Dissent Is Patriotic
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee's e-mail newsletter
March 2007, Vol. 6, No. 2
In this issue:
- Capitalizing on Truth
- New Resources: Video Ransacking Liberty Looks at NSA Domestic Wiretapping; Movie Review Strange Culture; Book Review War By Other Means, by John Yoo; BORDC’s Human Rights Abuse Database
- Grassroots News: Torture Taxis and the Rendition Program; Great American Write-In; Suspending Civil Liberties in Our Own Backyard; March 17 Rallies; States Roll Back REAL ID; East Region Organizer Visits Trenton, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA; Elections; First Amendment Rights for First Lt. Ehren Watada
- Legislation: Habeas Corpus & the Military Commissions Act; Insurrection Act; 9/11 Commission
- In the News: Remembering Molly Ivins; Muslim Isolation Program Revealed; PATRIOT Act Provision Sends Several U.S. Attorneys Packing; Padilla Ruled Competent for Trial After U.S. Government Torture
- BORDC Briefs: Nancy Talanian to speak in California
The BORDC needs your help. If your city or town
has passed a civil liberties resolution, please help BORDC bring the
post-9/11 civil liberties to new communities and states. Please contact
info@bordc.org if you'd like to
start a local BORDC or to help fund a BORDC field organizer. 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.
Truth is the first casualty of any war, and the "war on the Bill of Rights" is no exception. Conversely, every lie and contradiction that is exposed to sunlight, and every truth that emerges despite efforts to hide it benefit the American people and help us to restore the balance of power.
This month, four years after President Bush launched the war on Iraq, new data indicate that the war has greatly increased the threat of terrorism around the world. (Read New York Times editorial, Al Qaeda resurgent.) We dedicate this issue of Dissent Is Patriotic to the truth-tellers and truth users, grassroots activists, members of our armed forces, government officials, journalists, and organizations who work hard every day to expose the truth.
Last week, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Inspector General released a report (PDF) that shows (1) the Department’s statistics on terrorism cases are inaccurate and (2) the Department counts every arrest that results from a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) investigation “terrorism” or “terrorism-related,” even after it has been proven to have no connection to terrorism.
Given these reports, here are some questions for our members of Congress:
- Why accept the administration’s “war on terror” justification for any program or legislation that curbs civil rights and liberties, for holding people indefinitely without charge or habeas corpus review, or for using torture, given that the administration’s strategy in Iraq has made the U.S. and the world much more vulnerable to terrorist attacks?
- Given that in many cases, the only information the DOJ reports to Congress on how it has used the powers granted by the PATRIOT Act is the number of times it has used those powers, don’t the OIG report’s findings indicate that Congress’s limited oversight, which relies on those figures, is completely worthless?
This newsletter is full of news, resources, and inspiring stories from local groups around the U.S. who are defending the constitutional rights of all of us. We hope you find them as inspiring as we do.
Video Ransacking Liberty Looks at NSA Domestic Wiretapping
In the 12-minute film on YouTube, Ransacking Liberty: A Special Report on the NSA and the Phone Companies, attorney and filmmaker Sanford Lewis outlines the known facts about the program and interviews BORDC Advisory Board member Christopher H. Pyle about what the program means for our democracy. Pyle, who blew the whistle on the FBI's Counterintelligence Program known as COINTELPRO, gives a historic perspective to the issue as well as evidence that the program is being used to prevent the media from talking with government whistleblowers, an application with troubling implications for a democracy. Watch the film, which was made for BORDC by Strategic Video Productions.
Movie Review: Strange Culture
Lynn Hershman's film, Strange Culture, reveals how the PATRIOT Act was used to prosecute artist Steve Kurtz for his art. The film was recently shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
Kurtz is a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, based in Buffalo, NY, whose art shows the ill effects of genetically modified food and organisms. In May 2004, after police responded to Kurtz's 911 call reporting that his wife was not breathing, the police called in the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to investigate the Petri dishes in Kurtz's apartment. The Petri dishes, which were part of an art installation on genetically modified food and organisms, led the JTTF to conclude that Kurtz was a bioterrorist. Years and millions of tax dollars spent on the investigation proved to a Grand Jury that Kurtz certainly is not a bioterrorist. Instead of dropping the case, the JTTF is now pursuing charges of "mail fraud" and "wire fraud" against Kurtz and keeps him in the legal limbo of not being able to talk about the case or move on with his life.
