Individual from another list sent me this, who is also member of this
list. He is retired Army Officer well versed in all areas - and stated
this Free Jamal stuff is to be used for a civil war which will lead to
marital law.
So Mr. Shannon - it is okay for you to send out crap likes this to one
list, and then come to another list and attempt to censor those with
whom you disagree? We already know you are an atheist, so who cares;
we already know June called Jesus a Bastard stating his "mother was
knocked up", which was deliberate insult to all Christians and Catholics
on List.
So this is cause you propagate Mr. Shannon - why Billy, we hardly knew
ye?
It would seem you have many faces - one black, one white, a color for
every ethnic group?
A Saba
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Number 256
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T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters,
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______________________________
ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN
News * Analysis * Research * Action
______________________________
- AFIB No. 256, June 25, 2000 -
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & PRISONERS OF WAR!
Black-uniformed officers in laced-up black boots, wearing black berets,
with name tags missing, are descending without warning on a prison,
hauling prisoners, some without clothes, from their beds, shackling them
and beating them, jumping on their backs; an inmate's head is driven
into a wall, a sickening cracking sound, the prisoner screams, blood
splatters the wall and the ground. All to demonstrate that the
Correction Commissioner doesn't "coddle" prisoners. -- William Blum,
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower [Monroe, ME, Common
Courage Press, 2000] p. 266.
* * *
Contents: Number 256
1. WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE [US]: Last Statement of Shaka Sankofa.
2. WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE [UK]: After the Execution of Gary Graham:
The World Looks at America and America Looks at Itself.
3. NATIONAL COALITION OF ANTI-DEPORTATION CAMPAIGNS [UK]: Massacre at
Dover: 58 "Sans Papiers" Found Dead.
4. LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE [US]: Peltier Statement for 25 Year
Memorial at Oglala.
5. GERMANY ALERT [Berlin]: Denying Danger.
6. THE NEW YORK TIMES: Hitler Apologist Wins Honor, and a Storm Breaks
Out.
7. THE TIMES [London]: Berlin Sounds Alarm as Neo-Nazis Hoard Arms.
8. THE GUARDIAN [London]: US 'Supported Anti-Left Terror in Italy'.
9. THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH [London]: Haider 'Behind New Laws' to Spy on
Austrians.
10. GREEN LEFT WEEKLY [Australia]: Austria: Government on an Anti-Worker
Offensive.
11. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: Father's Love: Father's Loss.
* * *
WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://workers.org
- Saturday, 24 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
LAST STATEMENT OF SHAKA SANKOFA
______________________________________________
I would like to say that I did not kill Bobby Lambert. That I'm an
innocent black man that is being murdered. This is a lynching that is
happening in America tonight. There's overwhelming and compelling
evidence of my defense that has never been heard in any court of
America. What is happening here is an outrage for any civilized country
to anybody anywhere to look at what's happening here is wrong.
I thank all of the people that have rallied to my cause. They've been
standing in support of me. Who have finished with me.
I say to Mr. Lambert's family, I did not kill Bobby Lambert. You are
pursuing the execution of an innocent man.
I want to express my sincere thanks to all of ya'll. We must continue to
move forward and do everything we can to outlaw legal lynching in
America. We must continue to stay strong all around the world, and
people must come together to stop the systematic killing of poor and
innocent black people. We must continue to stand together in unity and
to demand a moratorium on all executions. We must not let this
murder/lynching be forgotten tonight, my brothers. We must take it to
the nation. We must keep our faith. We must go forward. We recognize
that many leaders have died. Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and others
who stood up for what was right. They stood up for what was just. We
must, you must brothers, that's why I have called you today. You must
carry on that condition. What is here is just a lynching that is taking
place. But they're going to keep on lynching us for the next 100 years,
if you do not carry on that tradition, and that period of resistance. We
will prevail. We may loose this battle, but we will win the war. This
death, this lynching will be avenged. It will be avenged, it must be
avenged. The people must avenge this murder. So my brothers, all of
ya'll stay strong, continue to move forward.
Know that I love all of you. I love the people, I love all of you for
your blessing, strength, for your courage, for your dignity, the way you
have come here tonight, and the way you have protested and kept this
nation together. Keep moving forward, my brothers. Slavery couldn't stop
us. The lynching couldn't stop us in the south. This lynching will not
stop us tonight. We will go forward. Our destiny in this country is
freedom and liberation. We will gain our freedom and liberation by any
means necessary. By any means necessary, we keep marching forward.
I love you, Mr. Jackson. Bianca, make sure that the state does not get
my body. Make sure that we get my name as Shaka Sankofa. My name is not
Gary Graham. Make sure that it is properly presented on my grave. Shaka
Sankofa.
I died fighting for what I believe in. I died fighting for what was just
and what was right. I did not kill Bobby Lambert, and the truth is going
to come out. It will be brought out.
I want you to take this thing off into international court, Mr. Robert
Mohammed and all ya'll. I want you, I want to get my family and take
this down to international court and file a law suit. Get all the video
tapes of all the beatings. They have beat me up in the back. They have
beat me up at the unit over there. Get all the video tapes supporting
that law suit. And make the public exposed to the genocide and this
brutality world, and let the world see what is really happening here
behind closed doors. Let the world see the barbarity and injustice of
what is really happening here. You must get those video tapes. You must
make it exposed, this injustice, to the world. You must continue to
demand a moratorium on all executions. We must move forward Minister
Robert Mohammed.
Ashanti Chimurenga, I love you for standing with me, my sister. You are
a strong warrior queen. You will continue to be string in everything
that you do. Believe in yourself, you must hold your head up, in the
spirit of Winnie Mandela, in the spirit of Nelson Mandela. Ya'll must
move forward. We will stop this lynching.
Reverend Al Sharpton, I love you, my brother.
Bianca Jagger, I love all of you. Ya'll make sure that we continue to
stand together.
Reverend Jesse Jackson and I know that this murder, this lynching will
not be forgotten. I love you, too, my brother. This is genocide in
America. This is what happens to black men when they stand up and
protest for what is right and just. We refuse to compromise, we refuse
to surrender the dignity for what we know is right. But we will move on,
we have been strong in the past. We will continue to be strong as a
people. You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot stop the
revolution. The revolution will go on. The people will carry the
revolution on. You are the people that must carry that revolution on, in
order to liberate our children from this genocide and for what is
happening here in America tonight. What has happened for the last 100 or
so years in America. This is the part of the genocide, this is part of
the African (unintelligible), that we as black people have endured in
America. But we shall overcome, we will continue with this. We will
continue, we will gain our freedom and liberation, by any means
necessary. Stay strong. They cannot kill us. We will move forward.
