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Suppressing Dissent in the US: Current

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Suppressing Dissent in the US
Archive: 1/02 - 2/02

Below we track the suppression of dissent in the US. 

3 Louima Cop Convictions Overturned  2/28/02 AP: terrorism in NY.

The Disappeared  2/26/02 Independent, UK: "Since 11 September last year, up to 2,000 people in the United States have been detained without trial, or charge, or even legal rights. The fate of most is unknown. Andrew Gumbel investigates a scandal that shames the land of the free."

U.S. Customs bars Canadian activist from crossing border  2/25/02 Politechbot: "It was immediately obvious to me that I was dealing with a specialist in interrogation methods. He told the admiring locals at one point that he had been stationed in Yemen and I avoided speculating on how he had employed his talents there." But did he have any success finding the Cole bombers?

King widow angers Kinchen kin  2/24/02 Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coretta King has always been very conservative, so this is a remarkable statement on her part concerning the fairness of H. Rap Brown's trial.

Robertson's comments about Islam draw ire  2/22/02 AP: the traditional engine of McCarthyism and JEdgarism was the fundamentalist right wingers in the Bible Belt.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HIDING SECRET WEEKLY REPORTS TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL  2/16/02 Cryptome 

Alabama police chief denies racism played role in incidents  2/15/02 Nando Times 

Editor Of The Courier Newspaper Fired Suddenly  2/14/02 Caledonian Record, VT: freedom of speech, so long as the owner allows it.

Stunt aims to turn jury against Taliban suspect  2/14/02 Guardian, UK: "Angry family of dead CIA officer arrives at trial of John Lindh " - said CIA agent threatened Lindh with torture and death on video before being killed in the uprising by angry talibans he was also threatening.

BIZARRO WORLD - Post-9/11: Life as a comic book  2/13/02 Antiwar.com: "Bizarro, for his part, told the Salt Lake Tribune that he thought the sky marshals were hijackers. When three men, "old enough to be his grandchildren," started yelling and demanding that everyone put their hands on their heads, "I believed I was witnessing a hijacking of our airplane," he said. Bizarro, in spite of his name, just doesn't get it: everything's changed, you dolt! Up is down. Down is up. Ugly is beautiful, and vice-versa. Sky marshals act like hijackers - makes sense to me… "Bizarro, a frequent traveler, said he had never heard the restriction announced before," the Salt Lake Tribune reports, "and no one stopped him when he stood up." But of course, you ninny! When someone's committing a felony, the idea is not to stop them but to let them go ahead."

Big Brother is watching you read  2/13/02 Salon 

Airline Passenger Arrested for Leaving Seat Within 30 Minutes of Salt Lake City  2/11/02 Fox News: passenger abuse: "Because of the incident, air marshals aboard the plane ordered all passengers to put their hands on their heads for the rest of the flight."

US army tactics at Cuba 'to shock'  2/11/02 Irish Times: as in Kandabar?

American Democracy: R.I.P - The Emergence of the Fascist American Theocratic State  2/10/02 Cryptome, US 

Prosecutors: Don't Release Lindh  2/6/02 AP: "In the motion, the government cited among other things a Sept. 28, 1998 letter that Lindh wrote to his mother suggesting that the bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa "seemed far more likely to have been carried out by the American government than by the Muslims." In its 11-page filing, the government also cited an e-mail that Lindh sent to his mother on Feb. 15, 2000, suggesting that she should move to England. "I really don't know what your big attachement (sic) to America is all about. What has America ever done for anybody?" it said." On this basis, the US government should arrest quite a few people and keep them in jail.

U.S. to Test High-Tech Security Plan Linking Reservations to Databases  2/2/02 IHT: designed to have many false positives to keep the machinery in business.

On the Lookout for Terrorists?  2/1/02 ABC News: "Large majorities across all demographic groups say they're leaving the job to the authorities. Vigilance peaks among higher-income Americans (albeit at just 38 percent), Republicans (31 percent) and people 45 and older (28 percent)."

J'ACCUSE: BUSH'S DEATH SQUADS  1/31/02 Cryptome: catalog of recent CIA related hits.

