WHILE THE MEDIA SLEEP—
By Ernest Stewart

Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendment. As Sin-ator Lindsey Graham said about this: “In 1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.”

“basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.” Another supporter, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also declared that the bill is needed because “America is part of the battlefield.”

In Other News

I wrote my Sin-ators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow similar letters:

Dear Sin-ator Hitler er Levin, sorry, but I get you two confused.

Here is a list of the traitors who voted for S. 1867. If your Sin-ator is on the list, you might want to send him or her your note of displeasure? Also, if your Sin-ators voted against this outrage, you should also let them know of your appreciation!

Alexander (R-TN), Ayotte (R-NH), Barrasso (R-WY), Blunt (R-MO), Boozman (R-AR), Brown (R-MA), Burr (R-NC), Casey (D-PA), Chambliss (R-GA), Coats (R-IN), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Collins (R-ME), Conrad (D-ND), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Enzi (R-WY), Graham (R-SC), Grassley (R-IA), Hagan (D-NC), Hatch (R-UT), Heller (R-NV), Hoeven (R-ND), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Inouye (D-HI), Isakson (R-GA), Johanns (R-NE), Johnson (R-WI), Kohl (D-WI), Kyl (R-AZ), Landrieu (D-LA), Lee (R-UT), Levin (D-MI), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lugar (R-IN), Manchin (D-WV), McCain (R-AZ), McCaskill (D-MO), McConnell (R-KY), Moran (R-KS), Nelson (D-NE), Portman (R-OH), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Risch (R-ID), Roberts (R-KS), Rubio (R-FL), Sessions (R-AL), Shaheen (D-NH), Shelby (R-AL), Snowe (R-ME), Stabenow (D-MI), Thune (R-SD), Toomey (R-PA), Vitter (R-LA), Whitehouse (D-RI), Wicker (R-MS).

And Finally

So please pass me a slice of Mr. Ed and some horseradish, yummy! NOT!

Keepin’ On

So how do you like Bush Lite so far?
And more importantly, what are you planning on doing about it?

Until the next time, Peace!
(c) 2011 Ernest Stewart a.k.a. Uncle Ernie is an unabashed radical, author, stand-up comic, DJ, actor, political pundit and for the last 10 years managing editor and publisher of Issues & Alibis magazine. Visit me on Face Book. Follow me on Twitter. 

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By Stephen Lendman

Lynne Stewart: put away under ridiculous charges

Post-9/11, thousands of political prisoners languish unjustly behind bars or await trial.

They include lawyers for challenging injustice, especially for defending the “wrong” clients after America declared war on humanity.  Longtime human rights lawyer Lynne Stewart got 10 years for doing it. In a recent interview she said: 

“I believe I am one of an historical progression that maintains the struggle to change (America’s) perverted landscape….It seems that being a political prisoner must be used as a means of focusing people’s attention on the continuing atrocities around them….I might think I hadn’t been doing my utmost if they didn’t believe I was dangerous enough to be locked up!”

Explaining how outrageously prisoners are treated, she added: 

“Human rights do not exist in prison….I see day-to-day brainwashing that teaches all prisoners that they are less than nothing and not worthy of even the least human or humane considerations.”

It shows up in “adequate medical care, the appalling diet….no access to the Web….an absence of legal advice,” and so much else “to keep us dumbed-down, docile and estranged.” 

“The outside world is oblivious….brainwashed into believing (everyone locked up is) less than human.”

Inhumanity is official policy in America’s gulag. It’s by far the world’s largest, and for many in it as brutal as some of the worst. A growing part includes filling prison beds for profit, many in them victimized by injustice. 

Lynne’s there for defending a client Bush officials wanted locked up for life – no matter his innocence.  Paul Bergrin now awaits his turn, behind bars ahead of his trial. A previous article discussed his case, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2009/12/targeting-lawyers-case-of-paul-bergrin.html 

It said the Sixth Amendment assures defendants in “all criminal prosecutions” the right to speedy, public, fair trials with “the Assistance of (competent) Counsel for his (or her) defense” provided free if unable to pay for it. 

The Fourteenth Amendment holds government subservient to the law and guarantees due process respect for everyone’s legal right to judicial fairness on matters relating to life, liberty, or property. 

In America and elsewhere, defending unpopular clients is a long, honored tradition. So is upholding the law and challenging unfettered power defiling it. Yet doing it risks lawyers being criminalized for doing their job too vigorously or making enemies in high places.

Before being targeted, Bergrin was a formidable advocate. The New Times Times called him a “top prosecutor” before becoming one of New Jersey’s “most prominent defense lawyers representing clients as varied as Abu Ghraib defendants, the rap stars Lil’ Kim and Queen Larifah, and members of Newark’s notorious street gangs.” 

