Civil Liberties, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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A Brief History of Kill Lists, From Langley to Lavender
Two artificial intelligence systems are being used by Israel and the United States to compile kill lists of Palestinians in Gaza. They are called Lavender and Where’s Daddy. This has led to the indiscriminate slaughter of whole families and has killed mostly women and children. The CIA and the US military have always tried to use the latest data processing technology to identify and kill their enemies. The history of American government assassinations goes back to collaborating with ex-Nazi intelligent officers after World War II.
Guest – Medea Benjamin, is co-founder of the international antiwar organization CODEPINK. She is the author of several books, including, with Nicholas J.S. Davies, War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed — and most effective — fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, and “one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement” by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide.
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A Trend In Abolishing Capital Punishment
A growing number of states have abolished capital punishment in recent years. However, the death penalty remains on the books in 27 states, although the number of executions in American is at an all-time low. It is well documented that the death penalty is riddled with fatal flaws. Literally, the flaws are denying defendants a fair trial and are killing innocent people. An average of 4 wrongly convicted death-row prisoners have been exonerated each year since 1973.
According to recent research, jurors are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. The death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. A study by the Death Penalty Information Center found that the South has consistently had by far the highest murder rate, yet the South accounts for more than 80% of all executions. The Northeast, which has fewer than 0.5% of all executions, has consistently had the lowest murder rate.
Guest – Mike Farrell is the President of Death Penalty Focus, an organization on whose Board I’ve served for many years. Known to millions as “B.J. Hunnicutt” on television’s historic show “M*A*S*H,” he is also a writer, director and producer. A human rights activist for over 35 years, Mike has taken part in scores of aid missions and human rights delegations to countries all over the world. Mike has visited prisons and been personally involved in numerous death penalty cases across the U.S. for over three decades.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden
There are defendants in a lawsuit brought in the northern district of California called Defense for Children International– Palestine v. Biden. The plaintiffs are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney Marc Vander Hout. We’re going to talk about this lawsuit against President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Austin. This lawsuit follows a January 2024 historic hearing that included testimony from some Palestinian plaintiffs and witnesses to the scale of destruction in Gaza and its impact on their families and communities.
Last week, a federal trial court in northern California found that Israel’s assault and siege of the Palestinian people in Gaza, possibly constituted genocide and implored the Biden administration to explain its “unflagging support“ for Israel. Notwithstanding these findings, the court denied the Center for Constitutional Rights‘ preliminary injunction motion and granted the government’s motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction over the administration of foreign relations.
The CCR appealed the decision. The appeal was argued on June 10, 2024.
Guest – Attorney Katherine Gallagher is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights . Her areas of legal expertise include matters of torture, war crimes and militarism. Among her many major cases is the case titled, Situation of Afghanistan at the International Criminal Court; and the case titled, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests-v-Vatican. Prior to her work at the CCR, she worked at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
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A Century Of Repression: The Espionage Act And Freedom Of The Press
These are dire times for freedom of speech around the world. According to a recently-released report, more than half of the world’s population now lives in countries that are in a state of “crisis” regarding freedom of speech. This is occurring during a year that has been marred by attacks on investigative journalism all over the world, which we have especially seen in elections in Mexico and India, as well as in the United States.
Against this backdrop, the United States is only adding gasoline to a media-freedom fire by pursuing an ongoing prosecution and attempting to extradite WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange under a 100-year-old US law called the Espionage Act of 1917. This prosecution threatens to set a dangerous precedent for journalists everywhere during these perilous times.
Guest – Carey Shenkman, is a constitutional lawyer and serves on a panel of experts at Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression Program. He is co-author, along with Ralph Engelman, of A Century Of Repression: The Espionage Act And Freedom Of The Press. Carey has recently been appointed Legal and Policy Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression. [Source for 50% figure – Global Expression Report, published by the London-based free speech organization ARTICLE 19] https://www.globalexpressionreport.org/
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, genocide, Human Rights, Right To Dissent, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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The More Effective Of Two Evils
The extensive growing repression and censorship in our country is manifest daily. Already some 3000 students have been arrested and many of their encampments on college campuses have been violently closed down. The leading newspaper, the New York Times, has instructed reporters not to use the words “genocide” or “ethnic cleansing.” Journalist Chris Hedges has been removed from The Real News Network for interviewing, Dennis Kucinich, the independent candidate for Congress in Ohio and for not supporting the presidential candidacy of Joe Biden.