FREE SPEECH - In Kingston, watch what you say  1/30/02 Boston Phoenix: "When it comes to presenting a variety of perspectives about global issues, especially the Middle East, some viewpoints are much more welcome than others. Consider the case of former state representative Rod Driver, whose February 20 talk at the Kingston Free Library was abruptly canceled (and then reinstated) because of his sympathy for the Palestinians."

Cryptome Banned from NY Press Horde  1/30/02 Cryptome: "What other police department would hire a former Marine general and a CIA head of espionage to pimp its desirability with press-terrorism-drunk Washington DC except a new Commish just back from poppy farming national security?"

A Guantanamo gulag  1/30/02 Metro Times, Detroit: "Late in the war, German civilians in the ruins of Berlin angrily killed a number of Allied pilots shot down over their burning cities. When they could, the Nazi government intervened, and sent the fliers to POW camps. Yet we now seem to be less human. Sixty years ago, we sent German prisoners back to America during the war, and sought to win them over to democracy by treating them decently and letting them see how our system worked. Now we shave our prisoners’ heads and beards, shackle and manacle them and take their water away if they protest."

State Penitentiary Marksman Killing Of Muslim Inmate Raises Questions Of Racial Profiling  1/30/02 Seattle Medium: "Circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of Washington State Penitentiary inmate Abdul Ali, a 21-year-old Somalian illegal alien, raise questions whether a white Tower guard followed Washington State Corrections Department policy, or was it racial profiling?"

In Defense Of Danny Glover  1/29/02 Black World Today 

SPY CASE IN CANADIAN COURTS SUGGESTS US NAVAL OFFICER HAD FOREKNOWLEDGE OF 9-11  1/28/02 From the Wilderness 

raisethefist.com archived web site  1/27/02 Internet Archive 

Powell Asks Bush to Reverse Stand on War Captives  1/27/02 NYT: no longer unpatriotic to consider POW's status?

'''Marin hot tubbers,' Iran-Contra ghosts, and other fears of the Bush clan''  1/27/02 Yellow Times, US: "James Brosnahan, former federal prosecutor and former member of the Lawrence Walsh Independent Counsel team, is John Walker Lindh’s attorney. Recall that the elder Bush hated no one on earth more than Walsh. In his book Shadow, Bob Woodward describes how, during the height of the Walsh inquiry, Bush received a “Lawrence Walsh” doll as a gag Christmas gift from a member of his staff. Bush slammed the doll repeatedly against his desk, shouting, “Take that, Walsh!” - Coca Contra lives on!

Draping History - Halls of Justice: A Weekly Look Inside the Justice Department  1/25/02 ABC News: "About three weeks ago, I received a tip. The attorney general was fed up with having his picture taken during events in the Great Hall in front of semi-nude statues. He had ordered massive draperies to conceal the offending figures. But initially not only could the story not be confirmed — it was strongly denied." Fig leaves are back.

raisethefist.com raided  1/25/02 IndyMedia 

Raisethefist.com: Confirmation of Raid from LA FBI  1/25/02 IndyMedia 

Congress considers new kind of draft; Legislation would require military training of all young men  1/25/02 WorldNet Daily: draft card burnings, selective service bribery, fragging, bring 'em all back!

Hispanics Targeted in Fake Drug Cases  1/20/02 AP 

The C.I.A.'s Domestic Reach  1/20/02 NYT 

Bosnian Muslims Extradited to US  1/20/02 Ummah News: "The six men, all Bosnian nationals with Algerian descend, were arrested after September 11th and put on to trial for alleged plot on the U.S. Embassy. The men were found Not Guilty and were expecting to be released when they were informed that they were to be extradited to the United States to face the same charges. The six men, all Bosnian nationals with Algerian descend, were arrested after September 11th and put on to trial for alleged plot on the U.S. Embassy. The men were found Not Guilty and were expecting to be released when they were informed that they were to be extradited to the United States to face the same charges."

The Prime-Time Smearing of Sami Al-Arian  1/20/02 Ummah News: details on the University of South Florida's Al Arian case: "USF administrators fired the Kuwaiti-born professor after he appeared on national television for five minutes of punditry last fall. His crime? Not telling viewers that his views did not necessarily reflect those of the school. It was a tortured rationale that all but guaranteed future litigation." Turns out the media was egged on by a 6 year drumbeat cooked up by pro-Israeli "journalist" Steve Emerson.