To my sons, to my daughters, all of you. I love all of you. You have
been wonderful. Keep your heads up. Keep moving forward. Keep united.
Maintain the love and unity in the community.
And know that victory is assured. Victory for the people will be
assured. We will gain our freedom and liberation in this country. We
will gain it and we will do it by any means necessary. We will keep
marching. March on black people. Keep your heads high. March on. All
ya'll leaders. March on. Take your message to the people. Preach the
moratorium for all executions. We're gonna stop, we are going to end the
death penalty in this country. We are going to end it all across this
world. Push forward people. And know that what ya'll are doing is right.
What ya'll are doing is just. This is nothing more that pure and simple
murder. This is what is happening tonight in America. Nothing more than
state sanctioned murders, state sanctioned lynching, right here in
America, and right here tonight. This is what is happening my brothers.
Nothing less. They know I'm innocent. They've got the facts to prove it.
They know I'm innocent. But they cannot acknowledge my innocence,
because to do so would be to publicly admit their guilt. This is
something these racist people will never do. We must remember brothers,
this is what we're faced with. You must take this endeavor forward. You
must stay strong. You must continue to hold your heads up, and to be
there. And I love you, too, my brother. All of you who are standing with
me in solidarity. We will prevail. We will keep marching. Keep marching
black people, black power. Keep marching black people, black power. Keep
marching black people. Keep marching black people. They are killing me
tonight. They are murdering me tonight.
*****
WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International
(ICFI)
Web: http://www.wsws.org/
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Saturday, 24 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
After the execution of Gary Graham:
THE WORLD LOOKS AT AMERICA AND AMERICA LOOKS AT ITSELF
______________________________________________
News & Analysis: North America: The Brutal Society By David Walsh
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jun2000/grah-j24.shtml
The June 22 execution of Gary Graham, sanctioned by Texas Governor and
Republican presidential candidate-to-be George W. Bush, has cast a
penetrating light on American society and helped lay bare its
contradictions. Although hardly the first state murder carried out in
the US, there was something particularly shocking and horrifying about
the event. This quality was clearly felt around the world.
Graham was put to death Thursday night, but the entire society was on
trial. His final statements amounted to an enduring curse against the
existing social order. One has the sense that this desperate voice from
the death chamber gurney will haunt those who organized and carried out
the execution for years to come.
By any standards of civilized society Graham's death was a barbaric act.
Everything about the case--Graham's social background and his age
(seventeen) at the time of his arrest, the lack of physical evidence
linking him to the crime, his identification by only one witness, his
criminally incompetent legal counsel and travesty of a trial, his nearly
two decades on death row--reeks of injustice and state-organized
brutality.
Great numbers of people in the United States and around the world have
reacted to the execution with horror. There is a widespread feeling that
something terrible has happened. This perception is healthy and humane,
but it can only lead to a change in the situation if difficult political
questions are confronted: Why does American society carry out crimes
like this? How is this barbarism to be explained, and combated?
There are currently some two million people in prison and more than
3,500 people on death row in the US. The state of Texas has executed 23
people in 2000 alone; Bush has presided over the execution of 134
individuals in his five years in office. No other countries in the
economically advanced regions of the globe have comparable figures; for
the most part, they don't have figures on executions at all--capital
punishment is banned in Western Europe.
A society that resorts to incarcerating and executing its citizens in
such numbers thereby admits that it is incapable of solving its social
problems. Why, in the final analysis, do the vast majority find
themselves on death row? Because they are poor and semi-literate, or
victims of one kind of abuse or another, or mentally ill, or all of
these. Because, in short, society has given them little or no chance in
life. The American ruling elite and its two political parties have no
answers for the poverty and misery in which millions are forced to live.
The existence of these conditions provides the key to understanding what
seems on the surface a great paradox--that the grim cavalcade of
punishment and death has coincided with what is officially described as
the most prolonged economic expansion in US history. Analysis reveals
that the stock market and profit boom have benefited a relatively small
portion of the population, primarily the top 10 percent.
The creation of a "flexible," low-wage economy, in which workers are
constantly prey to insecurity, has not improved the conditions of the
vast majority. On the contrary, absolute poverty has tightened its grip
on the most oppressed and tens of millions more struggle to make ends
meet.
The executives of major corporations in the US make more than 400 times
the pay of an average worker. Such a level of social inequality can
never be voluntarily or democratically accepted by the population, even
in the absence of conscious political opposition. It must be policed.
One of the inevitable consequences of the social chasm between the rich
and everyone else is the meting out of severe punishment to those
unlucky enough to be on the wrong side of the law.
Official violence is hardly a new or incidental feature of American
life. This is the land, after all, of the police truncheon, the "third
degree," the strikebreaker, the vigilante, the political witch-hunt and
the judicial frame-up. One only has to mention a few names to evoke this
legacy of cruelty and repression: the Molly Maguires, Joe Hill, Sacco
and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs. A variety of historical and ideological
factors can be cited to explain the particular brutality of the American
ruling elite--its origins in the extermination of the native population,
its shortsighted and pragmatic "frontier" mentality, the absence of
social-democratic "buffers," and so forth.
In the end, however, the present violence of the system can only be
explained by the present state of American society. The US is the most
powerful capitalist economy on earth. Yet behind the veneer of
prosperity and beneath increasingly threadbare democratic forms, it
harbors the fiercest and most bitter class conflict. This exists
objectively. That the working population is largely unconscious of this
conflict, or at least of its implications, does nothing to lessen it.
The denouement of the Gary Graham case, as it unfolded Thursday night,
sharply exposed this social conflict. More than that, Graham's last
hours became a significant episode within the struggle of opposed
classes. Graham did not go quietly to his death. He resisted, refusing
even to eat his "last meal" on a table provided by his killers. He went
to his death proclaiming his innocence and denouncing his murderers.
Who is Gary Graham? In 1981 he was a thief and a thug, responsible for a
series of armed robberies and a rape. His poverty-stricken background
prepared him for that, as similar backgrounds have prepared thousands of
others. But his years in prison changed him, radicalized him.
