CONTRASTS:
CONTRASTS:
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Well, @AceHardware certainly picked a strange holiday marketing strategy. #BoycottAceHardware #NoDAPL
ACE HARDWARE STATEMENT UPDATE:
Please note below (sentence enlarged) that they are only stocking and selling 1-pound propane canisters! All normal grills use at least 15-pound canisters. This is a purposeful attack on the Water Protectors who are trying to survive in sub-freezing weather in North Dakota. Everyone should demand they keep their stores in the area stocked up fully! Human lives depend on it! This is outrageous! --Bonnie Weinstein, bauaw.org
Oak Brook, Ill.,
December
01,
2016
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Well, @AceHardware certainly picked a strange holiday marketing strategy. #BoycottAceHardware #NoDAPL
ACE HARDWARE STATEMENT UPDATE:
Please note below (sentence enlarged) that they are only stocking and selling 1-pound propane canisters! All normal grills use at least 15-pound canisters. This is a purposeful attack on the Water Protectors who are trying to survive in sub-freezing weather in North Dakota. Everyone should demand they keep their stores in the area stocked up fully! Human lives depend on it! This is outrageous! --Bonnie Weinstein, bauaw.org
Oak Brook, Ill.,
December
01,
2016
Ace Hardware statement on North Dakota protest and product sales
Update: As of Thursday, Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. local time, Ace Hardware stores in Bismarck, N. D., are in-stock and selling 1 lb. propane canisters.
At Ace, our local store owners take great pride in serving their neighbors and it is our policy to serve all customers without discrimination and to follow all laws in each respective community.
We understand the concerns that have been shared with us regarding product sales related to the recent protests in North Dakota and have been working very hard to gather all of the facts from our locally-owned Ace stores that operate in the area and local authorities. To be candid, we've been working feverishly to unearth all of the facts, which have been cloudy at times.
In an effort to clear any misunderstanding and/or misinformation, Ace Hardware can now confirm that there is no ban on the sale of products at our locally-owned Ace stores; customers should feel free to check with their local store for inventory availability.
http://newsroom.acehardware.com/ace-hardware-statement-on-north-dakota-protest-and-product-sales/
Update: As of Thursday, Dec. 1 at 10 a.m. local time, Ace Hardware stores in Bismarck, N. D., are in-stock and selling 1 lb. propane canisters.
At Ace, our local store owners take great pride in serving their neighbors and it is our policy to serve all customers without discrimination and to follow all laws in each respective community.
We understand the concerns that have been shared with us regarding product sales related to the recent protests in North Dakota and have been working very hard to gather all of the facts from our locally-owned Ace stores that operate in the area and local authorities. To be candid, we've been working feverishly to unearth all of the facts, which have been cloudy at times.
In an effort to clear any misunderstanding and/or misinformation, Ace Hardware can now confirm that there is no ban on the sale of products at our locally-owned Ace stores; customers should feel free to check with their local store for inventory availability.
http://newsroom.acehardware.com/ace-hardware-statement-on-north-dakota-protest-and-product-sales/
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North Dakota: Stop Using Cold Water to Blast Unarmed Protestors in Sub-Freezing Temperatures
13,333 SUPPORTERS
14,000 GOAL
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International Committee
for Peace, Justice and Dignity
Message from the National Boricua Human Rights Network
SIGN THIS PETITION NOW!
PLEASE FORWARD FAR AND WIDE WE ARE TRYING TO GET 100,000 SIGNATURES IN 30 DAYS.
Hi all:
We are asking all organizations, communities, unions, churches, activists, political parties- to CALL ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS to sign this petition and spread the word- this is a time-sensitive request!
We must try to achieve the signing of 100,000 signatures by December 11.
No matter how many petitions you have signed- SIGN THIS ONLINE PETITION and get everyone else to do the same. Do not let anyone tell you they have signed petitions or letters before- this is the one that will be highlighted.
WE ARE FREEING OSCAR LÓPEZ RIVERA
Coordinating Committee
National Boricua Human Rights Network
2739 W. Division Street
Chicago IL 60622
@free_olr
International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
510-219-0092 | info@TheInternationalCommittee.org | Website
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Black Children Punished for Anthem Protests
After young 11 and 12-year-boys of the Beaumont Bulls football knelt during the anthem to protest police violence against Black youth, their local executive board canceled their entire football season, suspended the coaching staff, and threatened to arrest their parents if they attended any future games, practices or events.
For these young Black kids, the plight of injustice in America is their own. Instead of supporting the boys and their protests, their executive board and league officials abandoned them. The board has decided to strip these kids of the team that they love to punish them for asking for basic rights and dignities. This is about the board reinforcing that police violence in our communities doesn't matter, that our issues aren't important and that speaking onthem makes you subject to punishment.
These kids are brave for refusing to give in to the executive board and for standing against injustice. We need to support the fight of these children and show them that their protest is heard.
To the Beaumont Bulls Executive Board,
Immediately reinstate the Beaumont Bulls coaching staff, apologize to the boys and their parents, and allow them to finish their season.
Sincerely,
We need to support the fight of these children and show them that their protest is heard.
http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/black-children-punished-anthem-protests/?sp_ref=239333099.176.176140.e.558213.2&referring_akid=6495.1114646.XlU2ME&source=em_sp
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After young 11 and 12-year-boys of the Beaumont Bulls football knelt during the anthem to protest police violence against Black youth, their local executive board canceled their entire football season, suspended the coaching staff, and threatened to arrest their parents if they attended any future games, practices or events.
For these young Black kids, the plight of injustice in America is their own. Instead of supporting the boys and their protests, their executive board and league officials abandoned them. The board has decided to strip these kids of the team that they love to punish them for asking for basic rights and dignities. This is about the board reinforcing that police violence in our communities doesn't matter, that our issues aren't important and that speaking onthem makes you subject to punishment.
These kids are brave for refusing to give in to the executive board and for standing against injustice. We need to support the fight of these children and show them that their protest is heard.
To the Beaumont Bulls Executive Board,
Immediately reinstate the Beaumont Bulls coaching staff, apologize to the boys and their parents, and allow them to finish their season.
Sincerely,
We need to support the fight of these children and show them that their protest is heard.
http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/black-children-punished-anthem-protests/?sp_ref=239333099.176.176140.e.558213.2&referring_akid=6495.1114646.XlU2ME&source=em_sp
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL NOW!
FREE HEP-C MEDS FOR ALL INFECTED PRISONERS!
Rally and March
Friday December 9, Rally Oscar Grant Plaza, OAKLAND, 4pm
Followed by March to OPD Headquarters
Join us for a National Day of Action on December 9 to FREE MUMIA NOW!
and Demand: FREE HEP-C MEDS FOR ALL PRISONERS!
in coordination with his Philadelphia and New York supporters
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who police tried to execute on the streets of Philadelphia in 1981, was framed by a racist judicial system and sentenced to death. Like other Black Panthers he was an innocent target of the FBI's repressive COINTELPRO campaign. From death row Mumia, became known as the "voice of the voiceless", exposing deplorable prison conditions and fighting racist police killings, imperialist wars and capitalist oppression. International protests got him off death row, but now they are trying to kill him by medical neglect. They are withholding life-saving Hep C medication he and 7,000 other Pennsylvania prisoners desperately need. After 35 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, it's time to mobilize to FREE MUMIA and other political prisoners like him now!
