Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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Dissent Is Patriotic

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee's e-mail newsletter

January 2007, Vol. 6, No. 1

In this issue:

  • The First 100 Hours, and Counting
  • New Resources: Take the “Cully Quiz” on Guantánamo; Moazzam Begg and Adel Hamad Videos Available on YouTube; Guantánamo Play Now Available in Spanish; New Signing Statements Web Page; Website Enhancements
  • Grassroots News: International Day to Shut Down Guantánamo; Congressional Outreach; Guantánamo, Torture, Extraordinary Rendition; U.S. Detainees and Detention Centers; Campaigns to Stop REAL ID; Creative Resistance; Upcoming Events
  • Legislation: Habeas Corpus; Data-mining; Warrantless Wiretapping
  • In the News: Peace Activists Travel to Cuba to Protest at Guantánamo Bay; Dr. Sami al-Arian Still Held by the Government; Maher Arar Still on Terror Watch List
  • BORDC Briefs: BORDC Welcomes New East Region Organizer, Mohamed I. Elgadi, Thanks Paul DeMarco; BORDC Seeks Haywood Burns Fellow; BORDC Thanks Our Donors and Grantors

The BORDC needs your help. It is not too late to make a tax-deductible contribution to our fund drive. To contribute funds or stock online, go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php, or mail a check or money order to:
8 Bridge St., Suite A
Northampton, MA 01060

Your purchase of buttons, bumper stickers and booklets also helps. See our catalogue to order materials.

The First 100 Hours, and Counting

News stories about civil liberties and human rights grabbed headlines throughout the 110th Congress’s first “100 hours.” If the highlights below are an indication of what’s to come, 2007 will be a critical year for our collective work to restore checks and balances and the rule of law:

  • On January 4, the New York Daily News revealed that in December, President Bush had attached to a postal reform bill a signing statement contending that his administration can open private mail without warrants. The administration assures us that it claims no new powers, but as Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, asks, “If they are not claiming new powers, then why did they need to issue a signing statement?”
  • While hundreds of protests against Guantánamo raged worldwide on January 11, one administration official fought back publicly. In a Federal News Radio interview on January 11, Cully Stimson, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, generated a firestorm of criticism when he suggested that corporations pull their business from prestigious law firms whose attorneys provide pro bono legal assistance to Guantánamo detainees. Although only ten of the 395 detainees have been charged, Stimson referred to them collectively as “the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001.” Pit your knowledge of Guantánamo against Stimson’s by taking BORDC’s Cully Quiz.
  • Also on January 11, the first news stories emerged that Attorney General Gonzales was using a little-known addition to the USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization which allows the administration to circumvent the Senate confirmation process when appointing U.S. Attorneys to positions vacated by resignations. At least six U.S. Attorneys have been forced to resign. The application of the PATRIOT Act provision added by Representative James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) appears to have nothing to do with preventing terrorism. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have drafted a bill (S 214) to restore the authority of district courts to make interim appointments. Read this editorial in the Roanoke (VA) Times.
  • On January 14, we learned that the Pentagon and the CIA, neither of which are authorized to gather intelligence on Americans inside the United States, have in fact been using National Security Letters to obtain Americans’ private financial records from third parties. Read the 1/14/07 Reuters story.
  • On January 17, the head of the Transportation Security Administration announced it is working with intelligence agencies to make the infamous “No-Fly List” more accurate. The TSA expects to cut the list, estimated to contain between 50,000 and 350,000 names, in half. According to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, next month it will introduce the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program to give travelers a process for appealing their inclusion. Read the Associated Press story.
  • That same day, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales addressed the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, with a warning that Federal judges should not interfere with the President’s decisions in cases involving national security. “A judge will never be in the position to know what is in the national security interest of the country,” he said. Read San Francisco Chronicle, Gonzales warns judges not to meddle.
  • Earlier that day, Gonzales announced that the administration will not renew the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program when the current 45-day presidential approval expires. But after five years of breaking the law, the administration has given no indication that it will seek individual warrants as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Fourth Amendment or that it will share key details about the program’s past, present, or future with Congress or the American people. Read Gonzales’s letter to Senators Leahy and Specter about the change and a Washington Post story.
  • At the January 18 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to oversee the Department of Justice, Attorney General Gonzales’s responses to those who would hold his department accountable were evasive, while his support of “Unitary Executive” powers was clear: In one exchange, for example, the Attorney General told the Committee, “[T]he Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas. Doesn't say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.” See the 1/24 San Francisco Chronicle article for more.
  • On January 18, the Pentagon released its 238-page manual on military commissions. The new rules allow the admission of hearsay evidence and testimony obtained through coercion, including the use of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The new rules allow the commissions to impose the death penalty based on evidence that would be banned in civilian or military courtrooms. Congress authorized their admissibility in military commissions when it passed the Military Commissions Act in October 2006.

