Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Cuba, Gaza, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Racist Police Violence, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Cars and Jails: Freedom, Dreams, Debt and Carcerality
What is the connection between cars and jails? Every day more than 50,000 Americans are pulled over by police officers while driving. Most of them will come away from this encounter owing money to the municipality or county in which they were stopped. Some will be arrested. They will join the nearly 9,000,000 Americans to cycle through our countries’ jails each year.
Police can choose from hundreds of traffic code violations to make a pretext stop and conduct a vehicle search. This may result in a fine or or an arrest.
American consumer lore has long held the automobile to be “freedom machine” consecrating the mobility of a free people. Yet paradoxically, the car also functions at the crossroads of two great systems of unfreedom and immobility – the credit economy and the American carceral system.
Guest – Andrew Ross who along with his co-author Julie Livingston has investigated this paradox and written the book “Cars and Jails: Freedom, Dreams, Debt and Carcerality”. It was just published by OR Books. The book shows how the long arms of debt and the carceral state operate in tandem in the daily life of car use and ownership. Andrew Ross is a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, and a social activist and analyst. He has authored and edited numerous books and has written for the New York Times, the Guardian, The Nation, and Al Jazeera.
—-
Remembering Michael Ratner
Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith remember Michael Ratner as cohost, activist, radical attorney, author and close friend. In this show, hosts reflect on Michael’s work and listen back to several monologue updates. They include his work as co-counsel for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the Dahiya Doctrine, SNAP- Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, NSA survelliance in the Bahamas and Guantanamo Bay prisoner exchange.
Michael Ratner (1943-2016) was president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and author of Guantanamo: What the World Should Know. Michael worked for decades, as a crusader for human rights both at home and abroad litigating many cases against international human rights violators resulting in millions of dollars in judgments for abuse victims and expanding the possibilities of international law. He acted as a principal counsel in the successful suit to close the camp for HIV-positive Haitian refugees on Guantanamo Base, Cuba. Michael Ratner has litigated a dozen cases challenging a President’s authority to go to war, without congressional approval. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Center has focused its efforts on the constitutionality of indefinite detention and the restrictions on civil liberties as defined by the unfolding terms of a permanent war. Among his many honors were: Trial Lawyer of the Year from the Trial lawyers for Public Justice, The Columbia Law School Public Interest Law Foundation Award, and the North Star Community Frederick Douglass Award.
Hosted by Attorneys Michael Smith and Heidi Boghosian
——————————
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Greatest Evil is War
United States has been at war almost continuously over the last 80 years. Chris Hedges has titled his latest book, The Greatest Evil is War. He is our guest today. What is the driving force behind this nearly a century of war? Who is responsible? What are the institutions in United States that carry it on? What is to be done about it?
What forces in our country can stop the slaughter and the constant waste of resources that is consuming us and threatening us with the possibility of nuclear war, which would wipe out all life on our planet. Today we will explore the economic, institutional, and ideological underpinnings of the American war machine. We will talk about the military industrial complex about which Eisenhower warned us. We will talk about its handmaidens, the media, Congress, the universities and the think tanks which advocate for war.
We will talk about the political consequences of permanent war and the fascist direction America is increasingly going in. Most profoundly we will talk about capitalism and fascism from which it springs. And finally we will talk about the social forces necessary to stop and reverse war.
Guest – Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign correspondent, 15 of them with The New York Times, covering conflicts in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the former Yugoslavia. He learned overseas that the evils of empire are the external expression of white supremacy, just as mass incarceration, which he describes as the civil rights issue of our age, is the most brutal internal expression of white supremacy. Prisons , he writes, are the modern iteration of slave plantations. Hedges is the author of 14 books, The winner of a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, a graduate of Harvard Divinity school, and an ordained Presbyterian minister. chrishedges.substack.com
—-
American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has served 40 years Is Pennsylvania’s harshest prisons-16 of them on death row -for the murder of a Philadelphia police officer which he did not commit
The judge who convicted him was overheard promising“I’m going to help fry the N-word“.
Mumia is an important figure in African-American history. Before his conviction he was a nationally broadcast award winning radio journalist and the head of the Philadelphia Association of Black journalists. He reported on the murderous racial violence of the Philadelphia police department and it’s notorious Police Chief and then Mayor Frank Rizzo.