A recent US Supreme Court decision, "Williams vs. Pennsylvania" could open the door for Mumia's freedom but only if this fundamentally racist judicial system is confronted with mass protests like those that got him off death row. This decision ruled that a prosecutor cannot later sit as judge over the same defendant's appeal. This is exactly what happened in Mumia's case. On this basis Mumia's attorneys have filed a new legal action. If successful, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulings that upheld his conviction would be overturned. Mumia could then re-appeal the issues of his innocence, jury bias and falsified evidence to win an outright dismissal of charges or get a new trial. Mumia was framed by corrupt cops, prosecutors, and judges for the murder of a policeman that he did not commit!!
We say: Free Mumia Now!
Endorsers for the December 9th Free Mumia Coalition:
Angela Davis; ANSWER Coalition; Anti Police-Terror Project; BAMN; Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY; (Former) Black Panthers: Cleo Silvers, Eddie Conway, Larry Pinkney, William Johnson; Cal BSU; Code Pink, Freedom Socialist Party-Bay Area; Haiti Action Committee; International Action Center; John Brown Society; Justice for Palestinians-San Jose; Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Love Not Blood Campaign/Uncle Bobby; National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party; Oakland Socialist Group; Oakland Teachers for Mumia; Oasis Hepatitis C Clinic; Occupy 4 Prisoners; Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Peace and Freedom Party; Socialist Organizer; Socialist Viewpoint; Speak Out Now; Veterans for Peace – East Bay; Workers World Party
See you at Oscar Grant Plaza (City Hall), Oakland, 4 pm, December 9th
More Info: Tova, 510-600-5800; Jack, 510-501-7080; Gerald 510-417-1252
(This message from: Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal).
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FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL NOW!
FREE HEP-C MEDS FOR ALL INFECTED PRISONERS!
Rally and March
Friday December 9, Rally Oscar Grant Plaza, OAKLAND, 4pm
Followed by March to OPD Headquarters
Join us for a National Day of Action on December 9 to FREE MUMIA NOW!
and Demand: FREE HEP-C MEDS FOR ALL PRISONERS!
in coordination with his Philadelphia and New York supporters
Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther who police tried to execute on the streets of Philadelphia in 1981, was framed by a racist judicial system and sentenced to death. Like other Black Panthers he was an innocent target of the FBI's repressive COINTELPRO campaign. From death row Mumia, became known as the "voice of the voiceless", exposing deplorable prison conditions and fighting racist police killings, imperialist wars and capitalist oppression. International protests got him off death row, but now they are trying to kill him by medical neglect. They are withholding life-saving Hep C medication he and 7,000 other Pennsylvania prisoners desperately need. After 35 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, it's time to mobilize to FREE MUMIA and other political prisoners like him now!
A recent US Supreme Court decision, "Williams vs. Pennsylvania" could open the door for Mumia's freedom but only if this fundamentally racist judicial system is confronted with mass protests like those that got him off death row. This decision ruled that a prosecutor cannot later sit as judge over the same defendant's appeal. This is exactly what happened in Mumia's case. On this basis Mumia's attorneys have filed a new legal action. If successful, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rulings that upheld his conviction would be overturned. Mumia could then re-appeal the issues of his innocence, jury bias and falsified evidence to win an outright dismissal of charges or get a new trial. Mumia was framed by corrupt cops, prosecutors, and judges for the murder of a policeman that he did not commit!!
We say: Free Mumia Now!
Endorsers for the December 9th Free Mumia Coalition:
Angela Davis; ANSWER Coalition; Anti Police-Terror Project; BAMN; Black Panther Commemoration Committee, NY; (Former) Black Panthers: Cleo Silvers, Eddie Conway, Larry Pinkney, William Johnson; Cal BSU; Code Pink, Freedom Socialist Party-Bay Area; Haiti Action Committee; International Action Center; John Brown Society; Justice for Palestinians-San Jose; Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Love Not Blood Campaign/Uncle Bobby; National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party; Oakland Socialist Group; Oakland Teachers for Mumia; Oasis Hepatitis C Clinic; Occupy 4 Prisoners; Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Peace and Freedom Party; Socialist Organizer; Socialist Viewpoint; Speak Out Now; Veterans for Peace – East Bay; Workers World Party
See you at Oscar Grant Plaza (City Hall), Oakland, 4 pm, December 9th
More Info: Tova, 510-600-5800; Jack, 510-501-7080; Gerald 510-417-1252
(This message from: Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal).
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In Philadelphia on December 9th:
3-6pm - Rally outside next to the hated Rizzo statue across from City Hall in Thomas Paine Plaza
6-9pm - Indoor event at Arch Street Methodist Church, Arch and N. Broad Street streets (food will be available.)
In Philadelphia on December 9th:
3-6pm - Rally outside next to the hated Rizzo statue across from City Hall in Thomas Paine Plaza
6-9pm - Indoor event at Arch Street Methodist Church, Arch and N. Broad Street streets (food will be available.)
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January 20, 2017, 7:00 A.M.
Freedom Plaza
1355 Pennsylvania Ave N.W.
(14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave.)
Washington, D.C.
Here in San Francisco:
January 20, 2017, 7:00 A.M.
Freedom Plaza
1355 Pennsylvania Ave N.W.
(14th Street and Pennsylvania Ave.)
Washington, D.C.
Here in San Francisco:
Fri. Jan. 20, 5pm
SF Protest: Say NO to Trump and the Trump Program on Inauguration Day
Fight Racism, Sexism and Bigotry—Defend Immigrants!
UN Plaza, near Civic Center BART, San Francisco
Join the Mass Organizing Meeting, Sat. Dec. 10, 12noon at 2969 Mission St., SF. Help build for the Jan. 20 action!
Sign up to volunteer! Become an organizer in the fightback movement against Trump!
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Progressive people from all over the country will be descending on Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2017, to stage a massive demonstration along Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day along with corresponding actions in San Francisco and other West Coast cities.
Trump's appointees are a motley and dangerous crew of billionaires, white supremacists and other extreme rightwingers. They have nothing good in mind for anyone but the banks, oil companies and the military-industrial complex.
It is more important than ever that we keep building the grassroots movement against war, militarism, racism, anti-immigrant scapegoating and neoliberal capitalism's assault against workers' living standards and the environment.
Real social change comes from the bottom, the mobilized grassroots, and not from the centers of institutional power, the professional politicians or the capitalist elites.
This country needs a real political revolution. Millions of people feel entirely disenfranchised by a political system that delivered the least favorable and trusted candidates in U.S. history. Many hoped that the Bernie Sanders campaign would represent a new direction and opportunity to take on entrenched power and extreme inequality, for a higher minimum wage, to defend Social Security, rebuild the labor movement, provide universal health care and free tuition.
Donald Trump is a racist, sexist bigot. On Inauguration Day, thousands will be in the streets to give voice to the millions of people in this country who are demanding systemic change and who reject Trump's anti-people program.
Join us on January 20, 2017, for a massive mobilization of the people!
More info: www.ANSWERsf.org or 415-821-6545.
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Join the Mass Organizing Meeting, Sat. Dec. 10, 12noon at 2969 Mission St., SF. Help build for the Jan. 20 action!
Sign up to volunteer! Become an organizer in the fightback movement against Trump!
Progressive people from all over the country will be descending on Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2017, to stage a massive demonstration along Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day along with corresponding actions in San Francisco and other West Coast cities.
Trump's appointees are a motley and dangerous crew of billionaires, white supremacists and other extreme rightwingers. They have nothing good in mind for anyone but the banks, oil companies and the military-industrial complex.
It is more important than ever that we keep building the grassroots movement against war, militarism, racism, anti-immigrant scapegoating and neoliberal capitalism's assault against workers' living standards and the environment.
Real social change comes from the bottom, the mobilized grassroots, and not from the centers of institutional power, the professional politicians or the capitalist elites.
This country needs a real political revolution. Millions of people feel entirely disenfranchised by a political system that delivered the least favorable and trusted candidates in U.S. history. Many hoped that the Bernie Sanders campaign would represent a new direction and opportunity to take on entrenched power and extreme inequality, for a higher minimum wage, to defend Social Security, rebuild the labor movement, provide universal health care and free tuition.
Donald Trump is a racist, sexist bigot. On Inauguration Day, thousands will be in the streets to give voice to the millions of people in this country who are demanding systemic change and who reject Trump's anti-people program.
Join us on January 20, 2017, for a massive mobilization of the people!
More info: www.ANSWERsf.org or 415-821-6545.
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Read more about this action at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lsTTIlJff6anpUaUdoYWUwVU0/view
Read more about this action at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_lsTTIlJff6anpUaUdoYWUwVU0/view
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Support Chelsea's petition to reduce sentence to time served
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Support Chelsea's petition to Obama:
Reduce sentence to time served
"New York Times, November 14, 2016 -- Chelsea Manning, who confessed to disclosing archives of secret diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 and has been incarcerated longer than any other convicted leaker in American history, has formally petitioned President Obama to reduce the remainder of her 35-year sentence to the more than six years she has already served."
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Sign the whitehouse.gov petition in
support of Chelsea's request today!
Official clemency application from Chelsea Manning.
November 10, 2016
Also coverage by the Guardian and the New York Times. November 14, 2016
Washington DC action this Saturday!The White House Committee to Pardon Chelsea Manning invites you to join them this Saturday, November 19th from noon to 2pm in front of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC. They are calling on President Obama to pardon Chelsea Manning. Facebook page for more info.
Fort Leavenworth vigil this Sunday! The Kansas City Peace and Social Justice group is organizing a vigil for Chelsea this Sunday, November 20th at 2pm at the public right-of-way near the long driveway into Ft. Leavenworth, near Metropolitan & North 10th Street.
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Chelsea tried committing suicide
a second time in October
Chelsea has been informed that the Army will hold another disciplinary hearing on the second attempted suicide, which was prompted by the punishment given by the first disciplinary hearing following her initial suicide attempt.
New York Times
November 4, 2016
Chelsea Manning tried to commit suicide last month as she was starting a week of solitary confinement at the prison barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., her punishment for a previous attempt to end her life in July.
Ms. Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who is serving a 35-year sentence for leaking archives of secret documents to WikiLeaks, disclosed the attempted suicide, which took place Oct. 4, in a statement she dictated over the phone to a member of her volunteer support network. She asked that it be sent this week to The New York Times, according to members of the network who want to keep their identities private.
Chase Strangio, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing Ms. Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, confirmed the attempt, which raised new questions about the military's handling of the troubled soldier, dating to when she was permitted to deploy to Iraq and kept at her post in a secure facility despite signs of erratic behavior.
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Sign the whitehouse.gov petition in
support of Chelsea's request today!
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Defying the Tomb: Selected Prison Writings and Art of Kevin "Rashid" Johnson featuring exchanges with an Outlaw Kindle Edition
by Kevin Rashid Johnson (Author), Tom Big Warrior (Introduction), Russell Maroon Shoatz(Introduction)
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013RU5M4S
Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!
Click HERE to view in browser
http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/freepinkney-1-28-15/
UPDATE:
Today is the 406th day that Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan
languishes in prison doing felony time for a misdemeanor crime he did not
commit. Today is also the day that Robert McKay, a spokesperson for the
Free Rev. Pinkney campaign, gave testimony before United Nations
representatives about the plight of Rev. Pinkney at a hearing held in
Chicago. The hearing was called in order to shed light upon the
mistreatment of African-Americans in the United States and put it on an
international stage. And yet as the UN representatives and audience heard
of the injustices in the Pinkney case many gasped in disbelief and asked
with frowns on their faces, "how is this possible?" But disbelief quickly
disappeared when everyone realized these were the same feelings they had
when they first heard of Flint and we all know what happened in Flint. FREE
REV. PINKNEY NOW.
Please send letters to:
Marquette Branch Prison
Rev. Edward Pinkney N-E-93 #294671
1960 US Hwy 41 South
Marquette, MI 49855
Please donate at http://bhbanco.org (Donate button) or send checks to BANCO:
c/o Dorothy Pinkney
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
Contributions for Rev. Pinkney's defense can be sent to BANCO at Mrs Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022
Or you can donate on-line at bhbanco.org.
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State Seeks to Remove Innocent PA Lifer's Attorney! Free Corey Walker!
The PA Office of the Attorney General (OAG) filed legal action to remove Corey Walker's attorney, Rachel Wolkenstein, in November 2014. On Tuesday, February 9, 2016 the evidentiary hearing to terminate Wolkenstein as Corey Walker's pro hac vice lawyer continues before Judge Lawrence Clark of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas in Harrisburg, PA.
Walker, assisted by Wolkenstein, filed three sets of legal papers over five months in 2014 with new evidence of Walker's innocence and that the prosecution and police deliberately used false evidence to convict him of murder. Two weeks after Wolkenstein was granted pro hac vice status, the OAG moved against her and Walker.
The OAG claims that Wolkenstein's political views and prior legal representation of Mumia Abu-Jamal and courtroom arrest by the notorious Judge Albert Sabo makes it "intolerable" for her to represent Corey Walker in the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Over the past fifteen months the OAG has effectively stopped any judicial action on the legal challenges of Corey Walker and his former co-defendant, Lorenzo Johnson against their convictions and sentences to life imprisonment without parole while it proceeds in its attempts to remove Wolkenstein.
This is retaliation against Corey Walker who is innocent and framed. Walker and his attorney won't stop until they thoroughly expose the police corruption and deliberate presentation of false evidence to convict Corey Walker and win his freedom.
This outrageous attack on Corey Walker's fundamental right to his lawyer of choice and challenge his conviction must cease. The evidence of his innocence and deliberate prosecutorial frame up was suppressed for almost twenty years. Corey Walker must be freed!
Read: Jim Crow Justice – The Frame-up Of Corey Walker by Charles Brover
Go to FreeCoreyWalker.org to provide help and get more information.
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TAKE ACTION: Mumia is sick
Contact: Prison Radio (info@prisonradio.org)
Website:
Judge Robert Mariani of the U.S. District Court has issued an order in Mumia's case, granting Mumia's lawyers Bret Grote and Robert Boyle's motion to supplement the record. Hepatitis C is a progressive disease that attacks Mumia's organs, skin and liver. Unless the court orders the new hepatitis C treatment - one pill a day for 12 weeks, with a 95% cure rate - Mumia's health will remain at serious risk.
