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SCRANTON, Pa., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A federal jury in Scranton, Pa., Friday found former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella guilty of racketeering, mail fraud and money laundering.
Ciavarella faces a possible prison sentence and must repay $997,600 to the government for his role in a kickback scheme in which he sent young offenders to a juvenile detention center run by a private company, WNEP-TV, Scranton, reported.
Ciavarella was charged with 39 counts of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion and filing false tax returns; he was found not guilty on 10 counts of receiving a bribe, eight counts of extortion and four counts of wire fraud, the station said.
The jury deliberated for more than 11 hours in the trial that began Monday, hearing testimony from Internal Revenue Service agents, Luzerne County attorney Robert Powell, former Luzerne County Prothonotary Jill Moran and the defendant, who denied the extortion charges but admitted filing false income tax returns.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2009 ordered that criminal records be cleared for juveniles sentenced by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008.
Ciavarella and another judge, Michael T. Conohan, agreed to plead guilty in 2009 to wire fraud and conspiracy, acknowledging they got about $2.6 million from the owners of two detention centers. But U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik rejected the plea agreement. For complete story, click here.
In Arizona, a teen with asthma and complaining of chest pains was forced by counselors at a residential boot camp to do pushups and carry cinder blocks for not having completed an assignment. The youngster subsequently died, with an autopsy finding more than 70 physical injuries.
In West Virginia, a four-year-old autistic girl with cerebral palsy was tied to a chair, badly bruised and traumatized. In Utah, a 16-year-old boy in a wilderness therapy program collapsed and died after counselors ignored signs of physical distress for three weeks, including severe weight loss, severe abdominal pain and loss of bodily functions.
These shocking and heartbreaking stories are among thousands of cases chronicled by Gregory Kutz, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) managing director, who led a nationwide investigation that documented widespread abuse, torture, neglect and death of troubled and disabled children in residential programs and in public and private schools across the United States. For complete story, click here.
SCRANTON, Pa. — A former Pennsylvania judge went on trial in federal court on Tuesday, charged with racketeering, bribery and extortion in what prosecutors say was a $2.8 million scheme to send juvenile delinquents to privately run prisons.
The case against the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who presided in Luzerne County, drew national attention for what legal experts say is a dangerous gap in the juvenile justice systems of many states — children appearing in court without lawyers.
Mr. Ciavarella, now 60, sentenced thousands of young people, funneling them into two private detention centers prosecutors say were run by his friends who slipped him payments in a “cash for kids” scheme.
Few of the young people had lawyers, a chronic problem that legal scholars say makes guilty pleas more likely, saddling them with criminal records. The state has since expunged more than 6,000 records of youths Mr. Ciavarella sentenced, some for crimes as small as stealing a jar of nutmeg.
“It was a terrible lesson,” said Laurence H. Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School who founded the Obama administration’s Access to Justice Initiative.
He added: “It highlighted the dangers for juveniles who don’t know their rights, haven’t talked to a lawyer and are urged by overburdened courts to take a plea. Once that happens, future opportunities for the child are essentially gone.”
In court here on Tuesday, Gordon Zubrod, an assistant United States attorney, portrayed Mr. Ciavarella’s actions over seven years as a plot to enrich himself. William Ruzzo, a lawyer for Mr. Ciavarella, denied the charges. For complete story,
click here.
LUBBOCK, Texas — Six years have passed since a sex scandal involving jail administrators and teenage inmates were first investigated by Texas Rangers.
In that time, the case has prompted the resignations or firings of several top state officials responsible for jailing Texas' juvenile criminals and sent a former West Texas jail administrator to prison.
Now, after years of court motions and alleged inaction by a local district attorney, state prosecutors have one target left in their case: John Paul Hernandez. The 45-year-old former principal at the Texas Youth Commission's West Texas State School in Pyote is on trial this week on charges he sexually molested pupils in 2004 and 2005. For complete story,
click here. (Hernandez was ultimately acquitted. Source:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41711814/ns/us_news/)
Narvin Lichfield spent a night in the Abbeville County Detention Center last month, and now he is having second thoughts about reopening his boarding school for troubled teens.
“I might just liquidate the property,” Lichfield said in an interview last week. “I am tired. I am worn out.” (Webmaster Note: Hey, great idea!!! HEAL supports Lichfield in closing the program for good.) For complete story, click here.
CARNEZ BOONE would have been back home in Delaware County by now.
But Boone, a 14-year-old Collingdale boy who had been sent to a residential treatment program in western Pennsylvania, disappeared in the murky water at Lakeside Park in Stoneboro last summer, drowning after having jumped off the high dive.
Besides having to deal with Carnez's early death, his mother, Okita Allen, can't help but wonder what he was doing on the diving board in the first place.
Carnez couldn't swim.
According to a lawsuit Allen filed last week, school counselors pressured Carnez to jump off the high dive during a class trip with the YES Academy, a yearlong residential program for troubled teens.
"My child is dead. There was no remorse, no compassion," said Allen, 38. For complete story, click here.
Maryland and California prison officials said Friday they have suspended youthful offender diversion programs featured on the television show "Beyond Scared Straight" after the U.S. Justice Department warned they could lose federal funding.
The A&E series, which started Jan. 13, is produced by Arnold Shapiro, maker of the Emmy- and Oscar-winning 1979 television special, "Scared Straight." Like that show, it documents visits by troubled teenagers to prisons where intimidating inmates deliver in-your-face lectures about the harshness of life behind bars.
A prison agency spokesman in South Carolina, the only other state featured on the A&E Network series, said the diversion program will be reviewed by the state's incoming corrections chief.
The Justice Department said a study of nine such programs concluded they don't deter teenagers from offending. In fact, the youths were more likely to offend, according to Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson and Jeff Slowikowski, acting administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
"In light of this evidence, the U.S. Department of Justice discourages the funding of scared straight-type programs. States that operate such programs could have their federal funding reduced if shown not to have complied with the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act," the federal officials wrote in an op-ed piece published Monday in The (Baltimore) Sun.
Slowikowski said his office recently expressed these concerns to officials in the three states. For complete story,
click here.
The Cleveland Job Corps Academy opened in November 2007 with high expectations and a mission to educate, train, house and find jobs for troubled teens and young adults.
Championed by the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones as a crucial community resource, the academy drew praise from then-U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who toured the $35 million, 25-acre campus in Collinwood six months later and boasted it "will help so many young people find hope and opportunity."
But a Plain Dealer investigation has found that the academy is in turmoil.
The investigation, begun last spring and based on interviews with current and former Job Corps workers, public records and internal documents obtained by the paper, revealed:
Applied Technology Systems Inc., the Cleveland-based company that is paid millions of tax dollars a year to run the federal program, has failed to pay bills, at times leaving students without properly maintained fire alarms, medical services, uniforms and other supplies.
Unruly students have been accused of numerous crimes, including fighting with neighborhood gang members, assaulting other students, stealing, and possessing drugs and knives. The crimes and behavior problems have disrupted learning, promoted fear on campus led to low morale and staff turnover, according to former employees and documents.
ATSI often tolerated bad behavior and passed poorly performing students to meet contract and financial goals, former employees charge. For complete story, click here.
Documents Now Show L. J Mitchell Admitted Negligence In Ryan Lewis’s Suicide
“Alldredge Academy Inc, Ayne Institute and L. Jay Mitchell hereby acknowledge that they were personally responsible for the safety and well being of Ryan Lewis while he was in their care and custody and that they were personally responsible for returning Ryan Lewis safely to his parents. They hereby acknowledge that they failed in that responsibility….” Signed by L. Jay Mitchell and notarized on April 17, 2006.
On February 12, 2001 fourteen year old Ryan Lewis (pictured to the left) hanged himself with a tent rope after showing an Alldredge Academy wilderness camp counselor where he had slashed his forearms with a knife. It is reported that the teen actually turned over the knife to staff and told them; "take my knife before I hurt myself more." Instead, the instructor "exacted a promise" from Ryan that he wouldn't hurt himself again and returned the knife back to the teen.
Ryan, like other troubled teens, was enrolled in the 90 day wilderness philosophy program in hopes of gaining insight and help into his psychological problems and to learn about himself in a surrounding that staff members referred to as “search and rescue.”
The very next day Ryan hanged himself with a tent rope. Like other troubled teens, Ryan was enrolled in the 90 day program in hopes of gaining insight and help into his psychological problems and to learn about himself in a surrounding that staff members referred to as “search and rescue.” For complete story, click here.
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A juvenile justice counselor on trial for rape preyed on a child prostitute and other troubled and "damaged" teens because he thought they would not report him, prosecutors charged in summations at his trial Thursday.
The DA argued Tony Simmons, 47, was a friendly, outgoing counselor who was well liked by colleagues and detainees. His cover worked until a supervisor heard about one of his exploits, Assistant District Attorney Evan Krutoy said during closing arguments Friday.
Prosecutors charged Simmons knew the kids and their problems well, having served as a counselor for 16 years.
"He knew they were damaged," Krutoy said. "He's not a man with a gun and a mask and in an alley. [He has] a smile and a [Department of Juvenile Justice] ID card."
But when the predator could, "he did it and he knew it was risky," said Krutoy.
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A juvenile justice counselor on trial for rape preyed on a child prostitute and other troubled and "damaged" teens because he thought they would not report him, prosecutors charged in summations at his trial Thursday.
The DA argued Tony Simmons, 47, was a friendly, outgoing counselor who was well liked by colleagues and detainees. His cover worked until a supervisor heard about one of his exploits, Assistant District Attorney Evan Krutoy said during closing arguments Friday.
Prosecutors charged Simmons knew the kids and their problems well, having served as a counselor for 16 years.
"He knew they were damaged," Krutoy said. "He's not a man with a gun and a mask and in an alley. [He has] a smile and a [Department of Juvenile Justice] ID card."
But when the predator could, "he did it and he knew it was risky," said Krutoy.
FORREST COUNTY, MS (WDAM) An early-morning fire gutted a three-story dormitory building in Forrest County once used to house troubled girls.
The facility once known as Bethesda Home for Girls was recently leased by Ezekiel house ministries, which operates a transition house on Bouie Street. Organizers were planning on opening the old Bethesda location in January under a new name - Reclamation Ranch. For complete story, click here.
DUE WEST — A boarding school reopening near Due West next year was previously part of a thriving network of facilities for troubled teens reaching from California to the Czech Republic.
Parents were eager to send their out-of-control adolescents to tough-love boarding schools like Carolina Springs Academy in Abbeville County. The facility, which filled to capacity soon after opening, was among more than a dozen institutions affiliated with the Utah-based Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
At one point, tuition payments topped $90 million annually from students enrolled in behavior-modification programs designed by Worldwide’s founder, Robert Lichfield.
Worldwide’s boarding school empire has crumbled in recent years.
Under pressure from state regulators, Carolina Springs closed in 2009. It intends to reopen next year as a coed Christian boarding school without any ties to Worldwide, which also is known as WWASPS.
Worldwide President Ken Kay said WWASPS is “out of business.” He blamed the recession and media coverage of abuse allegations, arrests, raids and two students’ deaths for contributing to its demise.
WASPS still exists on paper, he explained, so that its insurance company will keep paying the attorneys who are defending Worldwide in ongoing lawsuits.
The highest profile case is a federal suit involving 353 parents and former students. The suit accuses WWASPS and its affiliates — including Carolina Springs — of assault, battery, false imprisonment, fraud and racketeering.
Students at WWASPS boarding schools “were subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse,” the suit alleges. “In many instances, the abuse could accurately be described as torture of children.” For complete story, click here.
HAMBURG, NY-- It was started 155 years ago by the Sisters of Charity as a home for wayward girls.
Now Hopevale, a Hamburg based agency which offers services to abused children and troubled teens, is shutting down after more than a century and a half of service.
"We've got significant financial problems and we just couldn't go forward any more. We're out of money...I don't know how to put it to you clearer than that," said Jim Walter, a management consultant brought on to assist at Hopevale six months ago.
Walter says a combination of factors have steered Hopevale toward financial ruin to the point where its directors have decided to cease operations and, regrettably, will have to lay off 190 full and part time staff.
"Most of the income for this not for profit agency comes from the residential treatment center," explained Walter, who says changing trends in the methods deployed to assist troubled teens were a significant factor in Hopevale's financial plight.
"In general, the use of residential treatment centers has dropped off -- they're trying to keep the child at home where they can and residential treatment is an expensive thing for counties to afford, so they look at alternatives a lot more closely than they used to," Walter told WGRZ-TV.
Walter also noted some troubling incidents in the past year which caused Hopevale to temporarily cease accepting placements to its residential program, which also helped to contribute to dwindling enrollment to the point where there are only half as many kids as a year ago.
"We shut down because there were concerns with regard to child safety and some concerns with regard to the effectiveness of the programs...when we did that, as we were working to improve out programs, we lost census," Walter said. For complete story, click here.
Tough-love boarding schools have become a popular option for parents seeking to straighten out their unruly children.
But critics say that these schools are not always the best or safest option.
“There is absolutely no evidence that tough love works,” said Maia Szalavitz, a journalist who scrutinized the troubled-teen industry in her 2006 book “Help at Any Cost.”
Data gathered by the United States Government Accountability Office in 2005 revealed 1,503 incidents in which students were mistreated by staff members at boarding schools and wilderness programs.
In 2006, 28 states reported at least one death in residential facilities for troubled teens, according to GAO official Kay Brown’s testimony at a 2008 congressional hearing. Less than a year after this hearing, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure intended to better protect teens at residential programs. However, the legislation never came up for a vote in the Senate.
Szalavitz said parents should consider home-based treatment options before sending their children away to a boarding school.
“The best treatments for teenagers involve the family,” she said. “The idea that you can fix a relationship by exiling someone doesn’t pass the common-sense test.” For complete story, click here.
...He asked Crawford to take a polygraph exam, then to permit a search. When he was met with refusal on both counts, he left a surveillance team in place while he left to obtain a search warrant.
In the affidavit, Poole said that based on this investigation, he believes the crimes of first-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree burglary, second-degree intimidation, possession of a destructive device and unlawful manufacture of a destructive device were committed, and that supporting evidence of the crimes would be found either at the Crawford residence or on Crawford’s person.
During his teen years in Yamhill County, he compiled a record that led his mother to place him in the Dundee Ranch behavioral treatment program in Costa Rica. However, she had to fly down and retrieve him after authorities shut the academy down on allegations of rampant abuse.
He contended he was beaten and tortured there, as did other troubled teens sent there for treatment. His story was chronicled by then-reporter Matt LaPlante in an extensive News-Register article in 2003... For complete story, click here.
SOMERS — State officials will investigate Lincoln Hall in the aftermath of a 30-student riot that broke out last week at the residential school for troubled boys.
The state's Office of Children and Family Services, which licenses Lincoln Hall, on Monday said it is conducting a "thorough review" of the school's operations, including its student-to-staff ratio and discipline procedures, and will meet with administrators to discuss ways to prevent further violence.
"We are aware of and concerned about recent incidents on campus," said OCFS spokeswoman Susan Steele.
The announcement came as four Lincoln Hall residents, accused of instigating Friday's riot that injured several employes, were granted residence at another youth center during an appearance Monday in Town Court.
David Excourse, 17, Cleveland Fowler, 16, Sergio Naranjo, 16, and Shakiem Way, 17, were charged over the weekend with first-degree riot, a felony, and are being held in county jail on $10,000 bail. They will be moved to a youth center in Mount Vernon if room is available, and are due back in court Jan. 10. For complete story, click here.
WINNIPEG - Troubled teens are being put at greater risk of suicide in a jail that was never designed to hold them for long periods of time, says a Winnipeg lawyer.
"The tendency is to treat them like adults, and they aren't adults," said Saul Simmonds.
A 17-year-old girl was taken to hospital in critical condition Wednesday after attempting suicide at the Manitoba Youth Centre. Her medical status could not be confirmed Friday.
This comes five months after a 15-year-old girl committed suicide at the centre.
Simmonds says MYC wasn't designed to hold young offenders for years at a time -- something now commonplace -- and offers them little in the way of resources.
"That kind of long-term holding does not allow a person to develop," he said.
The increased presence of gangs at the youth centre makes it more difficult for some first-time offenders to cope, placing them at risk of suicide, Simmonds said. For complete story, click here.
As Congress fights this week over taxes, the deficit commission and finally ending "don't ask, don't tell" another issue involving the health and safety of tens of thousands of American teens has flown under the radar. Last year, with broad bipartisan support, the US House of Representatives passed HR 911, the
Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act, which would provide some minimum standards for the multimillion dollar teen behavior modification industry. The industry, which has largely escaped widespread public scrutiny, preys upon the fears of parents through deceptive marketing tactics and outright lies. Promising parents to straighten out their "troubled teens" (who usually aren't all that troubled) this industry locks away teens in abusive camps subjecting them to months or years of forced labor, humiliating degradation and unthinkable physical, psychological and sexual abuse. Tens of thousands of teens are suffering in these programs right now and dozens have been killed, but after weeks of promising negotiations in the Senate to move forward with some kind of protection for these youth, Senate Republicans abruptly closed negotiations and killed any hope this year of stopping this rampant child abuse. For complete story, click here (or read all links on the HEAL site relating to teen programs.)
Birth defect blamed; parents say son beaten
BY BRIAN HAAS • THE TENNESSEAN • NOVEMBER 27, 2010
The parents of a Memphis teen who died after being restrained in a Rutherford County jail have filed a lawsuit against the Nashville forensics company that ruled his death natural.
The suit seeks at least $3 million in the death of Andron Reed, 18, from Forensic Medical, the company that was contracted to perform autopsies for the state of Tennessee. In it, Reed's parents accuse Forensic Medical of "deceitful and untrue statements and dishonorable professional conduct" in investigating Reed's death. In a separate federal lawsuit, the Reed family is suing the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, saying his death was caused by "excessive and traumatic" restraints. For complete story,
click here.
BROOKLYN -- An HIV-positive man who worked with troubled teens at a Cleveland residential treatment center is charged with raping a 17-year-old boy who was once a patient at the center, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor spokesman Ryan Miday said.
Brooklyn Police arrested Ronnie Sagere, 34, after the boy went last Wednesday morning to MetroHealth Medical Center and reported that he was sexually assaulted at Sagere's home on Westbrook Drive, Miday said.
The boy was sleeping at the home after getting drunk on booze bought by Sagere when he woke up to find Sagere on top of him, raping him, according to Miday.
Sagere remained in jail Tuesday after a judge set bail at $100,000. He faces charges of rape, gross sexual imposition, kidnapping and felonious assault, according to court records.
The felonious assault charge was filed because Sagere is HIV positive.
Sagere worked at the Cleveland Christian Home, a residential center on Lorain Avenue, where wards of the state are treated for behavioral and mental health issues, said Cleveland Christian Home Chief Executive Officer David Lundeen. For complete story, click here.
DALLAS - A computer lab, weight room, indoor pool, movie theatre, and video arcade…and your tax dollars help pick up the tab. So, how do you sign up your kids? Well, you can’t sign up for this program because it’s ordered by a judge for troubled teens. But it’s not a local facility. It’s not even in Texas. So, when governments are facing major money problems, does it make sense to send young offenders thousands of miles out of state?
Howard Nick looks like a tough guy but chokes up easily when talking about his 14 year old grandson. In September, a Denton County Juvenile Court Judge sent Nathan to Glenn Mills residential treatment facility outside of Philadelphia.
“I said the only way you can hurt me is to send him to Philadelphia,” Nick says he told the probation officer. “We hadn’t been separated in almost 15 years,” Nick told FOX 4.
Nathan’s juvenile records are confidential by law but Nick admits his grandson had problems with truancy, broke in to a car, and had probation violations.
Now, Nick feels like he has lost his grandson, whom he’s raised since birth. Nick says he begged the county not to send the boy out of state.
“She called me and said they accepted him. And I said, ‘oh, hell. Why so far away?” Nick told FOX 4. “I was so upset I couldn’t talk to the probation officer.”
Nick and his grandson are not alone. Denton County started sending juvenile offenders out of state last year. So far, taxpayers have shelled-out $84,327 for four juveniles. Most of that comes from the feds and grant money.
Since 2005, Dallas County has sent 45 juveniles out of state to Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Arkansas at a cost of $963,292.00. Of that cost, $730,536.00 came directly from Dallas County taxpayers.
Tarrant County has sent 15 juveniles to out of state facilities since 2006, costing taxpayers $538,063.00.
But Collin County has not sent a single juvenile offender out of state. For complete story, click here.
JACKSON, Miss. -- A federal lawsuit claims guards at a Mississippi juvenile lockup have smuggled drugs to inmates, had sex with some of them and denied others medical treatment and basic educational services.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and Rob McDuff, a Jackson attorney, filed the complaint Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Jackson on behalf of 13 plaintiffs against the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. The Justice Department also is investigating.
"These young men live in barbaric conditions," said Sheila Bedi, the law center's deputy legal director. "I have done prisons conditions work for almost 10 years, this is the most violent, corrupt abusive prison I've come across."
The complaint claims that guards allowed inmate fights that resulted in stab wounds and severe beatings, including one that left one youth with permanent brain damage. It also says inmates were stripped naked and held in isolation for weeks at a time and that sick inmates were denied proper health care.
Sex acts between inmates and prison guards and nurses occurred in isolated, camera-free areas of the prison, including individual cells, medical unit examination rooms and restrooms, the lawsuit alleges.
It also claimed handcuffed youth were kicked and punched by guards, while others secured in their cells were sprayed with chemical restraints. For complete story, click here.
A very public battle over what to do about a home for troubled teens took another turn Monday. The new CEO of the United Methodist Children's Home in Worthington now says they'll no longer take in teens to stay at the facility.
For more than 100 years, The United Methodist Children's Home has existed, and big changes came as the residential treatment program was cut Monday.
"It has been a tough time. We were basically forced to make the decision," said Bill Wilkins, CEO.
Dick Goetz lives right behind the facility and said he didn't know the change was coming.
"I'm surprised to hear it. (I) don't know where the revenue comes from," Goetz said. For complete story, click here.
Children who are sent away by their parents to boarding school risk severe psychological damage, according to a leading psychotherapist. So bad is the problem that Nick Duffell, who has counselled former boarding school pupils, has now set up a support group.
Children who are sent away by their parents to boarding school risk severe psychological damage, according to a leading psychotherapist. So bad is the problem that Nick Duffell, who has counselled former boarding school pupils, has now set up a support group.
Boarding School Survivors (BSS) will run workshops for sufferers of "boarding school syndrome" whose symptoms include a hatred of the opposite sex, intimacy problems and obsession with work.
This week, Mr Duffell will tell a health conference in London that boarders cope with the trauma of separation from their families in the same way as victims of child sexual abuse do, by burying their emotions so they are unable to form fulfilling relationships as adults. Successive writers including George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh have portrayed boarding school life as being filled with freezing showers and cold porridge. But J K Rowling has helped to fuel a recent increase in inquiries from parents of prospective pupils through the cosy picture she presents in her Harry Potter books. For complete story, click here.
A 17-year-old who complained of chest congestion was found dead
at a residential psychiatric treatment facility in
Rock Hill on
Saturday morning.
Rock Hill police identified the teen as Levi Snyder,
of Lenoir.
He was a resident at the New Hope Carolinas
treatment center, which treats emotionally disturbed
adolescents,
near Piedmont Medical Center, said
Detective Kathy Harveston.
She said initial reports didn't point to foul play.
"It looks like (the death is) going to be medical in nature,"
Harveston said. "There's no appearance of any foul play,
of
neglect, of improper treatment, anything like that."
Harveston said Snyder had been to the hospital for chest
congestion three or four days ago and was on antibiotics.
Police haven't released a narrative of what happened in the
hours before he died, but Harveston said he'd been
complaining
of chest congestion Friday night.
It's unclear how employees at the facility responded to the
complaints. No one answered the phone at the facility's
listed
number Saturday.
The York County coroner is expected to conduct an autopsy this
week.
New Hope operates out of the former York General Hospital off
Ebenezer Road, near Rock Hill's Fewell Park
neighborhood.
The center has faced heavy scrutiny from neighborhood and city
leaders since it began operating in the mid-1990s.
City officials and residents of the nearby Fewell Park
neighborhood contend a facility that includes sex offenders
among the patients doesn't belong in a residential neighborhood.
The opposition culminated in 2002 when Rock Hill
and York County
officials sought to have New Hope moved. The facility is
licensed by the S.C. Department of Social
Services.
Between 1995 and 2002, Rock Hill police responded to more than
200 calls at the New Hope address. More recent
figures were not
available. New Hope officials contend many of the calls proved
to be unfounded.
Since 1997, there have been at least 39 reports of criminal
sexual conduct, assault and battery, and missing persons
at New
Hope, police records show. Of those, however, 25 were dismissed
for a lack of evidence.
Rock Hill Herald writer
Matt Garfield contributed. Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: 704-358-5046
N.S. teen abused at facility, say advocates--By
MICHAEL MacDONALD The Canadian Press
Tue, Jul 20 - 4:52 AM
An advocacy group is calling for an
investigation into allegations that a Nova Scotia youth
struggling with a conduct
disorder was physically abused on the
weekend by staff at a treatment facility in eastern Ontario.
Roch Longueepee, founder of Restoring Dignity, a non-profit
group that seeks justice for victims of institutional child
abuse, said Monday that the 15-year-old should be removed from
the Bayfield facility in Consecon until a specialized
treatment
program can be set up for him in Nova Scotia.
Longueepee said the youth, who can’t be named, told his aunt
that two male staff members refused his request to go
to the
washroom on Sunday, then threw him to the floor, punched him in
the ribs and kneed him in the throat.
The aunt issued a statement saying he was left with a black eye,
cuts to his head and scratches on his body.
"We have to react and respond to this boy’s cry for help,"
Longueepee told a news conference. "We are concerned
that the
situation is out of control . . . I am concerned that this boy
is in danger."
The accusations have not been proven. Sharlene Weitzman, chief
operating officer for the privately run facility,
declined
comment citing privacy concerns.
However, Longueepee released a copy of a Justice Department
document that shows the province received a call from
Bayfield
on Sunday at 4:25 a.m., stating that the youth had been
allegedly inciting others to attack staff before
punching and
kicking at some of them.
The document, produced by the Provincial Emergency Duty Program,
says the boy was "placed in a position of
control." No other
details were provided.
Court documents show the boy has been receiving government help
since he was four years old, having been in the
care of foster
homes, group homes and other programs for years.
He has been in the care of Nova Scotia’s Community Services
Department since November 2008, when it was deemed
he required
intensive, long-term care because he was a risk to himself and the
community.
Longueepee said the boy is a sexual abuse victim who was abandoned
by his parents before he was five.
As well, he said the boy has "cognitive issues," but none of the
diagnoses he has received are conclusive.
Last summer, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court approved the department’s
plan to send him to the Bayfield facility
near Trenton, Ont.,
because the province had exhausted its options.
"It was evident that none of those services had achieved the goal of
preventing the situation then faced by the
minister and the
adolescent’s grandparents," Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Beryl
MacDonald wrote in a decision
released in April.
MacDonald said the adolescent was "totally out of control," would
not obey instruction and "presented as a risk to
himself and to his
community."
The judge also noted that the province had to send the boy outside
the province because it does not have a secure,
residential facility
that can provide long-term, intensive treatment.
At first, the court agreed to send the youth to a facility in Utah,
but that fell through and Bayfield was recommended.
Vicki Wood, the department’s director of child welfare, also
declined to comment on the allegations.
"I have no knowledge that a child was punched in the ribs or kneed
in the throat," she said.
Wood said the department would investigate any allegations of abuse,
noting that under an interprovincial protocol,
the Ontario facility
is expected to follow Nova Scotia rules pertaining to the use of
physical restraint of youths who
put themselves or others in danger.
"They would never restrain a child for punitive reasons," she said.
"It’s to intervene in a situation of danger."
Wood confirmed that the department and the boy’s family can’t agree
on the treatment he should receive.
"There’s a forum for the family to bring forward their concerns —
that would be the court, not a press conference,"
Wood said. "The
judge is going to make a decision based on information presented to
the court, not a third-party
organization such as Mr. Longueepee’s,
which has no real knowledge of the case."
Longueepee later took exception to Wood's
comments, saying it's ``false, absolutely false'' that he has no
knowledge of the case.
``I have the entire collection of files from the courts,'' he said,
adding he's also interviewed the boy.
The boy's grandparents, who have been caring for him for most of his
life, approached the advocacy group in March
after they learned of
the boy's complaints at Bayfield.
Longueepee said his organization has received complaints of abuse
from former residents of Bayfield and their
families.
He said the problem is that provinces like Ontario and Nova Scotia
continue to cling to the belief that the best place
for troubled
teens is in an institution.
"These institutions can't be the parents for these children,'' he
said.
His group is proposing a specialized foster care program that would
cost the province about $175,000 to set up in the
first year.
The plan has been submitted to the provincial government, but it has
yet to respond, he said.
the administrative judge of the New York City Family Courts for nine months, in charge of the judges responsible for
the detention of dozens of young people charged with crimes, the vast majority of whom suffer from some form
of mental illness.
But it was not until last September that she was informed of what
struck her as a startling fact: The State of New York does not have a
single full-time staff psychiatrist charged with overseeing treatment
of the 800 or so young people who are detained in state facilities at
any given time.
“There wasn’t one human being on-site overseeing all the mental
health needs of the population,” Judge Richardson-Mendelson said in
an interview. “When we place these children in these facilities, we
expect their needs to be met, especially their mental health needs.”
Yet all 17 psychiatrists at the detention facilities in the state’s
deeply troubled juvenile justice system work on contract and part
time. Weeks often pass between their visits with each troubled youth,
and officials say their turnover rate is extremely high. For complete story,
click here.
Thomas J.S.
Waxter
Children's
Center,
a
sign
cautions
that
you
are
under
camera
surveillance.
Notices
warn
against
bringing
in
contraband
-
glass
bottles,
cigarettes,
weapons.
A
metal
detector
sits
in
the
front
hall.
You
pass
through
a
locked
metal
door
to
reach
the
residential
wings.
Down
the
hallway,
the
staff
supervision
room
is
separated
from
the
children
by a
thick
metal
cage.
On a
Wednesday
in
September,
a
girl
stands
shackled
in
the
hall,
the
cuffs
around
her
hands
and
ankles
connected
by a
metal
chain.
This
is
Waxter,
the
only
long-term,
secure
treatment
facility
for
female
juvenile
offenders
run
by
the
state.
"Nothing's
worse
than
Waxter,
dead
serious,
nothing's
worse,"
said
Britney
McCoy,
19,
who
has
been
in
and
out
of
Waxter
and
other
facilities
since
she
was
12.
She
was
most
recently
in
Waxter
in
2008.
McCoy
is
not
Waxter's
only
critic.
The
Juvenile
Justice
Monitoring
Unit
of
the
attorney
general's
office
has
noted
a
litany
of
problems
at Waxter,
including:
allegations
by
girls
that
they
are
physically
abused
by
staff
members;
mingling
of
girls
convicted
of
serious
crimes
with
girls
held
for
minor
offenses;
inadequate
physical
facilities;
and
overcrowding
and
understaffing,
which
lead
to
violence.
"No
one
should
have
to
live
there.
No
one
should
have
to
work
there,"
said
Claudia
Wright,
who
monitors
the
facility
for
the
Juvenile
Justice
Monitoring
Unit.
For
complete
story,
click
here.
Ohio juvenile justice system is failing the state's children by permitting children to be routinely shackled,
mandating that children accused of certain crimes be charged as adults and by not ensuring that all children
accused of crimes get lawyers. The findings, detailed in a report card released today, are the result of an
investigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, the Children's Law Center, Inc. and the Office
of the Ohio Public Defender. The investigation has also revealed that Ohio detains and incarcerates a greater
percentage of its children than most other states in the nation and that a disproportionate number of those
incarcerated are children of color.
"Rushing to criminalize and unnecessarily incarcerate kids is just bad policy," said Robin Dahlberg, a senior staff
attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. "It has a scarring impact on our children and only serves to push
them deeper into the criminal justice system and inhibit their ability to become healthy, productive adults."
than it was when he was a child, said Dr. Henry Petree.
“It is very difficult out there to be a kid, and it is very difficult out there to be the parent of a kid,” Petree said.
A lot of those kids in trouble have parents who don’t have the basic skills needed to deal with the problems their
children have, he said.
Petree is one of two counselors trying to intervene with troubled teens coming through the Community
Intervention Center at the Muskogee County/City Detention Facility.
He’s asked the parents to come in for free counseling sessions.
“A lot of them don’t have any parenting skills, they didn’t inherit any,” Petree said. “They’re short on
‘What do I do,’ and they are so frustrated that it’s unreal.”
What he sees has led Petree to write a yet unpublished book on parenting, “In Perspective.” It is a series of
columns giving parents advice. He is offering it to newspapers and churches to publish one article at a time.
He said he compiled the articles after seeing parents asking, “What can I do? We’re completely over our heads
here.”
“Muskogee County has got some really good parents, and I’ve met some of those, but I’ve met an awful lot of
them who just don’t have the skills,” he said. “Is it their fault? No. Nobody taught them. Their parents didn’t have
very good parenting skills.”
He said he sees two particular skills lacking: Communication and conflict resolution.
“Oftentimes, they have difficulty communicating with not only teenagers, but with spouses and the community in
general,” Petree said. “Now we have a teenager and a parent yelling at each other — not a good way to
communicate — and now that we’ve started this yelling, it just cycles,” he said.
Conflict resolution skills come in at a close second, Petree said.
“If we can’t communicate, we can’t resolve the conflict once we get it,” he said. “That’s when we call the police, and
the young person ends up in jail or in counseling with me. It’s not something people plan to do, it’s just something
that happens.”
He would like to teach both skills to parents and teens, Petree said.
“Having those skills goes a long way in having a home that’s not so full of turmoil and chaos and screaming and
cussing and everything that goes on there,” he said. “Unfortunately, they don’t teach us those skills in school. We
might graduate at the top of our class and not know how to communicate and when we have conflict, not know
how to resolve it. So folks get divorces over that, and kids go to jail.” For complete story,
click here.
--November 6th, 2008--Kristen Schmidt, the former Bay County
Juvenile Boot Camp nurse at the center of the Martin Lee Anderson case, will no longer be able to practice in the
state of Florida. She's voluntarily relinquished her nursing license to State Board of Nursing.
The board filed the final order with the Florida Department of Health Tuesday afternoon.
Schmidt was a central figure in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson at the Bay County Juvenile Boot
Camp on January 5th, 2006. Schmidt was the nurse on-duty that day, which was Anderson's first day at the facility.
Anderson collapsed during a physical assessment run in the recreation yard. At first drill instructors believed
Anderson was faking illness to get out of running. For 20-minutes they tried to get him back on his feet.
But during the process, the drill instructors used some arm strikes and take-downs, as well as ammonia capsules to
revive the teenager.
You can see Schmidt hovering over Anderson and the drill instructors the entire time, but not doing much more than
observing.
Paramedics eventually took Anderson to a local hospital, then he was transferred to a Pensacola hospital where
he died about 12-hours later. The cause of his death is still a controversy.
Former Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Siebert ruled it accidental due to Sickle Cell Trait.
A second autopsy found death by suffocation, due to the ammonia capsules held under Anderson's nose.
Schmidt and 7-drill instructors were later acquitted at trial on aggravated manslaughter charges.
The State Board of Nursing, in its investigation of Kristen Schmidt, cited Schmidt's conduct as unprofessional and
negligent that day.
* The board found Schmidt failed to adequately assess Anderson's condition.
* She improperly distributed ammonia capsules to the drill instructors, without them having the proper
knowledge about how to use the capsules.
* She failed to provide the paramedics with the complete information about what had transpired on the exercise field.
* Schmidt failed to perform any emergency treatment on Anderson at any time during the incident.
* And she failed to accurately record the incident in her nursing notes.
Schmidt agreed to voluntarily surrender her license, and never reapply in Florida in exchange for an end to the case
against her. .
And it is possible we could see more activity in the Anderson case, from the U-S Attorney's office. The
Department of Justice is investigating whether or not the drill instructors and Schmidt violated Anderson's civil rights.
Once Barack Obama takes office, the U-S Attorneys typically hand-in their resignation letters for the new president
to accept or reject. If Obama selects a new U-S Attorney for this region, that person could push the Anderson case to
the top of the priority list. For complete story,
click here.
Medication Nation--November 20th, 2008--Video on how bad it is to drug your children.
has found that the medicines most
often prescribed for schizophrenia in
children and adolescents are no more effective than older, less expensive drugs
and are more likely to cause some harmful
side effects. The standards for
treating the
disorder should be changed to include some
older medications that have fallen out of
use, the
study's authors said.
The results, being published online by The
American Journal of Psychiatry, are likely
to alter treatment for an
estimated one
million children and teenagers with
schizophrenia and to intensify a broader
controversy in child
psychiatry over the newer medications,
experts said.
Prescription rates for the newer drugs,
called atypical antipsychotics, have
increased more than fivefold for children
over the past decades and a half, and
doctors now use them to settle outbursts and
aggression in children with
a wide variety of diagnoses, despite serious
side effects. For complete story,
click here.
accused of negligent homicide in connection
with the death of a Salt Lake City teen in a
southwest Colorado
wilderness therapy
program.
But Keith R. Hooker, who
has worked in the emergency department at
Utah Valley Regional Medical Center
since
1970, says he is innocent. And the
indictment, which also accuses him of child
abuse, contains no allegations
about what he
is alleged to have done or failed to do.
Caleb Jensen, 15, died
May 2, 2007, from a staphylococcus
infection, which Colorado prosecutors
contend
went untreated despite glaring
symptoms. The boy spent the last week of his
life lying in his own urine and
feces, in a
remote field camp operated by Alternative
Youth Adventures in Montrose County, Colo.,
court documents
allege.
Jensen had been sent to
the camp by Utah juvenile justice officials.
Colorado authorities shut AYA down two
months after Jensen's death.
Hooker, who served as the
program's medical adviser, was indicted in
July and related documents were unsealed
Aug. 25. He was arraigned in a Montrose,
Colo., court last week and pleaded not
guilty. His next hearing is scheduled
for
Oct. 6.
Reached at his Mapleton
residence Friday, Hooker declined comment.
His Provo lawyer, Mike Esplin, said he
has
not seen testimony given before the grand
jury, but he believes there is insufficient
evidence to support the
charges.
"Doctor Hooker never
examined Caleb. His role is an adviser to
the program. We think it's an overshot,"
Esplin
said. "He didn't give [AYA] any
advice concerning this incident. We are in
the dark. [Investigators] never talked to
him."
Montrose County District
Attorney Myrl Serra did not return phone
calls.
Also charged are camp
emergency medical technician Ben Askins, who
faces a more serious charge of
manslaughter;
program director Jim Omer and the
businesses, Alternative Youth Adventures of
Colorado and its
corporate parent, Community
Education Centers Inc.
The New Jersey-based
company provides treatment to 6,000 juvenile
and adult offenders a year, in seven states.
A corporate spokesman said the company was
in the process of closing AYA at the time of
Jensen's death, but
declined to comment
further.
No charges were filed
against field counselors who tended to
Jensen and later spoke to investigators.
Jensen was admitted to
AYA's 60-day program on March 28, 2007. He
had undergone an initial medical exam in
Utah, but the exam did not reveal any
illness, court documents said. His symptoms
began April 23 when "it was
noted that Caleb
had a small blister located on his right
ankle," the indictment said.
The teen wrote in his
journal the next day that he was "burning
up, vomiting and having trouble hiking."
Suspecting Jensen of
"faking" his illness, camp staff separated
him from the group until he died eight days
later, the charges allege. Staff ordered him
to wear diapers and put him on suicide
watch, but allegedly did nothing
to treat
the fatal infection. For complete story,
click here.
Siobhan McClintock was
allegedly dragged behind a van at a church bootcamp for troubled youth, her named abusers
are set free due to hung jury despite witness
testimony, medical treatment and photos of
multiple injuries.
On Friday, May 2, 2008, the Judge in the case of Charles Flowers,
47, and a bootcamp worker, Stephanie Bassitt, 21,
declared a mistrial, as the jury could not
reach a decision as to where the young girl sustained her injuries.
Last summer, Siobhan was entered into Love
Demonstrated Ministries, International's
32-day Boot Camp for "at risk" youth. The
program, founded in 1995:
...for teen boys through the
Faith Outreach Center. The camp's aim is to
"instill discipline, respect for authority,
integrity, unity and morality," according to
the camp's Web site. In 1997, he began to
accept girls to the program.
While at the camp, Siobhan was said to have
fallen behind in morning drill exercises and
when she did, she was tied
Boy,
6, hit with sex harass rap:An
irate Brockton mother is refusing to let her 6-year-old son
return to school after he was suspended for alleged sexual
harassment, a term deemed “preposterous” for a first-grader
by a leading sexual harassment expert.
For complete story,
click here.
Devils in the Outfield:…Huffman’s side story is another
tale, with a Utah link. His girlfriend had him kidnapped and sent to
the Provo Canyon School to try to get him cleaned
up. “I looked out my window at the mountains and thought, ‘how the
hell do I get out of here?'” he remembers. “The Mormons seemed so
fascistic. I had a friend who
tried running away in winter and got hypothermia from hiding in a
snowbank.”
For complete story, click here.
Teen
Opens Fire In Gay Bar:"He
was shooting at everyone," said the bartender, who asked to be
identified only by his first name, Phillip, because he was
concerned about
his safety.Police found
the hatchet and a machete in the bar, he said.Robida graduated in 2001 from the city's Junior Police Academy,
a "boot camp" that teaches
discipline to 12- to 14-year-olds, Acting Police Chief David
Provencher said.A family
friend who answered at his home Thursday said his mother, Stephanie
Oliver, had
no comment.
For complete story,
click here.
'Benign
neglect' leaves youth inmates in squalor, review finds:SACRAMENTO
(AP) - California's youngest inmates are living in squalid conditions
that endanger guards and youths, while managers
operate in daily crisis because of a lack of funding, according to
reports obtained by The Associated Press.Shower doors at some youth prisons are so rusty that wards can
break off pieces of
metal to use as weapons. Two-way radios and personal alarms worn by
employees only work intermittently. And there are holes in dorm walls
and perimeter fences."Benign neglect ... appears to permeate"
the Division of Juvenile Justice, a special security team found after
touring four of the state's eight youth facilities last summer.
For complete story, click here.
The
Trouble With Tough Love:…Many anguished
parents put their faith in strict residential rehab programs. At first
glance, these programs, which are commonly based
on a philosophy of "tough love," seem to offer a safe
respite from the streets -- promising reform through confrontational
therapy in an isolated environment where kids
cannot escape the need to change their behavior. At the same time,
during the '90s, it became increasingly common for courts to sentence
young delinquents to military-style
boot camps as an alternative to incarceration.But lack of government oversight and regulation makes it
impossible for parents to thoroughly investigate services
provided by such "behavior modification centers,"
"wilderness programs" and "emotional growth boarding
schools." Moreover, the very notion of making kids who are
already suffering go through more suffering is psychologically
backwards. And there is little data to support these institutions'
claims of success.Nonetheless,
a billion-dollar
industry now promotes such tough-love treatment. There are several
hundred public and private facilities -- both in the United States and
outside the country -- but
serving almost exclusively American citizens. Although no one
officially keeps track, my research suggests that some 10,000 to
20,000 teenagers are enrolled each year.
A patchwork of lax and ineffective state regulations -- no federal
rules apply -- is all that protects these young people from
institutions that are regulated like ordinary boarding
schools but that sometimes use more severe methods of restraint and
isolation than psychiatric centers. There are no special
qualifications required of the people who
oversee such facilities. Nor is any diagnosis required before
enrollment. If a parent thinks a child needs help and can pay the
$3,000- to $5,000-a-month fees, any teenager
can be held in a private program, with infrequent contact with the
outside world, until he or she turns 18. For complete
story,
click here.
Saving
Troubled Teens Through 'Safe Schools':At Arizona's Department
of Juvenile Corrections, there are pat downs, cell doors and razor
wire.The arrivals come
in handcuffs,
are photographed and go through a 21-day evaluation to determine their
issues — like anger, sex crimes, mental health or substance abuse.But the 300 boys at
the Adobe Mountain School, and the 80 girls across the yard at the
Black Canyon School, aren't exactly in prison.Arizona's juvenile corrections system calls these facilities
"safe schools" — they are part prison, part school.
For complete story,
click here.
Charter
school lead fades in H.S.:Charter school students
outperform conventional school students at the elementary level but
not in high school, according to a state report
released Monday.The
report, based on state achievement tests, shows differences of only a
few points between charters and conventional schools in reading, writing
and elementary school math.But
the gap is dramatic for high school math, with 10th graders in
conventional schools scoring more than 12 points above charter school
youngsters. The gap is more than eight points for ninth graders.The results come as no surprise, said Jim Griffin, the director
of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.
Many of the high school level charters are targeted at troubled teens
who do not succeed in conventional schools. "Almost
half of them are designed that way," Griffin
said. For complete story,
click here.
No
More Nightmares at Tranquility Bay?:…As
a teen at Tranquility Bay, you can't call home and are escorted
between rooms by Jamaican "chaperones." Talk out of turn
and your punishment might be that a trio of guards wrestles you to the
ground. "They start twisting and pulling your limbs, grinding
your ankles," a student told the British
newspaper The Guardian. Not knowing when you'll go home, you
might take cold showers and watch "emotional growth" videos.
The promise is that you will return a
respectful, happy teen. But many WWASPS alumni who've banded together
at online survivor websites like
Tranquility
Bay Fight and
Fornits say
their lives haven't been saved,
they've been devastated.Several
WWASPS schools have been shut down after abuse claims. Tranquility
Bay's counterpart, High Impact, a WWASP affiliate in Mexico,
closed in 2002 after dark stories emerged. Teens said they were kept
in dog cages. Two parents, Chris Goodwin and Stephanie Hecker, told
the Rocky
Mountain News
their children were made to lie in their
underwear for three nights with fire ants roaming over them and were
threatened with a cattle prod if they scratched.
For complete story,
click here.
Son's
fatal overdose consumes ex-pitcher:…They
pulled Shane out of Palm Beach Gardens High before his senior year and
sent him to the Academy at Swift River, a private treatment center and
boarding school in western Massachusetts, near Jeff's hometown of
Dalton. Swift River bills itself as a "therapeutic boarding
school," specializing in college
prep for "troubled teens struggling with behavior, emotional
issues or academics."… Shane was arrested and released on bond
for marijuana possession in North Palm
Beach in August 2003. But on Feb. 21, 2004, the Reardons' worst fear
came without warning.Shane
was found dead in his Winter Park apartment.He was 20 years
old.Police found alcohol
and several kinds of drugs in the apartment. An autopsy confirmed
Shane died after taking a lethal dose of methadone, a synthetic narcotic
used to treat patients with heroin addiction. The medical examiner
also found trace amounts of other drugs in Shane's system: Oxycodone,
a painkiller, and Alprazolam,
commonly called Xanax, used to treat depression.On the day Shane died, his roommate came home and found Shane
disoriented and nauseated. Shane eventually
passed out. The roommate thought he was drunk, according to the police
report, and did not call 911 until Shane started turning blue.Shane was pronounced dead
at the scene. Jay Reardon, who at the time was nearby in Orlando, was
called to identify his brother's body.
For complete story, click here.
Contraband
communications:Children at Spring Creek
Lodge Academy near Thompson Falls live highly supervised lives.
They’re sent to the secluded backwoods boarding
school from all over the country for “behavior modification,”
isolated from the opposite sex and warned not to exchange phone
numbers or e-mail addresses. Possession
of a friend’s contact info is considered a major infraction;
punishable by extra months tacked on to the time it takes to graduate
the program.“You come
here alone,
you leave here alone. That’s what they always told us,” recalls
Scott Stewart, a 2001 graduate of Spring Creek. “They think if you
meet up with these people outside of
the program your ‘non-working’ lifestyles start coming back.”Stewart says students used coded Bible passages and tiny notes
stuffed into the tubes of Bic pens to exchange
contraband information at Spring Creek.Now it’s getting much easier for those same students to get
in touch on the outside, thanks to the increasing popularity of
Internet blog sites and forums.Online
communities like MySpace.com and Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora (www.fornits.com/wwf)
now give former students of Spring
Creek and other programs in the World Wide Association of Specialty
Programs and Schools (WWASPS) a place to meet and share their thoughts
and past experiences.
For complete story,
click here.
Govt
open to teen work camp idea for vandals:South Australia
Premier Mike Rann says he sees merit in a plan by state Independent MP
Bob Such to force vandals into
work camps.Dr Such says
vandals should be made to attend camps where they would fix damaged
bus shelters or train stations, or carry out environmental work and
attend seminars.
For complete story,
click here.
SWAT
Team Shoots Teen Carrying Pellet Gun:LONGWOOD, Fla. - It
was in an instant, with a SWAT team surrounding him, that Christopher
David Penley slipped into
an alcove in a school bathroom and raised what officers believed was a
black 9 mm Beretta handgun, authorities said. Moments later, a deputy
shot him. For
complete story,
click here.
Attachment
Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker:Candace, endured painful
physical stimulation, was dangerously restrained, and eventually
suffocated to death. In the name of “curing her” with Attachment
Therapy, Candace’s therapists ignored her begging, screaming, and
gasping; eventually they were
convicted in criminal court. The extent to which some therapists
embrace such unvalidated fringe treatments is one of the greatest
scandals in today’s mental health system.
This damning indictment should stir a badly needed national debate
about these practices, and aid in the fight against them.
For complete story,
click here.
Teen
Collapses, Dies At Boot Camp:PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- The family of a teen who
collapsed during his admission to a boot camp is suing the Bay County
Sheriff's Office
and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.The mother of Martin Lee Anderson says the 14-year-old was in
good physical shape. She says he had a broken nose,
a cut lip and other bruises on his face when she saw his body. She was
told her son "bled from the inside," but she says she
doesn't know exactly how he died. For
more on this visit: http://www.workers.org/2006/us/boot-camp-0518
or
click here.
Details
About Corrections Officer and Inmate:January
9, 2006 - Newly released
court documents are revealing more about the alleged relationship
between a former Fresno
County corrections officer and an underage inmate.Adriana Rivera worked at the Elkhorn Boot Camp for troubled
teens. That's where prosecutors say she met the then
17-year-old inmate. For complete story,
click here.
Dateline's
Disgrace: Soft on Tough-Love Teen's Manslaughter:Dateline NBC devoted an hour
last
Sunday to the appalling death of a 14-year-old boy in
an Arizona boot
camp for troubled youth and the recent trial and conviction of the man
who ran the camp in that killing.Anthony Haynes died in the American Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactor’s
Association boot camp in July 2001 after being made to stand in
115-degree heat for hours and denied water and medical attention. Last
year, the founder and operator
of the camp, Charles Long, was convicted of reckless manslaughter in
Haynes’ death and of aggravated assault for menacing another
teenager in the camp with a knife.But Dateline — like 48 Hours, which covered the case in a
2003 segment — failed to mention that there is absolutely no
evidence that “tough love” programs like boot
camps help kids.The
Justice Department lists boot camps for youth under “What Doesn’t
Work,” – and a
meta-analysis
of the research on youth boot camps that conducted
for Congress in 1998 found that it was no more effective than juvenile
prison.
(Unable to locate complete story for archive. Source:
www.stats.org Date: January
6th, 2006)
Teen
dies after admission to Panama City juvenile offenders camp:PENSACOLA,
Fla. - A
14-year-old boy died Friday after officials said he had to be
restrained by
guards when he became uncooperative during the admission process at
a boot camp for juvenile offenders.Florida's director of Juvenile Justice said the state
will investigate
procedures at Florida's six juvenile boot camps because of the death
of Martin Lee Anderson of Bay County.
(Unable to locate complete story for archive. Source:
www.bradenton.com Date:
January 6th, 2006)
the doctor, the symptoms are everywhere. The school shootings and the self-mutilation. The vulgar soaps in prime
time. The designer drugs and the oral-sex orgies, which, the doctor is confident, are not a myth propagated to sell
newsmagazines. “Twelve-year-old girls, in my office, I have them,” he says. “They line up and give blow-job parties.
No, it’s for real. I did an MTV show about this.”Ron Zodkevitch, a 47-year-old psychiatrist from Forest Hills who some
twenty years ago migrated to Beverly Hills, is making these pronouncements in his office on Wilshire Boulevard.
Seated in the sort of high-backed leather chair that gives one the look of being on a throne, he props up his feet on a
grand wooden desk. He is wearing cowboy boots. Beat-up, knocked-around black leather cowboy boots that let you
know he is not your typical child psychiatrist. For this reason, he prefers being called “Dr. Zod,” although the talent
agents who are grooming him for his as-yet-unconfirmed appearances on Oprah have informed him that Dr. Zod
sounds a bit too out-there, kooky in an unmarketable sort of way. And so Dr. Zod was recently rebranded as Dr. Ron,
which everyone is hoping is a more authoritatively casual persona to introduce to America.Dr. Ron is what you might
call a psychological Renaissance man. His current professional duties can be described as follows: a therapist for the
troubled children of entertainment executives; a paid confidant of pro athletes with confidence issues; a defender of
insurance companies against workers’-comp hucksters; an associate clinical professor at UCLA; and a hand-holder to
the diaspora of child actors who have grown up to be drug abusers, depressives, and serial divorcés. It is a living
made in a shadow world of tormented egos and stunted maturity, though all of that, if Dr. Ron’s plans come to pass,
is about to change. A good deal of effort is currently being spent to turn Dr. Ron into the Dr. Spock of the teen
pandemonium years. For complete story, click here.
Teen
Mother Ruled a Sex Offender:SALT
LAKE CITY The Utah Court of Appeals is upholding a judge's refusal to
dismiss a sexual abuse allegation against a 13-year-old
Ogden girl who became pregnant by her 12-year-old boyfriend. The
appeals court on Friday ruled that the law's ``rigorous protections''
for younger minors include
protecting them from each other. The decision leaves the teens in the
position of each being both a victim and a perpetrator in the same
offense.
(At time of archiving, story was no longer available online.
Source:
www.kutv.com Date: December 31, 2005)
Lawmaker
seeks probe of teen boot camps to root out possible fraud, abuse:WASHINGTON
- California Rep. George Miller is asking for a congressional investigation
of teen boot camps, citing alleged child abuse and fraud at the
facilities in the United States and abroad.Miller sent a letter Wednesday to the Government Accountability
Office, the investigative arm of Congress, asking for a report on the
how the boot camps and boarding schools are regulated and financed, as
well as a review
at allegations of abuse and fraud.
For complete story, click here.
Troubled
teen escapee injured in shooting:An early
morning shooting in New London leaves a teenager in intensive care.Police say the victim is a 14-year-old and had
escaped from a facility for troubled teens…Police say the 14-year-old victim is not cooperating and is not
providing police with information. They say he was shot either
in the back or side and remains in the intensive care unit at Lawrence
and Memorial Hospital…Police
say several days before the shooting the teenager had escaped
from Mount Saint John 25-miles away here in Deep River.(At time of archiving we were unable to locate full story.
Source:
www.wtnh.com Date:
December, 2005)
Science
tries to find secrets of teen brains:New
brain research is shattering assumptions held for generations about
the adolescent mind, fueling a battle over teen mental
health, the rights of parents and the effectiveness of treatment.(scary…We've recently read articles on surgical behavior
modification aka lobotomies.Watch closely..)
For complete story,
click here.
Autopsy
shows boy, 12, at Kerr center suffocated:Autopsy
findings released Wednesday attribute the weekend death of a Kerrville
boy to suffocation while being restrained
at Star Ranch, a residential treatment center in Ingram.
For complete story,
click here.
Salisbury
Mayor Calls For Thorough Investigation Into Alleged Child Abuse At
DRILL Academy:Salisbury's mayor calls for a
more thorough investigation into alleged
child abuse at the former Lower Shore DRILL Academy. In a letter to
the state police superintendent, Mayor Barrie Tilghman says evidence
presented by state investigators
to the Child Advocacy Center Advisory Board is cause for concern.Salisbury Police Chief Alan Webster is a member of the Advocacy
Center. Tilghman says he
told her he's seen video of "physical contact" and
"demeaning incidents" taking place at the boot-camp-style
center for troubled teens.
(Source:
www.wmdt.com Date:
December, 2005. Headline above. Unable to locate
complete story at time of archiving.)
Center
for troubled U.S. teens shut down by Mexican officials:A
center for troubled adolescents operating outside Ensenada has been
shut down, and 13 American teenagers
enrolled there have been returned to the United States, Mexican
authorities announced yesterday.The U-Turn For Christ Youth Ranch, a behavioral
modification center
supported by the Perris-based Calvary Chapel, was closed Friday after
Mexican inspectors said they found a range of violations. Four
American adults at the center were
expelled and have been banned from Mexico for at least five years.
For complete story, click here.
Del.
illegally jails child suspects:They
show up in pairs in the middle of the night, a cop and a kid.Some of the kids are silent, unsure about what's happening to
them.Most appear
indifferent, trying to maintain
a semblance of cool in a situation they can't control.Some were hanging out on street corners late at night. A few
got into shoving matches with family members. Some said the wrong
thing in anger.
All
of them wound up in one of Delaware's two juvenile detention centers.None of them should have.
For complete story, click here.
Mother,
son found dead in apparent murder-suicide:OCALA
- A woman whose 12-year-old son died in 2000 after being pinned down
by a youth camp counselor was found
dead in her garage with her 7-year-old son in an apparent
murder-suicide, authorities said.Linda Ibarra, 36, was found late Tuesday lying outside the
driver's side door of
a sport utility vehicle. Her son Lorenzo was found dead in the
passenger seat, Marion County Sheriff's investigators said.
For complete story, click here.
Behavior
Modification Money Trail:The controversial world
of youth behavior-modification facilities intersects with a web of
intricate political connections. And where the treatment
industry sees cooperation with government entities, activists warn,
these links could cloud the prospects for public oversight of the
"teen-help" market.The influence
of the behavior-modification industry is felt on Capitol Hill. Four
members of the House of Representatives and one senator serve as
honorary board members of Kids
Helping Kids, a company with corporate links to a now-defunct
behavior-modification program for teen drug users known as Straight
Incorporated. The various franchises of
that program dissolved in the early 1990s following allegations of
child abuse, as well as criticism for using cruel,
prisoner-of-war-style brainwashing techniques on adolescents.
For complete story,
click here.
At
Some Youth ‘Treatment’ Facilities, ‘Tough Love’ Takes Brutal
Forms:If
this was therapy, it sure didn’t feel like it. From September to
January, Claire Kent spent her
days digging up tree stumps from a barren field, her mind and body
battered by the elements. The work was part of her
"treatment" for the drinking and sex that had landed
her at a boarding school for "troubled teens."In the Montana woods, Kent and a couple dozen other adolescent
girls had been committed by their families to a disciplinary
program that included chopping wood, exercising to the point of
physical breakdown, and being regularly bullied and insulted by
"counselors" – all in the name of what
the private treatment industry calls "emotional growth.""It was just based on, ‘How badly can I scare
you?’," said Kent, now in her late twenties and still suffering
from anxiety
that she attributes to her experience. During her two-year stay, she
said, "they gave me the reality that life was just completely
unfair and was going to keep being that
way." For complete story,
click here.
Psychiatric
Hospital CEO Target of Probe:Indiana authorities are
investigating whether the top administrator of a troubled psychiatric
program in Allegheny County violated
state regulations in that state.An Indianapolis woman contends Southwood Psychiatric Hospital
CEO Lisa Machado practiced counseling without a license at Resolute
Treatment Facility in Indiana. The Indiana Attorney General's Office
is investigating. Machado joined Southwood as CEO in September. Earlier
this month, Pennsylvania
welfare officials downgraded operating licenses for three Southwood
facilities to provisional status. The Allegheny County Department of
Children, Youth and Families
responded by removing seven children who had been placed there for
treatment. For complete story,
click here.
Kids As Young As 12 Are Being Put On The Kansas
Sex Offender Website:Just
playing doctor could put your child on the Kansas sex offender
website. The sex offender
website is filled with information about people who have committed
horrible crimes against children. But KAKE News has learned kids not
even old enough to drive are
being called sex offenders.
For complete story, click here.
Youth
prison officials have much to explain:Workers
at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility reported abuse of inmates
and other problems to a legislative committee.HEARINGS before a state House-Senate committee have verified
continuing abuse at the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, despite
efforts by the Lingle administration to deal
with guards' mistreatment of inmates. Blaming the problems on the
bureaucratic process will not satisfy complaints in lawsuits brought
against the state or bring the facility
into compliance with federal standards.
For complete story,
click here.
A Gay American Teen’s ‘Blog’ Reveals the Hell Some
Can be Put Through by Parents and Others:Excerpts
from the story…"And
perhaps describing his current mood
as “worried” is a bit of an understatement. “My parents
lied to me. …[they said] that they didn't know what the rules were
exactly. … I see now why they “didn’t know what
the rules were”.It’s
horrible.. they’ posted below.. and I [am] so worried.It’s like boot camp, but worse. I obviously was not supposed
to see this, seeing the bottom say
“Parental Rules (not to be given to client)”,” he writes…The
next posting is June
3:
“It’s been a week of torture – anger, and crying."
For complete story,
click here.
Boot
Camp Director Sentenced in Teen's Death:(CBS 5
NEWS) – Fifty-nine-year-old Chuck Long was sentenced on two counts
of reckless manslaughter stemming from
the death of 14-year-old Anthony Haynes at boot camp for kids in 2001.He received six years for the manslaughter charge and five
years for aggravated assault of another
boy at the summer survival camp.The director of the America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-enactors
Association boot camp could have been sentenced to up to 27 years
in prison,
but Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Ronald Reinstein sentenced
him to six years…Prosecutors accused Long of abusing his power.Long was tried for second-degree
murder in Haynes' death, but the jury instead convicted him of the
lesser charge of reckless manslaughter. He
was also convicted in January of aggravated assault
for threatening another youth with a knife. For
complete story,
click here.
Part of Magnolia Academy Shuts Down:The
detention center for troubled teens has been under the microscope for
months. Within the next month it will close…Magnolia
Academy is a detention center for troubled teens in Maury county. The
Wilderness Center is the treatment center there.The move affects 30 teenagers who will now
be placed elsewhere.Magnolia
Academy has been under the microscope amidst charges of abuse and
inappropriate conduct.The
Department of Children’s Services
recommended that the Wilderness Center be closed. Magnolia Academy
agreed with that recommendation. (Story is no longer
available online at time of archiving. Source:
http://www.newschannel5.com/
June, 2005)
An uncomfortably close look at nine troubled teens:There
is something creepy and unfair about ''Brat Camp," which
premieres with a two-hour episode tonight at 8 on Channel
5. It reminds me of a despicable A&E series called
''Intervention," in which addicts of all kinds are fooled into an
intervention and scooted off to rehab, all on camera. Not
only have the addicts been filmed for our entertainment at their
lowest of lows, but they're clearly in no condition to have given away
their permission to be filmed in the first
place.''Brat Camp"
similarly captures its confused kids undergoing extremely personal
psychological breakdowns on TV. And really, what 14-year-olds -- on
the edge or
not -- are able to judge whether they want to cry, yell, and reveal
their darkest secrets in prime time? Do they realize this isn't ''The
Real World"? Are they truly equipped to
decide that they want to spend their lives as TV's Lexie, ''Hostile
Outcast," or TV's Jada, ''Compulsive Liar"? I think
not…But the show about SageWalk makes me uncomfortable,
not least of all because the title itself reduces some pretty
deep-seated problems to mere brattiness. It may be hard to turn away
while seeing footage of these
kids smoking pot and drinking, or of their parents sobbing with
despair. But Jada, the 15-year-old from Boston who has trouble being
honest, deserves privacy when she
falls apart hours into the camp experience. Words like ''crying"
understate what she goes through on-screen, rocking madly and ranting.
For complete story,
click here.
Six
teens escape Outward Bound school:
Six teenagers who
allegedly burglarized an office, then escaped from the DeSoto Outward
Bound Center in south county early Monday
morning were apprehended by sheriff's deputies.
For complete story, click here.
Doctor sounds alarm over medicated juvenile inmates--January
9th, 2005--
Soon after taking over as chief psychiatrist
at San Diego County's Juvenile Hall in 2000, Dr. Marjorie Shuer said
she discovered many of the children were being given such heavy
doses of psychotropic drugs that they couldn't function in school
and didn't want to leave their cells. Shuer reported the problem to
her superiors at the County Department of Health and Human Services.
A few months later she was fired. In a wrongful termination lawsuit
she filed in 2002, Shuer said she lost her job because she blew the
whistle on staff psychiatrists she believed were endangering
children in Juvenile Hall. For complete story,
click here.
These kids face harsh reality:Regarding "Brat Camp"…It
was exactly what Andrea Watson had feared. Since the show launched,
the founder of the local advocacy group Parents
for Residential Reform has been railing at ABC for returning kids to
their communities with continued troubles and newfound public
profiles. She has helped to circulate
a letter calling for a boycott of the show's sponsors, and asked local
ABC affiliate WCVB (Channel 5) to pull the show. And in part, she
blamed SageWalk -- whose officials
did not return calls seeking comment -- for agreeing to take part.''The more I look, the sicker I am," Watson said. ''Any
responsible provider would never allow this to
be."Shay Bilchik, president and CEO of the Child Welfare League
of America, said he fears the show sends desperate parents a dangerous
message: that all outdoor programs
are effective and safe. Bilchik said he is penning a letter to
Congress asking for a General Accounting Office inquiry into
residential treatment programs. For complete story,
click here.
New York Times Underplays Boot Camp Abuse, Lack of
Success:The Times played down abuse
allegations (and confirmed cases) which have long plagued the industry,
quoting unnamed “officials at several companies” who blamed the
incidents on “a handful of less reputable programs.” That
“handful,” however, is made up of some of
the biggest organizations in the industry. For complete
story,
click here.
Academy at Ivy Ridge Settles Over Diploma Issues:The
Academy at Ivy Ridge has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and offer
restitution to some parents of its students as part
of a negotiated settlement with the New York State Attorney
General’s Office over its accreditation and granting diplomas…The
Attorney General had accused the school of
issuing diplomas illegally because the association did not have a
license to do business in New York State and misleading parents into
thinking the school could issue diplomas
that would be recognized by colleges.
For complete story, click here.
Doctor
had revealed secret role as mentor:For
years, Dr. Bill Schnall was to many the perfect pediatrician: a
hardworking man who rose to the top of his field while going
out of his way to help teens in trouble…On Tuesday, the state
medical disciplinary board suspended Schnall's medical license, saying
that relationship and others with
male patients crossed ethical boundaries, endangering the public.
For complete story, click here.
Abuse
of power:Recent coach,
teacher misconduct no surprise to experts:Just two weeks before Giordano's
Aug. 18 arrest, the director of a youth emergency response
training program was charged with videotaping and having sexual
relations with three teen-aged girls in separate incidents. He now
faces up to 12 years in prison. In
a third case, a highly-involved soccer coach and substitute teacher
was convicted of giving alcohol to four 18-year-old women members of
his private soccer club team. For complete story,
click here.
Teens
in Custody Following Riot at Care Center::A place for troubled teens is the focus of an investigation
tonight, following a riot that broke out there over the weekend.
Six
teens are now in police custody and there is a lot of damage to the
facility.The officers
who were at the Cottonwood Youth Academy first at 11pm Saturday say it
was a
riot, and the situation was chaotic. South Salt Lake called for help
from other police departments. We wanted to know if there was any
indication of problems at the facility before
this weekend, here's what we found out. For complete story,
click here.
Newly released documents reveal pattern of sexual
abuse at Washington state boys home for troubled youth:SPOKANE, Wash. –
Newly released documents reveal
multiple allegations of sexual abuse stretching back more than 25
years at a home for troubled boys and indicate problems have continued
in recent years.
State Department
of Social and Health Services records obtained by The Spokesman-Review
newspaper for a story published Sunday include five allegations of
sexually inappropriate
interactions between boys and adults associated with the Morning Star
Boys' Ranch in the past decade.
For complete story,
click here.
Battaglia
Firm Strengthens Influence In Pinellas Courts:That
influence just got a whole lot stronger and a lot more visible with
Gov. Jeb Bush's recent appointment of firm
principal Edwin B. Jagger to a judgeship in the Sixth Judicial Circuit
Court of Pinellas and Pasco Counties---the same court system where the
Battaglia firm has joined with
Judge Crockett Farnell to bring contempt charges against Adams and to
file complaints against him with the Florida Bar which could result in
Adams' disbarment.Adams
openly admits that he has filed complaints with the Florida's
Department of Law Enforcement and federal law enforcement agencies
against the Battaglia firm and several
judges regarding improper influence and alleged judicial corruption in
the Tampa Bay area, supported by documentary evidence...Battaglia has also represented Straight
Inc., now known as the Drug Free America Foundation Inc.. Straight was
founded in 1976 by Betty and Mel Sembler, appointed U.S. Ambassador to
Italy by President
Bush. Battaglia successfully represented Straight when the
organization sued the state of Florida giving parents the right to
force their children into drug rehabilitation
without a court order. For complete story,
click here.
Panel to begin work regulating youth homes:Is solitary
confinement in an isolated “hobbit hole” appropriate
behavior-changing therapy for a troubled, defiant teenager?Are
leg restraints appropriate when bringing such teens to Montana against
their will (but at their parents' insistence) to live in a private
boarding school?Who
is responsible when
an untrained youth “counselor” seduces teenagers half his age
while they're in his care at a church-based residential facility?These are some of the questions facing - but
unlikely to be quickly answered - by the state's newly formed Board of
Private Alternative Adolescent Residential or Outdoor Programs.(Webmaster note:Sounds promising
but for the fact that WWASPS facilitator is head of the Board set to
regulate facilities…What a slap in the face to all of us who desire
real regulation.It's not a battle
that will be easily won.But,
it must and will be won.Keep
on working!) For
complete story,
click here.
9 Ways to Keep Tabs on Troubled Teens:November
1, 2005 -- One well-used specialty of Spy-Moms.com, two Moms Private
Eyes, is taming out-of-control teens. Like them,
you can find out exactly what is going on and where it is happening
with the combination of these techno gadgets and Mom or Pop’s
intuition. We know that these methods
can be distasteful and may seem over to top to some parents but
desperate situations sometimes require extreme methods to secure the
safety of our children.(Webmaster's
note:Yes, instead of
investing time, love, compassion, and earnestly listening to your
children you can now be an ultra-spying police force to watch
every move
your child makes helping them get used to the police state we are
slowly entering…Great!)
For complete story, click here.
Pfizer
Health Solutions Challenges Industry Leaders to Put Prevention and
Wellness Models Into Practice at 2005 DMAA Leadership Forum:NEW
YORK, Nov.
2 /PRNewswire/ -- Pfizer Health Solutions Inc (PHS) today announced it
is donating $10,000 in scholarship money to Healthy Living Academies (HLA),
a division of Aspen
Education Group, which operates the first therapeutic residential
boarding school for overweight children and young adults.(Webmaster's Note:This
isn't the first time
the drug companies have openly funded abusive behavior modification
programs.Just more
evidence that they do.) For complete story,
click here.
Ambassador de Sade:(Bush's US Ambassador to Italy--2000-2004, Mel Sembler)But where Melvin Sembler,
74, demands attention is as an object lesson in how cruelty can
be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16
years, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile
rehab business in America, STRAIGHT,
Inc., before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of
institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is
Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent
in Pennsylvania, who told The Montel Williams show this year
about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the
confinement to a janitor's closet in
"humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine,
feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed
her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused
to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse
took years to overcome.
For complete story, click here.
Senator:
Videotaped CYA Beating Warrants Charges--April 1st, 2004--SACRAMENTO,
Calif. -- A videotape released Thursday that shows the beating
of wards by California Youth Authority guards has prompted one
senator to call for local prosecutors to reconsider filing charges
in the case. The videotape, taken Jan. 20, 2004, shows a
correctional officer punching one CYA ward 28 times even after the
teen was already lying face down on the ground. The videotape, shot
inside Stockton's N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, also
shows a second correctional officer punching and kicking a second
ward. The Stockton District Attorney's Office has
declined to file criminal charges against the youth counselors
involved in the beatings. The matter is currently under review by
the California Attorney General's Office. For complete story,
click here.
Teens Claim
Abuse at Prison--July 2nd, 1998--Eight boys formerly
jailed at a privately run juvenile prison are claiming that
employees assaulted them when they were hogtied. The boys
claim in separate lawsuits that prison employees squeezed their
crotches when the boys' hands and feet were bound behind their
backs. The teenagers claim Corrections Corporation of America
employees often choked and hogtied boys at the prison off Farrow
Road near Interstate 20. The boys also allege workers improperly
used pepper spray on them. "CCA's conduct in authorizing and
condoning the practices... is extreme and outrageous and exceeds all
possible bounds of decency in a civilized society," Gaston Fairey,
the boys' attorney, wrote in the lawsuits. The lawsuits, filed
in federal court in Columbia, don't identify the boys because they
are juveniles. They are similar to one that another boy filed in
February. James Cooper, a lawyer who represents CCA, said he
couldn't discuss the lawsuits because he hasn't seen them. The firm
denied any wrongdoing in response to the lawsuit that was filed in
February. Five of the eight teenagers are home. Two are at
state mental hospitals. One remains in prison. The youths and
their parents declined to comment, Fairey said. After
allegations of misconduct, Gov. David Beasley ended the state's
contract with CCA. On July 1, 1997, the Department of Juvenile
Justice started running the prison, now called the Northeast Center.
Treatment has improved at the prison since the Juvenile Justice
Department started running it, Fairey said. "I'm still
struggling with the Juvenile Justice Department about programming
and other issues," Fairey said. "But the agency doesn't authorize
the techniques CCA taught its employees to control juveniles. It
fires employees who are abusive." Several reports sent to
Beasley showed CCA employees too frequently resorted to physical
force to control juveniles. For complete story,
click here.
Bashing Youth--March/April--1994--"Unplanned
pregnancies. HIV infection and AIDS, other sexually transmitted
diseases. Cigarettes, alcohol and drug abuse. Eating disorders.
Violence. Suicide. Car crashes." The 21-word lead-in to a
Washington Post (12/22/92) report
sums up today's media image of the teenager: 30 million 12- through
19-year-olds toward whom any sort of moralizing and punishment can
be safely directed, by liberals and conservatives alike. Today's
media portrayals of teens employ the same stereotypes once openly
applied to unpopular racial and ethnic groups: violent, reckless,
hypersexed, welfare-draining, obnoxious, ignorant.
And like traditional stereotypes, the modern media teenager is a
distorted image, derived from the dire fictions promoted by official
agencies and interest groups.
During the 1980s and 1990s, various public and private entrepreneurs
realized that the news media will circulate practically anything
negative about teens, no matter how spurious. A few examples among
many: * In 1985, the National Association of Private
Psychiatric Hospitals, defending the profitable mass commitment of
teenagers to psychiatric treatment on vague diagnoses, invented the
"fact" that a teenager commits suicide "every 90 minutes"--or 5,000
to 6,000 times every year. Countless media reports of all types,
from the Associated Press (4/4/91)
to Psychology Today (5/92),
continue to report this phony figure, nearly three times the true
teen suicide toll, which averaged 2,050 per year during the
1980s(Vital Statistics of the United States). * In a 1991
campaign to promote school-based clinics, the American Medical
Association (AMA) and the National Association of State Boards of
Education published a report that inflated the 280,000 annual births
to unmarried teenaged mothers into "half a million," and claimed a
"30-fold" increase in adolescent crime since 1950. In fact, 1950
youth crime statistics are too incomplete to compare, and later,
more comprehensive national reports show no increase in juvenile
crime rates in at least two decades. (Contrast, for example, the FBI
Uniform Crime Reports for 1970 and 1992.) The facts notwithstanding,
the national media (e.g., AP,
6/8/90) dutifully publicized the organizations' exaggerations.
* In the early '80s, officials hyping the "war on drugs"
orchestrated media hysteria about "skyrocketing" teenage drug abuse
at a time when, in fact, teenage drug death rates were plummeting
(down 70 percent from 1970 to1982). In the late '80s, the same media
outlets parroted official claims of a drug-war "success" when, in
reality, youth drug death rates were skyrocketing (up 85 percent
from 1983 to 1991--see In These Times,5/20/92).
Today, official and media distortions are one and the same. Who's to
blame for poverty? Teenage mothers, declares Health and Human
Services Secretary Donna Shalala in uncritical news stories (see
Los Angeles Times, 12/12/93) that
fail to note that teenage mothers on welfare were poor before they
became pregnant. Who's causing violence? "Kids and guns,"
asserts President Clinton, favorably quoted by reporters (AP,
11/14/93) who neglect to mention that six out of seven murders are
committed by adults. Who's dying from drugs, spreading AIDS,
committing suicide? Teenagers, teenagers, teenagers, the media
proclaim at the behest of official sources, even though health
reports show adults much more at risk from all of these perils than
are adolescents. For complete story,
click here.
By DENA POTTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 3, 2011; 5:04 AM
RICHMOND, Va. -- Rastafarian and other Virginia inmates who refuse to cut their hair have been moved to a maximum security prison as corrections officials continue trying to get them to comply with the state's grooming policy.
In November, the Department of Corrections moved more than 30 prisoners who were out of compliance with the policy to Keen Mountain Correctional Center. Several of the inmates had spent more than a decade in solitary confinement for refusing to cut their hair.
Department spokesman Larry Traylor says the inmates have been moved to Wallens Ridge State Prison in far southwest Virginia.
The inmates are allowed increased privileges for working through a program, with the ultimate goal of cutting their hair or beards. Some have chosen instead to return to segregation.
Forensics Under the Microscope
More courts are starting to question the ‘facts’ proved by scientific evidence.
Feb 17, 2011
Warren Horinek did not murder his wife. That’s what he said, that’s what the medical examiner said, that’s what the homicide sergeant said. Even the district attorney’s office in the Horineks’ hometown of Ft. Worth, Texas, agreed that he was innocent—not something a Texas prosecutor typically says. But when Bonnie Horinek died in 1995, her parents refused to believe what the evidence strongly suggested—that Bonnie shot herself—and instead they enlisted the services of a blood-spatter analyst to prove that it was their son-in-law who had killed their daughter.
The spatter analyst zeroed in on the blood-soaked T shirt Horinek was wearing when the paramedics arrived. To him, the fine spray of blood on Horinek’s left shoulder was not from administering CPR, as Warren said it was, and as the 911 recording seemed to indicate, but from shooting Bonnie at close range. On the basis of that testimony, Horinek was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years. But did they really get their man? Horinek’s lawyers have filed a writ of habeas corpus to try to have him released, based in part on the National Academy’s report; much of the spatter analyst’s testimony, the lawyers argue, “was contrary to known and accepted science.”
In the age of CSI and Dexter, we’re led to believe that forensic science is a high-tech discipline, powerful and sophisticated enough to catch any criminal.
As it turns out, whether blood-spatter analysis and disciplines like it qualify as “science” at all is a matter of increasing debate. In a sharply critical report issued in 2009, the National Academy of Sciences said, “The simple reality is that the interpretation of forensic evidence is not always based on scientific studies.” Taking aim at disciplines as varied as ballistics, hair and fiber analysis, bite-mark comparison—even fingerprints—the report declared, “This is a serious problem.”
The last few years have seemed to bear out the report. Dozens of elite crime labs all over the country, from Nassau County, N.Y., to San Francisco, to Virginia, Cleveland, Oklahoma, and Baltimore, have been involved in scandals involving mishandled evidence and false or misleading forensic testimony. This past summer, a North Carolina attorney general’s audit discovered that the state’s Bureau of Investigation had withheld or distorted evidence in more than 200 cases.
Even some of the best funded and most sophisticated crime-fighting organizations are being taken to task for their use of forensic evidence. This week, the New York Times reported that the Federal Buerau of Investigation had “overstated the strenght of genetic analysis” during the investigation of Bruce E. Ivins, who allegedly mailed anthrax to newsrooms and Senate offices in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
A year-long investigation by the independent journalism nonprofit ProPublica revealed major problems in the nation’s coroner system: pathologists not certified in pathology, physicians who flunk their board exams, even coroners who are not physicians at all. “In nearly 1,600 counties across the country,” the investigation found, “elected or appointed coroners who may have no qualifications beyond a high-school degree have the final say on whether fatalities are homicides, suicides, accidents or the result of natural or undetermined causes.”
For his forthcoming book, Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong(Harvard University Press, April 2011), University of Virginia law professor Brandon Garrett examined the trial transcripts and other legal documents of the first 250 people to be exonerated by DNA in this country. He discovered that in more than half these cases, trials were tainted by “invalid, unreliable, concealed, or erroneous forensic evidence.” The errors ranged from analysts making up statistics on the fly, implying that their methods were more scientific than they actually were, and exaggerating or distorting their findings to support the prosecution.
Peter Neufeld, a lawyer in New York and cofounder of the Innocence Project, which has helped to facilitate many of these exonerations, calls it the “elastic expert: no matter what you see, I can distort it so that it would be a match.”
This “elasticity” is possible because the tests are largely subjective. Just how much human judgment is required depends on the discipline: DNA testing is mostly—though not entirely—done by machine, for instance, whereas microscopic hair comparison is based solely on the analyst’s opinion. Even fingerprints, which many of us regard as foolproof tools for identifying culprits—think Dexter feeding a print into his computer and a bad guy’s photo and driver’s license appearing on the screen—in fact rely largely on human interpretation, and therefore are subject to human error.
One of the most famous examples of the danger of fingerprints was the case of Oregon lawyerBrandon Mayfield, arrested in 2004 in the wake of the Madrid train bombings. Working from a partial print that Spanish authorities had found on a plastic bag of detonators, several top FBI analysts declared Mayfield’s print a match. That is, until Spanish authorities identified Ouhnane Daoud, now wanted for terrorism in connection to the crime. When it became clear that Daoud’s prints were a much better match, the FBI was forced to admit that its own bias and “circular reasoning” had led them to Mayfield, who had no involvement in the bombings.
Part of the problem is what social scientists call “context bias.” Most forensics labs are located within police departments, so analysts may see themselves as working “for” the prosecution. They also usually have information about the evidence they’re testing—for example, that the suspect has a prior record. “There’s a lot of research to suggest that knowledge could have biasing effect,” says Jennifer Mnookin, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
In a recent Supreme Court case, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said that whether consciously or not, an analyst “responding to a request from a law enforcement official may feel pressure—or have an incentive—to alter the evidence in a manner favorable to the prosecution.” The judges’ ruling means that forensic test results may be subject to the same kind of scrutiny as any other evidence, and an analyst from the lab that ran the test must be present in court to be cross-examined, just like any other witness.
“Obviously, most people in this community are trying to do their jobs well and are not trying to frame innocent people,” says the University of Virginia’s Garrett. “But what we’ve seen come out of these exoneration cases and in additional scandals at the laboratories is that this is not a problem of a few bad apples. Who is the competent analyst that can testify about a technique that’s fundamentally unreliable? That’s not a bad-apple problem. That’s a serious problem with our entire system.”
At the heart of these criticisms is the issue of what scientists call validity and reliability. A test is valid if its results are factually accurate. A test is reliable if multiple tests will lead to the same conclusion. Some forensics tests, like blood typing, are very reliable: no matter how many times your doctor draws your blood, you will always have the same blood type. Occasionally there are mistakes, of course, but they are predictable: blood-typing tests have well-documented and well-understood error rates.
Others, like hair comparison, are unreliable: studies have shown that multiple technicians examining the same two hairs—even the same technician examining the same two hairs at different times—come to multiple conclusions. Critics say that many of forensic science’s most basic tools are neither reliable nor valid.
For example, at the trial of Jimmy Ray Bromgard, who served more than 14 years of a 40-year sentence for sexual intercourse without consent until he was exonerated in 2002, the director of the Montana State Crime Lab told the jury that hairs found on a blanket in the victim’s house “matched” hairs taken from Bromgard’s body. There were so many hairs that matched so well, the analyst said, that there was a “one in 10,000” chance the hairs could have come from anyone else.
But no one has ever established any statistics about the microscopic characteristics of hair, so “one in 10,000” odds isn’t based on scientific consensus. How common is it for a person to have a particular hair color, or for a hair to crinkle or curl just so? Scientists have never answered that question systematically. And what does “match” mean, anyway? There are no uniform guidelines to say how many characteristics two hairs must have in common before they’re said to “match.” It varies entirely from one lab to the next, from one technician to the next.
Barry Fisher, who served as the crime-laboratory director for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for more than 20 years, was often stymied by this problem when he took the stand. “How do you convey the level of certainty?” Fisher asks. “Do you say to the jury, ‘I’m pretty sure’? ‘I’m very sure’? What do these things mean?”
To get around this problem, Garrett found, forensics experts too often overreach in their testimony.
When Ray Krone was convicted of murder in Arizona and sentenced to death in 1995, the testimony of a bite-mark analyst was key to the state’s case. “This is really an excellent match,” the analyst said on the stand, comparing Krone’s teeth with a bite mark on the murder victim. “That tooth caused that injury.”
In fact, in its report the National Academy of Sciences found that, among all the forensic disciplines, only DNA has proved capable of “individualization”—that is, demonstrating “a connection between evidence and a specific individual or source.” When the DNA in the Krone case was tested year later, he was exonerated, but only after spending a decade in prison.
The report has led a small but growing number of judges to take a more skeptical approach to forensics. In addition to the Supreme Court case, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner announced in March that she will allow forensic evidence in her courtroom only if a lawyer first proves in a pretrial hearing that the method is scientifically sound. “In the past, the admissibility of this kind of evidence was effectively presumed, largely because of … the fact that it had been admitted for decades,” Judge Gertner wrote in her order. “The NAS report suggests a different calculus.”
The National Institute of Justice has funded some preliminary studies to establish the scientific information that has so far been missing; UCLA’s Mnookin and her colleagues are less than a year into a two-and-a-half-year grant to develop a more formalized and scientifically validated approach to fingerprint analysis. “It’s not that we know that they don’t work,” Mnookin says of fingerprints and other forensic methods. “It’s that we don’t have enough evidence about when they work, how they work, when they might not work.” The report also led to a series of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. In January Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt. introduced a bill to address some of the major issues in the nation’s forensic system. The The Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Reform Act takes up many of the issues identified in the NAS report. Although the report has gotten a chilly reception from many forensics experts and prosecutors, many others in the field, like Fisher, believe reforms in the system are long overdue.
Geoffrey Mearns, a former federal prosecutor who helped try both Oklahoma City bombers Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, regularly used forensics in his work. Mearns served on the committee that wrote the academy’s report. “I had assumed that there were well-established uniform processes and procedures in place. I really had faith in the accuracy, reliability, and that it was well grounded in science,” says Mearns, now provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Cleveland State University. “When I realized my faith was not well placed, I was very concerned about the damage that it was doing to the accuracy and efficiency of law-enforcement investigations. Because if the science is not accurate, and is leading us to the wrong person, it’s not only causing a terrible injury to the wrong person, but it’s leading you away from the right person.”
The 265 innocent people so far exonerated by DNA are lucky. Among the “hundreds, if not thousands” of people that the Innocence Project’s Peter Neufeld estimates were wrongfully convicted on the basis of faulty forensics, only a small percentage have DNA available to test. What is their recourse? Neufeld says his organization is counseling attorneys to submit a writ of habeas corpus—the legal system’s document of last resort—on the basis of newly discovered evidence: the fact that forensic science is not as scientific as it purported to be at the time of trial. However, “given the reluctance of judges to ever set aside convictions with anything less than DNA,” says Neufeld, “I am not as optimistic as I would like to be despite the fact that there’s a matter of fairness.”
One of those exonerated after 15 years in prison was Roy Brown. He was convicted of murder in 1992 and sentenced to 25 years to life, partly on the basis of a bite-mark analyst who said that Brown’s teeth matched a wound on the victim “to a reasonable degree of dental certainty.” The fact that whoever had bitten the victim had six teeth on his upper jaw—the wound clearly had six impressions—whereas Roy Brown had only four was “inconsistent,” the analyst admitted, “but explainably so in my opinion.”
DNA proved him innocent in 2006.
Beth Schwartzapfel is a Brooklyn freelance journalist with an interest in criminal justice issues.
Posted on Wednesday, 02.23.11 Former Ill. sheriff now in federal Fla. prison
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHAWNEETOWN, Ill. -- A disgraced former southern Illinois sheriff ordered last month to spend life behind bars for trafficking marijuana and a foiled plot to have witnesses against him killed has new digs - a high-security federal prison in central Florida.
Raymond Martin's one-time badge as sheriff of Gallatin County has given way to inmate number 08191-025 at the Coleman II prison, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando, Fla.
Forty-eight-year-old Martin was sentenced in Benton to life behind bars after being convicted last year of 15 charges, including marijuana trafficking and witnesses tampering.
Martin isn't out of the legal woods yet. A special prosecutor in southern Illinois has charged him with official misconduct and intimidation.
Lawsuit:
Los Lunas
prison
inmates
subjected
to
humiliating
abuse
Written
by
Scott
Sandlin,
Albuquerque
Journal
Staff
Writer
Wednesday,
23
February
2011
06:00
Gun-wielding
corrections
officers
wearing
face
masks
to
conceal
their
identity
forced
inmates
at
the
state
prison
in
Los
Lunas
to
strip
to
their
underwear
and
sit
single
file
on
the
gymnasium
floor
with
their
genitals
touching
the
next
inmate,
apparently
as
discipline
or
punishment,
a
class-action
lawsuit
alleges.
The
men
were
held
in
this
position
for
several
hours
without
access
to a
bathroom,
the
lawsuit
claims.
At
one
point,
an
inmate
urinated
on
the
prisoner
in
front
of
him,
and
several
prisoners
were
forced
to
sit
in
the
urine.
The
lawsuit
filed
in
the
13th
Judicial
District
Court
in
Valencia
County
says
Anthony
Romero,
warden
of
Central
New
Mexico
Correctional
Facility
in
Los
Lunas,
was
behind
the
"nuts
to
butts"
policy
of
"intimidation
and
abuse."
Romero
allegedly
yelled
that
the
inmates
were
his
"bitches."
The
complaint
was
filed
by
Albuquerque
attorney
Matthew
Coyte
on
behalf
of
an
inmate
identified
only
as "J.O.,"
as a
representative
of
an
estimated
75
to
200
or
possibly
more
inmates.
The
lawsuit
says
the
events
described
occurred
in
the
330-capacity
Level
2
unit
sometime
after
J.O.
was
transferred
there
in
2009.
Romero
could
not
be
reached
for
comment.
Rosie
Sais,
a
spokeswoman
for
the
Corrections
Department,
said
officials
are
aware
of
the
lawsuit
and
are
reviewing
it
but
could
not
comment
on
the
allegations.
Donald
Dorsey,
a
named
defendant
who
was
deputy
secretary
for
adult
prisons,
has
retired
from
the
department.
Dorsey
allegedly
witnessed
at
least
one
of
the
incidents.
The
lawsuit
says
J.O.
was
assigned
to
the
kitchen
and
was
returning
from
his
work
shift
when
the
abuse
took
place.
According
to
the
lawsuit,
J.O.
and
other
kitchen
work
staff
encountered
"John
Doe"
defendants
—
correctional
officers
in
face
masks
and
uniforms
missing
identification
tags
—
when
they
were
ordered
to
strip.
He
and
others
were
"slammed
into
the
wall
and
forced
to
remove
their
clothes"
within
view
of
security
cameras
in a
hallway.
In
the
gym,
he
and
others
were
ordered
to
sit
on
the
floor
by
officers
with
weapons.
They
were
allowed
to
remain
in
underpants,
but
were
otherwise
naked.
J.O.
"had
an
individual's
genitals
forcibly
placed
on
his
backside."
Inmates
were
ordered
to
hold
their
hands
interlaced
behind
their
heads
and
to
remain
in
that
position
for
some
time.
"If
you
talk
to
the
guys
about
this,
it's
very
difficult
position
to
maintain
for
a
long
period
of
time,
when
you're
sitting
down
...
After
a
while,
people
couldn't
do
it,"
Coyte
said.
According
to
the
allegations,
the
men
were
allowed
to
put
their
hands
on
the
floor
after
about
half
an
hour,
but
were
forced
to
remain
in
the
position
for
several
hours,
during
which
they
weren't
allowed
access
to
bathrooms.
The
result
was
that
one
inmate
had
no
choice
but
to
urinate
on
the
man
in
front
of
him,
the
lawsuit
says,
and
several
men
were
forced
to
sit
in
his
urine.
The
lawsuit
alleges
the
events
were
captured
on
videotape
by
unnamed
defendants
and
that
inmates
were
threatened
with
more
of
the
same
if
they
did
not
comply
or
show
respect
to
authority.
Asked
if
there
was
an
event
leading
up
to
alleged
incident,
Coyte
said,
"I'm
aware
of
an
event,
but
it
doesn't
make
a
huge
amount
of
sense.
This
happened
on
more
than
one
occasion,
so
the
event
would
change."
One
instance
apparently
was
related
to
inmates'
complaining
about
having
a
sex
offender
placed
among
them.
"They
(administrators)
are
saying,
'You
don't
get
to
control
this
prison.
We
do,'"
he
said.
Coyte
said
at
least
15
of
the
prisoners
filed
individual
complaints
handed
to
an
administrative
assistant
to
the
warden
but
got
no
response,
and
that
they
have
suffered
physical
and
emotional
injuries
as a
result.
"When
I
first
got
the
case,"
Coyte
said,
"I
didn't
believe
it
was
true
—
until
I
managed
to
find
so
many
people
who
would
tell
the
same
story.
People
who
didn't
know
each
other
describe
the
same
thing.
People's
relatives
called
me —
all
describing
the
same
thing."
The
lawsuit
seeks
compensatory
and
punitive
damages
under
state
and
federal
law,
and
an
injunction
barring
defendants
from
employing
the
practice.
Bill To Reduce Wrong Convictions Passes Committee & Nightly Roundup
KERA News & Wire Services (2011-02-22)
DALLAS, TX (KERA) - A state House committee has advanced legislation to require law enforcement agencies to standardize the way they have eyewitnesses identify suspects.
The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee voted to require agencies to adopt a model policy or something similar for determining how they conduct photographic or live lineups. To avoid unintentionally influencing the witness, the person administering the lineup would be precluded from knowing who the suspect in the case is.
The bill's author, Rep. Pete Gallego, says mistaken eyewitness identification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions in Texas. The Alpine Democrat says procedures would be written based on reliable research on eyewitness memory.
The state leads the nation in the most convicts exonerated by DNA evidence, with more than 40 people released from prison over the past decade.
Seven prison guards arrested
on charges of beating inmate
By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution
Feb 21, 2011
Seven Georgia prison guards
were arrested Monday on
charges of beating an
inmate, inflicting injuries
so severe that the prisoner
was in the hospital for "an
extended period of time,"
according to the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation.
GBI spokesman John Bankhead
said the seven --
Christopher Hall, Ronald
Lach, Derrick, Wimbush,
Willie Redden, Darren
Douglass Griffin, Kerry
Bolden and Delton Rushin --
were arrested Monday morning
when they reported to work
at Macon State Prison. The
facility is located in
Oglethorpe, about 50 miles
southwest of Macon.
All seven are charged with
aggravated battery and
violating their oaths of
office.
The Department of
Corrections was drafting a
response Monday afternoon
when asked for comment. The
Macon County District
Attorney was not available
for comment either Monday
afternoon. It was not known
if the seven correctional
officers were in custody
Monday afternoon.
The GBI investigation was
opened, at the request of
the Department of
Corrections, early last
month after reports that
guards attacked inmates at
two state institutions –
Macon State Prison and Smith
State Prison near Savannah.
The alleged assaults came at
the end of a six-day protest
and work stoppage at nearly
a dozen facilities.
According to a newly formed
advocacy group -- the
Concerned Coalition to
Respect Prisoners' Rights --
inmates Terrance Dean and
Miguel Jackson were
"brutally beaten by guards"
because they joined the
protest. It was not clear
which inmate was
hospitalized but Dean is at
the Augusta State Medical
Prison, according to the
Department of Corrections
website.
Both men are serving 20-year
sentences. Dean, born in
1981, was convicted in Bibb
County for armed robberies
in 2003 and 2004. Jackson,
born in 1975, is at the
Georgia Diagnostic and
Classification Prison near
Jackson for several
convictions, including armed
robbery and aggravated
assault.
Bankhead said though the
cases involving the seven
have been given to the Macon
County district attorney,
the GBI investigation was
continuing.
“It’s not closed. We’re
still investigating,”
Bankhead said.
He did not know if more
arrests were expected.
Inmates at 11 prisons began
refusing to report to work
details in early December.
Four prisons responded with
lock downs, which meant
inmates could not make calls
from the phones in the cell
blocks, nor could they
receive mail.
Inmates said they started
planning the strike in
September after the prison
system banned tobacco. Over
the following months their
list of grievances grew to
include no pay for their
prison work jobs and the
quality of food and medical
care.
The protest started Dec. 9
and ended Dec. 15. The
alleged attack was on Dec.
10.
Relatives and advocates said
officers retaliated
throughout the protest with
violence against prisoners
who participated.
ACLU Urges UN to Take
Action on Solitary
Confinement in the United
States
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
by Jean Casella and James
Ridgeway
The American Civil Liberties
Union last week filed a
statement with the United
Nations’ Human Rights
Council, urging it to to
“address the widespread
violations of the human
rights of prisoners in the
United States associated
with solitary confinement
and call for the adoption of
appropriate measures to
protect their human rights.
The ACLU calls on the
Council to urge the United
States to take concrete and
appropriate measures to end
the egregious violations
stemming from solitary
confinement of prisoners.”
After providing background
on the widespread use of
solitary confinement in the
United States today, the
statement includes a concise
and well-documented section
titled “Harmful Effects of
Solitary Confinement.” (See
the original for citation of
sources):
There is a broad consensus
among mental health experts
that long-term solitary
confinement is
psychologically harmful.
Indeed, the damaging effects
of solitary confinement,
even on persons with no
prior history of mental
illness, have long been well
known. Over a century ago,
the United States Supreme
Court described the effect
of solitary confinement as
practiced in the nation’s
early days:
A considerable number of the
prisoners fell, after even a
short confinement, into a
semi-fatuous condition, from
which it was next to
impossible to arouse them,
and others became violently
insane; others still,
committed suicide; while
those who stood the ordeal
better were generally not
reformed, and in most cases
did not recover sufficient
mental activity to be of any
subsequent service to the
community.
In 2002, a California prison
psychiatrist told Human
Rights Watch: “It’s a
standard psychiatric
concept, if you put people
in isolation, they will go
insane. . . . Most people in
isolation will fall apart.”
Prisoners exhibit a variety
of negative physiological
and psychological reactions
to solitary confinement,
including: (1)
hypersensitivity to external
stimuli; (2) perceptual
distortions and
hallucinations; (3)
increased anxiety and
nervousness; (4) revenge
fantasies, rage, and
irrational anger; (5) fears
of persecution; (6) lack of
impulse control; (7)
claustrophobia; (8) severe
and chronic depression; (9)
appetite loss and weight
loss; (10) heart
palpitations; (11)
withdrawal; (12) blunting of
affect and apathy; (13)
talking to oneself; (14)
headaches; (15) problems
sleeping; (16) confusing
thought processes; (17)
nightmares; (18) dizziness;
(19) self-mutilation; and
(20) lower levels of brain
function, including a
decline in EEG activity.
EEG changes were observed
after only seven days of
solitary confinement. In a
2005 submission to the
United States Supreme Court,
a group of psychologists and
psychiatrists concluded that
“no study of the effects of
solitary or supermax-like
confinement that lasted
longer than 60 days failed
to find evidence of negative
psychological effects.”
The statement, which should
be read in full, also
contains sections on
“Solitary Confinement and
the Mentally Ill” and
“Solitary Confinement and
Physical Abuse.” It ends by
laying out a set of
principles for limiting and
monitoring the use of
solitary confinement, and
asks the HRC to “call on the
United States to adopt
policies and practices for
the use of solitary
confinement consistent with
the following principles”:
• Solitary confinement
should be used only in very
exceptional cases, for as
short a time as possible and
only as a last resort.
• Segregation of prisoners
for their own protection
should take place in the
least restrictive setting
possible.
• Decrease extreme isolation
by allowing for in-cell
programming, supervised
out-of-cell exercise,
face-to-face interaction
with staff, and access to
television, radio, telephone
calls, correspondence, and
reading material.
• Decrease sensory
deprivation by limiting the
use of auditory isolation,
deprivation of light and
reasonable darkness, and
punitive diets.
• Allow prisoners to
gradually earn more
privileges and be subjected
to fewer restrictions, even
if they continue to require
physical separation from
others.
• Prohibit solitary
confinement of prisoners
with mental illness,
children under age 18, and
death row and life-sentenced
prisoners by virtue of their
sentence.
• Prohibit the intentional
use of solitary confinement
to apply psychological
pressure to prisoners.
• Carefully monitor
prisoners in solitary
confinement for signs of
mental illness and promptly
remove them from solitary
confinement if such signs
appear.
• Invite United Nations
special rapporteur on
torture to conduct a fact
finding mission and
facilitate access to prisons
and inmates victims of
prolonged solitary
confinement.
Los Angeles judge finds
confession was coerced,
frees murder defendant
The jurist says 'it wasn't
even a close call' whether
LAPD detectives coerced the
man, 19 at the time, into
changing his story, his
lawyer reports. The teen had
denied involvement dozens of
times.
By Joel Rubin and Jack
Leonard, Times Staff Writers
February 18, 2011, 9:11 p.m.
A man on trial for murder
was set free this week after
a judge found that Los
Angeles police had coerced
him into confessing.
Edward Arch, who was 19 at
the time of his 2007 arrest
and spent more than three
years in jail awaiting
trial, would probably have
been sentenced to life in
prison had the jury in the
case convicted him.
However, before jurors were
to begin deliberations, Los
Angeles County Superior
Court Judge Harvey Giss took
the rare step of granting a
request by Arch's attorney
Wednesday to dismiss the
case because of a lack of
evidence.
"I've been a criminal
defense attorney for over 35
years and handled well over
a hundred murder cases, and
I've never had a judge grant
a motion like this," said
Arch's attorney, James
Goldstein. "I don't believe
it was the officers' intent
to extract a false
confession, but the tactics
they used greatly increased
the risk of that occurring."
A spokeswoman for the Los
Angeles County district
attorney's office refused to
comment on the case, saying
a co-defendant is still to
stand trial in the case. Two
of the detectives who
interrogated Arch, Gene
Parshall and Efren
Gutierrez, did not respond
to calls seeking comment. A
third detective, John
Macchiarella, declined to
discuss the details of the
case, saying only that he
"disagreed with the judge's
decision."
The trial stemmed from a
shooting in May 2007 after a
group of men in a North
Hills neighborhood got into
a verbal dispute with
another man as he drove by.
At least two men in the
group allegedly gave chase
and, when they tracked the
man down, one of them shot
him multiple times at close
range.
Three weeks after the
killing, detectives
interrogated Arch at the
LAPD's Mission Station.
Arch, who had no serious
criminal history, had
allegedly been identified by
residents in the
neighborhood as one of the
men in the group during the
initial confrontation.
From the start of the
roughly 90-minute
interrogation, the
detectives told Arch they
had eyewitness accounts of
him being in the car that
chased down the victim. Two
other suspects had also
implicated him, the
detectives told him.
"It's not the question of
whether you were in that car
or not," Parshall said,
according to a transcript of
the interview reviewed by
The Times. "The question is,
what led up to this guy
getting shot?"
"I wasn't in no Nissan,"
Arch responded, calling the
witnesses "liars."
The teenager acknowledged
that he knew the two other
men whom police suspected of
being involved in the
killing. Despite intense
questioning by the
detectives, Arch said dozens
of times that he had had
nothing to do with the
killing and hadn't been in
the car. He remained
insistent that he had been
in his aunt's house playing
video games when the men
drove off. He offered to
take a lie detector test.
There are no legal or
ethical rules prohibiting
detectives from lying to
suspects or exaggerating the
evidence they have in an
effort to extract a
confession. They cannot,
however, entice a suspect by
promising he'll receive
leniency or will be let go
if he admits his involvement
in a crime. Detectives must
also be careful not to lead
a suspect along by telling
him what they believe
occurred, since the suspect
might then simply repeat the
story he was told in a false
confession.
The detectives apparently
crossed both these lines in
the eyes of the judge, who
commented in court that "it
wasn't even a close call"
whether Arch had been
coerced, according to
Goldstein.
Parshall, for example, laid
out in detail for Arch how
he believed the chase and
the shooting occurred as he
tried to get the teen to
admit he had been in the
car.
And later, Gutierrez told
Arch that he wouldn't get a
"free pass" if he admitted
to being in the car but that
he was "gambling with [his]
freedom" if he continued to
insist on his innocence.
"You're either a witness or
you're a defendant,"
Gutierrez told Arch. "You
were either in the car when
you saw the murder go down
and you didn't know anything
about it or you were part of
it. And if you were part of
it ... we're all going to be
able to prove premeditated
murder."
Goldstein said the
detectives had gone too far.
"Basically, they were
telling him he could walk
out that door if he admitted
he was involved," Goldstein
said.
As soon as Gutierrez gave
Arch the choice of being a
"witness" or a "defendant,"
Arch changed his story
dramatically, saying he had,
in fact, been in the car
with Michael Brown, one of
the other suspects.
He said he had gotten into
the car because he wanted a
ride to the store to buy
cigarettes. As they chased
the victim, Arch said, he
asked several times to
return home but Brown
refused. He said he hadn't
seen the gun until Brown,
who is awaiting trial, got
out of the car and shot the
man.
After the shooting, Arch
said, Brown handed him the
gun and he tossed it out of
the car's window.
The detectives asked why he
had lied earlier.
"I knew, like, if I was in
the car with him when
something happened, I'm
going to get in trouble," he
said.
Arch's whereabouts are
unknown, and he could not be
reached for comment.
ACLU wants federal probe into LA inmate
beating
The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 -
9:26 pm
LOS ANGELES -- The American Civil
Liberties Union wants a federal probe
into allegations that two Los Angeles
County sheriff's deputies beat an
unconscious inmate at a downtown jail.
An ACLU staffer reported last month that
she witnessed the alleged beating while
visiting the jail on another matter.
Esther Lim said she looked through a
window and saw two deputies, who seemed
unaware of her presence, punching and
kicking inmate James Parker.
The jail log offers a different account,
saying Parker had to be subdued because
he was combative. He was charged with
battery and resisting an officer.
Lim's claims prompted a sheriff's
investigation, but the Los Angeles Times
reports ACLU officials aren't satisfied
and want federal investigators to get
involved.
A sheriff's spokesman says the
department is open to a federal probe.
US Prisoners Have No Choice But to Drink Arsenic-Laced
Water
By Charles Davis
WASHINGTON, Feb 15, 2011 (IPS) - When Kern Valley
State Prison opened in 2005, the 379 million dollar
facility in Central California was hailed as "state
of the art". But within weeks of opening, a major
problem was discovered: its water was poisoned -
containing roughly twice the federally permitted
level of arsenic, a known carcinogen.
And nothing has been done about it.
"They really don't care," says Bertha Nava, the
mother of an inmate who has for more than five years
been forced to drink the contaminated water at Kern
Valley State Prison. He’s complained that the water
not only tastes bad, but looks it too - "like part
urine, part water".
In the nearly six years since the issue was
uncovered, the more than 5,000 incarcerated men at
Kern Valley State Prison continue to consume water
that regularly tests positive for elevated levels of
arsenic. Every person in a position of authority -
every person in a position to change things for the
better - from California lawmakers to prison
officials to regulators within the state’s
Department of Public Health, has failed the
prisoners.
The pain Nava feels is evident when she talks about
her and other mothers’ efforts to secure their
children something as basic as drinking water that
won’t slowly kill them.
"They don't care about the prisoners in there," she
says of California officials, from those at the
prison to the state legislature, who have let the
problem continue for years unabated. "They really,
really neglect them," she says. "We’re actually
treating animals better than we’re treating them."
Drinking water laced with arsenic is known to cause
a number of serious health problems - health
problems for which California taxpayers will someday
have to pick up the tab. Indeed, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, long-term
exposure can cause "cancer of the bladder, lungs,
skin, kidneys, nasal passages, liver and prostate".
"My son is supposed to be released in 13 years,"
says Nava. "Well, what medical problems is he going
to have when he’s released? Will he be able to
function normally? Or is he going to be released
just to die from cancer because of the water?"
Unfortunately for Nava’s son and thousands of others
like him, those in positions of authority are not in
a rush to change things.
"This is not an emergency," proclaims a recent memo
issued to inmates by Kern Valley State Prison Warden
M.D. Biter. It says inmates "do not need to use an
alternative water supply (e.g., bottled water)" -
not that they have a choice - but it does note that
those who drink the prison’s water "may experience
skin damage or circulatory system problems, and may
have an increased risk to getting cancer [sic]."
While maintaining that the situation is not an
emergency, the memo promises it will be resolved.
"Kern Valley State Prison is working with Facilities
Planning, Construction and Management to install an
Arsenic Treatment System," it states. "We anticipate
resolving the problem by October 2011."
But prisoners and their families have heard those
promises before. A nearly identical memo, typos and
all, was issued Apr. 8, 2008, by then-warden Anthony
Hedgpeth. It claimed that prison officials were
working "to install an Arsenic Treatment System".
And it stated that they "anticipate resolving the
problem" - by Jun. 2009.
While officials have been anticipating resolving the
problem for years, it seems that - judging by their
actions, not their rhetoric - providing incarcerated
persons in California safe drinking water just isn’t
a priority.
The lack of progress comes despite a Dec. 2008
compliance order issued by the California Department
of Public Health over Kern Valley State Prison’s
continued "violation of the arsenic maximum
contaminant level". The order instructed prison
officials to draw up a plan and time schedule for
fixing the problem, threatening "judicial action,
including civil penalties", should they not comply.
However, the order did not actually specify a date
for when the problem must be resolved. And so it
hasn’t been.
Ken August, a spokesman for the department, says
that despite the ongoing arsenic problem - recent
tests show the drinking water continues to far
exceed the federally imposed limit - "Kern Valley
State Prison has met the terms of its compliance
order. No penalties are warranted at this time".
As to when the problem might be resolved, the
spokesman says prison officials have informed the
department that the water filtration project "should
go to bid soon". Actual construction, meanwhile,
"should start within six months and take one year
for completion".
This schedule, if followed, means a water filtration
system could be built as late as Feb. 2012 - a full
four months after the Oct. 2011 date quoted by Biter
that officials "anticipate resolving the problem".
"It seems like it’s not a big issue to them," says
Nava. "But I’m sure the warden doesn’t drink the
water."
Second audit on UTMB expenses authorized
By Mike Ward | Tuesday, February 8, 2011, 05:11 PM
Reacting to a state audit that blasted the
University of Texas Medical Branch for how it spent
funding for prisoner health care in Texas,
University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco
Cigarroa late this afternoon moved to audit the
audit.
In a statement, Cigarroa characterized the state
auditor’s findings as “serious” and said “they must
be reviewed carefully.”
“After a comprehensive look at the state auditor’s
report, UTMB respectfully believes that the primary
findings are not correct,” Cigarroa said. “Subject
to the approval of the state auditor, I have
authorized the hiring of an independent auditor to
expedite a review of the state audit findings and to
report to me and to the Board of Regents its
findings and recommendations.
“The UT System and UTMB pledge to take swift and
appropriate corrective measures, if necessary, to
ensure that the financial aspects of the CMC
(correctional managed care) contract are appropriate
and in line with federal guidelines.”
When the audit was made public last week, UTMB
officials challenged the findings that it may have
overcharged for care. They had suggested that an
independent review of the state audit would validate
that it did nothing wrong.
The audit alleged that the University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston charged the state’s
prison health care program for more than $16.2
million in costs not directly related to prisoner
care, spent more than $6.6 million in two years for
items that were not allowed under the prison
contract and handed out $14.1 million in pay
increases over three years while reporting that the
program had a $95.1 million deficit.
In one case, the audit disclosed that 40 employees
of the prison medical division of UTMB received
bonuses last November for which they were not
supposed to be eligible — one receiving a payout of
$125,460 — at a time when state agencies had been
ordered to cut spending by 15 percent to staunch a
predicted $27 billion budget shortfall.
According to the audit, UTMB’s prison health care
division charges the prison system more for
reimbursements for physician services, inpatient
hospital services and outpatient services than it
does for Medicare, Medicaid and at least one major
private insurer’s reimbursements.
The reimbursement amount for physician billing is,
“on average, 135 percent of the Medicare
reimbursement amount,” the audit states.
Female inmates file lawsuit claiming sex abuse by
guards
By John Ingold
The Denver Post
POSTED: 02/07/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
The state's Department of Corrections harbors an
"overt culture of sexual abuse" by prison guards,
and department leaders have done little to stop it,
according to a lawsuit pending in federal court.
Ten female Colorado prison inmates sued the
department last month, claiming repeated acts of sex
abuse by male corrections officers.
The complaint details more than a dozen instances in
which it claims officers in two prisons — the Denver
Women's Correctional Facility and the since-closed,
privately run Brush Correctional Facility — coerced
women into performing sex acts on them.
The officers made threats to have the women "written
up" or to make life difficult if the women did not
submit, according to the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Department of Corrections officials
failed to take "substantive remedial actions" to
stop it, the lawsuit charges.
The department and the company that ran the Brush
facility, GRW Corp., continued to employ officers
suspected of abuse and failed to improve
surveillance systems to reduce blind spots where
abuse could occur, the suit says.
"This conduct amounts to deliberate indifference to
the rights of inmates," the lawsuit claims. ". . .
The conduct is so grossly reckless that future
misconduct was and is virtually inevitable."
The inmates, who are represented by the Denver law
firm Irwin and Boesen, are seeking to have the case
certified for class-action status.
Katherine Sanguinetti, a Corrections Department
spokeswoman, said the department will not comment on
ongoing litigation.
The case becomes at least the second one pending in
federal court in which a female inmate claims she
was coerced into performing sex acts on a Colorado
prison officer.
It comes not two years after a federal judge awarded
$1.3 million in damages to another Colorado female
inmate who alleged sexual assault by a guard. In
making that award in 2009, Judge David M. Ebel said
the sexual abuse of inmates in Colorado prisons was
"distressingly common."
As part of the settlement, corrections officials
were supposed to beef up surveillance systems to
eliminate blind spots, said Mari Newman, the
plaintiff's attorney in the 2009 case. The new
lawsuit shows sex abuse by guards is still of
"endemic proportions," Newman said.
Sanguinetti said department officials have a
zero-tolerance policy toward sexual misconduct by
corrections officers.
Since 2009, she said, the department has improved
officer training and encouraged inmates to report
abuse. Officers, staff members and volunteers who
cross the line are prosecuted criminally. The
department has sought to eliminate security camera
gaps, but Sanguinetti said some blind spots are
inevitable.
She said the department welcomes civil judgments
against officers who commit abuse.
"This type of thing does raise awareness of these
issues," Sanguinetti said. "For our staff and
correctional staff everywhere, it sends a pretty
strong message."
Social factors and Oklahoma law lead to high
female imprisonment rate, experts say
Poverty, unwed motherhood, sexual and physical
abuse, drug use and Oklahoma sentencing laws and
policies combine to produce the highest per capita
incarceration rate of women in the United States,
researchers said.
BY MICHAEL BAKER
Published: February 6, 2011
Poverty, unwed and teen motherhood, sexual and
physical abuse, drug use and several other social
factors combine to help produce the highest per
capita incarceration rate of women in the United
States, researchers said.
Social factors and Oklahoma law lead to high female
imprisonment rate, experts say
Oklahoma currently imprisons 135 women for every
100,000 Oklahomans, according to the federal Bureau
of Justice Statistics.
The national average is 67 incarcerated women per
100,000 people.
In mid-2010, according to the state Corrections
Department, Oklahoma prisons housed 2,760 female
offenders, most of whom had very troubled histories.
“There’s a lot of history of violence, of abuse, of
incest, rape, emotional physical abuse; and then you
see in people that have had that kind of trauma
higher incidences of running away, alcohol and drug
abuse,” said Susan Marcus-Mendoza, chairman of the
Department of Human Relations at the University of
Oklahoma.
Social factors are not the only thing that leads so
many women into Oklahoma prisons, according to
researchers.
“We’re one of the poorest states, we have one the
highest teen pregnancy rates, we have a high child
abuse rate and all of that together — probably the
abuse more than anything — leads to drug use,” said
Susan Sharp, a sociology professor at the University
of Oklahoma and editor of the book “The Incarcerated
Woman.”
“The rest of the story, however, is that we lock up
people for crimes that other states would not put
them in prison for,” Sharp said. “So, it’s also our
laws and our application of our laws.”
Social factors
Lack of education and poverty certainly are a
factor, but most often it’s the sexual and physical
abuse that led women to drugs and crime, said
Marcus-Mendoza, also a former psychologist at a
federal prison camp for women.
“There are higher incidences of these kinds of
social problems — and in some cases illegal things —
that maybe a lot of times an attempt to deal with
the abuse and the violence that they’ve dealt with,”
she said.
A survey conducted by the state Corrections
Department of women admitted to an Oklahoma prison
in 2010 found that 64 percent had a moderate to high
need for substance abuse treatment.
In a study Sharp published last year, she surveyed
301 female inmates in Oklahoma and found 40 percent
were both sexually and physically abused as children
and 71 percent had been a victim of domestic abuse
in adulthood.
“To blame it (imprisonment) on the women because
they use drugs is missing part of the problem,”
Sharp said. “I’m not saying they are not
accountable, because certainly they are accountable,
but we need to understand why they do what they do.”
Cyclical behavior
When a woman is imprisoned, oftentimes their
children also are punished.
Of the female inmates surveyed by Sharp, 257 women
had 760 children. Of those children, about
two-thirds were under age 18.
Children with a mother in prison are going to have
harder lives, Sharp said.
“I know a lot of people think that the mother that
uses drugs can’t be a good mother, but that simply
is not true,” she said. “We take the worst case
story and extrapolate that to all women who use
drugs. Most of them are decent parents that probably
would be better parents if they were drug free.”
A mother’s imprisonment often leads their child to
prison, Sharp said.
“The children are going to grow up with more
problems from the absent mother,” she said. “They’re
going to have emotional and psychological problems.
They will use substances to deal with those — self
medicating if you will — and a high percentage will
end up in prison.”
Look at the law
While several troubling social problems factor into
why women are imprisoned in Oklahoma, there are
similar problems in many places. What often sets
Oklahoma apart is how tough drug and sentencing laws
are applied, Marcus-Mendoza said.
“It’s not like Oklahoma is having this female crime
wave,” she said.
“Part of it is looking at the way Oklahoma defines
felonies and the way that we do sentencings,”
Marcus-Mendoza said. “The same things that might not
get you prison time in another state, will get you
prison time here.”
Some Oklahoma judges are too quick to lock up
someone for any felony and don’t consider
alternative sentencing for low-level drug
convictions, Sharp said.
“We have some counties that lock up everyone who
gets a felony conviction,” Sharp said.
“That is not the norm. Most of the U.S. doesn’t do
that. We don’t use probation as much as other
states. We have a low probation rate compared to
other states.”
Marcus-Mendoza and Sharp believe that reform is
needed in sentencing policies, in offerings for drug
abuse treatment and early childhood trauma
counseling.
“A lot of it is going to have to be policy reform in
terms of statutes on felonies and sentencing and
then really looking at how we deal with violence
against girls and women,” Marcus-Mendoza said. “If
those things were dealt with at a younger age then
maybe we wouldn’t have so many women in prison.”
Inmates: We were forced to be naked 12 hours
By Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
January 31, 2011
Twenty-nine northwest Georgia inmates were forced to
rub cream on their bodies and stand in their cells
naked for 12 hours, according to federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit, filed against the Whitfield County
sheriff's office in U.S. District Court in Rome,
seeks $5 million in punitive damages, The Daily
Citizen in Dalton reported. The suit contends the
inmates were humiliated while behind bars at the
Whitfield County jail in October.
A sheriff's office captain told the newspaper the
cream was an anti-lice treatment. Two members of the
jail staff were disciplined following the incident,
according to the report.
“They came into the dorm and told us to strip, and
never told us why,” David Bennett, one of the two
inmates that filed the suit, told the newspaper.
“They said it’d be for a couple of hours with no
covering. I’ve been in prison, but this had never
happened. It seemed absurd to me. I was physically
sick for a week afterward from the cold, and all
because they think some 18-year-old kid who had left
the day before had lice.”
Bennett has been arrested and booked 35 times at the
Whitfield County jail since 1999, according to
documents provided by the sheriff’s office. His most
recent arrest in October was for sale of
methamphetamine, use of a communication facility in
drug transactions, felony probation violation and
giving false information to officers, the newspaper
reported.
Jan. 21, 2011
Ex-Chicago Cop Gets 4 1/2 Years in Torture Case
Jon Burge Sentenced to Federal Prison for Lying
about Torture of Suspects after Suspects Claimed
Confessions Were Coerced
(AP) CHICAGO - A decorated former police officer
whose name has become synonymous with police
brutality in the city was sentenced Friday to 4½
years in federal prison for lying about the torture
of suspects.
Dozens of suspects — almost all of them black men —
have claimed for decades that Jon Burge and his
officers electrically shocked, suffocated and beat
them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed
robbery to murder. After the hearing, several
victims and their supporters said the sentence
wasn't nearly stiff enough.
"It's outrageous," said Mark Clements, who claims
Burge's officers tortured him into giving a false
confession in 1981 when he was 16. Tears ran down
his faced and his voice rose in anger. "It's not
justice."
Standing nearby, community activist Fred Hampton Jr.
echoed the outrage, saying the white officer's
sentence was disproportionately low compared to what
others receive for lesser crimes.
"People in our community get more time than this for
fist fights," said Hampton, whose father was a Black
Panther leader killed by police before the Burge
era.
Flint Taylor, an attorney who has represented
several police torture victims, predicted the
sentence would become an issue the Chicago mayor's
race. A host of candidates, including former White
House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, are vying to
replace retiring Mayor Richard Daley.
"The new mayor will have to apologize to these
victims of torture," Taylor said.
But others were satisfied with the verdict,
including U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose
office prosecuted Burge.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow said the sentence
reflected the seriousness of the allegations and, in
making her decision, she wondered why a respected
officer so admired by his department would resort to
such violence.
"My best guess is ambition," Lefkow said. "Perhaps
the praise, the publicity and the commendations ...
were seductive and led you down this path."
Burge was charged with lying when he testified in a
civil lawsuit brought by Madison Hobley, who was
sentenced to death for a 1987 fire that killed seven
people, including his wife and son. Hobley was later
pardoned.
Hobley claimed detectives put a plastic typewriter
cover over his head to make it impossible for him to
breathe. Burge denied knowing anything about the
"bagging" or taking part in it. The indictment
against Burge never said Hobley was tortured but
accused Burge of lying about participating in or
knowing about torture that took place under his
watch. Burge has never faced criminal charges for
abuse.
While the former police commander denied during his
five-week trial that torture took place, Lefkow
noted the jury hadn't believed him — and neither had
she. In considering a sentence, Lefkow told Burge
she took into account his "unwillingness to
acknowledge the truth in the face of all the
evidence."
Burge stood facing Lefkow as she read a statement
and the sentence. Her offer to let him sit given his
poor heath drew groans of protest from the victims
and courtroom observers, who otherwise sat rapt as
the judge spoke. As Lefkow talked about victims'
testimony that she'd found particularly moving,
Burge's sister-in-law left the courtroom.
Earlier Friday, Burge told the judge he knew his
case brought the police department into disrepute
and "for that, I am deeply sorry." He insisted he
wasn't the person who's been "vilified" by the media
but didn't specifically address the allegations of
torture and abuse.
"I'm 63 years old, and while I try to keep a proud
face, in reality, I am a broken man," he then said,
his voice falling and seeming to break with emotion.
After Lefkow handed down the sentence, defense
attorney Richard Beuke said his client, who was
fired in 1993 for mistreating a suspect, didn't mean
to express remorse or suggest he did anything wrong
in his statement. Bueke blamed what he called cop
killers, murderers and rapists for the allegations
that dogged Burge for years.
"I don't think a day in jail for Jon Burge is just."
The attorney said.
Burge does not have to report for prison until March
16. He did not speak to reporters after the hearing
and was taken out an entrance not accessible to
reporters or the general public for security
reasons, Bueke said.
If you
are unlucky enough to be doing time at one of the
federal government's two "experimental prisons" -
which it calls Communications Management Units (CMUs)
- you are categorically banned from any physical
contact with visiting friends and family, including
babies, infants and minor children. You may not hug,
touch or embrace your children or spouses during
visits.
Severe restrictions are also placed on your access
to phone calls and letters, as well as work and
educational opportunities. Transfers to the CMU are
not explained, nor are prisoners told how to earn
release into less restrictive confinement, as there
is no review process. Lawyers say that because these
transfers are not based on facts or discipline for
infractions, a pattern of religious and political
discrimination and retaliation for prisoners' lawful
advocacy has emerged.
Two federal prisons are being used as CMUs and
overwhelmingly hold Muslim prisoners and prisoners
with unpopular political beliefs. Opponents charge
they are practicing religious profiling, retaliation
and arbitrary punishment.
At a time when it's often tough to tell the
difference between the corporate news and its
advertisements, it's essential to keep independent
journalism strong. Support Truthout today by
clicking here.
These are the principal allegations in a lawsuit
filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
against US Attorney General Eric Holder and the US
Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ houses the US
Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which runs the two units,
one in Terre Haute, Indiana, the other in Marion,
Illinois. Plaintiffs are five current and former
prisoners and the spouses of two prisoners.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU
seeks to ban Idaho prison practices
Published: Friday, Dec. 31, 2010 12:50 a.m. MST
By Jessie L. Bonner, Associated Press
BOISE — The American Civil Liberties Union said
Thursday that practices at an Idaho prison that
include guards opening the wrong cell doors and
allowing inmate-on-inmate attacks have caused
violence at the facility and should be immediately
banned.
The ACLU also said in a motion filed Thursday in
U.S. District Court that victims of the assaults at
the Idaho Correctional Center are routinely written
up for defending themselves during the attacks,
which can jeopardize their eligibility for parole.
Attorneys for the ACLU are seeking a preliminary
injunction on behalf of inmates to immediately ban
both practices at the prison run by the Corrections
Corporation of America.
The motion for a preliminary injunction is part of
larger lawsuit over claims of violence at the
prison.
"We want to try to eliminate as much suffering as
quickly as we can, these two issues lent themselves
to that," said Steven Pevar, an attorney for the
American Civil Liberties Union.
The ACLU is representing inmates who sued CCA in
March, saying the Idaho lockup is so violent it's
known as "gladiator school" and prison workers used
inmate-on-inmate violence as a management tool, then
refused to provide x-rays to injured prisoners as
part of a cover-up scheme.
CCA has denied the claims, and a company spokesman
did not immediately return an e-mail from The
Associated Press on Thursday.
Since July 2009, 13 assaults have resulted from
prison guards opening, or "popping," the wrong cell
doors in areas where violent prisoners are kept,
allowing inmates to attack other prisoners,
attorneys for the ACLU say in a brief supporting
their motion for a preliminary injunction.
Guards either mistakenly or deliberately opened the
wrong doors and allowed the assaults, the ACLU says.
The most violent of the assault occurred on Aug. 10,
when a guard opened some 20 doors and released at
least 20 prisoners who then assaulted four rival
gang members, sending two to the hospital, according
to the brief. Guards then issued disciplinary
reports for the four victims of the assault, the
ACLU says.
"It makes no sense to punish someone for undertaking
the perfectly natural act of self-defense,"
attorneys for the inmates say in the court filing.
For complete story,
click here.
Before
group therapy begins for mentally ill
maximum-security inmates at California prisons, five
patients are led in handcuffs to individual metal
cages about the size of a phone booth. Steel mesh
and a plastic spit shield separate the patients from
the therapist, who sits in front of the enclosures
wearing a shank-proof vest.
When the lock clanks shut on the final cage — prison
officials prefer to call them "therapeutic modules"
— the therapist tries to build the foundation of any
successful group: trust.
During a recent session at a prison in Vacaville,
psychologist Daniel Tennenbaum, wearing a
herringbone sports coat over his body armor, sat
just out of urination range of the cages with an
acoustic guitar, trying to engage the inmates with a
sing-along of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay."
About a decade ago, a federal judge ruled that it
was cruel and unusual punishment to leave mentally
ill prisoners in their cells without treatment.
Since then, state prisons have spent more than a
billion dollars delivering care to an ever-growing
population of inmates diagnosed with schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder and other psychiatric problems.
State officials say they have not tried to estimate
how much of that cost is attributable to the caged
therapy. The value of the sessions, however, is the
subject of heated debate among mental health
professionals today.
"Those cages are an abomination. They train people
that they're not human, that they're animals," said
Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist in Berkeley who served
as an expert witness on treatment of mentally ill
prisoners in the case that forced California prisons
to provide psychiatric care.
"It's bizarre, it has a Hannibal Lecter quality to
it," said H. Steven Moffic, likening California's
procedures to the measures used to contain an
incarcerated serial killer in "The Silence of the
Lambs."
Moffic, a psychiatry professor at the Medical
College of Wisconsin, has written about treating
patients in prisons under less imposing restraints.
"I'm not quite sure what the clinicians think they
are going to get out of it," he said of California's
method.
Prison officials say they're doing their best to
comply with the court order, which requires them to
offer treatment to all mentally ill inmates, no
matter how dangerous.
Overall, that care in 2006 cost the state $166
million to treat about 32,000 inmates, department
records show. By 2009 the number of inmates had
risen modestly to 36,000 but the cost of treatment
had more than doubled more than $358 million.
For complete story,
click here.
DENVER – The El Paso County Jail today dropped its
policy of restricting prisoners' outgoing mail to
postcards. Faced with defending an unconstitutional
policy before a judge at a hearing scheduled for
Wednesday, county officials agreed to a preliminary
injunction ending the postcard-only policy following
a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and
the ACLU of Colorado. Chief Judge Wiley Y. Daniel of
the U.S. District Court in Denver signed the order
today.
Just in time for the Christmas holiday, prisoners at
El Paso County Jail – most of whom are awaiting
trial and have not been convicted of any crime –
will once again be permitted to send letters in
sealed envelopes to their children, family members,
friends and loved ones.
"Today we celebrate a victory not only for the First
Amendment, but for hundreds of Colorado families,"
said Mark Silverstein, ACLU of Colorado Legal
Director. "The El Paso County Jail's 'postcard-only'
policy violated the rights of both prisoners and
their correspondents. Incarcerated individuals will
no longer be forced to avoid personal topics such as
medical, financial or relationship issues simply
because their words were in plain sight for anyone
to read."
Callie Gonzales, whose son Damian is currently in El
Paso County Jail awaiting trial, looks forward to
once again receiving letters from her eldest child.
Ms. Gonzales, who used to receive three to four long
letters a week from her son, says their
correspondence has been significantly cut down under
the "postcard-only" policy.
"Since the policy went into effect…our
communications have been dramatically stifled," said
Ms. Gonzalez in a recent court filing. "These
postcards provide only a tiny fraction of the space
he was once able to fill…It is impossible for Damian
and I to remain as close we were when he was able to
send letters…Damian no longer sends handmade cards
or drawings to his…youngest siblings who cannot
read, and for whom these drawings and cards were
their most direct and loving form of communication
with him."
"It shouldn't take a federal lawsuit to allow a
prisoner to write a letter to his mother," said
David Fathi, Director of the ACLU's National Prison
Project. "The El Paso County Jail did the right
thing by abandoning this unconstitutional practice;
we hope that other jails with 'postcard-only'
policies will do the same without waiting for
litigation."
In recent months a number of jails around the United
States, including one other jail in Colorado, have
adopted "postcard-only" policies for prisoner mail.
Today's ruling is the first in a case challenging a
jail "postcard-only" policy in which the prisoners
were represented by counsel throughout the lawsuit.
"Beyond their clear constitutional violations, these
policies are simply counter-productive," said
Rebecca Wallace, staff attorney with the ACLU of
Colorado. "Letters clearly allow prisoners to
maintain relationships with friends and family that
will aid in their return to life after
incarceration. If jail officials are serious about
lowering recidivism and increasing public safety,
they would do well to recognize that preserving
prisoners' rights to send letters actually protects
us all."
“They beat the shit out of you,” Mike James said,
hunched near the smeared plexiglass separating us.
He was talking about the cell “extractions” he’d
endured at the hands of the supermax-unit guards at
the Maine State Prison.
“They push you, knee you, poke you,” he said, his
voice faint but ardent through the speaker. “They
slam your head against the wall and drop you on the
floor while you’re cuffed.” He lifted his manacled
hands to a scar on his chin. “They split it wide
open. They’re yelling ‘Stop resisting! Stop
resisting!’ when you’re not even moving.”
When you meet Mike James you notice first his
deep-set eyes and the many scars on his shaved head,
including a deep, horizontal gash. He got that by
scraping his head on the cell door slot, which
guards use to pass in food trays.
This video, leaked to Lance Tapley, shows a cell
extraction at the super-maximum security unit of the
Maine State Prison in Warren. Each such extraction
is videotaped by guards to prove that mistreatment
does not occur. The mentally ill prisoner is maced
while he is forcibly moved from his cell, denuded,
and placed in a restraint chair.
“They were messing with me,” he explained, referring
to the guards who taunted him. “I couldn’t stand it
no more.” He added, “I’ve knocked myself out by
running full force into the wall.”
James, who is in his twenties, has been beaten all
his life, first by family members: “I was punched,
kicked, slapped, bitten, thrown against the wall.”
He began seeing mental-health workers at four and
taking psychiatric medication at seven. He said he
was bipolar and had many other disorders. When a
doctor took him off his meds at age eighteen, he got
into “selling drugs, robbing people, fighting,
burglaries.” He received a twelve-year sentence for
robbery. Of the four years James had been in prison
when I met him, he had spent all but five months in
solitary confinement. The isolation is “mental
torture, even for people who are able to control
themselves,” he said. It included periods alone in a
cell “with no blankets, no clothes, butt-naked, mace
covering me.” Everything James told me was confirmed
by other inmates and prison employees.
James’s story illustrates an irony in the negative
reaction of many Americans to the mistreatment of
“war on terrorism” prisoners at Guantánamo. To
little public outcry, tens of thousands of American
citizens are being held in equivalent or worse
conditions in this country’s super-harsh,
super-maximum security, solitary-confinement
prisons, or in comparable units of traditional
prisons. The Obama administration— somewhat
unsteadily—plans to shut down the Guantánamo
detention center and ship its inmates to one or more
supermaxes in the United States, as though this
would mark a substantive change. In the supermaxes
inmates suffer weeks, months, years, or even decades
of mind-destroying isolation, usually without
meaningful recourse to challenge the conditions of
their captivity. Prisoners may be regularly beaten
in cell extractions, and they receive meager health
services. The isolation frequently leads to insane
behavior including self-injury and suicide attempts.
For complete story,
click here.
The New York State Police’s
supervision of a major crime
laboratory was so poor that
it overlooked evidence of
pervasively shoddy
forensics work, allowing
an analyst to go undetected
for 15 years as he falsified
test results and compromised
nearly one-third of his
cases, an investigation by
the state’s inspector
general has found. For
complete story,
click here.
Jaxon Van
Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, December 4, 2010
The San Francisco police crime lab - just emerging
from a scandal over its handling of drug evidence -
is facing new accusations that officials covered up
an error involving the mix-up of vials to be tested
for DNA evidence.
At issue is a bungling of genetic material on the
eve of a criminal trial in 2008 and the destruction
of records that documented the exact evidence that
was involved. Those actions raise serious questions
about the integrity of the lab, which in October
received a five-year accreditation after months of
turmoil and allegations of evidence tampering.
During the first part of 2008, a new DNA technician
discovered that two vials whose contents were about
to be tested were apparently switched. The vials -
one a control sample of distilled water that was
visibly clear, and the other a vial containing a
discolored liquid of potential DNA material-
appeared to have been mixed up on a tray.
The discolored sample was in a slot reserved for the
control sample. The rookie technician told her boss
about the apparent mix-up. What happened next became
the subject of an investigation by the accrediting
agency that decides whether crime labs can be
certified.
Investigating officials were not as concerned with
the actual mix-up - it wasn't known how it happened
- as they were with the way in which the crime lab
handled the aftermath.
Anonymous letter
Auditors with the lab accreditation board of the
American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors,
which certifies labs across the United States,
learned of the problem from an anonymous July 30,
2009, letter. The writer detailed what happened,
calling it "sample switching," and alleged that the
DNA lab director concealed the bungle on the eve of
a criminal trial in 2008.
The letter said the labels were changed and records
were altered to cover up what happened. Last year,
auditors asked the police department about the
matter and the then-crime lab director, Jim Mudge,
wrote back that the department knew nothing about
it. Mudge no longer runs the lab but remains at the
department. For complete story,
click here.
In a protest apparently assembled largely through a
network of banned cellphones, inmates across at
least six prisons in Georgia have been on strike
since Thursday, calling for better conditions and
compensation, several inmates and an outside
advocate said.
Inmates have refused to leave their cells or perform
their jobs, in a demonstration that seems to
transcend racial and gang factions that do not often
cooperate.
“Their general rage found a home among them — common
ground — and they set aside their differences to
make an incredible statement,” said Elaine Brown, a
former Black Panther leader who has taken up the
inmates’ cause. She said that different factions’
leaders recruited members to participate, but the
movement lacks a definitive torchbearer.
Ms. Brown said thousands of inmates were
participating in the strike.
The Georgia Department of Corrections could not be
reached for comment Saturday night.
“We’re not coming out until something is done. We’re
not going to work until something is done,” said one
inmate at Rogers State Prison in Reidsville. He
refused to give his name because he was speaking on
a banned cellphone.
Several inmates, who used cellphones to call The
Times from their cells, said they found out about
the protest from text messages and did not know
whether specific individuals were behind it.
By Charles
Piller [email protected]
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page
1A
Last Modified: Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010 - 12:08 am
California Senate leaders have released the results
of a seven-month investigation into allegations of
prisoner abuse at High Desert State Prison. Their
probe, launched in response to a Bee investigation
in April, found that officials from the Department
of Corrections and Rehabilitation and from the
Office of the Inspector General failed to
investigate and address claims of staff misconduct
from multiple sources, including corrections
department researchers.
The agencies' response to allegations of brutality
by guards at the experimental "behavior modification
unit" from 2005 through 2007 was "inadequate, ad
hoc, and displayed the absence of a uniform and
reliable system of response, referral and
follow-through," wrote Senate President Pro Tem
Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Senate Public
Safety Committee Chairman Mark Leno, D-San
Francisco.
Behavior modification units housed inmates who broke
rules, and were meant to teach anger management and
other life skills. Most such units, including the
one at High Desert, have been closed due to budget
cuts.
Terry Thornton, a corrections spokeswoman, said the
department was reviewing the report, and declined to
comment further.
The Bee investigation found evidence that High
Desert guards tried to provoke attacks between
inmates, spread human excrement on cell doors and
mistreated inmates who peacefully resisted staff
misconduct.
The Senate report, released as a letter dated Dec. 1
to corrections Secretary Matthew Cate and Inspector
General David Shaw, indicates that in 2007,
corrections officials promised to look into such
allegations but did not conduct any substantive
investigation.
For example, the corrections Office of Internal
Affairs received a complaint from Sacramento
resident Brandy Frye in June 2007, accompanied by
supporting letters from High Desert inmates. Frye
alleged that guards pepper-sprayed and shackled
inmates who failed to finish their meals within two
minutes. She described inmate meals tainted with
bird droppings, strip searches in the snow and other
actions she regarded as dehumanizing. For
complete story,
click here.
TRENTON, Fla. -- Two north Florida state prison
guards are facing felony charges in the collapse of
an inmate allegedly ordered to exercise in 86-degree
weather without adequate water breaks.
On Tuesday, 41-year-old James Barry, of Bell, and
44-year-old Michael Devanie, of Trenton, turned
themselves in to authorities.
Both are charged with malicious battery or cruel or
inhuman treatment. They would face a maximum penalty
of five years in prison if convicted. Barry also is
charged with witness tampering, which has a 15-year
maximum. For complete story,
click here.
BY REBECCA BOONE, ASSOCIATED PRESS • NOVEMBER 30,
2010
BOISE, Idaho — The surveillance video from the
overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by
a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang
on a prison guard station window, pleading for help.
Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but
no one intervenes when Elabed is knocked
unconscious.
No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker
sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he
resumes the beating.
Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated
Press show officers watching the beating for several
minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for
critics who claim the privately run Idaho
Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence
to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or
risk being moved to extremely violent units.
Lawsuits from inmates contend the company that runs
the prison, the Corrections Corporation of America,
denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of
covering up the assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho
lockup “gladiator school” because it is so violent.
The AP initially sought a copy of the videos from
state court, but Idaho 4th District Judge Patrick
Owen denied that request. The AP decided to publish
the videos after a person familiar with the case
verified their authenticity.
The videos show at least three guards watching as
Elabed was stomped on a dozen times. At no time
during the recorded sequence did anyone try to pull
away James Haver, a short, slight man. For
complete story,
click here.
Published: Saturday, November 27, 2010, 2:30 PM
The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
The Plain Dealer's four-part series, "Presumed
guilty," described a series of outrageous abuses in
what might politely be described as a Cuyahoga
County injustice system.
Although it focused on Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of
Criminal Procedure -- which enables judges to
dismiss criminal cases if they determine
insufficient evidence was presented at trial -- the
series highlighted systemic failures at the
prosecutor's office, in grand jury procedures and in
how judges applied the rule. The result in a
significant number of cases: Folks against whom
there was scant to no evidence of a crime were
exposed to an unnecessary judicial nightmare.
Plain Dealer reporters Amanda Garrett and John
Caniglia spent nine months reviewing thousands of
court documents, interviewing more than 200 defense
attorneys, judges, current and former prosecutors,
and suspects, and creating databases to track trends
in Rule 29 rulings both locally as well as in
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
Their findings were best illustrated by the case of
Charice Gilmore, a Cleveland mother who was indicted
for inciting a neighborhood fight, even though she
was in another county at the time. The Cleveland
detective who testified before the grand jury
recounted events that were not backed up with
evidence, or were false.
Although the assistant county prosecutor handling
the case soon learned of its flaws, she didn't think
it was her place to ask a superior to drop the
charges, she later told reporters. A judge threw the
case out.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's first
assistant, Michael O'Malley, insisted the decision
to take Gilmore to court was justified -- because,
O'Malley said, what the detective told the grand
jury was essentially correct: Gilmore allegedly
instigated the brawl by making threats that
triggered the event, even though she wasn't there.
Mason doesn't apologize for his aggressive pursuit
of justice -- even when it may sometimes target
people who are innocent. "I see myself as someone
holding people accountable for their actions," he
told Garrett and Caniglia. For complete story,
click here.
BOISE,
Idaho — Staff at Idaho's only private prison, from
the warden on down to the guards, routinely failed
to protect inmates and in some instances put
prisoners in situations knowing they'd be victims of
the prison's gangs and violent culture, according to
three former staffers at the prison.
The statements from the former Idaho Correctional
Center guards are outlined in affidavits filed in a
federal lawsuit against the prison's for-profit
operator, Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA.
The civil case was filed against CCA last year by
inmate Marlin Riggs, who several years ago was badly
beaten in his cell and suffered permanent facial
deformities. For complete story,
click here.
WASHINGTON -- An award-winning whistle-blower at
U.S. Penitentiary Atwater helped expose pervasive
safety problems that endangered prison inmates
nationwide, a federal investigation reveals.
Prompted by the complaints of Leroy Smith Jr.,
former safety manager at the Atwater prison,
investigators say they uncovered "serious
misconduct" that included "carelessness or
indifference" to the safety of inmates recycling
electronics in multiple federal prisons.
In a sweeping report that was four years in the
making, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector
General pinpointed "numerous violations of health,
safety and environmental laws, regulations and
(Bureau of Prisons) policies."
The past problems spelled out in a 1,433-page report
and accompanying appendix went beyond those already
well documented at Atwater, located between Modesto
and Fresno in California's San Joaquin Valley.
"We also found numerous instances of staff
misconduct and performance failures," investigators
noted. "These included actions that endangered staff
and inmates: dishonesty, dereliction of duty, and
theft, among others."
In one instance, a prison staffer disabled a fire
alarm system to prevent it from sounding because of
airborne dust in a room where prisoners were
breaking apart computer monitors.
Criminal prosecutions of Bureau of Prisons staffers
in Ohio and New Jersey were considered but
ultimately not pursued "because of various
evidentiary, legal, and strategic concerns,"
investigators said. A former associate warden at
Atwater, Samuel Randolph, would face disciplinary
actions if he hadn't retired in 2006, investigators
added.
The overall recycling program was lauded for safety
improvements in recent years, with new managers and
policies in place.
Investigators examined electronic-recycling
operations at 10 federal prisons including those at
Leavenworth, Kan.; Lewisburg, Pa.; and Tucson, Ariz.
The federal prison industry program called Unicor
has used inmates to recycle computers, monitors and
other equipment since 1997. For complete
story,
click here.
POSTED: 10:58 pm EDT September 15, 2010
UPDATED: 11:46 pm EDT September 15, 2010
HARRISON COUNTY, Ind. -- An incident that began with
a thrown mop bucket and television has resulted in
the arrest of three jail employees.
Three Harrison County Jail corrections officers --
Cpl. Nathan Adams, Officer Ross Timberlake and
Officer Sheila Barber -- face charges in the alleged
mistreatment of former inmate Tevin Bald.
WLKY News received a copy of a 55-page state police
report about what happened at the jail.
The report stated that on May 22, Bald requested
some clean water to clean his cell and the jail
staff denied the request.
Troopers said Bald told them he became upset and
threw a mop bucket.
The report said the three officers then responded to
the situation.
According to documents, Timberlake told
investigators, "I observed inmate Bald standing on
the day room table. Cpl. Adams instructed Bald to
get off the table but Bald refused this order. So
Cpl. Adams and myself assisted him to the floor and
restraints were placed on inmate Bald."
The report states Bald was taken to another part of
the jail. Bald told investigators that he was
ordered to remove his clothing, an order he refused.
Bald was stripped naked, placed in a restraining
chair and a spit-mask covered in pepper spray was
put on his face, according to the report.
The report states Bald told investigators "his eyes
began to burn, and he started coughing and had
difficulty breathing."
The police report indicates Bald was left like that
for an hour. For complete story,
click here.
HELENA — An 18-year-old Montana State Prison inmate who claims he has been
treated inhumanely is asking a district court judge to step in to keep him from
returning to a solitary cell and other treatment he and his lawyers say is
deplorable and scarring.
Raistlen
Katka testified Tuesday that he has attempted suicide four times in part due to
his treatment at the prison. According to Katka’s attorneys with the American
Civil Liberties Union of Montana, an injunction is needed to stop the
irreparable harm being done by the prison.
A hearing
was held before District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock to give Katka and the prison a
chance to argue their cases.
The ACLU
filed a lawsuit against the Montana Department of Corrections and the state in
December on behalf of Katka, alleging he had been treated illegally and
inhumanely. The situation be-came so dire, Katka testified Tuesday, that he
twice attempted to kill himself by biting through the skin on his wrist to
puncture a vein.
“My
thought process was if I don’t die, at least I’ll get out of my cell for 30
seconds,” Katka testified.
Katka is
being housed at the Montana State Hospital pending the ruling on the injunction.
Testimony will continue today.
Attorneys
representing the state said the confinement in the prison’s maximum-security
unit helped to protect Katka and other inmates in addition to preserving order
at the facility.
Katka had
been at the prison since February 2008 after he pleaded guilty to two felony
counts of assault on a peace officer stemming from a physical altercation with
two correctional officers at Pine Hills Correctional Facility for juveniles.
After the altercation, he was sentenced to five years under the supervision of
the Department of Corrections. He was convicted as an adult after waiving his
right to transfer the charges to youth court.
