The Trial
August 4, 2008
Alexander Cockburn on the Ongoing Persecution of Sami al-Arian.
Efforts to free Sami al-Arian have now reached the U.S. Supreme Court. On July 30 an appeal was lodged with the Court by his attorneys, led by Professor Jonathan Turley.There are few prospects in the justice system so grimly awful as when the feds decide never to let go. Rebuffed in their persecutions of some target by juries, or by contrary judges, they shift ground, betray solemn agreements, dream up new stratagems to exhaust their victims, drive them into bankruptcy, despair and even suicide. They have all the money and all the time in the world.
Several months ago I wrote here about the appalling vendetta conducted by the US Justice Department against Sami al-Arian, a professor from Florida who had the book thrown at him in 2003 by Attorney General Ashcroft. As I described it back then, Dr al-Arian was charged in a bloated terrorism and conspiracy case and spent two and a half years in prison, in solitary confinement awaiting trial.
In December 2005, a Tampa jury hung 10 to 2 in favor of acquittal on nine charges. In a plea deal, the government dropped eight of them and demanded Al-Arian plead guilty to a watered-down version of one charge. Normally a hung jury with so large a number of the jurors voting for innocence would mean the prosecutors would not demand a retrial. But given the Justice Department’s vindictiveness in this case and that it might insist on just such hugely expensive and protracted proceedings, Al-Arian’s lawyers urged him to accept the offer. Under the plea agreement—which the government betrayed—Dr. Al-Arian pled guilty to one charge of providing nonviolent services to people associated with a designated terrorist organization.
Hypocritical Measures
July 28, 2008
‘International law is one long legacy of double dealing,’ writes Ramzy Baroud.
The crimes committed against innocent people in Darfur represent a shameful episode in the history of Sudan and its neighbours, including Chad, which has played a dubious role in sustaining the seething conflict. Equally disgraceful is the politicising of the bloody conflict in ways that will ensure its continuation.The decision of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor-general, Luis Moreno- Ocampo, to file an arrest warrant for Sudan’s current President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, and the international responses to his decision, demonstrate both the politicising of the crisis and the selectiveness of international law.
Consider this bizarre twist. The US Congress passed a resolution, on 22 June 2004, declaring that the violence in Darfur was state-sponsored genocide. The resolution — named the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act — was signed into law by President Bush in October 2006.
Between the vote and Bush’s signature the United Nations conducted a sweeping investigation — unlike Congress’s rash decision which was based almost entirely on lobby and interest group pressure — declaring, in early 2005, that both the government and militias were systematically abusing civilians in Sudan’s western province. It insisted, however, that no genocide had taken place.
Charging Bush With Murder
July 27, 2008
Dennis Kucinich has been heroic in his quest to bring Bush and Cheney for the catastrophe they have wrought on Iraq. He has finally succeeded in getting the house judiciary committee to hold hearings on the subject. Among his expert witnesses is Vincent Bugliosi, a prosecutor who known for never having lost a case. Here he presents evidence to indict Bush in a delightfully combative fashion.
Kucinich Gets His Day
July 26, 2008
Since June 9, 2008, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has pushed for impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Last week, in an effort to placate Kucinich, the House Judiciary Committee finally agreed to hold a hearing July 25, 2008. The night before the hearing, Kucinich sat down with ANP in an exclusive one-on-one interview.
Still no Justice for October 2000 Killings
February 27, 2008
A few years back when an Israeli officer emptied his magazine into a 13-year-old Palestinian school girl, the international outrage resulted in the officer being sentenced. This duly made headlines. However, shortly afterwards the officer was released and handed $17,000 for the distress caused him. As the following report from Jonathan Cook reveals, such incidents are not an anomaly, but emblematic of ‘justice’ as conceived in Israel.
On 2 October 2000, as the Israeli army was beginning its ruthless crackdown on the second intifada in the occupied territories, 17-year-old Aseel Asleh joined tens of thousands of other Palestinian citizens across Israel in taking to the streets in protest and in a show of solidarity with their kin across the Green Line.
