Cheney-Gonzales Bust Linked to Immigrant/Native American Abuse

After poking around the internet I've found up with a post which is more detailed and less "diplomatic" in describing the offenses committed by Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales:
Posted by Brenda Norrell - November 19, 2008 at 12:49 am
Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicted for criminal conspiracy in private prison profiteering, resulting in prisoner assaults
By Brenda Norrell
WILLACY COUNTY, Texas -- US Vice President Dick Cheney was indicted today for a prison profiteering scheme and charged with abuse of prisoners. Cheney invested millions in the Vanguard Group, an investment management company with interests in the prison companies in charge of detention centers. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also indicted in the prison profiteering scheme, resulting in ongoing prisoner assaults and at least one murder.
Human rights activists urged a probe into prison profiteering after the private prison corporations GEO Group and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) [my bold] began receiving enormous federal contracts to build detention centers to imprison migrants. [my bold] GEO's new migrant prisons including prisons in Laredo, Texas and Jena, Louisiana. [my bold] [dear old Jena, home of the notorious lynching tree and the Jena 6 --click on "Jena 6" in tags for more posts on that story]
Human rights activists said the fever-pitched racism mounted toward immigrants at the US/Mexico border was induced for the purpose of prison profiteering by US officials reaping enormous profits. The increased arrests of migrants resulted in profits and a long list of new prison construction contracts for the GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut, [my bold] both with a long history of assaults and murders in prisons.
A Texas grand jury indicted Cheney today and accused him of at least misdemeanor assaults of inmates by allowing inmates to assault fellow inmates. Gonzales was charged with having used his position to stop investigations into assaults committed in a prison for profit in Willacy County, Texas. Both Cheney and Gonzales were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted the GEO Group, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release in 2001. The indictment alleged the GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened at the Raymondville facility. A jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment in 2006. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment refers to the de la Rosa case.
Human rights activists protested both Raymondville and Hutto prisons in southwestern Texas in recent years. At Hutto, migrant women and children were abused. ICE refused to allow a UN Rapporteur into Hutto. [my bold]
During the Bush-Cheney regime, prisons of torture and prisons for migrants became synonymous with the name GEO, from Guantanamo to migrant prisons in the south and along the southwest border.
Cheney said Guantanamo was vital in 2005 and detainees could expect to be treated better here than "by virtually any other government on the face of the earth." Geo was awarded a contract for the continued management of the Migrant Operations Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Nov. 2, 2006. Recently, GEO received a contract for a migrant prison in Jena, La. GEO also received a contract for housing "criminal aliens" in the US, as stated on the GEO website.
GEO's migrant prisons were not restricted to the US. GEO also assumed a management contract in the Campsfield House Immigration Removal Center in England.
GEO was not the only one profiteering. The Wackenhut Corp. was also profiteering from transporting migrants from the border after their arrests. The two companies split in 2003.
All along the border, while GEO was building prisons, GEO's other half, Wackenhut Corp., was profiteering from the arrest of migrants from the borders.
The United States Customs and Border Protection agency entered into the contract with Wackenhut Corp., to transport arrested migrants from the border. Wackenhut is now the domestic subsidiary of the U.K.-based security giant Group 4 Securicor. [my bold]
It comes as no surprise that the Vanguard Group is also currently a major shareholder in Halliburton, [my bold] the longtime war profiteer in Iraq. Cheney's investments in the Vanguard Group are estimated at between $25 and $86 million, since exact numbers have not been released.
While the US filled its prisons with migrants, with a price on their heads, the number of Native American prisoners soared.
The US Department of Justice recently released a study showing that Native American inmates in Indian country jails increased by 24 percent between 2004 and 2007. [my bold] The figures for Native Americans in all facilities -- tribal, federal and state -- increased 4.5 percent. Suicides, attempted suicides, deaths and escapes were cited as the result of deteriorating prison conditions.
Human rights activists hope the indictments of Cheney and Gonzales are the first of many indictments of the Bush-Cheney administration.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2008/11/cheney-indicted-prison-profiteering-texas

Police Attack Activists in the USA

Let's not forget that ranting on the Internet is an illusion of freedom. It can be taken away in a New York minute, so as long as anyone can be arrested for thought crimes, we must all resist injustice.

