Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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Dissent Is Patriotic

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

June 2007, Vol. 6, No. 5

In this issue:

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(at)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 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.

June 26 through July 6, Join Us in Calling for Restoring Habeas Corpus and More

Another suicide and two more failed military commissions at Guantánamo, along with continued evidence of government abuses of human rights and civil liberties, make this June 26th and Congress’s Independence Day recess an important time for all of us to rally, both in Washington, DC, and in our communities and to meet with our members of Congress to demand investigations, oversight, and restoration of the rule of law.

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) and a coalition of national organizations urge our supporters to observe June 26, United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Other members of the coalition are listed here. Please join us in calling on Congress to:

• Restore habeas corpus and due process of law for detainees
• End torture
• Protect fundamental freedoms

Thanks to your calls and other efforts, we are making steady progress, but we need to keep the pressure on Congress to make meaningful changes. A bipartisan majority of the Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to reject a Justice Department bill to “modernize” the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the Senate Judiciary Committee has refused to consider the bill until the Justice Department provides documents supporting its position. No documents have been forthcoming. House and Senate committees have promised to hold hearings on torture and rendition, habeas corpus, the need for further reform of the USA PATRIOT Act, and the National Security Agency surveillance program. Finally, Congress has an opportunity to reform the Military Commissions Act now that two Guantánamo judges have refused to go forward with military commissions.

On June 4, two Guantánamo judges threw the U.S. government’s cobbled-together system for trying war criminals into disarray when they dismissed all charges against Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan. Yet, they dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning that the government can come back and try again. Both judges cited a disconnect between the Combatant Status Review Tribunals’ (CSRTs’) determination of the men’s “enemy combatant” status versus the Military Commissions Act’s (MCA’s) authorization to try “unlawful enemy combatants.” The judges’ claim that they lack jurisdiction to try the men provides another opportunity to demand that Congress make changes to ensure that U.S. laws for detaining, holding and trying alleged war criminals comply with international human rights norms such as habeas corpus, the Geneva Conventions, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The tide is with us. Let’s make the most of this opportunity to support Congress’s investigations, followed by the passage of legislation to restore key human rights and civil liberties.

What you can do:

Join National Call-in to Congress Week, June 25-29. The last call-in week (March 2007) generated over 20,000 calls to Congress and resulted in 18 new co-sponsors to habeas bills. Your calls can help put us over the top. BORDC will send you an action alert, including sample talking points and calling information, prior to the call-in.

Go to Washington, DC, for Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice, June 26 (partial schedule):
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.: Lobby day training
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. rally, Upper Senate Park. See rally poster (PDF)
1:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Lobby day meetings

Tha American Civil Liberties Union is coordinating free buses from numerous locations to Washington, DC. To see if there is a bus going from your area, click here.

Organize or attend local events and meetings with your legislators, June 26 through July 6.
BORDC held a special conference call on June 5 to determine what actions grassroots groups are planning for restoring habeas on June 26 and for asserting the Bill of Rights during the week of Congressional recess—July 2 to July 6. For more information, see call notes.

For more information on upcoming events in your area click here.

Please let BORDC know what action you're planning, so we can post it for others to see. Contact our east region organizer, Ben Grosscup (ben [at] bordc.org)
or our west region organizer, Hope Marston (hmarston [at] bordc.org).

New reports of the denial of habeas corpus and due process for detainees:

• Fourth suicide at Guantánamo. On May 30, Abdul Rahman Ma Ath Thafir al Amri, a Saudi Arabian detainee at Guantánamo, ended his despair by committing suicide. During the more than five years that Amri, as he was known, was detained without charge, he had never met with an American attorney. According to Defense Department documents, he told a military review panel that he had received U.S. military training during his ten years in the Saudi army. Had he wanted to kill Americans, he said, he would have done it then. The Pentagon revealed that Amri had previously been on a hunger strike and that his weight had dropped from 150 pounds to as low as 88.5 pounds. He had been strapped to a feeding chair and force-fed via a tube inserted through his nostrils.

• U.S. legal residents still have habeas right, despite Military Commissions Act. On June 11, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled 2-1 that the Military Commissions Act (MCA) does not allow President Bush to continue holding Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal U.S. resident, indefinitely as a so-called “enemy combatant.” According to the decision, al-Marri, who has been held in military custody for four years, must be charged with a crime or released. (In September 2005, judges of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Bush administration could continue to hold Jose Padilla indefinitely.) The Department of Justice will appeal the decision.

Read Chicago Tribune article.