Graham left this world with a certain nobility. People like him are
victims of the social meat grinder. There is no society on earth that
wastes human potential more than America. Graham committed violent
crimes, but how can that be weighed against the 19 years of torment,
waiting to be slaughtered, inflicted in a premeditated fashion by
official society? What can be said in defense of a system that mobilizes
a "Cell Extraction Team" to drag a man from his cell, straps him to a
table and injects carefully-prepared poisons into his bloodstream? The
Graham killing exposed the gruesomeness of what goes on every week in
the US, in one state or another. The entire society, with its pretenses
to democracy, pays a heavy price for this sort of crime.
The response by the political and media establishment has been nervous
and defensive, from the ashen-faced reporters who witnessed the
execution to a frightened-looking Bush. They don't know what to make of
the event and the widespread revulsion.
These are people who believe their own press clippings. Mesmerized by
their stock portfolios, they truly believe that opposition to their
policies, including radical opposition, is a thing of the past.
They were taken aback by Thursday's events, which did not go at all as
planned. An event intended to further brutalize the population largely
turned into its opposite: the starting-point for sensitizing masses of
people and waking them from their political and even moral torpor.
The Graham execution and its reverberations will have a radicalizing
effect on the American people. Already the presence of hundreds of
demonstrators outside the Huntsville facility--as well as rallies in
Austin, Texas; San Francisco and Northampton, Massachusetts--points to a
growth of social protest. This will increase.
This state murder will help clarify the real state of affairs in
America. Young people in particular will be increasingly horrified by a
society that glorifies billionaires and puts the poor and oppressed to
death by half a dozen equally cruel methods. The campaign to defend
Mumia Abu-Jamal, another intended victim of state murder, will gain new
strength from the popular response to the Graham case.
The assembly line of executions will deepen the hostility felt for both
political parties, united in their support for the death penalty. Vice
President Al Gore and California's Democratic right-wing governor Gray
Davis, for example, took the opportunity of Graham's death to restate
their belief in capital punishment.
Periods of social radicalization have often announced themselves in the
US by the growth of opposition to frame-ups and capital punishment. This
is historically bound up with the growth of labor militancy in the early
part of the twentieth century. In the late 1950s the case of Caryl
Chessman, finally executed in 1960 after 12 years on death row, became a
focal point of social protest and heralded the radicalism of the
following decade. Conversely, the growth in support for the death
penalty in the mid- and late 1970s indicated a right-wing turn by
sections of the middle class and working class.
For much of the world's population Graham's death will only heighten the
belief that the US represents a threat to democratic rights and perhaps
to human life in general. The general reaction in the European press has
been shock and dismay. The US is seen as a bully, or worse. The
credibility of American democracy, with its claims to represent a model
for every country on earth, is increasingly a mockery. More and more,
the US is seen as a pariah state.
There are signs of growing unease in the political establishment about
the consequences of the death penalty policy. There are those who worry
that the official bloodlust will alienate the population and undermine
faith in the system as a whole. The narrowness of the Supreme Court vote
to reject Graham's appeal, a 5-4 margin, has to be seen in this light.
In the end, the decisive issue is what large numbers of workers,
students and intellectuals make of Graham's execution. There will be
those who consider it terrible, but an aberration. Others will shake
their heads, hoping such a thing will never happen again--although they
know better. Some will try to ignore it and go about their business. But
this execution is not an accident. It is deeply rooted in the social
relations and political structures of American capitalism.
The death penalty will not be overcome by appeals to established
institutions or to the Democratic or Republican parties, nor can it be
overcome if it is addressed as an issue apart from all others. It must
be fought on a new basis, as part of the development in the working
class of an independent political movement based on a truly democratic,
and therefore socialist, program.
Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site. All rights reserved.
*****
NATIONAL COALITION OF ANTI-DEPORTATION CAMPAIGNS 110 Hamstead Road
Birmingham B20 2QS, England
Tel: 0121-554-6947
Fax: 0870-055-4570
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.ncadc.demon.co.uk
- Monday, 19 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
MASSACRE AT DOVER: 58 "SANS PAPIERS" FOUND DEAD Fortress Europe's
Draconian anti-immigration policy underlying cause of tragedy at Dover
______________________________________________
A lorry became a mass grave for 54 men and 4 women entering the United
Kingdom "Sans Papiers". They penetrated far into Fortress Europe - but
the price they paid was their lives. Who were these unfortunate
passengers? Their stories will probably never be told, even in death,
they have been labelled criminals.
Applying for asylum in the UK has deteriorated to the point where asylum
seekers are left without basic human rights forced into dispersal and
detention, and discriminated against with vouchers. Political asylum has
been so restricted by legislation that there is hardly any way of
claiming political asylum in the UK.
People fleeing war are not considered to be genuine refugees - they are
'just' fleeing 'general violence'. Those fleeing state persecution (like
China with a recognised appalling human rights record, where these 58
people may have come from) have to overcome extensive pre-entry
controls, and once they manage to get a visa or a false document to
escape they can be detained and then refused asylum for travelling
through other countries or like Roma asylum seekers, rejected because
Skinheads are not considered to be 'agents of persecution'.
The death of 58 passengers "Sans Papiers" discovered this morning was
something that could have been prevented with humane and ethical
immigration policy, which is of national interest for every civilised,
multicultural society.
It is essential to keep the asylum issue in perspective and to seek
solutions that promote human rights of asylum seekers instead of
restricting them. It is also important to recognise that migration is
not a new phenomenon and accept that it is not only a fact but also
desirable and essential for development of every society.
How we treat people in need is a reflection of the true state of
democracy and freedom. This tragedy must not be forgotten, not only as a
dire reminder of restrictive policies which forces people to leave their
country of origin and in this case into the most horrific death, and 58
untold life stories, which abruptly ended.
NCADC condemns UK and European anti-immigration policy which forces
those who are persecuted or experiencing any other hardship into
underground routes which should lead to a better life but in this case
lead to a mass grave.
It is with great sadness that NCADC noted the death of 58 people in the
back of a lorry at Dover. Throughout the day the media speculated
whether the 54 men and 4 women were "illegal immigrants". Their humanity
was lost. They had no identity other than being "Sans Papiers" in the
UK.
Our press release, mirrors the sombreness of the mood felt by NCADC
staff. Yet our sadness turns to anger as we reflect: "Was it wanting to
have a better life that caused these deaths, or the evil immigration
laws that force people to take such desperate risks?"
We would ask supporters to write to the Home Secretary Jack Straw MP to
condemn the immigration policies which caused this appalling loss of
human life.
In this case NCADC feels it inappropriate to produce a standard letter
we would ask you to express your own feelings to the Home Secretary.
