(2019-12-06). 'Fleeing Not Migrating'. commondreams.org A river at risk of drying up near the agricultural village of Guapinol, Honduras. The phrase "Cuidemos los bosques," painted onto a rock by villagers, translates to "Protect the forests." (Photo: Lawyers for Civil Rights) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/rocks.jpeg …
(2019-12-06). The Plot to Discredit and Destroy Julian Assange. truthdig.com 
A day after dozens of doctors around the world released a statement about their mounting concerns regarding Julian Assange's health as he's detained in a British prison, Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer spoke with Tariq Ali, a renowned British journalist and co-editor of a recent collection of essays titled " In Defense of Julian Assange." To Scheer, Ali and the book's many contributors, the case agains…
(2019-12-06). A Lesson From the Danes on Immigration. counterpunch.org Denmark is in the news now because of its purported hostility to immigrants. Brooke Harrington, a sociology professor at Dartmouth, published an op ed in the New York Times on Tuesday about how she was nearly carted off to a Danish prison for giving invited guest lectures to the Danish parliament. Danes had tightened up More
(2019-12-06). French public sector strikers call to free Julian Assange. wsws.org Strikers denounced the imprisonment of the Australian journalist under appalling conditions in Britain, for having revealed imperialist war crimes in Iraq.
(2019-12-06). The Systematic Torture of Palestinians in Israeli Detention. imemc.org by Yara Hawari, for Al Shabaka Palestinian Policy Network Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the Israeli Security Agency has been torturing Palestinians. Al-Shabaka Senior Palestine Policy Fellow Yara Hawari argues that the use of torture in Israeli detention is systematic and legitimized through domestic law, and outlines steps for the …
(2019-12-06). Asia Unites Against US Coup Attempt. Decades of US Meddling in Cambodia. globalresearch.ca The nations of Southeast Asia have united in efforts to prevent a US-backed coup aimed at fellow-Southeast Asian state Cambodia. | Through a combination of travel bans and detentions across the region in late October and early November, Southeast Asia may …
(2019-12-06). Palestine TV Crew Detained in Jerusalem. imemc.org The Palestinian Authority, today, condemned the detention of Palestine TV crew members in Jerusalem. The Presidency slammed the detention of the crew as a part of the Israeli government's scheme to entrench Israeli control over the occupied city of Jerusalem and its holy sites. It called out Israeli violations that …
(2019-12-06). Soldiers Abduct Four Palestinians In Bethlehem And Tulkarem. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Friday at dawn, four Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank governorates on Bethlehem and Tulkarem, and summoned a young man for interrogation, after the soldiers stormed and ransacked many homes. The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that several army jeeps invaded 'Aida refugee …
(2019-12-06). The International Criminal Court (ICC) Holds Hearing on Afghanistan War Crimes, Including US Torture. globalresearch.ca The current hearing will examine allegations that US troops and intelligence operatives tortured, raped and abused Afghan prisoners between 2003 and 2004. | *** | The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened a three-day hearing in the The Hague, Netherlands on Wednesday at …
(2019-12-06). Defense firm faked documents to bilk US government of $1.2 billion — lawsuit. rt.com 
A defense contractor overcharged the Pentagon by more than $1.2 billion for thousands of armored vehicles, a whistleblower's complaint alleges. The company also threatened employees who refused to go along with the grift. | With Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attacks responsible for more than six in ten deaths of US personnel in Iraq and four in ten deaths in Afghanistan in 2007, the Pentagon solicited designs for a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle to replace its thin-s…
(2019-12-06). 'Hail Byrd!' State employees in West Virginia suspended over photo of prison guard trainees giving NAZI SALUTE. rt.com 
Several state employees in West Virginia face suspension after a photo emerged showing dozens of corrections officers in training giving a Nazi salute in a class photo, prompting the state's governor to threaten their termination. | A number of officials, including Governor Jim Justice, have already denounced the controversial photo, which depicts roughly 30 prison guard trainees displaying the Nazi salute, with the words "HAIL BYRD!" captioned at the top of the image, an apparent reference to the class' instructor. The class was trained between October and November of this year. | This is the photo released t…
(2019-12-06). Success: Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Texas Anti-BDS Law To Proceed. bdsmovement.net 
Success: Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Texas Anti-BDS Law To Proceed: In the News A federal district court rejected efforts by the state of Texas to evade judicial review of a law that punishes boycott advocates, and allowed a lawsuit against the anti-BDS law to proceed. | Right To BoycottJuly 25, 2019 | By: | | Palestine Legal
