Rania Khalek Dispatches from the Underclass
/ February 23, 2014 / 2 Comments

Podcast: Jordan Davis, Colorblind Prosecutions And 'Presumed Guiltiness of Black Bodies'

UD3On this week’s episode of Unauthorized Disclosure, Kevin Gosztola and I speak with independent journalist and filmmaker Raven Rakia about the Michael Dunn verdict, Jordan Davis’ defiance of respectability politics, the lack of outrage over police killings, and how structural and implicit racism work together to perpetuate what Raven calls the “presumed guiltiness of black bodies.”

The prosecution’s omission of race from the Dunn trial, explained Raven, “plays to the need for a colorblind society…so people don’t have to take responsibility.”

I encourage you to read Raven’s moving response to the Dunn verdict here. Also, follow her incredible work on twitter at @aintacrow.

In the discussion portion of the show, Kevin and I talk about the nuances missing from US media coverage of the protests in Venezuela and Ukraine, the LAPD’s Israel-inspired love affair with drones, the US Border Patrol killing a Mexican man for allegedly throwing rocks at the officers chasing him, a terrible court decision that absolves the NYPD of wrongdoing for spying on Muslims, and the the disastrous implications for press freedom in the aftermath of the David Miranda case.

Unauthorized Disclosure is finally available on iTunes! You can also download it directly here or you can listen to it here.

Below is a transcript of our interview with Raven.  Read More

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/ February 16, 2014 / 5 Comments

LAPD Travels To Israel, Falls In Love With Drones And Mass Surveillance

The HoverMast-100, an Israeli surveillance drone. If the LAPD had their way, they'd would be watching you with this.

The HoverMast-100, an Israeli surveillance drone that the LAPD hopes to add to its arsenal. (Image source: Sky Sapience website)

The Jewish Journal has an incredible write-up on the Los Angeles Police Department’s recent visit to Israel.

For nine days early this month, eight of the LAPD’s highest ranking officers toured Israel on a trip organized by LAPD Deputy Chief and commander of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau Michael Downing, and headed by LAPD Information Technology Bureau commander Horace Frank.

While it’s unclear how much the trip cost taxpayers, Frank told the Journal that the trip was financed with “grant funding that was available for us to look at emergency technologies and best practices.”

Since 2001, the US government has doled out tens of billions of dollars in federal grants to local and state police departments in the name of fighting terrorism, so it’s likely that the grant that paid for the LAPD’s Israel trip came from DHS.

Though LAPD officers have visited Israel in the past, this appears to have been the most high-level trip to date. But it wasn’t your typical propaganda tour.

Instead of stopping at the Western Wall or Yad Vesham, officers visited Israel’s private security firms and drone manufacturers, most of them formed by former members of Israel’s top-secret 8200 Unit, which, like the NSA, engages in mass spying and cyber warfare.  Read More

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/ February 16, 2014 / Leave a comment

Podcast: Nima Shirazi On Iran's Nuclear Deal, Decades Of Propaganda And AIPAC's Massive Fail

We finally have a name! Kevin Gosztola and I have decided to call our podcast, now into its fifth episode, Unauthorized Disclosure. It has a nice “fuck the system” ring to it, don’t you think?

This week we speak with US foreign policy analyst Nima Shirazi about three decades of propaganda surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, the harm inflicted on Iranians by US sanctions and the how AIPAC (the leading pro-Israel lobby) failed miserably in its attempt to derail the historic interim agreement in its push for more sanctions. Contrary to US and Israel sponsored myths, it turns out that Iran is not hell bent on destroying the planet with a nuclear bomb.

We also briefly discuss the coming retirement of Anti-Defamation League (ADL) head Abe Foxman, or as Nima likes to call him, “the supreme leader of the ADL.” I sure hope the ADL listens to this episode because we offer our choices for Foxman replacements.

You can follow Nima’s brilliant work at his website Wide Asleep In America and on twitter @WideAsleepNima.

In the discussion portion, Kevin and I talk about the disappearance of anti-drone activist Kareem Khan, revelations from Glenn Greenwald and Jeremey Scahill on the NSA’s role in the dystopian targeted killing program, and the use of state secrets to coverup a supposed paperwork error that got an innocent woman placed on the no-fly list.