Jack Straw MP
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT
Or you can fax the Home Secretary on : 020-7273-3965
>From outside the UK: +44-20-7273-3965
Please fax copies of any letters to: NCADC 0807-055-4570
*****
LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE
P.O. Box 583
Lawrence, KS 66044
Tel: 785-842-5774
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.freepeltier.org
- Saturday, 24 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
PELTIER STATEMENT FOR 25 YEAR MEMORIAL AT OGLALA
______________________________________________
Dear friends,
Below is Leonard Peltier's statement for the 25 year memorial and
honoring at Oglala. We will be unable to answer emails until June 29. If
you need to communicate with us, please send your messages after June
28th. Thank you.
In Solidarity,
LPDC
* * *
June 26, 2000
Greetings Friends and Supporters,
Twenty-five years has passed since the fatal shoot-out on the Jumping
Bull Ranch occurred, and for twenty-five years I have been forced away
from my people and my home, which I consider Oglala to be. I miss being
with all of you as I have always loved and respected the Lakota ways. I
have always admired the Lakota people, especially the Oglalas for their
strength, determination, and courage to continue the struggle to
maintain our traditional ways and sovereignty. Not a single day passes
when I do not dream of being home with you. Twenty-four years is a long
time to be in prison, but if I was out and you were facing the same kind
of brutality you faced under the Wilson regime, I would not hesitate to
stand next to you and resist the violent oppression you were forced to
endure.
But I am not out, I remain locked up in here, and it has not been an
easy 24 years. Prison is a repulsive, violent place to exist in. But
again, none of this could stop me from standing with you until the great
Oglala Nation is free. I know a lot of problems continue to exist for
you. Corrupt tribal government officials are still taking advantage of
the people and crimes committed against Natives receive little if no
priority. It makes me very sad to know that after everything we went
through in the 1970's our people still continue to suffer so much. The
memory of all of those who lost their lives during that time also
continues to haunt me
As we gather together during this time of remembrance, I am aware that
the FBI has also organized a 25-year memorial for their dead agents. I
do not fault them nor do I disagree with what they are doing. I think
all people should gather in memorial for any of their fallen. But, when
you analyze this whole event of theirs, you are slapped in the face with
the cold reality of racism. Not once have they, nor will they mention
our fallen warriors and innocent traditionalists slaughtered in the 70's
after Wounded Knee II. They will not even as much as mention Joe
Killsright Stuntz. We cannot even get an acknowledgement from them that
they were wrong in supporting such a cruel and corrupt regime as Dick
Wilson's. They continue to deny that any Indian people were killed as a
result of their direct input with the terrorist squad, the GOONS. The
fact is they do not think of Indian people as human beings. Whenever you
deny that such atrocities happen, and we know they did happen, it only
means they don't consider the people who died to be human. Hitler's
regime felt the same about the Jews.
But please don't misunderstand my frustration for a lack of sympathy
about the loss of the agents' lives. I do feel for the families of the
agents because I know first hand what it is like to lose a loved one. I
have lost many loved ones through the years due to senseless violent
acts. If I had known what was going on that day, and I could have
stopped it, I would have.
But in order for us to bring reconciliation to what was a very difficult
time we first must have justice. We must continue to ask when the lives
of our people will be given the same respect and value as others. When
will they stop carelessly locking up our people without applying the
scrutiny and care the judicial system is supposed to guarantee? When
will guilty beyond a reasonable doubt become a standard that applies to
us? When will our guilt have to be proven, rather than assumed? We
suffer equally, but we are not treated equally. There is hope for a
better future and for peace. But in order for us to live in peace, we
must be able to live in dignity and without fear.
In closing, I want to say that your voices are important and your
involvement in the effort to gain my freedom is crucial. You know the
truth and only you can express the reality of those brutal times. It is
also important that you explain to the youth what we stood for and why,
because they are our hope for the future. They can carry out our dream
for our people to have pride in their culture, good schools, food, and
health care, and most importantly, justice. Please know that I continue
to be here for you too, although I am limited in what I can do from
behind these walls. However, I will continue help in whatever I can from
here. The one thing my situation has brought me at least, is a voice,
and my voice is your voice. So please do not hesitate to write me or
contact the LPDC to inform me of what is going on.
I am growing older now and my body is beginning to deteriorate. I
sometimes wonder just how much longer I will be with you all on Mother
earth. I hope that it'll be a while longer because I long to be with
you, my family and friends, to share some time together. If not, and I
don't make it home to you, I will always be with you in spirit, at every
Sun Dance and Inipi Ceremony, remembering both the happy and the painful
times we shared.
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
Call the White House Comments Line Today! Demand Justice for Leonard
Peltier!
202-456-1111
*****
GERMANY ALERT
`The Free Flow Of Uncensored Facts´
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.germanyalert.com
- Thursday, 22 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
DENYING DANGER
______________________________________________
BERLIN (22 June 2000) -- Alarms should have been sounding throughout
Germany long before Nazi apologist Ernst Nolte was given the Konrad
Adenauer Prize, one of the country's highest honors. Thick file folders
and burgeoning computer databases have for years been accumulating piles
of facts that demonstrate the German extreme right's increasing control
over the former political "center."
When the "center" reacted to murderous attacks on foreign workers by
German young people bearing swastikas, it was by deporting increasing
numbers of immigrants and changing the constitution to weaken the right
of asylum. When tiny extreme right parties increased their share of the
vote, the "center" reacted by adopting anti-foreigner slogans and
passing still more laws against asylum seekers.
When voices both at home and abroad reacted to this coming out of German
extremism, the "center" including mainline media hissed with
indignation. And when it was revealed that the Bundeswehr was being used
as a forum for National Socialist apologists, the significance of this
disastrous development within the German armed forces was horrendously
played down.
So when Ernst Nolte was awarded the Adenauer Prize following his bizarre
analysis concluding that Nazi anti-Semitism had a "rational core" and
that Hitler served as a necessary opposition to "bolshevism," words of
warning came from some but, once again, no alarms were sounded.
Germany's once-praiseworthy weekly Die Zeit went to extraordinary
lengths in playing down the outrageous award by the christian democrat
Deutschland Foundation, asserting even that Nolte's winning of the prize
is evidence that Nolte is being pushed "a further step into the
background." Does Zeit mean that if Nolte had not won the Adenauer Prize
he would be even more center stage than he is now?
Copyright 2000 Germany Alert. All rights reserved.