All these stories underline the importance of the work you are doing to restore constitutional protections for all U.S. residents and detainees held by or for the U.S. government and to ask questions. It is a promising sign that the media collectively criticized Mr. Stimson’s call for a boycott of law firms aiding Guantánamo detainees. Some media still are in training, but they are catching on: After the Attorney General’s initial announcement stating that the administration would seek FISA court review of its wiretapping, a few news outlets initially hailed the announcement as a change toward the rule of law, then quickly began asking the right questions: Were they really getting individual warrants, as the law requires? If this really was a change, why now? And why is the administration refusing to inform Congress of its full agreement with the FISA Court? This experience should make the media more skeptical of the administration's announcements in the future.

We call on you, our readers to make sure that your media ask the right questions, and that your lawmakers provide the oversight needed to ensure Bill of Rights protections and basic human rights. Read our Grassroots News below to see how local groups are doing just that. In the New Resources section, find resources and information to support your efforts in your own community.

New Resources

Take the “Cully Quiz” on Guantánamo

In his now infamous radio interview, Cully Stimson did much more than threaten a boycott of lawyers who defend Guantánamo detainees: He rattled forth a barrage of misleading statements about the detention facility and its detainees. BORDC’s short quiz is our tribute to Cully and his faulty facts: Fail it, and the Department of Defense may offer you a position of authority regarding detainee affairs, just like Cully!

Moazzam Begg Videoconference Available on YouTube

The videoconference BORDC recorded between U.K. citizen and former Guantánamo detainee Moazzam Begg and a western Massachusetts audience (made possible by the Odyssey Bookshop, an independent bookseller in South Hadley, MA) is now available on YouTube. Begg is the author of Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantánamo, Bagram, and Kandahar. Read a review of this book on our Recommended Resources page.

Adel Hamad Video on YouTube

William Teesdale, a Guantánamo attorney in Portland, OR, videotaped a compelling presentation about his client, Adel Hamad, for broadcast on YouTube. Teesdale quotes General Jay Hood, a former Guantánamo commander, “Sometimes, we just didn’t get the right folks.” And from Teesdale’s presentation, it’s tragically obvious that this Sudanese man —an aid worker, teacher, husband, and father—has been held since 2003 without basic access to justice. The November 2004 Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearing was conducted without any witnesses for Adel Hamad’s defense. An Army major dissented from the conclusion of the CSRT, calling Hamad’s detention “unconscionable.”

What You Can Do

  • Visit the website http://www.projecthamad.org
  • Ask a local Guantánamo attorney to speak at a public forum. Contact Lynn Kates at the Center for Constitutional Rights for assistance
  • Hold a reading of the play Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom. For resources, visit http://bordc.org/grp

Guantánamo Play Now Available in Spanish

In preparation for observing the fifth anniversary since the first detainees were brought to Guantánamo Bay detention center, BORDC’s Spanish language intern, Chelsea Gauci, translated the play Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom into Spanish. The Cuban Minister of Culture is encouraging theater groups in Cuba to perform it. BORDC also provided a copy to the peace delegation that recently traveled to Cuba to protest at the prison (see In the News, below).

To download the Spanish script, click here. For the English script, tips for putting on a reading, and a list of past and future readings in the U.S., click here.

New Signing Statements Web Page

If you are interested in researching President Bush’s signing statements regarding civil liberties and torture, BORDC’s new web page of information and links on Presidential Signing Statements is a place to start.