The film's portrayal of the JTTF as a force that is unable to abandon a case that has no ties to terrorism is a sound argument for communities to question the involvement of their local police in the JTTF.
What You Can Do:
- BORDC will provide information on our website so you can lobby your local theatre to show Strange Culture, or obtain a copy to have a public showing in your community to raise public awareness about post-9/11 government abuses.
- On March 3, hear Steve Kurtz lecture in Pittsburgh at The Warhol Museum. On March 15, San Francisco area residents can hear Kurtz lecture and can view a screening of Strange Culture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Two Recommended Videos on YouTube
- Amnesty International's "man on the street" interviews about torture take a look at Americans' strange attitudes about torture.
- Practical information about how to tell if your cell phone is bugged.
Book Review: War By Other Means, by John Yoo
John Yoo is best remembered for his role in crafting the Bush Administration torture policies. Some officials have also said he was author of the secret memo authorizing the NSA warrantless wiretap program. His book, War By Other Means, justifies every law, memo, or secret order based on the premise that the “war on terror” trumps any sacred liberty that Americans might treasure. The fact that the Bush Administration chose war as its response to terrorism makes every executive excess reasonable, Yoo maintains. His book never questions whether war was an appropriate response, given that the Iraq War has actually increased terrorist acts worldwide since 9/11 (see Mother Jones report, War Has Increased Terrorism Sevenfold Worldwide). Yoo conveniently argues that because al-Qaeda continually breaks the “laws of war,” it’s okay for the U.S. to treat this enemy without consideration for the Geneva Conventions or other humanitarian constructs.
Yoo is unmoved by the fact that there have been many human sacrifices in the war on terror such as Brandon Mayfield, Maher Arar, prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. Far from recognizing a pattern of human rights abuses, Yoo calls them “isolated and individual acts—mistakes—rather than wholesale deprivations of civil liberties."
Yoo's tortured constitutional thinking, which creates legal arguments for ... well, torture ... prevails throughout this book. In a single sentence, Yoo dismisses the 409 resolutions that have taken years of community coalition-building, petitioning, left/right alliances, and ordinary people power: “The American Civil Liberties Union convinced several city councils to pass symbolic resolutions to disobey the [PATRIOT] Act and some librarians to file lawsuits against its expanded surveillance powers.” In Yoo's world, nothing interferes with his premise that the "war on terror" must continue throughout our lifetimes, providing increased and continuous executive power.
BORDC’s Human Rights Abuse Database
BORDC hopes to unveil its Human Rights Abuse Database this spring, a handy resource cataloging the cases of those who have suffered due to post-9/11 government policies. This month, we feature a thumbnail sketch of another case.
For 20 years, the U.S. government has hounded the so-called Los Angeles 8. Two of the eight are Khader Hamide and Michel Shehadeh—two Palestinian-American men whose “crimes” occurred prior to laws being passed making their activities illegal. In the 1980s and 90s, the government used secret evidence in proceedings against them. In 2003, the government used the PATRIOT Act to file new charges of material support for terrorism and soliciting funds for a terrorist organization for distributing Palestinian literature in the 1980s, when the organization and the literature they distributed were completely legal.
In 2005, the government filed new charges—this time for violating the newly passed REAL ID Act. Khader’s brother, Ibrahim Hamide, explains it this way, “It’s like charging someone for running a stop sign at an intersection where there was no stop sign when you went through the intersection yesterday.”
On January 26, a Los Angeles immigration judge ruled that the two men would not be deported and called the government’s case against them “an embarrassment to the rule of law.” But even that ruling won’t necessarily stop the Homeland Security Department from appealing the ruling. HSA Secretary Michael Chertoff has one month from the date of the ruling to decide whether to appeal.
BORDC activists joined with a coalition of other allies in Eugene, where Khader’s brother Ibrahim lives, and set up meetings with Senate and House aides to ask Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR-8th) to urge Chertoff not to appeal. An editorial in the local newspaper urged Chertoff to drop this endless case. The government’s decision should come this week.