Take Action for MumiaCall prison officials to demand immediate treatment! |
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SUPPORTERS OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, AND FREE QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL:
The Oasis Clinic in Oakland, CA, which treats patients with Hepatitis-C (HCV), demands an end to the outrageous price-gouging of Big Pharma corporations, like Gilead Sciences, which hike-up the cost for essential, life-saving medications such as the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, in order to reap huge profits. The Oasis Clinic's demand is:
PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!
WE DEMAND:
PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!
IMMEDIATE AND FREE TREATMENT FOR ALL HCV-INFECTED PRISONERS!
NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!
JAIL DRUG PROFITEERS, FREE MUMIA!
This message from:
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • www.laboractionmumia.org
06 January 2016
Mumia Is Innocent! Free Mumia!
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Imam Jamil (H.Rap Brown) moved
Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) was moved by bus from USP Canaan in Waymart, PA. to USP Tucson, Arizona. His mailing address is: USP Tucson United States Penitentiary P.O. Box Tucson, AZ. 85734 (BOP number 99974555)
Sign the Petition:
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, THE Bureau of Prisons, The Governor of Georgia
We are aware of a review being launched of criminal cases to determine whether any defendants were wrongly convicted and or deserve a new trail because of flawed forensic evidence and or wrongly reported evidence. It was stated in the Washington Post in April of 2012 that Justice Department Officials had known for years that flawed forensic work led to convictions of innocent people. We seek to have included in the review of such cases that of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. We understand that all cases reviewed will include the Innocence Project. We look forward to your immediate attention to these overdue wrongs.
ASAP: The Forgotten Imam Project
P.O. Box 373
Four Oaks, NC 27524
Signed,
Luqman Abdullah-ibn Al-Sidiq
https://www.causes.com/actions/1671495-the-forgotten-imam-jamil-abdullah-al-amin-h-rap-brown?utm_campaign=post_mailer%2Fcampaign_update.cb_71432&utm_medium=email&utm_source=causes
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Commute Kevin Cooper's Death Sentence
Sign the Petition:
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/petition.php
Urge Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction, and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International opposes all executions, unconditionally.
"The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case
Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.
In 1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue of his preliminary hearing.
Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.
Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.
Following his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."
Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.
Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.
In 2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.
In solidarity,
James Clark
Senior Death Penalty Campaigner
Amnesty International USA
Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up - from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
Kevin Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.
Convicted in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin. He has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence. In a dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d 581.
There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:
The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons, and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults (including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their bedsides?
The sole surviving victim of the murders, Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr. Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's not the man who did it."
Josh Ryen's description of the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.
These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.
The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.
Lacking a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder scene.
The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to convict.
The evidence the prosecution presented at trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been discredited… (Continue reading this document at: http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)
This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015
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CANCEL ALL STUDENT DEBT!
Sign the Petition:
http://cancelallstudentdebt.com/?code=kos
Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:
Americans now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for more than 40 million Americans and their families.
I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.
American Federation of Teachers
Campaign for America's Future
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Democracy for America
LeftAction
Project Springboard
RH Reality Check
RootsAction
Student Debt Crisis
The Nation
Working Families
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Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
|
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Through JPay using the code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
or
Directly at LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com
freelorenzojohnson.org
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B. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Forest Fires Raging Across Palestine
Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh for Salem-News.com
The European pine tree, not indigenous to Palestine, is highly flammable.
Nov-25-2016 16:40 Follow @OregonNews
Fires ablaze in Palestine. |
(LONDON / BETHLEHEM) - Over 200 forest fires are raging in Palestine (now renamed the Jewish State of Israel including its occupied Palestinian territories). Many countries are helping put out the fires including four teams of Palestinian firefighters (no body helped Gaza when it was being fire-bombed by white phosphorous).
But the fascist racist government of "Israel" blamed the Palestinians for the fires! Even some decent Israelis pointed out that fires are raging across Western Asia (aka the "Middle East").
Here is a map (link) put out by one Israeli website of location of fires across the region including in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey.
Perhaps coincidentally or otherwise, right after war criminal Netanyahu blamed Palestinians, new fires erupted near Palestinian communities. If you really want to know who is to blame for the damage, it is clearly Zionism as I wrote in many articles and books before.
In 1901 at the World Zionist Congress and despite objections of conscientious Jews, a Jewish National Fund (Keren Keyemet Li'Israel, or KKL) was establish to further "Jewish colonization" (the term they used) of Palestine.
One of the tasks was to raise money and they used the gimmick of collecting money for trees. Indeed they did plant trees but it was unfortunately the highly flammable European pine tree.
After 1948-1949 when some 500 Palestinian villages and towns were depopulated, their lands (cultivated with figs, almonds, olives and other trees) were razed to the ground and again resinous and inflammable pine trees were planted.
The same happened after 1967 when here Palestinian villages were demolished and their village lands planted with the same European pines, one of those villages is the biblical Imwas (see photos before and after here: freepaly.wordpress.com/tag/environmental-racism.
The choice of European pine trees was because a) they grow fast, b) they give a European look to the otherwise "Arab" landscape, c) their leaves on the ground make acidic preventing growth or regrowth of endogenous trees. In total, KKL boasts that it planted 240 million pine trees.
Resinous pine is like petrol and burns with a ferocity. This was not the only environmentally catastrophic decision by the Zionist movement in Palestine (others include draining the Hula Wetlands and the diversion of the water of the river Jordan and now the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal).
Environmentally, the current fires are deadly to all living creatures regardless of their origins and they do spread t the remaining few indigenous forests and to human dwellings (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Atheist without distinction).
We environmentalists (Palestinian and Israeli) have longed warned of the catastrophic consequences of politically driven decisions guided by colonial ideology but devastating to native animals and plants.
So here we are the remaining native Palestinians watching our lands go up in flames and being blamed for it. This is not unusual and we are the victims of others from long ago. We even paid the price of what happened in WWII (by Europeans to fellow Europeans).
I am thinking now if a meteor hits earth, we Palestinians will also pay a disproportionate price. 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people.
We in the Palestine Museum of Natural History and Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability (http://palestinenature.org) urge protection of our nature. Environmental conservation is a priority for all decent human beings including guarding biodiversity (and human diversity).
My presentation in Paris: DESCLAUX_SALACHAS/slideshow
How did Zionism became the dominant feature among Jews in the world?
Here is a clue from 1942 that, however, does not even mention that Palestine had its native population who are now mostly refugees or displaced people (7 million of 12 million native Palestinian Christians and Muslims). Thanks to this colonial ideology called Zionism...
"Zionism an Affirmation of Judaism / A reply by 757 Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Rabbis of America to a Statement Issued by Ninety Members of the Reform Rabbinate Charging That Zionism Is Incompatible with the Teachings of Judaism."
This statement is by "American Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs New York 1942" [note that these Rabbis themselves use "colonial" without mentioning natives but that is typical of such movements but also note that they are responding to 90 decent Jewish Rabbis. Alas the struggle continues between the two camps I discussed in my last weekly email].