*****
______________________________________________
HITLER APOLOGIST WINS GERMAN HONOR, AND A STORM BREAKS OUT
______________________________________________
THE NEW YORK TIMES
International News
Wednesday, June 21, 2000
http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/062100nolte-prize.html By ROGER
COHEN
BERLIN, June 20 -- The award of one of Germany's most prestigious
literary prizes to a historian who has sought to justify the Holocaust
has ignited a fierce dispute here at a time of conservative and
reactionary intellectual stirrings in Europe.
The historian, Ernst Nolte, has argued that Hitler's anti-Semitism had a
"rational core" and that Nazism was in essence a riposte to Bolshevism.
He received the Konrad Adenauer Prize for literature this month, causing
an uproar that has filled newspapers with invective and divided one of
the country's leading historical institutes.
The prize, whose past recipients include former Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
is given for works that "contribute to a better future" by the
Munich-based Deutschland Foundation. The organization is conservative
and close to the right wing of the Christian Democratic Party but had
not been considered reactionary or revisionist.
Accepting the prize, Mr. Nolte said, "We should leave behind the view
that the opposite of National Socialist goals is always good and right."
He added that because Nazism was the "strongest of all counter forces"
to Bolshevism, a movement with wide Jewish support, Hitler may have had
"rational" reasons for attacking the Jews.
The timing of the prize was particularly delicate because this is a
period of some intellectual ferment in Europe. The success of the
Austrian rightist Jörg Haider in steering his Freedom Party into
government has emboldened the right.
In Germany and France, a conservative reaction is evident against what
the French call "the angelic left," which is accused of imposing a
stifling political correctness on debate and of backing a multicultural
tide that will sweep away the European nation state.
In this context, Mr. Nolte has emerged as an iconoclast with apparently
growing conservative appeal. A few days after receiving the prize, he
was widely applauded at a conference in Paris where he again explored
his thesis aboutHitler and the Jews.
"The award of the prize to Nolte was a clear political statement
intended to promote the view that there is no particular stigma to
Nazism in the light of what some Germans now call the 'Red Holocaust' in
the Soviet Union," said Charles Maier, a Harvard historian. "It's
exculpatory in the German context. It's also really scandalous."
The unease and anger in Germany over the prize has been accentuated by
the fact that another prominent historian, Horst Möller, the director
of the disinguished Institute for Contemporary History, chose to make
the speech honoring Mr. Nolte.
The institute was established after the war in Munich with a clear
educational mission directed largely toward researching Nazism.
In his speech, Mr. Möller said he did not agree with all of Mr.
Nolte's views, but went on to praise a "life's work of high rank" and to
make a vigorous attack on the "hate-filled and defamatory" attempts to
stop open debate in Germany.
The reaction was overwhelming. Newspapers have been filled with letters
from other historians at the institute calling on Mr. Möller to
resign. In an open letter to Die Zeit, Heinrich A. Winkler, a professor
of history at Berlin's Humboldt University, said, "Mr. Möller allowed
himself to become party to an intellectual political offensive aimed at
integrating rightist and revisionist positions in the conservative
mainstream."
Mr. Möller's secretary said he was traveling and not available for
comment.
With Haiderism thriving in neighboring Austria, the ground has become
fertile in Germany for a nationalist and right-wing intellectual
awakening. It is fed by weariness, even anger, at what is seen as
Germany's eternal victimization for the Holocaust, and irritation at the
multicultural message from a Red-Green government.
Mr. Nolte took up these themes in his speech. He attacked those who
argue for "an unstoppable transition toward world civilization." He
bitterly denounced the "collective accusation" continuously leveled at
Germany since
1945.
The historian, the author of books including "Three Faces of Fascism"
and "The European Civil War," has been well known for his argument about
Hitler and Stalin since the 1980's.
But never before has a center-right institution like the Deutschland
Foundation moved to embrace him in such a formal way, intimating that at
least the right of the Christian Democratic Party may be ready to
countenance the view that the crimes of the Nazis were not unique and
have been unfairly singled out.
Mr. Haider has made a lot of headway in Austria precisely by questioning
the "intellectual tyranny" of the left.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company
*****
______________________________________________
BERLIN SOUNDS ALARM AS NEO-NAZIS HOARD ARMS
______________________________________________
THE TIMES
World News: Europe
Thursday, 22 June 2000
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/06/22/x-timfgneur01003.html
FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN
BERLIN issued a warning yesterday that neo-Nazi groups in Germany were
stepping up their campaign and resorting to terrorist tactics for the
first time since the end of the Second World War.
Fears of intensifying right-wing extremism came after police seized pipe
bombs and explosives in raids on the cellars of far-right extremists.
Eckart Werthebach, the Interior Minister, said the police had also
thwarted an attack the offices used by left-wingers.
Until now neo-Nazi groups concentrated, especially in eastern Germany,
on harassing foreigners. The latest victim was Alberto Adriano, 39, a
Mozambican who has lived in Germany for 20 years. In Dessau he was
hounded by three far-right skinheads and kicked to death.
Adriano was the latest of more than 100 people who have been killed by
neo-Nazis since German unification. Arson attacks against refugee
hostels, the most common target of the early 1990s, have given way to
drunken beatings of black people.
Organised right-wing terrorism against the political left is something
new. There is a long European tradition of far right terror - in Italy
during the 1970s, in Austria where neo-Nazis sent letter bombs to
prominent personalities - but Germany has not seen outright left-right
political violence since the 1930s.
Ten days ago police discovered pipe bombs in the cellar of a neo-Nazi.
The arrested man said the bombs were supposed to be used against left-
wingers who had set fire to cars owned by right-wingers in a town
outside Berlin.
The raid came after the discovery of a sniper rifle and explosives in a
house occupied by neo-Nazis. Other right wing extremists were stopped by
police before they could set fire to a Berlin pub, called the Plague
Dog, frequented by left-wing sympathisers.
Neo-Nazi literature intercepted by the police is calling for a crusade
against the Left, "the beginning of the arms struggle for the capital of
the Reich". The Berlin neo-Nazis seem to be in touch with militant
far-right theoreticians in Hamburg who are in contact with Sweden and
Britain's Combat 18. "We are talking about violent individuals and small
cells who are now trying to get in touch with each other," Herr
Werthebach said. Despite the small numbers involved, he said, they posed
a great danger.
Sweden seems to be the model for the new German terror tactics. Last
year a Swedish journalist was seriously injured when his car was blown
up. Two policemen were killed when neo-Nazis raided a Swedish bank. Last
October Bjoern Soederberg, a unionist, was shot dead after he had
"outed" a neo-Nazi in the union leadership.
