Human Rights

Maryland’s Parole System ‘Conditions People For Despair’

October 3, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Maryland, Mass Incarceration, Parole

Thomas “Tahaka” Gaither was out on parole when then-Gov. Glendening of Maryland revoked parole for all persons convicted of a life sentence. Since the late 1990s, Gaither has remained incarcerated—despite once having been deemed fit for release. His story is not unusual for those who’ve experienced Maryland’s parole system. Since 2015, barely half of 523 parole-eligible prisoners serving life sentences have had their cases reviewed, and just 76 have been released. A new study from the Justice Policy Institute, Safe at Home: Improving Maryland’s Parole Release Decision-Making, identifies the problems with the system and attempts to map solutions.

Menendez Bribery Scandal: Egypt Versus Ethiopia

October 2, 2023 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Human Rights

Federal investigators caught New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine with $180,000 worth of gold bars, $550,000 in cash, plus furniture and a $60,000 Mercedes Benz that they didn’t pay for. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York alleges that these were bribes from three New Jersey businessmen and co-defendants, and that one of them, Egyptian American businessman Wael Hana, also paid $23,000 to bring Nadine Menendez’s mortgage current and promised to put her on the payroll of his corporation for a “low-show-or-no-show” job.

Inside The High-Security ‘Black Site’ Where Leonard Peltier Is Incarcerated

September 30, 2023 Silja J.A. Talvi, Scheer Post. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Leonard Peltier, political prisoners

Unbeknownst to most protesters who gathered at the White House on the occasion of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier’s 79th birthday, Peltier wasn’t able to celebrate, much less receive reports on how the well-attended event was progressing. That’s because Peltier, who is now spending his 48th year in captivity, was sitting on his bunk, across from his cellie, “locked down” in a cramped and concrete maximum-security cell designed for one man. The Bureau of Prison’s “lockdown” phenomenon has spread to other federal facilities, but nowhere is as pronounced and as repressive as at USP Coleman I, part of the nation’s biggest federal prison complex, FCC Coleman, which consists of four prisons of various security levels.

I Was The Only US Official Imprisoned Over The Torture Program

September 26, 2023 John Kiriakou, Scheer Post. Educate! Accountability, CIA, Guantanamo Bay, History, Human Rights, Torture

I was the only person associated with the CIA’s torture program who was prosecuted and imprisoned. I never tortured anybody. But I was charged with five felonies, including three counts of espionage, for telling ABC News and the New York Times that the CIA was torturing its prisoners, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and that the policy had been approved by the president himself. I served 23 months in a federal prison. It was worth every minute. There is certainly no easy fix to this situation. The New York Times reported in March 2022 that prosecutors had opened talks with attorneys representing Khalid Shaikh Muhammad and four co-defendants to negotiate a plea agreement that would drop the death penalty in exchange for sentences of life without parole and promises that the men would be allowed to remain in Guantanamo.

Journalists Fight Back Against Attacks On Our Right To Know

September 25, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Human Rights, Journalists, Legal System, Press Freedom

Information control in the United States is growing stronger as journalists face more restrictions on their ability to speak with people who work for the public good in agencies and institutions from the local to federal levels and are being targeted through illegal raids and confiscation of their equipment. Clearing the FOG speaks with Kathryn Foxhall, a journalist who works on freedom of information, about another journalist, Brittany Hailer, who is suing over restrictions on her ability to interview employees at a local jail where an unprecedented number of deaths are occurring. Foxhall explains why these restrictions are human rights abuses. Clearing the FOG also speaks with Seth Stern of the Freedom of Information Foundation and Bobby Block of the Florida First Amendment Foundation about journalists' legal rights and their new Know Your Rights Guild for journalists.

Guantanamo Bay Detainee Sues Former Psychologists In New Torture Case

September 20, 2023 Emma Epperly, The Spokesman-Review. Resist! CIA, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Lawsuit

A man tortured two decades ago by the CIA for his suspected role as a terrorist has sued two former Spokane psychologists, who made millions of dollars from the government for developing the techniques used during the brutal interrogations. Zayn Al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, also known as Abu Zubaydah, says he underwent extreme torture, including prolonged extreme solitary confinement, waterboarding, mock executions and lack of medical attention that cost him his left eye. Zubaydah is suing psychologists and former CIA contractors Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell, who he says tortured him.

Animal-Grade Prison Food Indicts US Society

September 18, 2023 John Kiriakou, Consortium News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Food and Agriculture, health, Human Rights

I’ve written in the past about an awful experience I had in prison a decade ago while serving 23 months in prison after blowing the whistle on the CIA’s torture program. I was doing my time at the Federal Correctional Institution at Loretto, Pennsylvania, a low-security prison in the Appalachian Mountains. One of the very first things I found, on my very first day, was that the food was bad. Very bad. I arrived in prison on a Thursday. The next day, Friday, was “fish day.” A fellow prisoner warned me to skip the fish. “We call it sewer trout,” he said. “you don’t want to put that in your body.” Sure enough, when I got in line in the cafeteria, I saw boxes stacked behind the servers.

