OMNI
US POLITICAL PRISONERS
NEWSLETTER #3. July 21, 2016.
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace and Justice.
(#1 June 18, 2012; #2 Jan. 18, 2013).
OMNI newsletters:
For a knowledge-based peace, justice, and ecology movement and an
informed citizenry as the foundation for change.
Contents: US Political
Prisoners Newsletters #3, July 22, 2016
(arranged in
reverse chronological order of publication)
At the
Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia, July 2016
Google Search
April 15, 2016
The Nuclear Resister, Reporting Protests, Arrests, and Jailings,
2016
2002 World Bank
Suits Settled, 2016
Assata Shakur
in Cuba, 2014
Eddie Conway
Released after 44 Years, 2014 (will be at DNC 2016)
Riegle, Crossing the Line, from WWII CO to
Contemporary Activists, 2013
Swann on Adam
Kokesh, 2013
Chris Hedges on
Jeremy Hammond, 2013
Food Not Bombs
History, 2012
Norman Lowery’s
Prison Letters Published, 2012
Individuals: Riegle, Conway, Hammond, Kokesh, Lowery, Shakur
Groups: 2002 World Bank, Food Not Bombs
The U.S. has imprisoned tens of
thousands of its citizens for their beliefs—trade unionists, suffragettes,
communists and socialists, conscientious objectors, anti-war demonstrators,
civil right protestors, and many more. See my Political
Prisoners and Trials (1995), pp. 267-304.
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This Sunday: During the
DNC - Demand freedom for political prisoners!
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GOOGLE SEARCH APRIL 15, 2016
afgj.org/politicalprisonersusa
Sep 11, 2013 - Mumia Abu Jamal is the
most prominent political prisoner in the US. In 1981, Cointelpro style, he was arrested and sentenced to
death in an ...
www.truth-out.org/.../32043-beyond-innocence-america-s-politi...
Truthout
Jul 24, 2015 - With President Obama
focusing on more reasonable prison sentences, he could consider healing wounds by releasing
some of the many ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_prisoner
Wikipedia
A political prisoner is someone
imprisoned because they have opposed or .... AfricanAmerican boxer wrongfully
imprisoned for 19 years in the US due to "an ...
4strugglemag.org/political-prisoner-profiles/
There are about 100 political prisoners in various prisons
across the United States. These women and men are listed and recognized as political prisoners by ...
www.pjvoice.com/v52/52005news.aspx
Probably not by the strict
definition of the term: people incarcerated for their politicalbeliefs. But there are
millions of American citizens in the criminal justice ...
https://denverabc.wordpress.com/prisoners.../political-prisoners-database/
Updates to Political Prisoner Database « Denver
Anarchist Black Cross, on August 6, .... There are many other U.S. political prisoners who desperately need
our ...
www.thejerichomovement.com/
The United States government is
imprisoning dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of war. The Jericho Movement is raising up
their voices and working for ...
www.counterpunch.org/.../americas-own-political-prisoner...
CounterPunch
Dec 16, 2013 - “If the United States of America or
Britain is having elections, they don't .... “The U.S. government
categorically denies it has political prisoners in ...
www.ibiblio.org/prism/Apr97/prisoners.html
Two US political prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Kwame Cannon, will lose their .... in Japan; the other 3100 live on death row
right here in the United States.
www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/davispoprprblli.html
In this country, however,
where the special category of political prisoners is not .... US, specifically racism and national oppression, must be taken
into account.
Searches
related to political prisoners us
The Nuclear Resister 2016
www.nukeresister.org/
The Nuclear Resister networks the
anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance movement while acting as a clearinghouse
for information about contemporary ...
You've visited this page 3
times. Last visit: 11/28/14
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Inside
& Out. Write a note of support to these imprisoned anti ...
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Why
We Support the Nuclear Resister. Thank you for writing ...
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About
Us. Since 1980, the Nuclear Resister has provided ...
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Back
Issues. June 22, 2016. Nuclear Resister #181 ...
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Donate.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Read more… Please make a ...
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Nuclear
Resister #181. Posted on June 22, 2016. download now ...
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US, DC settle final lawsuit after 2002 World Bank
protests Created:
04/14/2016 9:53 AM
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WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia and U.S. authorities
have settled the final lawsuit related to the arrests of hundreds of protesters
during a 2002 demonstration against the World Bank.
The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/1Vmz4bU ) reports that authorities agreed to
pay $2.8 million to four former George Washington University students and their
attorneys without admitting wrongdoing.
The District will pay
$110,000 to each of the former students and $2.35 million to the plaintiffs'
attorneys. The student will each also receive $5,000 from the U.S.
The settlement means
Washington paid $11 million of the $13.25 million total paid to resolve
litigation that resulted from the arrests of about 400 people during
International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings.
Washington police have
since abandoned "trap and detain" tactics in which officers
surrounded and arrested large groups of people.
Information
from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com
(Copyright
2016 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
DECEMBER
30, 2014
An Open Letter to the Media
I am a 20th Century Escaped Slave
by ASSATA SHAKUR
in Counterpunch
My name is Assata Shakur,
and I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was
left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism
and violence that dominate the US government’s policy towards people of color.
