Lynne Stewart, the Patriot Act, and COINTELPRO

Cloaked in the guise of combating terrorism and of national security and virtually in plain view, the Bill of Rights and civil liberties in this nation have been, and are continuing to be, steadily, systematically, and meticulously shredded. The consequences are dire.

No matter what the pretext, one does not protect, preserve, and strengthen hard won civil liberties by limiting and thereby gutting and destroying them. Indeed the best, most effective and genuine means of assuring real national security is by ensuring civil liberties, judicial fairness, and equitable social and economic justice inside this nation itself; and no amount of government / judiciary intimidation, spying or policing actions at home, or military actions abroad, can or will ever bring this about, nor are they really intended to, despite any fallacious rhetoric to the contrary.

The case of seventy-year-old great grandmother, cancer survivor, former school librarian, long time political activist / organizer, and former New York City defense attorney Lynne Stewart is indicative of the U.S. Government’s ongoing attempts to frighten, discredit, intimidate, and silence the people of this nation, and most particularly in this case, defense attorneys who dare to seriously exercise the constitutional right and duty to provide their clients with a vigorous and uncompromising legal defense.

Lynne Stewart, as a defense attorney, has for well over three decades, successfully defended clients who were the targets of U.S. Government subterfuge, police brutality, and prosecutorial subterfuge and discreditation. In so doing she constantly demonstrated to young lawyers what it really means to stand up and defend the people in both word and deed. The people that Lynne Stewart legally and vigorously defended ranged from members of the Black Panther Party, to the Weather Underground, to U.S. protestors demonstrating against (the then U.S. and Israeli supported) apartheid government of South Africa. Moreover, she did not hesitate to vigorously defend the human and legal rights of Muslims unjustly persecuted and targeted by U.S. Government agencies in this the 21st century. (Reference The Black Commentator of July 12, 2007.

Thus, Lynne Stewart herself became a target of the U.S. Government in the person of the then Bush / Cheney U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft. This scenario did not “change” under the present Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel administration or its current U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder. If anything in 2009, matters became even worse.

As a direct result of U.S. Government subterfuge, entrapment, and disinformation (with corporate media complicity) against Lynne Stewart, she was on February 10, 2005, wrongfully and shockingly convicted of a bogus “conspiracy to aid and abet terrorism” charge relating to her legal defense of one of her clients. An appeal was immediately filed, in hopes that the appeal court would recognize and respect truth and justice and reverse this gross injustice. However, the appeal court on November 17, 2009, did just the opposite and upheld this bogus, outrageous, and retaliatory conviction and sentence against the people’s lawyer - Lynne Portia Stewart. This incredibly courageous, seventy-year-old former librarian, who is presently also battling a serious medical condition that requires surgery must never be abandoned by us. She did not abandon justice-loving people and we cannot abandon her. She is a target and a victim of the Patriot Act (the 21st century COINTELPRO) and the ongoing hysteria which was whipped up under the Bush / Cheney administration and is being continued and further tweaked under the Obama / Biden administration. We must remember that Lynne Stewart spoke and speaks truth to power on behalf of the every day people and we can do no less. DO NOT LET HER STAND ALONE! DO NOT ALLOW THIS CORRUPT, HYPOCRITICAL, WAR MONGERING GOVERNMENT AND JUDICIARY TO COWER US INTO SUBMISSION! Continue to follow the developments in Lynne Stewart’s case closely, with a view towards reversing this gross injustice to her and to all of us! By supporting Lynne Stewart, we are loving and supporting the very best in ourselves.

Bear in mind that the above-described developments with respect to Lynne Stewart, are part and parcel and yet another example, of the ongoing shredding of the Bill of Rights and civil liberties in this nation. The government actions against Lynne Stewart are intended to make us tremble and cower, neither of which must we do. Too much is at stake! Real national security can only be had when the people refuse to allow the government to quash our human and political rights for therein is our national security.