(2019-12-06). Edward Snowden: If I Came Back to the U.S., I Would Likely Die in Prison for Telling the Truth. commondreams.org At Wednesday's The Right Livelihood Awards, Amy Goodman interviewed Snowden in front of the award ceremony's live audience via video link from Moscow. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/screen_shot_2019-12-06_at_1.45.05_pm.png …
(2019-12-05). 'It's This Culture of Secrecy That's Pervading the Courts' – CounterSpin interview with Melissa Goodman on the PATRIOT Act. fair.org 
Janine Jackson interviewed the ACLU's Melissa Goodman about the PATRIOT Act for the September 30, 2005, episode of CounterSpin—a conversation that was reaired on the November 29, 2019, show. This is a lightly edited transcript of the rebroadcast. | Media…
(2019-12-05). A Border Officer Told Me I Couldn't Opt Out of the Face Recognition Scan. They Were Wrong. aclu.org 
"Look at the camera," a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) | officer told me as I approached the primary inspection point at the Paso del | Norte port of entry. | "Is that the face recognition technology?" I asked. "If so, I want to opt-out." | "Look at the camera." | "I want to opt-out." | "Look at the camera." | On the evening of November 25, 2019, I crossed from Mexico into the United States. Signs in the port noted the new use of face recognition technology and United States citizens' option to "undergo alternative procedures." After handing over my U.S. passport card, and despite my repeated protests…
(2019-12-05). New Legislation Aims to End the "School to Confinement Pathway" theintercept.com Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts introduced new legislation Thursday aimed at ending the "school to confinement pathway." The bill targets discriminatory and punitive school discipline policies that push black and brown students out of schools at disproportionately high rates, often directly into the criminal justice system. | The bill offers incentives to states and schools that commit to ban most suspensions and expulsions, as well as corporal punishment and the physical restraint of students. It also allots resources to the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights at a time when the Trump administrat…
(2019-12-05). Aminatou Haidar Honored For Decades of Peaceful Resistance in Western Sahara, Africa's Last Colony. democracynow.org 
In Stockholm, Democracy Now! sat down with one of the winners of this year's Right Livelihood Award: Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar. For over three decades, Haidar has led a peaceful campaign to resist the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, which is often called Africa's last colony. Morocco has occupied Western Sahara — a small region just south of Morocco in northwest Africa — since 1975. Thousands have been tortured, imprisoned, killed and disappeared while resisting the occupation. Peaceful protesters, led by women, are routinely beaten in the streets. Despite this violent repress…
(2019-12-05). Edward Snowden: If I Came Back to the U.S., I Would Likely Die in Prison for Telling the Truth. democracynow.org 
The Right Livelihood Awards celebrated their 40th anniversary Wednesday at the historic Cirkus Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, where more than a thousand people gathered to celebrate this year's four laureates: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg; Chinese women's rights lawyer Guo Jianmei, Brazilian indigenous leader Davi Kopenawa and the organization he co-founded, the Yanomami Hutukara Association; and Sahrawi human rights leader Aminatou Haidar, who has challenged the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara for decades. The Right Livelihood Award is known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize." Over the past four deca…
(2019-12-04). Immigrant rights activists protest ICE detention at Sherburne County commissioners' meeting. fightbacknews.org Elk River, MN – Immigrant rights activists mobilized to the Sherburne County commissioners' meeting at 9: 00 in the morning Tuesday, December 3 in Elk River, a town of around 20,000 people an hour northwest of Minneapolis. They held signs throughout the meeting, and several of them spoke passionately during the public comment section of the agenda, appealing to the commissioners to stop participating in and profiting from immigrant detention in the Sherburne County Jail. | The Sherburne County Jail has a contract for 300 beds to detain immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), making it the la…
(2019-12-04). Killer of Black Youth Trayvon Martin Sues Victim's Family. telesurenglish.net Former Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who murdered unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012, launched Wednesday a US$100m lawsuit for damages against the deceased boy's family and lawyers, arguing they used a fake witness to testify against him. | RELATED: | Released Emails Show NYPD Spied on Black Lives Matter | Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, after the young boy went to a convenience store to buy snacks. He was…
(2019-12-04). SPLC lawsuit seeks to restore Mississippi citizens' right to vote. splcenter.org When they were children, Herman Parker and his three sisters went to their grandparents' house every election day.
