Afghanistan War, Civil Liberties, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Iraq War, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims
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Jodie Foster Plays Attorney Nancy Hollander in The Mauritanian
In 2019 Law & Disorder interviewed Nancy Hollander for our Lawyers You’ll Like series. Nancy secured whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 to 7 years. Nancy was also an attorney in the landmark Holy Land Five Case. In her law practice she often represents individuals and organizations accused of crimes involving national security.
We also spoke with Nancy in 2018 about her client Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose release she obtained after he served 15 years in the American offshore prison camp in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, without ever being charged of a crime. Slahi wrote a memoir about his experience in prison called Guantanamo Diary, where he was tortured in ways personally approved by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Thanks to Nancy Hollander the book was published in 2015 and became an international bestseller. Fast forward to 2021. A new film, The Mauritanian, features Jodi Foster as Nancy. Foster has already won a Golden Globe for her performance, and the film sheds light on Nancy’s tenacious fight to free her client, the secretive prison camp and the illegal practices therein.
Guest – Attorney Nancy Hollander has been a member of the firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan, P.A. since 1980 and a partner since 1983. Her practice is largely devoted to criminal cases, including those involving national security issues. She has also been counsel in numerous civil cases, forfeitures and administrative hearings, and has argued and won a case involving religious freedom in the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Hollander also served as a consultant to the defense in a high profile terrorism case in Ireland, has assisted counsel in other international cases and represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Nancy is co-author of WestGroup’s Everytrial Criminal Defense Resource Book, Wharton’s Criminal Evidence, 15th Edition, and Wharton’s Criminal Procedure, 14th Edition. She has appeared on national television programs as PBS Now, Burden of Proof, the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, CourtTV, and the MacNeill/Lehrer News Hour.
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Stevens Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice by Bruce Levine
The 1861 to 1865 Civil War and the reconstruction period which followed it is widely considered to be the second American revolution. The slave-owning planter class in the south was defeated, at least for a while. Slave labor was abolished, but came back in other forms after reconstruction was crushed by 1877.
The promise of the declaration of independence that all men are equal before the law was fulfilled, at least for a while. Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens was the foremost political leader in the struggle, even more than Abraham Lincoln. Stevens helped to bring about the abolition of slavery and was a leader in the effort during Reconstruct to make the United States a biracial democracy This wise and eloquent revolutionary has been vilified and rendered rendered obscure during most of the years since he died 153 years ago.
The distinguished historian Bruce Levine in his just published biography of Stevens “Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice” has secured a place for him alongside his contemporary John Brown in the pantheon of American revolutionary figures.
Guest – Bruce Levine, emeritus professor of history at the University Illinois and the author of four previous books on the Civil War era.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
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- Commentary By Attorney Jim Lafferty: Christian Nationalism
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Activists Face Felony Charges In Action Denouncing Elijah McClain Murder
On September 17, 2020 at least six anti-racist activists were arrested in an action denouncing the Colorado police, notably for the murder of Elijah McClain. In the summer of 2019, three Aurora Colorado police officers put 23-year-old McClain in a chokehold and medics injected him with ketamine. The young violinist and massage therapist went into cardiac arrest, was pronounced brain dead, and died three days later.
The social justice activists now face a litany of felony charges, and possible decades in prison, on charges that include “kidnapping.” Four of those arrested — Russel Ruch, Lillian House, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero — are considered protest leaders and are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Police made a spectacle of the arrests, sending what many assert is a threatening message to other activists. Police followed Russel Ruch to Home Depot where they arrested him in the parking lot; five police cars surrounded Lillian House as she was driving; and a S.W.A.T team was dispatched to Joel Northam’s home. According to the 30-page arrest affidavits, the police used livestream footage, call transcripts, and social media posts to build a case against those arrested.
Guest – Lillian House, one of the four protest leaders. More information at Denverdefense.org
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The Current Risk of Nuclear War And Treaty Restoration
When Donald Trump was president, the Democrats called him Putin‘s poodle. They falsely claimed that Russia influenced the election and caused Hillary Clinton to lose to Trump. Clinton famously said “all roads lead to Russia.“
But the truth of the matter was quite different. Despite Trump seemingly adoration of Vladimir Putin as a strong man, American policy towards Russia was not completely friendly. The question now is what will Biden do?
The risk of nuclear war with Russia has been a grave concern since the cold war of the 1950s. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama American nuclear policies were such that the threat of war including accidental war was never reduced. With Biden as president will this change? Will there be a restoration of nuclear treaties and a de-escalation.
Guest – Ray McGovern former CIA intelligence analyst, Ray briefed President George H. W. Bush every morning on intelligence matters, particularly with respect to Russia. He is a founder of VIPS, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to the blog Common Dreams.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard: Law Enforcement Caught Off Guard On January 6th?
Many are saying that the police were caught off guard when rioters stormed the nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021, leaving four people dead. It was the most significant breach of Congress in more than 200 years, and pro-Trump rioters promised that it won’t be the last. In their violent and lawless efforts to upend what they called a fraudulent election, they faced minimal police resistance. Far-right mobs smashed windows and doors, stormed the Capitol behind a traitorous, terrorist Confederate flag, and broke into the Senate chamber.
Unlike Black Lives Matter protesters and legions of peaceful protesters before them, police have consistently used potentially lethal weapons to disburse and social justice mass demonstrations. But how could the Capitol be unprepared? Word on social media and in the news was that fascists planned to converge in throngs prior to the changing of presidential administrations.
Guest – Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, that is partnering with the newly-formed Center for Protest Law and Litigation, to demand a fully public investigation into law enforcement’s handling of the riot on the Capitol Building on that day that shocked much of the nation.