Torture Taxis and the Rendition Program
News on the Program—Despite the Bush administration's assertion that it transferred the sum total of men, 14, who were in the rendition program to Guantánamo, many more men remain unaccounted for. Ghost Prisoner is a Human Rights Watch report of what happened to Marwan Jabour and lists others who have been captured and whose whereabouts are still unknown.
The Italian government has indicted 25 CIA agents and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force in the kidnapping of an imam, Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr. German prosecutors have issued warrants for 13 CIA agents whom they suspect of kidnapping Khaled el-Masri. (See the 2/17 Washington Post article.)
What You Can Do: Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) plans to reintroduce his Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act (H.R. 952 when it was introduced in the 109th Congress), which would prohibit the United States from transferring people to countries where torture or other inhuman treatment is known to occur for purposes of interrogation or detention. Markey is currently seeking co-sponsors.
Grassroots activists are actively involved in shutting the program down:
Mystery Uncovered in Portland, Oregon—Unraveling the mystery of the Gulfstream V, which has ferried hooded and shackled passengers to various prisons all over Europe, is retired Rutgers professor Michael Munk. He has been ramping up the pressure on Portland attorney Scott Caplan, who appears to be the Northwest link to the CIA and its torture taxis. Caplan’s phantom client, Leonard Bayard, is listed as owner of the Gulfstream V. Recently, Munk convinced the Oregon State Bar to start an investigation into whether attorney Scott Caplan has represented Bayard Foreign Marketing, under false pretenses.
Munk recently found two documents allegedly signed by Bayard, with wildly differing slants and contours in the signatures: another clue that the company is actually a CIA front. You can see the signatures in this report from KATU-television, or look at the BORDC website: http://bordc.org/threats/flights.php.
Work Continues in North Carolina—On February 22, the North Carolina Stop Torture Coalition held a Vigil at US 1 and NC 56 highways when President Bush was taking a flight a helicopter from RDU to Novozymes. The vigil and street theater activities were covered by News 14 Charlotte. (Click on "Bush protestors" to view the video.) Read the transcript of a powerful interview with coalition member Christina Cowger.
Great American Write-In
For 20 years, the Women For: Orange County community group in Orange County, CA, have hosted the Great American Write-In—an opportunity to send hundreds of letters to congressional representatives all at once. On Saturday, March 5, Bill of Rights Defense Committee materials will be on hand at information tables from civil liberties groups, environmental, health, education and other advocacy organizations that will be stocked with writing paper, pens, and free envelopes for Orange County residents to write their concerns.
The Write-In will be held from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM on March 5, at the Lakeview Senior Center at Woodbridge Community Park, 20 Lake Road, Irvine (between Barranca and Alton Parkways). For more information, call (949) 581-3938 or (949) 262-1001.
Suspending Civil Liberties in Our Own Backyard
The story of 9-year-old Kevin, a Canadian boy held in a Texas lockup, drove home the fact that the U.S. is now imprisoning immigrant children and their families in its detention centers at a prolific rate. On the February 23 edition of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman interviewed Kevin and his father, who were on their way from Guyana to Canada, when an emergency stop in Puerto Rico detoured their family to the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility. Kevin told Amy, "I want to be free. I want to go outside, and I want to go to school!" (Read also Amy Goodman's article on Truthdig.)
Grassroots Responses in Texas—BORDC groups throughout Texas were outraged at the treatment of this family, and asked how they could help. Two groups are working in the Taylor, Texas area to provide advocacy, support and legal help to detainees. Texans United for Freedom (TUFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Meanwhile, On February 28 in nearby San Marcos, the San Marcos Committee wore bright orange "Shut Down Guantánamo/Stop Torture" t-shirts to protest an appearance of Karl Rove. They also carried signs referring to Rove's reputation as a spin doctor.
Orange County, North Carolina, Resolution—The Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee is asking the Chapel Hill town council to pass a resolution to protect immigrants from being detained when the national database shows they may have a minor civil infraction.
For more information about how you can get involved in working in your community, visit the BORDC webpage on detention centers or contact BORDC organizers Mohamed Elgadi and Hope Marston. for local resources.