I am an ex-political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984.
I have been a political
activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything
in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.
In the 1960s, I participated in various struggles: the black liberation
movement, the student rights movement, and the movement to end the war in
Vietnam. I joined the Black Panther Party. By 1969 the Black Panther Party had
become the number one organization targeted by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program.
Because the Black Panther Party demanded the total liberation of
black people, J. Edgar Hoover called it “greatest threat to the internal
security of the country” and vowed to destroy it and its leaders and activists.
In 1978, my case was one of
many cases bought before the United Nations Organization in a petition filed by
the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Alliance Against Racist
and Political Repression, and the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial
Justice, exposing the existence of political prisoners in the United States,
their political persecution, and the cruel and inhuman treatment they receive
in US prisons. According to the report:
“The FBI and the New York
Police Department in particular, charged and accused Assata Shakur of
participating in attacks on law enforcement personnel and widely circulated
such charges and accusations among police agencies and units. The FBI and the
NYPD further charged her as being a leader of the Black Liberation Army which
the government and its respective agencies described as an organization engaged
in the shooting of police officers.
This description of the
Black Liberation Army and the accusation of Assata Shakur’s relationship to it
was widely circulated by government agents among police agencies and units. As
a result of these activities by the government, Ms. Shakur became a hunted
person; posters in police precincts and banks described her as being involved
in serious criminal activities; she was highlighted on the FBI’s most wanted
list; and to police at all levels she became a ‘shoot-to-kill’ target.”
I was falsely accused in six
different “criminal cases” and in all six of these cases I was eventually
acquitted or the charges were dismissed. The fact that I was acquitted or that
the charges were dismissed, did not mean that I received justice in the courts,
that was certainly not the case. It only meant that the “evidence” presented
against me was so flimsy and false that my innocence became evident. This
political persecution was part and parcel of the government’s policy of
eliminating political opponents by charging them with crimes and arresting them
with no regard to the factual basis of such charges.
On May 2, 1973 I, along with
Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike,
supposedly for a “faulty tail light.” Sundiata Acoli got out of the car to
determine why we were stopped. Zayd and I remained in the car. State trooper
Harper then came to the car, opened the door and began to question us. Because
we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he
became “suspicious.” He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told us to put
our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied
and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there
was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and
then once again from the back.
Zayd Malik Shakur was later
killed, trooper Werner Foerster was killed, and even though trooper Harper admitted
that he shot and killed Zayd Malik Shakur, under the New Jersey felony murder
law, I was charged with killing both Zayd Malik Shakur, who was my closest
friend and comrade, and charged in the death of trooper Foerster. Never in my
life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to
get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying to
protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that
killed trooper Foerster was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was
captured later, was also charged with both deaths. Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I
ever received a fair trial We were both convicted in the news media way before
our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New
Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I
was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in
prison.
In 1979, fearing that I
would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any
justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who
understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely
fearful for my life.
The U.S. Senate’s 1976
Church Commission report on intelligence operations inside the USA, revealed
that “The FBI has attempted covertly to influence the public’s perception of
persons and organizations by disseminating derogatory information to the press,
either anonymously or through “friendly” news contacts.” This same policy is
evidently still very much in effect today.
On December 24, 1997, The
New Jersey State called a press conference to announce that New Jersey State
Police had written a letter to Pope John Paul II asking him to intervene on
their behalf and to aid in having me extradited back to New Jersey prisons. The
New Jersey State Police refused to make their letter public. Knowing that they
had probably totally distorted the facts, and attempted to get the Pope to do
the devils work in the name of religion, I decided to write the Pope to inform
him about the reality of’ “justice” for black people in the State of New Jersey
and in the United States. (See attached Letter to the Pope).
In January of 1998, during
the pope’s visit to Cuba, I agreed to do an interview with NBC journalist Ralph
Penza around my letter to the Pope, about my experiences in New Jersey court
system, and about the changes I saw in the United States and it’s treatment of
Black people in the last 25 years. I agreed to do this interview because I saw
this secret letter to the Pope as a vicious, vulgar, publicity maneuver on the
part of the New Jersey State Police, and as a cynical attempt to manipulate
Pope John Paul II. I have lived in Cuba for many years, and was completely out
of touch with the sensationalist, dishonest, nature of the establishment media
today. It is worse today than it was 30 years ago.
After years of being
victimized by the “establishment” media it was naive of me to hope that I might
finally get the opportunity to tell “my side of the story.” Instead of an
interview with me, what took place was a “staged media event” in three parts,
full of distortions, inaccuracies and outright lies. NBC purposely
misrepresented the facts. Not only did NBC spend thousands of dollars promoting
this “exclusive interview series” on NBC, they also spent a great deal of money
advertising this “exclusive interview” on black radio stations and also placed
notices in local newspapers.
Like most poor and oppressed
people in the United States, I do not have a voice. Black people, poor people
in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression and
very little freedom of the press. The black press and the progressive media has
historically played an essential role in the struggle for social justice. We
need to continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets
that help to educate our people and our children, and not annihilate their
minds. I am only one woman.