Stay human and come visit us
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD (formerly of Yale and Duke universities) teaches at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine and chairs the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. Professor Qumsiyeh has authored over 110 scientific papers in areas of mammalogy, biology, and medicine including mammalian biology and evolution, clinical genetics, and cancer research. He has published over 100 letters to the editor and 30 op-ed pieces in International, national, regional and local papers on issues ranging from politics to environmental issues. His appearances in national media include the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He is the founder and president of the Holy Land Conservation Foundation and ex-President of the Middle East Genetics Association, and Prof. Qumsiyeh won the Jallow activism award from the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee in 1998. Those are just a small list, visit Mazin Qumsiyeh's amazing and informative Website to learn more: qumsiyeh.org, and also pcr.ps.
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2) Even as Trudeau Reaches Out to First Nations, Mercury Rises
By STEPHEN MARCHE NOV. 27, 201
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/27/opinion/even-as-trudeau-reaches-out-to-first-nations-
mercury-rises.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module
=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-
right-region&_r=0
Billy Gauthier, an Inuk artist who lives in Labrador on Canada's remote northeastern coast, began his hunger strike on Oct. 13 after a plate of salmon. The meal was highly symbolic.
The Nunatsiavut government in Labrador had released a study from a Harvard mercury researcher on the effects of the newly constructed Muskrat Falls dam. The study showed that water flooding the reservoir behind the dam would contain methylmercury levels "to the point that they exceed regulatory thresholds for exposure," building up over time in fish and other game consumed by the native population.
And so Mr. Gauthier refused to eat the fish that the Muskrat Falls project would contaminate. Thirteen days later, the provincial government promised to act on an independent assessment of the health risks to the people of Labrador, and Mr. Gauthier celebrated with a plate of arctic char.
He may have celebrated too soon. Already the government's commitment is looking doubtful, with Stan Marshall, the chief executive of Nalcor Energy, the company responsible for the dam, publicly playing down the methylmercury risks.
Muskrat Falls has brought up urgent questions for the country as a whole at a turning point in our relationship to First Peoples: How serious are we about the process of truth and reconciliation?
Muskrat Falls will affect three peoples — the Innu, the Nunatsiavut and the NunatuKavut — who will have to alter their diets, and as such their cultures. Methylmercury has a particularly strong effect on women and children and can lead to intellectual impairments and immune system problems. Some of the hydroelectric dams have already disrupted the hunting and fishing traditions of the Cree living nearby.
Justin Trudeau, who wears a shoulder tattoo based on the print "Raven Bringing Light to the World" by the Haida artist Robert Davidson, made truth and reconciliation with Canada's First Nations a priority of his election platform.
Since Mr. Trudeau's election a year ago, changes grand and subtle have been made. At Toronto schools, morning announcements begin with recognizing the original settlers of the land. "I would like to acknowledge that this school is situated upon traditional territories," it begins, before establishing which peoples the territories belonged to (in Toronto's case, the Mississaugas of the New Credit), and concluding, "I also recognize the enduring presence of aboriginal peoples on this land."
Other changes have been more material. In his cabinet, Mr. Trudeau appointed the first indigenous minister of justice in the country's history, Jody Wilson-Raybould, a woman who had served previously as regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations.
This past summer, the Trudeau government announced a national inquiry into the continuing crisis of murdered and missing aboriginal women. The first Liberal budget added $8.4 billion over five years for indigenous community infrastructure, in order to bring "transformational change" in reserves across the country.
But in the middle of the well-intentioned festivities, the crisis in Muskrat Falls arrived like a bloody ghost, summoning up the very worst of Canadian history. Muskrat Falls echoes what the Canadian historian James Daschuk has called "the politics of starvation." In his 2013 study, "Clearing the Plains," Mr. Daschuk argued that famine was a conscious settlement strategy to "create ecological conditions in which disease exploded."
In a famous anecdote, Justin Trudeau's father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, made the same point in a meeting with Marlon Brando when the American actor wanted to discuss native rights.
"There are differences in the way we treated our natives," he said. "You hunted them down and murdered them. We starved them to death."
A flip remark, but one based in history. Recent historical research has uncovered evidence that federal government officials, in remote communities in northern Manitoba in the 1940s, used malnourished indigenous peoples to test theories of vitamins. In 1947, they tested on 1,000 hungry children in half a dozen residential schools, deliberately withholding milk rations to get a "baseline reading" of the effects of malnutrition.
Nutritional questions have always been cultural questions for the indigenous peoples of Canada. Hunting and fishing are more than a traditional way of life. The land is the connection to the larger world and to history. High methylmercury levels would render the land untrustworthy. If you cannot trust the land, what can you trust?
When the Harvard study of Muskrat Falls was released, Nalcor initially proposed simply putting up advisory warnings to limit the consumption of fish. The company had resisted the obvious, expensive solution — clearcutting the land for the dam's reservoir and stripping the topsoil before flooding, which removes the buildup of methylmercury in organic matter.
"I'd like to say I was surprised, but I wasn't surprised," Mr. Gauthier declared, renewing his promise to resume the hunger strike if Nalcor failed to live up to its commitments.
Will Canada live up to its commitments? Mr. Trudeau represents a new generation in Canadian politics, literally and figuratively. He has brought in a new, much younger, team to Ottawa. That generation, like President Obama's eight years ago, came to power with the idea they were better than those who went before.
Now they are facing the oldest confrontation in Canadian history: the power of economic motives against indigenous claims to the land with the federal government in between as, at best, a dubious intermediary. Well-meaning phrases at the school announcements will not suffice. How can you atone for a crime while you're still in the middle of committing it?
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3) Ace Hardware Stores Near Standing Rock Stopped Selling Supplies to Protestors After Police Requested It
By Megan Reynolds, Jezebel
01 December 16
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/40591-ace-hardware-stores-near-standing-rock-stopped-selling-supplies-to-protestors-after-police-requested-i
n the heels of an emergency evacuation order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and North Dakota governor Jack Dalrymple and fines of $1,000 set for those who would deliver supplies like water and food, it seems like Ace Hardware has fallen in line with law enforcement and is refusing to sell supplies to protestors.
Singer Neko Case tweeted what appears to be an official statement from Ace Hardware that plainly states that they will be complying with law enforcement's desires and will "refrain from selling materials that could be used at the camps."
Citing the "safety" of their employees, customers and services, but clarifying that their refusal to sell goods to the protestors is "not a reflection of any corporoate viewpoint on the pipeline project," the statement rightfully infuriated many people. On Wednesday night, the hashtag #BoycottAceHardwarestarted making the rounds on Twitter.
The fines are one thing –nefarious and unnecessarily cruel–but Ace Hardware refusing to sell supplies to these protestors is somehow worse. With 2,000 veterans pledging to stand in solidarity as a "human shield" on December 4, Ace Hardware's compliance with law enforcement's attempt to cut the protest off by literally starving them out and hitting them with water cannons and rubber bullets could very quickly make a bad situation even worse.
Update, 12:38 A.M.: A statement from Ace Hardware clarifies that there is "no ban on the sale of products" at "locally-owned Ace stores" and that they have been "working feverishly to unearth all of the facts, which have been cloudy at times."