JUSTICE FOR ACTIVIST LARRY HALES!
DROP ALL CHARGES!
FIGHT POLICE BRUTALITY!

Drop the Racist Frame-up Charges Against Larry Hales NOW!
On Nov. 30, 2007 African-American police brutality and anti-war activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops illegally busted into his home without a warrant and without permission, physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing frame-up charges of "interfering with the police" and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack.
Hales has been a primary organizer of a number of anti-imperialist and anti-racist events in Denver. He is a leader of the youth group FIST--Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; a founder of Colorado United Communities Against Police Brutality; and an organizer with the International Action Center and the Troops Out Now Coalition.
Hales is also a principal organizer in the Recreate 68 Committee, which is planning protests to counter the Democratic National Convention to be held in Denver in August.
At the time of the police attack, Hales and his partner Melissa Kleinman were housing a survivor of police brutality who was on parole. The man had been shot in the back by police and had filed a civil case against the Aurora police department. Hales had previously agreed to house visits by the man's parole officer, but only when the man was home.
[...] Police brutality is rampant in Denver, and this attack is part of the ongoing attacks on Black youth, from the Jena 6 to Sean Bell and countless cases of police brutality and repression throughout the country.
In addition, the police violence against such a well-known activist can only be seen as part of a continuing attempt to stifle political dissent. At a press conference in the days following the attack, Denver police brutality activist and survivor Shareef Aleem noted that police were attempting to neutralize activists related to the DNC protests. He stated: "In the last couple of years many of us involved in police accountability work have been attacked by the police and we know that when it happens we all have to stand up."
Hales now faces a pretrial hearing on April 25 and trial on May 21 on police "interference" charges. For the City Attorney to continue to prosecute these charges would constitute a serious miscarriage of justice and state harassment, standing jutice on its head by blaming the victim of police misconduct and brutality. It could be seen as an illegal, politically motivated abuse of process to chill political protest both against police brutality and at the upcoming DNC.
We demand that ALL charges be dropped immediately against Larry Hales, and that there be an immediate investigation into the police misconduct and violation of Larry Hales’ and Melissa Kleinman’s rights.
What you can do:
Add your name to the petition to drop the charges, available at http://www.troopsoutnow.org/larryhales/petition.html.
Contact City Attormey David R. Fine, Judge Larry Bohning and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and tell them you want the charges against Larry Hales to be dropped.
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/larryhales

Boycott Black Friday!

Radio host rallies blacks for Friday boycott
By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN
Radio host and organizer Warren Ballentine hopes a "national blackout" of businesses will send Washington a message that blacks are fed up with racism and injustice, and he rejects criticism that his campaign is un-American.
… The inspirations for the boycott are many: a flurry of nooses hung in public places; the case of six teens charged as adults with attempted murder in Jena, Louisiana, after a racially charged school fight; the conviction of Genarlow Wilson, a black teen charged with child molestation after having consensual oral sex with another teen; and the rape and torture of Megan Williams, a West Virginia woman forced to eat animal feces by six whites who berated her with racial slurs.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/01/national.blackout
Need a different reason to not spend a penny on Black Friday?:
The One True Dan Adams Weblog
Here’s an idea - Support the Writers Strike - FIGHT BLACK FRIDAY WITH RED FRIDAY
SUPPORT RED FRIDAY: BOYCOTT BLACK FRIDAY!
Do not buy any DVD’s!
Do not see any movies!
Do not download any streaming movies!
Show your support for the writers on the biggest shopping day of the year.
Let the studios know that the audience recognizes the importance of the writers guild.
more info on the strike @
http://www.wga.org/
http://unitedhollywood.com/
http://danadams.org/wp/index.php?p=25
And of course, my favorite minister, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping continue their “Buy Nothing Day,” which seems to be turning into a yearly tradition:
BUY NOTHING DAY
Fri, November 23
1:00 AM - 11:00 PM
The Street, New York, NY
Stop Shopping events all over New York City
http://www.revbilly.com/events/index.php#191
Tonight let’s all turn out for the screening of their movie:
Fri, November 16 5:00 PM - 11:00 PM
What Would Jesus Buy--THE MOVIE
EVERYWHERE, New York, NY
The documentary you have been waiting for
Benefit Screening In NYC On Nov 16th
and San Francisco Nov 24thCinema Village22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10013212-924-3363
Sorry, New Yorkers, but Cinema Village is sold out tonight. Congrats to Rev. Billy & the gang & best wishes for a long run!