A firm believer in nonviolence, Asleh wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of a prominent Jewish and Arab coexistence group, Seeds of Peace, as he marched alongside family, friends and neighbors through his town of Arrabeh in northern Israel.
Bringing Them Home
February 13, 2008
Kevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Minister, has apologized for the treatment of the continent’s indigenous. While the story of Native Americans is better know, albeit in a negative way, thanks to Hollywood. The narrative of the stolen generations of Australia’s indigenous remains largely unknown. John Pilger has written about it in several of his books, and Sven Lindqvist’s excellent new book Terra Nullius is dedicated to it. I would highly recommend both.
Here’s Dylan Welch of the Sydney Morning Herald. (thanks Deanne)
Australia has formally apologised to the stolen generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.
‘Blair Government police investigation for war crimes’
February 8, 2008
Guy Aitchison: “Chances are you won’t have heard anything about this in the mainstream media but Scotland Yard have apparently launched an investigation into allegations that Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith and others committed war crimes in their role in the occupation and invasion of Iraq.”
No one is guilty in Israel
January 30, 2008
From the archives. Gideon Levy, on the Beit Hanun massacre. (Published on the 12th of November 2006)
Nineteen inhabitants of Beit Hanun were killed with malice aforethought. There is no other way of describing the circumstances of their killing. Someone who throws burning matches into a forest can’t claim he didn’t mean to set it on fire, and anyone who bombards residential neighborhoods with artillery can’t claim he didn’t mean to kill innocent inhabitants.
Therefore it takes considerable gall and cynicism to dare to claim that the Israel Defense Forces did not intend to kill inhabitants of Beit Hanun. Even if there was a glitch in the balancing of the aiming mechanism or in a component of the radar, a mistake in the input of the data or a human error, the overwhelming, crucial, shocking fact is that the IDF bombards helpless civilians. Even shells that are supposedly aimed 200 meters from houses, into “open areas,” are intended to kill, and they do kill. In this respect, nothing new happened on Wednesday morning in Gaza: The IDF has been behaving like this for months now.
Guantánamo: How much longer?
January 13, 2008
The notorious prison is six years old today. But despite calls from across the US political spectrum, it doesn’t look likely to close soon, writes Moazzam Begg.
On January 11 2008 the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay enters the seventh year since the first men captured during the “war on terror” were brought there shackled, hooded, masked and ear-muffed.
Much has happened over the past few years that should have sufficed in bringing about the demise and closure of the world’s most notorious prison: The 2004 US supreme court ruling in Rasul (2004) passed in favour of the right of detainees to apply for habeas corpus; the US supreme court ruling in Hamdan (2006) stating President Bush did not have the authority to set up military commissions because it violated the uniform code of military justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva conventions.
Prophets False and Real
January 8, 2008
Ajit Hegde, a South Asian writes about false and real prophets (via Norman Finkelstein).
Who gets a profit out of it? Nobody but a parcel of usurping little monarchs and nobilities who despise you; would feel defiled if you touched them; would shut the door in your face if you proposed to call; whom you slave for, fight for, die for, and are not ashamed of it, but proud; whose existence is a perpetual insult to you and you are afraid to resent it; who are mendicants supported by your alms, yet assume toward you the airs of benefactor toward beggar; who address you in the language of master to slave, and are answered in the language of slave to master; who are worshiped by you with your mouth, while in your heart — if you have one — you despise yourselves for it.– Mark Twain in Mysterious Stranger
Benazir Bhutto’s life can be regarded as a microcosm of Third World liberal aristocracy’s betrayal of their Countries. The sordid record liberal aristocracy which she represented can be summed up as follows.
(1) Gain power promising people liberation from their sorry state of affairs and outright destitution.
(2) When in power , simply betray people who believed them and elected them, Indulge in obscene levels of corruption, behave as if the people who elected you simply doesn’t exist.Build a cult of personality which may make even Stalin green with envy.
(3) Get kicked out of power, sometimes by rightwing political parties , sometimes the military.
(4) Start all over again.
The vicious cycle continues, Ad Nauseum.
