Monthly Archives: October 2021

2021-10-31: News Headlines

Anonymous Contributor (2021-10-31). Announcing UprisingSupport.org: A New Hub for Supporting Prisoners of the George Floyd Uprising. itsgoingdown.org Announcing a new website that compiles info and resources about supporting defendants and prisoners from the George Floyd uprising of 2020. Check out Uprising Support, here. Starting in May 2020 the U.S. was shaken by protests, uprisings, and riots following the police murder of George Floyd. Almost immediately the government moved in to repress those…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-10-31). Israel reactivates administrative detention for Kayed al-Fasfous, who is on hunger strike. peoplesdispatch.org Kayed al-Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for 108 days, will be in detention until December 14 at least. His health has deteriorated considerably and organizations have warned his life is in danger…

Anwar Ibrahim (2021-10-31). US should cease persecution of Assange. asiatimes.com I am deeply concerned over the precedents the fallout from the situation involving the detention and potential extradition of Australian editor and publisher Julian Assange will set. While the legal grounds for the charges against Assange bring up many important questions that should not be overlooked, we risk a more flagrant assault on the principles …

Roland Rottenfusser, Niocolas Riedl (2021-10-31). The Inner Sanctuary and The Uprooted Generation. indybay.org Contemplation does not directly change the world, but it does change people by bringing them closer to themselves again. Our situation in a facade democracy with a compliant majority, with rigid state power, and with laws that are almost always against us, is not unlike that in a prison – a prison with larger cells, perhaps.

Caitlin Johnstone (2021-10-30). The Assange Persecution is Western Savagery at its Most Transparent. orinocotribune.com By Caitlin Johnstone — Oct 28, 2021 | The first day of the US appeal of the Julian Assange extradition case saw grown adults arguing in a court of law that the US government could guarantee that it would not treat the WikiLeaks founder as cruelly as it treats its other prisoners. | I wish I was kidding. | In

_____ (2021-10-30). 288 Organizations Demand Biden Administration Condemn Israel's Crackdown On Human Rights Groups. popularresistance.org Washington, D.C. ‚Äí A broad coalition of more than 288 U.S.-based social justice, civil rights, and human rights organizations is calling on the Biden administration to condemn the Israeli government's decision last week to designate six Palestinian human rights groups as "terrorist organizations." In a letter issued today, the organizations say the Biden administration has no choice but to condemn and push back against this move if it is to fulfill its avowed commitment to human rights. | "These actions by the Israeli government are a clear attack on human rights," the letter reads. "As such,…

Disability Rights California (2021-10-30). Wednesday 11/3: Improving Civil Rights Enforcement for People with Disabilities in California. indybay.org Online event…

WSWS (2021-10-30). Attorney Steven Donziger reports to federal prison. wsws.org Donziger, who won a $9.5 billion lawsuit against the oil monopoly Chevron in 2011 on behalf of Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous people, turned himself in to US federal prison authorities on Wednesday to begin serving a six-month sentence on a trumped-up contempt of court conviction.

_____ (2021-10-30). Russell 'Maroon' Shoatz Is Free, But Other Political Prisoners Languish. popularresistance.org Russell "Maroon" Shoatz has been granted compassionate release after 50 years in prison. The length of his sentence is outrageous but it is hardly unique. The United States not only has the dubious distinction of being the country with the largest population of incarcerated people, but it also has political prisoners held longer than anywhere else in the world. Shoatz is now 78-years old and suffering from cancer. To be blunt, he is being released so that he can die outside of prison walls. | Of course there is deeply felt happiness that Shoatz will be freed for whatever time remains in his life, but no one shoul…

WSWS (2021-10-30). Guantanamo prisoner Majid Khan describes years of torture at CIA black sites. wsws.org Khan spent two hours before a jury of US military officers reading out a 36-page document that cataloged atrocities approved and applied in the name of "enhanced interrogation techniques."