The necessity for independent political action, independent of both the Republican and the Democratic parties, is the lesson many social activists are drawing. The journalist, Glen Ford, of the Black Agenda Report , coined the phrase “the more effective of two evils” in describing the Democratic Party.
The Democrats are trying to beat people into their camp by haranguing about how horrible Trump is. That’s true. But look at how effective Biden has been in supporting the Israeli genocide. It has only been the independent action of the courageous students that may succeed in tempering the onslaught. It has already had some effect. Activist are now focusing on the fact that it was the Democratic Party on a national and local scale that coordinated attacks on the Palestine solidarity encampments. Just as they did under Obama in closing down Occupy.
The Democrats prevented Bernie Sanders from getting the nomination. Had he not supported the Democrats and became an independent our movement would’ve been much more effective than his lobbing Biden. He has been reduced to the edge of relevance. Significant social change comes from organizing people independently. The rise of the CIO, the civil rights movement and the movement to end the war in Vietnam are illustrations of this truth.
In appreciating the role of the Democratic Party, social activists are increasingly concluding that independent, political action now will help us against Trump should he get elected. Conversely herding people in to supporting the Democratic Party will disarm us.
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author discusses the collapsing media landscape, what happened to him at The Real News Network and how we preserve journalism. He spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class.
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Early Detection: Catching Cancer When Its Curable
The “war on cancer“ declared by President Richard Nixon over 50 years ago has been a failure. Mortality rates for victims of cancer have not decreased, except for the successful campaign against smoking.
Attorney Michael Ratner, when he was the President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, helped found Law And Disorder radio 20 years ago. We lost him to cancer eight years ago.
Michael’s younger brother Bruce Ratner has co-authored the book Early Detection: Catching Cancer When It’s Curable. It Is dedicated to the memory of Michael Ratner. Bruce and Michael shared similar values. Over the years, cancer rates have pretty much remained the same. Very high. Particularly affected are poor people, rural people, and people of color.
Most money spent on fighting cancer by big pharmaceutical companies goes into researching and developing medicines for late-stage cancers. These medicines have proven to only prolong life for several months. So, what is the answer to truly combating cancer? Early detection. And it must be quite early on.
Funds currently misdirected could be used in this effort. Prostate, breast, colo-rectal, and lung cancers can be detected early. But too often they are not. Even when they are, many people don’t follow up with treatment. A blood test has been developed to identify 50 different cancers. But what’s missing is a massive program of education and organization to catch cancer in its early stages.
Guest – Bruce Ratner studied science at Harvard, graduated from Columbia law school and then taught at NYU Law School. New York City Mayor John Lindsay appointed Bruce to be the Commissioner of Consumer Affairs. Bruce went on to develop real estate in Manhattan and Brooklyn and brought the first professional athletic team, the Brooklyn Nets, to Brooklyn, where he developed the Barclay Center. He also sits on the boards of Weil Cornell Hospital in Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. He has initiated the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Police, Politics And Violent Repression Against Pro-Palestine Student Protest
During the Occupy Wall Street protests of late 2011 and early 2012, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a domestic terrorist threat. That was even though the Bureau acknowledged that organizers were calling for peaceful protests. Massive resources were deployed to track the movement, and FBI and counter-terrorism agents around the nation coordinated with local and federal law enforcement to track and gather intelligence, effectively serving as an arm for private business.
More than a decade later, college administrators are calling local armed police—some in riot gear—to arrest and in many instances brutalize hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters in actions and encampments sweeping the nation. More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested over the last two weeks on campuses in states including Texas, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, New Mexico, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and New Jersey. At UCLA, last week, after pro-Israel supporters carrying symbols of radical Jewish groups, not of student age, allegedly threw fireworks into a solidarity encampment, students defending the camp were attacked with stones and sticks. Yet, after an hour of violence, police standing nearby failed to intervene.
