Tyranny evident in capricious “law,” capricious “terrorism”

Governmental authorities exploit fear to justify lawlessness, breach of civil liberties and human rights

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

At home and abroad

Afghanistan’s government is accusing the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for an April air attack that massacred 17 Afghan civilians of whom 12 were children

Mendacious geopolitical parsing of "murder" and “terror”, "murderers" and "terrorists"

Afghanistan (Pakistan, Yemen, Bahrain, Gaza. Somalia, Iraq) – 

Boston USA

 

Dispatches from the Underclass reporter Rania Khalek transcribed a question (by McClatchy newspapers reporter: Amina Ismail) and answer (by White House Press Secretary James, "Jay," Carney) segment of a White House press conference last week.

REPORTER: 

“I send my deepest condolence to the victims and families in Boston. But President Obama said that what happened in Boston was an act of terrorism. I would like to ask Do you consider the U.S. bombing on civilians in Afghanistan earlier this month that left 11 children and a woman killed a form of terrorism? Why or why not?”

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY:

 

“Well, I would have to know more about the incident and then obviously the Department of Defense would have answers to your questions on this matter.

“We have more than 60,000 U.S. troops involved in a war in Afghanistan, a war that began when the United States was attacked, in an attack that was organized on the soil of Afghanistan by al- Qaeda, by Osama bin laden and others and more than 3,000 people were killed in that attack.

“And it has been the President’s objective once he took office to make clear what our goals are in

Afghanistan and that is to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat al Qaeda.

“And with that as our objective to provide enough assistance to Afghan National Security Forces and the Afghan government to allow them to take over security for themselves.

“And that process is underway and the United States has withdrawn a substantial number of troops and we are in the process of drowning down further as we hand over security lead to Afghan forces. 

And it is certainly the case that I refer you to the defense department for details that we take great care in the prosecution of this war and we are very mindful of what our objectives are.

 

Rania Khalek rejoins: “Carney completely dodged the questions, pointing instead to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to justify U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. After a long-winded answer, excusing U.S. conduct, Carney concludes, ‘we take great care in the prosecution of this war.’”

 Continuing, Khalek says, “Does this look like ‘great care’ to you? … At the very least, this serves as another example of the utter meaninglessness of the word ‘terrorism.’

U.S. foreign relations

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey wrote late last week at Pravda.Ru

“The spider at the center

of the web of globalized evil, ladies and gentlemen, is the United States of America and its foreign policy.

 

“The USA has demonized countless leaders, governments and systems while at the same time it has perpetrated the very worst crimes on the international stage.

“It is the only country to have committed an act of nuclear terrorism ─ twice

It has strafed Vietnamese kids with napalm;

It has committed nuclear war crimes;

It has committed chemical war crimes;

Regimes in Washington (seat of U.S. federal government) have been involved in state terrorism, in acts of murder, attempted murder, and more recently, torture, sodomy, racism and mutilation.

“Those of us who have tracked the record of Washington since the Great Patriotic War (Second World War),” Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey says, “have become increasingly appalled as the USA has unilaterally insulted the collective identity of the rest of humankind since 1991 when promises were made to the Eastern Bloc (a valid counterweight), then systematically broken. As time goes on, Washington’s record worsens.

Outrages ─ from the support for Kosovar terrorists and the murder of Serbs, to the invasion of Afghanistan (minerals and the heroin trade, not the Taliban), Iraq (energy lobby, not Saddam Hussein’s WMD), then Libya (Qaddafi’s African policy was going to cost the western lobbies billions), and now Syria where flames behind the extremists have been fanned ─ remind us of the U.S. support for the Afghan Mujaheddin in Afghanistan, where bin Laden and his friends were aided and abetted and openly supported to create the soft underbelly against the Soviet Union.

Mind relinquished

In “Obama’s Herd Control,” Xavier Lerma today casts my fellow Americans in a light that, sadly, I am inclined to agree with.

“Americans think they got the killers and know whom to blame and whom to kill next because the television told them so. ‘The TV must be true,’ they say.

The U.S. propaganda machine has the upper hand since few Americans are willing to get the truth from other countries; even fewer know where to get it.

This allows media to report as fact whatever they want to report. 

The U.S. government can freely kill its own people ─ rather, they can allow innocent Americans to be killed.