WSWS (2021-10-30). Oklahoma death row prisoner John Grant vomits, convulses in death chamber as state resumes executions. wsws.org Grant's execution was the first in Oklahoma since 2015 after a series of them went horribly wrong. It proceeded after the US Supreme Court lifted his stay of execution.

jz 2021-10-31 21:49 | 17:49 EST | 11 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 0

2021-10-30: News Headlines

Caitlin Johnstone (2021-10-30). The Assange Persecution is Western Savagery at its Most Transparent. orinocotribune.com By Caitlin Johnstone — Oct 28, 2021 | The first day of the US appeal of the Julian Assange extradition case saw grown adults arguing in a court of law that the US government could guarantee that it would not treat the WikiLeaks founder as cruelly as it treats its other prisoners. | I wish I was kidding. | In

Disability Rights California (2021-10-30). Wednesday 11/3: Improving Civil Rights Enforcement for People with Disabilities in California. indybay.org Online event…

WSWS (2021-10-30). Attorney Steven Donziger reports to federal prison. wsws.org Donziger, who won a $9.5 billion lawsuit against the oil monopoly Chevron in 2011 on behalf of Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous people, turned himself in to US federal prison authorities on Wednesday to begin serving a six-month sentence on a trumped-up contempt of court conviction.

WSWS (2021-10-30). Oklahoma death row prisoner John Grant vomits, convulses in death chamber as state resumes executions. wsws.org Grant's execution was the first in Oklahoma since 2015 after a series of them went horribly wrong. It proceeded after the US Supreme Court lifted his stay of execution.

WSWS (2021-10-30). Guantanamo prisoner Majid Khan describes years of torture at CIA black sites. wsws.org Khan spent two hours before a jury of US military officers reading out a 36-page document that cataloged atrocities approved and applied in the name of "enhanced interrogation techniques."

_____ (2021-10-29). Julian Assange Exposes Western Corruption More Than Ever, Even While in Solitary Confinement. strategic-culture.org The iniquity must stop. Julian Assange must be freed immediately. | The longer that the travesty of Julian Assange's imprisonment goes on, the more his plight exposes the corruption of the United States government and its Western allies. | He has been persecuted under three U.S. presidencies: Obama, Trump, and now Biden. That shows the continuity of a systematic criminal policy to destroy free speech and independent journalism. | This week saw the U.S. government appealing an earlier British court ruling in January against Assange being extradited to the United States. There were two days of hearings at the High…

_____ (2021-10-29). The Most Important Battle For Press Freedom In Our Time. popularresistance.org Washington, DC – For the past two days, I have been watching the extradition hearing for Julian Assange via video link from London. The United States is appealing a lower court ruling that denied the US request to extradite Assange not, unfortunately, because in the eyes of the court he is innocent of a crime, but because, as Judge Vanessa Baraitser in January concluded, Assange's precarious psychological state would deteriorate given the "harsh conditions" of the inhumane US prison system, "causing him to commit suicide." The United States has charged Assange with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count…

Marjorie Cohn (2021-10-29). Biden's DOJ Dismissed Suicide Risk for Assange in Appeal of Extradition Denial. truthout.org The Biden administration asked two United Kingdom High Court judges to overturn the British district judge's denial of extradition of journalist Julian Assange this week during an October 26-27 appeals hearing in London. If extradited to the United States, the WikiLeaks founder would face 175 years in prison for

Steve Gillis (2021-10-29). ACT UP Boston demands 'Housing & health care, not jails!'. workers.org Boston ACT UP Boston with the SIF MA NOW! Coalition at the Boston Science March, April 22, 2017. A SIF is a medically supervised injecting facility, a harm-reduction strategy for drug users. WW PHOTO: Steve Gillis. On Oct. 19, Massachusetts Republican Governor Charlie Baker, Democrat Attorney General Maura Healy and . . . |