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4) Obama administration expands elite military unit's powers to hunt foreign fights globally
By Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Dan Lamothe
Washington Post November 26, 2016
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is giving the elite Joint Special Operations Command - the same organization that helped kill Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid by Navy SEALs - expanded power to track, plan and potentially launch attacks on terrorist cells around the globe, a move driven by concerns of a dispersed terrorist threat as Islamic State militants are driven from strongholds in Iraq and Syria, U.S. officials said.
The missions could occur well beyond the battlefields of places like Iraq, Syria and Libya where Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) has carried out clandestine operations in the past. When finalized, it will elevate JSOC from being a highly-valued strike tool used by regional military commands to leading a new multiagency intelligence and action force. Known as the "Counter-External Operations Task Force," the group will be designed to take JSOC's targeting model - honed over the last 15 years of conflict - and export it globally to go after terrorist networks plotting attacks against the West.
The creation of a new JSOC entity this late in the Obama's tenure is the "codification" of best practices in targeting terrorists outside of conventional conflict zones, according to the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss administration deliberations. It is unclear, however, if the administration of President-elect Donald Trump will keep this and other structures set up by President Obama. They include guidelines for counterterrorism operations such as approval by several agencies before a drone strike and "near certainty" that no civilians will be killed. This series of presidential orders is known as the "playbook."
The new JSOC task force could also offer intelligence, strike recommendations and advice to the militaries and security forces of traditional Western allies, or conduct joint operations, officials said. In other parts of the world, with weak or no governments, JSOC could act unilaterally.
The global focus is reminiscent of when U.S. forces first went after al-Qaeda in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. As approaching U.S. troops forced militants to flee their safe havens in Afghanistan and scatter across the globe, the United States followed in pursuit, using CIA assets to grab suspected al-Qaeda operatives in dozens of countries, sometimes capturing, imprisoning and torturing them under murky legal authorities.
Some in the Pentagon hope to see the new task force working in tandem with the CIA, elevating a sometimes distant relationship to one of constant coordination to track and go after suspected terrorists outside of traditional war zones.
In recent years the agency's involvement in global paramilitary operations has waned - with fewer strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, and its armed drones in Syria transferred to the Pentagon. It's still unclear how much the CIA may be willing to cooperate with JSOC and more broadly with the Pentagon following the White House's decision.
The agency, with its broad contacts overseas, espionage networks and long experience in covert operations still has much greater reach than JSOC.
The CIA declined to comment.
The new JSOC task force will report to the Pentagon through the U.S. Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, according to U.S. military officials, creating a hybrid command system that can circumvent regional commanders for the sake of speed.
In the past, units such as the Army's Delta Force - which is part of SOCOM and its subordinate command JSOC - were usually deployed under those regional commanders, known as geographic combatant commands. The new task force, however, will alter that process by turning SOCOM's chief, Army Gen. Raymond "Tony" Thomas, into a decision-maker when it comes to going after threats under the task force's purview.
The task force will essentially turn Thomas into the leading authority when it comes to sending Special Operations units after threats.
"Now [Thomas] can request whatever he wants and . . . unless there's some other higher competing priority, the combatant commanders have to cough it up," said a former senior defense official.
Turning SOCOM into a command with a global reach has been on the table for the last 15 years. In 2001, Air Force Gen. Charles Holland, then SOCOM's commander, was hesitant to create a command structure that would effectively put SOCOM on the same level as the geographic combatant commanders. He believed it would cause too much friction with regional commanders. Instead, he decided that only in rare instances would SOCOM actually direct Special Operations forces.
It remains to be seen if the new organization will generate tensions between Special Operations Command and the generals in charge of U.S. forces in places such as the Middle East or Europe. In his March congressional confirmation testimony, Thomas suggested that assigning more authorities to SOCOM would allow for "synchronized operations" against nonstate threats that span geographic boundaries. But regional commanders, all four star generals, guard their turf carefully.
Officials hope the task force, known throughout the Pentagon as "Ex-Ops," will be a clearinghouse for intelligence coordinating and targeting against groups or individuals attempting to plot attacks in places like the United States and Europe.
According to officials familiar with plans for the task force, it will initially draw on an existing multinational intelligence operation in the Middle East that tracks foreign fighters, called Gallant Phoenix, and one of JSOC's intelligence centers in Northern Virginia.
While in the past the smaller task forces, such as Gallant Phoenix, were staffed by representatives from different intelligence agencies, the new task force aims to have decision-makers present, ensuring that the targeting process happens in one place and quickly.
"Layers have been stripped away for the purposes of stopping external networks," said a defense official. "There has never been an ex-ops command team that works trans-regionally to stop attacks."
The defense official said U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies will support JSOC personnel as they synthesize information and offer recommendations on how to handle specific threats.
Over the past decade JSOC has also built strong relations with police agencies in Germany, Britain, France and Turkey, as they have moved to combat the flow of foreign fighters returning to their home countries.
The number of participating intelligence agencies, both internationally and U.S.-based within the task force is in flux, the official added, as intelligence-sharing laws and internal friction have kept some on the periphery of the organization.
JSOC - rarely mentioned by name by U.S. officials due to the clandestine nature of its work - was cited specifically by Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter last month in Paris after he and Thomas met with defense ministers involved in the fight against the Islamic State. The command "has been put in the lead" of countering the Islamic State's external operations outside conflict zones, Carter said, surprising some defense officials in Washington.
The White House, asked to comment on the plan, issued a statement that did not use JSOC's name, but acknowledged the role Special Operations forces play in tracking foreign fighters away from the battlefield.
"These forces on the ground, operating in close concert with our partners, have gathered critical intelligence off the battlefield, and have shared that information with our coalition partners and allies," the statement said. "This information is helping us ramp up actions against [Islamic State] leaders and operatives planning attacks, track foreign fighters returning to their home countries and improve law enforcement actions aimed at interdicting potential plotters."
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5) Blackwater-Linked Private Military Firm Exposed Coordinating Intel for Police at Standing Rock
Jay Syrmopoulos November 29, 2016
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/private-military-firm-coordinating-intelligence-police-standing-rock/
In an interview with Democracy Now, award-winning national security journalist Jeremy Scahill revealed stunning connections between a private security firm called TigerSwan, operated by a former Delta Force operative, and law enforcement intelligence operations at Standing Rock.
Co-founder of the Intercept, Scahill, has spent years reporting on private security contractors such as the private security firm TigerSwan. In these most recent revelations, Scahill exposes how TigerSwan has links to the now-defunct mercenary firm Blackwater and is in charge of coordinating intelligence for the Dakota Access pipeline company.
As the interview was wrapping up, Democracy Now host Juan Gonzalez questioned Scahill as to whether he had found any connections between the Morton County Sheriff's Office and private security firms.
"I think we have about a minute left, but, Jeremy, I wanted to ask you, in terms of the—you reached out to the Morton County Sheriff's Office to try to get some information on the private security firms. What happened?"
JEREMY SCAHILL:
"Well, the Morton County sheriffs, they released documents, internal documents, about their investigation into the dog handlers. And what they inadvertently revealed was that this company, TigerSwan, run by these Delta Force guys, was actually in charge of coordinating the intelligence operations against the protesters.