• Witnesses in Padilla trial contradict prosecutors’ claims. Jose Padilla, one of three U.S. citizens that have been designated an “enemy combatant,” spent several years in solitary confinement, uncharged, on allegations that he was plotting to unleash a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the U.S. The charges against him decreased, once the Bush Administration realized the Supreme Court might rule that Padilla should be freed for lack of evidence. Padilla is now on trial in Miami on lesser charges of conspiring to “murder, kidnap and maim” people overseas and of material support for terrorism (PDF). The “dirty bomber” label has fallen into George Orwell’s “memory hole.” The prosecution’s evidence centers around Padilla’s alleged plan to receive training to be a mujahideen fighter. But thus far, two witnesses for the prosecution, Yahya Goba and Herbert Atwell, have disputed the prosecutors’ claim that the training or fighting jihadis are related to terrorism.

Recent news about the U.S. government’s use of torture:

• Study finds U.S. Interrogation Methods “amateurish.” A 300-plus-page report completed in December 2006 by experts who have been advising intelligence agencies slams the techniques that have been used since the 9/11 attacks as “amateurish” and “unreliable.” During World War II, the U.S. successfully used noncoercive methods to gather information from Japanese and German prisoners. According to the Intelligence Science Board study, the catalog of coercive methods used more recently includes methods from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Soviet Union. The report, declassified in March 2007, is titled Educing Information (PDF).

• U.N. Official Criticizes U.S. for undermining basic rights protections. Martin Scheinin of Finland, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, cited the PATRIOT Act, Detainee Treatment Act, and Military Commissions Act as problematic. In a press release preceding release of his full report, Scheinin states that it is “regretful that a number of important mechanisms for the protection of rights have been removed or obfuscated under law and practice since the events of September 11.” Scheinin cited several U.S. interrogation practices that violate international law.

News on efforts to protect fundamental freedoms:

• Administration uses doublespeak to urge weakening of FISA. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell’s plea to Congress to “modernize” FISA by passing the Justice Department’s bill would gut Fourth Amendment protections of our privacy. House Intelligence Committee Chair Sylvestre Reyes observed in his May 30 Washington Post opinion editorial that McConnell attempted to justify weakening FISA by claiming, erroneously, that intelligence agencies need a court order before they can monitor foreign communications. See a diagram showing when the government needs a FISA warrant to wiretap.

• Former Justice Department official refutes Gonzales’s testimony about NSA wiretapping program. In his May 15 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee former Deputy Attorney General James Comey refuted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s February 2006 assertion before the same body denying that Justice Department officials had disagreed with the legality of the program. It turns out that Gonzales himself, then White House Counsel, not only knew about the department’s objections but attempted to circumvent Comey, who was then Acting Attorney General. Comey doubted the program was legal and refused to certify the program, so Gonzales, accompanied by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, visited the hospital room of the very ill Attorney General John Ashcroft and attempted to pressure him to certify the program. We do not know what the illegal program entailed and whether it continues to this day, but we now know that the administration continued the program, at least for a time, despite Comey’s and Ashcroft’s disapproval.

Fortunately, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution still provides freedom of speech. BORDC urges you to join others nationwide from June 26 through July 6 in exercising our collective free speech to help restore law and justice.

Grassroots News

Graduates, Faculty, Local Residents Protest Card for Human Rights Violations, Lies

Amherst, MA—On Friday, May 25, at the University of Massachusetts graduate commencement ceremony, hundreds of area residents joined graduates and faculty in protesting the University's granting of an honorary doctorate in public service to President Bush's former chief of staff, Andrew Card. The protest followed weeks of protest and petitioning by faculty and students who argued that the honorary degree was a disgrace to the University and an outrageous abuse of academic prestige to promote a dangerous political agenda.

Protesters held placards saying “Honor Grads; Dis-Card.” They highlighted Card’s role as a top administration official who subverted constitutional safeguards to promote domestic spying and to normalize torture sites like Abu Ghraib and illegal renditions of people to be tortured. They also highlighted Card's role in deliberately fabricating evidence to support the invasion of Iraq.

The long, loud chorus of boos during the presentation prevented Card from speaking. He rose, accepted his degree, and sat down.

Human Right Activists Keep Watch over Aero Contractors

Smithfield, NC—On June 9, North Carolina Stop Torture Now (NCSTN) conducted a training on plane spotting within sight of the runway used by Aero Contractors in Smithfield, North Carolina. Hobbyists worldwide have spotted planes for fun, but the technique has become crucial in exposing the CIA's illegal program of “extraordinary rendition” in which people are kidnapped without warrants and sent to torture sites around the globe without appeal.
NCSTN is organizing volunteers to document flights of Smithfield-based Aero Contractors. Aero has been accused of serving as a secret air service for the CIA and has been the subject of lawsuits for human rights violations filed by European governments in U.S. courts. Training attendees are encouraged to bring binoculars and a clipboard. For further information call 919-637-7678 or go to www.ncstoptorturenow.net.

