Obama Administration Might Hold Non-Afghan Detainees at Bagram Indefinitely After Prison Transfer
(This Media Release was sent out by the American Civil Liberties Union.)
According to a Los Angeles Times report, a senior U.S. official said the Obama administration wants to detain and interrogate non-Afghan terrorism suspects captured in countries outside Afghanistan in a section of the Bagram prison, even after it turns the prison over to Afghan control. The proposal is reportedly in the early stages of development.
The U.S. government has stated its intention to turn over control of the Bagram detention facility to the Afghan government early next year. In May, a federal court ruled that unlike at Guantánamo, prisoners in U.S. custody at Bagram, including those who were captured far from any battlefield and brought to Afghanistan, cannot challenge their detention in U.S. courts. That decision paves the way for the U.S. government to use Bagram to detain indefinitely, without any judicial oversight, terrorism suspects captured far from any battlefield who have not been charged with a crime.
“The Guantánamo problem is not solved simply by recreating a Guantánamo somewhere else. Closing Guatánamo is essential but it is equally important that the Obama administration put an end to the illegal indefinite detention policy behind Guantánamo,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “The entire world is not a battlefield. We cannot just capture people far from any zone of armed conflict and lock up them up indefinitely without any access to the courts or due process. Such a policy not only flies in the face of our justice system, but opens up the possibility that mistakes will be made and the wrong people will be imprisoned – which is exactly what we have seen at Guantánamo.”
The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in September 2009 demanding information about Bagram, which has thus far been shrouded in much secrecy. In response to the lawsuit, the government has turned over some important information but continues to withhold key details about the prisoners detained at Bagram, as well as information about the implementation of its new detainee status review procedures and about a separate “secret jail” on the base. The secret facility is reportedly run by either the Joint Special Operations Command or the Defense Intelligence Agency, and detainees maintain they have been abused there. It is unclear whether guards and interrogators at the secret facility are subject to the same rules that apply at the main Bagram detention facility.
“The possibility of continuing to hold and interrogate detainees at Bagram is even more disturbing given the lack of transparency about the facility,” said Goodman. “Plans to continue holding prisoners in U.S. custody at Bagram must be accompanied by the disclosure of key information about what currently goes on there.”
As part of the ongoing FOIA lawsuit, the ACLU late Tuesday received several documents from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Justice. The disclosures include a number of detainee policy documents from the early years of the Bush administration, including a 2004 document describing “Global Screening Criteria for Detainees” used to determine who – no matter where they were captured – could be detained as an enemy combatant and which detainees could be transferred to Guantánamo. Also just turned over to the ACLU are Obama-era records including policy guidance from February 2010 regarding access to detainees and facilities by non-DOD government officials, foreign governments, members of the media and representatives of non-governmental organizations that confirms non-DOD agents can visit detainees at Bagram in order to interrogate them. The DOD also disclosed its policy regarding the waiver of autopsy requirements for detainee deaths.
The documents received in the ACLU FOIA lawsuit are available online at: www.aclu.org/national-security/bagram-foia-dod-and-doj-documents-released-692010
More about the FOIA lawsuit is at: www.aclu.org/national-security/bagram-foia
When Eating Locally becomes a class issue
In recent years the issue of eating healthy and eating local has become quite mainstream. Years ago the very idea was only found with people who took gardening or small scale farming seriously as well as people who have understood for a long time the importance of eating that promoted justice.
Now you can’t turn the radio or TV on without someone talking about selling local produce. At one level this is a good thing. For decades in the US most of us ate food that would travel on average over a thousand miles before it arrived on our plate. The amount of fossil fuel used to transport and grow food in an agribusiness model is overwhelming.
Another benefit to eating locally means that you have a greater chance of having a relationship with the people who grew the food. Eating locally doesn’t always mean that those who labor in the fields are treated well, but with the increased emphasis on eating local and organic more and more people are turning to small scale farms that rely more on family labor or production models used with Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
However, this new emphasis on eating locally has also received the attention of the private sector, business people who see the marketing potential of eating locally. This new brand of green capitalists realized the market value of selling “locally grown and organic foods,” so much so that eating local and eating organic is now often a class issue.
Take for instance an article posted on MLive today, which featured a partnership between JW Marriott and Trillium Haven Farm. The article communicates that the upscale hotel/restaurant of JW Marriott will offer classes on “what local, organic food brings to the table nutritionally and to the area’s economy.”
While this may sound like a wonderful idea upon further investigation one finds that the classes that they will be offering over the next few months cost $125. According to the Facebook posting for these classes participants will be instructed by Trillium Haven Farms and JW Marriott chefs, along with some meals, a T-shirt and a guided tour of the Jenison-based farm.
The article also includes a picture of two of the chefs from JW Marriott who are growing food at the hotel facility and provide a link to what kind of food is offered at their Six, One, Six restaurant. Looking at the dinner menu of this restaurant we find that appetizers range from $6 to $12 and dinner meals can cost from $21 to $27.