Terror Profile May Add Asians and Africans  1/19/02 IHT: when did they ever stop?

Professor In Court For Alleged Student Assault  1/18/02 On Detroit: "A Dearborn city attorney said that it was within professor John Azar's right to remove what he called a "disruptive student." Wayne County prosecutors disagreed and charged him."

Detained Egyptian student forgives FBI  1/17/02 AP: "However, his lawyer, Robert Dunn, said he wants to know how investigators came to believe that the handheld radio was found in a safe in Higazy's room at the Millennium Hilton Hotel when it actually belonged to someone else staying one floor below his client." The Federal Bureau of Incompetence up to its old COINTELPRO.

US charges Walker with conspiracy  1/16/02 Boston Globe 

Subverting the Geneva Convention  1/16/02 Counterpunch: "Next I learn that the prisoners were also forcibly shaved, head and beard, (a deliberate desecration of their religious beliefs). Perhaps this is the reason for both the bag over the head and the Pentagon's fear of photographs? What does a malnourished human being with a shaved head shackled in chains remind you of?"

Black pledge draws angry e-mails  1/16/02 Oklahoman 

Why is U.S. flouting rules on prisoners?  1/15/02 Toronto Star: "But if Sept. 11 was an act of war, then it becomes, in a weird way, less monstrous. Both New York City and the Pentagon are legitimate wartime targets — the former economic, the latter military. Anyone waging war on the U.S. would have targeted Manhattan in the hope of damaging the American economy — as the World Trade Center attack did. So if Sept. 11 was an act of war, why are those captured in the aftermath not treated as prisoners of war? It is considered legitimate self-defence for the U.S. and its allies to invade Afghanistan. Why is it not considered equally legitimate for the Afghans and their allies to resist this invasion?"

Judge Prevents Fingerprint Experts From Identifying 'Match'  1/14/02 ABC News: "That Pollak, a former dean of the Yale Law School and well-respected senior federal judge, was the first to question fingerprint evidence is significant, some experts said. "I think a ruling from a judge of his stature will carry a lot of weight," said Simon A. Cole, author of Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification. "It's a significant ruling. There are now judges on two sides of the issue, and other judges will be able to pick one."

Media Abide by Pentagon Order Forbidding Photos of Prisoners  1/14/02 AP: freedom of the press: "We signed papers that said we would not publish photos that endangered a military operation," Curtis said. "There are no military implications for these photos, only political."

How journalists are censored  1/14/02 Voz de Aztlan: The Asper family recently distinguished itself by issuing an edict that there were to be no articles critical of Israel in their many Canadian papers.

Labour MPs protest as CIA gets power to snoop on any house in Britain  1/13/02 Independent, UK: 1984, the good old days…

As Jury Selection Begins In H. Rap Brown Case, Rights Group Criticizes Alleged Sentencing Strategy  1/13/02 NNPA: H. Rap Brown (Jamil Adbullah Al-Alamin) to be sentenced to death on the basis of his political beliefs: "In an open letter to Fulton County, Ga. District Attorney Paul Howard, Amnesty International says it was disturbed by reports that prosecutors, seeking the death penalty against Al-Amin, would reportedly introduce excerpts from Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin's two books, his 1969 autobiography, ''Die, Nigger, Die!'' and ''Revolution By the Book,'' a 1993 memoir written after Al-Amin converted to Islam." Bomb Afghanistan, kill 4,000 civilians, pull the switch on Rap Brown, kill, kill, kill. Don't be surprised if this breeads more terrorism.

3 Chester men stop talking to FBI  1/12/02 Philadelphia Inquirer: The Federal Bureau of Incompetency looking to duplicate its recent success in the case of the Egyptian who "confessed" and was "caught" with a pilot's radio near WTC. You go boys!

California Mulls Death Penalty, Wiretaps for Terrorists  1/11/02 CNS News: Given the very fuzzy definition of terrorist, this should allow the State to kill just about anyone they want!