They and others deserve the same legal rights as everyone, nothing less. So does Bergrin as an unjustly accused defendant, targeted for doing his job. 

He defended US soldiers accused of killing four Iraqis near Samarra during Operation Iron Triangle in May 2006. The case made international headlines when evidence showed Col. Michael Steele gave orders to “kill all military age males.”

Stjepan Mestrovic’s important book explained what happened, titled “The ‘Good Soldier’ on Trial: A Sociological Study of Misconduct by the US Military Pertaining to Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq.”

It was no ordinary murder case. It involved government conspiracy, cover-up and intrigue against scapegoated soldiers to absolve higher-ups throughout the chain of command to the top.

As a result, four soldiers were convicted of conspiracy, murder, aggravated assault, or obstruction of justice for following orders. If disobeyed they’d have been court-martialed, dishonorably discharged, fined and imprisoned.

Guilt or innocence didn’t matter. They never had a chance, and for using his formidable skills for them, neither perhaps does Paul.  

Obama officials want him crucified and locked away for life, turning justice into a four-letter word like for so many others targeted for political advantage.

Prosecutorial Charges

On May 20, 2009, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press released headlined “Newark Lawyer Arrested, Charged with Racketeering Conspiracy, Including Murder of a Federal Witness (along with) Three Others Also Arrested and Charged.”

The 14-count indictment (now 33) accused him of “using various legal entities, including (his law office) to conduct illegal activities, including murder, to protect criminal clients, perpetuate their activities and shield them from prosecution.”

Specifically cited was his alleged role in the “murder of a confidential witness in an Essex County (New Jersey) federal drug case, and his efforts to hire a hitman from Chicago to kill at least one witness in a Monmouth County drug case.”

Bergrin was charged with “racketeering and racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy, murder of a federal witness, and conspiracy to murder a federal witness, and, separately, witnesses in a state case, as well as Travel Act violations and conspiracy to commit Travel Act violations.” 

If convicted of murder, racketeering and conspiracy, potentially he faces life in prison. 

Bergrin v. Attack Journalism

On June 5, New York Magazine writer Mark Jacobson headlined, “The Baddest Lawyer in the History of Jersey,” practically convicting him without trial by his title. 

Naming some of Essex County’s most notorious scoundrels, including Mafia boss Lucky Luciano, he called Bergrin a “strong candidate for addition to this list…. facing charges that are a good bet to keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.” 

In other words, he swallowed government accusations hook, line and sinker pre-trial, what legitimate journalism never should do. He accepted inflammatory charges as truth, no matter how implausible and bogus. 

American justice accuses innocent victims spuriously with crimes they didn’t commit, including terrorism, conspiracy to commit it, and murder.

In Bergrin’s case, Jacobson admitted that federal authorities hated him, without saying why. It was because of his skill and commitment to expose their crimes, the same ones ongoing daily in war theaters.

Anyone doing that for a living or pro bono will be targeted the same way. Authorities don’t like effective thorns in their side, so stop at nothing to remove them. Innocence doesn’t matter, only continuity of unchallenged crimes of war and against humanity with impunity. 

Bergrin knew it and wanted top chain of command officials exposed and prosecuted. As a result, he’s behind bars facing possible life in prison. 

Based on government charges and uncorroborated hearsay, Jacobson said he’d “gone rogue,” crossed “that border between what was allowed and what was not…”

Yet he admitted that “(h)e knew the reality, how the deck was stacked, and was willing to fight fire with fire” for justice. “He went to war for you,” said a former client. “That’s why Paul was loved in the streets.” They’re aren’t enough like him.

The deck is so stacked against him that former counsel Lawrence Lustberg believes it’s impossible he can get a fair trial in this environment. Attack journalism, of course, doesn’t help.

ABA (American Bar Association) Journal contributor, Martha Neil, discussed Bergrin’s case in previous articles.

On June 7, she headlined “Expanded New RICO Indictment Accuses Alleged Rogue Attorney of More Law-Firm-Related Charges,” saying: 

A “new racketeering indictment (read more like) the latest John Grisham legal thriller” from murder one to piling on lots more. In other words, the more charges, the more likely some will stick, whether or not credible.

On August 30, she headlined, “High-Profile Defense Attorney Accused of Practicing Law in RICO Enterprise May Represent Himself,” saying:

Jailed since 2009 “on charges that he ran his law practice as part of a criminal racketeering enterprise,” he may do what “one expert” calls a good idea, given his skill representing others. 

“Three of the government’s main cooperating witnesses (include) his mistress and alleged top criminal associate, his former law partner, and a drug kingpin ex-client.”

All copped a plea for lighter treatment in return for testifying against Bergrin, the main target prosecutors locked up for life, even by framing him on bogus charges.