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Fred Hampton: The Fight For Truth
Fred Hampton was the young dynamic leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party. On December 4, 1969 he was assassinated. An assassination is a political murder. He was assassinated as part of FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover‘s Cointelpro program. Cointelpro was initiated by Hoover to disrupt, destroy and neutralize the Party and the civil rights movement. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King had already been killed under suspicious circumstances.
Chicago attorney Flint Taylor of the Peoples Law Office, who along with Jeff Haas, Dennis Cunningham, and Morton Stavis of the Center for Constitutional Rights was part of a team that after 13 years of litigation were able to prove that the FBI, the Chicago police, and the Chicago States Attorney were guilty of killing Fred Hampton, his fellow Black Panther Mark Clark, and wounding several others.
The murders took place in a pre-dawn raid on Hampton‘s apartment. An FBI informer, William O’Neal, supplied the killers with a map of the apartment showing where Fred was sleeping. and drugged, probably by O’Neal, when the police opened fire with a hail of 90 bullets. A Chicago police officer fired two shots into Hampton’s head at close range as he lay in bed.
It has recently been disclosed that O’Neal’s control control agent. Roy Mitchell, was paid a bonus for his and O’Neal’s role in the assassination, and that Hoover, and his top lieutenants William Sullivan and George Moore, were aware of O’Neal’s activities and authorized this award directly after the raid. What are the lessons we can learn from this? Is the FBI still carrying on Cointelpro type operations? How do we protect ourselves?
Guest – Attorney Flint Taylor, Flint and Jeff Haas have recently written an article about the new information which can be found on Truthout and the Black Agenda Report. Flint, welcome back to Law And Disorder.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Surveillance, War Resister
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- GTMO Commentary By Lawyers Guild Show Host Jim Lafferty
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Brian Becker on Inauguration Protests, Security and Reform
Americans have protested incoming presidents throughout history, starting in the 19th century. Four years ago, thousands descended on the nation’s capital this to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration, and more than 200 were arrested. The day before President Woodrow Wilson took office in 1913, up to 8,000 women marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in what one historian says was likely the first large-scale inauguration protest. The suffragists, who’d gotten a parade permit, were pushed, spat upon, and beaten. Many women were hospitalized, and the treatment of the women led to the firing of the capital’s police chief.
In 1969, anti-war protesters threw burning miniature flags and stones at police during Richard Nixon’s inauguration. During Nixon’s 1973 inauguration, a ‘massive anti-war protest was staged at the Lincoln Memorial, with an estimated 100,000 people were present and participated in a “March against Death.” 80 Congressmen joined the demonstrations and boycotted the inaugural ceremonies.
The demonstrations at Bush’s inauguration in 2001 were the first major protests at a presidential inauguration since the protests against Nixon in 1969 and 1973. At least 20,000 people demonstrated in the capital and along the inaugural parade route in defiance of the Supreme Court ruling in Bush v. Gore. “Selected not elected” and “Hail to the thief” were some of the slogans on signs at the protest. Four years later, more than 1,000 demonstrators were at Bush’s inauguration, largely to protest the Iraq war, as the president was sworn in for his second term.
Two weeks before the Biden inauguration, Trump-loving lawbreakers ransacked the Capitol building. Combined with the COVID pandemic, last week’s inauguration was pared down, and a ring of law enforcement encircled the metropolis.
Guest – Brian Becker, director of the ANSWER Coalition and host of The Socialist Program podcast.
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A Path Forward: Professor Jack Rasmus
The word “chaos“ best describes the current American situation. Public health, an economic disaster, institutional racism, and political turbulence were rampant as Trump vacated the White House. America leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases. The number of deaths, which are now over 400,000, are mounting rapidly.
The economy is in terrible shape.. Perhaps 20 million people are unemployed. Small businesses are shuttered. Millions face eviction. Hunger is rampant, especially among children. What does the future hold? Are we really free of Trump and Trumpism? What will Biden do?
Centrist Democrats like Biden, since the remaking of the Democratic Party beginning with neo-liberal Clinton, have not vigorously defended the social gains secured in the 1930s with the Roosevelt New Deal. Will Biden defend these? Will he extend them?
Can he do this by governing from the center?What does his proposed $1.9 trillion rescue package consist of? Will Bidens proposals hold up in Congress? Is there more needed?
Guest – Dr. Jack Rasmus, he holds a PhD in political economy and teaches at Saint Mary’s College in California. Professor Rasmus has written numerous books and articles on economics and is the host of the weekly radio show “ Alternative Visions“ on the Progressive Radio Network.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Prosecution of the Bush Administration, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power
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Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed some of Michael Ratner’s closest friends and colleagues as part of a special broadcast highlighting Michael Ratner’s legal work and mentorship. The special also marked the upcoming release of Michael Ratner’s autobiography Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer published by OR Books. In this one hour taken from the two hour fundraiser broadcast, we hear from attorneys including Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy, Ray Brescia, David Cole and Baher Azmy.
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Michael Ratner’s pathbreaking legal and political work is unmatched. He provided crucial support for the Cuban Revolution and won the seminal case in the Supreme Court guaranteeing the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees. Michael also challenged U.S. policy in Iraq, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Israel-Palestine. This book is a testament to his unflagging efforts on behalf of the poor and oppressed around the world.
– Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Michael Ratner personified lawyering that brought both radical and human values into challenges to the use of governmental power to violate the essence of the Bill of Rights. From the torture of prisoners after 911 to the massive racial profiling by the New York Police Department, Michael’s voice and vision continue to resonate. This book provides a powerful testament to the spirit of this extraordinary man.
– Attorney Bill Goodman
