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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 August 29, 2022
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Israeli Forces Raid and Shutter Seven Palestinian Human Rights Organizations
On August 18, the Israeli military raided the offices of seven leading Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations, ransacking and shuttering them. Three days later, the Israeli Occupying Forces summoned the directors of two of the groups for interrogation.
Last October, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz reported that Israel had designated six of the groups as “terrorist organizations” because they had links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist political party with a military wing. In November, the Israeli military commander in the occupied West Bank declared the six to be “unlawful associations.” But in the ensuing months, Israel has failed to come forward with competent evidence that links the six groups to the PFLP. A new classified report from the CIA says it could find no evidence to support the terrorist designations.
Progressive organizations in Israel and the United States condemned the raids. But the Biden administration has refused to denounce them, stating that it is awaiting further information from Israel.
Guest – Law and Disorder co-host Marjorie Cohn is interviewed about the ramifications of the terrorist designations and recent raids on the organizations. She is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
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A New Wave Of Book Banning
Book banning is the most widespread form of censorship in the United States. It’s when government officials, private individuals, or organizations remove books from libraries, school reading lists, or bookstores because they object to the content or themes contained therein. Children’s books are the main targets.
Often, complaints are that the book contains is sexually explicit, contains graphic violence, has offensive language, or shows disrespect for parents and family. Censors claim they’re afraid the contents are dangerous for kids, or that they’ll cause young people to raise questions, and incite critical inquiry among children that parents, political groups, or religious organizations deem inappropriate or aren’t ready to address.
Before the 1970s book bans typically focused on obscenity. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence and Ulysses by James Joyce were often banned. From the late 1970s on, attacks focused on ideologies. To Kill A Mockingbird, The Color Purple, The Catcher in the Rye, and Harry Potter are among the 50 of the top banned books in this country.
A new wave of book banning in public and school libraries is sweeping the nation in 2022. It’s been under way since debates have percolated over critical race theory and what students should learn in the classroom. Several states are cutting funding for books written by authors in specific communities.
Guest – Christopher Finan, executive director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. He previously served as president of the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship. Before that, he was executive director of Media Coalition, a trade association that defends the First Amendment rights of producers and distributors of media. Christopher is the author of From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America by Beacon Press, which won the 2008 Eli Oboler Award of the American Library Association. His forthcoming book is How Free Speech Saved Democracy.
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Law and Disorder August 22, 2022
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Lawsuit Against CIA Filed By Journalists and Lawyers For Alleged Spying During Assange Visits
Journalist Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, is in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States. Donald Trump’s CIA director Mike Pompeo was angered by the 2017 WikiLeaks revelation of the CIA’s “Vault 7” program (whereby the CIA was able to tap into people’s cell phones and smart TVs, turning them into listening devices). The Trump administration filed an indictment against Assange which takes aim at him and WikiLeaks for their 2010 exposure of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
The Biden administration is pursuing Assange’s extradition and prosecution. If he is extradited, tried and convicted, Assange could receive 175 years in prison.
When Assange was living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London under a grant of asylum, the CIA hired UC Global, a private security company, to spy on Assange and his visitors and turn over images from the cellphones and laptops of lawyers, journalists and doctors to the CIA.
On August 15, some of the lawyers and journalists who visited Assange sued the CIA and Pompeo in US District Court for violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. They are requesting money damages, an injunction to prevent the CIA from revealing their private communications, and the purging of CIA files of this information.
The lawsuit against the CIA was filed by The Roth Law Firm in New York City.
Guest Attorney Richard Roth, the lead lawyer who represents the plaintiffs. Highly regarded for his successful and creative representation, Roth’s clients include celebrities, nationally recognized artists, singers, actors, songwriters and Hall of Fame and all-star athletes, directors, producers and professional sports organizations. Roth worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office and interned for a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. The recipient of numerous awards, Roth is a frequent media commentator .
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Intelligence Matters: The CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America’s War on Terror
September 11 will mark the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by 19 hijackers. They provided a pretext for the US’s 20-year war in Afghanistan and its subsequent invasion of Iraq, an illegal US war of aggression which was based on a lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. That war killed more than 1 million people.
Today we rebroadcast the Law And Disorder interview we did with retired Florida Senator, the courageous Bob Graham. Graham did more than anyone to expose the connection between the horrific criminal attacks and the complicity of the Saudi government.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been a US ally in the Middle East for decades. Twenty-one years ago, Saudi officials gave financial, logistical, and other support to the 9/11 hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 men were Saudis.
This explosive history was documented in 2002 in the 28-page final section of the report of The Joint Commission of Inquiry of the Senate and the House, which Senator Graham chaired. These 28 pages were hidden and not declassified and released until July 15, 2016. They were released because of the efforts of Senator Graham and the families of the 9/11 victims. By blocking the release of these pages, Senator Graham states, the US government sent a message to the Saudi government that “they can do anything.”