Using Privacy as Their Subject Students Compete at International Conference

Aurora, NE—The subject was privacy, and at stake was the international championship when Aurora, Nebraska, senior high and elementary school students went to Fort Collins, Colorado, May 31-June 3. They’d been briefed by Nebraska’s ACLU executive director, Laurel Marsh, the state attorney general, a college professor, and BORDC’s west region organizer, Hope Marston.

The competition used a scenario right out of present-day politics—a REAL ID that takes the place of all other identification and can be used for banking and all financial transactions. Students were asked to think through the implications to privacy if a REAL ID were in place today. In every one of the 12 years that Pam Emahizer has been an Aurora teacher, “we always bring hardware home.” Hardware means trophies, and Aurora captured several trophies among their senior high, middle school and junior teams. Students participating in the winning competitions focused on problems with identity theft and the growing abuse of power. Just like in real life. More information on the competitions can be found at Future Problem-Solving Program International.

Attend Teach-In on MCA and Get a Chance to Win Trip to June 26 Rally in DC

Colorado—A chance to win a free round-trip plane ticket to the June 26 rally in Washington, DC, may be reason enough to attend one of three teach-ins on the Military Commissions Act organized in Denver, Colorado Springs, and Fort Collins.

• Colorado Springs: June 11 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Colorado College (Gaylord Hall) 902 N. Cascade (Cache La Poudre & Cascades)
• Denver: June 12 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria Campus (900 Auraria Parkway)
• Fort Collins: June 14 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Center (417 W. Magnolia St.)

Register for one of these teach-ins and get more information:
www.aclu-co.org/support/June26DOA_reg_form.htm

Military Commissions Act Teach-In Agenda:
www.aclu-co.org/support/June26DOA_agenda.htm

Environmentalists Receive Terrorism-Enhanced Sentences

Eugene, OR—Chelsea Gerlach, who joined a radical environmental group when she was a teenager, pleaded guilty to committing arson at a Colorado ski lodge, and was sentenced by Oregon judge Ann Aiken to nine years in prison for that and five other acts of property damage, for which the judge enacted “terrorism-enhanced” sentences. This is the first overt appearance of the “Green Scare,” a willingness of government officials to equate acts of property damage with terrorism, thus painting radical environmental activists as terrorists. Lauren Regan from Eugene’s Civil Liberties Defense Center was on the radio program Here and Now in late May, speaking about the Green Scare cases, which are saddling many environmental activists with terrorism-enhanced sentences. To hear Regan on Here and Now, click here and then click on “Eco-terrorists on Trial?”

Environmental groups are fighting back, comparing the current "Green Scare" to the ""Red Scare" of the McCarthy years, red-baiting, and Communist-scares of the 1940s through 1970s. Click here for more information on the Green Scare.

Ban on Renting to Illegal Immigrants Halted by Federal Judge

Farmers Branch, TX—In April, we reported about a civil liberties and social justice effort to end a city council mandate that landlords have to check each tenant’s immigration papers. In May, a special election overwhelmingly confirmed the ban on renting apartments to undocumented immigrants. However, last week a federal judge temporarily halted the ban. The key to the ruling is that the city was infringing on federal jurisdiction by instituting the ban.

At the same time, a lawsuit has been filed against Farmers Branch over its council election system, saying it favors white residents. The lawsuit calls for the creation of a Latino district, so that segment of the population, which weighs in at nearly 50%, has a voice in local politics. Click here for news article.

Group Rallies Behind Marine Corporal Protesting War

Kansas City, MO—In early June, members of the Sanctuary for Freedom and Civil Liberties Campaign attended a rally outside the hearing of Adam Kokesh, a Marine Corporal under review for protesting the war in a stripped down uniform and for using an obscenity in an email to a Marine officer. Frank Neff, from the Sanctuary group, said Kokesh seemed upbeat during his hearing, saying the military lawyer and his civilian lawyer both made good statements. Unfortunately, the three-member review board recommended that Kokesh’s honorable discharge be changed immediately to a general discharge. The final decision on the board’s recommendation goes to Brig. Gen. Darrell Moore, the officer to whom Kokesh sent the email. Kokesh is an Iraq War veteran who has been protesting the war with Iraq Veterans Against the War. Kokesh was photographed in partial uniform at a protest during Alberto Gonzalez's testimony to Congress regarding the dismissal of U.S. attorneys.

Palo Alto Activist to be Honored by Fellowship of Reconciliation

Upper Nyack, NY—The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) recently announced they will honor Palo Alto, California, activist Samina Faheem Sundas and the American Muslim Voice with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Prize for their work to bridge the gap among communities and unite individuals under the umbrella of our common humanity. Samina is a Bill of Rights Defense Committee ally and was featured in a BORDC workshop in August 2006, talking about how peace and social justice groups can reach out to threatened communities to forge strong alliances during these post-9/11 erosions of the Bill of Rights. You can listen to Samina’s talk by clicking here. FOR will award Samina and the American Muslim Voice the Prize at its third annual Festival of Peace on September 16 at the FOR headquarters in Upper Nyack, New York.

