tagged w/ Center for Constitutional Rights
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U.S. Victim’s Father Hopes Documents May Shed Light on Son’s Killing
CONTACT: press@ccrjustice.org
May 24, 20011, Washington, D.C. – The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today launched a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking immediate release of documents that the United States government has refused to provide regarding its knowledge of and role in the deadly May 31, 2010 attack by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Among the nine civilians killed was 18-year-old U.S. citizen Furkan Doğan who was shot several times as he was filming the 4:00 a.m. raid, and then shot in the face at point blank range as he lay there wounded. Fifteen other U.S. citizens participated in the flotilla, including five who traveled on a U.S. registered boat; many were beaten and injured.
Said Professor Ahmet Doğan, father of Furkan, “I have travelled twice to Washington, D.C. seeking answers and support in my efforts to achieve justice and accountability for my son’s killing. So far, my efforts have not been successful. I call upon the United States government to at least release information related to the flotilla attack and what it knows about my son’s death. Why isn’t the United States investigating the death of a U.S. citizen in this case?”
The federal lawsuit, Center for Constitutional Rights v. Department of Defense, et al was filed in the Southern District of New York against the Defense Department as well as numerous other federal departments, including Justice and State, and various components of the U.S. military. The initial FOIA requests were filed nearly 11 months ago: only two agencies responded, and their responses were wholly inadequate, according to the suit.
“One year after the deadly attack on the humanitarian flotilla, the American public has been told nothing about what actions, if any, the United States undertook to ensure that U.S. citizens and other civilians were protected when they sailed towards Gaza,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney, Katherine Gallagher. “A U.S. citizen was killed and the U.S. has not conducted an independent investigation into his killing in international waters by a foreign military. Indeed, the State Department did not even mention the killing of Furkan Doğan in its recently released Human Rights report on Israel. We need to know what our government is doing to protect us – and hold those to account who harm U.S. citizens.”
The attack by Israeli commandos took place in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea against a six-boat humanitarian flotilla headed to Gaza with more than 700 civilian passengers. One of the ships was registered in the U.S. The flotilla sought to bring food and other humanitarian supplies to the people of Gaza, who have been living under an Israeli blockade for nearly five years.
Commandos seized the property of U.S. citizens, including a video camera that recorded the raid, and Israel continues to retain control of this property. The Center for Constitutional Rights is seeking communications from and to the U.S. agencies named in the lawsuit that relate to the preservation of evidence that might shed light on the death of Furkan Doğan. The Center further seeks any documents that could show what steps the Department of State, Department of Justice and other agencies have taken to ensure that Furkan’s death be properly and independently investigated. The United Nations Fact-Finding Mission concluded that the refusal of Israel to return this personal property is, “a deliberate attempt by the Israeli authorities to suppress or destroy evidence and other information related to the events of 31 May.” The full UN report can be viewed here (PDF).(Link for file and more at source ) http;//figrd.blogspot.com (for pic only)U.S. Victim’s Father Hopes Documents May Shed Light on Son’s Killing... more
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The, uh...self-appointed "prince of peace" continues to spew his usual.....
By Matthew Rothschild, January 20, 2011
Frances Fox Piven is a distinguished professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
At 78, she has taught several generations of students about how and why poor people don’t get a fair shake in the United States and how to increase their organizational power and encourage voter registration.
Such scholarship, evidently, is too much for Glenn Beck, who several months ago started to wage a nasty campaign against her.
He’s falsely accused her of being “an enemy of the Constitution” and an advocate of “violent revolution” and has listed her as one of the nine most dangerous people in the world.
Since he started to air these attacks, Piven has begun receiving death threats.
“I got e-mails that said, ‘Die You C***,’ and ‘May cancer find you soon,’ ” she tells The Progressive. “And people are posting my address on the Internet with their messages that are really crude and ugly and violent.”
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, several death threats against her have been posted on Beck’s website.
Here are a few:
“Be very careful what you ask for honey…A few well placed marksmen with high powered rifles…”
“Maybe they should burst through the front door of the arrogant elitist and slit the cow’s throat.”
“Somebody tell Frances I have 5,000 rounds ready.”
“We should blow up Piven’s office and home.”
“Let’s go string her up.”
“Snap her little chicken neck. This pinko filth needs a long dirt nap.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights just sent a letter to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News, urging him “to intervene and bring a stop to …the reckless endangering of the safety of Professor Piven.”
The letter, signed by executive director Vincent Warren and legal director William Quigley, concludes: “Professor Piven’s life could be at stake.”The, uh...self-appointed "prince of peace" continues to spew his usual........ more
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The ACLU recently warned that the Obama Administration was in danger of establishing a "New Normal" by continuing with the WORST policies of the Bush administration.
This includes monitoring our internet use, the recent legalization of what was previously illegal wiretapping, and yet another extension of the police-state loving USAPATRIOT act. Guantanamo bay is still open in blatant violation of international law, 9 years after September 11th.
But now, Obama has exceeded Bush in terms of police-state douchebaggery.
The Bush administration never claimed to have the authority to assassinate US citizens.
The Obama administration, however, has.
And the left has largely been quiet about this. Well hopefully, the left will finally wipe the post-election confetti out of their eyes and wake up to what's really going on in their country. With their president.
The ACLU along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) recently filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration challenging this very claim to authority, on the behalf of the father of an assassination target- and U.S. Citizen.