Katka and
his attorneys say his treatment at the prison has exacerbated his mental
illness, which includes depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. They are
asking that Katka not be subjected to solitary confinement, not be disciplined
with acts such as the removal of personal property from his cell and be
transferred to another facility where his needs can be better met. For complete
story, click here.
SANTA ANA – Michael Lass, pinned down on the
jailhouse floor, muttered: "You're killing me."
Those were his last words. Later that day, on Oct.
12, 2007, the 28-year-old Santa Ana resident was
declared dead at St. Joseph's Hospital after a
struggle with several sheriff's deputies at Orange
County Jail.
On Wednesday, the jury watched portions of the
videotaped struggle that led to Lass's death. Lass,
of Portola Hills, was serving a five-day sentence at
the jail for being drunk in public and not appearing
at a hearing.
Lass's father, Frederick, sued the County of Orange,
as well as six sheriff's deputies — Si Page, William
Rodriguez, Charles Foote, Matthew Stafford, Mario
Castro and Mark Wehri — over the death. He blamed
deputies' excessive force for his son's demise, and
is seeking monetary damages. For complete
story,
click here.
This week, Federal District Court Judge Michael
Mills ordered a new sentencing trial for convicted
murderer Quintez Hodges this week. Hodges is
currently on death row in Mississippi.
But it's Mills' reason for ordering a new trial that
comes as a surprise: Mills ruled that former
Mississippi Assistant District Attorney James
Kitchens, Jr. lied under oath during Hodges' trial.
The facts are a bit complicated, but in brief,
Kitchens was involved in a prior prosecution of
Hodges for robbery. At Hodges' death penalty trial,
Kitchens testified that Hodges was given a break in
that case. It was part of the prosecutions effort to
show a lack of remorse and criminal history as
aggravating factors deserving of the death penalty.
Mills ruled that Kitchens lied under oath when he
testified that the victim of the earlier robbery
asked at the time that Hodges be given a light
sentence. Mills found that Kitchens then lied again
in Mills' court during a hearing on Hodges'
post-conviction petition.
From Mills' ruling:
The testimony of Mr. Kitchens at Petitioner's trial
and in this Court is factually at odds with what is
contained in the record, and DA Allgood should have
known that the testimony given by ADA Kitchens was
false... For complete story,
click here.
By KRISTEN MOSTELLER
Published: September 14, 2010
Updated: September 14, 2010 - 6:06 PM
Murder victims' family members, a North Carolina
death row exoneree and a member of his defense team
and People of Faith Against the Death Penalty --
among others -- commented on the findings of
malfeasance at the SBI lab during a press conference
in front of the Buncombe County courthouse at noon
on Tuesday.
A report by two former FBI agents released last
month suggests that over 200 cases are likely
affected by the faulty and unscientific process at
the SBI serology lab.
Glen Chapman says, "Mistakes were made in my case as
far as withheld evidence, police officers
fabricating evidence"
He says some of those mistakes cost him over 15
years of his life.
Chapman says, "Having all that time taken away from
me, I can't get that back."
A jury found Chapman guilty of murdering two women
in 1992 in Hickory, North Carolina. That same jury
sentenced him to death. He was later exonerated and
released from prison in 2008. For complete
story,
click here.
In the last few decades, private prisons, which
now house about 9 percent of the inmate population
in the U.S., have grown steadily in number — but so
has criticism of an industry that makes its profits
from the rehabilitation of criminals.
Until 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 27, the Corrections
Corporation of America was responsible for
overseeing operations at the Hernando County Jail.
CCA, the largest private detention and correctional
facilities company in the U.S., had been running the
jail for 22 years.
In March, Hernando County Sheriff Rich Nugent
proposed that his department take over jail
operations in an effort to curb costs for the
county. In April, however, CCA submitted a letter to
the county stating that the company had decided to
opt out of the remainder of its $10.8 million
contract.
After inspecting the jail, the sheriff found that
CCA had not properly maintained the conditions
there.
County Administrator David Hamilton says an
independent engineering firm is investigating the
facility to determine whether CCA or the county
should be held responsible for the lack of
maintenance. The county is withholding its final
payment to CCA until causality is determined, he
says.
Hamilton is confident that the sheriff's office will
be able to run the jail more efficiently — and more
economically — than CCA. For complete story,
click here.
DENVER – The American Civil Liberties Union and the
ACLU of Colorado today filed a federal class action
lawsuit charging that a new policy barring prisoners
at the El Paso County Jail in Colorado Springs,
Colorado from sending letters to people in the free
world is unconstitutional.
Implemented last month, the policy restricts all
outgoing correspondence – except narrow categories
deemed to be "legal mail" – to 4x6-inch postcards
supplied by the jail. As a result of the new policy
and based on the jail's official definition of what
constitutes "legal mail," prisoners will now be
barred from sending any letters to family members,
friends, doctors, psychiatrists and members of the
clergy, among many other categories of people.
"This postcard-only policy severely restricts
prisoners' ability to communicate with their
parents, children, spouses, domestic partners,
sweethearts, friends or almost anyone else who does
not fall within the jail's narrow exception to the
newly-imposed ban on outgoing letters," said Mark
Silverstein, Legal Director of the ACLU of Colorado.
"This unjustified restriction on written
communications violates the rights of both the
prisoners and their correspondents. Families have a
First Amendment right to receive all of their loved
ones' written words, not just the few guarded
sentences a prisoner can fit onto a postcard."
The El Paso County Jail is just the latest of a
burgeoning number of jails around the country to
enact unconstitutional postcard-only policies. The
infamous Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio
was one of the first to institute such a policy, and
jails in at least five additional states have since
followed suit. The ACLU last month sued officials at
the Boulder County Jail in Boulder, Colorado for
enacting a similar policy, and is currently
investigating a recently-enacted policy at the
Spokane County Jail in Washington which requires
prisoners to correspond primarily by postcard.
For complete story,
click here.
Three Harrison County corrections officers were
arrested on felony charges on Monday stemming from
an incident in May in which an inmate was put in a
restraining chair and a hood with pepper spray was
placed over his head.
Zachariah "Nathan" Adams, 25, of Depauw, Ind., was
charged with battery, a Class C felony, criminal
recklessness, a Class D felony, and a misdemeanor
count of battery.
Sheila K. Barber, 55, of Corydon, Ind., and Ross
Timberlake, 30, of Depauw, Ind., both were charged
with two counts of assisting a criminal, a Class D
felony.
Their arrests follow an Indiana State Police
investigation into the alleged abuse of the inmate
on May 22.
Tevin Bald, an 18-year-old Louisville man, was being
held at the jail in a forgery and counterfeiting
case. Bald said he was stripped by corrections
officers, restrained and covered with a "spit hood"
containing pepper spray. For complete story,
click here.
PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- The Clallam County sheriff
has asked the FBI to investigate allegations of
sexual misconduct involving county jail staff and
inmates.
Sheriff Bill Benedict tells the Peninsula Daily News
he expects FBI investigators to arrive in the next
few days.
Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert has defended his
staff against a Bureau of Justice Statistics report
that ranked the jail the third-highest among 286
U.S. jails for instances of inmate-reported sexual
misconduct by staff.
The report found that 6.1 percent of the 75 inmates
surveyed said they were sexually assaulted by staff,
and 4.4 percent said they were victimized by other
inmates. For complete story,
click here.
A warden, a deputy warden, and a regional director
have all been suspended several days without pay as
a result of an inmate being kept in an outdoor cage
overnight at the Arizona State Prison Complex in
Tucson.
According to a Department of Corrections
investigation of the incident, inmate Elisio Solis
was confined to an outdoor cage for 19 hours from
around 9:45 a.m. on April 29 of this year to around
5 a.m. the following morning.
This is in violation of policies regarding such
enclosures, policies that were revised in the wake
of Marcia Powell's 2009 heat-related death at
Perryville Prison in Goodyear.
ADC policy now prohibits a prisoner from being
confined to an outdoor cage for more than one hour
without the approval of a deputy warden. (Inmates
can be in the cages for no longer than two hours
max.) The policy also forbids the enclosures from
being used for disciplinary purposes.
But these restrictions were transgressed in the case
of Solis, who was placed in the outside enclosure
after a verbal altercation with a corrections
officer, who called Solis a "motherfucker."
According to the ADC investigation, when Warden
Sandra Walker learned of the violation, she advised
underlings that the matter was to be handled "in
house." For complete story,
click here.
When police arrested Anthony Graber for speeding
on his motorbike, the 25-year-old probably did
not see himself as an advocate for police
accountability in the age of new media.
But
Graber, a sergeant with the Maryland Air
National Guard, is now facing 16 years in
prison, not for dangerous driving, but for a
Youtube video he posted after receiving a
speeding ticket.
The video, filmed with a camera mounted on
Graber's motorcycle helmet designed to record
biking stunts rather than police abuse, shows a
plain clothes officer jumping out of an unmarked
car and pointing a pistol at the motorcyclist.
It does not portray the policeman in a positive
light.
After he posted the video on Youtube, police
raided Graber's home, seized computers and put
him in jail.
"The case is critical to the protection of
democracy because I don't think you can have a
free country in which public officials are able
to criminally prosecute people who film what
they are doing," David Rocah, a lawyer with the
American Civil Liberties Union in Maryland who
is representing Graber, said. For complete
story,
click here.
The Associated Press
Published: Friday, Sep. 10, 2010 - 9:19 am
LOS ANGELES -- Jurors decided an inmate assaulted
with pepper spray by Los Angeles deputies for
cursing at a jailer should get $405,000.
Alejandro Franco was a 23-year-old inmate in 2007
when three deputies pulled down his boxer shorts and
pepper-sprayed his anus and groin. The deputies, who
are no longer with the department, were upset with
Franco because he cursed at a downtown jailer after
being declined fresh laundry.
The Los Angeles Times says the federal jury's
decision Thursday comes about a week after
prosecutors declined to file criminal charges
against the deputies. Prosecutors say there was
insufficient evidence and Franco was characterized
as an unreliable witness. For complete story,
click here.
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The state is responsible for meeting the needs of
hundreds of disabled inmates and parolees
temporarily held in county jails in California, a
federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The federal law banning discrimination against
disabled people prohibits the state from avoiding
its responsibilities by contracting with counties or
private companies to house the prisoners, said the
Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco.
However, the court set aside a federal judge's
September 2009 ruling requiring state officials to
provide a list of disabled inmates to all counties
and make sure they have access to grievance
procedures.
Lawyers for inmates who sued the state offered only
scattered evidence of jailhouse violations of
disability laws, such as reports of someone going
without a wheelchair or an accessible bathroom, the
appeals court said. But they're entitled to present
more evidence to the judge at a new hearing, the
court said. For complete story,
click here.
The
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation arrested the Mayor
of Vonore and the Democratic Party Chairman for
Monroe County after a two-month long TBI
investigation.
Charles Kenneth Miller, 69, and Mayor Larry Summey,
64, were both indicted on one count of using inmate
labor for private purposes.
TBI began its investigation into allegations of
misuse after the 10th Judicial District Attorney
General requested the case be opened in July 2010.
TBI investigators say that in March of 2010, Vonore
city employees and inmates from the Monroe County
Jail performed landscaping work at the residence of
Cora Miller, 305 Hall Street, Vonore, Tenn. Cora
Miller is the mother-in-law of Summey and Miller's
mother. Summey ordered the work done and Miller gave
directions to the workers as to which trees were to
be cut and chipped. For complete story,
click here.
The escape of three detainees from a
privately-run prison in Arizona last month “put the
spotlight on…private prisons,” as critics of prison
privatization pointed to the “lax oversight” of the
private prison system as one reason the inmates were
able to so easily break out of their facilities.
Now, the New Mexico Independent (NMI) reports that
neighboring state New Mexico is experiencing similar
lax oversight as “the New Mexico Corrections
Department has not collected penalties from two
private prison operators despite repeated contract
violations, costing the state potentially millions
of dollars in uncollected fines.” The two prison
operators in question, GEO Group, and Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA), have been found to be
understaffing the prisons they operate, not meeting
contractual obligations.
In an interview with NMI, New Mexico Corrections
Secretary Joe Williams “acknowledged that the
vacancy rates at the prisons GEO and CCA operate
often are higher than their contracts allow,” but
said he “decided against punishing the firms because
the prisons they manage ‘are outstanding.’” He
explained that the prisons’ contract doesn’t say
that he “shall” fine the companies for violating the
terms of the agreement, but rather that he “can”:
The New Mexico Corrections Department has not
collected penalties from two private prison
operators despite repeated contract violations,
costing the state potentially millions of dollars in
uncollected fines, state officials have told The
Independent. [...] For complete story,
click here.
JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) - A captain and two former
officers at Northwest Correctional Complex have been
sentenced to prison for violating an inmate's civil
rights, then lying about it during investigations.
Harold Hutcheson, a former captain at the prison in
Tiptonville, Tenn., was sentenced Thursday in
Jackson federal court to eight months in prison and
two years probation.
Former NCC officers Joshua Ryan Jones and Roger
Forrester each were sentenced to 10 months in
prison, plus two years probation.
All three men pleaded guilty.
Hutcheson and Jones repeatedly kicked a handcuffed
inmate in April 2008. They also obstructed justice
when they lied to investigators.
Forrester acknowledged punching a handcuffed inmate
and lying about it to investigators. For
complete story,
click here.
By Kiva Johns-Adkins
Georgetown News-Graphic
09/02/10
Published: Thursday, September 2, 2010 6:12 AM EDT
Scott County Detention Center officials insist they
acted properly by dropping a double leg amputee who
was bleeding and had lost a "gallon-and-a-half" of
blood off at a relative's house while still dressed
in a hospital gown last weekend.
Monte Duvall, 56, of Stamping Ground was arrested
and charged at 3:39 p.m. with felony impersonating
of a police officer and with receiving stolen
property under $300 at a yard sale by Georgetown
Police on Saturday. He was processed and then taken
by police to the Scott County Detention Center at
4:25 p.m. Some 40 minutes later he was bleeding
badly and emergency officials were called.
The detention center staff was not negligent in its
handling of Duvall who was rushed to the hospital
Saturday evening with a serious gastrointestinal
bleed, Scott County Jailer Larry Covington said at a
press conference Wednesday.
"Most of the police believe that once they bring a
prisoner through our door they belong to the jail
and that is not true," Covington said. "The city
doesn't pay one penny to this jail and they (police
department) don't want to take the time to take
their prisoners to the hospital before bringing them
to us. They (police department) don't have the staff
or the money." For complete story,
click here.
The Kentucky Board of Nursing is investigating two
nurses at the Fayette County jail who denied medical
assessment to an inmate who later died, according to
jail documents.
The inmate, Dean Ferguson, 54, of Lexington, died of
a pulmonary embolism after complaining of leg pain
and shortness of breath all night at the jail.
Ferguson's family filed complaints against nurses
Karen Hodge and Stephanie Travis in August.
The complaints say that during a 12-hour period on
jail surveillance video, Dean is seen breathing
heavily and collapsing many times. "Both nurses
observed his condition and refused to provide
medical care," the complaints say.
A spokesman for the nursing board said Tuesday that
the complaints had been reviewed and would be
investigated.
Travis could not immediately be reached for comment
Tuesday. Hodge did not return phone messages left
with a family member at her home.
According to documents obtained from the jail
through an open records request, Ferguson's vital
signs were normal when he checked in at 9:40 p.m.
July 9.
When Ferguson collapsed five minutes later, Hodge
told a jail lieutenant that "they had just seen him
five minutes ago and that they were not going to see
him again," records said.
At 2:45 a.m. July 10, after Ferguson complained that
he was unable to walk, the nurses again advised that
Ferguson's "vitals were normal, that he was 'faking'
the issues and that they would not be assessing him
again." For complete story,
click here.
COLUMBUS, OHIO (BNO NEWS) – A former prison guard
was convicted on Tuesday for forcing inmates to have
sex with him in an employee bathroom a women's
prison in Marysville, Ohio, the Columbus Dispatcher
newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Willie E. Mapp, 54, was a corrections officer at the
Ohio Reformatory for Women from 1997 until July
2003. He was charged with eight counts of sexual
battery, a third degree felony.
Mapp, a Columbus resident, resigned to his post
after an investigation was launched in 2003 after
reports of prisoners' abuse at the Marysville
correction facility.
The former corrections officer allegedly threatened
three female inmates with severe consequences such
as solitary confinement if they did not perform oral
sex. The offenses took place at the employee
bathroom of the Ohio Reformatory. For complete
story,
click here.
Two former employees of the Fayette County jail were
sentenced in federal court Tuesday for the roles
they played in systematically abusing inmates.
John McQueen, 33, a former sergeant and supervisor
at the Fayette County Detention Center, and Clarence
McCoy, 31, a former corporal, were each sentenced to
10 years in prison by Judge Karen K. Caldwell,
according to a news release from the U.S. Department
of Justice. They each also received two years of
supervised release.
McQueen and McCoy were convicted May 13 in U.S.
District Court in Lexington. In the case, five jail
employees were indicted for their parts in
assaulting detainees, then trying to cover up the
abuse by writing false reports or failing to report
the incidents.
"The power granted to correctional officers so that
they can perform their critical public safety duties
does not give them free rein to abuse the civil and
constitutional rights of inmates under their
supervision," Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney
General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights
Division, said in the news release. "Those officers
who abuse their power and the public trust in this
way will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law."
The abuse, some of which was caught on surveillance
video, occurred between January and October 2006.
The incidents occurred in the intake area of the
jail — where people are booked after an arrest —
during the third shift. For complete story,
click here.
For more on this story,
click here.
Ex-LI corrections
officer indicted over inmate abuse--August
31st, 2010 (Source: WABC--The title hyperlink always
goes to the original story on the HEAL News Pages
unless the providing source has moved or removed the
article.)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
MINEOLA (WABC) -- A former Nassau County corrections
officer was indicted on 80 counts related to alleged
sexual abuse of inmates.
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice
announced that a grand jury returned the 80-count
indictment against 48-year-old Mark Barber, who was
arrested last December.
He is charged with multiple counts of rape, sexual
abuse and forcible touching. Seven female inmates
have come forward alleging that Barber used his
position at the Nassau County jail to extort sexual
favors.
Barber, of Levittown, was indicted on charges of two
counts of rape, criminal sexual act, three counts of
receiving reward for official misconduct, 11 counts
of sexual abuse, three counts of forcible touching,
18 counts of promoting prison contraband, 40 counts
of official misconduct, patronizing a prostitute and
stalking.
He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He
is due back in court September 28.
Rice said that from approximately August 2007
through March 2009, Barber, acting in his capacity
as a grievance officer for the Nassau County
Correctional Center's (NCCC) female inmate
population, engaged in various ongoing,
inappropriate relationships with female inmates.
These relationships ranged from providing cigarettes
and private phone calls to engaging in various
levels of sexual activity with select inmates.
According to New York State Penal Law, "a person is
deemed incapable of consent when he or she is
committed to the care and custody of a local
correctional facility...and the actor is an
employee." For complete story,
click here.
Johnny Depp Wants to
Free the West Memphis Three--August
29th, 2010--Johnny Depp has been quite vocal on his
stance that the West Memphis Three - Damien Echols,
Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley - were convicted
wrongly.
The West Memphis Three are men accused of murdering
three 8 year olds back in 1993. Jason and Jessie
were sentenced to life behind bars while Damien was
sentenced to death. More than 10 years later, Damien
still sits on death row, knowing that the next day
might be his last.
Saturday Johnny joined Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder,
Patti Smith, Bill Carter, Lisa Blount and the Dixie
Chick's Natalie Maines for a music and poetry
session. The money earned from the $25 event was
used to help the West Memphis Three with their legal
fees.
The event was a successful one with more than 2,000
people in attendance. Most of the Arkansas residents
believe in the boy's innocence. Even the parents of
some of the murdered boys are asking that the West
Memphis Three be released. It's nice to see that
their heartbreak hasn't clouded their judgement, but
until the lawmakers can admit defeat, these boys
will sit where they've been their entire adult life.
This past February Johnny spoke to 48 hours about
his views on the case against the three men. It
seems that Johnny has a bit of a connection to the
men. He grew up in Owensboro, Kentucky which is
about 200 miles outside of Arkansas.
Since their conviction, many have come out to speak
of the boy's innocence. Despite their supporters,
they still remain guilty in the view of the local
law. Recently DNA evidence has supported the
innocence that the West Memphis Three have claimed
from day one. Despite that they are still being
found guilty and remain behind bars.
Former officer pleads
guilty to beating prisoner--August
26th, 2010--MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - A former Memphis
police officer has pleaded guilty to beating a
transgender prisoner at a jail more than two years
ago.
Bridges McRae pleaded guilty Thursday in federal
court to a felony civil rights charge. He had faced
up to 10 years in prison, but instead he will serve
two years under his plea agreement.
McRae acknowledged he used excessive force when he
repeatedly hit Duanna Johnson in the face while she
was being booked on a prostitution charge in
February 2008. The former prisoner was a biological
man living as a woman.
McRae was scheduled to be retried next month after
the first attempt was declared a mistrial in April.
Johnson, 43, was shot to death later in 2008 on a
street corner near her home. For complete
story,
click here.
WASHINGTON – The
government reported
Thursday that 4.4
percent of inmates in
prison and 3.1 percent
of inmates in
jail
report
being victimized
sexually by another
inmate or staff member.
Those percentages
translate to the sexual
victimization of 88,500
inmates behind bars
nationwide in the
previous 12 months,
according to a study by
the
Justice
Department's
Bureau of Justice
Statistics in 2008-2009.
The study found that:
_Female inmates were
more than twice as
likely as male inmates
to report experiencing
sexual victimization by
another inmate.
_Among inmates who
reported victimization
by another inmate, 13
percent of male prison
inmates and 19 percent
of male jail inmates
said they were
victimized within the
first 24 hours after
being admitted to a
corrections facility. In
contrast, the figure for
women was 4 percent for
prison and jail.
Tens of thousands of
rapes are occurring in
America's prisons each
year and the new study
"finds the problem is
even worse than we
thought," Pat Nolan,
vice president of
Prison
Fellowship,
said in a statement.
In a letter earlier
this month to Attorney
General Eric Holder, a
coalition of groups
including the American
Civil Liberties Union
and the Southern Baptist
Convention urged that he
approve standards
designed to eradicate
sexual assault in
prison. The standards
were proposed by the
bipartisan
Prison
Rape
Elimination Commission,
which was set up by 2003
law designed to end
prison rape.
"We are working
diligently to implement
these standards as soon
as possible" and expect
to send the proposed
rule to the White House
Office of Management
Budget in the fall, said
Justice Department
spokeswoman Hannah
August.
Under the proposed
standards, inmates would
be screened for risk of
victimization,
procedures would be in
place to manage inmate
predators with
prosecution where
appropriate and there
would be a focus on
treatment and care of
victims.
"I regret that we
will not meet Congress's
deadline" of June 2010
for completing work on
the regulations, the
attorney general wrote
in a recent letter to
the two key sponsors of
the Prison Rape
Elimination Act of 2003.
Holder wrote that he
believes it is
"essential to take the
time necessary to craft
regulations that will
endure." For
complete story,
click here
national standards--August
25th, 2010--WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tomorrow,
the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS) will release a report of its most
recent nationwide survey of sexual victimization
among prison and jail inmates. While this is vitally
important data, JDI believes it is also essential to
look behind statistics when considering the impact
of sexual abuse in detention.
"Prisoner rape is a nationwide human rights crisis,"
said Lovisa Stannow, Executive Director of Just
Detention International. "We are talking about
unacceptable, preventable abuse and human
suffering."
Last week, like most weeks, Just Detention
International (JDI) received some 40 letters from
survivors of sexual abuse in detention – men and
women still behind bars, unable to get away from
their assailants, often forced to suffer through the
aftermath of their abuse in silence and ongoing
fear. One of them, Tom, wrote from a Nevada prison,
"What do I do? Risk an attempt on my life and
initiate an investigation, or keep quiet and
endure?"
Past BJS studies have confirmed that men and women
in both prisons and jails are more likely to be
abused by corrections staff than by other inmates.
William in Texas, who was abused by an officer and
also wrote to JDI last week, described the lengths
he had to go to in order to stay safe: "I would
misbehave to get locked up [in solitary confinement]
so I didn't have to deal with it." William has tried
to commit suicide, and has not felt emotionally
stable enough to tell his girlfriend of 12 years
about the abuse. For complete story,
click here.
The jail’s energy weapon is a small-scale version of
the Active Denial System, the experimental crowd
control device that the U.S. military brought to
Afghanistan — and then quickly shipped back home,
after questions mounted about the wisdom of blasting
locals with a beam that momentarily puts them in
agony. The pain weapon seemed at odds with the
military’s efforts to appear more humane and
measured in the eyes of the Afghan populace.
For complete story,
click here.
In Colorado, A New Breed
of Degrading Search in Prisons--August
25th, 2010--The ACLU and ACLU of Colorado this week
called upon the Colorado Department of Corrections
to abandon a new policy that subjects prisoners to
degrading body cavity searches. According to press
reports and letters sent to the ACLU by prisoners at
Denver Women's Correctional Facility (DWCF),
prisoners now must hold open their labia as
correctional officers, sometimes using a flashlight,
sometimes positioning their faces only inches away
from a prisoner's genitals, conduct an inspection.
Reports even indicate that some prisoners have been
forced to pull back the skin of their clitorises.
These searches occur even when the guards have no
particular reason to suspect concealment of
contraband — correctional officers search prisoners'
body cavities on a frequent basis, after work
assignments and visits from friends and family.
Guards apparently have threatened prisoners who
resist with pepper spray. For complete story,
click here.
Jose Zarate, 40, who last worked at Elmwood
Correctional Facility in Milpitas, must serve at
least 85 percent of his sentence before becoming
eligible for parole, according to prosecutor Ray
Mendoza.
Zarate was convicted in January of abusing his
niece, who was about 9 when the molestation started,
according to police reports. The young girl remained
silent for more than a decade until finally sharing
the secret last year with her mother, who contacted
San Jose police.
Zarate was arrested in June 2009 and eventually
convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious acts
on a child by force, violence, duress menace and
fear and four counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a
child under 14. For completes tory,
click here.
L.A. County sheriff to
unveil device intended to curb inmate assaults--August
20th, 2010--Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca will
unveil a new direct-energy device Friday that
creates a burning sensation in its human targets and
is being tested as a way to curtail inmate violence
in jails.
The assault intervention device is about as close as
it gets to science fiction's Star Trek phaser. Baca
will demonstrate it at 2 p.m. at the Pitchess
Detention Center in Castaic.
The device uses millimeter waves that penetrate the
skin to a depth of 1/64 of an inch, producing an
intolerable heating sensation that causes the person
targeted to instinctively flee or give up.
Officials say they know it works because they've
used it on themselves.
"It gets instantly hot and then instantly cools
down," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore, who
was among the test subjects at sheriff's
headquarters.
The device developed by Raytheon is being assessed
for its potential in jails nationwide. It is a
scaled-down version of a weapon developed for the
military to rebuff large crowds from entering an
area. That device was tested on the back of a Hummer
for crowd control overseas. For complete
story,
click here.
Coroner rules inmate's
death was homicide--August
20th, 2010--The Denver Coroner has ruled that the
July 9 death of an inmate at the new jail was the
result of homicide.
Marvin Booker was being processed on a charge of
possession of drug paraphernalia when he got into a
scuffle with jail deputies. He was shocked with a
Taser device and held to the floor.
Other inmates said Booker, 56, was then carried to
the holding cell and dropped face first. He never
recovered.
The coroner's finding means simply that another
human being caused Booker's death instead of natural
causes, suicide or an accident. It is not the
coroner's role to determine who might have caused
the death, or whether the homicide was justifiable.
The coroner ruled Booker's death was caused by "cardiorespiratory
arrest during physical restraint." The coroner said
deputies had their body weight on Booker's back
continuously for four minutes while he was face down
and put him in a "sleeper hold" for more than two
minutes while shocking him with a Taser for 8
seconds. For complete story,
click here.
A few excerpts from
Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire--August
20th, 2010--"America is 'the land of the free,' yet
by one vital measure, it is less free than any other
country on earth: it incarcerates a greater portion
of its citizenry than any other, about 1 out of
every 100 adults. With some 2.4 million persons
under lock and key, the United States manages the
largest penal system in the world, the grandest ever
conceived by a democratic government."
"A half century ago – before the Montgomery bus
boycott, before the War on Poverty, and before the
conservative reaction against the social
experimentation of the 1960s – blacks in the United
States were imprisoned at roughly four times the
rate of whites. Today, a generation after the
triumphs of the civil rights movement, African
Americans are incarcerated at seven times the rate
of whites, nearly double the disparity measured
before desegregation."
"Texas's plantations are 'probably the best example
of slavery remaining in the country,' reported a
national corrections expert in 1978. Twenty years
later, when I first started visiting southern
prisons, I reached the same conclusion."
"[J]ust as New York dominates finance and California
the film industry, Texas reigns supreme in the
punishment business. ... By almost any measure,
Texas stands out. The state's per capita
imprisonment rate (691 per 100,000 residents) is
second only to Louisi ana's and three times higher
than the Islamic Republic of Iran's. Although Texas
ranks fiftieth among states in the amount of money
it spends on indigent criminal defense, it ranks
first in prison growth, first in for-profit
imprisonment, first in supermax lockdown, first in
total number of adults under criminal justice
supervision, and a resounding first in executions.
When it comes to imprisonment, writes Joseph
Hallinan, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal,
Texas is 'where it's happening.'" For complete
story,
click here.
Marilyn Shirley heard these words as she was
brutally raped by a federal prison guard in Texas 10
years ago. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has
found that prison rape is endured each year by:
• Some one in every eight juveniles in custody
• One in 20 adult inmates
• A total of 60,500 victims
On Tuesday, Aug. 17, Shirley will join a bi-partisan
coalition of religious, political, human rights and
civil rights groups, usually at odds, to unveil a
joint letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Signed by 35 organizations, the letter urges Holder
to adopt prison rape elimination standards mandated
by 2003 legislation and completed 14 months ago. The
attorney general missed the June 2010 deadline to
adopt these standards designed to end sexual abuse
in prisons, eradicate the long-term harm to
survivors, their families and their communities, and
ensure safety and justice for the incarcerated,
among other goals. For complete story,
click here.
An
investigative report released this month by In These Times details how
Arizona’s anti-immigrant S.B. 1070 law not only promises dramatic financial
benefits for the private prison industry, but that lobbyists and administrators
working for private prison corporations such as Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) and Geo Group, played substantial parts in drafting and ensuring
the passage of the bill.
Connections
In spite of claims to the
contrary by Arizona Senator Russell Pearce’s (R-Mesa), records indicate that the
legislator submitted a draft version of his S.B. 1070 bill for revisions to the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a legislative consulting firm made
up of elected officials and business leaders.
ALEC, a 501c3 non-profit,
accepts draft bills submitted by lawmakers and corporations, and funnels them
through a series of revisions meant to increase the bill’s viability both
politically and legally. They also develop ‘model legislation’ which they hand
out to legislators to bring back to their home states. In spite of a federal
prohibition on 501(c)(3)s participating in the creation of legislation, ALEC
boasts that their legislator members submit 1,000 pieces of ALEC-inspired
legislation yearly, 20 percent of which passes.
In December 2009, Pearce
introduced the bill to the Public Safety and Elections Task Force of ALEC, a
branch whose corporate members include CCA, the American Bail Coalition, made up
of bounty hunters and bail bonds companies, and the National Rifle Association.
A month and a half later, the version this task force returned to Pearce ended
up on the desks of Arizona legislators nearly untouched.
In 2008, $5.6 million of
ALEC’s $6.9 million in revenue came from contributions made by the
organization’s corporate and special-interest members, including Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA, the nation’s largest private prison corporation),
Geo-Group (second largest only to CCA), Sodexho Marriott (the largest food
services provider to private prisons), Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and a
host of other major corporations. The majority of the organization’s additional
revenues come from membership fees of legislators, 36 of whom represent
districts in Arizona.
About a week after Sen.
Pearce introduced the legislation, CCA hired Highground Consulting, a powerful
Phoenix lobbying firm also on the payrolls of Maricopa County during the time of
the bill’s formation, to represent the corporation in the Arizona legislature.
The
governor’s office also has deep ties with the private prison industry. Charles
“Chuck” Coughlin, Gov. Jan Brewer’s campaign manager, owns Highground
Consulting. In addition, the governor’s current spokesperson, Paul Senseman, was
previously employed as CCA’s chief lobbyist in Arizona through another
influential consulting firm, the Policy Development Group (PDC). Kathryn
Senseman, the spokesperson’s wife, still works for PDC, and continues to lobby
on behalf of CCA. The connections go on; for a more in-depth account, and a
diagram, see In These Times article, “Ties that Bind,” at:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6085/ties_that_bind_arizona_politicians_and_the_private_prison_industry/
. For complete story, click here.
EDITORIAL: Fairness is necessary even inside prisons
Posted at 12:00 AM on Friday, Aug. 13, 2010
Regardless of what you think about prison inmates or
prisoner rights, there should be common agreement
about the need to maintain discipline behind bars.
It is essential for public safety. Without an
orderly system for reviewing and responding to
complaints by inmates and guards, grievances turn
into vendettas. Violence and even riots can be the
result.
A review of the prison disciplinary system by The
Sacramento Bee suggest that at best, some state
prisons are failing in responding to complaints. At
worst, it suggests a complacent culture within the
state's correctional department and its 33 prisons.
There's no doubt that many complaints registered by
prisoners are spurious. But if the real ones aren't
taken seriously, mayhem can result.
A warden at North Kern State Prison staged a
disciplinary hearing this year in which he had
already decided on punishment for 77 inmates accused
of interfering with officers. He even touted his
plan to the prison's warden in an e-mail, according
to The Sacramento Bee.
A state prison research analyst kept track of
employee misconduct appeals in 2008 and 2009. He
said that virtually every complaint against a prison
guard was rejected, including those with supporting
medical evidence.
California could learn from Pennsylvania, where
independent hearing officers are used to decide on
rule-violation charges. Pennsylvania hasn't had a
riot or major disturbance in more than two decades.
Attorneys say prison
guard isn't credible--August
12th, 2010--LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Attorneys for inmates
charged in an uprising at Northpoint Training Center
say a state witness lacks credibility.
The incident a year ago at the prison near the
central Kentucky city of Burgin injured eight guards
and eight inmates, destroyed five buildings and
damaged five of the six dormitories.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reported two attorneys
who represent indicted inmates said on Wednesday
that corrections officer Jesus Cabrera's July 28
arrest damages Cabrera's credibility.
The guard was charged with bringing contraband pills
into the prison.
Cabrera had identified more than 100 inmates he said
were involved in the uprising.
Prison officials disciplined more than 170 inmates.
Ten have been indicted on criminal charges.
Attorney Theodore Shouse, who represents inmate
Aaron Fisk, said he has filed a motion to get the
personnel records of three corrections officers,
including Cabrera, and wants to see the internal
investigation involving Cabrera's arrest.
"I'm very concerned that an officer who claims to
have identified over 100 inmates in this event has
within a matter of months himself been charged" with
promoting contraband, Shouse said. "It clearly
causes anyone to doubt his credibility." For
complete story,
click here.
Ex-judge says prison
unfair, 'cruel' to him--August
3rd, 2010--As a prisoner, former U.S. District Judge
Samuel B. Kent has been shunted into solitary
confinement, forced to hear the screams of another
inmate being raped and ordered by a "cruel" sergeant
in the Florida prison system to do calisthenics in
the nude, according to allegations in a federal
court memorandum filed Tuesday.
Kent has requested that his 33-month sentence be
vacated and adjusted based on his allegations of
inhumane and unfair treatment.
The former Galveston-based federal judge was
impeached by Congress and resigned in June 2009
after being convicted of obstruction of justice. He
admitted in a related plea deal that he lied about
having repeated unwelcome sexual contact with two
female court employees.
In legal action this week, Kent argues he has been
unjustly labeled a sex offender by the federal
Bureau of Prisons and wrongly excluded from a
substance abuse treatment program that could have
reduced his sentence by as much as a year. The court
filings argue that U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson,
a senior judge from Florida, also believed Kent
would be treated more fairly and would qualify for
the program at the time of sentencing.
Instead, Kent says he has been transferred from
prison to prison without explanation, at times
prevented from communicating his whereabouts with
his wife or his attorney and forced to spend long
stints in solitary — once for 43 consecutive days.
He's now assigned to an unnamed maximum security
facility in the Florida state prison system, where
the alleged mistreatment only worsened, Kent's
attorney Dick DeGuerin said. The BOP inmate website
doesn't disclose Kent's current location. For
complete story,
click here.
Drawing titled "Under Lock & Key" by
Michael A. Wortham, H-69234, D-Fac, P.O.
Box 8504, PVSP, Coalinga CA 93210
In 1974 (Procunier v. Martinez)
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall sought to protect the practice
of free speech by challenging a standard
illegitimate dictate of prison
authority: censorship of prisoners’
mail. In opposition to prison officials’
desire to quell dissent and regulate
opinion in the yard, Marshall
appropriated – indeed, elevated – the
discussion to the level of moral
indignation:
“The First Amendment serves not only the
needs of the polity but also those of
the human spirit – a spirit that demands
self-expression. Such expression is an
integral part of the development of
ideas and a sense of identity. To
suppress expression is to reject the
basic human desire for recognition and
affront the individual’s worth and
dignity.”
Just over a decade later (Turner v.
Safley) Sandra Day O’Connor agreed,
asserting that “prison walls do not form
a barrier separating prisoners from the
protections of the Constitution.”
Yet such bold proclamations from the
bench rarely provide comfort to those
who need it most.
“To suppress expression is to reject the
basic human desire for recognition and
affront the individual’s worth and
dignity.”
Today, according to numerous reports
from inmates in several California state
prisons, free speech inside the
penitentiary is increasingly becoming a
scant luxury, not the universally
recognized right abstracted by federal
judges. Reality, it seems, is closer to
the view offered by the ACLU that
“prisoners’ First Amendment rights are
far more limited than those of
non-prisoners, and prison officials can
significantly restrict the publications
prisoners receive.”
Stifle tactics: Bay View as prison
contraband
As early as March 2008, the San
Francisco Bay View began receiving
dispatches from California prisoners
alerting the newspaper that prisoners in
possession of the newspaper were being
charged with gang affiliation and having
their subscriptions withheld.
Ed Furnace, formerly at Salinas Valley
State Prison (SVSP), informed the Bay
View that he had been segregated from
the general inmate population and exiled
to solitary confinement in part
for possessing a Bay View
article on Black August, the
commemoration of Black radical
resistance centered on the Marin
courthouse rebellion that occurred Aug.
7, 1970. Furnace believes the
segregation violated his First Amendment
rights and possibly constitutes
defamation: They (SVSP) are “essentially
saying that the article is gang
recruitment material when it is not.”
When Furnace challenged court
authorities in June to demonstrate how
his possession of the Bay View
and other so-called gang “source items”
provided the requisite “direct” link to
gang activity, the court appealed to
Webster’s dictionary, ruling, “While
neither the statute nor case authority
specifically defines the term, the
dictionary defines ‘direct’ as meaning,
among other things ‘without interruption
or diversion,’ and ‘without any
intervening agency or step.’” Despite no
evidence of prior or current
affiliation, the California prison
system has thus acknowledged that
Furnace’s fate will not be decided
empirically, but rather by manipulative
word play.
On June 10, 2010, Derick Lovings, a
prisoner at Kern Valley State Prison
(KVSP), was subjected to what he
believed at first to be a routine cell
search. “I was told it was a random cell
search. However, after speaking with the
sergeant I was informed it was for a Bay
View magazine.”
According to prisoner reports, prisoners
at Corcoran, Chuckawalla, Kern and
Pelican Bay state prisons are facing
punitive action by prison officials
including what’s known as administrative
segregation, leading to an unofficial
yet effective ban on the Bay View
newspaper.
“I was told it was a random cell search.
However, after speaking with the
sergeant I was informed it was for a Bay
View magazine.”
Administrative segregation, or “AdSeg,”
is a process used to isolate prisoners
from the general inmate population. Once
segregated, prisoners are often placed
in solitary confinement, formally called
Specialized Housing Units (SHU). In the
SHU, prisoners experience extreme
sensory deprivation – a clear form of
psychological torture according to
mental health experts and prisoner
advocates, who continue to castigate the
process as inhumane.
It is also well documented that in
addition to the psychological effects of
such confinement practices, prison guard
brutality is not uncommon in the SHU.
According to the Prison Law Office, a
leading public interest law firm,
Corcoran State Prison, one of the
institutions implicated in the current
ban, gained particular “notoriety for
[SHU] violence, including ‘gladiator
fights’ in which prison guards put
hostile prisoners on group yards, bet on
the resulting fights, and sometimes shot
the prisoners involved.”
Stays in the SHU commonly follow what
are known as “validations.” Inmates get
validated when prison officials decide
that the prisoner fits one of their
criteria for gang affiliation.
Possession of gang-related contraband is
one such criterion and according to
recent reports from California
prisoners, the Bay View is now
being compared to white supremacist and
other racist propaganda.
What’s the justification for this claim?
According to Derick Lovings, prison
officials are arguing for the need to
uphold standards of objectivity. “Is
this some sort of Black Panther paper?”
reportedly queried a certain Captain
Flores of KVSP. “You know we don’t allow
the white supremacist literature
inside.”
Aside from the transparent ignorance of
the actual content of the Bay View,
what is more disturbing is the obvious
assumption that the Black Panthers and,
by implication, the Bay View, represent
racist opinion. Assuming the Bay
View can be likened to white
supremacist literature adds validity to
Ed Furnace’s claim that the actions of
recent California prisons border on
libel.
At the very least, it reinforces the
understanding, perhaps now simply taken
for granted, that behind the walls of
the penitentiary, where rights are “more
limited,” such absurdities are commonly
upheld as instances of objectivity.
Banned in the CDCR
While some prisoners are being punished
for possessing copies of the Bay
View, others in the California
Department of Correction and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) system are having
their subscriptions withheld and, in
some cases, charging that their outgoing
mail is not being sent.
Randall Ellis, a prisoner at Pelican
Bay, filed a lawsuit July 6 against the
prison for withholding a letter sent to
the Bay View back in August 2009. Keith
Barnett, a former Corcoran, now at Kern
Valley, has not received his
subscription to the Bay View
since August 2008 despite the papers’
consistent mailing. In February of this
year Barnett wrote that he had begun to
“believe that the prisoncrats were
censoring the publications allowed into
the SHU at Corcoran” and suggested the
Bay View pursue legal action.
Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood
Marshall
The apparent censorship of the Bay
View in California prisons
coincides with accounts of another
banned periodical, Revolution, the
newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist
Party, USA. According to Revolution,
officials at two California prisons
where bans are alleged to be instituted
have had little to say. Officials at
Pelican Bay have remained silent on the
issue except to emphasize that “no ban
of Revolution Newspaper is in effect.”
Similarly, the assistant warden of
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison (CVSP)
claims, “Revolution does not have a
blanket ban at Chuckawalla.” Both
statements do not deny that a prior ban
had been in place, merely that they are
not instituting one currently. However,
Revolution maintains that prisoners, as
recently as June, continue to be denied
their subscriptions.
Rebellion is printing the Black voice
Regardless of the outcome of his lawsuit
against Pelican Bay, Randall Ellis vows
to continue to speak out in support of
“Blacks’ various struggles in this
country and shed light on the false
attacks levied against [Blacks] for
writing about and studying [their]
history.” An admirable task not pursued
nearly enough and a call to arms for
those who enjoy far greater freedoms.
The Bay View is often the only
window to the world for countless Black
prisoners. It provides perspective and
insight into issues facing the Black
community long ignored by the mass and
most independent media. Attempts to
silence or pacify its content only serve
as a reminder that, as Black radical
activist Ashanti Alston points out, “The
state is inherently oppressive as a
mechanism that cannot give, grant,
guarantee or preserve freedom.”
Freedom is not a gift or benevolent
judicial gesture; it is something fought
for by people like California prisoners,
enlightened souls with little left to
lose. So long as their freedoms are left
to the whims of wardens, the Bay
View will continue to share their
voice and support their struggle. That
they’ll likely be denied the freedom to
read this article is, in Thurgood
Marshall’s words, perhaps the greatest
assault on an their “worth and dignity.”
Nick Theodosis is a graduate student in
philosophy at San Francisco State
University. He can be reached at mailto:[email protected]
How you can help
Legal assistance to help the Bay View
and prisoner subscribers pursue their
rights is welcome. So are contributions
to the Bay View’s Prisoner Subscription
Fund, so more prisoners can read the Bay
View and join the many subscribers
behind enemy lines who say, “The Bay
View keeps me alive.”
Contribute online by clicking on Support SF BayView near
the top left of every page at
www.sfbayview.com.
Scroll down to the section headed
“DONATE” for simple instructions on
contributing to the Prisoners
Subscription Fund. If you’d like to give
a gift subscription to a prisoner you
know, scroll down further to the section
headed “SUBSCRIBE” to read the easy
instructions.
And send our brothers who are taking the
lead in this freedom fight some love and
light: Edward Furnace, H-33245,
CSP4B-4R-31, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA
93212; Derick Lovings, T-42634, A-8-211,
P.O. Box 5101, Delano, CA 93216; and
Randall Sondai Ellis, C-68764, SHU
D2-213, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA
95531.
Another Suspicious Death
in Maine State Prison’s Lockdown Unit--August
3rd, 2010--Maine Attorney General Janet Mills
reportedly will review the results of an
investigation by the state police into the death of
a prisoner named Victor Valdez, who died last
November in the Special Management Unit (SMU) of
Maine State Prison. While the Maine Department of
Corrections says he died of natural causes, inmates
who say they witnessed the incidents insist he was
beaten and abused by prison staff, who also hindered
him from receiving treatment for a serious medical
condition.
Lance Tapley, who has written before about abuses in
the SMU, published a lengthy article on Valdez’s
death last week in the Portland Phoenix. As Tapley
described the situation:
[Valdez] was a very sick man. His kidneys had
failed, and he had required dialysis treatment
several times a week for eight years, via a stent
implanted in his arm. He also suffered from
congestive heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver,
and lung problems, according to court documents
filed prior to his sentencing in 2009 to four years’
incarceration for a 2008 aggravated assault in
Portland…While at the prison, which is in the
coastal village of Warren, he received his dialysis
at Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta.
Various inmates described the treatment of Valdez in
letters to the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, a
group that actively opposes the abuse of solitary
confinement in Maine’s prisons. One reason for the
beating by guards, one letter said, was their anger
at having to take Valdez to dialysis treatments at a
nearby hospital early in the morning. An inmate
named Jeff wrote to Coalition member Judy Garvey
that staff had “ripped out” Valdez’s dialysis tubes
in order to cart him off to the SMU for breaking a
prison rule, “and he bled all over the place.”
Another inmate named Joel Olavarría Rivera, a friend
of Valdez, wrote to Garvey in Spanish (here
translated by Eda Trajo of El Centro Latino in
Portland):
I saw how the officers abused Victor Valdez. I saw
the officers cover him with pepper spray and they
took him away to check his blood pressure, and
afterwards they put him back in the cell without
cleaning the cell or him. When the officers put him
back in his cell I could smell the pepper spray
because it’s so strong. And Victor fell on the floor
and he stayed like that with all that stink of
pepper spray. For complete story,
click here.
By Charles Piller [email protected]
Last Modified: Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010 - 4:28 pm
The prison official assured his warden in an e-mail
that everything was set: A group of 77 inmates
accused of interfering with officers would be found
guilty, no matter what.
Disciplinary hearings – required proceedings where
inmates can defend themselves with witnesses and
evidence – had not yet taken place at North Kern
State Prison.
Yet, in the April e-mail obtained by The Bee, acting
Associate Warden Steven Ojeda promised to provide
the hearing officers – lieutenants he supervised –
"with direction prior to the hearings and ensure
they understand to hold all of these inmates
accountable."
Leaving nothing to chance, Ojeda prescribed
punishments, too: loss of good-behavior credit and
visiting privileges, threat of a term in one of the
prison system's security housing units – called "the
hole" by prisoners – and other serious penalties.
By acting as judge and jury, Ojeda fit a pattern, a
Bee investigation has found, that suggests
widespread suppression of inmates' rights to contest
allegations by guards or pursue claims of
mistreatment.
Current and retired officers, prisoners and parolees
allege that correctional officers and their
superiors routinely file bogus or misleading
reports, destroy or falsify documentation of abuses,
and intimidate colleagues or inmates who push back.
Sources with firsthand knowledge called the problem
pervasive, offering dozens of examples. Even if the
allegations are valid for a fraction of cases,
thousands of prison terms could have been extended
improperly at vast cost to taxpayers.
One North Kern employee familiar with the Ojeda
situation spoke to The Bee anonymously for fear of
retaliation. He said officers given the orders were
"shocked" that Ojeda would formalize an abrogation
of due process.
Neither acting Warden Maurice Junious nor Ojeda
returned calls or e-mails seeking comment.
A corrections spokesman said that 33 North Kern
inmates did not have good-behavior credits removed,
and four of the 77 prisoners received penalties less
severe than 90 days forfeiture of good-behavior
credits, proving that inmates were not prejudged.
But in the 33 cases noted, all inmates were found
guilty and were spared a loss of good-behavior
credits only because their paperwork was filed late.
The North Kern source said internal records
confirmed the remaining cases as pending.
Scott Kernan, corrections undersecretary for
operations, last week called Ojeda's e-mail
"inappropriate" and "improper," and said it might
signal a need for training. But he said it could
have been intended to ensure an even-handed
approach.
Kernan said he would look into the incident but
defended prison due process as having "served the
state well (as) a fair and appropriate system, and
time-tested."
Told of Ojeda's e-mail, Michael Gennaco, who
monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
for officer misconduct and helped design a similar
system for California prisons, said it seemed to
violate inmate rights.
Basic fairness depends on "providing inmates with a
level of due process," he said, "which isn't much."
Daniel Johnson, a recently retired state prison
research analyst, was assigned in 2008 and 2009 to
record information into a database from about 10,000
employee-misconduct appeals filed by prisoners over
more than five years. He told The Bee that virtually
every complaint filed against a correctional officer
was rejected by officials, including hundreds of
appeals alleging physical abuse "even when medical
records supported the complaint."
Of course, prisoners lie about mistreatment; Johnson
said many complaints he reviewed appeared
unwarranted. But there were many "clear instances,"
he said, of manipulation by officials "in what I
would say is a criminal manner."
Kernan, however, said that "typically, research
analysts would not have enough information while
inputting data to make such a conclusion." He called
corrections "the most investigative law enforcement
organization in the state" and one that is
continually "rooting out misconduct as diligently as
we possibly can."
Blood pooled near his head
Kenneth Hernandez's fate was sealed by a guard's
grunt.
That small utterance took on larger significance at
High Desert State Prison in Susanville, 200 miles
northeast of Sacramento, where Hernandez was
imprisoned on drug and weapons charges. He was
housed in a gym filled with bunk beds and lockers –
typical in the state's crowded prisons.
On May 26, 2004, Hernandez, then 21, had the
misfortune of crossing paths with Officer David
Sharpe between rows of beds. Sharpe said Hernandez
struck the guard's chest with his elbow. Another
guard said he heard Sharpe grunt. Hernandez denies
any such attack.
In sworn statements, witnesses said that Sharpe, who
stands 6 feet tall and weighed about 300 pounds,
bear-hugged Hernandez – 5 feet 9 and 140 pounds –
from behind. He threw Hernandez head-first into a
metal locker. Hernandez fell to the floor, with
Sharpe on top of him, then twitched and jerked
violently. Blood pooled near his head.
In a subsequent court proceeding, Sharpe confirmed
those events but faulted the confined area and said
he did not intentionally injure Hernandez.
"He's having a seizure!" some of the prisoners said
they shouted in alarm. Sharpe kneeled on the back of
the convulsing prisoner.
"Shut the f--- up!" Sharpe yelled, pressing his
forearm against the nape of Hernandez's neck,
according to inmate witness statements in the prison
investigation report.
Hernandez was airlifted to Reno for emergency
surgery, his skull fractured.
Back in his cell weeks later, Hernandez suffered
from facial paralysis, seizures and vomiting,
according to medical records. He also had to defend
himself against the serious charge of assaulting an
officer.
Hernandez told The Bee he didn't get a fair hearing
because key evidence was barred. The prison
investigator disallowed photographs of the scene, a
complaint by other inmates alleging criminal
misconduct by Sharpe, and statements from FBI
examiners, according to his report.
Also rejected by the investigator was Hernandez's
"stress voice analysis" – a lie-detection method –
conducted by High Desert internal affairs, which the
inmate claimed proved his innocence.
The investigator did include in his report accounts
of inmates, who said they saw Sharpe attack
Hernandez without provocation. None said Hernandez
attacked the officer and no guards witnessed the
event.
But the hearing officer, Lt. J.L. Bishop, said the
inmates' testimony "lacks credibility," because they
fear revenge from other prisoners for supporting a
guard.
Guards said that inmates moved to the floor
reluctantly when ordered to during the altercation,
Bishop wrote. That reticence, he said, "strongly
colors this incident in staff-assaultive tones."
The linchpin was the officer's recollection of the
grunt.
Sharpe's grunt, "prior to commanding the inmates to
'get down' strongly indicates that he was struck
with force," Bishop wrote, "and without warning."
Bishop found Hernandez guilty and sentenced him to
five months' loss of good-behavior credit, a year
without family visits and a possible term in the
hole.
Six years later, Hernandez is out on parole. He
still has trouble with balance, and said in cold
weather the clip that secures his skull makes his
head ache. As of 2009, Sharpe still worked at High
Desert.
'I'll answer to God'
Hernandez's injuries were severe, but his
due-process experience was typical of accounts from
dozens of inmates in state lockups.
Current and former correctional officers said guilty
findings often were preordained informally and
hearing officers knew they would be in trouble with
higher-ups if they didn't consistently find inmates
guilty.
Gerald Edwards, a former lieutenant at Calipatria
State Prison east of San Diego, said he conducted
about 100 rule-violation hearings in the last few
years of his 24-year prison career. In 2009, Edwards
alleges he was harassed by superiors after ruling in
favor of inmates four or five times.
In one case, a prisoner was charged with
intoxication for "walking erratically," Edwards
said. The prisoner didn't supply enough urine for a
drug test, tantamount to admitting guilt. Yet
grounds for a test seemed lacking to Edwards – no
staggering gait, dilated eyes, alcohol on the breath
or slurred speech, according to inmates and officers
who were present.
Edwards' own investigation showed that the prisoner
was dehydrated, and could not provide a proper
sample.
A guilty finding would have been like a new prison
sentence, due to the loss of good-behavior credit,
he said.
" 'I'm not going to do that,' I told the warden,"
Edwards told The Bee. " 'I'll answer to the higher
authority on this.' I meant I'll answer to God."
Kernan, the prison undersecretary, called Edwards'
claims that he got in trouble for judging inmates
honestly "patently false," and "very bad information
from a disgruntled employee."
Gene Cervantes, who left corrections in 2007, worked
for years evaluating due process at Sierra
Conservation Center west of Stockton.
Cervantes said officers often charged inmates with
violations they couldn't have witnessed, and at
least 80 percent of inmates in the vicinity of major
disturbances were found guilty of something.
"(Officials) said, 'He's probably not guilty, but
let's call him guilty,' " Cervantes alleged,
"because if not this, he's guilty of other things."
Kernan acknowledged that in a chaotic situation,
determining who is at fault can be difficult. When
occasional mistakes occur, he said, they can be
rectified later by prison authorities or appealed in
court.
Guards often fabricated rule violations against
prisoners they didn't like, said Deb Paul, an
officer for nearly 19 years, most recently at
California State Prison, Sacramento. Paul said she
retired in 2005.
Several officers told The Bee that at least 10
percent of violations improperly lengthened prison
terms. If that estimate is accurate, thousands of
inmates would have been affected last year.
Inmates can lose time off for good behavior for
repeatedly flouting minor rules, such as muttering
profanities or stepping across a line on the yard.
Others collect the wages of despair: longer time
behind bars for attempting suicide. Rule violators
serving "life" terms are often kept in prison by the
parole board, sometimes adding years to their
imprisonment.
Guards often viewed extended sentences as small
victories for job security, Paul said. But
incarceration costs more than $47,000 per adult
inmate per year, so these practices cost state
taxpayers at least tens of millions of dollars
annually.
'Worst examples imaginable'
Some inmates make a practice of trying to bury
officials in appeals – in prison lingo, "602s" –
about trivialities such as cold coffee or rudeness.
"In all fairness, most officers are decent folks,
and many inmates do abuse the 602 process," Eugene
Dey, incarcerated for weapons and drug offenses at
the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad, wrote
to The Bee.
Cervantes, the former prison official, cited "a
pattern of abuse by inmates and a pattern of abuse
by staff," and blamed, in part, lax guard training.
But if both sides abuse the system, the party with
the power tends to win. Not only are nearly all
prisoners charged with rule violations ultimately
found guilty, they usually lose their appeals,
according to prisoners and officers.
"When the 'man' breaks the law, they set the worst
examples imaginable," Dey wrote. "Removing the only
legitimate means to have our issues heard excuses
some of (the violations) prisoners commit."
At the California Correctional Center in Susanville
in 2006, Dey, a Sacramento native, was sent to the
hole after a guard labeled him "skinhead" and
charged him with stirring racial unrest.
The inmate, who once wrote an opinion article for
The Bee calling for reform of California's
"three-strikes" law, denied the charge. He said that
he had no history of racial incidents, tattoos or
affiliations, and that he writes briefs for
nonwhites and whites.
Dey filed a misconduct appeal against the guard,
claiming that he was singled out for his activism. A
deputy warden, Dey alleges in his court filings,
unilaterally downgraded Dey's complaint to a "living
condition" appeal – in effect, holding the officer
blameless.
Such downgrades are common, said Johnson, the former
corrections analyst who studied inmate appeals. And
nearly four in 10 appeals are "screened out" –
rejected as out of compliance with filing rules,
according to corrections department data.
Officers who requested anonymity, retired officers,
parolees and prisoners all told The Bee that when
appeals do go forward, whatever the facts, the
accused officer is nearly always exonerated.
Most allegations of misconduct go nowhere due to a
bureaucracy "well designed by staff to discourage,
in my opinion, the filing of complaints against
staff," Cervantes said.
Dozens of inmates, as well as officers contacted by
The Bee, agreed that appeals often disappear in many
of the system's 33 prisons.
During frequent lockdowns, when inmates rarely leave
their cells, "trying to get photocopies of documents
is virtually impossible," said Paul Mitchell, an
inmate at Salinas Valley State Prison, in a letter
to The Bee. So inmates have no copies to prove their
original documents were lost.
Johnson concluded after processing 10,000 appeals
that regardless of merit, thousands were
systematically quashed on technicalities.
"I am sure they sign these documents believing that
no one will ever see or question their decision," he
told The Bee, "and often render their decisions
based on misguided loyalty."
To illustrate the fairness of prison due process,
corrections officials said that in fiscal year
2008-09, inmates appealed more than 13,000 rule
violation charges, and about 18 percent were
granted.
But the data are misleading because many complaints
are "partially granted." For example, an inmate who
claims physical abuse often asks not to be
retaliated against for filing an appeal. The
anti-retaliation request often is granted.
'Daniel into the lion's den'
Another factor undermines the appeals process,
according to prisoners and former officers: fear.
Edgar Martinez, back home after a recent term at
High Desert, claimed that guards trampled his
belongings and strip-searched him in a snow-covered
yard. He said he watched guards provoke fights among
inmates and tell others, "this 602 needs to go away
or we're going to make your life a living hell."
Afterward, Martinez said, he was too terrified to
protest mistreatment.
In one 2007 case, said Edwards, the former
lieutenant, several inmates were brutally beaten by
guards and denied adequate treatment. None filed a
complaint. "Nothing ever came of that incident. Not
a damn thing," he said.
Inmates sometimes refrain from reporting abuse to
avoid being shipped to other facilities. "There are
staff who say, 'He's a pain, get rid of him,' " then
transfer the prisoner to a location dominated by his
racial or ethnic enemies, Cervantes said, "like
Daniel into the lion's den."
Kernan defended the process for discovering and
punishing misconduct, which includes independent
oversight, court supervision and avenues for inmates
and officers to complain anonymously to outside
watchdogs.
The state Inspector General's Office closely
monitors some investigations of serious lapses by
staff, including excessive force, sexual misconduct
and dishonesty. Last year it agreed with the
prisons' handling of the vast majority of such
cases.
Lee Seale, corrections deputy chief of staff, called
that record "a departmental success story."
In 2009, 42 officers or sergeants were dismissed in
misconduct cases involving prisoners. That total did
not include those fired for granting prisoners
special favors.
However, when officers caused moderate to severe
inmate injuries – or deaths – discipline was
relatively light. The Bee examined all 15 such
episodes monitored by the inspector general in 2009,
involving 32 officers. Eight were dismissed; most
received small pay cuts or short suspensions.
In one case, an officer needlessly punched a
prisoner in the head, broke his elbows and lied
about it in reports. The penalty: a 12-day
suspension.
An officer assigned to monitor inmates on suicide
watch failed to do so and falsified his records.
When he eventually did his check, he overlooked the
fact that one prisoner was dead. He "also failed to
notice a note the deceased inmate posted in a window
on his cell door," the inspector general's report
notes, "indicating his intent to commit suicide."
That officer's salary was cut by 10 percent for two
years.
Such cases suggest that California prisons lack a
workable process to impose reasonable discipline,
said Elyse Clawson, a former correctional official
in two states who served on Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's 2007 expert panel that examined the
state prison system.
"You have to wonder," she said, "if there is a
(prison) culture that assigns much value to what
happens to inmates."
Innocent prisoner's
angry outburst delays release--July
28th, 2010--A Houston man expected to be freed today
after being imprisoned 27 years for a rape he did
not commit will have to wait one more day after
reacting "emotionally" to the reality of his release
this morning.
Bob Wicoff, an attorney for Michael Anthony Green,
said his client was angry and would need another day
to compose himself before having a bond set while
the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal rules on his
actual innocence.
"He was upset," Wicoff said. "Hopefully he'll be
fine tomorrow."
Green was expected to be granted a personal
recognizance bond by visiting state District Judge
Mike Wilkinson this morning. He was not brought into
the courtroom, but loud shouting could be heard from
behind the door to the court's holdover cell.
Wicoff said the shouting was Green.
"This has been a gross perversion of justice and
he's a smart guy and he knows it," Wicoff said.
"He's angry."
The release was the next step in proceedings to
declare Green actually innocent of a 1983 sexual
assault.
Green's family members who spoke as they walked from
the courtroom said Green should have been
immediately released regardless of his behavior.
"He's been in jail too long already," said a woman
who identified herself as a relative and did not
give her name as reporters swarmed her as she walked
to the elevators in the Harris County Criminal
Courthouse. For complete story,
click here.
Dr. Frank Leveille, a 12-year employee at the jail,
was arrested in the early morning hours on two
charges of sexual misconduct.
Leveille, a 70-dollar-an-hour doctor who worked with
female inmates, is an employee of Prison Health
Services, a private company that handles medical
care at Rikers.
“The physician is charged with... violating his
fundamental professional responsibility,” said
Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill
Hearn.
A prison spokesperson declined comment and
Leveille's attorney did not immediately return a
call for comment.
A female inmate alleges the sexual abuse occurred on
March 28 at 2 a.m. New York law says it is illegal
for a prison facility employee to have any sexual
relations with an inmate.
Leveille’s arrest marks the second medical scandal
at Rikers in as many weeks. Dr. Trevor Parks
resigned on July 14th amid allegations he was not
certified to provide medical care to prison inmates
-- yet he was managing the health care of 12,000
inmates.
Critics charge Prison Health Services provides
second-rate care in order to save money, the
for-profit firm has a $123-million-dollar New York
State contract. For complete story,
click here.
Inmate's case puts focus
on a flawed system--July
28th, 2010--The victim testified at Derrick
Williams' kidnapping and rape trial that her
assailant pulled his gray T-shirt over her head to
keep her from seeing his face.
A few moments later, she managed to escape her
attacker, driving away with that telltale T-shirt
still in the car.
The gray shirt, identified vaguely by Williams'
girlfriend as similar to one he owned, provided
prosecutors with their only physical evidence in the
1993 Manatee County trial that sent Williams to
prison to serve two consecutive life sentences for
kidnapping and sexual battery.
This week, that same gray T-shirt became crucial
evidence of another kind. Tests of sweat stains and
skin cells from inside the collar of the shirt
excluded Williams ``as the contributor of this
biological material,'' according to a motion filed
by the Innocence Project of Florida in Manatee
Circuit Court Tuesday.
``These DNA results transform the evidentiary value
of the primary piece of physical evidence the state
used to link Williams to the crime,'' the motion
stated. ``What at trial was the state's most
powerful physical evidence of guilt is now powerful
evidence of innocence.''
Williams, 47, remains in prison. Twelfth Circuit
prosecutors told reporters Tuesday that they intend
to fight his motion for an evidentiary hearing.
``We asked for a sit down and try to talk this
through,'' Seth Miller, executive director of the
Innocence Project of Florida, said Wednesday. ``They
said they won't meet with us. Well, we'll have our
meeting in court.''
Earlier this month, after an embarrassing string of
DNA exonerations, the state Supreme Court appointed
an innocence commission to examine the procedural
flaws that led to so many wrongful convictions in
Florida. The case of Derrick Williams, though he's
technically still a convicted rapist, featured
several recurring themes in those lousy cases.
For complete story,
click here.
Prison Heat: Hunger
Strike Highlights Summer’s Deadly Toll on U.S.
Inmates--July
26th, 2010--As heatwaves swept the Northeast earlier
this month, 30 inmates in solitary confinement at
New Hampshire State Prison went on hunger strike to
protest stifling temperatures inside the prison’s
Special Housing Unit. According to the Concord
Monitor, “Inmates in SHU cannot open windows and
must remain in their cells, usually alone, for 23
hours a day. Unlike inmates in the prison’s general
population, they also can’t go outside.” One visitor
to the prison said that inmates were “sitting in
pure sweat,” and had begun flooding their cells with
a few inches of water in order to cool off.
A Department of Corrections spokesperson told the
Monitor that inmates were refusing to eat until fans
were installed, wither in cells or in nearby
hallways. According to the paper, fans had recently
been removed due to “safety concerns”: Many
prisoners, the DOC claimed, “were tearing them apart
and fashioning them into weapons.” Yet the prison
also refused to place fans in the unit’s hallways,
where they might have benefitted both staff and
inmates.
When purposefully used against prisoners in the
so-called War on Terror, “extreme
temperatures”–including high temperatures reaching
100 degrees–have been widely decried as torture, or
at least as cruel and inhuman treatment. Yet
temperatures at this level are not unusual in many
U.S. prisons, especially in the South, and rarely
arouse resistance from anyone but the prisoners
themselves. The New Hampshire hunger strikers gave
up after about a week. But their protest highlights
the brutal and sometime deadly conditions that
persist in America’s prisons every summer.
In one high-profile case in 2009, Marcia Powell, a
48-year old inmate at Arizona’s Perryville Prison,
was baked to death in the midday sun. Powell, whom
court records show had a history of schizophrenia,
substance abuse, and mild mental retardation, was
serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution. On a
day when the Arizona sun had driven the temperature
to 108 degrees, she was parked outdoors in an
unroofed, wire-fenced holding cell while awaiting
transfer to another part of the prison. A deputy
warden and two guards had been stationed in a
control center 20 yards away, but nearly four hours
had passed when she was found collapsed on the floor
of the human cage. Doctors at a local hospital
pronounced Powell comatose from heat stroke, and she
died later that night after being taken off life
support. (Two local churches stepped in to provide a
proper funeral and burial.) The Maricopa County
Medical Examiner ruled the death an accident, caused
by “complications of hyperthermia due to
environmental heat exposure.” This despite the fact
that Powell had blistering and first and second
degree “thermal injuries” on face, arms, and upper
body.
Following Powell’s death, the Arizona Department of
Corrections banned most uses of unshaded outdoor
holding cells in Arizona, except in “extraordinary
circumstances.” Most Southern states already
restrict their use. But baking in the sun is only
one of many ways to die in America’s prisons in the
summertime. Recent years have seen scattered reports
of heat-related prison deaths in California and
Texas, among others. The prevalence of mental
illness among the victims may be linked to
anti-psychotic drugs, which raise the body
temperature and cause dehydration, and at the same
time have a tranquilizing effect that may mask
thirst. For complete story,
click here.
Va. corrections
department sued--July
22nd, 2010--Two civil rights groups have sued
the Virginia Department of Corrections for banning a
handbook from state prisons that explains the court
system, methods for legal research and
constitutional rights, according to reporter Anita
Kumar.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and the
National Lawyers Guild filed suit Wednesday morning
in the Western District of Virginia, claiming that
the state violated the 1st and 14th Amendments of
the U.S. Constitution.
"Virginia prisons are banning a document that
explains to prisoners how they can exercise their
constitutional rights to protect themselves from
physical abuse, poor conditions and other
mistreatment,'' center attorney Rachel Meeropol
said. "If it is dangerous to educate people about
the Constitution, there are a lot of law schools who
are going to be in trouble." For complete
story,
click here.
Judge Rules Procedures
at Tamms Supermax Violate Constitution--July
21st, 2010--A federal judge yesterday ruled that
current procedures for sending prisoners to the
Tamms Correctional Center in southern Illinois–and
keeping them there indefinitely–is in violation of
the 14th Amendment to U.S. Constitution, which
guarantees due process of law. The judge ordered
that significant changes be made at the notorious
state supermax.
George Pawlaczyk, whose award-winning coverage last
year exposed abuses at Tamms, reports in
theBelleville News-Democrat:
A federal judge has ruled that even inmates termed
the “worst of the worst” by state prison system
officials have a constitutional right to a hearing
before they are sent to what many consider the
harshest prison in Illinois — the solitary-only
Tamms Correctional Center.
U.S. District Court Judge G. Patrick Murphy, sitting
in federal court in East St. Louis, has ruled that
all inmates transferred to Tamms, the state’s only
supermax prison, must be given a swift hearing and
told why they are being sent to the lockup, where
most prisoners spend 23 hours a day in their cells
and are let out only to walk alone in a steel cage.
For complete story,
click here.
Lt. Steven Gentry, a manager at the south tower
jail, was found to have violated department policy,
sheriff’s spokeswoman Kim Leach said. She said an
internal affairs investigation found he exhibited
“conduct unbecoming.”
“We followed procedures, and he was terminated
according to our policies,” Leach said.
Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s April 2009 newsletter has a
photo on the front page of Gentry speaking with the
media about the new jail building. For
complete story,
click here.
Lawsuit accuses Ohio
jail of stun-gun abuses--July
17th, 2010--COLUMBUS - Corrections officers at a
central Ohio jail regularly use pain-inducing stun
guns to subdue inmates when there's no physical
threat and when inmates are restrained, outnumbered,
disoriented or mentally disabled, according to a
lawsuit filed in federal court.
The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court by the
Ohio Legal Rights Service on behalf of three
inmates, says the alleged actions at the Franklin
County jail in Columbus violate constitutional
rights as well as jail policy.
It seeks class action status to include current
inmates as well as those who become jailed while the
suit is pending.
The Legal Rights Service, an independent state
agency, says video and written reports show that
guards have improperly used stun guns several times
since at least January 2008 "to inflict pain, fear,
corporal punishment and humiliation" when inmates
wouldn't obey commands or used profanity or insults.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU says California DNA
law violates privacy--July
14th, 2010--Challenging a California law that
requires police to collect the DNA of all suspected
felons, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer
told a federal appeals court Tuesday that the
government should not be allowed to take the
"genetic blueprint" of someone who hasn't been
convicted of a crime.
One-third of the 300,000 Californians arrested on
felony charges each year are never convicted, but
the state now can "seize, search and analyze the DNA
of everyone," attorney Michael Risher told the Ninth
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
He said the voter-approved law allowing DNA testing
after all felony arrests sacrifices privacy in
exchange for questionable gains in identifying
criminals.
The three-judge panel questioned whether DNA
sampling is a major invasion of privacy, but
indicated that the California law may be vulnerable
because of a year-old ruling in another case.
Judge Milan Smith said DNA testing, taken with a
swab from the inner cheek, is no more intrusive than
fingerprinting and is "a really good way of
identifying people." He said Risher was asking
government officials to be "Luddites (who) can't use
modern technology."
But Smith said the court is bound by the precedent
of its June 2009 ruling in a case from Las Vegas.
That 2-1 decision said police violated the
constitutional ban on unreasonable searches when
they extracted DNA from a man who was under arrest -
but was not suspected of any other crimes - so they
could enter it into a criminal database.
'hands are tied'
If the California case is similar, "our hands are
tied" and the court must overturn the law, Smith
told Deputy Attorney General Daniel Powell, the
state's lawyer. Smith said the state would have to
ask the full 27-judge court to order a new hearing
before a larger panel, which would have the
authority to overturn the Nevada ruling.
Powell argued that the current case is different
because California has a law that authorizes
post-arrest DNA testing and Nevada does not. He also
said the California law protects privacy by making
it a crime to release DNA information to anyone but
a law enforcement officer.
California voters approved Proposition 69 in
November 2004 to expand a previous law allowing
police to collect DNA samples only from suspects who
had been convicted previously of a sex crime or a
violent felony. The new law, implemented in two
stages, extended the requirement to anyone who had
been convicted of a felony or arrested on a felony
sex charge and, starting in January 2009, to anyone
arrested on any felony charge.
The lead plaintiff in the case, Elizabeth Haskell of
Oakland, was arrested in March 2009 at an anti-war
rally in San Francisco on suspicion of forcibly
trying to free another demonstrator, but was
eventually released without charges, the ACLU said.
She said she agreed to provide a DNA sample after
police told her she would be charged with another
crime and held in jail if she refused. For
complete story,
click here.
Washington County
jailers used inmate as enforcer--July
14th, 2010--Washington County jailers used a violent
inmate to physically assault and otherwise
discipline other unruly inmates, sending at least
one to the hospital, according to federal
prosecutors and a former correctional officer on
Wednesday.
That officer, Valeria Wilson Jackson, pleaded guilty
to obstructing justice Wednesday morning in federal
court in St. Louis and admitted that she lied to the
FBI to cover up the assaults.
She also claimed that her father, the former chief
deputy of the sheriff's office, was one of those who
enlisted that violent inmate in the assaults,
rewarded him with cigarettes and subsequently
altered jail documents to cover up his actions.
In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Fara Gold, of the
civil rights division in Washington, mentioned
multiple inmates who were allegedly assaulted in
this way. The inmates were identified only by their
initials, as was “T.M.,” the inmate used in the
assaults. For complete story,
click here.
Robert Medina was found unresponsive in his cell at
the Eyman state prison near Florence. Prison
officials say efforts to revive the 29-year-old
failed.
Medina had been sentenced 2009 in Maricopa County to
serve 15 years for kidnapping and armed robbery. He
was being held in the prison's maximum security
unit.
Anthony Lester was held at the state prison in
Tucson and died after being taken to a hospital late
Sunday. The 26-year-old was serving a 12 year
sentence for aggravated assault in Maricopa County.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU alleges use of
‘squirrel cages’ at jail--July
10th, 2010--NEW
ORLEANS — A Louisiana jail routinely humiliates
suicidal prisoners by forcing them to wear skimpy
shorts that say “Hot Stuff” on the rear and confines
them in tiny “squirrel cages” for weeks at a time, a
civil liberties group said Thursday.
In an open letter to St. Tammany Parish officials,
the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana says
it is unconstitutional for the parish jail to
confine prisoners in cages that are three feet wide,
three feet long and seven feet tall. Guards and
prisoners refer to them as squirrel cages, the ACLU
says.
“We understand that the cages have been frequently
used to hold more than one prisoner at a time, and
that staff often ignore prisoners’ requests to use
the bathroom, forcing people to urinate in discarded
milk cartons,” wrote Marjorie Esman, the group’s
executive director.
A St. Tammany Parish code requires dogs to be kept
in cages that are at least six feet wide and six
feet deep, larger than the cages that prisoners are
using, Esman wrote. For complete story,
click here.
Supermax Prisons: Cruel,
Inhuman and Degrading--July
9th, 2010--This week the European Court of Human
Rights
temporarily halted the extradition of four terrorism
suspects from the United Kingdom to the United
States. The court concluded that the applicants had
raised a serious question whether their possible
long-term incarceration in a U.S. “supermax” prison
would violate
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights,
which prohibits “torture or … inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment.” The court noted that
“complete sensory isolation, coupled with total
social isolation, can destroy the personality and
constitutes a form of inhuman treatment which cannot
be justified by the requirements of security or any
other reason,” and called for additional submissions
from the parties before finally deciding the
applicants’ claim. For complete story,
click here.
Illnesses blamed on
prison recycling program--July
7th, 2010--MARIANNA -- (AP) -- When former prison
worker Freda Cobb developed sores on her arms, legs
and back in 1997, she didn't connect them to an
inmate work program that recycles computers and
other electronic goods at a penal institution in the
Florida Panhandle.
Nor when her hair fell out, when she had abdominal
pains, when her weight shot up or when she developed
other symptoms.
Now, however, the 49-year-old medically retired
guard and cook supervisor at the Marianna Federal
Correctional Institution is certain that byproducts
of the electronic recycling program are to blame for
those ills, as well as her memory loss, temporary
blindness, ear pain and migraine headaches. Her
uterus was removed after its size tripled.
She and hundreds of other federal prison workers,
inmates and others with similar complaints in
Florida and six other states say the program --
which has been criticized in a government report for
inadequate safety procedures -- exposed them to high
levels of heavy metals and other toxic materials.
Cobb says victims inhaled metallic dust that filled
the air like pollen and took it home or back to
prison dormitories and dining facilities on their
clothing. Fans blew the dust throughout buildings
that housed the recycling activities. People who
came to buy computers at flea market-like sales say
they also were exposed. For complete story,
click here.
ACLU Strikes Deal To
Shutter Notorious Unit 32 At Mississippi State
Penitentiary--June
4th, 2010--NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties
Union and the Mississippi Department of Corrections
(MDOC) today struck a deal to shutter the notorious
Unit 32 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at
Parchman, the subject of a longstanding ACLU lawsuit
challenging inhumane conditions and a lack of
medical and mental health care.
As part of the deal, which paves the way for
resolving the ACLU lawsuit, MDOC officials have
pledged to transfer the entire population of Unit 32
to other facilities over the course of the next
several months, move all seriously mentally ill
prisoners to MDOC's mental health facility in
Meridian, MS and remedy the inadequate medical and
mental health care in Unit 32 so long as any
prisoners remain there. As part of the agreement,
the ACLU will also monitor during the next year the
medical and mental health care provided at all of
the facilities in the state to which Unit 32
prisoners will be transferred to ensure they meet
constitutional requirements.
"We applaud MDOC Commissioner Christopher Epps'
decision to take this important step, and the work
that he and his staff have undertaken during the
course of the Unit 32 litigation to reform one of
the worst prisons in the nation," said Margaret
Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National
Prison Project. "These reforms have resulted in
considerable savings to the taxpayers of the state
of Mississippi, and more importantly the community
is far safer as a result of these reforms because
prisoners are not doing their time in an incubator
for violence and mental illness."
The ACLU, in collaboration with the law firm Holland
& Knight, filed a lawsuit in 2002 on behalf of all
of Unit 32's death row prisoners, charging that they
were held 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, in
cells where summer heat indexes reached 120 degrees,
the toilets were non-functional, the housing areas
were routinely awash in sewage from broken plumbing
and they were subjected day and night to the ravings
of severely psychotic prisoners whose mental
illnesses were left untreated. For complete story,
click here.
Prisoners Unfairly
Assigned To Draconian And Unconstitutional Units--June
2nd, 2010--WASHINGTON, D.C. – Secretive housing
units inside federal prisons in which prisoners are
condemned to live in stark isolation from the
outside world are unconstitutional, violate the
religious rights of prisoners and are at odds with
U.S. treaty obligations, according to the American
Civil Liberties Union.
In comments filed today with the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons, the ACLU called for the immediate closure
of all Communications Management Units (CMUs), which
were ostensibly created to house and control the
communications activities of prisoners with
suspected terrorist ties. But because the criteria
for placement in a CMU are so vague and overbroad,
and because those criteria are applied by prison
officials with no outside review or accountability,
CMUs in fact house prisoners who have never been
convicted or even accused of any terrorism-related
crime.
"These units are an unprecedented attack on the
constitutional rights of prisoners and those in the
outside world who wish to communicate with them,"
said David Fathi, Director of the ACLU National
Prison Project. "There is no justification for
forcing prisoners who have never been convicted of
any crime of terrorism to serve their sentences in
severely isolated housing units, especially since
prison officials are already able to address any
legitimate security concerns by monitoring the mail,
telephone calls and visits of people in their
custody."
The Bureau of Prisons has long been operating two
CMUs without regulatory authority – one at the
Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana
and one at the United States Penitentiary in Marion,
Illinois. The ACLU's comments oppose proposed
federal regulations which, if adopted, would
formally authorize the CMUs' operation.
The ACLU last year filed a federal lawsuit
challenging the Bureau's creation of the CMUs on
behalf of Sabri Benkahla, an American citizen who
has been imprisoned at the Terre Haute CMU since
October 2007, despite being found not guilty of all
terrorism-related charges against him and praised as
a "model citizen" by his sentencing judge, who said
the chances of his ever committing another crime are
"infinitesimal." For complete story,
click here.
Unattractive Defendants
22 Percent More Likely to Be Convicted, Study Finds--May
17th, 2010--According to a Cornell University study,
unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely
to be convicted than good-looking ones. And the
unattractive also get slapped with harsher sentences
- an average of 22 months longer in prison.
The study, "When Emotionality Trumps Reason," was
authored by Cornell graduate Justin Gunnell and
Stephen Ceci, a professor of developmental
psychology. It examines how some jurors make
decisions rationally, based on facts and logic,
while others reason emotionally, taking into
consideration factors unrelated to the case -
attractiveness being one of them.
The study consisted of 169 Cornell psychology
undergraduates, who were classified as either
rational or emotional decision-makers through an
online survey. They were then given case studies of
defendants, complete with a photograph and profile,
were read jury instructions and listened to the
cases' closing arguments.
In serious cases with strong evidence, there was
little difference in the conviction rate between
attractive and unattractive defendants. But in more
minor cases, with ambiguous evidence, jurors were
more biased toward the good-looking.
Gunnell, who works as a litigator in New York City,
said the findings could impact how attorneys select
juries. For complete story,
click here.
Publisher Prevails in Public Records Suit Against
GEO Group; Obtains Records and $40,000 in Attorney
Fees--May 12th, 2010--Palm Beach, FL – Prison
Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication that
reports on criminal justice-related issues,
announced today that it had prevailed in a public
records suit filed against Boca Raton-based GEO
Group, the nation's second-largest private prison
company.
Prison Legal News (PLN) filed the suit in 2005 under
Florida's public records law, after GEO failed to
produce documents related to contractual violations
and litigation against the company that resulted in
settlements or verdicts. Under state law, GEO is
required to comply with public records requests.
Over the past five years the Circuit Court granted
four motions to compel against GEO ordering the
company to produce the records. GEO finally did so
just before a summary judgment hearing in Palm Beach
County Circuit Court, providing a spreadsheet of
successful litigation against the company and
agreeing to pay $40,000 to PLN in attorney's fees.
GEO also produced copies of the complaints and
settlements in ten lawsuits filed against the
company that had resulted in the largest monetary
payouts.
"While we are pleased with the eventual outcome of
this case, we are disappointed that GEO decided to
drag it out over five years, which was clearly a
delaying tactic," stated PLN editor Paul Wright.
"The public, which funds GEO's for-profit prison
operations through taxpayer dollars, deserves better
in terms of compliance with Florida's public records
law."
PLN's attorney, Frank Kreidler, who specializes in
public records and Sunshine Law litigation, agreed.
"This was a long, tough case in which GEO failed to
produce the requested records years ago, which would
have made them available to the public through PLN's
reporting. It is a disservice to the public when GEO
fails to comply with the state's public records
statute."
The case is Prison Legal News v. The GEO Group,
Inc., Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of Florida for Palm
Beach County, Case No.50 2005 CA 011195 AA. PLN was
ably represented by attorney Frank A. Kreidler.
In other recent news, a report by the Florida Center
for Fiscal and Economic Policy released on April 9
found it was uncertain whether private prisons in
Florida produce savings of at least seven percent as
required by state law. Further, the report found
that there was insufficient data to determine the
efficacy of education and rehabilitation programs
provided by private prison companies. On April 13,
Florida officials announced that GEO Group was
losing its contracts to operate the Graceville and
Moore Haven correctional facilities.
_____________________________
Prison Legal News (PLN), founded in 1990 and based
in Brattleboro, Vermont, is a non-profit
organization dedicated to protecting human rights in
U.S. detention facilities. PLN publishes a monthly
magazine that includes reports, reviews and analysis
of court rulings and news related to prisoners'
rights and criminal justice issues. PLN has almost
7,000 subscribers nationwide and operates a website
(www.prisonlegalnews.org) that includes a
comprehensive database of prison and jail-related
articles, news reports, court rulings, verdicts,
settlements and related documents. PLN is a project
of the Human Rights Defense Center.
Frank A. Kreidler, Attorney
1124 S. Federal Highway
Lake Worth, FL 33460
(561) 586-6226 [email protected]
(Press Release Complete Entry)
Prison officials open "full investigation" into
abuse claims--May 11th, 2010--State
prison officials said Monday that they had
dramatically broadened their investigation of
alleged racism and cruelty by guards at the High
Desert State Prison in Susanville, California. The
move came in response, officials said, to a Bee
investigation published on Sunday and Monday about
claims of abuse of prisoners in a special behavior
modification program. For Complete Story,
Click Here.
California prison
behavior units aim to control troublesome inmates--May
11th, 2010--Standing over a small metal sink, a
prisoner pours water over his head and face. It's
usually the only way to bathe, and offers a brief
respite from staring at barren, pockmarked walls in
a tiny cell.
Such is daily life inside the behavior unit at the
California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and
State Prison in Corcoran, said Tally Molina, an
inmate allowed out of his cell once every third day
for a quick shower.
Asked how he occupies his time, Molina spoke of
meals and some reading, but added: "Nothing really
breaks the monotony."
Behavior units were created in six California
prisons as a middle ground between the general
prison population and security housing that inmates
call "the hole." The behavior units were designed
for troublemakers or those who reject cellmates.
Since their inception in 2005, well over 1,500
inmates have passed through behavior units, where
reduced privileges are supposed to be combined with
"life skills" classes.
A Bee investigation found that the units are marked
by extreme isolation and deprivation. Most of the
classes were halted by budget cuts. Some inmates
endure lives devoid of exercise, social interaction,
even time outside of the cell – for months on end.
In interviews, many seemed confused about the
purpose of the units and desperate about their
future. For complete story,
click here.
'Three strikes' can
count juvenile convictions--April
20th, 2010--The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld
California judges' authority to count adult felons'
convictions in juvenile court in determining whether
to sentence them to life in prison under the state's
"three strikes" law.
The court denied a San Jose man's appeal of his 2005
sentence for possessing a gun as a convicted felon.
Vince Nguyen's sentence was doubled, to 32 months,
based on his assault conviction in a 1999 juvenile
court proceeding, when he was 16. Under the three
strikes law, he could have been sentenced to 25
years to life in prison if his record had included a
second such conviction as a juvenile. For
complete story,
click here.
Mistaken IDs under scrutiny
as Texas leads nation in wrongful convictions--April
14th, 2010--HOUSTON—Justice, equal and exact to all,
is supposed to be blind. But in the case of Anthony
Robinson, it also turned out to be deaf.
These days, even with a practice in international
law and immigration, Robinson enters the Harris
County Criminal Justice Center only when absolutely
necessary. Maybe that’s because 23 years ago, he
was brought to the courthouse in shackles. For
complete story,
click here.
Lawmakers challenge
Forensic Science Commission chairman's priorities--April
8th, 2010--AUSTIN – State lawmakers suggested
Wednesday that the prosecutor Gov. Rick Perry
placed in charge of the Texas Forensic Science
Commission is doing more to impede cases than
investigate them. The chairman, Williamson
County District Attorney John Bradley, has
concentrated on clarifying the forensic commission's
policies and procedures and putting them into a
manual rather than holding hearings on a
death-penalty case that has raised questions about
arson convictions statewide, members of the House
Public Safety Committee charged. The
lawmakers wanted to hear about changes that Bradley
has attempted to institute – including asking his
fellow commissioners to destroy most of their
e-mails after a day and to not speak with the media.
He also has sought to discontinue the commission's
practice of allowing
members from the public to address them during their
meetings, his colleagues said. Such
directives "really undermine public confidence.
That's what we're asking about," said Rep. Stephen
Frost, D-Atlanta. In October, Perry abruptly
replaced three members of the nine-person forensics
commission just as it was about to hear testimony
from a
fire expert in the arson case of Cameron Todd
Willingham, who was executed in 2004. Craig
Beyler, a nationally recognized arson expert, is
among a half- dozen prominent fire authorities who
have questioned evidence in the case. Willingham was convicted of starting a
Corsicana house fire that killed his two children.
The experts' examinations found the fire
investigation was fraught with what they called
wives' tales and junk science. for complete
story,
click here.
Kentucky jailer jailed--March
31st, 2010--PARIS, Ky. — A jailer in central
Kentucky has been sentenced to 90
days in jail after a jury convicted him on criminal
charges following the death of an inmate. For
complete story,
click here.
ACLU Lawsuit Charges
Idaho Prison Officials Promote Rampant Violence--March
11th, 2010--BOISE, ID – The American Civil Liberties
Union and the ACLU of Idaho today filed a class
action federal lawsuit charging that officials at
the Idaho Correctional Center (ICC) promote and
facilitate a culture of rampant violence that has
led to carnage and suffering among prisoners at the
state-owned facility operated by the for-profit
company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Idaho, the lawsuit charges that epidemic violence at
the facility is the direct result of, among other
things, ICC officials turning a blind eye to the
brutality, a prison culture that relies on the
degradation, humiliation and subjugation of
prisoners, a failure to discipline guards who
intentionally arrange assaults and a reliance on
violence as a management tool.
"In my 39 years of suing prisons and jails, I have
never confronted a more disgraceful, revolting and
inexcusable case of mass abuse and federal rights
violations than this one," said Stephen Pevar, a
senior staff attorney for the ACLU. "The level of
unnecessary human suffering is appalling. Prison
officials have utterly failed to uphold their
constitutional obligation to protect prisoners from
being violently harmed and we must seek court
intervention." For complete story,
click here.
The Maine Legislature is considering a bill to
require constitutional safeguards when prisoners are
relegated to solitary confinement — Maine’s
segregation unit certainly qualifies as solitary
confinement — and to preclude solitary confinement
for prisoners suffering from serious mental illness.
It is groundbreaking legislation and goes a long way
to correct a historic wrong turn in corrections.
Back in the 1980s, explosive growth of the prison
population combined with the closure —
deinstitutionalization — of public mental
hospitals resulted in massive overcrowding in the
prisons and a large proportion of prisoners
suffering from serious mental illness. Prison
rehabilitation programs had also been drastically
cut back.
There was good research showing that crowding and
idleness result in sharp rises in the rates of
violence, psychiatric breakdown and suicide in
prisons. But instead of alleviating the crowding,
re-instituting rehabilitation and finding somewhere
that individuals suffering from mental illness could
receive needed treatment, authorities took a wrong
turn and reacted to the rising violence by locking
down prisoners they castigated as “the worst of the
worst” in their solitary cells. Recent research
suggests that this kind of isolation fails to reduce
violence in the prisons. But there are some harmful
effects.
In solitary confinement, the prisoner is isolated
from others in a cell nearly 24 hours per day. In
Maine, the cell doors are solid metal, so the
prisoner has to shout merely to be heard by staff or
residents of adjacent cells. The prisoner eats meals
alone in his cell and remains almost entirely idle
with no programs to permit him to increase socially
desirable skills. This is not “the hole” of
yesteryear. Lights are on around the clock and the
doors open by remote control. The isolation and
idleness are near total. Staff pass by the cells and
slide food trays through slots in the door, but
meaningful communication rarely occurs. For
complete story,
click here.
Defender, prosecutor in
feud over evidence--January
15th, 2010--Broward's public defender has leveled a
broadside against State Attorney Mike Satz's office,
saying his prosecutors systematically sit on
evidence favorable to defendants, cover up for bad
cops and use a double standard of justice that
favors the wealthy and influential. For
complete story,
click here.
Fake DNA prompts change
in criminal forensics--January
13th, 2010--America’s fascination with the use of
forensic science to solve crimes is best proven by
the explosion of TV shows dealing with the topic,
from dramas like CSI and Cold Case to reality shows
like Forensic Files and The Bureau.
During the past two decades, advances in forensics —
the use of
science and technology to investigate and establish
facts in courts
of law — have led to a seismic change in how police
work is conducted
and what jurors expect when hearing a case.
Although forensic evidence is available only in 10
to 20 percent of
all criminal cases, the public places great weight
on its inclusion,
a fact that’s keenly aware to prosecutors and
defense attorneys.
Perhaps the main reason is improvements made in DNA
profiling, or the
analysis of human material like blood, semen, skin
tissue or hair
that can be used to precisely identify an
individual.
The best-known example of DNA profiling’s impact is
the Innocence
Project, a nationwide non-profit group that uses
testing to determine
if a prisoner has been wrongfully convicted. Since
the group began in
1992, more than 240 people in the United States have
been exonerated,
including 17 who were waiting to be executed on
Death Row.
Just last month, the longest-incarcerated victim of
a wrongful
conviction was freed due to the Innocence Project’s
work. James Bain
— who had been imprisoned for 35 years for
kidnapping, rape and
burglary — was exonerated by DNA testing. Before the
project’s
involvement, his appeal was denied four times by the
courts.
But forensics came under fire last summer when
scientists in Israel
were able to create DNA evidence capable of
identifying the wrong
person, causing profiling’s supposed infallibility
to become suspect.
The same bio-tech firm that did the research,
however, has developed
a system to detect the difference between natural
and manufactured
DNA, based on the lack of methylation — a chemical
reaction — in the
artificial sample. For complete story,
click here.
JUDGING THE JUDGES--December
30th, 2009--Just 12 chief federal judges wield
almost exclusive power over secret
misconduct investigations of more than 2,000 fellow
jurists — though some have themselves been accused
of botching reviews or committing ethical blunders,
according to a Houston Chronicle review.
At least four current or former chief circuit judges
have been the subject of recent high-profile
complaints about their behavior; one posted photos
of naked women painted to look like cows and other
graphic images on his publicly accessible Web site;
another manipulated the outcome of a vote in a
death penalty case.
Not one faced formal discipline.
Nationwide, the integrity of the federal judicial
misconduct system relies heavily on chief judges.
Each oversees complaints — more than 6,000 in the
last 10 years — against all circuit, district,
senior, bankruptcy and magistrate judges in
multi-state regions called circuits. Third
Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Scirica, who is also
chairman of
the executive committee of the Judicial Conference
of the United States, told the Chronicle, “The
federal judiciary takes its ethical
responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. Every
misconduct complaint is carefully reviewed.”
He was the only chief circuit judge who directly
responded to Chronicle requests for comment, though
other circuits' staff replied. In seven
circuits, according to the Chronicle analysis,
supervising judges took no public disciplinary
action at all in the last decade, meaning not a
single federal judge faced any sanctions in 29
states with more than 875 full-time federal judges,
despite thousands of complaints. For complete
story,
click here.
Dallas County jail guard
quits after inmate's 'lap dance'--December
30th, 2009--A Dallas County jail guard has resigned
while under investigation for allowing a
20-year-old male inmate to perform a sexually
suggestive
dance for her to music earlier this month, according
to Sheriff’s Department reports.
The “lap dance” occurred in the county’s new direct
supervision jail, where guards supervise inmates
from inside the housing pods — a growing trend in
corrections. For complete story,
click here.
Jails to limit inmate
mail to postcards only--December
29th, 2009--Heidi Boghosian receives hundreds of
letters each week from inmates across the country.
Most are looking for someone to help them or just to
hear their stories.
"The quality of the letters are so touching because
they're looking to establish relationships with
anyone who will listen to them," said Boghosian, the
executive director of the New York-based National
Lawyer's Guild, which publishes the Jailhouse
Lawyers Handbook.
Boghosian, and other civil rights advocates, are
concerned about a policy that 12 Oregon counties,
including Washington and Clackamas, will implement
next month restricting inmates' outgoing social mail
to postcards. By spring, incoming mail will also be
limited to postcards. For complete story,
click here.
Inquiry
Condemns Oversight at State Police Crime Lab
--Analyst, undetected for 15
years, falsified test results and compromised nearly
one-third of his 322 cases
18 Dec 2009 The New York State Police’s supervision
of a crime laboratory was so poor that it overlooked
evidence of pervasively shoddy forensics work,
allowing an analyst to go undetected for 15 years as
he falsified test results and compromised nearly
one-third of his 322 cases, an investigation by the
state’s inspector general has found. The analyst’s
training was so substandard that at one point last
year, investigators discovered he did not know how
to operate a microscope essential to performing his
job, a report released Thursday by the inspector
general said. For complete story,
click here.
Former guard at halfway
house sentenced--December
15th, 2009--A former contract guard at a Houston
halfway house has been sentenced to five months in
federal prison for sexual abuse of a person in
detention. U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson said
30-year-old Nathan Jones of Houston was sentenced to
prison on Tuesday. He will serve five months in home
confinement after completing the prison sentence.
Jones was convicted over the summer of the federal
felony offense. He admitted that in 2007, while
employed at Leidel Comprehensive Sanction Center, he
engaged in a sexual act with a female federal
prisoner in his office. For complete story,
click here.
TALLAHASSEE - Advocates for the
separation of church and state
scored a victory today when the
1st District Court of Appeal
reversed the dismissal of their
claim that state-funded,
"faith-based" rehabilitation of
ex-prisoners is
unconstitutional.
The Council
for Secular Humanism, a New
York-based organization with
membership in Florida, had
appealed a Leon County circuit
court judge's 2008 dismissal of
the group's complaint that the
state's contract with Prisoners
of Christ and Lamb of God
Ministries is unconstitutional.
Specifically, the appellant
complained that the contracts
violate the "no-aid" provision
of the Florida Constitution,
which bars the state from
spending taxpayer money
"directly or indirectly in aid
of any church, sect, or
religious denomination or in aid
of any sectarian institution."
For complete story,
click
here.
Problems at fingerprint labs have often been traced
back to common themes such as inadequate
supervision or training and a lack of standards for
analyzing fingerprints. Houston, in fact, didn't
even have a manual outlining standard procedures
for analyzing prints, according to an audit that
was released last week.
But some experts say the situation in Houston is
just an example of fingerprinting's deep-rooted
woes, which extend across the country.
“Everything needs to change,” said Jennifer Mnookin,
a law professor at UCLA who has studied fingerprint
issues.
In fact, large fingerprint units have been
repeatedly accused of botching their work over the
last few years.
Examples include:
Last year the Los Angeles Police Department
acknowledged that its fingerprint analysis unit was
a sloppy operation where files were left lying
around, prints sometimes lost and at least two
people had been wrongly identified as criminal
suspects because of botched fingerprint analysis.
In 2007, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office in
Florida disciplined multiple employees after it
discovered analysts cutting corners and pegging
fingerprints to the wrong suspects.
Experts say fingerprinting is far from an exact
science. Unlike many other forensic disciplines,
there are few standards for confirming
fingerprints.
That means an analyst in Houston could conceivably
come to different conclusions from an analyst in
Dallas about whether prints are usable, or even
whether they belong to the same person. Lack
of regulation... For complete story,
click here.
Six more inmate sex
abuse suits filed in Oregon--December
7th, 2009--SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Six more
current or former inmates at Oregon's prison for
women have sued the state claiming they were
sexually abused and harassed by male prison
employees.
That makes a total of 11
such suits alleging sexual abuse at the Coffee Creek
Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. It houses
about 1,100 inmates.
The Salem
Statesman Journal reports that among the
allegations in the latest suits is that a
corrections officer forced inmates to perform sex
acts, and and that he demanded sex in exchange for
letting women out of their cells or letting them off
the hook for violating rules. For complete
story,
click here.
Illinois inmates fight soy
sentence in lawsuit--November
19th, 2009--Some Illinois inmates filed a
suit against the soy diet they are served in prison,
but the debate on soy originated outside prison
walls. The argument is centered on the fact that
most soy in America is genetically modified.
Genetically modified organisms are plants, animals,
or bacteria, in which the genetic material, or DNA,
has been altered in such a way that does not occur
naturally, according to the World Health
Organization. The genetic makeup of these organisms
is altered using a special set of technologies.
“Genetically engineered soy now constitutes 90
percent of all soy growing in the United States,”
said Jeffrey Smith, executive director of the
Institute for Responsible Technology, Fairfield,
Iowa. The organization’s purpose is to educate
people about the health risks of genetically
modified organisms.
Immune system problems, gastrointestinal
problems, organ damage, deregulation of insulin, and
accelerated aging have been linked to genetically
modified feed in animal feeding studies, according
to the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in
Wichita, Kan. In May, the academy issued a statement
calling on all doctors to prescribe a
non-genetically modified diet to all patients.
For complete story,
click here.
For more on this story,
click here.
Lawsuit: Inmate died after water
denied--November
17th, 2009--A federal
lawsuit claims an inmate who died while on a work detail in
Quitman County in June was denied water while picking up trash
in the summer heat. For complete story,
click here.
Auditors found instances in which the lab failed to handle
criminal evidence according to standards set by the American
Society of Crime Laboratory Directors. For complete story,
click here.
Hartford Police Investigating Three
Of Their Own In Beating Of Prisoner--November
8th, 2009--HARTFORD - Police are investigating three of
their own after a prisoner was beaten Nov. 1. Police Chief
Daryl K. Roberts said that the investigation began Thursday,
shortly after police commanders learned of the assault, which
was captured on the department's video monitoring system.
For complete story,
click here.
Prison worker: Riot started over
food quality--November
6th, 2009--FRANKFORT,
Ky. — A Northpoint Training Center corrections officer testified
Friday that inmates rioted at the prison in August because they
weren’t being fed enough and the food they did receive was of
poor quality. For
complete story,
click here.
Justice Dept. to Review
Bush Policy on DNA Test Waivers--October
11th, 2009--Attorney
General Eric H. Holder Jr. has ordered a review of a
little-known Bush administration policy requiring some
defendants to waive their right to DNA testing even though that
right is guaranteed in a landmark federal law, officials said. The practice of using DNA
waivers began several years ago as a
response to the Innocence Protection Act
of 2004, which allowed federal inmates
to seek post-conviction DNA tests to
prove their innocence. More than 240
wrongly convicted people have been
exonerated by such tests, including 17
on death row. For complete story,
click here.
Federal Appeals Court Condemns
Shackling Of Pregnant Prisoners In Labor
--October 2nd, 2009--NEW YORK – Ruling in the case of an
Arkansas woman who was shackled to her hospital bed while in
labor in 2003, a federal appeals court today said that
constitutional protections against shackling pregnant women
during labor had been clearly established by decisions of the
Supreme Court and the lower courts. This is the first time a
circuit court has made such a determination. The full Eighth
Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling today in the case of
ACLU client Shawanna Nelson.
"This is a historic decision by a U.S. Court of Appeals that
affirms the dignity of all women and mothers in America," said
Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the American Civil Liberties
Union"s National Prison Project. "Correctional officials across
the country are now on notice that they can no longer engage in
this widespread practice." For complete story,
click here.
NSW Health has given its full backing to its
criminal DNA testing, despite it leading to the
wrongful conviction of a man for break and enter in
2008.
NSW Health commenced an exhaustive review of its
DNA "cold links", where DNA evidence is matched to a
person on a state DNA database. For complete
story,
click here.
The man almost took the dirty secret
of his death to his grave. The
Tarrant County medical examiner’s
office said injuries from a pickup
wreck killed him. But after a
funeral director hundreds of miles
away found a bullet in the man’s
head, authorities realized a killer
was on the loose.
Worse has happened in the autopsy
suites of Texas medical examiners.
A child molester faked his own
death and almost got away with it
after the Travis County medical
examiner mistook the burned body of
an 81-year-old woman for the
23-year-old man. For complete
story,
click here.
In 1996, Congress passed a law that made it
much harder for inmates to challenge abusive
treatment. It has contributed significantly
to the bad conditions — including the
desperate overcrowding — that prevail today.
The law must be fixed. For complete
story,
click here.
Making Forensic Science Scientific--September
21st, 2009--With the busiest death chamber in the nation, it
was only a matter of time before Texas positioned itself to
become the first state to admit that it executed a person who
was wrongfully convicted. And now that day is at hand.
According to a nationally respected fire engineer, the so-called
scientific evidence used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham of
setting a blaze that killed his three daughters in 1995 was not
scientific at all. In his scathing report to the Texas Forensic
Science Commission, Craig Beyler found that the arson
investigators on the case had a poor understanding of fire
dynamics and based their conclusions on erroneous assumptions,
sloppy research and a dash of mysticism. For example, one
investigator determined that, because the house fire burned "hot
and fast," an accelerant such as gasoline had been used to set
it. But that theory -- still given credence in some
investigatory circles -- is not factual. Gasoline fires are not
significantly hotter than those started with wood, Beyler
reported. For complete story,
click here.
Forensics Under Fire--September
18th, 2009--There has been much nail-biting in
courthouse crowds across the country since the February release
of the National Academy of Sciences report on the state
of forensic science. The report, to put it mildly, was not
flattering. Forensic labs are underfunded, and many of the areas
in which forensic scientists toil – including handwriting,
ballistics, and fingerprint analysis, just to name a few – are
unsupported by rigorous empirical scientific testing, the report
concluded. Of existing "forensic methods, only nuclear DNA
analysis has been rigorously shown to have the capacity to
consistently, and with a high degree of certainty, demonstrate a
connection between an evidentiary sample and a specific
individual or source," reads the report.That
conclusion has, frankly, freaked out a lot of folks – including
many prosecutors who are often the "end consumers" of forensic
science, as Matthew Redle, Wyoming state director of the
National District Attorneys Association, recently put
it. In an effort to figure out what should be done, now that the
forensic cat has been let out of the bag, Vermont Sen.
Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, convened a hearing Sept. 9 to discuss with experts
how to proceed. "Much important work is done through forensics,"
but that is certainly not always so, Leahy noted, singling out
Texas' execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for an
arson-murder based on junk fire science as a disturbing recent
example. For complete story,
click here.
Ohio
ACLU against Strickland-endorsed reform bill--September
8th, 2009--A justice reform bill endorsed by Gov. Ted
Strickland and passed by the Senate designed to prevent
wrongful convictions also includes a controversial measure to
expand the collection of DNA samples to those arrested on
felony charges. Currently, Ohio takes DNA only from people
convicted of felonies and violent misdemeanors. Law
enforcement groups support the expansion, saying it gets
violent offenders off the street quicker and prevents future
crimes. But others say DNA collection before conviction
crosses the line, especially because the bill does not address
what happens if a person isn't convicted.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio opposes the measure,
saying it poses a "myriad of civil liberty risks" including
violating a person's constitutional protections against illegal
search and seizure, is ripe for abuse and is an invasion of
privacy. For complete story,
click here.
Officers allegedly used inmate as
prison fighter--September
16th, 2009--A prison sergeant and two former officers
used an inmate known as `Monster' to beat up troublesome inmates
at Dade Correctional Institution, a federal indictment alleges.
For complete story,
click here.
Harris County criminal court judge
indicted--August
27th, 2009--A Harris County Criminal Court-at-Law
judge was indicted this morning for misdemeanor official
oppression, officials said. Few details were
immediately available regarding the charge against Don Jackson,
a 17-year judge, said Joe Stinebaker, spokesman for Harris
County Judge Ed Emmett. For complete story,
click here.
Prisoners moved after riot
controlled, officials brief media--August
22nd, 2009--BURGIN,
Ky. — Rioting inmates started several fires at a central Ky.
prison, and damage to several buildings was so extensive that
officials have to bus some of the facility's 1,200 prisoners
elsewhere, police said Saturday.
For complete story,
click here.
Drug-test suit alleges false
imprisonment--August
21st, 2009--Five former probationers allege in a lawsuit
filed Thursday that they were falsely charged and imprisoned in
2008 after drug tests that Treatment Associates conducted showed
false-positive results.
The plaintiffs are suing Treatment Associates owner Jeff
Warner, as well as two Bexar County supervisors, for unspecified
damages. The Bexar supervisors named in the suit are Bill
Fitzgerald, chief of the county's Community Supervision and
Corrections Department, and Kathleen Cline, the probation
department's director of operations. According
to the suit, filed in the county's 408th District Court, former
probationers Michelle Archer, Rosa M. Rocha, Frank Viesca,
Raymond Anthony and Jimmie Martinez were jailed after faulty
drug tests showed their urine was positive for illegal
substances.
“Jailing these individuals who had been successfully
serving probation ... was devastating to the integrity of the
criminal justice system and destructive to the ability of the
system to protect the safety of the public,” said their
attorney, David Van Os. For complete story,
click here.
Inmates grow, gather veggies, make soup
for hungry--August
18th, 2009--COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The nation's food banks,
struggling to meet demand in hard times, are turning to prison
inmates for free labor to help feed the hungry.
Several states are sending inmates into already harvested fields
to scavenge millions of pounds of leftover potatoes, berries and
other crops that otherwise would go to waste. Others are using
prisoners to plant and harvest vegetables.
"We're in a situation where, without their help, the food banks
absolutely could not accomplish all that they do," said Ross
Fraser, a spokesman for Feeding America, a national association
of food banks. For complete story,
click here.(Webmaster
Note: Isn't it wonderful that when financial times get tough, we
can always return to slave labor? And, with indefinite detentions
and no criminal convictions as the current standard minimum for being
held prisoner in the US, you too may get to be a slave. Where do
you draw the line? If you do not stand up for others now, there
will be no one left to take a stand.)
DNA Evidence Can Be Fabricated,
Scientists Show--August
17th, 2009--Scientists in Israel have demonstrated
that it is possible to fabricate
DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been
considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.
For complete story,
click here.
Scalia says there's
nothing unconstitutional about executing the innocent.
By Ian Millhiser 17 Aug 2009 In light of the very real evidence
that Davis could be innocent of the crime that placed him on
death row, the Supreme Court today invoked a rarely used
procedure giving [Troy Anthony] Davis an
opportunity to challenge his conviction.
Joined by Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent, however, Justice
Antonin Scalia
criticized his colleagues
for thinking that mere innocence is grounds to overturn a
conviction: This Court has never held that the Constitution
forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a
full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court
that he is "actually" innocent. Quite to the contrary, we
have repeatedly left that question unresolved, while expressing
considerable doubt that any claim based on alleged "actual
innocence" is constitutionally cognizable. For complete
story,
click here.
A federal judge on Thursday
issued a stern rebuke to state corrections officials for
the way they classify some parolees as sex offenders
even though the defendants have never been convicted of
sex crimes.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks also voiced
frustration with state parole officials for ignoring
earlier court decisions and a previous directive by him
and ordered the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to
review whether to leave parolee Ray Curtis Graham on sex
offender restrictions.
"It's time for the parole division and the Board of
Pardons and Paroles to stop being defensive and start
trying not to use technical defenses," Sparks said, in
ruling that the restrictions were not imposed on Graham
legally and that parole officials ignored a subsequent
court warning about the deficiency.
"The undisputed evidence established no official
involved in the ... process has ever made the necessary
finding that Mr. Graham constituted a threat to society
by his lack of sexual control."
Sparks also declared a mistrial in the case after a
week of testimony when attorneys for the state objected
to comments he made to the jury about a witness'
testimony.
Graham filed suit against parole officials after they
officially listed him as a sex offender in December 2007
— without allowing him to see the results of a
psychiatric evaluation they ordered him to undergo or to
appear with his attorneys at a hearing at which the
decision was made. Graham, who served time in prison for
burglary and attempted murder, was never convicted of a
sex crime. He was arrested for aggravated rape in 1982,
but was never convicted. (Web Assistant Note: Sex
offender status without a conviction in secretive parole
officer circles? Titles given without proof,
sounds like troubled teen diagnosis. Who needs science
or due process when we have (so-called) professionals
making shit up? (Sarcasm)) For complete
story,
click here.
MOBILE, Ala. -- Herman Thomas' attorney, Bob
Clark, said Thursday that he was "reasonably
certain" that more indictments against the
ex-judge soon would emerge from a special Mobile
County grand jury.
The 48-year-old Thomas, who
left the
Circuit Court bench in October 2007 under
pressure,
was indicted in March on charges that
included kidnapping, extortion and sodomy in
connection with criminal court defendants.
For complete story,
click here.
CSI Myths: The Shaky Science Behind
Forensics--August,
2009--Forensic
science was not developed by scientists. It was mostly created
by cops, who were guided by little more than common sense. And
as hundreds of criminal cases begin to unravel, many established
forensic practices are coming under fire. PM takes an in-depth
look at the shaky science that has put innocent people behind
bars. For complete story,
click here.
MIAMI --
In
her online profile, Paula Jones says she is
42, "nonjudgmental" and likes fishing,
gardening and cuddling. There's a catch,
though. Jones' picture shows her in her blue
Florida prison uniform. She won't be out
until at least 2010.
Her listing is posted
on a Web site called WriteAPrisoner.com.
She's looking for a pen pal.
"If you're looking for someone genuine
and true, I'm looking for you," her profile
says. "I'm just a stamp away."
By posting her profile, however, Jones is
breaking a rule. Florida officials have
banned inmates from having the
Match.com-style listings, saying prisoners
just create problems for their
outside-the-pen pals.
Other states - Missouri, Montana, Indiana
and Pennsylvania - have similar
restrictions. Now lawsuits in Florida and
elsewhere say the bans are unfair and
violate First Amendment rights.
"The public knows when they're writing to
these people that they're prisoners," said
Randall Berg Jr., a lawyer representing two
pen pal groups - including Florida-based
WriteAPrisoner.com - that have sued in the
state. "Nobody is being duped here."
WriteAPrisoner.com president and owner
Adam Lovell says the bulk of the people who
use his site to write to inmates are from
religious groups, military people stationed
overseas and others affected by the prison.
Fraud isn't as widespread as Florida
corrections officials suggest, he said.
For complete story,
click here.
Losing The Moral High Ground--July
23rd, 2009--The US military has, understandably and
correctly, condemned the
coerced video of a US soldier taken hostage by Taliban in
Afghanistan. But I fear that the argument that the public
humiliation of prisoners is against international law won't take
the US very far after 8 years of Bush-Cheney.
After the evidence surfaced that the US military took all those
humiliating pictures of prisoners at Abu Ghraib to blackmail
them by threatening to make them public, the US assertion of
support for this principle of the Geneva Conventions will be met
with, well, let us say substantial skepticism.
In fact, as I was reminded by a former ambassador, the
Bush-Cheney-Yoo-Addison gutting of US conformance with the
Geneva Conventions really makes it difficult for Washington
credibly to complain about the treatment of any of our captured
soldiers. The Taliban could hold the soldier hostage forever if
they follow the principle put forward by Sen. Lindsey Graham.
They could (God forbid) put him in stress positions naked and
threaten to release the pictures to his family, and they would
have done nothing that Rumsfeld's Pentagon had not done
routinely and on a vast scale. For complete story,
click here.
"When I was 15, my friends started going to jail," says
Victoria Law, a native New Yorker. "Chinatown's gangs
were recruiting in the high schools in Queens and, faced
with the choice of stultifying days learning nothing in
overcrowded classrooms or easy money, many of my friends
had dropped out to join a gang."
"One by one," Law recalls, "they landed in Rikers Island, an entire
island in New York City devoted to pretrial detainment
for those who can not afford bail."
Law shares this and other recollections in her new
book,
Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated
Women
(PM Press). At 16, she herself decided to
join a gang, but was arrested for the armed robbery that
she committed for her initiation into the gang. "Because
it was my first arrest -- and probably because
16-year-old Chinese girls who get straight As in school
did not seem particularly menacing -- I was eventually
let off with probation," she writes.
Before her release from jail, Law was held in the
"Tombs" awaiting arraignment. While the adult women she
met there had all been arrested for prostitution, she
also met three teenagers arrested for unarmed assault.
"Two of the girls were black lesbian lovers. In a
scenario that would be repeated 13 years later in the
case of the New Jersey Four, they had been out with
friends when they encountered a cab driver who had tried
to grab one of them. Her friends intervened, the cab
driver called the police and the girls were arrested for
assault." Law notes that "both of my cellmates were
subsequently sent to Rikers Island." For complete
story,
click here.
PUEBLO, Colo.—Documents and videotapes made by an opponent of the
federal Supermax prison are being archived at Colorado State
University-Pueblo.
Archivists at the university's Southern Colorado Ethnic Heritage
and Diversity collection are reviewing the papers of Mitchell
Kaufman, who died in 1998.
Kaufman's brother Joel says Mitchell Kaufman initially opposed
Supermax because he believed the prison system was inherently
racist, citing its disproportionate numbers of Hispanic and black
inmates.
Joel Kaufman says his brother also opposed Supermax for its small
cells where inmates might be confined for all but a half-hour each
day.
Supermax, built in 1994, houses the nation's most dangerous
prisoners.
Mitchell Kaufman died at age 54 from a reaction to medication.
For complete story,
click here.
State investigating abuse reports at
private prison--July
16th, 2009--FRANKFORT, Ky. — The state Department of
Corrections is investigating allegations of sexual abuse against
as many as 16 Kentucky women housed at the privately run Otter
Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright. For complete
story,
click here.
Legal experts and prosecutors are concerned about the results of
last month's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires lab
analysts to be in court to testify about their tests. Lab sheets
that identify a substance as a narcotic or breath-test printouts
describing a suspect's blood-alcohol level are no longer
sufficient evidence, the court ruled. A person must be in court
to talk about the test results.
The opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, has prosecutors
and judges shaking their heads in disgust and defense lawyers
nodding with satisfaction at the notion that the Constitution's
Sixth Amendment guarantee that defendants "shall enjoy the right
. . . to be confronted with the witnesses against him" is not
satisfied by a sheet of paper.
"This is the biggest case for the defense since Miranda," said
Fairfax defense lawyer Paul L. McGlone, referring to the Supreme
Court ruling that required police to inform defendants of their
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. He said judges
"are no longer going to assume certain facts are true without
requiring the prosecution to actually put on their evidence."
For complete story,
click here.
Supermax prison blocked Obama books
requested by detainee --Officials at the
Florence, Colorado supermax prison deemed the bestsellers
'potentially detrimental to national security' 10 Jul 2009
He has been president of the United States for 172 days, yet it
appears that Barack Obama is still deemed capable of producing
writing that is "potentially detrimental to national security".
That peculiar judgement was made following a request by a
high-security prisoner to read Obama's two bestselling books,
Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. The plea was
made by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who is being held at a supermax
prison in Florence, Colorado. Abu Ali, a US citizen, was found
guilty on 25 November of helping al-Qaida and plotting to
assassinate the then US president [sic] George Bush. For
complete story,
click here.
ACLU Seeks End To Censorship Of
Religious Material By Virginia Jail--July
9th, 2009--STAFFORD, VA – The American Civil Liberties
Union and the ACLU of Virginia today demanded that
officials at the Rappahannock Regional
Jail immediately end their illegal practice of censoring
religious material sent to detainees.
In a letter sent today to the jail's superintendent, Joseph
Higgs, Jr., the ACLU asks for jail officials to guarantee
in writing that the jail will no longer censor biblical
passages from letters written to detainees and to revise
the jail's written inmate mail policy to state that
letters will not be censored simply because they contain
religious material.
"It is nothing short of stunning that a jail would think it okay
to censor the Bible and other religious material for no
reason other than its religious nature," said David
Shapiro, staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison
Project. "Such censorship violates both the rights of
detainees to practice religion freely and the free speech
rights of those wanting to communicate with detainees."
For complete story,
click here.
Since March, the city's Adult Probation
and Parole Department has been using the
system to reshuffle the way it assigns
cases. Each time someone new comes
through intake, a clerk enters his or
her name and the computer takes just
seconds to fish through a database for
relevant information and deliver a
verdict of high, medium, or low risk.
"It's a complete paradigm shift for the
department," said chief probation and
parole officer Robert Malvestuto.
"Science has made this available to us.
We'd be foolish not to use it."
Criminologists say the system works -
it can identify those most likely to
commit violent crimes. But whether
Philadelphia can use that to intervene
and change people's behavior is still
not known. A full evaluation won't be
done until the end of the year.
For complete story,
click here.
Ex-guard attests to alleged inmate
abuse at Westmoreland County Prison--July
4th, 2009--A Westmoreland County Prison inmate was taken out of
his cell, punched, choked, kicked and threatened with death as
punishment for talking back to a guard, according to a statement
given by a corrections officer who said he witnessed the
incident. For complete story,
click here.
Innocents Lost--June
21st, 2009--A MAJORITY OF the Supreme Court ruled last week
that prisoners do not have a constitutional right to
post-conviction DNA testing. The decision was based in large
part on the assertion that federal judicial intervention was
unnecessary because the great majority of state legislatures
already had passed laws to give prisoners adequate access to the
revolutionary technology. The majority's argument has merit, but
the decision in District Attorney's Office v. Osborne was
nonetheless wrong.
The decision sprang from the case of
William G. Osborne, who was convicted of
the brutal 1993 kidnapping, rape and
assault of an Alaska woman. A
rudimentary DNA test performed on semen
found at the crime scene excluded two
suspects but not Mr. Osborne. Mr.
Osborne's trial lawyer declined a more
advanced DNA test for fear that the
results could definitively implicate her
client.
On appeal, Alaskan courts denied Mr.
Osborne's request for further DNA
testing, concluding that eyewitness
accounts and other evidence against him
were so strong that DNA tests would
likely not be dispositive. A federal
appeals court ultimately ruled that Mr.
Osborne was entitled to further testing;
the Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 majority
overturned this decision last week.
For complete story,
click here.
Keystone Cops at the Police Lab--June
18th, 2009--When CSI became the most popular drama on
television earlier this decade, forensic scientists
employed by police departments emerged from anonymity.
Discerning viewers seemed to understand that real- life police
laboratory personnel (filling a job description officially
known as "criminalist") do not solve murders and rapes
within an hour. Still, the glamorization generated by television
drama had begun, increasing exponentially with the spinoff shows
CSI: Miami and CSI: New York.
Many criminalists indeed serve justice well, conscientiously
analyzing evidence found at crime scenes, including blood,
fingerprints, scrapings from beneath fingernails, hair, dirt,
shoe impressions, tire tracks, hard copy documents,
computer messages and more. The good ones keep up with new
forensic techniques, write objective reports, consult
openly with defense attorneys as well as prosecutors,
testify truthfully in court and never lose sight of the
ultimate goal — convicting the guilty while excluding the
innocent from the pool of suspects.
But as it becomes increasingly evident that wrongful convictions
constitute a cancer within the criminal justice system, it
becomes simultaneously obvious that numerous criminalists
are part of the problem. One incompetent or dishonest
criminalist can infect hundreds of cases in a crime
laboratory, with some of those cases mutating
into wrongful convictions. For complete story,
click here.
Elusive Justice Overdue In the Case
of Political Prisoner Paul Minor--June
18th, 2009--It is time for the Obama Justice Department
to reverse one of the most egregiously political persecutions of
the Bush era - Paul Minor's bogus conviction on trumped up
charges of public corruption "bribery" despite a total lack of
evidence that his role as the top
funder of Democratic candidates in Mississippi netted him
anything other than misery and a harsh prison sentence.
Attorney General Eric Holder stated recently that "elections
have consequences." That premise should apply not just to
President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court and appointment of
new U.S. Attorneys, as Holder mentioned. It should compel a
swift review of the unjust prosecutions of prominent Democrats
targeted by the Bush Justice Department.
Paul Minor's case is Exhibit A.
Paul Minor's attorneys recently filed a straightforward,
compelling brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
outlining the multiple errors the prosecution made in convicting
Minor for bribery despite the government not being required to
prove a quid pro quo. In such cases, crystal clear case law
requires the presiding judge to instruct the jury that they can
only convict a campaign fundraiser of bribing public officials
if clear "this for that" evidence exists of a quid pro quo
agreement leading to a specific official act by the recipient in
exchange for the campaign contributions. For complete
story,
click here.
ACLU suit to challenge isolation
prisons--June
18th, 2009--Civil rights activists plan to file a lawsuit
today contesting the transfer of a Tunisian American prisoner to
a federal prison facility that some inmates have dubbed "Little
Guantanamo." The suit by the American Civil Liberties
Union on behalf of Sabri Benkahla could be the first of many
challenging the secretive units, which drastically restrict
outside contact. For complete story,
click here.
In Light Of New Report, ACLU Calls
On Congress To Restore Courts As Check On Prisoner Abuse-June
17th, 2009--WASHINGTON – In light of a new report showing
that a law intended to reduce so-called “frivolous lawsuits” by
prisoners has resulted in barring serious prison abuse cases
from reaching the courts, the American Civil Liberties Union
today called on Congress to amend parts of the Prison Litigation
Reform Act of 1996 (PLRA). The law
requires prisoners to exhaust the internal grievance process of
their facilities and allege a physical injury due to
mistreatment in order to seek redress in the courts. The
troubling consequences of the PLRA are made clear in a
Human Rights Watch report released today which finds that the
exhaustion and physical injury requirements of the law have been
particularly problematic for juveniles who are at higher risk of
sexual assault and other violence. The American Civil Liberties
Union has long fought to amend parts of the PLRA known as the
exhaustion provision,
the physical injury provision and the Act’s application to
juveniles. For complete story,
click here.
ATLANTA (AP) — The recession
is hitting home for inmates,
too: Some cash-strapped
states are taking aim at
prison menus.
Georgia prisoners already
didn't get lunch on the
weekends, and the Department
of Corrections recently
eliminated the midday meal
on Fridays, too. Ohio may
drop weekend breakfasts and
offer brunch instead. Other
states are cutting back on
milk and fresh fruit.
Officials say prisoners are
still getting enough calories,
but family members and critics
say the changes could make
prisoners irritable and food a
valuable commodity, increasing
the possibility of violence.
For complete story,
click
here.
Prosecutors, judge accused of
misconduct--June
2nd, 2009--Attorneys
with the Louisville public defender's office are accusing two
prosecutors of withholding crucial information and then lying in
court about making a deal with a jailhouse informant in a
capital murder case. For
complete story,
click here.
Arizona: Halt to a Detention
Practice--May
30th, 2009--The director of Arizona state prisons
suspended the use of unshaded outdoor holding cells after an
inmate’s death. The inmate, Marcia Powell, 48, was left in an
unshaded enclosure for nearly four hours on May 19 as
temperatures topped 100. The corrections director, Charles L.
Ryan, said Ms. Powell, serving a sentence for prostitution,
should not have been left in the cell for so long. Mr. Ryan
placed three officers on administrative leave pending a criminal
investigation. The outdoor cells hold inmates when they are
being transferred from one area in a prison to another.
For complete story,
click here.
Guard charged in hospital beating in
Lancaster--May
28th, 2009--A Lancaster County Prison guard last August
severely beat a prison inmate who had been shackled to a
hospital bed, according to criminal
and civil complaints. Silvestre Villarreal, a longtime
prison guard who weighs about 200 pounds, climbed on a bed at
Lancaster General Hospital and straddled the inmate, according
to the complaint of a civil lawsuit filed a
week ago. The correctional officer repeatedly hit the
inmate, Vance Laughman, until nurses intervened. He struck him
so hard that he broke his own hand, according to the complaint.
For complete story,
click here.
The Wyandotte County jail is following Johnson
County’s example and preventing inmates from
sending personal letters in envelopes.
The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office
announced Wednesday that inmates would have to
limit all of their personal correspondence to
postcards no larger than 5 by 7 inches. The new
policy does not apply to “official”
correspondence — privileged or governmental
mail.
A release from the office said the move was
made to reduce the workload of the jail’s
mail-handling services and to reduce contraband.
For complete story,
click here.
A Standard for Fair Trials--May
17th, 2009--When dismissing the charges against former
Alaska senator Ted Stevens recently, the trial judge noted that
the prosecutorial failures to turn over exculpatory evidence in
that case were symptomatic of a larger problem within the
Justice Department. Indeed, such failures are happening across
our criminal justice system. Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court
reversed the death sentence of a Vietnam veteran because a
Tennessee prosecutor withheld witness statements that directly
contradicted the state's version of the case. For complete
story,
click here.
Cell phone nets TDCJ inmate 60 more
years--May
14th, 2009--A Coffield Unit inmate was sentenced to 60
years in prison Tuesday after an Anderson County jury found him
guilty of possessing a cell phone in a correctional facility.
A seven woman, five man jury found Derrick Ross, 38, of the
Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Coffield Unit guilty of
having a prohibited item in a correctional facility. For
complete story,
click here.
A report in February by a committee of the
National Academy of Sciences found
“serious problems” with much of the work
performed by crime laboratories in the
United States. Recent incidents of faulty
evidence analysis — including the case of an
Oregon lawyer who was arrested by the
F.B.I. after the 2004 Madrid terrorist
bombings based on fingerprint identification
that turned out to be wrong — were just
high-profile examples of wider deficiencies,
the committee said. Crime labs were
overworked, there were few certification
programs for investigators and technicians,
and the entire field suffered from a lack of
oversight.
But perhaps the most damning conclusion
was that many forensic disciplines —
including analysis of fingerprints, bite
marks and the striations and indentations
left by a pry bar or a gun’s firing
mechanism — were not grounded in the kind of
rigorous, peer-reviewed research that is the
hallmark of classic science. DNA analysis
was an exception, the report noted, in that
it had been studied extensively. But many
other investigative tests, the report said,
“have never been exposed to stringent
scientific scrutiny.” For complete
story,
click here.
PALM BEACH, Fla., May 11 (UPI) -- Advocates for
the separation of church and state say they're
closely watching Florida's expansion of
non-denominational faith-based prisons.
While 21 other states have faith-based
dormitories, Florida is the only one with entire
prisons focused on faith and character, the
South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Monday.
Glade Correctional in Palm Beach County this
week becomes the fifth faith-based prison in
Florida under a program begun in 2003, said
Kathy Connor, a state corrections spokeswoman.
Constitutional issues arise, however, when
prisons start linking where inmates live to
religious programs, said Alex Luchenitser, a
lawyer with Americans United for Separation of
Church and State. For complete story,
click here.
Ritter gets bill requiring DNA tests on
arrest--May
7th, 2009--A bill that supporters say will save "our
daughters' and our wives' " lives is on the way to Gov. Bill
Ritter's desk after lawmakers approved taking DNA samples upon
arrest.
Senate Bill 241 has been dubbed "Katie's Law" and is named for
the New Mexico college student whose murder spurred her parents
to push for DNA testing upon arrest.
The bill was amended to allow police to take DNA tests upon
arrest but for the sample not to be processed unless a person is
charged. The sample will be destroyed if no charges are filed.
For complete story,
click here.
Lawsuit filed over Florida prisons'
pen pal ban--May
6th, 2009--The Fort Lauderdale owner of a Christian pen
pal service filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday charging the Florida
Department of Corrections with violating the First Amendment by
blocking her from putting churches in touch with Florida
inmates.
Joy Perry runs Prison Pen Pals and the Freedom Through Christ
Ministry, which gives prisoners' contact information to churches
that want to send them Bibles and other religious materials. She
filed suit in U.S. District Court in Jacksonville along with
Adam Lovell of Edgewater, president of
WriteAPrisoner.Com.
For complete story,
click here.
Judge OKs inmate suit over routine strip
searches--March
31st, 2009--PHILADELPHIA—Prisons
cannot routinely strip search drunk drivers and other non-drug,
non-violent arrestees without reason to think they are hiding
contraband, a federal judge ruled in a potential class-action
suit.
The ruling in Pennsylvania follows those in nine other federal
circuits, although the 11th U.S. Circuit recently disagreed in a
case involving a prison in Fulton County, Ga.
Senior U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois, though, rejected that
court's reasoning and said in a 49-page opinion that plaintiffs
strip searched at the Delaware County Prison can proceed with their
suit against the Geo Group.
The Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, which operates dozens of
prisons around the country, ran the nearly 1,900-bed Delaware County
Prison until ending the contract last year. For complete
story,
click here.
Former Alabama judge indicted on
inmate sex charges--March
31st, 2009--CNN) -- A former south Alabama
judge is accused of checking male inmates out of jail and
forcing them to engage in sexual activity including paddling,
according to officials and court documents.
Former
Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was arrested Friday after
a grand jury returned the indictments against him. He was released
on $287,500 bond later Friday.
The indictments total 57 counts, and the charges range from
ethics violations to kidnapping, extortion, sex abuse and sodomy. If
convicted on the most serious charge -- kidnapping, a Class A felony
-- Thomas faces a prison sentence of 10 to 99 years in prison,
Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. said Monday.
For complete story,
click here.
Prison officials said the two should not have been placed in the
same cell together, and there will be an investigation.
Corrections officers found 23-year-old Paul Duran unresponsive in
the cell Wednesday night, the McAlester News-Capital reported.
This was less than an hour after he was placed in the cell that
was already housing 32-year-old Jesse James Dalton, who is serving a
sentence of life in prison without parole, in part because of
testimony given by Duran about a 2003 murder. For complete
story,
click here.
Lawsuit claims abuse in La. jail;
attorney likens prison to Abu Ghraib--March
6th, 2009--ST. TAMMANY, La. — A contractor and
former law enforcement officer has filed a federal lawsuit
accusing St. Tammany Parish deputies of holding him in jail for
four months in conditions his attorney likened to Abu Ghraib,
the notorious prison in Iraq.
Norman J. Manton Jr.
of Covington was arrested in January 2008 during an investigation
into the disappearance of Albert Bloch, 61, of Jefferson Parish.
Charges against Manton, a former Covington police officer and
deputy, were later dropped.
Bloch has not been found.
Manton's suit, which seeks $3.25 million in compensatory and
punitive damages, alleges that deputies coerced a witness into
connecting Manton to the case. In jail, he was denied medical
treatment, held in isolation and beaten by other inmates, according
to the suit. For complete story,
click here.
His wife, Kitty, beat a highly publicized,
years-long addiction to diet pills and
anti-depressants.
As governor of
Massachusetts in the 1980s, Dukakis
championed cutting-edge treatment programs
for imprisoned drunk drivers in his state,
which were among the first in the nation. He
launched programs to curb teenage drinking
and drug abuse.
As the Democratic nominee for president
in 1988, he challenged Americans to kick
their habit of drink and drugs.
On Tuesday, Dukakis, 75, brought his
rehab message to Austin, in meetings with
state leaders to urge them to grow Texas’
treatment programs — even expand some to
cover Medicaid recipients.
And he brought congratulations: Texas is
a national model, by greatly expanding its
prison treatment and rehabilitation programs
two years ago in a move that was criticized.
(Please see the other articles on our site
exposing the Texas model as torture.
For complete story,
click here. For more
info,
click here.)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One in every 31 U.S. adults is in
the corrections system, which includes jail, prison,
probation and supervision, more than double the rate of
a quarter century ago, according to a report released on
Monday by the Pew Center on the States.
The study,
which said the current rate compares to one in 77 in
1982, concluded that with declining resources, more
emphasis should be put on community supervision, not
jail or prison.
"Violent and career criminals need to be locked up,
and for a long time. But our research shows that prisons
are housing too many people who can be managed safely
and held accountable in the community at far lower
cost," said Adam Gelb, director of the Center's Public
Safety Performance Project, which produced the report.
For complete story,
click here.
Orange County sheriff lets jail
gangs control bail bond referrals, claim alleges--February
28th, 2009--Three veteran bail bond agents have
filed a legal claim against Orange County alleging that the
Sheriff's Department allows gangs inside the jails to steer
inmates to certain bail companies in exchange for kickbacks to
the gangs.
In their claim, typically a
first step to a lawsuit, the
agents estimate that their
businesses are losing $100
million a year because of
the scheme, which is known
in law enforcement circles
as "capping."
"It's impacting my business and
there's illegal activities going
on inside the jails . . . to the
detriment to the people who are
playing by the rules," Bob
Drake, one of the bondsmen who
filed the claim, said Friday.
"We suspect several companies. I
don't know the exact number.
That's not as important as the
Sheriff's Department not going
after and stopping the activity
from occurring in the jails."
According to the bondsmen's
attorney, Richard P. Herman,
former Sheriff Michael S. Carona
allowed his top lieutenant,
former Assistant Sheriff George
Jaramillo, to initiate the
scheme, and current Sheriff
Sandra Hutchens has allowed it
to continue. For complete
story,
click
here.
Texas: Ex-Sheriff and Jailers
Indicted--February
27th, 2009--Seventeen people, including a former sheriff,
are accused in a 106-count indictment of sex and drug crimes at
a jail in Montague County. The former sheriff, Bill Keating, was
charged with official oppression and having sex with inmates.
Mr. Keating was defeated in a primary election last spring, and
has pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation in an
unrelated case involving the sexual assault of a woman. In the
new case, several female jailers were charged with having sex
with inmates and bringing them drugs, cellphones and cigarettes,
while several male jailers were charged with drug possession and
bringing inmates banned items. Several inmates were also charged
with drug possession. The jail, northwest of Fort Worth, has
been closed. For complete story,
click here.
A LOOK INSIDE ILLINOIS' ONLY
SUPER-MAX PRISON--February
27th, 2009--TAMMS, Ill. — Every once in a while, Joseph
Dole stands in a back corner of the walled-in outdoor recreation
area at Tamms Correctional Center straining to catch a ray of
sunlight.
"About 4 square feet gets sun," said Dole, a rail-thin convicted
murderer who is serving a life sentence. "You can stand there.
... You feel refreshed. But you can only get it if they call
yard between 11 and 1."
Another murderer, Adolfo Rosario, said he hasn't shaken anyone's
hand since he was transferred to Tamms 11 years ago. "There is
no contact at all, none," he said.
Tyrone Dorn, serving time for carjacking, hasn't had a visitor
or made a phone call in five years at Tamms. "The hardest part
is the isolation," he said. "It's like being buried alive."
For complete story,
click here.
America's Outsourced Immigration Prisons a
Booming Business--February
25th, 2009--Imprisoned immigrants in the large
prison complex outside the small West Texas town of Pecos have
rioted twice over the past few months complaining about
inadequate medical care. Their complaints, sparked by the death
of a sick inmate in solitary confinement, echo a chorus of
similar complaints around the country about medical care in
immigrant prisons.
Medical care, like most aspects of imprisonment in
America, is outsourced at the Reeves County Detention
Center. As a result, imprisoned immigrants don't know
who exactly is imprisoning them, who is responsible for
their medical care, and who they should petition when
they have grievances. For complete story,
click here.
Wrongfully convicted--February
24th, 2009--"I always believed in the system but the
system failed me," Steve
Barnes told a panel of New York State Bar Association members.
For nineteen years he sat in New York prisons for a rape and
murder that he did not commit. Barnes' case is one of dozens of
defendants in New York who were convicted and later exonerated.
On Tuesday, the New York State Bar Association held a hearing to
explore wrongful convictions, what causes them and what can be
done to prevent them. For complete story,
click here.
Santa Clara County public defender to
launch massive search for the wrongfully convicted--February
24th, 2009--As part of a criminal justice review unprecedented
in county history, the Santa Clara County public defender's has
launched a massive project to revisit 1,500 or more sexual
assault convictions dating back two decades to determine whether
innocent people may have been put behind bars. A Mercury
News report disclosed late last year that members of Valley
Medical Center's Sexual Assault Response Team have been
videotaping examinations of patients since 1991, but prosecutors
failed to inform defense attorneys in cases involving those
patients that such critical evidence existed. Under pressure to
answer for the failure, District Attorney Dolores Carr has since
revealed there are 3,300 such tapes in existence, and this week
she vowed to inform defense attorneys of each case involving a
medical-exam videotape where a defendant was convicted.
(Unable to locate at time of archiving. Source: Mercury
News.
www.mercurynews.com )
Your Valentine, Made in Prison--February
12th, 2009--With Valentine's Day approaching,
perhaps you're planning a trip to Victoria's Secret. If you're a
conscientious shopper, chances are you want to know about the
origins of the clothes you buy: whether they're sweatshop free
or fairly traded or made in the USA. One label you won't find
attached to your lingerie, however, is "Made in the USA: By
Prisoners." For complete story,
click here.
Inmate raped by cellmates can sue
prison guards--February
11th, 2009--The state Supreme Court allowed a
transgender former prison inmate on Wednesday to proceed with a
lawsuit accusing prison guards of failing to protect her from
being raped and beaten by her cellmates.
In her suit, Alexis Giraldo said she was
being held at Folsom State Prison for
shoplifting and a parole violation in
January 2006 when a cellmate began
assaulting and raping her on a daily
basis. She said prison staff ignored her
complaints until March 2006, when she
was transferred to segregated housing
after a second cellmate attacked her
with a box-cutter. She was paroled in
July 2007.
Prison officials denied failing to
protect Giraldo, who was housed at the
all-male prison because she had not
undergone surgery. A San Francisco jury
rejected her emotional-distress claim
against six prison employees in August
2007 after the trial judge dismissed her
claim of negligence, ruling that guards
have no legal duty to protect inmates
from harm.
The First District Court of
Appeal in San Francisco overturned the
judge's ruling last November, saying a
jailer who takes a prisoner into custody
must take reasonable steps to protect
that prisoner from foreseeable injuries.
California's high court denied review of
the state's appeal Wednesday, allowing
Giraldo to pursue her claim that
negligence by prison employees was a
cause of the assaults. For
complete story,
click here.
Crime lab deficiencies noted by
audit--February
7th, 2009--Baltimore's crime lab suffers from inadequate
funding, spotty recordkeeping and broken equipment, according to
an independent audit of the embattled facility released by the
Police Department yesterday.
The report, which the Police Department initially refused to
release to the public, found that the lab was inadequately
staffed, equipment to analyze narcotics had long been out of
order, faulty paperwork sometimes made it difficult to establish
a chain of custody for evidence, and evidence was stored in
rooms that were too warm, which could cause it to degrade.
In an interview, the lab's new director, Francis Chiafari, said
the audit is guiding a host of reforms and upgrades, including
repairs to equipment and a door that wouldn't close. He said he
made a request yesterday for 12 more employees to collect
evidence at crime scenes.
Patrick Kent, chief of the public defender's forensics unit,
said the audit exposes serious deficiencies in the lab's
resources and procedures. For complete story,
click here.
Although the ACLU strongly supports anyone's efforts
to encourage prisoners to look forward toward
changing their lives for the better, we also expect
those efforts to be done in a way that will not
endorse one religion over another, or religion over
nonreligion.
Unfortunately, that is not happening at Angola.
Just under two years ago we had to file a lawsuit
on behalf of a Norman Sanders, a Mormon prisoner who
simply wanted access to publications from sellers of
Mormon materials, including the bookstore at Brigham
Young University. Unfortunately Warden Cain
repeatedly denied Norman's requests, so we had to
file a lawsuit. We eventually
settled, allowing Norman access to simple
religious materials.
Today we filed lawsuits on behalf of a Catholic
and a Muslim prisoner, each being denied the right
to practice his religion freely. As Yogi Berra would
say, it's déjà vu all over again.
Donald Leger is a practicing Catholic on
Louisiana's death row. He's devout, often praying
the novenas. Starting in April 2007, the prison
began locking the televisions on death row to a
particular station on Sunday mornings. The
televisions, located directly outside death row
prisoners' cells, are locked to predominately
Baptist programming on Sunday mornings. The images
of the religious programming pour into the
prisoners' cells and can't be escaped. In some
tiers, the televisions blare.
From April 2007 until December 31, 2007 and from
mid-2008 until December 31, 2008, Donald didn't have
the opportunity to watch a single Catholic Mass,
although scores of Baptist services were shown.
Donald and the other death row prisoners are told
that they will be written up and tossed in lockdown
if they try to have anyone change the television
station.
Donald has no problem with religion, it's just
that he is a Catholic, and he simply wants the
ability to turn from the mandated Baptist
programming to a Catholic Mass that also airs on
Sunday morning. Donald's written the Warden for
almost two years now, and has filed complaint forms
with the prison. His requests have gone unanswered.
Worse yet, he's suffered retaliation because he's
complained, and he fears for his safety. For
complete story,
click here.
Science Found Wanting in Nation’s
Crime Labs--February
4th, 2009--Forensic evidence that has helped convict
thousands of defendants for nearly a century is often the
product of shoddy scientific practices that should be upgraded
and standardized, according to accounts of a draft report by the
nation’s pre-eminent scientific research group.
The report by the
National Academy of Sciences is to be released this month.
People who have seen it say it is a sweeping critique of many
forensic methods that the police and prosecutors rely on,
including fingerprinting, firearms identification and analysis
of bite marks, blood spatter, hair and handwriting.
The report says such analyses are often handled by poorly
trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their
methods in court. It concludes that Congress should create a
federal agency to guarantee the independence of the field, which
has been dominated by law enforcement agencies, say forensic
professionals, scholars and scientists who have seen review
copies of the study. Early reviewers said the report was still
subject to change. For complete story,
click here.
Those cleared by DNA tests struggle to
be free--January
27th, 2009--ST. LOUIS — Johnny Briscoe
thought his nightmare was over in the summer of 2006 when, after
23 years of proclaiming his innocence, he finally walked out of
a Missouri prison.
DNA evidence
lifted from a cigarette butt should have stripped away any doubt
that another man — not Briscoe — had raped and robbed a woman in her
suburban St. Louis apartment on Oct. 21, 1982. Yet Briscoe's
exoneration, featured by national news organizations, did not fully
free him from the persistent doubts of acquaintances and family
members about his innocence, or from the emotional scars seared by
more than two decades in prison.
"Rape," says Briscoe, 54. "Now, that's a
provocative word. When I try to explain it, it's a bitter pill."
Nearly 90% of the 227 people cleared by DNA
evidence since 1989 were convicted of some of the most heinous sex
crimes, according to the Innocence Project, which helps inmates
prove their innocence through DNA testing. DNA — present in blood,
semen and body cells — can be particularly useful in solving sex
crimes and often is the most definitive way of determining
innocence.
Yet not even DNA washes away the lasting
stigma that shadows once-convicted sex offenders who are cleared by
genetic testing, and the criminal justice system that wrongly jailed
them offers little help. Briscoe's plight is part of a silent
struggle for a rising number of exonerees. After high-profile
releases from prison, they often fend for themselves. For
complete story, click here.
Torture at a Louisiana Prison--January
27th, 2009--The
torture of prisoners in US custody is not only found in military
prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo. If President Obama
is serious about ending US support for torture, he can start
here in Louisiana.
The
Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is already notorious for a
range of offenses, including keeping former Black Panthers Herman
Wallace and Albert Woodfox, in solitary for over 36 years. Now a
death penalty trial in St. Francisville, Louisiana has exposed
widespread and systemic abuse at the prison. Even in the context of
eight years of the Bush administration, the behavior documented at
the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola stands out both for its
brutality and for the significant evidence that it was condoned and
encouraged from the very top of the chain of command.
In a
remarkable hearing that explored torture practices at Angola,
twenty-five inmates testified last summer to facing overwhelming
violence in the aftermath of an escape attempt at the prison nearly
a decade ago. These twenty-five inmates - who were not involved in
the escape attempt - testified to being kicked, punched, beaten with
batons and with fists, stepped on, left naked in a freezing cell,
and threatened that they would be killed. They were threatened by
guards that they would be sexually assaulted with batons. They were
forced to urinate and defecate on themselves. They were bloodied,
had teeth knocked out, were beaten until they lost control of bodily
functions, and beaten until they signed statements or confessions
presented to them by prison officials. One inmate had a broken jaw,
and another was placed in solitary confinement for eight years.
While prison officials deny the policy of abuse, the range of
prisoners who gave statements, in addition to medical records and
other evidence introduced at the trial, present a powerful argument
that abuse is a standard policy at the prison. Several of the
prisoners received $7,000 when the state agreed to settle, without
admitting liability, two civil rights lawsuits filed by 13 inmates.