One word of advice to all the protesters there: Do not believe that your cellphones or your computers are clean and uncompromised. I guarantee you that they're using the entire suite of surveillance devices. I know that people have been complaining that their cellphones have been down, their internet has been down. That can be caused by surveillance weaponry targeting their devices. It could be because there are so many people using them. But my guess would be that they are using people's devices, meaning law enforcement and private security, as geo-tracking devices. And people should be very aware that the full CIA/NSA-developed suite of tools that now have made it into the hands of local law enforcement in this country are most certainly trained on those activists and their supporters."
Scahill further elaborated on this stunning revelation by noting that,
"TigerSwan, was founded by a Delta Force operative named James Reese and has done voluminous amounts of covert and overt work for the U.S. military in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world. And, you know, you realize that you have this convergence of all that has been so wrong in the post-9/11 world, with these big environment-destroying companies, the stripping even further of indigenous rights, private security forces, the brutality against protesters, the paramilitarization of law enforcement."
The reality that tech originally developed for military use in hunting global terror suspects is now being used against peaceful protestors here in the United States should send a shiver down your spine. The fact that this technology is being used in Standing Rock reveals the truly insidious nature of a creeping police state that combines weapons of war with domestic policing to the detriment of free expression and dissent.
It is important to note that private security forces are not necessarily the problem as they are far easier to hold accountable than government agencies like police. However, what Scahill describes in the situation above is anything but private. It is a non-governmental agency melding forces with government — the de facto definition of corporatism.
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6) Great Barrier Reef Threatened by Climate Change, Chemicals and Sediment
"The report also ignores plans by the Queensland State government to allow the development of one of the world's biggest coal mines about 200 miles inland from the reef, and it does not acknowledge the damage to the reef that could flow from the mine or from coal-burning."
By MICHELLE INNIS DEC. 1, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/world/australia/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching.html?ref=world&_r=0
YDNEY, Australia — Climate change and the flow of farm chemicals and coastal sediment into the waters that wash over one of Australia's most significant nature areas, the Great Barrier Reef, pose the biggest threats to its survival, according to a government report to Unescoreleased early Friday.
The report was intended to reassure the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization that those risks were well managed and that the reef should not be placed on an "in danger" list. But it paints a grim picture of the scale of protecting the 1,400-mile-long reef, and may severely understate the cost of doing so.
The report also ignores plans by the Queensland State government to allow the development of one of the world's biggest coal mines about 200 miles inland from the reef, and it does not acknowledge the damage to the reef that could flow from the mine or from coal-burning.
This week, scientists from the ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies reported that the reef had suffered the worst coral bleaching and die-off ever recorded, with stretches of its northern reaches dead after the coral was bathed in warm summer waters. The reef extends along much of the eastern coast of Queensland.
Queensland's environment minister, Steven Miles, and the federal environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, who is also responsible for Australia's energy policy, said in the report that "good progress has been made in the first 18 months of this 35-year plan." They were referring to the governments' Reef 2050 Plan, released in March 2015.
The update shows that of 151 planned measures, including the limiting of sediment and chemical runoff from farms and the better management of starfish predators, 32 have been completed and 103 are underway or on track to begin. At least one is stalled, after the Queensland Parliament rejected laws to prevent land clearing, which speeds erosion and can lead to more sediment flowing into the Pacific Ocean.
But in an introduction to the report, Ian Chubb, formerly Australia's chief scientist and now the chairman of an independent panel on the reef, warned that climate change posed the most significant threat. "The major impacts on the reef will most likely result from the long-term release of substantial quantities of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," he wrote. The burning of fossil fuels creates emissions that contribute to the Earth's warming.
"There are effects already," Mr. Chubb continued. "This year saw the most significant coral bleaching event ever recorded for the reef. The clear implication of global warming is that bleaching conditions are highly likely to become more frequent and prolonged."
Reef 2050 was a response to the Unesco World Heritage Committee's call for a long-term management plan to ensure the reef retained the World Heritage status it received in 1981. Last year, the United Nations warned that the reef's outlook was poor, and it asked for an updated report and for evidence of the plan's effectiveness, as well as an investment strategy to finance the efforts.
In the interim, the Queensland government commissioned a study to estimate the costs of achieving water quality targets that would significantly improve the reef's health. Queensland and the federal government have said that halting nitrogen runoff from farms and fine sediment that leeches into the ocean would improve the water quality and allow the reef to better withstand the impacts of climate change and shocks from severe weather like cyclones.
That study, released in July, said the cost for meeting targets along the length of the reef was 8.2 billion Australian dollars, or about $6 billion, to be spent over 10 years. That figure was sharply higher than the roughly $1.5 billion the state and federal governments said would be spent over the next decade on all measures to protect the reef.
"The scale of the investment required is commensurate with the scale of the challenge," the study said. "Virtually all of the relevant science indicates the Great Barrier Reef is in decline."
The report to Unesco on Friday said that about $95 billion had already been committed to reef-specific measures over the next five years. That amount is part of the federal and the state governments' $1.5 billion commitment over a decade.
The federal and Queensland governments said the study's overall cost estimate included "some very expensive high-risk actions," like nearly $4.2 billion for erosion in one valley to prevent the flow of sediment into the ocean. Removal of that big-ticket item brought the study's report closer into line financially with the government report to Unesco.
The report on Friday was only an update. It did not offer new spending measures for the reef, nor new targets to reduce pollution. It is likely to draw sharm criticism from environmentalists.
The government ratified the Paris Agreement on climate change last month. The agreement's target is to cut greenhouse gas emissions to between 26 percent and 28 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. But environmentalists say the development of new coal mines highlights the government's lack of commitment to halting global warming. Opening up a new mine is incompatible with Australia's environmental obligations, Greenpeace said.
The report to Unesco said the reef's scale and resilience meant it could recover from the bleaching this year. It said that managing the risks to the reef would be difficult, but that there was a determination to succeed. "The progress to date does not reduce the urgency to address key issues and risks," it said.
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7) Cuba-Trained Doctors Head to Standing Rock
By teleSUR
December 2, 2016
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuban-Trained-Doctors-Head-to-Standing-Rock-20161202-0003.html
A delegation of doctors trained at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba announced they will head to Standing Rock to "serve in solidarity."
A delegation of doctors trained at the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba announced they will head to Standing Rock to "serve in solidarity."
In a late Thursday Facebook post, a group of U.S.-based medical professionals trained at Cuba's famous Latin American School of Medicine, or ELAM, announced they will head to Standing Rock "to humbly serve in solidarity with the Sacred Water Protectors on the front lines of the current human rights and ecological crisis occurring right now in North Dakota."
Dr. Revery P. Barnes, a graduate of ELAM, said in a post on Facebook, "We answer the call to serve in alignment with the mission and core principles of our alma mater and dedication to our commitment to serve underserved communities in our HOME country." The delegation will work in collaboration with the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council.
"While Cuba instilled in us an unwavering commitment to internationalism, with the acceptance of a full scholarship to medical school at ELAM, we made the moral commitment to respond to the needs of our most vulnerable communities here at home in the U.S.," the statement continued.
On Wednesday, the Standing Rock Medic and Healer Council – which has been providing emergency and chronic health care services to the thousands of water protectors gathered at Standing Rock – issued a warning about the grave health and safety threats posed by escalating use of violence by Morton County Sheriff's Department and Dakota Access Pipeline security personnel, whom they described as creating "war-like conditions."