… Massacre of the innocents ─ real or not ─ have their purpose.

Law relinquished

National Lawyers Guild sees tyranny in Boston case

“Given the vast expansion in terrorism legislation by federal and state authorities—legislation that is often vague and over-broad in scope—the executive branch’s ability to elect when and where to ignore civil liberties is detrimental to democracy.

“Exploiting public fears to justify the suspension of basic rights subverts the U.S. justice system.”

National Lawyers Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian says in an alert today, “Shortcuts to due process are becoming all too frequent in high profile cases, especially ones the government deems terrorism-related. Law enforcement officials in this country take an oath to uphold the law, no matter what the particular crime, and they are bound by that oath in the Tsarnaev case.…

“The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) urges federal law enforcement to afford Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

• The right to be brought before a judge within 48 hours to review probable cause for continued detention; and

• The right to remain silent and to an attorney as guaranteed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona.

In today’s news reports

At Press TV

“Boston bombing suspect charged with using weapon of mass destruction ─ The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon twin bombings has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the blasts that killed three people and injured over 170 others last week.

“In a criminal complaint unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was specifically charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, namely an improvised explosive device (IED), against persons and property resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death. The teenager could face the death penalty if found guilty.

“U.S. law enforcement sources said Tsarnaev made his first court appearance from his hospital bed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston on Monday morning. The 19-year-old, a Chechen who obtained U.S. citizenship in 2012 is in serious but stable condition with wounds to his neck and throat.”  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/22/299693/boston-suspect-charged-with-wmd-use/

BREAKDOWN
Self-inflicted
Destruction of fabric of
justice, law, civilization

At The Independent (UK)

“Boston bombing suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev faces death penalty over weapon of mass destruction charge ─  Federal prosecutors in America have charged the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings with ‘conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against persons and property in the U.S. resulting in death.’

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (a 19-year-old Chechen college student) is still in a hospital bed and unable to speak after suffering a throat wound, reportedly the result of a failed suicide attempt at the climax of a dramatic hunt, when he was found hiding under a tarpaulin covering a blood-stained boat in a residential garden.

Police declined to comment on media reports [Dzokhar Tsarnaev] was communicating with authorities in writing, with Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis telling CNN: ‘There have been widely published reports that he is (communicating silently). I wouldn’t dispute that, but I don’t have any specific information on that myself.’”

Suspected of carrying out the attacks with his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, that left three dead and more than 170 injured,  Dzokhar Tsarnaev “will be tried in a federal - not state – court. In the United States, the charge carries the death penalty. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/boston-bombing-suspect-dzokhar-tsarnaev-faces-death-penalty-over-weapon-of-mass-destruction-charge-8581995.html

Sources and notes

“Reporter Asks White House if U.S. Airstrikes That Kill Afghan Civilians Qualify as ‘Terrorism’” by Rania Khalek on April 17, 2013, Dispatches from the Underclass: Amplifying the voices of the voiceless,

“UPDATE: The reporter who asked the question is Amina Ismail, a journalist at McClatchy. I urge you to thank her for asking it (her twitter handle is @AminaIsmail) because I can’t imagine it was easy given how extremely rare and frowned upon it is to challenge the dominant ‘war on terror’ narrative, especially as a female reporter with an Arab-sounding name. And Amina, if you’re reading this, thanks for kicking ass!”

Rania Khalek:

Matthew Keys, the social media editor at Reuters, posted audio of a reporter asking White House Press Secretary Jay Carney if U.S. bombings that kill innocent civilians in Afghanistan constitute an “act of terror” given the labeling of the Boston Marathon bombing as “terrorism”. She specifically refers to a U.S. airstrike earlier this month that killed 11 children, just the latest in a seemingly endless line of Afghan civilian deaths at the hands of the U.S. government.

Carney completely dodged the questions, pointing instead to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to justify U.S. bombings in Afghanistan. After a long-winded answer excusing U.S. conduct, Carney concludes, “we take great care in the prosecution of this war.”

