Civil Liberties, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Key Ruling Ahead for Death Penalty as mentally ill death row inmate Willie Brown is scheduled for execution by lethal injection this Friday April 21st . Learn more about the issue here. U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard will decide if prison officials have resolved issues concerning the amount of pain involved in lethal injection. However, anesthesiologists may not be willing to participate. The professional code of ethics for doctors simply states that doctors are healers, not executioners. If Howard rules that the state of North Carolina must use an anesthesiologist and none are willing, the use of the death penalty may re-examined. Co-host Dalia Hashad joins the Law and Disorder hosts from her DC office. Please Visit the Amnesty International Online Action Center to express your concern and call on the governor to commute Willie Brown’s death sentence.
Guest – Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn – Director of the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty – Amnesty International USA.
In the months since Puerto Rican Independista Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was assassinated by the FBI, protesters are demonstrating in the streets against the lingering FBI presence in San Juan and other regions of Puerto Rico. Last month, federal agents executing search warrants on the homes of independentistas were captured on video pepper-spraying journalists covering the story, with seemingly little or no provocation, further fueling anti-FBI sentiment. On February 10th, the FBI executed six search warrants on independence movement leaders to prevent ”a potential domestic terrorist attack” against ”privately owned interests in Puerto Rico,” according to an FBI statement. Law and Disorder hosts update listeners on this under-reported story.
Guest – Charlie Hay-Mestre – Civil Rights Attorney in Puerto Rico and board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also part of the investigating team looking into the murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios.
NSA Spying on Attorneys – CCR attorney Shane Kadidal speaks with Law and Disorder hosts about the near certainty of the government eavesdropping on conversations with attorneys and clients at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Co-Host Michael Ratner updates listeners on the recent story of AT&T funneling all internet traffic through NSA. Read it here.
Guest – Shane Kadidal – Center for Constitutional Rights.
Co-host Michael Ratner references the Salon article – Read the Salon article here.
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Civil Liberties, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Big surveillance plans in New York City
Wireless cameras over Brooklyn and a virtual “Ring of Steel” for Lower Manhattan – More than 500 surveillance cameras are planned to be installed in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Hundreds of cameras will follow if New York City secures an $81.5 million federal grant from Homeland Security. The grant would fund a London-style “Ring of Steel” around Manhattan’s financial district that includes metal walls, military style guard posts and another wave of hi-tech surveillance equipment. NYC subways will also be set up with more cameras.
Co-Host Heidi Boghosian caught up with Surveillance Camera Tour Guide Bill Brown in downtown Manhattan. They discuss the implications of Homeland Security funding a massive influx of hi-tech security surveillance systems in New York City. Brown points out how most media have not been informed of details surrounding this build up of cameras.
Jack Anderson Files
FBI desperately tries to obtain more than 180 boxes of notes and files from the late muckraking journalist Jack Anderson. Anderson who died last December from complications with Parkinson’s Disease, spent the last fifty years unearthing government misdeeds such as J.Edgar Hoover’s apparent ties to Mafia, the Savings and Loans scandal and the search for fugitive ex-Nazi officials in South America. Now, the Anderson family is in the process of transferring ownerships of the files to the George Washington University Library. The FBI would like to see them first however, the library and the Anderson family refuse.
The columnist’s son Kevin Anderson says the FBI expressed interest in documents that would aid the government’s case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, who have been charged with disclosing classified information. The FBI also told the family “they planned to remove from the columnist’s archive, which has yet to be catalogued, any document they come across that is stamped “secret” or “confidential.”
Guest – George Washington University Librarian – Jack Siggins. Siggins also tells Law and Disorder hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Ratner that the FBI had asked to obtain library records and emails from faculty, staff and students of George Washington Library. Hosts suspect this type of inquiry has occurred at libraries across the country.
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Blackwater USA Law Suit
The private security firm Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based private security company is being sued by four families of the private American security contractors who were ambushed by Sunni resistance in Falluja on March of 2004. Law and Disorder hosts speak with independent journalist Jeremy Scahill and attorney Marc Miles about the lawsuit. Read Jeremy Scahill’s investigative report in the Nation here.
From Jeremy Scahill’s article – “This is a precedent-setting case,” says Marc Miles, an attorney for the families. “Just like with tobacco litigation or gun litigation, once they lose that first case, they’d be fearful there would be other lawsuits to follow.”