The inmates will have to spend that money behind bars –more than 90%
of Angola's prisoners are expected to die behind its walls.
For complete story,
click here.
Prison guard guilty of pouring
scalding water on inmate--January
21st, 2009--A Jacksonville jury found a former Florida
State Prison guard guilty of pouring scalding water on an inmate
to discipline him for feigning an injury.
Paul Tillis of Lake Butler faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a
$250,000 fine for violating the inmate’s civil rights in August 2005.
Prosecutors said he also failed to arrange medical treatment for the inmate, who
suffered second-degree burns on his chest.
A sentencing date hasn’t been scheduled.
For complete story,
click here.
Report: Calif. keeps inmates isolated too
long--January
15th, 2009--SACRAMENTO—The
inspector general of the California Department of Corrections
and Rehabilitation says the department could save nearly $11
million annually if it followed its own rules.
Inspector General David Shaw said in a report released Thursday the
department keeps some inmates in disciplinary segregation units
longer than required under prison policies. He estimates the lengthy
stays, on average, cost taxpayers an extra $14,600 annually for each
inmate kept in segregation instead of the general prison population.
That's mostly because extra guards are needed.
The state can be sued if it violates the inmate's rights or keeps
the inmate isolated too long. For complete story,
click here.
Mistakes in fingerprint analysis
trigger review of nearly 1,000 LAPD cases--January
15th, 2009--Los Angeles Police Department fingerprint
examiners who falsely implicated at least two people in crimes
have been linked to nearly 1,000 other criminal cases that
authorities say must now be reviewed to ensure that similar
errors weren't made.
Nearly two dozen of those cases are awaiting trial in the Los
Angeles court system, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for
Dist. Atty Steve Cooley. For complete story,
click here.
Double Victory for Criminal
Defendants at the Supreme Court--January
14th, 2009--The Supreme Court issued two opinions
Tuesday morning, both of them striking down lower court opinions
that had favored prosecutors. Over at the
Sentencing Law and Policy blog, professor Doug Berman is
already proclaiming that the decisions offer further proof that
the Court is the "most pro-defendant appellate court in the
nation on sentencing issues."
In Chambers v. United States, with Justice Stephen
Breyer writing for a unanimous Court, the justices agreed that a conviction on
the charge of "failure to report" to prison is not the kind of prior "violent
felony" conviction that triggers a 15-year mandatory prison sentence for someone
found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm.
"Conceptually speaking, the crime amounts to a form of
inaction, a far cry from the purposeful, violent and
aggressive conduct" associated with violent crimes under the
Armed Career Criminal Act, Breyer wrote. The Justice
Department had argued that "failure to report" should be
treated the same way a prison escape would be.
Justice Samuel Alito Jr., joined by Justice Clarence
Thomas, wrote a concurrence urging Congress to reduce
confusion about the law by amending it with addition of a
list of specific crimes that trigger an enhanced sentence.
The other decision,
Jimenez v. Quarterman, is a Texas case authored
by Justice Thomas for a unanimous Court. Thomas ruled that
because Texas allows defendants to file untimely appeals of
state convictions, the clock for the one-year deadline for
filing a federal habeas appeal under the Antiterrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act should not start ticking until
after that out-of-time appeal is completed. For
complete story,
click here.
Gassing mentally ill inmates is out--January
14th, 2009--Two mentally ill inmates suffered
unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of
Florida State Prison officials who disciplined them with pepper
spray, tear gas and other chemical agents, a judge has ruled.
But the same punishment was appropriate for four other prisoners who
sued the Department of Corrections on similar grounds, U.S. District Judge
Timothy Corrigan of Jacksonville wrote in a lengthy order finalized Monday after
a five-day bench trial in September.
Corrigan made the distinction based on the mental
condition of the individual inmates at the time they
were disciplined. The order means the department can
no longer use chemical agents on prisoners who lack
the capacity to follow orders or control their
behavior, said Jacksonville attorney Buddy Schulz,
who represented the inmates.
"It's significant because it's the first time a
federal judge has found this type of use of force
unconstitutional as it relates to seriously mentally
ill inmates who are incapable of conforming to the
rules of the prisons," Schulz said. For
complete story,
click here.
Va. cases shed light on false
convictions--January
12, 2009---- No one ever
claimed the criminal-justice system was perfect. But until 20
years ago, it was difficult to prove otherwise.
Since then,
225 innocent people -- 10 in Virginia --
have been exonerated of crimes by DNA
testing. However, DNA is not a factor in
most cases, and the rate of wrongful
convictions remains unclear.
That could change, in part, because of a
large, groundbreaking and sometimes hotly
contested review of old cases under way in
Virginia.
The U.S. Justice Department recently
awarded $300,000 to the Urban Institute to
use the results of the Virginia effort and a
smaller one in Arizona to try to determine
the rate of error in convictions for such
crimes as murder, rape and robbery. The
Urban Institute plans to report its results
in the summer of 2010.
The ultimate goal is to minimize the
future risk of convicting innocent people.
"It's certainly time for this study to
happen," said John Roman, a senior
researcher for the Urban Institute, a
40-year-old organization that studies social
and economic issues to promote sound public
policy and effective government.
"We [may] be able to answer the question:
[In] what percentage of cases from 1973
through 1988 were people wrongfully
convicted?" he said.
The hope then is to answer another
question: "What is it about cases that made
them more likely to have somebody wrongfully
convicted?"
However, Brandon L. Garrett, an expert on
DNA exoneration who teaches at the
University of Virginia law school, is
cautious.
"Careful researchers always have to be
very cautious about generalizing beyond the
sample that they are studying," he said.
The criminal-justice system keeps spotty
case data, loses or destroys data, and
selects and treats cases differently. "And
those are general challenges --
wrongful-conviction cases are harder to
study, much less generalize about," he said.
For complete story,
click here.
As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a
Sheriff’s Wallet Grew Fatter--January
8th, 2008--DECATUR, Ala. — The prisoners in the Morgan
County jail here were always hungry. The sheriff, meanwhile, was
getting a little richer.
Alabama law allowed it: the chief lawman could go light on
prisoners’ meals and pocket the leftover change.
And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of
$212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75
per prisoner per day.
In the view of a federal judge, who heard testimony from the
hungry inmates, the sheriff was in “blatant” violation of past
agreements that his prisoners be properly cared for.
“There was undisputed evidence that most of the inmates had
lost significant weight,” the judge, U. W. Clemon of Federal
District Court in Birmingham, said Thursday in an interview. “I
could not ignore them.”
So this week, Judge Clemon ordered Sheriff Bartlett himself
jailed until he came up with a plan to adequately feed prisoners
more, anyway, than a few spoonfuls of grits, part of an egg and
a piece of toast at breakfast, and bits of undercooked, bloody
chicken at supper. For complete story,
click here.
Justice Department investigators concluded in a 2005 report that staff
sexual assaults on inmates is a ''significant problem'' in federal prisons.
The department's Office of the Inspector
General said it investigated hundreds of
allegations of inmate sexual abuse by U.S.
Bureau of Prison personnel nationwide.
Such cases make up about 12 percent of
the inspector general's total investigations
every year.
From 2000 to 2004, the office opened
investigations of 351 correctional officers
and other staff accused of sexually abusing
inmates -- with slightly more than half
resulting in administrative punishment or
criminal prosecutions.
The report -- stressing that ''staff
sexual relations with inmates is always
illegal'' -- recommended that Congress
toughen the punishment for offenders, from a
misdemeanor with a maximum one-year prison
term to a felony carrying up to five years'
imprisonment.
Last year, lawmakers made the change to a
felony, imposing a maximum penalty of 15
years. For complete story,
click here.
Ill. prosecutor discounts DNA
evidence--December 15, 2008--WAUKEGAN,
Ill., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- An Illinois state prosecutor isn't
letting exculpatory
DNA evidence stop him from trying suspects in certain murder
and rape cases, observers say.
Lake County, Ill., prosecutor Michael Mermel is pressing ahead
with three cases involving the slayings of three girls and the
rape and battery of a 68-year-old woman despite DNA evidence in
each case ruling out the suspects, the Chicago Tribune reported
Monday. For complete story,
click here.
"Sadism is not a must in therapy." – Kerry Wolf, Hackberry Unit,
2001-2002
In September, Austin attorney Derek Howard received
another batch of narratives written by female inmates alleging they
were severely and shamelessly mistreated while incarcerated at one
of several of the state's Substance Abuse Felony Punishment
Facilities (aka "SAFPF"), which are charged with the statutory
responsibility of rehabilitating drug and alcohol offenders. Writing
from the Hackberry Unit in Gatesville, one inmate had posed a
question: What would state senators do about SAFPF if they found out
what it was really like?
During Nov. 13 interim charge hearings conducted by the Senate
Criminal Justice Committee, chaired by Houston Sen. John
Whitmire, the inmate's question was answered – but not as she
might have hoped. Despite a growing pile of inmate reports
accumulating over the last year – personal narratives that
graphically recount "mind-crushing" torment, even torture, suffered
by SAFPF inmates – the committee blithely looked the other way,
praising SAFPF personnel and exchanging drunk jokes with them during
the hearing. Whitmire declared of SAFPF, "We'd be in a hell of a
mess without it."
That many inmates describe SAFPF as a state-funded hell on earth
was of little consequence to the committee. As reported in the
Chronicle ("Rehabilitation
or Torture?" May 23), inmates claim that staff members force
them to sit in chairs for long hours and days, for weeks and months
on end, in a global punishment known as "tighthouse"; compel SAFPF
"sisters" to verbally berate each other during "family" time;
routinely call inmates "whores," "bitches," and bad mothers; and
mockingly dispense "miracle water" rather than medicine for serious
conditions. Numerous inmates contend that SAFPF is worse than
prison and a far cry from healthy rehabilitation.
Earlier this year, following the initial reports of inmate
charges, Whitmire's committee announced that this interim hearing
would focus on SAFPF procedures. But by August, specific mention of
SAFPF had dropped off the hearing agenda. Asked why, a committee
aide said: "There's not enough evidence. ... We're not going to hold
hearings based on your article" – or based on the growing pile of
inmate testimonials, apparently.
At last month's Senate hearings to review, among other things,
the state's privately run prisons and related programs, Whitmire was
caught off guard by the testimony of Kerry Wolf, former inmate of
the Hackberry "special needs" SAFPF unit in Gatesville. "Obviously,
you've come to support SAFPF," the senator began. "Did it work?"
Wolf answered, "I was appalled by the human rights abuses and
torture that went on in the name of treatment." She'd sat through
tighthouse herself. "I saw inmates who were already mentally fragile
losing their minds, running around, tearing out their hair, falling
out of chairs onto the floor, having seizures, fainting, or
hallucinating," Wolf said. As for "peer-driven" therapy, she told
the committee, it was "Lord of the Flies run amok." For
complete story,
click here. For more
info,
click hereand
here.
Three years ago, I journeyed back to Santa Fe to return
to a city where I had once lived -- and that always
seemed to call me back.
I headed out from Seattle with
a snowboard for the freshly blanketed mountains, as well
as an insatiable appetite for the food I could not find
in the Pacific Northwest. But most of all, I traveled
back because the New Mexico Women’s Correctional
Facility had agreed to let me come and spend a day in
the state’s only women’s prison in Grants.
I was eager for the experience, not just because much
of my work in journalism had centered on criminal
justice and prisons, but also because my editor at the
Santa Fe Reporter, Julia Goldberg, had given me
the kind of assignment that investigative reporters like
myself treasure the most: Just go out there and see what
you find.
Owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), now the nation’s biggest private prison
company, New Mexico Women’s Correctional Facility
(NMWCF) opened its doors in 1989 as the first privatized
female prison in the country. From the beginning, the
facility locked up women from all classification levels
-- from drug possession to murder and everything in
between -- and from all parts of the state, no matter
how distant.
Even back in 1989, the strategy of locking up women
far from their communities of origin -- to an isolated
rural town inaccessible by public transit -- should have
been seen as a problem. NMWCF’s original population
consisted of 149 women. Today, roughly 650 female
prisoners at Grants are estimated to have 1,800
dependent children, many of whom don’t see their mothers
for years on end and who sometimes end up in foster
care.
It also should have been recognized, without too much
intellectual effort, that a 28-year-old homeless heroin
addict serving time for street prostitution would have
very different psychological, medical and counseling
needs than a 56-year-old woman who shot her chronic
alcoholic husband -- a man who took to using his fists
once he got drunk enough.
But this was almost 20 years ago, and
"gender-responsive incarceration" wasn’t yet the
burgeoning buzzword it is today. Back then, inmates were
unlikely to receive anything akin to effective drug
treatment in a women’s prison, much less a diagnosis of
post-traumatic stress disorder or counseling for major
depression. (Both are common among women in prison.)
As for the trauma of being so far removed from one’s
community and family, back then, the attitude toward
"criminals" wasn’t much different from what it is now:
If someone in authority has put you behind bars, well,
then, you deserve the sentence you got, you deserve to
go to the place you’re sent and you even deserve the
unpleasant things that might happen to you while you’re
there.
So it goes with women and men in prisons across the
U.S., and so it went during my tour of New Mexico’s
women’s prison. Nonetheless, there were surprises.
To be clear, there were several tremendously
compassionate and engaged employees with whom I
interacted at NMWCF, as was usually the case when I
visited other detention facilities across the U.S.
conducting interviews and research for my book,
Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S.
Prison System.
But at NMWCF, as elsewhere, I encountered numerous
correctional officers whose disdain for the incarcerated
women was palpable, and whose preferred method of
communication seemed to revolve around commands and
directives barked at high volume. (By contrast, the
regular reliance on physical brutality I witnessed in
California, in the world’s largest women’s prison
complex, didn’t seem to be as endemic to NMWCF’s
environment.)
I met prisoners who had seized on every opportunity
possible to access the facility’s limited education
programs, vocational training and drug addiction
recovery. I had hushed conversations with women who made
it abundantly clear drugs weren’t hard to find in
prison, including heroin, which women would inject with
homemade "needles" made of pens and other supplies. The
rate of hepatitis C infection in New Mexico’s state
prisons is indicative of how prevalent injection drug
use is both before and during a prisoner’s
incarceration: Nearly 30 percent of prisoners are
believed to be infected, and most are untreated.
In the crowded receiving/evaluation unit, a few women
pulled me to the side to show me huge, oozing wounds --
what appeared to be the common lesions associated with
the often deadly, antibiotic-resistant form of staph
infection known as MRSA. These women told me they had
been told they had nothing more than a "bug bite." I sat
with one group of Native women during lunch who were
initially embarrassed to be seen eating the "food" on
their plates, which consisted of some kind of
unidentifiable beige mash and the palest, limpest slice
of tomato I had ever seen in my life. Once they
explained that they didn’t have a choice about the kind
of food they were eating, they marveled at the fact that
there was a "fresh" vegetable on the plate because they
hadn’t seen one in months. For complete story,
click here.
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my
people"
- Isaiah 10:1
Often, during days that never seem to end,
Anthony Williams will repair to a corner of his
dark, dank, cell in the Eastern Correctional
Facility in upstate New York. This is where he
ponders, meditates, and prays. And prays and prays,
using his faith to rekindle fading dreams that
someday, soon, his nightmare will come to a merciful
end. Then he rises to write yet another pro se
motion, casting it like bread upon the waters of
justice, hoping this will be the one that will not
be denied by yet another faceless judge.
We of the outside world, even in our wildest
imaginations, might never fully comprehend the life
of Anthony Williams. Among the many cases chronicled
by this office over a dozen years -- and we
sometimes imagine that have seen it all -- none
causes more loss of sleep than knowledge of the
dreadful plight of Anthony Williams.
Williams is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence
for a "mickey mouse" drug offense that occurred in
Albany County back in 1991. Anthony has already
served more than 17 years of that sentence, dragged
in chains from one maximum-security prison to the
next. Though he is among the least of small
offenders, he is serving the longest of times. He
just can't find his way home from perpetual exile
behind thick walls trimmed with razor wire.
Yet, somehow, he remains optimistic and fights
on. As does his cancer-stricken mother, Pastor
Nazimova, a leader of the Mothers of the New York
Disappeared.
From the onset, Williams' criminal justice
journey has been a horror show. Prior to even being
charged, he was sequestered for eight hours in a
motel room, where his arrest took place. During this
ordeal, he was tortured and beaten senseless by
rogue elements of the Albany Police Department's
"Special Investigation Unit." Long before the
degrading excesses of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo,
these police "interrogators" tried to forcibly
extract "information" that Williams could not
provide. Ultimately, he had to be rushed by
ambulance from the motel to the county hospital for
emergency care.
Fearful of having their brutal tactics exposed,
the police then fabricated their alleged "big case
"against Williams. After a painful recovery from
extensive and severe wounds, his broken body and
tattered soul were transported to the county
courthouse, where the African-American youth was
quickly convicted by an all-white jury and then
punted to the state's dangerous prison system by the
late, notorious "hanging judge," Thomas Keegan.
Williams' woeful tale reads like an Americanized
version of a Russian novel -- a tome written in four
full boxes of records concerning his arrest,
interrogation, trial, incarceration and appeals.
Anthony Williams' best hope for relief came, and
went, a few years ago, in 2004 and 2005, when minor
"reforms" to New York's notorious "Rockefeller Drug
Laws" provided him with zero relief.
Ironically, he was too small a fish in the ocean
of the illicit drug trade to benefit from what have
since proven to be anemic legislative charades. Most
of the drug offenders who were re-sentenced and
released under those incremental "reforms" had
convictions for the possession or the sale of large
quantities of illegal narcotics. But treacherous,
counterintuitive twists in the "reform legislation"
actually made it impossible for many low-level
offenders to get retroactive relief. As a result,
new provisions of the law did not apply in their
particular cases -- which is why only a handful of
offenders had their sentences reduced. For
complete story,
click here.
Lawyers: Inmate of 27 years not
guilty--November 20th, 2008--EVANSTON,
Ill., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Lawyers at Northwestern University say
they have evidence the wrong man was convicted in 1981 of
killing a security guard at a Chicago-area Masonic Temple.
Anthony McKinney was sentenced to life in prison with no parole
for the robbery and murder of Donald Lundahl outside the temple in
Harvey, a small community south of Chicago. Lundahl's body was found
in his car on the night of the Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks title match
in 1978.
Karin Daniel and Steven Drizin of the Northwestern Law School's
Center for Wrongful Convictions say Harvey police beat a confession
out of the 18-year-old McKinney and statements implicating him in
the killing out of two witnesses, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
"Anthony's plight is about the most tragic I've ever seen," said
David Protess of the Innocence Project at the Medill School of
Journalism. "He not only has been locked up for almost two-thirds of
his life for a crime he did not commit, but the actual perpetrators
were known right from the start."
One of the witnesses told a grand jury he left his house after
the 10th round of the Ali-Spinks fight. If that was true, he could
not have been at the scene when Lundahl was killed or seen McKinney
commit the crime, the Northwestern investigators found. For
complete story,
click here.
Handcuffed and
hassled, Jon
Eichelman
answered an
"intake
questionnaire"
when he arrived
at Lancaster
County Prison in
June 2005. One
question asked
how he felt.
"Want to lay
down," Eichelman
responded, "and
die."
Over the next
four days,
according to a
legal complaint,
correctional
officers and
inmates, aware
that Eichelman
was charged with
shooting a
2-year-old boy,
did nothing to
discourage his
despondency.
A guard allowed
inmates to rush
into Eichelman's
cell and beat
him. Other
prisoners
taunted him.
Medical
personnel did
little to ease
his pain,
according to the
legal complaint.
But then police
announced that
Eichelman was
not the shooter
after all. He
was released
from prison and
spent four days
in a local
hospital being
treated for
physical
injuries and
psychological
trauma.
His experience
as an innocent
man in a hostile
prison,
Eichelman now
says, ruined his
life. For
complete story,
click here.
In a nation originally founded on personal liberty,
almost two and a half million Americans are behind
bars. No doubt, violent criminals should be in jail,
but most Americans are not aware that well over half
of the inmates are jailed for non-violent offenses,
many of which are extremely petty: possession of
marijuana, public intoxication, street hustling,
prostitution, loitering, bouncing checks, failure to
produce identification, and even writing graffiti.
Consider this fact: The United States has less than
4 percent of the world’s population but almost 25
percent of the world’s prisoners. Amazingly, the US
has a higher incarceration rate than China, Russia,
Iran, Zimbabwe and Burma. Out of 1,000 people, more
Americans are behind bars than anywhere in the world
except in Kim Jong-Il’s Neo-Stalinist North Korea,
which is basically one giant Gulag.
Why is this happening? Inmates have become the
raw material for a prison-industrial complex,
shoring up perpetual profits for McJails. Corporate
prisons are paid on a per-prisoner/per-day basis,
and thus they lobby hard for longer mandatory
sentences. Inmates also provide cheap labor, and
they are about to become, once again, guinea pigs
for pharmaceutical trials. All of this signals the
conversion of people into valuable “bio-mass.”
Incarceration makes sense, politically. Prisons
provide jobs to rural and small town Americans who
would otherwise be unemployed. These workers and
their families represent votes, especially in the
South, where electoral majorities are White and
electoral minorities are Black. The drug war is, in
large part, a race war by other means.
Study after study documents the following:
African Americans are disproportionately stopped and
searched; African Americans are disproportionately
arrested; African Americans are disproportionately
charged; and African Americans are
disproportionately convicted. And all felons are
disenfranchised, never to vote again.
Texas is the most enthusiastic jailer in the
nation. The Lone Star State has become the Lock-Down
State. It has the highest incarceration rate in the
nation (which in turn has the highest rate in the
world). Texas insists upon locking up people like
Rodney Hulin, a 16 year old African American who was
convicted of setting a dumpster on fire. His
sentence was 8 years in an adult prison. Despite
pleading to be removed to another section, prison
officials refused to extract him from the general
population. Hulin was repeatedly raped and infected
with HIV, and he ended the nightmare by hanging
himself in his cell. But what is a 16-year-old doing
in an adult prison? It is not that uncommon:
The United States has 2,225 adolescent
offenders incarcerated and serving life without
the possibility of parole. The United States is
the only country in the world that continues to
sentence children to life without the
possibility of parole….
Florida has 713 child inmates who have
received adult sentences of 10 years or more for
crimes committed before their 17th birthdays.1
Even “progressive” states like California are
pushing mass incarceration, locking up the hapless
and the marginal. Billy Ochoa, for example, is
serving 326 years in a “Supermax” (super maximum
security) prison for welfare fraud. Billy is an
addict, an inept burglar, and not-very-good
trafficker of food stamps. Under California’s “Three
Strikes and You Are Out” law he is locked up in a
tiny cell for 23 hours a day.
In Arizona, among other places, incarceration
fits into a Blood-and-Soil subculture:
anti-immigrant, anti-minority and neo-fascist.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for example,
delights in humiliating inmates, making them wear
pink and sleep in tents in 100 degree weather.
Arpaio even reduced inmate food intake to sub-human
levels:
Arpaio makes inmates pay for their meals,
which some say are worse than those for the
guard dogs. Canines eat $1.10 worth of food a
day, the inmate 90 cents, the sheriff says. “I’m
very proud of that too.”2
Arpaio, as America’s Uber-Jailer, even puts women
in chain gangs and then boasts about obtaining “free
labor” for the State. Stalin would have been proud.
Instead of being jailed for human rights abuses,
Arpaio enjoys high approval rates in the Phoenix
area.
So the prison-industrial complex gets fatter and
the prisoners get thinner. Both private and public
prisons are cutting corners on guard training,
libraries, education centers and even food. From
Florida:
Mushy bland broccoli stems accompanied by a
greasy mystery meat endowed with undercooked
rice is as good as it gets for inmates behind
bars…
The Senate has proposed slicing $6 million
from the current prison food budget, while the
House wants to cut $11 million.
Basically, Florida wants to lower the quality of
prisoner food from this already-miserable level:
‘The quality of the food is substandard,’
said a relative of an inmate at Marion
Correctional Institution in Lowell, who asked
not to be named because she feared retaliation
against the prisoner. ‘The preparation is
haphazard. They’re supposed to wear hairnets and
gloves. You find hair in your food and you find
a Band-Aid in your food. Things are so
overcooked it’s mush, or it’s not cooked at
all.’3
Texas, Florida, California and Arizona have vast
quantities of prisoners. Of course, we’ll never know
how many prisoners are even guilty. They’ve been
locked up through mass “plea bargaining” agreements.
Here’s the deal: Plead guilty to a lesser crime (to
something you might not have done) and go to jail
for 3 years or risk a trial and the chance of doing
10 years. It’s a no-brainer.
Plea bargaining runs against the grain of the
Fifth Amendment’s right to a fair trial. It
specifically contradicts the US Constitution,
Article III, Section 2: “The trial of all crimes,
except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury.”
That seems pretty clear. Theoretically, an
individual can choose to forfeit his or her own
civil liberties, but the Constitution is degraded
when plea bargaining becomes standard operating
procedure, when it becomes a conveyor belt for mass
incarceration, feeding inmates to hungry corporate
prisons.
At this pace, the US is in danger of witnessing
the development of a Gulag to jail the entire
lumpenproletariat, the flotsam of society, a
large and growing segment of the population,
under-educated and under-employed. (But don’t fret
too much, since news about jails seldom makes the
mainstream press.) Women are now the fastest growing
population of inmates, and many of them are young
mothers with babies. Sarah B. From, with the Women’s
Prison Association, explains:
Nearly two-thirds of women in state prisons
are there for nonviolent offenses; most are
mothers. Their children face the emotional and
developmental effects of separation, and the
public incurs additional costs related to the
child welfare system.
Most women in prison report histories of
substance abuse, mental health issues and past
trauma — factors that contribute to the crimes
they commit. Prison does little to address these
issues or to decrease the likelihood of
recidivism.4
Immigrant women and their children are beginning
to experience long-term detention. This too has been
privatized, as Steve Watson and Paul Watson report:
The federal government is accepting bids on
the contracts from county governments or private
companies to build and run the “family detention
centers…
The T. Don Hutto detention center, which is
privately run by a company called Corrections
Corp. of America, currently interns political
asylum seekers who came to the U.S. on legal
visas. Most of them are families including
pregnant women and children who have never been
accused of any wrongdoing but are forced to
endure squalid conditions inside literal
internment camps…5
Every major human rights group condemns family
detention centers as sites of “collective
punishment” (which might be classified as
“concentration camps” under international law). Of
course, the federal government promotes a sanitized
image of detention centers in order to hide the fact
that the Hutto center, for example, is a
retro-fitted prison.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is
selling the concept of detention centers as
miniature cities, models of healthy living. As Anna
Gorman reports for the Los Angeles Times:
The agency calls for minimum-security
residential facilities that would provide a
“least restrictive, nonsecure setting” and
provide schooling for children, recreational
activities and access to religious services.6
This ICE propaganda is reminiscent of the Nazis,
literally. Several years before the Nazis began
their extermination campaign, they invited film
crews onto concentration camps to show how happy the
residents were with their schools and facilities…
Work Shall Set You Free
In the 1970s, a Supreme Court Justice, Warren
Burger, proselytized for more leeway as to what
kinds of “projects” prisoners could work on. Before
too long, Congress amended the laws. In a Great Leap
Backward, the US Congress has repealed two federal
laws (the Hawes Cooper Act and the Ashurst-Sumner
Act) that virtually outlawed prison labor, making it
a felony to move prison-made goods across state
boundaries. Stamping state license plates for cars
was generally acceptable, but these Acts tried to
end the leasing out of prisoners to private
companies; they tried to eliminate
prison-plantations and “factories with fences.”
By 1990 it was permissible for prisoners to
produce products entering the stream of interstate
commerce. Many of the largest corporations in
America have exploited prison labor in what might be
called “Operation Sweatshop.” Starbucks, Microsoft,
Boeing, Victoria’s Secret and other companies have
participated in prison labor programs.
Now, the federal government is taking the entire
concept of prison labor to a new level: The Federal
Inmate Labor Program. Details of the program can be
found on the Pentagon’s own website. Documents
released as far back as 2005 establish “Procedures
for establishing a civilian inmate prison camp on
Army installations.” Sample text from the Federal
Inmate Labor Program:
b. The Army is not interested in, nor can
afford, any relationship with a corrections
facility if that relationship stipulates payment
for civilian inmate labor…
(3) No photograph, film, nor video may be
taken or made of any inmate labor detail or
member for any reason without prior written
permission from both (name of the Army
organization) PAO and (name of local federal
corrections facility) officials.7
In other words, the federal government is seeking
unpaid laborers from among the pool of prisoners who
would not be incarcerated long-term in other nations
— non-violent and petty offenders who do not need
constant guard. Just as in the Third Reich, federal
authorities wish to convey their good intentions; in
this case, they seek to enrich the life of
prisoners:
“(2) Providing meaningful work for inmates…”
So it is not surprising that inmates are becoming
guinea pigs for medical experiments and drug
testing. Big Pharma faces a shortage of experimental
subjects. Ian Urbina, in the New York Times,
explains how the pharmaceutical lobby is on the
verge of changing — or reversing — federal law:
An influential federal panel of medical
advisers has recommended that the government
loosen regulations that severely limit the
testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a
practice that was all but stopped three decades
ago after revelations of abuse…
The discussion comes as the biomedical
industry is facing a shortage of testing
subjects…8
In fact, it is precisely because of
pharmaceutical experiments that federal law began to
protect prisoners in the late 1970s. Technically,
under a Department of Health and Human Services
regulation (45 CFR 46), prisoners are supposed to
receive the same “protection of human subjects” as
children and pregnant women. As the law currently
stands, the only research that may be conducted with
prisoners has to be material to their lives.
Prisoners may not be used, under current law, as a
“population of convenience.” But all this may soon
be rolled back.
The profit motive worms its way into all aspects
of prison life. The executives of these for-profit
prisons sponsor “tough-on-crime” legislation and
even line the pockets of politicians who back
“mandatory sentencing” laws. It’s all profitable. On
correctionscorp.com there is a separate
section for investors.
Corrections Corporation of America is the
nation’s largest owner and operator of
privatized correctional and detention facilities
and one of the largest prison operators in the
United States, behind only the federal
government and three states.
A recent analysis of the prison industry by
Leslie Berestein is telling:
The industry leaders’ stock prices have
rebounded. Since 2001, CCA shares have split
twice and multiplied tenfold, closing recently
at $26.17. The GEO Group, which changed its name
from Wackenhut Corrections in 2003, has also
completed two stock splits and seen its stock
value jump from roughly $2.50 a share in early
January 2001 to $26.76 recently.
Meanwhile, the industry has broadened its
political influence, spending more to lobby
agencies such as the Department of Homeland
Security and the Bureau of Prisons.9
A nation that once represented personal liberty,
the United States, has become the world’s most
ardent incarcerator, turning the hapless and
marginalized into inmates, cheap laborers, and
guinea pigs for pharmaceutical trials.
Get serious about restoring ex-felons'
rights--Sept. 4th, 2008--Gov.
Charlie Crist announced this summer that 115,000 ex-felons who
had completed their sentences regained their civil rights since
certain clemency rules were changed last year and could register
to vote. Upon closer scrutiny, 90,000 dated back to the 1970s
and 25,000 were pending final action by the governor and Cabinet
sitting as the Clemency Board.
However, only 9,000 have registered
to vote. A governor's spokesperson said that
the state should not be blamed for
ex-offenders' failure to exercise their
civil rights. But the state failed to notify
many because records were out of date. Many
didn't know they could register.
Some said they should have attempted to
register anyway. But in the past, the state
failed to restore the rights of many
eligible ex-offenders and issued
voter-registration cards to some in error.
When authorities determined that the
Clemency Board hadn't restored their civil
rights, some were prosecuted for voter
fraud.
Aside from a modest public outreach
campaign funded by the 2007 Legislature, the
state has done little to get the word out.
The Department of Corrections identified
more than 300,000 cases that were ineligible
under new rules. Accordingly, more than
300,000 ex-offenders who completed their
sentences are conceivably living in Florida
without civil rights. An independent study
indicates that the number is much higher.
The Parole Commission, which investigates
cases for the Clemency Board, reported a
backlog of another 60,000 rights-restoration
cases, but Crist declined to include the
commission's request for 42 additional staff
members to handle the caseload in his budget
recommendation to the 2008 Legislature. Its
overall budget was cut by 20 percent.
Beyond the backlog, the Corrections
Department routinely transmits the names of
almost 4,000 ex-offenders to the commission
every month for rights-restoration review
upon release or termination from probation.
Crist's official notes from the April '07
Clemency Board meeting state: ``What would
give this body the right to add five more
years, five more weeks, or five more minutes
to someone's sentence handed down by a judge
and jury?''
But Crist has, in effect, allowed exactly
that to happen by failing to ensure the
process meets expectations shaped by his own
rhetoric. (Unable to locate story at
time of archiving. Source:
www.miamiherald.com Date: September 4,
2008)
Abuse charged in New Jersey prison--Sept.
3rd, 2008--A group of seven
prisoners at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton have filed a
class action lawsuit charging abusive and inhuman conditions at
the facility.
The complaint, filed this month in New Jersey Superior Court,
Mercer County, could affect as many as 1,800 inmates at the
prison, which was built more than 170 years ago and is located
not far from the downtown area of Trenton, the state capital.
Defendants in the lawsuit include Democratic Governor Jon
Corzine, Department of Corrections Commissioner George Hayman,
and prison administrator Michelle Ricci.
The first section of the prison was built in 1835.
The prisoners charge that conditions there are
Dickensian, an accusation that is all the more vivid and
historically significant considering that the great
English novelist and social reformer visited the
facility himself in 1842, on the first of his two trips
to North America, and denounced conditions there.
A press release issued in connection with the suit
points out that many prisoners are trapped in their
cells for up to 23 hours a day because of recent
reductions in educational and religious programs, along
with cuts in indoor and outdoor recreation.
The prisoners charge that, except for electricity,
conditions in the prison are either the same or even
worse than they were 170 years ago. Small cells measure
5 by 7 feet, with 7-foot ceilings and less than 15
square feet of free floor space. Beds, sinks and toilets
take up over half of the floor space. Some inmates have
space “limited to an aisle no wider than the length of a
shoe running from the doorway, which is itself partially
obstructed by the bedstand, to the sink and toilet in
the back of the cell.”
The cells have no hot water and no internal
ventilation. They have no mirrors for shaving and no
desks or chairs for sitting or writing. Exposed light
bulbs hang from the low ceilings and sometimes break
from contact with head or hands.
The prison also contains unsafe levels of heavy
metals, as well as airborne asbestos, radon, PCBs and
other carcinogens.
Meals average only 1,200 calories a day, according to
the complaint, and are prepared by an untrained
workforce under conditions of rodent and insect
infestation.
Perhaps the biggest complaint of the prisoners has
been the reduction in prison programs, leading to
conditions of solitary confinement which have been
compared to the system that existed at the same prison
nearly 150 years ago, but were changed in the face of
severe psychological breakdowns among the inmates.
For complete story,
click here.
Torture in Cook County Jail--August
30th, 2008--After a 17-month investigation concerning the
conditions in the Cook County Jail, U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald issued a scathing report calling for change and
reforms.
The 98-page report on the nation's largest county jail was
released July 17 and sent to County Board President Todd Stroger
and Sheriff Thomas Dart with its findings and recommendations.
It cited many cases of gross "medical negligence, mismanagement
and abusive behavior by guards," which led to "unnecessary
deaths, amputation and
routine inmate beatings."
The outside world would be shocked to hear stories such as that
of an inmate left untreated for a gunshot wound, who developed
sepsis and died; a female inmate who suffered from HIV and died
after a preventable infection went untreated; and an inmate
beaten so bad by guards that his dentures were kicked out and he
was sent to the
hospital on a respirator.
The report pointed out that there is just one dentist for the
entire 9,800-inmate population--and he only deals in
extractions, with 25 percent of those resulting in infection.
* * *
I SPENT time in the jail's maximum security unit between 1984
and 1987, and personally witnessed and experienced the kind of
atrocities cited in the report. I cannot count the number of
times I've seen a guard or guards punch, kick, slap or beat down
an inmate without provocation. For complete story,
click here.
The court says the city violated the constitutional rights of
jail inmates when it subjected them to visual body cavity
searches without having any reason to believe they were carrying
weapons or contraband.
The 2-1 decision by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
San Francisco applies to a city policy that was in effect from
April 2002 to January 2004.
City officials had argued that the strip searches were necessary
to keep inmates from smuggling guns and drugs into jail.
San Francisco changed the policy in January 2004 after a
lower-court judge ruled that it was unconstitutional.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.sacbee.com Date:
August 23, 2008)
'It's obviously an embarrassment and we would rather not be in
this position.'
Police reopen 7,000 cases after DNA
error 07 Aug 2008 Australian police will
re-examine 7,000 crimes solved through DNA evidence after a
mistake forced detectives to free a suspect wrongly accused of
murder. Police in the southern city of Melbourne withdrew
charges against Russell John Gesah, accused in July of the 1984
murders of a 35-year-old mother and her nine-year-old daughter.
For complete story,
click here.
Slammed: Welcome to the Age of
Incarceration--July 26th, 2008--The number first
appeared in headlines earlier this year: Nearly one in four of
all prisoners worldwide is incarcerated in America. It was just the
latest such statistic. Today, one in nine African American men
between the ages of 20 and 34 is locked up. In 1970, our prisons
held fewer than 200,000 people; now that number exceeds 1.5 million,
and when you add in local jails, it’s 2.3 million-1 in 100 American
adults. Since the 1980s, we’ve sat by as the numbers inched higher
and our prison system ballooned, swallowing up an ever-larger
portion of the citizenry. But do statistics like these, no matter
how disturbing, really mean anything anymore? What does it take to
get us to sit up and notice?
Apparently, it takes a looming financial crisis. For there is
another round of bad news, the logical extension of the first: The
more money a state spends on building and running prisons, the less
there is for everything else, from roads and bridges to health care
and public schools. At the pace our inmate population has been
expanding, America’s prison system is becoming, quite simply, too
expensive to sustain. That is why Kansas, Texas, and at least 11
other states have been trying out new strategies to curb the
cost-reevaluating their parole policies, for instance, so that not
every parolee who runs afoul of an administrative rule is
shipped straight back to prison. And yet our infatuation with
incarceration continues.
There have been numerous academic studies and policy reports and
journalistic accounts analyzing our prison boom, but this phenomenon
cannot be fully measured in numbers. That much became apparent to me
when, beginning in 2000, I spent nearly four years shadowing a woman
who’d just been released from prison. She’d been locked up for 16
years for a first-time drug crime, and her absence had all but
destroyed her family. Her mother had taken in her four young
children after her arrest, only to die prematurely of kidney
failure. One daughter was deeply depressed, the other was
seething with rage, and her youngest son had followed her
lead, diving into the neighborhood drug culture and then
winding up in prison himself.
The criminal justice system had punished not only her but her entire
family. How do you measure the years of wasted hours-riding on a bus
to a faraway prison, lining up to be scanned and searched and
questioned, sitting in a bleak visiting room waiting for a loved one
to walk in? How do you account for all the dollars spent on collect
calls from prison-calls that can cost at least three times as much
as on the outside because the prison system is taking a cut?
How do you begin to calculate the lessons absorbed by children
about deprivation and punishment and vengeance? How do you end
the legacy of incarceration?
This is not to say that nobody deserves to go to prison or that we
should release everyone who is now locked up. There are many people
behind bars who you would not want as your neighbor, but in our
hunger for justice we have lost perspective. We treat 10-year
sentences like they’re nothing, like that’s a soft penalty, when in
much of the rest of the world a decade behind bars would be
considered extraordinarily severe. This is what separates us from
other industrialized countries: It’s not just that we send so many
people to prison, but that we keep them there for so long and send
them back so often. Eight years ago, we surpassed Russia to claim
the dubious distinction of having the world’s highest rate of
incarceration; today we’re still No. 1. For complete story,
click here.
US prisons and jails house 3 times as many people with serious
mental illness as US mental hospitals do. In June 2006, the
Institute of Medicine recommended an increase in the use of
prisoners as biomedical test subjects after laboratory
scientists complained of a shortage of rhesus monkeys. The
South Carolina Senate has considered legislation that would take
up to 180 days off prisoners' sentences if they donated an organ.
In their first two weeks out of lockup, ex-cons are 13 times more
likely to die than the average person, according to a recent study
in the New England Journal of Medicine. Leading cause: drug
overdose. For complete story,
click here.
In response to a May 23 Chronicle
report – "Rehabilitation
or Torture?" – that recounted inmate stories of abusive
treatment in a substance-abuse program operated by the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice, a legislative committee is
planning hearings to review the program. According to Larance
Coleman, speaking on behalf of Sen. John Whitmire, Criminal
Justice Committee chair, the CJC will hold hearings on the
Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facilities (also known as
SAFPF or "Safe-P"), operated by the Chicago-based Gateway
Foundation under a contract worth, according to TDCJ, $38
million over five years. "We will concentrate on Safe-P
programming," Coleman said of the hearings, tentatively scheduled
for September, to evaluate the $234 million the Legislature
appropriated last session for TDCJ rehabilitation programs. The
state proposes to increase SAFPF funding by $63.1 million during
2008-09, although Gateway may not be the only vendor considered. The
exact dates of the hearings will be announced two to three weeks in
advance on www.senate.state.tx.us.
In January, then-inmate Jodi Stodder-Caldwell
persuaded others at the TDJC's Ellen Halbert Unit in Burnet County
to record their SAFPF experiences in letters submitted to Austin
lawyer
Derek Howard, who's considering legal action. According to
numerous inmate narratives from Halbert and other units, the SAFPF
program – in theory a substance-abuse treatment alternative to hard
prison time – instead relies heavily on dubious forms of
psychological and physical abuse. Several inmates describe a group
punishment known as "tighthouse," during which inmates are forced to
sit upright in plastic chairs, unmoving and silent, for as long as
16 hours a day and for weeks to months on end – a "mind-crushing"
form of cruelty that has resulted in mental breakdowns and suicide
attempts. The accounts also report that SAFPF inmates must routinely
attack each other psychologically during an abusive form of "group
therapy," while staff bellow that they are worthless.
Moreover, inmates charge that their real
medical needs are subject to denial or dismissal; Gateway's response
is that medical care is the responsibility of the TDCJ, not the
contractor. Staff are said to dismiss untreated medical conditions,
some as severe as epilepsy or cancer, with taunts or advice to
"drink more water." [Former] inmate Tracey Atherton, in a narrative
dated May 23, describes the callous manner in which "the guards talk
about inmates who are sick. ... I heard one of the guards say: 'That
fucking bitch is having a seizure.' Everything that Jodi Stodder
stated is true."
There are dissenting voices, however.
Shirley Otto, a SAFPF inmate in 1995 and currently a Gateway
counselor working at the Hackberry Unit in Gatesville, wrote that
after living on the streets, she learned "to live again" through
SAFPF. She described tighthouse as "a timeout for grown-ups," with
breaks for "chow" and therapy, and she accused complaining inmates
of not wanting recovery. "They are looking for an easier, softer
way," Otto wrote. "Somehow, some way, they missed the blessing of
SAFP."
Judging from official responses thus far,
the inmates may indeed find it difficult to convince the Legislature
that the abuses they have chronicled are real. When the Office of
Inspector General sent investigators to Halbert to interview
inmates, Stodder-Caldwell told the Chronicle, investigators
seemed receptive at first but turned increasingly "rude."
Officially, the OIG investigation remains open, but asked in May
about the results of his review, Inspector General John Moriarty
said that the alleged abuses had in fact not occurred. Gateway
President and CEO Michael Darcy
called the inmates' descriptions of tighthouse "bizarre" and untrue,
and declined to respond to the Chronicle story.
According to more recent inmate accounts,
Halbert staff are aware of the public controversy but unafraid of
retribution. "We were told if the lawsuit happens, what or who would
give 'dope fiends like us' help?" wrote Brenda Carroll on June 5.
Carroll says that she'd been forced to wet herself because an
"expeditor" (a ranking inmate in the SAFPF "therapy" program) had
denied her request to go to the restroom. "I was also forced to sit
in the box [a solitary chair] ... for not being aware of my 'need.'"
(I.G. Moriarty expressly rejected allegations that inmates are
deprived of bathroom breaks.)
The SAFPF "therapy" model is based upon a
practice known as "therapeutic communities," which had its origins
in a Sixties-era California drug-abuse program called Synanon.
Critics and proponents alike date the peer-based TC methods to the
"attack therapy" popularized by Charles Dederich in the Santa
Monica-based Synanon, which eventually degenerated into a brutal and
murderous cult, as reported in a 1979 Pulitzer Prize-winning exposé
in the Point Reyes Light by then-publisher Dave Mitchell.
"It's unfortunate that Synanon became the model for therapeutic
communities; basically a large portion of drug treatment is based on
a cult," Mitchell said in an interview. Synanon was eventually shut
down by the authorities, in part because in addition to abuse of
patients, staff were assaulting defectors from the program and
threatening detractors with death.
Available for committee testimony should be
survivors of other disgraced programs that operate on the
therapeutic communities model. Some said they would testify just how
closely the SAFPF accounts resonate with their own victimization in
TCs incubated at Synanon. "The women [in SAFPF] have charged they
must often sit silently, rigidly, face-forward, in plastic chairs
for long hours or days, occasionally through periods of weeks on
end. This was true of Straight, Inc. as well," wrote Shelby Earnshaw,
director of a survivor support group, the International Survivors
Action Committee (www.isaccorp.org)
in an e-mail. Tony Connelly [HEAL-KY
Coordinator], now in his 30s, told the
Chronicle
that he still hears in his mind the sound of kids being abused at
another Synanon-style TC facility, Kids Helping Kids, where he was a
patient/inmate from the age of 14 to 16. Connelly says children were
required to sit for hours on donated church pews – sometimes held
down by "peers" and their noses pinched so they couldn't breathe.
Connelly recalled, "The sitting, the rigid posture, the staring at
the wall, the limited showers and restroom breaks are all familiar
to me. The forced confessions, the demeaning attacks ... requiring
inmates to report infractions of other inmates or face punishment
are all too vivid to me." Connelly added that the authorities count
on the public dismissing such complaints because they come from
[alleged and unverified] addicts or former addicts. [Tony Connelly
was never an addict, nor are/were the thousands of other children
spirited away to torture camps such as Kids Helping Kids
historically and presently.] For complete story,
click here.
Ex-Black Panther's murder conviction
overturned--July 9th, 2008--BATON ROUGE,
Louisiana (AP) -- A federal judge on Tuesday overturned the
conviction of a former Black Panther in the 1972 stabbing death of a
Louisiana prison guard. Albert Woodfox, who was held in
solitary confinement for over 30 years, is one of three former
Panthers known as the "Angola Three." He and two other black
prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola were
convicted in the killing of guard Brent Miller on April 17, 1972.
U.S. District Judge James Brady issued a ruling late Tuesday
approving a federal magistrate's June recommendation that Woodfox's
conviction be overturned because one of his former lawyers failed to
object to a prosecutor's testimony about a witness' credibility.
Brady also found that Woodfox's trial lawyer failed to object to
testimony from a witness who had died after the trial.
Woodfox's decades in solitary confinement attracted worldwide
attention from activists who called him a political prisoner.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
http://edition.cnn.com
Date: July 9, 2008)
New Criminal Record: 7.2 Million--June
12th, 2008--The number of people under supervision in the
nation's criminal justice system rose to 7.2 million in 2006,
the highest ever, costing states tens of billions of dollars to
house and monitor offenders as they go in and out of jails and
prisons. According to a recently released report released by
the Bureau of Justice Statistics, more than 2 million
offenders were either in jail or prison in 2006, the most recent
year studied in an annual survey. Another 4.2 million were on
probation, and nearly 800,000 were on parole. The cost to
taxpayers, about $45 billion, is causing states such as California
to reconsider harsh criminal penalties. In an attempt to relieve
overcrowding, California is now exporting some of its 170,000
inmates to privately run corrections facilities as far away as
Tennessee. For complete story,
click here.
Rehabilitation or Torture?--May
23rd, 2008--Men would riot here. – SAFPF inmate
What's worse than prison?
According to some former and current inmates, the state's Substance
Abuse Felony Punishment Facilities. Funded by the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice and staffed by Texas Department of
Corrections officers and personnel employed by nonprofit operator
Gateway Foundation of Chicago, the SAFPFs (referred to colloquially
as "Safe-
Ps") in theory provide rehabilitation to nonviolent offenders
incarcerated for felony drug and alcohol convictions. Persons
charged with violating the terms of their probation or parole can be
sent to SAFPFs for treatment of their drug or alcohol addictions
within the TDCJ system, as a means of avoiding harsher punishment.
On the Gateway website, the foundation trumpets the low recidivism
rates of inmates who complete its corrections-based program
and summarizes its services: "Gateway operates nearly 25
corrections-based programs and provides treatment to over
15,000 men, women, adolescents and dually diagnosed substance
abusers every year. Gateway treatment sites
utilize Therapeutic Community paradigms, and are supplemented by
Cognitive Self-Change methods." But judging from more than a
dozen narratives written by female SAFPF inmates and recently
provided to Austin attorney Derek Howard, such facilities –
which in Texas currently house 900 female inmates – in reality
may be employing unconstitutionally cruel and unusual
punishment. Some women incarcerated and assigned to SAFPF programs
say they have been routinely deprived, humiliated, and degraded.
Among other allegations, the women have charged they must often sit
silently, rigidly, face-forward, in plastic chairs for long hours or
days, occasionally through periods of weeks on end, sometimes as an
individual punishment, at other times in collective punishment they
fear and loathe as "the dreaded tighthouse." To Howard's
knowledge, no official Gateway/TDCJ therapeutic or
disciplinary protocol recommends or allows a treatment so extreme as
a "tighthouse." To the contrary, a Gateway official described
tighthouse as a limited and carefully monitored therapeutic
practice, but the inmates' descriptions of tighthouse (or "the
chairs"), as a form of arbitrary and often harsh punishment,
are starkly different from the official description. Women
write, "It just is," and is "a big secret." Considering
the women's accounts, Howard is concerned the state of Texas
may be funding, wittingly or unwittingly, what amounts to torture.
"Torture is defined as 'the infliction of intense pain.'
Forcing someone to sit in a hard chair for 16 hours a day
constitutes torture, by anyone's standards," Howard argues.
"We are now considering suing Gateway for violating the Eighth
Amendment, which
prohibits cruel and unusual punishment." The inmate complaints
have prompted an ongoing investigation by the
state Office of Inspector General, whose investigators have been
interviewing inmates on-site since January in the Halbert Unit in
Burnet County and perhaps at other sites. According to Inspector
General John Moriarty, the agency plans to conclude its inquiry
soon; in late April he provided his "courtesy preliminary
conclusion" to the Chronicle: that not one of the inmate allegations
of abuse has been confirmed. (TDCJ officials, citing the open
inspector general
investigation, have declined to answer questions about SAFPFs.)
Moriarty added that investigators found such "a preponderance of
evidence" refuting the allegations that polygraphs (presumably of
inmates only) were deemed unnecessary. Howard, interpreting
Moriarty's suggestion as tantamount to an accusation of inmate
collusion, countered, "It's ridiculously unlikely that the women got
together and fabricated the allegations." Howard promised that
whatever the inspector general's response, his own investigation
would proceed. For complete story,
click here.
It's being called 'America's New Slavery'--March
31st, 2008--(Special to the NNPA from the Final Cal)-A new
American slave trade is booming, warn prison activists, following
the release of a report that again outlines outrageous numbers of
young Black men in prison and increasing numbers of adults
undergoing incarceration. That slave trade is connected to money
states spend to keep people locked up, profits made through cheap
prison labor and for-profit prisons, excessive charges inmates and
families may pay for everything from tube socks to phone calls, and
lucrative cross country shipping of inmates to relieve overcrowding
and rent cells in faraway states and counties. Advocates note
that the constitution's 13th amendment, ratified in 1865,
abolished slavery in the United States, but provided an exception-in
cases where persons have been "duly convicted" in the United States
and territory it controls, slavery or involuntary servitude can be
re-imposed as a punishment, they add. The majority of prisoners are
Black and Latino, though they are minorities in terms of their
numbers in the population. According to "One in 100: Behind
Bars in America 2008," published by the Pew Center on the States,
one in nine Black men between the ages of 20-34 are incarcerated
compared to one in 30 other men of the same age. Like the overall
adult ratio, one in 100 Black women in their mid-to-late 30s is
imprisoned. "Everyone is feeding off of our down-trodden
condition to feed their capitalism, greed and lust for money. They
are buying prison stock on the market and this is why they want to
silence the restorative voice of Minister Louis Farrakhan, because
he is repairing those who fill and would support the prison system
as slaves," said Student Minister Abdullah Muhammad of the Nation of
Islam Prison Ministry. (Unable to locate story at time of
archiving. Source:
www.louisianaweekly.com Date: March 31, 2008)
Federal probe of Harris County jail inmate
deaths and questionable sanitary conditions is justified.--March
11th, 2008--For more than two years, news stories by Chronicle
reporters have raised troubling questions concerning the mortality
rate among prisoners held at the Harris County Jail. At least 138
deaths occurred between 2001 and the end of 2007. In January, three
more county jail inmates died. Now that the Department of
Justice's civil rights division has opened an investigation, perhaps
Houstonians will get some much-needed answers. Although a government
spokesman did not explain the reason for opening the probe, it is
likely that the prisoner deaths and numerous complaints of jail
overcrowding, staff shortages and unsanitary conditions sparked it.
The aim of the probe is to determine whether jail conditions
systemically violate inmates' constitutional rights. (Unable
to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date: march
11, 2008)
Bad meat at CCC recalled--March
4th, 2008--The
largest recall of beef products in U.S. History has touched the
California Correctional Center in Susanville. According to a
press release from CCC, the California Prison Industry Authority
received a recall notification letter from the Westland/Hallmark
Meat Packing Company in Chino, Calif. According to the recall
letter, the United States Department of Agriculture classified raw
and frozen meat from the company as a Class II product recall. The
recall covered all the beef products processed by the company since
Feb. 1, 2006. A Class II product recall is defined as being,
“A health hazard situation where there is a remote probability of
adverse health consequences from the use of this product.”
According to the release from CCC, the institution “complied to the
recall and returned 3,866 pounds of breakfast links, soy/beef
patties, soy/beef bulk, and Salisbury patties.”
Correctional Lt. Scott Porter, an administrative assistant at CCC,
said the institution investigated its food inventories once the
recall letter was received, and the food was removed from the
prison. “When we discovered we had food on the recall list, we
immediately sent it back,” Porter said. According to a Feb. 18,
story in the New York Times, Westland/Hallmark recalled 143 million
pounds of beef products, including some that were used in school
lunch programs. The investigation into the plant’s
food-processing practices began when an undercover video surfaced on
Jan. 30, showing workers kicking sick cows and using forklifts to
force them to walk. For complete story,
click here.
Fla. deputy seen dumping paralyzed man onto
jail floor turns herself in--February 16th, 2008--A
deputy who was videotaped dumping a paralyzed man out of his
wheelchair onto a Tampa jailhouse floor turned herself in.
Jail records show Charlette Marshall-Jones was booked into the
Orient Road Jail early this morning. It is the same jail where
Marshall-Jones worked. She is accused of tipping 32-year-old Brian
Sterner out of his wheelchair. A videotape of the incident has been
widely circulated. The Hillsborough County deputy was charged
with one count of felony abuse of a disabled person and released
after posting $3,500 bail. An attorney for Marshall-Jones listed in
jail records did not immediately return a phone message.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.latimes.com Date:
February 16, 2008)
Ex-guard found in Texas faces jail-sex
charge--February 9th, 2008--A former prison guard
accused of having sex with an inmate was brought back to Rankin
County last week after allegedly dodging police in San Antonio for
more than a year. A U.S. Marshals Service task force arrested
Jennifer Danielle Readus, 22, last month in San Antonio.
"Acting on a tip, we were able to provide U.S. marshals in Texas
with an address, which helped develop our investigation," said
supervisory Deputy Marshal Richard Griffin. The indictment
alleges Readus, then an officer at the Central Mississippi
Correctional Facility in Pearl, had sex in May 2006 with 28-year-old
inmate Zachariah Combs. On Nov. 9, 2006, a warrant was issued
for Readus' arrest after she failed to appear in Rankin County
Circuit Court to answer the indictment. Before U.S. marshals
took the case last month, the Mississippi Department of Corrections
was investigating. "We got the case on Jan. 18 and picked her
up on Jan. 25," he said. Multiple phone calls to the MDOC were not
returned Friday. Griffin was unable to provide details of
Readus' arrest. A San Antonio Express-News Web site reported Readus
had been living on San Antonio's west side, working as a
telemarketer. She was arrested at her office without incident.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.clarionledger.com
Date: February 9, 2008)
Prisoners 'to be chipped like dogs'--January
13th, 2008--Ministers are
planning to implant "machine-readable" microchips under the skin of
thousands of offenders as part of an expansion of the electronic
tagging scheme that would create more space in British jails.
Amid concerns about the security of existing tagging systems and
prison overcrowding, the Ministry of Justice is investigating the
use of satellite and radio-wave technology to monitor criminals.
But, instead of being contained in bracelets worn around the ankle,
the tiny chips would be surgically inserted under the skin of
offenders in the community, to help enforce home curfews. The radio
frequency identification (RFID) tags, as long as two grains of rice,
are able to carry scanable personal information about individuals,
including their identities, address and offending record.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
http://news.independent.co.uk Date: January 13, 2008)
Georgia: Attorney claims massive prisoner
torture--Class action filed against Valdosta State Prison officials
-- cites routine torture of restrained inmates and conspiratorial
cover-up--January 8th, 2008--Atlanta attorney
McNeil Stokes today filed a class action suit against guards and
officials from Valdosta State Prison and the Georgia Department of
Corrections. The suit names twenty-five prison guards, officers,
supervisors, wardens, medical personnel and corrections officials in
the routine beatings and torture of restrained inmates and
subsequent cover-up of the abuse. The complaint details
gruesome attacks in which prisoners are bound and restrained while
guards and members of the special Correctional Emergency Response
Team (CERT) kick them with hard-toe combat boots, beat them with
gloves especially designed for assaults known as "beating gloves,"
and choke them with night sticks. Two young men have been beaten to
death since these series of cases were initially filed. Abuses
in other Georgia prison systems include guards inflicting torture
methods known as the "Georgia Motorcycle" whereby an inmate is
stripped of clothing and strapped in four or five point restraints
to an iron bed or chair for as much as 48 hours without food, water
or bathroom facilities; and a method known as the "Georgia G-string"
whereby inmates are stripped and a chain is cinched around their
testicles for hours at a time, leaving them in excruciating pain.
A former guard from Rogers State Prison has described these beatings
as a "sport" throughout the correctional system. Inmates listed as
Level IV mental health prisoners are often targeted because of the
behavior caused by their mental disabilities. Medical treatment is
either denied to the victims or, if administered, is not reported to
prevent an official record of the abuse. Stokes, who recently
won a case against Rogers State Prison in Georgia, thereby ending
inmate abuse at that facility, is determined to protect prisoners'
rights throughout the state. "These beatings are a blood-sport among
the correctional officers involved," explains Stokes. "The victims
(men and women) are shackled with their hands behind their backs or
otherwise restrained while the CERT officers inflict the most
horrendous torture. The Georgia correctional system, including
Internal Affairs and the Attorney General, think they can continue
covering this up, but it is going to stop. It must stop. It's that
simple." For complete story,
click here.
Supreme Court case exposes cruelty and illogic of
three-drug lethal injection.--January 7th, 2008--The
Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that raises constitutional issues
and basic questions of humanity. At least the latter problem requires not a
Supreme Court judge, but common sense. Both the U.S. Constitution and the
rules of civilization prohibit unneeded cruelty during punishment. Kentucky's
protocol fails both standards, yet a simple alternative meets them — and should
go into use right away. The justices are weighing two Kentucky cases
contending that the state's three-drug execution "cocktail" is unconstitutional:
performed too often by unskilled workers and wrongly risking excruciating pain
from errors. Central to the arguments was a question that had the judges
struggling for reference points: How should trial courts assess legal challenges
to states' lethal injection techniques? The other question (which the
judges might not address) was narrower: whether Kentucky's three-drug death
"cocktail" unacceptably violates the court's standard on cruel and unusual
punishment and thus violates the Eighth Amendment. The answer to this is
clearly yes, based on evidence from physicians and ethicists, frequent reports
of bungled executions and the history of how the three-drug cocktail came to be.
Like Texas, Kentucky uses one drug to make the condemned prisoner lose
consciousness, another to paralyze him and a third to cause fatal heart failure.
Thirty-five of 36 states that execute use this procedure. If the drug mix
is not correctly administered and monitored, evidence shows the inmate will feel
excruciating pain. A sense of suffocation and awareness that one is paralyzed
are other reported sensations when the cocktail goes wrong. Nor are these
injections performed at top competence by skilled, trained professionals. This
inadequate standard means the state runs an unacceptably high risk of a bungled
execution causing extreme pain. Indeed, many states have this problem,
evidenced by grotesque mistakes: an inmate's head bursting into flames,
execution teams carving at prisoner's arms in futile search of usable veins.
But the strongest argument that the triple-drug cocktail is unconstitutionally
cruel is that it is simply unnecessary. The protocol was devised in 1977, in
Oklahoma, one year after the death penalty was revived nationally, according to
The New York Times. It was billed as an alternative to the even more
unreliable and violent electric chair. But even then, there was a safer, more
certain technique: a single barbiturate overdose, used for years to humanely
euthanize pets. But in Texas, as elsewhere, the medical director of the
state corrections department rejected this simpler, saner alternative. "He said
it was a great idea," a veterinarian recalled, "except that people would think
we are treating people the same way that we're treating animals." For no
rational reason, Kentucky, Texas and the other executing states to this day kill
inmates instead with the complex, fallible potentially torturous three-drug mix.
In Kentucky it is actually illegal to kill an animal this way. Somehow,
across the United States, the decision to punish has for years now fused with
willingness to take unusually high risks of inflicting extreme physical pain.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date: January 7, 2008)
Prisoners of panic--January 6th, 2008--How
much more folly, absurdity, fiscal irresponsibility and human tragedy will we
endure before we stop tolerating the political pandering that has dictated our
criminal justice law and policy over the last two decades? The pattern has
become all too clear. Our politicians, fearful of being labeled "soft on crime,"
react to sensationalistic coverage of a crime with knee-jerk, quick-fix answers.
Only years later do the mistakes, false assumptions and unexpected consequences
begin to emerge, and then the criminal justice system is forced to deal with the
mess created by the bad lawmaking. For example, remember the great crack
scare of the 1980s? When basketball superstar Len Bias, who'd been drafted by
the Boston Celtics as a franchise player, died of a crack overdose, the media
went wild in covering it. Alarmed by the sudden increase in crack use and
fearful that the drug was highly addictive and disposed users to commit
violence, Congress mandated tough minimum sentences for crack-related crimes. A
defendant convicted of possessing a small amount of crack could receive the same
sentence as one possessing 100 times that amount of powder cocaine. Because
crack users were disproportionately African American (and powder cocaine users
were disproportionately white), 85% of those receiving dealer-like sentences for
possession or sale of small amounts of crack were black -- an outcome that
helped to fuel widespread perceptions among blacks that there was a double
standard of justice in the U.S. In December, the overly harsh and
misguided sentencing policy concocted during the "war on drugs" in the 1980s was
finally modified. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that judges were no longer bound
by the strict sentencing guidelines, freeing the jurists to craft punishment
that best fits the crime and the background of the defendant. The 1990s
produced its own racially tinged crime panics. Led by John J. Dilulio Jr., a
political scientist at Princeton University, and William J. Bennett, a former
secretary of Education in the Reagan Cabinet, law-and-order proponents declared
that the U.S. was being overrun by a new generation of remorseless
"super-predators" spawned by crack-head mothers in violence-infested ghettos.
Stories of kids committing heinous crimes were common in the media. One of the
most sensational occurred in Chicago in October 1994. Two boys, one 10 years
old, the other 11, dropped 5-year-old Eric Morse from the 14th floor of a
housing project, killing him, because he refused to steal candy for them.
In response to such crimes, politicians across the country passed
anti-super-predator laws. In many states, including California, the age kids
could be tried as adults was lowered to 14, and in 48 states, the decision to
try juveniles as adults was taken away from judges and given to prosecutors. As
a result, the number of people under 18 tried as adults rose dramatically
through the 1990s, and a small percentage of them were even sentenced to prison.
Ironically,
the predicted crime explosion caused by
super-predators never materialized. Juvenile arrests declined by more than 45%
from 1994 to 2004, according to FBI statistics. But the ultimate example
of media hype meeting irresponsible politicians to produce bad public policy is
California's three-strikes law. It was chiefly written by Fresno photographer
Mike Reynolds after the murder of his daughter, Kimber, in 1992.
Introduced in the Legislature, the bill languished until the rape and murder of
12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993. A network of right-wing talk-radio hosts
reacted to the killing by fiercely promoting Reynolds' measure, which had
provisions like no other three-strikes bill in that virtually any crime, no
matter how petty, could be prosecuted as a third strike. In 1994, the
Legislature unanimously put the measure on the November ballot, and Proposition
184 passed easily. The law would eventually send thousands of Californians to
prison for 25 years to life, some for such third-strike crimes as attempting to
steal a bottle of vitamins from a drug store, buying a macadamia nut disguised
as a $5 rock of cocaine from an undercover cop and shoplifting $2.69 worth of AA
batteries. Today, Californians are still paying the price for that
folly and other like-minded laws, not just in the ruined and wasted lives of
people sentenced under these laws, but in other ways. There are now tens of
thousands of inmates in California convicted of nonviolent crimes and serving
out long second- and third-strike sentences, as well as thousands more behind
bars because minor crimes were turned into felonies with mandatory minimum
sentences. All these laws have contributed to severe overcrowding in the
state's prisons -- as high as 200% of capacity -- that has produced conditions
of such "extreme peril" for prisoners and guards that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
was forced to declare a systemwide state of emergency in 2006. Since 2003, the
inmate population has grown 8%, to about 173,000. But the budget of the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has skyrocketed 79%, to $8.5
billion, becoming the fastest-growing category in the state budget and a factor
in opening up a $14-billion budget deficit. The get-tough-on-
crime laws also have helped create a crisis in California's prison healthcare
system, where spending has risen to $1.9 billion a year, up 263% since 2000. A
large part of the problem is that the prison population is aging because inmates
are serving the longer sentences approved by lawmakers, and with aging comes
more medical problems. The system became so understaffed and dysfunctional that
a federal judge ruled that it was causing at least one avoidable death a week
through sheer neglect and ineptitude. He has seized the entire prison medical
system and placed it under his direct supervision. Faced with the huge
budget deficit and judicial threats to cap the state's prison population,
Schwarzenegger' s office has been floating the idea of early release for about
22,000 inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes. That 13% cut in prisoners,
however, would require legislative approval, something that is by no means
certain. The story of crime and punishment in California -- and the country --
since the 1980s, after all, has been quick-fix answers fueled by media hype.
Let's hope that such proposals as releasing nonviolent inmates receive serious
attention rather than panicky headlines that lead to bad criminal justice laws.
For complete story,
click here.
In Mexican prison, kids serve time with
Mommy--Mexican law dictates that children born in prison must stay
with their mothers until they turn 6, rather than being turned over
to relatives or placed in foster care.--January
5th, 2008--Beyond the high concrete walls and menacing guard towers
of the Santa Martha Acatitla Prison, past the barbed wire, past the
iron gates, past the armed guards in black commando garb, sits a
nursery school with brightly painted walls, piles of toys and a
jungle gym. Fifty-three children under the age of 6 live
inside the prison with their mothers, who are serving sentences for
crimes from drug dealing to kidnapping to homicide. Mothers dressed
in prison blue, many with tattoos, carry babies on their hips around
the exercise yard. Others lead toddlers and kindergartners by the
hand, play with them in the dust or bounce them on their knees on
prison benches. Karina Rendon, a 23-year-old serving time for
drug dealing, said her 2-year-old daughter considered the
144-square-foot cell she shared with two other mothers and their
children as home. "She doesn't know it is a prison," she said.
"She thinks it's her house." While a prison may seem an
unhealthy place for a child, in the early 1990s, the Mexico City
government decided it was better for children born in prison to stay
with their mothers until they were 6 rather than to be turned over
to relatives or foster parents. The children are allowed to leave on
weekends and holidays to visit relatives. A debate continues
among Mexican academics over whether spending one's early years in a
jail causes mental problems later in life, but for the moment the
law says babies must stay with their mothers. So the prison has a
school with three teachers. The warden, Margarita Malo, said
the children had a calming effect on the rest of the inmates. The
presence of children also inspires the mothers to learn skills or,
in many cases, to kick the drug habits that landed them in trouble
in the first place. And even though the prison is full of
women capable of violence, the children walk safely among them, as
if protected by an invisible shield. It is as though they tap the
collective maternal instinct of the 1,680 women locked up here.
"The minors are highly respected by the population," Malo said. "The
fact we have children here creates a mind-set of solidarity. I have
never seen aggression on the part of the inmates toward the
children. Everyone acts as if they could be their children, and they
don't want anything to happen to them." For complete
story,
click here.
Inmate says complaint led to more prison
guard abuse--January 5th, 2008--A state inmate
whose pending lawsuit claims a prison guard beat him four years ago
in retaliation for filing a complaint told a judge yesterday he was
assaulted again as part of a pattern of harassment by officers for
pursuing the case. Inmate Michael Kounelis, whose lawsuit had
been set for trial next week, testified in U.S. District Court that
Senior Corrections Officer Luther Thompson struck him in the face
Dec. 18 during a inspection of cells at Northern State Prison in
Newark. "He grabbed me very firmly and he told me to follow
him," Kounelis told Judge Dickinson Debevoise. "He shut the door
behind us while he was still holding my arm. As the door closed, he
pushed me to the wall and he started hitting me with his right arm
to the face and I fell to the ground." Kounelis, who is
serving 20 years for robbery, suffered bruises to the face, back,
legs and arm. He was treated and then transferred to New Jersey's
maximum-security prison in Trenton. Following the altercation,
Kounelis testified, he requested and passed a lie detector test over
whether "he put his hands on" on the officer. In addition, two
fellow inmates corroborated his version of events during testimony.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.nj.com Date: January 5,
2008)
Almost $800,000 Collected from State
Prisoners--December 31st, 2007--The State of
Missouri is making money back from some of its prison inmates, the
2007 total coming in at just under $800,000. (Webmaster Note:
Slavery has always been a road to wealth.) (Unable to locate
story at time of archiving. Source:
www.topix.net Date:
December 31, 2007)
Prison inmate in 1960s recounts 'guinea
pig' tests--December 2nd, 2007--...Tests
ranged from relatively innocuous (perfume, eye wash, hair dye, baby
shampoo) to nightmarish (dioxin, hallucinogens, chemical warfare
agents, radioactive isotopes). Kligman, 91, emeritus professor
of dermatology at Penn, "is retired and no longer gives interviews,"
the university said. He has staunchly defended his experiments at
Holmesburg and maintained that they should not have been halted.
Penn bioethics professor Art Caplan disagrees. "What took
place in Holmesburg would not take place today," he said. "We've all
come a long way from saying we should experiment on marginal people
with or without their consent." But research entities like
universities and the military are loath to acknowledge wrongdoing
for many reasons, including fear of lawsuits, a desire to not
revisit a shameful past and a "circle-the-
wagons culture" among doctors, he said. "Should we all
apologize for the abuses? Yes, we should," he said. But Caplan
said more would be accomplished by expanding bioethics programs in
medical schools. New York dermatologist A. Bernard Ackerman
conducted tests in 1966 and 1967 under Kligman at Holmesburg as a
second-year dermatology resident. Virtually alone in the medical
community for his outspoken criticism of Kligman and Penn, Ackerman
said incomplete and missing documentation makes it impossible to
ascertain today what was tested on whom. "You ask, 'How could
this happen?' The answer is money," he said in an interview.
"The experiments made Kligman and Penn millions and millions from
cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies," he said. "It became a
business. No regulations can prevent that from happening again."
Anthony, who was in and out of prison from 1964 to 1983 for
drug-related crimes, said the Institute of Medicine report's
suggestions of external review boards and other safeguards are
well-intentioned but won't work behind prison walls. (Unable
to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.centredaily.com
Date: December 2, 2007)
CO: DOC expands program of using prisoners to pick
farmers crops--November 30th,
2007--A pilot program to use inmates from the Department of Corrections as farm
workers opened a new chapter Thursday when DOC officials said they would expand
the program to assist five additional farms in Pueblo County. At a meeting
organized by state Rep. Dorothy Butcher, D-Pueblo, state prison officials called
last summer's pilot program a great success and agreed to provide work crews to
five additional farmers who attended the meeting. Steve Smith, the acting
director of DOC's Correctional Industries, said the additional farm crews would
be male inmates, but the department would organize new crews to help the farmers
who attended Thursday's meeting at the Pueblo Chamber of Commerce.
"Frankly, we were concerned there would be an even bigger turnout with even
larger number of farms wanting work crews," Smith said. He said the
program would benefit from slower expansion. "It takes us 13 or 14 hours of work
to provide you a work crew for an eight-hour day," Smith said. Even so,
Karl Spiecker, DOC's chief financial officer, said the department considered
last summer's program to be a huge success for the state, as well as for
farmers. At the peak of the season, the DOC provided five work crews of 15
female inmates to work on Pueblo County farms. The women inmates were needed to
harvest watermelons, squash, onions, pumpkins and other crops. The farmers
who came to Thursday's meeting said they would need crews starting in April and
running through next January. The reason is that few migrant workers came to the
region this summer as result of stricter immigration controls, leaving farmers,
in some cases, wondering how to harvest their crops. Butcher said state
lawmakers would help the DOC expand the program as much as possible. (Webmaster
Note: A current legally-protected practice of slavery exists in the
US, in our
prisons. Stop this abuse!) (Unable to locate story at time of
archiving. Source:
www.chieftain.com
Date: November 30, 2008)
DU takes case of Supermax inmate held in
'solitary" for 24 years--November 28th,
2007--DENVER — A lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges the status of a
prisoner housed at Supermax, alleging that a "no human
contact" order that placed him in solitary confinement for 24 years
amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Thomas Edward
Silverstein, 55, has been segregated from others since Oct. 22,
1983, after his conviction in the slaying of prison guard Merle
Clutts, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
Silverstein also has been convicted in the slayings of three
inmates, but one of those convictions was overturned and he wasn't
retried. Silverstein was housed at U.S. Bureau of Prisons
facilities in Marion, Ill., Atlanta, and Leavenworth, Kan., before
being transferred in 2005 to the Administrative Maximum facility in
Florence, Colo., also known as Supermax. He is due to be released in
2095. Supermax holds some of the nation's most violent and
disruptive inmates. Figures on how many other inmates are under "no
human contact" orders were not immediately available Wednesday
evening. Warden Ron Wiley, who is named as a defendant in the
lawsuit, did not immediately respond to an e-mail. A prison
spokeswoman declined comment. The lawsuit states: "deliberate
indifference has resulted in Plaintiff suffering deprivations that
cause mental harm that goes beyond the boundaries of what most human
beings can psychologically tolerate." (Unable to locate
story at time of archiving. Source:
http://ap.dodgeglobe.com
Date: November 28, 2007)
Justice Department report blasts King
County jail conditions--Medical bungling by the
health-care staff at the King County jail likely contributed to the
recent death of an inmate, the U.S. Department of Justice says in a
strongly worded report that maintains the downtown Seattle jail
falls short of legal standards for medical treatment, suicide
prevention and safeguards against physical and sexual abuse of
prisoners by jailers. For complete story,
click here.
Use of gas on mentally ill prisoners must end--November
18th, 2007--Last week, Florida Chief Justice Fred Lewis brought
forward the report by a court committee addressing the very
substantial issues of mental illness and the criminal justice
system. This impressive report made by Judge Steven Leifman
reminded us that the use of jails and prisons to deal with mentally
ill citizens is not only morally wrong, it is fiscally stupid.
Lewis observed, "The increasing numbers of people with mental
illness appearing in criminal courts, and the frequency with which
these people cycle through our prisons and jails have become a
crisis in Florida." The committee report recommended that
Florida's prisons cease serving as expensive warehouses for
Florida's mentally ill residents. While state officials deal
with the overall system problem, Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough
needs to look closely at the way mentally ill prisoners are being
treated. The Florida Department of Corrections currently
houses over 90,000 inmates, yet has only about 500 beds specifically
designed to provide treatment to mentally ill inmates. The
Department of Corrections recognizes in its budget submission that
there is "a shortage of mental health inpatient beds, expected to be
exacerbated by projected inmate growth over the next few years."
Ideally, Florida would house its mentally ill prisoners separate
from the rest of the prisoner population, so that they can receive
treatment. Until that is done, these inmates will be kept in
general population prisons without the mental health treatment they
need. A major problem created by housing mentally ill inmates
in prisons not designed for them relates to discipline of prisoners.
Mentally ill inmates often do not behave appropriately - they yell
and bang on their cell doors, they sing loudly and repeat words and
phrases over and over. The guards' response often has been to gas
unruly prisoners with chemical agents simply for these
manifestations of their illnesses, even though the prisoners are
alone in 9-by-7 cells and can not hurt anyone. The guards open
a food flap or use a crack in the door. Every year, the
Department of Corrections permits the gassing of hundreds of
mentally ill inmates as a means to "control" inmates. When they are
housed in prisons designed to hold mentally ill prisoners staffed
with competent personnel, inmates receive counseling and other
treatment for the same physical manifestations. Numerous
mentally ill inmates have been gassed more than 20 times in
Florida's prisons, transferred in and out of inpatient care to
address the mental health destabilization that occurs each time they
are gassed. The Department of Corrections knows about this problem,
and refers to these inmates as "frequent fliers," yet it has not
provided the mental health counseling nor adopted regulations to
provide alternatives to the brutal gassing of sick prisoners.
For complete story,
click here.
Red Cross monitors barred from Guantánamo--November
15th, 2007--A confidential 2003 manual for operating the Guantánamo
detention center shows that military officials had a policy of
denying detainees access to independent monitors from the
International Committee of the Red Cross. The manual said one
goal was to "exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by
a newly arrived detainee," by denying access to the Koran and by
preventing visits with Red Cross representatives, who have a long
history of monitoring the conditions under which prisoners in
international conflicts are held. The document said that even after
their initial weeks at Guantánamo, some detainees would not be
permitted to see representatives of the International Red Cross,
known as the ICRC. It was permissible, the document said, for
some long-term detainees to have "No access. No contact of any kind
with the ICRC." Some legal experts and advocates for detainees
said Thursday that the policy might have violated international law,
which provides for such monitoring to assure humanitarian treatment
and to limit the ability of governments to hold detainees secretly.
For complete story,
click here.
Private Prisons and the Thirteenth
Amendment--February 11th, 2007--For
every action, there is an opposite and greater reaction. This law
applies to white supremacy's response to the liberation struggle.
This was seen in Jena, LA., as sixty thousand persons marched in
Jena on September 20 to protest the railroading of six Black youths
in adult court for an alleged attack on a white youth, Justin Barkin,
in December 2006. In June 2006, an all-white jury in adult
court convicted Mychal Bell of aggravated assault and battery and
conspiracy to commit a battery. Before the march, an appeals court
threw out the remaining conviction for lack of jurisdiction. Jena
officials have chosen to try Bell again in juvenile court.
After the march, Bell's probation was wrongfully violated on another
charge. He was given 18 months in prison and is awaiting trial on
the December 2006 charge despite double jeopardy. His parents were
ordered to pay for his current confinement. Those who fail to
learn from the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.
Among other things, in the past, Blacks secured the Civil Rights Act
of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Open Housing Act of
1968. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia
and Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. While we were pumping our
fists and beating our chests, the forces of evil were at work.
Because we failed to respect or support watchdogs, we never knew
what hit us in 1968. In the meantime, white lawyers were reviewing
the Thirteenth Amendment. To them, there is a loophole. This is our
future. Congress has the authority to prohibit private racial
discrimination as a badge of slavery. This is the rule in the
Thirteenth Amendment and it was made clear in Jones v. Alfred H.
Mayer Co. Thus, Congress has the authority to ban private prisons.
Penology is also a public function. Between 1970 and today,
there has been more than a 700% increase in the prison population.
This occurred not because of an increase in crime but because of the
enactment of harsher sentencing laws. Without watchdogs, voting has
allowed Blacks to endorse their own oppression. In 1970, the
state and federal prison population was under 190,000. Today,
the same population is more than two million without counting
persons on parole and probation. The total count is more than seven
million persons in the criminal justice system alone. The
United States takes the gold for incarcerating people. China takes
the silver, but you must consider its population. The United States
also takes the gold for incarceration rates and Russia replaces
China for the silver. This country is still a penal colony.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.amsterdamnews.com
Date: February 11, 2007)
Too young to drive, but old enough for life
in prison--Oct. 19th 2007--WASHINGTON
(AFP) — More than 70 inmates in US prisons were 13 or 14 years old
when they committed their crimes -- too young to drive or watch a
scary movie but old enough to spend the rest of their lives in jail,
according to a report. This situation does not exist anywhere
else in the world, according to the report by the Alabama-based
Equal Justice Initiative. Over the course of a year lawyers
with the group, which specializes on defending the poorest citizens,
pored over legal files across the country to uncover the number of
young teens tried and convicted as adults. At least 2,225
juveniles aged 17 or younger have been sentenced to life
imprisonment with no possibility of parole, a punishment forbidden
by the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, which the United
States has not ratified. Among those juveniles, 73 were under
the age of 15 when they committed the crime. And half of them are
African-American, hardly representative of a society where 12
percent of the population is black. The teens have all been
incarcerated with adults, where they face the same risk of beatings,
rape and abuse as their elders. Some have attempted suicide.
"This is an unintended and disastrous consequence of prosecuting
children as adults: children too young to drive, or even see a scary
movie by themselves, are being sentenced to die in adult prisons,"
said EJI director Bryan Stevenson. For complete story,
click here.
Oregon prison guards get Tasers--Civil
rights activists object, fearing abuses--SALEM, Ore. --
High-tech Tasers equipped with digital cameras are being distributed
to prison guards to help control an inmate population that has
reached about 13,500. But inmates and civil rights activists
say they are concerned the Tasers could be used to punish inmates,
including mentally ill prisoners. Nearly 100 corrections
officers across the state are being trained on how and when to use
the shock-inducing weapons, intended to help prevent injuries to
both guards and inmates. "The officers are able to quickly subdue
the (inmate) versus wrestling with him for some time," said Paula
Allen, Department of Corrections chief of security. Under
proposed department rules, approval for Taser use would have to come
from a supervising officer in charge, along with the prison
superintendent. Trained officers and commanders will make judgment
calls on when to employ the weapons, Allen said. More than 70
people, including inmates, civil rights activists and other
concerned citizens, recently filed written objections in response to
the proposed rule changes that govern prison use of Tasers.
"Prisons already have plenty of means to control inmates, and this
is an unnecessary, deadly and expensive weapon," wrote Lauren Regan,
executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Eugene.
Taser shocks, if administered to mentally ill convicts, would amount
to cruel and unusual punishment, Regan added. For complete
story,
click here.
Officers Strangled Man Who Died In Cell,
Suit Claims--September
17th, 2007--A man who died in police custody last year was strangled
by police, a lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court Monday
claims. Jaime Galvan was arrested about 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 9,
2006. About two hours after his arrest, Galvan was taken from the
Austin Police District to a holding cell at Harrison Area
headquarters at 3340 W. Fillmore St., according to the suit.
At approximately 11:59 p.m., Galvan was found "unresponsive and
deceased in his holding cell, with his body handcuffed to the
prisoner rail," the suit says. According to the suit, "autopsy
reports reveal that Jaime Galvan's body contained injuries and marks
consistent with having been strangled." The suit claims
"sometime between the hours of 6:30 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 9,
2006, unknown city of Chicago police officers strangled and/or
exerted excessive physical force upon Jaime Galvan, while in police
custody, without proper cause or justification.
" Additionally, the suit claims officers did not intervene during
the assault. The suit , filed by Yadira Galvan, whose relation
to Jaime Galvan is not specified, says whatever force used on Jaime
Galvan was excessive, since he was "restrained by handcuffs [and]
presented no threat of imminent harm to defendants or others."
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.topix.net Date: September 17,
2007)
Inmate shocked by cattle prod wins appeal
of case against guard--September 12th, 2007--AUSTIN
— A federal appeals court has reinstated a former inmate's lawsuit
against a southeast Texas corrections officer over abuse he claims
was racially motivated. Dale Payne, who was paroled six months
ago, says he was shocked with a cattle prod and threatened with a
knife while doing time for robbery at the Estelle Unit in
Huntsville. "I was tired of the racism," Payne said. "It went
on for months and months." In a decision issued Friday, the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has reinstated
Payne's lawsuit against the corrections officer, Jimmy Parnell.
Payne served as his own attorney. "I just had enough, so I
studied books and took my time," said Payne, who filed his lawsuit
four years ago, handwritten on notebook paper. "They don't
like people filing suits, but I decided I had to do it for me and
everybody else who is being beaten and tortured and called racist
names." (Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
www.chron.com Date:
September 12, 2007)
D.C.
mugger turns out to be a hugger--July 13th, 2007--WASHINGTON — A
grand feast of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp was winding down, and
a group of friends was sitting on the back patio of a Capitol Hill
home, sipping red wine. Suddenly, a hooded man slid in through an open
gate and put the barrel of a handgun to the head of a 14-year-old
girl. "Give me your money, or I'll start shooting," he
demanded, according to Washington, D.C., police and witness accounts.
The five other guests, including the girl's parents, froze — and
then one spoke. "We were just finishing dinner,"
Cristina "Cha Cha" Rowan, 43, blurted out. "Why don't
you have a glass of wine with us?" The intruder took a sip
of their Château Malescot St.-Exupéry and said, "Damn, that's
good wine." The girl's father, Michael Rabdau, 51, who
described the harrowing evening in an interview, told the intruder to
take the whole glass. Rowan offered him the bottle. The would-be
robber, his hood now down, took another sip and had a bite of
Camembert cheese that was on the table. Then he tucked the gun
into the pocket of his nylon sweatpants. "I think I may
have come to the wrong house," he said, looking around the patio.
"I'm sorry," he told the group. "Can I get a hug?"
Rowan, who lives in Falls Church, Va., and works part time at her
children's school, stood up and wrapped her arms around him. Then it
was Rabdau's turn. Then his wife's. The other two guests complied.
"That's really good wine," the man said, taking another sip.
He had a final request: "Can we have a group hug?" The
five adults surrounded him, arms out. With that, the man walked
out with a crystal wine glass in hand, filled with Château Malescot.
No one was hurt, and nothing was stolen. For complete story,
click here.
2
New York prisoners sue to get their banned religious books back--August
22nd, 2007--NEW YORK: Two New York inmates challenging a ban
on some
religious books in chapel libraries at U.S. prisons are trying to take
the fight nationwide, asking that their lawsuit be given class
action
status so it can benefit thousands of others behind bars. Moshe
Milstein, an Orthodox Jew, and John J. Okon, a Protestant, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. They withdrew a similar
lawsuit two months ago after a judge said they needed to register
complaints with the prison system first. The men accused the
government of the "indiscriminate dismantling of religious
libraries" at federal
prisons nationwide. Prison libraries
limited the number of books for each religion to between 100 and 150
under new rules created after a
2004 U.S. Department of Justice review
of how prisons choose Muslim religious services providers, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Brian Feldman said. Feldman said the study was
done out of a concern that prisons "had been radicalized by
inmates who were practicing or espousing various
extreme forms of
religion, specifically Islam, which exposed security risks to the
prisons and beyond the prisons to the public at large." The
lawsuit says hundreds and perhaps thousands of religious books and
media used by inmates have been banned and removed from prisons
across
the United States since February without any effort to learn if they
are inflammatory or extremist. "This purge is an
unnecessary,
unconstitutional and unlawful restriction of the ability
of federal inmates nationwide to practice and learn about their
religion and has
substantially burdened their ability to exercise
their religion," the lawsuit says. For complete story,
click here.
California's
Parole System Abuses Battered Women:
August 1st, 2007: WOMENSENEWS)
--Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California is
scheduled to make
another decision on the parole of Flozelle Woodmore Aug. 10.
Let's all encourage him to do the right thing. California has
been groundbreaking in its defense of battered women. It is one of the
few states where an abused woman on trial for killing a domestic
partner is allowed to present expert testimony about battery and its
effects during the trial. More importantly, it is the only state
that has a
"habeas project," which allows an incarcerated
battered woman who was not allowed to present testimony on the effects
of battery in her
initial trial (it only became allowable under law in
1992) to petition for a retrial and bring in the evidence that was
banned. In the five years
since the California Habeas Project was
created, 19 incarcerated battered women have been released from
prison. But sadly, the state
remains in the Stone Age when it
comes to paroling the survivors of domestic violence. Numerous
battered women have served the term of
their original sentences, have
been found suitable for parole (often more than once) yet remain
imprisoned at the whim of the governor. In
California, when
someone convicted of first-degree or second-degree murder is
recommended for parole, the governor has the opportunity to
reverse
the decision of the parole board. Woodmore's plight shows why this can
be such a bad system. Over 20 years ago, then 18-year-old Woodmore killed her long-time abusive boyfriend Clifton Morrow.
For the five years they were together, Woodmore stated he beat her in public, in private and even when she was pregnant.
For complete story,
click here.
Pa.
inmate sues county prison, saying she was forced to have baby alone in
her cell:
July 27th, 2007--
Pennsylvania inmate Shakira Staten says she was left alone screaming
in her cell for four hours while she went into labor and gave birth to
her daughter. Despite her constant
pleas, Staten said it wasn't
until she gave birth, the baby fell on the cell floor and she held her
child up to the cell bars that she finally got the
attention of a
guard, who cut the umbilical cord with her fingernails. Staten,
22, filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday claiming she and her
newborn
baby were subjected to cruel and unusual punishment when the staff at
the Lackawanna County Prison left her alone in her cell
without
providing medical care or transporting her to a hospital. The suit
names Lackawanna County, Lackawanna County Prison, Warden
Janine
Donate, three unnamed guards, and an unnamed nurse. Dr. Edward Zaloga
and Correction Care Inc., which provide the medical care at the jail,
were also named. Late on July 9, Staten began to feel pain and
told correctional officers she thought she was going into labor,
according to the suit. She was taken to the medical ward of the
prison, where she was examined for an hour by nurses who said her
contractions weren't "consistent enough." Staten was
then placed in a cell with a camera early July 10 so guards could
monitor her. That's
when Staten said the pain became
excruciating. She pleaded to be taken to the hospital, she
claims, but her cries weren't answered. When
the guards would
not come to her cell, Staten wadded up toilet paper and threw it on
the camera lens, according to the suit. For complete story,
click here.
California
Investigates a Mother-and-Child Prison Center:
July 6th,
2007--LOS ANGELES, July 5 — The authorities in
California
are investigating accusations that poor health care at a center where
mothers serve prison terms with their young children led to the
stillbirth of a 7-month-old
fetus and endangered the lives of several
children. Staff logs, statements by prisoners and interviews
with investigators, staff members and
prisoners’ families depict a
facility where inmates and their children were denied hospital visits
and medications, and where no one kept
adequate records of accidents
involving injuries that included a skull fracture and a broken
collarbone. The California Department of Alcohol
and Drug
Programs, one of several agencies investigating, is expected to decide
this month whether to continue licensing the center, which
houses
nonviolent offenders, most convicted of drug crimes. The
problems at the center coincide with continuing intense scrutiny of
health
care delivery in California’s prisons. A court-appointed
receiver was handed control of prison medical services more than a
year ago after a
federal court found widespread neglect and
malpractice. The 40-bed facility, located in San Diego and
offered as an alternative to serving
time in the customary
penitentiary setting, has dormitory-style rooms for inmate and child
adjoining shared living areas. It is run under the
banner of the
Family Foundations Program by a nonprofit contractor, Center Point
Inc., which did not return calls seeking comment. For complete
story,
click here.
Prisoners
had to lick toilets:
May 9th, 2007--TALLAHASSEE --
Prosecutors issued arrest warrants Tuesday for eight former prison
employees
accused of abusing inmates, including forcing some to clean
toilets with their tongues. The eight were among 13 prison
employees who had
already been fired
from the 605-inmate medium and minimum security at the Hendry
Correctional Institution in the Everglades. The previous
warden
and an assistant warden resigned, and three others were reassigned
after an inmate was beaten and choked by guards in March.
State
prisons chief Jim McDonough said the warrants include charges of
battery and failing to report inmate abuse against former guards
William Thiessen, Phillip Barger, Randy Hazen, Gabriel Cotilla, Kevin
Filipowicz, Ruben Ibarra and Stephen Whitney. Fired guard James Brown was charged with grand theft. ''These former employees
were involved in a series of dehumanizing and degrading behaviors,''
McDonough said, noting that some inmates were given choices of eating
their food off the floor or providing sexual favors to guards.
For complete story,
click here.
Corrections
Officer Charged With Rape: May 2nd, 2007--LOUISVILLE,
Ky. --
A Louisville Metro
Corrections officer found himself on the other side of the bars,
Tuesday, to await trial on a rape charge. Sgt. Richard Johnson,
39, was indicted by a grand jury and is charged with one count of
second-degree rape and one count of second-degree sodomy.
According to court records, there were two different victims.
Johnson has been an employee at Metro Corrections for 16 years and was
promoted to sergeant about seven years ago. For complete story,
click here.
Inmates
vs. Animals: U.S. Fails the Test of Civilization:
Legend has it that in the fifth century the Asian monk Telemachus ran
into a Roman arena to stop the brutality of the gladitorial
games. For his interruption, the indignant crowd stoned him to
death, but his actions impressed Emperor Honorius enough to put an end
to the fights. The past millenium and a half has arguably
witnessed a general improvement in the cultural level of society, in
particular many
countries having preserved and extended their intolerance of sports
that brutally exploit the
disadvantaged. Today even cock fighting and
pitting canines against each other are illegal in most industrialized
nations. Remnants of
gladitorial combat nevertheless persist,
notably at two prison rodeos in Angola, La., and McAlester, Okla.,
where Americans buy tickets to watch inmates wrestle bulls and
participate in crowd favorites like "Convict Poker." Also
called "Mexican Sweat," the poker game consists of
four
prisoners who sit expectantly around a red card table. A 1,500-pound
bull is unleashed, and the last convict
to remain sitting wins.
Especially thrilling for the audience is the
chaotic finale "Money the Hard Way" in which more than a
dozen inmates scramble to snatch a
poker chip dangling from the horns
of another raging bull. Unlike prisoners of ancient Rome,
convicts at the annual Angola and Oklahoma
State rodeos aren't
physically forced to compete in the games, or even executed after
their performance. Instead, they're paid handsomely --
upwards of $200
for winning "Convict Poker," or $100 for successfully
grabbing the chip in "Money the Hard Way." A tour guide
clarifies the
basic economics: "Since $100 is worth about four
months' pay to these hardened criminals, be ready for one hell of a
scrap for that c-note." For complete story,
click here.
Inmate
freed from jail without a ride perished in the cold:
To the workers at the concrete plant who found his body, the frail man
looked as though he had gone
to sleep among the stacks of lumber. Snow cloaked everything but his
lower legs and feet. "That's all you could really see, were
his socks and his ankles,"
Bill Einhorn said. His ankles were so skinny, the men weren't
sure they were looking at a person. Einhorn and his co-workers
would say later that the
discovery was unexpectedly serene, as though the man simply decided to
take a nap in their desolate company yard. The family of
63-year-old James R.
Smith Jr. would like to think he died napping. Not cold, disoriented,
frightened. Not wandering aimlessly until he sat down and his heart
stopped. The evidence
makes the latter scenario far more likely. Smith was found dead
on the South Side on Jan. 23, five days after he was let out of
Franklin County's Jackson
Pike jail. Records show that he was freed at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18,
a Thursday. His body was found about 2 miles north of the jail at ALD
Concrete & Grading
Co., 1600 Haul Rd. Relatives said Smith was released without a
call to them and despite a request by his case manager to hold him
until she could pick
him up the next morning. For complete story,
click here.
Jailbait:
Prison companies profit as Raymondville'
s public debt grows: ” How else could
Simon Salinas, Willacy County judge for 12 years, react to the promise
that his county’s meager and battered budget could more than triple
to $15 million within a couple of years? His employees don’t have
health insurance,
government buildings are falling apart, unemployment is over 10
percent, the county has run through four auditors in as many years,
and there’s not
even enough money to hire a dogcatcher for this sparse agricultural
area in South Texas tucked between the giant Anglo ranches to the
north and the booming
border region. “I’ve turned over rocks to get industry here,”
Salinas says. “Once they see the place, they say, we’ll go to the
[Rio Grande].” With industry
taking a pass on Willacy County, one of the poorest in the nation,
local officials have turned to more outlandish, or bold, if you
prefer, economic gambits.
One long-standing idea is to build a spaceport to launch commercial
rockets from an offshore barge. Another ill-advised venture involves
using eminent
domain to seize 1,500 acres on Padre Island owned by the Nature
Conservancy with the goal of ferrying tourists to the island on a
rickety, 40-year-old
amphibious vehicle. Both proposals have stalled, but in the past
decade Willacy County has found itself courted by one industry that
has practically
knocked down doors to come into the area. “We’re at the
point where we’ll grab anything,” says Salinas, an amiable former farmworker with a full
head of white hair. “If it’s Prisonville, fine.” Prisonville is
what the residents of Raymondville, seat of Willacy County, have taken
to calling their community.
Their town is home to a privately run, 1,000-bed state prison; a
county-run, 96-bed jail with space for federal inmates; a private,
500-bed federal jail;
and a recently opened private, 2,000-bed detention center for
undocumented immigrants that is a crown jewel in the Bush
administration’
s border-enforcement
policy. The four facilities are clustered on reclaimed grazing land, a
bustling village of razor wire and guard towers across the highway
from downtown
Raymondville. The 3,600 prisoners—one-
third of Raymondville’
s population—who reside in this penal colony represent the heart of
the area’s economy.
Aside from employing hundreds of locals to guard the prisoners, the
jails are supposed to stimulate economic development and provide
revenue for
the county. But Prisonville seems to have benefited a small group of
private, for-profit prison businessmen far more than the town on whose
humble
aspirations they preyed. For complete story,
click here.
Are
Pharmaceutical Tests on Prison Population Another Form of Modern-Day
Slavery?: Around Alabama,
South Carolina, and even in New York City, you’ll find
statues of J. Marion Sims. What you won’t find are statues or,
for that matter, many mentions of Anarcha. Back in the
mid-to-late 1800s, Sims, a surgeon, performed at least 30 experiments
on Anarcha, a slave woman, in a quest for a way to treat a 19th
century childbirth complication that caused many women to
leak urine from their vaginas after developing connections between it
and their bladder. Eventually, he was successful -- and has been
lauded as the father
of modern gynecology ever since. But even though Sims developed
a treatment for an embarrassing and painful ailment that still
afflicts many Third World
women today, there’s no ignoring the fact that he built his legacy
off of the pain of slaves like Anarcha. Women like her endured the
experiments with no
anesthesia. They also endured it amid times in which people like Sims
believed that black people’s pain and anonymity were merely part of
the landscape of
privilege to which whites believed they were entitled. I got to
thinking about Anarcha’s story after reading about how another
captive, disproportionately-
black
population could wind up being reduced to guinea pig status. Recently,
a federal panel of medical advisers recommended that the government
lighten up
on regulations that restrict prison inmates from being used as
subjects in pharmaceutical tests. According to The New York
Times, such testing all but ended
more than three decades ago, after some prisoners were exposed to
dangerous substances such as dioxin. Leodus Jones, a former inmate
at Philadelphia’
s Holmesburg prison in the 1960s, told the Times that lotion tests
caused him to develop rashes, and his skin to change color. (We
were unable to locate the original story to save it. However,
this story is far too important to just delete for lack of archive.
The original story was written by Tonya Weathersbee. We've
found the story in full and have copied it with the source. No
date is available that we can find.
Click here for more.)
Inside
Jobs - Convict Rehab or Corporate Slavery?:
If you think prison inmates
only make license plates, you're behind the times. As a child
Ayana Cole dreamed
of becoming a world class fashion designer. Today she is among
hundreds of inmates crowded in an Oregon prison factory cranking out
designer jeans.
For her labor she is paid 45 cents an hour. At a chic Beverly Hills
boutique some of the beaded creations carry a $350 price tag. In fact
the jeans labeled
"Prison Blues" - proved so popular last year that prison
factories couldn't keep up with demand. At a San Diego
private-run prison factory Donovan Thomas
earns 21 cents an hour manufacturing office equipment used in some of
LA's plushest office towers. In Chino Gary's prison sewn T-shirts are
a fashion hit.
Hundreds of prison generated products end up attached to trendy and
nationally known labels like No Fear, Lee Jeans, Trinidad Tees, and
other well known
US companies. After deductions, many prisoners like Cole and Thomas
earn about $60 for an entire month of nine-hour days. In short, hiring
out prisoners
has become big business. And it's booming. For complete story,
click here.
16-Year-Old
Girl Faces 40 Years in Texas Prison for Drug Offense:
The county attorney in El Paso,
Texas, is seeking a harsh prison term for a 16-year-old girl caught
smuggling cocaine into the U.S. from Mexico, the
El
Paso Times reported Sept. 24.County
Attorney Jose Rodriguez asked for and received grand-jury clearance
for the girl, whose name was withheld, to be prosecuted under Texas'
Determinate Sentencing Statute, which allows minors to be
punished beyond
their 21st birthday and would expose the girl to up to 40 years in
juvenile detention and Texas prisons. The girl was caught allegedly
trying to smuggle
about 50 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. For complete story,
click here.
Torture
Tactics Refined In US Prisons, ACLU Says:
(CNSNews.com) - The director of the American Civil Liberties Union's
National Prisoner Project Wednesday
accused U.S. governments past and present of honing torture tactics in
American prisons before they were allegedly implemented in
terrorist detention
centers in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "If
you look at the iconic pictures from Abu Ghraib," Elizabeth
Alexander told reporters at
the U.S. Capitol Wednesday, "you can match up these photos with
the same abuses at American prisons, each one of them."
Alexander said the infamous torture
tactics uncovered at Abu Ghraib were first used in American prisons,
but without cameras. "The photo from Abu Ghraib showing a mock
execution matches
events in Sacramento, California, in which guards staged mock
executions of prisoners," she said. The images of dogs
being used to intimidate prisoners
portray similar events that occurred in a Texas jail, according to
Alexander, who added that the sexual humiliation that occurred in Abu
Ghraib is similar
to sexual abuse in women's prisons in the United States. For
complete story, click here.
Three
disciplined in suicide of 18-year-old at youth prison:
SACRAMENTO - Three employees at a youth prison in Stockton were
disciplined after the suicide last
year of an 18-year-old ward who was isolated in his room for two
months, the corrections department said Friday in a preliminary
response to a public records
request from The Associated Press. In a report that was
previously released, the prison system's inspector general blamed poor
oversight for Joseph Daniel
Maldonado's Aug. 31 suicide at the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional
Facility. For complete story,
click here.
Inmates
tortured, ACLU says: Prisoners at
the Garfield County Jail are being tortured with PepperBall guns,
Tasers and electroshock belts, the American Civil Liberties Union
charged in a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court.
For complete story,
click here.
Sentencing:
US Conference of Mayors Comes Out Against Mandatory Minimum Drug
Sentences:
The US Conference of Mayors, meeting at its annual convention
in Las Vegas this week, passed a resolution opposing mandatory minimum
sentences for drug crimes
http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/resolutions/74th_conference/resolutions_adopted_2006.pdf
and called for "fair and effective" sentencing
policies. The group represents the 1,183 mayors of cities in the US
with populations over 300,000 and is a key voice in setting the urban
policy agenda. For complete story,
click here.
Judge
Steps In for Poor Inmates Without Justice Since Hurricane:
NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina took his house, his courtroom
and, Judge Arthur L. Hunter
Jr. says, his faith in the way his city treats poor people facing
criminal charges. Nine months after the storm, more than a
thousand jailed defendants have
had no access to lawyers, the judge says, because the public defender
system is desperately short of money and staffing, without a computer
system or files
or even a list of clients. And so Judge Hunter, 46, a former New
Orleans police officer, is moving to let some of the defendants
without lawyers out of jail.
He has suspended prosecutions in most cases involving public
defenders. And, alone among a dozen criminal court judges, he
has granted a petition to free
a prisoner facing serious charges without counsel, and is considering
others. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
report: 2.2 million now in prisons, jails:
WASHINGTON - Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates
each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people,
or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same
time in 2004, the government
reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005
translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates. Of particular
note was the gain
of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997,
researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate,
compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and
federal prisons. Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all
inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000,
were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Beck, the bureau’s chief of corrections statistics, said the
increase in the number of people
in the 3,365 local jails is due partly to their changing role. Jails
often hold inmates for state or federal systems, as well as people who
have yet to begin
serving a sentence. “The jail population is increasingly
unconvicted,” Beck said. “Judges are perhaps more reluctant to
release people pretrial.” The report
by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in
jails have not been convicted, meaning many of them are awaiting
trial. For complete story,
click here.
Inmates
face hazards for pennies an hour:
While much of the "e-waste" discarded across the
country is "recycled" by brokers who send the old computers,
monitors
and televisions to "developing" nations without laws
regulating the health or safety implications of their processing and
disposal, some marginalized communities in the United States also face
hazards from dismantling the toxic products. Prison recycling
programs at a number of federal penitentiaries have violated health
and safety standards, according to whistleblowers and environmental
groups. Prisoners at the federal maximum-security Atwater prison
in California
used hammers to break computer terminals down for recycling, which
caused the release of heavy-metal particles. The problem was
only addressed
after Leroy Smith, the safety manager at Atwater, filed a complaint
with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and
sought whistleblower
protections in early 2005. Seven other federal prisons have
electronics recycling plants, including Elkton, Ohio; Fort Dix, New
Jersey; and Texarkana,
Texas. "Because the US as a country is not embracing this
very significant large volume and hazardous waste problem, what
we’re doing is pushing
it offshore, [and] we’re pushing it to prisoners," said Sarah
Westervelt, e-waste program coordinator with the Basel Action Network,
an international environmental organization. More than a year
after Smith’s disclosure, the US Office of Special Counsel finally
issued a response last month, faulting the Federal
Bureau of Prisons for failing to address inmates’ exposure to toxins
like lead and cadmium in the computer recycling operations. Even
Scott Bloch, the
head of the US Office of Special Counsel heavily criticized for
relative inaction in protecting federal employees’ rights at work,
called for a "thorough, independent and impartial investigation
into recycling operations at [Bureau of Prisons] institutions."
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER),
along with Smith’s lawyer, Mary Dryovage, say the Justice Department
should open a full investigation into alleged health and safety
violations perpetrated
by UNICOR, the government-owned corporation that runs industry
programs at federal penitentiaries. Businesses, federal agencies
and local governments have contracted UNICOR to recycle their e-waste,
resulting in $9 million in sales in 2005. According to its financial
reports, UNICOR employs 951 inmates
in its recycling plants, paying them between 23 cents and $1.15 per
hour. (Webmaster Note: Not only are prisoners paid way under
minimum wage standards, they are expected to pay up to and sometimes
over 10x retail prices for necessities, including food and toiletries.
Can you imagine being paid 23 cents
an hour and being expected to pay $10 for one aspirin tablet, not a
bottle of aspirin, a single pill. Peonage is debt slavery.
Why do we allow this? To
support prisoners, visit:
www.heal-online.org/adopt.htm
and learn how now!) For complete story,
click here.
Tyra
Banks goes to jail for chat show:
Tyra Banks has spent a day in jail to prepare for the second
season of her US chat show. The former model asked to be
treated like any other female prisoner during her stay, and admits
that she was shocked by what she experienced. "It was one
of the most shocking, eye-opening
and terrifying experiences of my life. I felt violated," Banks is
quoted by The Sun as saying. For complete story,
click here.
Democracy
Now! Chicago's Abu Ghraib: Tuesday, May 9th, 2006:
For nearly two decades a part of the
city’s jails known as Area 2 was the epicenter for what has
been described as the systematic torture of dozens of African-American
males by Chicago police officers. In total, more than 135 people say
they were subjected
to abuse including having guns forced into their mouths, bags places
over their heads, and electric shocks inflicted to their genitals.
Four men have
been released from death row after government investigators concluded
torture led to their wrongful convictions. For complete story,
click here.
Prison
employees' arrests detailed--From hot checks to murders, prison
workers frequently charged:
They're
accused of fighting with their families, getting drunk in public,
writing hot checks, driving drunk and getting caught with illegal
drugs.Occasionally,
they're arrested on accusations of murdering, setting fire, stealing,
laundering money,
smuggling illegal immigrants, even robbing a bank or impersonating a
police officer.That was
the snapshot that emerged Thursday as state prison officials
made public
a list of Texas corrections employees who have been arrested during
the past three years. The list of charges is a cross- section of the
criminal code.
For complete story, click here.
In
police lineups, is the method the suspect?:CHICAGO AND BOSTON - A police lineup is often the moment
of truth in a criminal investigation. It's also, say many experts,
highly fallible.Of the
175 convictions overturned by DNA evidence, 75 percent were convicted
largely because of eyewitness testimony that turned out to be mistaken.
For complete story, click here.
Prison
guards protest over conditions at Nevada State Prison:CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Up to 200 prison guards plan a
rally Friday outside the Nevada State Prison to
protest what they see as deteriorating conditions as a result of
inmate program cuts and policy changes by a new warden.Scott MacKenzie, organizing director for the State
of Nevada Employees Association, said Thursday that guards working at
the medium-security prison now must deal with "a heavy handed
management style" that excludes
them from involvement in decisions.MacKenzie added that good communication between prison
administrators and guards "is the key to safety, security
and respect."Problems mentioned by guards have included cuts in inmate
programs by Warden Bill Donat, along with policy changes in sick
leave, time off and various rules that
they see as creating a hostile work environment.
For complete story,
click here.
Former
inmate: Chino prison officer plotted attacks:CHINO - An officer at the California Institution for Men
solicited attacks against an inmate there for raising too many
complaints about the facility's living conditions, the former prisoner
said.Matthew Cramer, 38,
who was released on parole in March, said his complaints have spurred
an Internal
Affairs investigation.Officials
at the prison deny an investigation is under way and said Cramer's
charges are bogus. But he's pushing the case forward."She went to
many inmates and said, `Cramer snitched, Cramer did this, Cramer did
that,' " said the former prisoner, who now lives in Visalia.
"She tried to entice them to assault me."The
officer's last name is Duncan, said Cramer, who said he does not know
her first name. Many officers typically do not use their first names
inside prison environments.
For complete story,
click here.
Jeffco
death sentences highest since'76:Jefferson
County judges have condemned seven killers in the last nine months,
equaling the county's largest concentration of death
sentences since capital sentencing resumed in Alabama in 1976, records
show.The latest was
Brandon Washington, who was sentenced to death on March 27 for a robbery
and murder. Judges also imposed seven death sentences between June
1997 and March 1998.Bryan
Stevenson, a death penalty critic, said the latest trend shouldn't
be a surprise in a state that leads the nation in per-capita death
sentences, where jury sentence verdicts can be less than unanimous and
judges may override the jury's
wish."There is no
question in my mind," said Stevenson, executive director of the
Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative. "Alabama has one of
the most expansive
death penalty statutes in the country."
For complete story,
click here.
Prison
canteen system nears end of its time:For years, Oregon convicts shopped at prison canteens,
buying everything from shampoo to instant coffee and running shoes.However, most of these general stores behind prison walls have
closed in recent years, vanishing like mom-and-pop grocery stores
supplanted by big corporate chains.Only two of 13 state prisons, the Oregon State Penitentiary in
Salem and the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton,
still operate storefront canteens.Amid
a push for consolidation and standardization, the bulk of the convict
population no longer shops at the canteen. Instead, the canteen comes
to them, arriving once per week
in brown paper bags.Inmate warehouse workers do the heavy lifting for the
modernized system, known as "bagged canteen," filling
customized orders that are delivered
by trucks to thousands of prisoners.Top-selling items in the convict marketplace, based on sales
revenue: envelopes, TVs, instant coffee, noodles, protein powders,
compact discs, AA batteries, CD players/radios and refried beans.Canteens conform with the Department of Corrections' mission
to hold inmates accountable, said
Perrin Damon, a spokeswoman for the agency.Most inmates work, earning points that can be used to fund
canteen purchases, providing an incentive for them to work hard,
Damon said."Plus,
having responsibility for their own funds, saving and spending -- it
mirrors the real world," she said.Family members can donate money to inmates'
accounts. However, convict purchasing power is kept in check by rules
that limit monthly spending to between $50 and $75.(Webmaster Note:Prisoners are charged
at least twice the retail rate on most items, sometimes as much as 10x
the retail rate (what we pay at the store on the outside).They have to use this "allowance" (even
if they have more funds in their accounts) to purchase toiletries
including toilet paper and sundries.Who stops the debt peonage slavery in this system?Who stops the
slavery period?How is it
like the "real world" for an adult to be paid in
"points" and not at least to be paid minimum wage?What human and civil rights standards are we
using to judge this?It's
flat out garbage!!!) For complete story,
click here.
Ex-prisons
official pleads guilty in co-worker assaults:The
Texas prison system's former anti-gang chief pleaded guilty Friday to
reduced criminal charges in a deal that allows
him to avoid going to prison for sexually assaulting co-workers.Salvador "Sammy" Buentello, an assistant director of
the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who retired
under fire in May 2004, pleaded guilty in a Huntsville state court to
a felony charge of unlawful restraint and five counts of official
oppression, all misdemeanors.Three felony
sexual assault charges were dismissed.State District Judge Bill McAdams sentenced Buentello to five
years' deferred adjudication on the felony charge and a year's probation
on the misdemeanors. He was also fined $7,000.The felony charge carried a maximum 10-year prison sentence,
the misdemeanors a maximum year each in the county
jail.Under the deferred
adjudication agreement, if Buentello is not arrested on or convicted
of new charges, he will not have a felony conviction on his
record, according
to prosecutors.Walker
County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Stroud said Buentello
must undergo psychiatric counseling and a sexual-therapy
evaluation but
will not have to register as a sex offender.
For complete story,
click here.
Torture
Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons:They
are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside
the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month
investigation for BBC Channel 4 . It’s terrible to watch some of the
videos and realise that you’re not only seeing torture in action
but, in the most extreme cases, you are
witnessing young men dying.The
prison guards stand over their captives with electric cattle prods,
stun guns, and dogs. Many of the prisoners have been ordered to strip
naked. The guards are yelling abuse at them, ordering them to lie on
the ground and crawl. ‘Crawl, motherf*****s, crawl.’If a prisoner doesn’t drop to the ground fast enough,
a guard kicks him or stamps on his back. There’s a high-pitched
scream from one man as a dog clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.Another prisoner has a broken ankle.
He can’t crawl fast enough so a guard jabs a stun gun onto his
buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his naked flesh and
genitals. For hours afterwards his whole
body shakes.Lines of men
are now slithering across the floor of the cellblock while the guards
stand over them shouting, prodding and kicking.Second by second, their
humiliation is captured on a video camera by one of the guards.The images of abuse and brutality he records are horrifyingly
familiar. These were exactly the kind of pictures
from inside Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad that shocked the world this
time last year.And they
are similar, too, to the images of brutality against Iraqi prisoners
that this
week led to the conviction of three British soldiers.But there is a difference. These prisoners are not caught up in
a war zone. They are Americans, and the video comes
from inside a prison in Texas. For complete story,
click here.
Locked
Up in the Tombs: Dangerous-to-Society Women:Lockup
isn't supposed to be fun, but we are innocent until proven guilty.
Right?I was arrested with Cindy Sheehan,
Medea Benjamin, and Rev. Patti Ackerman last week as we attempted to
deliver to the United States Mission a petition with 72,000 signatures
of women who say no
to war.Just a few hours
before this, the Iraqi Women's Delegation had been received warmly at
the UN. We were not received warmly at our publicly owned
building, although
our group had been told the petition could be delivered to a
receptionist. In fact, as we approached, security guards locked the
doors.We moved from the
building and
were reading the petition when police arrived to arrest us. Cindy,
Medea, and Patti locked arms and legs to avoid being hurt. I held
tightly to a banner for peace. The police
tried to pull it from my grasp but failed. They lifted me, pulled my
arms behind my back, and carried me to the paddy wagon. I weigh 104
pounds. Might makes right, eh?I yelled, "George Bush killed my nephew." I said this
over and over.We four
"dangerous-to-society" women were driven to a police station
where we were photographed and
fingerprinted. The walls and floor of our cell were decorated with
feces, blood, and urine. The bathroom was also filthy.(Webmaster Note:So,
this is how we treat the mothers
of American sons who die in Iraq?This is how we honor freedom and protect democracy?What in the hell is going on?)
For complete story, click here.
Author
embraces technology - launches Internet portal from behind the walls
of a maximum security federal prison.TAMPA, FL– Author,
screenwriter George Martorano
has assisted in launching the website www.georgemartorano.com.
Martorano, in his 23rd
year of a life without-the-possibility-of-parole sentence, has found
a world-wide
audience for 23 years worth of writings- including 10 novels, 20 short
stories and numerous screenplays.George Martorano is currently serving his 23rd
year of an
LWP (Life-without Parole) sentence in a maximum security federal
prison in Coleman, Florida.Mr.
Martorano plead guilty to drug conspiracy charges in 1983. Despite
a plea
agreement which intended Martorano to serve 10 years in prison, a
federal judge ignored the plea agreement and sentenced George
Martorano to serve a life sentence without
parole for his first-time, non-violent marijuana offense. The reason
given was Mr. Martorano's failure to outline activities about his
father's alleged, unrelated illegal business
activities that the judge had hoped he knew.Mr. Martorano is the longest serving first-time, non-violent
offender in the history of America. Despite the circumstances
surrounding George Martorano's living conditions over the last 23
years, he has overcome, raised above and far exceeded expectations by
educating himself,
maintaining a healthy positive mental attitude and teaching and
counseling hundreds of inmates over the years.
Writing
by Suicidal Detainee Reveals Depths of His Despair:Just before
Jumah al-Dossari tried to kill himself by fashioning a makeshift noose
and opening a gash in his
right arm, the Guantanamo Bay detainee handed his lawyer an envelope
containing pages of tidily handwritten Arabic, some stained with dried
blood. Dossari had told his
lawyer they could discuss the letter at a later time."The detainees are suffering from the bitterness of
despair, the detention humiliation and the vanquish of slavery and
suppression," Dossari wrote, according to a translation. "I
hope you will always remember that you met and sat with a 'human
being' called 'Jumah' who suffered too much and
was abused in his belief, self, dignity and also in his humanity. He
was imprisoned, tortured and deprived from his homeland, his family
and his young daughter who is in the
most need of him for four years . . . with no reason or crime
committed."
For complete story, click here.
Hollywood
stars join campaign to close prison:The campaign to
close Guantánamo Bay has secured high-profile support, with Nobel
laureates and film stars signing a letter
in today's Guardian demanding an end to torture.Hollywood stars Danny Glover, of Lethal Weapon fame, and film
legend Harry Belafonte join writers Harold Pinter, Wole
Soyinka, Dario Fo, Nadine Gordimer and Alice Walker among others in
demanding the prison's closure.Recent
reports say the Bush administration is thinking of closing
the prison, which has attracted global condemnation for the use of
torture and the systematic abuse of detainees' human rights.
For complete story, click here.
Funds:
Doing time is money - prisons pay off for fund:BOSTON For managers of
the RS Partners Fund, the second-best performing U.S. small-cap value
mutual fund since
2001, only two things are certain this year: jails and education.
Andrew Pilara, who oversees the $2.3 billion fund, is bullish on
Corrections Corp. of America, the largest operator of jails and
prisons in the United States, and Corinthian Colleges, which runs 130
colleges in the United States and Canada.While most companies will post smaller
earnings gains in 2006 as consumer spending weakens, businesses like
Corrections and Corinthian Colleges will keep growing, said Pilara,
who co-manages the fund
with Joe Wolf and David Kelley.Demand for their services is not dependent on the economy, he
said."Our caution
led us to businesses that aren't economically sensitive,"
Pilara said in an interview by phone from his office at RS Investments
in San Francisco.Pilara
said he expects rising commodities prices to hamper U.S. growth, while
economists are forecasting that the first quarter will show the
biggest gains in two years.The RS Partners Fund climbed 14 percent in the past year.
Much of the gain came
from energy-related companies like Compton Petroleum and Paramount
Resources, which increased as oil and natural gas prices rose.
For complete story, click here.
Out
of Jail, into the Army:Facing an
enlistment crisis, the Army is granting "waivers" to an
increasingly high percentage of recruits with criminal records - and
trying to hide it.We're
transforming our military.
The things I look for are the following: morale, retention, and
recruitment. And retention is high, recruitment is meeting goals, and
people are feeling strong about the mission. -- George W. Bush, in
a Jan.
26 press conferenceIt was about 10 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2002, when a drug deal was
arranged in the parking lot of a mini-mall in Newark, Del. The car
with the drugs, driven by a man who would become a
recruit for the Delaware Air National Guard, pulled up next to a
parked car that was waiting for the exchange.Everything was going smoothly until the cops arrived."I parked and walked over to his car and
got in and we were talking," the future Air Guardsman later wrote. "He asked if I had
any marijuana and I said yes, that I bought some in Wilmington, Del.,
earlier that day. He said he wanted some." The drug
dealer went on to recount in a Jan. 11, 2005, statement written to win
admission into the military, "I walked back to my car [and] as
soon as I got in my car an officer put his flashlight in the window
and arrested
me."
For complete story,
click here.
Inmates
Awarded $248,000 For Abuse Conditions Called 'Dehumanizing':Justice took
its time coming to Bernard Brown and the men who suffered with him
during those
weeks in a filthy cellblock at the D.C. jail.Almost a decade passed between the time the men were beaten,
robbed and deprived of showers, working toilets and eating
utensils and the day last month when a jury awarded them $248,000 for
the abuse they suffered.Brown
and Vonsauli Smith had finished their prison sentences and rejoined
society. The cuts and bruises they and the others were left with after
guards beat them had long since faded to soft brown scars.But Brown says he never will forget
the viciousness of the days he spent on South One cellblock, a place
described in an unrelated court proceeding as "the most
deplorable, unjustifiably restrictive, dehumanizing" prison
accommodations one expert had ever seen.
For complete story,
click here.
American
Indian activist Leonard Peltier seeks new trial:ST. LOUIS — “It is
my obligation to find errors in the government’s case,” Barry
Bachrach, a defense lawyer for
Leonard Peltier, told the World outside of the Thomas Eagleton Federal
Courthouse here Feb. 13, after a hearing to review Peltier’s
conviction and sentencing.Peltier,
a leader
of the American Indian Movement (AIM), has spent 30 years in prison
for his alleged role in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents during a
1975 standoff on South Dakota’s
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. However, no one witnessed the shooting,
and ballistics tests, which were concealed from the court at the time
by the FBI, showed that
the bullets could not have been fired from the alleged murder weapon.
Peltier has repeatedly denied responsibility.While Peltier’s defense has been ongoing since his arrest
in 1976, Bachrach is taking a different approach. According to
Bachrach, “the Federal Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction under
the statutes upon which Peltier was
convicted and sentenced. The laws under which Leonard Peltier was
convicted require that the incident take place on a federal enclave,
which does not include the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation where the incident did take place. In this case,
the government therefore lacked jurisdiction.” (Webmaster's Note:
Read "The COINTELPRO Papers"
for truth about Peltier's case).
For complete story,
click here.
Department
of Corrections or Corruption?:JACKSONVILLE, FL -- It's called the Iron Triangle.A place where on each side of State Road 16, a handful of
prisons meet.Those
who live and work in the Iron Triangle will tell you behind the razor
sharp wires is a code, one few are willing to talk about openly."Everybody likes to use the phrase good old boys club, that's what it
is out there and they protect one another. There is a code of
silence," says a former correctional officer we will call Dave.Dave is breaking the
silence along with a few others who are still in the corrections
system."If it were
known who I am, at minimum my career with DOC would be over, at
minimum," says a high
ranking correctional officer we will call Mark.The only way Dave and Mark would talk to us is we concealed
their faces, distorted their voices and changed their names."I
fear retaliation from the upper echelon at work," says TJ,
another correctional officer who would only speak on condition of
anonymity.There is one
person who is not afraid
to say who he is. "I could sit here until the sun goes down next
week," says Ron McAndrew.McAndrew has been on the inside of Corrections as warden at
the Florida
State Prison."They'll
find some way to get even with you and that's well known. The
intimidation factor is unbelievable," says McAndrew.With these former and current
correctional workers, we've uncovered documents, pictures and other
evidence that is now part of numerous state and federal
investigations."I
would equate it to the mafia,
yes," says TJ.There
are steroid probes, sexual harassment lawsuits, claims of inmates
being tortured.
For complete story,
click here.
John
Robert Ballard remains at a state prison:RAIFORD, Fla. - John Robert Ballard was set free from death row
after the state Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to
convict him of killing two friends but he didn't rush out of prison
Friday at the first opportunity to savor his freedom.Ballard, who was expected to be released Friday afternoon and
reportedly had a bus ticket home, remained at the Union Correctional
Institution in Raiford hours after prison officials said he was free
to go.What was the
holdup?"When people
are released from prison, sometimes they have to wait on their
ride," Department of Corrections spokesman Robby Cunningham said.
"It's very common that there's not someone at the front door the
second they walk out."
For complete story, click here.
Waging
Peace On The Death Penalty:At
12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning Michael Morales is scheduled to die for the
1982 murder of Terri Winchell, a 17-year old Lodi,
California high
school student.The trial
took place in Ventura County, where I live.This evening, as Michael is strapped to the executioner’s
table, Amnesty International
and Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions
will hold a candlelight vigil in front of the Ventura County
Government Center, where Morales was condemned to death. We will call
for the abolition of the capital punishment.Michael Morales has lost his struggle to survive, but
eventually we death penalty abolitionists will prevail in the United
States as we
have prevailed in 120 other countries, from Angola to
Nepal to Venezuela.Eventually,
we as a nation will learn to respect the universal human right to
life. We will reject
execution as a form of torture. For complete story,
click here.
French
prisons on the borderline of human dignity:After visiting
two prisons in Marseille and Paris, the council's Human Rights
Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles
said: "...inmates' living
conditions are on the borderline of the acceptable, and on the
borderline of human dignity."Europe's top human rights watchdog said some French
prisons
were in a "disastrous" state on Wednesday in a damning
report on the country's criminal justice system that fuelled a
mounting sense of crisis.French
courts were overworked and underfunded, police operated with a sense
of impunity and defence lawyers needed better access to their clients,
said the report by the 46-nation Council of Europe based in Strasbourg
in eastern France. "Conditions in some holding facilities are
disastrous and totally at odds with a modern society's
requirements," the council's
Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro
Gil-Robles wrote. For complete story,
click here.
Calif.
prison guard convicted of aiding racist prison gang:LOS ANGELES
(AP) - A former prison guard was convicted Tuesday on charges of
aiding a white supremacist inmate gang that operated at the California
Institute for Men in Chino.Shayne
Allyn Ziska, 44, of Fontana was found guilty of federal charges of
participating in a corrupt organization's conspiracy, violent crime in
the aid of racketeering and deprivation of rights under color of law.Ziska helped the Nazi Low Riders distribute methamphetamine,
heroin and other drugs, federal prosecutor Adam D. Kamenstein said.U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., who heard testimony
from several inmates and other correctional officers over a two-week
trial, also found Ziska guilty of allowing a gang member to stab an
inmate.
For complete story,
click here.
Autopsy
reports expose cruelty of lethal injection:It's the stuff
of nightmares, and the very definition of cruel and unusual
punishment: A prisoner remaining aware, but paralyzed and unable to
speak, while a deadly, caustic drug flows through his veins.This could be the reality of execution in the United States.
Lethal injections, the preferred method of execution in every state
but Nevada, use three drugs: sodium thiopental, a surgical anesthetic,
followed by the paralytic drug pancuronium bromide, and finally
potassium chloride, which stops the heart and causes death.A medical journal's review of autopsy reports in 49 executions
by lethal injection in Texas and Virginia showed that 43 had
critically low levels of anesthetic in their bloodstreams, and 21 had
so little that they were likely conscious throughout the painful
process of stopping their heart.This is unwelcome news to death-penalty supporters,but no
surprise to those familiar with the history of lethal injection.
For complete story, click here.
Harrison
County inmate tortured by jailers, attorney says:GULFPORT
— A Harrison County inmate who died following a weekend altercation
with jailers was tortured
and beaten "relentlessly" while
restrained, a Gulfport attorney representing the dead prisoner's
family says.Michael
Crosby, who is representing the family of Jessie Lee
Williams, told
the Sun Herald on Wednesday that numerous witnesses are prepared to
testify in court, if necessary, that Williams received abuse at the
hands of jailers
Saturday night. For complete story,
click here.
New
Supreme Court Gatekeeper for 11th Circuit:The
U.S. Supreme Court has assigned Justice Clarence Thomas, a strong
supporter of capital punishment, to handle emergency stay requests
coming out of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.The move could affect Florida death penalty appeals.Justice Anthony Kennedy, a relative
moderate on death penalty
issues, previously handled the 11th Circuit, which includes Florida,
Georgia and Alabama.
For complete story,
click here.
A
Glimpse Inside the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, Where 90
Percent of the Cases are Drug Related:One afternoon
in February 2000, when I was learning the ropes at the district attorney's office, I got a call from Phil Matier of the Chronicle who
wanted to talk about police chief Fred Lau. On Chinese New Year's the
SFPD's Lion Dancers had performed at a party in Brisbane, for which
they got four hours of overtime pay, authorized by Lau. Matier wanted
to know if the DA's office was investigating the episode; if a
complaint had been received; and the section of the law pertaining to
misuse of funds. I said I'd look into it.It occurred to me that by making a big deal out of episodes
like this, which may have cost the taxpayers a thousand dollars, the
media directs attention away from the big ongoing story: one-third of
all San Francisco cops' pay is overtime. Overtime pay goes out to the
vice and narcotics squads daily, in amounts that add up to millions a
year. Because it happens every day, it's routine; it's not news. Thus
the system is never exposed. A thousand dollars in bullshit overtime
pay is news. A thousand thousand dollars in bullshit overtime pay is
not news.Seventy percent
of the cases handled by the district attorney's office are for
possession or sale of illicit drugs--mostly crack cocaine--and another
20 percent involve attempts by poor, desperate people to get money for
drugs.On a typical
morning in Department 10, one of the four municipal courts on the
first floor, 26 people wait patiently as the proceedings begin at 9:20
a.m. None appear to be affluent. Guessing from their demeanor and
attire, six are regularly employed, including a muni driver and his
wife. The rest are lumpen. There's a tall white man with dyed black
hair, a Carl Perkins impersonator. Two Samoans, four Latinos, a white
woman dozing, a white-haired Greek gent in his sixties. Everybody else
is African American.At
the end of the day I debriefed the assistant DA--a self-described
"progressive" hired by Terence Hallinan--who handled all
those cases.
For complete story, click here.
Imprisoning
the innocent: 'It's un-American':
Alex
Villalobos vividly remembers when he prosecuted his first case as an
intern in State Attorney Willie Meggs' office back in the late '80s.Villalobos, then a Florida State University law student, was
assigned a juvenile burglary case. The youth arrested for the crime
was accused of breaking a window, entering a residence and stealing a
gun.He swore he didn't
do it, but Villalobos won a conviction.Eighteen years later, Villalobos, 42, is majority leader in the
Florida Senate, an influential Republican from Miami who's in his 14th
year as a lawmaker. Unlikely as it may be, he still wonders if that
convicted burglar actually was telling the truth.Five years ago the conservative politician first thrust himself
into the spotlight as the Legislature's poster boy for defending the
interests, through law and science, of wrongfully convicted inmates.
For complete story, click here and scroll down.
Telemarketing?
You call that rehab?:Church
allegedly made people work for 28 cents an hour.A rehabilitation program at a church is facing allegations it
forced people to work as telemarketers for 28 cents an hour under the
threat they could go back to jail.The state Department of Human Services, which investigated the
program, notified the House of Refuge on Thursday that it had 10 days
to explain itself before its license would be revoked and the program
shut down.The men were
sent to the program by judges or state agencies for substance abuse
rehabilitation. A department report said they were paid about 28 cents
an hour, but even those wages were withheld and donated to the church.Most of the men in the program have since been pulled out,
officials said. It was unclear if anyone
remained in it Friday.(Webmaster
Note:This is not
surprising and not a rare or unusual practice in Utah.Utah has many programs for youth called "residential treatment programs" and/or "boot camps" where children
are enslaved (not paid anything and forced to work under threat of
physical violence and denial of privileges including food and water).Utah courts regularly place children in RTC's as an alternative
to state run juvenile facilities.And, the practices of abuse, torture, and POW-style
brainwashing are regularities in that state and in many other programs
run throughout the Mid-West and Southern states.Please learn more at
www.heal-online.org/childtortureusa.htmWe must stop this before all of us are under the thumb of
reckless, evil bastards.)
Story is no longer available through CNN and story could not be
located elsewhere. It was originally on
www.cnn.com,
February 3rd, 2006(?) under the headline in bold above.
Losing
a Friend:When you've been buried alive in federal prisons for
nearly a quarter century like George Martorano has, you get used to
bad news. While serving a life sentence for drug smuggling, he's
already lost his mobster father to a gangland hit, his son in a
motorcycle accident and his wife to cancer [Cover, "In the Name
of His Father," Brendan McGarvey, March 3, 2005].Last Tuesday, a fellow inmate came to his cell with some more
bad news: Chris Penn, the actor who's long supported Martorano, had
died at his California home.Penn,
whose Academy Award-winning brother Sean is also known for taking on
causes, has stood behind Martorano's feeling
that he was being
punished because of his bloodlines. "We spoke on the phone almost
every Sunday afternoon for 15 years," Martorano said on the phone
from a central
Florida prison. "It's hard to lose him."Penn—best known for playing Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir
Dogs—was talking about producing a screenplay Martorano had
written
while incarcerated."He's the longest-serving nonviolent offender ever. It's
ridiculous," Penn said during a September interview with City
Paper. "He should be out here, not in
there. I can't wait
until the day he is free."
For complete story,
click here.
Why
Prisons Don't Work:I
was among 31 murderers sent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary in
1962 to be executed or imprisoned for life. We weren't much different
from
those we found here, or those who had preceded us. We were
unskilled, impulsive and uneducated misfits, mostly black, who had
done dumb, impulsive things -- failures,
rejects from the larger
society. Now a generation has come of age and gone since I've been
here, and everything is much the same as I found it. The faces of the
prisoners
are different, but behind them are the same impulsive,
uneducated, unskilled minds that made dumb, impulsive choices that got
them... For complete story,
click here.
Judge
Requests Clemency for a Killer He Condemned:In a highly unusual development, a judge who condemned a
killer to die has asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to grant clemency.Michael A. Morales is to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981
killing of Terri Winchell, a Lodi high school student. Ventura County
Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath, appointed by Gov.
Ronald Reagan, said in a letter to the governor that he believes the
sentence was based on false testimony from a jailhouse informant.
For complete story, click here.
Two
guards convicted in Wilson jail beatings:Two former
guards accused of beating prisoners at the Wilson County Jail became
inmates themselves yesterday after a federal jury convicted them of
violating prisoners' civil rights.
For complete story, click here.
Federal
Judge Blasts Mandatory Minimum Sentences:Forced to
impose a sentence he deemed unjust, a Northern District of New York
judge took sharp aim last week at a federal statute that required him
to impose a life-without-parole term on a 32-year-old "relatively
small-time drug dealer" with an IQ of 72.Judge David N. Hurd said child rapists and murderers will go
free on parole while Justin D. Powell languishes in prison for life,
largely because the defendant was convicted of drug crimes twice
during his teenage years, more than a decade before the instant
offense. Because of those prior convictions, the sole sentencing
option was life, Hurd said."The
increment of harm in this case bears no rational relationship to the
increment of punishment that I must impose," Hurd said at a
sentencing proceeding last week in Utica, N.Y. "This is what
occurs when Congress sets [a] mandatory minimum sentence which
distorts the entire judicial process... . As a result, I am obligated
to and will now impose this unfair and, more important, unjust
sentence."
For complete story, click here.
State
board awards $750,000 to falsely imprisoned man:SAN
DIEGO – A state board agreed today to award more than $756,000 to a
Rancho Penasquitos man who
spent 21 years in prison before doubt was
cast on his second-degree murder conviction in the death of his
girlfriend's toddler.The
Victim Compensation and Government
Claims Board agreed with a hearing
officer's recommendation to approve Kenneth Marsh's claim, said the
board's public information officer, Fran Clader.Marsh is to receive
$100 for every day he spend behind bars.In a 12-page proposed decision, hearing officer Kyle Hedlum
wrote that at a December hearing, Marsh proved by a preponderance
of
the evidence that he did not murder his girlfriend's son.Philip Buell was three months shy of his third birthday when he
was died on April 27, 1983.Included
in a list of
nine "findings" in the hearing officer's
proposed decision were that the toddler had an undiagnosed blood
disorder that contributed to his death, and that a doctor's decision
to administer the drug Mannitol to the boy contributed to his death.One of Marsh's attorneys, Donnie Cox, said Mannitol sometimes
is used to treat head injuries.
For complete story, click here.
Bill
aims to block `panic defense':The Bay Area men convicted last year of murdering a
Newark transgender teenager said they panicked upon learning that the
beauty
they had been intimate with was biologically male.Using that ``panic defense,'' their attorneys called it merely
a manslaughter, but jurors rejected that argument. Now a
civil rights
group wants the California Legislature to redress what they see as
victim-blaming in hate-crime cases.Named in honor of the 17-year-old who was beaten and
strangled
in October 2002, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act would amend
jury instructions to state that the use of so-called ``panic
defenses'' is inconsistent with
California's comprehensive hate crimes
law. For complete story,
click here.
Gateway
killing suspect's past includes lengthy criminal record:…Considered a youthful
offender, he was ordered to pay $90 in restitution to the business and
$50
in investigative costs. The court ordered he be placed in youth
facility and recommended boot camp.In court papers, Cooper said he had only completed the 10th
grade at
South Fork High School in Stuart, that he worked as a
dishwasher at a restaurant for $4.25 an hour and rode a motorcycle.
For complete story, click here.
Success
for Sentencing Reform in New Jersey:Drug
Policy Alliance New Jersey has achieved a big victory for sentencing
reform in the lame duck session of the state legislature. The
New Jersey Senate and Assembly passed legislation on Monday, January
9, that would give judges discretion not to revoke people’s
drivers’ licenses for
drug offenses.
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
to Seek Dismissal of Guantánamo Lawsuits
--Bush administration wants federal judges to deny hearing
habeas corpus petitions effecting at least 300 detainees
04 Jan
2006 The Bush regime notified federal trial judges in Washington that
it would soon ask them to dismiss all lawsuits brought by prisoners at
Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, challenging their detentions, Justice
Department officials said Tuesday. The action means that the
administration is moving swiftly to take advantage of an
amendment to
the military bill that President Bush signed into law last
Friday. The amendment strips federal courts from hearing habeas corpus
petitions from Guantánamo detainees.
For complete story,
click here.
Man
Jailed for Over a Year Saw No Lawyer:DALLAS
- A man was jailed for more than a year without ever seeing a lawyer
as he waited for a repeatedly postponed court hearing, gaining release
only after a cellmate told an attorney about the case. Walter Mann Sr.,
69, was released Dec. 16 after a year and three months - more than twice the time he would have served if he had been convicted in his
contempt-of-court case.For expanded story and source,
click here.
Nun
freed after serving 3 years for war protest:Sister
Ardeth Platte, 69, walked out of a federal prison in Danbury, Conn.,
Thursday morning filled with peace and joy, but not
a bit of remorse
for her crime."I
feel very good about offering 41 months for peace in this world. So
every day has been sacred for me," she said.
For complete story,
click here.
Alabama
inmates sue secretary of state over voting rights:Three
Alabama inmates have filed a lawsuit in federal court against
Secretary of State Nancy Worley,
claiming they are wrongfully being
denied voting rights.The
suit, filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, contends Worley violates
Alabama's constitution by requiring
felons to apply to the Board of Pardons and Paroles to have voting
rights restored.The suit
contends the constitution doesn't strip voting
rights for certain
felonies and there is no need to ask the parole board to restore them.
For complete story,
click here.
Guilty
When Charged:While
enjoying the Christmas season in the comfort of your home, take a
minute to say a prayer for the wrongfully convicted.American prisons are full of wrongfully convicted persons. Many
were coerced into admitting to crimes they did not commit by
prosecutors' threats to pile on more charges. Others were convicted by
false testimony from criminals bribed by prosecutors, who exchanged
dropped charges or reduced sentences in exchange for false testimony
against defendants.Not
all the wrongfully convicted are poor. Some are wealthy and prominent
people targeted by corrupt prosecutors seeking a celebrity case in
order to boost their careers.
For complete story,
click here.
Court
May Hear Chinese Detainees Muslims Lack Country of Refuge:A federal judge in
Washington said yesterday that he will consider allowing two detainees
in the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to appear before him
in court to challenge their confinement, telling lawyers that the
ethnic Uighurs who have been cleared for release have been held too
long.U.S. District Judge James Robertson said he believes the case
of the Uighurs (pronounced wee-gurs ) presents "a genuine
dilemma" because the government has determined they are not enemy
combatants but has not found a country to accept them. U.S. officials
are not willing to send the Uighurs -- Muslims who are seeking their
own homeland on what is now part of northwestern China -- to their
native country for fear that they would be tortured or killed.
For complete story,
click here.
EU
Official Calls for End to Death Penalty:European
Parliament president Josep Borrell called on the 76 countries still
allowing the death penalty to respect the right to life and end the
practice of capital punishment.Borrell said the United States is the only democratic state
that makes "widespread use" of the death penalty and the EU has a duty to convince the Americans to abolish it.
For complete story,
click here.
Demonstrators
rally at Richmond City Jail On Human Rights Day, they decry prisoner
treatment in U.S.:From
cell doors that haven't locked properly to the beating
death of one
inmate by another, Richmond's jailhouse has faced its share of
criticism this year.It
received more yesterday from a handful of folks who protested across
the
street in recognition of International Human Rights Day.Specific criticisms of prisoner treatment were leveled
against the city jail and correctional facilities across the nation
and U.S. military prisons abroad.
For complete story,
click here.
Wrongful
Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake:In May 2004, the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in
Germany to pay an unusual visit to that country's interior minister.Ambassador Daniel R. Coats carried instructions from the State
Department transmitted via the CIA's Berlin station because they were
too sensitive and highly classified for regular diplomatic channels,
according to several people with knowledge of the conversation.Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully
imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and
would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request:
that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if
Masri went public. The U.S. officials feared exposure of a covert
action program designed to capture terrorism suspects abroad and
transfer them among countries, and possible legal challenges to the
CIA from Masri and others with similar allegations.
For complete story, click here.
The
Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier:Leonard Peltier,
one of America's longest-serving political prisoners, turned
sixty-one-years-old on September 12, 2005. Peltier has spent nearly
thirty years in federal prison, the result of one of the most infamous
political frame-ups in modern U.S. history. He was convicted of
killing two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the
Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1975. Believing
he could not receive a fair trial in the U.S., he fled to Canada. The
Canadian government extradited him in 1976, and he was tried,
convicted, and sentenced to two life terms in 1977.Many of today's progressive-minded people will find themselves
unfamiliar with the details as well as the significance of the Peltier
case. This is a tragedy, given the widespread opposition to the
Patriot Act and the heightened fear of political repression by
opponents of the Bush administration. The rush of events since 9/11,
instead of bringing the Peltier case back into focus, seems to have
pushed it further into the margins of political consciousness, where
it has unfortunately been for two decades. This is something that
needs to be corrected.
For complete story,
click here.
Jose
Padilla's America:WHATEVER
ELSE HE IS, Jose Padilla is an American citizen. That inescapable fact
explains both the Bush administration's decision last week
to charge
him with a crime — and the importance of the Supreme Court's
upcoming decision on whether to hear his case.The first decision represents a change in course
for an
administration still struggling, more than four years after the
attacks of 9/11, to find a legal strategy in the war against
terrorism. But it is the second decision, due in
almost three weeks,
that could prove to be more significant to Americans and the rule of
law. The Supreme Court needs to rein in the Bush administration's war
on the
Constitution.
For complete story,
click here.
Congress
Moves to Limit Prisoner Habeas:Congress
moved on several fronts last week to impose sweeping limits on the
ability of prisoners to challenge the legality of their convictions
and sentences in federal court.
For complete story,
click here.
Officer
describes deadly chase Drug agent on trial for manslaughter in
shooting of suspect:Mike Walker, the first California drug enforcement agent ever
charged
with killing someone in the line of duty, took the stand
Monday in San Jose and calmly described the harrowing car chase that
led to the shooting death of Rudolfo "Rudy" Cardenas.Walker's testimony came in the fourth week of his trial on
voluntary manslaughter charges for killing Cardenas, a 43-year-old San
Jose man. Walker is trying to
show he acted in self defense, but
prosecutors have called him a cowboy cop, whose reckless and rash
behavior led to Cardenas' death.If convicted, Walker could face up
to 11 years in state prison.
For complete story, click here.
Judge
rails against drug sentencing:PROVIDENCE
-- Federal judges and prosecutors in Rhode Island have joined a
national debate over the disparity in prison sentences for crack
versus powder cocaine.U.S.
District Judge William E. Smith sentenced a Pawtucket man in
September, saying he would not "blindly apply" federal
sentencing guidelines that treat 5 grams of crack as the equivalent
of 500 grams of powder cocaine. (A packet of sugar weighs about 1
gram).
For complete story,
click here.
Florida
Prison Guards Get New Policy On Violent Acts:Hoping to change a
two-fisted culture in the ranks of prison guards, the head of
Florida's prison system
Thursday ordered a new policy of automatic
suspension of any employees charged with a violent attack - on or off
the job.
For complete story,
click here.
California's
life-and-death politics:HERE'S CALIFORNIA, a state so blue they could name a
Crayon after it — Left Coast Azure. And yet, next month, the Big
Blue Golden State plans to put a man to death.California, your red is showing.It's true that Republicans here can't prosper without pledging
to be as eco-green as a can of baby peas, but most Democrats — even
that metric standard of liberalism, Barbara Boxer — can't advocate
emptying death row and still hold on to office.Most of the other big blue states don't have a death penalty,
or don't use it. Massachusetts, still a little freaked over those
witch trials, hasn't put anyone to death since 1947. New York, first
to use the electric chair, hasn't sent anyone to the hot seat since
the Beatles were just some British band.
For complete story,
click here.
The
Sickening Details--Why the Prisoners are Dying:On
a daily basis for more than seven years I have been alerting other
journalists and the legislators that the prisoners are
dying
preventable deaths. We have nineteen families in our UNION group who
have lost a son or daughter to the unbearable callousness and
incompetence of the prison bureaucracy.When we were simply begging for help to prevent some of these
deaths, medical neglect wasn't a topic that anyone wanted to
recognize, let alone remedy.
But when we were able to find lawyers to
file six lawsuits in the past year, then and only then, did reform
become a higher priority.Headlines
in the major newspapers the
past two days state that a prison
healthcare emergency exists in general terms. But since I know the
specifics surrounding a number of the prisoner deaths, I feel
compelled to share the systemic dysfunction that just never seems to
make it to public view let alone get corrected.
For complete story, click here.
Justices
to Hear Inmate Case for News:WASHINGTON
-- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider reinstating rules that
keep newspapers and magazines out of the hands of disruptive
Pennsylvania inmates, a case that court nominee Samuel Alito dealt
with.A panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had sided
with inmates who claimed the ban on most reading material and personal
photographs violated their free speech rights.Alito, one of the lower court judges in the case, filed a
dissent and argued that the state should be allowed to withhold the
news.
