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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 July 12, 2021
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Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim by Professor Richard Falk
If we are ever to have a world not threatened by catastrophic climate change and devastating nuclear war we will need a world governed by respect for the rule of law, democracy, and the democratic right of peoples to self- determination. After the World War II, the United Nations was established in 1945 in an effort to prevent future wars. In this it has failed. The United States of America has been at war almost every year since its beginning and almost every year since the 50’s starting with Korea, then Vietnam, then Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
Today the United States has 800 bases abroad in 80 countries. It spends $753 billion a year on the military, which is 53 cents out of every tax dollar.
Michael Ratner, a founder of Law And Disorder Radio and who practiced human rights law internationally, used to say that you cannot have imperialism abroad and democracy at home. He said it was a truth established by the decline of both the Greek and Roman empires thousands of years ago.
Guest – International Law Professor Richard Falk who is still teaching and going strong at age 90. He has recently had published his magnificent memoir titled Public Intellectual: The Life of a Citizen Pilgrim. Professor Falk is a leading international law professor, prominent activist, public author, and a pioneer thinker dedicated to peace and justice. He taught at Princeton University for 40 years and was active in seeking an end to the Vietnam war, a better understanding of Iran, a just solution for Israel/Palestine, and improved democracy everywhere. He also served as the UN Special Rapporteur for Occupied Palestine. He has written 50 books. Since 2009 he has been nominated annually for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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In Defense of Whistleblowers: Attorney Sarah Alexander
James Glenn was working for NetDesign, a Cisco Systems reseller in Denmark when he came across a vulnerability in software made for a line of Cisco’s video surveillance cameras. The flaw made it easy for would-be hackers to access the systems running the devices and to penetrate the systems on a deeper level after gaining entry. Glenn made the discovery after taking part in his company’s “own medicine” initiative, where staffers test equipment and software for security holes. In 2008 he reported the issue to his employer and to Cisco, assuming that he’d be praised for finding the problem. Instead, he was fired.
Cisco Systems is one of the world’s leading information technology and networking companies. With a market cap of close to $195 billion, Cisco dominates the networking and communications devices industry. Glenn notes that he learned the cameras and software were still being used by the Los Angeles International Airport, and in 2010 he spoke with law enforcement personnel about his concerns regarding LAX. According to court filings cited by Glenn’s attorneys, Cisco failed to fix the vulnerability until an updated version of the software was released in 2012. It then took the company 3 more years to release a security advisory to companies using the previous, flawed version of the software.
Stories like this are all too common. Whistleblowers frequently lose their jobs and suffer significant personal hardships as a result of coming forward on behalf of the public’s interest.
Guest – Attorney Sarah Poppy Alexander of the law firm Constantine, Cannon. Poppy represents whistleblowers and government entities in so called “qui tam” lawsuits in both federal and state court, as well as under the IRS and Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower programs. Poppy has been selected to the Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Stars list every year since 2016. Before joining Constantine Cannon, Poppy was an associate attorney at Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld LLP, where she worked to ensure prisoners received appropriate medical and mental health care and adequate accommodations for disabilities in jails and prisons. Poppy graduated from Harvard Law School and holds an M.A. in Political Theory from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.A. from Yale College.
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Law and Disorder July 5, 2021
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Former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s License To Practice Law Suspended
Two weeks ago former president Donald Trump‘s attorney Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law was suspended. The disciplinary committee of the New York City appellate division court where Giuliani had been licensed to practice law ruled that “he communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large in his capacity as a lawyer for Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with Trump’s failed effort at reelection in 2020. In addition, on January 6, the committee took notice of Giuliani‘s urging the crowd in Washington DC make law by “engaging in combat.”
The disciplinary committee found that Giuliani’s conduct “immediately threatened the public interest in warranted interim suspension for the practice of law.” Giuliani became the first attorney to experience professional consequences for perpetuating lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
He had been the main prosecutor in the Southern District of New York before becoming mayor. After 911 he was widely viewed as a hero and denominated “Americas mayor“. He went on to practice law representing a number of corporations and becoming rich before becoming Trump’s attorney.