March 17 Rallies
Bill of Rights Defense Committees and allies across the U.S. are planning their rallies and events to mark the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It’s a prime opportunity to ally with anti-war groups in planning local events and to find time at the microphone to remind people of the increased war on the Bill of Rights that has continued since 2001.
Other ideas for working in coalition for the March 17 rallies:
- Download a BORDC petition against torture, and collect signatures to send to your congressional representatives, demanding that they end the practices of extraordinary rendition, torture taxis, secret prisons, coercion and torture at all U.S. prisons—overseas and within the U.S.
- Help organize a rally, march, protest or other event in your community and ask for time to speak about our civil liberties losses. Send around a sign-up sheet to reinvigorate interest in working to defend the Bill of Rights locally.
- Download BORDC flyers on the loss of habeas corpus, and collect local signatures on a petition to send to your congressional representatives, demanding that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 be repealed or fixed.
- Take your cell phones with you to the local Iraq invasion protest and allow participants to call their congressional representatives on NSA warrantless wiretapping, loss of habeas corpus, torture, rendition, Guantánamo, or other civil liberties loss of your choice. Set up a Free Phone Booth so people can fill representatives’ voicemail boxes with feedback from their constituency.
States Roll Back REAL ID
The grassroots rebuke of REAL ID is underway, as states say no to implementing the 2005 law. Federal regulations are missing, though Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was supposed to issue them by the end of February. Cash-strapped state legislatures also weren't given federal funds to pay for the $11 billion national ID card program. Another concern among grassroots coalitions is that it creates security vulnerabilities, opening loopholes for identity theft. Here are some states that are refusing to participate in REAL ID.
Maine—The state of Maine rejected REAL ID by a unanimous vote in the Senate and 134 to 2 in the House of Representatives on January 26. Following the resolution’s passage, several other states began their own pushback against the mandate that all states create an identity card that can be used in a nationwide network by May 2008.
Idaho—Activists got a shot in the arm from Governor Butch Otter, when he came out in bold opposition to the implementation of REAL ID in his state, after realizing it would cost Idaho $39 million. Ironically, Otter was one of the co-sponsors of the bill when he was in Congress. The measure is now before the state senate, where REAL ID's price tag may lead to its defeat.
Oregon—On February 22, Oregon's State Senate held a hearing in Salem on S. 424, a bill to implement REAL ID in Oregon. Oregon residents who oppose REAL ID are urged to contact their state senators to tell them to support Oregon telling the federal government that Oregon won’t implement Real ID until funding, rules and safeguards are in place, and asking senators to oppose requiring proof of citizenship (lawful presence) to get a license in Oregon.
Other states where residents and coalitions are forming to defeat REAL ID include: Georgia, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. The Bush Administration is fighting back, though, releasing last minute regulations to mollify states concerned about the lack of regulations and extending the deadline for states to comply beyond May 2008 (see the 3/1 Washington Post report). Meanwhile, the 110th Congress is expected to introduce legislation to repeal most of REAL ID. In the 109th Congress, Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and John Sununu (R-NH) collaborated on similar legislation.
East Region Organizer Visits Trenton, NJ, and Philadelphia, PA
In a 2-day visit to Trenton and Philadelphia, BORDC's new East Region Organizer Mohamed Elgadi met with several civil rights and civil liberties groups in the area. The visit was in response to an invitation from the Black Students Association of Law School at Temple University in Philadelphia to address their forum on Darfur. The Vice-President of Darfur Alert Coalition, Mr. Jim Remsen, spoke on the local efforts to bring awareness about the human tragedy in Darfur and the engaging of local groups. Mohamed's presentation entitled "Black Sites and Ghost Houses" drew on the connection and similarities between state-sponsored torture programs in Sudan and USA. Two short video documentaries were screened to illustrate this concept: The Party is a 9-min video produced by Sudanese torture survivors who live in the US and is posted on YouTube. The second documentary was the short version of Outlawed, produced by Witness.org and in partnership with 14 human rights organizations (it is also posted on YouTube).