When, in the name of “national security” or of allegedly combating “terrorism,” a government that cloaks its reprehensible acts of spying on its own people while simultaneously gutting their civil liberties is in reality fostering, not combating, terrorism. It’s all about stifling any substantive informed discussion and dissent. Such a government is not worthy of support. Democracy, if it is to be real, is not some commodity to be bought, sold, or manipulated by government or corporations. It is contentious and must be vigorously exercised.

The goal of the infamously notorious, unconstitutional, murderous, and amoral U.S. Government’s Counter Intelligence Program, known as COINTELPRO, which was fervently carried out internally against the peoples of the United States, was to “neutralize” political dissent by “discrediting, framing, disrupting, imprisoning, and often murdering” individual political activists, and where possible, targeting entire political organizations. These systematic outrages were of course engaged in by local, state, and federal policing authorities working together throughout this nation; all in the nebulous, shrill name of so-called “national security.” The corporate news media played a deadly, covert, and insidious role of complicity by disseminating disinformation to assist in ensuring the deadly effectiveness of COINTELPRO. As a direct result of the U.S.

Government COINTELPRO sponsored activities many people were framed, imprisoned, or murdered (including the U.S. government / police assassinations of Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark), not to mention the tens of thousands of families, lives and/or reputations were utterly shattered. The thousands of targets of COINTELPRO included (but were by no means limited to) Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Huey P. Newton, H. Rap Brown (Jamil Al-Amin), and a host of many, many other men and women political activists nationwide. Entire organizations were COINTELPRO targets including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Black Panther Party (BPP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), etc. While COINTELPRO primarily targeted nonwhites, there were to be sure, whites who the U.S. Government also sought to “neutralize” intimidate, and discredit due to their unmitigated audacity to stand up and dissent against the U.S. policies of wars abroad and social, judicial and economic injustice at home; all in the bogus name of “national security.” It should be noted that down to the present day, as a result of COINTELPRO, there are numerous political prisoners still languishing in ‘America’s’ gulag prisons. This is and should be absolutely unacceptable to all of us.

Notwithstanding the deliberately misleading rhetoric of the Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel administration, this nation has entered an era of de facto renewed 21st century COINTELPRO activities and McCarthyism under the insipid guise of the “Patriot Act.” This is the same Patriot Act that Barack Obama is seeking to extend, just as he has already extended and expanded the notorious activities of the U.S. Government’s international kidnapping and torture program known as “rendition.”

While the pro-apartheid Zionist Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel administration and its allies in the corporate media have cynically used the increasing pain and suffering of the ‘American’ people against we ourselves by turning the attention of the nation to a fake debate on “health reform” which is neither open, honest, nor representative of genuine systemic change for the hurting masses, the Obama administration pursues its wars abroad in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and elsewhere while seeking to continue and strengthen the ill gotten gains of repression made under the previous Bush / Cheney administration by continuing the Patriot Act here at home, including among other provisions, the despicably undemocratic, patently unconstitutional, and outrageous portion within said Act known as the “lone wolf” provision. Make no mistake about it: This political repression is being, and meant to be, directed against citizens and noncitizens alike in this nation of all colors and ethnicities. It is time to put aside our petty ideological squabbles and unite against this repression.

No matter what the pretense, the PATRIOT ACT is the continuation of COINTELPRO today, which has now been codified into law. The Obama / Biden / Rahm Emanuel administration is demonstrating itself to be as hypocritical and amoral as its Bush / Cheney predecessors - -with one noteworthy exception: this present administration is, at least for the political moment, much more articulate and adept at misleading the people. It is therefore far more dangerously effective at economically, judicially, and socially emaciating the masses of people than the Bush / Cheney administration could have ever even dreamed of being.

It must be reiterated: The Patriot Act is the continuation of COINTELPRO and the corporate, self-described “news” media today continues in its shameful role of aiding and abetting - through disinformation, obfuscation, and omission - -the stripping away of real freedoms and civil liberties in this nation and around the world.