Guest – Professor and attorney Ellen Yaroshefsky, is one of the signatories to one of the complaints against Giuliani. Professor Yaroshefsky is the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics, and Executive Director of the Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics.
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The Capital Riot Aftermath Evaluation: Attorney Margaret Ratner-Kunstler
At the same time we have a radicalization of the left we also have one on the right. The one on the right has been building for 40 years. A right wing racist nationalist demagogue, Donald Trump, got 74 million votes in the last election. People and organizations supporting Trump and egged on by him ransacked the Capital on January 6.
“The military was an active participant by refusing cars to intervene to stop the invasion of the building, “Barry Shepard wrote in Green Left Weekly. “They stood by for some four hours. Eventually it was the Washington DC police who finally ended it.“
Caroline Or, writing in Byline Times wrote that “the Capital riot was not a spontaneous outburst of violence, but rather a carefully orchestrated, well-funded attempt to violently overthrow the election and bring an end to democracy in America.“ Further, she wrote that “there is a close alliance between violent extremist and mainstream factions of the Republican Party, including wealthy donors and elected officials.“
The Republicans in Congress succeeded in blocking a proposal to convene a bipartisan committee to investigate the interaction. For his part, Biden has avoided talking about it in an evident attempt to assure his allies overseas that America is still a democracy.
Who did it, what did they hope to accomplish, love and what has been done by way of an investigation and criminal prosecution?
Guest – human rights attorney Margaret Ratner Kunstler who has worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights and is the editor of the recent book In Defense of Julian Assange.
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Law and Disorder June 28, 2021
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Building Support To Free Wikileaks’ Julian Assange
Whistle blowing Australian journalist and the publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assange sits in a jail cell in solitary confinement in London’s infamous Belmarsh prison. There he awaits the decision of the British High Court as to whether at the behest of the Trump and now Biden administrations he will be extradited to the Eastern District of Virginia to stand trial on 17 counts of espionage under the recently resurrected 1917 Espionage Act which was originally enacted to be used against spies. He will certainly be sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life at a super maximum-security prison where communications with the outside world will be cut off.
His case is on appeal to the British High Court. At the recent extradition hearing British magistrate Vanessa Baraitser ruled in favor of the United States on all 17 counts of espionage lodged against him by the Trump administration. She did however rule that Julian Assange would be subjected to terrible conditions in American maximum-security prison and therefore should not be extradite. The Biden administration has appealed this ruling.
The charges Assange faces are a major threat to press freedom. James Goodale, who represented the New York Times in the Pentagon papers case, commented, “The charge against Assange for “conspiracy” with a source is the most dangerous I can think of with respect to the first amendment in all my years representing media organizations.”
It is crucial to build support for Assange and preventive his delivery into the hands of the Biden administration and its prosecutors.
Julian Assange’s crime was to expose the war crimes, murder, and the inner workings of the American empire to the world press. He might pay for this embarrassment with his life.
Guest – John Shipton, Julian’s father who is visiting the United States from his native Australia touring to raise support for his victimized son.
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Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class
We need to know our enemy because the task of changing society begins with understanding who holds power. In 1915 the great Irish socialist James Connolly said, “O, yes! The ruling class are worthy of study. The natural history of the ruling class is a fascinating interest. You begin with interest, you proceed with awe and admiration, you deepen into hatred, and you wind up with contempt for the nature of the beast. You realize that – the capitalist class is the meanest class that ever grasped the reins of power”. Jacobin magazine’s Spring 2021 issue is devoted entirely to an examination of the ruling class.
Guest – Doug Henwood who has an article in Jacobin titled Take Me To Your Leader: The Rot of the American Ruling Class. Doug Henwood is the editor of Left Business Review and the host of the radio program Behind the News.
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