(2019-12-04). U.N. Report Finds Over 7 Million Children Worldwide Are Being Held in Various Kinds of Detention. democracynow.org 
A damning United Nations report says that 7 million children are deprived of their liberty worldwide, from children imprisoned on the U.S.-Mexico border to the missing children of ISIS fighters. The Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty says that at least 410,000 of those children are detained in jails and prisons, where violence is "endemic." The study also found that the number of children detained in the context of armed conflict has dramatically risen. The global study was published in November, on the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the landmark international treaty affi…
(2019-12-04). Headlines for December 4, 2019. democracynow.org House Impeachment Report Accuses Trump of Soliciting Foreign Interference in 2020 Election, Report: Europe Could Face Annual Extreme Heat Waves Due to Climate Change, Kamala Harris Ends Her 2020 Presidential Campaign, ProPublica: McKinsey Helped Trump Speed Up Mass Deportation Program, Detained Asylum Seekers Protest in Winnfield, Louisiana, House Votes for Bill to Punish China over Mass Imprisonment of Muslims, ICC Begins Hearing over Alleged U.S. Military Torture in Afghanistan, Rikers Island Officers Stood By as Teenager Attempted to Hang Himself, Today Marks 50th Anniversary of Assassination of Fred Hampton…
(2019-12-03). Congress Must Act to Protect the Right to Vote. aclu.org Update 12/06/19: The House passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would update the Voting Rights Act for the first time since it was last reauthorized in 2006. | Read the ACLU's report to Congress on the importance of restoring the Voting Rights Act. | This week, the House is expected to vote on H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019. The bill would help ensure racial barriers to voting are removed from elections across the country. Passing the VRAA will advance needed protections for people whose right to vote is under attack based…
(2019-12-03). Meet Yetnebersh Nigussie: A Blind Ethiopian Lawyer Fighting for Global Disability Rights. democracynow.org 
December 3 is International Day of Persons With Disabilities. "Unfortunately, disability-based discrimination is still a global phenomenon," says Yetnebersh Nigussie, a lawyer and disability rights activist from Ethiopia who in 2017 received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize." Nigussie is the director for advocacy and rights at Light for the World and the former chair of the Ethiopian National Association of the Blind women's wing. She has been blind since the age of five. Yetnebersh Nigussie speaks with us in Stockholm. She is one of many former Right Livelihood Award recipie…
(2019-12-02). Israel's Unfinished "Coup" dissidentvoice.org This time, nothing seems to work. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has tried every trick in the book to save his political career and to avoid possible prison time. But for Israel's longest-serving leader, the honeymoon is certainly almost over. It is an "attempted coup", is how Netanyahu described his indictment on charges of fraud, …
(2019-12-01). Reducing HIV Transmission Requires Decriminalizing Sex Work. aclu.org Transgender people are criminalized for our bodies. | We are profiled, stereotyped, and presumed | guilty based on the way we look or for failing to meet gender expectations, and | it must stop. | Nearly one | in six transgender people has been incarcerated. For trans people of color, | the number is one in two. It's staggering, and it demonstrates the deep bias in | our current laws and criminal justice system. | This World AIDS Day, let's not forget that transgender | women —…
(2019-11-27). "If I Could Just Look at Her" aclu.org 
Watch the journey of two separated parents trying to cross the border and reunite with their children.: | " data-whitelisted="false" data-domain="www.youtube.com"> | In October, the Trump administration admitted that in a 12-month period, beginning in July 2017, it separated 4,370 immigrant children from their parents at the border. Since then, over 1,000 more have been separated under a dubious loophole that all…