For complete story,
click here.
High
Court Hitching Post Win Leads to Loss in Alabama:Larry
Hope and his lawyers discovered last week that winning a battle at the
U.S. Supreme Court does not guarantee victory in the war.Hope was the Alabama prison inmate in the 2002 case of Hope v.
Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, in which a 6-3 majority cleared the way for him
to sue guards who left him handcuffed to a hitching post for seven
hours.Justice John Paul
Stevens wrote that evidence indicated guards "were fully aware of
the wrongful character of their conduct.""The obvious cruelty inherent in this practice should have
provided respondents with some notice that their alleged conduct
violated Hope's constitutional protection," Stevens added.
For complete story,
click here.
Petty
Crime, Outrageous Punishment:There was nothing honorable
about it, nothing particularly heinous, either, when Leandro Andrade,
a 37-year-old Army veteran with three kids and a drug habit, walked
into a Kmart store in Ontario, California stuffed five videos into his
waistband and tried to leave without paying. Security guards stopped him, but two weeks later, Andrade went to another Kmart and tried to
steal four more videos. The police were called, and he was tried and
convicted.That was ten
years ago, and Leandro Andrade is still behind bars. He figures to be
there a lot longer: He came out of the courtroom with a sentence of 50
years to life.
If
you find that stunningly harsh, you're in good company. The Andrade
case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Justice David
Souter wrote that the punishment was "grossly
disproportionate" to the crime.
For complete story,
click here.
Nevada
prison employee accused of helping inmate to escape:RENO, Nev. (AP) - A
Northern Nevada Correctional Center employee was arrested on suspicion
of helping an inmate to escape the facility in a truck, authorities
said.Ana Kastner, a
dental assistant at the medium-security prison, was booked over the
weekend into the Washoe County Jail on a charge of aiding and abetting
an escape.She provided a
cell phone to inmate Jody Thompson, who used it to coordinate his
escape Thursday by hiding in a prison industries delivery truck that
left the prison, investigators said.
For complete story,
click here.
Conflict
Seen in Contract for Private Prison:SACRAMENTO — California's state auditor, investigating
private prison contracts, found that one operator failed to disclose that two of its employees had been high-ranking state prison officials
but cleared another firm of any conflict.In a 58-page report, the auditor said the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation "needs to better ensure against
conflicts of interest and to improve its inmate population
projects."
For complete story,
click here.
Prisoners
Left to Drown in New Orleans:A makeshift prison has been set up in the Greyhound bus and
train station in downtown New Orleans. It's being run by the Burl
Cain
- the warden of Angola prison as well as prison guards from New York.
The nearby prison, the Orleans jail was flooded after the hurricane.
What happened to the
prisoners there and in other parish prisons in
New Orleans? For complete story,
click here.
Boozman
introduces drug courts bill:WASHINGTON -- Rep.
John Boozman, R-Rogers, on Tuesday introduced legislation aimed at
strengthening the powers of local drug courts.The bill directs the U.S. attorney general to create standard
guidelines for drug testing and require penalties or therapy if an
offender fails a test. "Currently, we have drug courts that are
exceptional," Boozman said. "We have drug courts that aren't
working very well at all because there is no structure."The bill calls on the attorney general to set standards
that require each offender to be tested for every controlled or
addictive substance.
For complete story, click here.
D.C.
Inmates 'Tortured,' Mothers Claim:A
group of mothers said yesterday that their sons were "beaten and
tortured" by guards at the D.C. jail during several incidents
last month in which they alleged that inmates were sprayed with Mace,
stripped, blasted with water hoses and dragged from their cells and
attacked out of the view of
security cameras.Sabrina Wynn, testifying at a D.C. Council hearing on behalf of
six mothers whose sons are jailed, called on the District to
investigate the allegations and
fire any corrections officers who are
found to be responsible…"If dogs were mistreated as our sons
have been, those responsible would be prosecuted for animal
cruelty,"
said Wynn, whose testimony came in a day-long hearing
by the council's Judiciary Committee into the operations of the
Department of Corrections.
For complete story, click here.
2.26
Million Inmates In The US:A staggering two-and-a-quarter
million people are behind bars this morning in America. The Bureau of Justice Statistics says its newest calculations
show:.. As of Dec. 31, 2004, 104,848 women were held in state and
federal prisons -- up from 68,468 in 1995. Women constituted 7
percent of all inmates -- up
from 6.1 percent in 1995.
For complete story, click here.
4
ward suicides prevented:STOCKTON -- Staff prevented four wards at a youth prison near
Stockton from committing suicide last week, a spokeswoman for the
California Division of Juvenile Justice said Monday.The four wards at DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility,
southeast of Stockton, were making nooses out of clothing
and
bedsheets, Juvenile Justice spokeswoman Sarah Ludeman said.Staffers performing regular checks Wednesday prevented them
from carrying out the group suicide in
the Modoc hall living unit for
drug counseling. Three of the wards were taken by ambulance from the
youth prison, Ludeman said.Ludeman
did not know the wards' ages but said all four had been transferred to
other youth prisons for special treatment.
For complete story, click here.
Hospital of Horrors:
Time
in Carswell¹s prison medical facility can be a death sentence for
women prisoners.:This is the prison at Carswell.
...We got an inmate
who is not breathing. She’s turning blue.” The
911 tape was scratchy, but the words were clear.“Are they doing CPR?” the Med-Star ambulance company
operator asked.“I
assume so,” the caller replied. “They’ve got about 90 people up
there. ...”Betty Appleby gets angrier and more frustrated each time
she listens to the tape, describing key
moments in a tragedy that
would change her large, closely knit family forever.“Can you believe
that? Ninety people? I know that’s an exaggeration by whoever’s
calling, but
what it says to me is that a lot of people were tramping
around that cell and destroying evidence that could have helped us
find out exactly what happened to my sister so
that we could see
justice done. And get some peace.”Appleby is speaking of her
youngest sister, Linda D’Antuono Fenton — the inmate who was
“turning blue.” On Feb.
23, 2004, Fenton was found unconscious and
near death in a supposed high-security cell at Federal Medical Center
Carswell — a prison that a federal judge two years
earlier had
allegedly ordered her removed from. She was two days away from being
released, after serving almost seven years for a drug offense — two
days before she
could get out and, as she had promised in letters to
her family and friends, tell the world about what was going on inside
the Fort Worth federal prison hospital walls.
For complete story, click here.
Justices
to Decide When Victims' Transcripts Can Be Used:WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 -
The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to address a major new debate in
criminal law and decide the circumstances under which prosecutors can
use the transcripts of 911 calls, and similar unprompted statements by
crime victims, as evidence at trial.The debate was opened by the court itself in a decision last
year that significantly limited the use that prosecutors could make of
statements by witnesses who did not appear at trial or otherwise make
themselves available for cross-examination.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU
Urges Supreme Court to Protect Rights of Disabled Prisoners:WASHINGTON
-- The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in combined cases that
will determine
whether disabled prisoners may sue state officials for
violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).“Prisoners rely on state officials to meet their basic needs,
and
persons with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to neglect
or mistreatment,” said Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the
American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in today’s case. “Congress understood that problem and the
ADA was designed to address it.”The ACLU submitted its friend-of-the-court brief along
with 18
other civil rights organizations and advocates for people with
disabilities, including the American Diabetes Association, the
American Council of the Blind and the
National Multiple Sclerosis
Society. The groups argue that the High Court should overturn a lower
court decision and allow paraplegic Georgia inmate Tony Goodman to
pursue a civil lawsuit against the state. For complete
story,
click here.
The Prison
Industry: Capitalist Punishment--Oct. 28th, 1999--The
assembly lines at CMT Blues look like those at any other US garment
factory, except for one thing: the workers are watched over by armed
guards. CMT Blues is housed at the maximum security Richard J.
Donovan State Correctional Facility outside San Diego. Seventy
workers sew T-shirts for Mecca, Seattle Cotton Works, Lee Jeans and
other US companies. The highly prized jobs pay minimum wage. Less
than half goes into the inmate workers' pockets -- the rest is
siphoned off to reimburse the state for the cost of their
incarceration and to victims' restitution fund. The California
Department of Corrections Joint Venture Program, and CMT Blues owner
Pierre Slieman say they are providing inmates with job skills and
work experience. But two inmates and former CMT Blues
employees say Sleiman and the Department of Corrections are
operating a sweatshop behind bars. What's more, they say that prison
officials retaliated against them when they blew the whistle on
corruption at the plant. Inmates Charles Ervin and Shearwood
Flemming spent 45 days in solitary confinement after talking to
reporters about an alleged label switching scheme in which they
claim they were forced to replace "made in Honduras" labels with
"made in USA" tags. They are suing CMT Blues and the California
Department of Corrections for labor and civil rights violations.
The CMT Blues scandal and the host of human rights and labor issues
it raises, is just the tip of the iceberg in a web of interconnected
business, government and class interests which critics dub the
"prison industrial complex." Borrowing from the phrase "military
industrial complex" coined by President Dwight Eisenhower during the
Cold War, the term refers to the growing political and economic
power that emanates from the increasingly intertwined relationship
between private corporations and what were once exclusively public
institutions. In short, incarceration has become big business. And
it's booming. The prison industry now employees more than half
a million people -- more than any Fortune 500 corporation, other
than General Motors. Mushrooming construction has turned the prison
industry into the main employer in scores of economically depressed
rural communities. And there are a host of firms profiting from
private prisons, prison labor and services like healthcare and
transportation. Today, there are over 1.7 million people
incarcerated in the United States, more than in any other
industrialized country. They are disproportionately African American
and Latino (almost 70% of US prisoners are people of color) and two
thirds are serving sentences for non-violent crimes. One in three
African American men between the ages of 20 and 29 is either in
jail, on probation or parole. 1.4 million black men -- or 13% of
African American men -- have lost the right to vote because they
have committed felonies. Taxpayers foot the bill for "get
tough" policies that treat a generation of young people -- mostly
young people of color -- as expendable. New York and California,
states that once had arguably the finest public university systems
in the country, now spend more money locking people up than on
giving them a college education. Meanwhile, prison gates are
swinging wide open for corporations. Some like CMT Blues, Microsoft,
Boeing, TWA, and Victoria's Secret, are using low cost prison labor
for every thing from manufacturing aircraft components and lingerie
to booking reservations. In addition to companies exploiting prison
labor, there are eighteen or so private prison corporations that
control about 100,000 prison beds across the country. The largest,
the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America -- whose
securities were dubbed the theme stock of the nineties by one
investment firm -- also operates private prisons in Puerto Rico,
Australia, the UK and will soon open one in South Africa. These
private lockups cut corners on labor costs, often hiring untrained,
inexperienced guards, leading to a dismal record of escapes and
brutality against inmates. In a Texas prison operated by one
company, guards were videotaped beating, shocking, kicking and
setting dogs on prisoners. While private prisons hardly have a
monopoly on such violence, critics argue that hiring low wage,
untrained guards -- some of them with criminal records of their own
-- makes brutality more likely. The prison industry is not a
new phenomenon, but rather has some grim historical antecedents. As
death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal argues in a special column for
CorpWatch, mixing the profit motive with punishment only invites
abuse reminiscent of one of the ugliest chapters in US history.
"Under a regime where more bodies equal more profits, prisons take
one big step closer to their historical ancestor, the slave pen,"
writes Jamal. In fact, prison labor has its roots in slavery.
Following reconstruction, former Confederate Democrats instituted
"convict leasing." Inmates, mostly freed slaves convicted of petty
theft, were rented out to do everything from picking cotton to
building railroads. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm resembling a
slave plantation later replaced convict leasing. The infamous
Parchman Farm was not closed until 1972, when inmates brought suit
against the abusive conditions in federal court. Today,
criminal justice issues have become so urgent that organizing
efforts by diverse communities around the country are beginning to
pierce the deafening "tough on crime" drumbeat espoused by pundits
and policy makers for the last 20 years. Community organizers,
church groups, labor unions and progressive think tanks are coming
together to fight prison privatization in the South. Organizations
like Families against Mandatory Minimums are fighting discriminatory
sentencing. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch put prison
issues at the top of their US agenda. In Concord, California 2,000
Latino students have taken to the streets to demand "education not
incarceration," as part of a protest against the backlash against
immigrant communities. Labor code and freedom of speech
violations like those alleged in the suit against CMT Blues also
resonate beyond prison walls. UNITE, the garment workers union, has
joined inmates Ervin and Flemming in their suit against the clothing
manufacturer and the California Department of Corrections. And the
suit has caught the attention of first amendment advocates who would
like to overturn California's ban on journalist interviews with
state prisoners. Punishment endured by prisoners like Ervin
and Flemming has "an incredible chilling effect on prisoners
because, combined with the media access ban, they know they can't
communicate (with the press) with out suffering retaliation,"
explains Joseph Pertel, an attorney for the inmates. Pertel says it
was actually a prison employee, not his clients, who called a local
television station. Nevertheless, the two men, both convicted of
second-degree murder, spoke out against working conditions at CMT
Blues jeopardizing their eventual parole. Because prisoners
have so little voice on the outside, we highlight writings by prison
journalists in this Issue, including an original column by Mumia
Abu-Jamal and writings from Prison Legal News, edited by
two Washington State inmates. Contributor Alex Friedmann, due to be
paroled next month, was transferred out of a CCA private prison into
a Tennessee state penitentiary, when his reporting behind bars
angered company executives. We hope that by giving a voice to those
inside prison walls we can contribute to a dialogue on redirecting
criminal justice policy in this country. For complete story,
click here.
Gen.
David
Petraeus,
commander
of U.S.
Forces
in
Afghanistan,
plans to
investigate
allegations
in a
Rolling
Stone
article
that
psychological
operations
were
used by
the army
on
members
of
Congress,
a
statement
from his
office
said.
Sen.
Reed,
told
MSNBC's
Chris
Jansing
that the
accusations
were
"very
serious
and
disturbing"
and that
the
Pentagon
should
investigate.
Sen.
Carl
Levin,
D-Mich.
said in
a
statement
that,
"For
years, I
have
strongly
and
repeatedly
advocated
for
building
up
Afghan
military
capability
because
I
believe
only the
Afghans
can
truly
secure
their
nation's
future.
I have
never
needed
any
convincing
on this
point."
A
lieutenant
colonel
in the
U.S.
Army
told
Rolling
Stone
that he
was
asked to
manipulate
members
of
Congress
visiting
Afghanistan
into
providing
more
troops
and
funding
for the
war, a
new
article
in the
music
magazine
reports.
For
complete
story,
click
here.
In his last months alive, Senior
Airman Anthony Mena rarely left home
without a backpack filled with medications.
He returned from his second deployment to Iraq
complaining of back
pain, insomnia, anxiety and nightmares. Doctors
diagnosed post-
traumatic stress disorder and prescribed
powerful cocktails of
psychiatric drugs and narcotics.
Yet his pain only deepened, as did his
depression. "I have almost
given up hope," he told a doctor in 2008,
medical records show. "I
should have died in Iraq."
Airman Mena died instead in his Albuquerque
apartment, on July 21,
2009, five months after leaving the Air Force on
a medical discharge.
A toxicologist found eight prescription
medications in his blood,
including three antidepressants, a sedative, a
sleeping pill and two
potent painkillers.
Yet his death was no suicide, the medical
examiner concluded. What
killed Airman Mena was not an overdose of any
one drug, but the
interaction of many. He was 23.
After a decade of treating thousands of wounded
troops, the military's
medical system is awash in prescription drugs --
and the results have
sometimes been deadly.
By some estimates, well over 300,000 troops have
returned from Iraq or
Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic
brain injury or some
combination of those. The Pentagon has looked to
pharmacology to treat
those complex problems, following the lead of
civilian medicine. As a
result, psychiatric drugs have been used more
widely across the
military than in any previous war.
But those medications, along with narcotic
painkillers, are being
increasingly linked to a rising tide of other
problems, among them
drug dependency, suicide and fatal accidents --
sometimes from the
interaction of the drugs themselves. An Army
report on suicide
released last year documented the problem,
saying one-third of the
force was on at least one prescription
medication. For complete story,
click here.
A divided FDA panel recommendeds
that Electroshock machines should remain in
Class III--FDA's highest risk category for
medical devices--and recommended
that ECT machines should undergo rigorous safety
tests.
An eyewitness report about the hearing in the
Washington Post, and the
comments by psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin on
The Huffington Post, are
posted on the AHRP website.
http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/763/9/
Panel Chairman Thomas G. Brott, a neurologist at
the Mayo Clinic, said he
was amazed that essentially no research had been
done on ECT's effects using
functional MRI imaging, repeated brain wave
(EEG) studies, or autopsy
examinations of patients.
"I tried to look and saw very little. I
concluded that the evidence is
not there to decide either way," he said.
Dr. Brott's question is worth probing in light
of the contentious battle
about ECT safety, between consumers who suffer
the consequences, and ECT
stakeholders.
The failure to conduct--or perhaps, more
accurately, the failure to
report--results from imaging studies and autopsy
examinations, studies that
would provide replicable, hard evidence of ECT
effects on the brian,
demonstrates, we believe, that ECT promoters
have evaded such studies for
fear they would provide irrefutable
documentation about ECT's brain damaging
effects.
NEW YORK – Access to justice for victims of
civil and human rights violations has been
severely curbed over the last decade, according
to a report released today by the American Civil
Liberties Union. The report shows how indigent
defendants on death row, prisoners suffering
abuses in prison, immigrants in unfair removal
proceedings, torture victims, domestic violence
survivors and victims of racial discrimination,
among others, are consistently denied access to
the courts and effective remedies as a result of
recent laws and court decisions.
"Unfortunately, because of recent laws and court
decisions, victims of human rights violations
here in the U.S. are continually denied their
day in court while those responsible for the
abuses are protected," said Jennifer Turner,
Human Rights Researcher with the ACLU and author
of the report. "Equal justice for all is a core
American value and everyone deserves access to
the courts to right wrongs done against them.
The U.S. should amend restrictive laws and
swiftly enact policies to restore access to
justice for the most vulnerable among us."
According to the report, "Slamming the
Courthouse Doors," the "[a]ctions of the
executive, federal legislative, and judicial
branches of the United States have seriously
restricted access to justice for victims of
civil liberties and human rights violations, and
have limited the availability of effective (or,
in some cases, any) remedies for these
violations. Weakened judicial oversight and
recent attempts to limit access to justice…are
denying victims of human rights violations their
day in court and protecting responsible
officials and corporations from litigation."
The report details the many ways in which
victims of human rights abuses are denied access
to justice, including:
• individuals convicted of capital crimes who
seek to present newly found evidence of their
innocence or claims of serious constitutional
violations being denied recourse in the courts
because of federal legislation and recent court
decisions;
• victims of rape, assault, religious rights
violations and other serious abuses in prison
having their claims thrown out of court because
of a restrictive federal law;
• immigrants who may have legitimate claims to
remain in the United States unknowingly waiving
their opportunity to pursue these claims and
being swiftly deported because of unfair
procedures;
• torture victims, including survivors of the
CIA "extraordinary rendition" program, being
denied their day in court because the government
has misused the "state secrets" privilege to
shield their torturers from liability;
• victims of domestic violence being denied the
opportunity to seek civil remedy under the
Violence Against Women Act because of recent
court decisions; and
• victims of racial or national origin
discrimination, including victims of racial
profiling, being shut out of court because their
claims must be accompanied by proof of
intentional discrimination, not just the
disparate impact – however egregious – of
certain laws and policies.
The report includes detailed recommendations and
measures for the U.S. government to take in
order to live up to the promise of equal justice
for all and comply with international human
rights obligations and commitments to guarantee
access to justice and effective remedies. An
annex to the report includes information on
curtailing access to justice in over a dozen
states. For complete story,
click here.
The decision about whether an
architect of Bush-era interrogation tactics will
keep his license as a psychologist is in the
hands of a Texas government agency.
A complaint against Dr. James E. Mitchell is now
before the Texas State Board of Psychologists,
alleging that he violated the profession’s rules
of practice in helping the C.I.A. develop
“enhanced interrogation techniques” for use in
its so-called black prison sites during the Bush
administration’s war on terror. Along with Dr.
Bruce Jessen, a fellow military psychologist,
Dr. Mitchell was a primary developer of
post-Sept. 11 C.I.A. interrogation methods that
are currently under a criminal torture
investigation by the Department of Justice.
Dr. Mitchell, who did not respond to repeated
requests for comment for this article, parlayed
his experience in training American soldiers to
survive as prisoners of war into a lucrative
consulting business with the C.I.A. He
orchestrated — and, according to the complaint,
participated in — the harsh interrogation of
terror suspects using sexual humiliation and the
drowning technique called waterboarding.
Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law
professor, and Dicky Grigg, an Austin lawyer,
worked with a Texas psychologist, Jim L. H. Cox,
to bring the complaint, which documents in lurid
detail Dr. Mitchell’s role in the questioning of
prisoners.
The complaint, which was brought in June,
alleges that the doctor misrepresented his
qualifications to the C.I.A., placing “his own
career and financial aspirations above the
safety of others” while designing a “torture
regime” with a “complete lack of scientific
basis.”
Mr. Margulies said he was pursuing the
possibility of a similar action against Dr.
Jessen, who is licensed in Idaho.
Mr. Margulies said Dr. Mitchell had never
practiced psychology in Texas although through
the years, he had maintained his license here
and renewed it.
The severity of the accusations led the American
Psychological Association to take the rare step
of submitting a public comment to the Texas
licensing board. The group’s letter said that if
Dr. Mitchell were a member of the professional
association — he is not — and if the accusations
were true, he would be expelled.
The association’s ethics guidelines prohibit
inhumane or abusive treatment of anyone, and
there “are no circumstances in which that isn’t
the case,” including wartime or threat of
terrorism said Rhea Farberman, a spokeswoman.
A spokeswoman for the Texas board said she could
not comment on the complaint, saying only that
the board had yet to take disciplinary action
against Dr. Mitchell, a process that typically
takes about six months.
Mr. Margulies emphasized the board members’
importance in the process , calling them the
“only gatekeepers” of the profession. For
complete story,
click here.
Misguided Thinking--"Take
your medication!" is probably the most common
refrain in today's mental health field. After
all, medication has been the cornerstone
of psychiatric treatment for decades, so much so
that it is considered
unethical to treat many conditions without it.
Yet a new book by award- winning journalist
Robert Whitaker, Anatomy of an Epidemic,
effectively shows just how misguided this
thinking is.
For most of the 30 years I have worked in mental
health, I have been alarmed by my observations
that most psychiatric treatments seem to
produce more harm than good. I started off as a
psychiatric orderly and assisted with
electro-convulsive therapy, otherwise known as
shock treatment. Most of the patients were
middle-aged women from the surrounding St.
Louis suburbs but no one was immune. A
16-year-old boy was shocked because he was
considered "pre-schizophrenic." An 85-year- old
woman had a heart attack during the shock
procedure and died hours
later. Shock treatment reduced all to a
vegetative state from which most recovered and
some even improved. Tragically though, some
never recovered and I developed an enduring
skepticism of psychiatric treatment. For
complete story,
click here.
(August 12th, 2010)
Patient advocates filed a
federal lawsuit on Tuesday charging that New
Jersey psychiatric hospitals routinely
medicate patients against their will without
a review by an outside arbiter, a practice
that is banned in most other states.
Twenty-nine states require a judge’s
ruling for involuntary medication, according
to the suit, including New York, Connecticut
and other large states, like California,
Florida and Texas. Five other states leave
the decision to an individual or panel
outside the hospital. Some states also
provide an advocate to represent a patient
in a hearing on forced medication.
But in New Jersey, state rules allow a
patient in a state hospital to appeal
medication decisions only to people in the
hospital. The lawsuit contends that the
internal appeal process is routinely ignored
and that psychiatric patients in private
hospitals lack any opportunity to appeal
medication regimens at all.
The suit, filed in Federal District Court
in Trenton by the group
Disability Rights New Jersey, seeks a
court order requiring the state to provide
judicial review of involuntary medication.
It notes that a prison inmate has more power
to contest treatment decisions than a
psychiatric patient. For complete story,
click here.
Media release April 27, 2010 Mental patient
challenges abuse
“The case of mental health patient Saeed
Dezfouli shows an appalling abuse of power
masked as health care," said JA Coordinator
Brett Collins. "This degrades us all. I am proud
to stand beside another vulnerable citizen
subjected to government misbehaviour, even more
embarrassing to the community than the Ferguson
case. I am now Saeed's Primary Carer and
supporting his Supreme Court challenge.”
“Saeed presents no threat to the community. He
needs support. When police ignored his distress
for five months, he lit a fire in his workplace
to draw attention – as he said he would. The
fire escape was locked and a woman died of smoke
inhalation. This would never have happened with
proper health and police intervention” said Mr
Collins.
“Despite being a non-violent patient, he has
been held in the highest security cell for eight
years. He is forcibly injected every fortnight,
is refused a choice of psychiatrist, education
and exercise, and is not permitted visitors who
haven’t previously physically touched him.
Compassion, the Mental Health Act s.68 rights
and international treaties are ignored” said Mr
Collins.
“The expenditure of $200,000 a year for his
treatment and $1million a cell at the new Long
Bay Forensic Hospital amounts to corruption. The
lack of complaint from those around shows how
widespread is the abuse and how compromised are
those participating in the health system” said
Mr Collins.
“We have a job and home for Saeed, and will
continue the JA Mentoring relationship which is
funded by Breakout DesignPrintWeb. We call on
the Attorney General to support Saeed’s Supreme
Court challenge on May 3” said Mr Collins.
Is practicing psychiatry a
disorder in need of treatment?--February
21st, 2010--Psychiatrists are currently debating
whether "sex addiction" should be added to the
catalogue of psychological disorders that can be
reliably diagnosed
and treated.
On the one hand, some are saying that sexual
addiction, in the true sense of
a diagnosis, is a real disorder and anyone who
works with sex addicts know
that they have a long array of behaviours.
Others, however, believe the term
is simply used to excuse bad behaviour.
Next in line will be the Tiger Woods syndrome,
along with catastrophic views
on the environment, an addiction to Starbucks,
liking Barry Manilow and
singing the praises of Rush Limbaugh. Soon all
of our lives will be illness
states, with some of us coping better than
others in managing our daily
diagnostics and treating ourselves through
counselling, psychiatry and
self-medication.
Everything is problematic
The quest to add sex addiction to the catalogue
of recognized illness states
is just a part of the desire of psychiatrists to
identify everything as
problematic. The handbook for diagnosis, known
as the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM),
now in its 4th edition, is the
bible of mental illness. A new edition, the
fifth, is due in 2013.
The DSM itself is problematic. Diagnoses like
"homosexuality", once
classified as an illness, come and go depending
on societal pressures. By no
stretch of the imagination is it a scientific,
evidence-based document. This
is not surprising. Freud was not a scientist who
used evidence and data for
his treatment. Now Freud's ideas have been
largely discounted and his
diagnostic category of "neurosis" is no longer
used. Indeed, several forms
of therapy once popular have, on the basis of
evidence, been sidelined. What
hasn't been revised is the approach to the
definition of mental illness. For complete
story,
click here.
(March 13, 2010) -- On Sunday, thanks to
daylight saving time, we are all due to lose
precious time as we set our clocks forward
an hour. Of course this is annoying on a
number of levels -- who wants a shorter
weekend? -- but there is also emerging
scientific evidence that the change disrupts
our natural rhythms.
Researchers have been trying to catalog the
effects of daylight saving time for years,
with conflicting results.
A 1996 study in the New England Journal of
Medicine claimed an 8 percent jump in
traffic accidents on the Monday after the
switch, but a follow-up report two years
later suggested that figure was lower. In
2000, a group of Swedish researchers
concluded that the change did not have any
significant effects on the number of crashes
in that country. Jump forward to 2009,
though, and Michigan State University
psychologists Christopher Barnes and David
Wagner report that there are more workplace
injuries on the Mondays following that lost
hour. For complete story,
click here.
Supreme Court scales
back 'Miranda,' eases rules for questioning
suspects 25 Feb 2010 The
Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that investigators
may resume questioning a suspect who invoked his
Miranda right to a lawyer after the suspect has
been out of police custody for 14 days. The 7-2
decision scales back a 1981 high-court decision
intended to protest suspects from repeated
police badgering to talk and to safeguard the
rights established in the 1966 Miranda v.
Arizona ruling. For complete story,
click here.
Monsanto
'faked' data for approvals claims its ex-chief
09 Feb 2010 Former managing director of Monsanto
India, Tiruvadi Jagadisan, is the latest to join
the critics of Bt brinjal, perhaps the first
industry insider to do so. Jagadisan, who worked
with Monsanto for nearly two decades, including
eight years as the managing director of India
operations, spoke against the new variety during
the public consultation held in Bangalore on
Saturday. On Monday, he elaborated by saying the
company "used to fake scientific data" submitted
to government regulatory agencies to get
commercial approvals for its products in India.
For complete story,
click here.
US waves white flag in
disastrous 'war on drugs'--After 40 years,
Washington is quietly giving up on a futile
battle that has spread corruption and destroyed
thousands of lives--January
17th, 2010-- After 40 years of defeat and
failure, America's "war on drugs" is being
buried in the same fashion as it was born – amid
bloodshed, confusion, corruption and scandal.
US agents are being pulled from South America;
Washington is putting its narcotics policy
under review, and a newly confident region is
no longer prepared to swallow its fatal
Prohibition error. Indeed, after the expenditure
of billions of dollars and the violent deaths
of tens of thousands of people, a suitable
epitaph for America's longest "war" may well be
the plan, in Bolivia, for every family to be
given the right to grow
coca in its own backyard.
The "war", declared unilaterally throughout the
world by Richard Nixon in 1969, is expiring as
its strategists start discarding plans that
have proved futile over four decades: they are
preparing to withdraw their agents from
narcotics battlefields from Colombia to
Afghanistan and beginning to coach them in the
art of trumpeting victory and melting away into
anonymous defeat. Not surprisingly, the new
strategy is being gingerly aired in the media of
the US
establishment, from The Wall Street Journal to
the Miami Herald. For complete story,
click
here.
Supreme Court drops key
case on limits of immunity for prosecutors--January
4th, 2010--The US Supreme Court on Monday
dismissed a case over whether prosecutors who
knowingly procure false testimony that leads to
a
wrongful conviction can later be sued for
damages.
Lawyers announced that the parties in the
underlying lawsuit had agreed to end the case in
a $12 million settlement.
The two innocent men, Terry Harrington and
Curtis McGhee, had spent nearly 26 years in
prison for a murder they didn’t commit. After
the truth was discovered and they were
released, they sued the prosecutors in
Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
An investigation revealed that the prosecutors
helped assemble and present false testimony
that led to their convictions. Messrs.
Harrington and McGhee had been sentenced to life
in prison at hard labor with no possibility of
parole. For complete story,
click here.
Drug giant General Electric uses libel law to
gag doctor
20 Dec 2009 General Electric, one of the world’s
biggest corporations, is using the London libel
courts to gag a senior radiologist after he
raised the alarm over the potentially fatal
risks of one of its drugs. The multinational [GE
Healthcare, a British subsidiary of General
Electric] is suing Henrik Thomsen, a Danish
academic, after he described his experiences of
one of the company’s drugs as a medical
"nightmare". He said some kidney patients at his
hospital contracted a potentially deadly
condition after being administered the drug
Omniscan. For complete story,
click here.
Black leaders urge
census to change how it counts inmates--December
17th, 2009--A coalition of African American
leaders concerned about minorities being
undercounted in the 2010 Census called Wednesday
for inmates at
federal and state prisons to be tallied in their
home communities instead of the towns where they
are incarcerated.
Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban
League and chairman of a census advisory
committee, said the practice now shortchanges
communities in money and democratic
representation. Census statistics are used to
calculate the allocation of more than $478
billion in federal funds and to draw political
boundaries.
Noting that about 1.2 million of the nation's 40
million African Americans are in prison, Morial
said, "What we have in the prison population
issue is a built-in undercount."
Morial and about a dozen other black leaders
brought up the prison count during a meeting
with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to discuss
how to make the census more accurate, a
perennial problem. In 2000, about 1.3 million
people were overcounted, mostly because of
duplicate counts of whites with multiple homes.
In contrast, about 4.5 million people, mostly
black and Hispanic, were not counted. For
complete story,
click here.
Yahoo, Verizon: Our Spy
Capabilities Would 'Shock', 'Confuse' Consumers
By Kim Zetter 01 Dec 2009 Want to know how much
phone companies and internet service providers
charge to funnel your private communications or
records to U.S. law enforcement and spy
agencies? That’s the question muckraker and
Indiana University graduate student Christopher
Soghoian asked all agencies within the
Department of Justice, under a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request filed a few
months ago. But before the agencies could
provide the data, Verizon and Yahoo intervened
and filed an objection on grounds that, among
other things, they would be ridiculed and
publicly shamed were their surveillance price
sheets made public. Yahoo writes in its
12-page objection
letter,
that if its pricing information were disclosed
to Soghoian, he would use it "to 'shame' Yahoo!
and other companies -- and to 'shock' their
customers." For complete story,
click here.
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) --
Prosecutor
Michael Loucks remembers clearly when
lawyers for
Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug
company, looked across the table and promised it
wouldn’t break the law again.
It was January 2004, and the attorneys were
negotiating in a conference room on the ninth
floor of the
federal courthouse in Boston, where Loucks
was head of the health-care fraud unit of the
U.S. Attorney’s
Office. One of Pfizer’s units had been
pushing doctors to prescribe an epilepsy drug
called
Neurontin for uses the
Food and Drug Administration had never
approved.
In the
agreement the lawyers eventually hammered
out, the Pfizer unit, Warner-Lambert, pleaded
guilty to two felony counts of marketing a drug
for unapproved uses. For complete story,
click here.
New US vaccine production techniques:
Genetically modified insect cells, E. coli,
caterpillar ovaries
24 Nov
2009 Spurred by $487 million in federal
funding, a sprawling new vaccine factory is
opening in North Carolina Tuesday that will
produce shots using dog
cells instead of chicken eggs. A
Connecticut biotech company has also applied to
sell a vaccine employing a radically different
approach involving a
genetically engineered virus infecting insect
cells...
Baxter
International
won approval last month to sell an H1N1 vaccine
in Europe that uses a decades-old line of
African green monkey
kidney cells, and it is working on a
vaccine for the United States. Protein Sciences
of Meriden, Conn., has applied to the FDA for
approval to sell a vaccine made by
genetically engineering
flu genes into a worm virus, which
then infects cells from
caterpillar ovaries to produce the
necessary proteins to make vaccine. VaxInnate of
Cranbury, N.J., for example, produced an
experimental H1N1 vaccine using
genetically engineered
E.coli bacteria, and Vical of
San Diego just won a $1.25 million contract from
the Navy to develop an H1N1 vaccine that
involves injecting DNA sequences from the
virus directly into people. For
complete story,
click here.
(CNN)
-- It was
two-and-a-half days before
Illinois Gov. George Ryan
was to leave office in 2003.
I sat in a crowded
auditorium in Northwestern
University's Law School in
Chicago, where Ryan was
expected to make a major
announcement on capital
punishment.
"Half, if
you will, of the nearly 300
capital cases in Illinois
have been reversed for a new
trial or for some
re-sentencing." he said, his
voice tired but clear.
Wrongful
convictions had been all
over the papers around that
time -- the Anthony Porter
case, the Ford Heights Four,
Rolando Cruz.
"How in
God's name does that happen?
In America, how does it
happen?"
Ryan continued. "How
many more cases of wrongful
conviction have to occur
before we can all agree that
this system in Illinois is
broken?"
On that day,
the governor commuted the
sentences of all death row
inmates in the state and
credited an unlikely source
for helping him make his
decision: Professor David
Protess' undergraduate
Investigative Journalism
class at Northwestern
University's Medill School.
In the
previous decade, Medill
students had uncovered some
of the most high-profile
wrongful convictions in the
city. The class had worked
to secure the release of 11
innocent prisoners, five of
whom were scheduled to be
executed.
As a
wide-eyed journalism student
at Northwestern, I remember
feeling proud of my
classmates, proud of my
school and proud of the
profession I was entering.
Today, six
years later, Protess' class
is far from the center of
the same praise. Presented
with evidence in a new case,
the state attorney's office
is questioning the
motivations of the messenger
-- the class itself. For
complete story,
click here.
Can Prosecutors Be Sued
By People They Framed?--November
4th, 2009--Do
prosecutors have total immunity from lawsuits
for anything they do, including framing someone
for murder? That is the question the justices of
the Supreme Court face Wednesday.
On one side of the case
being argued are Iowa
prosecutors who contend
"there is no
freestanding right not
to be framed." They are
backed by the Obama
administration, 28
states and every major
prosecutors organization
in the country.
On the
other side are two black
men — Terry Harrington
and Curtis McGhee — men
who served 25 years in
prison before evidence
long hidden in police
files resulted in them
being freed. For
complete story,
click here.
9yr-old boy tortured,
says former Guantanamo detainee
--'I was interrogated hundreds of times by the
FBI, CIA and even MI5, beaten, and subjected to
continuous torture, sexual degradation, forced
drugging and religious persecution.'
30 Oct 2009 A British Muslim detained for three
years at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison
manned by the United States, revealed that the
youngest detainee he knew of was a
nine-year-old boy who
was also tortured like the rest.
Ruhal Ahmed’s story was among more accounts of
atrocities committed against the detainees at
Guantanamo, told before an open commission
hearing which began Friday on the sidelines of
an international conference to criminalise war.
The testimonies before the Kuala Lumpur War
Crimes Commission Hearings will be submitted to
a tribunal in conjunction with the Criminalise
War Conference and War Crimes Tribunal 2009
spearheaded by former Malaysian prime minister
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Dr Mahathir said that
the tribunal’s decision would be forwarded to
the United Nations for further action.
For complete story,
click here.
California gives the
poor a new legal right--October
17th, 2009--California is embarking on an
unprecedented civil court experiment to pay for
attorneys to represent poor litigants who find
themselves battling powerful adversaries in
vital matters affecting their livelihoods and
families.
The program is the first in the nation to
recognize a right to representation in key civil
cases and provide it for people fighting
eviction, loss of child custody, domestic abuse
or neglect of the elderly or disabled.
Advocates for the poor say the law, which Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed this week, levels
the legal playing field and gives
underprivileged litigants a better shot at
attaining justice against unscrupulous
landlords, abusive spouses, predatory lenders
and other foes.
Although some analysts worry that it could swell
state court dockets or eat up resources better
spent on other needs of the poor, the pilot
project that won bipartisan endorsement in the
state Assembly will be financed by a $10
increase in court fees for prevailing parties.
Anybody confronted with criminal charges has a
constitutional right to an attorney, as set out
in the landmark Supreme Court decision in Gideon
vs. Wainwright in 1963. But such a right does
not apply in civil court, and the majority of
citizens fighting what can be life- altering
civil actions now attempt to handle their cases
without professional guidance.
An estimated 4 million people seek to represent
themselves in California in civil matters each
year, the state Judicial Council estimates, not
because they want to but because they can't
afford to hire a lawyer. For complete
story,
click here.
Mystery 'Police' Force
Has Small Montana City on Edge--October
8th, 2009--When
two brand new, shiny black Mercedes SUVs bearing
a "Hardin Police Department" logo drove through
the main thoroughfare of Hardin, Mont., last
week, people took notice.
“How many police forces have Mercedes?” said
Charlene Warren, a local business owner who has
lived in Hardin for more than half a century.
“That threw up a red flag.”
And speaking of flags, it did not go
unnoticed that the emblem on the sides of the
SUVs bore a strong resemblance to the Serbian
national flag.
Furthermore, those "police department" cars
were rolling through Hardin, a small
southeastern Montana town of 3,600 that just
happens not to have a police department.
The luxury vehicles that rolled through town
belonged to the American Police Force (APF), a
California-based security firm that is drafting
a contract that will give it control over a $27
million medium-security prison that was built in
Hardin more than two years ago, but has never
held any prisoners.
But that contract is now on hold as the
Montana State Attorney General’s Office
investigates APF and the Big Horn County
Sheriff's Department enters preliminary talks
about incorporating a real police department in
Hardin so a similar episode doesn’t occur in the
future. For complete story,
click here.
Schoolgirl dies after GlaxoSmithKline HPV
vaccination
--HPV vaccine batch quarantined as
'precautionary measure' --Vaccination part of
[insane] national immunisation programme
29 Sep 2009 An urgent investigation has been
launched after a 14-year-old girl died shortly
after receiving a cervical cancer vaccination at
her school. Natalie Morton was a pupil at the
Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry,
where she was given the human papilloma virus (HPV)
jab yesterday. She was taken to Coventry
University hospital, where she died at
lunchtime. Three other girls from the school are
reported to have experienced possible side
effects of dizziness and nausea after receiving
the Cervarix jab, which was given to female
pupils as part of a national immunisation
programme against HPV. For complete story,
click here.
American Police Force
Corporation Takes Over Small Town Police Force
and Prisoner-Less Jail
29 Sep 2009 (MT) This is the strange story of
how
American Police
Force,
a little known company which claims to
specialize in training military and security
forces overseas, has seemingly taken control of
a $27 million, never-used jail, and a rural
Montana town's nonexistent police force. After
arriving in this tiny city with three Mercedes
SUVs marked with the logo of a police department
that has never existed, representatives of the
obscure California security company said
preparations were under way to take over
Hardin's jail, which has no prisoners. For
complete story,
click here.
Sean
Conway was steamed at a
Fort Lauderdale judge,
so he did what millions
of angry people do these
days: he blogged about
her, saying she was an
“Evil, Unfair Witch.”
Scott
Dalton
for The
New York
Times
Judge Susan
Criss said a
Facebook
page said a
lawyer was
drinking,
not
grieving,
after a
funeral.
“When you
become an
officer of
the court,
you lose the
full ability
to criticize
the court,”
said
Michael
Downey,
who teaches
legal ethics
at the
Washington
University
law
For complete
story,
click here.
White House Backs
Controversial Domestic Surveillance Provisions
16 Sep 2009 The Obama administration is urging
lawmakers to extend three provisions of the
controversial domestic surveillance law known as
the USA Patriot Act. The U.S. Justice Department
issued a letter Tuesday asking Congress to renew
provisions of the law that allow authorities to
conduct roving electronic eavesdropping, or
wiretaps, access business records and track
so-called "lone wolf" suspects with no known
links to foreign powers or terrorist groups. The
roving wiretaps would let agents track the
communications of suspects who change their cell
phones or other devices. The provisions are due
to expire on December 31. For complete
story,
click here.
"Capitalism is evil," says new Michael Moore
film Capitalism is evil.
06 Sep 2009 That is the conclusion U.S.
documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his
latest movie "Capitalism: A Love Story," which
premieres at the Venice film festival Sunday.
Blending his trademark humor with tragic
individual stories, archive footage and
publicity stunts, Moore launches an all out
attack on the capitalist system, arguing that it
benefits the rich and condemns millions to
poverty. For complete story,
click here.
Pfizer to pay record
$2.3B penalty for drug promos--September
2nd, 2009--WASHINGTON
–
Federal prosecutors hit
Pfizer Inc. with a record-breaking $2.3
billion in fines Wednesday and called the
world's largest drugmaker a repeating corporate
cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied
doctors with free golf, massages, and resort
junkets.
Announcing the
penalty as a warning
to all drug
manufacturers,
Justice Department
officials
said the overall
settlement is the
largest ever paid by
a drug company for
alleged violations
of federal drug
rules, and the $1.2
billion criminal
fine is the largest
ever in any U.S.
criminal case. The
total includes $1
billion in
civil penalties
and a $100 million
criminal forfeiture.
Authorities called
Pfizer a
repeat offender,
noting it is the
company's fourth
such settlement of
government charges
in the last decade.
The allegations
surround the
marketing of 13
different drugs,
including big
sellers such as
Viagra, Zoloft, and
Lipitor.
As part of its
illegal marketing,
Pfizer invited
doctors to
consultant meetings
at resort locations,
paying their
expenses and
providing perks,
prosecutors said.
For complete story,
click here.
Proposed bill would allow state authorities
to forcefully quarantine people during pandemic
04 Sep 2009 (MA) A new proposed bill designed to
combat the threat of the H1N1 virus would allow
the state to forcefully quarantine people in the
event of a pandemic. Anyone who refuses to
comply with the quarantine order could face jail
time or a $1000 per day fine. The "Pandemic
Response Bill" would also force health providers
to vaccinate people, authorize forcible entry
into private homes, and impose fines or prison
sentences on anyone not complying with isolation
or quarantine orders. For complete story,
click here.
Aiding Torture: Health Professionals' Ethics
and Human Rights Violations Demonstrated in the
May 2004 CIA Inspector General's Report
(PHR) 31 Aug 2009 This 6-page white paper,
published August 31, 2009, after the new release
of the May 2004 CIA Inspector General's report,
shows that the extent to which American doctors
and psychologists violated human rights and
betrayed the ethical standards of their
professions by designing, implementing, and
legitimizing a worldwide torture program is
worse than previously known. A team of PHR
doctors authored the white paper, which details
how the CIA relied on medical expertise to
rationalize and carry out abusive and unlawful
interrogations. It also refers to aggregate
collection of data on detainees’ reaction to
interrogation methods. Physicians for Human
Rights is concerned that this data collection
and analysis may amount to human experimentation
and calls for more investigation on this point.
If confirmed, the development of a research
protocol to assess and refine the use of the
waterboard or other techniques would likely
constitute a new, previously unknown category of
ethical violations committed by CIA physicians
and psychologists. For complete story,
click here.
CIA in human experimentation row--Watchdog
says US interrogation doctors may have committed unlawful
experimentation
02 Sep 2009 Doctors and psychologists the CIA
employed to monitor its "enhanced interrogation"
of terror suspects came close to, and may even
have committed, unlawful human experimentation,
a medical ethics watchdog has alleged.
Physicians for
Human Rights
(PHR), a not-for-profit group that has
investigated the role of medical personnel in
alleged incidents of torture at Guantánamo, Abu
Ghraib, Bagram and other US detention sites,
accuses doctors of being far more involved than
hitherto understood. PHR says health
professionals participated at every stage in the
development, implementation and legal
justification of what it calls the CIA's
secret "torture programme". For
complete story,
click here.
Doctors' role in
CIA abuse 'approaches unlawful human
experimentation' - rights group
--Doctors had 'central role' in CIA abuse
31
Aug 2009 A US-based medical rights advocacy
group on Monday blasted health experts for
playing a "central role" in advising and
implementing the CIA's abusive interrogation
techniques used on terrorism suspects.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) issued its
six-page white paper after shocking details
about the range of techniques used by
interrogators, including waterboarding, came to
light one week ago with release of a 2004 CIA
inspector general's report. "Health
professionals played a central role in
developing, implementing and providing
justification for torture," PHR said in its
report... PHR warned that such spy agency
techniques -- and monitoring by doctors to gauge
their effectiveness -- "approaches unlawful
experimentation" on human subjects. The report's
lead author, PHR medical advisor Scott Allen,
said in a statement on the organization's
website, "medical doctors and psychologists
colluded with the CIA to keep observational
records about waterboarding, which approaches
unethical and unlawful human experimentation."
For complete story,
click here.
The Secret History of Hurricane Katrina
By James Ridgeway 28 Aug 2009 The Blackwater
operators described their mission in New Orleans
as "securing neighborhoods," as if they were
talking about Sadr City. When National Guard
troops descended on the city, the Army Times
described their role as fighting "the insurgency
in the city." Brigadier Gen. Gary Jones, who
commanded the Louisiana National Guard's Joint
Task Force, told the paper, "This place is going
to look like Little Somalia. We're going to go
out and take this city back. This will be a
combat operation to get this city under
control." ...And while the government couldn't
seem to keep people from dying on rooftops or
abandoned highways, it wasted no time building a
temporary jail in New Orleans. For
complete story,
click here.
Health-care workers steer clear of swine flu
vaccine
--Many health-care workers have made it obvious
that they are unwilling to be vaccinated.
26 Aug 2009 A new study finds that the majority
of health-care workers refuse to take the swine
flu vaccine due to its possible side effects.
According to a study published in British
Medical Journal, more than half of
health-care workers around the world are worried
about the side effects of the new vaccine.
Doubts about the effectiveness of the vaccine
are also reported as another main reason for
them declining the vaccine. For complete
story,
click here.
Exposed: The Swine Flu Hoax
By Andrew
Bosworth, Ph.D. 24 Aug 2009 If the current H1N1
swine flu virus does become abnormally lethal,
there would be three leading explanations:
first, that the virus was accidentally released,
or escaped, from a laboratory; second, that a
disgruntled lab employee unleashed the virus (as
happened, according to the official version of
events, with the 2001 anthrax attack); or third,
that a group, corporation or government agency
intentionally released the virus in the
interests of profit and power. Each of the three
scenarios represents a plausible explanation
should the swine virus become lethal. The 1918
flu virus was dead and buried -- until, that is,
scientists unearthed a lead coffin to obtain a
biopsy of the corpse it contained. For complete
story,
click here.
Rendition of Terror
Suspects Will Continue Under Obama
25 Aug 2009 The Obama administration will
continue the Bush regime’s practice of sending
terror suspects to third countries for detention
and interrogation, but will monitor their
treatment to insure they are not tortured,
administration officials said on Monday. The
administration officials, who announced the
changes on condition that they not be
identified, said that unlike the Bush
administration, they would give the State
Department a larger role in assuring that
transferred detainees prisoners would not
be abused. [See: Barack Obama: Change We
Can Deceive In --A critique from
the Left By Lori Price 19 Aug 2009.]
For complete story,
click here.
Common Sense 2009
By Larry Flynt 20 Aug 2009 The
American government -- which we once called our
government -- has been taken over by Wall
Street, the mega-corporations and the
super-rich. They are the ones who decide our
fate. It is this group of powerful elites, the
people President Franklin D. Roosevelt called
"economic royalists," who choose our elected
officials -- indeed, our very form of
government. Both Democrats and Republicans dance
to the tune of their corporate masters. In
America, corporations do not control the
government. In America, corporations are the
government. This was never more obvious than
with the Wall Street bailout, whereby the very
corporations that caused the collapse of our
economy were rewarded with taxpayer dollars.
For complete story,
click here.
'The guard called
a Homeland Security
Officer who asked Thomas what he was
filming.' Homeland Security cop
arrests man for filming FBI building in NYC
By Carlos Miller 20 Aug 2009 A 43-year-old man
was jailed for six hours – and had his camera
and memory card confiscated by a judge - after
filming an FBI building from across the street
in New York City Monday. Randall Thomas, a
professional photographer, said he was
standing on the corner of Duane Street and
Broadway in downtown Manhattan when he used his
video camera to pan up and down on the 42-story
building at 26 Federal Plaza. He was immediately
accosted by a security guard in a brown uniform
who told him he was not allowed to film the
building. For complete story, click here.
Police
Taser use 'up nearly a third'
17 Aug 2009 Police use of Taser stun guns has
increased by nearly a third, figures revealed
today. Officers fired the electro-shock weapons
226 times in the first three months of this year
- up from 174 in the last three months of 2008.
For complete story,
click here.
Second 9/11
Investigation Petition Moves Toward NYC November
Ballot By Barbara G.
Ellis for Portland 9/11 Legislative Alliance 20
Aug 2009 A second 9/11 investigation about the
destruction of the World Trade Center and attack
on the Pentagon--this one independent of the
U.S. government--may start late this year if
legal debris is cleared away for approval as a
referendum issue on November 3 in New York
City.
For complete story,
click here.
Government's Tamiflu advice is wrong, says WHO
22 Aug 2009 Only seriously ill and vulnerable
patients should be prescribed antiviral drugs to
help them to get over swine flu, the World
Health Organisation said yesterday, in advice
which conflicts with the decision taken by the
British Government to prescribe Tamiflu to
everyone with swine flu. Most people will
recover from swine flu within a week, just as
they would from seasonal forms of influenza, the
WHO said. For complete story,
click here.
Joseph
Thurura, 32, was arrested in June
2008 and charged with the rape of a
44-year-old patient at Integrated
Living Services, where he was a
caregiver.
The
woman was impregnated but had a
miscarriage. For complete
story,
click here.
Mexico Legalizes Drug
Possession--August
21st, 2009--MEXICO
CITY (AP) —
Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of
marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while
encouraging government-financed treatment for drug
dependency free of charge.
The law sets out
maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also
including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained
with those quantities will no longer face criminal
prosecution; the law goes into effect on Friday.
For complete story,
click here.
Swine flu jab link to
killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern
of neurologists over 25 deaths in America
15 Aug 2009 A warning that the new swine flu jab is
linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by
the Government to senior neurologists in a
confidential letter. The letter from the Health
Protection Agency, the official body that oversees
public health, has been leaked to The Mail on
Sunday, leading to demands
to know why the information has not been given to
the public before the vaccination of millions of
people, including children, begins. It
tells the neurologists that they must be alert for
an increase in a brain disorder called
Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be
triggered by the vaccine. The letter, sent to about
600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that
there is concern at the highest levels that the
vaccine itself could cause serious complications.
For complete story,
click here.
Sheriff's Office defies
judge on order for system password--August
15th, 2009--A Maricopa County Superior Court
judge on Friday ordered that the Sheriff's Office
divulge the password it forcefully installed on a
county computer system linked to sensitive state and
federal criminal- justice data.
But Chief Deputy David Hendershott later said he
will refuse to share the password - even if it means
he goes to jail.
During the Friday hearing, Judge Joseph Heilman said
that if the Sheriff's Office doesn't divulge the
password by Wednesday, he will "hold someone in
contempt of court."
"I assume it's going to be someone seated at this
table," he added, referring to Hendershott.
Hendershott said he could not reveal the password
under federal law. And if he goes to jail: "I bet I
get a pretty decent place. Something with a view of
the dump."
Heilman would not comment on the remark.
(Webmaster Note: Hiding something, are we?)
For complete story,
click here.
Antidepressant use doubles
in U.S., study finds--August
3rd, 2009--WASHINGTON
(Reuters) – Use of
antidepressant drugs in the United States
doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a
mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.
About 6 percent of
people were prescribed
an antidepressant in
1996 -- 13 million
people. This rose to
more than 10 percent or
27 million people by
2005, the researchers
found.
"Significant increases
in antidepressant use
were evident across all
sociodemographic groups
examined, except
African Americans,"
Dr. Mark Olfson of
Columbia University
in New York and Steven
Marcus of the
University of
Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia wrote in
the Archives of General
Psychiatry. For
complete story,
click here.
(Webmaster Note:
Drugs are not the
answer!)
Gulags we can
believe in:
AP
sources: Military-civilian terror prison eyed
--The facility would operate as a
hybrid prison
system jointly operated by the Justice Department,
the military and the Department of Homeland
Security. 02 Aug 2009 The Obama administration
is looking at creating a courtroom-within-a-prison
complex in the U.S. to house suspected terrorists,
combining military and civilian detention facilities
at a single maximum-security prison. Several senior
U.S. officials said the administration is eyeing a
soon-to-be-shuttered state maximum security prison
in Michigan and the 134-year-old military
penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as possible
locations for a heavily guarded site to hold the 229
prisoners now jailed at the Guantanamo Bay detention
camp in Cuba. The administration's plan, according
to three government officials, calls for:
long-term holding cells for undetermined number of
prisoners who will never face trial;
building detention cells for
prisoners ordered released by courts but still held
behind bars. For complete story,
click here.
How about this for a New
Rule: Not everything in
America has to make a
profit. It used to be that
there were some services and
institutions so vital to our
nation that they were exempt
from market pressures. Some
things we just didn't do for
money. The United States
always defined capitalism,
but it didn't used to define
us. But now it's becoming
all that we are.
Did you know, for example,
that there was a time when
being called a "war
profiteer" was a bad thing?
But now our war zones are
dominated by private
contractors and mercenaries
who work for corporations.
There are more private
contractors in Iraq than
American troops, and we pay
them generous salaries to do
jobs the troops used to do
for themselves -- like
laundry. War is not supposed
to turn a profit, but our
wars have become boondoggles
for weapons manufacturers
and connected civilian
contractors.
Prisons used to be a
non-profit business, too.
And for good reason -- who
the hell wants to own a
prison? By definition you're
going to have trouble with
the tenants. But now prisons
are big business. A company
called the Corrections
Corporation of America is on
the New York Stock Exchange,
which is convenient since
that's where all the real
crime is happening anyway.
The CCA and similar
corporations actually lobby
Congress for stiffer
sentencing laws so they can
lock more people up and make
more money. That's why
America has the world;s
largest prison population
-- because actually
rehabilitating people would
have a negative impact on
the bottom line.
Television news is another
area that used to be roped
off from the profit motive.
When Walter Cronkite died
last week, it was odd to see
news anchor after news
anchor talking about how
much better the news
coverage was back in
Cronkite's day. I thought,
"Gee, if only you were in a
position to do something
about it."
But maybe they aren't.
Because unlike in Cronkite's
day, today's news has to
make a profit like all the
other divisions in a media
conglomerate. That's why it
wasn't surprising to see the
CBS Evening News broadcast
live from the Staples Center
for two nights this month,
just in case Michael Jackson
came back to life and sold
Iran nuclear weapons. In
Uncle Walter's time, the
news division was a loss
leader. Making money was the
job of The Beverly
Hillbillies. And now
that we have reporters
moving to Alaska to hang out
with the Palin family, the
news is The Beverly
Hillbillies.
And finally, there's health
care. It wasn't that long
ago that when a kid broke
his leg playing stickball,
his parents took him to the
local Catholic hospital, the
nun put a thermometer in his
mouth, the doctor slapped
some plaster on his ankle
and you were done. The bill
was $1.50, plus you got to
keep the thermometer.
But like everything else
that's good and noble in
life, some Wall Street
wizard decided that
hospitals could be big
business, so now they're run
by some bean counters in a
corporate plaza in
Charlotte. In the U.S.
today, three giant
for-profit conglomerates own
close to 600 hospitals and
other health care
facilities. They're not
hospitals anymore; they're
Jiffy Lubes with bedpans.
America's largest hospital
chain, HCA, was founded by
the family of Bill Frist,
who perfectly represents the
Republican attitude toward
health care: it's not a
right, it's a racket. The
more people who get sick and
need medicine, the higher
their profit margins. Which
is why they're always
pushing the Jell-O.
Because medicine is now
for-profit we have things
like "recision," where
insurance companies hire
people to figure out ways to
deny you coverage when you
get sick, even though you've
been paying into your plan
for years. For complete
story,
click here.
Whistleblower tells of America's hidden nightmare
for its sick poor--When an insurance firm boss saw a field
hospital for the poor in Virginia, he knew he had to
speak out. By Paul Harris 26 Jul 2009 Wendell
Potter can remember exactly when he took the first
steps on his journey to becoming a whistleblower and
turning against one of the most powerful industries
in America. It was July 2007 and Potter, a senior
executive at giant US healthcare firm Cigna, was
visiting relatives in the poverty-ridden mountain
districts of northeast Tennessee. He saw an advert
in a local paper for a touring free medical clinic
at a fairground just across the state border in Wise
County, Virginia. Potter, who had worked at Cigna
for 15 years, decided to check it out. What he saw
appalled him. Hundreds of desperate people, most
without any medical insurance, descended on the
clinic from out of the hills... Potter took pictures
of patients lying on trolleys on rain-soaked
pavements. For complete story,
click here.
Jimmy Carter Leaves
Church Over Treatment of Women--July
20th, 2009--After
more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has
announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist
Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their
separate ways. Via
Feministing, the former president called the
decision "unavoidable" after church leaders
prohibited women from being ordained and insisted
women be "subservient to their husbands." Said
Carter in an essay in
The Age:
At its most repugnant,
the belief that women
must be subjugated to
the wishes of men
excuses slavery,
violence, forced
prostitution, genital
mutilation and national
laws that omit rape as a
crime. But it also costs
many millions of girls
and women control over
their own bodies and
lives, and continues to
deny them fair access to
education, health,
employment and influence
within their own
communities.
More bodies go unclaimed as
families can't afford funeral costs21 Jul 2009 The poor economy is taking a toll
even on the dead, with an increasing number of bodies in
Los Angeles County going unclaimed by families who
cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones. At
the county coroner's office -- which handles homicides
and other suspicious deaths -- 36% more cremations were
done at taxpayers' expense in the last fiscal year over
the previous year, from 525 to 712. For complete
story,
click here.
Executives,
other highly compensated employees receive more than
one-third of all pay in U.S.
21 Jul 2009 The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an
uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world.
Executives and other highly compensated employees now
receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S.,
according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social
Security Administration data -- without counting
billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal
radar screens that measure wages and salaries. Highly
paid employees received nearly $2.1 trillion of the $6.4
trillion in total U.S. pay in 2007, the latest figures
available. The compensation numbers don't include
incentive stock options, unexercised stock options,
unvested restricted stock units and certain benefits.
For complete story,
click here.
CIA
Supervisor Claimed He Used Fire Ants On Detainee
By Aram Roston 16 Jul 2009 A recently released legal
memo describing interrogation techniques showed that
Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of
"insects" in interrogations. "You would like to place
[Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an
insect," Jay Bybee, then a Justice Department lawyer and
now a federal judge, wrote in 2002... A CIA supervisor
involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program bragged
to other CIA employees about using fire ants while
during questioning of a top terror suspect, according to
several sources formerly with the Agency. The official
claimed to other Agency employees, the sources say, to
have put the stinging ants on a detainee's head to help
break him. The CIA insists, however, that no matter what
the man said, it never took place. For complete
story,
click here.
317 cars burned
ahead of Bastille Day
--Disaffected youths frustrated with high unemployment
rates and their view of France's failure to integrate
ethnic minorities 14 Jul
2009 French youths burned 317 cars and wounded 13 police
officers overnight on the eve of the Bastille Day
national holiday, police said Tuesday. By 6:00 am (0400
GMT), police headquarters in Paris had recorded 317
burnt out cars -- up 6.7 percent on 2008 -- and 240
arrests, almost double the total for the same period
last year. These numbers were expected to increase as
fresh reports came in. For details,
click here.
Some Guantanamo
Bay Prisoners May Be Held Indefinitely
--DoD lawyer: Any detainee, even
if acquitted, could be held indefinitely
10 Jul 2009 An Obama administration official told
Senators Tuesday that some detainees at the Guantanamo
Bay detention facility will most likely be held
indefinitely if they pose a threat. The official spoke
at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing... At a
Senate hearing, Defense Department lawyer Jeh Johnson
described one group of prisoners that will remain behind
bars. "There will be at the end of the review a
category of people that we in the administration believe
must be retained for reasons of public safety and
national security, and they're not necessarily
people that we'll prosecute," Johnson said. Johnson also
said any detainee, even if acquitted, could be held
indefinitely. "And we've gone through our review
period and we've made through the assessment the person
is a security threat....I think it's our view that we
would have the ability to detain that person,"
Johnson said. For complete story,
click here.
That muttered curse word that
reflexively comes out when you stub your
toe could actually make it easier to
bear the throbbing pain, a new study
suggests.
Swearing is a common response to
pain, but no previous research has
connected the uttering of an expletive
to the actual physical
experience of pain.
"Swearing has been around for
centuries and is an almost universal
human linguistic phenomenon," said
Richard Stephens of Keele University in
England and one of the authors of the
new study. "It taps into emotional brain
centers and appears to arise in the
right brain, whereas most
language production occurs in the
left cerebral hemisphere of the brain."
Stephens and his fellow Keele
researchers John Atkins and Andrew
Kingston sought to test how swearing
would affect an individual's
tolerance to pain. Because swearing
often has an exaggerating effect that
can overstate the severity of pain, the
team thought that swearing would lessen
a person's tolerance.
As it turned out, the opposite seems
to be true.
The researchers enlisted 64
undergraduate volunteers and had them
submerge their hand in a tub of ice
water for as long as possible while
repeating a swear word of their choice.
The experiment was then repeated with
the volunteer repeating a more common
word that they would use to describe a
table.
Contrary to what the researcher
expected, the volunteers kept their
hands submerged longer while repeating
the swear word. For complete story,
click here.
(Webmaster note: Swearing is good
for you.)
The Truth about the Flu Shot
By Infowars 10 Jul 2009 If the government mandates a
series of flu shots this fall -- so far they are only
"recommending” the shots -- you can expect to get a dose
of thimerosal (mercury), formaldehyde, detergent, MF-59
(an oil-based adjuvant), and other toxins. Incidentally,
if you believe the government will not kidnap you at
gunpoint and lock you in a concentration camp and
possibly force you to take these toxins, check out
Executive Order 13295
of April 4, 2003. It states that the government has the
authority to establish "regulations providing for the
apprehension, detention, or conditional release of
individuals to prevent the introduction, transmission,
or spread of suspected communicable diseases," including
diseases at that time "not yet isolated or named." Of
course, the government will decide if you have a deadly
disease or not. For complete story,
click here.
When Philadelphia police
shot and killed a homeless
man brandishing a utility
knife Friday in the
concourse near City Hall, it
had special meaning for
state Supreme Court Justice
Seamus P. McCaffery.
Twenty years ago,
McCaffery told an audience
of Philadelphia court and
municipal officials, he was
a police sergeant with the
subway unit.
"I know what those
officers are going through
down there dealing with the
homeless," McCaffery said.
"That's the kind of tragedy
that we don't want to
happen. These are human
beings that we as a society
need to step up to the plate
and help."
Yesterday McCaffery got
that chance, joining
Philadelphia court officials
to announce the creation of
the city's first Mental
Health Court.
The court, which begins
today with a pilot group of
15 individuals, is to take a
group of nonviolent inmates
about to complete their jail
terms and make sure they
have the necessary therapy
and supervision lined up to
successfully live in the
community. For
complete story,
click here.
(Webmaster Note: The
"therapy" utilized to modify
behavior in and out of
prison is not based on
science and actually causes
severe psychological
distress and trauma.
Let's not jump from the
frying pan (current
prison/sentencing system)
into the fire
(pseudo-science and
cult-like brainwashing of
"offenders" aka our fellow
citizens.)
Abu Ghraib Crucifixion Death
Demonstrates Need for Independent Criminal Investigation
into U.S. Torture Program--June
29th, 2009--Washington, DC -- A report
published in the June 22nd issue of The New Yorker
magazine that a prisoner had been crucified by the CIA
at the Abu Ghraib prison highlighted the need to apply
the rule of law to the U.S. torture program. This issue
will be discussed at a press conference at 9:30 on
Monday morning at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC.
Kevin Zeese, who is filing complaints on Monday
against three CIA lawyers who facilitated torture
said: "The United States must face the reality of
the extent of the torture program under the
Bush-Cheney administration. War crimes were
committed. The toxic poison of torture will not be
removed from the body politic unless the rule of law
is applied." Zeese said "the filing of complaints
against CIA torture lawyers is a first step in
ensuring an independent legal review of the U.S.
torture program."
According to the New Yorker
report authored by Jane Mayer "A forensic examiner
found that he (the prisoner) had essentially been
crucified; he died from asphyxiation after having
been hung by his arms, in a hood, and suffering
broken ribs. Military pathologists classified the
case a homicide." Mayer further reports "No criminal
charges have ever been brought against any C.I.A.
officer involved in the torture program, despite the
fact that at least three prisoners interrogated by
agency personnel died as a result of mistreatment."
For complete story,
click here.
Lawsuit accuses Xe contractors
of murder, kidnapping, child prostitution02 Jul 2009 A just-amended lawsuit alleges six
additional instances of unprovoked attacks on Iraqi
civilians by Blackwater mercenaries. Three people,
including a 9-year-old boy, are said to have died. Also
added to the suit is a racketeering count accusing
Blackwater founder Erik Prince of running an ongoing
criminal enterprise involved in, among other things,
kidnapping and child prostitution.
The latest charges, filed this week in U.S. District
Court in Alexandria, bring to more than 60 the number of
Iraqis allegedly killed or wounded since 2005 by armed
Blackwater mercenaries guarding U.S. diplomatic
personnel in Iraq. The Moyock, N.C.-based security
company, since renamed Xe, earned more than $1 billion
under that contract before the State Department, under
pressure from the Iraqi government, let it lapse in May.
For complete story,
click here.
Former Marine Claims
Illness From Mystery Vaccine
--Military Source Believes Experimental Shots May Have Been
Given
08 May 2007 (Received July 2nd, 2009) Clermont County,
OH) Target 5 has discovered that an alarming number of U.S.
troops are having severe reactions to some of the vaccines
they receive in preparation for going overseas. "This is the
worst cover-up in the history of the military," said an
unidentified military health officer who fears for his job.
A shot from a syringe is leaving some U.S. servicemen and
women on the brink of death. "When the issue, I believe, of
the use of the vaccine comes out, I believe it will make the
Walter Reed scandal pale in comparison," said the health
officer.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU Says Government
Used False Confessions
02 Jul 2009 The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused
the Obama administration of using statements elicited through
torture to justify the confinement of a detainee it represents
at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ACLU is
asking a federal judge to throw out those statements and others
made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who
may have been as young as 12 when he was captured.
His attorney argued that Jawad was abused in U.S. custody,
threatened and subjected to intense sleep deprivation. "The
government's continued reliance on evidence gained by torture
and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the
current administration is not really serious about breaking with
the past," said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is
representing Jawad in a lawsuit challenging his detention.
For complete story,
click here.
White House Drafts Executive Order to
Allow Indefinite Detention of Terror Suspects --Friday
26 Jun 2009 5:18 PM The Obama administration, fearing a battle
with Congress that could stall plans to close Guantanamo, has
drafted an executive order that would reassert presidential
authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely,
according to three senior government officials with knowledge of
White House deliberations. Such an order would embrace claims
by former president [sic] George W. Bush that certain people can
be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of
war. Under one White House draft that was being discussed
earlier this month, according to administration officials,
detainees would be imprisoned at a military facility on U.S.
soil but their ongoing detention would be subject to annual
presidential review. U.S. citizens would not be held in the
system. For complete story,
click here.
Agents say DEA is forcing them
illegally to work in Afghanistan 21 Jun 2009
As the Obama administration ramps up the Drug Enforcement
Administration's presence in Afghanistan, some special-agent
pilots contend that they're being illegally forced to go to a
combat zone, while others who've volunteered say they're not
being properly equipped. In interviews with McClatchy, more
than a dozen DEA agents describe a badly managed system in which
some pilots have been sent to Afghanistan under duress or as
punishment for bucking their superiors. For complete
story,
click here.
Lilly Sold Drug for Dementia Knowing It
Didn't Help, Files Show
12 Jun 2009 Eli Lilly & Co. urged
doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly
patients with dementia, an unapproved
use for the antipsychotic, even though
the drugmaker had evidence the medicine
didn’t work for such patients, according
to unsealed internal company documents.
For complete story,
click here.
Neo-Nazis are in the Army now
--Why the U.S. military is ignoring its own regulations and
permitting white supremacists to join its ranks. By Matt
Kennard 14 Jun 2009 As the conflicts have dragged on, the
military has loosened regulations, issuing "moral waivers" in
many cases, allowing even those with criminal records to join
up... The lax regulations have also opened the military's doors
to neo-Nazis, white supremacists and gang members -- with
drastic consequences. Some neo-Nazis have been charged with
crimes inside the military, and others have been linked to
recruitment efforts for the white right... Many white
supremacists join the Army to secure training for, as they see
it, a future domestic race war.
Others claim to be shooting Iraqis not to pursue the military's
strategic goals but because killing "hajjis" is their duty as
white militants... Tom Metzger is the former grand
wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and current leader of the White Aryan
Resistance. He tells me the military has never been more
tolerant of racial extremists. "Now they are letting everybody
in," he says. (Unable to locate story at time of
archiving.)
Shooting Highlights
Growth of [Rightwing] Hate Groups
--Suspect James Von Brunn Railed Against Blacks, Jews, Found
Allies On White Supremacist Web Sites
10 Jun 2009 Federal investigators in Washington, D.C. are
scouring the troubled history of 88 year-old shooting suspect
James Von Brunn - an anti-Semite with a lifelong grievance
against the government who found allies on white supremacist Web
sites. The Holocaust Museum shootings came 11 days after another
hate crime, the murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller.
The suspect in that shooting, Scott Roeder, is described as an
anti-abortion rights radical terrorist. For
complete story,
click here.
Readying Americans for
Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations
--Around $6 billion or more will be spent to develop, produce,
and stockpile vaccines and other drugs to counteract claimed
bioterror agents. By Stephen
Lendman 10 Jun 2009 At least three US federal laws should
concern all Americans and suggest what may be coming - mandatory
vaccinations for hyped, non-existent threats, like H1N1 (Swine
Flu). Vaccines and drugs like Tamiflu endanger human health but
are hugely profitable to drug company manufacturers. The Project
BioShield Act of 2004 (S. 15) became law on July 21, 2004...The
Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act slipped
under the radar when George Bush signed it into law as part of
the 2006 Defense Appropriations Act (HR 2863). It lets the HHS
Secretary declare any disease an epidemic or national emergency
requiring mandatory vaccinations. [See:
DoD to carry out 'military missions' during
pandemic, WMD attack and
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during
pandemic or bioterror attack.]
For complete story,
click here.
Ruling allowing Taser
use to get DNA may be nation's first
04 Jun 2009 It is legally permissible
for police to zap a suspect with a Taser to obtain a DNA sample,
as long as it’s not done "maliciously, or to an excessive
extent, or with resulting injury," a county judge has ruled in
the first case of its kind in New York State, and possibly the
nation. Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza decided that
the DNA sample obtained Sept. 29 from Ryan S. Smith of Niagara
Falls is legally valid and can be used at his trial. For
complete story,
click here.
Marines Train
"Civilians" to Accept Coming Martial Law
(Infowars) 01 Jun 2009 On May 23, the Staten Island Real-Time
News
reported on
"mock raids at the public park to give civilians a feel for how
soldiers operate in battle." Or maybe that should be "mock
raids" to give civilians a taste of things to come and, of
course, get them acclimated to the presence of uniformed and
armed soldiers in their midst. It is interesting the Marines
characterized Flushing Meadows Park as "enemy territory." In
fact, according to our rulers and their military functionaries,
the entire United States is "enemy territory" in need of martial
law. For complete story,
click here.
Abu Ghraib abuse photos 'show rape'
--Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is
attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual
abuse, it has emerged. 28 May 2009 At least one picture
shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner
while another is said to show a male translator raping a male
detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults
on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a
phosphorescent tube... Detail of the content emerged from Major
General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an
inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. Allegations of rape
and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there
were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their
existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. [See:
'I saw ___ fucking a kid...' Source: The "Taguba Report" On
Treatment Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Iraq, statement by Kasim
Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, 1300/18 Jan 2004.]
For complete story,
click here.
Court: Suspects Can Be Interrogated Without
Lawyer--May
26th, 2009--WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on
Tuesday overturned a long-standing ruling that stopped police from
initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer was present, a move
that will make it easier for prosecutors to interrogate suspects.
The high court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the 1986 Michigan v.
Jackson ruling, which said police may not initiate questioning
of a defendant who has a lawyer or has asked for one unless the
attorney is present. The Michigan ruling applied even to
defendants who agreed to talk to the authorities without their
lawyers. For complete story,
click here.
Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive
Detention For Suspects Deemed 'National Security Threat'
--'The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama
administration over these powers is really stunning.'
21 May
2009 President Bush Obama told human rights advocates at the
White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a
"preventive detention" system that would establish a legal basis for
the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a
threat to national security but cannot be tried, two participants in
the private session said. One participant said Mr. Obama did not
seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism
suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but rather for those captured
in the future, in settings other than a legitimate [?] battlefield
like Afghanistan. For complete story,
click here.
"Minnesota mental health patient
Ray Sandford forced into electro-shock
therapy"--May
20th, 2009--Ray Sandford doesn't want to do
this. On a sunny yet cool mid-April morning, the
pear-shaped 54-year-old emerges from the front door of his
ranch-style group home in Columbia Heights. Wearing a
black windbreaker and gray sweatpants, he grips the handle
of his four-pronged cane and plods begrudgingly toward the
street. One of Sandford's caretakers, a large woman wearing all
purple, follows perfunctorily behind to see him to his
destination. He's told them repeatedly he doesn't want to
do this. He ambles forward. There's nothing he can do now.
No sense in fighting it. Not now. A 20-passenger
Anoka transit bus idles along the curb awaiting his
arrival. A short, swarthy driver assists Sandford. The bus
slowly pulls away and embarks on the 12-mile ride to Mercy
Medical Clinic in
Coon Rapids. Upon arrival, Sandford walks through the
automatic sliding doors and assumes his position in a
wheelchair. He's whisked to a room on the
fifth floor where nurses poke an IV through his fleshy forearm.
He's given a muscle relaxant and general anesthesia.
Within 30 seconds, the room dissolves. He's out cold.
Assistants lay him out on his back. A doctor places electrodes
on either side of Sandford's cranium. Cords extend from
the electrodes, connecting to what appears to be an
antiquated stereo set. A couple of dials protrude from the
machine's display. A physician flips an unassuming switch.
A three-second burst of 140 volts blasts through Sandford's
brain. While he's totally unconscious, Sandford's torso
jerks up and down. His arms and legs writhe only slightly,
steadied by muscle relaxants coursing through his veins.
Sandford's toes curl downward, as if his feet were trying
ball up into fists. He's experiencing a grand mal seizure.
Two minutes later, it's over. Sandford will feel a bit woozy the
rest of the day, but there'll be no lasting pain. His
short-term memory is the only thing that will suffer.
But he'll still remember quite clearly that he never wanted to
do this. "They can literally tie me up, put me in
ambulance, and bring me in to get shock treatments," he
says. "I don't fight it, because there's nothing I can do
by that time. You want to know how I feel? I don't like it
at all." For complete story,
click here.
KBR, Halliburton Accused in Investor
Suit of 'Reign of Terror'
15 Mar 2009 KBR Inc. and Halliburton Co., two of the largest
contractors to the U.S. military, were accused by a pension-fund
shareholder of paying bribes, making false claims and operating
as criminal enterprises. Executives of both companies engaged in
a "reign of terror" that involved paying bribes in Nigeria,
overcharging the U.S. government for services, accepting
kickbacks, engaging in human
trafficking and concealing a rape of an employee,
according to the complaint filed yesterday by a pension fund. [Let
us not forget what US troops had to endure from Cheney's KBR
terrorists: Poisonings, electrocutions, spoiled food and
pathogen-laden water.] For complete story,
click here.
Wisconsin court upholds GPS tracking by police 07 May 2009 Wisconsin police can attach GPS to cars to secretly track anybody's movements without obtaining search warrants, an appeals court ruled Thursday. However, the District 4 Court of Appeals said it was "more than a little troubled" by that conclusion and asked Wisconsin lawmakers to regulate GPS use to protect against abuse by police and private individuals. For complete story,
click here.
'A prisoner who started to drift off to sleep would tilt over and be caught by his chains. At one point, the agency was allowed to keep prisoners awake for as long as 11 days.' Memos shed light on CIA use of sleep deprivation --Though widely perceived as more effective and less objectionable than other torture methods, memos show it's harsher and more controversial than most realize. And it could be brought back. 10 May 2009 From the beginning, sleep deprivation had been one of the most important elements in the CIA's interrogation torture program, used to help break dozens of suspected terrorists, far more than the most violent approaches. And it is among the methods the agency fought hardest to keep. The technique is now prohibited by President Obama's ban in January on torture methods, although a task force is reviewing its use along with other interrogation methods the agency might employ in the future. For complete story,
click here.
An MP who was involved in last month's G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.
Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.
Brake, who along with hundreds of others was corralled behind police lines near Bank tube station in the City of London on the day of the protests, says he was informed by people in the crowd that the men had been seen to throw bottles at the police and had encouraged others to do the same shortly before they passed through the cordon.
Brake, a member of the influential home affairs select committee, will raise the allegations when he gives evidence before parliament's joint committee on human rights on Tuesday.
"When I was in the middle of the crowd, two people came over to me and said, 'There are people over there who we believe are policemen and who have been encouraging the crowd to throw things at the police,'" Brake said. But when the crowd became suspicious of the men and accused them of being police officers, the pair approached the police line and passed through after showing some form of identification.
Brake has produced a draft report of his experiences for the human rights committee, having received written statements from people in the crowd. These include Tony Amos, a photographer who was standing with protesters in the Royal Exchange between 5pm and 6pm. "He [one of the alleged officers] was egging protesters on. It was very noticeable," Amos said. "Then suddenly a protester seemed to identify him as a policeman and turned on him. He legged it towards the police line, flashed some ID and they just let him through, no questions asked."
Amos added: "He was pretty much inciting the crowd. He could not be called an observer. I don't believe in conspiracy theories but this really struck me. Hopefully, a review of video evidence will clear this up."
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 256 complaints relating to the G20 protests. Of these, 121 have been made about the use of force by police officers, while 75 relate to police tactics. The IPCC said it had no record of complaints involving the use of police agents provocateurs. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "We would never deploy officers in this way or condone such behaviour."
The use of plain-clothes officers in crowd situations is considered a vital tactic for gathering evidence. It has been used effectively to combat football hooliganism in the UK and was employed during the May Day protests in 2001.
Brake said he intends to raise the allegations with the Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, when he next appears before the home affairs select committee. "There is a logic having plain-clothes officers in the crowd, but no logic if the officers are actively encouraging violence, which would be a source of great concern," Brake said.
The MP said that given only a few people were allowed out of the corralled crowd for the five hours he was held inside it, there should be no problem in investigating the allegation by examining video footage. For complete story, click here.
Dole sued over links to Colombian death squads 07 May 2009 Dole Food Company is being sued by the families of 57 people allegedly murdered by paramilitaries hired by the US firm at its banana plantations in Colombia. A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles alleges that Dole hired the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) despite the fact that the group had been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. For complete story,
click here.
Prison Awaiting Hostile Bloggers --The methods of communication where hostile speech is banned include e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones and text messages. --15 lawmakers signed on to H.R. 1966. By David Kravets 05 May 2009 Proposed congressional legislation would demand up to two years in prison for those whose electronic speech is meant to "coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person." Instead of prison, perhaps we should say gulag. The proposal by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles, would never pass First Amendment muster, unless the U.S. Constitution was altered without us knowing. Sanchez’s bill goes way beyond cyberbullying and comes close to making it a federal offense to log onto the internet or use the telephone. [We are so screwed that the *light* from screwed is going to take ten billion years to reach the earth.] For complete story,
click here.
Obama administration spearheads wage cuts for American workers
--Chrysler, GM set the pace By Patrick Martin 05 May 2009 The wage cuts imposed on auto workers at Chrysler and General Motors at the insistence of the Obama administration demonstrate the class strategy that American big business as a whole is carrying out: to impose a reduction in the living standards of American workers on a scale unprecedented since the Great Depression. The White House has given the green light for nationwide wage-cutting with its demands on Chrysler and GM workers, who have seen wages for new-hires slashed by 50 percent, along with the abolition of cost-of-living raises and cuts in vacation pay. For complete story,
click here.
Thought police muscle up in Britain Hal G. P. Colebatch 21 April 2009 Britain appears to be evolving into the first modern soft totalitarian state. As a sometime teacher of political science and international law, I do not use the term totalitarian loosely. There are no concentration camps or gulags but there are thought police with unprecedented powers to dictate ways of thinking and sniff out heresy, and there can be harsh punishments for dissent... In the past 10 years I have collected reports of many instances of draconian punishments, including the arrest and criminal prosecution of children, for thought-crimes and offences against political correctness. For complete story,
click here.
Report: Two Psychologists Responsible for Devising CIA Torture Methods --Former military officers were paid by the CIA to oversee the waterboarding techniques used against high-profile prisoners 30 Apr 2009 Two psychologists are responsible for designing the CIA's program of waterboarding suspected terrorists and for assuring the government the program was safe, according to an ABC News
report. Former military officers Bruce Jessen and Jim Mitchell had an "important role in developing what became the CIA's torture program," Jameel Jaffer, an attorney with the ACLU, told ABC News... Associates say Jessen and Mitchell were paid up to $1,000 a day by the CIA to oversee the techniques used against high-profile prisoners to extract information in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. For complete story,
click here.
'Israel treated its soldiers as guinea pigs' --Experiments carried out in light of what was defined as 'strategic threat of a surprise biological attack facing Israel' 25 Mar 2009 Israel has admitted to developing an anthrax vaccine through a secret research project involving tests on unaware army soldiers. The Israeli Defense Ministry revealed on Wednesday that the vaccine was tested on 716 soldiers while they had not been fully informed about the study, Ynet reported. For complete story,
click here.
Pentagon exploring robot killers that can fire on their own --DoD financing studies of self-governing, armed robots that could find and destroy targets on their own
25 Mar 2009 The unmanned bombers that frequently cause unintended civilian casualties in Pakistan are a step toward an even more lethal generation of robotic hunters-killers that operate with limited, if any, human control. The Defense Department is financing studies of autonomous, or self-governing, armed robots that could find and destroy targets on their own. On-board computer programs, not flesh-and-blood people, would decide whether to fire their weapons. [Yeah, but one good hack and they could be re-programmed to fire upon themselves.] For complete story,
click here.
Ex-Bush admin official: Many at Gitmo are innocent 19 Mar 2009 Many prisoners locked up at Guantanamo were innocent men swept up by U.S. forces unable to distinguish enemies from noncombatants, a former Bush regime official said Thursday. "There are still innocent people there," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, a Republican who was chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, told The Associated Press. "Some have been there six or seven years." Wilkerson told the AP he learned from briefings and by communicating with military commanders that the U.S. soon realized many Guantanamo prisoners were innocent but nevertheless held them in hopes they could provide information for a "mosaic" of intelligence. For complete story,
click here.
Obama quietly gave Blackwater (Xe) $70M in February:
Blackwater still works for U.S. in Iraq 17 Mar 2009 The U.S. State Department re-signed the security mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater despite Iraq saying it didn't want the company there, records show. The State Department said $22.2 million deal signed with Blackwater, since renamed Xe, in February was a contract modification concerning aviation work, The Washington Times first
reported. The contract expires in September, months after its contract for work in Baghdad was to have run out. For complete story,
click here.
Ten Wasted Years: UN Drug Strategy A Failure, Reveals Damning Report--March 11th, 2009--The UN strategy on drugs over the past decade has been a failure, a European commission report claimed yesterday on the eve of the international conference in Vienna that will set future policy for the next 10 years.
The report came amid growing dissent among delegates arriving at the meeting to finalise a UN declaration of intent.
Referring to the UN's existing strategy, the authors declared that they had found "no evidence that the global drug problem was reduced". They wrote: "Broadly speaking, the situation has improved a little in some of the richer countries while for others it worsened, and for some it worsened sharply and substantially, among them a few large developing or transitional countries."
The policy had merely shifted the problem geographically, they said. "Production and trafficking controls only redistributed activities. Enforcement against local markets failed in most countries." For complete story, click here.
Some wounded soldiers 'punished for injuries' --Authorities hold sick, disabled troops to same standards as the able-bodied 10 Mar 2009 About 10,000 soldiers have been assigned to the Army's Warrior Transition units, created for troops recovering from injuries. Instead of gingerly nursing them back to health, however, commanders at Fort Bragg's transition unit readily acknowledge holding them to the same standards as able-bodied soldiers in combat units, often assigning chores as punishment for minor infractions. For complete story,
click here.
It's a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2,000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies.
Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sent children to jail for offences so trivial that some of them weren't even crimes. A 15-year-old called Hillary Transue got three months for creating a spoof web page ridiculing her school's assistant principal. Ciavarella sent Shane Bly, then 13, to boot camp for trespassing in a vacant building. He gave a 14-year-old, Jamie Quinn, 11 months in prison for slapping a friend during an argument, after the friend slapped her. The judges were paid $2.6m by companies belonging to the Mid-Atlantic Youth Services Corp for helping to fill its jails. This is what happens when public services are run for profit.
It's an extreme example, but it hints at the wider consequences of the trade in human lives created by private prisons. In the US and the UK they have a powerful incentive to ensure that the number of prisoners keeps rising. For complete story, click here.
'Theory of presidential dictatorship' Bush administration memos on presidential powers stun legal experts --Congress had prohibited the use of torture by U.S. agents, and said "no citizen shall be imprisoned" in this country without legal charges. The memos said neither law could stand in the way of the president's power as commander in chief. 03 Mar 2009 Legal experts said Tuesday that they were taken aback by the claim in the latest batch of secret
Bush-era memos that the president alone had the power to set the rules during the war on of terrorism. Yale law professor Jack Balkin called this a "theory of presidential dictatorship. They say the battlefield is everywhere. And the president can do anything he wants, so long as it involves the military and the enemy." For complete story,
click here.
FDA ignored debris in syringes--Complaints of filth came in 2005; plant's microbiologist was a teenage dropout 25 Feb 2009 (NC) Months before an Angier company shipped deadly bacteria-tainted drugs, the federal Food and Drug Administration received numerous complaints about sediment and debris in the medicine. The FDA received reports about AM2PAT as early as 2005, but not until December 2007 did the agency issue recall notices to pull the drugs off the market. AM2PAT, which is now the subject of a criminal investigation, sold tainted syringes of heparin and saline that have been linked to five deaths. For complete story,
click here.
Lawyer says Guantanamo abuse worse since Obama 25 Feb 2009 Abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has worsened sharply since President Barack Obama took office as prison guards "get their kicks in" before the camp is closed, according to a lawyer who represents prisoners. Abuses began to pick up in December after Obama was elected, human rights lawyer Ahmed Ghappour told Reuters. He cited beatings, the dislocation of limbs, spraying of pepper spray into closed cells, applying pepper spray to toilet paper and over-forcefeeding detainees who are on hunger strike. For complete story,
click here.
AP: Army charity hoards millions 22 Feb 2009 The biggest charity inside the U.S. military has been hoarding tens of millions of dollars meant to help put fighters returning from Iraq and Afghanistan back on their feet. An Associated Press investigation shows that between 2003 and 2007, the Army Emergency Relief grew into a $345 million behemoth. During those years, the charity packed away $117 million into its own reserves while spending just $64 million on direct aid. For complete story,
click here.
NYU Students Revoke the Property Destruction Clause By FluxRostrum 19 Feb 2009 Last night at 10 pm, NYU students barricaded themselves into a cafeteria in the student center and refused to leave until the administration met their demands. The students are seeking much more transparency, stabilized tuition and socially responsible investment among other things (details at takebacknyu.com). Although NYPD took up positions inside and outside the building, the NYU administration up until now declined to force the students to leave. For complete story,
click here.
Contractors, guardsmen say KBR knew of chemical exposure in Iraq 18 Feb 2009 Ten contractors hired by Houston-based KBR to make repairs at an Iraqi water plant in early 2003 say the company knowingly allowed them and dozens of National Guardsmen to be exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. The allegations from the workers, six of whom live in or near Houston, are documented in a federal arbitration complaint pending in Houston and a related federal lawsuit filed in December by the guardsmen in Indiana, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday. For complete story,
click here.
Contractor Under Criminal Probe for Negligent Electrocution Deaths of U.S. Troops Should Be Denied Future Pentagon Contracts --McCollum (D) Urges DoD to Rescind Contract to KBR 18 Feb 2009 Amid reports that the Department of Defense has recently awarded a multimillion dollar contract to a company under investigation for the electrocution deaths of soldiers, Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04) today joined Congressional colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary Robert Gates requesting an explanation for the latest award to Kellogg Brown and Root, Inc (KBR), in light of the existing criminal probes against them for the fatality of several U.S. soldiers in Iraq due to faulty electrical work. For complete story,
click here.
Judges: Torture, Abuses Undermine Values in U.S., U.K. 17 Feb 2009 An international group of judges and lawyers is warning that systemic torture and other abuses in the global "war on terror" have "undermined cherished values" of civil rights in the United States, Britain and other nations. "We have been shocked by the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counterterrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world," said Arthur Chaskalson, a member of the International Commission of Jurists, in a statement announcing results of a three-year study of counterterrorism measures since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. For complete story,
click here.
Kan. suspends income tax refunds, may miss payroll 16 Feb 2009 Kansas has suspended income tax refunds and may not be able to pay employees on time, the state's budget director said Monday. The state doesn't have enough money in its main bank account to pay its bills, prompting Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to suggest transferring $225 million from other accounts throughout state government. But the move required approval from legislative leaders, and the GOP [sociopaths] refused Monday. For complete story,
click here.
Obama administration seeks to block lawsuit over illegal wiretappingBy John Burton and Marge Holland 16 Feb 2009 For the
second time in less than a week, lawyers from the Justice Department headed by Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder have embraced the Bush administration's pseudo-legal argument that the "state secrets" doctrine bars civil lawsuits challenging the methods used in its so-called "war on terror..." The most recent intervention also occurred in San Francisco, with the filing of papers February 11 to block an order by United States District Judge Vaughn R. Walker reinstating the claim of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation that it was the target of government wiretapping. For complete story,
click here.
Report: U.S. "war on terror" seriously damages human rights --Report illustrated consequences of notorious counter-terrorism practices such as torture, disappearances, arbitrary and secret detention as well as unfair trials. 17 Feb 2009 The so-called "war on terror" launched by the United States following the 9/11 terror attacks has resulted in serious damage to the world's respect for human rights, according to a report released on Monday. The United States "has adopted measures to counter terrorism that are inconsistent with established principles of international humanitarian law and human rights law," said the report, which was released by an independent panel of eminent jurists. It warned that excessive or abusive counter-terrorism measures adopted by the United States were having influence on other countries and causing them to follow suit. for complete story,
click here.
A fraud bigger than Madoff --Senior US soldiers investigated over missing Iraq 'reconstruction' billions 16 Feb 2009 In what could turn out to be the greatest fraud in US history, American authorities have started to investigate the alleged role of senior military officers in the misuse of $125bn (£88bn) in a US -directed effort to 'reconstruct' Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The exact sum missing may never be clear, but a report by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) suggests it may exceed $50bn, making it an even bigger theft than Bernard Madoff's notorious Ponzi scheme. In one case, auditors working for SIGIR discovered that $57.8m was sent in "pallet upon pallet of hundred-dollar bills" to the US comptroller for south-central Iraq, Robert J Stein Jr, who had himself photographed standing with the mound of money.
Unable to locate at time of archiving. Source:
www.independent.co.uk
VA clinic warns of possible contaminant exposure 13 Feb 2009 Thousands of patients at a Veterans Administration clinic [Alvin C. York VA Medical Center in Murfreesboro] in Tennessee may have been exposed to the infectious body fluids of other patients when they had colonoscopies in recent years, and now VA medical facilities all over the U.S. are reviewing their own procedures. For complete story,
click here.
Blackwater Changes Its Name to Xe 14 Feb 2009 Blackwater Worldwide is abandoning the brand name that has been tarnished by its work terrorism in Iraq, settling on Xe (pronounced zee) as the new name for its family of two dozen businesses. Blackwater Lodge and Training Center, the subsidiary that conducts much of the company’s overseas operations and domestic training, has been renamed U.S. Training Center Inc., the company said Friday. The company’s rebranding effort grew more urgent after Blackwater guards in Baghdad were involved in a shooting episode in September 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. For complete story,
click here.
Missing civil liberties:
Top Obama Aides Embrace Bush's War on Terror Rhetoric and Enemy Combatant Policy By Jonathan Turley 11 Feb 2009 This has been a uniquely bad week for civil libertarians. The Obama Administration appears to be rushing to dispel any notions that Obama will fight for civil liberties or war crimes investigations. After Eric Holder
allegedly assured a senator that there would be no war crimes investigation and seemed to defend Bush policies, Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General nominee, reportedly told a Republican senator that the Administration agreed with Bush that we are "at war" and therefore can hold enemy combatants indefinitely. In the meantime,
Obama himself seemed to tie himself in knots when asked about investigating war crimes and leading democrats are again pushing for a symbolic "truth commission." For complete story,
click here.
Fraud 'Directly Related' to Financial Crisis Probed --FBI Agents Could be Reassigned from National Security Due to Booming Caseload 11 Feb 2009 The FBI has opened investigations into more than 500 cases of alleged corporate fraud, including 38 that involve major firms and are "directly related" to the national economic crisis, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told Congress today. The surge in white-collar investigations is putting such a strain on the FBI that Pistole said the bureau is considering reassigning agents from national security, which has been the bureau's priority since the [Bush] 9/11 attacks. For complete story,
click here.
Oops! Another (Fox) GOPedophile bites the dust.
Fox Newser In Kiddie Porn Bust 10 Feb 2009 A Fox News producer who covered Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign for the cable network is facing child porn charges after federal agents discovered photos and videos on his computer depicting "children under the age of ten being sexually abused by adult men and women." Aaron Bruns, 29, was apparently nabbed after a Pennsylvania state police investigator conducting "pro-active undercover investigations" on an unnamed peer-to-peer network determined that Bruns's computer contained illicit images. For complete story,
click here.
Judge deals blow to families suing Blackwater 10 Feb 2009 The survivors of four Blackwater Worldwide mercenaries killed in a grisly ambush in Iraq five years ago have suffered yet another setback in their legal battle with the company. A federal administrative law judge ruled last week the children of one of the slain contractors should receive compensation through a government insurance program known as the Defense Base Act. It prohibits those eligible for benefits from filing lawsuits against companies covered by the insurance. For complete story,
click here.
"I believe that the probability that there are additional vials of BSAT [biological select agents and toxins] not captured in our … database is high."
Fort Detrick Freezes Research on Dangerous Pathogens As Lab Can't Account For Them 07 Feb 2009 The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) has suspended research activities involving biological select agents and toxins. Army officials took the step on Friday after discovering apparent problems with the system of accounting for high-risk microbes and biomaterials at the Fort Detrick, Maryland, facility. The decision was announced by institute commander Col. John Skvorak in a 4 February memo to employees. The memo, which ScienceInsider has obtained, says the standard of accountability that USAMRIID had been applying to its select agents and toxins was not in line with the standard required by the Army and the Department of Defense. For complete story,
click here.
Plague-Infested Mice Missing From New Jersey Research Lab07 Feb 2009 The frozen remains of two mice infected with the bubonic plague are missing from a New Jersey bioterror research facility, and the facility waited seven weeks to report the incident to federal and state authorities. This is the same facility [University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark] where three live plague-inflected mice went missing in September 2005. For complete story,
click here.
KBR Gets Huge Contract Despite Electrocutions --KBR Inc., linked to soldiers' electrocutions, wins $35 million defense contract from Pentagon 07 Feb 2009 Defense contractor KBR Inc., which is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq, has been awarded a $35 million contract by the Pentagon to build an electrical distribution center and other projects there. For complete story,
click here.
A Hero Protects America's Children from Psychiatric Abuse--February 5th, 2009--Alaska attorney Jim Gottstein has taken the bull by the horns. It's a bull of many terrifying shapes and forms. First and foremost, it is the raging bull of the Psychopharmaceutical Complex that is goring America's children. It's also the rampaging state government bull that everywhere runs roughshod over the children in its custody and care. And then it's the "bull" handed out by drug companies and organized psychiatry to justify using drugs to suppress the behavior of children. For complete story,
click here.
His latest taxpayer-financed media stunt involved the
"forced march" of undocumented inmates who are serving out their criminal sentences. Sheriff Arpaio closed down the city streets so that everyone could witness their public humiliation as they walked in chain gangs from a "hard" jail to the infamous Tent City, where they will be forced to endure unsafe conditions including summer months with temperatures of upwards of 120 degrees.
Not only was this inhumane, but violated international human rights principles — not to mention American values — that require us to treat people who are incarcerated with dignity and respect. But Sheriff Arpaio has absolute contempt for the dignity of the people in his custody and demonstrates this by treating people like circus animals.
Though he claims otherwise, Arpaio wasn’t motivated by budgetary or security concerns to march shackled immigrants to the Tent City; he was motivated by the opportunity of self-aggrandizement and the promotion his anti-immigrant agenda. For those reasons, and for those reasons alone, he chose to re-route traffic and waste dwindling law enforcement resources.
Almost all of the people in the forced march were Latino and their humiliation struck one more blow to fairness and human decency in our community. And although the sheriff blatantly continues with his racial profiling practices in so-called "crime suppression sweeps" in Latino neighborhoods, the absence of significant protest from white officials in Arizona and from any federal agency allows the racial targeting to continue unabated. For complete story, click here.
Proposed legislation in Congress would set up camps for US citizensBy mcarl 31 Jan 2009 A bill proposed by Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings would set up a series of emergency centres on U. S. military installations.
House Resolution 645 provides that no fewer than six such centres will be built and would give emergency aid, housing and relief services for citizens during a time of disaster or national emergency... Writing on this legislation, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) says that the bill would supplement other 'emergency powers' granted to the federal government since 9/11 and be the mechanism for imposing martial law. For complete story,
click here.
Obama lets CIA keep controversial renditions tool 31 Jan 2009 Under executive orders issued by President Obama last week, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, or the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the U.S. The rendition kidnapping program became a source of embarrassment for the CIA, and a target of international scorn, as details emerged in recent years of botched captures, mistaken identities and allegations that prisoners were turned over to countries where they were tortured. For complete story,
click here.
Buckling
Europe
fears
protests
may
spark
a
new
revolution
29
Jan
2009
The
French
are
revolting.
Teachers,
television
employees,
postal
workers,
students
and
masses
of
other
public-sector
workers
will
today
be
united
in a
hugely
popular
strike
with
car
workers,
supermarket
staff,
journalists
and
thousands
of
others
in
the
private
sector.
One
poll
said
that
75
per
cent
of
the
public
supported
the
action,
which
has
the
backing
of
the
large
union
groups
and
opposition
socialists.
It
will
be a
big
test
for
President
Nicolas
Sarkozy
but,
more
importantly,
the
strike
will
mark
the
biggest
protest
so
far
in
one
of
the
world's
largest
economies
against
the
grief
and
distress
being
caused
by
the
catastrophic
global
downturn.
A
depression
triggered
in
America
is
being
played
out
in
Europe
with
increasing
violence,
and
other
forms
of
social
unrest
are
spreading.
For
complete
story,
click
here.
US
Special
Forces
Unconventional
Warfare
Operations:
overthrowing
governments,
sabotage,
subversion,
intelligence
and
abduction,
FM
3-05.201,
Apr
2003
(Wikileaks)
27
Jan
2009
FM
3-05.201:
Special
Forces
Unconventional
Warfare
Operations
is
current
US
military
doctrine
(policy)
on
the
use
of
indigenous
or
surrogate
forces
to
overthrow
a
foreign
government
and
the
use
of
sabotage,
subversion,
intelligence,
extra-territorial
abductions
and
similar
activities,
the
most
well
known
example
of
which
is
the
US
involvement
in
Nicaragua.
There
is
also
a
section
on
legalities,
including
abductions
("The
United
States
reserves
the
right
to
engage
in
nonconsensual
abductions
for
three
specific
reasons...").
The
296-page
manual
was
made
doctrine
in
April
2003
by
Army
Headquarters,
Washington
DC.
For
complete
story,
click
here.
NATO
High
Commander
Issues
Illegitimate
Order
to
Kill
28
Jan
2009
A
dispute
has
emerged
among
NATO
High
Command
in
Afghanistan
regarding
the
conditions
under
which
alliance
troops
can
use
deadly
violence
against
those
identified
as
insurgents.
In a
classified
document,
which
SPIEGEL
has
obtained,
NATO's
top
commander,
US
General
John
Craddock,
has
issued
a
"guidance"
providing
NATO
troops
with
the
authority
"to
attack
directly
drug
producers
and
facilities
throughout
Afghanistan."
According
to
the
document,
deadly
force
is
to
be
used
even
in
those
cases
where
there
is
no
proof
that
suspects
are
actively
engaged
in
the
armed
resistance
against
the
Afghanistan
government
or
against
Western
troops.
The
directive
was
sent
on
Jan.
5 to
Egon
Ramms,
the
German
leader
at
NATO
Command
in
Brunssum,
Netherlands,
which
is
currently
in
charge
of
the
NATO
ISAF
mission,
as
well
as
David
McKiernan,
the
commander
of
the
ISAF
peacekeeping
force
in
Afghanistan.
Neither
want
to
follow
it.
Both
consider
the
order
to
be
illegitimate
and
believe
it
violates
both
ISAF
rules
of
engagement
and
international
law,
the
"Law
of
Armed
Conflict."
For
complete
story,
click
here.
Lax
and
corrupt
–
Indian
Dr
assesses
clinical
trials--January
21,
2009--An
Indian
doctor
has
slammed
the
nation’s
clinical
trials,
claiming
they
use
the
vulnerable,
the
system
is
corrupt
and
that
the
country
lacks
high
quality
scientists.
The criticisms were made by Dr Amar Jesani in a short-film produced by Dutch non-governmental organisation Wemos. Jesani is a founding member of journals and research centres focused on medical ethics in India and has contributed in government committees on health.
India’s clinical trials came under increasing pressure last year following reports of infant deaths and Jesani’s comments show that some are still deeply uneasy about the current system.
The view held by Jesani, which echoes many who spoke out last year about the infant deaths, is that some drug companies are “compromising science and ethics in the pursuit of profit” and that flaws in the Indian system allow this.
Jesani said: “Unfortunately in my country there are laws but they are not very well implemented so the regulation over the trials, the oversight mechanism, the functioning of the ethics committee and the Drug Controller General of India all of them are so lax that it makes India a big destination for clinical trials.
“They don’t have good scientists; they don’t have enough inspectors to go all over the county. The worst thing in every developing country is corruption. There is too much corruption.”
One consequence of this is that clinical trials use the “desperate” and “most vulnerable” members if Indian society, according to Jesani. This alleged exploitation of India’s poor is what Jesani cites as bothering him most about the current system.
Jesani is a founder member of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME), the Centre for Studies in Ethics and Rights (CSER) and the Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT).
The short-film can be viewed here. For complete story, click here.
KBR
Awarded
Convoy
Support
Center
Contract
by
U.S.
Army
Corps
of
Engineers
28
Jan
2009
KBR
today
announced
it
has
been
awarded
a
$35.4
million
contract
by
the
U.S.
Army
Corps
of
Engineers
(USACE),
Transatlantic
Programs
Center,
Winchester,
Va.,
for
the
Phase
II
design
and
construction
of a
convoy
support
center
at
Camp
Adder
in
Iraq.
The
KBR
team
will
design
and
construct
a
power
plant,
electrical
distribution
center,
water
purification
and
distribution
system,
waste
water
collection
system,
and
associated
information
systems,
along
with
paved
roads
at
this
site.
Work
on
the
project
is
expected
to
begin
in
February
2009.
[OMG!
After
KBR
just
electrocuted
a
bunch
of
US
soldiers?
See:
KBR
must
be
accountable
for
Iraq
deaths-US
senators
27
Jan
2009
U.S.
lawmakers
on
Tuesday
raised
concerns
about
the
U.S.
military's
increased
use
of
private
contractors
mercenaries
in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan,
and
said
KBR
and
other
companies
should
be
held
accountable
for
the
electrocution
deaths
of
U.S.
soldiers
and
other
mistakes
crimes.
Investigator:
Soldier's
electrocution
'negligent
homicide'
22
Jan
2009.
Halliburton
Will
Settle
KBR
Suit
for
$559
Million
27
Jan
2009
Halliburton,
the
huge
oil
services
company
in
Houston,
said
yesterday
that
it
has
agreed
to
pay
$559
million
to
settle
corruption
charges
with
the
U.S.
government
linked
to
its
former
subsidiary
KBR.] For
complete
story,
click
here.
CIA
chief in
Algeria
accused
of
drugging
and
raping
Muslim
women
28 Jan
2009 The
CIA
station
chief in
Algiers
is under
investigation
after
claims
that he
drugged
and
raped
two
Algerian
women at
his
official
residence,
according
to a
report.
Law
enforcement
sources
told
ABC News
that the
41-year-old
officer
had been
sent
home in
October.
He could
face
charges
as early
as next
month.
Investigators
from the
Justice
Department
allegedly
found
more
than a
dozen
secretly
recorded
videotapes
of the
officer
performing
sex acts
with
other
women.
An
official
said one
woman
appeared
to be in
a
"semi-conscious
state".
For
complete
story,
click
here.
Bill Will
Establish
'National
Emergency
Centers' On
Military
Installations
--FEMA Camps
Mandated in
H.R.
645
22 Jan 2009
A Bill to
direct the
Secretary of
Homeland
Security to
establish
national
emergency
centers on
military
installations.
SECTION 1.
This Act may
be cited as
the
'National
Emergency
Centers
Establishment
Act'.
SECTION 2.
ESTABLISHMENT
OF NATIONAL
EMERGENCY
CENTERS.
(a) In
General - In
accordance
with the
requirements
of this Act,
the
Secretary of
Homeland
Security
shall
establish
not fewer
than 6
national
emergency
centers on
military
installations...
(b) Purpose
of National
Emergency
Centers...
(3) to
provide
centralized
locations to
improve the
coordination
of
preparedness,
response,
and recovery
efforts of
government,
private, and
not-for-profit
entities and
faith-based
organizations;
and (4)
to meet
other
appropriate
needs,
as
determined
by the
Secretary of
Homeland
Security.
For complete
story,
click here.
Halliburton
Will Settle
KBR Suit for
$559 Million
27 Jan 2009
Halliburton,
the huge oil
services
company in
Houston,
said
yesterday
that it has
agreed to
pay $559
million to
settle
corruption
charges with
the U.S.
government
linked to
its former
subsidiary
KBR.
Halliburton
said it will
pay $382
million on
behalf of
KBR over the
next two
years to the
Department
of Justice
and will pay
another $177
million to
the
Securities
and Exchange
Commission.
For complete
story,
click here.
A Loophole
In the Rules
--In a
national-security
crisis,
Obama could
deviate from
his own
rules.
24 Jan 2009
A day before
President
Obama signed
executive
orders
closing
Guantánamo
Bay and
banning
torture, the
White
House's top
lawyer
privately
indicated to
Congress
that the new
president
reserved the
right to
ignore his
own (and any
other
president's)
executive
orders. In a
closed-door
appearance
before the
Senate
intelligence
committee,
White House
counsel
Gregory
Craig was
asked
whether the
president
was required
by law to
follow
executive
orders.
According to
people
familiar
with his
remarks, who
asked for
anonymity
when
discussing a
private
meeting,
Craig
answered
that the
administration
did not
believe he
was.
For complete
story,
click here.
Obama CIA
choice won't
call
waterboarding
torture
22 Jan 2009
President
Barack
Obama's
choice to
head the CIA
declined on
Thursday to
call
waterboarding
"torture,"
only days
after his
attorney
general
nominee
condemned
the
interrogation
practice as
precisely
that.
Retired Adm.
Dennis Blair
replied
cautiously
when pressed
on the
waterboarding
question at
a hearing on
his
nomination
to be
director of
national
intelligence.
Torture is
banned by
U.S. and
international
laws. "There
will be no
waterboarding
on my watch.
There will
be no
torture on
my watch,"
Blair said,
refusing to
go further.
For complete
story,
click here.
Whistleblower:
NSA Targeted
Journalists,
Snooped on All
U.S.
Communications
--NSA analyzed
metadata to
determine which
communications
would be
collected
22 Jan 2009 Just
one day after
George W. Bush
left office, an
NSA
whistleblower
has revealed
that the
National
Security
Agency's
warrantless
surveillance
program targeted
U.S.
journalists, and
vacuumed in all
domestic
communications
of Americans,
including,
faxes, phone
calls and
network traffic.
Russell Tice, a
former NSA
analyst,
spoke
on Wednesday to
MSNBC host Keith
Olbermann. "The
National
Security Agency
had access to
all Americans'
communications,"
he said. "Faxes,
phone calls and
their computer
communications.
...They
monitored all
communications."
For complete
story,
click here.
Plague kills 40
al-Qaeda operatives
--Security
source: "This is the
deadliest weapon yet
in the war against
terror. Most of the
terrorists do not
have the basic
medical supplies
needed to treat the
disease." 19 Jan
2009 'Anti'-terror
bosses last night
hailed their latest
ally in the war
on of terror --
the Black Death. At
least 40 al-Qaeda
members died
horribly after being
struck down with the
disease that
devastated Europe in
the Middle Ages. The
killer bug, also
known as the plague,
swept through
insurgents training
at a forest camp in
Algeria, North
Africa. [Let's
see... who has the
technology to
develop and
disseminate plague
as a bioweapon?
See:
Three genes can turn
normal flu into a
killer, University
of Wisconsin-Madison
researchers find
30 Dec 2008 and
Killer flu recreated
in the lab 07
Oct 2004,
etc.] For
complete story,
click here.
'In some places,
Washington will look
like an occupied
city.'
High-tech security
bubble wraps
Washington
--The
military, supporting
civilian
authorities, is
using sophisticated
new surveillance
systems developed
for Iraq and
Afghanistan wars
18 Jan 2009 As the
multitudes arrive
for the historic
inauguration of
Barack Obama, the
most high-tech
security bubble ever
created is in place
to protect the
incoming president
from any foreseeable
act of God, nature
or man [or Bush]. At
least 150
multi-agency "intel
teams" will deploy
throughout the
region so that
undercover FBI
agents and other
behavior-analysis
specialists can look
for trouble. In some
places, Washington
will look like an
occupied city.
Sharpshooters will
be on virtually
every building.
Law-enforcement and
intelligence nerve
centers and mobile
command posts are
sprouting. The FBI
is deploying an
armored assault
vehicle and a
weapons-of-mass-destruction
response truck. The
military, supporting
civilian
authorities, is
using sophisticated
new surveillance
systems developed
for the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars to
monitor the mall...
For complete story,
click here.
Democratic
chairman to
reintroduce military
draft measure
14 Jan 2009 Rep.
Charles Rangel
(D-N.Y.) likely will
introduce his
controversial
legislation to
reinstate the draft
again this year, but
he will wait until
after the economic
stimulus package is
passed. Asked if he
plans to introduce
the legislation
again in 2009,
Rangel last week
said, "Probably …
yes. I don’t want to
do anything this
early to distract
from the issue of
the economic
stimulus." For
complete story,
click here.
Supreme Court
loosens law on
illegal searches--January
15, 2009--Reporting
from Washington --
The Supreme Court
pulled back on the
"exclusionary rule"
Wednesday and ruled
that evidence from
an illegal search
can be used if a
police officer made
an innocent mistake.
The 5-4 opinion
signals that the
court is ready to
rethink this key
rule in criminal law
and restrict its
reach. It will also
give prosecutors and
judges nationwide
more leeway to make
use of evidence that
may have been seen
as questionable
before. For
complete story,
click here.
'His treatment
met the legal
definition of
torture. And that's
why I did not refer
the case for
prosecution.'
Detainee Tortured,
Says U.S. Official
14 Jan 2009 The top
Bush administration
official in charge
of deciding whether
to bring Guantanamo
Bay prisoners to
trial has concluded
that the U.S.
military tortured a
Saudi national who
allegedly planned to
participate in the
Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks,
interrogating him
with techniques that
included sustained
isolation, sleep
deprivation, nudity
and prolonged
exposure to cold,
leaving him in a
"life-threatening
condition."
"We tortured
[Mohammed
al-]Qahtani,"
said Susan J.
Crawford, in her
first interview
since being named
convening authority
of military
commissions by
Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates in
February 2007. "His
treatment met the
legal definition of
torture. And that's
why I did not refer
the case" for
prosecution.
For complete story,
click here.
A Record Year for
the Pharmaceutical
Lobby in '07--June
24, 2008 (Received
January 11th,
2009)--Washington,
June 24, 2008 –
Washington's largest
lobby, the
pharmaceutical
industry, racked up
another banner year
on Capitol Hill in
2007, backed by a
record $168 million
lobbying effort,
according to a
Center for Public
Integrity analysis
of federal lobbying
data. Among the
industry's
successes: getting
two controversial
laws extended and
thwarting
congressional
efforts to restrict
media ads for
prescription drugs.
The spending represents a 32 percent jump over 2006. Driven in part by
a busy legislative calendar dominated by issues critical to the industry, the
effort raised the amount spent by drug interests on federal lobbying in the past
decade to more than $1 billion. Pharmaceutical, medical device, and other health
product manufacturers, together, spent more than $189 million on lobbying last
year, another record and nearly three times the $67 million they spent in 1998,
the first full year for which complete records and totals are available.
More than 90 percent of the total was spent by 40 companies and three trade groups: the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and the Advanced Medical Technology Association. For complete story, click here.
Israel May Face
Charges for War
Crimes
07 Jan 2009 Israel
has committed war
crimes and should be
prosecuted in an
international court,
says Raji Sourani,
head of the
Palestinian Centre
for Human Rights
(PCHR) in Gaza. "The
repeated bombing of
clearly marked
civilian buildings,
where civilians were
sheltering, crosses
several red lines in
regard to
international law,"
Sourani told IPS.
Palestinian
Authority (PA)
delegate to Britain
Professor Manuel
Hassassian has said
the PA will launch
legal proceedings
against Israeli
leaders it says are
responsible for war
crimes in Gaza,
according to a
Palestinian news
report. For
complete story,
click here.
US, Japanese
Researchers Mix
Samples of 1918 Flu
Pandemic to Recreate
Deadly Code
--Compiled by Lori
Price 30 Dec 2008
Why? And, why is
no one *asking* why?
The genetic code
that made the 1918
killer flu so deadly
has finally been
cracked, claim US
and Japanese
researchers. The
discovery, published
in Tuesday's issue
of the Proceedings
of the National
Academy of Sciences,
could also point to
mutations that might
turn ordinary flu
into a dangerous
pandemic strain. For
complete story,
click here.
RNC chairman candidate
defends 'Barack the
Magic Negro' song--December
26, 2008--CNN)
-- A candidate for the
Republican National
Committee chairmanship
said Friday the CD he
sent committee members
for Christmas -- which
included a song titled
"Barack the Magic Negro"
-- was clearly intended
as a joke.
"I think most people
recognize political
satire when they see
it," Tennessee
Republican Chip Saltsman
told CNN. "I think RNC
members understand
that."
The song, set to the
tune of "Puff the Magic
Dragon," was first
played on conservative
political commentator
Rush Limbaugh's radio
show in 2007.
Its title was drawn
from a Los Angeles Times
column that suggested
President-elect
Barack Obama
appealed to those who
feel guilty about the
nation's history of
mistreatment of
African-Americans.
Saltsman said the song,
penned by his longtime
friend Paul Shanklin,
should be easily
recognized as satire
directed at the Times.
The CD sent to
RNC members, first
reported by The Hill on
Friday, is titled "We
Hate the USA" and also
includes songs
referencing former
presidential candidate
John Edwards and the
Rev. Jeremiah Wright,
among other targets.
(Webmater Note:
Racists like Chip
Saltsman do Hate the
USA.) For complete
story,
click here.
State
pharmacist convicted of conflict of
interest--December
24, 2008--A judge has
convicted a former state pharmacist on
felony conflict of interest charges for
taking payments from drug companies and
pocketing money for supervising pharmacy
interns from Duquesne University.
Steven Fiorello, 61, of Palmyra could
face up to five years in prison and
$10,000 in fines for each of two felony
convictions. Dauphin County Judge
Richard Lewis, who ruled in a nonjury
trial, scheduled sentencing for Jan. 21.
For complete story,
click here.
If Obama Is
Pro-Science and Honest, He'll Put the
Kibosh on the Drug War--December
23, 2008--One of the many
things that made Barack Obama such a
refreshing candidate was his frank and
unapologetic admission of drug use.
True, Anderson Cooper extracted curt
"yeses" from some 2004 Democratic
candidates when he asked them
point-blank if they had ever smoked pot.
But Obama has written openly and without
prompting about his experiences, not
only with marijuana, but cocaine, a
"hard" drug. On the campaign trail he
even joked about inhaling deeply --
"that was the point," he said more than
once. Unlike George W. Bush, Obama
didn't hide behind evasive murmurs about
"irresponsible behavior," or turn his
drug experiences into a setup for some
maudlin born-again conversion story.
For complete story,
click here.
Recently subpoenaed
Bush/Rove IT expert, is Wellstoned:
Pilot killed as
plane crashes in Lake Twp.
--Witness: 'It blew up and shook the
ground a little bit.'
19 Dec 2008
(OH) A single-prop, private airplane
crashed next to a vacant house on
Charolais Street Northwest Friday
evening, exploding into flames and
killing the pilot. Michael Connell, 45,
of Bath Township, was alone in the
plane, according to State Highway Patrol
Lt. Eric Sheppard. Connell was a
prominent Republican political
consultant. He founded New Media
Communications in Richfield, which
developed campaign Web sites for
Republican presidential candidate
John McCain and President [sic]
George W. Bush. For complete
story,
click here.
Ohio Attorneys
Seek Protection for Mike Connell and his
Family against Alleged Threats from Karl
Rove 24 Jul 2008
Sources close to the Ohio Corrupt
Practices Act/RICO claim sent us a copy
of a letter that asks Attorney General
Mukasey for protection for Michael
Connell and his family who have been
allegedly threatened by Karl Rove. Rove
is believed to be the strategic
mastermind behind the Bush 2004
re-[s]-election campaign and the
possible Ohio election improprieties.
The alleged threats appear to be the
result of the re-opening, through the
Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim,
of the stalled investigation into the
2004 Ohio Elections. For complete story,
click here.
Stark Co. plane
crash: Who was Michael Connell?20 Dec 2008 Michael
Connell was killed when the Piper
Supercub he was piloting crashed three
miles short of an Akron-Canton Airport
runway. He leaves behind a wife and four
children. Connell, of Bath Township, is
considered to be one of the Republican
Party's top computer experts. He led the
companies that designed websites for the
GOP and a virtual who's-who list of
republican political leaders including
President [sic] George W. Bush, Senator
John McCain, as well as national
organizations. Connell developed a host
of federal government software and data
management systems. Connell is also said
to be a close confidant of the Bush
family. Earlier this year, Connell was
subpoenaed to testify in an Ohio federal
court regarding voter fraud just days
before the November presidential
election. His alleged intimate
knowledge of White House and Capitol
Hill email systems has been a hot topic
of conversation for Washington insiders
regarding the Karl Rove/White House
email scandal. For complete
story,
click here.
Zimbabwe:
Cholera brought by West--December
14, 2008--HARARE,
Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe on Saturday accused
the West of waging biological warfare to
deliberately start a cholera epidemic
that has killed hundreds of people and
sickened thousands.
The spread of the disease has
focused the world's attention on
the collapse of the southern
African nation, which often
blames its troubles on the West.
The claims by state media came
the same day the government
issued an official announcement
detailing the constitutional
amendment creating the post of a
prime minister and setting out
other changes necessary to go
forward with a power-sharing
agreement that has been stalled
since September.
Saturday's unilateral step by
President Robert Mugabe's
government could raise political
tensions in the battered
southern African country.
The state-run Herald
newspaper said comments by the
U.S. ambassador that the U.S.
had been preparing for the
cholera outbreak raised
suspicions that it was
responsible. For complete
story,
click
here.
Yesterday's New
Deal is today's Raw Deal.
Things Are Not
as They Seem
--The
Rec Report
By Michael Rectenwald 18 Dec
2008 Liberalism will now do the workers
a favor by offering concessions in their
name. Thanks. Thanks for keeping afloat
the system that oppresses us. Thanks for
bailing out a system, using our tax
money, our public funds, our wages, to
screw us over further in the future.
Thanks for "saving" a system that will
serve to cut our wages, destroy whatever
savings we may have by chance accrued,
gut our retirement packages, and
decimate our health care systems.
Thanks. Yesterday's New Deal is today's
Raw Deal. For complete
story,
click here.
India's poor
often test drugs bound for U.S. markets--December
11, 2008--Reporting a story on drug
studies in India recently, I had plenty of
interviews with people at the top. Doctors,
government officials, entrepreneurs who make
their living running clinical trials leaned
over polished conference tables in modern,
air-conditioned offices in some of India's
biggest cities. They assured me that India
is capable of running world-class studies on
new medicines destined for the U.S. market.
No problem.
But finding the people at the bottom
rung, those testing the drugs or the
experimental procedures, was more
difficult. They are all around you, yet
they are invisible. They are often poor
and illiterate. If something goes wrong
in a trial, they don't hire a lawyer,
they just go home. They disappear into a
haze of patient confidentiality.
Under international guidelines for
clinical trials of new drugs and
treatments, there are rules to protect
these patients. Consent forms, oversight
committees, ethics reviews. The people
at the top in India reassured me those
protections were rock-solid. But the
people at the bottom, when I finally
found them, said otherwise. For
complete story,
click here.
The latest
industry being outsourced to India: clinical
drug trials--December
14, 2008--Two hours after opening, the
pediatric waiting room at All India
Institute of Medical Sciences is like the
anteroom to hell. Families, anxious,
restless, sweaty in the soupy air, cram into
plastic chairs, crouch in corners, crowd
doorways, clog up aisles. Cries jangle off
the ceiling. Feces litter the floor. Signs
in the corridor attempt to impose order on
the chaos:
Don't spit.
Don't feed the monkeys.
Don't pay bribes.
This overstretched government
hospital and medical college treats
about 4-million people a year. It's also
one of a growing number of Indian
hospitals that use their patients to
gather data on experimental drugs
destined for Western markets. It
recently was revealed that 49 children
have died during clinical trials at the
institute. Though the hospital blamed
the deaths on underlying illnesses, the
news triggered unease about a
drug-testing phenomenon, propelled by
mountains of money, that has swept India
with little publicity. As the world
flattens, India is not just answering
our tech calls. Global drug companies
are tapping its population of nearly
1.2-billion to test the safety and
effectiveness of compounds that, if
approved, will end up in medicine
cabinets in the United States. The
upshot: the distance has been compressed
between a patient trying a new diabetes
drug in New Delhi and the retiree who
will buy that prescription in St.
Petersburg.
"All the ingredients are there for a
huge problem,'' said Dr. David Ross, a
former FDA medical officer.
"First of all the data must be
applicable to the U.S., where the
population may differ in clinically
significant ways," he said. "And the FDA
has to have the capacity to go over and
inspect the data. If not, you're asking
for trouble."
In the past three years, the FDA has
inspected just eight of the thousands of
trial sites in India.
Poor oversight invites problems in an
overseas drug pipeline, as Americans
learned after deaths from Chinese-made
blood thinners this year. In a rare
proactive move, the FDA slammed the door
on 30 generic drugs from one of India's
biggest drug makers in September after
finding problems at its factories.
Mary K. Pendergast, a former FDA
deputy commissioner, said identifying a
dangerous product is difficult enough.
It's considerably trickier to find
fraudulent clinical trial data, which
could lead to the approval of dangerous
drugs years later.
"It's much more time-consuming and
extraordinarily tedious,'' said
Pendergast, who plowed through such data
when she was prosecuting doctors doing
drug studies in the United States. "It's
especially hard if the trial is taking
place in a different country."
Particularly when that country has a
reputation for cutting corners. In
India, cops execute suspected criminals
in so-called "encounters." Laws against
selectively aborting female fetuses are
ignored. And those "No bribes" signs in
public hospitals? Bhupali Magare, whose
uncle was recently hospitalized in
Mumbai, just shrugged.
"Everybody pays bribes," she said.
In the burgeoning clinical trial
business, says Amar Jesani, a doctor and
medical ethicist in Mumbai, every layer
of oversight is compromised by cash, and
independent monitoring is nonexistent.
He has resigned from supposedly
independent ethics committees that
rubber-stamp drug companies' proposals
and overrule any objections.
Said Jesani: "We're sitting on a time
bomb that may explode at any time."
For complete story,
click here.
Bush shoe-thrower
in hospital after beating: brother
16 Dec 2008 The Iraqi journalist who hurled
shoes at US President [sic] George W. Bush
is in hospital after being beaten up by
security guards, his brother charged on
Tuesday, as judicial authorities launched a
probe into the incident. "He has been taken
to Ibn Sina hospital because he has a broken
arm and ribs and is also suffering injuries
to his eye and leg," Durgham al-Zaidi said
of his brother Muntazer. For complete
story,
click here.
Rights group says filed 200 lawsuits against
Rumsfeld, US security firms for torture
--Group head: Around 30 lawsuits have been
accepted; others still under consideration
16 Dec 2008 A Jordan-based Iraqi rights
group said on Monday it has filed 200
lawsuits against US former defence secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and American security firms
for their alleged role in torturing Iraqis.
Ali Qeisi, head of the group the "Society of
Victims of the US Occupation in Iraq," said
the cases, relating to torture and abuse of
Iraqi prisoners, have been recently filed in
federal courts in Virginia, Michigan and
Maryland. "The torture was systemic, and
those responsible for it should be punished
and the victims should be compensated," he
said. Qeisi said he himself was tortured by
US troops in Iraq during a six-month
detention, though he refused to elaborate.
For complete story,
click here.
200
lawyers offer to defend Bush shoe attacker
--Detained journalist's employer calls for
his 'immediate release'
16 Dec 2008 Saddam Hussein’s former lawyer
said on Monday he was forming a team to
defend the Iraqi journalist who hurled his
shoes at US President [sic] George W Bush
during his farewell visit to Baghdad. "So
far around 200 Iraqi and other lawyers,
including Americans, have expressed
willingness to defend the journalist for
free," the Amman-based Khalil al-Dulaimi
told AFP. "I took the decision on Sunday
night to defend the man after the incident.
I am currently contacting Arab bar
associations to form a defence committee."
For complete story,
click here.
Musicians want U.S.
to stop using their songs to torment prisoners--December
9, 2008--GUANTÁNAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba —
Blaring from a speaker behind a metal grate in
his tiny cell in Iraq, the blistering rock from
Nine Inch Nails hit Prisoner No. 200343 like a
sonic bludgeon.
"Stains like the blood on your teeth,"
Trent Reznor snarled over distorted
guitars. "Bite. Chew."
The auditory
assault went on for days, then weeks,
then months at the U.S. military
detention center in Iraq. Twenty hours a
day. AC/DC. Queen. Pantera. The
prisoner, military contractor Donald
Vance of Chicago, told The Associated
Press he was soon suicidal.
The tactic has been common in the
U.S. war on terror, with forces
systematically using loud music on
hundreds of detainees in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Lt. Gen.
Ricardo Sanchez, then the U.S. military
commander in Iraq, authorized it on
Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear,
disorient ... and prolong capture
shock."
Now the detainees aren't the only
ones complaining. Musicians are banding
together to demand the U.S. military
stop using their songs as weapons.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S. Senate report ties
Rumsfeld to Abu Ghraib abuse
11 Dec 2008 Former Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share
much of the blame for prisoner abuse at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
according to portions of a report released on
Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The report's executive summary, made public by
the committee's Democratic chairman Sen. Carl
Levin of Michigan and its top Republican Sen.
John McCain of Arizona, said Rumsfeld
contributed to the abuse by authorizing
aggressive interrogation techniques torture
at Guantanamo Bay on Dec. 2, 2002. For
complete story,
click here.
KBDI refuses to
delay airing of Guantanamo torture documentary--Even
as Barack Obama has vowed one of the first acts
of his presidency will be to
shut down Guantánamo, and even as the topic
has been raging in Congress, many Americans will
have to wait until the day after George W. Bush
leaves office to watch a documentary detailing
the horrific policies of his regime.
Though PBS stations across the country have shied from airing “Torturing Democracy”, Colorado’s KBDI Channel 12 wants viewers to know it isn’t hesitating to share the provocative documentary with its viewers.
“The documentary is phenomenal; this is just pure journalism,” says Marcia Simmons, director of marketing and communications for Denver-based KBDI Channel 12. Simmons says she’s been floored by reports that other PBS stations haven’t found time to schedule it until the day after Obama is sworn in.
“We aired it the night before the election and we got good feedback and we got bad feedback — people either love it or they don’t love it, but this was a really good program,” Simmons says.
The station, which broadcasts all over Colorado, aired “Torturing Democracy” twice before the election and plans to show it again on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 9 p.m . For complete story, click here.
Halliburton accused of supplying rotten food to
U.S. forces
--Halliburton and KBR--the companies that were
controlled by Dick Cheney until he became vice
president [sic]--are facing a mountain of
lawsuits over their past and present activities
in Iraq and elsewhere.
08 Dec 2008 U.S military contractor KBR, a
former subsidiary of Halliburton, is facing a
number of lawsuits over its activities in Iraq,
and elsewhere. KBR is the largest contractor for
the United States Army and a top-ten contractor
for the U.S. Department of Defense. In one
class-action suit Joshua Eller, a civilian who
worked for the U.S. Air Force in 2006 at the
Balad air force base northeast of Baghdad,
alleges KBR 'knowingly and intentionally
supplied to U.S. forces and other individuals
food that was expired,
spoiled, rotten, or that may have been
contaminated with shrapnel,
or other materials'. For complete
story,
click here.
Blackwater charges: 14
counts of manslaughter 08 Dec
2008 U.S. prosecutors say Blackwater Worldwide
mercenaries used machine guns and grenade
launchers in an attack on unarmed Iraqi
civilians, some of whom had their hands up.
Prosecutors unsealed a 35-count indictment
against the five guards Monday for a 2007
shooting in Baghdad. The mercenaries surrendered
in Utah, where they will argue the case
should be tried. The Justice Department
charged the men with manslaughter, attempted
manslaughter and using a machine gun in a crime
of violence. A sixth guard admitted in a plea
deal to killing at least one Iraqi in the
shooting. For complete story,
click here.
Slavery, American
Style, Must Go!--December
5th, 2008--Who
says there are no slaves in America? The
greatest domestic issue facing President-elect
Obama is not the bailout of the bankers and
insurers but the task of lifting tens of
millions of hard-working American wage-slaves
out of dire poverty. These are the folks who
hold one- and sometimes two or even three
low-paying jobs, work their tails off 60 hours
or more a week, and are still stuck in poverty
on payday with no hope of climbing out.
Indeed, if enough workers were getting paid a
living wage Wall Street and Detroit would not
find themselves begging Washington for billions.
Homeowners would have enough money to pay their
mortgages and buy new cars. Today's crisis is
the bitter payback for decades of corporate
greed. As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich
has written, "Most of what's been earned in
America" in the past 35 years "has gone to the
richest 5 percent." Result: 37 million Americans
are said officially to live in poverty but
Catholic Charities of Saint Paul-Minneapolis
notes a more realistic accounting puts the poor
at 50 million.
During the Bush regime, five million more
Americans slid into poverty, and the
unemployment figure, charitably put at 6.5% (but
actually much higher counting discouraged
workers,) hit a 14-year high in October. And at
least five million people are working part-time
because they can't find full-time jobs. What's
more, those fully employed have seen their
overtime pay disappear and their working hours
shrink as demand tanks for their goods and
services. Each day, thousands of pink slips are
being handed out.
Poverty is so virulent, there are 18,000
children sleeping in homeless shelters in New
York City every night and 1.7-million New
Yorkers are eligible for food stamps.
"Twenty-five percent of all families with
children in New York City---that's 1.5 million
New Yorkers---are trying to make it on incomes
that are below the poverty threshold established
by the federal government," writes Bob Herbert
of The New York Times. In Albuquerque, N.M., the
Democratic Party is asking for 2,500 coats for
public school children sleeping in cars or under
bridges. Nationally, 21 percent of U.S.
Hispanics and 24 per cent of African-Americans
subsist in poverty.
The great slide into poverty and ruin has long
been underway. "The underlying problem has been
building for decades," Reich says. "America's
median hourly wage is barely higher than it was
35 years ago, adjusted for inflation. The income
of a man in his 30s is now 12 percent below that
of a man his age three decades ago."
Indeed, USA employs millions of wage slaves,
whether illegal immigrants in the vegetable
fields of Florida or native-born serfs in the
needle trades of Los Angeles (currently reviving
as their substandard wages are now comparable to
what coolies earn in Chinese factories.) Few
alien toilers, who are blatantly exploited and
work under the sword of deportation, dare to
protest their plight to Labor Department
authorities that, under the Bush regime, are
deliberately understaffed and commonly
indifferent to workers' complaints.
As the New York Times editorialized, the Labor
Department "has tilted toward employers and
failed to properly enforce labor laws." The
Government Accounting Office found Labor's Wage
and Hour Division "failed to adequately
investigate complaints that workers were not
paid the minimum wage, were denied mandatory
overtime or were not paid their last paychecks,"
the editorial said. Labor unions today can claim
only 10 million members, a tiny fraction of the
work force, and multitudes of workers have
swallowed corporate propaganda that unions are
bad for them even though union workers typically
get paid 30 percent more!
Ever more Americans--- as mounting credit card
debt figures reveal --- are unable to make ends
meet at their minimum-wage jobs, and are, in
fact, wage slaves drowning in a rising sea of
red ink, with no prospect of good union jobs to
rescue them. Organized labor has been trampled
nearly to death on a rigged playing field that
denies unions a fair chance to organize. The
quickest way to get fired is to ask one of your
co-workers to vote in a union. Tens of thousands
have enlisted for the military sign-up bonus and
job training because it's the only job and
training package they can find. Military
recruiters know of their plight and unashamedly
concentrate their activities on the children of
the poor.
Far from evincing a drop of "compassion," the
AFL-CIO said the Bush 2008 fiscal budget "cuts
more than one billion ($)in job training and
employment programs," this "just a week after he
(Bush) talked about the need for better training
and assistance to help America's workers compete
in a global economy." It noted, too, the Bush
budget "eliminates current job training for
unemployed adults and at-risk youths."
This has had particularly tragic consequences
for African-American youth, pushing their
jobless rate up in some cities up to about 50
percent. And let's not kid ourselves: a
disproportionate number of the 2.3 million
souls' in America's expanding prisons are
African-American precisely because when people
can't earn income they'll steal. As Barbara
Ehrenreich wrote in The Progressive magazine,
"We are fast reaching the point, if we have not
passed it already, where the largest public
housing program in America will be our
penitentiary system." Over two thousand years
ago Aristotle said "Poverty is the parent of
crime and revolution" and that's still true
today.
In 1962, the National Urban League's Whitney
Young called for a "Domestic Marshall Plan." It
was a very good idea then but needs to be
expanded to meet today's national emergency.
Last January, economist Joseph Stiglitz said the
downturn could be stopped in part by
strengthening the unemployment insurance system,
and that surely needs to be done. The focus must
not be on bailing out the fat cats at the top
but on making jobs and providing income for
those whom FDR called the forgotten men and
women at the base of the economic pyramid. And a
good place to begin is to slash Pentagon
spending for its morbid weapons system
development and its endless wars. Imagine what
might have been achieved here at home with the
trillion bucks lavished on the illegal war in
Iraq! (And the total bill may yet be $3
trillion!)
Urgently needed is a public-private sector
partnership to refurbish our infrastructure,
expand our moderate- and low-income housing
supply, (renewing our inner cities, old-line
suburbs and failing small towns,) to
reinvigorate our mass transit, to retrain the
unskilled, to tutor the unlettered, and to make
college or vocational training available to
every citizen.
Let's put an end to wage slavery once and for
all!
If the Obama administration will only
concentrate on nurturing the grass roots, every
aspect of American life might one day bloom as a
garden. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
military contractor in Iraq holds foreign
workers in warehouses
02 Dec 2008 About 1,000 Asian men who were hired
by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military
have been confined for as long as three months
in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad
airport without money or a place to work. Najlaa
International Catering Services, a subcontractor
to KBR, an
engineering, construction and services company,
hired the men who are from India, Nepal, Sri
Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a
march outside their compound to protest their
living conditions. For complete story,
click here.
Wal-Mart Employee
Trampled to Death--November
29th, 2008--The throng of
Wal-Mart shoppers had been building all night,
filling sidewalks and stretching across a vast
parking lot at the Green Acres Mall in Valley
Stream, N.Y. At 3:30 a.m., the Nassau County police
had to be called in for crowd control, and an
officer with a bullhorn pleaded for order.
Tension grew as the 5 a.m. opening neared.
Someone taped up a crude poster: “Blitz Line
Starts Here.”
By 4:55, with no police officers
in sight, the crowd of more than 2,000 had
become a rabble, and could be held back no
longer. Fists banged and shoulders pressed on
the sliding-glass double doors, which bowed in
with the weight of the assault. Six to 10
workers inside tried to push back, but it was
hopeless.
Suddenly, witnesses and the police said, the
doors shattered, and the shrieking mob surged
through in a blind rush for holiday bargains.
One worker, Jdimytai Damour, 34, was thrown back
onto the black linoleum tiles and trampled in
the stampede that streamed over and around him.
Others who had stood alongside Mr. Damour trying
to hold the doors were also hurled back and run
over, witnesses said.
Some workers who saw what was happening
fought their way through the surge to get to Mr.
Damour, but he had been fatally injured, the
police said. Emergency workers tried to revive
Mr. Damour, a temporary worker hired for the
holiday season, at the scene, but he was
pronounced dead an hour later at Franklin
Hospital Medical Center in Valley Stream.
Four other people, including a 28-year-old
woman who was described as eight months
pregnant, were treated at the hospital for minor
injuries.
Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, who is in
charge of the investigation for the Nassau
police, said the store lacked adequate security.
He called the scene “utter chaos” and said the
“crowd was out of control.” As for those who had
run over the victim, criminal charges were
possible, the lieutenant said. “I’ve heard other
people call this an accident, but it is not,” he
said. “Certainly it was a foreseeable act.”
But even with videos from the store’s
surveillance cameras and the accounts of
witnesses, Lieutenant Fleming and other
officials acknowledged that it would be
difficult to identify those responsible, let
alone to prove culpability.
Some shoppers who had seen the stampede said
they were shocked. One of them, Kimberly Cribbs
of Queens, said the crowd had acted like
“savages.” Shoppers behaved badly even as the
store was being cleared, she recalled.
“When they were saying they had to leave,
that an employee got killed, people were
yelling, ‘I’ve been on line since yesterday
morning,’ ” Ms. Cribbs told The Associated
Press. “They kept shopping.” For complete
story,
click here.
Press and "Psy Ops" to
merge at NATO Afghan HQ: sources
--Psy Ops includes so-called "black operations," or
outright deception.
29 Nov 2008 The U.S. general
commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a
merger of the office that releases news with "Psy
Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes
against the alliance's policy, three officials said.
The move has worried Washington's European NATO
allies -- Germany has already threatened to pull out
of media operations in Afghanistan -- and the
officials said it could undermine the credibility of
information released to the public. U.S. General
David McKiernan, the commander of 50,000 troops in
NATO's International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF), ordered the combination of the Public
Affairs Office (PAO), Information Operations and Psy
Ops (Psychological Operations) from December 1, said
a NATO official with detailed knowledge of the move.
"This will totally undermine the credibility of
the information released to the press and the
public," said the official, who declined to be
named. For complete story,
click here.
Hearing on Cheney indictment
turns chaotic--November 21st, 2008--RAYMONDVILLE,
Texas: A county prosecutor who brought
indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney, former
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others asked on
Friday for the judge to remove himself from the case.
Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra pounded his fist and
shouted at the judge, alleging he was giving special treatment to high-profile
defendants. It sent the routine hearing into chaos.
Guerra, who is accusing the
public officials of culpability in
the alleged abuse of prisoners in a
federal detention center, asked
Presiding Judge Manuel Banales to
recuse himself. Guerra has
complained about Banales' handling
of the case.
Attorneys for the vice president
and other defendants leapt to their
feet in objection as Guerra pounded
the table and accused Banales of
giving the defendants special
treatment in allowing motions to
quash the indictments to be heard
before the defendants
were arraigned.
Banales called a recess to
contact the chief justice of the
state Supreme Court for suggestions
on how to proceed. He also ordered
Guerra, who had slipped out once
before in the hearing, to remain in
the courthouse. For complete
story,
click here.
New Blackwater Iraq Scandal:
Guns, Silencers and Dog Food
--Ex-employees Tell ABC News the Firm Used Dog Food
Sacks to Smuggle Unauthorized Weapons to Iraq 14 Nov
2008 A federal grand jury in North Carolina is
investigating allegations the controversial private
security firm Blackwater illegally shipped assault
weapons and silencers to Iraq, hidden in large sacks of
dog food, ABCNews.com has learned. "The only reason
you need a silencer is if you want to assassinate
someone," said former CIA intelligence officer John
Kiriakou, an ABC News consultant.
For complete story,
click here.
More groups
ask California Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8
--Anti-discrimination groups and bar associations send
letters to the court contending that the initiative,
which bans gay marriage, is a sweeping revision of the
state Constitution, not an amendment. 12 Nov 2008
Anti-discrimination groups and bar associations have
joined 44 state legislators in calling on the California
Supreme Court to overturn the anti-gay marriage
initiative voters passed last week. In letters to the
court, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups sided
with lawsuits that said Proposition 8, which reinstated
a ban on same-sex marriage, amounted to a sweeping
revision of the state Constitution instead of a more
limited amendment. For complete story,
click here.
Prescription Drugs Kill 300
Percent More Americans than Illegal Drugs
10 Nov 2008 A report by the Florida Medical Examiners
Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have
outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death. An
analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in
2007 found that three times as many people were killed
by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all
methamphetamines put together. For complete story,
click here.
High Court May Consider Legality
of Detention --Can the military
indefinitely detain, without charge, a U.S. citizen or legal
resident seized on U.S. soil? 09 Nov 2008 Ali Saleh
Kahlah al-Marri was whisked to a Navy brig in Charleston,
S.C., where he has spent more than five years. His case
raises a question with vast implications for presidential
power and civil liberties: Can the military indefinitely
detain, without charge, a U.S. citizen or legal resident
seized on U.S. soil? The Supreme Court is now being asked to
consider the legality of Marri's detention, which is one of
the broadest and most controversial assertions of executive
authority since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Jonathan
Hafetz, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union
who represents Marri, said his client's detention "is the
broadest and most radical assertion of detention power since
September 11. That the president can order the military to
seize someone from their home, their business, from the
streets and lock them up in jail potentially forever,
without trial, goes against 230 years
of American precedent and the basic idea that this country
was founded on." For complete story,
click here.
ACLU wants probe into
police-staged DNC protest
07 Nov 2008 When a Jefferson County deputy unleashed pepper
spray at unruly protesters on the first night of the Democratic
National Convention, he did not know that his targets were
undercover Denver police officers. Now the American Civil
Liberties Union of Colorado is questioning whether that staged
confrontation by police pretending to be violent inflamed other
protesters or officers during the most intense night of the
four-day event. For complete story,
click here.
HHS Declares 'Health Emergencies' to
Limit Legal Liability for Anti-terrorism Vaccines, Drugs
--U.S. Declarations of 'Public Health Emergency' Extend Through
2015
By Lori Price 19 Oct 2008 October Surprises: The U.S. Health and
Human Services Secretary, Michael Leavitt, has declared a series
of 'public health emergencies' -- due to risk of a bioterrorism
attack -- that continue through 2015. The moves provide the
manufacturers, distributors, and others of 'anti-terrorism'
drugs and vaccines immunity from lawsuits, should injuries or
deaths occur due to the drugs or vaccines. For complete
story,
click here.
WASHINGTON — In a newly disclosed legal
memorandum, the Bush administration says
it can bypass laws that forbid giving
taxpayer money to religious groups that
hire only staff members who share their
faith.
The administration, which has
sought to lower barriers between church
and state through its religion-based
initiative offices, made the claim in a
2007 Justice Department memorandum from
the Office of Legal Counsel. It was
quietly posted on the department’s Web
site this week.
The statutes for some grant programs
do not impose antidiscrimination
conditions on their financing, and the
administration had previously allowed
such programs to give taxpayer money to
groups that hire only people of a
particular religion.
But the memorandum goes further,
drawing a sweeping conclusion that even
federal programs subject to
antidiscrimination laws can give money
to groups that discriminate.
The document signed off on a $1.5
million grant to World Vision, a group
that hires only Christians, for salaries
of staff members running a program that
helps “at-risk youth” avoid gangs. The
grant was from a Justice Department
program created by a statute that
forbids discriminatory hiring for the
positions it is financing. For
complete story,
click here.
