US Hardliners Want Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning Crucified
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2019-12-19
Mass incarceration in the US is a national disgrace, a crime against humanity, including countless numbers of political prisoners — pesecuted behind bars for their beliefs and activism, for resisting the dirty system, judged guilty by accusation. | Julian Assange and …
globalresearch.ca/us-hardliners-want-julian-assange-chelsea-manning-crucified/5698261

China replicates Tibet repression in Xinjiang: Expert
yenisafak.com | 2019-12-19
Speaking at a panel at the Washington-based Hudson Institute think-tank Wednesday, Ambassador at large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said China is waging a losing "war on faith, truth and international norms."Brownback highlighted "human rights violations and abuses of China" against Uighurs in mass detention in Xianjiang, a Turkic people in the northwest.Brownback said 1 million Uighurs, since April 2017, in the name of China's countering religious extremism and war on terror, have been forced to part ways with their religious traditions in internment camps, which are officially called the Vo…
yenisafak.com/en/world/china-replicates-tibet-repression-in-xinjiang-expert-3507834

Immigrant Rights Advocates in New York File First Federal Lawsuit to Jointly Block Three Interrelated "Public Charge" Immigration Rules
commondreams.org | 2019-12-19
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commondreams.org/newswire/2019/12/19/immigrant-rights-advocates-new-york-file-first-federal-lawsuit-jointly-block?cd-origin=rss

Israel Places 15 Year Old Under Administrative Detention
IMEMC & Agencies | imemc.org | 2019-12-19
Israeli forces, on Wednesday, placed a Palestinian minor under detention at the Ofer Detention Center, west of Ramallah, the Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. The Prisoners' Affairs Commission said in a statement that Hamza al-Hreimi, 15, was shot and injured in the thigh, by the Israeli soldiers, on …
imemc.org/article/israel-places-15-year-old-under-administrative-detention/

Samsung executives sentenced in South Korea for union-busting
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2019-12-19
26 senior executives and former employees of the Samsung Group have been sentenced to jail, while the company has been charged a minor fine for violating the country's labor laws…
peoplesdispatch.org/2019/12/19/samsung-executives-sentenced-in-south-korea-for-union-busting/

Updated: Soldiers Abduct Five Palestinians In Hebron And Jenin
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2019-12-19
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Thursday at dawn, five Palestinians from their homes, in the West Bank governorates of Hebron and Jenin, in the southern and northern parts of the occupied territory. The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said many army jeeps invaded Beit Kahil town, west of Hebron, before the soldiers …
imemc.org/article/soldiers-abduct-two-palestinians-in-hebron-and-jenin/

Army Abducts Seven Palestinians In Ramallah
IMEMC News | imemc.org | 2019-12-19
Israeli soldiers abducted, on Thursday at dawn, seven Palestinians from their homes in the Ramallah and al-Biereh Governorate, in central West Bank. The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that the soldiers invaded Abu Shkeidim village, northwest of Ramallah, and abducted a young man, identified as Kamal Faisal Qindah, from …
imemc.org/article/army-abducts-seven-palestinians-in-ramallah/

Elite NY school rocked by claims of anti-Semitism, swastikas on campus & Holocaust survivors labeled oppressors
rt.com | 2019-12-19
An elite private school in the Bronx that costs $53,000 a year is being accused of failing to properly address complaints of discrimination and anti-Semitism made by Jewish students who reportedly say they've felt unsafe there. | Swastikas have reportedly been posted on the grounds of Fieldston School and a recent speaker argued that Holocaust survivors have turned into oppressors. | "If someone was coming to Fieldston to talk about apartheid and went off on a rant about the pea-sized brains of women who belong in a kitchen, or repeated racist tropes, or ranted about any form of homophobia or racism or sexism,…
rt.com/usa/476432-anti-semitism-concerns-fieldston-ny/

Iowa man gets 16 years for stealing church's pride flag & burning it outside STRIP CLUB
rt.com | 2019-12-19
Stealing a Pride banner from a church and burning it outside a local strip club has landed an Ames, Iowa resident in prison for sixteen years, on hate crime charges. | Adolfo Martinez, 30, has been found guilty of a hate crime, third-degree harassment and reckless use of fire for stealing. He was arrested after police said he stole a pride banner hanging at the Ames United Church of Christ on June 11. | Martinez later burned the purloined flag, doused with lighter fluid, outside the Dangerous Curves Gentleman's Club, which had actually been kicked him out earlier that day. He had also threatened to burn down t…
rt.com/usa/476442-pride-flag-burned-jail-sentence/