Governmental Monitoring of Internet Traffic  1/11/02 Cryptome: "A major US ISP which is a subsidiary of a foreign corporation hosts a US government operation to monitor all traffic handled by the ISP at a central network operations center. This operation was set up as a condition for the foreign corporation to acquire the ISP and as far as known is not the result of a court order."

Teacher with anti-war views removed from teaching mass media class  1/11/02 Naples Daily News, Florida 

US may drug PoWs on way to Cuba  1/10/02 Times, UK 

US Does Missile Deal With Greenpeace USA For Five Years  1/9/02 AFP: the hazards of protesting under the imperium

NYT Buries Story of Airstrikes on Afghan Civilians  1/9/02 FAIR 

Ex-Black Panther says murder trial is FBI conspiracy  1/9/02 Guardian, UK 

McCARTHYISM IS ALIVE AND KICKING IN WASHINGTON  1/9/02 Radio Havana: "As Mme Roland mounted the steps of the guillotine during the height of the French Revolution she looked at the familiar statue of Liberty placed near the scaffold and cried out, "Oh, Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!"

Michigan congressman forced to strip to underwear for security at Washington airport  1/8/02 AP: "Security guards at Washington's Reagan National Airport forced U.S. Rep. John Dingell to strip to his underwear before boarding a flight to Detroit."

Jury selection begins for Al-Amin murder trial  1/8/02 Arab News, Saudi Arabia 

Political dissent can bring federal agents to door  1/8/02 Christian Science Monitor: ""All of this speaks to the new McCarthyism, where political dissent is being equaled to treason," Mr. Steinhardt says. "It's a very frightening trend: that people are doing nothing more than expressing the very freedoms that we are fighting to preserve - and find themselves with the FBI at their door."

Explosive New Book Published in France Alleges that U.S. Was in Negotiations to Do a Deal with Taliban  1/8/02 CNN: US media ignored this for almost two months…

Who Killed John O'Neill?  1/8/02 The Daily Brew 

Danny Glover Under Attack  1/7/02 Black World Today: "As the totalitarianism rustles continue to rise across the American landscape sowing intolerance, more and more progressive voices are being targeted. Danny Glover is the latest."

AL-AMIN HELD IN CONTEMPT FOR INTERVIEWS  1/7/02 Ummah News 

More than a man on trial  1/6/02 Atlanta Constitution: "Four months ago, the trial of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin threatened to resurrect the divisiveness of the radical '60s. Now, as 1,500 potential jurors are summoned to the Fulton County Courthouse this week to start the murder trail of the man once known as H. Rap Brown, the case raises a new question: Can a Muslim get a fair trial after Sept. 11?"

Liberty on the Defensive  1/5/02 In These Times: "The indictment of Petrelis and Pasquarelli accuses them of stalking, terrorist threats and conspiracy on 27 counts—half of which are felonies—carrying a potential total penalty of 78 years in prison. A probable cause hearing on the indictments is not scheduled until January 23—and meanwhile, the two ailing men are languishing behind bars, where they are being held on bail of $500,000 each. Both men have AIDS, are in fragile health and have complained of the inadequacy of medical attention in jail." Turning every protestor into a terrorist.

H. Rap Brown [Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin] doomed?  1/4/02 AP: "Supporters of Brown [Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin], the former black militant awaiting trial for murder, contended Friday, Jan. 4, 2002 that anti-Muslim sentiment amplified by America's war against terrorism could send an innocent man to Georgia's death row."

Detained Secret Service Agent Targeted Because of Ethnicity: Witness  1/4/02 Islam Online 

BOOTED BODYGUARD LASHES OUT AT AIRLINE  1/4/02 NY Post: ""The only reason why he was not allowed on that plane is because he is an American of Arab descent," said his lawyer, John Relman. "Pure and simple, this is a case of discrimination."

Civil Liberties War Among Jews  1/4/02 Village Voice 

A Defeat for Mumia Abu-Jamal  1/1/02 Poor News Network 

US tribunals to allow hearsay in terrorist trials  12/29/01 Independent, UK: New Bushism: "Whatever the procedures are for military tribunals, our system will be more fair than the system of bin Laden and the Taliban." How reassuring.