_____ (2021-10-29). USA Vs. Assange Day Two: 'CIA Tried To Kill Assange'. popularresistance.org The United States vowed that only a "moderately depressed" Julian Assange would serve time in a humane U.S. prison if he is extradited, while lawyers for Assange told the High Court that the Central Intelligence Agency plotted to assassinate him, as a two-day U.S. appeal hearing came to a close on Thursday in London. | The U.S. is seeking to overturn a lower court decision in January not to extradite the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher on the grounds that he is at high risk of suicide if he faced time isolated in a harsh American prison. | A prosecutor for the U.S. set out over the course of the hearing to convinc…

Staff (2021-10-29). Headlines for October 29, 2021. democracynow.org Biden Unveils Stripped-Down Build Back Better Act After Sens. Manchin, Sinema Demand Cuts, Big Oil Executives Grilled by House Democrats over Deception on Climate Crisis, As Climate Crisis Worsens, 10 World Heritage Forests Become Net Carbon Emitters, China Won't Commit to New Emissions Targets Ahead of COP26 Climate Summit , Protesters at Site of COP26 Climate Summit Demand Real Action to Limit Warming to 1.5 ∞C, Ahead of G20, Protesters Demand Biden Make COVID-19 Vaccines Available to Poor Countries, Sudanese Protester Deaths Mount After Monday's Military Coup, Guantánamo Bay Prisoner Describes Surviving…

TN Long (2021-10-29). Samaria Rice demands justice on anniversary of son Tamir's killing. peoplesworld.org WASHINGTON—With the seventh anniversary of her son Tamir Rice's murder approaching, Samaria Rice is renewing her call for accountability, demanding the Department of Justice reopen Tamir's case and that civil rights charges be brought against the police involved. Tamir was killed in Cleveland when he was 12-years-old by Timothy Loehmann, a white police officer, in 2014. …

Staff (2021-10-29). 'Thought I was going to die': Gitmo prisoner who aided Al-Qaeda testifies gruesome details of CIA's interrogation torture. rt.com

A Guest Author (2021-10-29). U.S. protesters demand release and repatriation of Aafia Siddiqui. workers.org Reprint from Al Jazeera Excerpts from an article in Al Jazeera Dozens of protesters and human rights activists are calling on the Pakistani government to work to end the continued imprisonment of Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui in the United States. Carrying pictures and banners, the protesters gathered outside the Pakistan . . . |

Human Rights Watch (2021-10-29). Human Rights? Saudi Arabia put a Child Dissident on Death Row for 10 Years, but has Finally Released him. juancole.com By Bill Van Esveld | Associate Director, MENA, Children's Rights Division | — Nearly ten years after Ali al-Nimr was arrested by Saudi authorities in February 2012, he was finally released from prison this week. His mother tweeted a video showing their emotional reunion. But amid the relief and celebration, al-Nimr's ordeal highlights the cruelty …

Editor (2021-10-29). Communists face rare crackdown in Russia, upending old balance. mronline.org Boris Kagarlitsky, a veteran left-wing dissident, holds the distinction of having been a political prisoner under the regimes of Leonid Brezhnev and Boris Yeltsin. Now he can add President Vladimir Putin to that list.

_____ (2021-10-29). Panopticon: How Mainstream Academia Normalized Mass Imprisonment. strategic-culture.org The panopticon of the Smart City is a system set up so that free citizens police, interrogate, and report on each other. | Academia, with its woke newspeak, is a god-awful thing. Only through the complete destruction of language can actually fascist policies, which threaten to eradicate humanity, be passed off as progressive, even social-democratic. Our aim is to build upon our previous chapters to show that these were not intellectual fishing expeditions — we're here with the receipts. | Jeremy Bentham's horrific theory and model of the Panopticon is openly presented as a 'positive vision of the future' wh…

Brittani Banks (2021-10-29). The Democrats in D.C. Promised Consequential Racial Justice Reform—Where Is It? independentmediainstitute.org The lesson of the 2020 U.S. election cycle was clear: Do not underestimate the influence of Black voters. At a time when the electoral process was characterized by voter suppression, Black voters in crucial swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin gave this country renewed hope by securing the presidency for President Joe Biden. Thanks …

jz 2021-10-30 17:13 | 13:13 EST | 18 | 0 | 13 | 5 | 0