We ditched SoundCloud, so you can download the episode here or listen here. Unfortunately, I haven’t figured out how to embed the audio into this post (WordPress is being difficult), but I’m working on it. Also, Unauthorized Disclosure will be available on iTunes soon.

Below is a transcript of our interview with Nima. Read More

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/ February 14, 2014 / 4 Comments

Anti-Drone Activist Kareem Kahn Freed After Illegal Detention and Torture

Kareem Khan poses with images of his deceased brother Asif Iqbal (L) and son Zaenullah during an interview in Islamabad November 30, 2010.(Reuters)

Kareem Khan poses with images of his deceased brother Asif Iqbal (L) and son Zaenullah during an interview in Islamabad November 30, 2010.(Reuters)

The UK-based human right group Reprieve is reporting that drone strike victim Kareem Khan has been released after enduring nearly 10 days of interrogation and torture related to his anti-drone activism. 

Khan went missing February 5, when he was abducted from his home in the Pothohar region of Pakistan by men in police uniforms.

At the time of his disappearance, Khan was preparing to travel to Europe to testify before parliament about the CIA drone strike that killed his son and brother in 2009.

Furthermore, Khan’s lawyer, Shahzad Akbar, was helping him pursue legal action against the Pakistani police for their refusal to investigate the strike.

He told Al Jazeera that he was “blindfolded and handcuffed for eight days in a basement ‘torture chamber’, where he was beaten and physically abused.”  Read More

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/ February 9, 2014 / 1 Comment

Michigan Authorities Collude With Tar Sands Company In Jailing Nonviolent Protesters

In the fourth episode of our podcast (we’re working on a name, I swear), Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola and I speak with Chloe Gleichman from the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI CATS) about three Michigan activists who face up to two years behind bars for participating in nonviolent direct action to prevent the construction of an Enbridge Inc. tar sands pipeline. 

Last summer, three members of MI CATS—Vicci Hamlin, Barb Carter and Lisa Leggio—locked themselves to excavators at an Enbridge construction site to block the the expansion of a pipeline that ruptured in 2010, flooding the Kalamazoo River with 800,000 gallons of crude oil. On January 31, the three were found guilty of misdemeanor trespassing and resisting and obstructing police, a felony that carries with it a maximum two year prison sentence. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled for March. Until then, they are stuck in prison because the judge denied them bond.

It’s a crime how little attention this story has received. These nonviolent activists are on the front lines of preventing the transport of Canadian tar sands oil, which threatens the health and safety of the entire planet. Their communities are directly impacted by the havoc these pipeline companies and their dirty product wreak. Meanwhile, the system that’s supposed to be protecting them is instead colluding with oil companies to muzzle and imprison their victims. These brave activists need and deserve our support.

After speaking with Chloe, Kevin and I go on to discuss several underreported news items, including a massive coal ash spill in North Carolina, the rising child mortality rate in Detroit that rivals third world countries, the PTSD crisis in poor inner-city neighborhoods that’s going untreated, the cover-up of a lynching in a Texas sundown town, the outrageous George Zimmerman celebrity boxing match (it’s since been called off, thank god) and the trivialization of terrorism at the NATO 3 trial (good news since we recorded, the prosecution lost!).

You can listen to the episode here:

[soundcloud url=”https://soundcloud.com/kgosztola/weekly-podcast-micats-3-trial”]

I’m not sure when but very soon you will be able to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, where you can download it automatically. But before that can happen, we need to come up with a name. In the spirit of listener-powered media and community engagement, we’d love to hear your ideas for possible names and of course we will credit you and give you many shout outs if we your suggestion is the winner. You can leave your recommendations in the comments section or tweet us at @kgosztola and @raniakhalek. We look forward to hearing from you! Read More

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/ February 2, 2014 / 2 Comments

How the US Used Post-9/11 Hysteria to Treat Activists Like Terrorists

For the third episode of our new yet-to-be named podcast, FDL’s Kevin Gosztola and I speak with Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty Project at the ACLU of Massachusetts, about how US authorities at all levels of government have used post-9/11 hysteria to go after activists and militarize the hell out of local police departments. Kade walks us through history, explaining the origins of US government agencies spying on, infiltrating, torturing and killing political dissidents, much of which continues to take place today under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Kade regularly blogs about this stuff at Privacy SOS, which you should definitely check out. You can follow her on twitter at @onekade.