10 LGBTQ Moments that Defined 2019
aclu.org | 2019-12-19
1. Aimee Stephens goes to the Supreme Court: | In October, the Supreme Court heard its first trans civil rights case ever. The case was brought by our client Aimee Stephens, who was fired from her job at a funeral home solely for being transgender. That's sex discrimination and it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. , | We have yet to see whether the Supreme Court will uphold the civil rights of trans people. But no matter what, history has already been made. , | "I'll never forget the feeling of coming out of the Supreme Court and seeing a crowd of trans people and allies chanting to…
aclu.org/news/lgbt-rights/10-lgbtq-moments-that-defined-2019

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning Spends Her Birthday Imprisoned
Alan Macleod | mintpressnews.com | 2019-12-18
Military whistleblower Chelsea Manning spent her 32nd birthday behind bars yesterday for continuing to refuse to testify against Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange. She has been in prison since May after a U.S. District Judge ordered her incarceration for not recognizing the legitimacy of the grand jury. She tweeted that she was grateful for t…
mintpressnews.com/whistleblower-chelsea-manning-spends-her-birthday-imprisoned/263594/

A Secret CBP Team is Targeting and Detaining Innocent Travelers. We're Suing
Tarek Ismail | aclu.org | 2019-12-18
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is deploying secret teams that target, detain, and interrogate innocent travelers. We're suing to expose their activities. | In November 2018, three CBP officers detained Andreas | Gal, a former chief | technology officer at Mozilla Corporation and current Apple employee, at San | Francisco International Airport after he landed from a business trip to Sweden. | Andr…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/a-secret-cbp-team-is-targeting-and-detaining-innocent-travelers-were-suing

A Tennessee City Banned Surgical Abortion Within the City Limits. We're Taking Them to Court
Melissa Grant | aclu.org | 2019-12-18
For 30 years, I have | worked in reproductive health care. In my current role as Chief Operating | Officer of carafem, a nonprofit with a national network of health centers, I | know the difference compassionate and comprehensive reproductive health care | makes in the lives of our clients. I have witnessed the personal impact when | people who have the legal right to have a child or to have an abortion are denied | those rights due to outrageous societal barriers. Abortion providers are used | to opposition, but we've never experienced the kind of explicit targeting we | received from politicians in the city…
aclu.org/news/reproductive-freedom/a-tennessee-city-banned-surgical-abortion-within-the-city-limits-were-taking-them-to-court

A Little-Known Privacy Battle Is Being Waged Over Encrypting the Nuts and Bolts of the Internet
Daniel Kahn Gillmor | aclu.org | 2019-12-18
An important fight is brewing over the nuts and bolts of the | Internet that has significant implications for the privacy and security of all Internet | users. The fight has already pitted Google and Cloudflare against American | telecommunications companies, which are lobbying | Congress | to complain about the search giant. The fight is complicated, but at its core | are questions about c…
aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/a-little-known-privacy-battle-is-being-waged-over-encrypting-the-nuts-and-bolts-of-the-internet

Nine Palestinians arrested in latest crackdown
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2019-12-18
On Monday, December 16, Israeli authorities issued an administrative detention order against Palestinian woman journalist Bushra al-Tawil, for a period of four months. Al-Tawil (26) was detained last week after being taken from her family home in the town of al-Bireh, Ramallah's twin city. | According to the PPS, al-Tawil was previously arrested on three occasions by the Israeli authorities. In 2011, she was sentenced to a prison term of 16 and a half months and was released as part of a prisoners' exchange deal. She was re-arrested in 2014 to serve her previous sentence, and again in 2017 on the basis of secret…
peoplesdispatch.org/2019/12/18/nine-palestinians-arrested-in-latest-crackdown/

Misery for Venezuelans continues ahead of 2020 elections: UN rights chief Bachelet
news.un.org | 2019-12-18
Demonstrations in Venezuela must be allowed to take place ahead of elections in 2020, the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday, citing continued reports of harassment, threats, and detention by intelligence services and security forces.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2019/12/1053791

Torture exposed in Cobb County Detention Center
| workers.org | 2019-12-18
By Arielle Robinson Marietta, Ga. Formerly incarcerated people from the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and loved ones of those currently incarcerated spoke out about the horrid conditions at a town hall meeting at Life Church here on Dec. 9. Seven people have died in the jail since last December. . . . | Continue reading Torture exposed in Cobb County Detention Center at Workers.org…
workers.org/2019/12/44958/