While the Facebook statement did not give details about the size of the delegation or when it is expected to arrive, the announcement comes as thousands of U.S. Army veterans are expected to arrive at the Oceti Sakowin camp this weekend in anticipation of the Dec. 5 eviction notice given to the camp by the Army Corps of Engineers and North Dakota Governor, Jack Dalrymple.
Health and safety concerns for the thousands of Water Protectors, who are asserting their Indigenous sovereignty in attempts to block the multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline project, are also on the rise as harsh winter conditions have been exacerbated by state law enforcement threats to cut off supplies and access to emergency services.
The Latin American School of Medicine was created in 1999 by the Cuban government and is one of the largest medical schools in the world, with approximately 19,550 students from 110 countries. All students receive a full scholarship, including room and board, and preferential treatment is given to applicants from marginalized groups who intend to return and practice in their own communities. The school plays a key part in Cuba's widely-hailed medical internationalism, which has seen the socialist country send over 80,000 health care workers to over 94 countries to provide treatment and assistance to impoverished or underprivileged populations.
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8) Canadian Journalist's Detention at U.S. Border Raises Press Freedom Alarms
By DANIEL VICTOR DEC. 2, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/business/media/canadian-journalists-detention-at-us-border-raises-press
-freedom-alarms.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us®ion=
stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront
Ed Ou, a Canadian freelance photojournalist, spent 10 years covering the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. He endured aggressive interrogations at border crossings in some of the world's most authoritarian nations.
But he says a recent confrontation at the United States border has left him shaken. The incident has been criticized by advocates of privacy and press freedom.
Mr. Ou, 30, said he was detained on Oct. 1 for more than six hours when he tried to fly from Vancouver, B.C., to Bismarck, N.D., to cover the protests of an oil pipeline project near the Standing Rock reservation.
He was ultimately denied entry, and he said though he was not given a reason, he was told his name matched that of a "person of interest." During the hours of detention, he was asked to describe how and why he had traveled to each country he had visited in the past five years, and questioned about whether he had seen anyone die.
Agents requested access to his phones and to look through his photos so that they could make sure he was "not posing next to any dead bodies," he said. When he refused, citing the need to protect his sources as a journalist, they took the phones, he said.
The phones were later returned and showed signs that the SIM cards had been replaced, he said. Giving up the contents of his private phone would be akin to a doctor giving up confidential patient information, he said.
"I'm not going to open my phone for any other country," Mr. Ou, a New York Times contributor who was an intern for the news organization in 2010, said in a phone interview on Thursday from Nunavet, Canada. "I can't be expected to do the same for the U.S."
Jason Givens, a United States Customs and Border Protectionspokesman, declined to comment on Mr. Ou's case, citing privacy laws. But he said agents had inspected 4,444 cellphones and 320 other electronic devices in 2015, amounting to 0.0012 percent of the 383 million arrivals.
"Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation's laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the U.S.," Mr. Givens said in a statement on Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union wrote a letter to Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security, protesting Mr. Ou's treatment and calling it "harassing and exceptionally intrusive." It demanded an explanation of his detention, and asked for a guarantee that any copies of his belongings had been destroyed.
Agents made photocopies of several documents in his possession, including a personal journal, Mr. Ou said.
It should have been clear to agents that Mr. Ou was a working journalist who had traveled freely to the United States in the past and had longstanding connections to American news agencies, Hugh Handeyside, a lawyer, wrote in the A.C.L.U. letter.
"We believe that C.B.P. took advantage of Mr. Ou's application for admission to engage in an opportunistic fishing expedition for sensitive and confidential information that Mr. Ou had gathered through his news-gathering activities in Turkey, Iraq, Somalia and elsewhere," he wrote.
Electronic privacy advocates said the episode illustrated a governmental loophole that's especially problematic for journalists but that could apply to anyone: Without a warrant, American border agents can legally search digital devices that they wouldn't be able to touch anywhere else.
The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, but the Supreme Court carved out space for border patrol agents to examine personal property without a warrant, said Sophia Cope, a staff lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that defends civil liberties in the digital age.
Security officers at United States airports don't need a judge's permission to search a traveler's backpack before he or she boards a flight the way a police officer would when stopping someone on the street. But it has to be for the narrow purpose of assuring immigration or security compliance, she said.
The privacy implications of examining a cellphone are entirely different from rifling through a suitcase, which contains limited personal information, Ms. Cope said. The law regarding digital devices is "really unsettled," she said.
"The government is saying the old rule at the border applies to digital devices, even though our entire lives are on these devices," Ms. Cope said.
A Homeland Security policy from 2009 says that searching digital devices requires the owner of the digital device to be present during the search, though it doesn't guarantee the owner can monitor the search. Agents can make copies of the data, but the copies must be destroyed within seven days if there is no probable cause to seize it. Devices can be detained for up to five days, barring "extenuating circumstances."
The policy's assurance that agents would "protect that information from unauthorized disclosure" is particularly comforting for journalists, who fear the contents of their devices could unmask sources who would be in danger if the government learned their identities.
Maria Abi-Habib, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, recounted a similar episode in a Facebook post in July after she was detained at Los Angeles International Airport and asked to turn over her cellphones. The request was eventually withdrawn after Ms. Abi-Habib, a United States citizen traveling on an American passport, objected and asked to call lawyers for her newspaper.
Trevor Timm, the executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said that for journalists like Mr. Ou who have worked in the Middle East to be treated with suspicion, potentially forcing them to break promises of confidentiality to sources just to enter the country, sets a poor international precedent, he said.
"If this is requisite for journalists who are not U.S. citizens to enter the U.S., that is an enormous violation of press freedom," he said.
Mr. Ou was assigned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to cover the Standing Rock protests as part of a project on indigenous health care in North America. He said the agents knew he intended to cover the protests, which have prompted the police to use rubber bullets, pepper spray and water cannons against hundreds of people.
His experience at the border led to an "awful realization," Mr. Ou said: "That wall of naïveté that I had about the freedom of the press in the U.S. kind of shattered at that moment."
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Posted by: bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Comments
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+1# librarian1984 2016-12-01 10:18
Boycott Ace Hardware!
Call them and tell them you're boycotting them for that reason. Let's get these economic actions started.
********
I just called their customer service line at this number:
1-888-827-4223
I was told they have issued an online statement saying they ARE still selling to protestors.
http://newsroom.acehardware.com/ace-hardware-statement-on-north-dakota-protest-and-product-sales/
+2# indian weaver 2016-12-01 10:46
Copy this ad on paper and hand it to your ACE hardware and tell them then, in person, you won't buy anything from them as long as they are doing this. I am going to do this today here in Cortez, CO. This is ratcheting up slowly. I'm waiting for 100s of veterans in bring in their own supplies and armament to enable delivery. Something like that will happen next. We could well see a military confrontation between them and these goons from "law enforcment". I can only hope it comes to that. This event at Standing Rock seems likely to ignite the revolutionary war we need. Just depends on 1000s if not 10s of 1000s showing up at Standing Rock to overwhelm the goons and for citizens to keep on coming until all the liars and cowards like obama understand this is the time to get honest or ...
0# danireland46 2016-12-01 11:21
Big Brother is not only watching, he's in charge of the local economy.
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