Stop Torture Resolution On Its Way to Passage

Santa Clara, CA—The South Bay Coalition to Stop Torture has presented a resolution to the Santa Clara Human Relations Commission. According to Charlotte Casey from the Coalition, the resolution recommends that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors "contact our congressional representatives to urge speedy passage of HR 1352, thereby preventing possible acts of torture facilitated by companies such as Jeppesen."

Jeppesen is a Santa Clara company implicated in the CIA torture flights. It is suspected of being another cog in the wheel of extraordinary rendition by supplying aircraft for flights that result in torture and abuse for those the U.S. government wishes to interrogate in secret.

HR 1352 is a House bill introduced in March by Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey (D-7th) that would prohibit extraordinary rendition and prohibit the return of persons by the United States to countries where torture or other inhuman treatment may occur. The bill now has 52 co-sponsors, including many in the San Francisco Bay area.

The South Bay Coalition to Stop Torture resolution is expected to be before the Human Relations Commission on June 19, and before the Board of Supervisors by August. For more information, click here and search on “Jeppesen” or “Coalition to Stop Torture.”

No Child Left Behind Bars Vigil and Rally

Taylor, TX—A coalition of groups, including the Texans United for Freedom, Amnesty International, and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), plans a “No Child Left Behind Bars” rally and vigil on June 23 at the T. Don Hutto Detention Facility in Taylor, Texas. More info on the rally.

The detention center has been the focus of many rallies and protests since it began separating children from their families. The ACLU has filed at least ten lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security and the facility on behalf of 17 children detained there. The BORDC held a conference call to help shine a light on the massive detention center complexes being built in the United States, and how local groups can act to shut them down, as the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee did in Passaic, New Jersey. More information.

Legislation

Shut Down Guantánamo / Disengage the Military Commissions Act

May saw two new bills introduced that would make it mandatory to shut down the detention center at Guantánamo Bay. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced S 1469 and Representative Jane Harman (D-CA-36-Venice) introduced HR 2212.

The emergence of so many bills on these issues is another indication that many people across the United States realize that torture, rendition, Guantánamo, and the guise of Military Commissions really hurt us, not only in the eyes of the world, but in our own sense of who we are as a nation.

Add another bill to the list of those created to dismantle the Military Commissions Act: On May 24, Representative Loretta Sanchez (D-CA-47) introduced HR 2543, a bill that revises the definition of unlawful enemy combatant and establishes a statutory right of habeas corpus for those held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Each of these bills deserves a good deal of scrutiny. If you look at the BORDC legislation page, you’ll see that there are several pieces of legislation addressing each of these issues already. Choosing the specific cargo for each of these bills, or choosing a bill already equipped with the necessary cargo to move towards justice is a challenge for us all. This is required reading prior to June 26, when the whole country will be ablaze in discussion on how the United States should proceed in these delicate life and death choices.

Freedom of Information Act

Sunshine Week in 2007 was a bright swath of light, resulting in the passage of at least two bills in the House of Representatives that shine light on government actions.

• The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (HR 985) passed the House on March 14 by a vote of 331-94.
• The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Amendments (HR 1309) passed the House on March 14 by a vote of 308-117.

But HR 1309 is facing an uphill struggle in the Senate where Republican Senator John Kyl is blocking a vote. HR 1309 would return the FOIA to its normal state, before 2001 when John Ashcroft made requests for government information less likely to be fulfilled. Ashcroft's actions diminished the burden of proof on government agencies to show why a piece of information must remain secret, making it increasingly difficult for citizens to obtain information about government practices. Senator Kyl says he is now blocking a Senate vote because the Justice Department has strong objections to making more information available to the public.

See the following articles for more information:

Kyl’s Blocking of Open-Government Bill has Advocates Irate
Kyl’s Gambit Offends, Thwarts Open Government

BORDC Briefs

BORDC is Extending Its Search for a Field Organizer

The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is extending its search for a Field Organizer to be located in Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina. The Field Organizer will organize and assist community-based groups within the aforementioned states to address post-9/11 assaults on civil liberties. Click here to view job description and application process. Applications will be reviewed starting Wednesday, June 13, but the position will be open until filled.

Your Action Photos on a BORDC Calendar

BORDC invites you to submit photographs of your local actions for a 2008 calendar highlighting municipal, county, state, and organizational resolutions, local actions, and some of the history and stories that make our work to restore the Bill of Rights so rewarding. If your photograph appears in the calendar, you will be credited and will receive a free calendar. Thanks for being part of the informed citizenry necessary to keep abuse of power at bay. Please click here to see the guidelines for submitting photographs.

Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Susan Heitker, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Ben Grosscup, East Region Organizer

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

Web: www.bordc.org/
Email: info(at)bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116