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Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón Disbarred in Trial Seen as Retaliation for Trailblazing Human Rights Work

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Feb. 10 (News Report) - Spain’s most famous judge, Baltasar Garzón, has been disbarred for 11 years after being found guilty of ordering illegal monitoring. Garzón is known for taking on global human rights cases under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, with actions including ordering the arrest of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, indicting Osama bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks, and probing the abuse of U.S. prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Garzón cannot appeal his disbarment, which effectively ends his career as a judge. We speak to Human Rights Watch's Reed Brody, who observed Garzon’s trial in Madrid. Brody says the case marks "a massive attack on the independence of the judiciary and on a very brave judge." [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Truth on Trial in Spain

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nyt Editorial - Feb. 04 (Opinion) - Terrible crimes were committed during and after Spain ’s 1936-39 civil war that no court has yet examined or judged. No one knows how many people were taken away, tortured and murdered. Now, one of Spain’s top investigating magistrates, Baltasar Garzón , is on trial for daring to open an inquiry into those atrocities.

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What’s He Got to Hide?

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Jan. 28 (Opinion) - Ethiopia brutally imprisons journalists who champion free speech and an end to human rights abuses. That repression is only inviting more scrutiny.

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Voter Photo ID Laws Hit Older Americans Hard

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AARP Bulletin - By Marsha Mercer - Jan. 05 (News Analysis) - Having a driver's license or photo identification card is commonplace for most Americans, but about 11 percent of adult citizens — more than 21 million people — lack a valid, government-issued photo ID, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

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China Sentences Rights Activist to 9 Years' Jail

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Associated Press - Dec. 23 (News Report) - A Chinese court sentenced a veteran democracy activist Friday to nine years' imprisonment for inciting subversion, in what appears to be the most severe punishment handed down in a crackdown on dissent this year.

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With Indefinite Detention Measure, Has Congress Also Expanded Rendition of U.S. Citizens Abroad?

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 22 (News Analysis) - The Obama administration is continuing to come under intense criticism from civil liberties groups for saying it will sign a controversial defense spending bill that some legal experts say would authorize the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial. While much of the media focus has been on the bill's provisions regarding indefinite detention, Mother Jones magazine has revealed the bill also contains text that could make it easier for the U.S. government to transfer American citizens to foreign regimes and security forces, a process known as rendition. We speak with Mother Jones national security reporter, Nick Baumann, who also details the cases of several U.S. citizens who have already been detained abroad by foreign security forces, interrogated, sometimes abused, and asked questions they believe could only have come from U.S. law enforcement. [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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This bastardised libertarianism makes 'freedom' an instrument of oppression

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By George Monbiot - Dec. 20 (Opinion) - It's the disguise used by those who wish to exploit without restraint, denying the need for the state to protect the 99% Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice? In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws; big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor. ...

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Obama Prepares to Authorize Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens For First Time Since McCarthy Era - Glenn Greenwald on NDAA

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 19 (News Analysis) - The $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last week includes controversial provisions that could usher in a radical expansion of indefinite detention under the U.S. government by authorizing the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial. “Congress, with the Democrats in control of the Senate and a Democratic president, is about to enact into law the first bill that will say that the military and the United States government do have this power,” says Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com blogger and constitutional law attorney. “It's muddled whether it applies to U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, but it's clearly indefinite detention, and there's a very strong case to make that it includes U.S. citizens as well, which, as we know, the Obama administration already claims anyway, and that's what makes it so dangerous.” [Rush transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Getting Detained and Gassed

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Nicholas D. Kristof - Dec. 14 (Opinion) - There’s nothing like getting tear-gassed and detained in Bahrain to be reminded that our close ally has a dark and repressive side.

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Indigenous Activists From Canada Protest Tar Sands Oil at Durban Climate Change Summit

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 06 (News Report) - This morning in Durban, South Africa, a group of youth and indigenous activists from Canada gave delegates to the U.N. climate talks mock gift bags containing samples of fake tar sands along with tourism brochures for Canada and Canadian flags. Kandi Mossett, one of the activists participating in the action, says Canada’s reliance on tar sands oil “is the largest catastrophic project that I am aware of on earth right now.” Mossett, who is the Native Energy and Climate Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, notes that the tar sands extraction process is energy and water-intensive, emits immense amounts of pollution into the air, and destroys the landscape. “To even get to the tar sands they have to remove boreal forests — old growth forests — and they call it ‘overburden.’ They just scrape it off and get rid of that. And then they dig down and move so many tons of earth,” Mossett says. “Then they squeeze out the last little 10 percent of oil that’s actually in the sand. And then they have to use chemicals to make it liquid enough to be able to put it through the pipelines — it’s much more toxic than any other kind of, you know, sweet crude oil.”

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20 Ways the Obama Administration Has Intruded on Your Rights

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Bill Quigley - Dec. 04 (News Analysis) - Is there a fundamental difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency in the area of domestic civil liberties?

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Clinton offers small incentives for Burma’s reforms

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By William Wan - Dec. 01 (News Analysis) - The Burmese overture - and the U.S. response - are freighted with risk for both sides.