Mohamed also met with the Mercer County Coalition for Civil Liberties (MCCCL) in Trenton, NJ. MCCCL has been planning work with Representative Rush Holt and Senator Robert Menendez on civil liberties issues, including Senator Christopher Dodd's new bill to address the Military Commissions Act. MCCCL is also working with Trenton Citizens for Civil Liberties (TCCL) in planning an April forum to support a proposed civil liberties resolution for Trenton City.
Elections
Elections are important tools for holding government accountable, and since the candidates for the 2008 presidential election are already off and running, it is not too early to ask them to state for the record whether they are defenders, fair-weather friends, or enemies of the Bill of Rights. It is also a good time to encourage political parties to tell voters what they plan to do to restore civil liberties. For too long, there seemed to be a competition among the political parties over which party was most willing to sacrifice our civil liberties to prove they oppose terrorism. For the 2008 election, let’s start a competition among political parties to promise voters strict adherence to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Election resources, sample questions, and voting records on key civil liberties bills are here: http://bordc.org/involved/concerned/candidates.php.
First Amendment Rights for First Lt. Ehren Watada
Rallies occurred all over the U.S. on February 5, the day First Lt. Ehren Watada’s court martial began at the army base at Fort Lewis, Washington. Watada said he was exercising his First Amendment rights in speaking out against the Iraq war, and refusing to deploy with his unit. Two days after the trial began, the judge declared a mistrial, rejecting an agreement between the government and Watada, in which the government knocked 4 years off a possible 6-year sentence in exchange for Watada's admission he refused the order to deploy. Watada says his reason for refusing to go to Iraq is that he knew that by going, he would be committing war crimes, and that it was his duty to exercise his First Amendment rights in speaking out publicly.
Late last week, the government re-filed its charges against Watada, but a trial date has not been set. Watada’s attorneys say a second trial constitutes double jeopardy and cannot proceed. Click to read more.
Hawai’i—On February 27, a debate about Lt. Watada’s case against the war in Iraq took place at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Watada’s attorney, Eric Seitz debated Professor Michael Lewis, a visiting professor from Northern Ohio University. The event was sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society.
Habeas Corpus & the Military Commissions Act
Fixes for the Military Commissions Act and its trashing of the right
to habeas corpus abound in Congress. Three bills have been introduced
that address habeas corpus specifically, and one bill goes further.
Senator Christopher Dodd introduced legislation (S. 576), "The
Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007," along with a campaign
seeking "citizen co-sponsors" of his bill, and a call for
U.S. residents to make their own videos on YouTube in support
of restoring habeas corpus.
Like Dodd's bill, S. 185, the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007,
introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) would restore habeas corpus.
But Dodd's bill goes further, narrowing the definition of enemy combatant
and installing a review system for naming enemy combatants. It also
prevents use of evidence gained through torture and coercion, and
allows the judge to discard hearsay evidence.
Two House bills address the loss of habeas corpus: Representative David Wu’s (OR-1st) H.R. 1189 and Sheila Jackson-Lee’s H.R. 267. While Jackson-Lee’s bill concentrates on restoring habeas corpus to “enemy combatants,” Wu’s bill focuses on guaranteeing habeas corpus to all U.S. residents (click here for a related news story). Though “enemy combatants” have actually been denied the right to have a court determine whether there is sufficient evidence to imprison them—most recently by a D.C. Circuit Court—the threat to U.S. residents is also real: immediately after passage of the Military Commissions Act, President Bush announced that he can and will detain non-citizens and deny them habeas corpus. See Truthout, 11/13/2006.
What You Can Do:
- Read about these and other bills that address habeas corpus on the BORDC website: http://bordc.org/threats/legislation/index.php#habeas
- Call your local congressional office. To find local phone numbers,
check your phone book or your representatives' websites. (See links
below.)
- House of Representatives: http://www.house.gov/
- U.S. Senate: http://www.senate.gov/
Insurrection Act
A small stir occurred last fall, after the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 was passed. Within the massive bill was a thorn that grants power to the President to control the National Guard without consent of state governors. In the Senate, Patrick Leahy was the only person to speak out against this provision, and now he has introduced legislation to revoke that authority—S. 513. Leahy is joined in the Senate by Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), and in the House by Representatives Tom Davis (R-VA-11th) and Timothy Walz (D-MN-1st), who have introduced H.R. 869.
Read more about this provision of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 on the BORDC website.