Website Enhancements

You can now recommend BORDC web pages to a friend. Simply click "send to a friend" in the left navigation panel on any page and then fill out the form. Your friend will receive an e-mail message with a link to the page you would like them to see. In addition, you can recommend your favorite pages on Furl, Reddit, Digg, and Del.icio.us by clicking on the icons at the top right of each page. Help us spread the word about important civil liberties issues by recommending a page today!

Grassroots News

International Day to Shut Down Guantánamo

Thousands of people around the world marked the 5th anniversary (Jan 11) of detainees shackled, hooded and flown into what was called Camp X-Ray at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. More coverage of the worldwide protests can be found on BORDC’s website.

  • In Washington, DC, hundreds of protestors rallied on the steps of the Supreme Court, and more than 80 demonstrators were arrested inside the federal courthouse for calling for the closure of Guantánamo prison camp. For more, see the Washington Post article. The DC protests were organized by Witness Against Torture and co-sponsored by the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.
  • Amherst and Northampton, Massachusetts—The Pioneer Valley Coalition Against Secrecy and Torture joined with the social justice organization SAGE to hold a lunchtime protest with street theater on the lawn of First Churches in downtown Northampton. Later that evening a candlelight vigil was held on the Amherst Common, followed by a showing of the film Outlawed: Rendition, Torture and Disappearances in the War on Terror at the Unitarian Society and a talk by Buz Eisenberg, a local attorney who has defended Guantánamo detainees. The Pioneer Valley also sent a contingent of over a dozen volunteers to attend the protests in Washington, DC. For more, click here.
  • Ashland, Oregon—KSKQ’s community radio program “The Brain Labor Report” featured a half-hour on the 5th anniversary, with local organizer Wes Brain and BORDC west region organizer Hope Marston. The interview is available online.
  • In Columbia, Missouri, local activist Steve Jacobs wore an orange jumpsuit and hood, and sat in Senator Kit Bond’s office all day, as a reminder of the issue Bond has been ignoring during his tenure in the Senate. “We think it’s an embarrassment to have a senator like Kit Bond,” Jacobs said. “We think he’s out of touch with American values.” Refusing to leave, Jacobs was arrested at the end of the day. He also refused to pay the $500 bond, and spent 24 hours in jail. Jacobs said he planned to “plead guilty of hating torture so much that I felt compelled to refuse to leave Senator Bond’s office until he renounced his support for torture in all U.S.-run prisons and detention centers.” For more, click here.
  • Dallas, Texas—The Bill of Rights Defense Committee of Greater Dallas, the Dallas Peace Center, the Crawford Peace House and local area Amnesty International chapters held a vigil at the Earle Cabell Federal Building in downtown Dallas. View the press release.
  • Davis, California—The Yolo County ACLU held a news conference and performed readings from the play, Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, outside the Martin Luther King, Jr., Hall at the School of Law at the University of California.
  • Elizabethtown, New York—Members of the Diogenes Society staged a protest and distributed literature criticizing the indefinite detention and treatment of prisoners in Guantánamo. View the news coverage.
  • Fall River, Massachusetts—Members of the Fall River Committee for Peace and Justice staged a candlelight vigil outside the Government Center. For more, click here.
  • Individuals from many communities wrote letters to the editor to raise the issue of the Guantánamo 5th anniversary as the most infamous of the U.S.-run detention centers. Read some of the letters written and published at http://bordc.org/involved/shutgitmo.php

Congressional Outreach

Minnesota—The Minnesota Bill of Rights Defense Committee has issued the first of a series of white papers, which its members will be discussing with their Congressional representatives. The topic of this first policy paper is Revising the Military Commissions Act (MCA) and Related Federal Laws. The group is setting dates for meetings with Senators Norm Coleman (R) and Amy Klobuchar (D), as well as with their representatives. They plan to make presentations on the MCA and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.

New Jersey—The continuing efforts of activists with the Mercer County Coalition for Civil Liberties (MCCCL) to lobby their US representatives on civil issues are beginning to pay off: On December 20th they held a conference call with Representative Rush Holt’s staff to voice their concerns. A few weeks later, on January 8th, the day the Pentagon released its new manual that will allow the use of evidence obtained by torture in conducting the trials of Guantánamo detainees, Rep Holt’s staff contacted MCCCL immediately to tell them the Congressman opposed the new Pentagon policy.