Thousands Erroneously Tagged Ineligible
to Vote --In New Databases, Many Are Wrongly
Flagged as Ineligible 18 Oct 2008 Thousands of voters across
the country must reestablish their eligibility in the next three
weeks in order for their votes to count on Nov. 4, a result of
new state registration systems that are
incorrectly rejecting them. In Alabama, scores of
voters are being labeled as convicted felons on the basis of
incorrect lists. Michigan
must restore thousands of names it
illegally removed from voter rolls over residency
questions, a judge ruled this week. Tens of thousands of voters
could be affected in Wisconsin. Officials there admit that their
database is wrong one out of five times
when it flags voters, sometimes for data discrepancies as small
as a middle initial or a typo in a birth date. For
complete story,
click here.
Obama Demands Special Prosecutor
Investigate GOP Voter Fraud Activities 17 Oct
2008 Charging that the FBI probe of ACORN represents an "unholy
alliance" between Republican operatives and potentially illegal
conduct by law enforcement targeting voter fraud, the Obama
campaign demanded Friday that the U.S. special prosecutor
looking into the U.S. attorneys scandal investigate the matter.
General counsel Bob Bauer sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Michael
Mukasey charging that coordinated "misconduct" by McCain
campaign representatives and GOP officials were relevant to the
special prosecutor’s work, because the activities may relate to
the dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys in late 2006. For
complete story,
click here.
Free pizza won out over free
speech Tuesday afternoon, but lunch in the Republic of Parkland
included lessons in the loss of freedoms.
A portion of the Pacific Lutheran University campus called
Red Square was taped off for the second annual First Amendment
Free Food Festival sponsored by the student chapter of the
Society of Professional Journalists.
Anyone who wanted a free lunch of pizza and soda could get a
passport to visit the Republic of Parkland and eat their fill.
The one catch was that students had to sign away their First
Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, petition and religion.
They had to carry a stamped passport and show it any time they
were asked.
Around 170 students opted for lunch and quickly found out
that sitting with more than one other person at a time was not
allowed. That is illegal assembly, they were told.
“They yelled at me for having a camera,” said Jillian
Buchanan, 17, one of a handful of Washington High School
journalism students who came to the festival. “I almost got
kicked out.”
Brown- and black-shirted enforcers for the Republic of
Parkland circulated among the lunch crowd to make sure no one
exercised any First Amendment rights. Those who did were warned
and then escorted out or thrown out of the Republic. For
complete story,
click here.
Ohio Files Appeal to Supreme Court
on Voter Registration Data 16 Oct 2008 Ohio's
attorney general filed an emergency appeal to the U. S. Supreme
Court late Wednesday night seeking to block a lower court
decision that could cost many thousands of Ohio voters a chance
to cast a regular ballot Nov. 4. About 660,000 new voters have
registered since January with an edge to Democrats. The filing
on behalf of Ohio's Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer
Brunner contends that upholding a Tuesday decision by the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit would create havoc on
Election Day and cause many voters to cast "provisional" ballots
that may or may not ultimately be tallied depending on judgments
by local elections boards. For complete story,
click here.
Republicans challenge Ohio voters
16 Oct 2008 More than 200,000 registered voters in Ohio may be
challenged over their right to vote in the presidential
election. An appeal court has backed a complaint brought by the
Ohio Republican Party, which argued the voters' details did not
match federal records. Their concern is over registered voters
backing Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama for president. A
key Democratic official says she is concerned the move is a
veiled bid to disenfranchise voters. For complete story,
click here.
"This is," the report said, "a gross abuse of
the public trust."
White House Helped GOP Congressional
Races
16 Oct 2008 When Karl Rove's office
requested special help for beleaguered Republican congressional
candidates in the months before the 2006 elections, the head of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy jumped to the task...
Director John Walters's visits to Utah, Missouri and Nevada were
among at least 303 out-of-town trips by senior Bush appointees
meant to lend prestige or bring federal grants to 99 politically
endangered Republicans that year, in a White House campaign that
House Democratic investigators yesterday called unprecedented in
scope and scale. For complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo Bay prosecutor quits over ethical issues 26 Sep 2008 A US military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has resigned over ethical disputes with his superiors, claiming they suppressed evidence that could help clear a young Afghan prisoner of alleged war crimes. The prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld, described the disagreements in a statement supporting a defence plea to dismiss the charges against Mohammed Jawad. "Potentially exculpatory evidence has not been provided," Lieutenant Colonel Vandeveld wrote, citing failure by the "prosecutors and officers of the court". The disclosure triggered new attacks on the integrity of the US military tribunal system, which has faced accusations from other insiders of ethical breaches and political interference. For complete story,
click here.
Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1 for deployment during 'civil unrest,' 'horrific scenarios' [The 'horrific scenario' of the 2nd American Revolution after a third stolen 'election?']
08 Sep 2008 The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle. Now they’re training for the same mission -- with a twist --
at home. Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manBushmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks. This new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom. They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. For complete story,
click here.
DNA Testing Expands to Lesser Crimes
Sept. 7th, 2008--While unusual, here is a crime as alleged by Montgomery County police that joins the list of things harder to get away with in the era of DNA evidence:
Man walks into a Starbucks, says he wants to apply for a job. He's given an application and a complimentary cup of coffee. Minutes later, he walks around the counter and threatens a barista with a ballpoint pen. He flees with $204 from the cash register and keys to another barista's 1993 Nissan Maxima, leaving behind the partially consumed cup of coffee.
Dominic J. Wilson is scheduled to stand trial today in the Starbucks case.
"Saliva," said Ray Wickenheiser, director of Montgomery's crime lab, "is a good source of DNA."
DNA testing in the county is expanding from killings and rapes to less violent robberies, burglaries and drug deals. Prosecutors say this will lead to quicker convictions because defendants will cave and plead guilty. Defense lawyers worry that as more DNA samples are pushed through the county's crime lab, it will boost the odds of false matches.
"It runs the risk of turning the gold standard of evidence into fool's gold," said Stephen Mercer, a Montgomery lawyer who has taken on so many of these cases lately that one of this clients calls him "the DNA Dude." For complete story,
click here.
Cheney colleague admits bribery in Halliburton oil deals 04 Sep 2008 A former colleague of the US Vice-President [sic], Dick Cheney, has pleaded guilty to funnelling millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative contracts in Nigeria for Halliburton, during the period in the Nineties when Mr Cheney ran the giant oil and gas services company. Albert Stanley, who was appointed by Mr Cheney as chief executive of Halliburton's subsidiary KBR, admitted using a north London lawyer to channel payments to Nigerian officials as part of a bribery scheme that landed some $6bn of work in the country over a decade. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking: RNC 8 Charged with "Conspiracy to Riot in
Furtherance of Terrorism"
03 Sep 2008 In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges
under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey
County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the
RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of
Terrorism. Those charged face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the
terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the
maximum penalty. [The *actual* RNC 8 who should be charged in the
"Furtherance of Terrorism:" John (Insane) McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt
(I have $250 million dollars in Bank of America, but I detest
Northeast elitists) Romney, Rudy (unindicted 9/11 co-conspirator)
Giuliani, Joe LieberBush (R-Israel), Fred Thomspon, George (live
from satellite) Bush and Dick (hiding in bunker) Cheney. --LRP]
For complete story,
click here.
Police Using G.P.S. Units as Evidence in Crimes--August 31st, 2008--Like millions of motorists, Eric Hanson used a Global Positioning System device in his Chevrolet TrailBlazer to find his way around. He probably did not expect that prosecutors would use it, too -- to help convict him of killing four family members.
Prosecutors in suburban Chicago analyzed data from the Garmin G.P.S. device to pinpoint where Mr. Hanson had been on the morning after his parents were fatally shot and his sister and brother-in-law bludgeoned to death in 2005. He was convicted of the killings this year and sentenced to death.
Mr. Hanson's trial was among recent criminal cases in which the authorities used such navigation devices to help establish a defendant's whereabouts. Experts say such evidence will almost certainly become more common in court as the systems become more affordable and show up in more vehicles.
"There's no real doubt," said Alan Brill, a computer forensics expert in Minnesota who has worked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secret Service. "This follows every other technology that turns out to have information of forensic value. I think what we're seeing is evolutionary." Using technology to track a person's location is nothing new, but the popularity of the Global Positioning System -- in cars, cellphones and other handheld devices -- gives the authorities a powerful tool to track suspects.
In September, a man in Butte, Mont., pleaded guilty to rape after a judge ruled that evidence from the global positioning unit in his car could be used against him at trial. Prosecutors planned to use it to show that the man, Brian D. Adolf, "prowled" in the town looking for a victim.
In New Brighton, Pa., a trucker's system led the police to charge him with setting his own home on fire. The system's records showed his rig was parked about 100 yards from his house at the time of the fire.
Critics, however, say the police should be allowed to acquire global positioning data only by getting a warrant. Renée Hutchins, a University of Maryland law professor, wrote an article recently suggesting Global Positioning System data was protected under the Fourth Amendment.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.nytimes.com Date: August 31, 2008)
Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC--Sept. 1st, 2008--ST. PAUL, MN -- Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfuly detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press. For complete story,
click here.
.--August 30th, 2008--ST. PAUL, Minn. — On the weekend before the Republican National Convention, law enforcement agencies detained dozens of people and issued a series of search warrants aimed at groups believed to be organizing demonstrations while delegates and Republican officials are in town.
On Friday night the Ramsey County sheriff's department, accompanied by the St. Paul police, detained people inside a building here that was being used as a headquarters to plan protests.
“They handcuffed all of us,” said Sonia Silbert, 28, from Washington. “They searched everyone.”
People who had been in the building said that officers entered shortly after 8:30 p.m. with a warrant and instructed them to lie on the ground, adding that they had been questioned and photographed before being released.
Jordan Kushner, a member of the National Lawyers Guild, said the two-story brick building had been rented by a nonprofit organization and was being used by several groups planning protests.
People who had been inside said teach-ins and legal training had been conducted there, and that the space was also a repository for such items as computers and bicycles.
The R.N.C. Welcoming Committee, a group that has said it wants to block roads during the convention, issued a statement Friday night that was read aloud outside the meeting place by a woman who identified herself as Sarah Coffey.
Ms. Coffey said that the officers, citing fire violations as the reason for their visit, “detained over 50 people in an attempt to pre-empt planned protests.”
The sheriff's department continued the sweeps on Saturday morning, executing warrants for three houses in Minneapolis and two in St. Paul, detaining more than 50 people and arresting 4.
A copy of a warrant at one house said the police were authorized to look for a laundry list of items, including fire bombs, Molotov cocktails, brake fluid, photographs and maps of St. Paul, paint, computers and camera equipment, and documents and other communications.
Residents of the houses where the warrants were served denied having any unlawful or dangerous materials.
Attorneys for the National Lawyers Guild said the people who were detained and photographed included local residents as well as visitors in town to demonstrate at the convention.
Bruce Nestor, a lawyer at one house, said three people there were arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit a riot.
“In my mind it's a classic preventive detention charge,” Mr. Nestor said.
He said the authorities were permitted to hold those they arrested without charging them for up to 36 hours -- excluding weekends or holidays -- in essence detaining them for the length of the convention.
On Saturday morning the father of one woman who was arrested said he was outraged.
“There is no cause for this,” said Dave Bilking, whose daughter, Monica Bilking, a 23-year-old student, had been removed in handcuffs.
The sheriff's department did not respond to a phone message requesting comment. For complete story,
click here.
'They already have a bracelet with a
barcode.' --Evacuees wore special
identification armbands, which were scanned and collected into a
database to help keep track of their destination. 30 Aug 2008
(TX) Tyler will be a hub for several thousand Hurricane Gustav
evacuees as city officials enact its emergency response plan, and so
far, it seems as though early relief efforts have been fluid. Mayor
Barbara Bass Saturday signed an official declaration of
disaster/emergency condition during the second of two press
conferences. Bass said preparations are specifically geared towards
the evacuations of special needs evacuees from Beaumont. "They
already have a bracelet with a barcode," Captain Akin said.
"They will walk through the scanner and it automatically loads into
the computers.
We have a list of where they need to
go." [Um, the last
time a Bush-style regime tried this, people ended up . . . not so
good. And so, when Bush or
Blackwater henchmen instruct you to wear a 'special
identification armband' so that a computer can 'tell you where to
go' . . . tell (or show) them where to go. --LRP] For
complete story,
click here.
Blackwater
Issues Mercenary Call For Hurricane Gustav
--Blackwater Worldwide: Security for Hurricane Gustav 29 Aug 2008 Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav. Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD. [Email from
Blackwater Worldwide disseminated 29 Aug 2008] For complete story,
click here.
Denver: Preparing for Democratic Convention or Martial Law?
--In the local newspapers, Denver officials have outlined several worst-case scenarios. 24 Aug 2008 To the uninformed visitor, it has become difficult to tell whether Denver is preparing for a Democratic National Convention or the institution of martial law. Helicopters filled with armed commandos swooped over downtown in a training exercise earlier this summer. A warehouse was converted into a temporary jail with chain-link fences and signs threatening the use of electric stun devices. Downtown office buildings have hired extra security and rehearsed evacuation plans. The Secret Service established 18 working groups in Denver, with assignments to coordinate air security, crisis management and more. For complete story,
click here.
New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader
Powers --New guidelines would allow the F.B.I.
to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry
into private records and take other investigative steps 'without any
basis for suspicion.' 20 Aug 2008 A Justice Department plan
would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to
allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation
against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic
lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday. Little is known
about its precise language, but civil liberties advocates say they
fear it could give the government even broader license to open
terrorism investigations. Congressional staff members got a glimpse
of some of the details in closed briefings this month, and four
Democratic senators told Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey in a
letter on Wednesday that they were troubled by what they heard.
For complete story,
click here.
Pentagon can't find $2.3 trillion, wasting
trillions on 'national defense' --'America's
Outrageous War Economy!' By Paul B. Farrell 18 Aug 2008 We've
lost our moral compass: The contrast between today's leaders and the
56 signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 shocks our
conscience. Today war greed trumps morals. During the Revolutionary
War our leaders risked their lives and fortunes; many lost both.
Today it's the opposite: Too often our leaders' main goal is not
public service but a ticket to building a personal fortune in the
new "America's Outrageous War Economy," often by simply becoming a
high-priced lobbyist. For complete story,
click here.
N.C. Patient Dies While Staff Plays Cards--August 19th, 2008--RALEIGH, N.C. (CBS News) ― Investigators say a North Carolina mental patient died after nurses at a state mental hospital left him in a chair for 22 hours and failed to feed him or help him to the bathroom, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Security video showed Steven H. Sabock, 50, as he died in April after he choked on medication at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro and a nurse stood nearby without helping, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported.
The newspaper said the death was one reason federal officials said they might cut off funds for the facility. Hospital officials have about two weeks to develop an improvement plan and try to persuade federal officials to continue providing funds.
Video showed hospital staff watching television and playing cards while Sabock was in the same room. One technician hugged and kissed another staff member and appeared to be dancing.
Investigators said in a report released Monday that Sabock, who had lived in Roanoke Rapids, sat in a busy day room during four work shifts.
When technicians couldn't get him to walk to his bed, the video showed that they stood him and slid a chair under him before sliding him down the hall to his room. A few minutes later, the video showed a cart of emergency equipment being pushed down the hall.
Sabock, who used to live in Roanoke Rapids in northeastern North Carolina, ate nothing the day he died, and very little during the three days prior, according to The News & Observer in North Carolina.
Investigators found no evidence that "the nursing staff had evaluated the patient's nutrition. The review revealed no nutritional consult was requested and revealed no evidence the physician was notified about the inadequate nutritional intake," according to the investigators' report.
Sabock's father told the newspaper he wasn't allowed to see his son after he was admitted to Cherry Hospital. For complete story,
click here.
U.S. May Ease Police Spy Rules
--Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. 16 Aug 2008 The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years... Under the Justice Department proposal for state and local police, law enforcement agencies would be allowed to target groups as well as individuals, and to launch a criminal intelligence investigation based on the suspicion that a target is engaged in terrorism or providing material support to terrorists. They also could share results with a constellation of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and others in many cases. For complete story,
click here.
USDA website 'help wanted' notice: US to fund Georgia scientists to research, clone deadly viruses for 'outbreak response'
--Posed 01 Jun 2008, updated 15 Aug 2008 African Swine Fever Virus (ASFV) has been identified by USDA and DHS as an emerging agricultural pathogen due to the 2007, outbreaks in Eurasia and is now a high priority for biological countermeasure research. Objectives: Identify and recruit a qualified scientist from the Republic of Georgia to come to
ARS, PIADC
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge of ASF, and development of molecular biology skill sets... [and] necessary for the successful ASF knowledge transfer in the future to other Republic of Georgia scientists. This scientist will be supported through USDA-DOE interagency agreement administered through
ORISE. The identified Republic of Georgia scientist will be trained by ARS, PIADC in foreign animal disease molecular biology skills through on-going ARS Classical Swine Fever research. This training includes: vaccine discovery, inclusive of cell culture, virus titration, virus cloning, viral analysis, sequencing, tissue collection and necropsy. DHS, PIADC will coordinate ASFV related activities between ARS, PIADC and the Republic of Georgia, including access to viral samples and genomic sequencing support. The identified Republic of Georgia scientist, with assistance from ARS, PIADC and DHS, PIADC collaborators, will prepare and submit an ASF basic research and vaccine discovery proposal targeting the Eurasian outbreak response. For complete story, click here.
'Gitmo On the Platte' Set As Holding Cell For DNC 13 Aug 2008 CBS4 News has learned if mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver. Investigator Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside for a look. The newly created lockup is on the northeast side of Denver. Protesters have already given this place a name: "Gitmo on the Platte." Inside are dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link fence material and topped by rolls of barbed wire. Each of the fenced areas is about 5 yards by 5 yards and there is a lock on the door. A sign on the wall reads "Warning! Electric stun devices used in this facility." (Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
http://cbs4denver.com Date: August 13, 2008)
Protesters: Holding pens unfit for voting machines
--Dozen or so pens are made of chain link fencing with coiled concertina wire along the top 15 Aug 2008 Convention protesters said this afternoon that the "secret jail" the city has set up for people arrested during the upcoming Democratic National Convention used to house the city's voting machines until the building was declared unfit for the machines. At a press conference in front of the holding pens the city has built inside a dilapidated warehouse at 38th Avenue and Steele Street, protester Glenn Spagnuolo said the city stored its voting machines there until officials said the building was too hot for the machines and was without a fire sprinkler system. "The city pulled its voting machines from here because the building gets too hot. Yet now they'll put people in there who use those machines to vote," he told a small gathering of reporters. "There are no toilets there. There's no water, no fire suppression. The city should be ashamed. It needs to stop criminalizing protests." For complete story,
click here.
Lawsuit Filed Against Gonzales, DOJ
Officials --Lawsuit: DOJ Officials Should be
Held Accountable for Politicizing Hiring Practices 15 Aug 2008
Six attorneys rejected from civil service positions at the Justice
Department filed a lawsuit today against former Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and three other top officials for allegedly
violating their rights by taking politics into consideration in the
hiring process. The suit is an attempt to
hold top officials accountable for the hiring scandal that
ultimately led to Gonzales' resignation last year, said Daniel
Metcalfe, the attorney for the plaintiffs who is also executive
director of its Collaboration on Government Secrecy at American
University's Washington College of Law. For complete story,
click here.
Sophisticated
drugs, designed for dementia patients but also allowing troops to
stay awake and alert for several days are expected to be developed,
according to the report. It is thought that some US soldiers are
already taking drugs prescribed for narcolepsy in an attempt to
combat fatigue.
As
well as those physically and mentally boosting one's own troops,
substances could also be developed to deplete an opponents' forces,
it says.
"How
can we disrupt the enemy's motivation to fight?" It asks. "Is there
a way to make the enemy obey our commands?" Research shows that
"drugs can be utilized to achieve abnormal, diseased, or disordered
psychology" among one's enemy, it concludes.
Research
is particularly encouraging in the area of functional neuroimaging,
or understanding the relationships between brain activity and
actions, the report says, raising hopes that scanners able to read
the intentions or memories of soldiers could soon be developed.
Some
military chiefs and law enforcement officials hope that a new
generation of polygraphs, or lie detectors, which spot lie-telling
by observing changes in brain activity, can be built.
"Pharmacological
landmines," which release drugs to incapacitate soldiers upon their
contact with them, could also be developed, according to the
report's authors.
The
report, which was commissioned by the Defense Intelligence Agency,
contained the work of scientists asked to examine how better
understanding of how the human mind works was likely to affect the
development of
technology.
It
finds that "great progress has been made" in neuroscience over the
last decade, and that continuing advances offered the prospect of a
dramatic impact on military equipment and the way in which wars are
fought. For complete story,
click here.
Most companies in US avoid federal income
taxes 12 Aug 2008 Unlike the rest of us, most
U.S. corporations and foreign companies doing business in the United
States pay no federal income tax, according to a new report from
Congress. The study by the Government Accountability Office,
expected to be released Tuesday, said
two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between
1998 and 2005, and about 68 percent of foreign companies
doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same
period. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
http://money.aol.com
Date: August 12, 2008)
NYPD's 'Operation Sentinel' to Track
EVERYTHING
--Radiation Sensors, Surveillance
Cameras Used to Screen & Follow Every Vehicle Entering Lower
Manhattan --Plan Aims to Provide Security Blanket 'Against'
Terrorist Attack 12 Aug 2008 The NYPD is working on a high-tech,
anti-terror plan to track every vehicle that enters Manhattan. It's
called "Operation Sentinel," and it's already sparking a debate
about the right to privacy. Every time a car, bus or truck drives
into Manhattan on either a bridge or thru a tunnel its license plate
would be screened and photographed. All part of the new
multi-million dollar security plan proposed by the NYPD. "Operation
Sentinel" also includes heavy security implementation at the new
World Trade Center site. For complete story,
click here.
Bush Veterans Affairs Department bans voter
registration drives at veterans facilities By
Faiz 11 Aug 2008 This past May, the Veterans Affairs Department, led
by Secretary James Peake, issued a directive prohibiting nonpartisan
voter registration drives "at federally financed nursing homes,
rehabilitation centers and shelters for homeless veterans." In
today’s New York Times, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan
Bysiewicz
writes, "What is the secretary of Veterans Affairs thinking?"
For complete story,
click here.
Bush: Why don't you shut up?
(Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey) 12 Aug 2008 Taking the words of the
illustrious King of Spain, in his imbecillic retort to President
Hugo Chavez, we use them not as a response to a diatribe but rather,
a just retort to an imbecile. President [sic] George W. Bush, why
don’t you shut up? President Bush, Why don’t you shut up? In your
statement on Monday regarding the legitimate actions of the Russian
Federation in Georgia, you failed to mention once the war crimes
perpetrated by Georgian military forces, which American advisors
support, against Russian and Ossetian civilians. Kinda embarrassing,
eh? President Bush, Why don’t you shut up? Your faithful ally,
Mikhail Saakashvili, was announcing a ceasefire deal while his
troops, with your advisors, were massing on Ossetia’s border, which
they crossed under cover of night and destroyed Tskhinvali,
targeting civilian structures just like your forces did in Iraq.
Kinda humanitarian, eh? For complete story,
click here.
FBI to newspapers: Sorry about your phone
records 09 Aug 2008 FBI Director Robert Mueller
has apologized to the editors of The Washington Post and The New
York Times for improperly obtaining phone records of the newspapers'
reporters while investigating terrorism four years ago. Mueller
called Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. and Times Executive
Editor Bill Keller on Friday to express regret that agents did not
follow proper procedures in 2004 when they obtained the phone
records of a Post reporter and a researcher and two Times reporters.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S. Attorney Scandal Probe Enters White House Circle
By Murray Waas 07 Aug 2008 The Justice Department investigation into the firings of nine U.S. attorneys has been extended to encompass allegations that senior White House officials played a role in providing false and misleading information to Congress, according to numerous sources involved in the inquiry. The widened scope raises the possibility that investigators will pursue criminal charges against some administration officials, and recommend appointment of a special prosecutor if there is evidence of criminal misconduct. For complete story,
click here.
Book Claims White House Forged War Intel
--"The Way of the World" Alleges U.S. Faked Letter That Linked Iraq With 9/11 05 Aug 2008 A new book published Tuesday accuses the White House of trying to manipulate intelligence to support the war in Iraq, reports CBS News. The book, by author Ron Suskind, charges that the Bush White House faked a letter from Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief connecting Iraq with 9/11 and an ongoing nuclear program - neither of which was true. This letter, in the handwriting of Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, is dated July, 2001. It says that Iraqis hosted Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 'hijackers...' The letter goes on to suggest that Iraq was importing uranium from Niger for a nuclear program. The book alleges that Habbush, Saddam's intelligence chief, was in CIA protective custody after the 2003 invasion, that the
White House ordered CIA officials to have Habbush write and backdate the letter, and paid him $5 million. The author quotes two former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on White House stationery. Suskind writes:
"The idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraqi government stationery to
make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media [lapdogs]." For complete story,
click here.
"What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve him?"
Justice Officials Repeatedly
Broke Law on Hiring, Report Says
28 Jul 2008 Former Justice Department counselor Monica M. Goodling
and former chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson routinely broke the law by
conducting political litmus tests on candidates for jobs as
immigration judges and line prosecutors, according to an inspector
general's report released today. Goodling passed over hundreds of
qualified applicants and squashed the promotions of others after
deeming candidates insufficiently loyal to the Republican party,
said investigators, who interviewed 85 people and received
information from 300 other job seekers at Justice. Sampson developed
a system to screen immigration judge candidates based on improper
political considerations and routinely took recommendations from the
White House Office of Political Affairs and Presidential Personnel,
the report said. Goodling regularly asked candidates for career
jobs, "What is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to serve
him?" the report said. For complete story,
click here.
DOJ: Former Gonzales aide
broke law --Politics
influenced hiring of career prosecutors, report says 28 Jul 2008
A new Justice Department report concludes that politics illegally
influenced the hiring of career prosecutors and immigration judges,
and largely lays the blame on top aides to former Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales. Monday's report singles out the department's
former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, for violating federal
law and Justice Department policy by discriminating against job
applicants who were not Republican or conservative loyalists. For complete story,
click here.
--July 23rd, 2008--The police raid on Martin Martinez, a Seattle man who uses marijuana to dull the chronic pain from a motorcycle accident, made the page-one headline last Thursday: "Was Pot Raid Justified?" Martinez's lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, insists vehemently that it was not.
In Seattle, the topic of medical marijuana and the law leads quickly to Hiatt. A native Chicagoan, 49, this blue-jeaned barrister is vehement often, his deep voice rising quickly to indignant italics.
His cellphone rings. "I gotta take this," he says. "Hello? Yes ... No ... No, we're not going to do that! Look, this is my client ... Yes, I'll be there." Click.
Originally a public defender, Hiatt is now exclusively a medical-marijuana lawyer. It is not a lucrative practice. His clients are often broke, and typically they are merely trying to be left alone. Hiatt says he has been paid in salmon, and once in an organic pig.
His first client was an AIDS patient stuck in the King County Jail. Hiatt went to Dan Satterberg, then deputy prosecutor, for help — and it was Satterberg who smoothed things over after last week's raid on Martinez.
To Hiatt, King County's Republican prosecutor is "Good King Dan," who follows the law that 59 percent of Washington voters approved in 1998. Most prosecutors around the state don't, Hiatt says.
"It makes me crazy," he says.
For healthy folk who think of marijuana as getting stoned, "medical marijuana" may sound like a doper's deception. Hiatt shakes his head. His clients are in their 40s, 50s and 60s. Typically, they are on disability. Many have cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease or Crohn's disease.
AIDS patients are using marijuana to control nausea, so they don't vomit up the 40-odd pills they have to take every day. In 2000, when a judge forbade writer and AIDS patient Peter McWilliams from using marijuana, he threw up his "AIDS cocktail," choked on his vomit and died.
The word "cocktail," makes Hiatt bristle. "It's not a damned cocktail. This is chemotherapy for life."
McWilliams had been ordered to use Marinol, a drug with one of marijuana's active ingredients. Hiatt says he has a client right now ordered by a judge to use Marinol.
"It makes my client really stoned, and he doesn't want that," Hiatt says. "It's expensive. It costs $10 to $20 a pill. Why use it when you can grow a house plant?" For complete story,
click here.
'On that show ['24'],
torture always worked. It saved America on a weekly basis.'Madness and Shame By Bob
Herbert 22 Jul 2008 Very few voters are aware of Mr. [David]
Addington’s existence, much less what he stands for. But he was the
legal linchpin of the administration’s Marquis de Sade approach to
battling terrorism. In the view of Mr. Addington and his acolytes,
anything and everything that the president authorized in the fight
against terror -- regardless of what the Constitution or Congress or
the Geneva Conventions might say -- was all right. That included
torture, rendition, warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of
habeas corpus, you name it. This is the mind-set that gave us Abu
Ghraib, Guantánamo and the C.I.A.’s secret prisons, known as "black
sites..." When the constraints of the law are unlocked by the men
and women in suits at the pinnacle of power, terrible things happen
in the real world. You end up with detainees being physically
and psychologically tormented day after day, month after month,
until they beg to be allowed to commit suicide. You have prisoners
beaten until they are on the verge of death, or hooked to overhead
manacles like something out of the Inquisition, or forced to
defecate on themselves, or sexually humiliated, or driven crazy by
days on end of sleep deprivation and blinding lights and blaring
noises, or water-boarded. For complete story,
click here.
U.S. Rushes to Change
Workplace Toxin Rules 23 Jul
2008 Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with
unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush regime
a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure
to chemicals and toxins. The agency did not disclose the
proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it
filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's
intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the
White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web
site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its
nine-word title. For complete story,
click here.
CDC: Offline generators caused germ lab
outage
19
Jul 2008 A critical germ lab at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention lost power last week because the agency had taken two
backup generators out of service for upgrades, CDC officials said
Friday... The backup power failure -- the second in 13 months -- is
the type predicted years ago by some CDC engineers. And it has
heightened concerns in Congress about lab safety at the Atlanta
agency, which experiments on smallpox, Ebola, anthrax and other
deadly germs. Last week's incident began when a bird shorted out
a Georgia Power transformer about 5:40 p.m., cutting off power to...
Building 17. Building 17 houses infectious disease labs, where
scientists work with the H5N1 avian flu virus and
other dangerous germs. Without power, the labs can't run negative
airflow systems that help contain germs in Biosafety Level 3 labs,
such as those in Building 17. For complete story,
click here.
Holding Accused Without Trial Is Upheld
--Terrorism Suspect May Petition Civilian Court 16 Jul 2008 A
federal appellate court issued a new setback to the Bush regime on
the treatment of terrorism suspects yesterday, declaring that the
only accused "enemy combatant" apprehended and held on U.S. soil can
petition a civilian court to review the evidence against him. At the
same time, the divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
affirmed the president's wartime power to
hold accused combatants apprehended in the United States without
trial, reversing a previous ruling by a panel of its own
judges. Jonathan Hafetz, who represents Kahlah al-Marri, said that
in ordering a new hearing on the basis for Marri's detention, the
court's majority had significantly rejected the "president's most
sweeping claims of unchecked and unreviewable executive detention
power." But he said that victory was tempered by a ruling that
"effectively allows the president to seize any person in the United
States, a citizen or noncitizen, and detain them indefinitely
without trial." For complete story,
click here.
Canadian teenager cries in Guantanamo
interrogation video --"Help me, help me,
help me," Khadr says in the video, weeping, holding his head in his
hands. 16 Jul 2008 A sobbing Canadian teenager begs for help as
he is interrogated at the US "war on terror" camp at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, the very first video glimpse of any such questioning showed on
Tuesday. The video was released by attorneys for terror suspect Omar
Khadr, who is shown being questioned at the prison by Canadian
Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agents in February, 2003. Khadr
has been held at the US facility naval since his arrest in 2002,
when he was 15 years old, and faces an upcoming US military tribunal
on terrorism charges. For complete story,
click here.
''Suspicious characters' are trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of
this list, with little hope of escape.' Terrorist Watch List Hits One Million Names
--ACLU launches online watch list complaint form --A
September 2007 report by the inspector general of the Justice
Department reported that it was growing by 20,000 names per month.
14 Jul 2008 The nation's terrorist watch list has hit one million
names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil
Liberties Union based upon the government's own reported numbers for
the size of the list. "Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and
other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and
Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this
list, with little hope of escape," said Caroline Fredrickson,
director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress needs
to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the
next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon."
For complete story,
click here.
Plot to murder Morris Dees revealed in new book--A new book by
an FBI agent and his informant details a previously undisclosed plot
to assassinate Morris Dees. The would-be assassin, a member of the
Aryan Nations, wrote, "White supremacist groups throughout the
country hated Dees, and privately, many expressed the view that the
assassination of Dees would be the greatest achievement any white
supremacist could accomplish." Among the suspected plotters was
Imperial Klans of America leader Ron Edwards,
who is the target of a current SPLC lawsuit.
For complete story,
click here.
Detainee's Lawyers: Prisoner Deprived of
Sleep for 50 Days 15 Jul 2008 Defense lawyers
claimed on Monday that an accused prisoner might have been subjected
to a program of systematic sleep deprivation that they said would
constitute torture. The lawyers for the prisoner facing trial, Salim
Hamdan, said that on Saturday prosecutors for the first time gave
them information indicating Mr. Hamdan "entered Operation Sandman"
on June 11, 2003, and remained in the program for 50 days. Operation
Sandman has been described as an interrogation plan devised with
military psychiatrists for systematically interrupting a prisoner’s
sleep. "Sleep deprivation of that nature for 50 days would
constitute torture," said one of Mr. Hamdan’s lawyers, Joseph M.
McMillan. For complete story,
click here.
Torture: MPs call for inquiry into MI5 role
--New torture claims spark inquiry call --New allegations
that abuse of Britons was outsourced to Pakistani agencies 15
Jul 2008 MPs are calling for an investigation into allegations that
British intelligence has "outsourced" the torture of British
citizens to Pakistani security agencies after hearing accounts of
people being abducted and subjected to mistreatment and, in some
cases, released without charge. John McDonnell, the Labour member
for Hayes and Harlington, and Andrew Tyrie, Conservative member for
Chichester, say the allegations should be examined by the
Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), the Westminster body that
oversees the Security Service, MI5, and the Intelligence Service,
MI6. McDonnell says he wants to know whether British officials
colluded in the abuse of one of his constituents. For complete
story,
click here.
ARE OUR LEADING PEDIATRICIANS DRUG INDUSTRY
SHILLS?--July 13th, 2008--Most parents have never
heard of him, but Joseph Biederman of Harvard may be the United
States' most influential doctor when it comes to determining whether
their children are normal or mentally ill.
In
1996, for example, Biederman suggested that drugs like Ritalin might
serve 10 percent of American kids for Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder. By 2004, one in nine 11-year-old boys was
taking the drug. Biederman and his team also are more
responsible than anyone for a child bipolar epidemic sweeping
America (and no other country) that has 2-year-olds on three or four
psychiatric drugs.
The
science of children's psychiatric medications is so primitive and
Biederman's influence so great that when he merely mentions a drug
during a presentation, tens of thousands of children within a year
or two will end up
taking
that drug, or combination of drugs. This happens in the absence of a
drug trial of any kind - instead, the decision is based upon word of
mouth among the 7,000 child psychiatrists in America.
That's
why Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley's recent revelation that Biederman
did not declare $1.6 million in drug company consulting fees is so
important, scary and tragic. If true, this scandal is yet one more
stake in the heart of American academic medicine's credibility with
frontline doctors like me - and more importantly, with the parents
of the patients I deal with every day.
American
medicine, with psychiatry the most culpable, has fallen back to a
time more than 100 years ago when doctor credibility was tantamount
to the promotion of patent medicine. Subsequent reforms severed ties
between medical school doctors and the drug industry - and for
decades there was a much more ethical balance between the industry
and physicians.
Now
once again, drug company money is corrupting medical practice and
the maintenance of our country's health. In a market economy, both
doctors and the companies are motivated by profit. However, doctors'
Hippocratic oath
and
their personal/professional relationships with their patients
attenuate the most crass aspects of a fee-for-service system.
In
contrast, drug companies owe primary responsibility to their
shareholders. Of course these companies must operate within legal
business and Food and Drug Administration restraints, but the drive
to push such rules to the limit is implicit in any business.
Such a strategy isn't always beneficial when our children's health
is affected.
The
Fortune 500 drug companies, by their sheer economic clout, have
become the single most dominant influence in our health care system.
The ambiguities of children's mental health and illness make child
psychiatry the most vulnerable branch of medicine open to such
influence.
In
this climate, drug company research money, professional medical
education and direct advertisements to parents tilt families and
doctors to biologically brain-based solutions, rather than nondrug
(e.g., parenting and education) approaches.
That's
why we're seeing famous (or infamous) Newsweek cover boys like Max,
a 10-year-old who has taken 38 psychiatric medications in his short,
unhappy life.
Research
funding must be directed to the needs of patients and their doctors
- not to the bottom line of stockholders. Drug companies can still
make money, but it's ethically immoral when stockholder profits
trump children's
health
needs (as in the cover-up of negative studies of antidepressants in
children). For complete story,
click here.
12
Babies die during vaccine trials in Argentina--July
10th, 2008--Buenos
Aires, Jul 10, 2008 (EFE via COMTEX) -- At least 12 babies who
were part of a clinical study to test the effectiveness of a vaccine
against pneumonia have died over the past year in Argentina, the
local press reported Thursday. The study was sponsored by
global drug giant GlaxoSmithKline and uses children from poor
families, who are "pressured and forced into signing consent forms,"
the Argentine Federation of Health Professionals, or Fesprosa, said.
"This occurs without any type of state control" and "does not comply
with minimum ethical requirements," Fesprosa said. For
complete story,
click here.
'No one expected the British to be worse than Saddam Hussein.'
[Oh, yes we did.]
British soldiers accused of sickening sex
assault on Iraqi boy, 14
--Just days after the MoD has to pay out millions to the father
of a man UK soldiers beat to death, fresh claims of abuse
rape emerge 13 Jul 2008 British soldiers forced a boy of 14 to
carry out an act of oral sex on a fellow male prisoner in Iraq,
according to shocking new allegations made about the behaviour of
British troops. The Ministry of Defence confirmed yesterday that the
Royal Military Police (RMP) have launched an investigation. The
victim, now 19, whom The Independent on Sunday has agreed to
identify only as Hassan, says he was rounded up with a friend while
trying to steal milk cartons from a food distribution centre. He was
whipped, beaten and forced to strip naked. "They made us sit on each
other's laps," he said. "They were enjoying humiliating and abusing
us, I wished I was dead at this moment. Then they made me sit with
Tariq... where I was forced to put Tariq's penis in my mouth. The
other two were made to do the same." For complete story,
click here.
We've come to this ignoble moment.'
--'We
have become like Serbia.'
12 Jul 2008 'I never thought I would say this, but I think it might,
in fact, be time for the United States to be held internationally to
a tribunal. I never thought in my lifetime I would say that, that
we have become like Serbia, where an international tribunal has
to come to force us to apply the rule of law... So we've come
to this ignoble moment, where we could be forced into a tribunal and
forced to face the rule of law that we've refused to apply to
ourselves.' --Constitutional Law expert Jonathan Turley, on MSNBC's
Friday 'Countdown,' discussing accountability behind US war crimes
at Guantanamo. Video:
Law School Dean Calls Conference to Plan
Bush War Crimes Prosecution 17 Jun 2008 The dean
of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is planning a September
conference to map out war crimes prosecutions, and the targets are
President [sic] Bush and other administration officials. The dean,
Lawrence Velvel, says in a statement that "plans will be laid
and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty
as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."
Other possible defendants, he said, include federal judges and John
Yoo, the former Justice Department official who wrote one of the
so-called torture memos. "We must insist on appropriate
punishments," he continued,
"including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German
and Japanese war criminals in the 1940s." For complete
story,
click here.
Review board orders AP journalist held
--The arrest of Raziak was the latest in a series of arrests of
journalists by U.S. forces in Iraq in recent years.08
Jul 2008 An Associated Press television cameraman who was detained
by U.S. and Iraqi forces in early June was ordered held for at least
six more months Tuesday for "imperative reasons of security,"
[!] the U.S. military said. The decision came as a surprise to the
AP, which had earlier been led to believe that the cameraman, Ahmed
Nouri Raziak, was likely to be released because of
lack of any evidence against him. Raziak, 38, who has
worked for AP Television News since 2003, was detained by U.S. and
Iraqi soldiers at his home in Tikrit on June 4. He was transferred
last month to the U.S. military's detention facility at Camp Cropper
near Baghdad International Airport. "We are shocked that another
AP journalist is to be held for at least six months without charges,
and are awaiting information that could shed light on this strange
decision," said John Daniszewski, AP Managing Editor for
International News. [Why hasn't anyone raided the detention
facility and freed him?] (Unable to locate story
at time of archiving. Source:
www.onenewsnow.com
Date: July 8, 2008)
Reuters seeks U.S. army video of staff
killed in Iraq 11 Jul 2008 The U.S. military said
on Friday it was still 'processing' a request by Reuters for video
footage from U.S. helicopters and other materials relating to the
killing of two Iraqi staff in Baghdad a year ago. Reuters
photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40,
were killed in a U.S. helicopter air strike in eastern Baghdad on
July 12, 2007. Reuters wants all the materials to be able to study
what happened.
For comlete story,
click here.
Iraqis tortured by UK military settle case
for $6M 10 Jul 2008 A major case involving the
abuse and torture of 10 Iraqi civilians at the hands of the British
military was settled Thursday, with lawyers for the victims saying
the Ministry of Defense agreed to pay them just under $6 million.
The settlement involves the family of slain hotel clerk Baha Mousa
and nine others who suffered injuries while in the custody of
British forces in southern Iraq, said the law firm Leigh Day & Co.
For complete story,
click here.
'I am angered that the department (of defense) appears to lack the
urgency and outrage that all of us in this room share today.'
Former KBR electricians criticize
contractors' work 11 Jul 2008 KBR Inc. used
employees with little electrical expertise to supervise
subcontractors in Iraq and hired foreigners who couldn't speak
English, former KBR electricians told a Senate panel investigating
electrocutions of 13 Americans. Experienced electricians who raised
concerns about shoddy work and its possible hazards were often
dismissed and told, "This is a war zone," the electricians said
Friday. "Time and again we heard, 'This is not the states, OSHA
doesn't apply here. If you don't like it you can go home,'" said
Debbie Crawford, a journeyman electrician with 30 years experience.
For complete story,
click here.
Secret Red Cross Report of C.I.A. Torture
of Captives: Book
--'The abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest
officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted.'
11 Jul 2008 Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret
report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods
for high-level 'Qaeda' prisoners constituted torture and could make
the
Bush administration officials who
approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new
book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001. The book says that the
International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report,
given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah,
the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were
"categorically" torture, which is illegal under both American and
international law. For complete story,
click here.
U.S. military to patrol Internet
30 Jun 2008 The U.S. military is looking for a contractor to patrol
cyberspace, watching for warning signs of forthcoming terrorist
attacks or other hostile activity on the Web. In a solicitation
posted on the Web last week, the U.S. Army's Fifth Signal Command
said it was
looking
for a contractor to provide "Internet awareness
services" to support "force protection" -- the term of art for the
security of U.S. military installations and personnel. "The
purpose of the services will be to identify and assess stated and
implied threat, antipathy, unrest and other contextual data relating
to selected Internet domains," says the solicitation. The
solicitation says the successful contractor will
"analyze various
Web pages, chat rooms, blogs and other Internet domains to aggregate
and assess data of interest." (Unable to locate story at
time of archiving. Source:
www.upi.com Date: June 30, 2008)
Breaking:
Senate Approves Telecom Immunity and New
Eavesdropping Rules 09 Jul 2008 The Senate has approved a bill overhauling the rules on
secret government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telecom
companies that helped listen in on Americans after Sept. 11. The
Senate passed the bill Wednesday, 69-28. It turned back three
amendments that would have watered down, delayed or stripped away
the immunity provision demanded by President [sic] Bush. (Unable to
locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.nytimes.com Date:
July 9, 2008)
Want some torture with your peanuts?
By Jeffrey Denning 01 Jul 2008 A senior government official with the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has expressed great
interest in a so-called safety bracelet that would serve as a stun
device, similar to that of a police Taser. According to this
promotional
video found at the Lamperd Less Lethal website, the bracelet
would be worn by all airline passengers. This bracelet would take
the place of an airline boarding pass; contain personal information
about the traveler; be able to monitor the whereabouts of each
passenger and his/her luggage and shock the wearer on command,
completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes.
The Electronic ID Bracelet, as it's referred to as, would be worn by
every traveler "until they disembark the flight at their
destination." According to a
letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and
Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, to the
inventor whom he had previously met with, he wrote, "To make it
clear, we [the federal government] are interested in…the
immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a
written proposal." Not only could it be used as a physical
restraining device, but also as a method of interrogation,
according to the same aforementioned letter from Mr. Ruwaldt. For complete story,
click here.
Prototype Remote-Activated Wrist
Stun-Device Shocks You For Aeroplane Security 08
Jul 2008 An official in the Department of Homeland Security has "expressed
great interest" in a wrist bracelet that can be remotely
activated to stun the wearer. It works by taking the place of a
boarding pass, which you then wear on your wrist so the flight
attendants can know who you are, where you are, and even shock you
if you're misbehaving. For complete story,
click here.
Files show US military planned nerve gas
testing in Australia 06 Jul 2008 There are
revelations the United States military was planning to test deadly
nerve gas in north eastern Australia in far north Queensland
rainforest in the 1960s. Australian Defence Department files
obtained by Australian television station Channel Nine, show the
US was planning to test Sarin and VX nerve gas on up to 200
Australian combat troops by aerial bombing areas around
Lockhart River. The plan never went ahead, but American survey teams
inspected the proposed testing site. For complete story,
click here.
'Germ warfare' fear over African monkeys
taken to Iran 06 Jul 2008 Hundreds of endangered
monkeys are being taken from the African bush and sent to a
“secretive” laboratory in Iran for scientific experiments. An
undercover inquiry by The Sunday Times has revealed that wild
monkeys, which are banned from experiments in Britain, are being
freely supplied in large numbers to laboratories in other parts of
the world [such as the US and the UK]. Monkeys are commonly used to
test vaccines for 'biological weapon' diseases such as anthrax and
plague. Experimenting on monkeys caught in the wild was effectively
banned in Britain in 1997. Only monkeys bred in captivity are now
used for research -- America, Russia, China and Iran are among the
countries still using wild monkeys. [Oh, so torturing
animals in the US, UK, Russia and China is OK - because the
animals are wild instead of bred for a lab?] For complete
story,
click here.
'While the FBI
was busy collecting fingerprints, the military was setting up its
own biometrics database, adding in iris and facial data as well.'
U.S. fingerprints insurgents, prisoners and
ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq
06
Jul 2008 In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has
been fingerprinting 'insurgents,' prisoners and ordinary people in
Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out
to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said.
They have criminal arrest records in the United States...
If Iraq
and Afghanistan were a proving ground of sorts for biometric
watch-listing, the U.S. government is moving
quickly to try to build a domestic version. Since
September 2006, Homeland Security and the FBI have been operating a
pilot program in which police officers in Boston, Dallas and Houston
run prints of arrestees against Homeland Security and State
Department databases. For complete story,
click here.
Iraqi torture victims slam UK 'contempt'
--Father of Baha Musa says MoD views lives as cheap, as he flies
in for talks over his son's death 06 Jul 2008 Iraqi civilians
who were tortured by British soldiers say the government is treating
them with 'contempt' ahead of a potential multi-million-pound payout
for the abuse they suffered. The eight Iraqis arrived in London
yesterday for this week's long-awaited mediation into how much
compensation the government is willing to pay to civilians who were
tortured while held in British custody. The eight accused the
Ministry of Defence last night of trying to block them from
attending the high-profile meeting... Musa, 26, had suffered 93
identifiable injuries at the hands of British soldiers in Basra in
September 2003. He had died after being subjected to 36 hours of
beatings and abusive treatment, including being double-hooded with
hessian sacks in stifling conditions. For complete story,
click here.
Indonesia seeks to shut Navy lab
researching avian flu
--Health Minister:
Viruses shared with U.S. could be turned into biological weapons.
Politicians say the U.S. facility doesn't benefit Indonesia and
could be a cover for spying. 05 Jul 2008 Indonesia suspended
negotiations with the United States over the fate of a U.S. Navy
medical research lab here [Naval Medical Research Unit No. 2] last
month after senior politicians said it didn't benefit Indonesia and
could be a cover for spying. The biomedical research lab opened in
Jakarta in 1970 and is used to 'study' tropical diseases, including
malaria, dengue fever and avian flu, according to an embassy fact
sheet... After announcing a ban on virus-sharing in January 2007,
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari published a book in which she
warned that any viruses shared with other countries could be
turned into biological weapons. She also recounted a meeting in
Geneva with John E. Lange, the U.S. special representative for
pandemic flu, in which she told him, "It is not impossible that
there will be a group of people in developed countries insane enough
to reengineer the viruses to create an outbreak in the Third World."
[See:
Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004;
Congress Set to Pass Law Eliminating Liability For Vaccine Injuries
19 Oct 2005;
Rumsfeld's growing stake in Tamiflu 31 Oct 2005;
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack
11 May 2007.] For complete story,
click here.
AP: Race profiling, travel history eyed for
FBI terror probes 02 Jul 2008
The
'Justice' Department is considering
letting
the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing,
relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out
Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups. The new
rules would allow the FBI to consider those factors among a number
of traits that could trigger a national security investigation.
Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons -- like evidence or
allegations that a law probably has been violated -- to investigate
U.S. citizens and legal residents. The new policy, law enforcement
officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open
preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and
intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were
deemed suspicious. Among the factors that could make
someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the
world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military
training, along with the person's race or ethnicity. [Gee,
shouldn't such profiling also be known as 'the
last straw?'] For complete
story,
click here.
'Communist torture' used at Guantanamo Bay
03 Jul 2008 A chart outlining "coercive management techniques"
for US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay was copied verbatim from a
1957 US Air Force study of Chinese communist techniques used during
the Korean War to obtain confessions - many of them false - from US
prisoners. The New York Times
reported the chart listed techniques for use on prisoners
including "sleep deprivation", "prolonged constraint" and
"exposure". Reporting the origins of the chart, the paper said it
was the latest and most vivid evidence of the way communist
interrogation methods the US has long condemned as torture became
the basis for interrogations by the military at the Guantanamo Bay
prison camp, and by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA is
still authorised by US President [sic] George W. Bush to use a range
of secret "alternative" interrogation methods. In 2002, the training
program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape,
became a source of interrogation methods for the CIA and the US
military. In what critics describe as a
remarkable case of historical amnesia, the officials who
drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware it was created
as a result of concerns about false confessions by US prisoners.
For complete story,
click here.
Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine
trial in Poland 02 Jul 2008 Three Polish doctors
and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of
homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the
H5N1 bird-flu virus. The medical staff, from the northern town of
Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as
350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say
involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.
Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be
tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but,
according to investigators, was actually an anti bird-flu drug. For complete story,
click here.
'On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on
WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all.'
Ex-Agent Says CIA Ignored Iran Facts
01 Jul 2008 A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the
agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now
contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had
suspended work on a nuclear bomb. The onetime undercover agent, who
has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion
in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify
legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression
of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.
For complete story,
click here.
US to carry on military trials at
Guantanamo despite ruling 24 Jun 2008 Hearings
for terrorism suspects before US military tribunals in Guantanamo
Bay are going ahead despite a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the
prisoners have a right to challenge their detention in a civilian
court. Legal experts had described the high court's decision as the
death knell of the special tribunals created by President [sic]
George W Bush and his Republican allies in Congress to try "war on
terror" suspects. But Justice Department chief Michael Mukasey said
the controversial tribunals at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba, would continue their work and last week, two preliminary
hearings were held as scheduled. For complete story,
click here.
Ex-Pentagon Lawyer Says He Researched 'Real
Manchurian Candidate Stuff' 17 Jun 2008 A former
Pentagon lawyer scheduled to testify today before the Senate Armed
Forces Committee told the
New York Times he researched psychological studies about the
effects of interrogation after his superiors expressed frustration
about Guantanamo detainees withholding information. The lawyer,
Richard Schiffrin, said the information he obtained included studies
of North Koreans’ [and CIA] attempted mind-control experiments on
American prisoners during the Korean War. "It was real
Manchurian Candidate stuff," he told the Times. The
revelation comes amid disclosures that Pentagon lawyers played a
more active and earlier role than previously disclosed in developing
aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo, the story
says. For complete story,
click here.
Pentagon blasts KBR's 'illegal'
post-Katrina operation --Contract 'illegal,'
Navy overcharged millions, work poor 19 Jun 2008 Pentagon
investigative report alleges the firm KBR Inc. held an illegal
contract, overcharged millions to the Navy and produced shoddy
workmanship on its South Mississippi jobs after Katrina. A report
released by the Department of Defense's Office of the Inspector
General says KBR worked on Navy facilities in Gulfport, Pascagoula,
at Stennis Space Center and in Pensacola, among other Gulf Coast
sites after hurricanes Ivan and Katrina.
The group holds a $500 million disaster-recovery contract
with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic based in
Norfolk, Va., which was struck in 2004. [Cui bono?
KBR had 500 million reasons for Bush to blow the levies.]
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.sunherald.com Date:
June 19, 2008)
US asks to rewrite official evidence
against detainees: AP
20 Jun 2008 The
Bush regime wants to rewrite the official evidence against
Guantanamo Bay prisoners, allowing it to shore up its cases before
they come under scrutiny by civilian judges for the first time. The
government has stood behind the evidence for years. Now that federal
judges are about to review the evidence, however, the government
says it needs to make changes. At Guantanamo Bay, the traditional
rules of evidence do not apply in 'trials' run by the military. In a
Washington federal courtroom, they would. "It's a totally fishy
maneuver that suggests that the government wants, at the 11th hour,
to get its ducks in a row," said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney
representing several detainees. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking:
DemocRATs surrender (not really 'breaking news,' but:) House
Approves Spy Bill Protecting Phone Firms
20 Jun 2008 House passes surveillance bill --The 'Compromise' allows
for expansion of government powers -- wiretapping with out warrants
in 'emergency' situations' -- and for telecom immunity for 'past and
future' cooperation with the US government. For complete
story,
click here.
Breaking: 'The lawsuits will be dismissed.' Deal reached in Congress: Expand govt
powers on wiretapping, grant immunity to telecoms
20 Jun 2008 Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a
deal on Thursday to overhaul the rules on the government’s
wiretapping powers and provide what amounts to legal immunity to the
phone companies that took part in President [sic] Bush's warrantless
eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11 attacks. The deal,
expanding the government's powers in some key respects,
would allow intelligence officials to use broad warrants to
eavesdrop on foreign targets and
conduct emergency wiretaps without court orders on American targets
for a week if it is determined important national
security information would be lost otherwise... Senator Russ
Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who pushed unsuccessfully for more
civil liberties safeguards in the plan, called the deal "a
capitulation" by his fellow DemocRATs. For complete story,
click here.
Ex-judge, family indicted on human
trafficking charges--June 18th, 2008--A former
Fulton County magistrate judge, along with his son, a Forsyth County
deputy, and his son's wife, have been indicted by a federal grand
jury on human trafficking charges involving a nanny from India.
William Garrett Jr., 72, an Alpharetta lawyer; deputy sheriff
Russell Garrett, 43; and Malika Garrett, 42, were charged in a
nine-count indictment. For complete story,
click here.
General Accuses White House of War Crimes
18 Jun 2008 The two-star general who led an Army investigation into
the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush
administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability. In
his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba
concluded that "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton
criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees." He called the
abuse "systemic and illegal." Now, in a preface to a Physicians for
Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former
detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation. The new
report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story of what
happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief
and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.
This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest
of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds... In order
for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they
were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field
whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military
Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was
indiscriminately ignored. . . . After years of disclosures by
government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human
rights organizations,
there is no longer
any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war
crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is
whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to
account." [See:
'I saw ___ fucking a kid...' (Graphic) Source: The "Taguba
Report" On Treatment Of Abu Ghraib Prisoners In Iraq,
statement by Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, Detainee #151108, 1300/18 Jan
2004, as published by The Washington Post.] For complete
story,
click here.
VA testing drugs on war veterans--June
17th, 2008--The government is testing drugs with severe side
effects like psychosis and suicidal behavior on hundreds of military
veterans, using small cash payments to attract patients into medical
experiments that often target distressed soldiers returning from
Iraq and Afghanistan, a Washington Times/ABC News investigation has
found. In one such experiment involving the controversial
anti-smoking drug Chantix, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
took three months to alert its patients about severe mental side
effects. The warning did not arrive until after one of the veterans
taking the drug had suffered a psychotic episode that ended in a
near lethal confrontation with police. Veteran James Elliott
arrives at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington for his
scheduled substance-abuse class in April. Mr. Elliott, a chain
smoker, served 15 months in Iraq as an Army sharpshooter and suffers
post-traumatic stress disorder. Iraq war veteran James Elliott
opted for a government clinical trial for a smoking-cessation drug
for $30 a month, starting in November. Two weeks later, the FDA
informed the VA of serious side effects. Iraq war veteran
James Elliott smokes on his porch in Silver Spring as he talks about
his experiences in war and dealing with post-traumatic stress
disorder. Mr. Elliott suffered a psychotic episode while taking the
anti-smoking drug Chantix. James Elliott, a decorated Army
sharpshooter who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
after serving 15 months in Iraq, was confused and psychotic when he
was Tasered by police in February as he reached for a concealed
handgun when officers responded to a 911 call at his Maryland home. For complete story,
click here.
Report: Exams reveal US electric shock
torture of detainees
--Report
reveals medical evidence of torture, including beatings and electric
shock --Study calls on U.S. government to issue a
formal apology to tortured detainees 18 Jun 2008 Former
terrorist suspects detained by the United States were tortured,
according to medical examinations detailed in a report released
Wednesday by a human rights group. The Massachusetts-based
Physicians for Human Rights reached that conclusion after two-day
clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees, who had been held at
the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in
Afghanistan. The prisoners were never charged with crimes. In a
121-page report, the doctors' group said that it uncovered medical
evidence of torture, including beatings, electric shock, sleep
deprivation, sexual humiliation, sodomy and scores of other abuses. For complete story, click here.
U.S. Torture of Detainees Caused Severe
Pain, Long-Term Suffering 17 Jun 2008 A team of
doctors and psychologists convened by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
to conduct intensive clinical evaluations of 11 former detainees
held in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay has found that these
men suffered torture and ill-treatment by U.S. personnel, which
resulted in severe pain and long-term disability. The men were
ultimately released from U.S. custody without charge or explanation. For complete story,
click here.
Government "Strike Teams" Invade Homes,
Harass Flood Victims --Cops break down doors,
threaten residents who question them as part of martial law
conditioning, authorities prevent people from re-entering their
homes By Paul Joseph Watson 18 Jun 2008 Shocking footage out of
Cedar Rapids Iowa shows cops and government employee "strike teams"
breaking into houses of flood victims and threatening anyone who
questions their actions in complete violation of the 4th amendment
right that protects against unlawful search and seizure. For complete story,
click here.
Protesters clash with police in attempt to storm Whitehall 16 Jun 2008 Police wielding batons clashed with protesters last night when a demonstration against George Bush's farewell visit to Britain turned violent a few hundred metres from where the US President [sic] was dining with Gordon Brown. Within the shadow of the Houses of Parliament, officers dressed in riot gear skirmished with several hundred demonstrators who had been attending a rally organised by the Stop the War Coalition... Police drew batons and truncheons in an attempt to push back a crowd which at 6.20pm moved from the rally on Parliament Square to try to gain entry to Whitehall. A squad of riot officers and horses were later sent to reinforce the barricade as protesters chanting
"George Bush, terrorist" and "Bush go home" repeatedly tried to break through the reinforced crowd barriers and concrete blocks.
For complete story,
click here.
Army Reserve teams with D.C. Police to boost employment 13 Jun 2008 The Army Reserve recruited the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in its new initiative to partner with public and private sector employers to jointly recruit, train and employ individuals. Either side can recruit an individual for the program, to let employees get Army training and enhance Army operations. D.C.'s police department, which hires 300 police officers per year, could be
handed a solider who's graduated from military police school with security clearances... By this fall, they hope to have 400 to 500 companies signed up.
For complete story,
click here.
Video: Alex Jones on The Death Of The Internet--June 12th, 2008--Alex explains why websites like Prison Planet, (HEAL) and Infowars will cease to exist if big corporations achieve their agenda of shifting the Internet over to a regulated, restricted pay-per-view format similar to a cable TV subscription. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.thealexjonesshow.com Date: June 12, 2008)
Breaking:
Blow to Bush: Guantanamo Prisoners Have Rights in Court --Supreme Court Says Foreigners at Guantanamo Have Constitutional Right to Challenge Detention 12 Jun 2008 The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts. The justices handed the Bush regime its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com
Date: June 12, 2008)
Bush pushes biometrics for national security
--Agencies are required by the directive to make available for sharing with other agencies... all biometric and associated biographical information for individuals about whom authorities have an "articulable and reasonable suspicion that they pose a threat to national security." 06 Jun 2008 The Bush administration has required agencies to increase their capability to share among themselves biometric information on people believed to pose a threat to national security. A
presidential directive issued June 5 requires the increased compatibility of methods agencies use to collect, store and share fingerprints, face and iris recognition data and behavioral characteristics to identify and screen "known and suspected terrorists." The directive also applies to other categories of individuals the directive said would be identified soon who may also pose a threat to national security.
For complete story,
click here.
U.K. rights group: U.S. has photographic evidence of torture 11 Jun 2008 The U.S. government has photographic evidence that a Guantanamo Bay inmate was tortured with a knife after being taken to Morocco by U.S. forces, a British human rights group said Tuesday. Reprieve said their client, Binyam Mohamed, had his genitals slashed repeatedly with a doctor's scalpel while in custody in Morocco after he was flown there from Pakistan by American officials in 2002. It also said his U.S. captors later took pictures of the torture to show authorities that his wounds were healing.
For complete story,
click here.
'It may well turn out to be the largest war profiteering in history.'
BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions --A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations. 10 Jun 2008 A BBC investigation estimates that around
$23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq. For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC's Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources. A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations. The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies... In the run-up to the invasion one of the most senior officials in charge of procurement in the Pentagon objected to a contract potentially worth seven billion that was given to Halliburton. For complete story,
click here.
'Now we are being asked to sign for our own occupation.'Iraqi lawmakers say U.S. demanding 58 military bases 09 Jun 2008
Iraqi lawmakers say the United States is demanding 58 bases as part of a proposed "status of forces" agreement that will allow U.S. troops to remain in the country indefinitely. Leading members of the two ruling Shiite parties said in a series of interviews the Iraqi government rejected this proposal along with another U.S. demand that would effectively hand over the power to determine if a hostile act from another country is aggression against Iraq. Lawmakers said they fear this power would drag Iraq into a war between the United States and Iran. "The points that were put forth by the Americans were more abominable than the occupation," said Jalal al Din al Saghir, a leading lawmaker from the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. "We were occupied by order of the Security Council," he said, referring to the 2004 Resolution mandating a U.S. military occupation in Iraq at the head of an international coalition. "But now we are being asked to sign for our own occupation. That is why we have absolutely refused all that we have seen so far."
For complete story,
click here.
GOVERNMENT MANIPULATING DATA ON WORKERS INJURIES AT SLAUGHTERHOUSES--For over two decades, the meatpacking industry has held the undesirable position as America's most dangerous industry. The rate of injury among workers began escalating during the union-busting days of the 1980s. For example, the repetitive-motion-disorder incidence rate is 30 times higher for meatpacking workers than the average for all private industries. Disregarding worker's rights, government officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, appointed by President Bush, have dramatically altered laws that were originally designed to require industry to report worker injuries. As a result of the new law, government statistics now inaccurately indicate that worker's injuries have magically dropped by 50%, thereby taking the heat off the meatpacking industry to improve working environments.
Learn more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12659.cfm
For complete story,
click here.
'Baghdad-style' checkpoints in US capital --Police in Washington DC have set up vehicle checkpoints in the American capital in a controversial measure 09 Jun 2008 In a move that critics have compared to the security clampdown in Baghdad, police are stopping motorists travelling through the main thoroughfare of Trinidad, a neighbourhood near the National Arboretum in the city's northeast section. Drivers' identification are checked and those who didn't have a "legitimate purpose" in the area are turned away.
For complete story,
click here.
Hidden Drug Payments at Harvard--June 10th, 2008--Three prominent psychiatrists at the Harvard Medical School and its affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital have been caught vastly underreporting their income from drug companies whose fortunes could be affected by their studies and their promotional efforts on behalf of aggressive drug treatments. Their failure to divulge their conflicts is striking proof that today's requirements for reporting payments from industry - essentially an honor system in which researchers are supposed to reveal their outside income to their institutions - needs to be strengthened.
What makes this case particularly troublesome is that the Harvard group's
research has helped fuel an explosion in the use of powerful antipsychotic
drugs to treat children, as was described in The Times on Sunday by Gardiner
Harris and Benedict Carey. Although supporters praise the most prominent of
the trio, Dr. Joseph Biederman, as a visionary who has saved many lives,
critics complain that the Harvard studies have been too small and loosely
designed to provide conclusive results. Critics say they also were subject
to biased interpretation through use of a subjective rating scale.
The previously unknown payments to the researchers were pried loose by
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate
Finance Committee, whose staff reviewed what the researchers disclosed on
conflict-of-interest forms at their institutions and prodded the university
to verify the data as accurate. Under pressure, two of the researchers
acknowledged receiving $1.6 million apiece in consulting fees from drug
companies between 2000 and 2007 and the third reported earning more than $1
million. That was far more than the researchers had originally reported, a
number that Mr. Grassley pegged at a couple hundred thousand dollars apiece.
Even the updated numbers left out other payments that drug companies
reported separately that they had made to the trio.
At this point, it is not clear whether the researchers inadvertently failed
to comply with reporting rules or consciously sought to hide their sizable
incomes from drug companies. But it is clear that relying on researchers to
report their outside incomes and on universities and hospitals to police the
disclosures won't suffice. Senator Grassley and Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat
of Wisconsin, have introduced a bill that would require drug and device
makers to report annually any payments to doctors that exceed $500 a year.
That is the best way to ensure that conflicts of interest are transparent to
all. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking: 'President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.' Kucinich introduces Bush impeachment resolution 09 Jun 2008 Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich took to the House of Representatives floor on Monday evening to introduce a 35-count resolution to impeach President [sic] George W. Bush.
Kucinich claimed Bush "fraudulently" justified the war on Iraq and misled "the American people and members of Congress to believe Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction so as to manufacture a false case for war." "President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office," Kucinich said. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
http://blog.cleveland.com
Date: June 9, 2008) Video:
Jailers at Guantanamo urged to destroy interrogation notes: lawyer --US interrogators may have "routinely destroyed evidence" that might have been used to defend prisoners 08 Jun 2008 US interrogators of "war on terror" prisoners were instructed to destroy handwritten notes that might have exposed harsh or even illegal questioning methods at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a lawyer for one of the prisoners said Sunday. Navy Lieutenant Commander Bill Kuebler said in a statement sent to reporters he considers the notes crucial to the defense of his client, Canadian Omar Khadr, during his upcoming 'trial' by a special military tribunal at the US naval base. Kuebler said the instructions were handed down to interrogators from the US Department of Defense as part of a standard operating procedure or "SOP" directive that he obtained from prosecutors last week. For complete story,
click here.
D.C. Police to Set Up Military-Style Checkpoint
--Other checkpoints possible if requested by patrol commanders and approved by police chief --Hundreds of patrol officers to be armed with semiautomatic rifles, starting this summer
05 Jun 2008 D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area. Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers' identification and ask whether they have a "legitimate purpose" to be in the Trinidad area. If not, the drivers will be turned away. "In certain areas, we need to go beyond the normal methods of policing," Fenty (D) said at a news conference announcing the action... "My reaction is, welcome to Baghdad, D.C.," said Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the ACLU's Washington office. [Yeah, we also need an 'insurgency' to fight the Bush occupation. --LRP] For complete story,
click here.
Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control --Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors 05 Jun 2008 A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the
American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely,
regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.
For complete story,
click here.
--Sources: US army is completing the building of military facilities and runways for permanent bases 03 Jun 2008 A proposed Iraqi-American security agreement will include permanent American bases in the country, and the right for the United States to strike, from within Iraqi territory, any country it considers a threat to its national security, Gulf News has learned. Senior Iraqi military sources have told Gulf News that the long-term controversial agreement is likely to include three major items:
Iraqi security institutions such as Defence, Interior and National Security ministries, as well as armament contracts, will be under US supervision for ten years
Agreement is also likely to give US forces permanent military bases in Iraq
US is granted the right to move against any country considered to be a threat against world stability or acting against Iraqi or American interests For complete story,
click here.
Howard accused of war crimes over Iraq troop deployment 02 Jun 2008 A legal brief has been sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging former prime minister John Howard committed a war crime by sending troops to Iraq. A loose alliance of peace activists, lawyers, academics and politicians is behind the brief, organised by the ICC Action group in Melbourne. Organiser Glen Floyd says Mr Howard should be held accountable for sending troops to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations. "We have produced a 52-page brief of evidence which states to the chief prosecutor of the criminal court that we allege John Howard's actions are war crimes under article 8 of the Rome Statute," he said.
For complete story,
click here.
--May 31st, 2008--If Vincent Bugliosi were prosecuting George W. Bush for the murder of the more than 4,000 American soldiers who have died in Iraq, he would seek the death penalty.”If I were the prosecutor, there is no question I would seek the death penalty,” Bugliosi told Corporate Crime Reporter in a wide-ranging interview.
“I’m urging here that an American jury try George Bush for first degree murder. I want to see him on trial for murder before an American jury. And if they convict him, it will be up to the jury to decide what his punishment is. One of the options would be the imposition of the death penalty. If I were prosecuting him, absolutely I would seek the death penalty. As Governor of Texas, George Bush signed death warrants - 152 out of 152 - most of them for people who only committed one murder.”
Bugliosi said he is sending a copy of his book to all fifty state Attorneys General, offering his assistance in prosecuting Bush for homicide.
“I’m herein enclosing a copy of my book The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder,” Bugliosi writes in the letter to the Attorneys General. “I hope you will find the time to read it and that you will agree with its essential conclusion - that George W. Bush is guilty of murder for the deaths of over 4,000 American soldiers who have died fighting his war in Iraq.”
Bugliosi said he’s also meeting with a high profile California District Attorney to urge him to bring the case. For complete story,
click here.
Prison ships, torture claims, and missing detainees
--America may have held terror suspects in British territory, despite UK denials 02 Jun 2008 The controversy over prison ships was first highlighted in June 2005 when the UN's special rapporteur on terrorism spoke of "very, very serious" allegations that the US was secretly detaining terrorism suspects in various locations around the world, notably on vessels in the Indian Ocean. The US authorities have not denied that ships have been used to incarcerate detainees... According to a US Congress report, up to 14,000 people may have been victims of rendition and secret detention since 2001. Some reports estimate there have been twice as many. The US admits to have captured more than 80,000 prisoners in its "war on terror".
For complete story,
click here.
Blackwater buys Brazilian-made fighter plane: Report 01 Jun 2008 A subsidiary of U.S. military security contractor [Bush's Waffen-SS] Blackwater Worldwide has purchased a fighter plane from the Brazilian aviation company Embraer, a Brazilian newspaper reported Sunday. The 314-B1 Super Tucano propeller-driven fighter -- the same used by the Brazilian military -- was bought for $4.5 million and delivered to EP Aviation at the end of February, according to the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. The report included the plane's registration number with the U.S. Federal Aviation Agency, and the FAA website confirmed it is registered by EP Aviation.
For complete story,
click here.
US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships --Report says 17 boats used
--MPs seek details of UK role 02 Jun 2008 The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of prisoners. The analysis, due to be published this year by the human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President [sic] George Bush declared that the practice had stopped. According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Prisoners are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.
For complete story,
click here.
Judge critical of Guantanamo war crimes case is dismissed --Army Col. Peter Brownback III had threatened to suspend proceedings unless prosecutors handed over key records to the defense. 31 May 2008 A judge hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay who publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors' refusal to give evidence to the defense has been dismissed, tribunal officials confirmed Friday. Army Col. Peter Brownback III was presiding over the case of Canadian detainee Omar Khadr. Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, in his role as chief judge at Guantanamo, ordered the dismissal without explanation and announced Brownback's replacement in an e-mail this week to lawyers in Khadr's case.
For complete story,
click here.
Air Force Unit's Nuclear Weapons Security Is 'Unacceptable' 31 May 2008 The same Air Force unit at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota that was responsible for mishandling six nuclear cruise missiles last August failed key parts of a nuclear safety inspection this past weekend, according to a Defense Department report. The 5th Bomb Wing was given an "unacceptable" grade in security of nuclear weapons, according to the review by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. In another category, management and administration, it received a grade of "marginal..." Those are two areas where failures last summer allowed a B-52 at Minot to be loaded with six air-launched cruise missiles and flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana without the pilots, air or ground crews knowing they contained nuclear warheads. [See:
Minot AFB Clandestine Nukes 'Oddities' 17 Sep 2007.]
For complete story,
click here.
'The occupier is planting seeds of strife between the Muslims and Christians.'Iraqis claim Marines are pushing Christianity in Fallujah 28 May 2008 "They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Muamar Anad, a Sunni Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. Residents of Fallujah are abuzz that some Americans whom they consider occupiers are also acting as Christian missionaries. Residents said some Marines at the western entrance to their city have been passing out coins [with a Bible verse] for two days in what they call a "humiliating" attempt to convert them to Christianity.
For complete story,
click here.
Morris Dees Discusses Upcoming Klan Trial--We go to court in November against the Imperial Klans of America for the vicious beating of a 16-year-old boy at a county fair in Kentucky. We hope to put this hate group out of business, and our team is hard at work preparing for the trial.
Watch the video.
For complete
story,
click here.
US residents in military prisons? Govt says it's war 24 May 2008 Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri is a U.S. resident being held in a South Carolina military brig; he is the only enemy combatant held on U.S. soil. Al-Marri was captured six years ago. To justify holding him, the government claimed a broad interpretation of the president's wartime powers, one that goes beyond warrantless wiretapping or monitoring banking transactions.
Government lawyers told federal judges that the president can send the military into any U.S. neighborhood, capture a citizen and hold him in prison without charge, indefinitely. Courts have gone back and forth on al-Marri's case as it worked its way through the system. If enemy combatants can be detained in the U.S., how long can they be held without charge? Without lawyers? Without access to the outside world? Forever? One judge questioned why there was such anxiety over the policy. After all, there have been no mass roundups of citizens [yet] and no indications the White House is coming for innocent Americans next. [See:
KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006. See:
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack 11 May 2007.] For complete story,
click here.
Iran mosque blast plotters admit Israeli, US links: report 23 May 2008 Iran's chief prosecutor said bombers who caused a deadly blast at a mosque in Shiraz had confessed of links to Israel and the United States, the ISNA student news agency reported on Friday. They also admitted carrying out "one or two minor operations," the agency said. Earlier Friday, senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami said people had also plotted attacks in the holy city of Qom, 120 kilometres (75 miles) south of Tehran, and at a book fair held in the capital. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
http://news.yahoo.com Date: May 23, 2008)
--May 16th, 2008--Coroner officials released an autopsy report Friday suggesting that a slain Roosevelt High School sophomore who attacked a campus police officer was not taking proper dosages of drugs prescribed to control his mental illness.
Dr. David Hadden, Fresno County coroner, said it's clear that Jesus "Jesse" Carrizales, 17, had a high dose of the antidepressant Lexapro in his blood that could have caused him to be paranoid.
But the teen's blood also revealed he was not taking antipsychotic drugs.
Carrizales' family has said he was taking Lexapro and Geodon, an antipsychotic medication, for depression.
Hadden said it's far too early to draw conclusions about Carrizales' use of prescription drugs. People react differently to drugs and have different tolerances to them.
"This picture is not complete," Hadden said.
On a night when family and friends held a vigil at Roosevelt High, the findings of his autopsy reveal new information about the special education student who was classified as emotionally disturbed.
At the Friday night vigil, family members said they still were waiting to see what the final police report on the incident says. They also said they had submitted a list of questions to Fresno Unified and had yet to receive answers.
"It hurts very much every day, and it doesn't get any easier," said Elisa Ortega, Carrizales' sister.
Said his uncle, Gilbert Abarca: "Something has to change."
Gloria Hernandez, a mental health patient advocate who came to the vigil in support of the family, said the Police Department needs to provide training to officers in how to deal with the mentally ill.
"They need to learn how to de-escalate the situation," she said.
Ben Benavidez, of the Mexican-American Political Association, said the group is seeking an inquiry from the FBI and the state Attorney General's Office.
Police say Carrizales was killed April 16 after he attacked Fresno police officer Junus Perry with a sawed-off bat. Police say Carrizales was standing over Perry, ready to strike again, when the officer fired in self-defense.
The autopsy report confirmed an earlier account that Perry's bullet entered Carrizales' right shoulder in a slightly downward angle and hit an artery, causing him to bleed to death in a few minutes.
Hadden said it is clear that Perry fired his weapon in self-defense, but he said his staff still needs to talk to witnesses and police detectives to explain the bullet's path.
"Everything happened very rapidly," Hadden said, noting that the coroner's staff doesn't have a clear picture of whether Perry was on the ground or about to get up when he shot Carrizales.
The autopsy report essentially states what Police Chief Jerry Dyer has said of the incident:
Perry was struck on the head with a sawed-off bat as soon as he left his campus office. When Perry fell to the ground, Carrizales raised the bat again, causing the officer to pull out his duty weapon. When the bullet magazine fell out of the gun, Perry grabbed another gun -- a 40-caliber Glock semiautomatic -- from his ankle holster. He then shot Carrizales once.
The bullet hit the clavicle -- or collarbone -- and then damaged an artery and the spinal cord before lodging in the spine, the autopsy report states.
The autopsy showed Carrizales' blood had a "lethal level" of Lexapro. His blood and urine were tested for Quetiapine and Risperidone -- two antipsychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Neither drug was found in Carrizales' system, the report states.
In general, "lethal level" means that in some people, that amount would kill them, Hadden said. A toxic level of Lexapro also could cause paranoia in some people, but not everyone. The drug's effect would depend on whether Carrizales had built up a tolerance to the antidepressant, Hadden said.
The autopsy report shows that Carrizales' blood was not tested for Geodon. Hadden said his staff was told Carrizales was taking Quetiapine and Risperidone. But Carrizales' family said Friday night at the vigil that no one asked them what drugs Carrizales was taking.
Hadden said if it is confirmed that Carrizales was taking Geodon, another test will be requested.
The case is difficult, Hadden said, because neither he nor his staff are experts in prescription drugs. "We know a lot about heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs, but we know very little about therapeutic drugs," he said.
The staff plans to consult a psychiatrist to help them understand Carrizales' medication.
Police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said the findings in the autopsy report were "not unanticipated."
Police knew Carrizales was supposed to be on medication, but detectives have focused their attention on Carrizales' actions, as well as the actions of Perry, Cardinale said.
"Everything in the report we knew already," Cardinale said.
The report said Carrizales was shot at 11:53 a.m. April 16. Carrizales was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:07 p.m. The autopsy was performed from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following day.
These times can help determine when Carrizales last took his medication.
Fresno pharmacist Nancy Asai, who is not associated with the case, said Lexapro can stay in a person's blood much longer that the antipsychotic drugs Quetiapine and Risperidone.
Dr. Barry Chaitin, chair of the department of psychiatry at the University of California at Irvine, said in general, Lexapro is "pretty safe" even at high doses. The lack of antipsychotic medicine in Carrizales' system, however, is troubling -- those drugs are typically prescribed to help people cope with aggression, psychosis, hostility and hallucinations, he said.
Carrizales' behavior is difficult to explain, said Chaitin. On one hand, Carrizales' family has said that the medication helped him become more sociable. But police say Carrizales sneaked up on Perry from behind and attacked the officer without provocation.
"His conduct appears way out of the ordinary because the attack sounds premeditated," Chaitin said. "He must have had a misperception that the officer was a threat to him." (Unable to locate story a time of archiving. Source:
www.fresnobee.com Date: May 16, 2008)
US says detains 500 juveniles in Iraq, 10 in Afghanistan --Civil liberties groups denounce detentions as abhorrent, and a violation of U.S. treaty obligations. 19 May 2008 The U.S. military is holding about 500 juveniles suspected of being "unlawful enemy combatants" in detention centers in Iraq and has about 10 detained at the U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan, the United States has told the United Nations. A total of 2,500 youths under the age of 18 have been imprisoned, almost all in Iraq, for periods up to a year or more in President [sic] George W. Bush's anti-terrorism campaign since 2002, the United States reported last week to the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child.
For complete story,
click here.
US attack on Baghdad media hotel no accident: rights group 19 May 2008 A media rights group called for a full probe into a 2003 US shelling that killed two foreign journalists at a Baghdad hotel, claiming that new evidence showed the incident was not an accident. The International Federation of Journalists said the United States should "tell the whole truth" about the incident at the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003, just a day before Baghdad fell to US invading forces.
For complete story,
click here.
Iran busts CIA terror network 18 May 2008 The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States. In a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said. The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S. Planning Big New Prison in Afghanistan --Pentagon planning to use $60 million in emergency construction funds to build detention center to hold 600 prisoners - or as many as 1,100 in a surge 17 May 2008The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre [KBR?] detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come. The proposed detention center would replace the cavernous, makeshift American prison on the Bagram military base north of Kabul, which is now typically packed with about 630 prisoners, compared with the 270 held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.-trained forces reportedly helping Mexican cartels --U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have 'became assassins and recruiters for the Mexican drug cartels.' 14 May 2008 As many as 200 U.S.-trained Mexican security personnel have defected to drug cartels to carry out killings on both sides of the border and as far north as Dallas, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, told Congress on Wednesday. The renegade members of
Mexico's elite 'counter'-narcotics teams trained at Fort Benning, Ga., have switched sides, contributing to a wave of violence that has claimed some 6,000 victims over the past 30 months, including prominent law enforcement leaders, the Houston-area Republican told the House Foreign Affairs Committee... George Bush's blueprint calls for $1.4 billion in training, equipment and 'law enforcement' assistance to Mexico and Central America over three years. Bush also is seeking $500 million in emergency assistance for Mexico this year as part of the supplemental war spending measure. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date: May 14, 2008)
--May 2nd, 2008--A man who was denied a liver transplant largely because he used marijuana with medical approval to ease the symptoms of hepatitis C has died.
Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center, said his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.
His death came a week after a doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list. The team had previously told him it would not consider placing him on the list until he completed a 60-day drug-treatment class.
The case highlights an ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant: whether using dope with a doctor's blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.
The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates.
At some, people who use "illicit substances" — including medical marijuana, even in the dozen states that allow it — are automatically rejected. At others, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
Dr. Brad Roter, who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant. For complete story,
click here.
Air Force Aims for 'Full Control' of 'Any and All' Computers By Noah Shachtman 13 May 2008 The Air Force wants a suite of hacker tools, to give it "access" to -- and "full control" of -- any kind of computer there is. And once the info warriors are in, the Air Force wants them to keep tabs on their "adversaries' information infrastructure completely undetected." The government is growing increasingly interested in waging war online. The Air Force recently put together a "Cyberspace Command," with a charter to rule networks the way its fighter jets rule the skies. The Department of Homeland Security, Darpa, and other agencies are teaming up for a five-year, $30 billion "national cybersecurity initiative."
For complete story,
click here.
Bush:
Democratic
presidency
could
lead
to
another
terror
attack
on
U.S.
13
May
2008
President
[sic]
Bush
said
on
Tuesday
he
was
disappointed
in
"flawed
intelligence"
before
the
Iraq
war
and
was
concerned
that
if a
Democrat
wins
the
presidency
in
November
and
withdrew
troops
prematurely
it
could
"eventually
lead
to
another
attack
on
the
United
States."
He
acknowledged
concerns
about
leaving
the
unfinished
[lost]
Iraq
war
to a
Democratic
successor.
Bush
said
his
"doomsday
scenario
of
course
is
that
extremists
throughout
the
Middle
East
would
be
emboldened,
which
would
eventually
lead
to
another
attack
on
the
United
States."
(Unable
to
locate
story
at
time
of
archiving.
Source:
www.chron.com
Date:
May
13,
2008)
'I
have
determined
that you
pose a
security
threat.'
Blunt
Federal
Letters
Tell
Students
They're
Security
Threats
13 May
2008 A
German
graduate
student
in
oceanography
at M.I.T.
applied
to the
Transportation
Security
Administration
for a
new ID
card
allowing
him to
work
around
ships
and
docks.
What the
student,
Wilken-Jon
von
Appen,
received
in
return
was a
letter
that not
only
turned
him down
but
added an
ominous
warning
from
John M.
Busch, a
security
administration
official:
"I have
determined
that you
pose a
security
threat."
Similar
letters
have
gone to
5,000
applicants
across
the
country
who have
at least
initially
been
turned
down for
a
Transportation
Worker
Identification
Credential,
an ID
card
meant to
guard
against
acts of
terrorism,
agency
officials
said
Monday.
For
complete
story,
click
here.
FDA
Scraps
Helsinki
Declaration
on
Protecting
Human
Subjects--In
the
mid-1990s,
the
National
Institutes
of
Health
ran a
clinical
trial in
Africa
testing
whether
a new
antiretroviral
drug to
combat
AIDS
worked
to
prevent
mother-child
transmission.
The
trial
created
an
ethical
uproar
because
the
control
group
received
a
placebo
instead
of an
older
anti-AIDS
drug
called
AZT,
which
had
already
been
proven
successful
in
reducing
the
number
of
babies
who
contracted
HIV from
their
mothers.
To
critics,
failure
to
provide
a proven
therapy
to
participants
in this
and
similar
trials
was a
basic
violation
of
standards
outlined
in the
Helsinki
Declaration
on
protecting
human
subjects
in
research,
originally
adopted
by
the
World
Medical
Association
in 1964.
But to
the U.S.
Food and
Drug
Administration
and the
drug
industry,
to which
it had
grown
increasingly
close
over the
course
of the
1990s,
it
contradicted
its
longstanding
policy
of only
requiring
trials
showing
that a
new drug
was
"better
than
nothing,"
i.e.,
better
than
placebo,
to win
regulatory
approval.
If the
drug
industry
were to
closely
adhere
to the
Helsinki
Declaration,
it would
always
have to
run
comparison
trials
if an
effective
drug
were
already
available.
Rather
than
accede
to
international
norms,
the FDA
and the
U.S.
government
in the
succeeding
years
lobbied
hard to
get the
WMA to
amend
its
rules.
And
it has,
several
times.
For
instance,
it now
allows
use of
placebo-controlled
trials
for less
serious
illnesses.
But the
basic
guidelines
protecting
human
trial
subjects'
access
to best
available
therapies
remained
intact.
Why is
any of
this
relevant
today?
Last
week,
the FDA
formally
declared
that
it will
no
longer
require
that
clinical
trials
submitted
to the
agency
to
get
regulatory
approval
for a
new drug
adhere
to the
Helsinki
Declaration.
The new
rule,
which
goes
into
effect
next
October,
was
supported
by the
drug
industry
but
opposed
by
numerous
public
interest,
patient
advocacy,
and
consumer
groups.
The new
rule
requires
only
that
trials
conducted
abroad
by
drug
manufacturers
follow
good
clinical
practices
(GCP)
and
include
a review
and
approval
by an
independent
ethics
committee.
There's
nothing
in GCP
guidelines
that
requires
patients
in the
control
arm of a
trial
get
access
to
already
proven
therapies.
They
only
need
receive
the
standard
of care
in
that
country.
What
will
this
mean for
the
concept
of
"informed
consent"
in a
poor
country?
Imagine
for a
moment
that you
live on
$2 a day
in, say,
Zimbabwe,
and have
high
blood
pressure.
Since
the
disease
isn't
life-threatening,
you skip
buying
the
available
anti-hypertensives
being
sold in
the
village
pharmacy
because
you
can't
afford
them and
none are
on the
national
formulary.
Hence,
there is
no local
standard
of care.
Now say
you
learn
while
visiting
the
village
clinic
that an
international
pharmaceutical
company
is
recruiting
patients
for a
clinical
trial
testing
a
new
anti-hypertensive
drug. If
you join
the
trial,
you may
only get
the
placebo.
But
there's
a 50-50
chance
you will
get the
new
drug,
which
hasn't
been
proven
yet, but
might
work.
Are
there
risks
associated
with
taking
this new
drug?
Well, so
far,
none
that the
doctors
think
are
serious
enough
to
cancel
the
trial.
But it
says
right on
the form
that
something
may turn
up in
the
clinical
trial in
which
you are
being
asked to
participate.
You sign
up.
After
all, a
50-50
chance
of
getting
a drug
that has
a good
chance
of
working
(the
drug
industry
wouldn't
be here
testing
it if it
didn't,
right?)
is
better
than no
drug at
all. And
how much
risk
could
there
be,
anyway?
Is that
really
non-coerced,
informed
consent?
It's
getting
tougher
and
tougher
to
recruit
patients
in the
U.S. to
participate
in
clinical
trials.
It's
also
getting
a lot
more
expensive
for
drug
companies
to run
them
here.
The
result
is that
35
percent
of all
trials
submitted
to the
FDA in
new drug
applications
now take
place
abroad.
This
new rule
will
only
make
that
number
grow.
Moreover,
many of
those
trials
conducted
abroad
(or
about 15
percent
of all
trials)
aren't
even be
registered
with the
FDA.
Unlike
trials
conducted
in
the
U.S.,
companies
do not
have to
submit
an
investigative
new drug
application
(IND) to
the FDA
before
beginning
research
in
foreign
countries.
The FDA
estimates
about
575 of
the
foreign
trials
submitted
to the
agency
each
year as
part of
new drug
applications
do not
go
through
the IND
process.
In other
words,
the FDA
has no
record
that
they
even
exist.
The FDA
is
required
by law
to
monitor
clinical
trials
conducted
under
INDs
to
protect
their
human
subjects.
But an
Inspector
General's
report
released
last
September
found
that the
FDA had
no
registry
of
trials
(which
was
rectified
by
passage
of the
FDA
reform
law last
October);
no
registry
of the
Institutional
Review
Boards
that
were
supposed
to be
monitoring
trials
conducted
under
its
auspices;
and
independently
monitored
fewer
than one
percent
of the
trials
it knew
about.
And now
it has
passed a
rule
that
increases
the
likelihood
that
more
trials
will go
abroad
and that
more of
them
will not
even be
registered
with the
FDA,
which
makes
them all
but
impossible
to
monitor.
In the
final
rule
published
in the
Federal
Register,
the FDA
rejected
the
notion
that
adopting
the
self-regulating
GCP
standard
and
eliminating
references
to the
Helsinki
Declaration
"will
hurt
subjects
in
developing
countries
or
result
in less
protection
for
subjects
in
foreign
studies."
The
agency
noted
that GCP
requires
trial
sponsors
closely
monitor
trial
behavior
and
report
adverse
events.
If I
were a
headline
writer
at the
New York
Daily
News,
the
headline
on that
story
would
have
been:
FDA to
Global
Poor:
Drop
Dead.
For complete
story,
click here.
Up to
700
arrests
estimated
in
Postville
raid
12 May
2008
(IA)
Four
Homeland
Security
buses
with
U.S.
Immigration
and
Customs
tags on
them
have
entered
the
Agriprocessors
Inc.
complex.
The
buses,
along
with a
trail of
SUVs and
vans
with
Minnesota
license
plates,
arrived
at about
11:45
a.m. Tim
Counts,
a
Midwest
ICE
spokesman,
declined
to
confirm
where
people
who are
arrested
will be
detained.
Federal
officials
have
leased
the
National
Cattle
Congress
fairgrounds
in
Waterloo,
but they
declined
to
explain
last
week
whether
the
property
was
being
prepared
for use
as a
detention
center.
For complete
story,
click here.
DHS activity
at Waterloo
fairgrounds
raises
questions
--ICE
declines to
say if whole
area will be
used as
detention
center
--National
Cattle
Congress
fairgrounds
in Waterloo,
Iowa, is
prepared for
a 'federal
project.'
06 May 2008
Federal
officials
have imposed
a news
blackout at
the National
Cattle
Congress
fairgrounds
in Waterloo,
where they
have leased
almost the
entire
property
through May
25. The
Waterloo
Courier on
Sunday
reported
that
contractors
have
installed
generators
adjacent to
many
buildings at
the
fairgrounds.
In addition,
windows on
many
buildings
have been
covered up,
blocking
views inside.
A number
of
mobile-home-size
trailers
have been
transported
to the
privately
owned
grounds.
Doug Miller,
general
manager of
the Cattle
Congress,
declined
Monday to
release a
copy of his
group's
rental
contract
with U.S.
General
Services
Administration.
He also
indicated he
was in the
dark about
what's
happening
inside the
fairgrounds.
(Unable to
locate story
at time of
archiving.
Source:
www.desmoinesregister.com
Date: May 6,
2008)
'Some KBR
managers groped
Iraqi staff
regularly, paid
or otherwise
rewarded them
for sex and
dismissed those
who refused or
spoke out.'
Iraqis allege
sex abuse at the
British Embassy
08 May 2008 An
Iraqi cleaner
and two cooks
claim that a
culture of
sexual
harassment,
abuse and
bullying exists
at the British
Embassy in
Baghdad. The
middle-aged
cleaner told
The Times
that a British
contractor with
KBR, the company
hired to
maintain the
embassy’s
premises,
offered to
double her daily
pay if she would
stay the night
with him. When
she refused, she
said, her pay
was cut and she
was later
dismissed. The
Iraqis accuse
the embassy of
leaving the
abuse
unchallenged and
failing
adequately to
respond to
complaints
against several
British managers
for KBR. The
company was
allowed to
conduct its own
inquiry, an
arrangement
criticised as a
very serious
conflict of
interest. [See:
KBR's Rape
Problem By
Karen Houppert
17 Apr 2008;
KBR's Flawed
Wiring Still
Kills G.I.'s,
Despite Alert
04 May 2008
Memo:
Halliburton
failed to purify
GIs' water
16 Mar 2006;
KBR awarded
$385M Homeland
Security
contract for
U.S. detention
centers 24
Jan 2006;
Contractor
served troops
dirty food in
dirty kitchens
14 Dec 2003.
Gee, it all
kinda makes you
want to stand up
and cheer for
Muqtada al-Sadr,
doesn't it?]
For complete story,
click here.
Breaking:
House panel
subpoenas top Cheney
aide in torture
probe 06 May
2008 The House
Judiciary Committee
voted Tuesday to
compel a top aide to
Vice President [sic]
Dick Cheney to
testify to the
committee about the
Bush regime's
interrogation
practices. David
Addington, Cheney's
chief of staff,
refused to testify
without a subpoena.
No date has been set
for his appearance
before Congress.
For complete story,
click here.
'Torture memo'
author, former
attorney general, to
testify 06
May 2008 A former
Justice Department
lawyer [John Yoo]
who wrote a
now-repudiated memo
allowing harsh
interrogations
torture of military
prisoners has agreed
to testify to
Congress about those
practices, say House
Judiciary Committee
officials who spoke
on condition of
anonymity because
the panel has not
yet made the
announcement.
For complete story,
click here.
Military, DHS document lists who
should live and die in pandemic
--Nazi-style hospital
blueprint lists those who will be
left to die - elderly, sick, weakest
05 May 2008 An influential group of
physicians has drafted a grimly
specific list of recommendations for
which patients who would be allowed
to die during a [US-engendered]
flu pandemic or other disaster. The
suggested list was compiled by the
military,
Department of Homeland Security,
the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the Department of Health
and Human Services, government
agencies, prestigious universities,
and medical groups. To prepare,
hospitals should designate a triage
team with the Godlike task of
deciding who will and who won't get
lifesaving care, the task force
wrote. (Unable to locate story
at time of
archiving.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com
Date: May 5, 2008)
Taser International Wins Lawsuit In
Cause-of-Death Decision 02
May 2008 Taser International has
fired a warning shot at medical
examiners across the country.
The Scottsdale-based stun gun
manufacturer increasingly is
targeting state and county medical
examiners with lawsuits and lobbying
efforts to reverse and prevent
medical rulings that Tasers
contributed to someone's death. That
effort on Friday helped lead an Ohio
judge's order to remove Taser's name
from three Summit County Medical
Examiner autopsies that had ruled
the stun gun contributed to three
men's deaths. "It is dangerously
close to intimidation," says Jeff
Jentzen, president of the National
Association of Medical Examiners.
"At this point, we adamantly reject
the fact that people can be sued for
medical opinions that they make."
For complete story,
click here.
KBR's Flawed Wiring Still Kills G.I.'s,
Despite Alert
04 May 2008 In October 2004, the United
States Army issued an urgent bulletin to
commanders across Iraq, warning them of
a deadly new threat to American
soldiers. Because of flawed electrical
work by contractors [KBR], the bulletin
stated, soldiers at American bases in
Iraq had received severe electrical
shocks, and some had even been
electrocuted. American electricians who
worked for KBR, the Houston-based
defense contractor that is responsible
for maintaining American bases in Iraq
and Afghanistan, said they repeatedly
warned company managers and military
officials about unsafe electrical
work... A third electrician provided
e-mail messages and other documents
showing that he had complained to KBR
and the government that logs were
created to make it appear that
nonexistent electrical safety systems
were properly functioning. KBR
itself told the Pentagon in early 2007
about unsafe electrical wiring at a base
near the Baghdad airport, but no repairs
were made. Less than a year later, a
soldier was electrocuted in a shower
there. [See:
KBR first-quarter profit soars, shares
climb 02 May 2008. See:
KBR's first quarter exceeds expectations
02 May 2008.] For complete story,
click here.
D.C. Seeks Consent To Search for Guns--March 12th, 2008--D.C. police are so eager to get guns out of the city that they're offering amnesty to people who allow officers to come into their homes and get the weapons.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced yesterday the Safe Homes Initiative, aimed at parents and guardians who know or suspect that their children or other relatives have guns. Under the deal, police target areas hit by violence and seek adults who let them search their homes for guns, with no risk of arrest. The offer also applies to drugs that turn up during the searches, police said.
The program is scheduled to start March 24 in the Washington Highlands area of Southeast Washington. Officers will go door-to-door seeking permission to search homes for weapons. Police later plan to visit other areas, including sections of
Columbia Heights in Northwest and Eckington in Northeast.
"If we come across illegal contraband, we will confiscate it," Lanier said. "But amnesty means amnesty. We're trying to get guns and drugs off the street." For complete story,
click here.
Cheney lawyer claims Congress has no
authority over vice-president
--Cheney's
conduct 'not within congressional
committee's power of inquiry' 29 Apr
2008 The lawyer for US vice-president
[sic] Dick Cheney claimed today that the
Congress lacks any authority to examine
his behaviour on the job. The exception
claimed by Cheney's counsel came in
response to requests from congressional
Democrats that David Addington, the
vice-president's chief of staff, testify
about his involvement in the approval of
interrogation tactics used at Guantanamo
Bay. Ruling out voluntary cooperation by
Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn
Wheelbarger said Cheney's conduct is
"not within the [congressional]
committee's power of inquiry".
For complete story,
click here.
Ex-Prosecutor Told By Pentagon 'There
Could Be No Acquittals' of Detainees
--Pentagon official insisted
prosecutors use evidence derived from
torture 29 Apr 2008 (Guantánamo Bay,
Cuba) The former chief prosecutor here
took the witness stand on Monday on
behalf of a detainee and testified that
top Pentagon officials had pressured him
in deciding which cases to prosecute and
what evidence to use. The prosecutor,
Col. Morris D. Davis of the Air Force,
testified that Pentagon officials had
interfered with his work for political
reasons and told him that charges
against well-known prisoners "could have
real strategic political value" and that
there could be
no acquittals. Testifying
about his assertions for the first time,
Colonel Davis said a senior Pentagon
official who oversaw the military
commissions, Brig. Gen. Thomas W.
Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve,
reversed a decision he had made and
insisted that prosecutors proceed with
evidence derived through waterboarding
of prisoners and other aggressive
interrogation methods that critics call
torture. For complete story,
click here.
Mahathir calls for war crimes tribunal
for US, UK leaders
27 Apr 2008 Former Malaysian prime
minister Mahathir Mohamad called on
Friday for an international tribunal to
try Western leaders for war crimes over
the war in Iraq, a spokesman for the
organizers said. In a speech at Imperial
College, Mahathir called for a tribunal
to try US President [sic] George W. Bush
and former prime ministers Tony Blair of
Britain and John Howard of Australia for
their part in the conflict, said a
spokesman for the Muslim group the
Ramadhan Foundation, which organized the
event. [Yeah! And, feel free to
'proceed with evidence derived through
waterboarding of prisoners and other
aggressive interrogation methods that
critics call torture.' --LRP]
For complete story,
click here.
CIA can bend torture rules to stop
terrorists 28 Apr 2008 The US
Justice Department has told Congress that
American intelligence operatives attempting
to thwart terrorist attacks can legally use
interrogation methods that might otherwise
be prohibited under international law. The
legal interpretation, outlined in recent
letters, sheds light on the still-secret
rules for interrogations by the CIA.
For complete story,
click here.
Letters Give C.I.A. Tactics a Legal Rationale
27 Apr 2008 The Justice Department has told
Congress that American intelligence operatives
attempting to thwart terrorist attacks can
legally use interrogation methods that might
otherwise be prohibited under international law.
The latest Justice Department letters show that
Bush administration lawyers are citing the
sometimes vague language of the Geneva
Conventions to support the idea that
interrogators should not be bound by ironclad
rules. For complete story,
click here.
CIA Acknowledges it Has More Than 7000 Documents
Relating to Secret Detention Program, Rendition,
and Torture 23 Apr 2008 The Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) must stop stonewalling
congressional oversight committees and release
vital documents related to the program of secret
detentions, renditions, and torture, three
prominent human rights groups said today.
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center
for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the
International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School
of Law (NYU IHRC) reiterated their call for
information, following the CIA's filing of a
summary judgment motion this week to end a
lawsuit and avoid turning over more than 7000
documents related to its secret "ghost"
detention and extraordinary rendition program.
For complete story,
click here.
House GOP Candidate Spoke At Hitler
Event 23 Apr 2008 A congressional
candidate is defending his speech to Nazis
celebrating the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's
birth, saying he appeared simply because he was
asked. Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the
Republican nomination in northern Indiana's 2nd
District, stood in front of a painting of
Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands
and with a swastika flag in the background for
the speech to the American National Socialist
Workers Party in Chicago on Sunday. For
complete story,
click here.
Prisoners allege forced drugging during US
interrogations 22 Apr 2008 At least two
dozen former and current detainees have alleged
that they were either forcibly administered
drugs or witnessed the forceful administration
of drugs on other prisoners while in US custody,
the Washington Post
reported Tuesday. The detainees, held at
Guantanamo Bay and other sites, said in
interviews and court documents that they did not
know what drugs they were given, but that they
believed they were intended to make prisoners
more pliant during interrogation. For
complete story,
click here.
Double number of ex-cons join the US army
--Sex offenders, child
abusers, arsonists, terrorists and thieves
serving in US army 22 Apr 2008 The US
army doubled its use of "moral waivers" for
enlisted soldiers last year to cope with the
demands of the Iraq war, allowing sex offenders,
people convicted of making terrorist threats,
and child abusers into the military, new records
released yesterday showed. The army gave out 511
moral waivers to soldiers with felony
convictions last year. Criminals got 249 army
waivers in 2006, a sign that the demand for US
forces in Iraq has forced a sharp increase in
the number of criminals allowed on the
battlefield [not to mention the criminal
allowed in the White House, the Commander in
Thief]. The felons accepted into the army
and marines included 87 soldiers convicted of
assault or maiming, 130 convicted of
non-cannabis-related drug offences, seven
convicted of making terrorist threats, and two
convicted of indecent behaviour with a child.
Waivers were also granted to 500 burglars and
thieves, 19 arsonists and nine sex offenders.
For complete story,
click here.
'There was a snafu and all was lost.'Torture victim's records lost at Guantánamo,
admits camp general --No evidence of al-Qaida
suspect's interrogation --CCTV automatically
recorded over tapes 21 Apr 2008 The former
head of interrogations at Guantánamo Bay found
that records of an 'al-Qaida' suspect tortured
at the prison camp were mysteriously lost by the
US military, according to a new book by one of
Britain's top human rights lawyers. Retired
general Michael Dunlavey, who supervised
Guantánamo for eight months in 2002, tried to
locate records on Mohammed al-Qahtani, accused
by the US of plotting the 9/11 attacks, but
found they had disappeared. The records on al-Qahtani,
who was interrogated for 48 days - "were backed
up ... after I left, there was a snafu and all
was lost", Dunlavey told Philippe Sands QC, who
reports the conversation in his book Torture
Team, previewed last week by the Guardian. Snafu
stands for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
Saudi-born al-Qahtani was sexually taunted,
forced to perform dog tricks and given enemas at
Guantánamo. For complete story,
click here.
'The mere transmission of information and ideas
could be considered a criminal act.'
European Officials Agree on Framework for Outlawing
Online Terror Recruiting
19 Apr 2008 European Union justice ministers agreed
Friday to toughen laws across their 27-nation bloc
to punish those who promote violence and recruit
people for terrorist attacks. The new rules...
underscore a growing consensus that in the campaign
against terrorism, the mere transmission of
information and ideas could be considered a criminal
act. The agreement is intended to help the police
find and arrest suspects in cross-border
investigations, but also to prevent radicalization.
It could make it easier for authorities to
shut down Web sites
disseminating terrorist propaganda 9/11
truth, revelations of Bush war crimes and
'bomb-making instructions,' and to identify and
pursue proselytizers and recruiters. It could also
help courts and administrative authorities demand
that Internet service providers remove information
considered dangerous. For complete story,
click here.
EU to Criminalize Internet-Based Incitement to Terrorism
19 Apr 2008 European Union justice ministers have agreed
that using the Internet to publish bomb recipes or call
for acts of terrorism to be committed should count as a
criminal offence. The 27 member states agreed on Friday,
April 18, to introduce as new offences "public
provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment,
and training for terrorism" which would be punishable
"also when committed through the Internet." The
commission's proposal would also allow EU
law-enforcement agencies to demand cooperation from
Internet providers in order to identify the people
making such calls and to ensure that the offending
material is taken off-line. For complete
story,
click here.
Top Bush aides pushed for Guantánamo torture --Senior
officials bypassed army chief to introduce interrogation
methods 19 Apr 2008 America's most senior general was
"hoodwinked" by top Bush administration officials determined
to push through aggressive interrogation techniques of
terror suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, leading to the US
military abandoning its age-old ban on the cruel and
inhumane treatment of prisoners, the Guardian reveals today.
General Richard Myers, chairman of the US joint chiefs of
staff from 2001 to 2005, wrongly believed that inmates at
Guantánamo and other prisons were protected by the Geneva
conventions and from abuse tantamount to torture. The way he
was duped by senior officials in Washington, who believed
the Geneva conventions and other traditional safeguards were
out of date, is disclosed in a devastating account of their
role, extracts of which
appear in today's Guardian. For complete story,
click here.
Stress hooding noise nudity dogs
--It was the young officials at Guantánamo who dreamed up
a list of new aggressive interrogation techniques,
inspired by Jack Bauer from the TV
series, 24. But it was the politicians and
lawyers in Washington who set the ball rolling. Philippe
Sands follows the torture trail right to the top 19 Apr 2008
On Tuesday, December 2 2002, Donald Rumsfeld signed a piece
of paper that changed the course of history. That same day,
President [sic] Bush signed a bill to put the Pentagon in
funds for the next year... Elsewhere in the Pentagon, an
event took place for which there was no comment, no fanfare.
With a signature and a few scrawled words, Rumsfeld reneged
on the tradition of valour to which Bush had referred.
Principles for the conduct of interrogation, dating back
more than a century to President Lincoln's famous
instruction of 1863 that "military necessity does not admit
of cruelty", were discarded. He approved new and
aggressive interrogation techniques that would produce
devastating consequences. For complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo eight to sue MI5 and MI6 over 'illegal abduction
and interrogation' --Allegation: Eight were put
on CIA "torture flights" to prison camp in U.S.-occupied
Cuba 19 Apr 2008 Eight men freed from Guantanamo Bay are
suing the British Secret Services for millions, the Daily
Mail can reveal today. They have issued writs against MI5
and MI6 in a claim for damages that would fall on the
taxpayer. One of the men said they will argue that Britain
was complicit in their illegal abduction, treatment and
interrogation. For complete story,
click here.
Three States Subjected To "Martial Law Sweeps"--April 18th,
2008--Federal law enforcement agencies co-opted sheriffs
offices as well state and local police forces in three states
last weekend for a vast round up operation that one sheriff's
deputy has described as "martial law training".
Law-enforcement agencies in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas
took part in what was described by local media as "an anti-crime
and anti-terrorism initiative" involving officers from more than
50 federal, state and local agencies. Given the military
style name "Operation Sudden Impact", the initiative saw
officers from six counties rounding up fugitives, conducting
traffic checkpoints, climbing on boats on the Mississippi River
and doing other "crime-abatement" programs all under the label
of "anti-terrorism". WREG Memphis news channel 3
reported that the Sheriff's Department arrested 332 people, 142
of whom were fugitives, or "terrorists" as they now seem to be
known. Hundreds of dollars were seized and drugs
recovered, and 1,292 traffic violations were handed out to
speeding terrorists and illegally parked terrorists. The
authorities even raided businesses and store owners,
confiscating computers and paperwork in an effort to "track down
possible terrorists before something big happens". The
Sheriff's Department is determining if and when they plan
another round-up. The operation, which involved police,
deputies, the FBI, drug agents, gang units and even the coast
guard, is just one example of how law
enforcement at the state and local levels is being co-opted and
centralized by the Department of Homeland Security via massive
federal grants. It also highlights how the distinction
between crime and terrorism is becoming irrelevant. For
complete story,
click here.
Drug Makers Push Easing Off-Label Rules--April 18th, 2008--WASHINGTON
-- Drug-industry representatives are descending on the capital
to protect their freedom to advertise their wares directly to
consumers and to push for looser government restrictions on
their ability to promote off-label uses of their medicines.
The industry has become worried about a potential regulatory
backlash following recent scandals over the marketing of Vioxx
and Vytorin, as well as voter concern about increasing drug
prices. All three presidential candidates have been criticizing
drug makers about pricing. Meanwhile, three congressional
committees are pursuing investigations of drug-industry
marketing practices. "We have to be concerned that
Congress will act too quickly in this atmosphere, without
considering the problems they can cause the public by limiting
the information flow to consumers," said Bob Hogan, chief
executive of Cognito Communications, a Connecticut health-care
marketing-strategy
firm. Ten major drug companies, including Pfizer Inc.;
Bayer Corp., the U.S. unit of Bayer AG; AstraZeneca PLC; and
Johnson & Johnson have formed a coalition to push for looser
restrictions on off-label marketing. They will submit their
arguments Friday to the Food and Drug Administration, which has
been soliciting comments on its proposed off-label promotion
guidelines. They are
represented by former FDA Chief Counsel Daniel Troy, who is
working with public-relations giant APCO Worldwide Inc.
Mr. Troy's group includes patient-advocacy organizations the
National Alliance on Mental Illness and the National
Organization for Rare Disorders. The group supports the
ability of companies to disseminate articles from peer-reviewed
medical journals to physicians and hospitals to inform them of
new conditions for which drugs already on the market could be
used but which the FDA hasn't formally approved. The FDA
said it isn't loosening the rules for industry, but clarifying
them. Randall Lutter, the agency's deputy commissioner for
policy, said the guidelines mandate full disclosure of any
conflict of interest by journal authors in articles used in
off-label promotion. The push for off-label changes came
just as the Journal of the American Medical Association
suggested in two reports that Merck & Co. played down the
potential risk to Alzheimer's patients of heart attack from its
now-withdrawn painkiller Vioxx, and said the company had
ghostwritten many academic articles favorable to that drug.
Drug-industry worries about new rules and a chilly climate in
Washington were reflected at a conference here Thursday. More
than 60% of participants
polled during the annual conference sponsored by drug-marketing
magazine DTC Perspectives said they think Congress may move to
place limits on television advertising by pharmaceutical
companies. Drug makers spend about $5.4 billion annually
on TV ads, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus. One idea the
drug marketers don't like: A proposal that ads contain a phone
number that consumers can call to make complaints to the Food
and Drug Administration. Separately, the promotion of
Vytorin, a cholesterol drug marketed jointly by Merck and
Schering-Plough Corp., is under scrutiny by
congressional investigators who have alleged the companies
delayed release of a study that raised doubts about Vytorin's
effectiveness. The companies have denied any strategy to
withhold information, and said the delay in publishing the study
was the result of efforts to resolve problems with certain data.
Drug manufacturers are concerned that marketing strategies could
be trimmed after the 2008 elections if Democrats strengthen
their control in Congress or take the White House. But there are
indications that some politicians won't wait that long.
The chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,
Michigan Democrat John Dingell, plans to announce a hearing on
direct-to-consumer advertising, to take place in a few weeks.
Mr. Dingell's panel will look at Vioxx, Vytorin and an ad blitz
for Pfizer's cholesterol drug Lipitor that used medical inventor
Robert Jarvik. "Drug companies should know that they will
be held accountable for inappropriate behavior and inaccurate
representations made in their ads," Mr. Dingell said in a
statement. For more on this story,
click here.
Top US general 'hoodwinked' over aggressive interrogation
18 Apr 2008 The US's most senior general was "hoodwinked" by top
Bush administration officials determined to push through
aggressive interrogation techniques torture for terror
suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, the Guardian can reveal. The
development led to the US military abandoning its age-old ban on
the cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners. General Richard
Myers, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff from 2001 to
2005, wrongly believed that inmates at Guantánamo and other
prisons were protected by the Geneva conventions and from abuse
tantamount to torture. The way he was duped by senior officials
in Washington - who believed the Geneva conventions and other
traditional safeguards were out of date - is disclosed in a
devastating account of their role, extracts from which will be
published in tomorrow's Guardian. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking:Feds to collect DNA from every person they arrest 16 Apr 2008 The government plans to begin collecting DNA samples from anyone arrested by a federal law enforcement agency. Using authority granted by Congress, the government also plans to collect DNA samples from foreigners who are detained, whether they have been charged or not. The DNA would be collected through a cheek swab, Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Wednesday. That would be a departure from current practice, which limits DNA collection to convicted felons.
For complete story,
click here.
Polygamist
sect
gets
millions
from
U.S.
government
12 Apr
2008
U.S.
taxpayers
have
unwittingly
helped
finance
a
polygamist
sect
that is
now the
focus of
a
massive
child
abuse
investigation
in West
Texas,
with a
business
tied to
the
group
receiving
a nearly
$1
million
loan
from the
federal
government
and $1.2
million
in
military
contracts.
The
ability
of the
Fundamentalist
Church
of Jesus
Christ
of
Latter
Day
Saints,
or FLDS,
to
operate
and grow
is
largely
dependent
on huge
contributions
from its
members
and
revenue
from the
businesses
they
control,
according
to a
former
accountant
for the
church,
and
government
officials
in Utah
and
Arizona,
where
the sect
is
primarily
based.
One of
those
businesses,
NewEra
Manufacturing
in Las
Vegas,
has been
awarded
more
than
$1.2
million
in
federal
government
contracts,
with
most of
the
money
coming
in
recent
years
from the
Defense
Department
for
wheel
and
brake
components
for
military
aircraft.
A large
portion
of the
awards
were
preferential
no-bid
or "sole
source"
contracts
because
of the
company's
classification
as a
small
business,
according
to
online
databases
that
track
federal
government
appropriations.
For complete story,
click here.
Administration
Set to Use
New Spy
Program in
U.S.
--DHS has
not stated
what federal
laws govern
new National
Applications
Office,
whose
funding and
size are
classified.
12 Apr 2008
The Bush
regime said
yesterday
that it
plans to
start using
the nation's
most
advanced spy
technology
for domestic
purposes
soon,
rebuffing
challenges
by House
Democrats
over the
idea's legal
authority.
The
administration
in May 2007
gave DHS
authority to
coordinate
requests for
satellite
imagery,
radar,
electronic-signal
information,
chemical
detection
and other
monitoring
capabilities
that have
been used
for decades
within U.S.
borders for
mapping and
disaster
response.
But Congress
delayed
launch of
the new
office last
October.
Critics
cited its
potential to
expand the
role of
military
assets in
domestic law
enforcement,
to turn new
or
as-yet-undeveloped
technologies
against
Americans
without
adequate
public
debate, and
to divert
the existing
civilian and
scientific
focus of
some
satellite
work to
security
uses.
For complete story,
click
here.
Top Bush aides
oversaw torture
sessions
11 Apr 2008
According to an
ABC
report, top
Bush aides,
including Condi
Rice,
micromanaged the
torture of
terrorist
suspects from
the White House
basement.
Discussions on
torture were so
detailed, that
some
interrogation
sessions were
virtually
choreographed by
a White House
advisory group,
The torture
advisory group
included
then-national
security adviser
Condoleezza
Rice,
then-defense
secretary Donald
Rumsfeld,
then-secretary
of state Colin
Powell, then-CIA
director George
Tenet and
then-attorney
general John
Ashcroft and
Vice President
[sic] Dick
Cheney ABC's
sources said.
For complete story,
click here.
Cheney OK'd CIA
Torture Tactics
11 Apr 2008 US
Vice President
[sic] Dick
Cheney and his
cohorts approved
using harsh
interrogation
techniques
against
prisoners after
asking the
Justice
Department to
endorse their
legality, the
report said. The
officials also
took care to
insulate
President [sic]
Bush from a
series of
meetings where
CIA
interrogation
methods,
including
waterboarding,
which simulates
drowning, were
discussed and
ultimately
approved. An
anonymous former
senior US
intelligence
official
familiar with
the meetings
described them
to the AP to
confirm details
first reported
by ABC News on
Wednesday.
For complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo
defendant calls
trial a 'sham'
10 Apr 2008 A
Saudi prisoner
Wednesday
denounced the
war crimes case
against him as a
politically
motivated "sham"
and had himself
removed from the
courtroom in
symbolic
protest. Ahmed
Mohammed Ahmed
Haza Al-Darbi,
whose
brother-in-law
was among the
Sept. 11
hijackers [What
hijackers?],
informed the
military judge
hearing his
terrorism
conspiracy case
that he wanted
neither legal
representation
nor to be
present at his
trial. [See:
At Least 7 of
the 9/11
Hijackers are
Still Alive.]
For complete story,
click here.
'The whole world
had a headache
from your
hypocrisy that
you are the land
of justice.'
Detainee evokes
bin Laden at
Guantanamo
tribunal
10 Apr 2008 A
suspect at a US
military hearing
at the
Guantanamo Bay
prison Thursday
lauded Osama bin
Laden saying the
terror
mastermind had
exposed American
"hypocrisy." "I
think he has
succeeded again
enormously in
exposing your
hypocrisy ...
that you are the
land of justice
and law," said
Ibrahim Ahmed
Mahmoud Al-Qosi,
who is said to
have been bin
Laden's personal
chauffeur. "The
whole world had
a headache from
your hypocrisy
that you are the
land of
justice," Qosi
said. "Real
justice and
equality are
great
principles. Even
children
understand
that." [Well
said!]
For complete story,
click here.
In US
simulated 'Crimson
Sky'
disease outbreak,
National Guard
troops 'ran out of
bullets.'
Dangerous Animal
Virus on US
Mainland? 11
Apr 2008 The Bush
administration is
likely to move its
research on one of
the most contagious
animal diseases from
an isolated island
laboratory to the
U.S. mainland
near herds of
livestock, raising
concerns about a
catastrophic
outbreak. Skeptical
Democrats in
Congress are
demanding to see
internal documents
they believe
highlight the risks
and consequences of
the decision. An
epidemic of the
disease, foot and
mouth, which only
affects animals,
could devastate the
livestock industry.
A simulated outbreak
of the disease --
part of an earlier
U.S. government
exercise called
"Crimson Sky" --
ended with fictional
riots in the streets
after the
simulation's
National Guardsmen
were ordered to kill
tens of millions of
farm animals
[people], so many
that troops ran out
of bullets. In the
exercise, the
government said it
would have been
forced to dig a
ditch in Kansas 25
miles long to bury
carcasses. In the
simulation, protests
broke out in some
cities amid food
shortages. For
complete story,
click here.
'Could the
president, if he
desired, have a
prisoner's eyes poked
out?'
Use of Mind-altering
Drugs On Captives,
Maiming Weighed In '03
Memo
--In the
sober language of
footnotes, case
citations and judicial
rulings, the memo
explores a wide range of
unsavory topics,
including the use of
mind-altering drugs on
captives. 06 Apr
2008 Thirty pages into a
memorandum discussing
the legal boundaries of
military interrogations
in 2003, senior Justice
Department lawyer John
C. Yoo asked: Could the
president, if he
desired, have a
prisoner's eyes poked
out? Or, for that
matter, could he have
"scalding water,
corrosive acid or
caustic substance"
thrown on a prisoner?
How about slitting an
ear, nose or lip, or
disabling a tongue or
limb? What about biting?
These assaults are all
mentioned in a U.S. law
prohibiting maiming,
which Yoo parsed as he
clarified the legal
outer limits of what
could be done to
terrorism suspects as
detained by U.S.
authorities... But none
of that matters in a
time of war, Yoo also
said, because federal
laws prohibiting
assault, maiming and
other crimes by military
interrogators are
trumped by the
president's ultimate
authority as commander
in chief. For
complete story,
click here.
Evidence Grows
of US Drug Use on Terror
Detainees
--'The
executive branch memos
laid a comprehensive and
reiterated policy
foundation for the use
of interrogational
drugs.' --'03
Yoo memo advised top
Bush officials that
interrogators could
employ mind-altering
drugs on terror suspects
04 Apr 2008 There can be
little doubt now that
the government has used
drugs on terrorist
suspects that are
designed to weaken their
resistance to
interrogation. All
that’s missing is the
syringes and videotapes.
Another window opened on
the practice last week
with the
declassification of John
Yoo’s... 2003 memo [part
one,
part two] approving
harsh interrogation
techniques on terrorism
suspects. Yoo advised
top Bush administration
officials that
interrogators could
employ mind-altering
drugs if they did not
produce "an extreme
effect" calculated to
"cause a profound
disruption of the senses
or personality.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S. Extends Blackwater
Contract While Shooting
Probe Continues
04 Apr 2008 Amid
investigations into
fatal shootings of
civilians and
allegations of tax
violations,
Blackwater USA's
multimillion-dollar
contract to protect
diplomats in Baghdad has
been renewed, the State
Department said Friday.
A final decision about
whether the private
security company will
keep the job is pending,
the department said.
Moyock, N.C.-based
Blackwater is one of the
largest private military
contractors, receiving
nearly
$1.25 billion
in federal business
since 2000, according to
a House committee
estimate. For
complete story,
click here.
Army unsure if
some body armor met
safety standards--Contractors
didn't 'perform most
basic tests'
02 Apr 2008 The Army
can't be sure some of
its body armor met
safety standards, partly
because it didn't do
proper paperwork on
initial testing of the
protective vests, a
Defense Department audit
said. Democratic Rep.
Louise M. Slaughter of
New York, who requested
the department inspector
general's report, on
Wednesday demanded the
firing of officials
responsible. The
inspector general
reviewed $5.2 billion
worth of Army and Marine
Corps contracts for body
armor from 2004 through
2006... "This report
indicates that nearly
half of the Army's
contractors did not
perform the most basic
test on the body armor
before it was sent to
our troops fighting
overseas," Slaughter
said. For complete
story,
click here.
'The Fifth Amendment Due
Process Clause does not
apply... Accordingly, the
Eighth Amendment has no
application here.'
Torture Memo Gave White
House Broad Powers
02 Apr 2008 The Justice
Department's newly
declassified torture memo
outlined the broad legal
authority its lawyers gave
to the Bush White House on
matters of torture and
presidential authority
during times of war. The
March 14, 2003 memorandum,
released Tuesday, determined
that amendments to the U.S.
Constitution do not apply
equally to enemy
combatants. "The Fifth
Amendment due process clause
does not apply to the
president's conduct of a
war," the memo noted. It
also asserted, "The
detention of enemy
combatants can in no sense
be deemed 'punishment' for
purposes of the Eighth
Amendment," which prohibits
"cruel and unusual" forms of
punishment... "Accordingly
the Eighth Amendment has no
application here."
For complete story,
click here.
Intelligence Centers Tap
Into Personal Databases
--State Groups,
Dozens of 'Fusion
Centers,' Were Formed
After 9/11 02 Apr
2008 Intelligence
centers run by states
across the country have
access to personal
information about
millions of Americans,
including unlisted
cellphone numbers,
insurance claims,
driver's license
photographs and credit
reports, according to a
document obtained by The
Washington Post. One
center also has access
to top-secret data
systems at the CIA, the
document shows, though
it's not clear what
information those
systems contain. From
2004 to 2007, state and
local governments
received
$254 million
from the Department of
Homeland Security in
support of the centers,
which are also supported
by employees of the FBI
and other federal law
enforcement agencies.
In some cases, they work
with the U.S. Northern
Command, the Pentagon
operation involved in
homeland security.
For complete story,
click here.
Laws, treaties and U.S.
Constitution do not
apply to U.S.
interrogations: '03 memo
--Document
Granted Nearly
Unfettered Presidential
Power
--Since
rescinded, memo asserted
numerous laws and
treaties that forbid
torture or cruel
treatment 'would not
apply' 01 Apr 2008
Federal laws prohibiting
assault and other crimes
did not apply to
military interrogators
who questioned
'al-Qaeda' captives
because the president's
ultimate authority as
commander-in-chief
overrode such statutes,
according to a newly
declassified March 14,
2003 Justice Department
memo released today. The
memo, rescinded nine
months after it was
issued, provides an
expansive argument for
nearly unfettered
presidential power
in a time of war,
contending that numerous
laws and treaties that
forbid torture or cruel
treatment should not
apply to the
interrogations of enemy
combatants overseas.
The memo asserts
that domestic and
international laws and
treaties, as well as the
U.S. Constitution, would
not apply to
U.S. interrogations in
foreign lands because of
the president's inherent
wartime powers.
For complete story,
click here.
Awareness of Drug-Induced
Eye Toxicity Crucial for
Patients, Physicians, Says
Public Citizen--April
1st, 2008--WASHINGTON,
D.C. – Physicians and
patients should be aware of
the slew of drugs that can
cause eye disease and be
diligent in identifying
potential adverse effects,
Public Citizen writes in a
new March posting on its WorstPills.org
Web site. A recent
paper published in Drug
Safety identifies 62
drugs that can cause adverse
reactions to the eye. Public
Citizen summarizes the
paper’s findings, highlights
these reactions and
describes how they relate to
structures in the eye and
certain eye conditions.
The eye is composed of a
plethora of different types
of cells, and drugs can
affect each type. The 62
drugs can cause a host of
different eye diseases,
including cataracts,
glaucoma, eye surgery
complications, eyelid and
conjunctival diseases, optic
nerve diseases and retinal
abnormalities. Loss of color
vision, blurred and impaired
vision, decreased night
vision, skin lesions and
blindness are just some of
the symptoms people who
develop these diseases can
experience. While
people are aware of the
undesirable effects drugs
can have on organs in the
body, they often don’t
consider the potential risks
to their eyes. “The
eye is a crucial organ, and
it is important that
physicians and patients
understand the risks
associated with certain
drugs,” said Dr. Sidney
Wolfe, director of the
Health Research Group at
Public Citizen. For
complete story, click here.
CDC bosses ignored warnings--April
1st, 2008--WASHINGTON
(AP) - A federal scientist
said Tuesday his bosses
ignored pleas to alert Gulf
Coast hurricane victims
about formaldehyde dangers
in government-issued
trailers and told him last
year not to write e-mails
about his warnings of
potentially widespread
health problems.
Christopher De Rosa, a top
scientist at the Centers for
Disease Control and
Prevention's toxic
substances agency, said his
bosses told him that his
warnings of a "pending
public health catastrophe"
could be misinterpreted if
publicly released. De
Rosa's comments came Tuesday
at a House Science and
Technology subcommittee
hearing on how the CDC and
other agencies handled
complaints about potentially
high levels of formaldehyde
in trailers issued by the
Federal Emergency Management
Agency to victims of
hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Committee Democrats have
accused FEMA of manipulating
scientific research to play
down the dangers of high
levels of formaldehyde found
in the trailers. They
say the CDC and its Agency
for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry went along
with misleading residents.
In mid-2006, FEMA enlisted
the CDC's help in analyzing
the results of air-quality
tests on unoccupied
trailers. But the CDC didn't
start testing the air
quality in occupied FEMA
trailers - or study the
possible health effects of
long-term formaldehyde
exposure - until late last
year. The CDC said in
February that tests on
hundreds of occupied FEMA
trailers
and mobile homes found
formaldehyde levels that
were, on average, about five
times higher than what
people are exposed to in
most modern homes. The
results prompted FEMA to
step up efforts to move
roughly 35,000 families
still living in the trailers
after the 2005 hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.
Formaldehyde can cause
respiratory problems and has
been classified as a
carcinogen by the
International Agency for
Research on Cancer and a
probable carcinogen by the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
FEMA officials say the
number of occupied trailers
on the Gulf Coast, which
peaked at more than 143,000
after the hurricanes, has
dropped to about 34,000 as
FEMA rushes to move people
into safer housing.
For complete story,
click here.
South Carolina Troopers
Caught Bowling for Brothers
24 Mar 2008 The feds are
investigating
videotapes
of highway patrolmen running
over Black men. Dashboard
cameras in police cruisers,
designed to back up police
accounts of traffic stops,
have exposed a shockingly
ugly practice by some South
Carolina troopers – using
cars to mow down black men.
Federal investigators said
late last week that they are
reviewing videos showing
South Carolina Highway
Patrol officers ramming
their vehicles into fleeing
suspects. "You better run
nigger," then-Lance Cpl.
Daniel C. Campbell is heard
saying as he pursues a perp.
"I'm fixin' to kill you!"
For that episode of
displaced anger,
Campbell was given a
two-day suspension and told
to undergo anger-management
and diversity training!
For complete story,
click here.
--March
27th, 2008--A
Cincinnati police officer
faces a hearing that could
lead to his firing after
investigators found he
violated policy by shooting
a high school student with a
Taser who he mistakenly
thought was a robbery
suspect.
Officers Andrew
Mitchell and DeWayne McMenama have been under investigations since the Jan.
22 incident. The investigation report was made public Thursday.
The two officers were in
the same cruiser in Westwood
at about 7:30 p.m. that
night when police received a
holdup alarm at Jersey
Mike’s, a restaurant at 5555
Glenway Ave.
Mitchell, driving the
cruiser, and McMenama
responded to the Glen
Crossing shopping mall
parking lot where they saw a
man walking from the
restaurant, his head down
and his hands in his
pockets.
Both officers said they
repeatedly yelled at the man
– who later turned out to be
Chris Bauer Jr., 19, a
Western Hills High senior –
who didn’t responded to
their commands to stop.
Mitchell was sitting in his
cruiser, which may have been
moving, when he fired his
Taser, shooting electric
current into Bauer, knocking
him to the ground.
The first time, Mitchell
zapped Bauer for seven
seconds. The Taser delivers
a shock equal to 50,000
volts of electricity
Because Bauer’s hands were
in his pockets when he was
first shocked, he fell
face-first, landing with his
hands under his torso.
Mitchell zapped Bauer again
for five seconds when he
didn’t respond to the
officers’ commands to show
his hands.
The pair quickly handcuffed
Bauer and got him to his
feet. That’s when they
should have realized,
Bauer’s attorney said, that
his client wasn’t ignoring
their commands to stop.
Bauer didn’t hear the
commands because he was
listening to his iPod with
ear buds and couldn’t hear
them, attorney John Helbling
said Thursday.
“It was pretty outrageous
for this poor kid,” Helbling,
said.
Helbling is perhaps best
known as the attorney for
the estate of Roger Owensby
Jr., the man killed in
police custody in 2000. In
that case, he sued on behalf
of the Owensby family and
estate and settled with the
city for $6.5 million.
Bauer was unaware of any
police officers’ presence
much less their commands,
Helbling said.
Because of the fall caused
by the Taser – Bauer was hit
in the back of the neck and
a hand – he suffered a
chipped tooth and cuts on
his face
That was particularly
painful, Helbling said,
because Bauer was recovering
from a hernia surgery the
week before.
“He has loss of memory and
other problems,” Helbling
said. “He has difficulty
trying to do simple tasks.”
Bauer, who was neither
charged nor arrested, works
at a video store in the same
shopping plaza and lives
five minutes away.
Supervisors for police
District 3 – which generally
covers the west side of the
city – began an
investigation that night
that included their district
commander, the assistant
chief in charge of the
patrol officers as well as
Chief Thomas Streicher.
Streicher showed up at the
scene and apologized to
Bauer’s father, Helbling
said.
Police later learned the
initial report of a holdup
at the restaurant was a
false alarm.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
http://news.enquirer.com
Date: March 27th, 2008)
In part the Connecticut
Zyprexa suit charges Eli
Lilly with criminal
activities--March 11th,
2008--"Eli Lilly
allegedly corrupted
physicians, pharmacies and
administrators at nursing
homes and youth detention
centers as part of a massive
illegal
marketing campaign to
promote Zyprexa for
unapproved off-label uses,
including for the treatment
of children." "'The
illegal marketing campaign
exploited children and
senior citizens -causing
severe weight gain, diabetes
and cardiovascular
problems,'
Blumenthal said. 'This
scheme involved payments to
public officials, bogus
educational events and
ghostwritten promotional
articles summarizing suspect
studies. The drug was
marketed for anxiety,
depression and Attention
Deficit
Disorder in children when it
was never approved for any
use in children and caused
serious side effects.
For complete story,
click here.
--April 2008
Issue--The latest
chilling report assessing
FDA's performance, this one
commissioned by the FDA's
own advisory Science Board
describes the FDA as an
organization nearly out of
control: "We were shocked at
the appalling state
of science at the FDA," says
Garret FitzGerald, MD,
chairman of the pharmacology
department at the University
of Pennsylvania School of
Medicine and an advisor on
the report. "The analogy is
Katrina. But we have to fix
this before the hurricane
hits."
Even the department's
champions are worried. "I
don't think the FDA is at a
collapse point yet, but it's
getting close," says
Hubbard, who retired in 2005
after 26 years at the
agency. "In some places,
regulation is so weak that
there's nothing left."
It is clear that without
Congressional action, the
FDA is not likely to return
to its mission of protecting
the public health. But
Congress, no less than FDA
officials, have become
financially dependent on Big
Pharma. CNN reports
(below) that Democratic
senators Barack Obama and
Hillary Clinton are the top
recipients of donations from
the pharmaceutical industry,
according to The Center for
Responsive Politics.
The size of Big Pharma's
checks is determined by
who's in driver's seat of
power--not ideology: "Since
the Democrats took control
of Congress in 2006, money
[from the pharmaceutical
industry] has shifted away
from Republicans, to the
Democrats who hold the keys
to the kingdom." The
following important
recommendations are provided
by The Readers Digest:
Be wary of new drugs.
All medicines come with
risks. When a doctor
prescribes one, he's making
a
judgment call that its
benefits outweigh its
dangers. But with newly
approved drugs, the risks
are not always well
understood at first. That's
why Drummond Rennie, MD, of
the University of
California, San Francisco,
advises sticking to meds
that have been on the market
for at least four or
five years: "I never, ever
take a new drug.
I want to see reports on the
toxic effects after many
thousands of people
have taken it." The
exception: A patient with a
life-threatening condition
may be more willing to
accept risks. Check your
meds at medlineplus.gov.
Report your side effects.
As a consumer, you can (and
should) report adverse
reactions to drugs and
medical devices directly to
the FDA. You can submit a
form online at
www.fda.gov/medwatch or
call 800-FDA-1088. For
complete story,
click here.
What is the real death toll
in Iraq? The
Americans learned one lesson
from Vietnam: don't count
the civilian dead. As a
result, no one
knows how
many Iraqis have been killed
in the five years since the
invasion. Estimates put the
toll at between 100,000 and
one million.
19 Mar 2008 The
British polling firm Opinion
Research Business (ORB)
asked 1,720 Iraqi adults
last summer if they had lost
family
members by violence
since 2003; 16% had lost
one, and 5% two. Using the
2005 census total of
4,050,597 households in
Iraq, this
suggests
1,220,580 deaths
since the invasion.
For complete story,
click here.
United States censors Guantanamo
prisoner's sketch of
force-feeding --Detainee
is cameraman for Al-Jazeera
17 Mar 2008 The United States
has censored a gruesome drawing
by a Guantanamo Bay prisoner [Sami
al-Haj] depicting him as a
skeleton being force-fed at the
military prison, the man's
lawyers said Monday as they
released a recreation of the
sketch. For complete
story,
click here.
Toxicity &
Brain Damage--Take
notice that also non SSRI
anti-depressants (and even Ritalin)
may interact (primary or secondary)
with the serotonergic (or
serotoninergic) system in the brain.
SSRI/SSNRI-induced
Toxicity & Brain Damage by
disrupting the balance of Body &
Brain Metabolism SSRI's
are "Selective
Serotonin Re-Uptake
Inhibitors." In contrast to the
deceiving claim of the
pharmaceutical companies that SSRI's
or SSNRI's may correct some sort of
"biochemical
imbalance" of serotonin
in the brain, all of these
serotonergic agents actually
cause major and dangerous
imbalances in the brain and the
body, evidenced by
the many
medical reports (below) of
severe toxic neurological and
physical side-effects. Neuronal
re-uptake of neurotransmitters is
metabolism. What serotonin
re-uptake inhibitor actually means
is that the SSRI-antidepressant
interferes with ones ability to
metabolise serotonin, so that can
and will build up to toxic
amounts after prolonged use. In
other words, an SSRI-antidepressant
impairs the ability of cells to
metabolise serotonin, not only in
the brain, but -since
serotonin is
widely distributed throughout the
body- in the body as well! The
greatest concentration of serotonin,
around 90%, is not found in the
brain, but is
found in the
gastrointestinal or digestive tract
(human gut, intestines, bowels).
Originally,
the neurotransmitter serotonin
-thought to be secreted by the
Pineal
Gland- is called a neurohormone, because of it's
specific regulatory effect on the
activity of the
Endocrine Glands in the
human body.
(1),(2)
Affecting serotonin
thus means also
affecting the Glandular Endocrine
System. Next to it, serotonin
affects the Cardiovascular System
and the Respiratory System, under
which, the
lungs. Serotonin is also
found in blood platelets and
stimulates platelet aggregation
(blood clotting). Furthermore,
serotonin is known to affect
contraction of
smooth muscles (such
as those of the gut) and blood
vessel elasticity (vasoconstriction
and expansion).
More information:
Serotonin
& the Pineal GlandA
recent
study (25 sept, 2004) shows
us clearly that serotonin toxicity
can even appear rapidly in a few
hours after taking a single
therapeutic dose of SSRI medication.
In Bio-Psychiatry it is a common
thought that SSRI's are believed to
have their effect by inhibiting the
re-uptake of serotonin (downregulation
of
transporters) and thereby
gradually increasing serotonin
outside the tissue cell wall (extracellular)
in the synaptic gap between brain
cells (neurons) in the brain.
In
this important study, Zoloft (Lustral,
sertraline) was given to monkeys for
4 weeks to establish how long it
would take before Zoloft would have
it's effect on
serotonergic neurons
and thus elevation of serotonin. In
contrast with the commonly accepted
SSRI theory, it was observed that
serotonin levels raised NOT
gradually, but rapidly and
dramatically and kept on raising
during these 4 weeks, an effect that
can NOT be ascribed solely to a
"re-uptake inhibition" of
serotonin! (Unable to locate
story at time of archiving. Source:
www.antidepressantsfacts.com Date: Unverified)
--[It is essential
to note at the outset that suddenly
stopping or reducing psychiatric
medications can be hazardous.
Adjustments in medication are best
done under the supervision of a
medical professional.] In the
early
1990s, a new class of drugs
promised to revolutionize the
treatment of schizophrenia and other
mental disorders. Known as atypical
antipsychotics, drugs such as
Clozaril, Zyprexa and Risperdal
largely replaced older medications
such as Thorazine, Haldol and
Prolixin.
Research and advertising
sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry led to the
widespread belief that the
newer medications were
indisputably
safer, more effective and well
worth additional billions of dollars in
taxpayer money. Pharmaceutical
profits soared. Since
then,
the life expectancy of those treated
in community mental health centers has plunged to an
appalling 25 years less
than average.
Life expectancy may
have fallen by as much as 15 years
since 1986. Indications are that the
death rate continues to accelerate
in what must be ranked as one of the
worst public health disasters
in U.S. history. The toxicity
of antipsychotic medications, also
known as neuroleptics, is thoroughly
documented. Atypical antipsychotics initially
seemed less hazardous because they
produce fewer
movement disorders. We
now know that the newer drugs lead
to more cardiovascular disease,
which is by far the leading killer
of those in the public mental health
system. People who need mental
health services already suffer from
high rates of cigarette smoking,
lack of
exercise, substance abuse,
poor nutrition, homelessness and
poor access to health care.
Adding medications pours gasoline on
a fire.
This lethal combination
is almost certainly driving the
spiraling death rate. Advances
in brain imaging techniques show
that
antipsychotic medications cause
brain damage. Animal and human
studies link the drugs to shrinkage
of the cerebral cortex, home to
the
higher functions. One study of
monkeys given either older or newer neuroleptic
medication in doses equivalent to
those given
humans showed an 11
percent to 15 percent shrinkage of
the left parietal lobe. Drugs that
cause brain damage almost invariably
reduce life expectancy.
Marketing campaigns for atypical
antipsychotic drugs target
new groups of patients, including
the elderly and
children.
Public television recently reported
that as many as 1 million children
have
been newly diagnosed with bipolar
disorder, and thus may receive
neuroleptic medication. This does
not include children treated with antipsychotics for other disorders.
The damage to developing brains
cannot be overemphasized. Years
ago, the Soviet Union was
condemned
for giving neuroleptic medication
to political dissidents. We now are
giving a more lethal form of
this medication to our
children.
Where is the outcry?
Recent studies published in the New
England Journal of Medicine
and elsewhere demonstrate that the
newer drugs are no more effective
than the older ones in reducing psychotic
symptoms. Patients stop taking the
new drugs at the
same high rate as
the old ones because they do not like the way the drugs affect
their lives. While medications
are effective in
relieving symptoms
in the short run, research indicates
that people suffering from psychosis
recover more quickly and completely
without medication. Incredibly, one
study showed that those not taking
medications had eight times the
recovery rate of those who
remained
medicated. Research in Finland shows
that immediate psychosocial
interventions achieve far better
results than those in this
country.
It simply makes sense that people
recover better when not treated with
medication that causes brain damage
and shortens
their lives. Yet
professionals and the public widely
believe that it is unethical to
treat serious mental disorders
without antipsychotic
medication.
The reasons for this are complex,
but foremost is the
enormous profitability of the
pharmaceutical industry. In the
early
1990s, the top 10 drug
companies earned more profit than
all the other Fortune 500 companies
combined. The sheer volume of money
corrupts medical research, and
misinformation is fed to
professionals, clients and
the public. The deplorable
conditions at the Oregon
State
Hospital are, unfortunately, just one more
indication of the failure of
psychiatry as a whole. I know many
of the psychiatric
professionals in
Lane County, and they are
intelligent and compassionate people
who want the best for their clients.
There will always
be a place
for medication in the treatment of
emotional disorders, yet there must
be public acknowledgement that the
long-term use of
antipsychotic medication,
particularly the atypicals, is a
costly mistake. Silence truly equals
death. The Oregon Department
of
Addictions and Mental Health has
the responsibility to confront the
terrible inadequacies of the
current system and to fund the
development of alternatives. We owe
this to the taxpayers, to society
and especially to those who suffer
from mental illness. For
complete story,
click here.
Iraq: teachers told to rewrite
history
--MoD accused of
sending propaganda to schools 14
Mar 2008 Britain's biggest teachers'
union has accused the Ministry of Defence of breaking the law over a
lesson plan drawn up to teach pupils
about the Iraq war. Teachers will
threaten to boycott military
involvement in schools at the
union's annual conference next
weekend, claiming the lesson plan is
a "propaganda" exercise and makes
no mention of any civilian
casualties as a result of the war.
For complete story,
click here.
Homeland Security worker in sex bust
13 Mar 2008 A Homeland Security
staffer was busted for promising to
help an applicant get her
immigration papers in exchange for
sexual favors, prosecutors said
Wednesday. Isaac Baichu of the Bronx
allegedly forced a female
applicant to perform oral sex on him
in his car in Queens some time
in December 2007, telling her,
"Trust me, because I'm the one who
can help you," prosecutors said. [Oops!
MSNBC forgot to cover this one.]
For complete story,
click here.
'We now know
that... the government manufactured
evidence to make it look like Omar
was guilty.'U.S. falsely implicates
Guantanamo
prisoner: lawyer 13 Mar 2008
A U.S. military report on a battle
in which a U.S. soldier died in
Afghanistan was altered
after the
fact to falsely blame a young
Canadian prisoner [15-year-old Omar Khadr], his lawyer said on Thursday.
For complete story,
click here.
Iraqis bury 10 after blast U.S. says
killed no one 12 Mar 2008 It was
an incident that aptly summed up the fog
of war in Iraq --
relatives burying nine
women and a child they said were victims
of a bomb attack on a bus in which the
U.S. military said no one died.
In Najaf,
relatives gathered at a cemetery on
Wednesday and accused U.S soldiers in
the convoy of having shot at the bus, a
charge
U.S. military spokesman
[prevaricator] Major-General Kevin
Bergner denied at a news conference in
Baghdad. [Yeah, this is where the
GOP-owned media does the Pentagon's
bidding and tacks on the obligatory
'despite a downturn in violence in
recent months in Iraq.'] For
complete story,
click here.
National Dragnet Is a Click Away
--Authorities to Gain Fast and
Expansive Access to Records 06 Mar
2008 Several thousand law
enforcement
agencies are creating the foundation of
a domestic intelligence system through
computer networks that analyze vast
amounts of police information to 'fight'
crime and 'root out' terror plots...
Those network efforts will begin
expanding further this month,
as some
local and state agencies connect to a
fledgling Justice Department system
called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx.
For complete story,
click here.
FBI: Report to confirm privacy
violations 05 Mar 2008 The FBI
improperly used national security
letters in 2006 to obtain personal
data
on Americans during terror and spy
investigations, Director Robert Mueller
said Wednesday. Mueller told the Senate
Judiciary
Committee that the privacy
breach by FBI agents and lawyers
occurred a year before the bureau
enacted sweeping new reforms to
prevent
future lapses. For complete story,
click here.
FBI chief: Lack of legal shield won't
halt telecom spy partnerships 05
Mar 2008 As Congress debates whether to
wipe out lawsuits
accusing telephone
companies of allegedly illegal wiretaps,
the Bush administration has argued such
cooperation is key to keeping
Americans
safe from terrorists. For complete
story,
click here.
Crimes by Homeland Security agents stir
alert 05 Mar 2008 Bribery. Drug
trafficking. Migrant smuggling. [GOPedophiles
at Homeland Security arrested for molesting
children.] U.S. Customs and Border
Protection is supposed to stop these types
of
crimes. Instead, so many of its officers
have been charged with committing those
crimes themselves that their boss in
Washington
recently issued an alert about
the ''disturbing events'' and the "increase
in the number of employee arrests..." Other
recent South
Florida cases... have involved
officers and agents accepting payoffs for
migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, witness
tampering,
embezzlement and rape. For complete
story,
click here.