After having our minds blown by Kade’s brilliant and terrifying analysis, Kevin and I go on to discuss recent news items, including Scarlett Johansson’s new gig as global brand ambassador for occupation-profiteer Sodastream, the New York State Senate passing an unconstitutional bill to punish academic organizations that endorse boycotting Israel, a disturbing series of lawsuits against police body cavity searches that amount to sexual assault, and more absurdity from the NATO 3 trial. You can listen here:

[soundcloud url=”https://soundcloud.com/kgosztola/weekly-podcast-labeling”]

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/ January 31, 2014 / 5 Comments

Chicago Cops Strip Searched Three People In Public

Three people have filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department alleging that officers subjected them to publicly invasive strip searches last year. The suit calls the behavior of the officers “extreme and outrageous, exceeding all bounds of human decency.” Read More

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/ January 26, 2014 / 76 Comments

Unarmed Man Shot And Killed By Houston Cop For Wearing A Hoodie While Black

Jordan Baker

Jordan Baker (Source: ABC 13)

Jordan Baker, a 26-year-old Houston Community College student and father, “took his last breath in a trash-strewn alley behind a Northwest Houston strip center” on Thursday, January 16, all because he was a black man wearing a hoodie.

Houston police officer J Castro, an 11-year veteran who was moonlighting as a security guard for the strip mall that night, was on the lookout for hoodie-wearing armed robbery suspects. Castro says Baker, who was unarmed, matched the description and he shot and killed him as a result.

The police version of events, as reported by the local ABC affiliate, follows the predictable “he wasn’t cooperating and the cop was scared for his life” script: Read More

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/ January 26, 2014 / 8 Comments

How NSA Spying Impacts Muslim Communities and Cultivates Islamophobia

In the second episode of our new podcast, Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola and I speak with Gadeir Abbas, a staff attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), about the NSA surveillance as it relates to and impacts Muslim communities. This part really stood out and should leave you outraged:

The saddest thing I’ve ever heard as a CAIR staff attorney, and I hear lots of sad things, was when a young guy told me that when he goes to the mosque to pray, his mom warns him to be careful. And the mom warns him to be careful because there’s an understanding based on experience that the mosque is likely filled with informants and infiltrators that are not there to make us any safer but there to extract information from innocent Americans by any means necessary.

That’s right, for once a conversation about NSA spying that focuses, not on white dude bros, but its impact on marginalized communities. Gadeir also breaks down the roots of NSA spying, which was cultivated and justified through the vilification of Muslims.

Next, Kevin and I discuss several news items, including the brain-dead Texas woman kept on life support despite her and her families wishes because she’s pregnant, a series of unfortunate Stand Your Ground cases in Florida and the NATO 3 trial being largely ignored by the mainstream media. We also ponder the likelihood of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio offering to send the NYPD to attack Iran for Israel given his over-the-top masturbutory speech to AIPAC last week. Read More

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/ January 19, 2014 / 8 Comments

West Va. Mother: 'We live in a human sacrifice zone'

For our new weekly podcast, Firedoglake’s Kevin Gosztola and I interviewed a resident of West Virginia about the chemical spill that left 300,000 people without usable water for days after 7,500 gallons of a chemical used to clean coal leaked into the Elk River earlier this month.

West Va. officials insist that the water is now safe to drink but residents are highly skeptical especially since it’s unclear just how harmful the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) is. On top of that, emergency rooms in Charleston filled up with residents reporting exposure-related symptoms after the drinking advisory was lifted and many say they can still smell the chemical in the air while others report that their water is running brown.

Kevin and I spoke with West Virginia resident Paula Swearingen, a single mother who’s joined up with others in her community to get water to people affected by the spill. Paula, who comes from a family of coal miners, details the terror of not knowing whether the water is safe to bathe in, let alone drink and describes the helplessness that comes with living in a state dominated by the coal industry. Read More

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