Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFeature Archives
Tue May 23 2006
Free The West Memphis 3
This hour-long segment from The Indynewswire Show on Free Radio Santa Cruz examines the case of The West Memphis 3, who've been imprisoned almost thirteen years for a murder they did not commit. We have an interview with Anje Vela, a Bay Area WM3 organizer. Legendary alternative rocker, Jonathan Richman, answers questions about his recent visit with Damien Echols and reads from Echol's book Almost Home. Plus, music from the Free The West Memphis 3 benefit compiliation... Read more
audio (mp3): WM3 interview, information and music (59:06 minutes / 27 MB)
see also: West Memphis Three Support: Write to Freedom
audio (mp3): WM3 interview, information and music (59:06 minutes / 27 MB)
see also: West Memphis Three Support: Write to Freedom
Mon May 22 2006
NSA has "Secret Room" at SF AT&T Facility
5/26: AT&T accidentally leaks sensitive information involving the NSA lawsuit in 25-page legal brief.
An AT&T whistleblower has revealed that the National Security Agency installed “secret rooms” at AT&T facilities in various cities, including the facility on Folsom Street in San Francisco. Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the star witness in a lawsuit against the telecommunications giant brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Statements by Klein reveal that AT&T has installed servers, routers and internet traffic-analysis software in the secret room. "I am presenting this information to facilitate the dismantling of this dangerous Orwellian project," Klein wrote in a statement.
Media Alliance, CODEPINK and others are calling for a "Day of Outrage Against the NSA, AT&T, Verizon” on May 24, 2006. The first of two events will be at noon at AT&T Park, during the Giants home game. The second demonstration will be at the AT&T building at 600 Folsom Street from 4-6 pm in San Francisco.
Read More
An AT&T whistleblower has revealed that the National Security Agency installed “secret rooms” at AT&T facilities in various cities, including the facility on Folsom Street in San Francisco. Former AT&T technician Mark Klein is the star witness in a lawsuit against the telecommunications giant brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Statements by Klein reveal that AT&T has installed servers, routers and internet traffic-analysis software in the secret room. "I am presenting this information to facilitate the dismantling of this dangerous Orwellian project," Klein wrote in a statement.
Media Alliance, CODEPINK and others are calling for a "Day of Outrage Against the NSA, AT&T, Verizon” on May 24, 2006. The first of two events will be at noon at AT&T Park, during the Giants home game. The second demonstration will be at the AT&T building at 600 Folsom Street from 4-6 pm in San Francisco.
Read More
Thu May 18 2006
Art of Two Puerto Rican Political Prisoners on Exhibit at MCCLA
"Not Enough Space" is a traveling art exhibition commemorating 25 years of political imprisonment of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners Carlos Alberto Torres and Oscar López Rivera.
The Opening Reception for "Not Enough Space" will be held on Friday, May 19th from 6pm to 10pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Gallery (2868 Mission Street in San Francisco). The exhibit will be in San Francisco until June 16th. A Closing Cultural Event will take place on Sunday, June 11th from 4pm-8pm, with music and dance by Rico Pabón, Son Borikua, and Cacique y Kongo. In following months, the exhibit will travel to places such as Michoacan, Mexico, New York City, and Vieques.
Read more on Indybay's Arts and Action and San Francisco News Pages | National Boricua Human Rights Network | Not Enough Space Catalog | Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago | List of Political Prisoners Held in the US
The Opening Reception for "Not Enough Space" will be held on Friday, May 19th from 6pm to 10pm at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Gallery (2868 Mission Street in San Francisco). The exhibit will be in San Francisco until June 16th. A Closing Cultural Event will take place on Sunday, June 11th from 4pm-8pm, with music and dance by Rico Pabón, Son Borikua, and Cacique y Kongo. In following months, the exhibit will travel to places such as Michoacan, Mexico, New York City, and Vieques.
Read more on Indybay's Arts and Action and San Francisco News Pages | National Boricua Human Rights Network | Not Enough Space Catalog | Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago | List of Political Prisoners Held in the US
Thu May 11 2006
Mother's Day Card to the Governor Demands Release of 4,500
On Sunday, May 14th, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., No New Jails brought a huge Mother’s Day card to the Century Regional Jail in Los Angeles and asked people waiting in line to visit loved ones in the jail to sign the card. People could also sign the card online if they were not able to go to LA.