Celebrity gangster? Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine gets away with 2yrs in jail after testifying against former gang
rt.com | 2019-12-18
Rapper Tekashi 6x9ine faced decades behind bars due to his ties to crimes committed by the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods, but he was given a much lighter sentence thanks to his being a star witness for the prosecution. | Rapper Tekashi 6x9ine, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, will be walking the streets a free man very soon. Despite facing potentially decades behind bars for his affiliation with the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang, the 23-year-old rapper was sentenced to just two years behind bars on Wednesday. Because he has already served 13 months of that sentence, Tekashi will be a free man before 2020 is up.
rt.com/usa/476235-tekashi-rapper-jail-sentence-gang/

In the Midst of Trump's Attacks, Offshoots of Progress in Congress for Immigrants' Rights
Madhuri Grewal | aclu.org | 2019-12-17
From the continued separation of families, to attacks on asylum-seekers, to the largest immigration raid ever in a state, to an unprecedented number of immigrants jailed by ICE, this year was filled with new lows for the…
aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/in-the-midst-of-trumps-attacks-offshoots-of-progress-in-congress-for-immigrants-rights

US Venezuelan embassy protectors denied right to fair trial
The Grayzone | thegrayzone.com | 2019-12-17
Four US activists protecting Venezuela's embassy in Washington, DC face prison time after the Trump administration illegally arrested them. And now…
thegrayzone.com/2019/12/16/venezuelan-embassy-defenders-denied-right-fair-trial/

It's Clear: In Oklahoma Cash Bail is Being Used as Ransom to Keep People Who Are Poor Behind Bars
Twyla Carter | aclu.org | 2019-12-17
Imagine you are one of the 4,000 people arrested every year in Canadian County, Oklahoma, a county with less than 200,000 people. Maybe the police find marijuana in your car during a traffic stop, maybe the police have mistaken you for someone else, or perhaps you can't afford the $40 per month you owe the court from a different charge. | After you're arrested, things will go one of two ways. You may | spend an hour or two in the jail for booking and then go home until your court | date. Or, you might sit in jail for weeks or months until your court date, | eating substandard food and sleeping on a linoleum fl…
aclu.org/news/smart-justice/its-clear-in-oklahoma-cash-bail-is-being-used-as-ransom-to-keep-people-who-are-poor-behind-bars

Wisconsin: Medicaid to cover gender-confirming medical procedures
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-12-17
Kenosha, WI – As of December 10, Wisconsin is now one of the 20 states that cover medically necessary gender-confirming surgeries. People in need of these procedures will receive coverage under the state's Medicaid healthcare plan. This development comes after state officials allowed the time frame to lapse for an appeal of the 2018 lawsuit that initiated the whole process. | This is undoubtedly a big win for transgender and non-binary people across the state and a huge rebuke to traditional thinking when it comes to transgender and non-binary individuals seeking surgery to help with gender dysphoria. Gender Dysp…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/12/17/wisconsin-medicaid-cover-gender-confirming-medical-procedures

Democratic Candidates Focus on Public Education at Historic Forum with Civil Rights & Labor Groups
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-12-17
Ahead of the last Democratic presidential debate of the year this Thursday, seven candidates appeared Saturday at the historic Democratic Presidential Forum on Public Education in Pittsburgh, an event organized by public education organizations, unions, civil rights organizations and community groups. We play highlights from the forum and get response from Keron Blair, director of the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools in Atlanta; Jitu Brown, national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance; and Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education Action. She recently authored a report titled "S…
www.democracynow.org/2019/12/17/democratic_presidential_forum_on_public_education

2019 was a Watershed Year in the Movement to Stop Solitary Confinement
Amy Fettig | aclu.org | 2019-12-16
Back in 2016, then President of the United States, Barack Obama, called | solitary confinement " an | affront to our common humanity" and ordered the Justice Department to | implement reforms to the practice in U.S. prisons. Although just three short | years ago, in too many ways it seems a different age: We have seen a resurgence | of the "tough on crime" rhetoric that favors harsh policies and approaches that | we know don't work. Despite these…
aclu.org/news/prisoners-rights/2019-was-a-watershed-year-in-the-movement-to-stop-solitary-confinement

He spent 36 years in prison because he stole $100 in cash and $4 in food stamps. Now Willie Parker is free
Will Tucker | splcenter.org | 2019-12-16
It was pouring rain the day Willie Parker left William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility after 36 years in prison.
splcenter.org/news/2019/12/17/he-spent-36-years-prison-because-he-stole-100-cash-and-4-food-stamps-now-willie-parker-free

