Welcome to Law and Disorder Radio
Law and Disorder is a weekly independent civil liberties radio program airing on more than 150 stations and on Apple podcast. Law and Disorder provides timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
Law and Disorder April 9, 2018
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Updates:
- Co-host Michael Smith Discusses Being Plaintiff In Saudi Arabia Terror Lawsuit
—-
President Donald Trump Picks John Bolton For National Security Adviser
In these unsettling times it was particularly disturbing to a lot of people to learn last week that President Trump chose John Bolton to replace general H. R. Macmaster as his National Security Adviser. Trump also replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with the neo-conservative CIA director Mike Pompeo. It will be remembered that John Bolton was instrumental in getting the USA to attack Iraq on the pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda.
Bolton now alleges that Iran is building nuclear bombs and advocates for preemptively bombing Iran, which would be an illegal act of aggression.
Guest – Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS, working as a writer, activist and analyst on Middle East and UN issues. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 2001 she helped found and remains active with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. She works with many anti-war organizations, and writes and speaks widely across the U.S. and around the world as part of the global peace movement. She has served as an informal adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues. Phyllis Bennis writes about issues related to the Middle East and the United Nations. She wrote the book Understanding the US Iran Crisis: A Primer. She has contributed articles to the Nation magazine, the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Counterpunch.
—-
Judge Finds Activists Not Guilty On Necessity Defense
Thirteen environmental protesters were recently found not guilty in actions protesting a gas pipeline in the densely populated West Roxbury, Massachsuetts. In 2015 activists climbed into holes dug for the pipeline being built by the Houston-based company Spectra Energy. Judge Mary Ann Driscoll found them not responsible after hearing each one argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal “necessity”.
The so-called necessity defense is rarely accepted in US courts. Defendants relying on this defense argue that they should not be held liable for their actions because their conduct was necessary to prevent a greater harm.
In this case, the official court record will only state the charges were converted from criminal misdemeanors to civil infractions and that all defendants were found “not responsible.” But the judge DID state from the bench, on the record, that she was finding the defendants “not responsible” on the basis of necessity.
In response, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Tweeted this message: “Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America.”
In general, a judge hearing a civil infraction case doesn’t have to give any reasons for finding a defendant not responsible. Here, the judge told lead counsel Andrew Fischer that she would state on the record that necessity was her reason for finding them not responsible.
The sustained resistance campaign would not have been possible without the support of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, who represented every person who was arrested (often through multiple appearances) and supported the ongoing training efforts.
Guest – Kelsey Skaggs, Executive Director of the Climate Defense Project, she has worked on environmental issues at Crag Law Center in Oregon; on international environmental policy at Universal Rights Group in Geneva; and defending free speech activists at Media Legal Defence Initiative in London. Kelsey has also written about First Amendment issues related to NSA surveillance programs. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of California, Davis, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Kelsey is licensed to practice law in the State of California.
Guest – Marla Marcum, Director of the Climate Disobedience Center and is a United Methodist committed to supporting people of all faiths and no particular faith to act boldly for justice. An experienced campaigner, trainer, pastor and lay leader, she brings two decades of social justice organizing experience with faith-based, youth, and grassroots groups.
——————————————
——————————————
Law and Disorder April 2, 2018
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Herman Bell Granted Parole After Serving 45 Years In Prison
A respected elder, Herman Bell, was granted parole having met all the criteria for release according to his sentence. The parole commissioners recognized his progress after serving nearly 45 years in prison and granted his parole application. He is looking forward to being reunited with his family and friends. Today we talk about some of the opposition, from politicians and the police union, to this decision. Support Herman Bell
Herman Bell – Twitter – #BringHermanHome
Guest – Laura Whitehorn , a former political prisoner who served 14 years for the distruction of government property in connection with a 1983 bombing at the US Capitol where no one was injured. She was released in 1999. Laura Whitehorn is a leader in the Release Aging People in Prison Organization and has been active in challenging the New York state parole board’s intransigence.
Guest – Jose Saldana, joins hosts and Laura Whitehorn to talk about Herman Bell. Jose was recently released from prison after serving 38 years. He’s worked with parole reform organizations and RAPP.
—-
10th Annual Brooklyn Folk Festival
The Brooklyn Folk Festival is coming up April 6-8 at historic St. Anne’s church in downtown Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Folk Festival celebrates and presents the best in American and world folk music with more than performances, workshops, film screenings, jam sessions, vocal and instrumental workshops, a square dance, and their famous banjo toss contest. The festival was started nine years ago by Eli Smith, the Jalopy Theatre and School of Music. Its a substantial and unique community event.
Folk or old time music runs counter to the commercial establishment music scene. It is truly a people’s music. It is non-commercial, non-corporate, and not a generator of huge profits. As a result this music, which should be central to American culture, has been down played and sidelined.