“The lifeless bodies of Afghan children lay on the ground before their funeral ceremony, after a NATO airstrike killed several Afghan civilians, including ten children during a fierce gun battle with Taliban militants in Shultan, Shigal district, Kunar, eastern Afghanistan, Sunday, April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Naimatullah Karyab)” http://raniakhalek.com/2013/04/17/reporter-asks-white-house-if-u-s-airstrikes-that-kill-afghan-civilians-qualify-as-terrorism/

Wikipedia note: James (Jay) Carney (born May 22, 1965) is President Barack Obama’s second White House Press Secretary. Prior to his appointment as Press Secretary, replacing Robert Gibbs, Carney was director of communications to Vice President Joe Biden and previously was Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine (September 2005-December 2008), and a regular contributor in the ‘roundtable’ segment of ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Carney

Also noted in Democracy Now headlines April 22, 2013: “Afghan Government Accuses CIA in Deadly Air Strike ─ The Afghan government is accusing the CIA of responsibility for a U.S. air strike that killed 17 Afghan civilians, including 12 children, earlier this month. The victims were killed after violence broke out between militants and U.S. forces. A CIA employee who headed a covert group of paramilitaries was also killed. A spokesperson for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said: ‘It was a CIA operation using a security structure that was in full service of the CIA and run by the CIA.’” http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/22/headlines

“Boston, Chechnya and I$lamist contamination” (Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru),

April 21, 2013, http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/21-04-2013/124352-boston_terrorism-0/

“The Right to Remain Silent” at MirandaRights.Org

In the United States, the right to remain silent is designed to protect a person who is undergoing police questioning or trial. This right may help a person avoid making self-incriminating statements. It may also include the condition that unfavorable comments or inferences cannot be made by the tribunal because the defendant refused to answer questions before or during a court trial.

The Miranda Warning is used to inform a suspect of his or her right to remain silent after being placed under arrest. This warning came into being after the United States Supreme Court case of Miranda v. Arizona. The court stated that a confession would be inadmissible under the Fifth Amendment self-incrimination clause unless the suspect was made aware of his or her rights and had thus waived them.

 In stark comparison to the decision made in Miranda v. Arizona, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Raffel v. U.S. that once the suspect begins cooperating with law enforcement and answers questions or consents to a search, he or she gives up the right to remain silent and must continue to cooperate throughout his or her arrest, trial, and judgment.

This means that if you cooperate with the police in any form or fashion before being placed under arrest, you give up your Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Under the Raffel ruling, you cannot later reclaim your rights, even after arrest and being informed of your Miranda rights. This makes the Miranda Warning rather powerless, as the police do not have to advise the suspect of his or her rights until after a self-incriminating comment is made and/or he or she is arrested. If the suspect has already cooperated prior to arrest, he or she has already given up most of the rights that the Miranda Warning would advise him or her of.

 There are some instances where remaining silent may look unfavorably upon a suspect. For example, if a person is silent before being placed under arrest, it may be inferred that he or she is guilty because there are no declarations of innocence. One way to combat this is to tell the police officer that your attorney advised you to stay silent should you ever be accused of committing a crime. Attributing your silence to your attorney’s advice looks less suspicious.

Copyright © 2009 MirandaRights.Org. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.mirandarights.org/righttoremainsilent.html

“Obama’s Herd Control” (By Xavier Lerma, Pravda Ru),  April 22, 2013, Copyright © 1999-2013, «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors, http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/22-04-2013/124362-obama_herd_control-0/

National Lawyers Guild April 22, 2013

The National Lawyers Guild today “Urges Authorities in Boston Bombing Case to Follow Criminal Law.”  The group is calling “for adherence to federal presentment statute and to afford Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Miranda rights.

“The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) urges federal law enforcement to afford Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

• the right to be brought before a judge within 48 hours to review probable cause for continued detention, and

• the right to remain silent and to an attorney as guaranteed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona.

“In response to the attempted bombing in New York City’s Times Square in 2010, President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed the right to suspend Miranda rights for anyone accused of a terrorism-related charge. Given the vast expansion in terrorism legislation by federal and state authorities—legislation that is often vague and overbroad in scope—the executive branch’s ability to elect when and where to ignore civil liberties is detrimental to democracy. Exploiting public fears to justify the suspension of basic rights subverts the U.S. justice system.