We must be aware of, but certainly not intimidated by these developments. Political repression at home is not merely on its way. It is in fact, in large measure already here, though not yet recognized by some. Both the liberals and the lunatic right wingers of the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the Republicrats) are, in essence, moving this nation, at an ever increasing pace, towards deepening political repression. The so-called liberals pretend that the dangerous erosion of alleged freedoms and civil liberties is simply not happening right in front of their very eyes, while the right wingers are virtually inviting it (i.e. political repression) as a means to their ends.

Our task is to educate, agitate, and organize throughout this nation. We must be clear that the constant so-called specter of “terrorism” is, like the specter of “communism” during the McCarthy period of fear and repression, being fanned and fostered by the misguided, dishonest, hypocritical and undemocratic practices on the part of the U.S. Government and its corporate allies at home and abroad. Remember that democracy is not spread at the tip of a sword, in the muzzle of rifles, or by horrific explosions of cluster and/or so-called ‘smart’ bombs and the like. It is terrorism that is in fact fostered and spread by these things, not democracy.

We must always remember that unjust wars abroad, and political repression, subterfuge, and disinformation at home go hand and hand.

We must struggle to reverse the increasing political repression in this nation and bring about an immediate end to the unjust U.S. wars abroad. We must struggle for genuine (not fake) single payer universal health care, for full employment, decent housing, and relevant education, judicial accountability and justice, an end to the new and hideous form of racism and economic apartheid gentrification in communities throughout this nation. We must struggle for real and serious systemic change and an end to corporate capitalist de facto hegemony.

No more unjust wars! No more COINTELPRO! No more PATRIOT ACT and its concomitant political repression at home! No more lies! Let us stop allowing this administration to give political cover to repression at home and Empire abroad! Enough!

“Change we can believe in?” The only real change that we can believe in is the change that we the people demand, organize for, and bring about ourselves!

Life to the masses of people in this nation and around the world! Onward then sisters and brothers! It’s time to intensify in speaking truth to power and educate, agitate, and organize. Remember: “Don’t Mourn. ORGANIZE!”

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn].

blackcommentator.com

Former city manager suing Benton Harbor

Marsh wants his job back as well as unspecified damages
J. Swidwa - H-P, Wednesday, November 4, 2009

(Article with commentary in bold)

ST. JOSEPH - Former City Manager Richard Marsh is suing the city of Benton Harbor under the state's Whistleblower Protection Act, alleging that he was shown the door after he reported suspected criminal activity and irregularities related to the city's finances. MARSH CARRIED OUT HIS OWN INVESTIGATION AND FOUND CORRUPTION IN THE CITY FINANCE DEPT.

In his lawsuit, Marsh is asking for his job back, along with an unspecified amount in damages. In a complaint filed Friday in Berrien County Trial Court, Marsh alleges the City Commission's actions caused him loss of earnings and career opportunities, mental and emotional distress, and loss of reputation and esteem. HE CAN'T DO WORSE THAN ANYONE ELSE WHO'S BEEN CITY MANAGER.

He alleges the city's actions were malicious and deliberate. WE AGREE 100%. CITY ACTIONS WERE DESIGNED TO SEND A MESSAGE FROM WHIRLPOOL TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE CITY MNGR.

City Attorney Charlette Pugh Tall did not return a phone call from The Herald-Palladium seeking comment Tuesday.
NO SURPRISE - WHIRLPOOL DIDN'T GIVE HER PERMISSION TO CALL.

Marsh alleges the City Commission's 6-2 vote not to renew his contract, which expired Sept. 11, was in retaliation for his requests for an investigation into alleged unethical and illegal conduct by Commissioner Eddie Marshall and for Marsh's attempt to make an auditor's memo a subject of public discussion. Marsh released the memo to the media after commissioners refused to place it on a meeting agenda. MARSH FAILED TO CHECK WITH WHIRLPOOL BEFORE REQUESTING THE INVESTIGATION!

WHEN HE GOT THE JOB HE KNEW WHIRLPOOL RUNS EVERYTHING IN THE COUNTY, INCLUDING HIS POSITION. HE FINALLY DISCOVERED THE CORPORATION WAS MAKING HIM DO THINGS WHICH WERE ILLEGAL.