The Freedom of the Cuban Five Will Never be Reversed
Alicia Jrapko and Bill Hackwell | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-12-16
Celebration upon the release of the Cuban Five in Washington DC (Photo by Bill Hackwell) Five years ago tomorrow, in near disbelief, we watched on television as the Cuban Five were released from US prisons and flown home after a 16 year struggle. Leading up there had been some signs that their freedom was being …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/12/the-freedom-of-the-cuban-five-will-never-be-reversed/

Cop Charged with Making Multiple False Arrests
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-12-14
Baltimore Police Sgt Ethan Newberg is facing 32 counts of false imprisonment and assault for using illegal arrests to intimidate the community, prosecutors allege.
therealnews.com/stories/cop_charged_with_making_multiple_false_arrests

The Inside Story of an Elite Law Enforcement Unit Which Ran a Criminal Gang Inside a US Jail
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-12-13
The police accountability report talks to a first-hand witness to the alleged crimes of a group of corrections officers charged with brutalizing inmates as part of a larger criminal scheme.
therealnews.com/stories/inside-story-elite-law-enforcement-unit-which-ran-criminal-gang-inside-us-jail

Weekend Read: Amid Alabama's prison crisis, the voices of the people living through it should be heard
splcenter.org | 2019-12-13
For years, Alabama's prison system has been under a microscope. Harsh sentencing laws coupled with chronic underfunding have led to horrific conditions for people behind bars.
splcenter.org/news/2019/12/13/weekend-read-amid-alabamas-prison-crisis-voices-people-living-through-it-should-be-heard

Eddie Conway Tells It Like It Is
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-12-13
Please donate and help Eddie–Real News Executive Producer and former Black Panther–continue to expose issues relating to the prison-industrial complex.
therealnews.com/stories/eddie-conway-tells-it-like-it-is

Support the Workers of Iran, but Oppose US Sanctions
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-12-12
How is it possible to oppose the violent suppression of Iranian protest while still condemning U.S. sanctions on Iran?
therealnews.com/stories/support-iran-oppose-us-sanctions

Arizona educators, progressives confront ALEC summit and Betsy DeVos
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-12-09
Tucson, AZ – On December 4, a coalition of union educators, immigrant rights, police crimes, and climate change activists confronted the agenda of corporations like UPS and energy industry giants and billionaires like Charles Koch and Sheldon Achelson. At its height the crowd numbered around 200 with signs reading: "ALEC: Oligarchy in progress" and "Privatization, criminalization, incarceration, climate change, imperialism: #ALECisBehindIt." | The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a notorious organization of hardcore conservatives, was holding its States and Nation Policy Summit in Arizona. ALEC hoste…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/12/8/arizona-educators-progressives-confront-alec-summit-and-betsy-devos

SPLC lawsuit seeks to restore Mississippi citizens' right to vote
splcenter.org | 2019-12-04
When they were children, Herman Parker and his three sisters went to their grandparents' house every election day.
splcenter.org/news/2019/12/04/splc-lawsuit-seeks-restore-mississippi-citizens-right-vote

Prison By Any Other Name: A Report on South Florida Detention Facilities
splcenter.org | 2019-12-02
splcenter.org/20191209/prison-any-other-name-report-south-florida-detention-facilities

Civil Rights Are on the Chopping Block in New Supreme Court Term
Marjorie Cohn | zcomm.org | 2019-12-02
Hello, A very small proportion of ZNet content is available only to Sustainers. You can become a sustainer for a small repeating donation – monthly or yearly via the links for Sustaining, or Donating, available on the top page of ZNet.
zcomm.org/zmagazine/civil-rights-are-on-the-chopping-block-in-new-supreme-court-term/

Just Trying to Get It
Gerry Mohan | zcomm.org | 2019-11-24
Front page of the Guardian Review I'm trying to get it: a US president who waged war against 7 Muslim countries; droned, murdered and terrorized thousands of civilians in some of the poorest countries on earth; just by the way got rid of habeas corpus; spent a trillion dollars on "modernizing" the US military and Read…
zcomm.org/zblogs/just-trying-to-get-it/

After parole, Alabama man gets life back on track, helps others
Kathryn Casteel | splcenter.org | 2019-11-21
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.
splcenter.org/news/2019/12/03/after-parole-alabama-man-gets-life-back-track-helps-others

A brief memory of Angela Davis
fernando_santamaria | zcomm.org | 2019-11-21
I just finished reading Angela Davis' autobiography, published in 1978, shortly after the conclusion of her trial, when she was 28 years old. The Spanish edition is extended very briefly by another political prisoner, the Basque Arnaldo Otegi. I found attractive the simplicity and the clarity Davis uses to expose the institutional racism and police Read…
zcomm.org/zblogs/a-brief-memory-of-angela-davis/