Guest – Jeremy Scahill – Independent journalist who reports frequently for the national radio and TV program Democracy Now!, has spent extensive time reporting from Iraq and Yugoslavia. He is currently at The Nation Institute on fellowship. He can be reached at jeremy@democracynow.org
Guest – Marc Miles – attorney for the families.
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We listen to a short segment of senior attorney Donald Goldberg with the Center for Environmental Justice describe how 40 percent of the Arctic Polar ice cap has melted in the last few years and subsequent warming has destroyed Inuit habitat. Human rights litigation is underway to protect the Inuit. Other speakers included Dr. James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen makes the case that global climate change is at the tipping point and emissions from power plants and vehicles are mainly to blame. Law and Disorder will air more from this forum in the programs to come.
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, Death Penalty, Truth to Power
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The Left Forum
We hear excerpts from speeches delivered by co-hosts Michael Ratner and Michael Smith at the Left Forum this year. The Law and Disorder panel was named Ten Minutes To Midnight, a reference Michael Smith later explains as he parallels the current legislative and judicial direction of the US to similar police state tactics employed by Nazi Germany. In the second speech co-host Michael Ratner and president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, lays out a similar framework and cites recent supreme court decisions, the Patriot Act expansion and a weak kneed Congress as key stepping stones to a police state build-up.
Elaine Jones, retired president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund
During Amnesty International’s General Meeting in Portland, Oregon, Co-host Dalia Hashad spoke with Elaine Jones, who worked with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Elaine Jones describes her early work on the Furman v. Georgia death penalty case in 1972 and lends inspiring words to young lawyers.
Suzanne Vega and Collective Soul at Amnesty’s Make Some Noise Concert
At the Amnesty International General Meeting in Oregon this year, co-host Dalia Hashad and producer Geoff Brady recorded a number of panels and interviews, among them were a number of musicians who volunteered for Amnesty’s Make Some Noise concert at the historic Roseland Theater. Dalia caught up with American songwriter and singer Suzanne Vega. Vega sat down for a Law and Disorder interview and spoke with Dalia about her music, human rights and expression these ideas through music.
We also hear a heart-felt interview with co-host Dalia Hashad as she talks with Ed Ryan and Joel Kosche from Collective Soul, the alternative post-grunge band from Stockbridge Georgia and one of the headliners at Amnesty’s Make Some Noise Concert at the Roseland Theater in Portland Oregon.
Civil Liberties, Death Penalty, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Lawsuits Filed Against NSA
Since its been revealed that the National Security Agency is amassing a colossal database of personal phone records have become public, there have been nearly 20 lawsuits filed against the NSA, AT&T and other telecommunication companies. Here on Law and Disorder we take a look at some recent lawsuits, one involving the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Constitutional Rights. We also discuss recent bills proposed in the Senate designed to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, read more about it here.
Guest – Shane Kadidal lead attorney at CCR on the NSA cases. Read Shane’s latest commentary here.
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Tasers – Part II
This year Amnesty International released a report on Tasers. (download PDF here) The report also looks at the systematic misuse of tasers by police and in prisons. It points out that there is a widespread policy of using tasers as a routine compliance tool on subjects who are passively resisting or “perceived” to not be complying with orders. Taser misuse is increasingly linked with unnecessary punishment, degradation and torture. In part I of the Taser series, Law and Disorder hosts spoke with Ed Jackson. (listen here) This week we go to Portland, Oregon where during Amnesty International’s General Annual Meeting, co-host Dalia Hashad caught up with Amnesty International spokeswoman and Taser expert Mona Cadena in Pioneer Square.
Guest – Mona Cadena – Amnesty International spokeswoman and Taser expert.
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Law and Disorder Hosts Visit Political Prisoners – A Discussion
Co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith talked about their recent visits with political prisoners Mumia Abu- Jamal and David Gilbert. Heidi talks about her visit with Mumia Abu-Jamal on death row in Waynesburg, Pennsylvannia and the the National Lawyers Guild’s plan to file an Amicus Brief in Mumia’s case.
Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of The Weather Underground Organization. Following eleven years underground he was arrested with members of the Black Liberation Army and other radicals following a botched armored car robbery in 1981. He is now a well-known prisoner serving time in upstate New York. Read more about David Gilbert here.
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A rare interview with Amnesty International’s former Executive Director William Schulz
Co-host Dalia Hashad interviews Bill Schulz at Pioneer Square before the anti-torture rally. We also listen to Bill Schulz deliver an inspiring outgoing speech during the rally. This is part of hours of amazing audio interviews and speeches from the Amnesty General Meeting, stay tuned for more in the weeks to come.
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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