Rule by fear or rule by law?--February
4th, 2008--"The power of the Executive to
cast a man into prison without formulating any
charge known to the law,
and particularly to
deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the
highest degree odious and is the foundation of
all totalitarian government whether Nazi or
Communist." - Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of
most Americans, the federal government has
assumed the
authority to institute martial
law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen
and noncitizen alike), and detain people without
legal or constitutional recourse in
the event of
"an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S.,
or to support the rapid development of new
programs." Beginning in 1999, the
government has
entered into a series of
single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary
Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention
camps at undisclosed locations
within the United
States. The government has also contracted with
several companies to build thousands of
railcars, some reportedly equipped with
shackles,
ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale
Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland
Security plan titled
ENDGAME, which sets as its
goal the removal of "all removable aliens" and
"potential terrorists." Fraud-busters such
as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los
Angeles, have
complained about these contracts, saying that
more taxpayer dollars should not go to
taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real
question is:
What kind of "new programs" require
the construction and refurbishment of detention
facilities in nearly every state of the union
with the capacity to house
perhaps millions of
people? Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National
Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the
Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies,"
gives the executive the power to invoke martial
law. For the first time in more than a century,
the president is now authorized to use the
military in response
to "a natural disaster, a
disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any
other condition in which the President
determines that domestic violence has occurred
to
the extent that state officials
cannot maintain public order." The
Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through
Congress just before the 2006 midterm
elections,
allows for the indefinite
imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a
charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist"
organizations, or who speaks
out against the
government's policies. The law calls for secret
trials for citizens and noncitizens alike.
Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued
National
Security Presidential Directive 51
(NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government"
in the event of what the document vaguely calls
a "catastrophic
emergency." Should the president
determine that such an emergency has occurred,
he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he
deems necessary to
ensure "continuity of
government." This could include everything from
canceling elections to suspending the
Constitution to launching a nuclear attack.
Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on
NSPD-51. U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice
(Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way
to expand
the domestic "war on terror." Her
Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed
the House by the lopsided
vote of 404-6, would
set up a commission to "examine and report upon
the facts and causes" of so-called violent
radicalism and extremist ideology, then
make
legislative recommendations on combatting it.
According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun,
Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides
of the
aisle believe the country faces a
native brand of terrorism, and needs a
commission with sweeping investigative
power to combat it. A clue as to where
Harman's commission might be aiming is the
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law
that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil
disobedience, trespass,
or any other crime in
the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other
groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion
protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration
activists, environmentalists, peace
demonstrators, Second Amendment rights
supporters ... the list goes on and on.
According to author Naomi Wolf, the
National Counterterrorism Center holds the names
of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with
the number increasing by 20,000 per month.
What could the
government be contemplating that
leads it to make contingency plans to
detain without recourse millions of its own
citizens? The Constitution does not allow
the
executive to have unchecked power under
any circumstances. The people must not allow the
president to use the war on terrorism to
rule by fear
instead of by law. For complete story,
click here.
--March
5th, 2008--WASHINGTON - The
FBI is
investigating 26
unsolved
civil rights era
cases out of nearly 100
referred to the bureau
over the last year,
Director Robert Mueller
says in calling the
protection of
civil liberties
one of his top
priorities.
Mueller was set to
testify Wednesday at an
FBI oversight hearing
before the Senate.
Lawmakers were expected
to press him about
whether his agents
violated the civil
rights of U.S. citizens
whose personal
information was obtained
secretly in terror and
spy investigations. In a prepared
statement sent Tuesday
to the Senate, Mueller
vows "to protect the
security of our nation
while upholding the
civil rights guaranteed
by the Constitution to
every United States
citizen." "It is not enough to
prevent foreign
countries from stealing
our secrets — we must
prevent that from
happening while still
upholding the rule of
law," Mueller says. "It
is not enough to stop
the terrorist — we must
stop him while
maintaining civil
liberties. It is not
enough to catch the
criminal — we must catch
him
while respecting his
civil rights. "The rule of law,
civil liberties and
civil rights — these are
not our burdens; they
are what make us
better," Mueller says in
his written remarks,
which were obtained by
The Associated Press. Mueller's remarks
offer the first details
about the FBI's efforts
to reopen decades-old
civil rights cases
since the successful
prosecution last summer
of a reputed
Ku Klux Klansman
for his role in the 1964
abduction and killing of
two black teenagers. Early last year, more
than 100 unsolved cases
were referred to the
FBI. Mueller said 95 of
them were sent to
investigators in 17
field offices around the
country. Ultimately, 52
cases were opened and 26
of those were being
reviewed by the Justice
Department "to determine
if additional
investigation is
necessary," he said. "For those cases in
which we can move
forward, we will," he
said.
Democrats who control
the
Senate Judiciary
Committee,
however, were expected
to focus on whether FBI
missteps over the last
year — in civil rights
and other areas — have
been corrected. Senate aides for
several Democrats said
Mueller will probably be
asked about the FBI's
use of national security
letters, which are used
under the
USA Patriot
Act
to pursue suspected
terrorists and spies. An audit last year by
the Justice Department's
inspector general found
that FBI agents and
lawyers, from 2003 to
2005, demanded personal
data on people from
banks, telephone and
Internet providers,
credit bureaus and other
businesses without
official authorization
and in non-emergency
circumstances. The inspector general
is expected to issue a
follow-up audit at any
time that will focus on
the FBI's use of
national security
letters in 2006. Several
Justice Department and
FBI officials
familiar with the
upcoming report say it
will conclude that the
letters were wrongly
used at a similar rate
as during the previous
three years. But the officials
noted that the new audit
only examines national
security letters that
were issued before the
FBI was notified of the
problems in March 2007
and changed its system.
The officials spoke on
condition of anonymity
because they were not
authorized to discuss
the audit publicly. Senate aides said
Mueller also probably
will be asked about the
FBI's failure to pay
phone bills on time,
prompting telephone
companies to cut off
wiretaps used to
eavesdrop on suspected
criminals. In at least
one case, a wiretap used
in a
Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act
investigation "was
halted due to untimely
payment," according to a
January internal Justice
audit.
FISA wiretaps are
used in the government's
most sensitive and
secretive criminal and
intelligence
investigations, and
allow eavesdropping on
suspected
terrorists or
spies. For
complete story,
click here.
Pentagon to Test Invisible Gases In
Crystal City --Test dubbed
'Urban Shield: Crystal City Urban Transport
Study' 01 Mar 2008
(VA) The Pentagon is
scheduled to release odorless, invisible and
'harmless' gases into
Crystal City Thursday to test how quickly
they
spread through buildings, officials said.
The data will help the Pentagon and Arlington
shape their lockdown policies for [Bush's]
chemical and biological attacks or accidents,
and will also help them determine the most
effective locations for sensors. For
complete story,
click here.
US launches missile strike in Somalia
03 Mar 2008 Two U.S. missiles hit a house in
southern Somalia on Monday, according to local
officials, in an attack Washington said was
directed at "known terrorists". A man in Kismayu,
who said the house that was hit belonged
to him,
told Reuters in Kismayu his daughter was among
the wounded and four of his cows had also been
killed in the attack. [The "known terrorists"are Bush and Cheney, carrying out war
crimes all over the world.] For
complete story,
click here.
Antidepressant drugs don't work – official study--February
26th, 2008--They are among the
biggest-selling drugs of all
time, the "happiness pills" that
supposedly lift the moods of
those who suffer depression and
are taken by millions of people
in the UK every year. But
one of the largest studies of
modern antidepressant drugs has
found that they have no
clinically significant effect.
In other words, they don't work.
The finding will send shock
waves through the medical
profession and patients and
raises serious questions about
the regulation of the
multinational pharmaceutical
industry, which was accused
yesterday of withholding data on
the drugs. It also came as Alan
Johnson, the Health Secretary,
announced that 3,600 therapists
are to be trained during the
next three years to provide
nationwide access through the GP
service to "talking treatments"
for depression, instead of
drugs, in a £170m scheme. The
popularity of the new generation
of antidepressants, which
include the best known brands
Prozac and Seroxat, soared after
they were launched in the late
1980s, heavily promoted by drug
companies as safer and leading
to fewer side-effects than the
older tricyclic antidepressants.
The publication in 1994 of
Listening to Prozac by Peter Kramer, in which he suggested
anyone with too little "joy
juice" might give themselves a
dose of the "mood brightener"
Prozac , lifted sales into the
stratosphere. In the UK, an
estimated 3.5 million people
take the drugs, collectively
known as selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in
any one year and 29 million
prescriptions were issued in
2004. Prozac, the best known of
the SSRIs made by Eli Lilly, was
the world's fastest-selling drug
until it was overtaken by
Viagra. In the study,
researchers conducted a
meta-analysis of all 47 clinical
trials, published and
unpublished, submitted to the
Food and Drug Administration in
the US, made in support of
licensing applications for six
of the best known antidepressant
drugs, including Prozac, Seroxat
– which is made by
GlaxoSmithKline – and Efexor made by Wyeth. The results
showed the drugs were effective
only in a very small group of
the most extremely depressed.
For complete story,
click here.
US Vets to Testify About War Crimes They Committed
or Witnessed 28 Feb 2008 U.S. veterans of
the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan are planning to
descend on Washington from Mar. 13-16 to testify
about
war crimes they
committed or personally witnessed in
those countries. "The war in Iraq is not covered to
its potential because of how dangerous it is for
reporters to cover it,"
said Liam Madden, a former
Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against
the War.
[Let's get the betting pool going on
what will dominate the mainstream media on March
13-16. I am thinking six school lockdowns, an
explosion/shootup of an Illinois shopping mall, the
release of a new 'bin Laden' videotape, or the
'killing' of the 548th 'al-Qaeda number two' in the
'restive Anbar province.' --LRP] For complete
story, click here.
ACLU: 900,000 Names on U.S. Terror Watch Lists
27 Feb 2008 The FBI now keeps a list of over 900,000
names belonging to known or suspected terrorists, the
American Civil Liberties Union said today. Last
September, the ACLU
notes, the Department of Justice's Inspector General
reported the FBI watch list was at 700,000 names,
and growing at 20,000 names per month. For
complete story,
click here.
Journalist for CTV labelled 'unlawful enemy
combatant' by U.S. military
27 Feb 2008 The
U.S. military has designated a journalist
employed by CTV in
Afghanistan as an unlawful enemy combatant. A military
spokesman told the Associated Press that a review board
has
determined Jawed Ahmad, an Afghan national, is a danger to
foreign troops and the Afghan government. For complete
story,
click here.
Canada-U.S. pact allows cross-border military activity in civil
emergency 23 Feb 2008 Canada and the U.S. have signed an
agreement that paves the way for the militaries from either
nation to send troops across each other's borders during an
emergency, but some are questioning why the Harper government
has kept silent on the deal. Neither the Canadian government nor
the Canadian Forces announced the new agreement, which was
signed Feb. 14 in Texas. The U.S. military's Northern Command,
however, publicized the agreement with a statement, which allows the military from one nation to
support the armed forces
of the other nation in a civil emergency. [See:U.S.
Northern Command, Canada Command establish new bilateral Civil
Assistance Plan 14 Feb 2008.] For complete story,
click here.
Anthrax tests on troops to be conducted 'strictly under
supervision'--February 24th, 2008--Following
deliberation on petition protesting IDF medical experimentation
on soldiers, government announces Ministry of Health to
supervise such experiments. State officials reported to
the High Court of Justice on Sunday that all medical experiments
on IDF soldiers are to be conducted only under strict Health
Ministry supervision and approval. The State also reported to the court that the Health Ministry protocol for human
experimentation is to be implemented in the IDF as standard
command. This announcement was made following a petition
brought to the court by the human rights group Physicians for
Human Rights, in conjunction with several Israeli Defense Force
soldiers, protesting medical experimentation on active duty
soldiers in the IDF. Most prominently, petitioners
protested the use of IDF soldiers in secret experiments testing
Anthrax vaccines, codenamed "Omer 2". Physicians For Human
Rights petitioned the High Court three months ago, demanding
that the IDF stop medical experimentation on soldiers, and
demanding the establishment of a commission of inquiry on this
matter. The IDF soldiers petitioning the court demanded
that they be compensated for pain and suffering endured during
such experimentation. The "Omer 2" Anthrax experiment that
triggered this petition was held between 1999 and 2006, and
included some 800 IDF soldiers. The experiment included a series
of seven injections, some including an American Anthrax vaccine,
and others a recently developed Israeli formula.
Physicians for Human Right has maintained that the experiment
failed to uphold several ethical imperatives, including
garnering the informed consent of the soldiers in question, as
well as following up on their general health and well being at
the conclusion of the experiment. Israeli law regulates
medical experiments on human beings through sub-ordinances
rather than through major legislation. In the IDF, the
legislative status of human medical experiments is even more
uncorroborated. FOr complete story,
click here.
Inside the world of war profiteers --From prostitutes
to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors
in Iraq cheated the U.S. 21 Feb 2008 (IL) A common thread
runs through these cases and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from
allegations the firm failed to protect employees sexually assaulted by co-workers to findings that it charged $45 per can
of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced crucial troop support jobs
while slashing the number of government contract watchdogs. The
dollar value of Army contracts quadrupled from $23.3 billion in
1992 to
$100.6 billion in
2006, according to a recent report by a Pentagon panel.
For complete story, click here.
UK troops accused of executions and torture in Iraq
22 Feb 2008 Lawyers for five Iraqis have accused British soldiers of
mass
executions and torture and called for a police investigation
into an "atrocious episode" in British army history. Phil Shiner and Martyn
Day produced statements on Friday from five men who say they
were detained by British forces after a battle in southern Iraq in
May
2004. The men, who were blindfolded and bound, said their
captors repeatedly beat and abused them, including forcing them to
strip
naked. While detained, they said they heard the systematic
torture and execution of up to 20 other prisoners. For
complete story,
click here.
New Bill To Allow Police Misconduct Be Hidden From Public
--February 14th, 2008--A new bill proposed at the
legislature would
allow for police to
withhold misconduct reports from the public.
Supporters of the bill believe that police misconduct should be kept
secret
from the public so to not discredit
police testimony. Others say
that a forthright police unit is essential to the community. In
September, Jared Massey was
zapped with a taser by Trooper
John Gardner.
A video of the incident was recorded from Gardner’s patrol car. Gardner
can be seen shocking Massey until he
hits the ground while Massey’s
wife
screams from the side of their SUV. More than a million people
watched the video on “YouTube.” Massey was shocked
to see his new found
fame. The
footage may have never been seen had Massey not made a records
request to obtain the tape. For complete story,
click here.
Scalia: It is "extraordinary" to assume that the U.S. Constitution's ban
on "cruel and unusual punishment" also applies to
"so-called" torture.Top court's Scalia defends physical interrogation12 Feb 2008
Reichwing U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said on Tuesday some
physical interrogation techniques [torture] can be used on a suspect in
the event of an imminent threat, such as a hidden bomb about to blow up.
In such cases, "smacking someone in the face" could be justified, the
outspoken Scalia told the BBC. "You can't come in smugly and with
great self satisfaction and say 'Oh it's torture, and therefore it's no
good.'" For complete story, click here.
Scalia says 'so-called torture' may not be unconstitutional
12
Feb 2008 US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Tuesday defended the
use of harsh physical interrogation techniques, saying in an interview
with Law in Action on BBC Radio 4 that they may be justified to deter an
immediate threat. Scalia argued that "so-called torture" may not
necessarily be prohibited by the US constitution, as he said the Eighth
Amendment bar against "cruel and unusual
punishment" was only intended
to apply to criminal punishments... For complete story,
click here.
Army quietly changed rules in '06 to allow military executions at
'other locations' --Muslim section of cemetery at Guantanamo
has been dedicated by Islamic cultural adviser 12 Feb 2008 If six
suspected terrorists are sentenced to death at
Guantanamo Bay for the Sept.
11 attacks, U.S. Army regulations that were quietly amended two years ago
open the possibility of
execution by lethal injection at the military base
in Cuba, experts said Tuesday. Until recently, experts on military law said,
it was
understood that military regulations required executions to be
carried out by lethal injection at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. But in
January 2006, the Army changed its procedures for military executions,
allowing "other locations" [such as
KBR detention centers] to
be used. The new regulations
say that only the president can approve an execution and that the secretary
of the Army will authorize
the location. [The Army
quietly changed its regulations to allow military executions at 'other
locations' in January 2006.
Guess who got a multi-year, no-bid $385 million contract to construct detention
centers on US soil, the same month and year? See:
KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support
Project For Emergency Support Services For complete story,
click here.
'They have
permission to 'shoot to kill' in the event of martial law.'The
FBI Deputizes Business By Matthew Rothschild 07 Feb 2008 Today, more
than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the
FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly
growing group, called
InfraGard,
receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does--and, at
least on one occasion, before elected officials... One business executive, who
showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to
kill" in the event of martial law... This business owner says he attended
a small InfraGard meeting where agents of the FBI and Homeland Security
discussed in astonishing detail what InfraGard members may be called upon to
do... "Then they said when--not if--martial law is declared, it
was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we
had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted," he
says. For complete story,
click here.
AP
Confirms Secret Camp Inside Guantanamo 06 Feb 2008 Somewhere amid the
cactus-studded hills on this sprawling Navy base, separate from the cells
where hundreds of men suspected of links to 'al-Qaida' and the Taliban have
been locked up for years, is a place even more closely guarded - a jailhouse
so protected [hidden from human rights organizations] that its very location
is top secret. For the first time, the top commander of detention operations
at Guantanamo has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.guardian.co.uk
Date: February 6, 2008)
Britney
Spears Was Drugged, Controlled By Sam Lutfi, Parents Allege 'Mr. Lutfi has
drugged Britney ... he claims to control everything,' singer's father wrote in
petition for restraining order.--Feb. 1st, 2008--Britney
Spears' parents allege that the singer's acting manager, Sam Lutfi, was drugging her to control her, according to the petition for the restraining
order against him, released by Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday (February
5). Lutfi, who already has had three other parties file requests for
restraining orders against him, is ordered in this latest one issued on Friday
to stay 250 yards away from Britney, her homes, her cars, her children's homes
and child-care facilities, her sibling's homes, her parents' homes, and UCLA
Medical Center, where she's currently hospitalized. The order was extended on
Monday to include no contact with Spears by phone, e-mail or text
message. Since meeting the singer "in or about" October, Lutfi
has "essentially moved into Britney's home and has purported to take
control of her life, home, and finances," according to Jamie Spears, the
singer's father, who has temporary conservator powers over the singer's person
and estate. "Mr. Lutfi has drugged Britney," Jamie wrote. "He
has cut Britney's home phone line and removed her cell-phone chargers. He
yells at her. He claims to control everything - Britney's business manager,
her attorneys and the security guards at the gate." He asked for
the restraining order "to avoid the risk of physical harm to Britney by
Mr. Lutfi and to allow her to undergo necessary medical treatment without
interference by Mr. Lutfi," according to the petition. A
declaration from Lynne Spears, the singer's mother, explained in more detail
some incidents in late January that gave both parents cause for concern. Lynne
wrote that she, her friend Jackie and Jamie went to visit Britney's home on
January 28 because they heard on the news that their daughter had been in a
big argument with Lutfi and that she was crying. When they arrived, they found
Lutfi, who told them that Britney only wanted to see her mother and that she
was frightened to see her father. The paparazzi were allowed inside - but not
Jamie Spears. For complete story, click here.
Lilly's
$1 Billion E-Mailstrom--Feb. 5th, 2008--A secret memo meant for
a colleague lands in a Times reporter's in-box. When the New York Times
broke the story last week that Eli Lilly & Co. was in confidential
settlement talks with the government, angry calls flew behind the scenes as
the drug giant's executives accused federal officials of leaking the
information. As the company's lawyers began turning over rocks closer to
home, however, they discovered what could be called A Nightmare on Email
Street, a pharmaceutical consultant told Portfolio.com. One of its outside
lawyers at Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton had mistakenly emailed
confidential information on the talks to Times reporter Alex Berenson instead
of Bradford Berenson, her co-counsel at Sidley Austin. With the
negotiations over alleged marketing improprieties reaching a mind-boggling sum
of $1 billion, Eli Lilly had every reason to want to keep the talks under
wraps. It was paying the two fancy law firms a small fortune to negotiate
deftly and quietly. If and when it did settle the allegations that it
had improperly marketed its most profitable drug, Zyprexa, for schizophrenia,
it would certainly want to announce the news on terms carefully negotiated with the government. "We usually try to brace for that [kind of]
story," a Lilly staffer said. So when the Times' Berenson began
calling around for comment, and seemed to possess remarkably detailed inside
information about the negotiations, Lilly executives were certain the source
of the leak was the government. As it turned out, one of Eli Lilly's
lawyers at Pepper Hamilton in Philadelphia wanted to email Sidley Austin's
Berenson, about the negotiations. But apparently, the name that popped up from
her email correspondents was the wrong Berenson. Alex Berenson logged on
to find an internal "very comprehensive document" about the
negotiations, the consultant said, and on January 30, Berenson's article,
"Lilly in Settlement Talks With U.S." appeared on the Times'
website. A similar article followed the next day on the front page of the New
York Times. Those who knew the real story must have had a chuckle-or
shed some tears-over Lilly's statement to the Times that it had "no
intention of sharing those discussions [with the government] with the news
media and it would be speculative and irresponsible for anyone to do
so." When reached for comment, Alex Berenson told Portfolio.com,
"I can't say anything. I just can't." A spokeswoman for the
U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia, which is spearheading the Zyprexa
investigation, declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Eli Lilly.
However, the Lilly spokeswoman called back to add that the drugmaker would
continue to retain Pepper Hamilton. Phone calls to Sidley Austin and Pepper
Hamilton were not returned. And sadly, no confidential emails with
further scoops were received in error. For complete story, click here.
Bush
asserts authority to bypass defense act --Bush asserted four
sections of bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, so executive
branch is not bound to obey them 30 Jan 2008 President [sic] Bush this
week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a
prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military
bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill. Bush made
the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing
the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. For complete story,
click here.
Iraq
conflict has killed a million, says survey
30 Jan 2008 More than one
million Iraqis have died as a result of the conflict in their country since
the U.S.-led invasion in 2003,
according
to research conducted by one of Britain's leading polling groups. The
survey,
conducted by Opinion Research Business (ORB) with 2,414 adults in face-to-face
interviews, found that 20 percent of people had had at least one death in
their household as a result of the conflict, rather than natural causes.
For complete story, click here.
Halliburton
Co. enjoys 46% income growth 29 Jan 2008 Net income of the American
oilfield services provider Halliburton Co. in 2007 was $3,5 billion, up 46%
from $2,4 billion of the previous year. Halliburton reported that revenue was
$15,3 billion, an increase of 19% from $12,9 billion in 2006. Halliburton’s
net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $690 million. This compares to
net income of $658 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. For complete
story, click here.
Like
FBI, CIA Has Used Secret 'Letters'
25 Jan 2008 Newly released documents shed light on the use of national
security letters by
the CIA. The spy agency has employed them to obtain
financial information about U.S. residents and does so under extraordinary
secrecy, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained
copies of CIA letters under the Freedom of Information Act.
The CIA's requests
for financial records come with "gag orders" on the recipients, said
ACLU lawyer Melissa Goodman. In many cases,
she said, the recipient is not
allowed to keep a copy of the letter or even take notes about the information
turned over to the CIA. For complete story, click here.
Pre-emptive
nuclear strike a key option, Nato told
22 Jan 2008 The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack
to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of
mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato
by five of
the west's most senior military officers and strategists. Calling for
root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing
the US, Nato and the
European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the
challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former
armed forces chiefs
from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a
"first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable
instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect
of a nuclear-free world". It has been presented to the
Pentagon in
Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the
past 10 days. For complete story, click here.
New
Generation of Homeless Vets Emerges--January 20th, 2008--LEEDS,
Mass. - Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this
lifeless
conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself
T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran.
There was
a happy homecoming, but then an accident - car crash, broken
collarbone. And then a move east, close to his wife's new job but away from
his best friends.
And then self-destruction: He would gun his motorcycle
to 100 mph and try to stand on the seat. He would wait for his wife to leave
in the morning, draw the
blinds and open up whatever bottle of booze was
closest. He would pull out his gun, a .45-caliber, semiautomatic pistol.
He would lovingly clean it, or just
look at it and put it away. Sometimes
place it in his mouth. "I don't know what to do anymore," his
wife, Anna, told him one day. "You can't be here
anymore."
Peter Mohan never did find a steady job after he left Iraq. He lost his wife -
a judge granted their divorce this fall - and he lost his friends and he
lost
his home, and now he is here, in a shelter. He is 28 years old.
"People come back from war different," he offers by way of a
summary. This is not a
new story in America: A young veteran back from
war whose struggle to rejoin society has failed, at least for the moment,
fighting demons and left
homeless. But it is happening to a new
generation. As the war in Afghanistan plods on in its seventh year, and the
war in Iraq in its fifth, a new cadre of
homeless veterans is taking shape.
And with it come the questions: How is it that a nation that became so
familiar with the archetypal homeless, combat-addled Vietnam veteran is now
watching as more homeless veterans turn up from new wars? What lessons
have we not learned? Who is failing these
people? Or is homelessness an
unavoidable byproduct of war, of young men and women who devote themselves to
serving their country and then see things
no man or woman should? ---For
as long as the United States has sent its young men - and later its young
women - off to war, it has watched as a segment
of them come home and lose the
battle with their own memories, their own scars, and wind up without homes.
The Civil War produced thousands of
wandering veterans. Frequently addicted to
morphine, they were known as "tramps," searching for jobs and, in
many cases, literally still tending their
wounds. More than a decade
after the end of World War I, the "Bonus Army" descended on
Washington - demanding immediate payment on benefits that
had been promised to
them, but payable years later - and were routed by the U.S. military.
And, most publicly and perhaps most painfully, there was
Vietnam: Tens of
thousands of war-weary veterans, infamously rejected or forgotten by many of
their own fellow citizens. Now it is happening again, in small
but
growing numbers. For now, about 1,500 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan
have been identified by the Department of Veterans Affairs. About 400 of
them
have taken part in VA programs designed to target homelessness. The
1,500 are a small, young segment of an estimated 336,000 veterans in the
United States who were homeless at some point in 2006, the most recent year
for which statistics are available, according to the National Alliance to End
Homelessness. Still, advocates for homeless veterans use words like
"surge" and "onslaught" and even "tsunami" to
describe what could happen in the
coming years, as both wars continue and
thousands of veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress. People who
have studied postwar trauma say there is
always a lengthy gap between coming
home - the time of parades and backslaps and "The Boys Are Back in
Town" on the local FM station - and the
moments of utter darkness that
leave some of them homeless. In that time, usually a period of years,
some veterans focus on the horrors they saw on the
battlefield, or the friends
they lost, or why on earth they themselves deserved to come home at all. They
self-medicate, develop addictions, spiral down.
How - or perhaps the
better question is why - is this happening again? "I really wish I
could answer that question," says Anthony Belcher, an outreach
supervisor
at New Directions, which conducts monthly sweeps of Skid Row in Los Angeles,
identifying homeless veterans and trying to help them get over
addictions.
"It's the same question I've been asking myself and everyone around me.
I'm like, wait, wait, hold it, we did this before. I don't know how our
society can allow this to happen again." For complete story, click here.
License,
Registration and DNA, Please--January 19th, 2008--A brake light
on Howard Blum’s car had burned out, a bit of news he learned when a police
officer pulled him over one evening last year as he drove up Park Avenue in
Manhattan. Mr. Blum, on his way home to Connecticut, produced his license and
registration for the police officer, who returned to his patrol car to check
on the documents. A moment later, Mr. Blum said, the officer ordered him
out of the car and handcuffed him. The computer in the police car showed that
his New York State license had been suspended in 1998, although Mr. Blum’s
Connecticut license was valid. “I had been at a movie opening that
night, and was wearing a cashmere coat I had just gotten, standing on the
corner of 85th Street and Park with my hands cuffed behind my back,” Mr.
Blum recalled Friday. Mr. Blum spent the night and most of the next day
in jail, the computer system showing paid tickets as unpaid, up-to-date
insurance as lapsed. And if a proposal by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
catches on, Mr. Blum would have had one more step in the process: submitting
his DNA to a databank that would check to see if it matched evidence from any
unsolved crimes. This week, the mayor proposed that everyone arrested
for any crime in New York City — before the case has been judged — should
be required to provide a sample of DNA. The mayor wants a change in state law,
which now requires DNA testing only after a conviction. “ We’re
going to have DNA testing for someone picked up for a busted taillight and
computer error about tickets?” asked Mr. Blum, who had been a reporter for
The New York Times in the 1980s and who wrote about his experience last April
in the paper. Well, yes, Mayor Bloomberg and his aides say. They argue
that the more DNA the authorities have, the faster computers will be able to
match the right people to crimes, and spare the wrong ones from punishment.
“This will prevent future crimes,” said John Feinblatt, the city’s
criminal justice coordinator. He acknowledged that some people would resist
the proposal on privacy grounds, but said its adoption was “inevitable.”From the earliest days of his administration, Mr. Bloomberg has taken
aggressive stances in weighing government authority against individual
privacy. In 2003, police detectives questioned people arrested at antiwar
demonstrations about their political viewpoints, their opinions on President
Bush, and how they had heard about the demonstration; the information was put
into a database. After a public outcry, the police announced that they would
stop asking such questions and delete the information already collected. For
18 months, the police under Mr. Bloomberg conducted wide-ranging surveillance
of groups that planned to protest at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Undercover officers traveled across the country, infiltrating groups, in some
cases staying in the homes of activists. Mayor Bloomberg has said this
intelligence headed off violent disruptions during the convention. The
creation of an expanded DNA database also has the aim of greater public
safety, Mr. Feinblatt said, citing a study done in Chicago that supported
expanded testing as a way to prevent crimes. Indeed, had DNA testing been more
widely practiced in 1989, the man who raped and nearly killed the Central Park
jogger might have been stopped before he went on to murder another woman and
rape two others; instead, five teenagers were sent to prison for the attack,
and were not cleared until 13 years later. No serious scholars of
criminal justice dispute the power of DNA. Yet biological evidence is
available only in a fraction of cases, and studies have shown that the main
causes of wrongful conviction are eyewitness errors and false confessions. Mr. Feinblatt declined to discuss what steps, if any, the city had taken to
minimize those kinds of errors. In forcing people not convicted of a
crime to surrender DNA samples upon their arrest, the city would extend the
thread of government authority into the intimate warrens of individual genetic
privacy. Mr. Feinblatt said crime databases keep a portion of the DNA
that currently does not reveal genetic traits. Moreover, he said, the city
would automatically destroy the records of anyone not convicted. If the
new plan becomes law, it will net few people like Mr. Blum. The
fastest-growing area of arrests in New York has been for marijuana possession.
Blacks are arrested for that offense at eight times the rate of whites,
although pot is more widely used by whites, according to a study by a Queens
College professor. “You won’t see a lot of people on Park Avenue
wearing cashmere coats in handcuffs,” Mr. Blum said. For complete story,
click here.
Selective
Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy--January
17th, 2008--Background Evidence-based medicine is
valuable to the
extent that the evidence base is complete and unbiased. Selective publication
of clinical trials - and the outcomes within those trials - can lead
to
unrealistic estimates of drug effectiveness and alter the apparent
risk-benefit ratio. Methods We obtained reviews from the Food and Drug
Administration
(FDA) for studies of 12 antidepressant agents involving 12,564
patients. We conducted a systematic literature search to identify matching
publications. For
trials that were reported in the literature, we compared the
published outcomes with the FDA outcomes. We also compared the effect size
derived from the
published reports with the effect size derived from the
entire FDA data set. Results Among 74 FDA-registered studies, 31%,
accounting for 3449 study
participants, were not published. Whether and how
the studies were published were associated with the study outcome. A total of
37 studies viewed by the
FDA as having positive results were published; 1
study viewed as positive was not published. Studies viewed by the FDA as
having negative or questionable
results were, with 3 exceptions, either not
published (22 studies) or published in a way that, in our opinion, conveyed a
positive outcome (11 studies).
According to the published literature, it
appeared that 94% of the trials conducted were positive. By contrast, the FDA
analysis showed that 51% were
positive. Separate meta-analyses of the FDA and
journal data sets showed that the increase in effect size ranged from 11 to
69% for individual drugs and was
32% overall. Conclusions: We cannot
determine whether the bias observed resulted from a failure to submit
manuscripts on the part of authors and
sponsors, from decisions by journal
editors and reviewers not to publish, or both. Selective reporting of
clinical trial results may have adverse consequences
for researchers, study
participants, health care professionals, and patients. For complete
story,
click here.
How
the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story 15 Jan 2008 Senior Pentagon
officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used
an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the Jan. 6 U.S.-Iranian incident
in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military
aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.
The initial press stories on the incident, all of which can be traced to a
briefing by deputy assistant secretary of defence for public affairs in charge
of media operations Bryan Whitman, contained similar information that has
since been repudiated by the Navy itself. For complete story,
click here.
Canada
puts U.S. on torture watch list: CTV --Canada's 'torture awareness'
watch list includes Syria, Iran, China, Afghanistan, the United States, Guantanamo Bay, and Israel. 16 Jan 2008 Omar Khadr's lawyers say they
can't understand why Canada is not doing more to help their client in light of
new evidence that Ottawa has put the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a
watch list for torture. Khadr -- a Canadian citizen who was just 15-years-old
when he was captured in Afghanistan more than five years ago and taken to Guantanamo -- has claimed that he has been tortured at the prison. Now, CTV
News has obtained documents that put Guantanamo Bay on a torture watch list.
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU
Report: Government Must Abandon Misguided Approach to Pandemic Preparedness
(aclu.org) 14 Jan 2008 As fears of a
flu pandemic have grown, the Bush
administration has pursued a misguided approach to pandemic preparation that
relies on a law enforcement/national security approach, rather than a public
health approach to the problem, and which exposes Americans to
unnecessary
risk. That is the finding of an expert
report
being released today by the American Civil Liberties Union at the National
Press
Club in Washington, DC. For complete story,
click here.
Vaccines
and Medical Experiments on Children, Minorities, Women and Inmates (1845 -
2007)--December 14th, 2007--
Think U.S. health
authorities have never conducted outrageous medical experiments on children,
women, minorities, homosexuals and inmates? Think again: This timeline,
originally put together by Dani Veracity (a NewsTarget reporter), has been
edited and updated with recent vaccination experimentation programs in
Maryland and New Jersey. Here's what's really happening in the United States
when it comes to exploiting the public for medical experimentation:
(1845 - 1849) J. Marion Sims, later hailed as the
"father of gynecology," performs medical experiments on enslaved
African women without anesthesia.These women would usually die of infection
soon after surgery. Based on his belief that the movement of newborns' skull
bones during protracted births causes trismus, he also uses a shoemaker's
awl, a pointed tool shoemakers use to make holes in leather, to practice
moving the skull bones of babies born to enslaved mothers (Brinker).
(1895)
New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls
"an idiot with chronic epilepsy" with gonorrhea as part of a
medical experiment ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and
After").
(1896)
Dr. Arthur Wentworth turns 29 children at Boston's Children's Hospital into
human guinea pigs when he performs spinal taps on them, just to test whether
the procedure is harmful (Sharav).
(1906)
Harvard professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines
with cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors
with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors cite
this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
(1911)
Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research
publishes data on injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into the skin
of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to develop a skin
test for syphilis. Later, in 1913, several of these children's parents sue
Dr. Noguchifor allegedly infecting their children with syphilis
("Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human
Experimentation in America before the Second World War").
(1913)
Medical experimenters "test" 15 children at the children's home
St. Vincent's House in Philadelphia with tuberculin, resulting in permanent
blindness in some of the children. Though the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives records the incident, the researchers are not punished for
the experiments ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and
After").
(1915)
Dr. Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office,
produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous
system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the disease. One
test subject later says that he had been through "a thousand
hells." In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of
the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had known
that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did nothing
about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans. During the
Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors used this study to try to justify their
medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (Greger; Cockburn and St.
Clair, eds.).
(1932)
(1932-1972) The U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Ala. diagnoses 400
poor, black sharecroppers with syphilis but never tells them of their
illness nor treats them; instead researchers use the men as human guinea
pigs to follow the symptoms and progression of the disease. They all
eventually die from syphilis and their families are never told that they
could have been treated (Goliszek, University of Virginia Health System
Health Sciences Library).
(1939)
In order to test his theory on the roots of stuttering, prominent speech
pathologist Dr. Wendell Johnson performs his famous "Monster
Experiment" on
22 children at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in
Davenport. Dr. Johnson and his graduate students put the children under
intense psychological pressure, causing them to switch from speaking
normally to stuttering heavily. At the time, some of the students reportedly
warn Dr. Johnson that, "in the aftermath of World War II, observers
might draw comparisons to Nazi experiments on human subjects, which could
destroy his career" (Alliance for Human Research Protection).
(1941)
Dr. William C. Black infects a 12-month-old baby with herpes as part of a
medical experiment. At the time, the editor of the Journal of Experimental
Medicine, Francis Payton Rous, calls it "an abuse of power, an
infringement of the rights of an individual, and not excusable because the
illness which followed had implications for science" (Sharav).
An article in a 1941 issue of Archives of Pediatrics describes medical
studies of the severe gum disease Vincent's angina in which doctors transmit
the disease from sick children to healthy children with oral swabs (Goliszek).
Researchers give 800 poverty-stricken pregnant women at a Vanderbilt
University prenatal clinic "cocktails" including radioactive iron
in order to determine the iron requirements of pregnant women (Pacchioli).
(1942)
The Chemical Warfare Service begins mustard gas and lewisite experiments on
4,000 members of the U.S. military. Some test subjects don't realize they
are volunteering for chemical exposure experiments, like 17-year-old Nathan Schnurman, who in 1944 thinks he is only volunteering to test "U.S. Navy summer clothes" (Goliszek).
Merck Pharmaceuticals President George Merck is named director of the War
Research Service (WRS), an agency designed to oversee the establishment of a
biological warfare program (Goliszek).
(1944 - 1946) A captain in the medical corps addresses an April 1944 memo to
Col. Stanford Warren, head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section,
expressing his concerns about atom bomb component fluoride's central nervous
system (CNS) effects and asking for animal research to be done to determine
the extent of these effects: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium
hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect ... It
seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T
[code for uranium] is the causative factor ... Since work with these
compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental
effects may occur after exposure." The following year, the Manhattan
Project would begin human-based studies on fluoride's effects (Griffiths and
Bryson).
The Manhattan Project medical team, led by the now infamous University of
Rochester radiologist Col. Safford Warren, injects plutonium into patients
at the University's teaching hospital, Strong Memorial (Burton Report).
(1945)
Continuing the Manhattan Project, researchers inject plutonium into three
patients at the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital (Sharav).
The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence and the CIA begin Operation
Paperclip, offering Nazi scientists immunity and secret identities in
exchange for work on top-secret government projects on aerodynamics and
chemical warfare medicine in the United States ("Project
Paperclip").
(1945 - 1955) In Newburgh, N.Y., researchers linked to the Manhattan Project
begin the most extensive American study ever done on the health effects of
fluoridating public drinking water (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1946)
Continuing the Newburg study of 1945, the Manhattan Project commissions the
University of Rochester to study fluoride's effects on animals and humans in
a project codenamed "Program F." With the help of the New York
State Health Department, Program F researchers secretly collect and analyze
blood and tissue samples from Newburg residents. The studies are sponsored
by the Atomic Energy Commission and take place at the University of
Rochester Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1946 - 1947) University of Rochester researchers inject four
male and two female human test subjects with uranium-234 and uranium-235 in
dosages ranging from 6.4 to 70.7 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight
in order to study how much uranium they could tolerate before their kidneys
become damaged (Goliszek).
Six male employees of a Chicago metallurgical laboratory are given water
contaminated with plutonium-239 to drink so that researchers can learn how
plutonium is absorbed into the digestive tract (Goliszek).
Researchers begin using patients in VA hospitals as test subjects for human
medical experiments, cleverly worded as "investigations" or
"observations" in medical study reports to avoid negative
connotations and bad publicity (Sharav).
The American public finally learns of the biowarfare experiments being done
at Fort Detrick from a report released by the War Department (Goliszek).
(1947)
Col. E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) issues a
top-secret document (707075) dated Jan. 8. In it, he writes that
"certain radioactive substances are being prepared for intravenous
administration to human subjects as a part of the work of the contract"
(Goliszek).
A secret AEC document dated April 17 reads, "It is desired that no
document be released which refers to experiments with humans that might have
an adverse reaction on public opinion or result in legal suits,"
revealing that the U.S. government was aware of the health risks its nuclear
tests posed to military personnel conducting the tests or nearby civilians (Goliszek).
The CIA begins studying LSD's potential as a weapon by using military and
civilian test subjects for experiments without their consent or even
knowledge. Eventually, these LSD studies will evolve into the MKULTRA
program in 1953 (Sharav).
(1947 - 1953) The U.S. Navy begins Project Chatter to identify and test
so-called "truth serums," such as those used by the Soviet Union
to interrogate spies. Mescaline and the central nervous system depressant
scopolamine are among the many drugs tested on human subjects (Goliszek).
(1948)
Based on the secret studies performed on Newburgh, N.Y. residents beginning
in 1945, Project F researchers publish a report in the August 1948 edition
of the Journal of the American Dental Association, detailing fluoride's
health dangers. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) quickly censors it
for "national security" reasons (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1950)
(1950 - 1953) The U.S. Army releases chemical clouds over six American and
Canadian cities. Residents in Winnipeg, Canada, where a highly toxic
chemical called cadmium is dropped, subsequently experience high rates of
respiratory illnesses (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
In order to determine how susceptible an American city could be to
biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of Bacillus globigii
bacteria from ships over the San Francisco shoreline. According to
monitoring devices situated throughout the city to test the extent of
infection, the eight thousand residents of San Francisco inhale five
thousand or more bacteria particles, many becoming sick with pneumonia-like
symptoms (Goliszek).
Dr. Joseph Strokes of the University of Pennsylvania infects 200 female
prisoners with viral hepatitis to study the disease (Sharav).
Doctors at the Cleveland City Hospital study changes in cerebral blood flow
by injecting test subjects with spinal anesthesia, inserting needles in
their jugular veins and brachial arteries, tilting their heads down and,
after massive blood loss causes paralysis and fainting, measuring their
blood pressure. They often perform this experiment multiple times on the
same subject (Goliszek).
Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, later of MKULTRA infamy due to his 1957 to1964
experiments on Canadians, publishes an article in the British Journal of Physical Medicine, in which he describes experiments that entail forcing
schizophrenic patients at Manitoba's Brandon Mental Hospital to lie naked
under 15- to 200-watt red lamps for up to eight hours per day. His other
experiments include placing mental patients in an electric cage that
overheats their internal body temperatures to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and
inducing comas by giving patients large injections of insulin (Goliszek).
(1951)
The U.S. Army secretly contaminates the Norfolk Naval Supply Center in
Virginia and Washington, D.C.'s National Airport with a strain of bacteria
chosen because African-Americans were believed to be more susceptible to it
than Caucasians. The experiment causes food poisoning, respiratory problems
and blood poisoning (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1951 - 1956) Under contract with the Air Force's School of Aviation
Medicine (SAM), the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston begins studying the effects of radiation on cancer patients -- many
of them members of minority groups or indigents, according to sources -- in
order to determine both radiation's ability to treat cancer and the possible
long-term radiation effects of pilots flying nuclear-powered planes. The
study lasts until 1956, involving 263 cancer patients. Beginning in 1953,
the subjects are required to sign a waiver form, but it still does not meet
the informed consent guidelines established by the Wilson memo released that
year. The TBI studies themselves would continue at four different
institutions -- Baylor University College of Medicine, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, the U.S. Naval Hospital in
Bethesda and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine -- until 1971
(U.S. Department of Energy, Goliszek).
American, Canadian and British military and intelligence officials gather a
small group of eminent psychologists to a secret meeting at the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel in Montreal about Communist "thought-control techniques."
They proposed a top-secret research program on behavior modification --
involving testing drugs, hypnosis, electroshock and lobotomies on humans
(Barker).
(1952)
At the famous Sloan-Kettering Institute, Chester M. Southam injects live
cancer cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Prison to study the
progression of the disease. Half of the prisoners in this National
Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) study are black, awakening racial
suspicions stemming from Tuskegee, which was also an NIH-sponsored study (Merritte,
et al.).
(1953 - 1974) The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sponsors iodine
studies at the University of Iowa. In the first study, researchers give pregnant women 100 to 200 microcuries of iodine-131 and then study the
women's aborted embryos in order to learn at what stage and to what extent radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In the second study,
researchers give 12 male and 13 female newborns under 36 hours old and
weighing between 5.5 and 8.5 pounds iodine-131 either orally or via
intramuscular injection, later measuring the concentration of iodine in the
newborns' thyroid glands (Goliszek).
As part of an AEC study, researchers feed 28 healthy infants at the
University of Nebraska College of Medicine iodine-131 through a gastric tube
and then test concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands 24
hours later (Goliszek).
(1953 - 1957) Eleven patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
are injected with uranium as part of the Manhattan Project (Sharav).
In an AEC-sponsored study at the University of Tennessee, researchers inject
healthy two- to three-day-old newborns with approximately 60 rads of iodine-131 (Goliszek).
Newborn Daniel Burton becomes blind when physicians at Brooklyn Doctors
Hospital perform an experimental high oxygen treatment for Retrolental Fibroplasia, a retinal disorder affecting premature infants, on him and
other premature babies. The physicians perform the experimental treatment despite earlier studies showing that high oxygen levels cause blindness.
Testimony in Burton v. Brooklyn Doctors Hospital (452 N.Y.S.2d875) later
reveals that researchers continued to give Burton and other infants excess
oxygen even after their eyes had swelled to dangerous levels (Goliszek, Sharav).
A 1953 article in Clinical Science describes a medical experiment in which
researchers purposely blister the abdomens of 41 children, ranging in age
from eight to 14, with cantharide in order to study how severely the
substance irritates the skin (Goliszek).
The AEC performs a series of field tests known as "Green
Run," dropping radiodine 131 and xenon 133 over the Hanford, Wash. site
-- 500,000
acres encompassing three small towns (Hanford, White Bluffs and
Richland) along the Columbia River (Sharav).
In an AEC-sponsored study to learn whether radioactive iodine affects
premature babies differently from full-term babies, researchers at Harper Hospital in Detroit give oral doses of iodine-131 to 65 premature and
full-term infants weighing between 2.1 and 5.5 pounds (Goliszek).
(1955 - 1957) In order to learn how cold weather affects human physiology,
researchers give a total of 200 doses of iodine-131, a radioactive tracer
that concentrates almost immediately in the thyroid gland, to 85 healthy
Eskimos and 17 Athapascan Indians living in Alaska. They study the tracer within the body by blood, thyroid tissue, urine and saliva samples from the
test subjects. Due to the language barrier, no one tells the test subjects
what is being done to them, so there is no informed consent (Goliszek).
(1956 - 1957) U.S. Army covert biological weapons researchers release
mosquitoes infected with yellow fever and dengue fever over Savannah, Ga.,
and Avon Park, Fla., to test the insects' ability to carry disease. After
each test, Army agents pose as public health officials to test victims for
effects and take pictures of the unwitting test subjects. These experiments
result in a high incidence of fevers, respiratory distress, stillbirths,
encephalitis and typhoid among the two cities' residents, as well as several
deaths (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1957)
The U.S. military conducts Operation Plumbbob at the Nevada Test Site, 65
miles northwest of Las Vegas. Operation Pumbbob consists of 29 nuclear
detonations, eventually creating radiation expected to result in a total
32,000 cases of thyroid cancer among civilians in the area. Around 18,000
members of the U.S. military participate in Operation Pumbbob's Desert Rock
VII and VIII, which are designed to see how the average foot soldier
physiologically and mentally responds to a nuclear battlefield
("Operation Plumbbob", Goliszek).
(1957 - 1964) As part of MKULTRA, the CIA pays McGill University Department
of Psychiatry founder Dr. D. Ewen Cameron $69,000 to perform LSD studies and
potentially lethal experiments on Canadians being treated for minor
disorders like post-partum depression and anxiety at the Allan Memorial
Institute, which houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria
Hospital in Montreal. The CIA encourages Dr. Cameron to fully explore his
"psychic driving" concept of correcting madness through completely
erasing one's memory and rewriting the psyche. These "driving"
experiments involve putting human test subjects into drug-, electroshock-
and sensory deprivation-
induced vegetative states for up to three months, and then playing tape
loops of noise or simple repetitive statements for weeks or months in order
to "rewrite" the "erased" psyche. Dr. Cameron also gives
human test subjects paralytic drugs and electroconvulsive therapy 30 to 40
times, as part of his experiments. Most of Dr. Cameron's test subjects suffer permanent damage as a result of his work (Goliszek, "Donald Ewan
Cameron").
In order to study how blood flows through children's brains, researchers at
Children's Hospital in Philadelphia perform the following experiment on
healthy children, ranging in age from three to 11: They insert needles into
each child's femoral artery (thigh) and jugular vein (neck), bringing the
blood down from the brain. Then, they force each child to inhale a special
gas through a facemask. In their subsequent Journal of Clinical
Investigation article on this study, the researchers note that, in order to
perform the experiment, they had to restrain some of the child test subjects
by bandaging them to boards (Goliszek).
(1958)
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) drops radioactive materials over
Point Hope, Alaska, home to the Inupiats, in a field test known under the
codename "Project Chariot" (Sharav).
(1961)
In response to the Nuremberg Trials, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram
begins his famous Obedience to Authority Study in order to answer his question "Could it be that (Adolf) Eichmann and his million accomplices
in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?
" Male test subjects, ranging in age from 20 to 40 and coming from all
education backgrounds, are told to give "learners" electric shocks
for every wrong answer the learners give in response to word pair questions.
In reality, the learners are actors and are not receiving electric shocks,
but what matters is that the test subjects do not know that. Astoundingly,
they keep on following orders and continue to administer increasingly high
levels of "shocks," even after the actor learners show obvious
physical pain ("Milgram Experiment")
.
(1962)
Researchers at the Laurel Children's Center in Maryland test experimental
acne antibiotics on children and continue their tests even after half of the
young test subjects develop severe liver damage because of the experimental
medication (Goliszek).
The FDA begins requiring that a new pharmaceutical undergo three human
clinical trials before it will approve it. From 1962 to 1980, pharmaceutical
companies satisfy this requirement by running Phase I trials, which
determine a drug's toxicity, on prison inmates, giving them small amounts of
cash for compensation (Sharav).
(1963)
Chester M. Southam, who injected Ohio State Prison inmates with live cancer
cells in 1952, performs the same procedure on 22 senile, African-American
female patients at the Brooklyn Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in order to
watch their immunological response. Southam tells the patients that they are
receiving "some cells," but leaves out the fact that they are
cancer cells. He claims he doesn't obtain informed consent from the patients
because he does not want to frighten them by telling them what he is doing,
but he nevertheless temporarily loses his medical license because of it.
Ironically, he eventually becomes president of the American Cancer Society (Greger,
Merritte, et al.).
Researchers at the University of Washington directly irradiate the testes of
232 prison inmates in order to determine radiation's effects on testicular
function. When these inmates later leave prison and have children, at least
four have babies born with birth defects. The exact number is unknown
because researchers never follow up on the men to see the long-term effects
of their experiment (Goliszek).
(1963 - 1966) New York University researcher Saul Krugman promises parents
with mentally disabled children definite enrollment into the Willowbrook
State School in Staten Island, N.Y., a resident mental institution for
mentally retarded children, in exchange for their signatures on a consent
form for procedures presented as "vaccinations.
" In reality, the procedures involve deliberately infecting children
with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of
infected patients, so that Krugman can study the course of viral hepatitis
as well the effectiveness of a hepatitis vaccine (Hammer Breslow).
(1963 - 1971) Leading endocrinologist Dr. Carl Heller gives 67 prison
inmates at Oregon State Prison in Salem $5 per month and $25 per testicular
tissue biopsy in compensation for allowing him to perform irradiation
experiments on their testes. If they receive vasectomies at the end of the
study, the prisoners are given an extra $100 (Sharav, Goliszek).
Researchers inject a genetic compound called radioactive thymidine into the
testicles of more than 100 Oregon State Penitentiary inmates to learn whether sperm production is affected by exposure to steroid hormones (Greger).
In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers at the University of
California's Department of Pediatrics use 113 newborns ranging in age from
one hour to three days old in a series of experiments used to study changes
in blood pressure and blood flow. In one study, doctors insert a catheter
through the newborns' umbilical arteries and into their aortas and then
immerse the newborns' feet in ice water while recording aortic pressure. In
another experiment, doctors strap 50 newborns to a circumcision board, tilt
the table so that all the blood rushes to their heads and then measure their
blood pressure (Goliszek).
(1964 - 1967) The Dow Chemical Company pays Professor Kligman $10,000 to
learn how dioxin -- a highly toxic, carcinogenic component of Agent Orange
-- and other herbicides affect human skin because workers at the chemical
plant have been developing an acne-like condition called Chloracne and the
company would like to know whether the chemicals they are handling are to
blame. As part of the study, Professor Kligman applies roughly the amount of
dioxin Dow employees are exposed to on the skin 60 prisoners, and is
disappointed when the prisoners show no symptoms of Chloracne. In 1980 and
1981, the human guinea pigs used in this study would begin suing Professor
Kligman for complications including lupus and psychological damage (Kaye).
(1965)
As part of a test codenamed "Big Tom," the Department of Defense
sprays Oahu, Hawaii's most heavily populated island, with Bacillus globigii
in order to simulate an attack on an island complex. Bacillus globigii
causes infections in people with weakened immune systems, but this was not
known to scientists at the time (Goliszek, Martin).
(1966)
U.S. Army scientists drop light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis through
ventilation gates and into the New York City subway system, exposing more than one million civilians, including women and children, to the bacteria (Goliszek).
(1967)
The CIA places a chemical in the drinking water supply of the FDA
headquarters in Washington, D.C. to see whether it is possible to spike
drinking water with LSD and other substances (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers
inject pregnant women with radioactive cortisol to see if the radioactive
material will cross the placentas and affect the fetuses (Goliszek).
The U.S. Army pays Professor Kligman to apply skin-blistering chemicals to
Holmesburg Prison inmates' faces and backs, so as to, in Professor Kligman's
words, "learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from
toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process," information which would have both offensive and defensive applications for the U.S. military
(Kaye).
Professor Kligman develops Retin-A as an acne cream (and eventually a
wrinkle cream), turning him into a multi-millionaire (Kaye).
Researchers paralyze 64 prison inmates in California with a neuromuscular
compound called succinylcholine, which produces suppressed breathing that feels similar to drowning. When five prisoners refuse to participate in the
medical experiment, the prison's special treatment board gives researchers
permission to inject the prisoners with the drug against their will (Greger).
(1968)
Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas and the Southwest
Foundation for Research and Education begin an oral contraceptive study on
70 poverty-stricken Mexican-American women, giving only half the oral
contraceptives they think they are receiving and the other half a placebo.
When the results of this study are released a few years later, it stirs
tremendous controversy among Mexican-Americans (Sharav, Sauter).
(1969)
Experimental drugs are tested on mentally disabled children in
Milledgeville, Ga., without any institutional approval whatsoever (Sharav).
Judge Sam Steinfield's dissent in Strunk v. Strunk, 445 S.W.2d 145 marks the
first time a judge has ever suggested that the Nuremberg Code be applied in
American court cases (Sharav).
(1970)
Under order from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which also
sponsored the Tuskegee Experiment, the free childcare program at Johns Hopkins University collects blood samples from 7,000 African-American youth,
telling their parents that they are checking for anemia but actually
checking for an extra Y chromosome (XYY), believed to be a biological
predisposition to crime. The program director, Digamber Borganokar, does this experiment without Johns Hopkins University's permission (Greger,
Merritte, et al.).
(1971)
Stanford University conducts the Stanford Prison Experiment on a group of
college students in order to learn the psychology of prison life. Some
students are given the role as prison guards, while the others are given the
role of prisoners. After only six days, the proposed two-week study has to
end because of its psychological effects on the participants. The
"guards" had begun to act sadistic, while the
"prisoners" started to show signs of depression and severe
psychological stress (University of New Hampshire).
An article entitled "Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired
Immunological Deficiency States" appears in Federation Proceedings. Dr.
MacArthur and Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division have, at this
point, been conducting mycoplasma research to create a synthetic immunosuppressive agent for about one year, again suggesting that this
research may have produced HIV (Goliszek).
(1973)
An Ad Hoc Advisory Panel issues its Final Report on the Tuskegee Syphilis
Study, writing, "Society can no longer afford to leave the balancing of
individual rights against scientific progress to the scientific
community" (Sharav).
(1977)
The National Urban League holds its National Conference on Human
Experimentation, stating, "We don't want to kill science but we don't
want science to kill, mangle and abuse us" (Sharav).
(1978)
The CDC begins experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials in New York. Its ads
for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.
Professor Wolf Szmuness of the Columbia University School of Public Health
had made the vaccine's infective serum from the pooled blood serum of hepatitis-infected homosexuals and then developed it in chimpanzees, the
only animal susceptible to hepatitis B, leading to the theory that HIV
originated in chimpanzees before being transferred over to humans via this
vaccine. A few months after 1,083 homosexual men receive the vaccine, New
York physicians begin noticing cases of Kaposi's sarcoma, Mycoplasma
penetrans and a new strain of herpes virus among New York's homosexual
community -- diseases not usually seen among young, American men, but that
would later be known as common opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS (Goliszek).
(1980)
According to blood samples tested years later for HIV, 20 percent of all New
York homosexual men who participated in the 1978 hepatitis B vaccine
experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
The first AIDS case appears in San Francisco (Goliszek).
(1981)
The CDC acknowledges that a disease known as AIDS exists and confirms 26
cases of the disease -- all in previously healthy homosexuals living in New
York, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- again supporting the speculation that
AIDS originated from the hepatitis B experiments from 1978 and 1980 (Goliszek).
(1982)
Thirty percent of the test subjects used in the CDC's hepatitis B vaccine
experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
(1985)
A former U.S. Army sergeant tries to sue the Army for using drugs on him in
without his consent or even his knowledge in United States v. Stanley, 483
U.S. 669. Justice Antonin Scalia writes the decision, clearing the U.S.
military from any liability in past, present or future medical experiments without informed consent (Merritte, et al..
(1987)
Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed
her son's brain post mortem for medical study. She later learns that the
state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of "implied consent," meaning
that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ
removal is automatically implied (Merritte, et al.).
(1988)
(1988 - 2001) The New York City Administration for Children's Services
begins allowing foster care children living in about two dozen children's
homes to be used in National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH)
experimental AIDS drug trials. These children -- totaling 465 by the
program's end -- experience serious side effects, including inability to
walk, diarrhea, vomiting, swollen joints and cramps. Children's home
employees are unaware that they are giving the HIV-infected children
experimental drugs, rather than standard AIDS treatments (New York City ACS,
Doran).
(1990)
The United States sends 1.7 million members of the armed forces, 22 percent
of whom are African-American, to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War
("Desert Storm"). More than 400,000 of these soldiers are ordered
to take an experimental nerve agent medication called pyridostigmine, which
is later believed to be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome -- symptoms ranging
from skin disorders, neurological disorders, incontinence, uncontrollable
drooling and vision problems -- affecting Gulf War veterans (Goliszek;
Merritte, et al.).
The CDC and Kaiser Pharmaceuticals of Southern California inject 1,500
six-month-old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles with an
"experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for
use in the United States. Adding to the risk, children less than a year old
may not have an adequate amount of myelin around their nerves, possibly
resulting in impaired neural development because of the vaccine. The CDC
later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being
injected into their children was experimental (Goliszek).
The FDA allows the U.S. Department of Defense to waive the
Nuremberg Code and use unapproved drugs and vaccines in Operation Desert
Shield (Sharav).
(1992)
Columbia University's New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males -- mostly African-American and
Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of
juvenile delinquents -- 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are
linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants
received $125 each, including a $25 Toys 'R' Us gift certificate (Goliszek).
(1994)
President Clinton appoints the Advisory Commission on Human Radiation
Experiments (ACHRE), which finally reveals the horrific experiments conducted during the Cold War era in its ACHRE Report.
(1995)
A 19-year-old University of Rochester student named Nicole Wan dies from
participating in an MIT-sponsored experiment that tests airborne
pollutant
chemicals on humans. The experiment pays $150 to human test subjects (Sharav).
In the Mar. 15 President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
(ACHRE), former human subjects, including those who were used in experiments
as children, give sworn testimonies stating that they were subjected to
radiation experiments and/or brainwashed, hypnotized, drugged,
psychologically tortured, threatened and even raped during CIA experiments.
These sworn statements include:
* Christina DeNicola's statement that, in Tucson, Ariz.,
from 1966 to 1976, "Dr. B" performed mind control experiments
using drugs, post-hypnotic injection and drama, and irradiation experiments
on her neck, throat, chest and uterus. She was only four years old when the
experiments started.
* Claudia Mullen's testimony that Dr. Sidney Gottlieb (of
MKULTRA fame) used chemicals, radiation, hypnosis, drugs, isolation in tubs
of water, sleep deprivation, electric shock, brainwashing and emotional,
sexual and verbal abuse as part of mind control experiments that had the
ultimate objective of turning her, who was only a child at the time, into
the "perfect spy." She tells the advisory committee that
researchers justified this abuse by telling her that she was serving her
country "in their bold effort to fight Communism."
* Suzanne Starr's statement that "a physician, who
was retired from the military, got children from the mountains of Colorado
for experiments.
" She says she was one of those children and that she was the victim of
experiments involving environmental deprivation to the point of forced
psychosis, spin programming, injections, rape and frequent electroshock and
mind control sessions. "I have fought self-destructive programmed
messages to kill myself, and I know what a programmed message is, and I
don't act on them," she tells the advisory committee of the
experiments' long-lasting effects, even in her adulthood (Goliszek).
President Clinton publicly apologizes to the thousands of people who were
victims of MKULTRA and other mind-control experimental programs (Sharav).
President Clinton appoints the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).
Justice Edward Greenfield of the New York State Supreme Court rules that
parents do not have the right to volunteer their mentally incapacitated
children for non-therapeutic medical research studies and that no mentally
incapacitated person whatsoever can be used in a medical experiment without
informed consent (Sharav).
(1996)
Professor Adil E. Shamoo of the University of Maryland and the organization
Citizens for Responsible Care and Research sends a written testimony on the
unethical use of veterans in medical research to the U.S. Senate's Committee
on Governmental Affairs, stating: "This type of research is on-going
nationwide in medical centers and VA hospitals supported by tens of millions
of dollars of taxpayers money. These experiments are high risk and are
abusive, causing not only physical and psychic harm to the most vulnerable
groups but also degrading our society's system of basic human values.
Probably tens of thousands of patients are being subjected to such
experiments" ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were
exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel
afflicted with
Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the
war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a
result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons (Merritte, et al.).
President Clinton issues a formal apology to the subjects of the Tuskegee
Syphilis Study and their families (Sharav).
(1997) In an experiment sponsored by the U.S. government, researchers withhold
medical treatment from HIV-positive African-American pregnant women, giving
them a placebo rather than AIDS medication (Sharav).
On Sept. 18, victims of unethical medical experiments at major U.S. research
centers, including the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) testify before the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).
(1999) Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D. testifies on "The Unethical Use of Human Beings
in High-Risk Research Experiments" before the U.S. House of Representatives' House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, alerting the House on
the use of American veterans in VA Hospitals as human guinea pigs and calling for national reforms ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo,
Ph.D.").
Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania inject 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger
with an experimental gene therapy as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial.
He dies four days later and his father suspects that he was not fully
informed of the experiment's risk (Goliszek)
During a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of Propulsid for
infant acid reflux, nine-month-old Gage Stevens dies at Children's Hospital
in Pittsburgh (Sharav).
(2000) The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda
University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of
perchlorate -- a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages
the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses --
every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times
the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water. This Loma Linda study is the
first large-scale study to use human subjects to test the harmful effects of
a water pollutant and is "inherently unethical," according to
Environmental Working Group research director Richard Wiles (Goliszek,
Envirnomental Working Group).
(2001) On its website, the FDA admits that its policy to include healthy children
in human experiments "has led to an increasing number of proposals for
studies of safety and pharmacokinetics, including those in children who do
not have the condition for which the drug is intended" (Goliszek).
In Higgins and Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute The Maryland Court of
Appeals makes a landmark decision regarding the use of children as test
subjects, prohibiting non-therapeutic experimentation on children on the
basis of "best interest of the individual child" (Sharav).
(2002) President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA),
offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for
running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the
number of children used as human test subjects (Hammer Breslow).
(2003) Two-year-old Michael Daddio of Delaware dies of congestive heart failure.
After his death, his parents learn that doctors had performed an experimental surgery on him when he was five months old, rather than using
the established surgical method of repairing his congenital heart defect
that the parents had been told would be performed. The established procedure
has a 90- to 95-percent success rate, whereas the inventor of the procedure
performed on baby Daddio would later be fired from his hospital in 2004 (Willen
and Evans, "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't
Warned").
(2004) In his BBC documentary "Guinea Pig Kids" and BBC News article of
the same name, reporter Jamie Doran reveals that children involved in the
New York City foster care system were unwitting human subjects in
experimental AIDS drug trials from 1988 to, in his belief, present times
(Doran).
(2005)
In response to the BBC documentary and article "Guinea Pig Kids",
the New York City Administration of Children's Services (ACS) sends out an
Apr. 22 press release admitting that foster care children were used in
experimental AIDS drug trials, but says that the last trial took place in
2001 and thus the trials are not continuing, as BBC reporter Jamie Doran
claims. The ACS gives the extent and statistics of the experimental drug
trials, based on its own records, and contracts the Vera Institute of
Justice to conduct "an independent review of ACS policy and practice
regarding the enrollment of HIV-positive children in foster care in clinical
drug trials during the late 1980s and 1990s" (New York City ACS).
Bloomberg releases a series of reports suggesting that SFBC, the largest
experimental drug testing center of its time, exploits immigrant and other
low-income test subjects and runs tests with limited credibility due to
violations of both the FDA's and SFBC's own testing guidelines (Bloomberg).
In October 2005, the American Chemistry Council gave the EPA $2.1 million to
study how children ranging from infancy to three years old ingest, inhale or
absorb chemicals. Like IG Farben was for the German pharmaceutical companies
of Nazi Germany, the American Chemistry Council acts much like a front group
for chemical industry bigwigs like Bayer (which was incidentally also a
member of IG Farben), BP, Chevron, Dow, DuPont, Exxon, Honeywell, 3M,
Monsanto and Procter & Gamble. Studies have already proven that the
chemicals made by these companies have long-term effects on children and
adults. A short, two-year study like CHEERS would of course fail to reveal
these long-term effects and the American Chemistry Council could then
publicize these findings as "proof" that its chemicals were safe.
2006 - 2007
Merck begins pushing U.S. states to mandate the vaccination of teenage girls
with Gardasil, a vaccine they claim prevents HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus. In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- who was revealed to have
financial ties with Merck, the vaccine manufacturer -- mandates the vaccine
in teenage girls (see http://www.newstarg
et.com/021572.
html ). A key Merck lobbyist named Mike Toomey, it turned out, had served as Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff.
The Texas decision to mandate the vaccine was a notable and troubling
milestone in public health policy because it is the first time a vaccine is
mandated for a disease that cannot be contracted through casual contact in
public schools. It also invoked "gunpoint medicine," or the threat
of arrest at gunpoint for not agreeing to receive state-mandated injections.
The Gardasil vaccinations remain a grand medical experiment being performed
on children because it is not yet known what the long-term side effects of
the vaccination will be, nor whether the vaccinations will actually lower
rates of cervical cancer as intended.
2007
Maryland's governor and public health officials, fed up with the
unwillingness of over 2,000 parents to have their children vaccinated,
invoke gunpoint medicine yet again by threatening the parents with arrest
and up to 30 days of imprisonment if they don't submit their children to
state-mandated vaccinations. The children and parents are later rounded up
at a county courthouse, guarded by attack dogs and security personnel, while
a district Judge oversees the mass injection of schoolchildren with vaccines
that contain toxic mercury. (See http://www.newstarg
et.com/022242.
html )
Present day: New Jersey mandates the mass vaccination of all children with
four different vaccines, stripping away the health freedoms of parents and
unleashing a mass medical experiment that exploits the bodies of children
and enriches pharmaceutical companies while criminalizing parents who refuse
to participate.
Works Cited
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Orphans to Stutter.". June 11, 2001.
Barker, Allen. "The Cold War Experiments.
" Mind Control.
Berdon, Victoria. "Codes of Medical and Human Experimentation
Ethics." The Least of My Brothers.
Brinker, Wendy. "James Marion Sims: Father
Butcher." Seed Show.
Burton Report. "Human Experimentation, Plutonium and Col. Stafford
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Cockburn, Alexander and Jeffrey St. Clair, eds. "Germ War: The U.S.
Record." Counter Punch.
"Donald Ewan [sic] Cameron." Wikipedia.
Doran, Jamie. "Guinea Pig Kids." BBC News. 30 Nov. 2004.
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Elliston, Jon. "MKULTRA: CIA Mind Control." Dossier: Paranormal
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Environmental Working Group. "U.S.: Lockheed Martin's Tests on
Humans." CorpWatch.
Global Security. Chemical Corps. 2005.
Goliszek, Andrew. In the Name of Science. New York: St. Martin's, 2003.
Greger, Michael, M.D. Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student.
Griffiths, Joel and Chris Bryson. "Toxic Secrets: Fluoride and the Atom
Bomb." Nexus Magazine 5:3. Apr. - May 1998.
Hammer Breslow, Lauren. "The Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act of
2002: The Rise of the Voluntary Incentive Structure and Congressional
Refusal to Require Pediatric Testing." Harvard Journal of Legislation
Vol. 40.
"Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After." Micah
Books.
Kaye, Jonathan. "Retin-A's Wrinkled Past." Mind Control. Orig.
pub. Penn History Review Spring 1997.
"Manhattan Project: Oak Ridge." World Socialist Web Site. Oct. 18,
2002.
Meiklejohn, Gordon N., M.D. "Commission on Influenza." Histories
of the Commissions. Ed. Theodore E. Woodward, M.D. The Armed Forced
Epidemiological Board. 1994.
Merritte, LaTasha, et al.. "The Banality of Evil: Human Medical
Experimentation in the United States." The Public Law Online Journal.
Spring 1999.
"Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human
Experimentation in America before the Second World War." Annals of
Internal Medicine 123:2. July 15, 1995.
Sharav, Vera Hassner. "Human Experiments: A Chronology of Human Rsearch."
Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Sauter, Daniel. Guide to MS 83 [Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South
Central Texas Records, 1931 - 1999]. University of Texas Library.
Apr. 2001.
"Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D." News from the Joint Hearing
on Suspension of Medical Research at West Los Angeles and Sepulveda VA
Medical Facilities and Informed Consent and Patient Safety in VA Medical
Research. 21 Apr. 1999.
University of New Hampshire. "Chronology of Cases Involving Unethical
Treatment of Human Subjects." Responsible Conduct of Research.
University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library. "Bad
Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." 2004.
U.S. Department of Energy. "Chapter 8: Postwar TBI-Effects
Experimentation: Continued Reliance on Sick Patients in Place of Healthy
"Normals."
Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE)
Final Report.
Veterans Health Administration. Project 112/Project SHAD. May 26, 2005.
Willen, Liz and David Evans. "Doctor Who Died in Drug Test Was Betrayed
by System He Trusted." Bloomberg. Nov. 2, 2005.
---. "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't
Warned." Bloomberg. Nov. 2, 2005. For complete story,
click here.
Iraqis
resort to selling children04
Jan 2008 Abu Muhammad, a Baghdad resident, found it difficult to let go of his
daughter's hand but he had already convinced himself that selling her to a
family outside Iraq would provide her with a better future. "The war
disgraced my family. I lost relatives including my wife among thousands of
victims of sectarian violence and was forced to sell
my daughter to give my other children something to eat," he
told Al Jazeera... Ruwaida Saleh, 31, a mother of three, is also praying for
her eight-year-old daughter Hala’s safety. Saleh says her daughter
disappeared in July 2007 and has not been heard from since. "The police
told us to give up, but I cannot. I have nightmares she is being raped,"
she said.
[Hollywood
writers can stay on strike, because George W. Bush is providing all the
scripts that the producers of Law & Order: SVU would ever need. --Lori
Price] For complete story,
click here.
Drugs
Offer No Benefit in Curbing Aggression, Study Finds--January 4th, 2008--The
drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled
people are no more effective than placebos for most patients and may be less so,
researchers report. The finding, being published Friday, sharply challenges
standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the
United States and around the world. In recent years, many doctors have
begun to use the so-called antipsychotic drugs, which were developed to treat
schizophrenia, as all-purpose tranquilizers to settle threatening behavior - in
children with attention-deficit problems, college students with depression,
older people with Alzheimer's disease and intellectually handicapped
people. The new study tracked 86 adults with low I.Q.'s in community
housing in England, Wales and Australia over more than a month of treatment. It
found a 79 percent reduction in aggressive behavior among those taking dummy
pills, compared with a reduction of 65 percent or less in those taking
antipsychotic drugs. The researchers focused on two drugs, Risperdal by
Janssen, and an older drug, Haldol, but said the findings almost certainly applied to all similar medications. Such drugs account for more than $10 billion
in annual sales, and research suggests that at least half of all prescriptions
are for unapproved "off label" uses - often to treat aggression or
irritation. For complete story,
click here.
Who's
Behind the Bible of Mental Illness--Critics say that touted efforts against
conflicts fall short--December 20th, 2007--In what is arguably
the most important mental-health development since the early 1990s, the American
Psychiatric Association will spend the next five years producing a new edition
of the psychiatrist's "bible," the official guidebook for diagnosing
mental problems. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as
it is known, is hugely influential because it determines what is and is not a
mental disorder. In turn, it is responsible for much of the sales growth in
prescription drugs. The most recent edition of the DSM, published in 1994,
drew controversy because it turned what had once been a thin guidebook into an
886-page tome that significantly expanded the definition of mental illness.
Traits once associated with shyness, for example, became symptoms of
"social anxiety disorder." And drug companies went on to spend
millions promoting medicines for those problems. Eyebrows were further raised in
2006 when a study showed that more than half of the researchers who worked on
the manual had at least one financial tie to the drug industry.
Transparency. This time around, pledging to avoid even the appearance of
conflicts, the APA has instituted screening procedures for the 27 members of its
DSM task force, asking them for detailed financial information about stocks,
honoraria, and consulting fees from drug interests. It calls the effort the
"most transparent" in the medical industry. Yet the summaries of the
disclosure statements that were recently released to the public are remarkably
spare; they show only the existence of corporate connections, not their dollar
amount or their duration. The result is a document that even an APA board member
suggested is not very revealing. In a 2006 memo to the board obtained by U.S.
News, William Carpenter wrote: "Simple listing of all relationships is not
very informative and does not identify potential conflicts that may need to be
resolved." Critics say the limited information violates the spirit of
disclosure. "There is disclosure, and then there is disclosure,"
says Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist and former consultant to drug companies.
"There is a big difference between $500,000 and $500. It is one thing to
disclose in a generic way, to say that a psychiatrist has had some consulting
with a company, but that doesn't tell you a number of things."
Documents reviewed by U.S. News, including sec filings and patent requests, also
show connections between doctors and drug companies that don't necessarily turn
up in the disclosures. In general, the disclosures paint an incomplete picture
of the degree to which the corporate and clinical worlds are increasingly
enmeshed. In other cases, they simply reflect mistakes. For complete
story,
click here.
Pope's
exorcist squads will wage war on Satan
29 Dec 2007 The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle
the rise of
Satanism. Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an
increased interest in the occult. They have introduced courses for
priests to
combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness." Each
bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of
priests trained to fight
demonic possession. For complete story,
click here.
CDC
Tracking Down 44 Passengers In 17 States 29 Dec 2007 Health officials
are trying to track down American Airlines passengers in 17 states for testing
after a California woman flew while sick with a dangerous strain of
tuberculosis. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a
California woman boarded an American Airlines flight in New Delhi, India, on
December 13th. The flight stopped at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport
before continuing on to San Francisco. CDC officials are working on tracking
down 44 people who sat within two rows of the woman on the flight. She is being
treated in isolation at a California hospital. For complete story,
click here.
Saddam
Hussein Provided More Food Than the U.S.
27 Dec 3007 The Iraqi government announcement that monthly food rations will
be
cut by half has left many Iraqis asking how they can survive. The government
also wants to reduce the number of people depending
on the rationing system by
five million by June 2008... The programme has continued into the U.S.-led
occupation. But now the U.S.-backed Iraqi government has announced it will halve
the essential items in the ration because of "insufficient funds and spiralling
inflation." For complete story,
click here.
Reading
the Mind Of the Body Politic--December 14th, 2007--During last
Sunday's Republican presidential debate in Miami, Mitt Romney declared he was
the
only candidate who had stopped talking about universal health care and
"actually got the job done." Across the country, in San Francisco,
five volunteers watched the
debate while wearing electrode-studded headsets that
track electrical activity in the brain. When Mr. Romney said the words
"got the job done," there was a
pronounced shift in activity in their
prefrontal lobes. "They liked what they were hearing," said Brad
Feldman, an analyst with EmSense Corp., the company that
conducted the
test. This campaign season, the newest thing in presidential politics is
neuroscience. Driven by new research that suggests monitoring voters' brains,
pupils and pulses may be more effective than listening to what they say, EmSense
is one of a cottage industry of neuromarketing firms across the country that are
pitching their services to presidential campaigns. Seattle's Lucid Systems is
trumpeting a biofeedback program that tracks brain waves, pupil dilation,
perspiration and
facial-muscle movements, while a Chicago company says it is
talking to campaigns about its voice-analysis technology, which is used in
insurance-fraud cases.
Drew Westen, a clinical psychologist at Emory University
who has used brain scans to study voters, recently launched Westen Strategies, a
consultancy that promises
to help clients understand the "neural
networks" that govern political behavior. Earlier this year, staffers
working for John Edwards flew Mr. Westen in to watch the
candidate on the
campaign trail and offer feedback (Mr. Westen and a campaign spokesman declined
to elaborate). Campaign-strategy consultant, TargetPoint, which is working for
Mr. Romney, has begun running Internet surveys that test voters' subconscious
impressions and is considering conducting research with brain
scanners.
The goal is to deploy the same techniques currently used to track the way
consumers respond to cars, perfume, videogames, Web browsers and movie
trailers.
The information the researchers gather could help candidates make any number of
adjustments, including which issues to discuss in which states, what
specific
terms to use in stump speeches and what cadence or facial expressions to use
when delivering them. "Political marketing is a fairly pure analog to
commercial marketing," says David Remer, chairman of Lucid Systems.
"I'm looking at a package of shampoo the same way I'm looking at my next
leader." Some
prominent scientists say neuromarketing firms may be
promising more than they can deliver. Liz Phelps, the director of a neuroscience
laboratory at New York
University who has reviewed recent studies, is critical
of the idea that images of brain activity can predict how people will behave --
especially when it comes to politics.
Last month, the journal "Nature"
criticized a study conducted by a neuromarketing firm this year that had used
brain scans to measure people's responses to the 2008
presidential candidates.
"Does anyone need a $3 million scanner to conclude that Hillary needs to
work on her support from swing voters?" it said. One reason these
tactics are catching on is the increasing wealth of campaigns. According to the
Center for Responsive Politics, the candidates have spent $420 million in the
first nine
months of this year, which is more than double the $182 million spent
in the first nine months of 2003. Jon Krosnick, a Stanford political scientist
who works with the
American National Election Studies, an academic research
project that surveys voter attitudes and behaviors, says candidates may be more
interested in measuring
the deeper biases of voters in a campaign whose
contenders include a Mormon, a woman and an African-American. "We need a
tricky way to get into people's minds
and find out who they're going to vote for
instead of asking directly," Mr. Krosnick says. For complete story,
click here.
Vermont
Town Seeks Bush, Cheney Arrests for War Crimes 28 Dec 2007
President [sic] Bush and Vice President [sic] Cheney may soon have a new reason
to avoid Vermont: In one town, activists want them subject to arrest for war
crimes. A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on the Town Meeting
agenda in March that would make Bush - who's been to every state except Vermont
as president - and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if
they visit the southeastern Vermont town. (Unable to locate story ati time
of archiving. Source:
www.montanasnewsstation.com Date: December 28, 2007)
Polish
Troops Face War Crimes Charges 28 Dec 2007 Reports that Poland's troops
in Afghanistan may have committed a war crime against defenseless civilians has
shocked the country's public, which remains sensitive to the performance of the
Polish military abroad. In August... Polish reinforcements soon arrived and
opened fire on a nearby village. The mortar attack on the village of Nangar Khel, close to the Afghan-Pakistani border, killed eight Afghani civilians and left
three women crippled. A pregnant woman and a child were among the dead.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
Troops to Head to Pakistan 26
Dec 2007 Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected
to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to
train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and
clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials
involved with the planning... Now, a
new
agreement, reported when it was still being negotiated last month,
has been finalized. And the first U.S. personnel could be on the ground in
Pakistan by early in the new year, according to Pentagon sources. (Unable
to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.washingtonpost.com
Date: December 26, 2007)
Nigeria
court seeks 3 arrests in Pfizer drug trial--December 24th, 2007--KANO,
Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian court on Monday ordered the arrests of
three of
the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which
Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled. The
northern state of Kano is suing Pfizer for $2 billion in damages and pressing
criminal charges over the testing of the antibiotic Trovan on children in Kano during a meningitis epidemic that killed 12,000 children in six months.
The federal government is suing for an additional $6.5 billion and also pressing
criminal charges. For complete story,
click here.
FBI
Prepares Vast Database of Biometrics$1 Billion
Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces 22 Dec 2007 The FBI is
embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database
of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government
unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into
FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here... In the coming
years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris
patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk
and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will
also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who
have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if
employees have brushes with the law. For complete story,
click here.
Blood
experiment disproportionate Cities had higher numbers of minorities--December
21st, 2007--A controversial clinical trial in which
hundreds of
people were unknowingly injected with an experimental blood
substitute primarily took place in cities with a disproportionate number of
minorities, including
Detroit. Thirteen of the 20 cities have higher
minority populations than the national average, including the small Illinois
town of Maywood, where 83% of the
population is black. In Detroit, at
Detroit Receiving and Sinai-Grace hospitals, minorities accounted for 15 of the
16 people unknowingly experimented on,
records obtained by the Free Press
show. Since urban areas with large minority populations tend to see more
trauma cases, it's often easier to target those
areas for research, said bioethicist Harriet Washington. But bioethicists argue that the tendency to
choose those areas over an abundance of trauma centers in predominately white
cities, including Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, is unfair. Civil rights
groups and bioethicists contend researchers are ethically obligated to capture a
representative sample of the country because the products being studied are
designed to benefit everyone. In the study meant to
combat a critical
blood shortage, 13 cities combined for an average minority population nearly
twice the national average. The blood substitute, Polyheme, is made by
extracting oxygen-carrying hemoglobin from human red blood cells. In the event
of shortages, it would replace the traditional treatment, a saline
solution and
blood. People who unknowingly participated in the trial were unconscious
because of trauma, such as gunshot wounds and car crashes. "We
are an
African-American community that has been treated like guinea pigs," said
the Rev. Charles Williams, president of the National Council for Community
Empowerment, a civil rights group. So far, studies have shown that
recipients of the blood substitute faced higher health risks than those who
received the
traditional treatment. Results of the trial, released last
year, showed 46 of the 349 subjects who received Polyheme nationwide died. By
contrast, 35 of the 363 patients given the traditional treatment died. Two of
the 10 people in Detroit injected with Polyheme died. Both were black.
Martha Milete, who is Hispanic, received Polyheme while being rushed to the
hospital after she was shot in the chest by an intruder in her Detroit home in
January 2006. She said it's unfair that most subjects were minorities.
"Whether I survived or not, it was wrong," Milete said. (Unable
to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.freep.com Date:
December 21, 2007)
'We'll
have procedures and we're not going to advertise what they are.'
Next
evacuees will face criminal checks, wear 'special wristbands'
--'Certain
people' to be put on 'special busses' during evacuations
15
Dec 2007 Texans seeking to escape the next hurricane or state emergency by
evacuation bus will first be submitted to criminal background checks, the
state's emergency management director says. Jack Colley would not discuss how
thorough the background checks will be. Earlier this month, it was announced
AT&T Inc. has contracted with the Texas Governor's Division of Emergency
Management to provide electronic wristbands for those residents 'wanting' them,
before they board an evacuation bus... That person's name and their bus
information would be sent wirelessly to the University of Texas Center for Space
Research data center. For complete story,
click here.
250
former Iraq prisoners claim torture in new US lawsuit
18 Dec 2007 More than 250 people once held in Iraqi prisons, including
the
notorious Abu Ghraib, have filed suit against a US military contractor for their
alleged torture, attorneys said Tuesday. The Center
for Constitutional Rights
said a lawsuit was filed in US federal court on Monday asking for millions of
dollars in compensatory and
punitive damages against CACI International Inc. of
Arlington, Virginia. For complete story,
click here.
'Within
two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive
effort of spying on Americans' phone usage.'Wider
Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry16 Dec 2007 For months, the
Bush regime has waged a high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by
President [sic] Bush and closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade
Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the
National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program... In December
2000, N.S.A. officials wrote a transition report to the incoming Bush
administration, saying the agency must become a "powerful, permanent
presence" on the commercial communications network, a goal that they
acknowledged would raise legal and privacy issues... A lawsuit filed in federal
court in New Jersey claims that in February 2001, the N.S.A. met with
AT&T officials to discuss replicating a network center in Bedminster, N.J.,
to give the agency access to all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran
through it. For complete story,
click here.
U.N.
rights envoy suspects CIA of Guantanamo torture 13 Dec 2007 A United
Nations investigator said on Thursday he strongly suspected the CIA of using
torture on terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, suggesting many were not being
prosecuted to keep the abuse from emerging at trial. For complete story,
click here.
Secret
U.S. Intelligence Court Intends to Keep Wiretap Rulings Under Wraps
12 Dec 2007 A secret U.S. intelligence court has issued its third public ruling
in 30 years, declaring that while it agrees on the benefits of making its
rulings on warrantless wiretapping public, it will keep them secret. The Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) cited the "vitally important need to
protect national security" in rejecting a request by the American Civil
Liberties Union to release documents on the Bush regime's warrantless
wiretapping program. For complete story,
click here.
CIA
photos 'show UK Guantanamo detainee was tortured' 10 Dec 2007 Lawyers
for a British resident who the US government refuses to release from Guantanamo
Bay [Binyam Mohammed] have identified the existence of photographs taken by CIA
agents that they say show their client suffered horrific injuries under torture.
For complete story,
click here.
Lawyers
Reveal Existence of 'Camp 7' Secret Guantánamo Detention Unit--Prisoner
says subjected to "state-sanctioned torture" in secret C.I.A. prisons
09 Dec 2007 The first of the so-called high value Guantánamo
prisoners to have seen a lawyer claims he was subjected to
"state-sanctioned torture" while in secret C.I.A. prisons, and he has asked
for a court order barring the government from destroying evidence of his
treatment. The request, in a filing by his lawyers, was made on Nov. 29,
before officials from the Central Intelligence Agency acknowledged that the
agency had destroyed videotapes of interrogations of two 'Qaeda' operatives that
current and former officials said included the use of harsh techniques
torture. Lawyers for the prisoner, Majid Khan, claim he "was subjected to
an aggressive C.I.A. detention and interrogation program notable for its
elaborate planning and ruthless application of torture" to numerous
detainees. The documents also suggest that Mr. Khan and other high-value prisoners
are now being held in a previously undisclosed area of
the Guantánamo prison he called Camp 7. For complete story,
click here.
Huckabee
wanted to isolate AIDS patients 08 Dec 2007 Mike Huckabee once advocated
isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal
funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a
dangerous public health risk." As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in
1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press.
"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the
AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this
plague," Huckabee wrote. For complete story,
click here.
'Homegrown
Terror' Act an Attack on Internet Freedom?--Decemer 5th, 2007--by US
Congressman Ron Paul--I regret that I was unavoidably out of town on October 23,
2007, when a vote was taken on HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization &
Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Had I
been able to vote, I would have voted
against this misguided and dangerous piece of legislation. This legislation
focuses the weight of the US
government inward toward its own citizens under the
guise of protecting us against "violent radicalization.
" I would like to note that this
legislation was brought to the floor
for a vote under suspension of regular order. These so-called
"suspension" bills are meant to be non-controversial, thereby negating
the need for the more complete and open debate allowed under regular order. It
is difficult for me to believe
that none of my colleagues in Congress view HR
1955, with its troubling civil liberties implications, as
"non-controversial.
" There are many
causes for concern in HR 1955. The legislation
specifically singles out the Internet for "facilitating violent
radicalization, ideologically based
violence, and the homegrown terrorism
process" in the United States. Such language may well be the first step
toward US government
regulation of what we are allowed to access on the
Internet. Are we, for our own good, to be subjected to the kind of governmental
control of
the Internet that we see in unfree societies? This bill certainly
sets us on that course. This seems to be an unwise and dangerous solution
in search of a real problem. Previous acts of ideologically-
motivated violence, though rare, have been resolved successfully using law
enforcement techniques, existing laws against violence, and our court system.
Even if there were a surge of "violent radicalization" – a claim
for
which there is no evidence – there is no reason to believe that our criminal
justice system is so flawed and weak as to be incapable of
trying and punishing
those who perpetrate violent acts.
This legislation will set up a new government bureaucracy to monitor and further
study the as-yet undemonstrated pressing problem of homegrown terrorism and
radicalization. It will no doubt prove to be another
bureaucracy that
artificially inflates problems so as to guarantee its future existence and
funding. But it may do so at great further expense to
our civil liberties. What
disturbs me most about this legislation is that it leaves the door wide open for
the broadest definition of what
constitutes "radicalization.
" Could otherwise nonviolent anti-tax, antiwar, or anti-abortion groups
fall under the watchful eye of this new
government commission? Assurances
otherwise in this legislation are unconvincing. In addition, this
legislation will create a Department of
Homeland Security-established university-based body to further study radicalization and to "contribute
to the establishment of training, written materials, information, analytical
assistance and professional resources to aid in combating violent radicalization
and homegrown terrorism. " I wonder whether this is really a legitimate role
for institutes of higher learning in a free society. Legislation such as
this demands heavy-handed governmental action against American citizens where no
crime has been committed. It is yet another attack on our Constitutionally-
protected civil liberties. It is my sincere hope that we will reject such
approaches to security, which will fail at their stated goal at a great cost
to
our way of life. For complete story, click here.
US
says it has right to kidnap British citizens 02 Dec 2007 America
has told Britain that it can "kidnap" British citizens if they are
wanted for crimes in the United States. A senior lawyer for the American
government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign
citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has
sanctioned it. Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted
kidnapping only in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist
suspects. The American government has for the first time made it clear in a
British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of
a crime by Washington. Legal experts confirmed this weekend that America
viewed extradition as just one way of getting foreign suspects back to face
trial. Rendition, or kidnapping, dates back to
19th-century bounty hunting and Washington believes it is still legitimate.
[Well, Washington still believes that the "election" of George W.
Bush --in
2000 and
2004
--is "legitimate." --LRP] For complete story,
click here.
American-backed
killer militias strut across Iraq 25 Nov 2007 Members of the Baghdad
Brigade receive $300 a man each month from the Americans, who also provide
vehicles, uniforms and flak jackets. In return the brigade 'keeps out' Al-Qaeda
[al-CIAduh], dismantles roadside bombs and patrols the area, a task performed
with considerable swagger by many of its 4,000 recruits. For complete
story,
click here.
US
is 'worst' imperialist: archbishop
25 Nov 2007 The Archbishop of
Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse
than Britain during its imperial heyday. Rowan Williams claimed that
America’s attempt to intervene overseas by "clearing the decks" with
a "quick burst of violent action" had led to "the worst of all
worlds". For complete story,
click here.
Flight
logs reveal secret rendition 25 Nov 2007 The secret flight plans of
American military planes have revealed for the first time how European countries
helped send prisoners, including British citizens, to the Guantanamo Bay prison
camp. Despite widespread criticism of alleged human rights abuses and torture at
the US base in Cuba, a Sunday Times investigation has shown that at least five
European countries gave the United States permission to fly nearly 700 terrorist
suspects across their territory. For complete story,
click here.
Firefighters
taking new role as anti-terrorist eyes of the US government
--Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no
warrants to enter hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year. 23
Nov 2007 Firefighters in
major U.S. cities are being trained to take on a new
role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as
trusted
American icons and infringing on people's privacy. Unlike police,
firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no warrants to
enter hundreds
of thousands of homes and buildings each year, which puts them in position to
spot behavior that could indicate terror
activity or planning. There are fears,
however, that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the
eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items like building
blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials. For complete story,
click here.
Arkansas
AG Suing JNJ Over Anti-Psychotic Drug Marketing--November 21st, 2007--LITTLE
ROCK (AP)--Drug companies improperly marketed an anti-psychotic drug, Arkansas
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel claimed Tuesday as he asked a state judge to
force the firms to repay millions shelled out by
the state's Medicaid program
for unnecessary prescriptions. McDaniel filed a lawsuit in Pulaski County
Circuit Court against Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc., Janssen LP and Johnson &
Johnson Inc. (JNJ). In the filing, McDaniel said the companies "engaged in
a direct, illegal, nationwide program of promotion of the use of Risperdal for
non-medically necessary uses." New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson
& Johnson is the parent company of both Janssen Pharmaceutica and Janssen
LP. The lawsuit did not specify how much the state is seeking, but
McDaniel has estimated that the state's Medicaid program spent about $200
million over eight years to pay for prescriptions for Zyprexa, Seroquel and
Risperdal. The lawsuit filed Tuesday focuses solely on Risperdal. Gabe
Holmstrom, a spokesman for McDaniel's office, said the state will file similar
complaints about the marketing of the other drugs. McDaniel has said other
companies that will be targeted include Eli Lilly and Co. (LLY) of Indianapolis
and AstraZeneca PLC (AZN), a joint venture by a British firm and a Swedish
firm. McDaniel has said the drugs were prescribed for uses not approved by
federal regulators or indicated in labeling. McDaniel accused the
companies of
deceptive marketing practices that pushed doctors to prescribe Risperdal much
more than necessary. (Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
http://money.cnn.com
Date: November 21, 2007)
Cannabis
compound 'halts cancer'--A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer
spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe. The California
Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or
CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD
does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws,
Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were
not suggesting patients smoke marijuana. They added that it would be
highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking
cannabis. "This compound offers the hope of a non-toxic therapy
that could achieve the same results without any of the painful side
effects" -----Lead researcher Dr Sean
McAllister
CBD works by blocking the activity of a gene called Id-1
which is believed to be responsible for the aggressive spread of cancer cells
away from the original tumour site - a process called metastasis. Past
work has shown CBD can block aggressive human brain cancers. The latest
work found CBD appeared to have a similar effect on breast cancer cells in the
lab. For complete story,
click here.
Secret
Warrants Granted For Cellphone Tracking
--Powers
Granted On Request and Without Probable Cause
23 Nov
2007 Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies
to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of
[alleged] criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some
cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to
demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place
or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. For complete story,
click here.
US
'heat wave' gun may be used in Iraq --The US military directorate has
invested more than a decade developing the Active Denial System (ADS). 21
Nov 2007 American commanders in Iraq are urging Pentagon chiefs to authorise the
deployment of newly-developed
heat
wave guns to disperse angry crowds or violent
rioters. Washington fears a barrage of adverse publicity in the
suspicious Muslim world and is concerned that critics will claim the
invisible beam weapons were being used for torture. For complete
story,
click here.
How
I was zapped by a heat wave gun By Philip Sherwell 21 Nov 2007 On a cold
and rain-swept morning on a US marine base, I stood and braced myself to be
zapped by the latest prototype weapon in the American armoury - an invisible
heat beam from a high-powered ray gun. The non-lethal device is designed for
crowd control and the scientists responsible for monitoring this Star Trek
technology had just assured me that I would suffer no harm and only temporary
discomfort. For complete story,
click here.
4
police brutality protesters arrested--November 18th, 2007--PLAINFIELD --
Four men protesting police brutality were arrested Saturday and
charged with
unlawful assembly. Now leaders of the group that organized the event say
they plan to hold a news conference at 3 p.m. today
at City Hall to stand up
for their constitutional right to assemble. "This really is a
question of the rights of citizens," said Lawrence Hamm, state chairman
of the People's Organization for Progress, which led Saturday's demonstration.
"Is the Bill of Rights still in effect?" The
demonstration
began at 11 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of E.
Front Street and Park Avenue. The group was protesting violence in the
area,
specifically recent murders in Plainfield and Elizabeth, and the
fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old mentally ill man Monday in
Brooklyn,
N.Y. The four protesters marched in a circle holding signs that read
"Stop
Police Brutality" and called for peace on the city's streets.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.c-n.com Date: November
18, 2007)
Afghan
children were deliberately shot after suicide attack, UN says --U.N.
report describes gunmen's actions as "crimes" 19 Nov 2007 An
internal U.N. report obtained Monday said lawmakers' bodyguards
mercenaries fired indiscriminately into a crowd after a suicide bombing, and
that school children suffered most from the "onslaught." The report
also suggests some in the U.N. want legal action taken against the gunmen.
For complete story,
click here.
Police
with Dogs: Vaccinating Kids in Maryland By Barbara Loe Fisher 19 Nov
2007 I watched them bundled up against the cold winter air on Saturday,
November 17, 2007, with their children and the letter from the State of
Maryland threatening them with imprisonment or fines of $50 a day for failing
to show proof their children had gotten a chickenpox or hepatitis B shot.
Confused, angry or scared but mostly resigned, they were... trudging toward
the courthouse to face the Judge ordering them to get vaccinated or go to
jail. Patrolling the scene was a SWAT team of policemen with dogs.
[See:
DoD
to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack
--Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card?] For
complete story,
click here.
Boston
police to search homes without warrants --Officers to travel
in groups of three, disguised in plainclothes 17 Nov 2007 Boston
police are launching a program that will call upon parents in 'high-crime'
neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes,
without
a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms. In the
next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin
going to homes where they believe [?] teenagers might have guns. For
complete story,
click here.
Intelligence
official: U.S. must redefine privacy --Residents [!] need to adjust to
loss of anonymity, government leader says
11 Nov 2007 As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top
intelligence official says it is time that
people in the United States changed
their definition of privacy. Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald
Kerr, the
principal deputy director of national intelligence. Kerr’s
comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign
Intelligence
Surveillance Act. [I think not. We'll adjust the Bush dictatorship,
instead. And, speaking of residents, the *resident* occupying the White House
needs to be arrested and tried for treason. --LRP] For complete story,
click here.
Top
US legal adviser refuses to rule out torture technique
--Aide to Rice declines to denounce waterboarding 05 Nov 2007 The top
legal adviser within the US state department, who counsels the secretary of
state, Condoleezza Rice, on international law, has declined to rule out the
use of the interrogation technique known as
waterboarding even if it were
applied by foreign intelligence services on US citizens. John Bellinger
refused to denounce the
technique, which has been condemned by human rights
groups as a form of torture, during a debate on the Bush
administration's
stance on international law held by Guardian America, the Guardian's US
website. He said he would not
include or exclude any technique without first
considering whether it violated the convention on torture. For complete
story,
click here.
Blackwater
to 'sniff out intelligence about natural disasters' --Blackwater's
Owner Has Spies for Hire 03 Nov 2007 First it became a brand name in
security for its work war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now
it's taking on intelligence. The Prince Group, the holding company that owns Blackwater Worldwide, has been building an operation that will sniff out
intelligence aboutcreate 'natural' disasters, business-friendly
governments, overseas regulations and global political developments for
clients in industry and government. [Soon, we'll need an army to take on
Blackwater. This terrorist group is growing faster than the Third Reich.
--Lori Price] For complete story,
click here.
'USAF
struck Syrian nuclear site' 02 Nov 2007 The September 6 raid over
Syria was carried out by the US Air Force, the Al-Jazeera Web site
reported Friday. The Web site quoted Israeli and Arab sources as saying that
two US jets armed with tactical nuclear weapons carried out an attack on a
suspected nuclear site under construction. The sources were quoted as saying
that Israeli F-15 and F-16 jets provided cover for the US planes. For
complete story, click here.
Gov't
Recovered $2B in 2007 Fraud Cases--November 1st, 2007--WASHINGTON
- The Justice Department said Thursday that it obtained $2 billion in
settlements in fraud cases during fiscal year 2007, with most of the
recoveries resulting from whistleblower lawsuits. Under the False
Claims
Act, whistleblowers can sue companies or individuals that they believe have
filed fraudulent claims with the federal government. If
successful, they
can receive from 15 percent to 30 percent of the proceeds, the department
said. Approximately $1.45 billion of the
settlements resulted from
whistleblower lawsuits in fiscal year 2007, which ended Sept. 30, the
department said. The individuals who filed suit
were awarded $177
million. Health care fraud accounted for the bulk of the settlements,
with $1.54 billion stemming from cases involving
programs such as Medicare and
Medicaid. The department said it is cracking down on various practices
by pharmaceutical companies, such
as inflating the price of drugs that are
reimbursed by federal programs, paying kickbacks to physicians and pharmacists
to induce drug
purchases and promoting drugs for uses that have not been
approved by the Food and Drug Administration, also known as
"off-label"
marketing. In one of the largest settlements,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and one of its former subsidiaries agreed in late
September to pay $515
million to settle federal and state allegations that it
illegally promoted its anti-psychotic drug Abilify for several off-label uses.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date:
November 1, 2007)
US
accused of torture
31 Oct 2007 The United States's willingness to
resort to harsh interrogation techniques in its so-called war on terror
undermined human rights and the international ban on torture, a United Nations
spokesman says. Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, said the US's
standing and importance meant it was a model to other countries which queried
why they were subject to scrutiny when the US resorted to measures witnessed
at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison. For complete story,
click here.
Immunity
Deal Hampers Blackwater Criminal Inquiry--Blackwater
Bodyguards Given Immunity In Deadly Shooting 29 Oct 2007 The State
Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards mercenaries immunity from
prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi
civilians, The Associated Press has learned. The immunity deal has delayed a
criminal inquiry into the Sept. 16 killings and could undermine any effort
to prosecute security contractors for their role in the incident
war crime that has infuriated the Iraqi government. For complete story,
click here.
Iran
says documents show U.S. backing terrorists28 Oct 2007 Iran has
access to evidence of U.S. support for terrorist groups in the Middle East, a
senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Sunday. "Escalation of
terrorism in the region is one of the direct results of the presence of
occupiers in Iraq, particularly America," said Saeed Jalili, Iran's new
chief nuclear negotiator, "And there are documents and information
available proving America's support for terrorist groups in the region,"
he said, without giving details. For complete story,
click here.
Flu
Lab Set to Open for 1918 Pandemic Virus Reconstruction --Ebola research may resume, pending outcome of appeal
28
Oct 2007 UW-Madison 's $12.5 million Institute for Influenza Viral
Research, nearing completion at University Research Park,
will have a
collection of safety and security features the university hasn't seen before.
Virologist Yoshihiro Kawaoka plans to
study several kinds of flu viruses in
the institute -- including H5N1, the bird flu virus circulating in Asia, and a
reconstructed version of the 1918 flu virus,
which killed some 50 million people when it spread worldwide... Jan Klein,
UW-Madison 's
biological safety officer, said the university may appeal the NIH 's ruling halting Ebola work. [See:
DoD
to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attack 23 Oct
2007 and
Flu 'Oddities'.]
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.madison.com Date:
October 28, 2007)
Indian
'slave' children found making low-cost clothes destined for Gap--October 28th
2007--Child workers, some as young as 10, have been found working in a textile
factory in conditions close to slavery to produce clothes that appear destined
for Gap Kids, one of the most
successful arms of the high street giant.
Speaking to The Observer, the children described long hours of unwaged work,
as well as threats and beatings. Gap said it was unaware that clothing
intended for the Christmas market had been improperly subcontracted to a
sweatshop using
child labour. It announced it had withdrawn the garments
involved while it investigated breaches of the ethical code imposed by it
three years ago. The discovery of the children working in filthy
conditions in the
Shahpur Jat area of Delhi has renewed concerns about the outsourcing by large
retail chains of their garment production to India, recognised by
the United Nations as the world's capital for child labour. According to
one estimate, more than 20 per cent of India's economy is dependent on
children, the equivalent of 55 million youngsters under 14. For complete
story,
click here.
Breaking:
Rights
groups file French torture case vs Rumsfeld 26 Oct 2007 Human
rights groups have filed a lawsuit in France alleging that former U.S. defense
secretary Donald Rumsfeld allowed torture at U.S.-run detention centers in
Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For complete story,
click here.
House
Passes 'Thought Crime' Prevention Bill--October 25th, 2007--Lee Rogers The
U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is
one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually
defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will
also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so
called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill
specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses
vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected
representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor
of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting
the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the
Constitution. First let’s take a look at the definitions of violent
radicalization and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.
The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this
term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an
extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn’t specifically define what an
extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the
government. Considering how much the government has done to destroy the
Constitution they could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an
extremist belief system. Literally, the government according to this
definition can define whatever they want as an extremist belief system.
Essentially they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime. The
definition as defined in the bill is shown below. `(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION-
The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting
an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based
violence to advance political, religious, or social change. The definition of
homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to further define thought
crime. The bill includes the planned use of force or violence as homegrown
terrorism which could be interpreted as thinking about using force or
violence. Not only that but the definition is so vaguely defined, that petty
crimes could even fall into the category of homegrown terrorism. The
definition as defined in the bill is shown below. `(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM-
The term `homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use,
of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and
operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United
States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian
population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of
political or social objectives. Section 899B of the bill goes over the
findings of Congress as it pertains to homegrown terrorism. Particularly
alarming is that the bill mentions the Internet as a main source for terrorist
propaganda. The bill even mentions streams in obvious reference to many of the
patriot and pro-constitution Internet radio networks that have been formed. It
also mentions that homegrown terrorists span all ages and races indicating
that the Congress is stating that everyone is a potential terrorist. Even
worse is that Congress states in their findings that they should look at
draconian police states like Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom as
models to defeat homegrown terrorists. For complete story,
click here.
DoD
to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attackBy Lori
Price 23 Oct 2007 On Thursday, the Bush
administration issued a directive
which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical
Preparedness (Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense
for the 21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach
to protecting the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.'
HOMELAND
SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of
the directive's date, 'the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and
Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland
Security, shall establish an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and
Public Health housed at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public
Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences... Department
of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be
used to carry out respective civilian and military missions within this joint
program.' For complete story,
click here.
Giuliani
Defends, Employs Priest Accused of Molesting Teens
23 Oct 2007 Presidential candidate [GOPedophile]
Rudolph
Giuliani hired a Catholic priest to work in his consulting firm months
after the priest was accused of sexually molesting two
former students and an
altar boy and told by the church to stop performing his priestly duties. The
priest, Monsignor Alan
Placa, a longtime friend of Giuliani and the priest who
officiated at his second wedding to Donna Hanover, continues to work at
Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and
victims' groups, which have begun to protest at
Giuliani campaign events. For complete story,
click here.
State
Dept. Can't Account For $1.2B Paid to DynCorp: Audit --Review
identifies $29 million in overcharges by DynCorp in past year 23 Oct 2007
A government audit expected to be released Tuesday says that records
documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department’s largest contractor,
are in such disarray that the department cannot say "specifically what it
received" for most of the $1.2 billion it has paid the company since 2004
to train the police officers in Iraq... A review of DynCorp’s spending over
the past year identified $29 million in overcharges by DynCorp, including
$108,000 in business travel, according to a State Department letter in
response to auditors. A separate review by the Defense Contracting Audit
Agency found that DynCorp had billed for $162,869 of labor hours "for
which it did not pay its workers." [See:
DynCorp
Disgrace By Kelly Patricia O'Meara 14 Jan 2002
Middle-aged men
having sex with 12- to 15-year-olds was too much for Ben Johnston, a hulking
6-foot-5-inch Texan, and more than a year ago he blew the whistle on his
employer, DynCorp, a U.S. contracting company doing business in Bosnia.]
For complete story,
click here.
Seven
Protesters Arrested at Blackwater’s Headquarters--October 21st 2007--Seven
people were arrested Saturday at Blackwater Worldwide’s front entrance after
protesters re-enacted the Sept. 16 shooting incident in Baghdad involving
Blackwater contractors in which 17 Iraqis died. It was the first protest
at the 10-year-old private military company’s headquarters, a reflection of
its heightened profile since the Baghdad shootings stirred Iraqi anger and
created a diplomatic crisis for Blackwater’s client, the U.S. State
Department. The protesters drove a small gray station wagon, covered
with simulated bullet holes and smeared with red paint, onto Blackwater’s
property. One lay back in the driver’s seat and five others got out and lay
on the ground, as if they had been shot. The scene was intended to mimic
that in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, where an Iraqi doctor and her son died in a
fusillade of gunfire as their car approached a Blackwater diplomatic convoy.
The protesters also smeared red handprints on two Blackwater signs.
Currituck County sheriff’s deputies, called to the scene by Blackwater guards, told the protesters they were on private property and asked them to
leave. When they didn’t respond, they were handcuffed and placed in a
sheriff’s van. Some went limp and had to be dragged. A crowd of about
50 more protesters who had gathered along the adjacent public road cheered as
the seven were driven away. The group carried signs with slogans such as
“Bring Blackwater to Justice,” “Security Contractors are Unlawful
Combatants” and “Blackwater: Shoot First, Ask No Questions.” The
six re-enactors arrested were Steve Baggarly of Norfolk; Beth Brockman of
Durham, N.C.; Mark Colville of New Haven, Conn.; Peter DeMott of Ithaca, N.Y.;
Laura Marks of Ayden, N.C.; and Bill Streit of Louisa County, Va. They were charged with second-degree trespassing, injury to real property and resisting
arrest. A seventh protester, Mary Grace of Madison County, Va., was
arrested after the re-enactment when she walked onto Blackwater’s property
and knelt on the pavement. She was charged with second-degree trespassing.
The protest was organized by the Norfolk Catholic Worker and Blackwater Watch,
an activist group based in Durham, N.C.Christian Stalberg, a spokesman for
Blackwater Watch, said the group’s aim is to “shut down Blackwater.”
“It’s an unmitigated disaster,” he said. “They’re irresponsible and
totally unaccountable.” (Unable to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
www.commondreams.org Date: October 21, 2007)
Pedophilia:
Southeast Asia's sordid secret--October 21st 2007--HONG KONG--The arrest
in Thailand of a Canadian man suspected of having sex with young boys
has
focused international attention on a sordid industry that peddles children to
pedophiles across Southeast Asia. Grinding poverty, poor policing and no
shortage of demand ensure that exploitation of children for sex thrives
throughout the region. Despite some high-profile prosecutions of child
sex abusers,
experts say lack of cooperation among governments is hindering
efforts to keep children safe from pedophilia. The Friday arrest of
teacher Christopher Paul
Neil, 32, was the culmination of an unprecedented
appeal from Interpol for public help in finding him. Neil is accused of
sexually assaulting 12 boys and posting
200 pictures of the crimes on the
Internet. His case is the latest to draw attention to the fact that
children are readily available in Southeast Asia for sexual
predators who
travel from the West for the sole purpose of having sex with minors.
Probably the highest profile offender is former rock star Gary Glitter -- real
name Paul Francis Gadd -- now in a Vietnamese prison convicted of committing
obscene acts with two girls, then aged 11 and 12. Campaign groups say
much of the demand for child sex is homegrown and accuse authorities of often
turning a blind eye, or even colluding in the abuse. For complete story,
click here.
Bush
Quips He Might Stay in Power (Threat Level Plays Along) By Kevin
Poulsen 17 Oct 2007 At a press briefing this morning that touched on issues
like the White House's extrajudicial wiretapping program and torture policies,
the president [sic] was asked a question about Vladimir Putin's plan to hold
on to power when his term as Russian president runs out. Reporter: Mr.
President, following up on Vladimir Putin for a moment, he said recently that
next year, when he has to step down according to the constitution, as the president, he may become prime minister; in effect keeping power and dashing
any hopes for a genuine democratic transition there ... Bush: I've been
planning that myself. ...THREAT LEVEL doesn't believe that he's going to
declare a state of emergency and cancel the 2008 election. But in July, we
filed some FOIA requests anyway. We asked five Justice Department offices for
documents produced or revised after August 2001 "addressing the
feasibility, advisability or lawfulness of deferring, rescheduling or
canceling a U.S. national election." For complete story,
click here.
Lawsuit:
ICE forcibly injecting detainees with psychotropic drugs12
Oct 2007 Former prisoners of Immigration and Customs Enforcement accuse the
agency in a lawsuit of forcibly injecting them with psychotropic drugs while
trying to shuttle them out of the country during their deportation. One of the
drugs in question is the potent anti-psychotic drug Haldol, which is often
used to treat schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. ACLU attorney Ahilan
Arulanantham said, "It would be torture to give
a powerful anti-psychotic drug to somebody who isn't even mentally ill.
... But here, it's happening on U.S. soil to an immigrant the government
is trying to deport." For complete story,
click here.
Carter:
U.S. has tortured detainees and Bush approved it 10 Oct 2007 In an
interview
with CNN, former President Jimmy Carter said he believes that the United
States has tortured prisoners and that President [sic] Bush has authorized the
abuse, which he said violates international laws. Despite that, Carter said
formal charges or a trial "would be inappropriate." For
complete story,
click here.
Carter
says U.S. tortures prisoners 10 Oct 2007 The United States tortures
prisoners in violation of international law, former President Carter said
Wednesday. "I don't think it. I know it," Carter told CNN. "Our
country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle
of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva
Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo,
and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a
crime to which they are accused." Carter also said President [sic] Bush
creates his own definition of human rights. For complete story,
click here.
Ex-McLean
chief admits sex with patient--October 10th, 2007--The
former president of McLean Hospital in Belmont, who abruptly left his post
last year
without explanation, has admitted to "inappropriate sexual
contact" with a patient that led to a personal crisis while he was
running the prestigious
psychiatric hospital, according to documents and an
associate of the psychiatrist. Dr. Jack M. Gorman had stunned the staff
at the Harvard-affiliated
hospital in May 2006, resigning after just four
months on the job for undisclosed "personal and medical reasons." It
turns out that Gorman was having such
guilty feelings about his relationship
with the patient that he quit his job, according to the Gorman associate. At
about the same time, Gorman reported
himself to medical regulators in his home
state and attempted suicide, said the associate and a New York official.
In an astonishing fall from grace, Gorman, 55, signed a consent order last
month with the New York Board for Professional Medical Conduct admitting that
he had inappropriate sexual contact "on
more than one occasion" with
the patient, violating a cardinal rule in psychiatry. He surrendered his
license to practice medicine indefinitely, effective
yesterday.
"This is a very unusual case," said Claudia Hutton, spokeswoman for
the New York Department of Health, which includes the medical board.
"Dr.
Gorman self-reported to us inappropriate sexual contact with a
patient." Gorman's admission was serious enough to warrant a
harsher than usual
punishment, Hutton said. Under the board's order, Gorman
can request that his license be restored after six months, but, even if it is,
he would face five
years of probation under the supervision of another doctor. For
complete story, click here.
Funeral
directors 'sold corpses for cash'--October 6th, 2007--America's
bodysnatching trade was exposed in gruesome detail yesterday when
three
funeral directors were charged with selling corpses for $1,000 (£500) apiece
so that their bones, tissue and skin could be transplanted into unsuspecting
hospital patients around the world. The funeral directors are accused of
forging death certificates to say that the cause of death
was either a heart
attack or blunt-force trauma, so that the body parts could be sold on.
At least one of the "donors" was HIV-positive and
suffered from
hepatitis C and cancer. After a 16-month investigation, a grand jury in
Philadelphia said that 244 bodies were sold to a former
oral surgeon in
Brooklyn, who allegedly ran a team of "cutters" to remove the most
lucrative parts. The surgeon, Michael Mastromarino - whose former company was
called Biomedical Tissue Services -is already facing charges in New York for
plundering 1,077 bodies, including
the 244 from Philadelphia. Other
funeral directors in New York have already pleaded guilty as part of the same
investigation - including one
man whose funeral home allegedly removed parts
from the body of the late broadcaster Alistair Cooke and
replaced them with plastic
plumbing materials. For complete story,
click here.
FBI
offered me $4m: Lockerbie bomb witness 06 Oct 2007 A witness in the
Lockerbie case has claimed he was offered $4 million (£2 million) by
American investigators to lie to the
trial judges. Edwin Bollier, head of the Swiss company MEBO that was said to
have manufactured the timer used to detonate the Pan Am bomb, claims he was
offered the money by the FBI at its Washington HQ in exchange for making a
statement that supported the main line of inquiry - that Libya was
responsible for the bombing. (Unable to locate article at time of
archiving. Source:
http://news.scotsman.com Date: October 6, 2007)
US
appears guilty of torture: Pelosi 08 Oct 2007 The United States
appears to be illegally torturing terror suspects contrary to denials by
President [sic] George Bush, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
said on Sunday. Interviewed on Faux News Sunday, Pelosi said reported
interrogation tactics such as simulated drowning, head slapping and exposure
to extreme temperatures all amounted to banned torture. For complete
story,
click here.
State
Dept. Tallies 56 Shootings Involving Blackwater on Diplomatic Guard Duty
28 Sep 2007 The State Department said
Thursday that Blackwater USA security
personnel [terrorists] had been involved in 56 shootings while guarding
American diplomats in
Iraq so far this year. It was the first time the Bush
regime had made such data public. For complete story,
click here.
Blackwater
guard in Iraq said "stop shooting": media 28 Sep 2007 A
Blackwater security guard screamed at colleagues to "stop shooting" in an incident that left 11 Iraqi civilians dead, enraged the
government and sparked reviews of security firms in Iraq, U.S. media said on
Friday. The Washington Post and The New York Times quoted unnamed U.S.
officials saying they had been told at least one employee of the private
American security firm pointed a gun at a fellow guard to try and curb the
shooting in Baghdad on September 16. For complete story,
click here.
Blackwater
Faced Bedlam, Embassy Finds
--'First Blush' Report Raises New
Questions on Shooting 28 Sep 2007 Separately, a U.S. official familiar
with the investigation said that participants in the shooting have reported
that at least one of the Blackwater guards drew a weapon on his colleagues
and screamed for them to "stop shooting." This account suggested
that there was some effort to curb the shooting, with at least one Blackwater guard believing it had spiraled out of control.
For complete story,
click here.
Report:
Blackwater skimped on security before Fallujah ambush 27 Sep 2007
Democrats in Congress released a scathing report Thursday on the 2004
massacre of four Blackwater contractors in Fallujah, charging that the
company rushed unprepared into a sloppy mission, skimped on security to save
money and stonewalled when Congress tried to investigate. For complete
story,
click here.
Blackwater
guards killed 16 as U.S. touted progress 27 Sep 2007 During the
ensuing week, as U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Army Gen. David Petraeus
told Congress that the surge of more U.S. troops to Iraq was beginning to
work and President Bush gave a televised address in which he said
"ordinary life was beginning to return" to Baghdad, Blackwater
security guards shot at least 43 people on crowded Baghdad streets. At least
16 of those people died. For complete story,
click here.
Hired
Gun Fetish By Paul Krugman 28 Sep 2007 ...[T]he administration has
abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service,
stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified
cronies. Tax farming — giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in
return for a share of the take — went out with the French Revolution; now
the tax farmers are back. ...[T]he Bush administration has tried to
privatize every aspect of the U.S. government it can, using taxpayers’
money to give lucrative contracts to its friends — people like Erik
Prince, the owner of Blackwater, who has strong Republican connections. You
might think that national security would take precedence over the fetish for
privatization — but remember, President [sic] Bush tried to keep airport
security in private hands, even after 9/11. For complete story,
click here.
Denver
Sheriff's Office Helps Private Companies Take Blood And Saliva At
Checkpoints--September 20th, 2007--A Sheriff's office in Denver has
been blasted by drivers after it engaged in the operation of what
appeared to be DUI checkpoints but were in fact stops being carried out
by a
private non-profit research
group. The Gilpin County Sheriff's Office was hit with complaints
earlier this week from motorists who say they
were not properly informed
of
the nature of the stops and felt that they were non-voluntary. One Undersheriff even described the procedure as "like a telemarketer
that
you couldn't hang up on,". The Denver post reported on the
incident earlier this week: Sgt. Bob Enney said deputies assisted the
Pacific Institute for
Research and Evaluation in stopping motorists at five sites along
Colorado 119 for surveys on any drug and
alcohol use. Surveyors then
asked the motorists to voluntarily submit to tests of their breath,
blood and saliva. At least 200 drivers were tested,
Enney said. About
five motorists later complained, he said. The research is
reportedly part of a nationwide study partly financed by the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Some motorists told the
Post that they repeatedly asked if the questioners were law
enforcement
officials and after stating that they were not interested in
participating in the study, were still not given clearance to
leave.
Describing the surveyors as being dressed in blue
jumpsuits, others stated that they were "too persistent" and
even offered $100 incentives to
motorists in an attempt to get them to
change their minds after they had declined to take part in the survey.
Some even said that the surveyors
then ridiculed the motorists for not
taking the money. For complete story,
click here.
Details Emerge in 'Horrific' Torture
Case--By JOHN RABY and TOM BREEN, AP Posted: 2007-09-12
11:11:59 Filed Under: Crime
News BIG CREEK, W.Va. (Sept. 12) - Inside a shed on a remote
hillside of this coalfield community, authorities say a young black
woman was tortured for days, sexually assaulted, beaten and forced to
eat rat droppings. Her captors, all of them white, choked her with a
cable cord and stabbed her in the leg while calling her a racial slur,
poured hot water over her and made her drink from a toilet, according to
criminal complaints. It wasn't until an anonymous tip led Logan
County Sheriff's deputies to the property on Saturday that her ordeal
ended and she was able to limp to safety, arms outstretched as she
cried, "Help me!" "I don't understand such a
horrific crime being committed here," said Johnny Meade, pastor of
the community's Apostolic Church of God in the Name of Christ Jesus.
The FBI is now looking into possible civil rights violations, agency spokesman Bill Crowley said, authorities in West Virginia said they were
investigating the case as a possible hate crime. At one point, an
assailant cut the woman's ankle with a knife and used the N-word in
telling her she was victimized because she is black, authorities said.
Investigators are still trying to determine how the woman ended up at
the property and whether she knew any of the six people arrested or the
two others, suspected of driving her to the home, who are being sought,
said Logan County Chief Sheriff's Deputy V.K. Dingess. Police tape
now surrounds the entrances to the beige-and-brown mobile home where
Megan Williams, 20, was found. An extension cord runs from the home to
the cramped shed, which authorities say she was held in with a portable
stereo, a locker and a power saw. The Associated Press generally
does not identify suspected victims of sexual assault, but Williams and
her mother agreed to release her name. Carmen Williams said she wanted
people to know what her daughter endured. "I don't understand
a human being doing another human being the way they did my
daughter," Carmen Williams said Tuesday from her daughter's
hospital room. "I didn't know there were people like that out
here." The suspects in the case have prior arrest records
going back several years, according to records from Logan County
Magistrate Court. Logan County Prosecutor Brian Abraham said, "I
have some familiarity with all those individuals.
" For complete story,
click here.
Executive
Order #11000: Authorizes the splitting up of family units--The
Bush administration used the September 11 terrorist attack as an
opportunity to implement a "shadow government," based on old
plans prepared during the Cold War. More than 150 officials were
initially evacuated by helicopter to different locations in mountainous
regions of the eastern United States. In late October the temporary
arrangement was made permanent, officially establishing the new regime.
Since then Bush has added hand picked people from top levels of the
civil service who will carry out his commands unquestioningly. Legal
documents have been drafted to give these officials the full powers of
government in the event of a catastrophe. The sinister and illegal
"shadow government" consists entirely of executive branch
officials. No members of the legislative and judicial branches of
government are included in the secret plan. In television interviews
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, confirmed that neither he nor any
other congressional leader had been consulted about the plan. When asked
whether this constituted a secret government, he replied, "I don't
know. I don't know what their role is, what their current authority is,
because we haven't been informed." This is a flagrant violation of
the concept of "Separation of Powers" as embodied in the
Constitution. In the event that this "shadow government"
seizes power, it will function as a dictatorship exercising military and
police powers, without any legislative oversight or judicial control.
For complete story, click here.
CBS
Early Show Removes Anti-War Protesters from View in Kansas City--Sept.
4th, 2007--On August 10, the CBS Early Show came to Kansas
City,
Missouri. Using Liberty Memorial Park, the Early Show was featuring the country
western band Big & Rich, which is famous for "Save a
Horse
(Ride a Cowboy)" and for leading audiences in the Pledge of
Allegiance. When the local peace community heard that the Early
Show
was coming to the park, activists hoped to get their message to a
national audience. "I received an e-mail about the event and
a flier from
the Early Show inviting people to attend," says Ira Harritt, Kansas City area program coordinator for the American Friends
Service Committee (AFSC). "I rsvp'd, saying some people from the
AFSC would be there." Harritt recruited people to come and carry some AFSC "Cost of
War" banners. These are seven feet long and three feet high,
and they all give different
answers to the question: "One Day of the Iraq War Equals."
(Such as $720 million, or 84 elementary schools, etc.) "We started
assembling the banners in the park," Harritt says, "and
immediately, a CBS staff person said, 'You can't be here. You can't have
those here.' " Harritt and the other activists challenged
her, saying, "This is a public park. We have a right to be
here," he recalls. And the anti-war activists had a lawyer with
them who defended their right to be there.
They reached
a compromise. The CBS employee, along with security,
allowed them to stay in the park so long as they did not get into camera
view. "I
promise you the TV cameras will not span this
area," the CBS employee said. That's not exactly what the
protesters had hoped for. "I was
very disappointed,
" says Harritt. "CBS was censoring what messages Kansas
Cityans were bringing to the Early Show." For complete story,
click here.
Kids
forced into domestic servitude in Haiti--August 24th,
2007--PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Evans Antoine wakes at 7 a.m. and dusts
himself off
from his night on the floor. While other children in his
middle-class neighborhood overlooking the Haitian capital head to
school, the 15-year-old puts on toeless sneakers and gets to work
washing dishes, scrubbing floors and running errands at the market. He
also works in the yard
and sometimes wields a scythe in the family's
fields. There is little reward for his toil, except for food and a
roof over his head. And often, the
quality of his work isn't good
enough; his caretakers sometimes hit him with a switch or slap him on
the back of the scalp. Once they tied his
hands and put a bag over his
head before beating him with a stick. This has been his life for the past three years. "They tell
me that I'm
useless," Antoine said, speaking softly at a meeting
secretly arranged by a teacher who taught him briefly and who fears for
his future. "They
yell at me and tell me about all the things they
do for me and how easy I have it." During the interview,
Antoine never smiled. He also kept
looking away while answering
questions, clearly uncomfortable with the subject: his unforgiving
life. Antoine is a restavek, a Haitian term derived from the
French for "stay with." But, he would rather be described by
the more genial-sounding Creole phrase meaning "one who
lives with
people." He is among 300,000 children, 10 percent of Haitians under
18, who serve as domestics for other families, a tradition in Haiti dating back to the country's independence more than 200 years ago.
Haiti revolted against French colonial rule and became the first
"black
republic" in 1804. With newly emancipated slaves in
power, it also became the first nation to outlaw slavery. Dependent on
coffee and sugar,
however, Haiti kept the plantation system after the
revolution, requiring "mandatory labor" of many citizens. The
masters were no longer
white, but working conditions improved only
marginally. Children were particularly susceptible. The sons and
daughters of slaves remained
house servants following the revolution,
indentured to newly rich army officers who took over the
plantations. Today child workers remain an
important part of
Haiti's economy, a system that barely sustains a nation of 8.7 million
that is wracked by poverty and lawlessness. Haiti is the poorest
country in the Western hemisphere. A little over half of primary
school-age children are enrolled in school, according to UNICEF, and
less than 2 percent finish secondary school. Children become restaveks in a variety of ways. Some, like Antoine, are orphaned and
taken in by family friends. Others are runaways pulled off the street.
Most are given up by parents from depressed rural areas who can't afford
to care
for them and hope that another family will do better and send
them to school. Antoine's case is an example of what so often goes
wrong. His
adoptive family promised to pay his tuition, but when it came
time to do so, his adoptive father reacted harshly. "He said I was
lying and he
beat me," he said. In fact, the majority of
families are only slightly better off than restaveks' parents, despite
living in the capital. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
puts former insurgents on payroll at Iraq front line
22 Aug 2007 Under a tree by a battlefield road in Iraq's "Triangle
of Death",
Lieutenant- Colonel Robert Balcavage meets his new
recruits. The men are Iraqi Sunni Arabs who are about to join the U.S.
military's
payroll as a local militia. They want guns... Slowly but
deliberately, U.S. forces are enlisting groups of armed men -- many
probably former insurgents -- and paying cash, a strategy they say
has dramatically reduced violence in some of Iraq's most dangerous areas
in just weeks. For complete story,
click here.
White
House Declares Office Off-Limits--August 23rd, 2007--Dan Eggen
reports for The Washington Post: "The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is
not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort to
fend
off a civil lawsuit seeking the release of internal documents about
a large number of e-mails missing from White House servers. The claim,
made in a motion filed Tuesday by the Justice Department, is at odds
with a depiction of the office on the White House's own Web site."
For complete story, click here.
White
House Manual Details How to Deal With Protesters--August 22nd,
2007--Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House
evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within
eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.
A White House manual that came to light recently gives
presidential advance staffers extensive instructions in the art of
"deterring potential protestors" from President Bush's
public appearances around the country. Among other
things, any event must be open only to those with tickets tightly
controlled by organizers. Those entering must be screened in case
they are hiding secret signs. Any anti-Bush demonstrators who
manage to get in anyway should be shouted down by "rally
squads" stationed in strategic locations. And if that does
not work, they should be thrown out. But that does not
mean the White House is against dissent -- just so long as the
president does not see it. In fact, the manual outlines a specific
system for those who disagree with the president to voice their
views. It directs the White House advance staff to ask local
police "to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be
placed, preferably not in the view of the event site or motorcade
route." The "Presidential Advance Manual,"
dated October 2002 with the stamp "Sensitive -- Do Not
Copy," was released under subpoena to the American Civil
Liberties Union as part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of two people
arrested for refusing to cover their anti-Bush T-shirts at a
Fourth of July speech at the West Virginia State Capitol in
2004. The techniques described have become familiar over the
6 1/2 years of Bush's presidency, but the manual makes it clear
how organized the anti-protest policy really is. The
lawsuit was filed by Jeffery and Nicole Rank, who attended the
Charleston event wearing shirts with the word "Bush" crossed
out on the front; the back of his shirt said "Regime Change
Starts at Home," while hers said "Love America, Hate
Bush." Members of the White House event staff told them to
cover their shirts or leave, according to the lawsuit. They
refused and were arrested, handcuffed and briefly jailed before
local authorities dropped the charges and apologized. The federal
government settled the First Amendment case last week for $80,000,
but with no admission of wrongdoing. For complete story,
click here.
SPP
Agent Provocateur Cops Caught Red Handed Attempting To Incite Violence--August
22nd, 2007--Peaceful protestors at the Security and
Prosperity
Partnership (SPP) summit in Montebello have captured sensational video
of hired agent provocateurs attempting to incite rioting and turn the
protest violent, only to encounter brave resistance from real protest
leaders. A video, posted on YouTube, shows three young men, their
faces masked by bandannas, mingling Monday with protesters in front of a
line of police in riot gear. At least one of the masked
men is holding a
rock in his hand, reports the Canadian Press. The three are
confronted by protest organizer Dave Coles, president of the
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Coles makes it
clear the masked men are not welcome among his group of protesters, whom
he describes as mainly grandparents. He urges them to leave and find
their own protest location. Notice how the
"anarchists"
begin to become uncomfortable when Coles and others accuse them of
really being cops, while pulling at their face masks. They
are seen to
edge closer to the uniformed police and engage in some form of
discussion. The police then let them pass through their line with
very
little resistance and "arrest" them in what is plainly a total
charade. More damning proof that the radicals were in fact cops
was revealed
with the release of photographs of the incident which show that the
anarchists have exactly the same footwear on as the cops. On the
soles of
their boots are yellow triangles, exactly the same as on the
boots of a police officer kneeling beside the men. While some have
said the
marks could represent Canadian Safety Industry seals, it seems
very coincidental when placed in context with the way the rioters were
"subdued". To compound the evidence, police have stated
that only 4 protestors in total have been arrested and charged, two of
them being
women. Veteran protest organizers have confirmed the identity
of the four as genuine protesters. So what happened to the rock
wielding
anarchists? The few radical protestors at the summit have
provided police with the
pretext to use rubber bullets, tear gas and pepper spray
on peaceful
protestors. Neither the RCMP nor the Surete du Quebec would
comment on the video
or even discuss generally whether they ever use the tactic of employing
agents provocateurs, however it has been common practice at previous
protests for authorities to employ
police or special forces to
intentionally infiltrate peaceful protests and cause violence. In
Seattle in 1999 at the World Trade Organisation meeting, the authorities
declared a state of emergency, imposed curfews and resorted to nothing
short of police state tactics in response to a
small minority of hostile black bloc hooligans. In his film Police State
2, Alex Jones covered the fact that the police allowed the black bloc to
run riot in downtown Seattle while they concentrated on preventing the
movement of peaceful protestors. The film presents evidence that the
left-wing anarchist groups are actually controlled by the state and used
to demonize peaceful protesters. At WTO protests in Genoa 2001 a protestor was killed after being shot in the head and run over twice by
a police vehicle. The Italian Carabinere also later beat on peaceful protestors as they slept, and even tortured some, at the Diaz School. It
later emerged that the police fabricated evidence against the
protesters, claiming they were anarchist rioters, to justify their
actions. Some Carabiniere officials have since come forward to say they
knew of infiltration of the so called Black Bloc anarchists, that fellow
officers acted as agent provocateurs. (Webmaster Note: COINTELPRO Lives on...)
For complete story,
click here.
ACLU
Report Exposes Ongoing Civil and Human Rights Violations on the Gulf
Coast as Katrina's Second Anniversary Nears--August 20th,
2007--NEW ORLEANS - The American Civil Liberties Union today
released a report revealing continuing incidents of racial injustice and
human rights abuses on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina devastated
the area two years ago. In its report, Broken Promises: Two Years
After Katrina, the ACLU exposes numerous civil rights violations
that have occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi since the storm,
including reports of heightened racially motivated police activity,
housing discrimination, and prisoner abuse. "Two years ago,
Americans were glued to their television sets, outraged at the images of
poor people of color cast aside in the aftermath of Katrina," said
Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Politicians
made promises, but they failed to fix the problems that Katrina's fury
made painfully clear. The government must be held accountable for its
mistakes rather than allowed to perpetuate the systemic racism and
discrimination that only added strength to the storm." In
light of its findings, the ACLU calls on Congress to pass legislation to
address post-Katrina injustices, including racial profiling, voter
disenfranchisement, and the dearth of health care facilities and
low-income housing. The ACLU also calls on the Department of Justice to
investigate severe problems at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP), the New
Orleans jail system where prisoners were abandoned during the storm.
Today, OPP is plagued by inhumane and dangerous conditions, inadequate
medical and mental health care, and lack of preparedness for possible
future storms. The ACLU says that government officials must implement a
thorough evacuation plan for OPP and provide funding to a severely understaffed public defender system. Broken Promises
poignantly describes personal accounts of people who were victimized in
Katrina's aftermath. In one case, Steven Elloie, an African-American bar
manager, was brutally beaten and tasered by New Orleans police officers
after they illegally searched the premises and harassed patrons at his
family-owned bar in Central City, a predominantly African-American
neighborhood. Despite the fact that he suffered severe injuries, the
police officers brought Elloie to the OPP where he was turned away and
directed to the hospital to receive treatment for trauma to his head,
body, and extremities. Charges against Elloie of resisting arrest and
battery against an officer were eventually dropped, but Elloie's
complaint against the police officers was "not sustained"
despite numerous witness accounts that were consistent with Elloie's
claims. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Elloie against the city of
New Orleans in June 2007. For complete story,
click here.
Stop
Australia's brutal grab of Aboriginal land--August
20th, 2007--Across the continent, Australians are
rallying to oppose Prime Minister John Howard's racist military
incursion onto the territories of Indigenous people. For complete
story,
click here.
The
Seattle police: corruption and impunity--August
20th, 2007--Cop criminals lie, assault, plant evidence,
misuse authority and sexually harass in the workplace. But the police
internal investigations unit has no enforcement power and answers to the
police chief. What's wrong with this picture? For complete story,
click here.
FBI
and CIA Go Online to Edit Wikipedia--August 20th, 2007--WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in
the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and
the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program. The
changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-
interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.
The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa
Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was
quickly overwhelmed with searches. The program allows users to
track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular
Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries. WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on
the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was
edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down
by class. Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was
edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the
merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.
Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI,
WikiScanner showed. CIA spokesman George Little said he could not
confirm whether CIA computers were used in the changes, adding that
"the agency always expects its computer systems to be used
responsibly." The FBI did not have an immediate
response.
Computers
at numerous other organizations and companies were found to have been
involved in editing articles related to them. For complete story,
click here.
Thousands
wrongly being treated for depression--August 17th, 2007--DOCTORS
are over-diagnosing depression, resulting in thousands of people
wrongly
being prescribed drugs to treat it, an expert warns today.
Professor Gordon Parker says the current threshold for what is
considered to be "clinical
depression" is too low and he fears
that it might lead to the condition becoming less credible. He
argues that the problem has been reduced to the "absurd"
and
we risk medicalising normal human distress and viewing any expression of
depression as necessary of treatment. Prof Parker, a psychiatrist
based at Australia's University of New South Wales, says it is
"normal to be depressed" and points to his own cohort study,
which followed 242 teachers. After 15
years of research, 79 per
cent of respondents had already met the symptom and duration criteria
for major, minor or very mild "subsyndromal" depression. Anti-depressants have a range of side-effects. About 25 per cent of
patients have problems when stopping them and studies have found that
they can cause a rise in suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients also
report a loss of libido. Prof Parker blames the over-diagnosis of
clinical depression on a change in its
categorisation, in 1980, which
saw the condition split into "major" and "minor"
disorders. He says that the simplicity and gravitas of "major
depression" gave it credit with clinicians, while its descriptive
profile set a low threshold. Criterion A required a person to be
in a "dysphoric mood" for two weeks, which included feeling
"down in the dumps". Criterion B involved appetite change,
sleep disturbance, drop in libido and fatigue. This model was then
extended to
include what Prof Parker describes as a seeming subliminal
condition, "subsyndromal depression". Writing in the
British Medical Journal, Prof Parker said: "It is normal to feel
depressed. A low threshold for diagnosing clinical depression risks
treating normal emotional states as illness. For complete story,
click here.
NSA
Judge: 'I feel like I'm in Alice and Wonderland' By Kevin
Poulsen 16 Aug 2007 AT&T attorney Michael Kellogg has taken the podium, and, not surprisingly, insists the case has to be dismissed. He
says AT&T customers have no actual proof or direct knowledge that
their communications were forwarded to the government without warrants. "The
government has said that whatever AT&T is doing with the government
is a state secret," Kellogg says. He adds, "As a
consequence, no evidence can come in whether the individuals'
communications were ever accepted or whether we played any role in
it..." Judge Hawkins wonders if the document is really that secret?
"Every ampersand, every comma is Top Secret?," Hawkins asks. "This
document is totally non-redactable and non-segregable and cannot even be
meaningfully described," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas
Bondy answers. For complete story,
click here.
Homeland
Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever
Declared 15 Aug 2007 Could martial law ever become a reality in
America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S.
soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the
clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem:
Us. If martial law were enacted here at home... easing public fears and
quelling dissent would be critical. And that's
exactly what the 'Clergy Response Team' helped accomplish in the wake of
Katrina. Dr. Durell Tuberville serves as chaplain for the
Shreveport Fire Department and the Caddo Sheriff's Office. For the
clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping
calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself,
specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, "because the
government's established by the Lord, you know. And, that's what we
believe in the Christian faith. That's what's stated in the
scripture."['Easing
public fears and quelling dissent would be critical.'] For
complete story,
click here.
CNN:
Americans May Need Passport To Have Picnic in a Park--August 16th,
2007--(CNN) -- Americans may need passports to board domestic
flights or
to
picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states
defying the federal Real ID Act. The act, signed in 2005 as part
of an emergency military spending and tsunami relief bill, aims to weave
driver's licenses and state ID cards into a sort of national
identification
system by May 2008. The law sets baseline criteria for
how driver's licenses will be issued and what information they must
contain. The
Department of Homeland Security insists Real ID is an
essential weapon in the war on terror, but privacy and civil liberties
watchdogs are
calling the initiative an overly intrusive measure that
smacks of Big Brother. More than half the nation's state
legislatures have passed
symbolic legislation denouncing the plan, and
some have penned bills expressly
forbidding compliance. Several states have begun making
arrangements for the new requirements -- four have passed legislation
applauding the measure -- but even they may have trouble meeting the
act's deadline. The cards would be mandatory for all "federal
purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a
federal
building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State
Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with
the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes. For
complete story,
click here.
Kidnapped
workers build U.S. Embassy in Iraq--August 14th, 2007--...In
March 2006, First Kuwaiti workers, mostly from the Philippines, boarded
a plane they thought would take them to work in Dubai. However, once the
flight took off, they discovered that their destination was Iraq. This
news caused an uproar that was quelled after a security guard pulled out
a submachine gun. An American worker for First Kuwaiti, Rory
Mayberry, was also on the flight. "I believe these men were kidnapped,"
Mayberry said at a July congressional hearing in Washington. He said
First Kuwaiti asked him to escort the Filipino workers to the Kuwait
airport and make sure they boarded the plane to Baghdad. Mayberry
said he later found out that the workers "were being smuggled into the
Green Zone" in Baghdad. "They had no IDs, no passports, nothing."
The kidnapping of Filipino workers was a blatantly illegal move. The
Philippine government has banned Filipinos from working in Iraq.
More than 10 percent of the Filipino population works abroad because
there are few high-paying jobs in the Philippines. When the
workers arrived in Baghdad, they found a grim reality. They were thrown
into jobs with terrible working and living conditions, poor sanitation,
and no real health care. The current whereabouts of the Filipino workers
is unknown. John Owens, another American who worked for First
Kuwaiti on the U.S. Embassy project in Iraq, quit after seven months. In
his resignation letter, Owens said that managers beat construction
workers and demonstrated little regard for worker safety. First
Kuwaiti and other private contractors in Iraq get away with these
appalling human rights violations because their work is sanctioned by
the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi puppet regime. For complete
story,
click here.
Subscription
seller accused of worker abuse--August 9th, 2007--ALBANY, N.Y.
— A magazine-subscription company based in Gig Harbor, Wash.,
is accused of illegally recruiting and deceiving young workers
into conducting door-to-door sales with little or no compensation,
according to the New York attorney general. Attorney General
Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday he has filed a lawsuit against Jaguar
Sales in the state Supreme Court in Poughkeepsie. The company is accused
of transporting young recruits to locations far from home, including New
York state, to sell subscriptions door-to-door for magazines including
Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest and U.S. News & World Report.
Potential salespersons were promised hundreds of dollars inwages, cash
bonuses, free travel and paid training. Employees were then forced
to endure terrible working conditions, according to Cuomo's suit. The
company is accused of requiring their salespersons to work six
days a week for about 12 hours a day, with no guaranteed earnings and no
bonuses or paid training. Former employees claim commissions were either
not paid or were withheld. Jaguar Sales is also accused of
charging employees for hotels and supplies, and fining them for breaking
rules such as curfews. Travel fare was not provided until the employees
had worked at least 30 days, and was not always provided after that,
Cuomo charged. For complete story,
click here.
Scammed:
two parties, one agenda--August
9th, 2007--Cindy Sheehan and others are fed up with the
"two-party" system that provides only the appearance of a
difference. Read here why it's a mistake to support Democrats as the
"lesser evil" and why it's fruitless to try to change that
party from within. For complete story,
click here.
Chevron,
Total sign Iraq oil contract for Majnoon Field
(Dow Jones Newswire) 08 Aug 2007 Oil giants Total SA and Chevron Corp.
have signed a services agreement that would lead to the two jointly
exploring and developing hydrocarbons from one of Iraq's biggest
oil
fields once the country gets an oil law in
place [!] and security on the ground improves, people
familiar with the deal say. The
two companies signed an agreement last
year and are currently assessing above-ground conditions around Majnoon,
Iraq's fourth
biggest oil field, which sits
near the border with Iran, and at least one other field in
the south of Iraq, to see what development
work is required, the people
told Dow Jones Newswires. For complete story,
click here.
Iraq
oil minister bans unions, discussions on US-backed oil law 05
Aug 2007 Iraq's energy ministry is using a Saddam-era decree to crack
down on trade unions and stifle dissent against foreign exploitation of
the country's vast oil reserves, the Basra-based oil workers' union
claims. Hassan Juma'a, the union's leader, has been at the forefront of
a public campaign against the signing of a controversial new oil law -
demanded
by Washington - that would lead to long-term profit-sharing
contracts being signed with multinational oil giants. But Hussein Shahrastani, Iraq's oil minister, has now issued a directive banning
unions from participating in any official discussions about the new law,
'since these unions have no legal status to work within the state
sector'. For complete story,
click here.
Poll:
Iraqis Oppose Oil Privatization (OneWorld) 08 Aug 2007 A new
public opinion poll has found nearly two thirds of Iraqis oppose plans
to open the country's oilfields to foreign companies. The poll found a
majority of every Iraqi ethnic and religious group believe their oil
should remain nationalized. Some 66 percent of Shi'ites and 62 percent
of Sunnis support government control of the oil sector, along with 52
percent of Kurds. For complete story,
click here.
Labor
Dept: 1,001 contractors have died in Iraq 08 Aug 2007 More than
1,000 mercenaries have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion
more than four years ago, according to Labor Department records made
available Tuesday. In response to a request from Rep. Jan Schakowsky,
D-Ill., the Labor Department revealed that 1,001 mercenaries had died in
Iraq as of June 30, including 84 during the second quarter of the year.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
Attack Kills 32 in Sadr City 09 Aug 2007 An American raid and
airstrike killed 32 people in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City on Wednesday. Hospital officials in the Sadr City district of Baghdad said
that the American airstrike had killed or wounded several civilians, including a child, though the military disputed that account. The
American attack coincided with an expanded curfew across Baghdad.
For complete story,
click here.
45
civilians, four US soldiers killed in Iraq
07 Aug 2007 At least 45 civilians and four US soldiers died during
another bloody day in
Iraq... Meanwhile, in a village in the north of
Iraq, a suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives,
unleashing a huge blast
that killed 30 people and destroyed a number of
homes. 'Sectarian' fighting in other areas claimed the lives of at least
15 Iraqis. For complete story,
click here.
4
U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraqi Capital 07 Aug 2007 Four more U.S.
soldiers were killed in roadside bombings in the Baghdad area, including
three in a single strike, the military said Tuesday, raising to at least
19 the number of American troop deaths in the first week of August.
For complete story, click here.
British
Criticize U.S. Air Attacks in Afghan Region 09 Aug 2007 A senior
British commander in southern Afghanistan said in recent weeks that he
had asked that American Special Forces leave his area of operations
because the high level of civilian casualties they had caused was making
it difficult to win over local people. Other British officers here in Helmand Province, speaking on condition of anonymity, criticized
American Special Forces for causing most of the civilian deaths and
injuries in their area. For complete story,
click here.
Kill
Or Convert,
Brought To You By the Pentagon--August
7th, 2007--Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous
Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore's sidekick in comedy
masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling
these days. Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian
after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU),
an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among
active-duty members of the US military. As an
official
arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU
plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left
Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also
scheduled to embark on a
"Military
Crusade in Iraq" in the near future. For complete story,
click here.
