NewsTrust - Prisons - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

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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FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena likely relating to WikiLeaks

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina.

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Why Was PFC Manning Moved to Fort Leavenworth?

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

armycourtmartialdefense.info - By David E. Coombs - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - While the defense hopes that the move to Fort Leavenworth will result in the improvement of PFC Manning’s conditions of confinement, it nonetheless intends to pursue redress at the appropriate time for the flagrant violations of his constitutional rights by the Quantico confinement facility.

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Former Angola Prisoner Wilbert Rideau Receives George Polk Journalism Award For Exposing Sexual Violence Behind Bars

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez - Apr. 07 (Interview) - Wilbert Rideau was imprisoned for 44 years at the Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary before he won his release in 2005. While he was in prison he was editor of the "Angolite," a newspaper produced by inmates, and became an award-winning journalist. He received the George Polk Award for Special Interest Reporting in 1979 for his outstanding contributions to public understanding of the criminal justice and prison systems. More than three decades later, he will be honored today at the 62nd Annual George Polk Awards for journalists. "Back in 1979, the way [prison officials] portrayed sexual violence in prisons to the public was that this was something done by homosexuals and gay guys," says Rideau. "With sexual violence, I essentially told what it really was. It was not the homosexuals or the gays, in fact, they were quite often victims. It was the heterosexuals doing the raping and violence and what not, and being done with the tacit approval of prison authorities."

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Obama and Bush

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

Crooked Timber - By John Quiggin - Mar. 09 (Opinion) - The announcement that military show trials are to recommence at Guantanamo Bay, combined with the brutal and vindictive treatment of Bradley Manning, make it clear that, as regards willing to suppress basic human and civil rights in the name of security, there is no fundamental difference between the Obama and Bush Administrations. The first obvious question is, why? The second is, how to respond?

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The Truth Behind Quantico Brig's Decision to Strip PFC Manning

Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0800

The Law Offices of David E. Coombs - By David E. Coombs - Mar. 05 (Opinion) - The Brig has stripped PFC Manning of all of his clothing for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely. Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing. He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call. According to Marine spokesperson, First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, the decision to strip him naked every night is for PFC Manning's own protection. Villiard stated that it would be "inappropriate" to explain what prompted these actions "because to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning's privacy."

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Boehner Speech Preview: Will He (Republican) Party Like it's 1995?

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Arianna Huffington - Jan. 04 (Opinion) - As we get ready for John Boehner to take the gavel from Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, I find myself thinking back to the last time a Republican speaker took control of the House from a Democrat -- and reflecting on how far down the wrong road we have traveled since then.

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Convict Commodification

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Michael Todd - Dec. 29 (Editorial) - "For this group,” Western says, “going to prison has become an utterly normal life event.” That means incarceration has also entered the lives of all the parents, spouses, children and neighbors of those convicts.

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Bradley Manning: WikiLeaks Alleged Source’s Life in Prison

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By Denver Nicks - Dec. 17 (Interview) - The last time Bradley Manning saw the world outside of a jail, most Americans had never heard of WikiLeaks. On Friday, Manning, the man whose alleged unauthorized release of hundreds of thousands of classified documents put the website and its controversial leader, Julian Assange, on the map, turns 23 behind bars. Since his arrest in May, Manning has spent most of his 200-plus days in solitary confinement. Other than receiving a card and some books from his family, his birthday will be no different. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, his attorney, David Coombs, revealed key details about Manning’s imprisonment and kind gestures from his family that provided a bit of comfort in the inmate's otherwise extremely harsh incarceration.

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The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning's detention

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Dec. 15 (Opinion) - Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime. Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months -- and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait -- under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.

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Some Pragmatism

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

National Review - By Andrew C. McCarthy - Oct. 13 (Opinion) - If President Obama’s approach were actually flexible, Ghailani would by now have been shipped back whence he came: Guantanamo Bay. That’s where the confessed al-Qaeda operative was detained as an enemy combatant from the time of his 2004 capture in Pakistan until the Obama administration transferred him to the civilian justice system for trial.

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How the Future Will Judge Our Moral Failings

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Capital Times - By Kwame Anthony Appiah - Oct. 03 (Opinion) - Once, pretty much everywhere, beating your wife and children was regarded as a father’s duty, homosexuality was a hanging offense, and waterboarding was approved -- in fact, invented -- by the Catholic Church. Through the middle of the 19th century, the United States and other nations in the Americas condoned plantation slavery. Many of our grandparents were born in states where women were forbidden to vote. And well into the 20th century, lynch mobs in this country tortured, hanged and burned human beings at picnics.

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New York Takes Swing at Prison Gerrymandering

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Aug. 05 () - New York will likely be the third state to start counting prisoners as coming from their hometowns, and not where their cell is located.

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Obama's Betrayal of Public Education?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By Henry A. Giroux, Kenneth Saltman - Dec. 18 (Opinion) - Unfortunately, Obama has appointed as his secretary of education someone who actually embodies this utterly punitive, anti-intellectual, corporatized and test-driven model of schooling.

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