On September 12, Neil headlined, “Attorney Paul Bergrin’s Biggest Trial is About to Begin: His Own Racketeering Case,” saying:

Federal Judge William Martini agreed to let him proceed pro se, but he’ll “be restricted in his courtroom movements.” 

He won’t be allowed to approach jurors, hand documents to witnesses, or participate in private out of earshot sidebar conferences at the bench where legal issues are considered.

At the same time, federal marshals will monitor him closely, giving jurors the appearance of a guilty man going through the motions.

Overcoming a stacked deck will be Bergrin’s greatest challenge. Some, however, say if anyone can do it he can, given his reputation as a formidable adversary other lawyers feared, knowing how tough he is to beat.

However, judicial restrictions will impede his every move, making jurors believe he lacks credibility and is guilty. On October 11, his trial is scheduled to begin, fair or foul. 

A Final Comment

The entire case is based on fabrication and intimidation to suppress hard truths and convict lawyers trying to expose them. Bergrin was framed to discredit and silence him. In November 2009, he said:

“This virtual nightmare has destroyed everything I worked my heart and soul out for, including my family. What hurts me the most is I am not guilty and totally innocent.” 

I was about to change the course of history that I had affirmative proof that President Bush, VP Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Assist. Secy. of (Defense) Wolfowitz, Carbone and White House Counsel, (Alberto) Gonzales (later US Attorney General) had lied, deliberately and intentionally when they denied knowledge of the torture techniques at Abu Ghraib.”

He never got a chance to prove it. Instead, he’s been convicted in the court of public opinion. His trial won’t be about alleged crimes. It’s for threatening the wrong people up the chain of command to the top. 

Imagine the possibilities if he’d done it, putting Bush/Cheney & Co. in the dock, instead of himself because he tried.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

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By Joan Acocella, The New Yorker July 26, 2011

Stieg Larsson

In the Times’s heavy coverage of the killings in Norway (there were five pieces Tuesday), the name of Stieg Larsson has not come up. That is curious. The major subplot of the stories on the massacre is what many people are now describing as the indifference of the government and press corps in Norway—and, by extension, in Scandinavia and the West as a whole—to native right-wing movements and their potential for violence. All the concern, all the publicity, the revisionist voices are now claiming, was about Islamic terrorists. And yet, homegrown fundamentalist movements have been gaining power in Scandinavia since, decades ago, the citizens of those countries began to lose faith in the benevolence of their vaunted welfare states.

That is what the young Stieg Larsson was saying in the nineteen-nineties, as I learned when I was reading up for an essay on the trilogy of novels that made him posthumously famous: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” Years before beginning work on the novels, Larsson had an unglamorous job as the Swedish correspondent for a magazine, Searchlight, that was English journalism’s watchdog against right-wing movements in Europe. In his articles for Searchlight he describes the car bombings, the rallies, the magazines of Sweden’s extreme right. He has only one message: fascism is on the rise. “For too long,” he writes, “Nazis, in the eyes of society, have been simplistically and credulously equated with a few dozen skinheads on a Saturday-night stampede.” That’s not the case any more, he writes. They are men in suits and ties, and they are getting elected to office.

Larsson’s main concern was the abuse of women, immigrants, and Jews, as was expectable at the turn of the century. Eventually he turned his attention primarily to women, as is clear in his trilogy, with its warrior-queen heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Meanwhile, his society was tilting in a different direction, as a result of the huge wave of immigration, primarily from Muslim countries. The Norwegian government was trying to enfold these new citizens. The summer camp that Anders Breivik invaded last week, a hatchery for the children of the liberal ruling class, included young people whose parents and grandparents came from Africa and Asia.

Such inclusion—or, from another perspective, infiltration—is what the Scandinavian right wing opposes, and political parties ruled by that refusal are gaining power. According to the Times, the Danish People’s Party, devoted to resisting multiculturalism, now has twenty-five out of one hundred and seventy-nine seats in the country’s parliament. In Holland, the right-wing Party for Freedom won 15.5 per cent of the vote in the 2010 general election. In the same year, the far-right Sweden Democrats party was able to place delegates in its country’s Riksdag. Larsson died before those developments, but he’s up there somewhere saying, “I told you so.”

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/07/stieg-larsson-and-the-scandinavian-right.html#ixzz1TRzNWeFZ

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Words by Leonard Doyle
ORIGINALLY posted Saturday, 21 February 2009
Source: Independent.co.uk
Photos by Anthony Karen

These images show members of the Ku Klux Klan as they want to be seen, scary and secretive and waiting in the wings for Barack and his colour-blind vision for America to fail. Anthony Karen, a former Marine and self-taught photojournalist was granted access to the innermost sanctum of the Klan. He doesn’t tell us how he did it but he was considered trustworthy enough to be invited into their homes and allowed to photograph their most secretive ceremonies, such as the infamous cross burnings.