The
Timeline to Tyranny--August 7th, 2007--The top ten advances
towards tyranny in the United States during the tenure of the Bush
administration, from the Patriot Act to the latest expansion of the
illegal eavesdropping surveillance program. 1) The USA Patriot
Act--The
party line often heard from Neo-Cons in their attempts to
defend the Patriot Act either circulate around the contention that the
use of the
Patriot Act has never been abused or that it isn't being
used
against American citizens. Here is an archive of articles that
disproves both of
these fallacies. The Patriot Act was the
boiler plate from which all subsequent attacks on the Constitution
were formed. 2) Total Information
Awareness--"Every
purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you
buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web
site you visit and
e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every
bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every
event you attend
— all these transactions and communications will go into what the
Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized
grand
database," infamously wrote New York Times writer William Safire,
announcing the birth of Total Information Awareness, a kind of
Echelon on steroids introduced a year after 9/11. TIA was not
canned, it was simply removed from the newspaper, renamed and
continues to operate under a guise of different programs. 3) USA
Patriot Act II--The second Patriot Act was a mirror image of powers
that Julius Caesar and
Adolf Hitler gave themselves. Whereas the First
Patriot Act only gutted the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments,
and seriously damaged the Seventh and the Tenth, the Second Patriot
Act reorganized the entire Federal government as well as many areas of
state government
under the dictatorial control of the Justice
Department,
the Office of Homeland Security and the FEMA NORTHCOM military
command. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known
as the Second
Patriot Act is by its very structure the definition of
dictatorship. Military
Commissions Act--Slamming the final nail
in the coffin of everything America used to
stand for, the boot-licking U.S. Senate gave President
Bush the legal
authority to abduct and sexually mutilate American citizens and
American children in the name of the war on terror in passing
the
Military Commissions Act and officially ending Habeas Corpus.
There is nothing in the "detainee" legislation that protects
American citizens from being kidnapped by their own government and
tortured. The New York Times stated that the legislation
introduced, "A
dangerously broad definition of "illegal enemy combatant" in
the bill could subject legal residents of the United States, as well
as foreign
citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest
and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could
give the power
to apply this label to anyone he wanted."
Yale Law Professor Bruce Ackerman states in the L.A. Times, "The
compromise legislation.
...authorizes the president to seize American
citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United
States. And once thrown into
military prison, they cannot expect a
trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the
Bill of Rights." Similarly, law Professor
Marty Lederman
explains: "this [subsection (ii) of the definition of 'unlawful
enemy combatant'] means that if the Pentagon says you're an unlawful
enemy combatant -- using whatever criteria they wish -- then as far as
Congress, and U.S. law, is concerned, you are one, whether or
not you
have had any connection to 'hostilities' at all." John
Warner Defense Authorization Act--The Bush Junta quietly "tooled
up" to utilize
the U.S. military in engaging American dissidents
after the next big crisis, with a frightening and overlooked piece of
legislation that was
passed alongside the Military Commissions Act,
the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which greased the skids for
armed confrontation
and abolishes posse comitatus. Illegal
Domestic Wiretapping Program--"Months after the Sept. 11 attacks,
President Bush secretly authorized
the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others
inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity
without
the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic
spying, according to government officials," reported the New York
Times on
December 16, 2005 The secret warrantless spying program
was a complete violation of both the 4th Amendment and FISA.
Expansion of Illegal Domestic Wiretapping Program--Not content with
now being lawfully allowed to force ISP's and cell phone companies to
turn over data about customers without a warrant, the Bush
administration is pushing for even more authority to spy on American
citizens, and has already
been handed a 6 month window within which to
impose any surveillance policy it likes, and for that program to
remain legal in perpetuity.
The administration has a 6 month
window in which to impose any
surveillance program it chooses and that program will go unchallenged
and
remain legally binding in perpetuity - it cannot be revoked. Under
the definitions of the legislation, Bush has been granted absolute
dictator
status for a minimum of 6 months. If he so chooses, and
so long as it's implemented within the next half year, Bush could
build a database of
every website visited by every American - and the
policy would be immune from Congressional challenge
even after the "surveillance gap"
legislation reaches its
sunset Martial Law Presidential Decision Directive 51--New legislation
signed on May 9, 2007, declares that in the event
of a
"catastrophic event", the President can take total control
over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of
government
at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal
levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power.
The National Security and
Homeland Security Presidential Directive,
which also places the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of
domestic "security", was signed
earlier this month without
the approval or oversight of Congress and seemingly supercedes the
National Emergency Act which allows the president to declare a
national emergency but also requires that Congress have the authority
to "modify, rescind, or render dormant" such
emergency
authority if it believes the president has acted
inappropriately. Destruction of the Dollar-- Former World Bank
Vice President, Chief Economist and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz
has predicted a global economic crash within 24 months - unless the
current downturn is successfully managed. Asked if the situation was
being properly handled Stiglitz emphatically responded
"no,". Stiglitz caused controversy in October 2001
when he exposed rampant corruption within the IMF and blew the whistle
on their nefarious methods of inducing countries to fall under their
debt before stripping them of sovereignty and hollowing out their
economies.
Stiglitz agreed that the process of hijacking and looting key
infrastructure on the part of the IMF and World Bank, as an offshoot
of predatory globalization, had now moved from the third world to
Europe, the United States and Canada. Amnesty & The North
American Union--The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and
Canada
and create a Pan American Union has long been a Globalist brainchild
but its very real and prescient implementation on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations has finally been reported on by
mainstream news outlets. The framework on which the American
Union is being
pegged is the NAFTA Super Highway, a four
football-fields-
wide leviathan that stretches from southern Mexico through the US up
to Montreal
Canada .Coupled with Bush's blanket amnesty program, the
Pan American Union is the final jigsaw piece for the total dismantling
of America
as we know it. For complete story,
click here.
Bush
Confirms He Will Seek More Dictatorial Power--August 7th,
2007--While Constitutional experts and even sectors of the corporate
mainstream media have denounced the latest power grab by the Bush
administration as "unnecessary and highly dangerous", the
President
himself has confirmed that he will seek even more authority
from Congress and will attempt to pass more legislation aimed at
granting the
government unquestionable power over the people.
Legislation signed Sunday gives the government the green light to
install permanent
backdoors in communications systems that allow warrantless wiretapping of American citizens, a blatant violation of
the 4th amendment. The administration has a 6 month window in
which to impose any surveillance program it chooses and that program
will go unchallenged and
remain legally binding in perpetuity - it
cannot be revoked. Under the definitions of the legislation, Bush has
been granted absolute dictator
status for a minimum of 6 months,
dovetailing with a recent Presidential Decision Directive that also
appoints Bush as a supreme dictator
during an announced
emergency. The bill was passed on Friday after the president
jawboned Congress, saying lawmakers could not leave
for their August
recess at the weekend unless they "pass a bill that will give our
intelligence community the tools they need to protect the
United
States." Despite these huge freedom crushing steps, Bush
says he is not done: "While I appreciate the leadership it took
to pass this
bill, we must remember that our work is not done,"
Bush said in his Sunday statement. "This bill is a temporary,
narrowly focused statute to
deal with the most immediate shortcomings
in the law." The statement continues: "When Congress
returns in September the Intelligence
committees and leaders in both
parties will need to complete work on the comprehensive reforms
requested by Director McConnell, including
the important issue of
providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to
have assisted our Nation following the attacks of
September 11,
2001." This basically means that the administration will
push for liability for ISP's and cell phone companies in order to head
off court cases brought by the ACLU and others, including retroactive
protection which would neutralize all attempts to challenge the
administration'
s wiretapping activities spanning back to 9/11. Constitutional
expert and Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin has slammed the statement
and pointed out the use of Orwellian doublespeak by Bush whereby he
effectively admits to breaking the law and illegally spying on American citizens without actually saying so: "Apparently
'allegedly helped us stay safe' is Bush Administration code for
telecom companies
and government officials who participated in a
conspiracy to perform illegal surveillance.
.. Because what they did is illegal, we do not admit
that they
actually did it, we only say that they are alleged to have done
it." For complete story,
click here.
Rev.
Jesse Jackson asks for jury trial in arrest over gun shop
demonstration--August 6th, 2007--MARKHAM,
Illinois: The Rev. Jesse Jackson asked for a jury trial on
trespassing charges related to his June arrest outside a gun shop,
where he was demonstrating in support of tougher gun laws.
Jackson and local priest Rev. Michael Pfleger, who also was arrested,
have held several protests at Chuck's Gun Shop to call for stricter
gun laws after nearly three dozen public school students were killed
in Chicago during the past year. They say the shop's proximity to
Chicago gives gang members and criminals easy access to
firearms. If convicted, the civil rights leader and Pfleger
could face up to six months in jail, the Cook County state's
attorney's office said. A judge on Monday set a Nov. 26 jury
trial. Jackson told reporters after his court appearance that he
plans to increase his protests against the gun industry and would not
be deterred by the threat of jail. For complete story,
click here.
Working
invisibility cloak created at last--October 19th, 2006--An
invisibility cloak that works in the microwave region of the
electromagnetic spectrum has been unveiled by researchers in the US.
The device is the first practical version of a theoretical set-up
first suggested in a paper published earlier in 2006. The cloak
works by steering microwave light around an object, making it appear
to an observer as if it were not there at all. Materials that bend
light in this way do not exist naturally, so have to be engineered
with the necessary optical properties. Earlier in 2006, John Pendry, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College London, UK, and
colleagues showed how such an invisibility cloak could, in theory, be
made (see
Physicists
draw up plans for real 'cloaking device'). Now David Smith and
colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina, US, have proved the
idea works. In recent years, materials scientists have made
rapid progress in making so-called "metamaterials"
, which can have exotic electromagnetic properties unseen in nature.
These are made up of repeating structures of simple electronic
components such as capacitors and inductors. In 2001, Smith
built a metamaterial with a negative refractive index, which bends
microwaves in a way impossible for ordinary lenses. Now he has gone
one step further. For complete story,
click here.
Lawmaker
Calls for Registry of Drug Firms Paying Doctors--August 4th,
2007--WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 - An influential
Republican senator says he will propose legislation requiring drug
makers to disclose the payments they make to doctors for services like
consulting, lectures and attendance at seminars. The lawmaker,
Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate
Finance Committee, cited as an example the case of a prominent child
psychiatrist, who he said made $180,000 over just two years from the
maker of an antipsychotic drug now widely prescribed for
children. Mr. Grassley is one of several lawmakers to propose a
federal registry of such payments. Minnesota, Vermont and Maine
already have similar registries, and other states are considering
them. The proposals are a response to growing concerns that
payments from drug makers can affect doctors' prescribing habits,
increase the cost of health care and, in some cases, endanger
patients' health. For complete story,
click here.
Congress
gives Bush administration more eavesdropping power 04 Aug 2007
The House late Saturday night approved the Republican version of a
measure amending [voiding] the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
by a vote of 227-183, with most Republicans and conservative Democrats
supporting the bill. President [sic] Bush demanded Congress expand his
surveillance authority before leaving for vacation. The White-House
backed legislation closes what the Bush regime has called critical
gaps in U.S. intelligence capability. Lawmakers have been
scrambling to pass a bill acceptable to the White House [!] before
they leave for a month long summer recess. President
[sic] Bush had threatened to veto any bill that Director of National
Intelligence Mike McConnell said did not meet his needs.
[That
is the actual quote - 'did not meet *his* needs.'] For complete
story,
click here.
House
OKs wider wiretap powers
--DemocRATs concede to Bush regime on warrantless surveillance
04 Aug 2007 The House handed President [sic]
Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's
abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose
communications pass through the United States. The 227-183 vote, which
followed the Senate's approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his
signature. ['The
House handed President Bush a victory Saturday.']
For complete story,
click here.
Congress
Enacts Bush's Anti-Terrorism Spy Measure 04 Aug 2007 The U.S.
House completed congressional passage of 'anti'-terrorist legislation
that gives President [sic] George W. Bush more power to conduct
electronic surveillance for the next six months. The House voted
227-183 to let spy agencies intercept -- without a court warrant --
e-mails and telephone calls of foreign-based terrorists that are
routed through U.S. telephone switching facilities. For complete
story,
click here.
Gonzales
Now Says Top Aides Got Political Briefings
04 Aug 2007 Justice Department officials attended at least a dozen
political briefings at the White House since 2001, including some
meetings led by Karl Rove, President [sic] Bush's chief political
adviser, and others that were focused on
election trends prior to the 2006 midterm contest,
according to documents released yesterday. Attorney General Alberto R.
Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he did not
believe that senior Justice Department officials had attended such
briefings. But he clarified his testimony yesterday in a letter to
Congress... For complete story,
click here.
House
Forms Special Panel Over Alleged Stolen Vote [Where's
the *special panel* formed over two STOLEN ELECTIONS?]GOP
Assails Decision on Food Aid for Immigrants 04 Aug 2007 The House
last night unanimously agreed to create a special select committee,
with subpoena powers, to investigate Republican allegations that
Democratic leaders had stolen a victory from the House GOP on a
parliamentary vote late Thursday night.
[The GOP is hungry to
investigate people getting food, but not the theft on two elections,
an illegal war and ten thousand other crimes against humanity
perpetrated by the illegitimate regime. --LRP] For complete
story,
click here.
Iraqi
Power Grid Nearing Collapse --Iraq's National Power Grid Is
Nearing Collapse, Causing Blackouts and Water Shortages 04
Iraq's power grid is on the brink of collapse because of insurgent [US]
sabotage, rising demand, fuel shortages [!] and provinces that are
unplugging local power stations from the national grid [?], officials
said Saturday. [Gee, what happened to the tens of *billions* of
dollars US taxpayers gave to Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater USA - to
rebuild that which they destroyed in Iraq (and New Orleans)? These
predators are likely already salivating over the likelihood of
billions of dollars in new no-bid Bush contracts to 'rebuild' the US
infrastructure.] For complete story,
click here.
Baghdad
Misery Index: 117 Degrees, No Water 03 Aug 2007 Much of the
Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at
least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the
blistering heat at the height of the summer. It was 117 degrees in the
capital Thursday. Residents and city officials said large sections
west of Baghdad had been virtually dry for six days. For
complete story,
click here.
The
Secret Behind the Sanctions How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed
Iraq's Water Supply By Thomas J. Nagy (September 2001, The
Progressive) Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of
the Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary
to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally
used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply
after the Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian
Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway. The
primary document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," is
dated January 22, 1991. It spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq
from supplying clean water to its citizens. For complete story,
click here.
White
House Seeks Warrantless Authority From Congress
01 Aug 2007 The Bush regime is pressing Congress this week for
the authority to intercept, without a court order, any international
phone call or e-mail between a surveillance target outside the United
States and any person in the United States. The proposal,
submitted by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to
congressional leaders on Friday, would amend [void] the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for the first time since 2006 so
that a court order would no longer be needed before wiretapping anyone
"reasonably believed to be located outside of the United
States." For complete story,
click here.
Doctors
Blast Guantanamo Treatment as Unethical:
August 1st,
2007--Chicago, Illinois - Military doctors violate medical ethics when
they approve the force-feeding of hunger strikers at the U.S. prison
camp at Guantanamo Bay, according to a commentary in a prestigious
medical journal. The doctors should attempt to prevent
force-feeding by refusing to participate, the commentary's three
authors write in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association. "In medicine, you can't force treatment on a
person who doesn't give their voluntary informed consent," said
Dr. Sondra Crosby of Boston University, one of the authors. "A
military physician needs to be a physician first and a military
officer second, in my opinion." As of Tuesday, 20 of 23
fasting detainees at Guantanamo were being fed liquid meals through
flexible tubes inserted through their noses and throats, said Guantanamo spokesman Navy Cmdr. Rick Haupt. The strikers are
protesting conditions at the camp and their open-ended
confinement. A few physicians have declined to participate in
force-feeding, although the specific number has not been tracked, Haupt said. The military does not punish doctors who won't participate
in force-feeding, Haupt wrote Friday in an e-mail response to
questions from The Associated Press. A mass hunger strike began
at Guantanamo in August 2005 and reached a peak of 131 detainees. Last
year, the military started strapping detainees in restraint chairs
during tube feedings to prevent the prisoners from resisting or making
themselves vomit. The restraint chairs constitute excessive
force and coercion, Crosby said. For complete story,
click here.
Security
hearings called "Kafkaesque"
30 Jul 2007 Terrorism suspects held under virtual house arrest in
Britain suffer "Kafkaesque" treatment in special courts that
review secret evidence against them, a committee of legislators said
on Monday. The committee's report said "no right-minded
person" would think the suspects had a fair hearing when they
often had no idea of the case against them. It
likened the system to the Star Chamber, a secretive and oppressive
English court abolished in 1641. The law allows suspects
who cannot be prosecuted in the courts to be held under a loose form
of house arrest known as a "control order". For
complete story,
click here.
Suspended
Gene Therapy Test Had Drawn Early Questions: July 28th,
2007--A gene therapy experiment that has
triggered a federal investigation after the death of a patient on
Tuesday raised a variety of concerns when it was first proposed to
federal reviewers in 2003. Unlike the vast majority of such
proposals, all of which aim to treat diseases by giving patients new
genes, the plan to inject trillions of genetically engineered viruses
into the joints of patients with arthritis was flagged for a special
public review by the federal Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, part
of the National Institutes of Health. At that Sept. 17, 2003,
meeting, representatives of the sponsoring company, Targeted Genetics
Corp. of Seattle, listened as a panel of experts wondered aloud why
such a novel and possibly risky approach was to be offered to patients
who were not especially ill, including some who had not even tried
standard treatments. Reviewers questioned the justification for
the study, given that animal studies had found only a "limited
correlation" between the treatment and any improvements in
subjects' condition. And they asked for more assurance that the
engineered viruses were not going to spread around the body or cause
untoward immune system reactions in patients. Some also
expressed concern that the informed consent document the researchers
planned to use to describe the risks and benefits to participating
patients was not upfront enough about the fact that the study was
unlikely to help them and was designed merely to test the new
approach's safety. For complete story,
click here.
Martial
Law Threat is Real: Lucky that the Military is Breaking Down:
July 27th, 2007--The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of
which a number of
generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin
Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it may be the best
hope for preventing military rule here at home. From the looks
of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave
the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it
really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of
Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support
of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by
the last, Republican-led Congress. The first step, or course,
was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in
September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to
claim—improperly, but so what? —that the whole world, including
the US, is a battlefield in a so-called "War" on Terror, and
that he has extra-Constitutiona
l unitary executive powers
to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and
former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein
observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is
enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law,
"since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All
he'd need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the
U.S." For complete story,
click here.
Drug
makers must warn patients of risks, Justices rule: June
28th, 2007--CHARLESTON - Drug companies
cannot escape liability for harmful
prescriptions in West Virginia by
laying all responsibility on doctors, the West Virginia Supreme Court
of Appeals ruled June 27. Three of five Justices denied a writ
that would have kept Marshall Circuit Judge Mark Karl from holding
trial against Janssen Pharmaceutica. They upheld Karl's
rejection of a doctrine that would define a doctor as a "learned
intermediary" between a drug maker and a patient. Chief
Justice Robin Davis treated the doctrine as a useless 82-year-old
relic. "When the learned intermediary doctrine was
developed, direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs was
utterly unknown," she wrote. "Pharmaceutical
manufacturers never advertised their products to patients, but rather
directed all sales efforts at physicians." She wrote that
the law created an exception to the duty of a manufacturer to warn
consumers directly of risks. "For good or ill, that has all
changed," Davis wrote. "... we now hold that, under West
Virginia products liability law, manufacturers of prescription drugs
are subject to the same duty to warn consumers about the risks of
their products as other manufacturers." For complete story,
click here.
Psychiatrists
Top List in Drug Maker Gifts: June 26th, 2007--WASHINGTON,
June 26 — As states begin to require that drug companies disclose
their payments to doctors for lectures and other services, a pattern
has emerged: psychiatrists earn more money from drug makers than
doctors in any other specialty. How this money may be
influencing psychiatrists and other doctors has become one of the most
contentious issues in health care. For instance, the more
psychiatrists have earned from drug makers, the more they have
prescribed a new class of powerful medicines known as atypical antipsychotics to children, for whom the drugs are especially risky
and mostly unapproved.
Vermont
officials disclosed Tuesday that drug company payments to
psychiatrists in the state more than doubled last year, to an average
of $45,692 each from $20,835 in 2005. Antipsychotic medicines are
among the largest expenses for the state’s Medicaid program. For
complete story,
click here.
FBI
to restrict student freedoms:
June 27th, 2007--US university
students will not be able to work late at the campus, travel abroad,
show interest in their colleagues' work, have friends outside the
United States, engage in independent research, or make extra money
without the prior consent of the authorities, according to a set of
guidelines given to administrators by the FBI. Federal agents
are visiting some of the New England's top universities, including
MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts, to warn
university heads about the dangers of foreign spies and terrorists
stealing sensitive academic research. FBI is offering to brief
faculty, students and staff on what it calls "espionage
indicators" aimed at identifying foreign agents.
Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing
unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual
work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported
contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials,
attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and
unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage
indicators. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to
monitor their colleagues for signs of suspicious behaviour and report
any concerns to the FBI or the military. For source and partial
story,
click here.
Drug,
Food Risks Stay Secret as Inquiries to U.S. FDA Pile Up--June
19th, 2007--June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Claudia Krcmarik can't get
documents about her father-in-law's death during a medical study. Meryl Nass keeps asking for records she thinks will show an anthrax
vaccine is dangerous. The American Bakers Association's request for a
paper on the safety of imported honey has languished. All filed
public information requests with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
at least four years ago and have yet to receive what they asked for --
even though American law says agencies must release records
``promptly.'' The FDA's 20,365 unfilled requests for information
exceed the totals for the departments of Defense and Justice. One
company, FOI Services Inc., accounts for 44 percent of the backlog,
according to the agency. Researchers, consumer groups and individuals
say the delays limit their ability to alert the public to food and
drug dangers and to hold the FDA accountable. ``It is important
information that we need to tell this story,'' said Krcmarik, of Ann
Arbor, Michigan, who wants to know how her father-in-law was given an
overdose in an FDA- regulated clinical trial before he died in 2002.
``That information should be available, and it should be timely. What
we wanted to avoid is this happening to anyone else.'' For
complete story, click here.
Official:
Cheney Urged Wiretaps --Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges
Interference 07 Jun 2007 Vice President [sic] Cheney told Justice
Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a
secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in
March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.
The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get
approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D.
Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to
former deputy attorney general James B. Comey. For complete
story,
click here.
Groups
list 39 'disappeared' in U.S. war on terror 07 Jun 2007 Six
human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and
explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have
been held in U.S. custody and "disappeared." The groups,
including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they
filed a U.S. federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act
seeking information about the 39 people it terms "ghost
prisoners" in the U.S. "war on terror." For
complete story, click here.
NGOs
list CIA 'ghost detainees' 07 Jun 2007 A group of human rights
organisations has named 39 people they say the US has held in secret
CIA-run prisons and whose whereabouts are now unknown. The group has
called on the US to end the programme of secret prisons for people
detained in the "war on terror". For complete story,
click here.
Detainee
Abuse Was Well Planned 31 May 2007 Many of the controversial
interrogation tactics used against terror suspects in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantanamo were modeled on techniques the U.S. feared
that the Communists themselves might use against captured American
troops during the Cold War, according to a little-noticed, highly
classified Pentagon report released several days ago. Originally
developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the
"Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" program,
otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation,
sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress
positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program
for personnel at risk of capture, all carried out under the
supervision of military psychologists. This troubling disclosure was
made in the blandly titled report, "Review
of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse", which for
the first time sets forth the origins as well as new details of many
of the abusive interrogation techniques that led to scandals at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere.
For complete story, click here.
ACLU
files lawsuit against county for treatment of TB patient:
May 30th, 2007--A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American
Civil
Liberties
Union alleges that Maricopa County officials have violated the rights
of a quarantined tuberculosis patient for months by treating him as a
criminal. The U.S. District Court complaint on behalf of Robert
Daniels alleges health officials and the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office have violated numerous constitutional rights and the Americans
with Disabilities Act. The suit asks that Daniels be housed in
appropriate accommodations, rather than the severe and
"inhumane" jail conditions. "It's good news for
me," Daniels said Wednesday evening. "I finally have a
chance to get out of this black hole." For complete story,
click here.
CEOs
vs. Slaves: May 29th, 2007--...According to a just-reported
study
by Carola Frydman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
Raven E. Saks at the Federal Reserve, thirty to forty years ago, the
CEOs of major companies earned 80 percent more, on average, than the
third-highest-paid executives. By the early part of the twenty-first
century, however, the gap between the CEO and the third in command had
ballooned up to 260 percent. Now take a look at what's happening
at the very bottom of the economic spectrum, where you might have
pictured low-wage workers trudging between food banks or mendicants
dwelling in cardboard boxes. It turns out, though, that the bottom is
a lot lower than that. On May 16, a millionaire couple in a woodsy
Long Island suburb was
charged
with keeping two Indonesian domestics as slaves for five years, during
which the women were paid $100 a month, fed very little, forced to
sleep on mats on the floor and subjected to beatings, cigarette burns
and other torments. For complete story,
click here.
Pfizer
Faces Criminal Charges in Nigeria: May 30th, 2007--Officials
in Nigeria have brought criminal charges against pharmaceutical giant
Pfizer for the company's alleged role in the deaths of children who
received an unapproved drug during a meningitis epidemic.
Authorities in Kano, the country's largest state, filed eight charges
this month related to the 1996 clinical trial, including counts of
criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. They
also filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and
restitution from Pfizer, the world's largest drug company. The
move represents a rare -- perhaps unprecedented -- instance in which
the developing world's anger at multinational drug companies has
boiled over into criminal charges. It also represents the latest in a
string of public-relations blows stemming from the decade-old clinical
trial, in which Pfizer says it acted ethically. For complete
story,
click here.
Ex-China
drug regulator to be executed: May 29th, 2007--BEIJING
- China's former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday in
an unusually harsh punishment for taking bribes to approve substandard
medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10
deaths. Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the
government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe
products. The developments are among the most dramatic steps
Beijing has taken to address domestic and international alarm over
shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods - from pet food ingredients and
toothpaste mixed with induso trial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.
For complete story, click here.
Medical
experiments to be done without patients' consent 27 May 2007
The federal government is undertaking the most ambitious set of
studies ever mounted under a controversial arrangement that allows
researchers to conduct medical experiments without first getting
patients' permission. The $50 million, five-year 'project,' which
will involve more than 20,000 patients in 11 sites in the United
States and Canada, is designed to improve treatment [the profit margin
for the corpora-terrorists] after car accidents, shootings, cardiac
arrest and other emergencies... George J. Annas, a Boston University
bioethicist, said "I don't think we should use people like
this." Annas was particularly disturbed that
children
as young as 15 might be included in the research.
(Webmaster Note: Such experimentation on the U.S. public and
U.S. children is not new. It's been going on for over 50
years. It must be investigated and stopped, now!) For
complete story, click here.
Bush
Re-Authorizes Martial Law Provisions:
President George W.
Bush has sparked much alarm by openly declaring himself to be a
dictator in the event of a national emergency under new provisions
that will effectively nullify the U.S. constitution, but such an
infrastructure has been in place for over 70 years and
this merely represents a re-authorization of the infrastructure of
martial law. New legislation signed on May 9, 2007, declares
that in the event of a
"catastrophic event", the President can take total control
over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of
government
at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus
ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power. The National
Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, which also
places the Secretary of Homeland Security in charge of domestic
"security", was signed earlier this month without the
approval or oversight of Congress and seemingly supercedes the
National Emergency Act which allows the president to declare a
national emergency but also requires that Congress have the authority
to "modify, rescind, or render dormant" such emergency
authority if it
believes the president has acted inappropriately. Journalist Jerome
Corsi, who has studied the directive also states that it makes no
reference to Congress and "its language appears to negate any
requirement that the president submit to Congress a determination that
a national emergency exists." In other words the new
directive excludes Congress altogether from governance in a state of
emergency. While alluding to the "enduring constitutional
government", the directive actually ensures the end of
constitutional government as each branch, the executive, legislative
and judicial, are stripped of equal authority and must answer directly
and solely to the President. For complete story,
click here.
U.N.
barred from Texas detention center 21 May 2007 U.S.
immigration officials blocked a U.N. observer from visiting a
detention facility for illegal aliens in Texas, the ACLU reported.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante is conducting a fact-finding
mission to examine the status of migrants' rights in the United
States, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prohibited him
from making a scheduled stop at a family detention center in Taylor,
Texas, the ACLU reported on Friday. The detention center, which was
formerly a medium-security prison according to the ACLU, is operated
by the Corrections Corporation of America through a
contract
with the Department of Homeland Security. For
complete story,
click here.
Senators
Who Weakened Drug Bill Got Millions from Industry:
May 14th,
2007--WASHINGTON - Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign
donations
from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a
landmark drug-safety bill, according to public records and
interviews. The bill, which passed 93-1, grants the Food and
Drug Administration broad new authority to monitor the safety of drugs
after they are approved. It addressed some shortcomings that allowed
the painkiller Vioxx to stay on the market for years after initial
signs that it could cause heart attacks. For complete story,
click here.
Doctors
Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs: May 9th, 2007--Two
of the world’s largest drug companies are paying hundreds of
millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their
patients
anemia
medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used
doses. The payments are legal, but very few people outside of
the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics,
including prominent
cancer
and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to
prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients’
risks of heart attacks or strokes. For complete story,
click here.
USDA:
20 million melamine-tainted chickens cleared for sale08 May 2007 Chickens that ate bird feed made with a small
amount [!] of contaminated pet food are safe for human consumption and
can be released for slaughter and sale, federal health officials said
yesterday. That decision emerged from a government risk analysis
completed over the weekend involving 20 million chickens that
officials said Friday had inadvertently been fed the tainted feed in
several states. For complete story,
click here.
Chinese
Prisoner Sues Yahoo Under Torture Victims Act: April 20th,
2007: While
several
U.S.
companies, including Cisco, Google, and Microsoft, have been
criticized by human rights groups, which accuse them of helping the
Chinese government monitor and censor the Internet in
China
, the lawsuit against Yahoo, filed under the Torture Victims
Protection Act, may be the first of its kind against an Internet
company. A Chinese political prisoner and his wife have
sued Yahoo in a
U.S.
court, accusing the company of abetting acts of torture by helping
Chinese authorities identify political dissidents who were later
beaten and imprisoned. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday under the Alien
Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act, may be the
first of its kind against an Internet company for its activities in
China
. Wang Xiaoning, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence
in
China
, according to the lawsuit; his wife, Yu Ling; and other unidentified
plaintiffs seek damages and an injunction barring Yahoo from
identifying dissidents to Chinese authorities. "I hope to
be able to have Yahoo promise that in the future they will stop this
kind of wrongdoing," said Yu, speaking through an interpreter by
telephone from
San
Francisco
.
For complete story,
click here.
PET
FOOD CONTAMINATION MOVES INTO USA MEAT SUPPLY--The pet food poisoning scandal that has prompted the
largest recall of pet foods in history has spread into
the livestock and meat sector. This week, the USDA
admitted that the contaminated food ingredients that
have killed thousands of pets across the U.S. were
also used to feed hogs and chickens that have already
been processed and eaten by several million Americans.
Over three million chickens and pigs have consumed the
tainted food. Although there have been no government
studies done on the toxicity of this contamination,
the FDA claims the risk is low. It’s important to
note that organic animal feed was not contaminated in
this latest incident, underlining the obvious point
that pet owners and meat eaters should give preference
to safer, more nutritious organic products
(find
organic pet foods here). Learn more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5017.cfm
or
click here.
Under
Criticism, Drug Maker Lilly Discloses Funding: May 2nd,
2007--
Amid
criticism that money from drug companies is overly influential
in the practice of medicine, Eli Lilly & Co. for the first
time plans to release a detailed report today on its grants to
nonprofit groups and educational institutions... But critics
argue grants curry favor with physicians and influential
organizations, and allow companies to defend newer, more
expensive medications against generic remedies and expand use
of medicines for unapproved purposes. For
source and partial story,
click here.
Inside
Texas' For-Profit Immigrant Prison--The Horrors of Hutto:
"Help us and ask questions," read the note, secretly
passed to a visitor from an immigrant child incarcerated in a
Texas prison. Based on their visits and interviews, the
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and
Children and the
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are calling for the
immediate shutdown of the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in
Taylor, Texas. Local activists have brought national and
international attention on this facility, owned by the
Corrections Corporation of American (CCA), which imprisons
children and their families for profit under the same
horrendous conditions as when it was a prison for adults. Approximately 400 immigrants are
incarcerated in Hutto, and at least half of the prisoners are
children, according to Texans United for Families. Many of the
immigrants--
who are limited to countries other than Mexico--have made
requests for asylum in the U.S. They await deportation
hearings without any charges for months, and sometimes years.
For complete story,
click here.
Four
students arrested for heckling FBI director
27 Apr 2007 Police arrested four Harvard University students
last night for heckling FBI Director Robert Mueller prior to
his speech on the "Balance of National Security and Civil
Liberties," witnesses said. Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn
confirmed that four Harvard students were arrested outside the
John F. Kennedy School of Government. For complete
story,
click here.
Ban
All the Lawyers
--Prisoners at Guantanamo don't
really need them, or so says the Justice Department. (The
Washington Post) 29 Apr 2007 The Bush administration is
ruthlessly exploiting the perverted system of justice approved
by Congress last year for foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. By stripping the detainees of the ancient right of
habeas corpus, Congress drastically limited their ability to
challenge their detentions in U.S. courts. Now the
administration is citing that limitation as an excuse to
curtail the prisoners' access to the civilian lawyers who have
been representing them. As first reported Thursday by the New
York Times, the Justice Department has asked the federal
appeals court charged with handling all appeals of the
detentions to limit lawyers to three visits with their
clients; allow their correspondence with prisoners to be
opened and read; and give government officials the power to
deny the lawyers access to evidence. For complete story,
click here.
Post-Katrina
Foreign Aid Offers Went Unaccepted
--Administration
has used only fraction of allies' pledged donations in
hurricane aftermath, which
has cost U.S. taxpayers more than $125B to date.
29 Apr 2007 Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil
that
was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been
used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according
to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went
uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil... In
another instance, the Department of Homeland Security accepted
an offer from Greece on Sept. 3, 2005, to dispatch two cruise
ships that could be used free as hotels or hospitals for
displaced residents. The deal was rescinded Sept. 15 after it
became clear a ship would not arrive before Oct. 10.
The
U.S. eventually paid $249 million to use [Jeb Bush
contributors] Carnival Cruise Lines vessels.
For complete story,
click here.
82
Inmates Cleared but Still Held at Guantanamo:
April
29th, 2007--LONDON -- More than a fifth of the approximately
385 prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been cleared for
release but may have to wait months or years for their freedom
because U.S. officials are finding it increasingly difficult
to line up places to send them, according to Bush
administration officials and defense lawyers. Since
February, the Pentagon has notified about 85 inmates or their
attorneys that they are eligible to leave after being cleared
by military review panels. But only a handful have gone home,
including a Moroccan and an Afghan who were released
Tuesday. Eighty-two remain at Guantanamo and face indefinite
waits as U.S. officials struggle to figure out when and where
to deport them, and under what conditions. The delays
illustrate how much harder it will be to empty the prison at Guantanamo than it was to fill it after it opened in January
2002 to detain fighters captured in Afghanistan and terrorism
suspects captured overseas. For complete story,
click here.
Exclusive:
ABC Told Rosie Not To Talk About Dead U.S. Troops--O'Donnell
censored on The View right from the start:
Rosie
O'Donnell was
ordered by ABC not to talk about casualty
figures of U.S. troops in Iraq on The View and was continually
censored and blocked in her attempts to feature prominent
members of the 9/11 Truth Movement as guests on the
show. O'Donnell had met with 9/11 truth crusader and
World Trade Center hero
William Rodriguez before she went public with her comments on
The View questioning the suspicious collapse of Building 7.
Pictured above is
Rosie holding the famous key that Rodriguez used in the twin
towers during the rescue efforts. Rodriguez was
instrumental in arranging the appearance of 9/11 first
responders on The View which is set to air Friday. Rosie
has attempted to get William Rodriguez on the show as a guest
on
numerous occasions over the last few weeks but was rebuffed by
program directors every time due to Rodriguez's vocal stance
that 9/11 was an
inside job. O'Donnell again attempted to simply mention
Rodriguez's today but was shouted down. Rosie was told
almost from day one that she could not mention U.S. troop
casualty figures in Iraq and the cover-up of the real death
count, despite the fact that Neo-Con panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck was given free reign and allowed to say what she
liked, including referring to the Iraqi people as
"animals." The fact that O'Donnell was blocked
from talking about dead U.S. troops feeds into the same
censorship that bars the media from filming coffins of
returning soldiers at Dover AFB and other locations. For
complete story,
click here.
8
spas raided in prostitution sting--Dallas:
Possible links to human trafficking suspected in case:
At 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Dallas police, the district attorney's office and
federal agencies raided Nagoya Body Bath and seven other
businesses that authorities say were operating as brothels and
have possible links to human trafficking. Some of the
spas have been linked to one another, but authorities declined
to give further details. At an afternoon
news conference, District Attorney Craig Watkins said he
expected to file first-degree felony charges in connection
with the investigation. We want to make the cost of
doing business so high that these folks decide that they don't
want to do this business," Mr. Watkins said. "We
plan on vigorously prosecuting these individuals. We want to
send a message to the community that we're not going to
tolerate this in Dallas County." Twenty-seven women
were detained during the raids, and 19 have since been
released. One woman who was detained has been identified
as a possible victim of human trafficking. Several
women, all South Korean, were being held for immigration
reasons. Police said they were trying to determine if
any of the other detainees were human trafficking victims."
For complete story,
click here.
Man
Arrested For Crime He Didn't Commit is Held in Prison for
More Than a Year Before Charges Are Finally Dropped:Roberto Hernandez
was arrested by Hartford police officers and accused of robbing
a local McDonald's. Despite a lack of evidence linking Mr.
Hernandez to the crime, his bail was set at $100,000. Mr.
Hernandez, who is indigent, and Hispanic, was unable to secure
the $100,000 bail, and as a result was forced to sit in prison,
awaiting trial for more than a year, on a crime he never
committed. Finally, on the eve of trial, all charges
against Mr. Hernandez were dropped and he was released. In
an effort to preserve our constitutional rights and protect us
from future incidents of Constitutional abuse, Attorney Paul
Spinella has taken on Mr. Hernandez's case to vindicate his
Constitutional rights and to fix a bail system that continually
denies minorities and indigent members of society reasonable
bail. The lawsuit, Roberto Hernandez v. The State of
Connecticut, et al, filed in the United States District Court in
Hartford on January 25, 2007, docket number 3:03-cv-00121(
MRK), asserts that Hartford police officers deprived Mr.
Hernandez of his Constitutional and state law rights by
arresting him for a crime they knew, or should have known, he
did not commit. The lawsuit also seeks to reform
Connecticut'
s broken bail system that deprives indigent and minority members
of the community, such as Mr. Hernandez, of their constitutional
rights to reasonable bail.
For complete story,
click here.
WSU
Vancouver evacuated due to threat; Patriot Act forum rescheduled
18 Apr 2007 The Vancouver branch of Washington State University
was evacuated Tuesday night because of threatening graffiti
discovered in a campus restroom shortly before
an evening conference on the Patriot Act and the war on [of]
terror, authorities said. University officials decided
to evacuate the campus about 6:30 p.m. after the graffiti was
found, according to Sgt. Mike Cooke of the Clark County sheriff's
office. The threat came on the same night that Brandon Mayfield,
an attorney wrongly arrested by FBI agents after the 2004 Madrid
terrorist bombings, was scheduled to appear on campus as part of a
forum on civil liberties titled "Casualties of the
USA Patriot Act and the War on Terror." His wife,
Mona Mayfield, said they drove to the campus and were told to
leave. Mayfield said she was told the event would be rescheduled.
For complete story,
click here.
Lawyer
outlines a broader conspiracy in search for FBI documents on
Oklahoma City bombing
17 Apr 2007 A Utah attorney alleges informants gathering
information on Timothy McVeigh or his associates warned the FBI
about the plot to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building but the
agency
took no action to stop the 1995 attack. Jesse Trentadue
also says there were others involved in
carrying out the bombing besides McVeigh and Terry
Nichols, despite investigators' conclusion that they were the only
ones responsible for the crime. For complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo
detainee's father says son tortured in secret CIA prison
17 Apr 2007 The father of a Guantanamo Bay detainee accused CIA
officials of torturing his son - Pakistani terror suspect Majid
Khan - after arresting him in Pakistan in March 2003, according to
an affidavit released Monday. For complete story,
click here.
CIA
torture claims
18 Apr 2007 Top terror suspect Abu Zubaydah told a US military
tribunal he was tortured while in CIA custody, and now suffered
seizures. He said these affected his ability to speak and write,
according to a transcript released yesterday. In a lengthy March
27 hearing before the tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Zubaydah denied
associating with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, despite having
told interrogators that he had. For complete story,
click here.
UN
calls on the West to help four million displaced Iraqis
18 Apr 2007 The Iraq war was supposed to spread democracy
throughout the Middle East, but to date its most palpable result
has been to spread Iraqis throughout the world. UNHCR, the United
Nations' refugee agency, believes that up to two million have
sought refuge outside the country since the war started, and 1.9
million have been forced to move within Iraq in fear of their
lives. For complete story,
click here.
Sadr
ministers walk out of Iraq government in protest at US
17 Apr 2007 The nationalist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has
ordered his ministers to leave the Iraqi government because of its
refusal to set a timetable for US troop withdrawal from Iraq.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
soldier on trial in Italy for Iraq killing
17 Apr 2007 A U.S. soldier [Mario Lozano] went on trial in Rome on
Tuesday accused of killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq
but was being prosecuted in absentia because Washington has ruled
out handing him over. For complete story,
click here.
'I
cannot simply dismiss a relevant document because the US military
refuses to let me see it.' Lack
of US help over fatal helicopter crash in Iraq 'inexcusable', says
coroner 17 Apr 2007 The coroner hearing an inquest into
the deaths of eight servicemen in an American helicopter crash in
Iraq has issued a list of demands for evidence he wants from the
US. Oxfordshire Assistant Deputy Coroner Andrew Walker said the
lack of help from America was "inexcusable" and he
expected an American safety report into the incident to be on his
desk tomorrow morning. Mr Walker was told by Ministry of Defence
lawyer Wendy Outhwaite that the Americans
had "expressly" forbidden release of the document.
For complete story,
click here.
Basra
violence threatens Iraq's oil
17 Apr 2007 Political and sectarian [US] fighting in Iraq's oil
capital, Basra, intensifies, threatening most of Iraq's oil
production and all its oil exports. For complete story,
click here.
Afghan
blast kills five in U.N. vehicle
17 Apr 2007 A remote-controlled bomb blew up a U.N. vehicle in
Afghanistan on Tuesday killing four Nepalese contractors and an
Afghan driver, police and the United Nations said. For
complete story, click here.
Merck's
Vioxx Troubles May Ebb: A
ruling from a Texas judge coming as soon as Monday is expected to
undercut the legal foundation for all
1,000 Vioxx cases brought
against Merck & Co. by Texas plaintiffs, providing a
potentially significant boon to Merck's defense efforts. The
judge has informed both sides in a state-court Vioxx case that he
will dismiss it based on a recently finalized Food and Drug
Administration rule, according to a person familiar with the
matter. He then told attorneys involved in some of the other 1,000 Vioxx cases in Texas state courts that his ruling could affect the
whole group. Separately, Merck late yesterday raised
its first-quarter and annual profit forecasts for the second time
since January, once again citing "strong performance"
across the company's product lines. Harris County District
Court Judge Randy Wilson, who oversees all of the Texas Vioxx
cases, told the attorneys he will suspend the lawsuits until the
state's appeals court rules on his judgment. He said he would
issue his written order as soon as next week, according to the
person with knowledge of the matter. Such communications
aren't uncommon, lawyers say. A clerk for the judge said he had no
comment. Judge Wilson is overseeing a case brought by Ruby
Ledbetter, who blamed her heart attack on Vioxx, which she took
for more than a year. Merck withdrew Vioxx from the market in
September 2004 following a study that linked the painkiller to an
increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Judge Wilson
said he was granting Merck's motion to dismiss Ms. Ledbetter's
case, citing an FDA policy rule issued in February 2006. That rule
says the agency's approval process trumps state law in how
manufacturers of health-care products must warn consumers about
their potential risks. It hasn't been clear how or if the rule
would apply to Vioxx, which was approved long before 2006, and
this case could prove to be an important test. For source
info and date,
click here.
Antidepressants
Don't Help Bipolar Patients:
Antidepressants, which are widely prescribed with mood stabilizers
to treat patients with bipolar disorder, do not work in relieving
the depressive symptoms of the illness, a large federal study
reported Wednesday. The study in the New England Journal of
Medicine narrows the already limited number of treatments for
bipolar disorder, which affects 5.7 million adults in the U.S.,
experts said. "A new generation of drugs is
needed," said Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National
Institute of Mental Health. "It is clear from this data that
antidepressants are not the answer." For complete
story,
click here.
FBI
Abuses of the Patriot Act:
Last week the Senate's Judiciary Committee had the opportunity to
hear from the Justice Department's Inspector
General about as he
put it "the widespread and serious misuse of the FBI's
national security letter authorities.
" Today we need to hear straight from the FBI Director how
and why this abuse occurred, and why it was not caught
earlier. Had it not been for this independent audit,
conducted carefully and thoughtfully by the Inspector General's
Office, Congress and the American public might never have known
how the National Security Letter, or NSL, authorities were being abused by the FBI. The NSL authorities operate in secret. The
Justice Department's classified reporting on the use of NSLs was
admittedly inaccurate. And when, during the reauthorization
process, Congress asked questions about how these authorities were
being used, we got empty assurances and platitudes that have
turned out to be mistaken as well. Unfortunately, I believe
that the FBI's apparently lax attitude and in some cases grave
misuse of these potentially very intrusive authorities is
attributable in no small part to the USA Patriot Act. That
flawed legislation dramatically expanded the NSL authorities,
essentially granting the FBI a blank check to obtain some very
sensitive records about Americans, including people not under any
suspicion of wrong-doing, without judicial approval. Congress gave
the FBI very few rules to follow, and accordingly shares some
responsibility for the FBI's troubling implementation of these
broad authorities. For complete story,
click here.
Drug
firms' funding of advocates often escapes government scrutiny:
Patient advocates like Brown regularly testify at FDA public
hearings,
packing an emotional punch as advisers vote on
controversial drug and device approvals. Congress has homed
in on examples of excessive compensation to managers of some
nonprofits that underwrite what Senator Charles E. Grassley ,
Republican of Iowa , has derided as "champagne
lifestyles." And others have targeted conflicts of interest
that taint medical research and creep into FDA advisory panels.
But little attention has been paid to smaller nonprofits,
especially patient groups that are largely funded by the drug
industry. Public Citizen's Peter Lurie , who testifies
frequently before FDA panels, noticed a shift as public hearings
"were becoming contaminated by people who didn't represent
the public in any way. They represented particular moneyed
interests." Lurie, deputy director of the consumer advocacy
organization's health research group, said, "It's a fair
question: Who represents patients and how they come to call
themselves" patient representatives? In 221 advisory
committee meetings scrutinized, 32 of 44 speakers representing
patients said they had received funding from a company that would
be affected by the FDA's decision, according to a recent journal
article that Lurie co authored about conflicts of interest on FDA
advisory panels. For complete story,
click here.
Top
Ten Myths About the Illegal NSA Spying on Americans (ACLU) 06
Feb 2006 MYTH: This is merely a "terrorist surveillance
program." REALITY: When there is evidence a person may be a
terrorist, both the criminal code and intelligence laws already
authorize eavesdropping. This illegal program, however, allows
electronic monitoring without any showing to a court that the person
being spied upon in this country is a suspected terrorist. [Download a
printable version of the
full
ACLU report.] For complete report,
click
here.
CHEMICAL COMPANIES SUED
BY THOUSANDS OF STERILE FARMWORKERS:
Over
5,000 Latin American banana plantation workers are suing U.S.
companies for poisoning them with pesticides that caused them to go
sterile. The complainants, all of whom worked on banana farms, accuse
Dole, Dow and Amvac of negligence and fraudulent concealment while
forcing workers to use the pesticide DBCP. According to the lawsuit,
the transnational companies "actively suppressed information
about DBCP's reproductive toxicity." This is the first time any
case for a banana worker has come before a U.S. court. Learn
more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6012.cfm
For complete story, click here.
Brazil's
ethanol slaves: 200,000 migrant sugar cutters who prop up renewable
energy boom: March 9th, 2007--Behind
rusty gates, the heart of Brazil's energy revolution can be found in
the stale air of a squalid red-brick tenement building. Inside, dozens
of road-weary migrant workers are crammed into minuscule cubicles,
filled with rickety bunk-beds and unpacked bags, preparing for their
first day at work in the sugar plantations of Sao Paulo. This
is Palmares Paulista, a rural town 230 miles from Sao Paulo and the
centre of a South American renewable energy boom that is transforming
Brazil into a global reference point on how to cut carbon emissions
and oil imports at the same time. Inside the prison-like construction
are the cortadores de cana - sugar cane cutters - part of a destitute
migrant workforce of about 200,000 men who help prop up Brazil's
ethanol industry. Biofuels are mega-business in Brazil. Such has
been the success of the country's ethanol programme - launched during
the 1970s military dictatorship - that it is now attracting attention
from around the world. Yesterday President George Bush arrived in Sao
Paulo to announce an "ethanol alliance" with his Brazilian
counterpart, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva. The bilateral
agreement has been touted by the Brazilian media as the first step
towards the creation of an "ethanol Opec". Last year
sugar and alcohol were Brazil's second biggest agricultural export
products, worth an estimated $8bn (£4bn). Producers, meanwhile,
expect the country's sugar cane production to jump by 55% in the
coming six years, largely because of growing demand from the US and
Europe. They hope that closer trade ties with the US in particular
will help accelerate the ethanol industry's growth, providing jobs and
funding the construction of dozens of new processing plants in the
region. But drive to the
outskirts of Palmares Paulista and a much bleaker picture emerges of
what President Lula has dubbed Brazil's "energy revolution".
On one side, thick green plantations of sugar cane stretch out as far
as the eye can see; on the other lopsided red-brick shacks crowd
together, home to hundreds of impoverished workers who risk life and
limb to provide the local factories with sugar cane. Economic
refugees fleeing the country's arid and impoverished north-east, these
men earn as little as 400 reais (£100) a month to provide the raw
material that is fuelling this energy revolution. Palmares Paulista is
both a burgeoning agricultural town and a social catastrophe.
"They arrive here with nothing," said Valeria Gardiano, who
heads the social service department in Palmares, a town of 9,000 whose
population swells each year with the influx of between 4,000 and 5,000
migrant workers. "They
have the clothes on their bodies and nothing else. They bring their
children with malnutrition, their ill mothers-in-law. We try to reduce
the problem. But there is no way we can fix it 100%. It is total
exploitation,
" she said. Activists go even further. They say the "cortadores"
are effectively slaves and complain that Brazil's ethanol industry is,
in fact, a shadowy world of middle men and human rights abuses.
For complete story, click here.
Neo-Nazi
Rally Was Organized By FBI Informant:
February 15th, 2007--A
paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the
streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black
community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police
mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated
federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders,
some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006
march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.
The FBI would not comment on what it knew about the involvement of its
informant, 39-year-old David Gletty of Orlando, in the neo-Nazi event.
In court Wednesday, an FBI agent said the bureau has paid its
informant at least $20,000 during the past two years.
"Wow," Gletty said when reached by phone late Wednesday.
"It is what it is. You were there in court. I can't really go
into any detail now." Orlando City Councilwoman Daisy Lynum,
whose district includes the march route west of Interstate 4, said she
wants to know who was behind the march, the neo-Nazis or the FBI and
other law-enforcement agencies... For complete story,
click here.
Lilly
Fraudulently Marketed Zyprexa, Montana Claims:
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Eli Lilly & Co. was sued by the state
of Montana over
claims the company fraudulently marketed its antipsychotic drug
Zyprexa for unapproved uses and owes the state for prescription
costs and harm to patients. Lilly allegedly gave kickbacks
to doctors and improperly promoted the drug to nursing homes as a
sedative, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath said in a
complaint filed March 7 in state court in Helena. He claimed
Lilly, the world's biggest maker of psychiatric drugs, bought off
a ``disgruntled'' sales director to keep him from disclosing its
marketing practices. The drugmaker ``instructed its
representatives to minimize and misrepresent the dangers of
Zyprexa, affirmatively and consciously placing company profits
above the public safety,'' according to the complaint. ``This
failure to warn was designed and intended to maximize company
profits.'' Zyprexa has been linked to excessive weight gain
and increased diabetes risk. The lawsuit is the seventh state
claim against Indianapolis-based Lilly over Zyprexa marketing, and
the second this year. Pennsylvania sued Lilly and two other makers
of similar drugs Feb. 26 on behalf of its Medicaid programs. Both
states seek unspecified reimbursement for money paid on
prescriptions and any harm caused by Zyprexa. For complete
story,
click here.
Putting
Science in the Dock:
On
a chilly morning in November 2001, David Healy stood in a witness
box in Kansas City, Kansas, and received a sobering lesson on the US legal system. A professor of psychological medicine at Cardiff
University in Wales, Healy was an expert on serotonin, depression
and the brain. He had served as secretary of the British
Association for Psychopharmacology. Drug companies sought his
advice. He was widely published in scientific journals.
Healy had crossed the Atlantic to testify in a lawsuit filed
against the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer by the parents of a
teenager who had hanged himself in his bedroom closet.
Thirteen-year-old Matthew Miller had just started taking Zoloft, a
drug that can ease depression by boosting serotonin levels in the
brain. But the medication seemed to backfire. During his week on
Zoloft, Matthew grew "more agitated than I had ever seen
him," his mother, Cheryl Miller, later recalled. She and her
husband, Mark, believed their son's suicide was a direct and
gruesome side effect of the drug. The Millers knew that
psychiatrists had seen violent suicidal behavior in a handful of
patients taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)
like Zoloft. They invited Healy to testify about this rare
phenomenon. Though he routinely prescribed SSRIs in his own
practice, Healy had become increasingly outspoken about the
dangers of these antidepressants. He believed the evidence showed
that the drug could be largely blamed for Matthew's suicide. Before the trial could begin, though, Pfizer used a tactic that
has grown increasingly common in lawsuits involving scientific
testimony: It filed a thirty-six-page challenge to block Healy
from even appearing before a jury. "Dr. Healy's reports
consist of personal beliefs, speculation, innuendo, unscientific
claims and theories, and mere musings," Pfizer's lawyers
argued. "He has avoided, rather than followed, scientific
methods in this case.... He knew what he was hired to say and,
without bothering to explore the facts, said it." Pfizer's
challenge triggered a "Daubert hearing," a procedure
judges use to evaluate the credentials of scientific witnesses and
the quality of their work. Now, in the half-empty courtroom, Healy
found his research ripped apart. For complete story,
click here.
Researcher
blasts HPV marketing:
LEBANON, N.H. - A lead researcher who spent 20 years developing
the vaccine for humanpapilloma virus says the HPV vaccine is not
for younger girls, and that it is "silly" for states to
be mandating it for them. Not only that, she says it's not
been tested for effectiveness in younger girls, and administering
the vaccine to girls as young as 9 may not even protect them at
all. And, in the worst-case scenario, instead of serving to reduce
the numbers of cervical cancers within 25 years, such a
vaccination crusade actually could cause the numbers to go up.
"Giving it to 11-year-olds is a great big public health
experiment," said Diane M. Harper, who is a scientist,
physician, professor and the director of the Gynecologic Cancer
Prevention Research Group at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at
Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire. "It is silly
to mandate vaccination of 11- to 12-year-old girls. There also is
not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety
is not an issue." Internationally recognized as a
pioneer in the field, Harper has been studying HPV and a possible
vaccine for several of the more than 100 strains of HPV for 20
years - most of her adult life. For complete story,
click here.
Privacy
Board Clears U.S. Spy Programs
06 Mar 2007 A White House privacy board is giving its stamp of
approval to two of the Bush regime's controversial surveillance
programs - electronic eavesdropping and financial tracking - and
says they do not violate citizens' civil liberties. Democrats
newly in charge of Congress quickly criticized the findings, which
they said were questionable given some of the board members'
close ties with the Bush administration. After
operating mostly in secret for a year, the five-member
Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is preparing to release its
first report to Congress next week. Experts
Want New Definition of Torture:
Prisoners
who endure poor or degrading treatment suffer much of the same
long-term psychological distress as do captives who are tortured,
suggests a study published Monday. The study was based on
interviews with victims of ill treatment and torture while
imprisoned in the former Yugoslavia, and experts said the findings
underscored the need for a broader definition of torture.
"What is the basis for the distinction between torture and
other cruel and degrading treatment? Science should inform this
debate," the study's lead author, Metin Basoglu of the
Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London, told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview. The study was published
in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Steve H. Miles of the
University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, who was not
involved in the study, said the findings "show that the
severity of long-lasting adverse mental effects is unrelated to
whether the torture or degrading treatment is physical or
psychological." For complete story,
click here.
ACLU
objects as two companies offer ‘mind reading’ technology to
government: The American Civil
Liberties Union today announced that it has filed a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests with the primary American security
agencies for information relating to the use of “cutting-edge
brain-scanning technologies” on suspected terrorists, RAW STORY
has learned. Two private companies have announced that they
will begin to offer “lie detection” services using Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), as early as this summer. fMRI
can produce live, real-time images of people’s brains as they answer questions, view images, listen to sounds, and respond to
other stimuli. These companies are marketing their services
to federal government agencies, including the Department of
Defense, Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and
the CIA, and to state and local police departments. “There
are certain things that have such powerful implications for our
society — and for humanity at large — that we have a right to
know how they are being used so that we can grapple with them as a
democratic society,” said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the
ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project. For complete story,
click here.
Mind
Games:
...Concerns
about microwaves and mind control date to the 1960s, when the
U.S.
government discovered that its embassy in
Moscow
was being
bombarded by low-level electromagnetic radiation. In
1965, according to declassified Defense Department documents, the
Pentagon, at the behest of the White House,
launched Project
Pandora, top-secret research to explore the behavioral and
biological effects of low-level microwaves. For approximately four
years, the Pentagon conducted secret research: zapping monkeys;
exposing unwitting sailors to microwave radiation; and conducting
a host of other unusual experiments (a sub-project of Project
Pandora was titled Project Bizarre). The results were mixed, and
the program was plagued by disagreements and scientific squabbles.
The "
Moscow
signal," as it was called, was eventually attributed to
eavesdropping, not mind control, and Pandora ended in 1970. And
with it, the military's research into so-called non-thermal
microwave effects seemed to die out, at least in the unclassified
realm. But there are hints of ongoing research: An academic
paper written for the Air Force in the mid-1990s mentions the idea
of a weapon that would use sound waves to send words into a
person's head. "The signal can be a 'message from God' that
can warn the enemy of impending doom, or encourage the enemy to
surrender," the author concluded.In
2002, the Air Force Research Laboratory patented precisely such a
technology: using microwaves to send words into someone's head.
That work is frequently cited on mind-control Web sites. Rich
Garcia, a spokesman for the research laboratory's directed energy
directorate, declined to discuss that patent or current or related
research in the field, citing the lab's policy not to comment on
its microwave work. In response to a Freedom of Information
Act request filed for this article, the Air Force released
unclassified documents surrounding that 2002 patent -- records
that note that the patent was based on human experimentation in
October 1994 at the Air Force lab, where scientists were able to
transmit phrases into the heads of human subjects, albeit with
marginal intelligibility. Research appeared to continue at least
through 2002. Where this work has gone since is unclear -- the
research laboratory, citing classification, refused to discuss it
or release other materials. The official U.S. Air Force
position is that there are no non-thermal effects of microwaves.
Yet Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA's Langley Research
Center, tagged microwave attacks against the human brain as part
of future warfare in a 2001 presentation to the National Defense
Industrial Association about "Future Strategic Issues."
"That work is exceedingly sensitive" and unlikely to be
reported in any unclassified documents, he says. Meanwhile,
the military's use of weapons that employ electromagnetic
radiation to create pain is well-known, as are some of the
limitations of such weapons. In 2001, the Pentagon declassified
one element of this research: the Active Denial System, a weapon
that uses electromagnetic radiation to heat skin and create an
intense burning sensation. So, yes, there is technology designed
to beam painful invisible rays at humans, but the weapon seems to
fall far short of what could account for many of the TIs'
symptoms. While its exact range is classified, Doug Beason, an
expert in directed-energy weapons, puts it at about 700 meters,
and the beam cannot penetrate a number of materials, such as
aluminum. Considering the size of the full-scale weapon, which
resembles a satellite dish, and its operational limitations, the
ability of the government or anyone else to shoot beams at
hundreds of people -- on city streets, into their homes and while
they travel in cars and planes -- is beyond improbable. But,
given the history of
America
's clandestine research, it's reasonable to assume that if the
defense establishment could develop mind-control or long-distance
ray weapons, it almost certainly would. And, once developed, the
possibility that they might be tested on innocent civilians could
not be categorically dismissed. For complete story,
click here.
The
Deadly Trade of Child Organ Trafficking Srinagar:
The horrific killings of 19 children and women in the
Indian slum of Nithari, close to the affluent area
of Noida on the
outskirts of India's capital, Delhi, has brought into focus the
horrific trade of human organ trafficking that is claiming the
lives of thousands of
children worldwide. There is huge
demand and a market for body parts
especially eyes, hearts and kidneys belonging to children.
Estimates indicate that at
least one million
children have been kidnapped and killed in the past 20 years for
organs. A kidney or eyes can fetch up to US $10,000 and a heart
could cost
US $50,000 or more. Estimates further indicate
that money laundering in this deadly trade accounts for up to 10%
of the world's GDP, or as much US
$5 trillion. As a result, the
black market for children's organs is expanding and more and more
children are kidnapped and killed. While victims are
primarily from Asia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union,
Latin America and Africa, trafficking also takes place in
developed countries. For complete story,
click here.
McCain
Bill Is Lethal Injection For Internet Freedom:
Republican Senator John McCain has introduced legislation that
would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos
and videos posted by visitors on comment boards, effectively
nixing the open exchange of ideas on the Internet, providing a
lethal injection for unrestrained opinion, and acting as the
latest attack tool to chill freedom of speech on the world wide
web. McCain's proposal, called the "Stop the Online
Exploitation of Our Children Act," encourages informants to
shop website owners to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, who then pass the information on to the
relevant police authorities. Comment boards for specific
articles are extremely popular and also notoriously hard to
moderate. Popular articles often receive comments that run into
the thousands over the course of time. In many cases, individuals
hostile to the writer's argument deliberately leave obscene
comments and images simply to sully the reputation of the website
owners. Therefore under the terms of this bill, right-wing
extremists from a website like Free Republic could effectively
terminate a liberal leaning website like Raw Story by the act of
posting a single photograph of a naked child. This precedent could
be the kiss of death for blogs as we know them and its
reverberations would negatively impact the entire Internet.
For complete story,
click here.
Bush's
anti-terrorism law upheld
13 Dec
2006 A US court has upheld President [sic] George W Bush's new
anti-terror law, agreeing that Guantanamo inmates cannot challenge their imprisonment in courts.
For complete story,
click here.
Forced
vaccines and quarantines are being signed into law as we 'debate'
the solution to Bush's war in Iraq: Senate
approves Burr's bioterrorism bill
--Critics warn about the effects of
'secret vaccine production'
06 Dec 2006 The Senate
passed a bill last night [S.3678]
sponsored by Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., that would create a new
federal agency to combat [foment] bioterrorism. The bill to
establish the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Authority, commonly referred to as BARDA, passed by unanimous
consent. Barbara Loe Fisher, the president of the National Vaccine
Information Center, has been an outspoken critic of the bill. She
was unaware that the bill had been passed by the Senate last night
but said she's worried about the effects "secret vaccine
production" could have on the American public. "This
is an extremely dangerous precedent that is being set," she
said. [Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (Engrossed as
Agreed to or Passed by Senate)[S.3678.ES] --The Library of
Congress,
THOMAS]
For complete story,
click here.
The
House vote to approve BARDA could take place before Friday, 08
Dec. (National
Vaccine Information Center) 06 Dec 2006 In the future, when
the Secretary of Health and Human Services declares a public
health "emergency" under Bioshield and other federal and
state legislation passed since Sept. 11, 2001, Americans
could be quarantined and forced to use experimental drugs and
vaccines and have no recourse to the civil justice system if they
are injured by them. Congress has already given
complete liability
protection to drug companies and those who order citizens to
take drugs and vaccines during a declared public health
"emergency." [Call the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121
to express your views on BARDA; visit www.house.gov
to locate your Congresscritters.]
Student
shocked, tortured for defending constitutional rights:
A horror video that wouldn't look out of place in Maoist China or
Nazi
Germany shows a student being repeatedly shot with a stun gun by
UCLA police for the crime of not showing his ID. As similar cases
begin to pile up how long will it be before
Americans are
routinely tortured for noncompliance and refusing to have their
4th amendment violated? "A cell phone captured video of
a 23-year-old
student being administered multiple Taser shocks by
UCLA police on Tuesday. The UCLA student was hit with the Taser
shocks multiple times while he was in the Powell Library Computer
Lab. According to the paper, (Mostafa) Tabatabainejad did not show
ID to community service officers who were conducting a random
check," reports NBC. Watch the video above and witness
as the cops bark at Tabatabainejad to get to his feet as
simultaneously shock him over and over until he begins crying and
screaming for them to stop. Police are given extensive
training on the use of stun guns and in most cases that training
involves taking a taser shot and feeling the effects. Depending on
each individual's physiology, it takes at least a minute to be
able to even stand after a single Taser shot. Over a hundred
deaths have occurred in America as a result of taser shocks and
Taser's own manual discourages repeated shocks, yet the history of
their use tells us that police simply administer repeated shocks
until "compliance is gained." This is a euphemism for
torture. For complete story,
click here.
Charges
Sought Against Rumsfeld Over Prison Abuse
--A lawsuit in Germany will seek a criminal prosecution of the
former Defense Secretary and other U.S. officials for their
alleged role in abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. 10
Nov 2006 New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's
top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution
of former Defense Secretary [War Criminal] Donald Rumsfeld, along
with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George
Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for
their alleged roles in abuses [torture] committed at Iraq's Abu
Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba. For complete story,
click here.
Toxic
Sweatshops Exposed by Whistle-Blower:
Picture a stream of refuse, comprised of countless obsolete
computers and electronic devices. That stream is what we frequently refer to these days as e-waste. When e-waste is
landfilled or incinerated, a host of toxic chemicals, including
carcinogenic heavy metals, can be released into the ground, air,
and water. A lucrative recycling industry has developed around
harvesting valuable and reusable components from outdated
electronics, but the problem of e-waste being processed by
unprotected workers in unsafe conditions continues as so-called
e-recyclers profit by selling components to developing countries
(including China, India, Pakistan, and Nigeria, among others) with
lax or absent environmental laws, rather than responsibly handling
it here. But would you believe similarly unsafe e-recycling is
happening throughout the U.S., using captive laborers, all within
the purview of the federal government? Last month, as 500
members of the nation's electronics recycling industry gathered in
Austin for the annual e-scrap conference, a coalition of public
interest and environmental groups – including Austin-based Texas Campaign for the Environment – released the report "Toxic
Sweatshops, How UNICOR Prison Recycling Harms Workers,
Communities, the Environment, and the Recycling Industry."
Delivering the most incisive look yet at UNICOR, aka Federal
Prison Industries –a $765 million-per-year company operated
under the U.S. Department of Justice that has employed prisoners
in various labor tasks since 1934– the report details how
inmates are paid $0.23-$1.15 per hour to smash computer monitor
glass, allegedly with inadequate tools and safety equipment, to
access salvageable copper coils, releasing clouds of toxin-laced
dust over workers and guards in the process UNICOR claims that its
workers have access to a range of safety equipment and that air
quality is periodically tested. The report contains the
accounts of corrections Officer Leroy Smith, a former safety
manager in UNICOR's operation in Atwater, Calif., who became a
federal whistle-blower in 2004, documenting the dangerous extent
of the recycling operations and decrying efforts to cover them up.
"Daily, I receive calls from my colleagues working in
computer recycling operations at other correctional institutions
who describe coming home coated in dust. They had been told that
there was no danger. Now, many have health problems, and others
are scared about what lies in store for them," said Smith,
who spoke at the E-Scrap conference. The one air-quality test
performed at his facility in 2003, he said, showed three times the
permissible levels of heavy metals, including lead, cadmium,
barium, and beryllium, adding that prisoners were often lacerated
by broken glass, that food was served in contaminated work areas,
and that conditions were intentionally cleaned up immediately
before safety inspections. He faulted the Justice Department, the
Bureau of Prisons (who investigated and largely dismissed the
allegations), and even the U.S. Office of Special Council, who
gave him the 2006 Public Servant of the Year award for his
whistle-blowing. And he claimed no one has adequately addressed
the long-term medical effects of the toxic exposure or taken steps
to demand reforms from UNICOR, which operates six prison
operations similar to his – including one in Texarkana – four
of which have never been investigated. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
Plans to Screen All Who Enter, Leave Country
--Personal Data Will Be Cross-Checked With Terrorism Watch
Lists; Risk Profiles to Be Stored for Years 03 Nov 2006 The
federal government disclosed details yesterday of a
border-security program to screen all people who enter and leave
the United States, create a terrorism risk profile of each
individual and retain that information for up to 40 years. While
long known to scrutinize air travelers, the Department of Homeland
Security is seeking to apply new technology to
perform
similar checks on people who enter or leave the country "by
automobile or on foot," the notice said...
"They are assigning a suspicion level to millions of
law-abiding citizens," said David Sobel, senior counsel of
the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "This is about as
Kafkaesque as you can get." For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
seeks silence from CIA prisoners: W. Post
03 Nov 2006 The Bush administration is arguing that detainees
held in secret CIA prisons shouldn't be allowed to describe in
court how they were interrogated, the Washington Post reported in
its Saturday edition. The government believes that interrogation
methods used by the CIA are among the
nation's most sensitive
national security secrets, and that their release "could
reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage," the
Post said, citing recent court filings. For complete story,
click here.
Bush
Moves Toward Martial Law:
In
a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision
which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy
(D-Vermont), will
actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law
(1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws
that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the
United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has
historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act
(18 U.S.C.1385),
helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in
domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush
is
seeking to undo those prohibitions. Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization
Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the
commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office
ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public
emergency" and station troops
anywhere in America and take
control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of
the governor or local authorities, in order to
"suppress
public disorder." President Bush seized this
unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the
equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006.
In a sense, the
two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and
detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at
home,
preparing to order the military onto the streets of America.
Remember, the term for putting an area under military law
enforcement control is precise; the
term is "martial
law." For complete story,
click here.
Cheney
confirms detainees were subjected to water-boarding
25 Oct 2006 Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney has confirmed that
U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to
a controversial interrogation technique called
"water-boarding," which creates a sensation of drowning.
Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard
water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's
a no-brainer for me," Cheney said at one point in an
interview. The U.S. Army, senior Republican lawmakers, human
rights experts and many experts on the laws of war, however,
consider water-boarding cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment
that's banned by U.S. law and by international treaties that
prohibit torture. For complete story,
click here.
Lawyer
to radicals may face prison term:
NEW YORK (AP) - She's already a
grandmother of 14, a cancer survivor and a former civil rights
lawyer who took on radical clients others considered toxic.
Lynne Stewart will soon find out if she will be forced to assume
another role - prison inmate. "I couldn't tell you I'm
not stressed," Stewart said about her Monday sentencing in a
Manhattan terrorism case. "I'm very concerned.
"Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to impose a 30-year
term for what they described in court papers as Stewart's
"extremely dangerous and devious" conduct to help an
Egyptian terrorist leader communicate with followers.
Stewart, 67, recently responded by writing the judge a nine-page
letter seeking leniency. Mixed with her trademark defiance -
"I am not a traitor" - was a measure of contrition.
After some soul searching, she wrote, she had concluded that a
careless over-devotion to her clients - "I am softhearted to
the point of self-abnegation" - was her undoing. The
letter was an attempt to "look back at this disaster in my
life and speak to the judge from my brain and my heart," she
told The Associated Press in a recent telephone interview. "I
think mercy is a great quality, but it's very hard to ask for it
for myself." She admits the plea may be too little, too
late. "I don't know whether it's the lawyer or the
Irish in me that says, 'Prepare for the worst,'" she said.
"I'm prepared to be led out of that courtroom in
handcuffs." For complete story,
click here.
Psychoanalysis
as a Weapon:
Thomas Szasz is
justly honored for his gallant and courageous battle against the
compulsory commitment of the innocent in the name of
"therapy" and humanitarianism. But I would like to
focus tonight on a lesser-known though corollary struggle of Szasz:
against the use of psychoanalysis as a weapon to dismiss and
dehumanize people, ideas, and groups that the analyst doesn't
happen to like. Rather than criticize or grapple with the ideas or
actions of people on their own terms, as correct or incorrect,
right or wrong, good or bad, they are explained away by the
analyst as caused by some form of neurosis. They are the ideas or
actions of neurotic, or "sick," people: so if the people
themselves are not to be incarcerated in institutions as
"mentally ill," then their ideas or attitudes may be
treated in the same manner. The unspoken assumption, of
course, is that ideas or actions congenial to the analyst don't
need "explaining" by psychoanalytic or other
psychodynamic theories. Since they don't need
"explaining," the implication is that they are normal,
correct, and good, though of course no analyst, in his role as the
embodiment of "value-free science," would ever be caught
dead using such terms. For if he did so, he would have to take the
ideas or actions of his opponents seriously, and set forth an
explicit moral theory in doing so. He would not be able to dismiss
them as "sick" or as people who are uniquely in need of
being "explained." For complete story,
click here.
American
Prison Camps Are on the Way:
The
Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of
detainees is the culmination of relentless fear-
mongering by the
Bush administration since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone
noticed
that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also
U.S. citizens, "unlawful enemy combatants." Bush
& Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to
deal with
aliens to protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose
their majority in Congress in the November elections, the
Republicans rammed
the bill through Congress with little
substantive debate. Anyone who donates money to a charity
that turns up on Bush's list of "terrorist"
organizations, or
who speaks out against the government's policies
could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and
imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.
The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who
have been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the
constitutional power to suspend habeas corpus only in times of
rebellion or invasion. The habeas-stripping provision in the new
bill is unconstitutional and the Supreme Court will
likely say so
when the issue comes before it. For complete story,
click here.
FEMA
CONCENTRATION CAMPS: Locations and Executive Orders:
There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully
operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed
and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty.
These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency
Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in
the United States and all it would take is a presidential
signature on a proclamation and the attorney general’s signature
on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. Ask yourself if
you really want to be on Ashcroft’s list. The Rex 84
Program was established on the reasoning that if a “mass
exodus” of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they
would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by
FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to
be turned into prisons. Operation Cable Splicer and Garden
Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the
Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is
the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the
program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments
by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming
police state and thus will head up all operations. The
Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal
Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.
The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to
and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport
nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000
prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just
outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive
mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million
people. For complete story,
click here.
Protesting
Is Organized Crime In London:
At 1pm on Monday October 9th, up to one hundred and fifty angry
and concerned people converged on the Palace of Westminster, to
sack parliament. The plan was to surround parliament and cause
parliamentary
activities to cease. MPs, Lords and civil servants would be
prevented from re-opening Parliament. As soon as protesters
started to arrive, police quickly moved in stop and search
everyone that was considered 'suspicious'
. Many people were turned away from reaching Parliament Square,
others were singled out by police units and prevented from joining
the protests. See 2pm update when
around 100 protesters were surrounded by police. An NUJ
photogapher was hospitalised by police after being violently
thrown into a kerb. Eventually the remaining demonstrators
were left out the police pen, after having been searched,
photographed and identified. There are reports of several arrests,
but there is no confirmation of numbers as yet. For complete
story,
click here.
Lloyd
shot dead by US troops, inquest told
06 Oct 2006 ITN reporter Terry Lloyd was shot in the head by
American troops as he was being driven to hospital, the inquest into his death was told today. An
account by an Iraqi witness that was read out at the inquest in
Oxford claimed Lloyd was still alive after the original attack on his car but was killed by US troops as he was driven from the
scene... Deputy assistant coroner for Oxfordshire, Andrew Walker,
said the witness also said he had seen Lloyd's press pass and
described a white Kuwaiti pass clipped on a yellow short-sleeved
shirt. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
Navy medic admits role in Iraqi murder case
06 Oct 2006 A U.S. Navy medic [Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J.
Bacos] admitted on Friday to participating in the kidnapping of an
Iraqi civilian but avoided murder charges in a plea deal in which
he agreed to testify on his own role and that of seven Marines in
the Iraqi's death. For complete story,
click here.
US
medic in Iraq kidnap plea deal
06 Oct 2006 A US Navy medic has pleaded guilty to helping kidnap
an Iraqi civilian in Hamdaniya, while agreeing to testify about
his comrades' roles in his death. Seven marines are at various
stages of the military justice process over the kidnap and murder
of Hashim Awad. The case is one of several in which US troops are
accused of murdering civilians in Iraq. For complete story,
click here.
"Everyone
in the group laughed at the others stories of beating
detainees."AP
learns Guantanamo guards brag of beatings 06 Oct 2006
Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and
described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn
statement obtained by The Associated Press. For complete
story,
click here.
This
fall, the Navy plans to open a new, $30-million maximum-security
wing at its Guantanamo Bay prison complex,
a concrete-and-steel structure replacing temporary camps. [See:
Halliburton
given $30m to expand Guantanamo Bay 18 Jun 2005 A
subsidiary [KBR] of Halliburton, the oil services group once led
by the US Vice-President [sic], Dick Cheney, has won a $30m (£16m)
contract to help build a new permanent prison for terror suspects
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.] For complete story,
click here.
Leading
Republican offers dismal view of Iraq
06 Oct 2006 The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, a Bush loyalist offered his darkest assessment of Iraq
yet on Thursday, suggesting the war there was "drifting
sideways" without a firm commitment from its
government to disarm militias and rebuild the country.
For complete story,
click here.
As
Jobs Leave America's Shores... The New Face of Class War:
The attacks on middle-class jobs are lending new meaning to the
phrase "class war". The
ladders of upward mobility are
being dismantled. America, the land of opportunity, is giving way
to ever deepening polarization between rich and poor. The
assault
on jobs predates the Bush regime. However, the loss of
middle-class jobs has become particularly intense in the 21st
century, and, like other pressing problems, has been ignored by
President Bush, who is focused on waging war in the Middle East
and building a police state at home. The lives and careers
that
are being lost to the carnage of a gratuitous war in Iraq are
paralleled by the economic destruction of careers, families, and
communities in the U.S.A.
Since the days of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the 1930s, the U.S. government has sought to protect
employment of its citizens. Bush has turned his
back on this
responsibility. He has given his support to the offshoring of
American jobs that is eroding the living standards of Americans.
It is another example of his betrayal of the public trust.
"Free trade" and "globalization" are the
guises behind which class war is being conducted against the
middle
class by both political parties. Patrick J. Buchanan, a
three-time contender for the presidential nomination, put it well
when he wrote that NAFTA and the
various so-called trade
agreements were never trade deals. The agreements were enabling
acts that enabled U.S. corporations to dump their American
workers, avoid Social Security taxes, health care and pensions,
and move their factories offshore to locations where labor is
cheap. For complete story,
click here.
Fatal
Vision: The Deeper Evil Behind the Detainee Bill:
It was a dark hour indeed on Thursday when the United States
Senate voted to end the constitutional
republic and transform the
country into a "Leader-State,
" giving the president and his agents the power to capture,
torture and imprison forever anyone -
American citizens included -
whom they arbitrarily decide is an "enemy
combatant." This also includes those who merely give
"terrorism" some kind of
"support," defined so
vaguely that many experts say it could encompass legal advice,
innocent gifts to charities or even political opposition to US
government policy within its draconian strictures. All
of this is bad enough - a sickening and cowardly surrender of
liberty not seen in a major Western
democracy since the Enabling
Act passed by the German Reichstag in March 1933. But it is by no
means the full extent of our degradation. In reality, the
darkness
is deeper, and more foul, than most people imagine. For in
addition to the dictatorial powers of seizure and torment given by
Congress on
Thursday to George W. Bush - powers he had already
seized and exercised for five years anyway, even without this fig
leaf of sham legality - there is a far
more sinister imperial
right that Bush has claimed - and used - openly, without any demur
or debate from Congress at all: ordering the "extrajudicial
killing"
of anyone on earth that he and his deputies decide -
arbitrarily, without charges, court hearing, formal evidence, or
appeal - is an "enemy combatant." For
complete story, click here.
Slavery
in North America can be hazardous to your health:
If you find yourself consistently working long hours, it might be
time to
check in with a doctor. A
study published online last week by the
journal Hypertension found that the more hours people work in a
typical week, the more likely they are to have high
blood
pressure. For complete story,
click here.
Fresno
Homeless Attacked and Insulted by City Workers:
"The homeless
people that live here are the luckiest homeless in Fresno."
Surprised by the statement, I asked undercover Fresno Police
Officer Ray Wallace what he meant. "They have maid service.
We come out and clean up for them about every other week."
The cleaning party today was particularly vigorous.The letter
handed out by the Fresno Police Department, giving notice of the
"clean up" said they would "start at 8:00am."
I arrived at 7:50 AM and the destruction of property was already
well under way. One homeless woman told me that everything she
owned had been destroyed because she was a few minutes too late to
save it. "I had paper work in there that can’t be
replaced," she said. For complete story,
click here.
Judge
Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens
Indefinitely: A federal judge
in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide
latitude
under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of
religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely
without explanation. The ruling came in a class-action
lawsuit by Muslim immigrants detained after 9/11, and it dismissed
several key claims the detainees had made against the
government.
But the judge, John Gleeson of United States District Court for
the Eastern District of New York, allowed the lawsuit to continue
on other claims,
mostly that the conditions of confinement were
abusive and unconstitutional. Judge Gleeson's decision
requires top federal officials, including former
Attorney General
John Ashcroft and Robert S. Mueller III, the F.B.I. director, to
answer to those accusations under oath. This is the first
time a federal judge has addressed the issue of discrimination in
the treatment of hundreds of Muslim immigrants who were swept up
in the weeks after the 2001 terror attacks
and held for months
before they were cleared of links to terrorism and deported.
The roundups drew intense criticism, not only from immigrant
rights
advocates, but also from the inspector general of the
Justice Department, who issued reports saying that the government
had made little or no effort to
distinguish between genuine
suspects and Muslim immigrants with minor visa violations.
For complete story, click here.
Minutemen
Target Children: The Attack on Academia Semillas del Pueblo:
HATE-TALK RADIO AND THE BOMB THREAT AT ACADEMIA SEMILLAS DEL
PUEBLO-- When the bomb threat came that morning it targeted 250
Chicano children and their families in a deliberate act of
political terror. For a month, KABC in Los Angeles had
focused an unrelenting attack against their school - Academia
Semillas del Pueblo. KABC is an ultra-right talk radio station
that carries Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, one that specializes
in xenophobia and a thinly disguised hate-talk format aimed at the
paranoids who think George Bush is a sell out liberal and who
accuse Sen. James Sensenbrenner of not going far enough to rid the
nation of Mexicans and other descendants of the indigenous peoples
of North and Central America. Let's make it
plain: these are
minutemen with microphones, and with the billion-dollar backing of
Disney. Under the laws of hate, speech leads to action; it
was only a matter of time until
someone took matters into their
own hands. KABC knows it audience, and although the station's
website continues to place a strong focus on the imagined sins of
the Academia, it breathes not a word of the bomb threat. To do so
would be to implicate itself and its listeners. KABC and its
morning host, Doug McIntyre, are more than upset with the East LA
school. They want it shut down: if it were a book, they'd
burn it. One minutemen supporter wrote, "This BS pisses
me of so much I'll die fighting it." 97% of McIntyre's
listeners say they support Minutemen founder Jim Gilchrist.
The imagined offense is, fundamentally, that the school exists.
One can all but feel the shudders when one hears them denounce the
existence of "La Raza's Own School in LA." No one
would or should think twice if Blacks had their own school, and,
of course they do – not just elementary schools like the
Academia, but a whole network of historically Black colleges which
have produced the most important Black intellectuals of our times.
And no one, not even the most openly racist elements, would
publicly challenge the right of these schools to offer a
Black-centered curriculum or to teach African languages, dance,
religion and politics. For complete story,
click here.
US
court backs government broadband wiretap access
09 Jun 2006 A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the government's
authority to force high-speed Internet service providers to give
law enforcement authorities access for surveillance purposes.
For complete story,
click here.
Police
Arrest 22 in Wash. Anti-War Protest:
Following more than a day of demonstrations against Iraq-bound
military shipments from the Port of Olympia, more than 20 anti-war
activists were arrested when they tore down a gate to the port,
lay down on the ground and refused to leave, authorities said.
Officers used pepper spray several times Tuesday night, including
once when some in the crowd started hurling bottles and rocks at
officers, said sheriff's Capt. Brad Watkins. After the
initial arrests, the crowd dropped to about 100 people, he said.
Later, the remaining protesters headed off on a brief march but
about three dozen returned for a late night vigil, Watkins said.
No one was seriously injured, he said. Watkins said 22
people were arrested, including two for failure to disperse and
the rest for criminal trespass. On Monday night, at least
three protesters tried to pry the gate open. Authorities fired the
pepper spray after asking demonstrators several times to stop,
authorities said. For complete story,
click here.
High
court trims whistleblower rights:
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court scaled back protections for
government workers who blow the whistle on official misconduct
Tuesday, a 5-4 decision in which new Justice Samuel Alito cast the
deciding vote. In a victory for the Bush administration,
justices said the 20 million public employees do not have
free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs.
Critics predicted the impact would be sweeping, from silencing
police officers who fear retribution for reporting department
corruption, to subduing federal employees who want to reveal
problems with government hurricane preparedness or
terrorist-related security. For complete story,
click here.
Block
the Vote:
In
a country that spends so much time extolling the glories of
democracy, it's amazing how many elected officials go out of their
way to discourage voting.
States are adopting rules that make it
hard, and financially perilous, for nonpartisan groups to register
new voters. They have adopted new rules for maintaining voter
rolls that are likely to throw off many eligible voters, and they
are imposing unnecessarily tough ID requirements. Florida
recently reached a new low when it actually bullied the
League of
Women Voters into stopping its voter registration efforts in the
state. The Legislature did this by adopting a law that seems
intended to scare away anyone who
wants to run a voter
registration drive. Since registration drives are particularly
important for bringing poor people, minority groups and less
educated voters into the process,
the law appears to be designed
to keep such people from voting. It imposes fines of $250
for every voter registration form that a group files more than 10
days after it is
collected, and $5,000 for every form that is not
submitted — even if it is because of events beyond anyone's
control, like a hurricane. The Florida League of Women Voters,
which is suing to block the new rules, has decided it cannot
afford to keep registering new voters in the state as it has done
for 67 years. If a volunteer lost just 16 forms in a
flood, or
handed in a stack of forms a day late, the group's entire annual
budget could be put at risk. In Washington, a new law
prevents people from voting if the secretary of state fails to
match the information on their registration form with government
databases. There are many reasons that names, Social Security
numbers and other data may not match, including typing mistakes.
The state is supposed to contact people whose data does not match,
but the process is too tilted against voters. For
complete story, click here.
FROM
SOLDIER TO ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST: THE STORY OF TINA GARNANEZ:
LOOKING FOR A FUTURE "I was
a lost Native," Tina Garnanez reflected Tina grew up on the
Navajo reservation and attended public school in Farmington, New
Mexico. The only daughter of five children raised by a single mom,
Tina enlisted when she was 17, to get money for college.
"I wanted to attend college, and I knew that between my family
situation and being from the reservation, I had few options to get a
college education." Tina was stationed in Kosovo in March
2003 when U.S. planes bombed Baghdad. In July 2004, Tina was
deployed to Iraq. Tina had already completed her tour of duty, but
the Army can extend a soldier's enlistment through a policy known as
stop-loss. BEING IN A WAR-ZONE As a medic in Iraq, Tina
transferred patients from the ambulances to the hospitals were she
saw the high cost of war. "I saw disfigured bodies, limbs blown
off, soldiers lost their sanity." She also traveled
with convoys delivering medical supplies to bases. On one of these
convoys, Tina barely escaped an explosion. A bomb exploded and dust,
rocks, and shrapnel flew everywhere. "I was so angry,
angry at the reason I was there. 'For what?' I asked myself.
My mom would have received a triangle-folded flag in exchange for
her only daughter." She knew at that moment she could no
longer serve in the war. "I'm done," she said. "I am
not fighting for anyone's oil agenda." For complete story,
click here.
Secret
FEMA Plan To Use Pastors as Pacifiers in Preparation For Martial Law:
A Pastor has come
forward to blow the whistle on a nationwide FEMA program which is
training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret
police enforcers who teach their congregations to "obey the
government" in preparation for a declaration of martial law,
property and firearm seizures, and forced relocation. In March
of this year the Pastor, who we shall refer to as Pastor Revere, was
invited to attend a meeting of his local FEMA chapter which circulated
around preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural
disaster or a nationally declared emergency. The FEMA directors
told the Pastors that attended that it was their job to help implement
FEMA and Homeland Security directives in anticipation of any of these
eventualities. The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their
congregations Romans 13, the often taken out of context bible passage
that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in
order to teach them to "obey the government" when martial
law is declared. For complete story,
click here.
END
THE STATE AGGRESSION AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF ATENCO, MEXICO!:
Details slowly began to emerge this week of police violence in
San Salvador Atenco, site of a police-initiated riot last week that
left one 14-year-old dead, at least 50 seriously injured and more than
200 arrested. On Wednesday, the Miguel Augstin Pro Human Rights Center
released video testimony from three state police officers confirming
responsibility for the death of the 14-year-old. “The youth
saw an officer who was trying to hide. He shouted that there was a
state police officer and (the officer) took out his gun and shot
him,“ said the officers. The three policemen, whose identities were
protected during filming, revealed that state police arrived in Atenco
armed with R-15 caliber rifles and .38 and 9 millimeter pistols.
“We were under orders to beat anything that moved, but only out of
sight of the media,“ said the police. More than 3,500 state police participated in the operation in addition to Federal
Preventative Police. Of the 47 women arrested in Atenco, 30 reported
sexual abuse - having been violated with penetration of the penis,
fingers or other objects - in formal complaints taken by the federal
Attorney General and the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
Police used prophylactics during the abuse, a strong indication that
they came to Atenco with the intention of committing rape.
Public education and non-violent civil pressure are central themes in
the developing movement in support of Atenco. On Saturday, Marcos
called the movement an
ethical and moral commitment, and we are
not going to stop until all the prisoners are set free. The
mainstream media, both in Mexico and internationally, hastened to
discredit the residents of Atenco and Zapatista supporters, with a
particularly negative focus on Marcos. This effort to hide the truth
of massive and unrestrained police repression is slowly being reversed
by a broadly based education campaign. The battle over freedom for
Atenco political prisoners is turning into a decisive political
battle, pitting the strength and resources of the Mexican government
against the moral authority of the Other Campaign and the capacity of
civil society organized as an anti-capitalist left to unite and defend
itself. The participation of international civil society is crucial.
Story no longer found online. Please use link associated with
headline above and ask them to provide a copy to you.
Lawmaker:
Marines Killed Iraqis "In Cold Blood"
--Navy Conducting War Crimes Probe Into November Violence In
Haditha 17 May 2006 A Pentagon probe into
the death of Iraqi
civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that
U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a
U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday. From the beginning, Iraqis in the town
of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately
killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three
children... The video, obtained by
Time magazine, was broadcast a day after town residents told The
Associated Press that American troops entered homes on Nov. 19 and
shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl,
after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine. For complete story,
click here.
Dealing
with the Rockefeller Drug Laws:
Albany County District Attorney David Soares is considered a
hero by many for his bold stances and refreshing
approaches to
delivering justice. He first laid claim to this title in 2004
when he ran on a platform that advocated dramatic change in the
draconian
Rockefeller Drug laws that stood unchanged for 30
years. His victory over powerful incumbent Paul Clyne sent shock
waves throughout the political landscape in New York's capital.
Clyne was given a pink slip by voters for his vocal support of the Rockefeller
Drug Laws and his staggering defeat triggered fear within the
Republican Senate that they too might lose their jobs for not supporting
Rockefeller reform. Unlike many political figures that bob and
weave themselves into office only to step away from the original
platforms that brought them to victory, Soares has stuck to his
guns and continues to speak out against inhumane and ineffective
drug policies. Recently, while speaking at an international harm
reduction conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, he
told the
audience that his advice to Canada is to "stay as far away
from America's drug law policy as possible." His comments echoed the criticisms he made
of New York's strict Rockefeller Drug Laws during his election
campaign two years ago by saying "the attempt to engage in
cleaning the streets of Albany one $20 sale on the street at a
time is a failed policy." He sticks by his view that more
drug treatment, not more jail time, is the answer.
For complete story,
click here.
Cheney
Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping
13 May 2006 In the weeks after the Sept.
11 attacks, Vice pResident Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely
domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the
hunt for 'terrorists,' according to two senior intelligence officials.
For complete story, click here.
Air
Force Officer Bullies Wrong Talk Show Host:
( San Francisco) Veteran Canadian 'X' Zone Talk Show Host Rob
McConnell knows a threat when he sees one. When Air Force Lieutenant
Colonel Roger Helbig of California threatened boycotts and retaliation
against the popular world wide talk show host Rob McConnell did not
think much of it. this was the morning of the show on Wednesday May
10, 2006 from Hamilton, Canada. Then another email came in from LtC
Helbig that was traced to Vanderbilt University and a jointly operated
communications program with the Oak Ridge Nuclear Weapons Lab.
For complete story,
click here.
Going
Public About Communist Concentration Camps
China's use of organs harvested from
executed prisoners is "unethical" and
"distasteful" and should be universally condemned by the
international medical establishment, a leading physician said last
week. Professor
Stephen Wigmore, chair of the ethics committee of the British
Transplantation Society, called for support from other related health
organisations and the UN to "send a powerful message to China
that the rest of the world does not endorse their practice."
The statement follows increasing concerns that prisoners are executed
and their organs extracted without prior consent. Dr Wigmore said that
any written consent ostensibly from the executed prisoner should be
treated with suspicion: "The Chinese government claims that
condemned prisons have given their consent to organ donation. We would
consider this consent invalid because the power grading is so enormous
between the state and a prisoner condemned to death," he told
news channel NTDTV in an interview. "It's impossible to
accept that this is a voluntary, freely given consent."
Dr.
Wigmore also stated that he had nagging doubts over whether the supply
of fresh organs from recently executed prisoners was staged in
response to demand from paying customers. He believed that the
so-called 'efficiency' of the system advertised by Chinese donor
websites was only made possible by the cooperation of the donor
services with the judicial and prison systems. For
complete story,
click here.
CIA
Secret Prisons Exposed:CIA officers soon learned one thing for
sure—prisoners sent to Bright Light and [other CIA secret prisons] .
. . were probably never going to be released. "The word is that
once you get sent to Bright Light, you never come back," said the
CIA's Counterterrorism Center veteran. James Risen, State of War: The
Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. May is
the month that the United States has been summoned to Geneva by the
United Nations Committee Against Torture to, as Reuters reported on
April 18, "provide information about secret detention facilities
and specifically whether the United States assumed responsibility for
alleged acts of torture in them." The committee also wants
a list of all these secret prisons. So do I—along with every major
human rights organization and some members of Congress on both sides
of the aisle. However, Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee, rigidly keeps refusing to authorize an
investigation into these "black sites," as they are called
in CIA internal communications. (The United States is a faithless
signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and is now being called
to account.) Meanwhile, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said the
prisoners in these hidden gulags will be there as long as "the
war on terror continues." He added, in an April 12 Time
interview: "I'm not sure I can tell you what the ultimate
disposition of those detainees will be."As far as their families
are concerned, these "detainees" have vanished from the face
of the earth. Time says that Negroponte's comments "appear to be the first open
acknowledgement of the secret U.S. detention system" (authorized
by the president soon after 9-11). For complete story,
click here.
Jury
Awards $1.7 Million to Woman Spanked at Work:FRESNO,
Calif. (April 29) - A jury awarded $1.7 million Friday to a woman who
was spanked in front of her colleagues in what her employer called a
camaraderie-building exercise.The
jury of six men and six women found that Janet Orlando, 53, was
subjected to sexual
harassment and sexual battery when she was paddled
on the rear end two years ago at Alarm One Inc., a home security
company in Fresno. For complete story,
click here.
Why
We Fight for Immigrant Rights:Many workers—union
and nonunion—ask why unions support a path to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants. Why, as one member puts it, are we fighting
for the "illegals who have been taking our jobs"?I remind them of a powerful statement from labor’s past that
lives on today: An injury to one is an injury to all.America’s broken immigration system has allowed employers to
create a low-wage labor pool of immigrant workers that is easily
exploitable. Employers can pay these workers less, force them to work
in intolerable conditions, block their right to union representation
and threaten to turn them in to immigration officials if they complain. That’s immoral.And
when employers drive down wages and working conditions for one group
of workers, they harm us all. That’s not progressive
rhetoric—it’s cold, hard truth. U.S.-born workers who work
alongside immigrants and in the same industries suffer the same
exploitation. The U.S. Department of Labor, for example, has found the
poultry industry—with a workforce split about evenly between African
Americans and immigrants—was 100 percent out of compliance with
federal wage and hour laws. More than half of the country’s garment
factories violate wage and hour laws and more than three- quarters
violate health and safety laws, according to the department. If a
workplace is dangerous for immigrant workers, it is equally dangerous
for their U.S.-born co- workers.
For complete story,
click here.
SOS
over Iraqi scientists:Since the
US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, an alarming number of the country's
leading academics have been killed. A human rights organisation puts
the number at about a thousand and has a documented list of 105 cases.
These professors, it says, were not random casualties - they were
assassinated.The first documented case is that of Muhamad al-Rawi, the
president of Baghdad University, who was killed on 27 July,
2003, when two men entered his private clinic, one of them feigned
severe stomach pain and was doubled over. Concealed against his
stomach was a gun with which he shot al-Rawi dead.Assassination incidents continued after al-Rawi's shooting. Dr
Majid Ali was assassinated in 2005, shot four times in the back. He
had a PhD in physics and was one of the best nuclear energy experts in
Iraq.The Paris-based
Arab Committee for Human Rights (ACHR), an international NGO which has
special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of
the UN, has issued an international appeal for help to protect Iraqi
academics.Al Jazeera.net
spoke to ACHR's president, Dr Violette Daguerre, a human rights
activist and psychology professor in France, and Dr Qais al-Azawi,
director of the Committee for Protecting Iraqi University Professors.
For complete story,
click here.
The
Missing Girls of Iraq:The
man on the phone with the 14-year-old Iraqi girl called himself Sa'ad.
He was calling long distance from Dubai and telling her wonderful
things about the place. He was also about to buy her. Safah, the
teenager, was well aware of the impending transaction. In the weeks
after she was kidnapped and imprisoned in a dark house in Baghdad's
middle-class Karada district, Safah heard her captors haggling with
Sa'ad over her price. It was finally settled at $10,000. Staring at a
floor strewn with empty whiskey bottles, the orphan listened as Sa'ad
described the life awaiting her: a beautiful home, expensive clothes,
parties with pop stars. Why, she'd be joining two other very happy
teenage Iraqi girls living with Sa'ad in his harem. Safah knew that
she was running out of time. A fake passport with her photo and
assumed name had already been forged for her. But even if she escaped,
she had no family who would take her in. She was even likely to end up
in prison.
What was she to do?
Safah is part of a seldom-discussed aspect of the epidemic of
kidnappings in Iraq: sex trafficking. No one knows how many young
women have been kidnapped and sold since the fall of Saddam Hussein in
2003. The Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, based in Baghdad,
estimates from anecdotal evidence that more than 2,000 Iraqi women
have gone missing in that period. A Western official in Baghdad who
monitors the status of women in Iraq thinks that figure may be
inflated but admits that sex trafficking, virtually nonexistent under
Saddam, has become a serious issue. The collapse of law and order and
the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs,
alongside terrorists, to run amuck. Meanwhile, some aid workers say,
bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or
frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for
these girls. As a result, sex trafficking has been allowed to fester
unchecked.(Webmaster Note:This
horrible sex-slavery is happening worldwide.Including in the US to American children.)
For complete story, click here.
Gonzales
calls for mandatory Web labeling law
20 Apr 2006 Web site operators posting sexually explicit information
must place official government warning labels on
their pages or risk
being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration
proposed Thursday... Attorney General Alberto Gonzales also warned
that Internet service
providers must begin to retain records of their
customers' activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions and
indicated that legislation might be necessary there as well.
For complete story,
click here.
Anti-War
grannies go to trial:A gaggle of peace-loving
grandmothers are on trial today in New York for disorderly conduct.
Yahoo News explains: The trial opened in New York of 18 grandmothers
arrested for disorderly conduct after they sought to enlist in the US
Army as a protest against the war in Iraq.The women, whose ages range from 50 to 91, have all entered not
guilty pleas and some said they would ignore any court-imposed penalty
if found guilty."Coming
to this damn court is nothing compared to what is happening to people
in Iraq," said Marie Runyon, 91.[They] were arrested in October during a protest outside a
military recruiting station in Times Square. They were charged on two
counts of disorderly conduct, for blocking the recruiting station door
and refusing to comply with a police order.
For complete story, click here.
UN
torture panel presses US on detainees:GENEVA
(Reuters) - The United Nations committee against torture has demanded
that the United States provide more information about its treatment of prisoners at home and foreign terrorism suspects held in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.In
questions submitted to Washington, the panel also sought information
about secret detention facilities and specifically whether the United
States assumed responsibility for alleged acts of torture in them,
U.N. officials said on Tuesday."It
is the longest list of issues I have ever seen," Mercedes
Morales, a U.N. human rights officer who serves as secretary to the
U.N. Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, told reporters.
For complete story, click here.
Supreme
Court rejects appeal from Guantanamo detainees
17 Apr 2006 The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two
Chinese Muslims who were
mistakenly captured as 'enemy combatants'
more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison
in Cuba... Previously, a federal judge said the detention of
the
ethnic Uighurs in Guantanamo Bay is unlawful, but that there was
nothing federal courts could do.
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed--Multi-Agency
Proposal Awaits Bush's Approval 16 Apr 2006 Dictator Bush is expected
to approve soon a national pandemic influenza response plan that
identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal agencies... the
Bush administration would tap into its secure stash of medications
[?!?], cancel large gatherings... National Guard troops
could be dispatched to cities facing possible
"insurrection," said Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer
at the Department of Homeland Security. [See:
The
Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.]
For complete story,
click here.
Government's
control orders ruled unlawful 12 Apr 2006 The first British citizen to have a control order imposed
on him has won a High Court declaration that the
Government's
anti-terror laws are "incompatible" with human rights
legislation. The court ruled that the terror suspect, referred to as
MB, had been denied his right to a fair
hearing.
For complete story, click here.
24
arrested at BYU:PROVO — Brigham Young
University police arrested 24 people, among them five current
students, who participated Tuesday in a march and
demonstration by a
national gay-awareness group. For complete story,
click here.
Lawyer
pleads Fifth in dramatic hearing at Guantánamo Bay
07 Apr 2006 An Ethiopian 'terrorism' suspect who claims the United
States outsourced his interrogation to torture in Morocco made a
dramatic debut Thursday at his war-crimes trial. Within hours, the
U.S. Air Force officer assigned to defend Binyan Ahmed Mohammad invoked her Fifth Amendment rights — three times — after declaring
the Pentagon had created for her an ethical dilemma. Air Force Maj.
Yvonne Bradley became the first person to plead the Fifth in the short
history of Dictator Bush's disputed military commissions, now under
review at the U.S. Supreme Court. Mohammad dominated the session [*yes*], declaring the rules unfair — and pointedly
accusing the presiding officer, Marine Col. Ralph Kohlmann, of
perpetrating an American legal justice fraud on the world.
For complete story, click here.
Gonzales
Draws Criticism From Panel Chief
06 Apr 2006 The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee
[Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI] pointedly
criticized Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales Thursday for "stonewalling" by refusing to
answer questions about the Bush administration's warrantless
eavesdropping program.
For complete story,
click here.
Man
held as terrorism suspect over punk song
05 Apr 2006 British anti[pro]-terrorism detectives escorted a man from
a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become
suspicious when he
started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said
on Wednesday.
For complete story,
click here.
'Playing
The Clash made me a terror suspect' 05 Apr 2006 A mobile phone salesman was hauled off a plane and
questioned for three hours as a terror suspect -
because he listened
to songs by The Clash and Led Zeppelin. Harraj Mann, 24, played the
punk anthem London Calling and classic rock track Immigrant Song in a
taxi
before a flight to London. The lyrics to both tracks made the
driver fear his passenger was a terrorist. For complete
story,
click here.
Expanded
definition of terrorism is hurting many refugees:In
his second inaugural address, President Bush made a stirring
commitment to oppressed people yearning to be
free: "When you
stand for your liberty, we will stand with you."For half a century, one of the best expressions of that bond
has been the federal Refugee Resettlement
Program. This State
Department-administered program seeks to offer a safe harbor to those
fearing persecution by tyrannical governments. But thousands of people
whose lives are at risk for standing up for freedom will this year be
denied help because of a Kafkaesque interpretation of who is deemed a
terrorist.The laws
governing eligibility for
refugee status have long denied it to anyone
who commits a terrorist act or who provides "material
support" to terrorists. These laws were strengthened after Sept.
11. The
problem was created by recent legislation that expanded the
definition of terrorists. There are real-life consequences from such
myopic "reform."In
Colombia, for example,
the leftist guerrilla group FARC often kidnaps
civilians and demands ransom from their relatives. FARC also requires
the payment of a "war tax" from Colombians in the regions it
controls, upon threat of serious harm. Nearly 2,000 Colombians who
faced such circumstances as paying a ransom or "tax" — and
who later fled the country and
were determined by the United Nations
to be refugees — have been denied U.S. resettlement on the basis of
the "material support" provision. For complete
story,
click here.
Immigration:
More Nickels than Dimes:Economists
treat immigration like any other phenomenon that generates costs and
benefits. They ask the economist’s one-size-fits-all question: What
are the additional benefits and costs to Americans of admitting a few
additional immigrants? This kind of marginal-change analysis applied
to all immigration is flawed for three reasons.1. By looking at the benefits and costs only to today’s
Americans, this analysis biases the discussion against immigration.
“Will the last one in please shut the door” is the message likely
to emerge. Since virtually all Americans are descendents of
immigrants, it is not reasonable to exclude the welfare of today’s
immigrants—tomorrow’s new citizens—from the analysis. Any
discussion that requires a substantial net benefit for today’s
citizens sets the bar too high. Since it is obvious that potential
immigrants are willing to leave family and friends, risking
discrimination, detention, and even death, to come to the United
States, the net benefits to them must be very high.
Impoverished relatives left behind benefit too, from the remittances
immigrants send home. Such remittances now exceed a billion dollars a
month to Mexico alone.2.
The benefits of immigration to today’s Americans are more than the
sum of changes in household income from changing the supply of labor
and skills. The creativity and dynamism of our economy that is so
widely admired all over the world would not exist without immigration.
Where would today’s information technology industry be without
immigrants from China, India, and Russia? More broadly, where would
our leadership in science and technology be without infusions of
genius through immigration. Of Nobel Prize winners in the sciences
since 1950, 28 percent of those who did their work in the United
States were born elsewhere. 3. Most fundamentally, America without a flow of new
immigrants would be a much poorer place culturally and spiritually as
well as economically. Those periods in our history when anti-immigrant
sentiments were at their peak—in the 1870s and 1880s following the
Irish immigration, in the interwar period following the Italian,
Eastern European, and Jewish immigration, and in the immediate
post–WWII period—all benefited from contributions of earlier waves
of immigrants. It is hard to imagine an America that is not always
changing, always adjusting to new Americans.Those who would like drastically to limit new immigration are
not fundamentally interested in the marginal economic effects of
another immigrant household on American citizens (an effect which, by
the way, experts agree is positive, if small). They resent the changes
to the society they grew up in. What they fail to realize is that the
society of their childhood—real or imagined—is no more
“authentically American” than today’s America. This country is
constantly changing, economically and culturally. Everyone alive today
was born into a dynamic, mongrel culture and can expect it to change
in surprising ways every year.Immigration
is part of authentic America’s soul. For complete story,
click here.
All
Guantanamo prisoners to be named
04 Apr 2006 The Pentagon is releasing 2600 more pages of transcripts
and defence summaries from reviews of cases of
prisoners held at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a spokesman said today. Pentagon spokesman Bryan
Whitman said that with the latest release, the names of all 490
prisoners
at Guantanamo will have been made public.
For complete story,
click here.
Supreme
Court won't review Bush's terrorism powers
03 Apr 2006 A divided Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide
whether President [sic] George W. Bush
has the power in the war on
terrorism to order American citizens captured in the United States
held in military jails without any criminal charges or a trial. By a
6-3 vote, the
court sided with the Bush dictatorship and refused to
hear an appeal by Jose Padilla, who was confined in a military brig in
South Carolina for more than three years after
Bush designated him an
"enemy combatant." For complete story,
click here.
Padilla
Rejected by Supreme Court on Combatant Status
03 Apr 2006 The U.S. Supreme Court turned away an appeal from accused
terrorism supporter Jose Padilla,
refusing to question the Bush
regime's authority to capture American citizens on domestic soil and
hold them as "enemy combatants." For complete
story,
click here.
Puerto
Rico sues FBI for stonewalling probe of independentista’s murder:The
government of Puerto Rico went to federal court last week, accusing
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Justice Department of
obstructing justice by stonewalling a local investigation of the
FBI’s killing of a leading figure in the island’s independence
movement during a raid last September.
For complete story, click here.
'If
you start looking at them as humans, then how are you gonna kill
them?':At a press conference in a cavernous Alabama warehouse, banners and
posters are rolled out: "Abandon Iraq, not the Gulf coast!"
A tall, white soldier steps forward in desert fatigues. "I was in
Iraq when Katrina happened and I watched US citizens being washed
ashore in New Orleans," he says. "War is oppression: we
could be setting up hospitals right here. America is war-addicted.
America is neglecting its poor."A black reporter from a Fox TV news affiliate, visibly stunned,
whispers: "Wow! That guy's pretty opinionated." Clearly such
talk, even three years after the Iraq invasion, is still rare. This,
after all, is the Deep South and this soldier less than a year ago was
proudly serving his nation in Iraq.The soldier was engaged in no ordinary protest. Over five
days earlier this month, around 200 veterans, military families and
survivors of hurricane Katrina walked 130 miles from Mobile, Alabama,
to New Orleans to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq war. At its
vanguard, Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group formed less than two
years ago, whose very name has aroused intense hostility at the
highest levels of the US military. For complete story, click here.
What
you need to know about Bush's Big Brother policies--"They want to
intimidate people from dissenting":MICHAEL RATNER
is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York
City. A veteran attorney, he and the CCR have led the way in defending
the victims of the U.S. "war on terror"--from the Arab and
Muslim immigrants caught up in the witch-hunt that followed the September 11 attacks, to the detainees languishing in brutal
conditions at the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.Here, Michael tells Socialist Worker's DAVE FLOREY what
activists should know about the federal government's new police
powers.- - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -SINCE
SEPTEMBER 11, the state has gained a number of new surveillance and
police powers through laws like the USA PATRIOT Act. Could you talk
about these?AFTER 9/11,
I wrote an article at the end of October 2001 called "Moving
Toward a Police State, or Have We Arrived?" And I was nervous
about saying that then. I went back and looked at the article the
other day, and what I said then is a lot worse. My most paranoid
thoughts in that article were not even close.The things I focused on were the Patriot Act, the detentions of
non-citizens in the United States, and the lifting of the FBI
guidelines on domestic surveillance. So let's go through those three,
understanding that subsequently, in November 2001, we had the
detention order from the President that allowed him to pick up people
anywhere in the world and send them to places like Guantánamo Bay. We
didn't know about torture, we didn't know about renditions, we didn't
know about National Security Agency wiretapping.
For complete story, click here.
Ecuador
Quells Indian Trade Protest:QUITO, Ecuador - Police fired tear gas at dozens of Indian
demonstrators trying to reach the government palace Monday to protest
free-trade talks with Washington this week that are expected to draw
thousands of opponents to the capital.The debate over the talks has already led to the resignation of Ecuador's interior minister, who stepped down after making comments
that appeared to support the Indians' demands.The left-leaning Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of
Ecuador, Ecuador's main Indian movement, blockaded roads in 11
provinces with burning tires, rocks and tree trunks last week, tying
up traffic and halting commerce across the highlands and much of the
eastern jungle for several days.Luis Macas, leader of the movement, said Monday that the
protests would continue unless the government abandons a final round
of negotiations — scheduled to start on Thursday — and puts the
free trade pact to a national referendum.The Indian movement has threatened a "takeover" of
the capital to press its demands.Cesar Umajinga, the Indian governor of the highland Cotopaxi
province, said Monday that "some 7,000 comrades" from his
region planned to head to Quito in the coming hours.The Indian confederation accuses the United States of
exercising too much influence in the region and contends that
Ecuadorean farmers and small-scale Indian producers cannot compete
with inexpensive U.S. agricultural imports.President Alfredo Palacio's government, however, has strongly
supported the free-trade agreement. Colombia and Peru have already
signed similar agreements.View complete story at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060321/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/ecuador_indian_protests;_ylt=AkN
10,000
protest at water summit:About
10,000 protesters have marched in Mexico City, where 11,000 delegates
and representatives met at the 4th World Water Forum to discuss ways
to improve supplies for the poor.
Opponents say
that the seven-day
forum, which began on Thursday, is a cover for privatisation.Participants from 121 countries,
debated
topics including the developing world's growing reliance on bottled
water bought from private companies, instead of on public water
systems, which some call a form of privatisation.Cristina Hernandez, a protester, said: "We don't want
privatisation because it will only serve as a business for someone.
Services get more expensive with privatisation, but not better."Some protesters marched past rows of riot police chanting:
"Governments understand, water is not for sale!"
Court
denies Puerto Rico US vote:The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to give residents
of the territory of Puerto Rico the right to vote in US presidential elections.Judges threw
out the appeal by a group of Puerto Ricans - the latest development in
a long-running debate on the islanders' constitutional rights.Puerto Rico, which is not a state, has been administered by the
US since 1898.Although
residents cannot vote in presidential elections, they do elect a
delegate to the US Congress.However
their representative does not vote, except in committees.Attorney Gregorio Igartua, who filed the appeal, said the
citizens of Puerto Rico "have been unfairly treated" for
more than a century.He complained that residents have "an inferior type of
American citizenship."View
complete story at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4828116.stm
Or, for complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo
protest in SF halts traffic downtown, 17 arrested:SAN FRANCISCO
(AP) - Police arrested 17 protesters and pulled several others wearing
orange jumpsuits from a makeshift prison cell Monday in the heart of
the city's financial district.The
rally, organized by Act Against Torture, which advocates shutting down
the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, marked the third
anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and was held outside the
office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.The demonstrators who blocked Market Street were arrested and
will be cited for failing to obey police and blocking an intersection,
said San Francisco police Sgt. Neville Gittens.More than 100 protesters crowded behind police barricades in
the rain. Several demonstrators carted the prison cell into the
intersection and hopped inside, while others held banners and stood
sentinel holding anti-torture and anti-Bush banners.
Fresno Bee story of March 21st, 2006. We were unable to locate
story when updating site. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Please contact
www.fresnobee.com to request
copy of full story.
Hotel
U.S.A.:The
government's plans for an 'immigration emergency' include relocation
and detention centers -- courtesy of Kellogg, Brown and Root.This is part two of a
two-part series on new immigration and
detention centers in the United States. Read part one of the series,
"Bush's Mysterious 'New Programs'," by Nat Parry.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/32647/Some time between now and 2010, the U.S. government expects
some uninvited guests -- a massive influx of undocumented
immigrants.
In preparation for their arrival, the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) backed the
National Intelligence
Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004,
which mandates 40,000 new beds and barracks for foreign-born refugees
at four undisclosed locations over the next five years.On Jan. 3, 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) expanded
an existing contract held by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and
Root (KBR) and renewed it to accommodate up to 20,000 refugees from
environmental and political disasters. A future expansion in 2008
calls for another 20,000 beds.(Webmaster
Note:More information on Nazi America.Concentration Camps.Silencing
of dissent.Totalitarian
Tyranny.Etc. Etc…)
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
to vote against new rights council:UNITED NATIONS
(AP) - The United States will vote against a proposal to create a new
panel at the United Nations to replace the discredited Human Rights
Commission, Washington's U.N. ambassador said. The
U.N. General Assembly will take up the resolution Wednesday, and a
vote is likely even though assembly president Jan Eliasson has
insisted he wants the new Human Rights Council to be approved by
consensus of the 191 U.N. member states.
For complete story, click here.
Doctors
attack US over Guantanamo:
More than 250
medical experts have signed a letter condemning the US for
force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.The experts, from seven nations, said physicians at the prison
had to respect inmates' right to refuse treatment.The letter, in the medical journal The Lancet, said doctors who
used restraints and force-feeding should be punished by their
professional bodies.Some
500 terror suspects are being held without trial at Guantanamo Bay.The US has argued that the Geneva Convention does not apply to
prisoners at the camp, who, it says, are enemy combatants who continue
to pose a threat to national security.Doctors force-feeding prisoners at Guantanamo are acting as an
arm of the military and have abrogated their medical-ethical duties Dr
William Hopkins Co-signatory Human rights groups and the UN have urged
the US to close down the facility.Amnesty International said the "troubling"
accusations in the doctors' letter underlined the need for the
"independent medical examination of the prisoners".'Different person'The open letter in the Lancet was signed by more than 250 top
doctors from seven countries - the UK, the US, Ireland, Germany,
Australia, Italy and the Netherlands."We urge the US government to ensure that detainees are
assessed by independent physicians and that techniques such as
force-feeding and restraint chairs are abandoned," the letter
said.
For complete story, click here.
Human
medical experimentation in modern times: How immigrants, poor people,
minorities and children are modern-day guinea pigs for Big Pharma
(part one)http://www.newstarget.com/019193.html(Webmaster Note:Visit link to read entire article on the unethical
experimentation on human subjects by the pharmaceutical industrial
complex.)
For complete story, click here.
Dallas
Institutes New Laws on Homeless:DALLAS - Panhandling banned. Shopping carts prohibited on city
streets. The distribution of food to the homeless restricted to
designated areas.With a
series of ordinances governing its growing homeless population, Dallas
is gaining a reputation as a city uncharitable toward some of its
neediest
citizens.The
National Coalition for the Homeless recently ranked Dallas sixth among
the Top 10 "meanest" cities in the country. No. 1 was
Sarasota, Fla.Dallas
officials
say they are trying to steer the homeless toward help and
make the streets a little safer for them. But advocates for the
estimated 9,000 homeless people in Dallas say the
city is pursuing a
harsh and pitiless policy.
For complete story, click here.
Guantánamo
detainee told Geneva rights 'irrelevant'--Tribunal
proceedings revealed in US documents --Transcript shows Briton's
clashes with colonel judge 06 Mar
2006 A senior US military officer at
Guantánamo Bay told a detainee that he did not care about
international law and that the Geneva conventions did not apply to
proceedings at the military prison, according to thousands of Pentagon
documents released over the weekend by the US government after a court
action by the Associated
Press news agency.
For complete story,
click here.
American
Bar Association Testifies That U.S. Mandatory Minimums Raise Serious
Human Rights Concerns:
Saying that mandatory minimums are a "one-way ratchet
upwards" and cannot "satisfy the basic dictates of
fairness," Judge Patricia Wald, testifying on behalf of the
American Bar Association, raised a host of concerns about such
sentencing practices in testimony before an Organization of American
States Commission that is examining the issue."There is no question that crimes must be punished and
that prison serves a legitimate ... purpose, but only if it is
proportionate," said Wald, adding "unduly long and punitive
sentences are counter- productive, and candidly many of our mandatory
minimums approach the cruel and unusual level as compared to other
countries as well as to our own past practices."
For complete story, click here.
Gulags
For American Citizens In Final Planning Stages Halliburton sex slave
trade criminals prepare camps for political dissidents:Bush
administration and
US army preparations to target American citizens
and intern them in forced labor camps has vastly accelerated in the
past month and commentators from all over the
political spectrum are
sounding the alarm bells that the round-ups may begin soon.Once the bane of the media's stereotypical 'tin foil hat
wearing' caricatures,
concentration camps in America are now serious
news and no one is laughing.Following the news first given wide attention by this
website, that Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root had been
awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to
construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a
national
emergency, the Alternet website put together an alarming
report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate
internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major
terror attack in the US.The article highlighted the disturbing comments of Sen.
Lindsey Graham, who encouraged torture supporting Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales to target, "Fifth Columnists" Americans who
show disloyalty and sympathize with "the enemy," whoever
that enemy may be.It is
important to stress that
the historical precedent mirrors exactly what
the Halliburton camp deal outlines. Oliver North's Reagan era Rex 84plan proposed rounding up 400,000 refugees, under
FEMA, in the
event of "uncontrolled population movements" over the
Mexican border into the United States.The real agenda, just as it is with Halliburton's gulags, was
to
use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a
smokescreen for targeting political dissidents. From 1967 to 1971 the
FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the
"ADEX" list.The
current terrorist suspect list was recently revealed to contain the
names of 325,000 people. The government claimed that only a tiny
fraction were American citizens living in America but when compared to
the potential terrorist list in the UK, which under section 44 of the
terrorism act has ensnared at least 119,000 people, most of them
innocent protesters, the number is likely to be far higher. Britain's
population is only 60 million compared to the US at 295 million.
For complete story, click here.
Thousands
of Filipinos Rally Against State of Emergency:MANILA — Thousands
of Filipinos took to the streets in protest Friday, hours after
beleaguered President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a nationwide
state of emergency and banned public rallies.Arroyo also ordered the arrest of military officers who were
allegedly plotting a
coup to oust her on the eve of a commemoration
today of the "people power" protests that forced President
Ferdinand Marcos to step down 20 years ago.Former President
Corazon Aquino, an icon of the 1986 protests
and a successor to Marcos, led a march of more than 5,000 people
through Manila's Makati financial district Friday afternoon and called
on Arroyo to "make the supreme sacrifice" and step down.Aquino, once a close ally, turned against Arroyo last year
after revelations that she had sought to rig the 2004 election. Arroyo
survived impeachment in September despite the release of a
tape-recorded telephone conversation in which she appeared to direct a
top election
official to make sure that she won by a million votes. For
complete story, click here.
Rep.
Jose Serrano (D-NY) Criticizes FBI For Cracking Down on Independence
Movement in Puerto Rico:Several
members of Congress are calling for an investigation into recent raids
conducted by the FBI targeting pro-independence activists in Puerto
Rico. Last week, hundreds of members of the FBI's counterterrorism
unit conducted six simultaneous raids targeting members of the
pro-independence group known as the Macheteros. We speak with Jose
Serrano, Democatic Congressmember of Puerto Rican origin and
representing a major Puerto Rican district of the Bronx.The FBI claimed it was attempting to thwart a possible domestic
terrorism attack. At one of the raids, FBI agents beat and pepper
sprayed journalists who attempted to conduct interviews. The raids
come less than six months after the FBI shot dead Puerto Rican
independence leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios…
For complete story, click here.
Judge
orders U.S. to release Guantanamo detainee data:
SAN
JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on
Thursday to release the identities
of hundreds of detainees at
Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move which would force the
government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list
yet of those who have been imprisoned there.Some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terror being
held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been held
as long as four years. Only a handful have been officially identified.U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York ordered the
Defense Department to release uncensored transcripts of detainee
hearings, which contain the names of detainees in custody and those
who have been held and later released. Previously released documents
have had identities and other details blacked out.The judge ordered the government to hand over the documents by
March 3 after the Defense Department said Wednesday it would not
appeal his earlier ruling in the lawsuit filed by the AP.
For complete story,
click here.
FBI
Interrogators in Cuba Opposed Aggressive Tactics:FBI officials
who were interrogating terrorism suspects at the U.S. detention
facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2002 and 2003 strenuously objected to aggressive techniques the military was using and believed
they could be illegal, according to FBI memos released yesterday.The agents wrote in memos and e-mails that they were at odds
with interrogators working for a Defense Intelligence Agency
human-intelligence group and with guidance from senior Pentagon
officials.The agents
also repeatedly expressed their concerns to the senior military
officer at the base, Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, and said that the
less aggressive FBI-approved methods were more effective."Although MGEN Miller acknowledged positive aspects of
this approach, it was apparent that he favored DHS's interrogation
methods, despite FBI assertions that such methods could easily result
in the elicitation of unreliable and legally inadmissible
information," one FBI agent wrote to senior FBI officials in May
2003, referring to the Defense Humint Service. Miller later traveled
to Iraq and oversaw all detention operations there…
For complete story, click here.
One
Thousand A Month Tortured To Death In Iraq:Proving that
Abu Ghraib and Gitmo are the tip of the iceberg, the outgoing UN human
rights chief dropped a bombshell when he told an obscure Maltese
newspaper that as many as a thousand detainees a month are being
tortured to death in Iraq.Dr.
John Pace told the obscure Times
of Malta newspaper, "The Baghdad morgue received
1,100 bodies in July alone, about 900 of whom bore evidence of torture
or summary execution. That continued throughout the year and last
December there were 780 bodies, including 400 having gunshot wounds or
wounds as those caused by electric drills."Pace echoed previous estimates in stating that 80 to 90 per
cent of those rounded up and taken to prison camps were completely
innocent. As we have highlighted before, Iraqis are arrested for dastardly crimes such as
not
showing their papers at checkpoints, selling alcohol
and shouting
anti-coalition statements.Footage of US army personnel seizing a taxi cab and
destroying
it with an Abrams tank was broadcast two years ago on
PBS. The crime? Stealing firewood.
For complete story,
click here.
Nuremberg
at 60: How The United States Is Turning Away from Its Proud History:This past
weekend in Seattle, Amnesty International USA convened a group of
several hundred lawyers to assess the legacy of the International
Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, sixty years later. The meeting focused
on the principles behind the Nuremberg project, and surveyed the state
of international justice now.The
United States led the way in the Nuremberg trials - underscoring the
need for strict, aggressive adherence to the rule of law in the face
of mass lawlessness. And since then, adherence to the rule of law has
proved not only to be the touchstone of Nuremberg, but also the United
States' best foreign relations tool. The U.S. Constitution is taken as
a model by other countries who are constitution-building; America's
grants of asylum offer haven to those who are fleeing the persecution
of lawless regimes.Until
now: Now, I will argue, the Bush administration has very significantly
undermined the Nuremberg legacy, by departing from the rule of law,
and openly flouting international law.
For complete story, click here.
Baghdad
Embassy Bonanza:
Kuwait
Company’s Secret Contract & Low-Wage Labor:A controversial Kuwait-based construction firm accused
of exploiting employees and coercing low-paid laborers to work in
war-torn Iraq is now building the new $592-million U.S. embassy in
Baghdad. Once completed, the compound will likely be the biggest, most
fortified diplomatic compound in the world.Some 900 workers live and work for First Kuwaiti General
Trading & Contracting (FKTC) on the construction site of the
massive project. Undoubtedly, they have been largely pulled from ranks
of low-paid laborers flooding into Iraq from Asia's poorest countries
to work under U.S. military and reconstruction projects.Meanwhile, their boss, Wadih al-Absi jets back and forth to the
United States, dreaming of magazine covers celebrating his rise to a global player in large-scale engineering and construction.
For complete story, click here.
Guantánamo:
Lives torn apart – The impact of indefinite detention on detainees
and their families:
As
the unlawful detentions of ‘enemy combatants’ at the US
detention
centre at the Guantánamo Bay naval base, Cuba, enter their fifth
year, Amnesty International is renewing its call for the detention
centre to be closed and for all those held to be released or given
fair trial according to international law and without recourse to the
death penalty on the US mainland. Four years since the first transfers
to Guantánamo, approximately 500 men(1) of around 35 nationalities
remain held at the detention facility unlawfully. Reports from the
detainees and their lawyers suggest that many have been subjected to
torture or other forms of ill-treatment in Guantánamo or in other US
detention centres. Some have embarked on a prolonged hunger strike,
among them those who have requested not to be force-fed in order that
they may be allowed to die. There have been numerous suicide attempts
and fears for the physical and psychological welfare of the detainees
increase as each day of indefinite detention passes.In this document, Amnesty International relates the continuing
plight of the
detainees, and summarizes developments related to the
ongoing hunger strike and further suicide attempts. The organization
also assesses the situation of nine men who
remain detained despite no
longer being considered ‘enemy combatants’ by US authorities.
For complete story,
click here.
U.N.
Report Urges Gitmo Shutdown:GENEVA - The United States should shut down the prison
for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay and either release all detainees
being held there or bring them to trial, the United Nations said in a
report released Thursday.The
report, summarizing an investigation by five U.N. experts, called on
the U.S. government "to close down the Guantanamo Bay detention
center and to refrain from any practice amounting to torture or cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment."The
report's findings were based on interviews with former
detainees, public documents, media reports, lawyers and a
questionnaire filled out by the U.S. government.The
United States is holding about 500 men at the U.S. naval
base on the southeastern tip of Cuba. The detainees are accused of
having links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban
regime or the al-Qaida
terror group, though only 10 have been charged since the detention
camp opened in January 2001. For complete story,
click here.
The
Reign of Toxic Terror:The French are truly living up to the methods of their
hymned revolution by seeking to force their lethal waste, Le
Clemenceau, on India rather than treat the same on their own
territory. The revolutionaries created the Reign of Terror, one of the
most reckless massacres ever committed, and their descendents have created for us the reign of toxic terror.It is not only in the application of violence that the current
scenario evokes the lessons of the revolution but also in the
glaring dichotomy of the values of the revolution. It was well after
the terror laden French revolution that the country has massacred
hundreds of thousands of people in Africa and the Caribbean for asking
for freedom from occupation, for equality among all humans and for
human liberty. The Clemenceau sailing to the Indian shores is a
declaration that what is unsafe for the French is readily fit for a
Third World country.The
west has transformed contemporary life into a sharp Orwellian irony by
arguing war is peace and occupation is freedom. While France and
allies keep lecturing down to the South, often with the aid of bombs,
on the importance of respecting international laws, here are several
international laws thrown into the waste bin on the strength of
imperial might. The decision II/12 adopted by the Conference of
Parties to the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, in 1994, banning the export of
toxic waste by the countries of the Organisation of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD, grouping of industrialized
countries) to developing countries and its subsequent incorporation
into the text of the treaty the next year stand out as tribute to the
unusual political will and negotiation skill that developing countries
have shown in a multilateral forum. This was something similar to the
victory of the South in negotiating a fair and balanced Convention on
Biological Diversity, though it has subsequently failed to defend the
hard fought provisions of the treaty.
For complete story, click here.
Congresswoman
McKinney:
American citizens could be put in forced labor camps:Cynthia
McKinney, the only House Representative to stand up to the Bush
White
House crime syndicate, has gone further than ever before in her
efforts to warn people about what the Neo-Cons' ultimate goals
actually entail for freedom in America.During a recent radio interview on the Alex Jones Show,
McKinney illustrated the nature of a corrupt occupational government,
stating that the administration was "stolen in
2000 and stolen
again in 2004." McKinney said that it was doing the government a
favor to describe them as a "criminal syndicate.""It appears to me that our country is
literally being
hollowed out....our economy is being hollowed out," said
McKinney.McKinney shared
Alex Jones' fears and those previously
voiced by Republican
Congressman Ron Paul, that
Americans may be arrested and taken to forced labor camps in light of
recent
developments confirming Kellogg Brown and Root
have
secured a government contract to build the camps.(Webmaster Note:Kellogg
Brown and Root are a division of Halliburton.) For complete
story,
click here.
Arrest
made over Iraq abuse video:A
person has been arrested in connection with the release of a video
apparently showing British soldiers beating Iraqi teenagers in 2004.A
ministry of defence spokesman said the arrest was carried out on
Sunday, but declined to give further details.The video has been shown widely on British television as well
as Arabic news stations and shows a group of soldiers dragging Iraqi
protesters behind a wall while a demonstration is under way, beating
them with batons and kicking them.The News of the World newspaper, which released the footage,
said it had been filmed from the roof of a building by another soldier
who can be heard egging on his comrades and mocking the Iraqis' pleas
for mercy.
For complete story,
click here.
Voting
Systems Lawsuit Reaches U.S. Supreme Court:Washington DC, Jan 30 -
A little-noticed voting rights lawsuit has made its way to the U.S.
Supreme Court
(Docket No. 05-930). It constitutes the first legal
challenge to the widespread use of nontransparent voting systems.
Specifically, the lawsuit challenges the use of voting
machines and
absentee voting in elections for public office.The lawsuit was originally filed by freelance journalist Lynn
Landes in July of 2004 in Philadelphia federal court (U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania). The Third Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled against Landes on November 2, 2005.In her lawsuit Landes claims that, as a voter and a journalist,
she has the right to direct access to a physical ballot and to observe
the voting process unimpeded. Voting by machine or absentee,
Landes
claims, introduces obstacles and concealment to a process that must be
accessible and transparent in a meaningful and effective manner.
For complete story,
click here.
India
on a slum demolition spree to benefit the rich:India with its 7% GDP growth rate of last year and a target of
8% for this year has occupied the top position in a
global survey of
business confidence by Grant Thornton International pushing behind not
only G8 giants but also its nearest rival China. To sustain this
position, providing infrastructure to local and foreign investors is
on top of the Indian Governments priority list. Land acquisition
on a large scale by the government in both rural and urban areas and
passing it on to industrial houses, builders at nominal price is at
its historical peak.The
space is being cleared for building roads, flyovers, multiplexes, skyscrapers to house offices of IT and financial businesses, MNCs
owned shopping malls and housing colonies for these few neo-rich. The
construction industry is growing at a rate of 5% and is at 12th
position in the world. On the other hand, with high levels of
automation in new investments and upgrading of previous industries,
large scale closure of small scale industries and cities becoming the
hubs of IT and Finance sectors, the requirement for manual, skilled
and semi-skilled labourers is at its minimum in the cities. So the
local governments in all the major and minor cities and even towns are
on a slum demolition spree.Four
hundred thousand slum dwellers were rendered
homeless within a period
of two months just before heavy rainy season of this year in the city
of Bombay alone. The exact figure for other cities is not available
but demolition of slums is almost a routine affair in all the cities
and towns and that too without giving any alternative place, with 7
days notice and with extreme brutality during these operations.
For complete story, click here.
NORTHCOM
Prepares for Possible Pandemic
01 Feb 2006 U.S. Northern Command recently hosted representatives from
more than 40 international, federal and state
agencies for an exercise
designed to provoke discussion and determine what governmental
actions, including military support, would be necessary in the event
of an influenza pandemic in the United States. "NORTHCOM will
not be running the show in the event of a pandemic," said
Dave Wilkins, the NORTHCOM exercise facilitator. "We will be
taking guidance and requests from other agencies, such as the
Department of Homeland Security, via the secretary of defense."
For complete story,
click here.
Invasion
Theories: Tool of the destruction for the Colonialists, Racists…:The concept of Aryan
Invasion theory being a handiwork of the British colonialists for the
sake of
proving the superiority of the European Caucasian races is not
an isolated case. There exist a similar theory in other part of the
world, involving other nations and other
ethnicities and I wonder why
hasn’t anyone yet given an attention over that.If we see the map of middle Africa, we see two little
countries named Rwanda and Burundi, bordering Zaire (or Democratic
Republic of Congo). With the name Rwanda it suddenly flashes in our
mind, the picture of ethnic violence, civil war, genocide and military
juntas. For complete story,
click here.
US
plans to 'fight the net' revealed:A
newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US
military's plans for "information operations" - from
psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.The document says information is "critical to military
success"Bloggers
beware.As the world
turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military
opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the
modern media offer.From
influencing public opinion through new media to designing
"computer network attack" weapons, the US military is
learning to fight an electronic war.The declassified document is called "Information
Operations Roadmap". It was obtained by the National Security
Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of
Information Act.Officials
in the Pentagon
wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld, signed it. For
complete story,
click here.
Thousands
of Students Detained in Ethiopia:NAIROBI, Kenya - Thousands of school and college
students have been detained over the past three months in continued
unrest in Ethiopia, an international human rights group said.Separately, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on
Tuesday that an Ethiopian reporter had become the
latest journalist in
that country to be arrested.Security
forces arrested many of the students in the southern Oromiya region
— which includes the Ethiopian capital city, Addis Ababa — during
demonstrations that began Nov. 9, Amnesty International's East Africa
office said in a statement late Monday from London.Amnesty said that the
arrests are believed to have occurred
after the rebel Oromo Liberation Front called for demonstrations
against the government. The rights group said that it had received
reports that some of the students had been shot dead, but it did not
give details.Officials in Ethiopia were not immediately available for
comment. For complete story,
click here.
Capitol
Police arrest antiwar activist Sheehan:Cindy Sheehan,
the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the antiwar
movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday
night just before President Bush’s State of the Union address, a
police spokeswoman said.Sheehan,
who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.,
was charged with unlawful conduct, a misdemeanor, Capitol Police told
NBC News. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few
blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke.Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said Sheehan had worn a
T-shirt with an antiwar slogan to the speech and covered it up until
she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not
allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.The T-shirt bore the words “2,245 Dead — How Many More??”
in reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, protesters
told NBC News.Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery
before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own
recognizance, Schneider said.
For complete story, click here.
Who
are opposing the Hindu initiative to end discrimination in California
textbooks?:Many Hindu American
parents have been dismayed by the negative and
caricaturist
description of our heritage that our school children in the United
States are subjected to. A few Hindu organizations such as the Hindu
Education Foundation
(HEF) and the Vedic Foundation (VF), as well as
many individual Hindus, have been working with the California
Department of Education (CDE) to end the derogatory and discriminatory
portrayal of Hinduism in textbooks.Other ancient traditions such as Jainism are also ignored in
textbooks. HEF has received letters of support from Jain groups, as
well as Hindu American organizations representing immigrants from
Nepal and the Carribbean. More than 100 world-class scholars of
archaeology, history and academic study of religion have written to
CDE in support of HEF/VF efforts.A group of academics led by Professor Michael Witzel of
Harvard, has been opposing these
reasonable changes. Interestingly,
Witzel's group admitted that they were unaware of the nature of the
proposed changes when they wrote their protest letter to CDE on
November 7, 2005'.
For complete story,
click here.
Unfathomed
Dangers in Patriot Act Reauthorization:A
provision in the "Patriot Act" creates a new federal police
force with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that
this cannot be true as you have not read about it in newspapers or
heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.Go to House Report 109-333 -USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND
REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605
reads:"There is
hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known
as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division'."This new federal police force is "subject to the
supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security."The new police are empowered to "make arrests without
warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their
presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United
States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to
be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."
For complete story, click here.
US
government wants Google's search records19
Jan 2006 The Bush dictatorship on Wednesday asked a federal judge to
order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely
guarded databases. In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San
Jose, inJustice Department lawyers revealed that Google has
refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records,
which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records
of all Google searches from any one-week period.
For complete story,
click here.
Feds
push dismissal of detainee cases:WASHINGTON
(CNN) -- The Justice Department Wednesday asked a federal appeals
court to dismiss lawsuits by Guantanamo
Bay detainees, arguing a law
passed in December takes away the prisoners' right to bring their
cases before the court.The
government filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals in
the District of
Columbia is the third -- and presumably final -- such argument made by
the Justice lawyers following similar documents filed in detainee
cases at the U.S.
Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court.
For complete story,
click here.
5th
Circuit 'Miranda' Case Muddies the Waters:For
nearly 40 years appellate courts have disagreed about whether police
must tell defendants they have a right to counsel during
interrogation, as well as before questioning, as part of the Miranda
warning.Four circuits
require explicit advice to defendants that they are entitled to
counsel during interrogation, while four other circuits do not.In a recent Texas death penalty case, the 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, which has required since 1968 that the defendant be
"clearly informed" of a right to a lawyer during
interrogation, decided it wants it both ways.The circuit court rejected the Miranda challenge in the habeas
corpus appeal of Allen Bridgers, saying that detectives' advice that
Bridgers had the right to consult an attorney "prior to"
questioning was adequate to convey that he was entitled to have an
attorney before questioning, "and that this attorney could remain
during questioning," according to Judge Fortunado Benavides.
Bridgers v. Dretke, No. 05-70020.
For complete story, click here.
Bush
to criminalize protesters under Patriot Act as "disruptors":Bush
wants to create the new criminal of "disruptor" who can be
jailed for the crime of "disruptive behavior." A
"little-noticed provision" in the latest version of the
Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a
new crime of
"disrupting major events
including political conventions and the
Olympics." Secret Service would also be empowered to
charge persons with "breaching security" and to charge for
"entering a restricted area" which is "where the
President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will
be temporarily visiting." In short, be sure to stay in those
wired, fenced containments or free speech zones.
For complete story, click here.
Chinese
Detainees' Lawyers Will Take Case to High Court:Lawyers
for a group of Chinese nationals held in the U.S. military prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with no hope of release are taking the rare step
of asking the Supreme Court to intervene immediately, saying only the
high court can resolve the constitutional crisis their case presents.Attorneys for the detained Uighurs, Muslim natives of western
China who oppose their country's Communist rule, are scheduled to
petition the court as early as today. They seek a break in the impasse
created when U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled last month that
the Bush administration's "Kafka-esque" detention of the
Uighurs was illegal but he simultaneously determined that the court
lacked the power to overrule the president and free them.
For complete story,
click here.
Translator's
Conviction Raises Legal Concerns-- Trial Transcripts Show Lack of
Evidence:NEW
YORK -- For three years federal agents trailed Mohammed Yousry, a
chubby 50-year-old translator and U.S. citizen who worked for radical
lawyer Lynne Stewart. Prosecutors wiretapped his phone, and FBI agents
shadowed and interviewed him. They read his books and notepads and
every file on his computer.This
was their conclusion:"Yousry
is not a practicing Muslim. He is not a fundamentalist,"
prosecutor Anthony Barkow acknowledged in his closing arguments to a
jury in federal district court in Manhattan earlier this year."Mohammed Yousry is not someone who supports or believes
in the use of violence."Still, the prosecutor persuaded the jury
to convict Yousry of supporting terrorism. Yousry now awaits
sentencing in March, when he could face 20 years in prison for
translating a letter from imprisoned Muslim cleric Omar Abdel Rahman
to Rahman's lawyer in Egypt.
For complete story,
click here.
Australia:
Police use new powers to “lock down” rural housing estate:Police in the rural New South
Wales town of Dubbo activated the state Labor government’s newly
legislated “lockdown” powers following a clash with about 100
Aborigines on New Year’s Eve. More than 60 officers erected
roadblocks around the Gordon public housing estate and conducted
random searches of individuals and vehicles. Non-residents were
prevented access to the area, and police confiscated one vehicle after
a knife was allegedly found. For complete story,
click here.
When
the Poor Go to Court Across the nation, many indigents wind up being
sentenced to jail time without ever seeing a lawyer:Last July, a
homeless man named Hubert Lindsey was stopped by police officers in
Gulfport, Miss., for riding his bicycle without a light.The police soon discovered that Lindsey was a wanted man.
Gulfport records showed he owed $4,780 in old fines. So, off to jail
he went.Legal activists
now suing the city in federal court say it was pretty obvious that
Lindsey couldn't pay the fines. According to their complaint, he lived
in a tent, was unemployed, and appeared permanently disabled by an
unseeing eye and a mangled arm. But without a lawyer to plead his
case, the question of whether Lindsey was a scofflaw or just plain
poor never came up. Nor did the question of whether the fines were
really owed, or if it was constitutional to jail him for debts he
couldn't pay. Nobody, the activists say, even bothered to mention
alternatives like community service. The judge ordered Lindsey to
"sit out" the fine in jail. That took nearly two months.
For complete story, click here.
End
the Shame of NSEERS:Three years ago this week, thousands of Arab and Muslim
men were called to report to local immigration offices across the US
to be
registered, fingerprinted, photographed, and interrogated.This was the "domestic call-in" phase of the National
Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a program initiated
by then Attorney General John Ashcroft and marketed as a "vital
line of defense in the war against terrorism."The January 2003 group of NSEERS registrants were the second of
four groups and the largest group of Arabs involved in the program.NSEERS was so poorly conceived and badly managed that it
created chaos and fear.Trust
between the immigrant community and law enforcement was severely
strained and, in the end, there was no evidence that any terrorists
were
apprehended as a result of the effort. For complete story,
click here.
Inmates,
staffers injured in San Quentin prison riot:SAN QUENTIN, Calif.
(AP) - At least 23 inmates and two staff members at San Quentin State
Prison were injured during a prison riot in a crowded dining hall,
prison officials said Friday.Officers
armed with pepper spray and batons were able to quickly quell the
riot, which started around 7 p.m. Thursday when about 260 inmates were
in the dining hall, said prison spokesman Sgt. Eric Messick.Inmates identified as being involved in the riot were removed
from the general population as authorities continued to investigate
what caused the fight, Messick said.
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
Seeks to Avoid Detainee Ruling:The Bush
administration took the unusual step yesterday of asking the Supreme
Court to call off a landmark confrontation over the legality of
military trials for terrorism suspects, arguing that a law enacted
last month eliminates the court's ability to consider the issue.
For complete story, click here.
Create
an e-annoyance, go to jail:Annoying
someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed
into law a
prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending
annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a
mailing list or
in a blog as long as you do it under your real name.Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of
Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence
Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act.
For complete story,
click here.
Hunger
strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits Guantánamo
Bay doctor:New details have
emerged of how the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at
Guantánamo Bay are being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed
down their nasal passages into their stomachs to keep them alive.They routinely experience bleeding and nausea, according to a
sworn statement by the camp's chief doctor, seen by The Observer.'Experience teaches us' that such symptoms must be expected
'whenever nasogastric tubes are used,' says the affidavit of Captain
John S Edmondson, commander of Guantánamo's hospital. The procedure -
now standard practice at Guantánamo - 'requires that a foreign body
be inserted into the body and, ideally, remain in it.' But staff
always use a lubricant, and 'a nasogastric tube is never inserted and
moved up and down. It is inserted down into the stomach slowly and
directly, and it would be impossible to insert the wrong end of the
tube.' Medical personnel do not insert nasogastric tubes in a manner
'intentionally designed to inflict pain.'
For complete story, click here.
SWAT
team, state police were positioned near W. Va. church04
Jan 2006 In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were
told early Wednesday that
12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead -
three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive...
International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield
blamed
the wrong information on a "miscommunication.'' ..."There
was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the
door,'' said Nick Helms, son of miner
Terry Helms. Chaos broke out in
the church and a fight started. About a dozen state troopers and a
SWAT team were positioned along the road near the church because
police were concerned about violence. Witnesses said one man had to be
wrestled to the ground when he lunged for mining officials. [The 'violence' is the violence that is perpetrated on workers in the U.S.
(and all over the world) every day, due to the Bush regime's expansion
of predatory capitalism.]
For complete story,
click here.
Fake-lawyer
ruse challenged:The
Washington State Bar Association is asking the state Supreme Court to
ban police officers from posing as lawyers -- as officers did to
obtain DNA evidence in one recent case -- saying the practice is
unnecessary and damages the credibility of attorney-client
relationships.
For complete story,
click here.
Spy
Court Judge Quits In Protest
--Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel 21
Dec 2005 A federal judge has resigned from the court that
oversees
government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of pResident
Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to
two sources.
For complete story,
click here.
Spying
Program Snared U.S. Calls
21 Dec 2005 A surveillance program approved by pResident Bush to
conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are
purely
domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the
White House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place
on foreign soil, officials
say.