These prices beg the question, “who can afford to eat organic and local?” Most working class individuals and families are not likely to pay those prices for a meal, which means that more often than not they will be eating at fast foods joints. This is what I meant by eating locally grown food at local restaurants as a class issue.
One could argue that the cost of eating local food served at the JW Marriott restaurant or many other local restaurants does not preclude working class individuals and families from buying locally grown produce at a farmers market and preparing it for themselves. While this is true, it does not take into account that most working class individuals and families have less leisure time to be able to prepare meals, but this fact also distracts us from the larger question of why healthy local foods are not affordable for everyone.
Community Supported Agriculture is one way to provide healthy, local, organic and affordable food to people, which is why Trillium Have Farm’s partnership with the JW Marriott hotel/restaurant is troublesome. Eating well should not be a privilege, but a right for everyone.
There are local groups attempting to address some of these food justice issues, particularly for working class families. The Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council addressed this topic at a gathering last month and Our Kitchen Table will be addressing the issue of Food Justice at a Food Summit they are hosting Thursday, June 10 from 6 – 9pm at the Film Farm, located on the 7th Floor of the Masonic Temple in Grand Rapids (233 E. Fulton St).
Oil spills, oil kills. Learn more and take a stand.
Crude: The Real Price of Oil
7pm Thurs. June 17
Trinity U M Church
1100 Lake Dr. SE Grand Rapids
Rally against BP
5pm Friday June 18
BP in Eastown
1560 Lake Dr SE, Grand Rapids
Does the oil spill make you angry? Does it have you wondering just how much more corporate inflicted damages the earth and the creatures living on it can withstand?
Here’s your chance to learn more about the true costs of oil and take action against BP.
Thursday June 17, The Bloom Collective hosts a screening of Crude: The Real Price of Oil, 7 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1100 Lake Dr. SE in Grand Rapids. “The inside story of the infamous ‘Amazon Chernobyl’ case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power.”
This is the film that made headlines in May, 2010, when Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Joe Berlinger, its producer and director, to turn over more than 600 hours of raw footage used to create the film to Chevron. Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001 and is attempting to wiggle out of potential damages of $27.3 billion for the horrific injury that Texaco’s personnel inflicted on the indigenous people.
Rally against BP!
On Friday June 18, a group of local folks is asking everyone who is fed up with BP’s actions, including its latest PR ploy to highjack Internet searches about the oil spill, to join for a 5 p.m. rally against BP at the BP in Eastown,1560 Lake Dr SE, Grand Rapids.
Take a stand for a viable future. Find out more about the BP disaster. And, come away with ideas for challenging our social and economical dependence on—and addiction to—oil.
Watch the trailer:
(This article is re-posted from PRWatch.org.)
BP has purchased search terms relating to the Gulf oil spill disaster on Google, Yahoo and Bing, a move some say is designed to limit the public’s exposure to news reporting about the Deepwater Horizon oil catastrophe.
BP confirmed that it has bought search terms like “oil spill,” “gulf oil,” “offshore oil,” “Louisiana coast spill” and “oil cleanup,” on the top three search engines, so that when people perform searches on these terms, a link to BP’s corporate page about the spill (www.BP.com/OilSpillNews) appears up at the top of the page.
In Google, the result appears as a sponsored link, with a line that says, “Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping.” On Bing, searching for “BP” returns a link to BP’s “Gulf of Mexico Response” site, with the same “helping” tag line.
BP spokesman Toby Odone explained to ABC News, “We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer.”
Kevin Ryan, CEO of a California-based Internet marketing company, Motivity Marketing, says research shows most people can’t tell the difference between paid and unpaid search results. He says BP’s efforts to divert people looking for information about the disaster to their own, corporate site is “a great PR strategy.” Estimates are that the company is paying over $10,000 a day for the search terms.
Media Bites – BP and the “apology”
In this week’s Media Bites we take a look at a new BP commercial, where the CEO is trying to “apologize” for the oil disaster. However, the commercial is really a well-crafted public relations piece that distracts the public from the reality of the oil disaster and the oil company’s practices and influence in Washington.
Despite the massive global protests against the recent Israeli attacks on several boats attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, Michigan Senator Carl Levin is taking the side of Israel.
In a statement the Senator released a few days ago, Levin said:
“Israel has the right under international law to set up a naval blockade to keep weapons from being sent to Hamas. Hamas is an organization that is listed by our State Department as a terrorist organization and that controls Gaza, indiscriminately attacks Israeli citizens and cities with rockets, and denies Israel’s very right to exist.
“While all the facts are not yet known, it seems clear that the organizers of the flotilla, particularly those on the Mavi Marmara, set out intentionally to use force to challenge the blockade. This confrontation and the tragic loss of life could have been avoided had the organizers of the flotilla agreed to Israel’s repeated offers to accept the humanitarian aid at an Israeli port and transfer it overland to Gaza under the supervision of those in the flotilla.”
Levin is basically restating exactly what the State of Israel has said, which is that these attacks against the humanitarian vessels were an act of “self-defense.” This is not a surprise since Levin has supported Israel and US funding of Israel for decades. Last year, the Michigan Senator voted for a resolution in support of Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza and Levin has been one of the largest recipients of PAC money from the US-based Israel Lobby, receiving $1,649,962 during his political career.