The card for the governor demanded that 4,500 women be released from state prison, rather than creating 4,500 new prison and jail beds. The card was created in response to a bill in Sacramento that has proposed moving 4,500 women from state prison into smaller privately-run prisons, many of which will be located in Los Angeles County. The bills AB 2066 and AB 2917 target women who the system has determined do not "need" to be in prison. These measures would put the women in new “community” prisons, called “Community Corrections Facilities.” These are simply privatized prisons: new name, new cell, same cage. No New Jails' demand would reduce the women's prison population by 40%.
No New Jails wants the state to put prison funds into more programming and more services for paroled women. It says that putting women into locked “treatment centers” is not really releasing them, sending them home, or helping them to re-enter society. Read more
No New Jails is a coalition of social justice organizations. Co-sponsors of the Mother's Day event included Critical Resistance, the Labor Community Strategy Center, Global Women's Strike, Adelante!, the CSULA Peace & Justice Coalition, California Prison Moratorium Project, LACAN, the Youth Justice Coalition, United Coalition East Prevention Project, and others.
Critical Resistance's Mother's Day page | ACLU's Women in Prison Page | Women in Prison, by Marilyn Buck | Infoshop.org's The American Gulag 2004 Faultlines article about cross-gender pat searches | California NOW's Women in Prison page | Amnesty USA's women in prison page
The card for the governor demanded that 4,500 women be released from state prison, rather than creating 4,500 new prison and jail beds. The card was created in response to a bill in Sacramento that has proposed moving 4,500 women from state prison into smaller privately-run prisons, many of which will be located in Los Angeles County. The bills AB 2066 and AB 2917 target women who the system has determined do not "need" to be in prison. These measures would put the women in new “community” prisons, called “Community Corrections Facilities.” These are simply privatized prisons: new name, new cell, same cage. No New Jails' demand would reduce the women's prison population by 40%.
No New Jails wants the state to put prison funds into more programming and more services for paroled women. It says that putting women into locked “treatment centers” is not really releasing them, sending them home, or helping them to re-enter society. Read more
No New Jails is a coalition of social justice organizations. Co-sponsors of the Mother's Day event included Critical Resistance, the Labor Community Strategy Center, Global Women's Strike, Adelante!, the CSULA Peace & Justice Coalition, California Prison Moratorium Project, LACAN, the Youth Justice Coalition, United Coalition East Prevention Project, and others.
Critical Resistance's Mother's Day page | ACLU's Women in Prison Page | Women in Prison, by Marilyn Buck | Infoshop.org's The American Gulag 2004 Faultlines article about cross-gender pat searches | California NOW's Women in Prison page | Amnesty USA's women in prison page
Thu May 11 2006
NSA Tracking Millions of US Phone Calls with Telcos Help
5/22: Sealed documents are leaked and published online. Wednesday, 5/24 will be a "Day of Outrage Against the NSA, AT&T, Verizon" in San Francisco, 12 noon at AT&T Park and 4 to 6 p.m. at 666 Folsom (between 2nd and 3rd).
5/17 Update: Judge Walker rules EFF can use evidence in lawsuit against AT&T; documents will be kept under seal.
On May 11th, 2006, it was reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans since September 11, 2001. The data has been provided by telecommunications giants AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. The companies are the nation's three biggest telecommunications companies; they provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers. A fourth company, Qwest, reportedly refused to provide the data willingly provided by the others without subpoenas. According to the report, this particular program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations, but last year, Bush admitted that he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. The full extent of that warrantless wiretapping has yet to be publicly determined. In this new revelation, the NSA claims the phone record data is being used in its fight against terrorism, although the millions of Americans whose telephone behavior is being tracked are not suspected of any crime. Telephone company customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of the NSA's program, the sources for the report said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information. Addressing the report shortly after its release, Bush strangely defended the program by saying, "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates" and that American citizen's privacy is being "fiercely protected." He also said some members of Congress previously had been informed of the existence of the massive database program. While some Cogresspeople defended the program, others demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about the spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a "database of every call ever made" within US borders. Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel "to find out exactly what is going on."
5/17 Update: Judge Walker rules EFF can use evidence in lawsuit against AT&T; documents will be kept under seal.
