This is just incredible!

[dfoy]

Check out these 2 links:

http://www.workingforchange.com/arti...TOKEN=82540813

"Stewart's case, now winding its way through pre-trial motions toward a scheduled January 2004 trial, stands as a critical test for the Bush Administration's newly reserved right to violate lawyer-client confidentiality in order to wage the War on Terror. It also has a significant First Amendment freedom of speech component. Stewart's indictment charges her with discussing Abdel-Rahman's case with a Reuters reporter -- even though no gag or other court order barred her from doing so; with talking while an interpreter was speaking with her client during a consultation in his prison cell, thereby preventing the Justice Department from clearly taping the Arabic talk; and that she allowed them to speak, in Arabic, about non-legal matters. If convicted, she faces 40 years in prison."

http://www.progressive.org/webex03/wx042203.html

"OK, so you're an American citizen, you're working at your job, and all of a sudden FBI agents show up at your place of employment and take you away.


They don't charge you with any crime. They just lock you up indefinitely.


Then they go to your home and grab whatever they want--your computers, your financial records, even your kids' videos.


Does that sound outlandish to you?


Well, it's happening right now in these United States.


The scenario I just sketched out is exactly what befell Mike Hawash, who lives near Portland, Oregon. An Intel software engineer, Hawash was born on the West Bank and has been a U.S. citizen for 15 years.


He's been behind bars since March 20 as a material witness in a federal terrorism case. The material witness designation was put on the books to prevent witnesses who were deemed flight risks from splitting.


That's not the case with Hawash. He's got a wife and three kids, ages 2, 5, and 11. He is the main breadwinner in his home, and he depends on his work at Intel for his income. And he has longstanding ties in the community, as his wife was born in the state. His flight risk is about nil."

This is outrageous. Why aren't our mainstream media covering these stories? The public needs to know what is going on!

[Els' 3 Ones]

I caught some of this on NPR yesterday....................my jaw is still on the ground.


El

[CollegeMama]

Re: This is just incredible!

I can't believe that this sort of thing is happening. I just know that if the American public really knew what was going on that they wouldn't stand for it. Especially those really far right-winged people who are so concerned about "big government." What do they have to say about this?

Originally posted by dfoy
This is outrageous. Why aren't our mainstream media covering these stories? The public needs to know what is going on!

Because the big conglomerates that own all the media outlets are somehow getting paid off by the Bush Adm. That's the only thing that makes sense to me anyway.

In the program's concluding segment, "The Point," Mark Hyman rants against peace activists ("wack-jobs"), the French ("cheese-eating surrender monkeys"), progressives ("loony left") and the so-called liberal media, usually referred to as the "hate-America crowd" or the "Axis of Drivel." Colorful, if creatively anemic, this is TV's version of talk radio, with the precisely tanned Hyman playing a second-string Limbaugh.
Fox 47's right-wing rants may be the future of hometown news, but – believe it or not – it's not the program's blatant ideological bias that is most worrisome. Here's the real problem: Hyman isn't the station manager, a local crank, or even a journalist. He is the Vice President of Corporate Communications for the station's owner, the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Alternet

[Els' 3 Ones]

I actually don't agree that network honchos are getting paid/bought off -- it has more to do with us, the consumer, IMO.

WE decide what to watch, listen to, and buy. If we are unhappy with the tone of coverage, we complain and advertisers get scarce. No advertisers = no show.


And that, my friends, scares the shit outta me......................that what we have today is exactly what the majority wants.

Not that most ppl are in agreement with the right (although many are) but that many, many ppl don't put an moment of thought into their actions/decisions. So many give a rip abt economy, environment, global industry. They just don't care.

Until it affects them.





El

ep- to add a very important word - don't : I really need to proofread my posts.

[Gentlegreen]

"Lynne Stewart is a guinea pig -- a chance for the Bush Administration to see how far it can push its evisceration of the Bill of Rights. The attack on attorney representation is only one of a staggering number of its post-9/11 assaults on the Constitution -- but it's one of the most important. Invariably the least sympathetic among us -- the accused terrorists, the radical lawyers -- are the first to lose basic rights.

The rest of us follow."

