By Gloria Rubac
Friday, June 30, 2006
Shaka Sankofa remembered
By Gloria Rubac
BREAK THE SIEGE ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
For immediate release
June 30, 2006
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, condemns in the
strongest possible terms the Israeli war crimes committed against the
Palestinian people, including the comprehensive siege imposed on the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. We call upon the international community to take up
their responsibility in protecting the Palestinian people from this
aggression, and terminating the continuing Israeli policy of collective
punishment.
Since Tuesday, June 27, 2006, Israel destroyed vital bridges, water and
electricity stations. As a consequence more than two-thirds of the people
have been denied access to water and electricity. Children, the sick and
elderly are the first to be affected.
Israel also arrested more than 64 elected Palestinian Legislative Council
members, city mayors, cabinet ministers and lawmakers.
Israel, the US and European Union governments have put the Palestinian
people under siege for the past few months as collective punishment because
they did not approve of the results of the democratic elections Palestinians
held. Palestinians understood that the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza
Strip which took place this past year was meant to turn it into the largest
prison with the largest population of prisoners in the world. The
acquiescence of world governments to this indicates complicity in these war
crimes.
Nothing justifies the Israeli savagery, including the elimination of water
and electricity access to hundreds of thousands of people. Racist media
coverage in North America has been trying to minimize the importance of
these war crimes.
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls upon all people who
support the Palestinian struggle for self determination and return, to
demand of their representatives, the media and their governments to ensure
that the genocidal Zionist State of Israel ends its siege and fully
compensates for the destruction of life and infrastructure that it has
visited upon the Palestinian people. The potential future cost to human life
the destruction of the water and power supply may cause cannot yet be
determined.
Al-Awda calls upon the international community, Palestine solidarity
activists and groups, Arab community organizations including community
centers, mosques and churches, to demand:
- Ending the siege imposed on the Palestinian people in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip
- The protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in
International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law.
- The immediate release of all political prisoners, including all elected
representatives of the Palestinian people.
- To provide Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip and West Bank with
financial and material support, and to Demand the implementation of their
inalienable right to return to their homes and lands from which they have
been dispossessed since the imposition of the Zionist state in 1948 and
thereafter.
- An end to all Zionist occupation, Apartheid and all other war crimes
- An end to all U.S. aid to Israel which supports the continuing occupation
- Immediate reparations and compensation for all destruction carried out
by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere.
To find out about a demonstration in your area to protest the siege, please
visit the messages posted at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-News/messages
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel.: 760-685-3243 or 415-678-6220
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org
Eco-terrorism in Higher Education
http://www.aim.org/guest_column/4676_0_6_0_C/
Eco-terrorism in Higher Education
By Malcolm A. Kline | June 29, 2006
"The Department of Justice named them the number one domestic terrorist threat," Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, told a college-age audience at the Eagle Forum's annual summit on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. "Their direct actions include bombings, stalking of individuals and teaching members how to commit arson."
"They attacked and destroyed a ski lift, an SUV dealership, and an apartment complex." Four hundred tenants were evacuated from that complex.
Sen. Inhofe chairs the U. S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In that capacity, he has discovered just how radical environmentalists can be.
"The killing of an animal and the killing of a human are morally equal," Dr. Jerry Vlasak of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) told Sen. Inhofe in a hearing. "At American University, he tried to show college students how to commit arson," Sen. Inhofe remembers. Dr. Vlasak has called such acts "a morally justifiable solution to the problem" of alleged animal abuse.
He has also said, "A mouse is the moral equivalent of a child."
Two other groups—the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front—are responsible for 1,200 acts of violence and $200 million in damages, Sen. Inhofe notes. He points out that they have attacked the labs at:
• The University of Iowa
• The University of Michigan
• Louisiana State University
• The University of Wisconsin
On the other hand, as noted earlier, universities can serve as a breeding ground for eco-terrorists as well, frequently sponsoring talks by the likes of Dr. Vlasak. "Yes, I believe they do enable the eco-terrorists," Sen. Inhofe said. "At Oklahoma University people who advocate the overthrow of the government are brought in as speakers."
And their nurturing stance towards such groups has a real world impact that goes even beyond the university labs such groups repeatedly target. "Employees of GlaxoSmithKline were stalked," Sen. Inhofe recounts. "The New York Stock Exchange refused to list them because of terrorist threats."