STRANGE SYMBIOSIS – ISRAEL & ANTI-SEMITISM  12/28/01 Antiwar.com 

Bush OKs Intelligence, Defense Bills  12/28/01 AP: We'll never know anything about Emperor Bush: "In signing the intelligence bill, Bush objected to a provision that he said ``purports to require'' the administration to file written reports to congressional committees on intelligence failures."

College professors call report a prelude to blacklist, stifling academic freedom  12/26/01 Seattle Times: "Others are concerned that the report will be used to pressure college trustees to adopt a required curriculum of U.S. history and civics with a nationalistic bent. "That agenda is serious, too, because it has to do with what gets taught," said Barbara Foley, a Rutgers University English professor quoted in the report. "This report is another installment in the Lynne Cheney culture wars."

U.S. Muslims hunker down as hate crimes soar, immigrants are rounded up  12/25/01 AFP 

Irgun Terrorism 1931-1948  12/25/01 On War: A very small part of the rebuttal to the assertion that there was no Jewish terrorism in the founding of Israel.

Out the Door in Oneida: Anatomy of a Newsroom Fiasco  12/25/01 Poynter.org: Contains the editorial which caused the firing of two veteran newspersons. The offending lines: "Until 1948, there was no Israel. The United Nations took Palestinian land and gave it to a number of Jewish terrorists to rule -- Jewish terrorists who had bombed and killed Palestinians and others in an effort to force hands of power to see an Israel formed. Today's freedom fighter, in many cases, was yesterday's terrorist. Old Testament writings in the Christian Bible speak of the Israelis of that day roaming the desert and often slaughtering the local populations wherever their travels took them, all on God's say-so, of course, but not endearing themselves in the hearts of the Arabs who inhabited that part of the world… …. In the words of John Lennon, "Give peace a chance." This is factually incorrect? The only fact that is questionable is calling Old Testament Israeli victims Arabs, who were not then in the majority. But victims of that old war god Yahweh there most certainly were, in abundance!

RESPONSES TO THE SEPT. 19 ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH EDITORIAL  12/25/01 Poynter.org: Includes letter from the mayor and from the attorney, Randy Schaal, who initiated the actions that led to the firings of two veteran journalists. This gem from Schaal: "The fact is bin Laden hates the United States, not because of Israel and the Jews, but because of our freedoms, and because we stationed troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War." Is that the freedom to kill thousands of Iraquis and now Afghans directly and Palestinians by paid proxy?

1984 by George Orwell  12/25/01 The Memory Hole 

Program for DNA testing of inmates is scrapped  12/25/01 USA Today: Ashcroft denies inmates the possibility of correcting judicial errors - consistent with his reputation for being ultra racist.

Don't Mention It: The US State Department's Human Rights Reports on Israel and the Occupied Territories  12/24/01 AntiWar.com: "Because it is no secret that Israel commits serious human rights abuses (indeed, Senator Russ Feingold [D-WI] called the most recent State Department human rights report on Israel "disturbing" in a letter to me dated 31 October 2001) one has to wonder how it is that this public record is virtually unknown to, or ignored by, our major media and intellectual classes. Could it be that our reasons for supporting Israel have nothing to do with valuing those who believe in "progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom"? (George W. Bush; 20 September 2001) We may need to redefine what "civilized" means. Or perhaps we should simply urge Attorney General Ashcroft to suppress such information in the future."

Cryptome attacked by FBI bots  12/24/01 Cryptome: "A caution on bots: There is no objection to anybody -- gov, mil, edu, com, or individual -- downloading all the files here wanted without limitation, the whole 8,000+ if desired, preferably no more than a hundred per day. However, malconfigured bots and spiders that repetitively download mindlessly, or generate thousands of error messages for files already downloaded, and in doing so exluding others' access, are not welcome and will be blocked in perpetuity. The FBI bot cited here recently was doing that and demonstrates that a malconfigured machine was operating without human control or a human was deliberating attacking by pretending to be a bot or demon hacker (pretty common these flush days of inept cybersecurity peddling -- none of the ept gov bots has screwed up here like the FBI's MAS). Uncontrolled bots are attackers for they produce destruction as if intentionally. Don't use bots unless you know for sure they are not causing damage. Test them on your own site before bombing the net as if cowardly B52s begging for payback."