Graham’s prediction was borne out by the 2018 assassination of the journalist and Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey, by order of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Nevertheless, last month, President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia to meet with Mohammed bin Salman and greeted him not with a customary handshake but with a collegial fist bump. This occurred despite Biden’s earlier declaration that “Khashoggi was in fact murdered and dismembered and I believe at the order of this crown prince.” Oil and arm sales are the reasons why the United States continues to embrace Saudi Arabia as a close ally. Saudi Arabia has the second largest supply of reserve oil in the world. The US needs it now because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. According to the US State Department statement of May 11, 2022, “Saudi Arabia is the United States‘ largest foreign military sales (FMS) customer with more than $100 billion in FMS cases.”
Law and Disorder co-hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed Senator Bob Graham before the missing 28 pages of the 9/11 report were finally released. These pages confirmed Senator Graham‘s belief that the hijackers could not have pulled off the operation alone. It reveals that the hijackers were part of a support network involving the Saudi monarchy and government which helped plan, pay for, and execute the complicated 9/11 plot.
Senator Graham has written the book “Intelligence Matters: the CIA, the FBI, Saudi Arabia, and the Failure of America’s war on Terror.” It provides a candid insight into US and Saudi relations.
Guest – Senator Bob Graham is the former two-term governor of Florida and served for 18 years in the US Senate in addition to 12 years in the Florida Legislature for a total of 38 years of public service. As governor and senator, Graham was a centrist, committed to bringing his colleagues together behind programs that serve the broader public interest. He was recognized by the people of Florida when he received an 83% approval rating as he concluded eight years as governor. Bob Graham retired from public service in January 2005.
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Law and Disorder August 15, 2022
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White Nationalism and the Republican Party: Toward Minority Rule in America
White supremacy has been a guiding principle of the United States since its birth. From the genocide of the Indians to the pernicious institution of slavery, racism has permeated every aspect of this nation. After the short-lived period of Reconstruction, Jim Crow followed and it continues to animate race relations in the U.S. While the Civil Rights Movement led to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the Republican Party and now the right-wing Supreme Court have adopted policies to undermine the protections of the promise of racial equality. False claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and the ensuing attempted insurrection have shaken the institutions of democracy to their core.
Trump rode racism and nativism to the presidency, making it the nucleus of his reign. After descending the escalator to announce his presidential campaign, Trump singled out Mexico, declaring, “They’re bringing drugs; they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” One of his first acts as president was the creation of the “Muslim Ban,” which married white supremacy with nativism.
White nationalism didn’t begin with Trump. Barry Goldwater, George Wallace, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan planted the seeds for Trump to adopt white supremacy as the explicit centerpiece of his campaign and his presidency. Whether or not Trump runs for president in 2024, Trumpism is unfortunately alive and well in our political system.
Political science scholar John Ehrenberg has just published a book titled “White Nationalism and the Republican Party: Toward Minority Rule in America.” In it, he explains how Trump weaponized the use of race, drawing on his Republican predecessors.
Guest – John Ehrenberg, Senior Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Political Science Department at Long Island University in New York. He has devoted his life to research and writing about political ideologies and the history of political thought. He is the author of “Civil Society: The Critical History of an Idea, Proudhon and His Age” and “The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: Marxism’s Theory of Socialist Democracy.” Full disclosure: In the 1960s, John and I both participated in the Stanford University honors program called Social Thought and Institutions.
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The Federalist Society, Charles Koch, The Bradley Foundation and The U.S. Supreme Court
The nation is still reeling from the Trump administration’s assaults to the rule of law, and their ripple effects on democratic institutions. But these attacks were the result of strategic planning over decades, and the handiwork of networks of well-funded think tanks and lobbyists. Some of the country’s richest and most conservative individuals are, with so-called Dark Money, anonymously supporting these efforts.
Chief among these forces is the Federalist Society. Not well known until recently, the Society has worked quietly since the Reagan administration to overhaul the Supreme Court into a bastion of conservatism. Enriched with Dark Money, it’s had an outsized impact on the composition of the federal and the Supreme Court. Recently, we’ve witnessed how hard-fought social gains of the 20th century have been taken away from Americans, and landmark Supreme Court decisions have been overruled such as Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to reproductive freedom, and Lemon v. Kurtzman, guaranteeing the separation of church and state.
Guest – Attorney Lisa Graves, is the founder, director, and editor-in-chief of True North Research. Her analysis of such research has been cited by every major newspaper in the country. She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of government. Lisa served as chief counsel for the US Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy. She was also a career deputy assistant attorney general the US Department of Justice. Lisa has spent the past 12 years examining the impact of dark money on judicial selection.
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