In his effort to bring such information front and center in congressional hearings, Sen. Inhofe can rarely count on bipartisan support. "Democratic Party funding comes from such groups," Sen. Inhofe says. "The Democrats were funded by organized labor until about 15 years ago, then by the American Trial Lawyers Association, which conspicuously exempted itself from Campaign Finance Reform."
"Now, far left environmental groups provide most of their funding."
Sen. Infhofe's committee oversees 17 bureaucracies. "It is poetic justice that I head this committee," Sen. Inhofe told the Eagle Forum Collegians. "I spent 30 years in the private sector."
"I built buildings," he remembered. "My greatest obstacle was the federal government." "I tried to get a permit in Texas and had to go through 28 offices."
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
Pennsylvania Toughens Eco-Terror Law
Written By: James M. Taylor
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: July 1, 2006
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Stiffer Penalties
Serious Crimes
Intimidation, Not Speech
Increasing Pressure from Feds
Applause from Media
News at "Bombs & Shields"
http://www.bombsandshields.blogspot.com
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Jeff Hogg MOVED!
Hey everyone-
today is my visitation day with Jeff, but he has been moved to
Josephine county without word as to why....So, I don't have his new
address yet, but will post soon. Paul (Js laywer) left a message for
the feds, but knowing them, they've taken off early for the 4th.
Bastards. More later C
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Activists: Ruling won't close Gitmo soon
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Defense lawyers and human rights activists praised Thursday's Supreme Court decision rejecting military war crimes trials for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, but most felt it likely won't force a quick shutdown of the prison.
The base's commander predicted earlier this week that an adverse ruling would not bring a closure of the jail, saying many of the prisoners could not be released.
Attorneys and advocates called the 5-3 decision a rebuke to the Bush administration's anti-terrorist policies and use of the Guantanamo facility, which has been strongly criticized by foreign leaders.
Some detainee lawyers expressed hope the ruling will increase political pressure to close the facility, where about 450 prisoners swept up since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
"There certainly will be some fallout from this and it may very well lead to the closing of Guantanamo Bay in the near future," said Army Maj. Tom Fleener, who represents Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al-Bahlul, a Yemeni among the 10 detainees who were facing military trials.
But others agreed with Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Guantanamo base, that a shutdown wasn't likely — at least in the near future.
"If they rule against the government, I don't see how that's going to affect us," Harris said this week.
Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA, said the Supreme Court's decision doesn't address the jail's future.
All it does, she said, is "stop dead in its tracks ... the sham trials that have been going on under the guise of war crimes trials, charging people with crimes that aren't even war crimes, and I think that's the fundamental effect of this."
Bridget Arimond, assistant director of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University's School of Law, said that "the administration is clearly going to have to come up with a different approach to trying these cases if it wishes to try the detainees under the military justice system."
Barbara Olshansky, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents about 300 Guantanamo detainees, said the cases belong in civilian courts.
"We have lawful courts in this country that are perfectly capable of hearing these cases," she said. "Try them in law courts or release them. This notion of creating his own universe is not permissible.
Grand Jury Subpoena in Olympia
from http://portland.indymedia.org
From the open publishing newswire: On June 27th, Jim Dawson received
a subpoena to appear before a grand jury at the Federal District
Courthouse in Seattle, WA on July 6th at 9:00 am. There will be a
rally outside the courthouse at 8:30 am, please come support Jim.
http://www.olycivlib.org
U.S. Supreme Court Bars Bush's Military Tribunals
The justices, voting 5-3, said Congress hadn't expressly authorized the commissions. The justices also said the structure and procedures of the tribunals violate both the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The ruling is a major political and legal setback for President George W. Bush, scuttling plans to try three dozen Guantanamo inmates before tribunals. The ruling also boosts suits challenging the incarceration of hundreds of other detainees.
Today's ruling was a victory for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver for Osama bin Laden who is fighting a government charge of conspiracy.
``In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction,'' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.
The U.S. is holding 450 inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, most of them captured in Afghanistan during the 2001 war against the Taliban. Bush is facing increasing international pressure over Guantanamo in the aftermath of three inmate suicides earlier this month. The president has said on several occasions that he would like to close the prison.
Joining Stevens's wrote the court's majority opinion in Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer joined the entirety of the opinion, and Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the bulk of it.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Chief Justice John G. Roberts didn't take part in the case because he served on an appeals court panel that considered it.
The majority also rejected a Bush administration argument that a new federal law stripped the court of power to hear the case.
The case is Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 05-184.
Government continues harassment of former Black Panthers
Federal agents and local police served DNA warrants on several former Black activists throughout the US today allegedly in connection with an unsolved 1971 incident in San Francisco resulting in the death of a police officer. Despite being available to the prosecutor through their attorneys, police served the warrants through coordinated early-morning raids in 5 different cities on Tuesday.