“Shortcuts to due process are becoming all too frequent in high profile cases, especially ones the government deems terrorism-related. Law enforcement officials in this country take an oath to uphold the law, no matter what the particular crime, and they are bound by that oath in the Tsarnaev case,” said NLG Executive Director Heidi Boghosian.

https://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/national-lawyers-guild-urges-authorities-boston-bombing-case-follow-criminal-law

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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U.S. Complicit in Egyptian military’s “gross human rights violations”—NLG

Endless foreign relations in violence: Middle East/East Africa

Editing, re-reporting by
Carolyn Bennett

“This isn’t about sides, this is about confusion. This is about creating enemies where there aren’t any. … The whole gotdamn world is falling apart: peace reigns, freedom reigns, democracy rules.” 

 “How are we going to keep the military industrial complex chugging forward without clear-cut … pit-faced scum-sucking evil breathing down out neck — threatening our very shores; and my job is to make sure the other side keeps on fighting, whatever side … whatever side we’re officially not on this year.” — Gorman Lennox (Mickey Rourke) speech in closing scenes of film “White Sands”—

Middle East
East Africa

Old civilization, old greed, old exploitation

“Egypt’s arms industry,” UPI reported last year, “is the oldest, the largest and the most technologically advanced in the Arab world. The country's extensive military establishment, which has vast economic holdings, is funded to a large extent by $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid.… Egypt’s armed forces — with 500,000 personnel in uniform and about the same number in reserves — are equipped with U.S. weapons systems.”

Funds provided by the United States “must be spent on U.S. equipment and services”; thus United States has effectively “become a subsidy for U.S. contractors. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric, Raytheon, General Dynamics and BAE Systems all do big business with Cairo—selling fighter jets, tanks, radars, artillery and other hardware to Egypt.

“In 2010, Lockheed was paid $213 million for a new batch of 20 F-16s for the Egyptian air force, which has some 180 of the U.S.-built fighters. That makes Egypt the fourth largest F-16 operator.

“Lockheed Martin has made an estimated $3.8 billion from F-16 and other sales to Egypt. Boeing, which sells Cairo CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters, has earned an estimated $1.7 billion.

“General Dynamics Land Systems has banked some $2.5 billion by licensing the manufacture of M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks in Egypt” and “more than 1,000 Abrams tanks have been produced at factories in the suburbs of Cairo.”

Egypt’s military industry, UPI reported, extends at least as far back as the early nineteenth century.

NO LAND an ISLAND No People Apart
Foreign Relations in Violence by Bennett

Secrecy, mendacity, complicity, irresponsibility

The National Lawyers Guild in June reported U.S. complicity in Mubarak-era and post-Mubarak era military abuse of Egyptians’ human rights.

“Egypt’s state attacks against protesters, striking workers, and the poor have in some ways escalated since the fall of the Mubarak regime,” the NLG wrote on its return to the States.

“Over a period of less than 18 months, the current government has imprisoned 12,000, injured 6,000, and killed over 1,500 [and] the U.S. government has been complicit in these gross violations by providing direct military and financial aid to the current Egyptian regime, by maneuvering politically to help the regime cling to power in the days after January 25, 2011, and by delaying for almost 15 years the passage of the Small Arms Trade Treaty, which could prevent the regime from using American weapons against the Egyptian people.…

Egyptian uprising

“During the people’s uprising, U.S. corporations continued to ship tear gas and other weaponry to the very government that was shooting at unarmed men, women, and children in the streets of Egypt.”

The people of Egypt today have had no access to information about the extent of military-private ownership of their country’s industry and resources. That is because the military, with the support of the United States has made it illegal to access that information.

“In the face of efforts by the military to maintain control of the Egyptian government and public sphere, Egyptian people must be protected in their efforts to take back their country. However, any efforts to deconstruct the economic and state structures built by and for the benefit of a small elite will fail unless the current government allows full transparency into its domestic operations.

“Accordingly, the National Lawyers Guild supports the central call of Egyptian activists for transparency and freedom to access information relating to the complicity of the U.S. government and corporations in the activities of the repressive military regime. This should include disclosure of all information relating to the provision of U.S. economic and military aid, to military and intelligence training and cooperation, and to the sale of military equipment.

“As American human rights activists and attorneys, we demand further that the U.S. government refrain from any action that compromises the right of the Egyptian people to self-determination and refrain from obstructing the immediate transition to civilian government.”

NLG 4/22/12:
Battle of Mohammed Mahmoud Street:
Graffiti on barricade in front of
Interior Ministry 

National Lawyers Guild outlines position and advocacy on United States and Egypt:

We support our Egyptian allies in calling for an immediate and unequivocal end to arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, and the general criminalization of political dissent, as well as amnesty for all political prisoners.