A group of nearly 50 people gathered in front of the Gerald Ford Federal Building in Grand Rapids Monday to rally awareness of US complicity in Israel’s continuing human rights abuses against the people of Gaza, as shown by last week’s slaughter of innocent volunteers attempting to deliver humanitarian aid there via a flotilla of small ships.
Christian and Muslim, American-born and immigrant, the people rallying held signs that said, “Israel is Using Your Tax Money to Kill the Innocent” and “Help Free Gaza! The Largest Open Air Prison on Earth.”
Indeed, residents of Gaza are imprisoned in their own land, much as German Jews were in the Nazi proscribed ghettoes. However, the prison analogy falls short as the people of Gaza are denied food, shelter and medical care. There is no Auschwitz in Gaza. Instead, Israeli military forces are inflicting a slow death on the people of Gaza by blockading food, building supplies and medical supplies while bulldozing homes and food crops.
The Arab-American Association of West Michigan issued this statement about the recent Israeli assault on the flotilla.
“The Israeli assault violates International Law and is morally reprehensible, especially since those on board the flotilla were non-violent activists on a humanitarian mission. This humanitarian mission was of vital importance because the people living in Gaza have been suffering from lack of food and medical supplies due to the Israeli blockade of Gaza since 2007 and the 2008/2009 Israeli military assault on Gaza.
The Arab-American Association of West Michigan and dozens of local supporters call for a full investigation into these crimes, an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, and the suspension of all US aid to Israel until these crimes are fully investigated.”
Afghanistan is now the longest War in US History
(This video is from Brave New Films and is part of Rethink Afghanistan.)
Urban Sprouting: Bringing Nature Back to the City
As the sun set on Wealthy Street on a Thursday night about twenty people gathered in an empty parking lot. With shovels, hoes, and trowels in hand, we began digging on the patches of weeds and grass that has stood neglected for so long. The garden activism had begun.
This was the first event of Urban Sprouting, a Grand Rapids guerilla gardening group that I started. Guerilla gardening, in its most basic form, is planting flora and fauna on abandoned city land in surprising and creative ways. More elaborate guerilla gardening sometimes involves the use of seed bombs and moss graffiti. Since the 1970s guerilla gardening has been used to provoke conversation about land use and can sometimes be a very politically charged statement against land neglect. Guerilla gardening has since branched out to over thirty countries, examples of which can be found here at the main hub of the movement.
The goal of Urban Sprouting is to get the citizens of Grand Rapids to reclaim the fallow land on the sides of our roads and next to the city’s abandoned buildings. We want people to ponder the place of nature in our world that has been confined by streets, houses, and skyscrapers, all in an effort to bring awareness to our disconnect from the soil and the sun. We want to bring color and joy into people’s lives in the simplest way possible: through the beauty and grace of nature.
Perhaps we accomplished that in some way this past Thursday night on the corner of Wealthy and Fuller. We picked up the trash that had gathered, dug out the asphalt embedded in the soil, and replaced it all with a variety of plants and flowers. Overall it is just a small gesture, but one that everyone there that night felt excited to be a part of. Guerilla gardening is a way for us to practice pro-activism and to take back land that has been left to waste.
Environmental activist and poet Wendell Berry says “a seed will sprout in the scar”. Therefore let us sow seeds in the soil scarred by neglect and bring beauty and vitality back to Grand Rapids.
For more information or if you want to get involved in future events, visit Urban Sprouting’s website or e-mail us at urbansprouting@gmail.com . We’re always looking for helping hands and plant donations.
(This action alert is from the End the Occupation Campaign.)
Yesterday we learned that the Israeli military has illegally boarded the MV Rachel Corrie, the final boat in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, and has abducted the passengers of the boat.
Take action now by clicking here!
The MV Rachel Corrie is named in honor of the U.S. activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli army operated Caterpillar bulldozer while she attempted to nonviolently protect a Palestinian home from demolition in the Gaza Strip.
Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, have called for a full investigation of the attacks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the unimpeded entry into the Gaza Strip of the ship named after their daughter.
Take action to honor Rachel Corrie by emailing the White House and Congress calling for a full investigation of these attacks on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the release of all passengers and supplies, and an end to the siege of the Gaza Strip.
You can also click here to download a template letter that you can give to your Member of Congress demanding an investigation into violations of the Arms Export Control Act; and click here to find an emergency rally or protest near you. (There is a protest scheduled for Monday, June 7 at 5pm in front of the Federal Building in Grand Rapids.)
There’s another way to honor Rachel’s memory as well. The student body of her alma mater, Evergreen College, voted this past week to divest from Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, and to establish a “Caterpillar free” campus. Support the students and their divestment efforts by clicking here, and find out more about the campaign against Caterpillar and other boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) by clicking here.
You can also find resources for protests and media action on our Gaza Freedom Flotilla web section.
Protests continue across the United States–join one near you, or organize your own using our Gaza Freedom Flotilla resources and register your action with the Gaza Freedom March website.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 