In the lawsuit, Marsh claims he was instructed by the mayor and certain members of the commission that the memo from Plante & Moran listing problems in the city's Finance Department was not to be the subject of public discussion.

At a meeting Aug. 3, Mayor Wilce Cooke and Commissioners Marshall, Ralph Crenshaw, Ricky Hill, David Shaw and Juanita Henry voted not to renew Marsh's contract. James Hightower and Bryan Joseph voted against the resolution. MARSHALL'S LUCKY THEY DIDN'T VOTE TO SHOOT HIM FOR REQUESTING AN INVESTIGATION!

"I think it's sad and it's tragic that here we go again with another lawsuit that the city has to deal with because of decisions and behaviors of the mayor and some commissioners that were not in the best interest of the city," Joseph said Tuesday after learning of Marsh's lawsuit. "Richard Marsh was truly doing a good job. When people speak the truth and try to get to the bottom of problems, they're let go. Once again, it's a revolving door."
YOU'RE NEXT, JOSEPH - YOU'LL BE GONE AFTER NEXT ELECTION.

Benton Harbor has had 14 city managers in the last 20 years. Neighboring St. Joseph has had two in 40 years. OK.
"How can the city move forward when we don't have stability and continuity and we keep changing city managers? This is what will continue to happen as long as we keep changing city managers," Joseph said. "Some people just have their own personal agendas."
Marsh's suit was filed by the law firm of Taglia, Fette, Dumke & White of St. Joseph.
The complaint alleges Marsh got a three-month employment evaluation but never got the one-year evaluation called for in his contract. Following his three-month evaluation, he got a raise. He alleges that the previously good working relationship he had with elected officials deteriorated quickly after he complained to the mayor and commissioners about the behavior of Commissioner Marshall. WE HOPE HE WINS THE LAWSUIT.

Marsh alleges Marshall has conducted fundraising events in the city's name but never turned any money over to the city.
Marsh's lawsuit also says Benton Harbor citizens told him about suspected unethical and illegal conduct by Marshall, including that he took "kickbacks" from contractors doing business with the city, that he failed to pay his own water and sewer bills and that he solicited gifts and loans from people and organizations doing business with the city.
At a City Commission meeting, Marshall said he raises money in the name of a nonprofit charity he established, not in the name of the city.
When The Herald-Palladium later asked Marshall for the name of his nonprofit charity, he said his lawyer had advised him not to tell the name.

Contacted Tuesday regarding Marsh's lawsuit, Marshall said, "If there was funds missing, I'd like for him to provide me with the amount collected and the amount missing. I'll see him in court." LOOK NO FARTHER THAN YOUR POCKET, MARSHALL.

Marsh's lawsuit alleges that after the city failed to act on his concerns about Marshall, he asked for an FBI investigation.

The suit claims that certain members of the City Commission schemed to remove Marsh as city manager "to prevent public scrutiny of their own conduct and to keep doing business as usual." TRUE.

CITY MANAGERS WILL CONTINUE TO LEAVE THE JOB AFTER REALIZING IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO CARRY OUT THEIR DUTIES IN A DEMOCRATIC WAY WITH THE CORPORATION IN CONTROL.

Harbor Shores News

We have some extremely important developments to tell you about. The first is that we are finally a 501 (c)(3) organization which means all donations are now tax deductable! Another development is that we have been assigned a hearing date for the Michigan Court of Appeals in Grand Rapids for Tuesday, November 3rd , of next week. We don’t anticipate that a ruling will be made on that day, and expect that a decision could take up to 6 months. That means that the wait is more than likely not over. We hope that you will please consider making a donation at this time. The fight to return Jean Klock Park’s land to the general public has been, and will continue to be, costly in every way.

On Wednesday, October 21st , representatives from the City of Benton Harbor and Harbor Shores went before the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund Board (MNRTF) to present an overdue report on the progress of the park improvements, the mitigated parcels and trail way system. The MNRTF Board was the first to approve the conversion and mitigation proposal of the park and was given a slide presentation that showed that the developers did not do what they had promised. It was shown that much more than 22.11 acres of land was developed, and that in essence, all that is left or accessible to the public is the strand of beach. You may view a side-by-side comparison on the new web page “A Strand of Beach.”