Six Of Nine Planetary Boundaries Have Now Been Exceeded

September 16, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Extreme weather, Human Rights, Sustainability

A new study by an international team of 29 scientists from eight countries provides the third update to the planetary boundaries framework. The update shows how human activities are increasingly impacting our planet, thus augmenting the risk of triggering drastic changes in Earth’s overall conditions. The nine planetary boundaries represent the limits within which humans can continue to thrive and develop. “The planetary boundaries framework draws upon Earth system science,” the study said. “It identifies nine processes that are critical for maintaining the stability and resilience of Earth system as a whole. All are presently heavily perturbed by human activities.

‘It’s All Top-Down’: Activists Hammer BRICS On Human Rights, Environment

August 26, 2023 Naledi Sikhakhane, Daily Maverick. Resist! BRICS, Environment, Grassroots, Human Rights

Speakers at civil society’s BRICS-from-below dialogues, which preceded a protest march against wars, human rights violations, inequality and climate change, highlighted problematic methods of governance that suppress working-class people. From India violating human rights in Kashmir and Russia invading Ukraine, to China funding fossil fuel projects across Africa, the BRICS bloc leaves activists with much to be desired. They suggest that the bloc upholds the current world order instead of creating a new citizen-friendly world order. Makhadzi Tshivuwa is an heir to the land where the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone (MMSEZ) is being developed.

DHS’s Secret Reports On Ice Detention

August 22, 2023 Freddy Martinez and Nick Schwellenbach, POGO. Educate! Detention, DHS, Human Rights, ICE, Immigration

Previously confidential records from within the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) confirm years of inadequate medical care, extensive use of solitary confinement, mistreatment of transgender individuals, shortcomings in rape and sexual assault prevention and response, inaccessible services, and other problems disclosed by people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is making dozens of these reports public after a nearly five-year Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legal battle ended with a judge ordering the department to release the records.

Danny Haiphong Addresses UN Security Council On NATO’s Ukraine Aid

August 19, 2023 Danny Haiphong, Substack. Resistance Report Human Rights, NATO, Pentagon Budget, Russia, Ukraine, United Nations

On August 17, 2023, Danny Haiphong spoke to spoke the latest convening of the United Nations Security Council on the dangers that Western arms to Ukraine poses to international peace and stability. He said, "Today I am here as a journalist who has dedicated the last ten years of my life writing about and speaking out against the long record of human rights abuses and war crimes committed by my country of birth, the United States. I don't consider this a hobby or even a profession but rather a duty to all of humanity and those who want to see a better and more peaceful future. I am here to as a US citizen who has witnessed tens of billions of US tax dollars go to funding and arming a proxy war against Russia while people in the US, ordinary people, suffer from rising levels of poverty, homelessness, suicide and economic insecurity."

Juvenile Sentencing In The US Is Barbaric, Racist, And Ineffective

August 15, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Human Rights, Juvenile detention, Legal System, Racism, Supreme Court

“The United States is the only country in the world that permits youth to be sentenced to life without parole,” the Juvenile Law Center notes. “Sentencing children to die in prison is condemned by international law. For children or adults, a sentence of life without parole is cruel, inhumane, and denies the individual’s humanity. For children, the sentence also defies law and research confirming that youth are different than adults and must be treated differently by our legal system.” While many individual states have banned the practice of sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole, 22 states still permit it, and the conservative majority of the US Supreme Court has shown a troubling openness to overturning past precedents regarding juvenile sentencing.

DPS Trooper Describes ‘Inhumane’ Treatment Of Migrants At The Border

August 8, 2023 Rhonda Fanning, Texas Standard. Educate! Human Rights, Immigration, Mexico, Migrants

Hearst Newspapers reported Monday on an email from a trooper from the Department of Public Safety who wrote that the state’s policies along the southern border have “stepped over a line into the inhumane.” The trooper describes incidents in which migrants attempting to cross the border were injured by razor wire on the Texas side of the Rio Grande, as well as troopers being ordered to push groups of people, including children, back into the water, and denying them water. Ben Wermund, the Washington correspondent for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News who broke the story, joined the Standard to share more.

Nicaraguan Officials Hit With Sanctions Based On False Accusations

July 31, 2023 John Perry and Erik Mar, Covert Action Magazine. Educate! Human Rights, International Law, Nicaragua, Sanctions

On December 9, 2022, the government of the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Sadrach Zelodón Rocha and Yohaira Hernández Chirino, the well-known Sandinista mayor and vice mayor of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, accusing both of “promoting and supporting grievous violations of human rights.” The sanctions, subjecting both to “an asset freeze and travel ban,” also extended to members of their immediate families. As one of us has known Zeledón Rocha and the rest of his immediate family for more than 30 years, the accusations struck us mostly as false. Furthermore, if they turned out to be true, the punishments seemed strangely irrelevant given the magnitude of the crimes, since they almost certainly would have close to zero personal impact.

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