Even if the mainstream media were to address these stories, the "correct" spin would be put on them so that the actions being taken by the government seemed prudent. After all, we must look to our fearless leaders to make the right decisions to keep us all safe, right? The masses would find this acceptable when put in a context of "protecting us from terrorism." The deeper implications of loss of civil liberties would not even be given a second thought.

Blind trust will only lead us down a rocky, dangerous road that eventually leads to our own doorstep.

[dfoy]

I agree, Gentlegreen.

And sadly, since the man in the second article (Mike Hawash from Oregon) was born on the West Bank and has obtained citizenship rather than have been born into it, many people would defend his imprisonment.

This is a material witness, not an enemy combatant (I don't agree with the terms of their imprisonment, either). Subpeona the man. Don't imprison him!

I wonder if he has a right to his attorney? The article doesn't say.

Here's a link to a website called "Free Mike Hawash"

http://users.easystreet.com/mcg/

And another link:

http://www.warblogging.com/archives/000603.php

[daylily]

This makes me very sad. Just the other day, as a homework assignment, dd was memorizing the Bill of Rights. What a joke! I told her to ask her teacher what the Patriot Acts have done to the Bill of Rights, but I don't think she did.

[mahdokht]

*

[TiredX2]

>>>We should be marching in the streets to defend the bill of rights.<<<<

Tell me when and I'll be there.

I keep getting sicker and sicker about what going on. And it seems like IRL if you talk about any of this, people just give you the "crazy hippy freak" look and brush it off.

[Deirdre]

Like El's said, the scary thing is that these things are happening and noone seems to care...except a few. And it is sad but true that most people won't care until it is in their face.

Someone posted about the release of the Joe McCarthy transcripts the other day. I have been reading a bit about it in my paper. It was the same thing then, people were so afraid of the "communists" (insert "terrorists" now) that they didn't bother to care what McCarthy was doing. It wasn't until his sessions were televised and some people he was interrogating spoke up to him hat the American public started to become concerned. Now "McCarthyism" is a bad word associated with a shameful period of American history. I wonder what this current period will be called...if the People ever wake up and make it stop.

~Deirdre

[Joyce in the mts.]

Muslimmomma! I know this is OT but...:

I DO have a "Love my country; Fear my government" sticker on my car!

...Along with "Dean for America", "Without Dissent it's not America!", "Vote them out!", and "Gimme that old-time Religion" (with pentagram), "Don't Tread on Me" and Peace on Earth.

Back on topic:

Lynne Stewart is quite a controversial person...I saw/heard her speak at a rally in DC last fall. The situation is indicative of the level of "custom" twisting of laws and selective shredding of the constitution that has been going on and continues. I believe that such things are meant as examples, though never clearly promoted as such, of what the powers that be will, can, and have no compunctions about doing. Shameful. Evil.

(didn't go to the link, but read about it before...)I believe the incident regarding Mr. Hawash happened a while ago, and it was very shocking at the time how it went down. That is when many saw and believed that this country was in big trouble that might not be easily reversible any time soon.

Muslimmomma... I think you are correct that there is war against US citizens by their own government. That is accurate in my opinion, based on observation..what else would you call it?

They obviously want a population of servitude and obiescence (misspelled?)....in order to further their agenda which is revealed more and more...to undo all the social safety nets, make the mega-rich, richer; devalue women back to barefoot and pregnant chattel, eliminate the elderly and the poor through elimination of SS, pensions, and healthcare services...among other things, and make a certain odd, totally puritanical, hypocritical and faux form of Christianity the state religion.

(It so accurately reflects the awful circumstances in Starhawk's novel, "The 5th Sacred Thing", in so many ways. I guess that life often imitates art and vice versa.)

Gentlegreen, you are so correct about the gov't floating these outlandish and illegal policies, pushing the envelope to see JUST how far they can go and then go further than that!... to that I add: while the country is frightened and fear reigns. As we see, the masses are only too relieved to comply with these things seeing them as enhancing "Fatherland" security....sorry, that comment is not meant to inflame, I just hate what I see going on. I get cynical and the first thing that pops into my twisted mind is the slippery slope that Germany went down over time, toward what is now, history for them.... Hence, my reference to "fatherland".

Forgive me, if I have offended anyone with that, in any way.

By the way...I posted about the McCarthy transcripts. Interesting and true/tragic observations, D.

Thanks for reading my ramblings...Joyce in the mts.