Or they would have, that is, except for this legal manuver by the US government. From Glenn Greenwald:
...regulations promulgated several years ago by the Treasury Department prohibit U.S. persons from engaging in any transactions with individuals labeled by the Government as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist," and those regulations specifically bar lawyers from providing legal services to such individuals without a special "license" from the Treasury Department specifically allowing such representation."
So it turns out that the Treasury Dept stepped in two weeks after the suit was filed to label Anwar al-Awalaki a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" which one can only assume was specifically done by the Obama administration to block the suit against them, and retain the authority to assassinate US Citizens.
Well, in response to that, the ACLU has filed a suit agains the US Treasury and Timothy Geithner, saying, that the entire thing is insanely unconstitutional-- that the US Treasury has no constitutional authority to designate people as terrorists, that the US Government has no right to deny US Citizens access to a lawyer.
If the ACLU and CCR lose this case, we're going to be living in a nation where the government can legally pick out "problem citizens" and kill them on sight. Which is actually the country we're living in right now.
If this doesn't bother you, if this doesn't send up a red flag in the pit of your soul that says, "this is incredibly fucked" then maybe it's because you've already adjusted your psyche to accept the New Normal.
(full post with links to supporting articles after the jump)The ACLU recently warned that the Obama Administration was in danger of establishing a... more
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asherp
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1 year ago
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According to a lawsuit just filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, U.S. prison units specially designed to muzzle communications by inmates considered extremist are unconstitutional and discriminate against Muslims.According to a lawsuit just filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, U.S. prison... more
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In high-profile court cases, the NSA has refused to confirm or deny the existence of the documents detailing the surveillance of lawyers who represent prisoners of the so-called "war on terror," on the grounds that knowledge of the existence or nonexistence of the documents is itself a classified piece of information.
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Ok, there's a lesson here. Republicans brought us war abroad and totalitarianism at home. Democrats bring us war abroad and totalitarianism at home. But - get this - there are OTHER OPTIONS. Obama voters, get ready to make up for your mistake in 2010 and 2012!In high-profile court cases, the NSA has refused to confirm or deny the existence of... more
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Katrina Pain Index 2009 is a solidarity message from Bill Quigley to Hurricane Katrina survivors in NYC at the Katrina Remembrance Aug. 29, 2009. Bill more...Quigley is a human rights lawyer on leave from Loyola University to serve as legal directior for the Center for Constitutional Rights. For a pirinted version of the article "Katrina Pain Index 2009" contact Bill Quigley at quigley77@gmail.com. This video was shot by Johnnie Stevens and Dalia Grinan. Mayibuye2@Yahoo.comKatrina Pain Index 2009 is a solidarity message from Bill Quigley to Hurricane Katrina... more
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The Obama administration said Friday that it is abandoning one of President George W. Bush's key phrases in the war on terrorism: enemy combatant.
The Justice Department said in legal filings that it will no longer use the term to justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
But that won't change much for the detainees at the U.S. naval base in Cuba — Obama still asserts the military's authority to hold them.
Human rights attorneys said they were disappointed that Obama didn't take a new stance.
"This is really a case of old wine in new bottles," the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has been fighting the detainees' detention, said in a statement. "It is still unlawful to hold people indefinitely without charge. The men who have been held for more than seven years by our government must be charged or released."
In another court filing Thursday, the Obama administration tried to protect top Bush administration military officials from lawsuits brought by prisoners who say they were tortured while being held at Guantanamo Bay.
[Cont'd at link]The Obama administration said Friday that it is abandoning one of President George W.... more
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GO TO THE PAGE, THERE ARE TWO (2) VIDEOS!!!!!!_______________
Last week, the Center for Constitutional Rights went to court to fight the Bush administration's post-9/11 racial profiling and round-ups of hundreds of immigrant Muslim, Arab, and South Asian men in the New York area.
Click here to watch a video of CCR attorney Rachel Meeropol and lead plaintiff Ibrahim Turkmen talking about the case.
We argued the appeal in our case,
Turkmen v. Ashcroft, which is an important legal challenge to the government's abuse of power in fighting the so-called "war on terror."
In actions reminiscent of the internment of thousands of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the months after 9/11 our government rounded up and detained hundreds of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian immigrants to determine whether they had any ties to terrorism.
Held on the pretext of minor immigration violations, these men were kept in super-maximum security confinement and abused for months as their deportation was delayed so that the FBI could investigate them.
Often the men were picked up on evidence no more specific than a phone call to the authorities in which someone said, "my neighbor is an Arab and keeps strange hours."
Click here to read more about the abuse they suffered while detained and other details of the case.
The men weren't detained because there was evidence connecting them to terrorism—they were swept up and detained because of their race, religion, and ethnicity. Because they were Arab and Muslim men of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent, they were presumed guilty of terrorism until proven innocent.
In 2002, we filed Turkmen v. Ashcroft, a class action suit on behalf of the men held in New York and New Jersey, against the United States and 31 government officials and employees, including then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and former INS Commissioner James Ziglar.
A lower court judge ruled in our favor on many of the charges, including keeping the high-level officials on the hook for what happened, so last Thursday's arguments were a cross appeal by both sides.
More than five years after the case was filed, and long after all the men have been deported to their home countries, CCR continues to demand accountability for the racial profiling and indiscriminate detentions that followed in the wake of 9/11.
We await a ruling from the panel of judges and hope that it will bring our clients one step closer to justice. Please go here to watch a video and learn more about this important case.
Sincerely,
Vincent Warren
CCR Executive Director
GO TO THE PAGE, THERE ARE TWO (2) VIDEOS!!!!!!_______________
Last week, the Center... more
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