On May 11th, 2006, it was reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans since September 11, 2001. The data has been provided by telecommunications giants AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth. The companies are the nation's three biggest telecommunications companies; they provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers. A fourth company, Qwest, reportedly refused to provide the data willingly provided by the others without subpoenas. According to the report, this particular program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations, but last year, Bush admitted that he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. The full extent of that warrantless wiretapping has yet to be publicly determined. In this new revelation, the NSA claims the phone record data is being used in its fight against terrorism, although the millions of Americans whose telephone behavior is being tracked are not suspected of any crime. Telephone company customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of the NSA's program, the sources for the report said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information. Addressing the report shortly after its release, Bush strangely defended the program by saying, "Our intelligence activities strictly target al-Qaida and their known affiliates" and that American citizen's privacy is being "fiercely protected." He also said some members of Congress previously had been informed of the existence of the massive database program. While some Cogresspeople defended the program, others demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about the spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a "database of every call ever made" within US borders. Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration about a government spy agency secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said he would call the phone companies to appear before the panel "to find out exactly what is going on."
On the evening of May 5th, there was a public and peaceful Cinco de Mayo music and spoken word event held on the corner of Story and King in San Jose which was viciously attacked by riot police. Six people were beaten, arrested and had their video footage and property seized at this peaceful, legal gathering on private property.
This is the fulfillment of the threat articulated by Laurie Smith of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's department to the public at a county Human Relations Committee meeting last January on the subject of police brutality. During the meeting, Smith not only defended the beating and arresting of protesters and bystanders at a Colin Powell visit to De Anza College in November, but she added that anyone getting in the way of a sheriff's weapons should be considered a "lynch mob" which carries severe penalties.
reports: 1 | 2 | Audio
This is the fulfillment of the threat articulated by Laurie Smith of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's department to the public at a county Human Relations Committee meeting last January on the subject of police brutality. During the meeting, Smith not only defended the beating and arresting of protesters and bystanders at a Colin Powell visit to De Anza College in November, but she added that anyone getting in the way of a sheriff's weapons should be considered a "lynch mob" which carries severe penalties.
reports: 1 | 2 |
Audio
Mon May 8 2006
Lessons from COINTELPRO
Claude Marks & Kelah Bott, in Fault Lines #16, write:
Recent crackdowns on the animal rights and environmental justice movements have left many activists feeling that their communities are under siege. From the prosecution of the SHAC 7 to the arrests of thirteen individuals for arsons committed over a ten-year span, a war is being waged against these movements by the U.S. government. While all of this may seem terrifying in its unfamiliarity to younger activists, the tactics being employed by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force are anything but new. Whisperings of ‘COINTELPRO’ have appeared in various articles about the backlash against eco-activism, but what does this generation really know about the Counter-Intelligence Program aimed at groups such as the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the American Indian Movement (AIM)? Today’s activists are heirs to a history of social and political battles from wars that are not yet over. Without seeing today’s struggles for animal rights and environmental justice in a broader historical and social context, we run the risk not only of repeating painful lessons of the past, but of isolating ourselves and weakening our movements.
Recent crackdowns on the animal rights and environmental justice movements have left many activists feeling that their communities are under siege. From the prosecution of the SHAC 7 to the arrests of thirteen individuals for arsons committed over a ten-year span, a war is being waged against these movements by the U.S. government. While all of this may seem terrifying in its unfamiliarity to younger activists, the tactics being employed by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force are anything but new. Whisperings of ‘COINTELPRO’ have appeared in various articles about the backlash against eco-activism, but what does this generation really know about the Counter-Intelligence Program aimed at groups such as the Black Panther Party (BPP) and the American Indian Movement (AIM)? Today’s activists are heirs to a history of social and political battles from wars that are not yet over. Without seeing today’s struggles for animal rights and environmental justice in a broader historical and social context, we run the risk not only of repeating painful lessons of the past, but of isolating ourselves and weakening our movements.
Read More in the April-May 2006 issue of Fault Lines
Recent Indybay Coverage of Grand Juries, Arrests, and Other Anti-Activist Actions: SF Grand Jury Targets G8 Protest | SHAC7 Convicted | Government's "Case" Against Rod Coronado | 11 Indicted in Latest Round of FBI Environmental Witch Hunt | Three Arrested in Auburn, Accused of Planning ELF Actions | Animal Activists Subpoenaed to Appear in San Francisco | Grand Jury in San Diego