Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
COVID-19 Virus And History of Quarantine
“Quarantine” is a state, period, or place of isolation in which people or animals that have arrived from elsewhere or who have been exposed to infectious or contagious disease are placed.
As Law & Disorder taped this show in early March 2020, thousands of people around the globe are being quarantined as governments rush to keep the COVID-19 virus from spreading. In China, for example, thousands were forced into mass quarantine centers. And entire cities and towns in Italy were put on lock-down, sending an estimated 100,000 persons into quarantine.
In the United States, quarantines are being readied for some first responders. Two dozen emergency workers are being monitored for possible exposure to the coronavirus. And 27 firefighters and two police officers were quarantined in Washington State.
Today on Law and Disorder we’ll examine the civil liberties aspects of quarantines and other government responses to pandemics.
The word quarantine, and the practice, dates back to the Middle Ages. It was first used in English in 1617 to refer to the 40 days a ship suspected of carrying a contagious disease was detained offshore in isolation.
But the first instance of the institutionalized practice of quarantine actually occurred in the 14th century when the Bubonic plague, also referred to as Black Death, devastated Europe from 1347 to 1352, killing approximately 20 million people.
Authorities in Venice were the first to formalize the protective action after the plague began spreading there in 1347. Ports were closed to ships and travelers who had to spend 40 days in isolation.
In the early days of the United States local and state jurisdictions were responsible for protection against contagious diseases. After a 1793 yellow fever epidemic struck Philadelphia and killed 5,000, the city created a 10-acre quarantine station called the Lazaretto along the Delaware River.
With outbreaks of yellow fever, Congress passed the National Quarantine Act in 1878 marking the federal governments involvement with quarantine activities. The quarantine system was fully nationalized by 1921, according to the CDC.
Guest – Professor Wendy Parmet from Northeastern Law School is a leading expert on health, disability and public health law and directs the law school’s Center for Health Policy and Law and its JD/MPH programs. She holds a joint appointment with Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs in recognition of her national leadership in interdisciplinary thinking and problem solving on health care issues. Wendy co-edits the law school’s SSRN online publications, Human Rights and the Global Economy and the Northeastern University School of Law Public Law and Legal Theory Paper Series. In 2016, Wendy was honored with the prestigious Jay Healey Health Law Teachers Award by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics.
—-
COVID-19: Public Health Experts Urge US Government To Ensure Scientifically Based Response Plan
A group of more than 450 public health experts recently urged government leaders to enact scientifically-informed policies to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 coronavirus in the U.S. They called for fair and equitable imposition of such policies.
According to the ACLU, the experts’ recommendations, sent in a public letter, will help ensure a response plan that protects the health, safety, and civil liberties of all. It’s generally accepted that during a disease outbreak, individual rights may have to cede to give way to the greater good. But that is only if science supports the need for such measures, which may include isolation and quarantine.
In their letter, the public health experts ask officials, for example, to work with insurance companies to ensure that lack of insurance and high costs are not a barrier to testing and treatment. They call for health care facilities to be dubbed “immigration enforcement-free zones” — a step used before during hurricanes and other emergencies. And they seek extra help for under-resourced hospitals and community health centers.
Also impacted are minimum-wage workers and others who live on the economic margins, can’t telecommute, and can’t afford to lose their jobs. The experts also stress that leaders need to scrupulously ensure that their public messages are accurate and guided by science and not politics. In the past many responses to emergencies have been hindered by politics, including China’s response to the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003.
Guest – Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst at the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the ACLU in Washington, DC.
——————————
——————————
Censorship, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Iraq War, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power, Uncategorized, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In Defense Of Julian Assange: Attorney Renata Avila
We continue our ongoing coverage of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who remains in confinement at London’s high-security Belmarsh prison. Julian is fighting extradition to the United States on 18 charges, including violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to hack government computers. As listeners will recall, the charges are in connection with Wikileaks’ release of thousands of secret cables in 2010.