The neo-Nazis of northern Germany appear to be moving in a similar
direction. In April the Far Right held demonstrations in north German
towns in favour of "freedom of expression" and against a Rock Against
the Right concert organised the IG Metall engineering union.
The mayor of one town found a bullet hole in her kitchen window. A
picture of a trade unionist was printed on a huge banner strung up on
motorway bridges. It carried the caption: "Reward DM10,000 - dead or
alive." The unionist now wears a bullet-proof vest.
The driving force behind the move towards organised rather than random
terror seems to be an umbrella organisation called the White Aryan
Resistance. Its publications talk of German "martyrs" such as the jailed
murderer of a policeman.
Last week the neo-Nazis gained a new "martyr". Michael Berger, a
far-right sympathiser, killed three police officers before shooting
himself. Police found machine guns, pistols and hand grenades in his
flat.
Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****
______________________________________________
US 'SUPPORTED ANTI-LEFT TERROR IN ITALY' Report claims Washington used a
strategy of tension in the cold war to stabilise the centre-right
______________________________________________
THE GUARDIAN
International News
Saturday, 24 June 2000
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,335764,00.html
Philip Willan in Rome
The United States was accused of playing a large part in the campaign of
anti-communist terrorism in Italy during the cold war, in a report
released yesterday by the Left Democrat party.
The explicit accusation is contained in a draft report to a
parliamentary commission on terrorism.
The formerly communist LDP is the biggest party in Giuliano Amato's
centre-left government, and the report could sour relations between
Italy and the United States and unleash a storm of domestic political
controversy.
The 300-page report says that the United States was responsible for
inspiring a "strategy of tension" in which indiscriminate bombing of the
public and the threat of a rightwing coup were used to stabilise
centre-right political control of the country.
Those who carried out the attacks were rarely caught, it said, because
"those massacres, those bombs, those military actions had been organised
or promoted or supported by men inside Italian state institutions and,
as has been discovered more recently, by men linked to the structures of
United States intelligence".
Valter Bielli, a Left Democrat member of parliament and one of the
authors of the report, said his party's conclusions were based on recent
judicial discoveries and a re-elaboration of information that had been
available for many years but had not been adequately understood.
"I am convinced that the intervention of the Americans in Italy is now a
historically proven fact," he said.
"They interfered to prevent the Communist party from achieving power by
democratic means. The communist threat no longer exists and it would be
appropriate if the Americans themselves helped us to clarify what
happened in the past."
Mr Bielli said he was worried about the possible implications of the
report for relations between Italy and the US, but he hoped it would
contribute to the creation of a new Nato in which all countries enjoyed
equal weight and dignity.
"During the cold war the east was under communist domination, but the
west too had become, in a certain sense, an American colony," he said.
The report claims that US intelligence agents were informed in advance
about several rightwing terrorist bombings, including the December 1969
Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan and the Piazza della Loggia bombing in
Brescia five years later, but did nothing to alert the Italian
authorities or to prevent the attacks from taking place.
It also alleges that Pino Rauti, a journalist and founder of the
far-right Ordine Nuovo (new order) subversive organisation, received
regular funding from a press officer at the US embassy in Rome.
"So even before the 'stabilising' plans that Atlantic circles had
prepared for Italy became operational through the bombings, one of the
leading members of the subversive right was literally in the pay of the
American embassy in Rome," the report says.
Mr Rauti now heads the small rightwing MSI Fiamma-Tricolore party, and
suggestions that he and other rightwing politicians still actively
involved in parliamentary politics had failed to cut their links to
terrorist extremists have drawn furious rebuttals from the centre-right
opposition.
The National Alliance leader, Gianfranco Fini, described the document as
a "miserable report" and the centrist Republican party said it was
worthy of a 1970s Maoist group.
"These are allegations that have come up over the last 20 years and
there is absolutely nothing to them," a source at the US embassy in Rome
said.
To Aldo Giannuli, a historian who works as a consultant to the
parliamentary terrorism commission, the release of the Left Democrats'
report is a manoeuvre dictated primarily by domestic political
considerations.
"Since they have been in power the Left Democrats have given us very
little help in gaining access to security service archives," he said.
"This is a falsely courageous report. The real issue today is gaining
access to Nato's archives. There has been no impulse on this front from
the government."
Copyright Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
AFIB Editor's Note: for background on US-NATO operational links to
international fascist terror networks see: John Dinges and Saul Landau,
Assassination on Embassy Row [New York, Pantheon Books, 1980]; Henrik
Kruger, The Great Heroin Coup: Drugs, Intelligence and International
Fascism [Boston, South End Press, 1980]; Stuart Christie, Stefano delle
Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist [London, Anarchy Magazine/Refract
Publications, 1984]; Jon Anderson and Scott Lee Anderson, Inside the
League [New York, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1986]; Edward Herman and Gerry
O'Sullivan, The "Terrorism" Industry [New York, Pantheon Books, 1989];
Martin Edwin Andersen, Dossier Secreto [Boulder, Westview Press, 1993];
Arthur E. Rowse, "Gladio: The Secret U.S. War to Subvert Italian
Democracy," Covert Action Quarterly, Washington, D.C., Summer 1994,
Number 49; Stella Calloni, "The Horror Archives of Operation Condor,"
Washington, D.C., Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 1994, Number 50;
Ertugrul Kurkcu, "Turkey: Trapped in a Web of Covert Killers," Covert
Action Quarterly, Washington, D.C., Summer 1997, Number 61; Martin A.
Lee, The Beast Reawakens [New York, Routledge, 2000].
*****
______________________________________________
HAIDER 'BEHIND NEW LAWS' TO SPY ON AUSTRIANS
______________________________________________
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
International News
Sunday, 25 June 2000
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
By Michael Leidig in Vienna
OPPONENTS of the Right-wing Austrian politician Jörg Haider claim that
his influence is behind new laws to control television and radio
networks and to allow snooping on private citizens by the security
services and the military.
Although Mr Haider has stepped down as the leader of the People's Party,
Peter Pilz, the Green Party's security spokesman who is heading the
campaign against the new measures, said: "These policies have Haider's
fingerprints all over them."