We support our Egyptian allies in calling for an end to all military tribunals and for the prosecution of all members of the former regime, army, and police who orchestrated and/or engaged in any acts of violence against civilians.

We support the demands of Egypt’s people to uphold both domestic and international human rights law.

We call on the U.S. government to immediately stop providing the Egyptian military with money and weapons, as both forms of aid are being used to violate domestic and international human rights law through the repression of legitimate forms of political dissent.

We call for full disclosure and accounting of all financial and military aid given to the Egyptian government since the 1979 Camp David Accords.

We call for full disclosure of all arms sales agreements between U.S. corporations and the Egyptian military.

We call for a prohibition on exporting arms, including tear gas and other “small arms,” by any American corporation or private arms dealer to Egypt.

NLG  4/23/12:
Police Barricade  

We call for the full enforcement of the Leahy Law, which prohibits U.S. military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights.

We support the passage of the Arms Responsibility Act (HR 5749) which would prohibit the “transfer of defense articles and defense services to the governments of foreign countries that are engaging in gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights.”

We recognize the devastating economic and social impact of neoliberal policies implemented at the behest of the U.S. government and international institutions and call for an end to U.S. economic intervention through the provision of aid with neoliberal conditions and other forms of coercion.

We stand in solidarity with all Egyptians who continue to confront the forces of state repression and work for the establishment of a legal system that will protect dignity, freedom, and basic human rights. These demands are embodied and expressed in the broadly unified revolutionary chant for “bread, freedom, and social justice.

The NLG delegation “is working on a full report of its findings due out later this summer.” The National Lawyers Guild is also “working with organizations and activists to organize around the demands listed above and pushing to hold the U.S. government accountable.”

Sources and notes

“Security Industry: Egypt's arms industry depends on U.S.,” February 15, 2011,http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2011/02/15/Egypts-arms-industry-depends-on-US/UPI-47071297794481/

United Press International

United Press International (UPI), headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Santiago, Seoul and Tokyo, has been a leading provider of information to media outlets, businesses, governments and researchers worldwide since 1907.

“National Lawyers Guild Delegation Returns from Egypt with Evidence of Systematic Human Rights Abuses, Calls for Transparency and Accountability from U.S. Government,” June 28, 2012,  http://www.nlg.org/news/announcements/national-lawyers-guild-delegation-returns-from-egypt-with-evidence-of-systematic-human-rights-abuses-calls-for-transparency-and-accountability-from-u-s-government/

National Lawyers Guild

National Lawyers Guild 1937-2012 (“75 Years of Law for the People”) Projects: Mass Defense Project, Prison Law Project, International Human Rights, Political Prisoners (e.g., Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lynne Stewart), Center for Democratic Communications — Individuals and organizations “trust and rely on the National Lawyers Guild to ensure that infringements of First Amendment liberties do not go unchallenged.”

In the past 35 years, the National Lawyers Guild has worked in the defense of protesters and others whose First Amendment rights have been violated during the exercise of political speech. It has documented abuses of constitutional rights, provided legal defense to arrestees, and sought redress for those violations. The National Lawyers Guild’s “Legal Observing” program deploys trained observers to monitor law enforcement at public events, creating a safe atmosphere for people to express their political views as fully as possible.
Its “Greenscare Hotline” created several years ago is a first line of defense for environmental and animal rights activists who have been contacted by the FBI. Callers are referred to Guild attorneys in their geographic area whose assistance ranges from telephone consultations to direct representation. The hotline is: 888-NLG-ECOL.

“The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent” (2004) and “Punishing Protest”(2007), which identified larger governmental trends that had a chilling effect on free speech, are among NGL’s reports cataloguing police tactics that infringed on First Amendment activities. “Operation Backfire: A Survival Guild for Animal Rights and Environmental Activists” is a pocket-sized know your rights booklet for activists under special scrutiny by the government. http://www.nlg.org/

MIC image http://www.newint.org/
NLG images
Photos from NLG Delegation to Egypt
4/23/12: Police Barricade
4/22/12: Battle of Mohammed Mahmoud Street: Graffiti on barricade in front of Interior Ministry

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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