(2019-11-26). It's Past Time Congress Reined in the President's Emergency Powers. aclu.org The full Senate could soon consider legislation that would rein in the | president's emergency powers and bolster the principle of separation of | powers that underpins American democracy. This legislation, the ARTICLE | ONE Act as amended by a Senate committee, contains sensible reforms of the | National Emergencies Act of 1976 (NEA), the flawed and outdated law that | governs the emergency declaration process. | Under | the current national emergencies declaration process, Congress must muster a | veto-proof two-thirds supermaj…
(2019-11-26). Chicago conference to relaunch National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression a huge success. fightbacknews.org Chicago, IL – More than a 1200 joined together for an historic gathering on the weekend of November 22 — 24, at the hall of the Chicago Teachers Union, to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The newly refounded Alliance will concentrate its efforts on building the fight against police crimes and for community control of the police, and it will campaign for the release of political prisoners and the wrongfully convicted. | Longtime leaders of the Black liberation movement Angela Davis and Frank Chapman, along with elected officials, trade unionists, and other progressive ac…
(2019-11-26). We're Grateful for the Constitution. aclu.org Thanksgiving is here: that time of year when we pause to take stock of all we're grateful for. At the ACLU, we're saying thanks for all the crucial wins from our legal teams — and for the Constitution. | In just the last few months, we've racked up many essential victories in the ongoing battle to protect civil liberties and civil rights. The scope of these victories is breathtaking: they span criminal justice, privacy, religious freedom, reproductive rights, due process for immigrants, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and the right to protest the Keystone pipeline, among others. We've won crucial victories…
(2019-11-25). In Nicaragua, She Dodged Bullets. Now She's Stuck at the Border. aclu.org 
(Ciudad Juarez, Mexico) The sting of tear gas was still in Julia's eyes when she ran into a public park in the center of the Nicaraguan city of Estelí on June 20, 2018. Earlier that day, she'd wrapped her face in a blue-and-white bandanna — the colors of the Nicaraguan flag — and joined a student-led march against the government of President Daniel Ortega, whose proposed cuts to social benefits were sparking tense street demonstrations across the country. [Note: 'Julia' is a pseudonym; the ACLU is protecting her identity for her safety.] | As the students marched through the streets, paramilitary p…
(2019-11-25). The Trump Administration is Unlawfully Detaining a U.S. Resident Without Charge. aclu.org Adham | Hassoun completed his criminal sentence and was set to be released from prison almost | three years ago. But the government — now claiming unprecedented and | unconstitutional powers under the USA Patriot Act — continues to hold Adham in | detention, indefinitely and without charge. | We're | in court to secure his freedom. | Adham | has called the United States home for 30 years. Born in Lebanon to Palestinian | refugees, Adham and his family — like many other refugees — suffered…
(2019-11-21). After parole, Alabama man gets life back on track, helps others. splcenter.org Chris "Champ" Napier started speaking to students and at-risk youth about his experience in prison before he knew he would ever regain his freedom.
(2019-11-13). Neo-Nazi Group NSM Faces New Upheaval After James Hart Stern's Death. splcenter.org The leadership of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) has been thrown into chaos again following the death of self-described civil rights activist James Hart Stern.
(2019-11-07). After a hard-won sentence reduction, Huntsville man's court debt is another obstacle to freedom. splcenter.org Fresh out of prison after nearly 23 years, Archie "Jody" Hamlett appeared at his mother's door in Huntsville, Ala., one fall day in 2017.
(2019-11-05). SPLC celebrates 30th anniversary of Civil Rights Memorial. splcenter.org The first African American elected mayor of Montgomery, Alabama — a city known as both the "Cradle of the Confederacy" and the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement" — urged those who gathered today to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Civil Rights Memorial to ask themselves how they can make an impact on the lives of others.