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Failing In Its Case Against The Uhuru Three, The US Manufactures ‘Thought Crimes’

December 10, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
The Uhuru 3 - Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel - will have a sentencing hearing on December 16 in Florida. Failing to find evidence to convict them of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the US Government manufactured a charge of conspiring to violate the law by thinking about it. There is no evidence to support this. This conviction creates a new level of state repression. Clearing the FOG speaks with Chairman Yeshitela about the case, the current political environment in the United States, including his opinions on the recent presidential election, and the recent events in the Sahel Region of Africa to decolonize the area.

Appeals Court Upholding TikTok Ban Is A Grim Sign For Press Freedom

December 10, 2024 Ari Paul, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , ,
Donald Trump is just weeks away from returning to the White House, and when he gets there, it is all but assured that he will attack press freedom (FAIR.org, 11/14/24; NBC, 12/4/24). But the will and desire to clamp down on free speech and expression isn’t just a Trumpian phenomenon. A US District Court of Appeals panel, with two Republican-appointed judges and one picked by a Democrat, has upheld a law forcing the sale of TikTok because of its alleged Chinese government control (AP, 12/6/24). All corners of government, joined by members of both major parties, concur that national security concerns should allow the government to scrap First Amendment principles.

Town Launches First US Climate Lawsuit Against A Utility Company

December 7, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. , , ,
The small North Carolina town of Carrboro has initiated the country’s first climate accountability litigation against an electric utility. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, claims Duke Energy waged a “deception campaign” in order to obscure the climate hazards of fossil fuels. This led to delayed action in curbing planet-warming emissions, which caused the costs of the climate action to increase. “We have to speak truth to power as we continue to fight the existential threat that is climate change. The climate crisis continues to burden our community and cost residents their hard-earned tax dollars,” said Mayor of Carrboro Barbara Foushee in a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Wisconsin Unions Score Major Win With Court Ruling

December 3, 2024 Scott Bauer, Portside. , , , , ,
Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin public worker and teachers unions scored a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and made the state the center of the national battle over union rights. That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. Under the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place prior to 2011.

Washington Post Attacks Eritrean Americans For Organizing Defense

December 2, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
Eritrea, a Red Sea nation that defies the dictates of Western powers, pursues egalitarian social development, eschews IMF and World Bank debt, demands a fair price for its natural resources, and refuses to collaborate with AFRICOM , the US Africa Command. Not surprisingly, Eritrea is heavily sanctioned by the U.S. for alleged human rights abuse. Exclusion from the SWIFT system for conducting international financial transactions puts it in the exclusive company of the West’s other favorite bogeymen, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Western politicians, pundits, and press relentlessly castigate Eritrea—never mind their headchopping friends across the Red Sea—with the most recent salvo coming from the Washington Post.

International Court Of Justice Begins Hearings In Landmark Climate Case

December 2, 2024 Doug Dingwall. ABC Australia. , , ,
A landmark case that began in a Pacific classroom and could change the course of future climate talks is about to be heard in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The court will begin hearings involving a record number of countries in The Hague, in the Netherlands, on Monday Its fifteen judges have been asked, for the first time, to give an opinion about the obligations of nations to prevent climate change — and the consequences for them if they fail. The court's findings could bolster the cases of nations taking legal action against big polluters failing to reduce emissions, experts say. They could also strengthen the hand of Pacific Island nations in future climate change negotiations like COP.

Iraqi Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Win $42 Million In Lawsuit

November 28, 2024 John Kiriakou, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
Three Iraqi survivors of U.S. torture won a major victory in early November when a jury in the federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia awarded each of them $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages to be paid by American defense contractor CACI, which was responsible for the cruel and inhumane treatment that they endured in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison more than two decades ago. The judgment is notable for several reasons. First, it is the first time that a U.S. defense contractor has ever been successfully sued for managing a torture program.

From Guantanamo To Abu Ghraib: Female Participation In Prisoner Abuses

November 18, 2024 Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , , , ,
As a retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel with 13 years on active duty and 16 in the Reserves, I became interested in the topic of women involved in prisoner abuses when so many U.S. women at all levels were linked to the prisons or prisoners in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Cuba, and Iraq.  In reading press articles about detentions, incarcerations, and the abuse and torture of prisoners identified as threats to national security, I was struck by the number of women who had some role in the detentions -- women in the U.S. military, civilian women in various U.S. government agencies and civilian women contractors.