We know of some of its famous proponents – Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan . . but there are many great unknown folk musicians whose art is perpetuated and expanded on at the Brooklyn Folk Festival.
Guest – Eli Smith, the founder and main organizer along with the Jalopy Theatre and School Music, of the Brooklyn Folk Festival. Eli Smith is a banjo player and folk musician. He plays with the band called the Downhill Strugglers. He is a Folkways recording artist and has played around the country including the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center.
———————————-
Law and Disorder March 26, 2018
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Gina Haspel, Rule of Law And Torture
Nazi generals and Nazi leaders were prosecuted at the end of World War II for war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide. These crimes were incorporated into international law.
The chief prosecutor was Robert Jackson, a Supreme Court judge. The Nazis defended themselves by arguing that they were just following orders. This defense was deemed unavailing. In many cases, they were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy prison terms or hung. He said that the war crimes tribunal at Nirenberg was not merely victors’ justice. But that the principles it followed would be universal and applied in the future, to all countries including the USA. And indeed, the United States signed on to the Geneva Conventions and Convention Against Torture and incorporate both the crimes and the concept of universal jurisdiction into its law.
Gina Haspel has been nominated by President Donald Trump to head the CIA. She is a war criminal. She violated both international and national law by running a black site secret detention center in Thailand where men were tortured. Although there were several court orders that the evidence be preserved, Gina Haspel had the videotapes of torture destroyed.
John Brennan, Obama’s ex head of the CIA, who was involved in the torture program, recently came to her defense, stating that she was just following orders: The Nazi defense.
Trump supports torture. He believes that torture works. This is both immoral and untrue. He says he is for waterboarding and worse. He now has a subordinate with whom he is in agreement.
Obama refused to prosecute the lawbreakers. Instead he threw CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou in prison for two years for disclosing American torture. He said we must look forward, not backward. This greenlighted what is going on now with Haspel.
Michael Ratner warned us about this eventuality. The European Center for Human and Constitutional Rights may seek Haspel’s arrest if she goes to Germany.
Such is the irony of history that the German fascist government that perpetrated the greatest crimes against humanity has been superseded by an American government which condones and is perpetuating them as well.
Guest – John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, he is the author of Doing Time Like a Spy: How the CIA Taught Me to Survive and Thrive in Prison. He spent 15 years working for the CIA including the period following September 11 2001. The next year he was invited to be certified in enhanced interrogation techniques and said no, rightly recognizing it as sanctioned torture. He was privy to all the details of the American torture program and personally knew Gina Haspel. In 2007 when ABC News asked him to rebut charges that he tortured and Al Qaeda prisoner he went on the air and disclose details about American torture policy. For this the CIA had him tried and convicted. He spent 23 months in prison.
Guest – Katherine Gallagher is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She works on universal jurisdiction and international criminal law cases involving U.S. and foreign officials and torture and other war crimes, and cases involving private military corporations and torture at Abu Ghraib. Her major cases include Al Shimari v. CACI, the international U.S. torture accountability cases, andSurvivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) v. Vatican, seeking accountability for the crimes against humanity of sexual violence by clergy and cover-up.
—-
The National Immigration Project And Protecting Haitian Refugees
The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn on March 15 to block President Trump’s cancellation of temporary protected status which had been granted to more than 50,000 Haitian refugees because of the terrible conditions in that country since the hurricane in 2010. The National Immigration Project declared President Trump’s actions to be unlawful, racially motivated, and evidence of a complete lack of knowledge of immigration law.
The TPS program exempts from deportation people from countries in turmoil due to war, natural disasters, and other extraordinary conditions.
The suit alleges that the federal government was arbitrary and capricious in his decision to end the program and was motivated by Donald Trump’s “racial and national origin animus towards patients.” The suit cites Trump’s demeaning remarks towards Haitians and Haiti. He has said that Haitians have AIDS and Haiti is a “s&*t hole” country. The Trump administration‘s position is that protecting Haitians is no longer necessary because conditions in Haiti have improved.
Guest – National Lawyers Guild Attorney Sejal Zota is the Legal Director of the National Immigration Project of the Guild. Sejal works on issues of removal defense, post-conviction, enforcement, and immigration consequences of crimes through litigation, education, and technical assistance. Previously, Sejal taught and wrote about the impacts of immigration on state and local government at University of North Carolina’s School of Government. She also regularly trained and advised defense attorneys throughout North Carolina on the immigration consequences of crime, and is the lead author of Immigration Consequences of a Criminal Conviction in North Carolina.
—-
Brooklyn Folk Festival 2018
Co-host Michael Smith reminds listeners of this year’s Brooklyn Folk Festival.
———————————————————