Guest – Renata Avila, a member of the Julian Assange legal team. Renata is an international Human Rights lawyer from Guatemala, specializing in preserving human rights during the next wave of tech challenges. She is a Board member for Creative Commons, the Common Action Forum and is a Global Trustee of the Think Tank Digital Future Society. She is also a member of the WEF’s Global Future Council on Human Rights and Technology and a Steering Committee Member of the Information Society Advisory Council for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
—-
The Prosecution of Julian Assange – CUNY School of Law and UCLA
We listen to two presentations from a panel discussion among leading journalists, attorneys and human rights defenders as the extradition trial in London of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is set to begin.
The first speaker is lead attorney Barry Pollack representing Julian Assange speaking at The Prosecution of Julian Assange forum at UCLA.
We then hear from Glen Ford speaking at the CUNY School of Law, Glen is the Executive editor, Black Agenda Report. He’s a broadcast, print and web pioneer and founding member of the Washington chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.
————————————
————————————
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Iran, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Human Rights Attorney Michael Tigar
As we enter into the new decade we look back at where we have been, legally speaking, and where we are headed.
2020 began with President Donald Trump illegally and recklessly ordering the assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani who was on a peace mission in Iraq at the time he was killed by a US drone.
Although assassination has been secretly used by the US government since the formation of the CIA in 1947, Barack Obama, Trump’s predecessor, began the illegal extra-judicial open assassination of people in what was called “targeted killings.“ This included American citizens.
With regard to deportations, the Obama administration set a record by deporting more than 3 million people. Trump has continued massive deportations but also has illegally frustrated and prevented people fleeing political repression from seeking asylum in America, separating children from families and caging them in a process that continues.
The Authorization for the Use of Military Force was voted on shortly after 9/11 to justify the bombing and invasion of Afghanistan. The AUMF has been used illegally to justify the presence of American troops in the Middle East since then. It was recently renewed.
The Patriot Act has also been renewed, allowing for massive US government surveillance of American citizens in the illegal derogation of their Fourth Amendment right to privacy democratic rights and the rule of law are in obvious, unprecedented, serious jeopardy.
Truth telling whistle blowing Australian journalist Julian Assange, in the most important first amendment civil liberty case, is about to be extradited from London to Virginia where he faces espionage charges. The issue is his right to be a journalist and our right to know. If convicted he will go to prison for life destroying investigative journalism in areas the government deems “national security.“
The peoples’ constitutional right to impeach a president is also in jeopardy. The Democratic party’s attempt to remove Donald Trump from office is sure to fail because of Trump and the Republicans’ refusal to honor the constitution and allow for a fair trial in the Senate.
Trump has appointed hundreds of reactionary judges to the federal trial and appellate benches. A woman’s right to control her own body, decided in the famous case of “Roe vs Wade”, will be decided by the Supreme Court whose ranks have been bolstered by two additional reactionary judges, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
The separation of church and state and the separation of powers are also in jeopardy.
Guest – Human rights attorney Michael Tigar, a veteran of 1960s activism. He’s appeared many times before the Supreme Court, taught law at three schools and has written numerous books including the now classic, Law and the Rise of Capitalism and most recently Mythologies of State and Monopoly Power.
——————————
——————————
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq War, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani: Geopolitical Discussion
An assassination is a political murder. Last week, President Donald Trump assassinated General Qasem Soleimani when he was at the airport in Baghdad, Iraq. Soleimani was the second most important leader of Iran. This action is in violation of both American and international law.
Trump ordered the illegal assassination without advising Congress, which is also illegal in violation of the War Powers Act. President Trump however did first advise Israel, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, countries which have long favored provoking a war with Iran.
Currently the United States has imposed harsh economic sanctions on the Iranian people hoping they will turn against their government. President Trump called Soleimani a terrorist with the blood of hundreds of Americans on his hands and that he was planning an imminent attack. If Iran should respond to the murder Trump has threatened, in violation of international law, to destroy 52 of Iran’s ancient cultural heritage sites. The US President has sent 3000 additional troops to a wreck because he was sick and threatened to impose sanctions on Iraq if they expel American troops.