The MNRTF Board was not pleased with what has transpired and indicated that the situation had been in part mishandled by them. As a result, the current MNRTF Board and the DNR are requiring some additional review of the conversion and are requiring the developers to answer specific questions that have either went unanswered or have since arisen.

Recently we received a notification of a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) public hearing regarding the paths and boardwalks on mitigated parcels B, C, and D for the conversion of JKP. The permit also calls for the excavation of 1,747 cubic yards of “unsuitable soils” to then be replaced with sand and limestone. The application does not mention any type of remediation for direct contact criteria of contaminated soils and areas; but every replacement parcel for the conversion area of JKP, except for parcel C, does require some form of remediation before they can be safe for public use. You can find a link to the public notice and permit application on the home page of the newly rebuilt website of the Friends of Jean Klock Park at: www.savejeanklockpark.org
The meeting will be held on Monday, November 9, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. at Michigan Works! 499 West Main Street, Benton Harbor, Michigan, 49022.

There has been no decision as yet of the separate Federal lawsuit hearing that took place on August 28th. We will notify you as soon as one has been reached. For more information you can go to: www.protectjkp.com

We will be resuming monthly meetings beginning in November and will send a notice when we have scheduled a time and location. In the meantime please visit our newly restructured website at www.savejeanklockpark.org. While there, we hope that you will make an online donation through the safe and secure PayPal account we have set up.

Thank you for your on-going support and as always we ask that you forward this update to friends and family who also care about our public heritage!

Carol Drake
Vice President
Friends of Jean Klock Park
www.savejeanklockpark.org

FBI shoots Detroit Imam 18 times, handcuffs him, then airlifts a police dog to hospital.

1,000 mourn the Imam at his funeral


http://www.freep.com/article/20091031/NEWS02/910310367/1318/Islamic-leaders-family-urges-investigation-into-his-death

Government should heed calls to investigatge Abdullah's death

http://www.freep.com/article/20091031/BLOG2505/91031023/1068/OPINION/Government-should-heed-calls-to-investigatge-Abdullahs-death

Prayers and Criticism in Wake of Detroit Imam’s Killing by F.B.I.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/us/31dearborn.html

FBI agents assassinate Michigan Islamic leader

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Detroit
Published Oct 29, 2009 9:31 PM

A well-known African-American Islamic leader in Detroit was shot to death by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on Oct. 28 at a warehouse in Dearborn. Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, who headed the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque on the city’s west side, was killed during a series of raids by both federal agents and local police departments that resulted in the arrest of 11 people.

Corporate media reports on the killing of Imam Abdullah and the arrest of the others frame this as a “counter-terrorism’ operation, even though the criminal complaints said to be the basis for the raids made no specific allegations of violations of federal law or acts of terrorism.

A joint statement issued by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office states that “The 11 defendants are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years and known to be armed.”

However, many people who knew Imam Abdullah and the members of Masjid Al-Haqq say that the group worked to rid the severely oppressed community where the mosque existed of the social ills resulting from years of exploitation and neglect.

Even the mosque itself fell victim to the economic crisis that is worsening in Detroit. On Jan. 20, Masjid Al-Haqq was evicted from the building where it had been housed for years as a result of tax foreclosure. The mosque relocated at a home on Clairmount, which was also raided on Oct. 28.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Michigan chapter, said of Imam Abdullah that “I know him as a respected imam in the Muslim community.”

Walid continued, “We have no information about illegal activity going on at that mosque.” Walid said Imam Abdullah “would give the shirt off his back to people. The congregation he led was poor. He fed very hungry people in the neighborhood who were Christian. He helped and assisted a lot of troubled youth. People would come up to him who were hungry and he would let them sleep in the mosque. He would let them in from the elements.” (Detroit News, Oct. 29)

The CAIR leader said, “They have no linkage to terrorism nationally or internationally. What in the world does Islam have to do with these charges? Why is religion being brought into play?”