Muhammad Ali joins the fight with TV message to win over Muslims  12/24/01 Guardian, UK 

The War Conspiracy  12/24/01 Guerrilla News Network: "In his review of the book, Noam Chomsky remarked on Scott's "meticulous and fascinating analysis of intelligence conspiracies and the links between the 'intelligence community' and corporate power."

Attorneys Visit With Sundiata/Reflections on Organizing!  12/23/01 Afrikan Identity: Sundiata, along with many other political prisoners, was put in lockdown after 9-11. He is still heavily restricted, as per his attorney - "Sundiata was not informed that his social visits and mail was reinstated, so Soffiyah believe the administration may have lied to her. i'm encouraging everyone to continue to write Sundiata. He is only let out of his cage upon visits, he showers in the cage as well, anyone thats on his visiting list that can, please go and visit with him." Sundiata was in the car with Assata when they were assaulted by a Nazi cell in the NJ State Police.

American Taliban Called Out Nas and Hip Hop  12/23/01 Davey D: "Homeboy [Jonathan Walker] says he was introduced to Islam via Hip Hop websites, Hip Hop message boards and the Five Percent Nation. Does this mean all these outlets are going to somehow be blamed in some sensationalistic perverted way for this 'young' 'innocent' white guy who went to fight for the Taliban? If I hadn't seen such nonsense take place in other situations I wouldn't raise the red flag, but I have."

The New McCarthyism  12/23/01 The Progressive: Good survey of recent attacks on civil liberties, including the firings of various columnist who do not toe the pro-war line.

Arthur Miller accuses Bush of abusing and curbing civil rights  12/22/01 Independent, UK 

U.S. Expatriate Is Seen Facing Capital Charge  12/22/01 NYT: "officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there was growing sentiment among top advisers that Mr. Walker, a 20-year- old Californian who fought in Afghanistan, should face the death penalty on at least one of the possible charges."

Bush War on Terrorism Dividing Pundits, Pols From Traditional Allies  12/21/01 Forward: "But while pundits and politicians have been lining up against the president, most Jewish groups have rallied behind him. With the lone exception of the Reform movement, none have criticized any of the aggressive law-enforcement measures adopted by the administration since September 11. For example, of the more than 150 organizations that have signed on to a September statement on civil liberties issued by the American Civil Liberties Union, only one is a major Jewish organization: Women of Reform Judaism. The signers, said ACLU president Nadine Strossen, "are very diverse across the political, ethnic, racial and religious spectrum, but woefully short of Jewish organizations." "I think it matters very much," Ms. Strossen said of the Jewish groups' absence. "We want it to be clear that we are talking about core American values. Just as it's important to be able to cite Republicans as well as Democrats, conservatives as well as liberals, I want to be able to cite not only Arab-American groups, but also Jewish groups."

Hate Crimes Have Soared Since Sept. 11  12/21/01 LA Times 

Anthrax investigators focusing on strain from military facility  12/21/01 Miami Herald: "``This is complete nonsense,'' Michael P. Failey told The Herald Thursday. ``I have never been a researcher of anthrax. I've never had access to anthrax. I didn't even know it was a bacteria until I saw it on TV. All I did was mention the word, that's it. ``And I've got the FBI in here searching my house and taking my computer.''

Muslim student groups come under scrutiny  12/21/01 Nando Times 

Federal agents investigate Letters to the Editor in the Casper Star Tribune  12/21/01 Sierra Times, Nevada: The federal Joint Terrorism Task Force - JTTF - hard at work!

US university fires Arab professor  12/21/01 Times of India 

American Taliban has no right to lawyer, insists White House  12/20/01 Independent, UK: Just take him out and shoot him.

DIRT/Frank Jones Conviction and Probation Docs  12/19/01 Cryptome: "These are conviction and probation documents of Frank Jones, proprietor of Codex Data Systems, Inc., and producer of the D.I.R.T. covert computer surveillance program sold only to law enforcement and governmental agencies."

Judge Throws Out Mumia Abu-Jamal's Death Sentence, Orders New Hearing  12/19/01 Yahoo: Yahoo's news page on this story, with late breaking developments.

