Feature Archives

Lynne Stewart, the much admired civil rights attorney who is struggling with cancer, has had her bail revoked, and she is now being held in jail after a Federal Court ruled on her appeal November 17th. On November 23rd, demonstrators in San Francisco protested against the ruling.

An article anonymously published to the newswire on November 26th reports that the FBI has been showing up at peoples' workplaces and homes, asking questions about some or all of the AETA 4, as well as other groups and movements to their interest.

On Thursday, Novemember 19th, Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson ordered that Johannes Mehserle's trial for the murder of Oscar Grant be moved to Los Angeles County. In the hearing to decide if the venue should be held in San Diego County or Los Angeles County, the determining factors were: pretrial publicity, relative hardship to parties, conservation of judicial resources and public funds, and demographics.

On October 13th, two Minneapolis, MN activists were subpoenaed to appear before an Iowa Grand Jury, ostensibly investigating a November 2004 Animal Liberation Front raid of a University of Iowa psychology department animal laboratory. Twice they refused to testify and were then ordered jailed for contempt by a federal district judge on November 17th. On November 19th, Scott DeMuth was additionally charged with conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism in Davenport, Iowa federal court.

On November 5th, Adisa Banjoko of the Hip Hop Chess Federation hosted a panel at O'Connell High School in San Francisco's Mission District that included Immortal Technique, Cesar A. Cruz and the Watsonville Brown Berets. The panel addressed issues on US imperialism, police abuse and murder, black & brown youth repression, indigenous resistance and hood liberation.

On November 4, 2009, an Italian judge convicted 23 CIA agents and two Italian agents over their role in the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric. Milan judge Oscar Magi sentenced former Milan CIA station chief Bob Seldon Lady to 8 years and 22 other agents to 5 years in prison for their role in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Also convicted was Air Force Colonel Joseph Romano who was responsible for the CIA kidnapping team’s flight to Egypt from a U.S. air base in Italy.

On Friday, November 6th, 2009, the Fresno Brown Berets and California Prison Moratorium Project organized a march and rally in protest of what they say is “Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer's corrupt and racist administration.” They called for his resignation or termination as police chief. Fresno police have killed nine people this year.