Resurrecting Cointelpro

Not only are the FBI and the corporate media utilizing the false construct of “Islamic extremism,” they are also attempting to draw a direct link between the revolutionary movements that emerged during the 1960s and the arrest of the Masjid Al-Haqq members and the death of Imam Abdullah.

Because of a close relationship between Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, and Imam Abdullah during previous years, the role of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Black Panther Party (BPP) have been evoked in news coverage of the FBI and police raids. Imam Al-Amin first served as a field organizer for SNCC and later national chair of the civil rights and black power group in 1967-68.

Al-Amin, who is currently serving a life sentence in Georgia after being convicted in the death of a deputy sheriff and the wounding of another in Atlanta in 2000, also briefly held the position of Minister of Justice in the Black Panther Party during 1968. Imam Al-Amin served as SNCC chair during a period of extreme repression against the organization in 1967-68.

Al-Amin has always maintained his innocence in the deaths of the law-enforcement officers in Atlanta and for many years has sought to win an appeal of his case. Reports from the Georgia prison system where he is being held indicate that he has been harassed and placed in isolation on numerous occasions.

SNCC was partly blamed by the FBI and the corporate media during 1967-68 for the urban rebellions that erupted in more than 200 cities. The Black Panther Party was to suffer the brunt of the Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro) operations that were directed against the African-American community.

More than two dozen members of the BPP were killed between 1968 and 1971 when former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had labeled the organization as the most dangerous threat to the national security of the United States. Hundreds of Panthers and other revolutionaries of the time were arrested and railroaded through the courts. Many others were driven into exile abroad and forced underground inside the United States.

According to the FBI complaint, which consists of 45 pages of highly spurious allegations, Abdullah “calls his followers to an offensive jihad” and says they should “have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed.”

Nonetheless, David Nu’man, who lives in Detroit and considered Imam Abdullah a friend, stresses that he is very skeptical about the claims made against the Islamic leader and his followers. “It doesn’t seem to be of his character.” (Detroit News, Oct. 29)

Ron Scott, one of the founding members of the Detroit chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, spoke to the Pan-African News Wire about the death of Imam Abdullah and the arrests of the Masjid Al-Haqq members.

Scott, now the spokesperson for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and a media host on the locally broadcast “For My People” television show, as well as the “Fighting for Justice” radio program aired every week, expressed disbelief at the allegations made against Abdullah and those arrested.

“This reflects a standard of repression that we have not seen in a long time,” Scott told the Pan-African News Wire on Oct. 29. “There should be an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Imam Abdullah.”

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) discussed the killing of Imam Abdullah at their weekly meeting on Oct. 28 in Detroit. The next day, in a telephone call to the offices of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, a MECAWI representative expressed the organization’s condolences and solidarity with the Islamic community.

MECAWI offered its support to any protest efforts geared towards seeking justice in the death of Imam Abdullah and the arrests of the other Muslim members of Masjid Al-Haqq. Walid, the executive director who took MECAWI’s call, expressed his appreciation for the sympathy and concern conveyed by the anti-war organization.

Backdrop to the death of Imam Abdullah

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, repression against the Islamic, Middle-Eastern and South Asian communities in the U.S. has escalated at an alarming rate. A number of people have been attacked and even killed in racist violence.

Many more people from these communities have been imprisoned unjustly and deported. A number of charitable organizations have been taken into court for allegedly funding “terrorist” groups and some have been forced to shut down by the U.S. government.

Even the CAIR has been targeted by these governmental efforts. In Texas during 2007, members of an Islamic charity were put on trial for supposedly funding Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Conversion to the Islamic faith within the African-American community has been taking place at a phenomenal rate over the last few decades. The federal government has used both the scourge of anti-Islamic hysteria and racism to enhance the repressive apparatus in the United States. This pattern of surveillance, harassment and entrapment is utilized in a desperate attempt by Homeland Security and the Pentagon to build support for the ongoing wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In addition to these Middle-Eastern and Asian nations, the countries of Sudan and Somalia on the African continent, which are predominantly Muslim, have also been focal points for U.S. imperialist intervention over the last several years. Many of the developing nations that have been identified by the U.S. imperialists for destabilization and occupation have majority Muslim populations of people of color.