9/11 Commission
Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) is said to be working on a bill that would modify H.R. 1, the bill to implement recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. H.R. 1 passed handily at the outset of the 110th Congress, and is now pending before the Senate. The Senate bill, S.4, does not correct the emerging problems with the president’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) being too closely allied with the administration. Both bills expand fusion centers without providing any meaningful privacy protections (for example, it requires training to protect privacy as recommended by the PCLOB, which has repeatedly praised the illegal NSA wiretapping program). S. 4 implements almost all of the remaining 9/11 Commission recommendations, but tucks in some provisions amid its 230+ pages, such as asking for a presidential report on doing away with privacy protections for US persons. Those provisions do not inspire confidence, from a civil liberties perspective. Unfortunately, the Lieberman bill misses some important opportunities to add genuine enhancements for privacy and civil liberties.
To stay up to date on the latest legislation in Congress, visit the BORDC website.
Remembering Molly Ivins
BORDC mourns the passing of columnist Molly Ivins on January 31, 2006. Her wonderful columns that championed the grassroots defenders of justice and her hilarious portraits of politicians and people in power who deserved ridicule are among the best uses of the First Amendment we know. Her columns inspired us to continue our work with smiles on our faces (occasionally at least!). We will miss her, but we know she is with us, and with everyone who defends the Bill of Rights, in spirit.
Muslim Isolation Program Revealed
As BORDC’s newsletter reported last month, Muslim prisoners are being purposefully congregated at a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. They are part of a Department of Justice program isolating them from family and friends, and putting restrictions on their contact with the outside world. BORDC learned of this program through communications between an activist and one of the prisoners, but the program became public knowledge after the publication of articles appeared on Raw Story and the Washington Post.
PATRIOT Act Provision Sends Several U.S. Attorneys Packing
A little-known provision in the USA PATRIOT Act authorizes the Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. attorneys for indefinite periods, clearing the way for the recent dismissal of several prosecutors. Officials have repeatedly cited "poor job performance" to explain their decision to fire the eight attorneys, yet at least six of them received positive evaluations during Internal Justice Department performance reviews. A bill recently proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sought to change the appointment procedure, but it was stopped short by members of the GOP. Congressional committees in the House and Senate are planning hearings on the issue. Click here for more on those upcoming hearings.
Padilla Ruled Competent for Trial After U.S. Government Torture
Despite the fact that the government's own words detail the ways in which it broke Jose Padilla completely and caused him to be unfit to act in his own defense, a Florida judge ruled on February 28 that Padilla's trial may begin as early as April 16. He will not receive treatment for three months, as his attorneys requested, to alleviate the post-traumatic stress disorder caused by years in solitary confinement, long interrogations, and torture. Padilla faces criminal charges of involvement in a "North American support cell" that provided money, goods and recruits abroad to assist "global jihad." The original charges, that Padilla was planning to detonate a "dirty bomb" in the U.S., were discarded when Padilla's case challenging his detention as a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant threatened to reach the Supreme Court. Read this opinion editorial from the International Herald Tribune.
Nancy Talanian to speak in California
This March, BORDC Director Nancy Talanian will speak with local activists, organizers, and supporters at house parties in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles about BORDC’s work and its plans for restoring civil liberties and human rights in the future.
- On Saturday, March 10, from 2 to 6 p.m., Tom Fallon and Dolores Mosqueda of San Anselmo will host a gathering featuring Talanian and James X. Dempsey, Policy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Dempsey is a member of BORDC’s Advisory Board.
- On Sunday, March 11, from 2 to 5 p.m., BORDC Advisory Board member Stephen Rohde and Wendy Herzog will host a gathering at their Westwood home. Rohde, who is a constitutional lawyer, author and lecturer, and a past president of the ACLU of Southern California, will also speak.
If you would like to attend one of these events, please contact Meredith Gray by Monday, March 5, to RSVP and to request directions.
Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Meredith Gray, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Mohamed Elgadi, 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
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
We apologize if you have received this newsletter in
error.
To unsubscribe, send a reply to this message and type "UNSUBSCRIBE"
in the Subject line.
To subscribe, go to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's web site
and click on the Subscribe button on the left.