Guest – attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation in Washington, DC. Mara is one of the nation’s leading litigators defending protesters and winning numerous reforms in police practices at mass assemblies and demonstrations.
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Legacy of Protest At Columbia University
One of the great events of the 60s is the Columbia student takeover of several key buildings on their campus in protest of the university’s complicity in the war against the Vietnamese people. The takeover was also a protest to building a gym in a public park in Harlem adjacent to Columbia University, considered to be a racist act.
The student actions at Columbia brought down a terrific repression. Hundreds of students were arrested and beaten. Our own Michael Ratner, a cofounder of Law and Disorder, and a law student at Columbia, was also beaten by the police. For Michael, there was no turning back. He went on to become one of the great movement lawyers of his generation.
Guest – anti-Vietnam war activist Eleanor Stein, like Michael, she was a student at the law school. Eleanor Stein went on to become an attorney, she is a climate change, environmental justice and human rights activist and advocate. She teaches climate change and human rights at the State University of New York, at Albany, and has just recorded a Continuing Legal Education session on this subject for the CUNY Law School. In addition, she facilitates international forums on climate change and energy. And for years, Professor Stein was an Administrative Law Judge at the NY state agency that regulates the energy industry.
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Academic Freedom, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
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Nationwide Peaceful Protests Against Genocide In Palestine
Around the nation, peaceful campus protests against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza are spreading. And they’re meeting with a rash of arrests by local police departments, dozens of school suspensions, and evictions from student dormitories. Many of those evicted have been students of colors, students with disabilities, and first-generation students. In New York, the NYPD arrested 108 students at Columbia University, and gave them 14 minutes to gather their belongings and leave their dormitories. New York University erected a plywood wall around Gould Plaza, an outdoor campus space in Greenwich Village, where police had earlier arrested protesting students.
All this because they took part at the large protest. Officials at Harvard University closed Harvard Yard in anticipation of possible protests and suspended the student group Palestine Solidarity Committee. Police arrested 9 students at the University of Minnesota for their refusal to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment. The California campus of Cal Poly Humboldt was shut down after students occupied a building. Shutitdown4Palestine.org
In an April 23 letter to the New York Times, nearly 60parents of students at Columbia and Barnard, from a variety of religious faiths ad social backgrounds wrote that they “find the actions taken by the administration deeply troubling and contrary to the principles of liberty, justice and academic freedom that are fundamental to the mission of higher education.”
Guest – Brian Becker is the director of the Answer Coalition, a founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and host of The Socialist Program.
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Julian Assange Extradition Case Update
Regarded by many as the greatest journalist of our generation for exposing American war crimes Julian Assange is about to be extradited at America’s request to a federal criminal court in Virginia to be tried for his journalistic activities which exposed extensive murderous American crimes and embarrassed US government particularly the CIA.
Julian was a young computer genius in Australia. He figured out a way to receive information from whistleblowers anonymously. This was done in order to protect them when his publication company WikiLeaks revealed to the world the activities of the CIA, the American military and U. S. diplomats.
As published by WikiLeaks the Vault Seven revelations exposed the CIA had developed technologies to turn our cell phone into listening devices, even when turned off and tap our personal computers, and even control our automobiles. WikiLeaks exposed American torture in Afghanistan. They published a video of an American gunship helicopter murdering Iraqi civilians, even children, and two Reuters journalists on the streets of Baghdad.
Julian was given political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he holed up for seven years. Then five years ago the British police at America’s request removed him from the embassy and put him into solitary confinement in the notorious Belmarsh Prison.
Now the United States has succeeded in getting a compliant British court to extradite Julian , despite the law, preventing extradition of political prisoners, especially to a country that has the death penalty, and no guarantee of free speech for foreigners.
Guest – Vincent De Stefano is the National Organizing Director of the U.S. Julian Assange Defense Committee. Mr. De Stefano is on the Southern California ACLU board of directors and executive committee and he has worked with Amnesty International for more than four decades.
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