He had been a member of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party. While in prison Mumia has written 13 books and had a weekly radio show “ Live from Death Row“. He holds a masters degree and is working on a PhD in history.
On October 26, 2022 Mumia’s attorneys appeared in court in an effort to get him a new trial. His defense petition included newly discovered evidence that had been buried in the prosecutor’s files. This evidence documented a key witness receiving promises of money for their testimony and evidence of favorable treatment of another in a criminal case. The petition also documented the unconstitutional practice of striking Black jurors during Mumia’s original trial.
Judge Lucretia Clemons preliminarily denied his constitutional right to present this information. She is likely to finalize this ruling on his upcoming court date in Philadelphia on December 9, 2022.
Guest – Noelle Hanrahan is the director of Prison Radio, a multimedia production studio that brings to the public the voices of incarcerated women, men and children. She seeks to honor the agency and humanity of prisoners by bringing their uncensored essays into mainstream discourse. She has produced over 3,500 multimedia recordings from over 100 prison radio correspondents, including the critically acclaimed work of Mumia Abu-Jamal. In 1995, she brought out of prison his first book, Live From Death Row (Harper Perennial), which became a best seller. In 2013, she co-produced the theatrically released feature documentary Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary (Street Legal Cinema/First Run Features). She received her BA in Gender, Race and Class in the 19th and 20th Centuries from Stanford University, and an MA in Criminal Justice from Boston University. She also holds private investigator licenses in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
————————————–
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
Since February 24, 2022, the day that Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have been killed or otherwise become casualties. Eight million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes, and hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled conscription. Millions of people in Ukraine have no heat, electricity or water and temperatures are below freezing. The war has devastated 35% of Ukraine’s economy.
Western sanctions on Russia have led to skyrocketing inflation in Europe, and a dangerous squeeze on energy supplies is crippling manufacturing. The war has also devastated infrastructure, reducing electrical grids, railways, apartment buildings and oil depots to rubble. It has filled the air with pollutants and toxic waste that is contaminating rivers and groundwater.
The war is also exacerbating the climate crisis. The fossil fuel industry is profiting from the sanctions which provide it with an excuse to increase dirty energy exploration and production.
The Western media portrays the war as a conflict between the evil empire Russia and the innocent Ukraine. Lost in the heartbreaking images, however, is a nuanced understanding of the context for the war, what caused it, and how it can be ended. The role of the United States in the historical backdrop to the war and the current U.S. resistance to a peaceful settlement are absent from the coverage in the corporate and even much of the alternative media.
Guest – CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, who has co-authored with Nicolas Davies the new book, “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.” Medea is one of the leading activists of our time. Wherever people are hurting, we can expect to see Medea and CodePink there.
—-
Disengaging from Violent Far Right Extremism
Since 2019, the number of white nationalist networks in the United States has been declining. More centralized ones, however, are supplanting them. An example of this, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is how founders of the podcast platform The Right Stuff have switched from organizing “pool party” groups to focusing on building the racist and antisemitic National Justice Party.
Many prominent leaders in this new iteration of white nationalism say their primary goal is to challenge “Conservatism, Inc.” Live-streamer Nick Fuentes is one. He recently dined with Donald Trump and Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago and was present outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Fuentes seeks to harness the grievances of Trump supporters into an overtly ethno-nationalist political movement, forming the Republican party’s core.
Ideas once confined to the organized white power movement are now openly discussed within the broader political right. The so-called “great replacement” conspiracy, holding that white people are being systematically replaced across the Western world by “multiculturalists” and Jews, is routinely cited as a reality by some elected officials and media pundits.
Guest – Patrick Riccards is the CEO of Life After Hate, an organization that helps people leave the violent far right. Founded in 2011 by former violent extremists, it’s the only nationally recognized and federally funded nonprofit positioned to assist those wishing to disengage from violent far right extremism. An expert in education, Patrick also founded the Driving Force Institute for Public Engagement, an initiative aimed at transforming how U.S. history and civics are taught. An award-winning writer, Patrick serves on the boards of several nonprofits.
Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Marjorie Cohn and Julie Hurwitz
—————————————————
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Can A Lawsuit Against The CIA Affect U.S. Extradition Attempt of Julian Assange?