Listen To May 27, 2019 Interview With Phyllis On Threats Against Iran.
Guest – Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she works on anti-war, US foreign policy and Palestinian rights issues. She has worked as an informal adviser to several key UN officials on Palestinian issues. Her books including Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
—-
Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy
The FBI is suffering a crisis of credibility, making news headlines not for solving crimes but for agency shortfalls and blunders. From Bureau officials lying to cover up leaks, to retaliation against Internal whistle-blowers, to agents facing criminal charges on obstruction to leaking classified material, something is clearly amiss inside the nation’s top law enforcement agency. There have also been several public failures—overlooked warnings in the Parkland, Florida school killings, delays in Olympic doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct probe, and misconduct by agents after armed militia standoffs in Nevada and Oregon.
That’s why Mike German’s new book, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, feels especially timely. German is a former FBI undercover special agent whose assignments included infiltrating white nationalist organizations.
Disrupt, Discredit and Divide focuses on how the Bureau transformed after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It went, German asserts, from being a law enforcement agency to a covert domestic intelligence agency, unparalleled in U.S. history. He discusses how leaders took advantage of fears of terrorism to remove longstanding legal checks and balances on agents. By focusing on national security over law enforcement, the Bureau has in fact undermined public confidence in justice and the rule of law.
Guest – Mike German is a fellow with the Liberty and National Security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. He has worked at the ACLU and served 16 years as an FBI special agent. He is also the author of Thinking Like a Terrorist.
———————————
———————————
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
British Election Analysis and Political Parallels
On December 12, 2019 British Conservative party leader Boris Johnson won the election over Jeremy Corbyn‘s Labour Party by 43.6% to 32%.
British voters were less moved by Corbyn’s economic and social programs than they were by Johnson’s nationalist positions, particularly by his promise to “get Brext done” and pull Great Britain out of the European Union. This promised exit, known as Brexit, gave Johnson’s nationalism a major boost. Brexit became the central issue of the campaign. It was looked upon by many voters as a blow to the system.
Former Labour party voters, particularly in the deindustrialized rustbelt of England’s north, which had been Labour’s historic base, voted Conservative hoping that Boris Johnson would shake things up.
The Labour party program which put forward the idea of a working class party that taxes the rich to pay for redistribution and public services was novel and attracted young people, but not enough to overcome Boris Johnson’s appeal.
There are many parallels between Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.
Guest – Colin Robinson, a longtime member of the Labour party and splits his time between England and New York, where he is a journalist and the co-publisher of OR books.
Guest – Doug Henwood an economic analyst, financial trader and journalist. His recent book My Turn, analysed the Hillary Clinton campaign of 2016. His recent article in Jacobin magazine is titled Why Impeachment is a Waste of Time.
—-
In Defense of Julian Assange
Whistle-blowing truth telling journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange now sits in solitary confinement in London‘s infamous Belmarsh prison. The Trump administration has asked that he be extradited to Virginia for trial as a spy. Today we interview Margaret Kunstler and Tariq Ali who edited and introduce the just published book titled In Defense of Julian Assange. The book demonstrates convincingly what is at stake in his upcoming trial is the future of free journalism, here and abroad.
Julian faces a 175 year sentence under the century old Espionage Act, passed during World War I to be used against spies. He is charged with conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq war logs, the Afghanistan war logs, and State Department cables.
Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called WikiLeaks a “non-state intelligence service.“ Hillary Clinton wanted him assassinated by drone. The United Nations special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer recently visited him in prison and concluded that indeed he was being tortured. When he last appeared in court he was incoherent and couldn’t remember his name or date of birth.
WikiLeaks was launched by Julian Assange in 2006, three years after Bush and Cheney commenced the illegal catastrophic war against Iraq in 2003.