Guantánamo, Torture, Extraordinary Rendition

Activists Organize Around CIA "Torture Taxis"

Activists coast to coast are on the trail of the CIA’s "torture taxis." In Portland, Oregon, Michael Munk, a former Rutgers professor, has convinced the Oregon Bar Association to start an investigation into whether local attorney Scott D. Caplan has been covering for the CIA by pretending to have a client who owns a possible CIA "torture taxi." The Gulfstream V supposedly belongs to Bayard Foreign Marketing, but human rights activists cannot find a trace of alleged company owner Leonard T. Bayard. So, Munk convinced the Bar to investigate the closest link to Bayard—his attorney, Scott Caplan. Caplan must respond to the Bar’s request for information by February 8.

In North Carolina activists organized a letter signed by 22 state legislators urging Attorney General Roy Cooper and the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate "credible allegations that Aero Contractors conspired to commit federal crimes" including kidnapping and torture. To find out more or get involved see: http://www.ncstoptorturenow.org or http://www.ncpeaceaction.org. Also see the following news articles: N.C. urged to probe air service and Bar investigates attorney for alleged CIA plane owner.

U.S. Detainees and Detention Centers

Recent Activism

New Jersey—The New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee (NJCRDC) held a press conference on January 25 to announce their intention to produce their own “Shadow Report” on the abuse of immigrant detainees, in collaboration with Rutgers University professors Robyn Rodriguez (Sociology) and Michael Welch (Criminology). The report is in response to what NJCRDC and other activists see as an inadequate "audit" of immigrant detention just published by the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security. The Press Conference was held in front of 26 Federal Plaza, New York headquarters for the Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agency.

Portland, Oregon—KBOO radio recently interviewed New York rights activist Katherine Hughes, who is working to raise public awareness about what she says was an unfair conviction of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an oncologist and a humanitarian who is now in U.S. prison for 22 months. Dr. Dhafir's story was featured in BORDC's November newsletter. For more on Dr. Dhafir, please see http://dhafirtrial.net.

Terre Haute, Indiana—A group of Muslims and Arabs from detention centers around the country have been sent to the Federal Correction Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana, some of them now far from family and friends. According to prisoner advocates who have received mail from the prisoners, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales plans to populate that prison facility with more Arabs and Muslims in the coming months.

This newsletter article may be the first public mention of the Attorney General's program to congregate large numbers of Arab and Muslim prisoners in one facility. But we also cannot be sure about the existence of any program until more information surfaces.

What You Can Do

Campaigns to Stop REAL ID

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has identified the federal REAL ID law as one of the top ten issues facing state legislatures this year and projects that it will cost states over $11 billion to implement. However the Department of Homeland Security has not yet issued the regulations with which states must comply, even though all 50 states are supposed to have REAL ID in place by May 2008. NCSL has adopted a policy that if the federal government does not implement changes to REAL ID and provide funding to the states, then REAL ID should be repealed. For more information on NCSL’s work on REAL ID, click here. For more information about REAL ID, see: http://www.realnightmare.org.

Organizing against REAL ID in states:

  • Vermont Department of Motor Vehicle Commissioner Bonnie Rutledge recently testified to the state legislature that it will cost the state more than $2 million to implement the un-funded federal mandate. A joint resolution is currently pending in the Vermont legislature that would urge the US Congress to either repeal or reform the REAL ID Act. For more, click here.
  • New Hampshire—Last year the NH state house passed a bill forbidding any state agency from participating in any national ID requirement. Unfortunately the measure died in the state senate. A coalition of activists spanning the political spectrum is gearing for another fight this year. For more information, click here.
  • Oregon—The Oregon Alliance for Consumer Protection has begun work to present the legislature with a resolution to push back against the governor’s plan to pass legislation to ensure REAL ID’s implementation.
  • Maine—A coalition of groups and officials in Maine are teaming up to stop REAL ID there. A public forum on Wednesday, Jan 24, featured the Senate Majority Leader, Secretary of State, CATO Institute, the Maine Sportsman’s Alliance and the Maine Civil Liberties Union, all warning against REAL ID. A recent article, The Latest Threat to Freedom is a National ID Program, by George Smith from the Sportsman’s Alliance recently ran in the Kennebec Journal.