Top Israeli Court Rejects Netanyahu’s Request To Delay Criminal Trial

November 14, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , ,
The Jerusalem District Court rejected on 13 November a request made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay his testimony in his corruption trial by 10 weeks. The court said the premier has already had five months to prepare for his testimony, which is scheduled for 2 December. “We were not convinced that a substantial change in circumstances has occurred which would justify a change to the date we set in our [original] decision.” As a result, Netanyahu will be forced to take the stand. Hours prior to the court ruling, a representative of the Israeli State Attorney’s Office, Yehudit Tirosh, said the “prime minister can’t dictate the schedule for his trial and testimony.”

Jury Finds US Military Contractor CACI Guilty Of Abu Ghraib Torture

November 14, 2024 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. , , , , ,
Iraqi torture survivors won a major jury verdict against CACI, a United States military contractor that was responsible for their cruel and inhuman treatment at Abu Ghraib more than twenty years ago. The jury awarded the three survivors—Salah Al-Ejaili, a journalist, Suhail Al-Shimari, a middle school principal, Asa’ad Zuba’e, a fruit vendor—$3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages. This was the second trial for Iraqi torture survivors. As The Dissenter previously covered, the first trial in August ended in a mistrial.

‘Northumberland 2’ Free On Bail After Alleged Mink Release

November 14, 2024 Chris Schiano, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Northumberland County, PA — An engaged couple from Massachusetts was freed on bail from jail last week after the alleged October 19 release of over 600 mink from the Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. fur farm near Sunbury, off Pennsylvania State Route 890. State prosecutors charged Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano with over a dozen criminal counts — including ecoterrorism and RICO charges — and they face decades in prison. Originally held on $150,000 bail each, Legere and Mitrano were later allowed by a judge to post 10 percent of the full bail amount.

Doing Time For Palestine

October 31, 2024 Corinna G. Barnard, Consortium News. , , , ,
Almost a year ago a photograph of two figures standing on a rooftop of a building in Merrimack, New Hampshire, attracted interest in the social-media sphere attentive to the Palestine-Israel conflict. The people in the photograph were wearing masks and holding greenish smoky flares over their heads. Beneath them was a sign, “Elbit Systems of America.” That’s a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems. The parent, Haifa-based company is a leading supplier of weaponry — military drones, artillery, munitions and electronic warfare systems — that the Israeli military, for over a year, has needed to destroy the built-and-natural environment of Palestinians while slaughtering them at a historic rate in modern warfare.

How Cities Can Bring Some Humanity To The Criminal Legal System

October 26, 2024 Erica Perry, Next City. , , ,
Last month, the state of Missouri executed 55-year-old Marcellus Williams, who spent two decades in prison, despite prosecutors’ efforts to overturn his conviction for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle. The victim’s family and the St. Louis county prosecuting attorney’s office joined Williams’ family, faith leaders and thousands of community members in asking decision-makers to spare his life. But neither their pleas nor revelations of mishandled evidence and racially biased jury selection were enough to outweigh a legal system with disdain for human life. This pattern of unjust sentencing to death is true across America.

Fighting For More Evidence Of Assange’s Political Prosecution

October 24, 2024 Joe Lauria and Mohamed Elmaazi, Consortium News. , , , , ,
A tribunal in Britain is set to decide whether to order the government’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to prove it deleted emails that may have covered up more evidence of a politically motivated prosecution of Julian Assange. The three judges heard arguments on Sept. 24 in the nearly decade-long freedom of information saga regarding the emails that top British prosecutors say were deleted. They involved an exchange with Sweden during a Swedish prosecutor’s attempt, beginning in 2010, to extradite the WikiLeaks publisher from Britain. Assange was wanted in Sweden for questioning during a preliminary investigation into allegations of sexual assault, which was dropped three times, definitively in 2017.

An Abolitionist Approach To Debt

October 19, 2024 Chrystin Ondersma, Next City. , , ,
When individuals cannot meet their basic needs without turning to debt, they face threats to their human dignity. Survival debt — debt that individuals incur to survive and live a life with dignity — is inherently intimidating and degrading. A person does not have the freedom to obtain a standard of living consistent with human dignity if the only means of acquiring housing, transportation, food, medical care or an education is to incur debt. Many indebted households can barely survive, much less vivir sabroso. Those who incur debt to meet basic needs must work, despite knowing that the fruits of their labor will be diverted to repay debt — while they still struggle just to meet basic needs, let alone accumulate the necessary resources to weather future emergencies or to build savings for retirement.
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