UN Report: Reporters bash UN, Pentagon and Israel  12/18/01 Final Call 

Judge Overturns Death Sentence for Abu-Jamal  12/18/01 Reuters 

The FBI's House Calls  12/18/01 San Francisco Chronicle: FBI interviews man for talking bad at the local gym - "Lucas Gutentag of the National ACLU's Immigrant Rights Project believes most people aren't concerned about what's going on with internal security in this nation because they're under the impression that the FBI is targeting and profiling mainly noncitizens. "It camouflages the full effects of the [Justice Department's] policies because [citizens] don't feel directly affected, " Gutentag said. "But the principles the government is relying on result in the same kind of practices against everyone." If you don't think it can happen to you in America, just ask Barry Reingold, an average American with a strong opinion."

New probe sought in Chicago's lingering police-torture case  12/16/01 CNN 

Cypherpunk visited for making "derogatory" remarks about Feds  12/16/01 Politechbot: "Mr. Johnson was reprimanded for the inappropriate nature of his e-mail messages and again specifically directed not to access the Cypherpunk website or make any postings to that site." Yes sir, Officer Krups!

Graduation speech cut short by hecklers  12/16/01 Sacramento Bee: "During her speech, the heckling began after Heaphy voiced concerns about racial profiling, the suspension of civil rights of suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks, and the establishment of military tribunals."

Academic freedom is under attack since Sept. 11, some professors say  12/16/01 Seattle Times 

Investigation sought into police torture claims in Chicago  12/15/01 AP 

Bush denies Congress papers for FBI probe  12/14/01 Boston Globe: "''You tell the president there's going to be war between the president and this committee,'' Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who heads the House Government Reform Committee, told a Justice Department official during what was supposed to be a routine prehearing handshake." Dan Burton, co-author of the Helms - Burton law.

American Council of Trustees and Alumni  12/14/01 Media Transparency 

ACLU to provide free legal help for Muslims facing FBI questioning  12/14/01 Newsday 

Detainees could be jailed indefinitely  12/13/01 MSNBC: Like the Cuban "excludables" who stayed in US jails indefinitely

Black Police Officers Sue City, Citing Surveillance  12/13/01 NYT 

Lynne Cheney-Joe Lieberman Group Puts Out a Blacklist  12/13/01 San Jose Mercury News: "Although the council's stated objectives include the protection of academic freedom, the report resembles a blacklist. In a chilling use of doublespeak, it affirms the right of professors to speak out, yet condemns those who have attempted to give context to Sept. 11, encourage critical thinking, or share knowledge about other cultures. Faculty are accused of being ``short on patriotism'' for attempting to give students the analytical tools they need to become informed citizens. Many of those blacklisted are top scholars in their fields, and it appears that the report represents a kind of academic terrorism designed to strike fear into other academics by making examples of respected professors."

WHAT'S NOT IN THE NEWS: Why We Aren't Hearing the Whole Story from Afghanistan  12/13/01 Tom Paine: "Benjamin: Well, it made me think that our press is in lockstep with the government, and that we're not hearing what the rest of the world is hearing, and it makes us so much less able to understand why there are so many people around the world that hate us. If we can't cover the results of the U.S. bombing campaign, if we can't hear that the United States is stopping food aid from getting to people who are starving and cold, then we're not getting the real story and the U.S. people will continue to think that the United States have liberated the people of Afghanistan and they're all overjoyed with us." Indeed.

Insecurity Forces: Pitt students are arrested after Atlanta airport screening hysteria  12/12/01 Pittsburgh City Paper 

INS arrests foreign students in San Diego crackdown  12/12/01 Sacramento Bee 

The Trouble with Tribunals  12/11/01 Cape Cod Times 

Any Poll Can Be Manipulated To Support An Agenda  12/11/01 Madison Capital Times, Wisconsin 

Dad, Son Held For Weeks as Terror Suspects  12/11/01 Salt Lake Tribune 

Court: Online Scribes Protected  12/11/01 Wired: "Online journalism is the same as print, radio and TV news when it comes to free-press protections against charges of libel. That's the decision of the New York State Supreme Court in the widely watched case of the National Bank of Mexico against Narconews.com."

