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Recent
Stories
May
16, 2003
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
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Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
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Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
May
10 / 11, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Rosenthal Faces the Music in Key
Med Marijuana Case
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Labor in the Dawn of Empire
Annie
C. Higgins
The Last Time I Saw Mus'ab
Ron Jacobs
The Devil in New England
William
Mandel
One on One with Sen. Joe McCarthy
Jason Leopold
Halliburton Still Flouts the Law as It Profits from Terror
Patrick
Cockburn
The Iraqi Quagmire
Larry Magnuson
William Bennett: Next Viceroy
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Sasan
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The Good Terrorists?
Anthony
Gancarski
Chalabi: Drowning in Ba'ath-water?
Steven
Sherman
A Letter to My European Friends
Khaled
El-Bizri
Mr. Bush Comes to Santa Clara
Bruce
Jackson
How Fear Curdles the Soul
Adam Engel
Flag in the Rain
Poets
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/10
Website
of the Weekend
Killing Again
May
9, 2003
Rahul
Mahajan
Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet
Wayne
Madsen
When Lying Pays Off: Neo-Con Fabricators
Chris
Floyd
The Karamazov Question
Don Monkerud
The Great Christian Schism: War or Peace?
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Drunk on Power: Bush, Power and the
Pathology of the Dry Drunk
Hammond
Guthrie
Bombastic Promise Keeping
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/09
May
8, 2003
Julie
Hilden
When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son
Mickey
Z.
Partisan Protests?
Mark
Zepezauer
Evil is as Evil Does
David Lindorff
The Coming Senior Revolution
Abu
Spinoza
The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash
Ben
Tripp
The Other "F" Word
Norman
Madarasz
God in the Service of the Security
State: a Dispatch from Brazil
Stew Albert
Pushovers
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/08
Website
of the Day
Department of Sexual Security
May
7, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts,
Martinis, Hitchens
David
Krieger
Winning the War; Alienating the World
Sen.
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Bush's Troubling Speech
Bruce Jackson
Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/07
Website
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The Truth About Bush's Military Records
May
6, 2003
Paul
de Rooij
An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview
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Anthony
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Money to Burn: in Defense of Bill Bennett
John
Stanton
Bush's War on Jesus
Sam
Hamod
W. Bush: the Little Snot, the Little
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Robert
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Bush Says the War is Over: Tell It to
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A Roadmap to Nowhere
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/06
May
5, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Phase Two: Syria and Iran
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Mariscal
The Militarization of US Culture
Ishmael
Reed
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Sharon's Confidence: Bush Won't Come to Shove on Roadmap
Leila
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Regime Change Begins at Home...Literally
Steve
Perry
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Sam
Smith
Coalition of the Shilling
May
3, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Tears of Rage: Remembering May 1970
Elaine
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William Bennett, a Freudian Perspective
Sam
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Scott
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Getting Shot on the Oakland Docks
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Don't Take Col. John Boyd's Name in Vain
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Hot Fun in the Summertime
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MacDougall
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Seth Sandronsky
Incarcerated and Invisible
Rich
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Over Our Dead Bodies
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American Bulk
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Bush's War Web Log 5/03
May
2, 2003
Caoimhe
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Crowd Control American-style
Neve
Gordon
US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared
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Tom Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster
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Burston
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Question Those Writing History
Saul Landau
The Cuba Conundrum
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/02
Website
of the Day
Moussaoui's
Quiz
May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
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Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
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A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
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Sam
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Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
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Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
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May Day at Kut and Kienthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
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Bush's War Web Log 5/01
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Ashley
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Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
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Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
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Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
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Fighting Alienation in the USA
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The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
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Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
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Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
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A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
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29, 2003
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Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
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Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
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Brush with the Law
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May
16, 2003
Things Have Changed
A Nation of
Fear
By SAM HAMOD
with assistance from Elaine Cassel
I'm a strong believer in speaking out--as
many of you know from my articles, and as my friends have known
from my work in civil rights, human rights and other causes of
the First Amendment in public and in the various universities
at which I have taught.
But I, and we all, face a new dilemma.
The lawyer client privilege is almost gone, note the case of
the lawyer defending some of the defendants in the original Trade
Towers bombings, Lynne Stewart. She is now on trial for simply
defending her clients and having answered a simple question at
a press conference. She was asked how her client felt about violent
resistance; she simply said that he felt it was legitimate. She
only reported what he said in answer to an honest question from
a reporter. She was then charged with aiding and abetting terrorism--and
to this day, she is imprisoned. Fortunately, she has an excellent
attorney, Michael Tigar; but there are others out there who do
not have this quality of attorney and who have told they have
no right to even see an attorney. Although some courts have told
the US Government to provide attorney visits, etc.--the Justice
Department has not obeyed the courts, but has appealed. During
the appeal periods, the Justice Department and the White House
have both put tremendous political and legal pressure on the
judges to vote their way--to do away with the lawyer client privilege
so that the government may continue, "creating trust and
dependency" with the imprisoned persons.