Five former Black Panthers were jailed for refusing to cooperate with a California State Grand Jury investigating the same events in 2005 in San Francisco. All five were released October 31, 2005 when that Grand Jury term expired. Those served with warrants today included the same individuals and others. They have been harassed by police visits for several years.
Two men, John Bowman and Harold Taylor, were also tortured in 1973 in New Orleans to force them to make statements about the 1971 case. Subsequent attempts to prosecute Black activists were halted by court orders because of the illegal coercion and physical brutality inflicted on them. The 1973 arrests and torture were part of the US Government’s COINTELPRO program designed to destroy the Black Liberation movement.
The continued harassment of these same activists is being carried on in the spirit of unending government human rights violations and to discourage dissent.
Claude Marks
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
The New History of the Weather Underground
The only third path is to build a white movement which will support the blacks in moving as fast as they have to and are able to, and still itself keep up with that black movement enough so that white revolutionaries share the cost and the blacks don’t have to do the whole thing alone.
Fed agency probes Bainbridge Island fire
Seattle Times staff reporter
Today's Hearing
Today in court, Jonathan, Nathan, Joyanna and Daniel were arraigned on superceding indictment II. I will have to compare indictments to see what is different from the last superceding. All four of them were in the courtroom with their attorneys, Nathan and Joyanna in shackles and "jail greens".
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Rob los Ricos to Be Released From Prison June 29, 2006
By: Marlena Gangi
en_lucha@riseup.net
Rob Thaxton, AKA Rob los Ricos, will be released from the Oregon State Correctional Facility on June 29 after having served seven years as a convicted felon.
Thaxton, a Chicano anarchist, was arrested for hitting an officer on his shoulder with a rock during the June 18, 1999 Reclaim the Streets demonstration (which came to be a police riot) in Eugene, Oregon. Of the twenty-one people arrested in connection with the June 18 protest, Thaxton received the stiffest charges: Assault II, Riot and Attempted Assault I. An Attempted Murder charge was briefly brought forth and then dropped.
The June 18 protest was timed to coincide with the 25th G8 summit in Kolm, Germany. Eugene was one of 140 cities that rose up against the institutions of global capitalism that day.
Thaxton explains, "The G8 Summit is where the representatives of the eight wealthiest nations in the world come together to figure out what to do with the rest of us."
Raised in the Texas panhandle Thaxton, 46, began his activism at the age of twelve. He came of age during the Civil Rights struggle and institutionalized racism served as an early catalyst for his political leanings.
"I was called "nigger" a lot by redneck kids. I admired Blacks for standing up for their rights. Muhammed Ali's refusal to enter the army blew my mind. 'No Vietnamese ever called me a nigger,' Ali explained."
The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Robert Kennedy left an early mark.
"The so-called 'race riots,' the anti-war protests, the whole struggle for basic human rights that took place in this country that was supposedly built on a foundation of democracy; I saw the hypocrisy and refused to accept the myth of equality. I read the Communist Manifesto and considered myself to be a revolutionary by the age of twelve. I understood that the police and government were not my friends."
While in high school and as a college student, Thaxton went on to organize with the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, ACT UP and served as Program Director at KNON-FM "the people's radio station" in Dallas.
Organizing in Austin, Thaxton worked with the growing anarchist community there as well as with the Palestine Solidarity committee, Earth First! and the Black Banner brigade. He traveled to Portland to write for the Anarchist Info Shop. In Columbia, Missouri, he helped publish Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. It was at this time that Thaxton's activity came into the scrutiny of the FBI. He headed back to Dallas.
The Reagan era left Thaxton with little hope for the future and even less for the present. Activism was in lull; greed was good.
"In between minimum wage jobs and periods of homelessness I felt myself drawn to street life. I did hard drugs and hung out a lot with hookers, hustlers and junkies doing the kinds of things people like us did."
Thaxton lived in Hawaii before returning to Portland where he became a father. As his relationship with the mother of his daughter came to an end, he found himself once again shooting up hard drugs and lost in the life of the streets.
"When faced with heart rendering decisions, I turned to drugs to avoid the situation for awhile. It took the love of a remarkable woman and the unconditional support of activist friends to overcome this way of thinking."
Set on turning his life around to create an existence independent of dominant culture, Thaxton headed deep into the woods of southern Oregon with like-minded activists.
