Ninth Circuit Rules: “Ashcroft Is Not Above The Law” By Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney
September 06, 2009 “Information Clearing House“

In a critical case which could determine the future of “preventive detention” in the U.S., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that ex-Attorney General John Ashcroft can be sued for arresting Muslims as material witnesses as a pretext for investigating their possible links to terrorism. The 2 to 1 ruling (all three judges were Reagan or Bush appointees) is a setback for hardliners in the Bush administration who maintain that the state has the right to circumvent the 4th amendment and imprison “suspects” without establishing probable cause. Judge Milan Smith–a George W. Bush appointee–reproached Ashcroft’s conduct in an eloquent defense of the Constitution and basic civil liberties:

“Almost two and a half centuries ago, William Blackstone, considered by many to be the preeminent pre-Revolutionary War authority on the common law, wrote:
‘To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom. But confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to gaol, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten; is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.” (WILLIAM BLACKSTONE)

Resistance leader: US is behind the coup by Federico Fuentes

Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly

by Federico Fuentes and Kiraz Janicke
Green Left

7 September 2009

In Sao Paolo, Brazil, over August 17-19, Green Left Weekly journalists Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes, together with journalists from Marea Socialista (Venezuela) and Alternativa Socialista (Argentina) spoke to Gilberto Rios, from the National Popular Resistance Front against the Coup in Honduras (FN).

They discussed the large resistance movement against the coup that ousted the democratically elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, on June 28.

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How is the Honduran oligarchy sustaining itself in the face of the growing mass movement against the coup?

The oligarchy does not have the capacity to orchestrate the media campaign that is happening now throughout the country. The media campaign, the government’s policy, and the mobilisation of the police and army are a result of CIA planning. It is confirmed that there is a CIA group working in [the Honduran capital] Tegucigalpa directing the coup.

It is really US support that has sustained the coup.

What do you think will happen next in Honduras?

A Conversation with Honduras President Zelaya + Mr. Zelaya goes to Washington

C-SPAN
09/02/2009
Center for Economic and Policy Research
George Washington University – Latin American and Hemispheric Studies Program
1 hour, 21 minutes
Washington, DC, United States

Deposed Honduran President Zelaya spoke about the political situation in Honduras and U.S.-backed efforts to negotiate a solution to the turmoil caused by a coup that had ousted him from power. He spoke about his plans to return and called on the United States to match its strong words of condemnation for the coup with actions. In his remarks he urged the Obama administration to cut off tens of millions of dollars in assistance to the de facto government and freeze the visas and assets of those involved in plotting his overthrow. Following his speech he answered questions from the audience. In Spanish with voiceover translation.

via A Conversation with Honduras President Zelaya 288665-1 : C-SPAN Video Library | Created by Cable. Offered as a Public Service.

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Mr. Zelaya goes to Washington

TheRealNews
September 06, 2009

Ousted Honduran President brings his story to DC, gets a deceptive response from US State Dept. and gives a short democracy lesson to a Capitol City audience.

more about “Mr. Zelaya goes to Washington“, posted with vodpod

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Eyewitness Honduras: Resistance to the Coup D’Etat

Honduran resistance goes it alone

Coup Protestor Gang-Raped by Honduran Police

Military Coup Honduras Zelaya

U.S., Afghans investigating NATO deadly airstrike in Konduz

currentsituation
September 05, 2009

Press TV, Kabul

more about “U.S., Afghans investigating NATO dead…“, posted with vodpod

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America is a “Failed Democracy”: Its People want Peace, and its Elected Officials make War by Sherwood Ross

Following Afghan Election, NATO Intensifies Deployments, Carnage by Rick Rozoff

Kucinich Condemns NATO Strike in Afghanistan

NATO air raid kills ‘100 civilians’ in Afghanistan

Afghanistan on Dandelion Salad

NATO

America is a “Failed Democracy”: Its People want Peace, and its Elected Officials make War by Sherwood Ross

by Sherwood Ross
Global Research, September 5, 2009

The war in Afghanistan today hangs like some cloud of poison gas over Washington that won’t blow away. It sickens everything as it spreads. It continues to suck precious tax dollars out of the Treasury, money this country cannot afford to squander, especially as millions of Americans are sinking into poverty and joblessness exceeds ten percent. Writing in USA Today last March 10th, Susan Page reported, “In one year, 24 million slide from ‘thriving’ to ‘struggling’ and “Some fear that the American dream may be in peril as well.” Worse, the U.S. is turning poverty-plagued Afghanistan, a long-suffering nation of 25 million souls into another Iraq, perhaps even another Viet Nam. Afghanistan has already been under U.S. assault for eight years and President Obama’s top military advisers are telling him it will take many more years to achieve “victory,” a term having utterly no meaning for skyrocketing numbers of dead and dismembered civilians.

Following Afghan Election, NATO Intensifies Deployments, Carnage by Rick Rozoff

by Rick Rozoff
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/message/41521
September 6, 2009

After NATO pledged 5,000 more troops for the war in Afghanistan at its sixtieth anniversary summit In Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany this April, U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the commitment as representing “a strong down payment on the future of our mission in Afghanistan and on the future of NATO.”

The Alliance offer was in addition to Obama’s own vow to deploy 21,000 more American forces to the war-wracked nation where the U.S. is waging its longest war since that in Vietnam and NATO is fighting the first ground and first Asian war in its history. A conflict that will enter its ninth calendar year next month.

Chavez: No proof Iran building nuclear bomb + America, beware: Chavez is no clown!

Ynetnews
AFP
09.05.09, 14:40

Upon his arrival in Tehran, Venezuelan leader says Islamic Republic pursuing peaceful nuclear energy

President Hugo Chavez, who arrived in Tehran Saturday, said in remarks rebroadcast on Venezuelan television that Iran will “not back down” in its quest for peaceful nuclear energy.

“There is no proof that Iran is producing a nuclear weapon,” he said during a ceremony at Tehran’s airport. “Next they’ll accuse us of manufacturing a nuclear bomb.”

[...]

via Chavez: No proof Iran building nuclear bomb – Israel News, Ynetnews

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America, beware: Chavez is no clown!

RussiaToday
September 04, 2009 [replaced video Sept 10, 2009]

In an exclusive interview with RT’s Anastasia Churkina, popular author Nikolas Kozloff explains what Hugo Chavez is about, and what the U.S. has been missing out on in its neglect of Latin America.

more about “America, beware: Chavez is no clown!“, posted with vodpod

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Former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Dore Gold talked about the threat posed by a future nuclear Iran

NATO official: Iran could fire conventional or nuclear missiles into Europe in the foreseeable future

Noam Chomsky Meets with Chavez in Venezuela