Julian is a computer genius. He invented a way for publishers like WikiLeaks to receive truth telling information anonymously. The first bombshell he published in 2006 was “The Iraqi war logs.“ He got them from whistle-blower Chelsea Manning who was then in the military. They showed a video of American soldiers in a helicopter committing a war crime by gunning down and executing a number of Iraqi civilians, two Reuter’s journalists, and several children. Then they chuckled about it. A photo of the murders is shown on the book’s cover. This leak, furnished by Chelsea Manning, was devastating to the United States. Other whistle-blower leaks followed. The government became relentless in trying to close down WikiLeaks.
Guest – Margaret Kunstler – a civil rights attorney who has spent her career providing movement support and protecting the rights of activists. A powerful speaker on human rights issues, Kunstler is a consultant to the emerging voices of Occupy Wall Street protesters and Anonymous supporters. Kunstler’s Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in Twenty-First Century America, co-authored with Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, is the leading handbook for activists today.
Guest – Tariq Ali, writer, journalist and film-maker, born in Lahore and educated at Oxford University. He writes regularly for a range of publications including The Guardian and The London Review of Books. He has written more than a dozen books including non-fiction as well as scripts for both stage and screen.
———————
———————
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Truth to Power, War Resister
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
President Donald Trump, Ukraine, The Bidens And Impeachment
The late critic of American politics Gore Vidal often referred to the United States as the United States of amnesia. Even though it was only five years ago in 2014 that the Obama-Biden administration spent $5 billion to help overthrow the democratically elected government of the Ukraine, this fact is omitted in the mainstream press’ coverage of the current Ukraingate impeachment inquiry that the Democratic Party is conducting in the House of Representatives.
The purpose of the American sponsored overthrow of Ukrainian government it is thought by some observers, was to open up the natural resources of the rich Ukraine to American economic interests and secondly to incorporate the Ukraine into the North American Treaty Organization, the military alliance headed by the USA, which sought to further surround Russia militarily on its western border.
After the overthrow, with Joe Biden as then Vice President, his son Hunter got a position on the Board of Directors of Berksema, the large Ukrainian national gas company. Although he knew nothing about the workings of the gas industry Hunter Biden was paid $600,000 a year.
This is the background to President Donald Trump‘s now famous call to the president of the Ukraine asking him to investigate the Bidens. It has been alleged by the Democrats, but not proven, that Trump withheld $400,000,000 American dollars to purchase American weapons until Ukrainian president Zelensky announced a corruption investigation.
Guest – Aaron Maté is a contributing editor at the nation magazine and has the new Internet show Pushback on The Gray Zone. He won the 2019 Izzy Award for achievement in independent media for his coverage of Russiagate.
—-
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered A Black Panther
Around 7AM, 50 years ago on December 4, 1969, attorney Jeff Haas was in a police lockup in Chicago, interviewing the fiancée of Fred Hampton. She was telling him how the police pulled her from the room as Fred Hampton lay unconscious on their bed. She heard one officer say, “He’s still alive.” She then heard two shots. A second officer said, “He’s good and dead now.” She looks at Jeff and asked, “What can you do?”
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police
Murdered a Black Panther is Haas’s personal account of how he and People’s Law Office partner Flint Taylor went after Hampton’s assassins, and ultimately prevailed over unlimited government resources and an FBI conspiracy. His book isn’t just a story of justice delivered, it also portrays Hampton in a new light as a dynamic community leader and an inspiration in the fight against injustice.
Guest – Jeff Haas is a longtime member of the National Lawyers Guild who has dedicated his career to working for justice. In 1969 he and three other lawyers set up the Peoples Law Office in Chicago, whose clients included the Black Panthers, SDS, and other political activists. Haas went on to handle cases involving prisoners’ rights, police torture, and the wrongfully accused. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife and children and continues to represent victims of police brutality.
——————————
——————————