"To live outdoors, free of authority, growing our own food, drinking water from springs, building our own housing: I finally came to accept myself, my circumstances and decisions that defined my life as it existed up to 1999."
And then came the June 18 International Day of Solidarity in opposition to the G8 Summit.
"There was an anarchist gathering in Eugene on June 16. My friends had enough sense to leave on the 18th, but not me." June 18 was to be his last day of freedom.
Finding himself immersed in the daylong Reclaim the Streets clash between police and protesters, Thaxton was caught in a crowd cordoned off by riot-geared police.
"We were standing around, illegally blocking traffic. Out of sheer boredom a Taco Bell was attacked. They gave an order to disperse but they had us surrounded. Cops in protective gear shot mace and clubbed us."
Thaxton threw a rock in the direction of charging police in an effort to put distance between them and him. The rock connected. Sgt. Larry Blackwell, the cop who took the hit, raced toward Thaxton in a rage. Unable to escape, Thaxton was thrown face first to the pavement and repeatedly clubbed. His left shoulder was dislocated when pulled to his feet. As blood dripped from his nose broken by the first impact, he was told that he should have been shot. When transported to the Lane County Jail, police threatened to "get him" in his cell.
After a brief exam, he was given Vicodin and a sling for his arm. His booking photo was digitally altered to delete gashes on the swollen and purple left side of his face.
"The nurse refused to examine my scalp because of the amount of dried blood."
Thaxton's bail was set at $240,00. In a trial fraught with bias as Judge Mary Ann Bearden continually sided with the prosecutor, Bearden also allowed jury members to be seated who stated that they could not be impartial about anarchists given the news coverage of the events of June 18.
In September of 1999, Thaxton was sentenced to 70 months for Assault II. Bearden departed from Measure 11 sentencing guidelines to hand down18 months for Riot. The sentences ran consecutively rather that concurrently.
Throughout his incarceration, Thaxton has been singled out for harsh treatment because of his ethnicity and unrepentant political stance. When the Oregon Department of Corrections "documented" anarchists as a Security Threat Group, they became designated gang members. Thaxton's incoming mail including publications by or about anarchists was intercepted. This included anything with the anarchist Circle A insignia.
Not one to retreat, Thaxton sent a call to supporters to mail in post cards that displayed the Circle A with the caption "This is Not a Gang Symbol." Some 500 cards rolled in and Thaxton was sent to solitary for 4 months. Former anarchist political prisoner Brian McCarville filed suit to change this mail rule and won. Anarchist prisoners were once again allowed to receive anarchist material.
For one who has written countless articles during his imprisonment ranging from commentary to political theory and book reviews, Thaxton is uncharacteristically mum on the form that his activism will take once released. Well published before his arrest, Thaxton has received international attention throughout the years as anarcho list serves and websites ring electric with what many perceive to be the sheer injustice of his trial and sentence.
"I've been down so long, I'm really not sure what it looks like on the outside," he says.
He expresses some concern about what supporters might expect him to do or be once freedom is granted.
"I'm no movement poster dude. I'm flawed and have relationships to mend. I plan to keep writing, I'm working on scheduling a speaking tour and am intent on pulling my articles into book form and have it published sometime this fall. For now, I can't really say too much about what my future might hold. I'm just looking forward to getting out."
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Rob Thaxton is featured as a contributing author in the recently released Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of Earth from AK Press. Thaxton will give a reading presentation on Saturday, July 1 at Laughing Horse Bookstore 12 NE 10th St. Portland Oregon. For more information call 503.493.2505.