For complete story, click here.
The
FBI's Secret Scrutiny In Hunt for Terrorists, Bureau Examines Records of Ordinary
Americans:The FBI
came calling in Windsor, Conn., this summer with a document marked for
delivery by hand. On Matianuk Avenue, across from the tennis courts,
two special agents found their man. They gave George Christian the
letter, which warned him to tell no one, ever, what it said.Under the shield and stars of the FBI crest, the letter
directed Christian to surrender "all subscriber information,
billing information and access logs of any person" who used a
specific computer at a library branch some distance away. Christian,
who manages digital records for three dozen Connecticut libraries,
said in an affidavit that he configures his system for privacy. But
the vendors of the software he operates said their databases can
reveal the Web sites that visitors browse, the e-mail accounts they
open and the books they borrow.
For complete story, click here.
Ridin’’
The Bus With Deborah:When
Deborah Davis hit the news, I got hit as well – right in the pit of
my stomach where terror hides, and panic lurks.. “Oh God, I mumbled,
“It’s happening again”And
just exactly what had Deborah done to get this emotionally detached
old lady into such a replay of emotions left over from 1938 Nazi Germany? It was the gut-wrenching realization that the Nazi Police
State in which I was raised has come back to roost – in the United
States.Deborah, who
commutes by bus in Denver, Colorado, had been asked to present her
I.D. to a man in uniform. If she didn’t, she was told, it would mean
walking several miles to her job. So, she complied, but, it rankled.
Deborah knew that, unless she was being a danger to self or others,
behaving irrationally, or drunk and disorderly, no one had the right
to ask for her identification. As long as she was sitting quietly in
her seat, she could not be arbitrarily asked for ID. (She’d learned
that in her 8th grade Civics class, where she had
also been taught
about police states, and how casually they usurped the rights of their
citizenry.)
For complete story,
click here.
Racial
Poverty Gaps in U.S. Amount to Human Rights Violation, Says U.N.
Expert:UNITED
NATIONS, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - Despite enormous wealth and various
federal and social welfare schemes at work, the United States is
failing to help millions of its people trying to get out of poverty,
according to an independent United Nations rights expert.
For complete story, click here.
The
Drugging of the American Mind:In
other words, fairly regular, mainstream Americans now take the most
powerful mood-altering drugs in all of psychiatry. Last year,
23
million prescriptions were written for these drugs. Sales this year
are expected to hit $10 billion, three times what they were in 2000.
Atypicals are the fourth largest class of patented medications in
America.Patients aren't
taking them for a few days or weeks, either. Doctors expect their
bipolar patients to take these drugs for years, much the same as
they've taken traditional mood stabilizers, like lithium, which tamp
down mood swings. In fact, there's a growing rumble in the psych world
that researchers would like to use atypicals to replace mood
stabilizers altogether.Yet
there is no comprehensive scientific evidence to support this paradigm
shift. Zero. The psychiatric industry says this isn't a problem
because real-world treatment has always outpaced research. But if you
happen to be a patient, it's a very big problem—atypicals have the
worst side effects of any drugs used to treat bipolar disorder. As a
patient, I've experienced this shift firsthand, sometimes as a willing
test subject. So, I have a question: Without scientific evidence, why
are doctors prescribing these meds so freely and expecting patients to
take them for so long?
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
Holding at Least Twenty-Six "Ghost Detainees":(New
York, December 1, 2005) – The United States is holding at least
twenty-six persons as "ghost detainees" at undisclosed
locations outside of the United States, Human Rights Watch said today,
as it released a list naming some of the detainees. The detainees are
being held indefinitely and incommunicado, without legal rights or
access to counsel…
For complete story,
click here.
Indefinite Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus:Perfidy loves company.
George W. Bush instructed his British puppet, Prime Minister Tony
Blair, to get moving on the detention issue so that he, Bush, would
have company when he attacked the Constitution's guarantee of habeas
corpus.Habeas corpus
prevents authorities from detaining a person indefinitely without
charges; the guarantee of habeas corpus ensures that no one can
imprison you without a trial.The
Bush administration wants the power to detain indefinitely anyone it
declares to be an enemy combatant or a terrorist without presenting
the detainee in court with charges. In England the power to arrest people and to hold them indefinitely without charges was taken away
from kings centuries ago.Bush
apparently thinks he is the reincarnation of an absolute monarch. For complete story,
click here.
Misplaced
outrage--Talk about missing the point.:The CIA has
been hiding al-Qaeda suspects and interrogating them at secret prisons
in Eastern Europe and
elsewhere — essentially making them disappear,
as South American and Soviet dictators once did.So what are Republican leaders in Congress hot to investigate?Whether the CIA is running shadowy operations that might
violate international treaties signed by the United States? What
damage this could do to U.S. interests abroad?
Who authorized such a
dangerous policy? No, they want to know who leaked this information.
For complete story, click here.
UN
Human Rights Body to Scrutinise U.S. Abuses by Thalif Deen:(Published on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 by Inter
Press Service) UNITED NATIONS
- The U.N. Human Rights Committee, scheduled to meet in Geneva next
month, has written to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) calling
for any available evidence of human rights abuses by the United States
-- particularly in the aftermath of its global war on terrorism.The 18-member committee, comprising of independent human rights
experts, will take up "issues of specific concerns relating to
the effect of measures taken (by the administration of President
George W. Bush) in the fight against terrorism following the events of
11 September 2001," the day the United States was subject to
terrorist attacks.The
primary focus will be "on the implications of the USA Patriot Act
on nationals and non-nationals, as well as problems relating to the
legal status and treatment of persons detained in Afghanistan,
Guantanamo, Iraq and other places of detention outside the USA."The U.S. Congress adopted the USA Patriot Act in October 2001
in order to provide "appropriate tools required to intercept and
obstruct terrorism."But
virtually all human rights organisations, both domestic and
international, have criticised the Act as seriously threatening civil
liberties and freedoms in the United States.
For complete story,
click here.
Guantanamo
Desperation Seen in Suicide Attempts One Incident Was During Lawyer's
Visit:Jumah
Dossari had to visit the restroom, so the detainee made a quick joke
with his American lawyer before military police guards escorted him to
a nearby cell with a toilet. The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, had taken quite a toll on
Dossari over the past four years,
but his attorney, who was there to discuss Dossari's federal court
case, noted his good spirits and thought nothing of his bathroom
break.Minutes later, when Dossari did not return, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan
knocked on the cell door, calling out his client's name. When he did
not hear a response, Colangelo- Bryan stepped inside and saw a
three-foot pool of blood on the floor. Numb, the lawyer looked up to
see Dossari hanging unconscious from a noose tied to the ceiling, his
eyes rolled back, his tongue and lips bulging, blood pouring from a
gash in his right arm.
For complete story,
click here.
Cheney
Fights for Detainee Policy As Pressure Mounts to Limit Handling Of
Terror Suspects, He Holds Hard Line:Over
the past year, Vice President Cheney has waged an
intense and largely
unpublicized campaign to stop Congress, the Pentagon and the State
Department from imposing more restrictive rules on the handling of
terrorist
suspects, according to defense, state, intelligence and
congressional officials.Last
winter, when Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the
full committee briefed on the CIA's interrogation practices, Cheney
called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, said
three U.S. officials. For complete story,
click here.
Mysterious Tubular Clouds
Defy Explanation 24 Aug 2009
These long, crazy-looking clouds can grow to be 600 miles long and
can move at up to 35 miles per hour, causing problems for aircraft
even on windless days. Known as Morning Glory clouds, they appear
every fall over Burketown, Queensland, Australia, a remote town with
fewer than 200 residents. Similar tubular shaped clouds called
roll clouds
appear in various places around the globe. For complete story,
click here.
Scientists: Global warming
has already changed oceans
09 Jun 2009 Researchers, scientists and Jacques Cousteau's
granddaughter painted a bleak picture Tuesday of the future of
oceans and the "blue economy" of the nation's coastal states. The
hearing before the oceans subcommittee of the Senate Commerce
Committee was expected to focus on how the degradation of the oceans
was affecting marine businesses and coastal communities. Instead,
much of the testimony focused on how the waters that cover 70
percent of the planet are already changing because of global
warming. For complete story,
click here.
Recycled radioactive metal
contaminates consumer products
--No federal agency is responsible for oversight. 03 Jun 2009
Thousands of everyday products and materials containing radioactive
metals are surfacing across the United States and around the world.
Common kitchen cheese graters, reclining chairs, women's handbags
and tableware manufactured with contaminated metals have been
identified, some after having been in circulation for as long as a
decade... A Scripps Howard News Service investigation has found that
-- because of haphazard screening, an absence of oversight and
substantial disincentives for businesses to report contamination --
no one knows how many tainted goods are in circulation in the United
States. For complete story,
click here.
(Los Angeles, CA.) - A
long-term feeding
study
commissioned by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, managed by
the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health, Family and Youth, and carried out
by Veterinary University Vienna, confirms genetically modified (GM) corn
seriously affects reproductive health in mice. Non-GMO advocates, who have
warned about this infertility link along with other health risks, now seek
an immediate ban of all GM foods and GM crops to protect the health of
humankind and the fertility of women around the world.
Feeding mice with
genetically modified corn developed by the US-based Monsanto Corporation led
to lower fertility and body weight, according to the study conducted by the
University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. Lead author of the study
Professor Zentek said, there was a direct link between the decrease in
fertility and the GM diet, and that mice fed with non-GE corn reproduced
more efficiently.
In the study, Austrian
scientists performed several long-term feeding trials over 20 weeks with
laboratory mice fed a diet containing 33% of a GM variety (NK 603 x MON
810), or a closely related non-GE variety used in many countries.
Statistically significant litter size and pup weight decreases were found in
the third and fourth litters in the GM-fed mice, compared to the control
group.
The corn is genetically
modified with genes that produce a pesticidal toxin, as well as genes that
allow it to survive applications of Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. For
complete story,
click here.
GOVERNMENT SLASHES PESTICIDE REPORTING LAWS--Bowing to pressure from Monsanto and the agro-toxics industry,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced May 21 that it
plans to eliminate pesticide reporting at National Agricultural
Statistics Service (NASS). The program has tracked national
pesticide use and provided critical information for consumer
groups, scientists, farmers and environmental groups monitoring
pesticide use and hazards.. NASS' elimination of the
Agricultural Chemical Use Database is a direct attack on
consumers and farmworkers' Right to Know about pesticide
residues and food safety. Pesticide reporting has become
particularly important in the last ten years with Genetically
Engineered crops requiring more and more pesticides. Please contact USDA Secretary Ed Schafer and your
Congressperson today:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_12662.cfm
For complete story,
click here.
Britain to allow blended human, animal embryos--May 20th,
2008--LONDON — British lawmakers voted Monday to allow
the use of animal-human embryos for research
after a national debate that pitted religious
leaders who called it unethical against the
prime minister and scientists who said it would
help cure disease.
Last month, scientists at
Newcastle created part-human, part-animal
embryos for the first time in Britain. An
attempt Monday night to ban the process, during
consideration in the House of Commons of the
first major revisions to embryo research laws in
a generation, failed overwhelmingly on a vote of
336 to 176.
The overall bill, argued Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, would enable lifesaving research
that could help people with Alzheimer's,
Parkinson's and other diseases. He said in an
article published in the Observer newspaper
Sunday, "I believe that we owe it to ourselves
and future generations to introduce these
measures."
The bill would allow scientists to continue
injecting an empty cow or rabbit egg with human
DNA. A burst of electricity then is used to
trick the egg into dividing regularly, so it
becomes a very early embryo, from which stem
cells can be extracted. Scientists say the
embryos would not be allowed to develop for more
than 14 days and are intended to address the
shortage of human embryos available for
stem-cell research.
By allowing such mixed embryo experiments,
Britain is expected to maintain its reputation
as a leading center for stem-cell research.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, a leading figure in
the Catholic Church, had described the research
as a "monstrous attack on human rights, human
dignity and human life."
He said the bill would allow experiments of
"Frankenstein proportion."
Human Genetics Alert, a science watchdog in
favor of the ban, claims the laws could lead to
the creation of genetically modified "designer
babies."
Lawmakers also voted late Monday to support
the government's plans to allow "savior
siblings," the screening of embryos for genetic
characteristics in cases in which a parent is
seeking a child to help a diseased older child
in need of tissue donation. For complete
story,
click here.
US Navy infectious disease lab under microscope in
Indonesia --US
insists all American staff at disease lab be given diplomatic
immunity 02 May 2008 The future of a major US Navy
research laboratory in Indonesia is in doubt amid allegations,
dismissed as "crazy" by US diplomats, of espionage and
secret experiments. Negotiations between Washington and
Jakarta over the renewal of the operating contract of US Naval
Medical Research Unit-2, or Namru-2, have stalled over a range
of issues including diplomatic immunity for its US staff.
Established in Indonesia in 1970 and charged with researching
infectious diseases of military importance [aka
*bioterrorism*], the facility employs 19 Americans...
and is based in Indonesian health ministry grounds.
Parliamentary foreign affairs commissioner Mutamimul Ula called
Thursday for an "investigation into allegations that Namru-2
staffers were involved in intelligence operations." The
controversy and the delays in the renewal of the contract appear
to be causing a degree of angst among US officials in the
departments of health and state,
reflecting the importance Washington attaches to the
facility. For
complete story,
click here.
U.S. Importing 6,700 Tons of Radioactive Sand From Kuwait
--Sand contaminated with DU and lead from U.S. Army base
in Kuwait to be shipped to Idaho 28 Apr 2008 Longshoremen
should finish unloading
6,700 tons of
sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead
Tuesday afternoon, said Chad Hyslop, spokesman for the disposal
company American Ecology. The BBC Alabama arrived at the Port of
Longview (WA) Saturday afternoon with the 306 containers
carrying the contaminated sand from Camp Doha, a U.S. Army base
in Kuwait. Half of the containers will be loaded onto 76 rail
cars and transported to the company's disposal site in Idaho.
The other half will remain at the port until the trains return
to haul them to Idaho. State Department of Health personnel are
at the port to test radiation levels and to ensure none
of the sand spills [!], Hyslop said. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking:Bush official fails to show for polar bear hearing --Senator
wanted Interior chief to explain indecision on endangered
listing 02 Apr 2008 Sen. Barbara Boxer held a hearing
Wednesday to find out why the Bush administration has put off
deciding whether to
list Alaska's polar bears as a threatened species. But her
star witness, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, didn't show.
"This listing is months overdue, in violation of the
Endangered Species Act," the California Democrat said at the
hearing of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee.
For complete story,
click here.
Scientists
Use Sunlight to Make Fuel From CO2--January 4th, 2008--Researchers at Sandia
National Laboratories in New Mexico have found a way of using sunlight to
recycle carbon dioxide and produce fuels like methanol or gasoline. The
Sunlight
to Petrol, or S2P, project essentially reverses the combustion process,
recovering the building blocks of hydrocarbons. They can then be used to
synthesize liquid fuels like methanol or gasoline. Researchers said the
technology already works and could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,
although large-scale implementation could be a decade or more away.
"This is about closing the cycle," said Ellen Stechel, manager of
Sandia's Fuels and Energy Transitions department. "Right now our fossil
fuels are emitting CO2. This would help us manage and reduce our emissions and
put us on the path to a carbon-neutral energy system." The idea of
recycling carbon dioxide is not new, but has generally been considered too
difficult and expensive to be worth the effort. But with oil prices exceeding
$100 per barrel and concerns about global warming mounting, researchers are
increasingly motivated to investigate carbon recycling.
Los
Alamos Renewable Energy, for example, has developed a method of using CO2 to
generate electricity and fuel. S2P uses a solar reactor called the
Counter-Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator, or CR5, to divide carbon
dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen. "It's a heat engine," Stechel said. "But instead of doing mechanical work, it does chemical
work." Lab experiments have shown that the process works, Stechel
said. The researchers hope to finish a prototype by April. The prototype
will be about the size and shape of a beer keg. It will contain 14 cobalt
ferrite rings, each about one foot in diameter and turning at one revolution per
minute. An 88-square meter solar furnace will blast sunlight into the unit,
heating the rings to about 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature, cobalt
ferrite releases oxygen. When the rings cool to about 2,000 degrees, they're
exposed to CO2. For complete story,
click here.
Spiders
worked together to weave massive web--September 12th, 2007--FORT
WORTH, Texas — Spidersworkedtogether to make
the massiveweb in Lake Tawakoni State Park, researchers
say. Three times the spiders built it. Three times wind
and rain ravaged it. Tuesday afternoon, thousands of spiders
were back at it again, working to rebuild the massiveweb
that at one time stretched about 200 yards, covering bushes and trees
to create a creepy canopy. Researchers say they think thousands
of spiders from different species workedtogether
to make one large, all-encompassing web, unusual from the
traditional individual webs that normally would be woven. Together,
the spiders have built and rebuilt a web that has caught
potentially tens of thousands of flies and bugs and the attention of
people nationwide. "These spiders seem to be working
together to build it back," said Zach Lewis, an office
clerk at the Lake Tawakoni park. "It's really something to
see. They're crawling on trees, on the ground, everywhere. We're here
praying for rain all the time, but with something like this, you kinda
want the rain to stop." Ever since the web was
noticed this summer at the state park about 50 miles east of Dallas,
tourists and park workers have been amazed by its magnitude.
Researchers say it likely took 1 ½ to two months to weave such
a large web. Researchers took samples of the spiders
in late August, and Allen Dean, an entomologist at Texas A&M
University in College Station, helped identify them. He found 12
spider families, with the most prevalent being from the Tetragnathidae
family. Among what was identified: funnel web weavers,
sac spiders, orb weavers, mesh web weavers, wolf spiders,
pirate spiders, jumping spiders and low-jawed orb
weavers, according to the researchers' report. For weeks, many
have speculated about how such a big web could have been
created and whether spidersworkedtogether to
build it. The motive may well be food, researchers say. The
larger the web, the more flies and bugs get stuck, providing an
abundant food supply for the spiders. "Spiders
generally are cannibalistic and keep their webs distinct," Dean
said. "We're not sure what started the initial webbing ... but
there probably have been thousands of spiders working on the web.
"With the amount of rain that has occurred this year and the huge
food supply available, it just created the right condition for all of
this." For complete story,
click here.
USDA
TO APPROVE RICE ENGINEERED WITH HUMAN GENES: The
USDA public comment deadline of March 30th regarding rice engineered
with human
genes is quickly approaching. The rice, developed by Ventria Bioscience has been given pre-approval by the USDA for
planting and harvesting in California. The plants have been engineered
to synthesize a human protein that would be used as a drug to treat
diarrhea. When planted in an open environment, these biotech rice
fields have the potential to contaminate conventional rice fields
where the crops are being grown for consumer food products. According
to Jane Rissler of the Union of Concerned Scientists, "This is
not a product that everyone would want to consume. It is unwise to
produce drugs in plants outdoors." Learn more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4472.cfm
or
click here.
BEES
MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARING ACROSS THE U.S.: Beekeepers
in 24 states are reporting record losses of honeybees. The exact cause
of this
problem has not yet been determined, but bee colonies across
the U.S. are disappearing, with some states reporting a 70% drop in
bee populations. "I have never seen anything like it," said California beekeeper David Bradshaw. "Box after box after box are
just empty. There's nobody home." A Cornell University study has
estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion
worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits,
vegetables and nuts. "Every third bite we consume in our diet is
dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food," said Zac
Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation. The
Organic Consumers Association is closely monitoring the situation with
efforts to determine if the problem of disappearing bees is related to
genetically engineered pollen or pesticide toxicity. Learn more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4404.cfm
or
click here.
Cracking
up: Ice turning to water, glaciers on the move - and a planet in peril:
Nothing else quite like it has happened at any time in the past
10,000
years. In just over a month an entire Antarctic ice shelf, bigger than
a small country, disintegrated and disappeared, altering world atlases
for ever. A new study shows that the catastrophic collapse of
the Larsen B shelf, four and a half years ago, was man-made, not an
"act of God". It is thought to have been the first time that
a major disaster has been proved to have been caused by global
warming. Research at the blue-chip British Antarctic Survey in
Cambridge, published last week, has identified the causes of
"dramatic warming" of the eastern side of the Antarctic
peninsula, where the vast, 3,250 sq km expanse of ice used to be.
Gareth Marshall, the lead author of the study, says it marks "the
first time that anyone has been able to demonstrate a physical process directly linking the break-up of the Larsen ice shelf to human
activity". The research has also linked the collapse to the
hole in the Earth's protective ozone layer that opens up over the
Antarctic every southern spring. Nasa scientists reported last week
that this year's hole, at a massive 10.6m square miles, is bigger than
ever. It was in March 2002 that the ice shelf - thought to have
been stable for thousands of years - suddenly gave way. In just over
30 days an unimaginable 500bn tonnes of ice shattered into tens of
thousands of icebergs, drifting in the Weddell Sea. This one event
dumped more ice into the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica than
all the icebergs of the past 50 years combined. For complete
story,
click here.
U.S.
Rice Supply Contaminated --Genetically
Altered Variety Is Found in Long-Grain Rice 19 Aug 2006
Agriculture [Agribusiness] Secretary Mike Johanns announced late
yesterday that U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become
inadvertently [sic] contaminated with a genetically engineered variety
not approved for human consumption. For complete story,
click here.
GENETICALLY
ENGINEERED COTTON KILLING SHEEP AND GOATS
In India's Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, government
officials have ordered an investigation into the deaths of
hundreds of sheep and goats who appear to have been poisoned by
eating genetically engineered (GE) cotton. "They just became
very dull and lifeless and died," said one shepherd, Pendala
Venkatamma. Sheep and goats regularly graze on traditional cotton,
but after 4-5 days of eating Monsanto's genetically engineered bT
cotton, the animals' stomachs swelled, and they died. Although
Monsanto denies its cotton could have this effect, government
officials have launched a scientific investigation. "We have
immediately alerted the animal husbandry department to give us the
details of villages where this has happened and... their findings
regarding this" said Poonam Malakondaiah, Agriculture
Commissioner. Learn more:http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_646.cfm
or
click here.
DRIVING
AWAY FROM CORN-BASED ETHANOL
President Bush has made a surprising call to eliminate a two
decade long tariff on ethanol produced from sugarcane in
Brazil. Sugarcane produces eight times more energy per
pound than corn, making U.S. corn-based ethanol appear
to be irrational and inefficient. But according to Monte
Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels
Association, a biofuel trade organization, competition in
the global marketplace will only create demands for U.S.
farmers to generate biofuels more efficiently. A
potential competitor to sugarcane ethanol is cellulosic
ethanol, derived from switch grass and farm waste. "No
threat. It's an opportunity," Shaw said. "We are
in Iowa. All you see is cellulose." Meanwhile,
Archer Daniels Midland, one of the most powerful corporate
agribusiness lobbyists in Washington, continues to
successfully push Congress to approve subsidizing the less
efficient corn-based ethanol with billions of dollars of
taxpayer money. Some studies have estimated that in order to
replace all U.S. oil imports with domestically produced corn
ethanol, as much as five times the entire area currently
farmed for all crops in the U.S. would be needed.
Learn more:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_661.cfm
or
click here.
Solution
to Greenhouse Gases Is New Nuclear Plants, Bush Says Solution to
Greenhouse Gases Is New Nuclear Plants, Bush Says:
LIMERICK, Pa., May 24 — With
Democrats seizing the national stage on gasoline prices and the
environment, President Bush came here Wednesday to take it back,
calling
for the construction of more nuclear power plants to help reduce
the greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global warming.
"Let's quit the debate about whether greenhouse gases are
caused by mankind or by natural causes; let's just focus on
technologies that deal with the issue," Mr. Bush told workers
at the Limerick Generating Station, a nuclear power plant here in
Montgomery County. "Nuclear power will help us deal with the
issue of greenhouse gases." For
complete story, click here.
HORIZON
AND AURORA BANNED IN CO-OPS: One
month ago, after a poll of our members, the Organic Consumers
Association called on consumers to boycott dairy
companies like
Horizon and Aurora for their practice of raising "organic"
cattle on intensive confinement feedlots. A number of natural food
stores and co-ops across the U.S.
are beginning to respond to
concerned consumers and removing suspect dairy products from their
stores. The Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the second largest
co-op in the U.S., no longer carries Horizon products. In Colorado,
the Boulder Co-op Market, has also discontinued stocking Horizon
products. Amy Wyatt, Assistant
General Manager for the Co-op, says,
"Based on our concerns regarding Horizon's practices, we didn't
feel that continuing to carry this company's products was consistent
with our mission and values.” Dean Foods, Horizon’s parent
company, is also starting to come under fire for abandoning U.S.
organic soybean farmers and importing cheap
soybeans from China, where
organic standards are dubious, and farm labor wages and conditions are
abysmal. Dean Foods now controls the nation’s largest organic
soymilk brand, Silk, as well as the largest organic tofu brand, White
Wave. To view complete story, visit:
Learn
more: http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_400.cfm or
click here.
Hunter
kills 'grolar' bear:An American hunter
in Canada's far north may have killed the first grizzly-polar bear
cross ever discovered in the wild, officials said today.Jim
Martell, 65, who paid $58,570 to hunt polar bears, shot the
animal, described by local media as a "pizzly", a "grolar
bear", or Martell's favourite, a "polargrizz" two weeks ago.The Idaho native
told The National Post: "Everybody thought it was a
polar bear, and then they started looking more and more and they seen
other features that resembled some of a grizzly as well."The bear had thick, creamy white fur, typical of polar bears,
but its long claws, humped back and shallow face, as well as brown patches around its eyes, nose, back and on one foot are grizzly
traits. For complete story,
click here.
Planet
Earth As Weapon and Target:Beginning
with the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, mankind has
entered a seemingly endless race to harness the natural
forces within
the planet, in the atmosphere and in space for waging war. The earth is
already gravely affected by many of those secret research and testing programmes leading to unpredictable environmental and epidemiological
consequences.LEUREN
MORET--The
term ‘exotic weapons systems’ includes weapons designed to damage
space or natural ecosystems (such as the ionosphere and upper
atmosphere) or climate, weather, and tectonic systems with the purpose
of inducing damage or destruction upon a target population or region on
earth or in space.
For complete story,
click here.
Polish
Senate Approves National Ban on GMO Seeds:WARSAW
- Poland's upper house of parliament banned trade and plantings of
genetically modified (GMO) seeds on Thursday, increasing the risk of a
conflict with Brussels for adopting legislation that breaks EU rules.The bill was pushed through thanks to the combined forces of the
minority-ruling conservatives and their fringe allies, who want to
protect Poland's image as an environmentally-friendly state and fear
biotech crops could contaminate other crops.
For complete story,
click here.
SUPERWEEDS
SPREADING IN GENETICALLY ENGINEERED COTTON FIELDS
Pesticide resistant weeds are introducing a new problem to cotton
farmers. Traditionally, herbicide resistance is dealt with by
simply changing the herbicide. But according to North Carolina
State weed scientist Alan York, farmers are running out of
options: there are no more effective pesticides to switch to. The
majority of farmers in the Cotton Belt are now growing Monsanto's
genetically engineered Roundup Ready cotton, which is resistant to
glyphosate pesticides. As a result of the heavy use of glyphosate
in the area, varieties of pigweed have developed an immunity to
it. Tests at the University of Georgia showed that the pigweed
Palmer Amaranth has developed amazing resistance to glyphosate.
Scientists doused the weeds three times with a quadruple
concentrated dose of glyphosate, but the pigweed continued to grow
and multiply. "If you grow cotton in the Southeast, and you
have Palmer amaranth in your fields, looking at side-by-side
comparisons of resistant and non-resistant pigweed should scare
you to death," York says. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/cotton060404.cfm
or
click here.
JAPANESE
OFFICIALS RESIGN OVER U.S. MAD COW DEBACLE
Despite new cases of Mad Cow disease surfacing in the U.S., Japan
is reopening its borders to American beef. As a result of the
policy decision half of the members of Japan's beef-safety
government advisory panel have resigned. Morikazu Shinagawa, a
researcher at the national Institute of Animal Health and a
resigning member of the panel, told Kyodo News Service he
"couldn't continue to work" on the panel because the
conclusion to resume imports was preordained by the government.
Japan banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 due to weak beef safety
regulations in the U.S. While 100% of cows in Japan, aged 24
months and older, are tested for the Mad Cow disease, only 1% of
the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. are tested.
Japan recently caved to pressure from the Bush Administration and
lift the ban on U.S. beef imports while appointing new
"experts" to its beef safety advisory panel. http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman/publish/article_227.cfm
or
click here.
CHILDHOOD
OBESITY CAUSES SHORTAGE IN CAR SEATS
Thanks to increased consumption of fast foods and junk foods, the
obesity level among American children has reached epidemic levels.
In addition to the countless negative health effects of childhood
obesity, a new study says the dietary problems have led to an
unexpected shortage of car seats designed for overweight children.
Research published in the April issue of Pediatrics indicates a
shortage of over 100,000 car seats for obese children. Motor
vehicle crashes account for 23 percent of deaths among infants and
30 percent among preschool-aged children, meaning car seats
designed for the correct body type are essential. The problem is
compounded for impoverished families, considering the average car
seat designed for an obese child costs $200-300, which is three to
four times more expensive than conventional car seats. http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman/publish/article_223.cfm
or
click here.
EUROPEAN
LEADER SAYS BIOTECH CORPORATIONS PROVIDE BIASED RESEARCH
Europe's environment chief has announced that more studies on long
term impacts of genetically engineered (GE) crops must be
implemented before any new GE crops can be approved. Environment
Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that too many of the current GE
regulatory decisions are based on biased data provided by the
biotech industry, which put GE crops in a biased positive light.
"Applications for cultivation of GMO products raise a whole
new series of possible risks to the environment, notably potential
longer-term effects that could impact on biodiversity," he
said. http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/flawed060406.cfm
or
click here.
Hole
discovered drilled into pipe at Miami-Dade nuclear reactor
01 Apr 2006 Officials conducting a routine inspection of a nuclear
reactor at the Turkey Point power
plant found a small holed drilled into
a pipe that helps maintain pressure, and investigators were trying to
determine if the hole was drilled accidentally or deliberately, Florida
Power & Light officials said Saturday... The Nuclear Regulatory
Commission and FBI are also conducting their own investigations.
For complete story,
click here.
WORLD
LEADERS VOTE AGAINST THE TERMINATOR AND FRANKENTREES:Leaders of the world have made some important decisions
regarding genetically engineered crops over the past two weeks at
the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD)
Eighth Conference of the Parties in Brazil. A majority of world
leaders voted against the release of genetically engineered trees,
referencing the possible spread of the plants into native forests.
"Because there is insufficient scientific data regarding the
biological impacts of transgenic trees, as well as an absence of
socio-economic and cultural impact assessments, it is good
scientific practice to invoke the Precautionary Principle, which
is enshrined in the CBD," stated Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher of
the Federation of German Scientists. "This means no release
of transgenic trees into the environment whilst this research is
on-going," she added. A majority of world leaders also voted
to maintain the moratorium on the "Terminator"
technology, wherein plants are genetically engineered to produce
sterile seeds, forcing farmers to purchase seeds year after year,
rather than continuing traditional practices of saving seeds with
each year's harvest. The U.S. and other leading biotech nations
voted in the minority for the spread of these technologies.For complete story visit: http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/trees060324.cfm
or
click here.
CONSUMER
DEMAND FOR ORGANICS EXPLODE WHILST SUPPLY DWINDLES:Not enough U.S. farmers are finding it possible to make the
transition to organic production, according to a January 2006
marketing report from the research firm Organic Monitor in London.
Domestic consumers are buying record amounts of organic foods, but
farmers are unable to meet that demand, resulting in $1.5 billion
of organic crops imported into the U.S. in 2005. This means that
10% of all organic sales in the U.S. today are imports. In
comparison, U.S. organic exports amount to a meager $150 million.
In the European Union, government programs help conventional
farmers make the transition to organic production with subsidies
and technical assistance. In contrast, the majority of U.S.
agricultural subsidies are earmarked for large chemical-intensive
and energy-intensive farms and genetically engineered crops,
making it difficult for family-scale farmers and ranchers to
afford the expensive and difficult three year transition from
conventional to organic production. "Unless more American
farmers consider converting to organic practices, exporters are
likely to capitalize on this lucrative market," the report
said.For complete
story visit:http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/shortage060326.cfm
or
click here.
UN
warns of worst mass extinctions for 65m years
:Humans have provoked the
worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs were wiped out 65m years
ago, according
to a UN report that calls for unprecedented worldwide
efforts to address the slide.The
report paints a grim picture of life on earth, with declining numbers of
plants, animals, insects and birds across the globe, and warns that the
current extinction rate is up to 1,000 times faster than in the past.
Some 844 animals and plants are known to have disappeared in the last
500 years.For complete
story visit:http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1735459,00.html
For complete story, click here.
NASA
scientist has chilling global warming tale:The Earth is fast
approaching a global warming "point of no return," a tipping
point that could lead to lifeless poles and inundated coasts -- and even
floodwaters that reach Ridgewood and Tenafly, a top NASA scientist
warned Friday.James
Hansen, the physicist whose clashes with the White House have made
national headlines, warned a crowd of more than 300 in Paramus that the
planet was already feeling the effects of overheating, though he said it
still wasn't too late to avoid a crisis."Up until now, you could say we still didn't understand what
we were doing when we emitted these gases," Hansen told a packed conference room at Bergen Community College in Paramus. "That's no
longer true."If the
trend isn't reversed, he said, "there's no court of international
opinion that will forgive us." For complete story,
click here.
The
Green Scare:On January 20th,
eleven people were indicted in Oregon by a grand jury investigating acts
of sabotage linked to the underground Earth Liberation Front (ELF). The
actions, going back nearly a decade, include a number of arsons - with
such targets as a ski resort expansion into endangered lynx habitat and
a facility for rounding up wild horses for dog food. There were no
injuries in any of the actions, but the FBI claims over $25 million in
damage to property.Some of
those indicted had been arrested in December, including one person who
died in custody in Arizona. Shock waves have been reverberating through
the environmental activist community, and the situation is still
unfolding. Two more people were arrested in Olympia, Washington, on
February 23, and the day before, outspoken Native American and animal
rights activist Rod Coronado was arrested in Tucson, Arizona, on charges
sent down by a grand jury in San Diego. In addition, there is a grand
jury investigating Animal Liberation Front (ALF) activities in San
Francisco.But those being
rounded up are not only being charged with crimes associated with the
acts the FBI and grand juries allege - they are also being labeled as
terrorists. Moreover, Coronado's charges stem solely from a public
address he gave in San Diego in 2003. During this speech, in response to
a question from the audience, he explained how he went about setting a fire at an animal testing lab in Michigan in the early 1990s - an arson
crime for which he had previously served a four-year term in federal
prison. For answering that question, Coronado has been accused under a
little-used federal statute making it a felony to "teach or
demonstrate the making or use of an explosive or destructive
device."The FBI
announced last year that ELF was their #1 priority for domestic terrorism. Now they have help from groups like the American Legislative
Exchange Council, a conservative public policy lobbying group funded by
over 300 corporations. ALEC, in collaboration with the US Sportman's
Alliance, has written model legislation stepping up the ante for acts of
property destruction committed against corporations in the business of
development, logging, mining and vivisection.
For complete story, click here.
Climate
scientists issue dire warning:The Earth's temperature
could rise under the impact of global warming to levels far higher than
previously predicted, according to
the United Nations' team of climate
experts.
For complete story,
click here.
CHILE:
‘Yes' to Gold Mine, but Don't Touch the Glaciers:Environmental authorities in Chile gave the go-ahead
Wednesday to the Pascua Lama gold mining project on the Argentine
border, but told Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold that it would not be
allowed to carry out its plans to "relocate" three glaciers.The Regional Environment Commission (COREMA) also demanded that
the company do its utmost to protect the flora and fauna in the region
of Atacama, and that it adequately treat all waste."It struck us that the resolution was unanimous, without a
single vote against the project," César López, a member of the
Committee for the Defence of the Huasco Valley, remarked to IPS.
"This seems to us to indicate that the decision had already been
reached, and that our presentation to COREMA, explaining the extremely
negative consequences that the mine will have, served no purpose at
all."
For complete story,
click here.
Bottled
water taxing ecosystem:Washington - Bottled
water consumption, which has more than doubled globally in the last six
years, is a natural resource that is heavily taxing the world's
ecosystem, according to a new United States study."Even in areas where tap water is safe to drink, demand for
bottled water is increasing, producing unnecessary garbage and consuming
vast quantities of energy," according to Emily Arnold, author of
the study published by the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based environmental group.Arnold
said although in the industrial world bottled water is often no
healthier than tap water, it can end up costing 10 000 times more."At as much as $2.50 per litre, bottled water costs more
than gasoline," the study says.It added that the US was the largest consumer of bottled water,
with Americans drinking 26 billion litres in 2004, or about 25cl glass
per person every day.
For complete story,
click here.
Greenland
ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago.:A
satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far
faster than scientists
had feared - twice as much ice is going into the
sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels -
and climate change - could be dramatic. Yet, a few
weeks ago, when
I - a NASA climate scientist - tried to talk to the media about these
issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in
the emission of
greenhouse gases, the NASA public affairs team - staffed
by political appointees from the Bush administration - tried
to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored
the restrictions. The first line of NASA 's mission is to understand and
protect the planet.This
new satellite data is a remarkable advance. We are seeing for the first
time the detailed behavior of the ice streams that are draining the
Greenland ice sheet. They show that Greenland seems to be losing at
least 200 cubic kilometers of ice a
year. It is different from even two
years ago, when people still said the ice sheet was in balance.
For complete story,
click here.
Farmers,
others sue USDA over Monsanto GMO alfalfa:KANSAS CITY, Missouri
(Reuters) - A coalition of farmers, consumers and environmental
activists on Thursday sued the U.S. government over its approval of a
biotech alfalfa that critics say will spell havoc for farmers and the
environment."Opening
another front in the battle over genetically modified crops, the lawsuit
contends that the U.S. Department of Agriculture improperly is allowing
Monsanto Co. to sell an herbicide-resistant alfalfa seed while failing
to analyze the public health, environmental, and economic consequences
of that action. http://www.heal-online.org/farmer.pdf
Climate
'warmest for millennium' - research finds:The
last 100 years is more striking than either the Medieval Warm Period or
Little Ice Age Timothy Osborn, UEA In
the late 20th Century, the
northern hemisphere experienced its most widespread warmth for 1,200
years, according to the journal Science. The findings support evidence
pointing to unprecedented recent warming of the climate linked to
greenhouse emissions.The
UEA team showed that the present warm period is the most widespread
temperature anomaly of any kind since the ninth century.The records included long life evergreen trees growing in
Scandinavia, Siberia and the Rockies which had been
cored to reveal the
patterns of wide and narrow tree rings over time. Wider rings related to
warmer temperatures.The
chemical composition of ice from cores drilled in the
Greenland ice
sheets revealed which years were warmer than others.In November, Science published a paper showing atmospheric levels
of the greenhouse gases carbon
dioxide and methane are higher now than
at any time in the past 650,000 years.
For complete story,
click here.
Report
Suggests That a New Model Is Needed for Renewable Energy Production:On any given day, the
solar energy falling on a typical oilfield in the Middle East is
far
greater than the energy contained in the oil extracted from it. However,
while oil provides a highly concentrated source of power, solar energy
is distributed over a wide
area. According to a report to be published
later this week by Cambridge UK analysts CarbonFree, collecting energy
from a wide area is an activity usually associated with
farming, and an
agricultural, as opposed to an industrial, model should be used for the
harvesting of renewable energy.The
report, "Farming Renewable Energy", suggests
that large areas
of land will be used for energy generation over the next two decades,
and highlights the opportunities energy farming will open up for the
agricultural sector
and next generation energy producers.The report notes that some farmers are already active in the
energy market: either selling biomass for conversion into electricity or
fuel or renting their land to wind turbine operators. It predicts that
this trend will continue and recommends governments encourage the
development of a comprehensive
agricultural energy strategy rather than
merely subsidise individual initiatives such as biodiesel production.CarbonFree sees wind energy, which in some cases is already
profitable, expanding steadily and highlights the trial in Dakota of a
hydrogen refuelling station powered by wind turbines as a potential
application for energy farming in rural
areas.The report explains that improvements in the equipment used to
farm solar energy depend on advances in semiconductor technology and
that the market will
therefore follow a boom-and-bust growth path
similar to that of the IT industry. CarbonFree suggests the market may
stabilise with the arrival of third generation photovoltaic
devices
constructed using advanced nanotechnology.
For complete story,
click here.
These
hybrids run on hydrogen:Ten Toyota Prius sedans
cruising the streets of Riverside and Santa Ana, Calif., aren't your
ordinary hybrids — they're hybrids that run on hydrogen, not
gasoline.
Delivered
over the last week, the 10 are the first of 30 hydrogen hybrids that
the region's air quality agency will test over the next five years."These vehicles drive and perform like regular gasoline
cars and yet they emit no global warming gases and meet the state's
strictest standard for smog-forming pollutants," Santa Ana Mayor
Miguel Pulido said in a statement.Modified by Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide,
the hydrogen hybrids still use electric power from braking to improve
mileage but are refueled with hydrogen instead of gasoline.Each hydrogen-fueled Prius has a compressed gas fuel cylinder
that holds up to 1.6 kilograms of hydrogen, giving the
vehicles a range of up to 80 miles per fill.The $7 million project aims to create a bridge to fuel
cell vehicles, which run on hydrogen but are still prohibitively costly."The five cities program is aimed at stimulating demand for
hydrogen fueling, accelerating the expansion of the region's hydrogen
fueling network, and educating the public on hydrogen-fueled
vehicles," the South Coast Air Quality Management District said in
a statement.Other cities
receiving hydrogen hybrids are Burbank, Ontario and Santa Monica, as
well as the air quality agency headquarters in Diamond Bar. Hydrogen
refueling stations are also being installed for each city.
For complete story,
click here.
China
and India Grow Organically:LONDON, Jan 27 (IPS) -
China and India are emerging as new giants in production of organic
food, United Nations experts say.
As
European Union (EU) countries switch more to organic foods for value
addition the two big developing countries, and also others in Latin
America are beginning to catch up.But it might be too soon to fear any agricultural trade wars now
in organic produce.''China
and India have a huge potential to tap domestically to begin with,''
Mattia Prayer-Galletti, country programme manager for Asia with the
International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) told IPS. The
Rome-based organisation is a specialised agency of the United Nations
dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries.At the moment IFAD is trying to ''increase the space for organic
farming as much as possible,'' Prayer-Galletti said. Organic farming
eliminates use of chemicals both by way of fertilisers and pesticides.
That means largely a return to natural and traditional methods of
farming.Given the rapidly
growing demand for organic food in Western markets, organically grown
food which usually fetches a 20 to 40 percent premium over other
produce, represents a new opportunity for small farmers for whom a lack
of means to buy fertilisers and pesticides can now be turned into an
advantage.
For complete story,
click here.
A
new security command in Bolivia - by Martin Arostegui, The
Washington Times(read
this story)
For complete story, click here.
Climate
Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him - by Andrew C. Revkin, The New
York Times(read
this story)
For complete story,
click here.
Clinton:
Climate change is the world's biggest worry - by Dan Perry, Associated
Press(read
this story)
For complete story,
click here.
Global
warming to speed up as carbon levels show sharp rise - by Geoffrey Lean (read
this story)
For complete story,
click here.
Ocean's
temperature off Santa Barbara now highest in 1,400 years - by Usha Lee
McFarling, Los Angeles Times(read
this story)
For complete story,
click here.
Is
America Exporting a Huge Environmental Problem? Old Computers Often End
Up in Toxic Heaps in Developing Countries:Glavin and his son used to export
some of their scrap to
China, until they went there and saw for themselves what happened to it."There was no environmental regulations. There's no safety
regulations.
There's no data security, because it's not being recycled
over there. It's being dumped over there," he said."We don't send our trash to China. Why should we send the
electronic trash to China?" his son, Jim added.Jim Puckett, coordinator of a group called Basel Action Network,
which monitors exports of hazardous waste, also saw what
was happening
in China firsthand. Three years ago he documented it in a video called
"Exporting Harm."
For complete story, click here.
Hurricane
Wilma Is Most Powerful Storm in Atlantic History - by Willie Drye (read
this story)
For complete story,
click here.
Army
secret surfaces: Deadly chemicals at sea:Millions
of pounds of unused weapons of mass destruction were dumped in oceans
before Congress banned the practice in 1972. The threat is still out
there, and may be growing.For complete story,
click here.
Farmers Lean to Truce on Animals’ Close Quarters--August
11th, 2010--WEST MANSFIELD, Ohio — Concessions by farmers in this state to
sharply restrict the close confinement of hens, hogs and veal calves are the
latest sign that so-called
factory farming — a staple of modern agriculture that is seen by critics
as inhumane and a threat to the environment and health — is on the verge of
significant change. For complete story,
click here.
Monsanto in Illinois: Homeland Security and USDA
Plan Attacks Against Animals By Linn Cohen-Cole 13 Feb
2009 Below is a letter to livestock producers in Illinois asking them and
others to contact the Governor’s office to ask to be allowed to be present
at a meeting between Homeland Security and the
USDA
which involves NAIS and "surge capacity" under Homeland Security to attack
and seize and destroy - "depopulate" an area of - animals. This meeting is
about what will be done TO THEM but they are shut out. Many of you already
know about
Monsanto’s "rural cleansing" in southern Illinois of 200 - 400 farmers
for
using Steve Hixon as their seed cleaner. One is being sued for $400,000.
In 2006, Monsanto made $160,000,000 in this Mafia-like extortion. For
complete story,
click here.
Elephant abuse? Ringling Bros. circus faces trial--http://tinyurl.com/ahj44e
(seattle times) "One of the
most iconic images of American life, that of circus elephants joined
trunk-to-tail as they lumber along to delight "children of all ages," as the
old saying goes, is about to be debated in a courtroom. Are the beasts
docile because they are highly intelligent and respond well to training,
reinforced with the promise of apples, carrots, water and kindness at day's
end? Or do they obey because their spirits have been broken and they fear
being hit by their trainers. These are among the questions that will be
asked when a lawsuit by a coalition of animal-rights groups against the
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus and its parent company opens in
federal court on Wednesday."
For complete story,
click here.
32 research monkeys die in
accident at Nevada lab--http://tinyurl.com/5rfc92
(AP)
“Thirty-two research monkeys at a Nevada
laboratory died because human errors made the room too hot,
officials for the drug company that runs the lab said Thursday.
Animal rights activists complain the company took too long to
report the deaths. Charles River Laboratories Inc. issued a
statement saying the monkeys died in Sparks on May 28. The
company, based in Wilmington, Mass., attributed the deaths to
incorrect climate-control operation. PETA's Guillermo said the
USDA cited Charles River for 22 violations of the Animal Welfare
Act in 2005 alone. Another animal rights group, Stop Animal
Exploitation Now, this year publicized 20 violations Charles
River reported to federal officials in 2006 and early 2007."
For complete story,
click here.
Breaking: AP: Bush to relax protected species
rules 11 Aug 2008 Parts of the Endangered Species
Act may soon be extinct. The Bush dictatorship wants federal
agencies to decide for themselves whether highways, dams, mines and
other construction projects might harm endangered animals and
plants. New regulations, which don't require the approval of
Congress, would reduce the mandatory, independent reviews government
scientists have been performing for 35 years, according to a draft
obtained by The Associated Press. The draft rules also would bar
federal agencies from assessing the emissions from projects that
contribute to global warming and its effect on species and habitats.
For complete story,
click here.
AP: Companies get OK to harm, annoy polar bears 14 Jun 2008
Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species
because of global warming,
the Bush regime
is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm
them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas. The Fish and
Wildlife Service issued regulations this week providing legal
protection to seven oil companies planning to search for oil and gas
in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska if "small
numbers" of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally
harmed [!?!] by their activities over the next five years.
Environmentalists said the new regulations give oil companies a
blank check to harass the polar bear. For complete story,
click here.
When Bill Smith
puts up a billboard, people notice.
His biting ads
lambasting the puppy mills of Lancaster County - one
features a beagle in a dishwasher to show how small
the legal cage size is - have been fixtures on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike for three years.
Frustrated that
conditions for thousands of breeding dogs in the
state's commercial kennels had not improved despite
Gov. Rendell's 2006 pledge to clean up substandard
kennels, Smith, the Chester Springs animal welfare
advocate, brought his campaign to Chicago, to the
doorstep of Oprah Winfrey.
"I thought, 'Who
could reach more people than any other person on the
planet?' " said Smith, founder of Main Line Animal
Rescue. His shelter takes in about 500 puppy-mill
castoffs a year: the breeding dogs, often riddled
with health and behavioral problems, and the puppies
that are too old or too sick to sell.
In February the
billboard, with a plaintive puppy face and a polite
request to Winfrey to do a show on puppy mills, was
posted on bustling Kennedy Boulevard, four blocks
from Winfrey's Harpo Studios. Main Line board member
Marsha Perelman donated $10,000 to rent the
billboard space for a month.
They didn't need a
month to convince the nation's number-one talk show
host and a dog lover herself. A week later, Smith
said, producers called and told him they were
planning to devote a show to abuses in puppy mills.
"I was grateful,"
said Smith after receiving the call. "I knew if she
did a show on this it would help a lot of animals."
The show, which
airs tomorrow (4 p.m., 6ABC), includes graphic
undercover footage of Lancaster County kennels,
along with related segments
on dog auctions and the high rates of
euthanasia in shelters. Smith is the featured guest.
Smith spent two
days last month with Oprah correspondent Lisa Ling
traveling to kennels and pet shops in Southeastern
Pennsylvania to show the relationship between the
puppies sold in pet stores and, as Ling said, "the
horrific conditions" in many large kennels.
"People will see the connection between pet stores
and they will meet the puppies' mothers in their
rabbit hutches," said Smith. "It's really
upsetting."
They toured a
number of mills and saw cages stacked to the ceiling
in sheds. They saw 15 or 20 small dogs stuffed in
rabbit hutches. They watched kennel operators
dragging dogs by their front legs. They left with 19
dogs, suffering from severe dental disease, and a
very sick puppy, which later died in a veterinary
hospital.
Rendell, who has
adopted puppy-mill dogs, beefed up inspections in
the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement and hired
additional dog wardens, but his effort to toughen
regulations stalled last year over opposition from
breeders, farmers and sportsmen.
Rendell's spokesman, Chuck
Ardo, said the governor would introduce a revamped
legislative package in the next few weeks. "The
governor's affection toward dogs is well-known,"
said Ardo. "He will be visible in promoting this
legislation."
Smith said the show
has the potential to have greater impact than any
legislative or regulatory changes.
"It still comes
down to consumers buying puppies from pet stores,"
he said.
Meanwhile, Smith
already has one new convert.
"I would never,
ever adopt another pet now without going to a
shelter to do it," Winfrey said in a statement
released yesterday. "I am a changed woman after
seeing this show."
She is dedicating
the show to her cocker spaniel Sophie, who died last
month. (Unable to locate story at time of
archiving. Source:
www.philly.com
Date: April 3, 2008)
UW may have to pay back some monkey-study funds--http://tinyurl.com/2vhafk
(Seattle Times) As we previously reported, the University of Washington
was caught performing excessive and unauthorized surgeries on several monkeys.
This information was only uncovered due to activists getting the information
through Freedom of Information Act requests. The UW tried to bury this
information. Instead, several papers reported the incidents, the one mentioned
above just being the latest one. A review of the UW's records revealed two
additional researchers' labs had performed unauthorized surgeries — a total of
39 unapproved surgeries on 16 monkeys over four years. The UW called it a
"clerical error" For complete story,
click here.
Video Shows Employees
Torturing Cows on Way to Slaughterhouse--(NaturalNews)
An article posted by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) on their Web
site on Jan. 30, 2008 revealed the disturbing results of a six-week undercover
investigation into Hallmark Meat Packing Co., of Chino, located in southern
California. Video evidence showed employees of the plant, which supplies beef to
the National Lunch Program, kicking, electrocuting, and downright torturing sick
or injured animals, forcing them to walk on their own ability into the
slaughterhouse and into our food chain. A link to the video can be found
here:(https://community.hsus.org/campaign/CA_2008_investigation) . Be aware
that this is very disturbing footage. The practice of
forcing sick or injured animals into the
slaughterhouse presents a danger
because of the established link between "downer"
cattle
and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as
mad cow
disease. A downer cow is one that is sick or injured and unable to stand on its
own. According to the HSUS, of the 15 known cases of BSE-infected animals
discovered in North America, at least 12 involved downed animals. Mad cow
disease is a progressive fatal neurological disorder of cattle which can be
transmitted to other species,
including humans. In humans, it is called
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Hallmark's Chino, Calif., slaughter plant
supplies the Westland Meat Co., which processes the
carcasses. The facility is
the second-largest supplier of
beef
to USDA's Commodity Procurement Branch, which distributes the beef to needy
families, the elderly and also to schools through the National School Lunch
Program, which served more than 30 million children daily in 2006. Westland was
named a
USDA
"supplier of the year" for
2004-2005 and has delivered beef to schools in 36
states. The Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act (H.R. 1726) would set
modest animal welfare standards, including humane euthanasia of any downed
animals, for producers who sell food to federal government programs, and the
Downed Animal Protection Act (S. 394 and H.R. 661) would ban any slaughtering of
downed animals for human consumption. For complete story,
click here.
Animal Abuse
Uncovered at SNBL in Everett--February 2nd, 2008--SNBL USA is one of the largest
a contract testing organizations in the country. They are in the business of
animal cruelty - conducting animal experiments for businesses such as Pfizer,
Inc and Eli Lilly. On January 31, 2008 KIRO 7 broke an investigation that
revealed horrible animal suffering at the Everett facility (They also have a
facility in Alice TX). In one case, a female monkey was scalded to death during
a 20 minute wash cycle inside of a searing hot 180 degree cage washer. Whistle
blowers have also alleged that monkeys are sprayed with acid, dropped on their
heads and that when monkeys are not fed or cared for as required by law,
employees are required to fake entries in official records.
Turning
up the Heat on Transport Requirements--http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/feb08/x080107.asp
“The Agriculture Department's Animal and
Plant
Health Inspection Service has proposed amending Animal Welfare Act regulations
regarding transportation of live animals other than marine mammals by removing
ambient temperature requirements for various stages in the transportation of
those animals. Marine mammals are not addressed because of their unique
requirements for care and handling. If approved, the amendment would make
acclimation certificates for live animals other than marine mammals unnecessary.
The USDA-APHIS wants to adopt a single performance standard under which a
carrier would consider all climatic and environmental conditions—alone and in
combination—to eliminate unnecessary discomfort and stress. Among the
conditions that would be considered are temperature, humidity, exposure,
ventilation, pressurization, and travel and holding times." For
complete story,
click here.
EU
confirms 2012 date for ban on raising hens in small battery cages--http://tinyurl.com/2fax8w
(International Herald Tribune)--“A
European Union-wide ban on keeping laying hens in small battery cages will come
into force as planned in 2012, the European Commission said Tuesday. The
commission pointed to a new report showing the ban will benefit animal welfare
benefits without significantly harming farmers' incomes. "There is
scientific and economic support for the ban on conventional battery cages,"
said EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. "We are maintaining the
deadline of 2012."" (see the press release for entire statement:
http://tinyurl.com/3dxfbp)
For complete story,
click here.
Whales
get blown off: Federal court says Navy can do sonar testing--http://tinyurl.com/2v4uay
(San Francisco Chronicle)
"A
federal appeals court allowed the Navy on Friday to resume using
underwater sonar blasts in anti-submarine warfare tests off Southern
California despite possible harm to endangered whales, saying the
nation's military needs come first. "The safety of the whales must
be weighed, and so must the safety of our warriors. And of our
country," said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco." For complete story,
click here.
Animal
Research: Make the grade--August 25th, 2007-The
University of Washington still has a considerable distance to go in
clearing up questions about its animal research. The university's top
leadership, including the president and regents, must show sustained
resolve to meet the highest standards. It shouldn't have taken
this much attention from a national accreditation review group, animal
rights activists like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and
federal officials to bring more institutional interest in supporting
high-quality programs, and especially proper facilities. The university
is consistently a leader among higher education institutions in research
funding, receiving $1 billion in grants during the last fiscal year.
Some degree of animal experimentation figures into grants involving $250
million or more. It was institutionally neglectful or worse to let some
facilities become so derelict as to prompt replacement demands from the
national accrediting organization. Without accreditation, the UW
couldn't receive any grants for animal research. The university
has responded seriously to the various questions. It is reviewing
records for possible re-payments of some National Institutes of Health
grant money where surgeries were performed on a number of monkeys
without approval. More staffers are being hired to help with oversight
of scattered research activities. Money is flowing to upgrade
facilities, some 60 years old. On the most significant front, the
university continues to work with the Association for Assessment and
Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care to satisfy its concerns about
facilities, oversight and "a lack of institutional support."
In an Aug. 1 letter, the association applauded the UW's "robust
response." But Nona Phillips, the UW Animal Welfare Office
director, said a probationary period for the university will likely
continue into next year. President Mark Emmert and regents should
recruit an ethicist, from the faculty or the community, to join the key
UW oversight committee. We hope the UW and other schools will vigorously
use scientific advances to reduce or end the need for animal tests. And
don't sanctuaries offer an increasing option for avoiding many euthanizations? The UW's record of research leadership demands
more than just getting on top of its problems. It can help us all look
for larger improvements that will make it and society proud. For
complete story,
click here.
Dolphin
species declared extinct--August 8th, 2007--A Chinese freshwater
dolphin has been declared extinct after desperate efforts to rescue it
came too late. One British zoologist described the loss of the
Yangtze River dolphin as a "shocking tragedy". It is the
first official extinction of a large vertebrate for more than 50
years. Experts say human activity killed off the white long-beaked
dolphin, which grew to 8ft weighed up to 500lb. The animal is the
first cetacean, the group of mammals that includes dolphins, whales and
porpoises, to vanish from Earth as a direct result of human influence.
For complete story,
click here.
Knut
Health Scare Over, He Was Only Teething 17 Apr 2007 Berlin Zoo
has given the world-famous bear cub a clean bill of health and said he
only had teething trouble on Sunday and Monday when he worried visitors
by lying on the ground with his paws over his eyes. For complete
story,
click here.
Chicago
Considers Banning Mistreated Elephants:Winifred
Kiiru cried the first time she saw an elephant in a zoo.In her native Kenya, she says, children rarely saw elephants but
grew up revering them. When Kiiru visited zoos in the United States as
part of her work as a wildlife ecologist, she was shocked to see the
huge animals confined to small areas and suffering physical and
psychological problems."Visiting
the Los Angeles Zoo was the most miserable experience of my life, seeing
these majestic animals bobbing and swaying in [typical] expressions of
stress," Kiiru recently told members of the Chicago City Council.
The aldermen are considering an
ordinance that would essentially ban
elephants from Chicago zoos and circuses.Referring to the reeling elephant on display in Los Angeles, Kiiru said, "Imagine my horror
when the tour guide told a child who
asked what the elephant was doing that it was 'jamming to the music in
its head.'"As Kiiru
and others who work closely with elephants
testified at the February 23
Chicago City Council hearing, elephants in captivity suffer severe foot
infections, arthritis, psychological problems and stress disorders at
inordinately high rates because they are almost
always denied the range
of movement, mental stimulation and social interaction they enjoy in the
wild.A growing number
of
zoos around the country have closed their elephant exhibits and turned
their elephants over to sanctuaries, where they can roam more freely in
conditions similar to their
native African or Asian habitats.These moves are a response to growing awareness of illnesses
afflicting captive elephants as well as an alarming number of elephant deaths in US zoos over the past few years. At least 46 elephants have
died at institutions accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium
Association (AZA) since 2000;
more than half of them were younger than
40, while normal life expectancy is about 70 years. According to the
AZA's website, about 300 elephants live in AZA-accredited
zoos.
For complete story, click here.
2
Monkeys Die In UConn Research:Two of three
monkeys being used in research projects at the University of Connecticut
Health Center have died.A
report to UConn President Philip E. Austin said that one of the monkeys
was euthanized at the end of a neuroscience study as part of the
experiment protocol. The other died during the research "although
it received proper veterinary attention and treatment," the report
said.A graduate student
who has been protesting using the monkeys in research was upset to learn
of the deaths when Austin forwarded him the report. Austin was
responding to student Justin Goodman's request to stop experimenting and
transfer the monkeys to an animal sanctuary. Austin had requested more
information about the research.
For complete story,
click here.
Saving
Animals and People:BEGINNING
ON page 84 of this issue, scientists Alan M. Goldberg and Thomas Hartung
describe recent advances in reducing, refining, and gradually replacing
the use of animals in toxicology testing. Improvements in cell and
tissue culture technologies, for example, allow a growing number of
tests to be performed on human cells alone. Computer models, too, are
becoming increasingly sophisticated, and many could one day become more
accurate than trials in living animals as well as easier and less
expensive.
For complete story,
click here.
Blackwater founder says
he aided secret programs
--CIA asset Erik Prince carried out secret missions as recently
as two months ago 03 Dec 2009
The founder of Blackwater Worldwide acknowledged in an interview
published Wednesday that he had helped the CIA with secret
programs targeting top al-Qaeda leaders, a role he says was
intended to give the agency "unattributable capability" in
sensitive missions. Erik Prince, owner of the military
contractor now known as Xe Services, told
Vanity Fair magazine
that he performed numerous "very risky missions" for the spy
agency, some of which were improperly exposed in leaks to the
news media. The magazine... said the former Navy SEAL had served
a dual role for the CIA as both a contractor and an "asset," or
spy, who carried out secret missions as recently as two months
ago, when the Obama administration terminated his contract.
For complete story,
click here.
Link, 45, died instantly as he was crushed
under the ancient 860lb monument in the
Weinhaus Church in Vienna, Austria.
Roman
Hahslinger, a police spokesman, said: "He
was a very religious man and had been scared
when he was trapped in the lift and had
prayed for release.
"A short while later he was pulled out of
the elevator and he went straight to the
church to thank God.
"He seems to have embraced a stone pillar
on which the stone altar was perched and it
fell on him, killing him instantly.
For complete story,
click here.
Israel Makes Waves by
Simulating an Earthquake
--Experiment financed by DoD 25
Aug 2009 The Seismologic Division of the Ministry of National
Infrastructure's Geophysical Institute will attempt to simulate
an earthquake in the southern Negev on Thursday. The experiment,
financed by the U.S. Defense Department,
is a joint project with the University of Hawaii and is part of
a scientific project intended to improve seismological and
acoustic readings in Israel and its environs, up to a 1,000
km/621 mile radius. For complete story,
click here.
Records of Virginia Tech Gunman
Discovered --Criminal investigation is
underway to determine how the employee was able to take the
records and why the documents were not uncovered during state
investigations following the shooting 22 Jul 2009 Virginia
Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho had been treated at the college's
counseling center before the shooting rampage in which he killed
32 students, contradicting earlier accounts of his psychiatric
history, according to newly discovered mental health records
located in the home of the center's former director. According
to a memo written by a university lawyer and obtained by The
Washington Post, the former director,
Robert Miller, had moved the records into his home more than a
year before the April 16, 2007, massacre, during
which Cho also took his own life. Word the records had been
found first came from Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine during a
Wednesday morning news conference. [See:
Virginia Tech Shooting 'Oddities' --Seung-Hui Cho in U.S.
Marines uniform, pulled from Wikipedia By Lori Price Iraq
link to campus killer Cho 19 Apr 2007 The sister of the
gunman responsible for the deadliest shooting rampage in modern
US history works as a contractor for a State Department office
that oversees billions of dollars in American aid for Iraq.]
For complete story,
click here.
Audit Finds U.S. Overpaid Blackwater By
$55 Million 17 Jun 2009 A government audit
found that the State Department overpaid the contract-security
firm once known as Blackwater Worldwide by tens of millions of
dollars because the company failed to properly staff its teams
in Iraq. The report said the State Department should have
withheld at least $55 million in payments to the company because
of the shortfalls. For complete story,
click here.
Bats recognize
individual voices: Study
08 Jun 2009 Scientists have found that bats are able to
distinguish between different individuals by their echolocation
calls or biological sonar. According to the study published in
the journal PLoS Computational Biology, bats recognize
the voice of other bats through the ultrasonic 'echolocation'
calls that they make as they navigate. For complete story,
click here.
DARPA, Army fund 'telepathy' research
--Goals include "user-to-user communication on the
battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis
of neural signals." By Steve Hammons 17 May 2009 A research
program to develop mind-to-mind communication among U.S.
military personnel will receive $4 million from the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), according to
published reports. The "Silent Talk" project seeks to create
technologies that can read the "pre-speech" brain waves of
individuals, interpret them and communicate them to other
individuals. The new DARPA funding is in addition to a previous
$4 million the Army provided to the University of California for
what they call "computer-mediated telepathy." For
complete story,
click here.
Governor Huntsman to resign and
accept Obama appointment--May
16th, 2009--SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Governor
Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will resign and accept an appointment as
ambassador to China, ABC 4 has confirmed. For complete
story,
click here.
(Webmaster Note: The only way this appointment makes sense
is that Gov. Huntsman being an advocate of brainwashing and
POW-style torture for America's youth can relate very well to
the Chinese authorities and their disregard for basic human
rights.)
Stanford 'was informant for US
anti-drug agents' --Authorities accused of
turning a blind eye to financier's banking business 11 May
2009 Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan billionaire who ploughed
millions of pounds into English cricket, may have been working
as an informant for American anti-drug agents in return for
official protection which gave him free rein to run his
[illegal] banking empire, it emerged yesterday. For
complete story,
click here.
The Army's Remote-Controlled Beetle--January
29, 2009--A giant flower beetle with implanted
electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly
controlled, according to research presented this week.
Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig
that receives control signals from a nearby computer. Electrical
signals delivered via the electrodes command the insect to take
off, turn left or right, or hover in midflight. The research,
funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
could one day be used for surveillance purposes or for
search-and-rescue missions. For complete story,
click here.
Drought 'Oddities'
By Lori Price 01 Mar 2009 Suddenly, almost inexplicably and
overnight - there's a newly discovered big water shortage in the
US! Keep your eyes on the GOP prize. Under cover of the Bush
Depression and (global warming-induced) drought,
corpora-terrorist trolls may present a 'solution:' Privatize
part of the US water supply. First, the inevitable
state of emergency is declared.
For complete story,
click here.
Fed indictments tell how H-1B visas
were used to undercut wages13 Feb
2009 Federal agents on Thursday said they arrested 11 people in
six states in a crackdown on H-1B visa fraud and unsealed
documents that detail how the visa process was used to undercut
the salaries of U.S. workers. Federal authorities allege that in
some cases, H-1B workers were paid the prevailing wages of
low-cost regions and not necessarily the higher salaries paid in
the locations where they worked. By doing this, the companies
were "displacing
qualified American workers and violating prevailing wage
laws," said federal authorities in a statement announcing the
indictments. For complete story,
click here.
Vice president, former
AG, state senator indicted
18 Nov 2008 A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President
[sic] Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy
County's federal detention centers. The indictment criticizes
Cheney's investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests
in the private prison companies running the federal detention
centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and "at
least misdemeanor assaults" on detainees by working through the
prison companies. Another indictment charges state Sen. Eddie
Lucio Jr. with profiting from his public office by accepting
honoraria from prison management companies. (Unable to
locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date:
November 18, 2008)
Grand jury indicts
Cheney, former AG 18 Nov
2008 Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney and former Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales have been named in a South Texas grand
jury indictment on charges related to the alleged abuse of
prisoners being detained in Willacy County federal detention
centers, The Associated Press said. Willacy County is located in
South Texas and includes the cities of Lyford, Raymondville and
San Perlita. For complete story,
click here.
Fed refuses to identify recipients of $2
trillion in U.S. taxpayer loans --Fed Defies
Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose 10 Nov 2008 The Federal
Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion
of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets
the central bank is accepting as collateral. Fed Chairman Ben S.
Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they
would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700
billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed
lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't
require approval by Congress, Americans
have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks
are pledging in return. For complete story,
click here.
Sarah Palin blamed by US Secret Service
over death threats against Barack Obama 08 Nov
2008 Sarah Palin's attacks on Barack Obama's patriotism provoked a
spike in death threats against the future president, Secret Service
agents revealed during the final weeks of the campaign. The
Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for
accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists." The attacks
provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters
yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered
her to tone down the rhetoric. But it has emerged that her
demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white
supremacists to go even further. The Secret Service warned the
Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase
in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate,
coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks. For complete story,
click here.
Campaign Volunteer Faces Charges In Attack
Hoax--October 24th, 2008--PITTSBURGH
(KDKA) ― A campaign worker who claimed she was the victim of a
politically-motivated attack in which she was beaten, kicked and cut,
now admits that she made the whole story up.
According to Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard, Ashley Todd,
20, told investigators today that she "was not robbed and there was no
6'4" black male attacker."
Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield
Wednesday night and that the suspect began beating her after seeing a
John McCain bumper sticker on her car.
Todd claimed that the mugger even cut a backwards letter "B" in her
cheek.
But today investigators say Todd confessed that the attack never
happened.
At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that
Todd's injuries were self-inflicted.
Police investigating the report said Todd's story began to unravel early
on and they administered a polygraph test.
Investigators asked Todd to return to the police station today for more
questioning and to help them release a composite sketch of the suspect.
When she did, police say she admitted that she made the whole thing up
and that it snowballed out of control.
Todd told investigators today that she "just wanted to tell the truth" –
adding that she was neither robbed, nor attacked.
"She indicated that she has prior mental problems and that she does not
remember how the backward letter B got on her face," Richard told
reporters today.
Todd told police that while she did not remember how the backward "B"
got on her face, she may have done it herself since she was the only one
in the car.
According to police, Todd said she thought of Barack Obama when she saw
the "B" in her rearview mirror.
Meanwhile, police and residents of Bloomfield say they had suspicions
from the beginning about the validity of Todd's tale.
"Something seemed a little strange about the story to begin with," said
Lisa Diulus.
"I think it's a shame," said Theresa Cherico. "She made Bloomfield out
to be like an unsafe neighborhood."
"I don't know, McCain is down in the polls, maybe this is a boost to get
him up a little bit," said Mark Billings. "I don't know, maybe she had
some personal problems or something." For complete story,
click here.
Bush signs $600 billion stopgap bill
01 Oct 2008 US President [sic] George W. Bush signs a government
expenditures bill topping 600 billion dollars after his economic relief
plan fails. After Bush's banking bailout scheme failed, the president
endorsed a budget bill of 600 billion dollars to fund his
administration's activities for the next six months, AFP reported.
For complete story, click here.
Air Force says
officers fell asleep
with nuke code
--July 12 incident
was at Minot AFB,
location of other
incidents
24 Jul
2008 Three Air Force
officers fell asleep
[All three?] while
in control of an
electronic component
that contained old
launch codes for
nuclear
intercontinental
ballistic missiles,
a violation of
procedure, Air Force
officials said
Thursday. It is
the fourth incident
in the past year
involving problems
with secure handling
of components of
America's nuclear
weapons. The
incident occurred
July 12, during the
changing out of
components used to
facilitate secure
communications
between an
underground
missile-control
facility and missile
silos near Minot Air
Force Base in North
Dakota, according to
Col. Dewey Ford, a
spokesman for the
Air Force Space
Command in Colorado.
[See:
Minot AFB
Clandestine Nukes
'Oddities'
17 Sep 2007.]
For complete story, click here.
Pentagon audit faults
KBR's prices --Report
alleges cases of
post-hurricane
overcharging 16 Jun
2008 KBR overcharged the
U.S. Navy for providing
meals to workers and
service personnel in the
aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina, according to a
Pentagon audit... It
recommended the Navy
demand a refund from KBR
of at least $1.4
million. The
overcharges were one
element of mismanagement
by Houston-based KBR,
of three Navy contracts
valued at
$229 million
for cleanup and
restoration of Navy
facilities damaged after
Hurricane Ivan in 2004
and Katrina in 2005, the
audit said. Altogether,
the audit requested
that the Navy seek
refunds of at least $8.5
million for
"inappropriate" payments
to KBR.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.chron.com Date: June 16, 2008)
Ex-Army official says
fired over KBR audit
17 Jun 2008 A former
high-ranking civilian
U.S. Army official says
he was fired in 2004
when he questioned the
Iraq war expenditures of
military contractor KBR.
The official, Charles
Smith, said he was
ousted from his position
as the top civilian
overseer of KBR's
lucrative contract to
supply services to U.S.
troops when he refused
to sign off on more than
$1 billion in
questionable spending,
The New York Times
reported Tuesday.
For complete story, click here.
House panel subpoenas
FBI interviews of Bush,
Cheney 16 Jun
2008 A House committee
issued a subpoena Monday
for FBI reports from
interviews with
President [sic] Bush and
Vice President [sic]
Dick Cheney in the CIA
leak investigation. The
subpoena to Attorney
General Michael Mukasey
from the House Oversight
and Government Reform
Committee is the latest
move by Congress to shed
light on Cheney's
precise role in the leak
of Valerie Plame's CIA
identity. For
complete story,
click here.
USA Military
Officers Challenge Official
Account of September 11
22 May 2008 Twenty-five
former U.S. military
officers have severely
criticized the official
account of 9/11 and called
for a new investigation.
They include former
commander of U.S. Army
Intelligence, Major General
Albert Stubblebine, former
Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense, Col. Ronald D.
Ray, two former staff
members of the Director of
the National Security
Agency; Lt. Col. Karen
Kwiatkowski, PhD, and Major
John M. Newman, PhD, and
many others. "A lot
of these pieces of
information, taken together,
prove that the official
story, the official
conspiracy theory of 9/11 is
a bunch of hogwash. It's
impossible," said
Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD,
U.S. Air Force (ret). With
doctoral degrees in
Aeronautics and Nuclear
Engineering, Col. Bowman
served as Director of
Advanced Space Programs
Development under Presidents
Gerald Ford and Jimmy
Carter. For complete
story,
click here.
U.N. Official Calls for Study of
Neocons' Role in 9/11 10
Apr 2008 A new U.N. Human Rights
Council official assigned to
monitor Israel [Richard Falk,
Milbank professor of
international law emeritus at
Princeton University] is calling
for an official commission to
study the
role neoconservatives may
have played in the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks.
The narrative that the attacks
from 2001 were a "false flag"
operation is a recurring theme
in the literature challenging
the consensus conspiracy
theory that 19 al-Qaeda
hijackers flew commercial jets
into the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. False flag
refers to espionage or covert
actions taken by one government
made to seem like the work of
another. The false flag
thesis has it that the Bush
administration is somehow
responsible for the September 11
attacks as a pretext for the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
[And so much more! See:
CLG 9/11 Exposition Zone.]
For complete story, click here.
'To be sure,
Cheney must be furious that Tehran
torpedoed the entire US strategy for
Big Oil.'Iran torpedoes US plans for Iraqi
oil By M K Bhadrakumar 03
Apr 2008 What has happened is
essentially that Iran has frustrated
the joint US-British objective of
gaining control of Basra, without
which the strategy of establishing
control over the fabulous oil fields
of southern Iraq will not work.
Control of Basra is a pre-requisite
before American oil majors make
their multi-billion investments to
kick start large-scale oil
production in Iraq. Iraq's
Southern Oil Company is
headquartered in Basra. Highly
strategic installations are
concentrated in the region, such as
pipeline networks, pumping stations,
refineries and loading terminals.
The American
oil majors will insist on fastening
these installations.
For complete story, click here.
Breaking:
Under criminal investigation, HUD
secretary resigns
--Top Bush official faces
charges of cronyism and favoritism
31 Mar 2008 The Bush
administration's top housing
official is resigning at a time when
the housing industry is embroiled in
crisis. Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Alphonso
Jackson announced Monday he is
quitting. His resignation will take
effect on April 18. Jackson is under
criminal investigation and has been
fending off allegations of cronyism
and favoritism involving HUD
contractors for the past two years.
For complete story,
click here.
Lawyer: Pentagon using Guantanamo trials
to influence '08 election 28 Mar
2008 The Navy lawyer for Osama bin
Laden's driver argues in a Guantánamo
military commissions motion that senior
Pentagon officials are orchestrating war
crimes prosecutions for the 2008
campaign. The brief filed Thursday by
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer directly
challenged the integrity of President
[sic] Bush's war court. Notably, it
describes a Sept. 29, 2006, meeting at
the Pentagon in which Deputy Defense
Secretary Gordon England, a veteran
White House appointee, asked lawyers to
consider Sept. 11, 2001, prosecutions in
light of the campaign. "We need to
think about charging some of the
high-value detainees because there could
be strategic political value to charging
some of these detainees before the
election," England is quoted as
saying. (Unable to locate story at
time of archiving. Source:
www.miamiherald.com Date: March 28, 2008)
US gave $300m arms contract to 22-year-old
with criminal record
--Old stock
sent to Afghan forces battling Taliban
--40-year-old ammunition had to be
destroyed 28 Mar 2008 The Pentagon
entrusted a 22-year-old previously
arrested for
domestic violence and having a
forged driving licence to be the main
supplier of ammunition to Afghan forces at
the height of the battle against the
Taliban, it was reported yesterday. AEY,
essentially a one-man operation based in an
unmarked office in Miami Beach, Florida, was
awarded a contract worth $300m (£150m) to
supply the Afghan army and police in January
last year. The report on AEY was the latest
instance of private firms securing lucrative
defence contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan
under the Bush regime's policy of
privatising growing aspects of the military.
"Operations like this pop up like mushrooms
after the rain," said Milton Bearden, a
former CIA official who in the 1980s was in
charge of arming Afghan rebel groups
fighting the former Soviet Union. For
complete story,
click here.
US cargo ship opens fire in Suez canal, 1 dead
25 Mar 2008 An Egyptian was shot dead and two
others wounded in an incident involving a
US-flagged cargo ship crossing the Suez Canal
towards the Mediterranean Sea, reported security
officials late Monday.
For complete story,
click here.
Lawmakers want probe of KBR role in
accidental electrocutions in Iraq
--Details
sought about electrocutions of military and
contract workers in Iraq and about KBR's role in
making electrical repairs.19 Mar 2008 At
least a dozen soldiers and Marines have been
electrocuted in Iraq over the five years of the
war, and investigators now are trying to learn
what role improper grounding of electrical wires
played in those deaths. And Houston-based KBR --
which builds bases and maintains housing for
U.S. troops in Iraq -- is at the center of the
probe, with questions being raised about its
responsibility to repair known wiring problems.
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent
a letter today to Defense Secretary Robert Gates
seeking details about electrocutions of military
and contract workers in Iraq and about KBR's
role in making electrical repairs. (Unable
to locate story at time of archiving.
Source:
www.chron.com Date: March 19th, 2008)
Breaking:
'When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense
involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory.'
Former Cheney Aide Libby Disbarred --Bush
Commuted Libby's Prison Sentence Last Year 20
Mar 2008 A Washington, D.C., radio station reports
that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., the former chief
of staff to Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney, has
been disbarred. A three-judge panel on the D.C.
Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to
practice law after he was found guilty last year of
obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak
investigation, WTOP radio reported. For
complete story,
click here.
Bush officials: Congress irrelevant on Iraq 05
Mar 2008 The Bush dictatorship says the 2002
congressional authorization to go to war in Iraq gives
it the authority to conduct combat operations in Iraq
and negotiate far-reaching agreements with the current
Iraqi government
without
consulting Congress. The assertion, jointly
made Tuesday by U.S. Ambassador David Satterfield and
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International
Security Affairs Mary Beth Long, drew an incredulous
reaction from Democrats on a Joint House committee
during a hearing on future U.S. commitments to Iraq. For
complete story,
click here.
Khadr lawyers allege Cheney linked to video release
03 Mar 2008 Omar Khadr's defense lawyers will try to
find out whether U.S. Vice-President [sic] Dick Cheney's
office secretly leaked a video of the imprisoned
Canadian to an American media outlet -- an allegation
that, if proven, would be a
clear violation of court orders and further
proof that the process by which Mr. Khadr is being tried
is a political, not legal one, his military lawyer says.
(Unable to locate story at time of archiving. Source:
www.theglobeandmail.com
Date: March 3, 2008)
Lawyers for Canadian Gitmo Detainee Accuse Cheney of
Leaking Video to '60 Minutes' 04 Mar 2008 Vice
President [sic] Dick
Cheney's office may have leaked an
incriminating video of a Canadian terror suspect facing
a war-crimes 'trial,' according to a claim
filed by the
suspect's lawyers in Guantanamo Bay military court.
Lawyers for Omar Khadr say the video, which apparently
shows their client making a roadside bomb in
Afghanistan, may have been leaked to the television
program "60 Minutes" to counter publicity that
has
focused on legal setbacks in the case and descriptions
of Khadr as a child soldier. "60 Minutes" aired the tape
in November.
For complete story,
click here.
White House blocks inquiry into construction of $736m
embassy in Iraq
29 Feb 2008 The Bush administration
is blocking an inquiry into the delay-plagued construction
of the $736m US embassy in Baghdad, a senior Democrat in
Congress said today. Henry Waxman, who is chairman of the
oversight committee in the House of Representatives, asked
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice today to explain why
her department certified the embassy as "substantially
completed" in December despite inspections that reveal
continued deficiencies in the facility's water, fire alarm
and kitchen systems... In addition, two US state department
employees who worked on the embassy project are now under
criminal investigation. For complete story,
click here.
Obama staffer gave warning of NAFTA rhetoric
27 Feb 2008 Barack Obama has ratcheted up his attacks on NAFTA,
but a senior
member of his campaign team told a Canadian
official not to take his criticisms seriously, CTV News has
learned. Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama's
campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador to the
United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against
NAFTA, according to Canadian sources. The staff member reassured
Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and
should not be taken at face value. For complete story,
click here.
GOP Halts Effort to Retrieve White House E-Mails
27 Feb 2008 After promising last year to search its computers
for tens of
thousands of e-mails sent by White House officials,
the Republican National Committee has informed a House committee
that it no
longer plans to retrieve the communications by
restoring computer backup tapes, the panel's chairman said
yesterday. The move
increases the likelihood that an untold
number of RNC e-mails dealing with official White House business
during the first term of the
Bush administration -- including
many sent or received by former presidential adviser Karl Rove
-- will never be recovered, said
House Democrats and public
records advocates. For complete story,
click here.
Bamboozling the American electorate again --Bush-Cheney
strategy involves GOP crossover voting to take out Hillary,
marketing newcomer Obama, an "independent" ticket, and maybe even
martial law By Rosemary Regello 18 Feb 2008 According to an
article in
Time Magazine, Republican party activists have
been organized by the G.O.P. to throw their weight behind Barack
Obama, the democratic rival of frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
Early in Obama's campaign, top Republican fundraisers flushed his
coffers with cash, something the deep pockets hadn't done for any
candidate in their own party. With receipts topping $100
million in 2007, the first-term Illinois senator broke the record
for contributions. For complete story,
click here.
In 2006, Barack Obama backed
'mentor' Joe LieberBush: Obama rallies state Democrats, throws
support behind Lieberman 31 Mar 2006
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama rallied Connecticut Democrats
at their annual dinner Thursday night, throwing his
support behind mentor and Senate colleague Joe
LieberBush. Lieberman, Connecticut's junior
senator, is under fire from some liberal Democrats
for his support of the Iraq War. Ned Lamont, a
Democratic activist and anti-war candidate from
Greenwich, is challenging Lieberman for the party's
nomination this year. [Lamont eventually won the
Democratic nomination, but lost the 2006 'election'
due to Rove, The Hartford Courant and other
Reichwing maggots backing LieberBush.
MDR observes: Perhaps
this is why the rightwing media is
pushing Obama down our throats.]
For complete story,
click here.
Happiness:
Enough Already--The push for ever-greater well-being is facing a
backlash, fueled by research on the value of sadness.--The
plural of anecdote is not data, as scientists will tell you, but
consider these snapshots of the emerging happiness debate anyway:
Lately, Jerome Wakefield's students have been coming up to him
after they break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, and not
because they want him to recommend a therapist. Wakefield, a
professor at New York University, coauthored the 2007 book
"The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal
Sorrow Into Depressive Disorder," which argues that feeling
down after your heart is broken-even so down that you meet the
criteria for clinical depression-is normal and even salutary. But
students tell him that their parents are pressuring them to seek
counseling and other medical intervention-"some Zoloft,
dear?"-for their sadness, and the kids want no part of it.
"Can you talk to them for me?" they ask Wakefield.
Rather than "listening to Prozac," they want to listen
to their hearts, not have them chemically silenced.
University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener, who has studied
happiness for a quarter century, was in Scotland recently,
explaining to members of Parliament and business leaders the value
of augmenting traditional measures of a country's wealth with a
national index of happiness. Such an index would measure policies
known to increase people's sense of well-being, such as democratic
freedoms, access to health care and the rule of law. The Scots
were all in favor of such things, but not because they make people
happier. "They said too much happiness might not be
such a good thing," says Diener. "They like being
dour, and didn't appreciate being told they should be
happier." Eric Wilson tried to get with the program.
Urged on by friends, he bought books on how to become happier. He
made every effort to smooth out his habitual scowl and wear a
sunny smile, since a happy expression can lead to genuinely happy
feelings. Wilson, a professor of English at Wake Forest
University, took up jogging, reputed to boost the brain's supply
of joyful neurochemicals, watched uplifting Frank Capra and Doris
Day flicks and began sprinkling his conversations with
"great!" and "wonderful!", the better to
exercise his capacity for enthusiasm. When none of these made him
happy, Wilson not only jumped off the happiness bandwagon-he also
embraced his melancholy side and decided to blast a happiness
movement that "leads to half-lives, to bland
existences," as he argues in "Against Happiness," a
book now reaching stores. Americans' fixation on happiness, he
writes, fosters "a craven disregard for the value of
sadness" and "its integral place in the great rhythm of
the cosmos." For complete story,
click here.
Top-secret
Livermore germ lab opens --Scientists developing
'countermeasures' for bubonic plague, anthrax, Rocky Mountain
spotted fever, Q fever, tularemia, brucellosis or undulant fever;
researching
flu,
tuberculosis and SARS 02 Feb 2008 A high-security laboratory
where deadly microbes are being grown by scientists seeking
defenses against terrorist attacks began operating in Livermore
last week without public announcement, and opponents said Friday
that they will go to federal court in an effort to close the
facility down. The facility is known as a Biosafety-level 3
laboratory where... more than 40 potentially lethal
disease-causing bacteria, viruses and fungi are stored inside.
For complete story,
click here.
Oil
Crisis As 308,000 Barrels Go Missing, According to Audit
10 Jan 2008 How do you not notice when 308,000 barrels of oil
go missing? That's the question government auditors were
asking after they
looked
into the Department of Energy's management of oil received for
the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a critical program to assure
energy stability in the U.S. in case of an oil crisis. For
complete story,
click here.
9/11
Panel Study Finds That C.I.A. Withheld Tapes 22 Dec 2007 A
review of classified documents by former members of the Sept. 11
commission shows that the panel made repeated and detailed
requests to the Central Intelligence Agency in 2003 and 2004 for
documents and other information about the interrogation of
operatives of 'Al Qaeda,' and were told by a top C.I.A. official
that the agency had "produced or made available for
review" everything that had been requested. In interviews
this week, the two chairmen of the commission, Lee H. Hamilton and
Thomas H. Kean, said their reading of the report had convinced
them that the agency had made a conscious
decision to impede the Sept. 11 commission's inquiry.
For complete story, click here.
"The
man who murdered Osama bin Laden" Frost
over the World - Benazir Bhutto - 02 Nov 07 --Sir David
interviews former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto. 03 Nov
2007 6:13 into this YouTube video, Benazir Bhutto declares,
"Yes, well one of them is a very key figure in security. He's
a former military officer. He's someone who's had dealings... and
he also had dealings with Omar Sheikh [Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh],
the
man who murdered Osama bin Laden." [Did Bhutto mean to
say Daniel Pearl? If that was the case, she did not correct
herself.]
Dennis
Kucinich's brother found dead 19 Dec 2007 Perry
Kucinich, 52, was found dead in his home in the 4100 block of East
71st Street. His brother Larry found him about 9 a.m. There were
no signs of violence, officials said. The Cuyahoga County Coroner
is performing an autopsy this hour. Their brother, Dennis
Kucinich, is a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 10th District. He
is running for president. For complete story,
click here.
Breaking:
A federal grand jury has voted to indict ex-N.Y. City Police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik on charges stemming from tax
evasion and corruption allegations, sources tell ABC News. [See
(flashback) Bush
nominates Kerik for Homeland Security03 Dec 2004
President [sic] Bush on Friday nominated former New York City
Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to take over as secretary of
homeland security. Kerik is a senior vice president of Giuliani
Partners, the consulting firm founded by Rudy Giuliani, who as
mayor of New York appointed him police commissioner in 2000. "His
broad practical hands-on experience makes Bernie superbly
qualified to lead the Department of Homeland Security,"
Bush said.] For complete story,
click here.
To
Implement Policy, Bush to Turn to Administrative Orders31 Oct 2007 The White House plans to try implementing as
much new policy as it can by administrative orderdictatorship
while stepping up its confrontational rhetoric with Congress after
concluding that President [sic] Bush cannot do much business with
the Democratic leadership, administration officials said. White
House aides say the only way Bush seems to be able to influence
overturn the process is by vetoing legislation or by issuing
'administrative orders,' as he has in recent weeks... They say
they expect Bush to issue more of such orders in the next several
months. For complete story,
click here.
Split
court says candidates can lie--October 5th, 2007--OLYMPIA
— Government has no business trying to stop political candidates
from deliberately lying about each other in campaign ads, a
divided state Supreme Court ruled Thursday. In the 5-4
decision upholding a lower-court ruling, the high court said a
state law aimed at punishing political candidates for false
advertising is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.
"There can be no doubt that false personal attacks are too
common in political campaigns, with wide-ranging detrimental
consequences," Justice Jim Johnson wrote for the majority.
"However, government censorship ... is not a constitutionally
permitted remedy." But in a sharply worded dissent,
Justice Barbara Madsen called the majority's ruling "an
invitation to lie with impunity. ... It is little wonder that so
many view political campaigns with distrust and cynicism."
For complete story,
click here.
Bush
quietly advising Hillary Clinton, top Democrats--September
24th, 2007--President Bush is quietly providing
back-channel advice to Hillary Rodham Clinton, urging her to
modulate her rhetoric so she can effectively prosecute the war in
Iraq if elected president. In an interview for the new book
"The Evangelical President," White House Chief of Staff
Josh Bolten said Bush has "been urging candidates: 'Don't get
yourself too locked in where you stand right now. If you end up sitting where I sit, things could change dramatically.
' " Bolten said Bush wants enough continuity in his
Iraq policy that "even a Democratic president would be in a position to sustain a legitimate presence there."
"Especially if it's a Democrat," the chief of staff told
The Examiner in his West Wing office. "He wants to create the
conditions where a Democrat not only will have the leeway, but the
obligation to see it out." To that end, the president
has been sending advice, mostly through aides, aimed at preventing
an abrupt withdrawal from Iraq in the event of a Democratic
victory in November 2008. "It's different being a
candidate and being the president," Bush said in an Oval
Office interview. "No matter who the president is, no matter
what party, when they sit here in the Oval Office and seriously
consider the effect of a vacuum being created in the Middle East,
particularly one trying to be created by al Qaeda, they will then
begin to understand the need to continue to support the young
democracy." To that end, Bush is institutionalizing
controversial anti-terror programs so they can be used by the next
president. "Look, I'd like to make as many hard
decisions as I can make, and do a lot of the heavy lifting prior
to whoever my successor is," Bush said. "And then that
person is going to have to come and look at the same data I've
been looking at, and come to their own conclusion." As
an example, Bush cited his detainee program, which allows him to
keep enemy combatants imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay while they
await adjudication. Bush is unmoved by endless criticism of the
program because he says his successor will need it. For
complete story,
click here.
White
House preparing to stage new September 11 says Reagan official:
July 20th, 2007--WASHINGTON, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush
administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist
attack in the United
States, transform the country into a
dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year. Paul
Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury,
blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing
the White House to seize the assets of anyone who
interferes with
its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers
to exercise control in the country. Roberts, who spoke on
the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: "When Bush exercises
this authority [under the new Executive Order], there's no check
to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man
rule." "The American people don't really
understand the danger that they face," Roberts said, adding
that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of
the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around
the
fading Republican Party. Old-line Republicans like
Roberts have become increasingly disenchanted with the
neoconservative politics of the
Bush administration, which they
see as a betrayal of fundamental conservative values.
According to a July 9-11 survey by Ipsos, an international public
opinion research company, President Bush and the Republicans can
claim a mere 31 percent approval rating for their
handling of the
Iraq war and 38 percent for their foreign policy in general,
including terrorism. "The administration figures
themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are
preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," he
said. "You have to count on the fact
that if al Qaeda is not
going to do it, it is going to be orchestrated.
" Roberts suggested that in the absence of a massive
popular outcry, only
the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the
military could put constraints on Bush's current drive for a
fully-fledged dictatorship. For complete story,
click here.
'Operation
Noble Eagle' false flag operations underway:Florida
Troops Deploy to Nation's Capital 24 Aug 2007 Members of
the 1st Battalion 265 Air Defense Artillery have mobilized and are
on a plane headed first to Ft. Bliss, then for federal active duty
in the capital region. The troops will be deployed for a year. The
265th is part of Operation Noble Eagle. They are ordered by the
president [sic] to the nation's capital, where they will operate
high-tech weapons systems 'against' any potential air threat.
For complete story,
click here.
Neo-Cons:
Make Bush Dictator Of The World--August 17th, 2007: If
you thought Stu Bykovsky's call for a new 9/11 was the lowest the
Neo-Cons could sink, think again. A right-wing foundation with
links to Dick Cheney has called for Bush to be made lifetime
president, ruler of the world, and for Iraq to be ethnically
cleansed of Arabs by means of a nuclear holocaust. The
Family Security Matters organization masquerades as an independent
"think tank" yet was highly influential in President
Bush's re-election in 2004 and has links to top Neo-Con
ideologues. The outfit poses as an advocacy group for a new
breed of goose-stepping brownshirts - so-called "security
moms," who are noted for their blind obedience to
neo-conservatism as a result of believing every ounce of fearmongering that emanates from the Bush administration on the
inevitability of mass casualty terror attacks. "In late
2004, Media Matters for America discovered that the phone number
listed on FSM's website actually belonged to the Center for
Security Policy (CSP), a rabidly hardline foreign policy outfit
run by former Reagan administration figure Frank Gaffney,"
reports Right Web. The Center for Security Policy is an
umbrella organization that includes the National Security Advisory
Council, whose members hold senior positions within the Bush
administration itself. Former and current members include Dick
Cheney, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams and the organization has
also given awards to Donald Rumsfeld. The FSM foundation
itself also has ties to the Anti-Defamation League, the
International Women's Forum, numerous nationwide television and
print media outlets, and includes on its board of advisors Neo-Con
radio host Laura Ingraham and former director of the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency, James Woolsey. Representatives of FSM
also routinely appear as guests on Fox News and their website is a
cesspool of anti-American fervor - acting as a cheerleader for the
invasion of Iran, the warrantless wiretapping program (opponents
of which are labeled "traitors") and lauds the Patriot
Act as "An irreplaceable tool utilized by our Secret Service
to keep us safe." In an August 3rd article,
contributing editor and philosopher Philip Atkinson penned a
feverish diatribe that calls for the end of democracy, for Bush to
be made ruler of the world as Julius Caesar was made emperor of
Rome, for Bush to be made lifetime President in the U.S., and for
Iraq to be ethnically cleansed by means of nuclear genocide and
re-populated with Americans. The comments are so
fundamentally sick and twisted that the reader must absorb the
following passages in full to recognize the true depravity of what
the Neo-Con fringe truly embrace. After calling democracy
'the enemy of truth and justice', Atkinson openly calls for
genocide and mass slaughter. The simple truth that modern
weapons now mean a nation must practice genocide or commit
suicide. Israel provides the perfect example. If the Israelis do
not raze Iran, the Iranians will fulfill their boast and wipe
Israel off the face of the earth. The wisest course would
have been for President Bush to use his nuclear weapons to
slaughter Iraqis until they complied with his demands, or until
they were all dead. Bush should be taking foreign policy
tips from imperial dictator Julius Caesar, according to frustrated
Neo-Cons. He then cites Julius Caesar, the reviled dictator
of the Roman Empire, as an example of how Bush should engage in
rampant ethnic cleansing. When the ancient Roman general
Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only
had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political
enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as
consul (president) ended. Caesar pacified Gaul by mass
slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political
opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of
ancient Rome. If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by
ordering his army to
empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he
would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military;
enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an
American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset);
and boost American prestiege while terrifying American
enemies. Atkinson then concludes by stating such actions
would allow Bush to declare martial law, become permanent
President of the U.S. and eventually ruler of the entire
world. He could then follow Caesar's example and use his
newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to
become the
first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos
caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the
out-of-control Supreme Court. President Bush can fail in his
duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming
"ex-president" Bush or he can become
"President-for-
Life" Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the
Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able
to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of
the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the
power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought
by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. The sheer
abhorrence of the diatribe could lead many to think that this was
some kind of attempt at black humor, a faux article written by a
liberal intended as a parody to ridicule right-wingers, but it's
not, it's real - this is what many of the Neo-Cons actually
embrace. To the kind of people who think like this, carrying
out a 9/11 style attack is like a walk in the park. Though FSM chose to delete the article from their website after it
started to get bad press, the cache is still available and
Atkinson's previous articles betray the fact that he is a real
columnist and he really believes this crap! This is the
philosophy guiding the people that are in control of the world's
pre-eminent superpower - in comparison, they make Hitler look
like the tooth fairy. They are supported by a transfixed
hardcore following of kool-aid drinkers, the kind that openly
advocate putting anyone who criticizes
Bush in gas chambers while praying for Fox News. And don't
for a second think that they won't try and make all this happen -
the Neo-Cons are not playing games, yesterday we reported on the
open admission of a plan on behalf of the feds to use clergy to
"quell dissent" during a martial law takeoever
scenario. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are part of the same crowd and
not part of the solution, this is a doctrine that has swallowed
the entirety of the political system. The extreme fringe of
the Neo-Con belief system is increasingly attracting more
adherents as Bush, Cheney and their warmongering administration
becomes increasingly unpopular in the U.S. and faces more
opposition in attempting to complete their agenda. The true
horror of what that ultimate agenda entails is the price we as
humanity will pay unless we stop these madmen and their goal - a
4th Reich of the elite, the slaughter of millions, and a global
totalitarian dictatorship. For complete story,
click here.
Cheney's
Office Attempts To Memory-Hole Embarrassing Video--August
17th, 2007--A recently discovered video dating from 1994 featuring
Dick Cheney warning against an invasion of Iraq has been shrugged
off by the Vice President's office who say they cannot comment
because at the time Cheney was not Vice President. The video appeared earlier this week on YouTube and shows Dick
Cheney explaining that trying to take over Iraq would be a
"bad idea" and would lead to a
"quagmire." "How many additional dead
Americans is Saddam worth? Our view was not very many, and I think
we got it right," Cheney said. The video was
posted by alternative media site Grand Theft Country, the
on-screen source is the conservative American Enterprise
Institute, who conducted the interview with Cheney on April 15,
1994. CBS 5 contacted the Vice President's press office
Wednesday, where a spokesperson reacted to the video by saying:
"He was not Vice President at the time, it was after he was
Secretary of Defense. I don't have any comment." For
complete story, click here.
Dick Cheney Is
Right--This weekend, we came across a pretty remarkable
snippet of video online. You've really got to see it to believe
it. Just click here to check it out:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2879&id=10983-5425778-wy.VQD&t=2
And if you're as amazed, saddened, and angered as we are—pass it
on to a friend, neighbor, or co-worker and help make sure people
all over the country see it. Video report.
Click above link.
Romney
Jokes About Cheating in Poll By Garance Franke-Ruta 11 Aug
2007 at Last night, at the pre-Straw Poll "Ronstock"
concert at the Bali Satay House in Ames, a Ron Paul volunteer
played back a recording of competing Republican presidential
candidate Mitt Romney joking about cheating in a State Fair
popularity contest, stuffing the ballot box in Ames, and dodging
questions across the state... Romney also joked about stuffing the
ballot box at today's Straw Poll. "At 7 o'clock they will
count the ballots. We will stuff the
ballot box, I hope," he said on the recording. And
he joked about cheating in the
Corn
Poll, the bi-partisan State Fair popularity contest in which
attendees are asked to "cast your kernel" by placing a
kernel of corn in a jar for their favored candidate to show their
support. "I was a little dismayed because I saw Barack Obama,
he had a lot of corn in that Mason jar," quipped Romney.
"But
I was number one - so thanks for cheating!" For
complete story, click here.
Romney
Leadership Team Member Overseeing Straw Poll By Birdlady
09 Aug 2007 The Iowa GOP is facing possible suit over their use of
the same Diebold machines that were just
de-certified.
They are claiming of course, that there is
nothing
to worry about since the voting procedure will be conducted
with the assistance and oversight of the Story County Auditor's
Office. If we look
here,
we see the Story County Auditor is Mary Mosiman. Mary Mosiman also
happens to be on Mitt Romney's "Romney for President [Story
County] Leadership Team"... It's also worth noting that
according to this
article,
Romney's Commonwealth PAC gave State Auditor David A. Vaudt $1,000
in 2004. For complete story,
click here.
"WATCH THIS
BEFORE IT'S TAKEN OFF THE WEB!!"--August 3rd, 2007--"One
impressive woman. Here is a powerful and amazing statement on Al
Jazeera television. "The woman is Wafa Sultan, an
Arab-American psychologist from Los Angeles I would suggest
watching it ASAP because I don't know how long the "link will
be active. This film clip should be shown around the world
repeatedly!" CLICK HERE:
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul
Video
download.
Why is the new Congress gridlocked?--August
3rd, 2007--Conservatives are working hard to spin this as
the fault of a “do nothing Congress.” But that’s like
someone mugging the postman and then complaining that the mail
isn’t delivered. The fact is it’s the conservative
minority’s own filibusters and vetoes that are systematically
killing progress. But now,
our cameras have
exposed the force orchestrating this obstruction.
See
the right-wing mastermind -- caught on tape! -- and pass it on.
On YouTube, Check out the link.
House
Panel Finds Bush Aides In Contempt--Committee Met Wednesday Morning 25 Jul
2007 The House Judiciary Committee voted contempt of Congress
citations Wednesday against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten
and President [sic] George W. Bush's former legal counselor,
Harriet Miers. For complete story,
click here.
BBC:
Bush's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America--July 24th,
2007--A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major
subject that has received little historical attention, the
conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led
by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist
dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini
and Hitler. In 1933, Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler
was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists
and bankers, including
Prescott Bush the current President's grandfather, who asked him
to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help
stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. According to the BBC, the plotters intended to
impose a fascist
takeover and "Adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to
beat the great depression." The conspirators were
operating under the umbrella of a front group called the American
Liberty League, which included many families that are still
household names today, including Heinz, Colgate, Birds Eye and
General Motors. For complete story,
click here.
White
House Gets Defensive Over Accusation Bin Laden Is Dead--July
19th, 2007--White House Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend
was asked at a press conference earlier this week what evidence
she had that Osama Bin Laden was still
alive, considering the fact
that he has been gravely ill and on a kidney dialysis machine
while traversing the harsh terrain of the Pakistani border region.
Townsend's response was to refuse to discuss the matter and
immediately leave. (Definitely visit the link) For
complete story,
click here.
Rep.
compares Bush to Hitler, 9/11 attacks to Reichstag fire 15
Jul 2007 America's first Muslim congressman has provoked outrage
by apparently comparing President [sic] George W Bush to Adolf
Hitler and hinting that he might have been responsible for the
September 11 attacks. Addressing a gathering of atheists in
his home state of Minnesota, Keith Ellison, a Democrat, compared
the 9/11 atrocities to the destruction of the Reichstag, the
German parliament, in 1933. "It's almost like the Reichstag
fire, kind of reminds me of that," Mr Ellison said. "After
the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and
it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he
could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."
To applause from his audience of 300 members of Atheists for Human
Rights, Mr Ellison said he would not accuse the Bush
administration of planning 9/11 because "you know, that's how
they put you in the nut-ball box - dismiss you". [See:
CLG
9/11 Exposition Zone.] For complete story,
click here.
Ron
Paul warns of staged terror attack 13 Jul 2007 Republican
presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, said the country is in
"great danger" of the U.S. government staging a
terrorist attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation, as the war
in Iraq continues to deteriorate. The Texas congressman offered no
specifics nor mentioned President [sic] Bush by name, but he
clearly insinuated that the administration would not be above
staging an incident to revive flagging support. For complete
story,
click here.
New
study from Pilots for 9/11 Truth: No Boeing 757 hit the Pentagon
21 Jun 2007 (PRWEB)
Pilots
for 9/11 Truth obtained black box data from the government
under the Freedom of Information Act for AA Flight 77, which The
9/11 Report claims hit the Pentagon. Analysis of the data
contradicts the official account in direction, approach, and
altitude. The plane was too high to hit lamp posts and would have
flown over the Pentagon, not impacted with its ground floor. This
result confirms and strengthens the previous findings of
Scholars
for 9/11 Truth that no Boeing 757 hit the building. For
complete story, click here.
Mobile
phones may soon be used on planes 22 June
2007
One of the last telephone-free environments on the planet, the
airplane, is about to be connected, allowing travellers to make
mobile phone calls at high altitude. Requests to switch off
cellphones and fasten seatbelts are a familiar part of the
take-off routine for airline passengers, but a European company
has found a way to make dialling safe and link up people from
above the clouds. [Apparently, the passengers aboard 'hijacked'
United Airlines Flight 93 utilized a time machine, in order
to make their calls. See:
Alleged
Oddities of Phone Calls from Doomed Flights and
More
Holes in the Official Story: The 9/11 Cell Phone Calls By
Michel Chossudovsky 10 Aug 2004.] For complete story,
click here.
Bush
claims exemption from his oversight order 22 Jun 2007 The
White House said Friday that, like Vice President [sic] Dick
Cheney's office, President [sic] Bush's office is exempt from a
presidential order requiring government agencies that handle
classified national security information to submit to oversight by
an independent federal watchdog. The executive order that Bush
issued in March 2003 covers all government agencies that are part
of the executive branch and, although it doesn't specifically say
so, was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the
president's office, a White House spokesman said.
[Well, it
certainly doesn't apply to Bush and Cheney, as neither is a
president or a vice president.] For complete story,
click here.
Cheney
Defiant on Classified Material --Executive
Order Ignored Since 2003 22 Jun 2007 Vice President
[sic] Cheney's office has refused to comply with an executive
order governing the handling of classified information for the
past four years and recently tried to abolish the office that
sought to enforce those rules, according to documents released by
a congressional committee yesterday.
For complete story,
click here.
Senate
Committee Subpoenas Warrantless Spying Documents: White House
Showdown Looms By Ryan Singel 21 Jun 2007 The Senate
Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to subpoena documents from the
Bush Administration related to the government's admitted
eavesdropping on Americans' overseas emails and phone calls
without getting court approval. Judiciary Committee head Sen.
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)... is now authorized to issue subpoenas for
documents related to the warrantless wiretapping that are held at
the Justice Department and the White House. For complete
story,
click here.
CIA
Skeletons Come Out of Archive Closet --Documents
Show Assassination Plots, Wiretaps of Journalists and Warrantless
Searches[daily occurrences, under the Bush regime]
22 Jun 2007 Little-known documents now being made public detail
illegal and scandalous activities by the CIA more than 30 years
ago: wiretappings of journalists, kidnappings, warrantless
searches and more. The documents provide a glimpse of nearly 700
pages of materials that the agency plans to declassify next week.
[How
long do we have to wait for proof that 9/11 was an inside job?]
For complete story,
click here.
CIA
reveals decades of plots, kidnaps and wiretaps --693-page
dossier covers 1950s to early 70s --Contents caused panic
in Ford White House 23 Jun 2007 The CIA is to declassify
secret records detailing operations including illegal domestic
surveillance, assassination plots and kidnapping, undertaken from
the 1950s to the early 1970s, at the height of the cold war and
the Vietnam conflict. The records were compiled in 1973 at the
behest of the then CIA director, James Schlesinger, and collected
in a 693-page dossier known as the "family jewels".
For complete story,
click here.
CIA
to reveal decades of misdeeds 22 Jun 2007 Gen Hayden:
Documents give a glimpse of a very different time The US Central
Intelligence Agency is to declassify hundreds of documents
detailing some of the agency's worst illegal abuses from the 1950s
to 1970s. The papers, to be released next week, will detail
assassination plots, domestic spying and wiretapping, kidnapping
and human experiments.
For complete story,
click here.
In
Her Twilight, 91-Year-Old Activist Shines: June 15th, 2007--DETROIT
— In a two-story brick house with red trim and a leaky roof,
Grace Lee Boggs, 91, is plotting revolution. That in itself
is nothing new. She's been doing the same from this very house for
45 years. It was here, at the corner of Field and Goethe on
Detroit's east side, that Grace and her husband James midwifed the
birth of the black power movement — producing pamphlets,
manifestos and books on racism, class struggle and revolution,
creating one organization after another bent on making it happen,
and turning their living room into a crossroads for generations of
black radicals. For complete story,
click here.
JFK
airport plot 'a US setup' 06 Jun 2007 The four suspects in
an alleged terror plot to bomb a New York airport were set up in
an elaborate plan by the US Republican
party to retain hold of the White House, the daughter
of an arrested suspect claimed on Tuesday. Huda Ibrahiim, daughter
of Amir Kareem Ibrahiim, one of four men accused of plotting acts
of terrorism against the United States, said US justice officials
had engaged in entrapment in breaking up the alleged plot... She
also said her father was afraid to fly, was not computer literate
and does not use the internet. For complete story,
click here.
Five
US Reps Support Cheney Impeachment 06 Jun 2007 US
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) has become the fifth total co-sponsor of
US Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) bill to impeach Vice President
[sic] of the United States Dick Cheney, Atlanta Progressive News
has learned. In addition to Kucinich, the additional three Members
of Congress who have signed on to H. Res 333 are US Rep. Janice
Schakowsky (D-IL), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), and Albert Wynn
(D-MD). "This Administration has continued to erode the trust
of the American people and enough is simply enough," stated
US Rep. Clarke in a press release issued first to Atlanta
Progressive News. For complete story,
click here.
GOP
chief: We need more terror attacks on US soil 'to appreciate'
President Bush03 Jun 2007 The
Republican Party of Arkansas, which was beaten decisively in last
year's election, needs to dedicate itself to running next time on
an anti-tax, pro-highway and pro-education agenda, its new
chairman [Bryant businessman Dennis Milligan] said... Milligan
said he’s "150 percent" behind Bush on the war in
Iraq. "At the end of the day, I believe fully the president
[sic] is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some
attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the
commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been
made by men and women to protect this country," Milligan
said. For complete story,
click here.
Mafia
prosecutor now has Bush in his sights 03 Jun 2007 George W
Bush may finally be about to meet the man who could prove his
undoing. Preet Bharara is a 38-year-old Indian-American lawyer,
who made his name prosecuting the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families in New York. Now the former district
attorney has President [sic] Bush in his sights, as well as Karl
Rove, the president's chief political adviser.
For complete story,
click here.
Bush
presidency worst in history says Carter:
MAY 19TH,
2007--Former President Jimmy Carter blasted George W. Bush's
presidency as "the
worst in history" in international
relations and denounced British Prime Minister Tony Blair's loyal
relationship with Bush in interviews released on
Saturday. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around
the world, this administration has been the worst in
history," Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a
telephone interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from the
Carter Center in Atlanta. For complete story,
click here.
Mission
of Conscience Accomplished: Battle of Baghdad Cover-up Exposed:
April
30th, 2007--CRAWFORD — On April 4, The
Iconoclast
published an interview with Captain Eric H. May,
"Battle of Baghdad Cover-up — Four Years Later." In
it, May described reports that a neutron bomb had been used at
Baghdad Airport shortly after U.S. forces reached the city, on
April 5, 2003, but that the event was covered up by the trumped-up
rescue of Private Jessica Lynch.
Immediately following publication of the
interview, the unexpected happened. Congress
scheduled hearings to
investigate the contrived stories of Private Jessica Lynch and
Specialist Pat Tillman, hearings conducted this week, which
provided damning evidence of a military engaged in propaganda. As
the Iconoclast noted April 11, following the publication of
Captain May’s Battle of Baghdad and nuclear warhead claims, Al Jazeera ran an interview with Iraqi General Al-Rawi, who was in
command of Iraqi forces at Baghdad Airport. Al-Rawi confirmed
May’s statements about the Battle of Baghdad, and the U.S. use
of a neutron bomb at Baghdad
Airport. In a time when
both military intelligence and public affairs officers seem to be
masters of the art of not saying the truth, Captain May, who is a
specialist in both areas, is a refreshing breath of candor. In the
interview below, the Iconoclast continues to ask probing questions
of this former officer, who consistently predicted a disaster if
we attacked Iraq from 1992 on, then later, on a mission of
conscience, exposed the cover-ups that hid the predicted disaster
from the American people. For complete story,
click here.
Bruce
Willis Says JFK Killers Still In Power:
May 7th, 2007--
In a new magazine interview, Bruce Willis spills the beans on his skepticism that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination
of JFK, and suggests that the some of the same criminals who
killed
Kennedy are still in power today. "They still haven't
caught the guy that killed [President] Kennedy," Willis
told Vanity Fair's June issue, according to the New York
Post. "I'll get killed for saying this, but I'm pretty
sure those guys are still in power, in some form. The entire government of the United States was co-opted," adds the Die
Hard star. So from where did Willis, a former die-hard
champion of Neo-Con
policy, receive his sudden wake-up call?
As we reported last year, Hollywood director Richard Linklater
said he had handed out 9/11 truth DVDs on the set of Fast Food
Nation, including Alex Jones' Terror Storm and Martial Law
documentaries, and that they completely changed
Willis' political
paradigm. "He said it put him in such a head space that
he will be quiet on issues of national policy," Linklater
told the Alex Jones Show. Is Willis' comment that the people
who killed Kennedy are still in power a reference to the fact that
George H.W. Bush was photographed at the scene in Dealy
Plaza? Either way, it's refreshing to see that Willis, who
was vehemently
pro-war and pro-Bush in the months after 9/11, has seen the light
and realized that patriotism is about love of one's country, not
worship of government. For the complete story,
click here.
Draft
law enables US companies to take control of Iraq's oil industry
05
May 2007 A draft law being considered by the Iraqi parliament
would enable US companies to take control of Iraq's oil industry,
oil experts in the country say. The proposed bill, approved by the
Iraqi government in February after months of wrangling, opens the
country's oil sector to foreign investors 35 years after it was nationalised.
"The law is designed for the benefit of US
oil companies," Ramzy Salman, an Iraqi economist who
worked for the Iraqi oil ministry for 30 years, said. "If
approved, it would take things back to where they were before the nationalisation of Iraq's oil in 1972."
For complete story, click here.
JFK
Murder Plot "Deathbed Confession" Aired On National
RadioFormer CIA agent, Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt names
the men whokilled Kennedy:
APRIL 30, 2007--The
"deathbed confession" audio tape in which former CIA
agent and Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt admits he was
approached to be part of a CIA assassination team to kill JFK was
aired this weekend -an astounding development that has gone
completely ignored by the establishment media. Saint John
Hunt, son of E. Howard Hunt, appeared on the nationally syndicated
Coast to Coast AM radio show on Saturday night to discuss the
revelations contained in the tape. Hunt said that his father
had mailed cassette the tape to him alone in January 2004 and
asked that it be released after his death. The tape was originally
20 minutes long but was edited down to four and a half minutes for
the Coast to Coast broadcast. Hunt promises that the whole tape
will be uploaded soon at his website. For complete story,
click here.
Articles
of Impeachment to Be Filed On Cheney By Mary Ann Akers 17
Apr 2007 Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)... declared in a letter
sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans
to file articles of impeachment against Vice President [sic] Dick
Cheney... Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution gives Congress
the authority to impeach the president, vice president and
"all civil Officers of the United States" for
"treason, bribery, or other high Crimes and
Misdemeanors." Sources tell the Sleuth that
in
light of the mass killings at Virginia Tech Monday, Kucinich's
impeachment plans have been put on hold. There will be
no action this week, they say. For complete story,
click here.
Immunity
for Ex-Gonzales Aide Weighed --Potential Witness's Role in
Firings Cited 18 Apr 2007 The confrontation between Congress and
the Bush regime over the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys
escalated again yesterday as Democrats on the House Judiciary
Committee said they are weighing an offer of immunity to a
potential key witness in the investigation. At the same time, the
Republican
National Committee yesterday turned down congressional demands
that it hand over e-mails related to the firings, angering
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). For
complete story,
click here.
GOP
Senators Misled on Prosecutor By Richard L. Fricker 18 Apr
2007 The Bush administration fed Republican senators misleading talking points that hailed the prosecutorial experience of interim
Little Rock U.S. Attorney J. Timothy Griffin, although the protégé
of White House political adviser Karl Rove appears never to have
actually tried a criminal case. For complete story,
click here.
Contractor
says it was told to hire Wolfowitz's girlfriend 18 Apr
2007 The US Defence Department directed a private contractor in
2003 to hire Shaha Ali Riza, a World Bank employee and the
companion of Paul Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defence,
to spend a month studying issues related to setting up a new
'government' in Iraq.
Click here for full story.
House
to Begin Probe Into Fla. Election 17 Apr 2007 A House task
force will take the first steps Tuesday in an investigation of a
Florida congressional election decided by 369 votes amid
complaints that 'voting' machines failed to count thousands of
electronic ballots. For complete story,
click here.
Rulings
go against administration
17 Apr 2007 A string of federal court rulings in recent weeks has
gone against Bush administration environmental policies, and
critics say they are proof that the
White
House regularly circumvents laws designed to protect the nation's
air, water, forests and endangered species. "They
(courts) are finding in case after case after case that the Bush
administration is violating the law," said Trip Van
Noppen, vice president of litigation for Earthjustice, a public
interest law firm that represents environmental groups suing the
government. For complete story,
click here.
New
FEMA Hurricane Plan Won't Be Ready --Congress Ordered New
Plan By June 1 17 Apr 2007 A federal government plan for
responding to emergencies will not be ready in time for the
approaching hurricane season, officials have told Congress.
For complete story,
click here.
Global
warming may put U.S. in hot water 17 Apr 2007 As the world
warms, water — either too little or too much of it — is going
to be the major problem for the United States, scientists and
military experts said Monday. It will be a domestic problem, with
states clashing over controls of rivers, and a national security
problem as water shortages and floods worsen conflicts and
[US-generated] terrorism elsewhere in the world, they said.
For more on this story,
click here.
CVS
admits customer data went in Dumpster
17 Apr 2007
CVS/Caremark Corp. Tuesday acknowledged one of its Texas
drugstores discarded personal records in a Dumpster, exposing
customers to possible identity theft. For complete story,
click here.
Secret
service officer shoots two agents at White House
18 Apr 2007 Two Secret Service officers were injured after a gun
held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside
the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.
Their injuries are non-life threatening, the spokesman said.
For complete story,
click here.
Accidental
Shooting Stirs Secret Service
17 Apr 2007 Two Secret Service officers were injured in an
accidental shooting Tuesday at the White House. In a separate
incident, Lafayette Park along Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the
White House was closed because of a
suspicious
package, the Secret Service said. There was a security
clampdown at the White House because of both incidents. For
complete story, click here.
Threats
Rattle Schools in 10 States
18 Apr 2007 Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at
universities, high schools and middle schools in at least 10
states on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting
rampage killed 33 people. For more on this story,
click here.
Bush
Allies in Congress Block Bill That Would Require Intelligence
Disclosures
17 Apr 2007 The Bush administration’s allies in Congress on
Monday blocked a bill that would require the White House to
disclose the locations of secret prisons
run by the Central Intelligence Agency and to reveal
the amount spent annually by American intelligence agencies.
For complete story,
click here.
House
panel OKs subpoenas for Rove, other White House aides
--Move sets up constitutional showdown over firings of U.S.
attorneys 21 Mar 2007 A House
panel on Wednesday defied
the White House and authorized subpoenas for President [sic]
Bush’s political adviser, Karl Rove and other top aides, setting
up a constitutional
showdown over the firings of eight federal
prosecutors. For complete story,
click here.
Scientist
accuses White House of 'Nazi' tactics
19 Mar 2007 A government scientist, under sharp questioning by a
federal panel for his outspoken views on global warming, stood by
his view today that the Bush administration's information policies
smacked of Nazi Germany. James Hansen, director of the Goddard
Institute for Space Studies in the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, took particular issue with the
administration's
rule that a government information officer listen in on his
interviews with reporters
and its refusal to
allow him to be interviewed by National Public Radio. For
complete story,
click here.
E-Mails
Show Rove's Role in U.S. Attorney Firings
15 Mar 2007 New unreleased e-mails from top administration
officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was
raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005,
indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House
previously acknowledged. The e-mails also show that Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the
attorneys en masse weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general.
The e-mails directly
contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with
recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers, and was her
idea alone. For more
on this story,
click here.
Scandal
over lawyers moves nearer to Bush
17 Mar 2007 The scandal over the sacking of eight government
lawyers, allegedly for political reasons, moved closer to the White House last night after it was revealed that George W Bush's
right-hand man [Karl Rove] was involved in discussions about the
dismissals two years ago. For more on this story,
click here.
Republican
Election Fraud and the Firing of US Attorneys
--The Rec Report --By Michael Rectenwald Wednesday, 14 Mar 2007
"Since the 2000 election ended in dispute in Florida,"
MSNBC reports, "Republicans at the national and local levels
have repeatedly raised concerns about possible voter fraud,
alleging that convicted felons and other ineligible voters have
been permitted to cast ballots to the benefit of Democrats."
For more on this story,
click here.
'The
Redirection' is Treason: Bring in the Trials, There have to be
Trials! --The Rec Report
--By Michael Rectenwald Monday, 05 Mar 2007 The War in Iraq has
had more unintended consequences than anyone in the Bush regime
had imagined. One of them is a
new
US strategy to fund the enemy of the US troops. That's
right--we are funneling money to the Sunnis, the very same Sunnis
who are attached to Al Qaida in Iraq, and the "insurgency.
" Did anyone doubt that the US is actually fomenting the war
that we are supposedly there to squelch? For complete story,
click here.
Venezuela’s Chavez
Says World Faces Choice Between US Hegemony and Survival:
Caracas, Venezuela, September 20, 2006 —Borrowing a line
from U.S. linguist and foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky,
Venezuela’s President Chavez told the 61st UN General Assembly
that the world currently faces the choice between continued U.S.
hegemony and human survival. Chavez also called for the
re-founding of the United Nations, so as to avert this danger.
"The hegemonistic pretensions of the American empire are
placing at risk the very existence of the human species,"
said Chavez, holding up a copy of Chomsky’s book and to the
applause of many attendees. Chavez continued, stressing, "We
appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt
this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our head.”
Chavez’s speech, which, following his well-received appearance
at the UN the previous year, as widely anticipated, also went on
to refer to U.S. President Bush as the “devil” on several
occasions. “Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this
rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom
I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the
world,” he said. Chavez strongly criticized Bush’s
speech of the previous day, saying that he seeks to impose an
elitist model of democracy on the world. “They say they want to
impose a democratic model. But that's their democratic model. It's
the false democracy of elites, and, I would say, a very original
democracy that's imposed by weapons and bombs and firing
weapons.” Bush’s reference to the fight against
extremists was another issue Chavez rejected, saying that those
Bush sees as extremists are those who resist imperial domination,
saying, “You can call us extremists, but we are rising up
against the empire, against the model of domination.”
Chavez went on to mock Bush’s statement that he wants peace,
pointing out how he is responsible for wars in Iraq, Lebanon,
and Palestine and then Bush says, according to Chavez, “We are
suffering because we see homes destroyed.” The ways in
which the U.S. is able to get away with its ambitions are proof
that the UN system has “collapsed” and is “worthless,”
according to Chavez, and is in need of being “re-founded.”
Concretely, Chavez repeated four proposals that he said Venezuela
had made a year earlier. First, the UN Security Council should be
expanded, with new permanent members from the Third World. Second,
said Chavez, it needs “methods to address and resolve world
conflicts.” Third, the abolishing of the “undemocratic” veto
in the Security Council. Fourth, the strengthening of the role of
the UN Secretary General... For more
on this story, click here.
'JonBenét
died - and Bush lied?':
I was on the air doing my radio program two weeks ago when the story
came down the wire that the killer of JonBenét Ramsey had been
captured in Thailand just hours earlier. I opened the microphone and
said words to the effect of,
"Today
there must be something really awful going down for
the Republicans.
Maybe Rove really will be indicted. Maybe Cheney. Maybe some
terrible
revelation about Bush. And if there isn't, today will be the day
they'll toss out the
unsavory stories - like gutting an environmental law or
wiping
out pension plans - that they don't want covered."
Apparently it was
worse than I'd imagined. That same morning - just hours after
the JonBenét information hit the press and just after I got off the
air - it was revealed that US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor
had ruled that
George
W. Bush and now-CIA Director Michael Hayden had
committed multiple High Crimes, Misdemeanors, and
felonies,
both criminal and constitutional. If her ruling
stands, Bush and
Hayden could go to prison. For more on this story,
click here.
Denver
Post: U.S. Sen. Salazar calls for Rumsfeld to be fired:
Washington - U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar asked President Bush to fire
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Wednesday following Rumsfeld's
suggestion that questioning the Iraq war endangers American
security. Salazar joined a chorus of Democrats repudiating
Rumsfeld, who made the comments Tuesday in a speech to the American
Legion in Salt Lake City. "I am deeply disturbed by the
recent remarks of the Secretary of Defense," Salazar, D-Colo.,
wrote to Bush in asking for Rumsfeld's dismissal. "It is a
grave insult to suggest that Americans who question Secretary
Rumsfeld's mismanagement of the conflict in Iraq are somehow not
fully committed to standing up to terrorism."
For complete story,
click here.
Chávez
rolls into Damascus to charm another US foe:
The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, said yesterday he and Syria
would "build a new world"
free from US domination.
"We have decided to be free. We want to cooperate to build a new
world where states' and people's self-determination are
respected," Mr Chávez said after a two-and-a-half-
hour meeting with the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, at his
presidential palace in Damascus. "Imperialism'
s concern is to control the world, but we will not let them despite
the pressure and aggression," the Venezuelan leader said.
Speaking at
Damascus airport on his arrival late on Tuesday, Mr Chávez
said both countries agreed to stand up to the United States. "We
have the same political vision and we will resist together the
American imperialist aggression," he said. Pictures of Mr
Chávez and Mr Assad lined the streets of downtown Damascus, and
thousands of Syrians waved banners and Venezuelan flags as Mr Chávez
drove to his meeting with Mr Assad. With Mr Chávez and Mr Assad
looking on, delegates from the two countries signed 13 political and
economic agreements. Mr Assad told reporters he saw Mr Chávez's
visit as historic, and that the Venezuelan leader had made "great
stands" in support of Arab causes. For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
to stage missile-defense test over Pacific
30 Aug 2006 The United States is set to test key parts of its emerging
antimissile shield over the Pacific on Thursday, officially to collect
data, but with the possibility that a target dummy warhead will be
shot down. The $85 million
exercise is the first involving a live target since interceptor rockets failed to leave their silos during tests in December 2004 and
February 2005. For complete story,
click here.
Bush
and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor:
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (OneWorld) - A chief prosecutor of Nazi war
crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war
crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferencz, who secured
convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the
death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld
both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting
"aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and
Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq. For complete story,
click here.
Evo
Morales exposes conspiracy against nationalizationLA PAZ, August 24.— In a
message to the nation, Bolivian President Evo Morales today accused
the opposition parties of organizing a new conspiracy against the
nationalization of hydrocarbon resources, which was decreed on May 1.
The leader used those terms to refer to the recourse of presenting a
proposal for nullity before the Constitutional Court by the Social
Democratic Power (Podemos) Party, the Nationalist Revolutionary
Movement and the National Unity Party. Morales mentioned
parliamentary deputies Sandra Yánez, of Podemos; Gustavo Ugarte, of
the MNR, and Gary Joaquín, of UN, as the promoters of that
conspiracy, which aims to return the country to the times of
privatization of oil companies. For more on this story,
click here.
US
begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre
31 Jul 2006 Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ
warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US against an attack
with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory's work will
violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a
biological arms race. The centre will have to produce and
stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses,
which
is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.
For complete story, click here.
U.S.
biodefense lab raises concerns
30 Jul 2006 The Bush regime is building a massive biodefense
laboratory in Maryland that will simulate [stimulate?] calamitous bioterrorism attacks, it was reported Sunday. But much
of what the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center in
Fort Detrick, Md., does may never be publicly known because the
White
House intends to operate the facility largely in secret,
the Washington Post reported. In an unusual arrangement, the building
itself will be classified as "highly restricted space," the
newspaper said. Not even nuclear labs operate with such secrecy.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
accused of kidnappings in Iraq 14 Jul
2006 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has until 5
p.m. Friday to hand over a raft of documents to Congress that
might shed new light on detainee abuse in Iraq. It now appears that
kidnapping, scarcely covered by the media, and absent in the major
military investigations of detainee abuse, may have been systematically
employed by U.S. troops. Salon has obtained Army documents that show
several cases where U.S. forces abducted terror suspects’ families.
For more on this story,
click here.
Northern
Trust & The Bush Grime Family:
July 7/8, 2006 --
SPECIAL REPORT. Those who claim the Bush administration is a Nazi regime
are not far from the
truth. This story is a special investigation of
Bush family slush funds, smuggling, and secret money conduits from and
to various right-wing causes, including
some that are extremely violent.
The New York Times is running a story today about the U.S. military
recruiting Aryan Nation, neo-Nazi, and other white
supremacists into its
ranks. The Times' report states that Neo-Nazi graffiti has sprung
up in Baghdad, in quoting from a report by the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC). The involvement of white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups
with the Pentagon began in earnest during the administrations of Reagan
and Bush I. According to informed sources who have tracked the neo-Nazis
since the Reagan era, the surge in extreme right-wing elements in the
Federal government was spurred on by the network of Nicaraguan Contra
support activities created to facilitate going around the prohibitions
enacted by the
Congress. A key member of that strategy was Cheney's
Chief of Staff David Addington, who was with the CIA, the Iran-Contra
Committee in Congress, and then signed on as senior Vice President for
the American Trucking Associations (ATA). WMR reported yesterday on the
involvement of a foundation set up by McLean Trucking Co., a member of
the ATA, with covert Contra support. For more on the story,
click here. (Unable to
provide, not free publication.)
Bolivian
President Claims US Attempted to Assassination:
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Leftist President Evo Morales said Tuesday the U.S.
government had organized groups to
kill him and said he believed
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's assertion that Washington was
preparing to overthrow his administration. For more on this story,
click here.
House
Speaker Hastert under investigation: ABC
24 May 2006 The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis
Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption
in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday. ABC, citing high level
Justice Department sources, said information implicating Hastert was developed from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the
government. For complete story,
click here.
Special
counsel: Cheney may be called to testify
--Prosecutor weighs option of vice president's testimony in CIA leak
case 24 May 2006 Vice pResident Dick Cheney could be called to
testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special
prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday. For more on this
story,
click here.
'Out
of Control' Guard Unit Established by U.S. Suspected in Death
Squad-Style Executions
14
May 2006 (Baghdad) Last month, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr accused the
Facilities Protection Service, known as the FPS, of carrying out some of
the killings widely attributed to death squads operating inside his
ministry's police forces. L. Paul Bremer, then U.S. administrator of
Iraq, signed an order establishing the Facilities Protection Service in
2003. The order also allowed private security firms [i.e., Blackwater
USA terrorists] to handle the contracting of FPS guards for the
ministries. ...One former adviser in Iraq said he believes that at least
some of the death squads come from the special police commando squads
that the United States helped establish.
Click here for more on the story.
Federal
agents raid home of CIA's former No. 3 boss 12 May 2006 Federal agents Friday morning raided the home of Kyle
"Dusty" Foggo, who stepped down this week from the No. 3 post
at the CIA amid accusations of improper ties to a defense contractor
named as a co-conspirator in the bribery case of former Rep. Randy
"Duke" Cunningham. For more on the story,
click here.
Baghdad
anger at Bush's undiplomatic palace
04 May 2006 The question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that
the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more
than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build the biggest
embassy on earth?
Irritation grows as residents deprived of
air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion
watch the massive US embassy they call "George W's palace"
rising from the banks of the Tigris...
In a week when Washington
revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on
building projects, Congress was told the bill for the embassy was
$US592million
($772million).
For more on this story,
click here.
Hearing
vowed on Bush's powers
--Senator questions bypassing of laws 03 May 2006 The chairman of
the Senate Judiciary Committee [Arlen Specter, R-PA],
accusing the White
House of a ''very
blatant encroachment"
on congressional authority, said yesterday he will hold an oversight
hearing into President [sic] Bush's assertion that he has the power to
bypass more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years. Specter's
announcement followed a report in the Sunday Globe that Bush has quietly
asserted the authority to ignore provisions in 750 bills he has signed
-- about 1 in 10. Over the past five years, Bush has stated that he
can defy any statute that conflicts with his interpretation of the
Constitution
For more on this story,
click here.
U.S.
Pandemic Draft: Federal Troops, National Guard to Maintain Order
--Military
activated to enforce travel restrictions and deliver [!?!] vaccines and
medicines 02
May 2006 According to a 228-page draft of the government's pandemic flu
plan obtained by The Associated Press, an outbreak could lead to a
variety of
restrictions on movement in and around the country, including
limiting the number of international flights and quarantining exposed
travelers... The report envisions possible breakdowns in public order
and says governors might deploy National Guard troops or request federal
troops to maintain order. The military also could be activated to
enforce travel restrictions and deliver vaccines and medicines, the
report says. [See:
The
Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.]
For more on this story,
click here.
Bush
challenges hundreds of laws President cites powers of his office:WASHINGTON
-- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more
than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the
power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts
with his interpretation of the Constitution.Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and
regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress
be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower"
protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against
political interference in federally funded research.Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's
assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to
expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance
between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in
assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president
a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to
''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.
For more on this story,
click here.
Mexico
set to legalize personal amounts of pot, cocaine, heroin:MEXICO CITY, Mexico
(AP) -- Mexico's Congress on Friday approved a bill decriminalizing
possession of small quantities of marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and even
heroin for personal use, prompting U.S. criticism that the measure
could harm anti-drug efforts.
The
only step remaining was the signature of President Vicente Fox, whose
office indicated he would sign the bill, which Mexican officials hope
will allow police to focus on large-scale trafficking operations
rather than minor drug busts."This
law gives police and prosecutors better legal tools to combat drug
crimes that do so much damage to our youth and children," said
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar.
For complete story, click here.
Internet
shut-down in two to four days during flu pandemic: Booz Allen
Telephone and Internet services could be overwhelmed and shut down in
the early stages of a
bird flu pandemic, according to a report released
on Thursday. Businesses need to think of other ways to keep going as
governments close schools and direct people to
stay home, management
consulting firm
Booz
Allen Hamilton reported... "Telecommunications (phone and
Internet) will likely be overwhelmed early in a pandemic, with
experts
predicting shut-downs
in two to four days,
meaning that telecommuting will not be viable and alternative
communications need to be explored," the report read. "Governments
will likely direct the general population to stay in their homes,
and minimize social contact," it added. ['Overwhelmed?'
No. The Bush bioterror
team is going to *shut it down.*]
For more on this story,
click here.
FBI
secretly sought data on 3,501 people in 2005
--Agency ramped up use of approach that requires no court approval
28 Apr 2006 The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S.
citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone
and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.
For more on this story, click here.
Exxon
Mobil 1st-Qtr Profit Rises as Oil Prices Surge
--Exxon Mobil's quarterly net climbs to $8.4B, up 6.9% 27 Apr
2006 Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's biggest oil
company, said profit
climbed 6.9 percent to a first- quarter record of $8.4 billion as output
rose for the first time in a year and a half and increasing energy
demand lifted
prices. Revenue climbed 8.4 percent to $89 billion. For more on this story,
click here.
1,000
secret CIA flights revealed
--MEPs'
report says member states knew of abductions
--Documents show 'strange routes' and stopovers 27 Apr 2006 The
CIA has operated more than 1,000 secret flights over EU territory in the
past five years, some to transfer terror suspects in a practice known as
"extraordinary rendition", an investigation by the European
parliament said yesterday.
For more on this story,
click here.
Wars,
Debt and Outsourcing The World is Uniting Against the Bush Imperium:04/25/06 -- -- Is the
United States a superpower? I think not. Consider these facts: The financial position of the US has declined dramatically. The US is
heavily indebted, both government and consumers. The US trade deficit
both in absolute size and as a percentage of GDP is unprecedented,
reaching more than $800 billion in 2005 and accumulating to $4.5
trillion since 1990. With US job growth falling behind population growth
and with no growth in consumer real incomes, the US economy is driven by
expanding consumer debt. Saving rates are low or negative.The federal budget is deep in the red, adding to America's
dependency on debt. The US cannot even go to war unless foreigners are
willing to finance it.Our
biggest bankers are China and Japan, both of whom could cause the US
serious financial problems if they wished. A country whose financial
affairs are in the hands of foreigners is not a superpower.The US is heavily dependent on imports for manufactured
goods, including advanced technology products. In 2005 US dependency (in
dollar amounts) on imported manufactured goods was twice as large as US
dependency on imported oil. In the 21st century the US has experienced a
rapid increase in dependency on imports of advanced technology products.
A country dependent on foreigners for manufactures and advanced
technology products is not a superpower.Because of jobs offshoring and illegal immigration, US consumers
create jobs for foreigners, not for Americans. Bureau of Labor
Statistics jobs reports document the loss of manufacturing jobs and the
inability of the US economy to create jobs in categories other than
domestic "hands on" services. According to a March 2006 report
from the Center for Immigration Studies, most of these jobs are going to
immigrants: "Between March 2000 and March 2005 only 9 percent of
the net increase in jobs for adults (18 to 64) went to natives. This is
striking because natives accounted for 61 percent of the net increase in
the overall size of the 18 to 64 year old population."A country that cannot create jobs for its native born population
is not a superpower.
For more on this story,
click here.
MODERN
MEDICINE'S DECEIT & WHY I ABANDONED IT:By education and by trade,
I was a drug chemist. My passion for science motivated a successful
career in drug design and synthesis - in both academia and industry. As
a scientist, I witnessed first-hand the priorities of international
pharmaceutical companies (Big Pharma), which ranked wealth first and
health a distant second.In
the pharmaceutical industry, making money supercedes science.Science no longer prevails in medicine. Instead, modern medicine
has been democratized.Drug
approval is a simple matter of 51% telling the other 49% that a
prescription drug is safe and necessary. The outcome: deadly drugs are
approved for use among misinformed medical doctors and patients.Herein lies a story of deceit and a chemist's abandonment of
modern medicine.My suspicion of modern medicine began while I was employed by Eli Lilly to
design a new generation of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) drugs. Such
drugs include tamoxifen and raloxifene. Initially, these drugs were
thought to block estrogen receptors (excess estrogen can initiate cancer
growth) and thereby halt cancer. As time progressed, though, it was
learned that they were also capable of activating estrogen receptors.
The end result was a biochemical environment favorable to cancer growth among users. [1]The Journal of the American Medical Association
recognized this trend and stated "our data add to the growing body
of evidence that recent long-term use of HRT is associated with an
increased risk of breast cancer and that such use may be related
particularly to lobular tumors."
For more on this story,
click here.
CIA
officer fired for 'leaking classified information'
(not related to Plame leak). The officer is accused of being the
source for Pulitzer prize-winning
article on
CIA 'black site' prisons in Eastern Europe by the Washington Post's Dana Priest.
The CIA officer was fired after failing polygraph test about the
classified leak. Criminal charges against the former CIA officer could
follow.
For more info,
click here.
$500K
Seized; Strange Situation Reported At Nuclear Plant
19 Apr 2006 (PA) Two workers [for Bechtel Corp.] looking for tools set
off a security situation at a Beaver
County
nuclear
power plant that drew a response from police and federal
investigators, WTAE Channel reported... A state trooper got a warrant to
search the vehicle and
found a duffel bag, which he said contained $504,230
in mostly small bills. The men, who are from Houston, said they picked
up the bag in Chicago and had no knowledge
of its contents, according to
police. [MIHOP
II thwarted?] For more on this story,
click here.
No
one claims $500,000 stash in truck
20 Apr 2006 (PA) When security guards at the Beaver Valley Power Station
discovered a bag containing thousands of dollars in a
tractor-trailer
cab, one of the vehicle's occupants told them his boss planned to use
the cash to buy a truck. State police said the bag, which guards spotted
on Tuesday
while conducting a routine search of the tractor-trailer at
the entrance to the nuclear power plant, contained 10 plastic-wrapped
bundles of cash totaling $504,230. State
police were investigating to
determine who owns the money and how it got into the tractor-trailer...
The truckers worked for a company hired by San Francisco-based
Bechtel
Corp., which is performing construction work and replacing equipment
at the plant, said Richard Wilkins, spokesman for plant owner First
Energy Nuclear Operating
Co.
For more on this story,
click here.
Iranian:
U.S. Waging 'Psychological War':Iran's former
president accused the United States Sunday of waging "a
psychological war" against Tehran and said an American strike
against the Islamic republic would not be in Washington's interests.Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the
Expediency Council, a powerful body that mediates between Iran's
parliament and clerical hierarchy, said Western nations' attempts to
block Iran's nuclear program were "unjust."
For complete story,
click here.
US plots 'new
liberation of Baghdad'
16 Apr 2006 The American military is planning a "second liberation
of Baghdad" to be carried out with the Iraqi army when a new
government is installed. Strategic and tactical plans are being laid by
US commanders in Iraq and at the US army base in Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, under Lieutenant-
General David Petraeus.
For complete story,
click here.
Britain
took part in mock Iran invasion
--Pentagon planned for Tehran conflict with war game involving UK
troops 15 Apr 2006 British officers took part in a US
war game aimed
at preparing for a possible invasion of Iran, despite repeated claims by
the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, that a military strike against Iran
is inconceivable.
The war game, codenamed Hotspur 2004, took place at
the US base of Fort Belvoir in Virginia in July 2004. Hotspur took place
at a time of accelerated US planning after
the fall of Baghdad for a
possible conflict with Iran.
For complete story, click here.
Army
report on al-Qaida accuses Rumsfeld
--Donald
Rumsfeld said to have been "personally involved" in a Guantánamo
Bay interrogation.
15 Apr 2006
Donald Rumsfeld was directly linked to prisoner abuse for
the first time yesterday, when it emerged he had been "personally
involved" in a Guantánamo Bay interrogation
found by military
investigators to have been "degrading and abusive". Human
Rights Watch last night called for a special prosecutor to be appointed
to investigate whether
the defence secretary could be criminally
liable for the treatment of Mohamed al-Qahtani, a Saudi al-Qaida
suspect forced to wear women's underwear, stand naked in
front of a
woman interrogator, and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash, in
late 2002 and early 2003.
For complete story,
click here.
ISP
snooping gaining support
14 Apr 2006 The explosive idea of forcing Internet providers to record
their customers' online activities for future police access is gaining ground in state capitols and in Washington, D.C. Top Bush administration
officials have endorsed the concept [gee, there's a big f*cking
surprise], and some members of the U.S. Congress have said federal
legislation is needed to aid law enforcement investigations into child
pornography [Yes, but then what would the GOPedophilesworking for Homeland Suckyourity and the TSA read?]
For more on this story,
click here.
White
House admits Iraq WMDs error--Bush and Cheney knowingly made false
statements:The
White House has acknowledged for the first time that a key moment in
post-war Iraq, the declaration by George Bush that "we have found
the weapons of mass destruction", was based on intelligence known
in Washington to be false.The
president's assertion on May 29 2003 that Saddam Hussein's arsenal had
been located was based on the capture of two trailers claimed to be
mobile biological warfare labs. In Mr Bush's TV interview that day, and
for months afterwards, US officials used them to justify the invasion.However, the Washington Post yesterday reported that the Pentagon
had sent nine US and British weapons experts to Iraq to examine the
trailers, who concluded they had nothing to do with biological weapons,
and transmitted their finding to Washington on May 27 2003.
For complete story, click here.
British
computer hacker 'could be sent to Guantanamo', court told
12 Apr 2006 A British man who allegedly crippled US defence systems in
the "biggest military
computer hack of all time" could be sent
to Guantanamo Bay if he is extradited, his lawyer argued. Edmund Lawson
told Bow Street Magistrates Court in central London
that Washington
wanted "administrative revenge" on his client, Gary McKinnon,
because he had exposed embarrassing weaknesses in its IT security.
For complete story,
click here.
U.S.
military data for sale --Available
at bazaars for $20-$50
--Computer disks pilfered from base 13 Apr 2006 A shopkeeper outside the
U.S.-led occupation
headquarters in Afghanistan was selling computer
memory drives yesterday containing seemingly sensitive military data
stolen from inside the base, including the Social
Security numbers of
four American generals.
For complete story,
click here.
WAY
OUT OF LINE: Harris County prosecutor's upbraiding of jurors over a not
guilty verdict was unprofessional and unjust:Serving
on a jury is sacrifice enough
for the relatively small percentage of
citizens who actually obey their summons and show up for duty. Getting
chewed out by a prosecutor who didn't like a verdict — as
happened
here last month — shouldn't be part of the experience.Rene Villalobos Velez, 29, had been charged with aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon after shooting
a merchant in the shin
during a quarrel last year over the purchase of a mattress. Velez
claimed self- defense, accusing the merchant of threatening him with a
pipe.
Prosecutor Doug Richards, a 2004 graduate of South Texas College
of Law, argued that Velez shot the victim through a door and was in no
danger when he did so.The
jury
disagreed and found Velez innocent. Afterward, one member
questioned why the prosecutor had not charged Velez with illegally
carrying a weapon, a charge about which
there could have been no
dispute, as the defendant had no state concealed gun permit.In a post-trial meeting with the jurors, Richards blasted their
judgment. According to
several members of the panel, he accused the
jurors of "ignoring the laws and the facts" and then stomped
off in a huff.Although
Harris County District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal later told the young
prosecutor it was not the policy of his office to disparage jurors,
Richards did not retract his comments when interviewed by Chronicle
reporter
Steve McVicker. He said he expected jurors to honor their oath
to uphold the law: "I do stand by the fact that there's no way they
could have been listening to the evidence in this case and still have
reached the same verdict." Richards is apparently under the
impression that jurors cannot disagree with a prosecutor's judgment
without violating
their oath. If that were true, there would be no
reason to have a jury system.
For the complete story,
click here.
The
"department [of defence] must be prepared to 'fight the net'".America's war on the web
02 Apr 2006 By Neil Mackay "...[Details] are contained in a report,
entitled The Information Operations Roadmap, commissioned and approved
by US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld and seen by the Sunday
Herald. The Pentagon has
already signed off $383 million to force
through the document’s recommendations by 2009. Military and
intelligence sources in the US talk of 'a revolution in the concept of
warfare'... Firstly, the Pentagon says it will wage war against the
internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent
digital attacks on the US and its allies,
and to have the upper hand
when launching cyber-attacks against enemies. Secondly, psychological
military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future
military action... Thirdly, the US wants to take control of the
Earth's electromagnetic spectrum, allowing US war planners to
dominate mobile phones, PDAs, the web,
radio, TV and other forms of
modern communication. That could see entire countries denied access
to telecommunications at the flick of a switch by America... The
report says the US military’s first priority is that the 'department
[of defence] must be prepared to 'fight the net'. The internet is
seen in much the same way as an enemy state by the Pentagon because
of the way it can be used to propagandise, organise and mount electronic
attacks on crucial US targets. Under the heading '
offensive cyber
operations', two pages outlining possible operations are blacked
out." See full article,
click here.
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