Racists Get OUT of Town!

EMERGENCY DEMO THURSDAY, 2 PM, TEACHERS' COLLEGE, COLUMBIA:

Noose hung on office door of African American prof at Teachers' College

Yesterday, a noose was hung on the door of an African-American professor at Teachers' College, Columbia University. In light of recent events at Columbia (not to mention Jena...), we cannot let this stand.
…the racist graffiti left in the bathroom of the School of International and Public Affairs shortly thereafter: "Attention you pinko Commie motherfuckers and Arab Towelheads: America will wake up one day and nuke Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Baghdad, Jakarta, and all the savages in Africa. You will all be fucked! America is for White Europeans!" I am not exaggerating here; this is the graffiti, verbatim.

A rally has been called: mobilize at 2 PM tomorrow at the gates of Teachers' College, on 120th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. 1 train to 116th Street or 125 Street.

Go to the Top of the Charts!

With a bullet! Mellencamp may not be your musical cup of tea, but his song reveals he is still a white farm boy who can smell horse shit before he steps in it, and is warning us to take a higher path.
I say BRAVO and ENCORE!
JOHN MELLENCAMP WRITES SONG ABOUT JENA 6
Folksy rocker sings about injustice as part of recording session for new album.
http://relative-way.com/jenastream/

Props out to Mos Def for his passionate leadership in the hip hop community:

What’s different about this moment in terms of hip-hop and political activism is that ... we’re to the point where grassroots activists and hip-hop artists are talking with each other about political change,” said [Bakari] Kitwana.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21137111/

Race Crimes in America

Do you think you can choke down the turkey this Thanksgiving? I mean, with what is going on with our citizens? Here's an update on Jena 6:
Judge denies release of Jena teen
2 teen youths accused of displaying nooses in Alexandria
September 22, 2007, From Staff and Wire Reports

A judge denied a request Friday to release a teenager whose arrest in the beating of a white classmate sparked this week's civil rights protest in Jena … (Previous Judge) Mauffray set a high bail for Bell — $90,000 — prior to (Bell's) conviction...

But there's more in this article: we’ve got nooses in nearby Alexandria …

Jeremiah Munsen, 18, of Colfax, who was driving the truck, was charged with one count each of driving while intoxicated, inciting to riot and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, according to the police report.,,, Munsen was being held in the Rapides Parish Jail in lieu of a bond of $1,670.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070922/NEWS03/709220339/1062/NEWS03
Munsen was guilty because he was driving drunk and admitted he made the nooses. All the evidence on Bell is heresay, but he's ALREADY been incarcerated for 13 months because his bail is so high. Disgusting.

From an other paper we have this lovely companion story:
Roanoke neo-Nazi condemns Jena Six
William A. White posted the youths' addresses on a Web site that calls for lynching the group. By Laurence Hammack

As thousands of people rallied in Jena, La., for six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate, the FBI was monitoring a neo-Nazi activist in Roanoke who posted their names and addresses on a Web site that proclaimed: "Lynch the Jena 6.

"http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/132845