I own no TV stations, or
Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that people need to be educated as to
what is going on, and to understand the connection between the news media and
the instruments of repression in Amerika. All I have is my voice, my spirit and
the will to tell the truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black
media, those of you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in true
freedom, to publish this statement and to let people know what is happening. We
have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless.
Free all Political
Prisoners, I send you Love and Revolutionary Greetings From Cuba, One of the
Largest, Most Resistant and Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) That has
ever existed on the Face of this Planet.
Assata Shakur lives in Havana, Cuba.
Freed Ex-Black
Panther Marshall “Eddie” Conway on 44 Years in Prison and FBI Surveillance
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 Amy Goodman and Nermeen
Shaikh, Video Report, NationofChange, March 9, 2014: Former Black Panther
Party leader Marshall “Eddie” Conway joins us less than twenty four hours
after his release from nearly forty four years in prison. Supporters describe
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Crossing the Line
Nonviolent
Resisters Speak Out for Peace
By Rosalie G. Riegle. 2013
Book Description
"'Of course, let us
have peace,' we cry, 'but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose
nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill
repute nor disruption of ties . . .' There is no peace because there are no
peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at
least as costly as the making of war—at least as exigent, at least as
disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its
wake." Daniel Berrigan, No Bars to Manhood
More than sixty-five peacemakers have contributed oral narratives to this compelling history of those who say no to war making in the strongest way possible: by engaging in civil disobedience and paying the consequences in jail or prison. Crossing the Line gives voice to often neglected social history and provides provocative stories of actions, trials, and imprisonment. This fascinating volume serves as an excellent supplement to conventional histories. Almost all the storytellers here are people of faith or are inspired by those who live by faith. Many work at conventional careers; some do full-time peacemaking by living in Catholic Worker houses or in the Jonah House community; several are priests and nuns who minister worldwide. Also featured are three resisters prominent in War Resisters League history. From World War II conscientious objectors to contemporary activists, these narrators have refused to be helpless in the face of a violent world, and have said with their bodies that they do not accept the status quo of permanent war and war preparation. In short, the voices illustrate hope at a time when it seems in short supply.
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Contributors
+
Endorsements & Review
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ADAM KOKESH, A Modern Day Political Prisoner
Ben Swann, reported on this modern day political prisoner 2013
Chris Hedges, The
Revolutionaries in Our Midst Chris
Hedges, Truthdig Op-Ed, NationofChange, TUESDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2013: Jeremy
Hammond sat
in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center last week in a small room
reserved for visits from attorneys. He was wearing an oversized prison
jumpsuit. The brown hair of the lanky six-footer fell over his ears, and he had
a wispy beard. He spoke with the intensity and clarity one would expect from one of the nation’s most important
political prisoners. READ | DISCUSS | SHARE http://www.nationofchange.org/revolutionaries-our-midst-1384266738
FOOD NOT
BOMBS
Hungry for Peace: How You Can Help End Poverty
and War with Food Not Bombs. Seesharppress.com,
2012.
History of Food Not Bombs,
its anti-nuclear roots and the political repression of free food across the
globe. This revised and updated guide
to starting your own Food Not Bombs group also includes over 100 photos, how to
do things, recipes, and more. Get it
free online at foodnotbombs.net or from publisher for $12.50. (Info from The Nuclear Resister—Dick).
From Dennis Rivers’ intro.: In a
war-making culture, seeing the life of conscience lived boldly will help each
of us to be truer to the best that is within us.
CONSCIENCE BEHIND BARS—THE PRISON LETTERS OF
NORMAN LOWRY.
Avail. as a free download or
printed edition ($5, 96pp.) at lulu.com.
Posted on May
26, 2012
A
Pennsylvania man will spend seven years in state prison unless he promises
never to block the entrance of any military recruiting office in the future.
On May
21, Lancaster County Judge Louis Farina told Norman Edgar Lowry, Jr. that
unless he would forswear his nonviolent protest, the court would be obliged to
impose the maximum sentence for Lowry’s third consecutive arrest at an Armed
Forces Recruiting Station in Lancaster.
If only
he would make such a promise, the judge implied, his sentence would be much
lighter. Did he understand?, the court asked. Yes, Lowry answered. Will you
make the pledge? No.
Asked if
he had anything more to say before being sentenced, Lowry presented a written
statement and was invited to read it.
MORE:
For research
purposes, specific subjects can be located in the following alphabetized index,
and searched on the blog using the search box. The search box is located
in the upper left corner of the webpage.
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
Newsletter Index: http://omnicenter.org/dick-bennetts-peace-justice-and-ecology-newsletters/dicks-newsletter-index/
Contents #1 June 18,
2012, USA and World
Bradley Manning
(see newsletters on Manning, Snowden, Assange)
US Political
Prisoners, Writings
Bennett, Political Prisoners and Trials
The Nuclear Resister
2010 Conference
in Copenhagen
April 14
Palestinian Political Prisoners
Contents #2 USA, January 18, 2013
Riegle, Doing
Hard Time for Peace
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Marilyn Buck
Quick Survey of
US PP History in 6 Books
END POLITICAL
PRISONERS NEWSLETTER #3, July 21, 2016
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