In August 2022, a group of U.S. citizen attorneys and journalists sued the CIA and its former director Mike Pompeo. They alleged that the CIA, during Pompeo’s tenure, spied on them during meetings with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The WikiLeaks founder sheltered there for 7 years in an effort to avoid extradition to the United States.. Assange is charged with 17 counts under the Espionage Act for revealing evidence of U.S. war crimes. If convicted, he faces 175 years in prison.
The lawsuit says that the CIA violated the privacy rights of those journalists and lawyers. Plaintiffs include journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz, and New York City attorneys Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who have represented Assange. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the plaintiffs for the violations of their rights. It also seeks the removal of any information held by the CIA which was collected from them during their visits to see Assange and prevention of the release of any this information to a third party.
The CIA, as listeners may know, is prohibited from collecting intelligence on U.S. citizens, although several lawmakers have alleged that the agency maintains a secret repository of Americans’ communications data. Richard Roth, the lead attorney in this case, had this to say: “The United States Constitution shields American citizens from U.S. government overreach even when the activities take place in a foreign embassy in a foreign country.”
Journalists and lawyers visiting Assange were required to surrender their electronic devices to Undercover Global before each visit. U.C. Global is a private security company which was providing security to the embassy. The lawsuit alleged that the company copied that information and handed it over to the CIA.
In early November, Deborah Hrbek and our own Marjorie Cohn discussed the lawsuit and the case against Assange, in a program sponsored by the First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee. For our show today, we’re delighted to bring you their remarks and answers to several audience questions. Deborah Hrbek starts off the event. In addition to being a member of the Assange defense team, her law practice focuses on entertainment and small business law. Marjorie is a member of the national advisory board of Assange Defense.
Hosted by Attorney Heidi Boghosian
—————————————–
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Supreme Court, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
A Unified Movement of Peace
The world today is threatened with war, poverty, displacement and hunger like no other time since 1937 when World War II began with the Japanese invasion of China. Within four years the war had spread leading to the death of tens of millions of people. This included 50 million Russians, 400,000 Americans and finally hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians in 1945 when the US initiated the nuclear age with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki demonstrating American power to the Russians. This initiated the Cold War which is now in a second stage. It must be stopped.
The American wars in Vietnam and Iraq were based on lies. We were told in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson that the Vietnamese had attacked American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. This was a lie. In 2003 we were lied to by President George W. Bush who told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
The proxy war in Ukraine against Russia is based on the ubiquitous lie that the Russians were unprovoked. It threatens to spin out of control. Why are we again in this situation and what can we do about it? What is desperately needed is a unified American peace movement.
Guest – Ray McGovern former CIA intelligence analyst, Ray briefed President George H. W. Bush every morning on intelligence matters, particularly with respect to Russia. He is a founder of VIPS, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to the blog Common Dreams.
—-
Doctors Lose Licenses For Properly Prescribing Opioids
The CDC wrongly thought pain management doctors were over prescribing opioids. The CDC issued guidelines in 2016 put limits on the amount of opioids doctors could prescribe thinking that high doses of Oxycontin lead to addiction and death. These guidelines were disastrous for chronic pain patients. Many were driven to buy illegal drugs on the street which were laced with poisonous fentanyl. In 2021 this led to 100,000 deaths in the United States.
Several insurance companies encouraged the CDC to impose limits on doctors prescribing Oxycontin and to taper their patients. Opioids are very expensive. The insurance companies were fortified in their erroneous belief by the efforts of a certain organization of doctors who are not pain management specialists.
When the CDC guidelines were exceeded, the Department of Justice threatened to indict doctors and got them to stop practicing medicine. The doctors gave up their medical licenses and licenses to prescribe narcotics. Some were prosecuted. Some went to prison. Some endured large fines. Seventeen hundred out of 6000 pain management doctors were removed from the practice of medicine.
Doctors who refused to taper were victimized. These doctors correctly believed that their patients were dependent on high dosages of opioids but were not drug addicts. These doctors understood that denying their patients high dosages of opioids would lead to suicides and deaths by overdose from street drugs.
The United States Supreme Court recently ruled in the case of The United States v Ruan that doctors have the right to treat their patients as they see fit without government interference, they ruled 9 to 0 that doctors who prescribed opioids in good faith did not have the requisite mindset, mens rea, to be found guilty of over prescribing.