The coalition government, whose inclusion of members of the People's
Party has led to a European Union boycott of Austria, has set up a
regulatory body to monitor the "objectivity" of the country's national
television and radio broadcaster ORF. Next month it will pass laws
allowing the security services and the army to check on anyone who, they
feel, may have something to hide. The government's parliamentary
majority ensures that the laws will be passed unhindered. Mr Pilz said:
"Such measures have not been seen since the state monitoring under the
Fascism of the Thirties."
Mr Haider has already made it clear that he understands the power of the
press. In a personal manifesto, The Freedom I Mean, written in 1995, he
said: "The threat to freedom in totalitarian systems is easy to detect.
The threat to freedom in Western liberal democracies is more subtle . .
. using political and social ostracism by the media." He said: "For 64
per cent of the electorate, television is the most important source of
political information. Whoever controls this medium is in possession of
an effective instrument of manipulation."
Inge Jaeger, the Social Democrat spokesman and MP, said: "It's as if
Austria has been taken over by an enemy state. The mistrust by the
coalition of its own people is a sign of a government that is trying to
crack down on its country on the inside - and isolate it from the
outside. The democratic pledges of this government have slipped by the
wayside, and they are now planning legislation that will allow wholesale
spying, eavesdropping and denouncing of respectable citizens."
Two Bills - the Military Authority Law and the Police and Security Law -
are being presented by the coalition as a way of protecting the
population against organised crime and of maintaining surveillance of
enemies of the country's armed forces. Both laws allow unrestricted
access by members of the military police and state police to all
information whether it is political, financial, social or medical.
Opponents say such measures are dangerously open to abuse.
Paul Kiss, the government's security spokesman, said the laws were "not
about creating a general state of suspicion, but rather of enabling the
state police to be better informed. The fact that the law has been
proposed to protect the people has not been grasped by those who are
complaining. It should be the job of every member of parliament to
protect the people".
Mr Pilz said he was deeply concerned about the uses that information
gained under the new laws will be put to. He said: "I have compiled
dossiers of cases where the powers they already have were abused - for
example in exposing people's homosexuality. Requests for telephone taps
in courts are now routinely approved."
The government, he said, wanted to establish data files on every person
in the republic. "Journalists, editors and the media will be prevented
from respecting impartial opinion." Mr Kiss said: "Only those with
something to be scared about will not agree to this law. Anyone with a
clear conscience will say yes straight away."
The new Independent Media Monitoring bureau has been asked to judge
whether the Austrian political news programme Panorama is objective.
Josef Cap, the Social Democrats' media spokesman, said: "The aim is to
intimidate journalists and brand anything the government does not like
as 'unobjective'. The fact that the government wants to test the
objectivity of this programme that is respected across Europe for
'objectivity and diversity of opinion' speaks for itself."
Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2000.
*****
GREEN LEFT WEEKLY
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.greenleft.org.au
- Number 410, 28 June 2000 -
-----
______________________________________________
Austria: GOVERNMENT ON AN ANTI-WORKER OFFENSIVE
______________________________________________
BY MARGARITA WINDISCH
http://www.greenleft.org.au/current/410p25.htm
VIENNA -- Austria's government -- a coalition of the conservative
People's Party (VP) and the extreme right-wing, racist Freedom Party
(FP) -- is showing its true colours.
The FP managed to overtake the VP at last October's federal election by
a small margin, to become the second strongest party in parliament after
the social-democratic Socialist Party (SP). After three months of
deliberations, the VP agreed to form government with the FP to stay in
power and implement its neo-liberal program, appease big business and
fulfill European Union regulations that require a reduced budget deficit
and cuts to government spending.
The FP's connections with fascist groups are well-known and its leader,
Jorg Haider, is on record making apologetic remarks about the Nazis.
While the FP's electoral performance and its invitation to participate
in government shocked many, its success can partly be attributed to the
13-year coalition government between SP and the VP. Successive SP-VP
governments failed to address social problems, introduced cuts to
welfare spending and paved the way for the FP's racist and populist
rhetoric by introducing some of the most inhuman and harshest
immigration policies in Europe.
Austria's trade union peak body, the GB -- a bureaucratic institution
with a symbiotic link to the SP and removed from the interests of the
rank and file members -- aided the SP-VP government's ability to unleash
creeping but painful attacks on the working class. The trade unions'
lack of fight and opposition to strikes left the working class
unprepared to defend itself against the major government-business
offensive being prepared by the VP-FP government.
Anti-social austerity
The VP-FP coalition government signals a clear break with post-war
Austrian politics. For the first time, Austria is ruled by a coalition
of two openly bourgeois parties whose aim is the destruction of
Austria's institutionalised Sozialpartnerschaft -- the "social
partnership" between government, business and trade unions. The end of
the "welfare state" and attacks on the main gains of the working class
are necessary for the government to push through its austerity program
anti-social policies.
Riess-Passer, FP vice-chancellor, has announced plans to "reform" the
"blown-out" public sector to curb government spending. Estimates are
that 30,000 public sector workers will be sacked and a further 9000 jobs
will disappear through redundancy and retirement.
The proposed budget cuts also imply reduced powers for the major "social
partnership" institutions -- an effort to weaken the position of workers
and speed up privatisation of a plethora of industries.
The government is also planning to change industrial relations laws,
replacing federal industry-based awards with a workplace-based
enterprise bargaining system.
The VP-FP coalition has already changed legislation to raise the age for
retirement and retrospectively done away with workers' rights to early
retirement if they suffer from major illness. There is also discussion
about the introduction of "work for the dole".
Public health facility fees have been increased to reduce state
subsidisation of patients' stays in hospitals. Charges will apply for
visits to hospital emergency departments and medication fees have also
been raised.
Carrot and stick
The VP-FP is using "carrot and stick" tactics to make changes to
maternity leave entitlements palatable to the population. The government
is willing to invest millions of schillings to replace the current
system of paid maternity leave based on income for a flat-rate payment
scheme. At the same time, funds to projects for women to reenter the
work force are being reduced and improvements to the chronic shortage of
childcare facilities have been rejected. Clearly, the government wants
families to absorb the costs.
Cuts to higher education sector will amount to around A$100 million and
are coupled with less visible attacks such as reduced access to student
scholarships, reduced staff and courses and post graduate projects. The
government has also given public universities the right to
"self-manage", reduced the powers of the education department,
facilitates the introduction of student fees and is preparing for the
privatisation of the sector.
The government has also shown that it will not hesitate to curb civil
liberties. It has attacked freedom of speech and the press.
Haider, former head of the FP and premier of the Austrian state of
Karinthia, is urging the introduction of legislation to charge any
Austrian politician with criminal conduct if he/she makes
"anti-government and un-Austrian" statements.