Creative Resistance

Homeland Security: Code Level Red, a radio series produced in Boise, ID, has been taking a humorous look at Homeland Security's war on constitutional rights. The antics of FBI agents Bill Bailey and Nick Magill are based on real-life incidents. You decide. Listen to an episode or two (or more) at http://radioboise.org/sagebrush/levelred.html. BORDC Board member Gwen Sanchirico is producer and one of the talented voices on the programs. Listen here to No Fly List.

Upcoming Events

CLDC Film Festival—The Civil Liberties Defense Center; the American Constitution Society (U of Oregon chapter); and the National Lawyers Guild (Eugene, Oregon, chapter) are co-sponsoring a civil liberties film festival Friday evening, February 16 and all day Saturday, February 17. Each film will have a short introduction, some by local civil rights attorneys and others by filmmakers and subjects of the films who have been invited to attend. Films include The Torture Question, Civil Liberties Since 9/11, and Legacy of Torture: The War Against The Black Liberation Movement. More information: http://www.cldc.org/

Bring Back Habeas Corpus—Stand Up For Your Rights Week (January 21 - 27) at University of Oregon includes a Teach-In on Tuesday, a march and call-in to Senator Gordon Smith’s office at noon on Wednesday and rally on Friday from 1 to 4:30 p.m. with speakers and music, all at the EMU Student Union at the University of Oregon campus. More information: http://repeal.mca.uo.googlepages.com/

Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom—The New Provincetown Players will stage a reading of Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom at the Provincetown Theatre, 238 Bradford St., Provincetown, Massachusetts, on February 7 at 7 p.m. as part of the winter reading series. It will be directed by Deborah Peabody.

Legislation

Its first hundred days behind it, Congress still has not introduced the kind of vigorous legislation that will begin to actively restore Bill of Rights protections that have been diminished by federal excesses.

Habeas Corpus

Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) are co-sponsors of S 185 – the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act. But in this bill, Specter and Leahy have cherry-picked the Military Commissions Act by focusing only on restoring the right to habeas corpus. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) recently announced that he is working with Senators Feingold (D-WI) and Leahy to introduce separate legislation that would prohibit the use of evidence obtained by torture, allow defendants to access to witnesses and evidence being used against them and to ensure the independence of military judges.

Data-mining

Senator Feingold is the author of S 236, which would require regular Administration reports to Congress on data-mining.

Warrantless Wiretapping

Legislation proposing to deal with the President’s illegal National Security Agency program to tap Americans’ phone calls now has an uncertain future, given President Bush’s recent statement that he will end it and will use the FISA court.

In the News

Peace Activists Travel to Cuba to Protest at Guantánamo Bay

A delegation of peace activists recently traveled to Cuba to protest at the Guantánamo Bay prison. The group included anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange and CodePink, Ann Wright, a former US Army colonel, Tiffany Burns of CodePink, Adele Welty, whose son was killed on 9/11, and constitutional lawyer Bill Goodman of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Also joining the group were Zohra Zewawi and Taher Deghayes, the mother and brother of a current prisoner, and Asif Iqbal (one of the "Tipton Three"), who spent nearly three years incarcerated at the prison. This was the first such group to make a trip to Guantánamo. To read more about their experiences, see Medea Benjamin's 1/17 article in CommonDreams.

Dr. Sami al-Arian Still Held by the Government

Despite being acquitted of 8 charges of terrorism in December 2005, Dr. Sami al-Arian continues to be held by the government, after signing a plea agreement in April 2006 to settle 9 charges on which the jury deadlocked. He will be held until November and then deported. This week al-Arian began a hunger strike. As a diabetic, this is a particularly hazardous course of action, indicating how keenly al-Arian believes he is being treated unjustly. For more, click here.