What this means is that the government
is trying to break the will of the persons, who have often not
even been charged, indicted, or in any way had a prima facie
case presented against them! Yes, this astounding, but it's happening
right under our noses every day of the week. It has happened
in Chicago, in Buffalo, in Texas and in other parts of the country,
and often we do not even know who has been picked up or what
has happened to them. Earlier this week on NPR, on All Things
Considered, David Cole, an attorney who teaches at Georgetown
Law School of Law, brought this matter up and especially pointed
to the case of Mr. Padilla, a U.S. citizen who is incarcerated
without an attorney, who has no charges against him, who has
no access to visitors and in many other ways his civil rights
are being violated by Ashcroft and his gang--but there is nothing
we can do about it because even the courts are in the hands of
the Bush/Ashcroft gang these days. Thus, even all of you, may
be "detained" for no good reason and kept locked up
for who knows how long--Ashcroft and his minions aren't saying,
and they refuse to listen to judges who are trying to make them
obey our laws and our Bill of Rights. Ashcroft hopes that by
keeping people in prison, isolated and without advice from attorney,
they may force a confession--real or invented; thus, getting
a confession.
Add to these matters that Rumsfeld has
now said there will be no review for his military courts and
that those he deems to be enemy combatants, etc., will be represented
by a JAG lawyer--which puts the defendant in even more jeopardy
because he/she will not be allowed to retain an attorney of their
own choice. The new problem may be one of linguistic/semantics
with regard to who "enemy combatants" or "those
assisting the enemy" are; this is scarier and scarier as
Ashcroft and Rumsfeld are almost like a new type of supreme court
unto themselves.
On the other hand, we know that a coerced
confession will not hold up in court--IF THE JUDGE IS FAIR AND
HONEST. But, suppose the judge is afraid of Ashcroft and his
gang, or believes as they do, that they should be able to do
whatever they wish in order to "protect the national security"
(though this phrase is often bogus)--THEN WHAT.
IN THAT CASE, ALL IS LOST, BECAUSE THE
COURT IS THE ONE WHO MUST DECLARE ASHCROFT'S ACT ILLEGAL, BUT
IF THEY REFUSE TO DO THAT, THEN HE MAY CONTINUE RUNNING ROUGHSHOD
OVER OUR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS, as he has done since the Patriot
Act was passed.
This brings me to a situation of a friend
of mine. He was recently invited to be interviewed on a radio
station from a foreign power. He felt he would like to do it,
but he had heard Mr.Cole's comments the same day he had the invitation.
Thus, he hesitated. He told me the nation was one of those against
whom Bush had spoken unfavorably, even threateningly. He was
upset because he was feeling that if he spoke on the air and
said anything that Bush/Ashcroft didn't like, they could say
he was aiding and abetting an enemy, or a potential enemy and
might just simply "detain him" and he'd face the Padilla
dilemma. He was upset that Ashcroft and his ways had made him
pause, to think about what he should do because of the tremendous
fear Ashcroft/Bush have instilled in our nation.
He added that he didn't have the money
to fight the U.S. Government, nor did he want to spend time in
prison for simply appearing on this radio station. He asked if
I thought he was a coward; I told him no, that the threat was
real and that I understood his dilemma. He was also worried because
several U.S. intelligence agencies have hired former KGB and
Mossad agents, who know or care little about our First Amendment
rights and our basic freedoms. He pointed to Paul Krugman's article
in the NY Times, where he said that America and its loss of rights,
was a "different country" after 9/11--now my friend
was feeling this change in his life.
So there you have it; we're in a hell
of pickle.
My colleague, Elaine Cassel, who has
her eyes carefully trained on the law and writes of these things
in her blog page, made a good point to me, when discussing these
matters, she said, "The problem is, we're running out of
courts and we're running out of judges who will stand up and
call these actions wrong and unlawful. Too many are in the pockets
of the Bush administration or Ashcroft's camp, so there are fewer
and fewer place to turn, and you know what will happen if it
ever gets to the Supreme Court!" I fear she is correct,
so if you add what Cole said, what Tigar has been fighting and
what vision Ms. Cassel shows--the road ahead is going to be difficult.
So I understood my friend's dilemma clearly.
But somehow, there is this little voice
in the back of my head, in the back of my heart, that says, "Yes,
that's all true, but we must find a way--if we all put our heads
together and work on this, we will find a way to defeat this
evil wrongdoing--I don't know how yet, or when, but that it will
come--it always has and for some odd reason, I believe it will."
I told him this in a flush of optimism.
I don't know exactly what he'll do, but
I share this with you (with his permission) because it is a serious
matter that must be considered in this strange time. What would
you do?
Sam Hamod
is an expert on world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds, former editor of THIRD WORLD NEWS (in Wash, DC), a former
professor at Princeton University, former Director of The National
Islamic Center of Washington, DC, an advisor to the US State
Department and author of ISLAM IN THE WORLD TODAY. He is the
editor of www.todaysalternativenews.com,
and may be reached at shamod@cox.net
Yesterday's
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Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaioui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
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