At recent demonstrations, protesters have been harassed, beaten and
arrested for unsubstantiated reasons. One protester faces charges for
having made a pun out of the Austrian national anthem. Since the
coalition government came to office, the police have become increasingly
repressive and authoritarian. Three people have been shot by police in
separate incidents.
Fourteen of the 15 EU member states, the United States and some other
countries have decided to isolate Austria diplomatically over the FP's
participation in government because the politics of the FP "contradict
EU policies and endangers European integration processes". The sanctions
are largely symbolic. They did not prevent Austria's participation in
discussions on a united EU policy on asylum seekers based on further
restricting refugees' access to "Fortress Europe".
The EU stance against the FP is contradictory, since EU member states
have not previously condemned the participation of extreme right-wing
parties in governments (for example, the National Alliance as part of
the Italian government in 1994).
The EU's main concerns may be the FP and Haider's unpredictability and
populist anti-EU rhetoric. The benefits of the EU currency, the Euro,
have not lived up to expectations and any questioning by the FP of the
currency could lead to a domino effect across Europe.
Some member states also fear destabilisation from a rise of extreme
right-wing parties in their countries -- in Belgium and France the far
right is particularly strong.
However, despite EU governments' misgivings, it is becoming more evident
that the VP-FP coalition is implementing policies in line with the EU's
anti-worker guidelines.
Since the new government was formed, massive protests and demonstrations
of up to 300,000 people have opposed the coalition. Currently, there are
regular protests and demonstrations, particularly in Vienna, which
attract around 3000-5000 people.
The trade unions have only participated haphazardly in the protests and
no united mass actions or strikes have taken place or are planned. The
GB has neither endorsed the protests nor distanced itself from them but
left it to individual members to take part. A large demonstration is
planned for the beginning of July.
All rights reserved, Green Left Weekly. Redistribution permitted with
this notice attached. Redistribution for profit prohibited.
*****
______________________________________________
FATHER'S LOVE: FATHER'S LOSS
______________________________________________
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Column Written 6/4/2000
Source: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Monday, 19 June 2000 -
..You can't explain how a cop can lock up a person on suspicion when it
is the cops that are suspicous and not the person, just because a person
look suspicious to a cop don't mean that the person is suspect of
somethin', it only means the cop is suspect of that person... -- John
Africa, The Judges Letter
It began, as do most family tragedies these days, with a phone call.
Another Black father learned that his son was dead, after having been
shot 5 times.
Bruce Waters, like far too many fathers of his generation, was forced to
deal with members of the "Criminal Justice System": cops, DAs, and
courts, as he tried to insure that the killer (or killers) of his son
received punishment.
His initial contacts were promising, and he complimented law enforcement
people on their work. A cop in Homicide told him that 2 men were
arrested in his son's killing, and Waters warmly congratulated him. When
he asked how the two were apprehended, Homicide's Jack McDermott
explained that one of the suspects called him up with information on the
killing, Waters said. This, he found curious. A guy calling up a cop,
snitching on himself?
Well, that was odd enough, and then Waters was told that the number one
suspect would call McDermott from time to time, but he hadn't heard from
him in a while. When he did call, however, the suspect said he went on a
"spree" and that he was sick from the "big one" (AIDS).
"Spree?" Waters was stunned. Was this guy, who was a suspect in the
murder of his son, not only confessing to that crime but to also going
on some kind of crime spree? This thing that seemed so cut and dried
became "curiouser and curiouser."
The killing of 23-year old Jerry Locke of North Philadelphia drew Waters
into a world of intrigue and of utter disbelief. At the center of the
case was one Mark White, a young man who was, in every sense of the
word, a professional snitch. White was later convicted of second degree
murder and other charges, and is now doing life.
What made Waters furious is finding out the fact that the person
convicted of killing his son, had in fact been arrested over two dozen
times on a variety of charges, and was let out again, and again, and
again.
How? Because White was let out over and over again, to snitch, to
"testilie" on behalf of the police and the DA's office, to obtain
convictions. He was used in more cases than this writer knows; but here
is one of them:
Commonwealth v. Malik Bowers and Rasheen Simpson (1996).
Here, Mark told police that he heard a confession from Rasheen, and
affirmed this story 3 different times. He said he saw Malik shooting at
the intended victim, Tracey Postell. Both men were facing the death
penalty in the case. Result? Malik was acquitted, and Rasheen's case was
thrown out: nol-prossed. Why? In a statement given several years after
the prosecution, White admitted to investigators that he lied:
Q: Why did you tell the police, and why did you testify in court that he
did?
A: Because I needed help in my cases and Det. McDermott told me that if
I
testified for Bill Fisher I wouldn't have to go to jail. And, Bill
Fisher knew that Rasheen did it and he needed a conviction, and that he
needed something to back up what the other guy said about Rasheen... --
[statement: 8/24/99 - Strohm Investigative Services]
White said he hadn't seen anything, nor heard anything. He just wanted
out of jail. So he lied. How many more cases? How many other snitches?
Waters said, "The cops fumbled, they used Mark White. He should not have
been involved, he should've been in jail."
Of the judicial system in Philadelphia, Waters said, "Every citizen at
one time or another, believes justice will prevail. I'm sorry to say,
the system is flawed. Anytime a law enforcement official collaborates
with criminals, the system needs to change."
Of the Homicide dicks, he was critical: "Homicide detectives are
manufacturing monsters. They make Mark Whites."
A father's loss. A system's failure.
Copyright 2000 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All Rights Reserved.
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is an info-group which collects and disseminates information, research
and analysis on fascist activity and anti-fascist resistance. More info:
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Web: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff
Order our journal, ANTIFA FORUM, cutting-edge anti-fascist research and
analysis! 4 issues, $20. Write AFF, P.O. Box 6326, Station A, Toronto,
Ontario, M5W 1P7 Canada
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy
these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ ++++ see:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
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Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective
based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material,
including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed
communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and
more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation
materials on our listserv called ATS-L. For more information, contact:
Arm The Spirit
P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A
Toronto, Ontario
M5W 1P7 Canada
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/
ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l
ATS Note: With the shutting down of the Burn site our web page and
archives are at the following: http://tierra.ucsd.edu/~ats
When trying to access any ATS page (along with other Burn web sites, eg.
the FARC-EP), substitute "tierra" for "burn". Our e-mail address remains
the same.
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A. Saba
Dare To Call It Conspiracy
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
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