Here is an excerpt from al-Arian's statement to the judge:

"I also would like to bring to the court's attention the way I have been treated for the past three weeks. In the past three weeks, I have been to four prisons. I spent fourteen days in the Atlanta penitentiary under 23-hour lockdown, in a roach and rat infested environment. On two occasions, rats shared my diabetic snack. When I was transported from Atlanta to Petersburg (Virginia) and from Petersburg to Alexandria, they allowed me only to wear a t-shirt in subfreezing weather during long walks. In the early morning, the Atlanta guard took my thermal undershirt which I purchased from the prison and threw it in the garbage and when I complained, he threatened to use a lockbox on my handcuffs which would make them extremely uncomfortable. In Petersburg, the guard asked me to take off my clean t-shirt and boxers and gave me dirty and worn out ones. When I complained, he told me to `shut the f up.' And when I asked why he was treating me like that, he said `because you're a terrorist.' When I further complained to the lieutenant in charge, he shrugged it off and said if I don't like it, I should write a grievance to the Bureau of Prisons. When I said he had the authority to give me clean clothes, he refused and said if I don't like it I should write a grievance to the Bureau of Prisons. During one of the airlifts, an air marshal further tightened my already tightened handcuffs, and asked me `Why do you hate us?' I told him, `I don't hate you.' He said, `I know who you are, I've read your s-h-i-t.' These are examples of the government's harassment campaign against me that's been taking place for years because of my political beliefs."

Maher Arar Still on Terror Watch List

Despite the Canadian Commission of Inquiry clearing Maher Arar of being a security threat, the U.S. government refuses to take the Canadian citizen off its terror watch list. Arar was detained by U.S. interrogators in September 2002 and "rendered" to Syria, where he was tortured for more than a year. In September 2006, the Canadian Commission of Inquiry reported that Canadian intelligence officials gave American agents bad information, which may have lead to Arar's initial arrest. When U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 17, Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) pressed him to reveal why Arar is still on U.S. watch lists when "...he's been found completely innocent by this Canadian commission, which actually had the information from us?" Gonzales told Leahy that within a few days, he would provide more information. Leahy told the Attorney General that if he didn't explain within a week, there would be more hearings. But so far, there has been no explanation from Gonzales and no announcement of another hearing.

BORDC Briefs

BORDC Welcomes New East Region Organizer, Mohamed I. Elgadi, Thanks Paul DeMarco

BORDC is proud to announce that in early February, Mohamed Elgadi will join our staff as our new East Region Organizer. Mohamed has 30 years of organizing experience, most recently as the National Base-Building and Alliance-Building Coordinator of Project Voice at the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia. There he worked closely with regional staff to provide technical support to local grassroots groups to strengthen their capacities and implement their strategies. He supported the passage of civil liberties resolutions in Amherst, MA, and Philadelphia, PA. Mohamed was also a plaintiff in the ACLU's lawsuit over the "No Fly List."

Mohamed has also worked for many years as a community organizer within the Sudanese and African immigrant communities. He and his family emigrated to the U.S. from the Sudan 12 years ago. While in the Sudan documenting the government's humanitarian abuses, Mohamed was arrested, held in ghost houses and tortured. He looks forward to being in contact with current and future local organizers in the East Region.

BORDC thanks Paul DeMarco, who has served as our Interim East Region Organizer for the last four months. Paul has been in contact with local volunteer coordinators in the region, has written for our newsletter and web site, and has worked closely with Hope Marston, our West Region Coordinator. Paul also taped the Moazzam Begg videoconference, which has been uploaded in five parts to YouTube. We will miss Paul, and we wish him the best of luck in his new position with the Professional Staff Union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

BORDC Seeks Haywood Burns Fellow

BORDC's headquarters office in Northampton is a host agency for the National Lawyers Guild Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowship for Social and Economic Justice program. Law students (2L) who wish to apply for this fellowship in 2007, please click here (PDF). The application deadline is February 10, 2007.

BORDC Thanks Our Donors and Grantors

BORDC relies on a combination of individual support and grants to fulfill our mission each year. We appreciate every donation we receive. In addition to private donations, we are pleased to announce that BORDC has received grants for general support in 2007 from the following foundations: Open Society Institute and CS Fund. We have also received a grant from the Funding Exchange that will partially fund our Regional Field Campaign.

In addition, we would like to thank everyone who nominated us to receive Working Assets funding in 2007. We were not selected this year, but we plan to try again. The nomination deadline for 2008 is June 30, 2007. For consideration, we need only one nomination.

Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Meredith Gray, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Paul DeMarco, Interim East Region Organizer

Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Inc.
8 Bridge St., Suite A
Northampton, MA 01060

Web: http://www.bordc.org/
Email: info@bordc.org
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