or South Asian descent, and their immigration status, rather than any evidence to connect them to terrorism.
- The “9-11 detainees” were imprisoned in the United States until they were cleared of any connection to terrorism by the FBI. This clearance usually took months, and some detainees were held for over a year.
- During the detention period, many men were held in the most restrictive confinement that exists in the federal system. They were locked down 23 to 24 hours a day, hand-cuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, beaten and verbally harassed, and denied the opportunity to practice their religion.
- Since the men were released, at least two federal court judges have ruled that the treatment of the detainees would constitute violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
- This provision allows any one of them to be imprisoned indefinitely without their day in court. Now, they could be investigated, detained, interrogated, and tortured without judicial remedy. While U.S. law prohibits torture, this bill would deny access to the courts to bring a torture claim.
CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS CONDEMNS DEFEAT OF SPECTER AMENDMENT TO PRESERVE HABEAS
Civil Liberties, Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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Co-host Michael Ratner, and President of the Center for Constitutional Rights updates Law and Disorder listeners on the Military Commissions Act. Michael Ratner with other attorneys from CCR spent the last week in Washington DC garnering support from Senators to oppose the Bush administration’s rush to pass the Military Commissions Act through Congress. Ratner adds that the passing of this Act allows over-arching executive power and is by definition a police state – “no meaningful distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.” Below are points highlighted from this CCR article.
- Shortly after September 11, 2001, hundreds of non-citizens were swept up in the United States and detained in connection to the terrorism investigation without any evidence to connect them to terrorism or crime.
- These men were arrested and detained based on their Muslim faith, their Arab or South Asian descent, and their immigration status, rather than any evidence to connect them to terrorism.
- The “9-11 detainees” were imprisoned in the United States until they were cleared of any connection to terrorism by the FBI. This clearance usually took months, and some detainees were held for over a year.
- During the detention period, many men were held in the most restrictive confinement that exists in the federal system. They were locked down 23 to 24 hours a day, hand-cuffed and shackled, deprived of sleep, beaten and verbally harassed, and denied the opportunity to practice their religion.
- Since the men were released, at least two federal court judges have ruled that the treatment of the detainees would constitute violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.
- This provision allows any one of them to be imprisoned indefinitely without their day in court. Now, they could be investigated, detained, interrogated, and tortured without judicial remedy. While U.S. law prohibits torture, this bill would deny access to the courts to bring a torture claim.
CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS CONDEMNS DEFEAT OF SPECTER AMENDMENT TO PRESERVE HABEAS
Progressive human rights attorney Lynne Stewart, accused of aiding terrorists, faces 30 years in prison. On Tuesday, April 9, 2002, she was arrested and agents searched her Manhattan office for documents. The government calls her a terrorist because of her legal work with Omar Abdel Rahman, a convicted Egyptian Islamic scholar and has demanded that Judge John Koeltl sentence her to Federal Prison for 30 Years.
We are really glad to have Lynne back with us in the studio again, the cold truth of this reality is that Lynne Stewart will be sentenced on Monday October 16th, fourteen days from today. Again as many listeners know this is a landmark case, an obvious attempt by the U.S. government to silence dissent, curtail vigorous defense lawyers, and instill fear in those who would stand up against the U.S. government’s racism, and seek to help Arabs and Muslims being prosecuted for free speech. Please visit Lynne Stewart’s website for events leading up to sentencing.
Sunday October 15 – Riverside Church, between 120 & 122nd Street and Riverside Drive, Manhattan 4:00 pm
RALLY AND TRIBUTE; On the eve of the sentencing, a show of support and love for Lynne Stewart. A tribute to her legal career and to her political life.
Monday October 16 – Tom Paine Park (Foley Square) Centre St and Worth St, Manhattan 8a.m., 9 am
Rally to accompany Lynne Stewart to Court. Demonstrate your support. You cannot be too “busy” for this historic moment. One to tell your grandchildren about. Crucial to the atmosphere of outraged citizenry we need.
The War At Home
Here on Law and Disorder we’ve talked at length about the legislation and policy the US government is installing to create what amounts to be a police state in this country.
Guest – Jack Rasmus, journalist and author of THE WAR AT HOME: The Corporate Offensive From Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush. The War At Home examines the relationship between the emerging police state and the great shift in wealth, salaries, earnings, diminution of health care, pensions, destruction of the unions, and all the rest that started under Reagan.
We’ll also talk with author about class struggle and the relationship between democratic rights and the ability to make social change. Jack Rasmus is also an economics and labor journalist for Z magazine and the Dispatcher.
Cuban Five Update – Co-Host Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild recently spoke at events supporting the release of the Cuban Five. In the past few weeks, events have been held around the country over the plight of the Cuban Five. Five courageous men who uncovered information about plans by anti-Cuban terrorists to commit acts of violence against that island nation. After the Cuban government turned over voluminous documentation of such plans, the five were indicted and tried in Miami on unfounded charges of conspiracy to commit espionage all without one page of evidence to corroborate such charges. The Cuban Five have been imprisoned for 8 years in maximum security facilities spread out across the United States. They’re in such remote locations that even visits from their attorneys are difficult. There’s also a media blackout on this story. Law and Disorder hopes this will change especially in light of recent revelations that the Bush Administration has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into paying Miami journalists to plant misleading and erroneous stories on Cuba issues. In Washington DC a large rally to the White House attracted 600 marchers and was followed by a panel of speakers including Len Weinglass.
We hear an excerpt from a speech delivered by Heidi Boghosian at the Church of the Intercession. The event featured Esteban Lazo Hernandez, Vice President of the Cuban Council of State, director of its International Relations Committee and long time revolutionary leader. He was joined by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. We will hear more of their speeches in the weeks to come.