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Marlena Gangi is an activist, educator and photojournalist. She resides in Portland.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Anna the Medic Have Wire, Will Travel
Originally published by Broward-Palm Beach New Times 2006-06-22©2006 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.Listen, my children, to the story of Anna the Medic, who travels the land, bringing the harsh scrutiny of federal law enforcement to Americans engaged in political protest.In the past two years, Anna, whose real name may be Anna Davies or Anna Davidson, has turned up at rallies and marches from South Florida to Northern California, with a lot of stops in between. She has demonstrated for animal rights and protested the Iraq War, all the while meticulously gathering information on political dissidents for the FBI. According to FBI affidavits, Anna has been a paid informant in 12 investigations of "anarchist" groups. She's a veritable Scarlet Pimpernel, on the federal government tab.As a confidential informant, Anna is topnotch. She has a way of inveigling herself into meetings and revving up the emotions of young dissidents, protest group leaders say.For example, days before planned protests in June 2005 at the Broward Convention Center, where the Organization of American States held its annual meeting, Anna showed up out of the blue in crisp black scrubs and a kit bag with a red cross on it, says Ray Del Papa, a member of the protest planning committee.Del Papa says his suspicions were immediately aroused. "I had just had a phone conversation with the defense headquarters set up in Fort Lauderdale to handle arrest situations," he says. "I told them we needed medics. The next day, Anna shows up, dressed as a medic. I knew our phones were tapped, so I thought she might be an infiltrator."Anna, in her mid-20s, seemed more interested in the planning for the protest than in medical contingencies. She asked a lot of questions and seemed to have prior knowledge of all the preliminary planning sessions, Del Papa says. "She'd come up and ask me, 'What happened at the legal observer training session?'" Del Papa says. "I'd say, 'How did you know about that?' And she'd say, 'Well, I heard you were there. '"During the protest on June 6, Anna was called upon to use her supposed medical skills. She was summoned to help an elderly woman who was apparently suffering from heat exhaustion. She gave the woman, Barbara Collins, a drink of Gatorade. After her symptoms persisted, though, Anna declined to return to assist the woman again, says Collins' friend Linda Belgrave, a University of Miami sociology professor."She told us to walk over to where some air-conditioned buses were," Belgrave says. "Anna was too busy hanging out to help. Eventually, [Barbara] collapsed by the side of the road, and the cops called an ambulance."Things went smoothly at the protest until a small group of teenagers decided to stage a sitdown in front of a squad of police officers in riot gear. Here's where Anna showed her true calling. Del Papa and others say the teenagers had been orchestrated by the charismatic Anna. The setting was at a bottleneck in the march to the convention center, and cops seemed to be preparing to step in. "I said, 'This is a trap,'" Del Papa recounts. Other protest leaders eventually interceded, persuading the teenagers to move along before the cops moved in.Anna showed up later that month at the so-called Bio-Democracy protests in Philadelphia, at which demonstrators protested experiments on animals. Some 15 demonstrators were arrested during street protests at and around the Philadelphia Convention Center, where biotech companies were meeting. Anna posted an "article" about the protest on an independent media website. "How empowering!" she crowed, recounting how she had chanted "Puppy killers, GO HOME!" She made subsequent appearances at protests and meetings in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Asheville, North Carolina.But Anna's big coup was in Northern California, where she became the prime prosecution witness in federal conspiracy charges against three alleged "eco-terrorists." The three plotted to blow up a dam, a genetics lab, a U.S. Forestry Service facility, and cellular telephone towers, federal authorities say. Anna was there, recording the whole plot with a body wire.However, according to attorney Mark Reichel, who represents one of the defendants, Eric McDavid, it was actually Anna who recruited the three during the Philadelphia protest. McDavid, Zachary Jenson, and Lauren Weiner traveled with Anna to Auburn, California, where Anna rented a cabin and assisted in preparations for manufacturing bombs and scoping out targets. Reichel says Anna promoted the plot and bought the supplies (including "canning jars, coffee filters, a mixing bowl, a hot plate, petroleum jelly, a gasoline can, bleach, an extension cord, and battery testers," as a court document recorded it) that were purchased to make bombs.The three alleged conspirators, supposedly members of an Eco-Liberation Front (ELF) cell, were arrested in January; Weiner has agreed to testify against the other two.South Florida lawyer/activist Jennifer Van Bergen began to connect the dots in Anna's headlong career as an informant in a June 8 article for Raw Story, a progressive online newsgathering organization. The truth about Anna's involvement with the ELF plot was by then beginning to surface in court hearings. An FBI agent revealed that Anna — referred to in court as "the source" — was paid $75,000 and expenses over the past two years to serve as an FBI confidential informant. He also conceded that Anna had rented the cabin and purchased at least some of the bomb-making supplies. Attempts to reach Anna at her e-mail address (annadavies99@yahoo.com) got no response. Judy Orhuela, spokeswoman for the FBI Miami office, said the agency wouldn't comment on confidential informants.Tailpipe remembers stories from the dark, Nixonian 1960s and '70s about undercover operatives who used insidious tactics to ratchet up the violence, then showed up in court as paid informants. ("When somebody in a crowd shouts 'Let's get some guns,' you know he's a paid informant," activists used to say.) But hasn't that kind of questionable law enforcement activity been attacked in federal court?In the Bush era, all civil-rights bets are off. The 'Pipe asked the world-bitten Reichel about the possible fallout should Anna be shown to have been a provocateur rather than an impartial observer. "Please," he said. "They'll give her the Medal of Honor."