When he talks about the Klan members he has encountered he tends not to dwell on the fate of their victims. Karen’s feat is that he takes us to places few photojournalists have been before, into the belly of the beast. The scenes he presents portray a kinder, gentler Klan. The mute photographs present an organisation that is far less threatening than the hate group of our popular imagination. Consciously or otherwise, his photographs hold our imagination in their grip while doing double duty as propaganda for the extremist right, much as Leni Riefenstahl’s work did for the Nazis.

Today the Klan is a mere shadow of what it used to be and there are at least 34 differently named Klan groups. “They are a fairly low-rent bunch of people, many of whom use their local organisations as a way of raising money for themselves,” says Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.

Photographs of the Klan folk in their hooded regalia aren’t all that rare. The archives of America’s newspapers contain plenty of front-page photographs of lynchings throughout the past century. Three years ago, James Cameron, the last survivor of an attempted lynching died, thankfully of natural causes.

The older generation of Black Americans grew up hearing about Klan lynchings whispered over the dinner table but never mentioned outside the home. At the Klan’s height, around the turn of the 20th century, some 30 to 40 lynchings a year were being recorded. It is believed that there were in fact many more unrecorded deaths, especially in the cotton-growing south where the deaths of black field-hands were often not recorded.

Karen’s photographs show an entirely different side of the far right. He presents a 58-year-old, fifth-generation seamstress he calls “Ms Ruth” and he has photographed her running up an outfit for the “Exalted Cyclops” or head of a local KKK chapter. She gets paid about $140 for her trouble. Karen tells us that she uses the earnings to help care for her 40-year-old quadriplegic daughter, who was injured in a car accident 10 years ago.

Karen’s images of the Klan and its supporters regularly appear on the recruiting websites of the far right. Out of context, the images of hooded Klansmen and their families tell us little of the real story – the inexorable rise in the number of extremist organisations in America.

The number of hate-crime victims in the US is also rising and as America’s middle and working class gets thrown out of work, the hate groups behind the crimes are flourishing. As people lose their homes to foreclosure and, without the benefit of a safety net, find themselves slipping into poverty, there is already a search for scapegoats underway. Immigrants from central and South America have become particular targets as the grim economic times take hold.

KKK wedding, deep in the Louisiana woods. The Klan subculture is creepy in its sheer ordinariness mixed with constant intimations of ugly violence and stubborn ignorance. (A. Karen)

Anyone who doubts the capacity of the modern KKK for violence need look no further than the recent case of 43-year-old Cynthia Lynch of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She had never been out of her home state before she travelled to Louisiana to be initiated into the Klan. She was met off the bus by two members of a group that calls itself the Sons of Dixie and taken to a campsite in the woods 60 miles north of New Orleans.

There, Lynch’s head was shaven and after 24 hours of Klan boot camp, including chanting and running with torches, she had had enough and asked to be taken to town. After an argument, the group’s “Grand Lordship”, Chuck Foster, is alleged to have shot her to death. He was charged with second-degree murder and is awaiting trial. Just as shocking is that the event happened in Bogalusa, a backwoods Louisiana town that was once known as the Klan capital of the US.

In the 1960s the Klan operated with impunity in Bogalusa and once held a public meeting to decide which black church to burn down next. Local Klan members were suspected of ambushing two black policemen in 1965, killing one and wounding the other. No one was ever tried for the crimes.

Despite all its notoriety the Klan has been a spent force for decades with nothing like the clout it once wielded. At its peak the KKK boasted four million members and controlled the governor’s mansions and legislatures of several states. Since the 1930s the KKK has been in a state of disorganisation and today it probably has 6,000 members. But the economic crisis is swelling their ranks and already, a month after the inauguration of the first black president, the tidal wave of interracial harmony that greeted Obama’s election is starting to recede.

More than 400 hate-related incidents, from cross-burnings to effigies of President Obama hanging from nooses have been reported, according to law-enforcement authorities and Potok’s organisation, which files lawsuits against hate groups aimed at making them bankrupt.

Late last year, two suspected skinheads who had links to a violent Klan chapter in Kentucky were charged with plotting to kill 88 black students. They were then going to assassinate President Obama by blasting him from a speeding car while wearing white tuxedos and top hats. They were never going to succeed, given the huge security net around Obama, but the fact that they had planned such an outlandish attack may be a harbinger of things to come.

“There is a tremendous backlash to Obama’s election,” says Richard Barrett, the leader of the Nationalist Movement, another white supremacist group. “Many people look at the flag of the Republic of New Africa that was hoisted over the White House as an act of war.