NY Supreme Court Rules Online Coverage Protected Speech  12/10/01 Electronic Frontier Foundation 

The Ghost Of COINTELPRO  12/9/01 Black World Today 

Reluctant cops stall queries of Arabs  12/9/01 Chicago Tribune: "Across the country, police and prosecutors are raising legal concerns about racial profiling and the possibility that targeting Arabs could damage police relations with immigrant and minority communities. Several police forces, including those in Portland and Corvallis, Ore., have refused to participate. Chicago police also will not participate in the interviews."

Editorial: Ashcroft's cheap shot / Critics of security measures aren't disloyal  12/9/01 Pittsburgh Post Gazette: more from the heartland

A dangerous list to the right  12/9/01 San Francisco Chronicle 

Editorial: Shame on Ashcroft  12/8/01 DesMoines Register: from the heartland…

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISSENT AND TREASON  12/8/01 Yahoo: by Richard Reeves

Boondocks Cartoon Censored  12/7/01 Black World Today 

Panthers Persecution Holds Lesson For Today  12/7/01 Black World Today 

Noam Chomsky -- Saying What Media Don't Want Us to Hear  12/7/01 Common Dreams 

U.S. Senate rebuffs international tribunal  12/7/01 MSNBC: The Senate is vigilant lest any US soldier or official ever be charged with genocide.

Ashcroft Defends Antiterror Plan and Says Criticism May Aid Foes  12/7/01 NYT: Nixon is back!

Shock as columnist investigated for un-American activity  12/7/01 Sydney Morning Herald 

Former President Carter criticizes military tribunals plan  12/6/01 Sacramento Bee 

McCarthyism returns  12/5/01 Al Ahram: "Under the guise of patriotism, civil liberties in the US are being eroded to the dismay of ethnic and religious minorities and anti-war activists, writes Gamal Nkrumah" - yes, the son of Kwame Nkrumah, who writes for this Egyptian paper.

Dissing Democracy  12/5/01 Consortium News 

So, FBI, What About Bob?  12/5/01 Newsday 

Pearl Harbor: A Look Back, A Look Forward  12/4/01 Alternet: "While many are aware only of the internees of Japanese ancestry, it is also true that slightly less than half of those interned -- 14,426, to be exact -- were of European descent. The majority of these were Germans, but Italians, Hungarians, Poles, Bulgarians, and Czechs are counted among the thousands interned by our government. As these men and their families learned over the years, the punishment for being different was greater than many of them could have ever imagined. "

DNA Fails to Tie Men to Crime  12/4/01 AP: Police lab analyst lied on the stand - wrongly accused men were black.

Reason to be Paranoid; a Personal Experience  12/4/01 IndyMedia 

Islam's Crisis: Can African-American Muslims Stand in the Gap?  12/3/01 Black Headlines 

Burglars With Badges  12/3/01 Village Voice 

What was COINTELPRO  12/3/01 What Really Happened 

FBI agents rebel over new powers  12/2/01 Guardian, UK: COINTELPRO back again:"The plan has caused outrage within the FBI itself with agents expected to act upon new surveillance powers describing themselves as 'very, very angry'. The spying, wiretapping and surveillance campaign unleashed by Hoover against church and political groups was called 'Cointelpro', and was aimed mainly at the movement behind civil rights activist Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers, the anti-Vietnam war movement and, on the other wing, the Ku Klux Klan."

Justice Deformed: War and the Constitution  12/2/01 NYT 

Tale of an American Taliban  12/1/01 MSNBC': "It is unclear what will happen to Abdul Hamid, who says he lost his U.S. passport in Kunduz. But he may well be headed for a U.S. military tribunal."

It Can Happen Here  12/1/01 NYT: "On the basis of secret evidence, the government accuses a non-citizen of connections to terrorism, and holds him in prison for three years. Then a judge conducts a full trial and rejects the terrorism charges. He releases the prisoner. A year later government agents rearrest the man, hold him in solitary confinement and state as facts the terrorism charges that the judge found untrue. Could that happen in America? In John Ashcroft's America it has happened."

The alleged patriots who want to do a replay of the 50's need to consider that one of the roots of Al Qaeda was a Saudi dissident movement that turned violent in House Saud's torture cells in the early 90's.