Guest – Kelly Dineen Gillespie is a professor of law and the Director of the health law program at Creighton University School of Law. She teaches health law and bioethics. Dr. Gillespie holds a PhD in health care ethics as well as a law degree. Before attending law school she worked as a nurse in neurosurgery and transplant ICUs. She co-wrote two friend of the court briefs in the significant Ruan v United States case on behalf of professors of health law and policy before the US Supreme Court regarding criminal distribution under the Controlled Substance Act as applied to doctors‘ prescriptions. In June 2022, the Supreme Court adopted much of the reasoning advanced in these briefs in a unanimous decision supporting doctors.
————————————
Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Mass Rally Mumia, Assange and Palestine in Berkeley, California September 17, 2022
Veteran socialist and organizer Jeff Mackler initiated a call for a mass rally on September 17, 2022 in Berkeley, California in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Julian Assange, and Palestinians. In 1982 radio journalist and Black Panther Mumia Abu -Jamal was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for murdering police officer Daniel Faulkner on a Philadelphia Street. He served 28 1/2 years on death row before his sentence was reduced to life in prison. Still in prison, he has served 40 years. An International movement has developed demanding “Free Mumia.”
Award winning Australian journalist and publisher Julian Assange sits in Belmarsh. a maximum security prison in London. In declining mental and physical health,he has been incarcerated for over 1000 days while he awaits extradition to the Northern District federal court in Virginia where he will be tried and certainly convicted of violating the espionage act of 1917. His crime: embarrassing United States by publishing true information about US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and spying on the American public.
The Gaza Strip imprisons 1 million Palestinians. It is largest open air prison in the world. A month ago the Israeli military killed 49 people, 17 of them children, in military attacks. The weapons were made and supplied by America. North of the Gaza Strip in June in the Israeli militarily occupied territory of the West Bank an Israeli sniper assassinated the beloved veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who was covering an Israeli army incursion. She had been reporting on the situation of Palestinians In the West Bank for many years.
American ideology has it that our country is a force for good in the world. That it is a democratic society, that it promotes freedom and democracy abroad, and that at home it is a place where hard work leads to success. But the truth is quite different. These myths are increasingly being exposed for what they are.
Recognizing that free journalism is at stake a diverse group of organizations are sponsoring the September 17th mass rally In Berkeley. Mumia will speak via phone. Vincent de Stefano of the Assange Defense Committee will speak. So will Daniel Ellsberg, famous for his release of the Pentagon papers, Susan Schnall, President of Vets for Peace, Mama Pam of Friends of Mumia’s International Family, the great journalist Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice walker, and Jeff Mackler among others.
The slogan of the rally is Free Mumia! Free Julian! Free Palestine!
Guest – Jeff Mackler is a founder and leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), hey founder of the Northern California Climate Mobilization, and the national secretary of Socialist Action and it’s two time candidate for the US presidency.
—-
Analysis: The Taiwan-US Relationship And China
Trips to Taiwan, by Congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi, followed up by trips to Taiwan by other members of Congress, has served to push the United States and China closer to a catastrophic conflict. Richard Becker, our guest for this topic today has written, “Pelosi’s decision raises the specter of all-out war between the two world powers. and the consequences of her actions remain to be seen.”
The Biden Administration, which obviously approved of Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, added fuel to the fire by deploying an aircraft carrier off the coast of Taiwan along with accompanying warships.
Pelosi’s argument that the U.S.-Taiwan relationship was based on a shared belief in “self-determination and self-government, democracy and freedom” is ridiculous. The U.S. and other colonial efforts to dismember Taiwan from the rest of China goes back to at least the 19th century. And at the end of World War Two, the U.S. government supported the Nationalist Party of dictator Chiang Kai-Shek in the civil war between his party and the ruling communist party of China; a war that Chiang lost. After Chiang lost that civil war he retreated to the Chinese island of Taiwan, where he ruled as a vicious dictator. Of course, he continued to receive with massive military and diplomatic support from the United States. And even after it was forced to abandon its absurd policy that Taiwan represented the legitimate government of China, the U.S. has maintained its de facto alliance with the regime in Taiwan. And China, which still claims Taiwan as a part of China, has not ruled out eventually bringing Taiwan back under mainland China’s governance, including with the use of force if need be.
Guest – Richard Becker a leader in the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He’s also the Western Regional Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, the coalition to end war and end racism; and Mr. Becker is the author of a number of books, including, Storming the Gates: How the Russian Revolution Changed the World, the book, Palestine: Israel and the U.S. Empire; and the book, The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks.
————————————-