Consequently, anti-war, civil rights and human rights organizations should view the current wave of repression against the Islamic community as having both a domestic and foreign policy objective. Demonizing the Islamic community, whether the Muslims are of African, Middle-Eastern or Asian descent, provides a mechanism for the repressive apparatus of the state to justify the continuation and escalation of military involvement abroad.

At the same time, the increasing repression against the African-American, Islamic, Latino/a and other working class communities inside the United States is designed to hamper the ability of people to organize against the growing economic crisis that is disproportionately affecting the oppressed peoples inside the domestic confines of the country.

Nonetheless, the fight against this wave of repression can potentially bring together workers and the oppressed from broad sections of the United States into an alliance with the developing countries that are under increasing threat by U.S. imperialism.

Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Rev. Pinkney still on limited probation for four years

Berrien County Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh lifted Pinkney's tether probation


One has to wonder about Butzbaugh. What motivated him to ease up on Pinkney? Of course, not totally: Pinkney and the rest of us need to understand that there will be limitations on our liberty if we speak the truth too loudly.

Butzbaugh is still not in compliance with the Mich. Court of Appeals decision handed down in the summer. If he was, Pinkney would be free, as he should have been all along.

Butzbaugh does NOT want Pinkney observing what goes on in his courthouse. This activity, so needed in Berrien county, was a part of Pinkney's daily routine for years. Note the third probation condition below from Butzbaugh's Oct. 13 order (all are in effect until July 2013):

1.) Pinkney must be inside his home between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. 2.) He can't engage in "assaultive, abusive, harassing, violent, threatening, or intimidating behavior, or any defamatory or demeaning communications as to Glen Yarbrough or the Benton Harbor city commissioners," according to Butzbaugh's Oct. 13 modified order. 3.) Pinkney must stay at least 1,000 feet away from Butzbaugh; except Pinkney may be in the Berrien County courthouse to report to his probation officer "and to participate in a court hearing to which you are a party."

If he is convicted of violating any of his probation conditions, he could be sent back to prison. Butzbaugh ordered Pinkney to pay $105/week to wear a tether. In Berrien, they ruin lives every hour of every day, through heavy court costs (ie, tether fees), false convictions, you name it. By any means necessary they make Benton Harbor "resort-ready."

The Mich. Court of Appeals threw out Pinkney's probation violation, saying it violated his right to free speech. (Pinkney wrote an article criticizing Butzbaugh.) Butzbaugh has been in denial of the higher court decision. His inaction serves to remind all familiar with Berrien County Court behavior that they continue to be the rogue court of Michigan. They are able to do as they wish without regulation, supervision, or oversight.

Those who pay attention know that Whirlpool Corp. and Rep. Fred Upton are the actual "regulators" of the courthouse and everything county-wide, Gov. Granholm backs the Whirlpool-Upton cartel, and the corruption goes on and on and on. Granholm and the state of Michigan could care less that human rights abuses are beyond out-of-control in this southwest region.

Save Jean Klock Park
Our legal challenge is continuing - our fight is not over!

Friends of Jean Klock Park would like to see the entire park preserved and used as an outdoor classroom for area school children and the community. Such a use would draw tourists to a growing list of eco-tourism locations throughout the state.

We feel the City of Benton Harbor and surrounding communities can have the diversity of both a championship golf course AND an incredible natural asset for the growing eco-tourism industry by preserving Jean Klock Park. Tourism depends on many factors and that type of diversity is a WIN-WIN combination!

The Friends of Jean Klock Park include all and everyone who is opposed to further encroachment of Jean Klock Park. We believe that through the collaborative effort of public participation we can preserve Jean Klock Park and restore its use as a local, regional and world class tourist destination.

A separate and equally important Federal Court lawsuit regarding violations of environmental law is ongoing as well. For more information about the contaminated land that's being used to replace pristine sand dunes please visit www.protectjkp.com.
http://www.savejeanklockpark.org