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Battlefield America: U.S. Citizens Face Indefinite Military Detention in Defense Bill Before Senate

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 29 (News Report) - The Senate is set to vote this week on a Pentagon spending bill that could usher in a radical expansion of indefinite detention under the U.S. government. A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act would authorize the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect — anywhere in the world — without charge or trial.

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SWAT team's shooting of Marine causes outrage

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Amanda Lee Myers - Nov. 27 (News Report) - Jose Guerena Ortiz was sleeping after an exhausting 12-hour night shift at a copper mine. His wife, Vanessa, had begun breakfast. Their 4-year-old son, Joel, asked to watch cartoons.

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Newsvine - AP Impact: Right-to-know laws often ignored

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

NewsVine - By Martha Mendoza, AP National Writer,: Ravi Nessman from India, Charles Hutzler from China, Adriana Gomez Licon from Mexico. - Nov. 17 (Investigative Report) - In Mexico, the AP filed a query through a website and got all the information requested within two months. But in the U.S., the AP had to mail requests to six branches of the Justice and Homeland Security departments. After 10 months, 18 phone calls and 40 letters from the government, the AP ended up with two spreadsheets and a piece of paper with all names blanked out.

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China: Photo Captures Plight of 58 Million ‘Left Behind Children'

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Global Voices - By Oiwan Lam - Nov. 16 (Opinion) - A photo showing a little girl caring for her baby brother in a classroom in rural China has caused an online stir. It reflects the country's long-standing social problem of children who are left behind by their parents going to work in the cities.

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Court bars Muslim group access to FBI operating guidelines

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

rcfp.org - By J.C. Derrick - Nov. 16 (News Report) - He ordered the agency to provide further explanation to allow the court to "undertake a meaningful assessment of the redacted material."

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"Corporations Are Not People": Activists Push Amendment to Revoke "Corporate Personhood"

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 09 (News Report) - After an Election Day that saw a number of wins for progressive causes nationwide, activists opposed to "corporate personhood" — the notion that corporations have equal rights to individuals — are pushing ahead with a campaign to add a twenty-eighth amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reject the idea that corporations are people and reverse the 2010 landmark case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. In a 5-to-4 vote, the Court ruled corporations have First Amendment rights and that the government cannot impose restrictions on their political speech — clearing the way for corporations and other special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. We speak to John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney and co-founder and director of Free Speech for People. [Rush transcript to come. Please check back soon.]

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Scott Campbell Films Police Shooting At Occupy Oakland: Video Sparks National Outrage (VIDEO)

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - Nov. 08 (News Report) - Early Thursday morning after Occupy Oakland's general strike, Campbell filmed police as they surrounded the remaining protesters. According to Campbell, an officer asked him to step back as he approached the police line with a video camera. Campbell obliged, and then began filming about ten feet from the officers. On the video, Campbell can be heard asking "is this OK?" twice. Several seconds later, an officer shoots him with what appears to be a rubber bullet.

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Missoula voters say corporations are not people, ask for constitutional amendment

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

missoulian.com - Nov. 08 (News) -

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Gaza militants renew rocket fire toward Israel - Ha'aretz

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Haaretz - Nov. 06 (Other) - CTV.caGaza militants renew rocket fire toward IsraelHa'aretzBoth rockets launched overnight exploded in open fields south of Ashkelon; rocket attacks come hours after IDF strikes targets in Gaza. By Haaretz Tags: Palestinians Gaza rockets Gaza Strip Hamas Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip renewed their ...Israeli air raids kill Gaza militantAFPIsrael Begins Deportation of Gaza Flotilla ActivistsVoice of AmericaIsraeli air strike kills Palestinian militant in GazaReutersNew York Times -CNN International -TIMEall 1,962 news articles »

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“Deadly Monopolies”: Medical Ethicist Harriet Washington on How Firms Are Taking Over Life Itself

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Harriet Washington - Oct. 31 (Interview) - One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself. Our guest, Harriet Washington, is a medical ethicist and has just published a book that examines the extent to which what she calls the medical-industrial complex has come to control human life. In the past 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone — many more patents are pending. Washington argues that the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies patenting these genes are more concerned with profit than with the health or medical needs of patients. Her new book is called, “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself — And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Glenn Greenwald on Two-Tiered U.S. Justice System, Obama’s Assassination Program & the Arab Spring

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald - Oct. 26 (News Analysis) - Glenn Greenwald’s new book,"With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful,” offers a scathing critique of what he calls the two-tiered system of justice that ensures the political and financial class is virtually immune from prosecution in the United States. Greenwald explores how the media, both political parties, and the courts have abetted a process that has produced torture, war crimes, domestic spying, financial fraud and even the assassination of U.S citizens. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Murder Conviction Upheld

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Pirate FM - Oct. 25 (News Report) - One of the brothers serving life for the brutal murders of a Wadebridge couple in their own home loses his last appeal.

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Noam Chomsky on Israel-Palestine Prisoner Exchange, U.S. Assassination Campaign in Yemen

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky - Oct. 18 (Speech) - MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political dissident, spoke Monday night at Barnard College in New York City about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just hours before Israel and Hamas completed a historic prisoner exchange. "I think [Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit] should have been released a long time ago. But there’s something missing from this whole story. There’s no pictures of Palestinian women, and no discussion, in fact, in the story of—what about the Palestinian prisoners being released?

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