Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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The Case of the Cuban Five
Update on the oral arguments of the Cuban Five. A few weeks ago, on February 14, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Atlanta in the case of the so-called Cuban Five. Five Cuban men have been serving harsh prison sentences after they infiltrated anti-Cuban right wing (terrorist) groups in South Florida, were arrested by US authorities in 1998, and received a highly-politicized trial in Miami.
Guest – Len Weinglass – Defense attorney for the Cuban Five
Guest – Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly – Co-Host Heidi Boghosian talks
with Alarcon about recent breakthroughs regarding the trial of the Cuban Five.
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Music To Get Tortured By
Co-Hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith deconstruct music used for psychological torture by the US Government. Interestingly, the music was selected from bands thatstarted in the mid nineties, not the Beatles, but Christina Aguilera, Eminem, Metallica, and Barney. Music chosen for torture reveals the demographic of torturers.
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Armenian Genocide Debate Panel Cancelled On PBS
Guest – Victor Papakhian
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ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH – The Center for Constitutional Rights, set out the legal arguments for impeachment in a clear, concise, and objective discussion. In four separate articles of impeachment detailing four separate charges ? warrantless surveillance, misleading Congress on the reasons for the Iraq war, violating laws against torture, and subverting the Constitution’s separation of powers ? it is, say the CCR attorneys, a case of black letter law, with abundant evidence. Get this book!
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Surveillance, Torture
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Updates:
- Hosts Michael Ratner and Heidi Boghosian discuss the political and constitutional fallout trailing behind the Graham/Levin Amendment.
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Lawfirm sues FEMA to keep Hurricane Katrina victims from being evicted from temporary hotels.
Guest – Danny Greenberg, special counsel for pro bono work at Schulte Roth & Zabel’s
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The International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration. January 20-22, 2006
Guest – Clark Kissenger, convener of the Bush Commission.
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Alito Hearings: Why did the Bush administration bypass the “rubber stamp” FISA court before wiretapping U.S. citizens?
Guest – Bill Goodman – Legal Director with the Center for Constitutional Rights
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Extraordinary Rendition, Guantanamo, Torture, Truth to Power
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Letters from Young Activists
In letters addressed to their parents, to past generations, to each other, to the youth of tomorrow and to their future selves, the authors articulate their vision for the world as they work towards racial, economic, gender, environmental and global justice. As the editors write in their introduction: “From globalization to the war on terrorism and beyond, our generation is impelled to action in the midst of a rapidly changing and unique political moment. Our challenge, and yours, is to live our lives in a way that does not make a mockery of our values.
Guest – Chesa Boudin – a Rhodes Scholar, is a student at Yale Law School and author of Gringo: A Coming-of-Age in Latin America (Scribner)
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Recent Ruling In Jose Padilla’s Case
Guest – Attorney Andy Patel, Padilla’s lawyer.
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Anatomy of a Dirty Bomb
“According to Dr. Thomas Cochran, in order to shield a 130 gram cobalt 60 source — the size needed to simulate Sandia’s worst case Manhattan scenario — to make it safe for human handling would require a one-and-a-half to two metric ton lead shield. Not exactly carry-on luggage.”….
Guest – Dr. Thomas Cochran, a physicist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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Abu Ali Case – Reverse Rendition
– Follow up – Exchange student who traveled to Saudi Arabia – was held and tortured at the request of the U.S. He confessed to having a plan to single handedly free all the GTMO detainees and shoot President Bush on the sidewalk while being tortured.
Guest – Attorney Khurrum Wahid
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Witness To Torture
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice at a press conference from her European tour that focused on US torture and abuse. Rice’s visit drew protests across Europe. The story deepened last week with reports of a revealed US Defense Department memo that proves an explicit policy of rendition for torture.
Last week a group of 25 US Christians called Witness Against Torture illegally entered Cuba and embarked on a 4-5 day hike intent on arriving to the US Naval Base at Guant?namo to visit the prisoners are on the doorstep of the base.
We go now to hear excerpts from a Witness Against Torture press conference held last week. Among the speakers are the Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Gita Guiterezz and CCR president and co-host Michael Ratner.
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Civil Liberties, Torture
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FBI Keeping Records On 100 Thousand People
Guest – Amir Sulaiman, Muslim of African decent born in America. Amir is a 26 year old, poet, writer, teacher, husband and father. He was afeatured poet on HBO Def Poetry Jam. The episode aired in August 2004. Within six days of the performance airing, four FBI agents came to his mother-in-law’s home in San Francisco.Though he lived in Atlanta, Georgia, the agents came looking for him there. They asked about his “anti-American” poetry.
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Torture in Chicago
Guest – Attorney Flint Taylor an attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago had exposed the torture in Chicago of 130 Black men, whose confessions were extorted, and who served prison sentences.
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Haymarket
The Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan, Inc. presents the New York premiere of “Haymarket” by Zayd Dohrn, Off Broadway at The Beckett Theatre. We talk with playwright Zayd Dohrn.
An excerpt from one review: On the evening of May 4, 1886, anarchist-socialist organizers called a meeting in the Haymarket Square in Chicago to demand an eight-hour day for the city’s workers. When police attempted to disperse the meeting, somebody in the crowd hurled an iron sphere filled with dynamite into the ranks of officers. The bomb exploded, the police opened fire into the crowd, and in the ensuing riot, seven policemen and several workers were killed. At the time, it was one of the most deadly acts of terrorism that had ever taken place on American soil. While the bomb-thrower was never caught, seven anarchist leaders were arrested and convicted of conspiracy. Five of them were hanged. Read full review here.
Guest – Playwright and activist Zayd Dohrn.
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Surveillance, Torture
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A Chicago man of Palestinian extraction is being prosecuted in Chicago for conspiracy to aid Hamas.
The prosecution is based on a confession extracted by torture by the Israeli’s when he was in Palestine. NY Times “journalist” Judith Miller in her stories supported tortured statements.
Guest – Michael Deutsch, of the Peoples Law Office and former Litigation Director at the CCR.
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Activists Arrested For Demonstrations At Universities: Dressing As Guantanamo Detainees.
Guest – Joey Steel, demonstrator with WorldCantWait.net
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Joan Mellen, author of the book on “Jim Garrison and the JFK Assassination.”
Joan Mellen has interviewed over 1000 people. She bases her book on papers secured by Oliver Stone thru an FOIA request subsequent to his movie JFK.. Mellen is giving lecutures in NYC at the Century Club and probably at the Ethical Culture Society.
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Guantanamo, Torture
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Guantanamo Hunger Strike
An under-reported story, hundreds of detainees are not eating and some are being force fed, intravenously or through nasal passages.
Guest – Gitanjali Gutierrez, cooperating counsel with CCR’s Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative.
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Constance Baker Motely
Host Michael Ratner remembers moments with first Afro-American New York Federal Judge who recently passed away.
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Filiberto Ojeda Rios
Puerto Rican nationalist Filiberto Ojeda Rios was assasinated by the FBI in his home last week.
Guest – Rafael Cruz – FBI Murders a Legend 3:15pm confirmed
Guest – Linda Backiel – family lawyer for Filiberto Ojeda Rios
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Brecht Forum Lecture – Al McCoy – Torture
Al McCoy – Excerpts from his lecture on the CIA and the history of torture. Al McCoy is the author of “THE POLITICS OF HEROIN: C.I.A. COMPLICITY IN THE GLOBAL DRUG TRADE”
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