Stop State Sponsored Murder

The state of Georgia and the Supreme Court are about to murder an innocent man. It will come as no surprise that this man is a working class African American. Democracy Now! has covered this story in great detail, which you can find here (http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008925amy_goodmans_new_column_troy_davis_and_the_supreme_decision). Today, the European Parliament condemned it (see AP story below). Remember: A rich, white man has NEVER been executed by the state in America!

Rally For Troy Davis

Thursday, October 23 5:30 p.m.
33rd Street and 8th Avenue, (SE corner)
New York City, NY

Stand Firm For Justice! Rally For Troy Davis In New York City

Join fellow activists in a rally to demand justice for Troy Davis

On Oct 14 the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Troy Davis?s petition and the State of Georgia has set an execution date of October 27, ignoring overwhelming evidence of his innocence. People throughout the United States are seriously disturbed by the thought of a possibly innocent man being executed. Nothing can undermine public faith in a criminal justice system faster than an execution when there are still serious doubts about guilt.

Join fellow New Yorkers on Thursday Oct. 23 as we call for the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant justice to Troy Davis and stop his execution.

For more information contact Alyce Stark, asce4@earthlink.net or Jamie Wood, jwood@aiusa.org

http://www.amnestyusa.org/events/northeast/october-23-rally-for-troy-davis-in-new-york-city/page.do?id=1091898

Here is the AP story:

EU legislature protests US death sentence

2 hours ago

STRASBOURG, France (AP) — The European parliament is strongly protesting plans to execute a man in the United States who has been sentenced to death for killing a police officer.

Troy Davis is scheduled to be executed in Georgia on Oct. 27, despite calls from his supporters to reconsider because seven of nine key witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. [my bold]

EU parliament head Hans-Gert Poettering says all executions are violations of human rights. He says the condemned American symbolizes the fate of all death row inmates, and vows the EU legislature "will fight against the death penalty under any circumstances everywhere in the world."

The 40-year-old Davis was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of 27-year-old Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail. His case has also attracted support from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jL2z4O3e7QjA1_VrRlYg0ynDmGSAD93VH4NG0

Petition for Justice for Uyghur Detainees

17 Uighur detainees still stuck in limbo at Guantanamo Bay:

Demand Justice for the Uighurs Now!

Online Action Center

17 Uighur detainees held at Guantánamo

In a landmark ruling on October 7, 2008, Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the government to release into the USA the 17 Uighur detainees still held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The government had earlier conceded that the 17 men are not "enemy combatants", but the government appealed the order, arguing that it "directly conflicts with the basic principle that the decision whether to admit an alien into the United States rests exclusively with the Executive".

On October 8, the appeals court granted a temporary stay to allow the government time to file its appeal. As Judge Urbina noted, "the separation of powers does not trump the right to liberty." [my bold] Call on the U.S. government to comply with the order, drop its appeals, bring the Uighur detainees into the USA, and work to find lawful, fair, safe and durable solutions in all their cases.

Several ways to take action:
1) Send the prewitten email below as is or use our bullets to personalize it
2) Send a fax or mailed letter using our template or in your own words using our bullets
3) Share this action with your friends and family

See the full Urgent Action for bullets and target addresses

Print sample letter: PDF | RTF (Word)
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/c.jhKPIXPCIoE/b.2590179/k.C43E/Take_Action_Online/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=11366&tr=y&auid=4106807

Evicted and Tortured for Olympic Games?!!!

These may be China's crimes, but it is still our moral obligation to help, in any way we can. Please spread the word and if you can, make a donation. Thank you.

While you and I are watching the Beijing Olympics in August, Ye Guozhu and thousands of other Chinese are going to be sitting in prison, locked up for peacefully protesting government policies.
You can help Amnesty International USA focus world attention on these prisoners of conscience, not just the star athletes and thrilling competition, with your donation to our China Olympics Legacy Campaign.
First, let me tell you about Ye Guozhu and his family, who were evicted from their home and restaurant in 2003, which were razed to make way for the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Three days after he requested permission to hold a public demonstration [my bold] against the forced evictions, Ye Guozhu was arrested. He was convicted of "stirring up trouble" and sentenced to four years in prison. In jail, he has reportedly been beaten, subjected to electro-shocks, and forced to hang from his arms for extended periods.
These next few weeks are crucial for our China Olympics Legacy Campaign. With your gift today, we will:

• Press U.S. officials to call for the release of peaceful human rights defenders like Ye Guozhu and others when meeting with Chinese officials during the Games

• Provide American athletes with toolkits to help them speak up - if they choose - about Chinese prisoners of conscience and the government's human rights record
• Encourage corporate sponsors such as Coca-Cola and McDonald's to use their influence to call for an end to ongoing abuses

While we're watching the Olympic Games on TV, many Chinese citizens are unable to speak out for basic human rights without the risk of persecution and prison. That means you and I must speak out on their behalf.
Please make a tax-deductible contribution to help Amnesty draw worldwide attention to the plight of Ye Guozhu and so many others like him. Together, you and I can send a message that everyone is entitled to human rights, whether they're a gold-medal-winning athlete or an ordinary Chinese citizen.

Help us shine a light on the unjust imprisonment of peaceful activists in China.

"Information Dominance" in the Land of the Free

What on earth are these people thinking when they come up with such subversion? This NY Times special report is way too important and long for a really good synopsis, but I hope this will wet your appetite enough to go to the source:
Message Machine
Behind Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand
By DAVID BARSTOW, April 20, 2008In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.
The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.
[...] Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.
The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.
[...] Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.
[...] Five years into the Iraq war, most details of the architecture and execution of the Pentagon’s campaign have never been disclosed. But The Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records describing years of private briefings, trips to Iraq and Guantánamo and an extensive Pentagon talking points operation.
These records reveal a symbiotic relationship where the usual dividing lines between government and journalism have been obliterated.
Internal Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as “message force multipliers” or “surrogates” who could be counted on to deliver administration “themes and messages” to millions of Americans “in the form of their own opinions.”
[...] Torie Clarke, the former public relations executive who oversaw the Pentagon’s dealings with the analysts as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, had come to her job with distinct ideas about achieving what she called “information dominance.” In a spin-saturated news culture, she argued, opinion is swayed most by voices perceived as authoritative and utterly independent.
And so even before Sept. 11, she built a system within the Pentagon to recruit “key influentials” — movers and shakers from all walks who with the proper ministrations might be counted on to generate support for Mr. Rumsfeld’s priorities.
[...] Don Meyer, an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to construct a case for war. Journalists were secondary. “We didn’t want to rely on them to be our primary vehicle to get information out,” Mr. Meyer said.
[...] Over time, the Pentagon recruited more than 75 retired officers, although some participated only briefly or sporadically. The largest contingent was affiliated with Fox News, followed by NBC and CNN, the other networks with 24-hour cable outlets. But analysts from CBS and ABC were included, too. Some recruits, though not on any network payroll, were influential in other ways — either because they were sought out by radio hosts, or because they often published op-ed articles or were quoted in magazines, Web sites and newspapers. At least nine of them have written op-ed articles for The Times.
The group was heavily represented by men involved in the business of helping companies win military contracts. [otherwise known as "WAR PROFITEERING"] Several held senior positions with contractors that gave them direct responsibility for winning new Pentagon business.
[...] Two of NBC’s most prominent analysts, Barry R. McCaffrey and the late Wayne A. Downing, were on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group created with White House encouragement in 2002 to help make the case for ousting Saddam Hussein. Both men also had their own consulting firms and sat on the boards of major military contractors.[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin