Break the Chains News

A3 Documentary In Baton Rouge

Southern University Law Center ~ Fri, Feb 10th

International Coalition to Free the Angola 3

Baton Rouge, LA Screening
2012 promises to be filled with A3 Baton Rouge court hearings in both the criminal cases and the civil case, so although we usually don't send emails out for individual screenings, we want to be sure that anyone in the area who has not yet seen the film has a chance to do so.
What: "In the Land of the Free" ScreeningWhen: Friday, February 10th @ Noon

Where: Room 125 of Southern University Law Center, 2 Roosevelt Steptoe Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70813

Get a Free Copy of the Film and Host Your Own Community Screening!!!

For all those of you who don't live in Baton Rouge, or who can't make Friday's screening, free copies of the film are still available to anyone who would like to host a community screening of their own. View Trailer
Click here to host your own screening!

Keep in Touch with Herman and Albert

Albert Woodfox #72148 Herman Wallace #76759 David Wade Correctional Center Elayn Hunt Correctional Center N1 A3 CCR D #11 670 Bell Hill Road PO Box 174 Homer, LA 71040 St. Gabriel, LA 70776



Forward email

PUNISHMENT INSTEAD OF TREATMENTHundreds of mentally ill inmates languish in solitary confinement in prisons ill equipped to treat them

MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

Kevin DeMott is a mentally ill inmate with bipolar and personality disorders. Corrections officers at the Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility chained DeMott to his bed and secured a padded helmet to his head after he refused to stop banging his head against the wall, which is stained with blood.

JEFF GERRITT

MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

The chained and shackled legs of Kevin Demott at Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility.

Kevin De-Mott, left, poses for a 2009 family photo with his mother, Lois De-Mott, and his grandmother, Doris Leininger, in Lansing. Kevin’s mother was being honored for youth advocacy. DEMOTT FAMILY PHOTO

CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE: This is the first in an occaional series of columns and editorials on mental illness and Michigan’s criminal justice and mental health care system.

On Jan. 10 of last year, corrections officers at Ionia Maximum Correctional Facility found 19-yearold Kevin DeMott banging his head against a blood-stained cell wall.

Diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 11, inmate No. 608233 had languished in solitary for four months, sometimes without the psychotropic medication his psychiatrist prescribed. Normally 5-foot-10 and 171 pounds, he had lost 25 pounds.

Officers ordered DeMott to stop banging his head, but he continued.

After DeMott told officers who tried to restrain him that they would have to kill him, he was hit twice with pepper spray, then manacled in belly chains and leg irons, according to a critical incident report. Soon after, prison authorities charged him with disobeying a direct order, resulting in 30 days’ loss of privileges.

Too often, the Department of Corrections punishes instead of treats mental illness. Michigan’s 32 prisons hold thousands of mentally ill inmates, including as many as 200 isolated in segregation cells, where they are locked up for 23 hours a day, or longer, unable to participate in treatment programs, and sometimes cut off from the medications prescribed to help manage their illnesses.

It’s an insidious cycle: Mentally ill inmates act out and exhibit unstable or destructive behavior. Prison officials respond by further restricting their movements and their opportunities to get treatment.

Privately, MDOC officials acknowledge that many mentally ill inmates don’t belong in prison, where security demands trump treatment needs. Over the last two decades, however, Michigan has slashed spending on in-patient treatment, leaving courts with few options but to send mentally ill offenders to jail or prison.

“We don’t control who comes to us,” said Russ Marlan, administrator of MDOC’s executive bureau.

Between 1987 and 2003, Michigan

“IT’S ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR THE
’’ ILL. SERIOUSLY MENTALLY
MARK REINSTEIN, president of the Mental Health Association in Michigan, commenting on the prison practice of putting some inmates in administrative segregation, the most restrictive level of custody

closed three-quarters of its 16 state psychiatric hospitals. Michigan now provides fewer psychiatric beds per capita than all but five other states, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center. County jails and state prisons have become, in effect, the state’s primary mental health institutions.

A 2010 University of Michigan study found that more than 20% of the state’s prisoners — about 10,000 inmates out of a population of 45,000 — had severe mental disabilities. The same study found that 65% of those with severe mental disabilities had received no treatment in the previous 12 months — a finding MDOC disputes. MDOC, which started screening new prisoners for mental health needs a year ago, estimates that 17% of its prisoners are mentally ill, although the department’s estimates before the screenings were as high as 25%.

Worse, nearly 1,000 inmates in Michigan are in administrative segregation, the highest and most restrictive custody level, and many of them are mentally ill. MDOC administrators acknowledge that the percentage of mentally ill inmates in segregation is probably higher than in the overall population. Prisoners in segregation are handcuffed when they leave their cells, eat off serving trays pushed through the slots of steel doors, and generally lack the few privileges extended to those in general population, such as telephone calls, contact visits and television. Some stay in segregation for months, even years.

“It’s one of the worst things you can do for the seriously mentally ill,” said Mark Reinstein, president of the Mental Health Association in Michigan.

It also appears to violate the department’s own policies, which state that “prisoners with a mental disability ordinarily should not be housed in segregation if the disability may preclude adequate adjustment.” MDOC policy also states that prisoners should have access to health care, including psychological services, consistent with community standards.

Smart but troubled kid

Kevin DeMott was just 13 when he used a toy gun to hold up a Little Caesars pizza store in Battle Creek on Nov. 17, 2005. With a heavy marijuana habit, DeMott owed $600 to drug dealers who threatened his life. But he fled before collecting any money from an employee and three teenage customers.

“I was scared,” DeMott said during a recent interview at the Marquette Branch Prison, where we were separated by glass and communicated through phones. “I just ran out of the store and took off down the street.” Police arrested him a few blocks away but never recovered the toy gun.

DeMott showed promise as a student, attending Endeavor Charter Academy in Battle Creek through the fourth grade. But he also exhibited sudden fits of rage from the time he was 4, erupting in tantrums of yelling and hitting that lasted as long as three hours.

Sawyer Lahr, a childhood friend from Battle Creek, recalls DeMott as a smart, tender kid who brought snacks to his older brother and Lahr but sometimes exploded with little provocation, punching a hole in a wall or throwing an ax at a window.

“There was a fine line between anger and love with him,” said Lahr, now a 24-year-old film school graduate. “I don’t remember him having a lot of other friends.” DeMott started taking psychotropic medications at 9. Frequently truant from school, he entered a juvenile home in Calhoun County when he was 11.

“The medications weren’t working,” said his mother, Lois DeMott, who now lives in Lansing. “He gained 20 pounds. The side effects of the medication made it very difficult for him to cope.”

After the attempted robbery, DeMott received a blended sentence with placement in another juvenile facility — Clarinda Academy — in Iowa, which offered few services for the mentally ill.

DeMott’s behavior became more unstable, his thinking more fatalistic and obsessive. At night, he would chew off the stems of his glasses and cut himself with the broken edges. He wrote his mother a suicide note. DeMott failed the program and came home six months later in January 2007, returning to the juvenile home in Calhoun County. There, DeMott attempted suicide by hanging and, later that year, by cutting his wrists in the Calhoun County Jail.

Harsh prison placement

DeMott entered prison in May 2007, sentenced to 23-60 months on four counts of attempted armed robbery, with credit for time served. It was a ridiculous sentence for a 15-year-old, as even then-MDOC health services administrator Lynda Zeller suggested: “It is unfortunate that Mr. DeMott was directed into prison at 15 years old rather than being retained in the juvenile justice system where more age-appropriate resources exist,” Zeller wrote in an Oct. 20, 2008, confidential memo.

During DeMott’s first prison term, he racked up 52 misconduct tickets, including citations for threatening behavior, disobeying direct orders, destruction of property, assaults and insolence. His most serious infraction — a 2008 assault that sent an officer to the emergency room with cuts and abrasions — resulted in a second prison term of 14 months to five years.

DeMott was paroled on the robbery charge in April 2009 but returned to prison three months later. Since then, De-Mott has compiled nearly 50 more misconduct tickets. Eligible for parole since July 26, DeMott will see the Parole Board again in a year, but he could stay in prison until November 2015.

MDOC health records show DeMott has bipolar disorder, a history of marijuana abuse, seriously disordered moods, impaired anger and impulse control, and poor stress tolerance. Symptoms include anger mania and aggression. He is at intermediate risk of suicide. An MDOC treatment plan for De-Mott dated Oct. 17, 2011, warned that “being locked in his cell all day” could increase the risk of relapse.

Even so, he has spent nearly a year of his current prison term in segregation, where his mental health problems appear to be punished instead of treated. On Sept. 17, 2011, for example, DeMott ripped a suicide blanket in order to hang himself. He was found guilty of destroying property, ordered to reimburse the department $145 for the blanket and given 12 days’ loss of privileges.

“It’s like a panic attack, like being trapped in an elevator,’’ DeMott told me, describing his feelings before a fit of rage. “Eventually, I have to do something to get it out.”

During our 45-minute conversation at Marquette, DeMott was cogent and courteous, though he showed little emotion. Already certified, he hopes to work as a fitness trainer. He writes poetry and wants to attend college and work on prison reform.

“If I can’t get proper care with what my mom and family are doing, what about the guys who have no support?” he said.

Further reforms needed

DeMott’s case is hardly the most egregious in the prison system. In August 2006, for example, I reported the death of Timothy Joe Souders, a mentally ill 21-year-old serving one to four years for petty theft and resisting arrest. He died of heat and thirst, after spending four days strapped down in a segregation cell.

The state settled a federal lawsuit filed by his survivors for $3.25 million.

Since then, the department has initiated mental health care reforms, including more effective screening, employee training, weekly clinical reviews of mentally ill prisoners in segregation, and new treatment programs.

Still, the department and state Legislature need to enact more fundamental changes, including restricting the use of segregation for severely mentally ill prisoners, as New York did last year with a prison solitary confinement exclusion law. Meantime, any mentally ill inmate in segregation should be checked daily by a mental health professional.

Even mentally ill inmates who must be isolated for security reasons are entitled to treatment at one of MDOC’s inpatient or residential centers.

For Lois DeMott, a middle-class former hospital worker and day care operator, her son’s plight has turned into a mission. A year ago, she cofounded Citizens for Prison Reform, an advocacy group for Michigan prisoners and their families that meets monthly and lobbies for legislative reform.

“This has changed my life,” she said. “I’m not just fighting for one prisoner.”

! JEFF GERRITT IS A FREE PRESS EDITORIAL WRITER. CONTACT HIM AT GERRITT@FREEPRESS.COM OR 313-222-6585.

February 4, 2012 Prison Radio

Comrades, Brothers and Sisters:

Heidi Boghosian and I just returned from a very moving visit with Mumia. We visited yesterday, Thursday, February 2. This was Mumia’s second contact visit in over 30 years, since his transfer to General Population last Friday, Jan 27. His first contact visit was with his wife, Wadiya, on Monday, January 30.

Unlike our previous visits to Death Row at SCI Greene and to solitary confinement at SCI Mahanoy, our visit yesterday took place in a large visitor’s area, amidst numerous circles of families and spouses who were visiting other inmates. Compared to the intense and focused conversations we had had with Mumia in a small, isolated visiting cell on Death Row, behind sterile plexiglass, this exchange was more relaxed and informal and more unpredictably interactive with the people around us…it was more human. There were so many scenes of affection around us, of children jumping on top of and pulling at their fathers, of entire families talking intimately around small tables, of couples sitting and quietly holding each other, and of girlfriends and wives stealing a forbidden kiss from the men they were there to visit (kisses are only allowed at the start and at the end of visits). These scenes were touching and beautiful, and markedly different from the images of prisoners presented to us by those in power. Our collective work could benefit greatly from these humane, intimate images.

When we entered, we immediately saw Mumia standing across the room. We walked toward each other and he hugged both of us simultaneously. We were both stunned that he would embrace us so warmly and share his personal space so generously after so many years in isolation.

He looked young, and we told him as much. He responded, “Black don’t crack!” We laughed.

He talked to us about the newness of every step he has taken since his release to general population a week ago. So much of what we take for granted daily is new to him, from the microwave in the visiting room to the tremor he felt when, for the first time in 30 years, he kissed his wife. As he said in his own words, “the only thing more drastically different than what I’m experiencing now would be freedom.” He also noted that everyone in the room was watching him. The experience of breaking bread with our friend and comrade was emotional. It was wonderful to be able to talk and share grilled cheese sandwiches, apple danishes, cookies and hot chocolate from the visiting room vending machines.

One of the highlights of the visit came with the opportunity to take a photo. This was one of the first such opportunities for Mumia in decades, and we had a ball! Primping the hair, making sure that we didn’t have food in our teeth, and nervously getting ready for the big photo moment was such a laugh! And Mumia was openly tickled by every second of it.

When the time came to leave, we all hugged and were promptly instructed to line up against the wall and walk out with the other visitors. As we were exiting the prison, one sister pulled us aside and told us that she couldn’t stop singing Kelly Clarkson’s line “some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.” She shared that she and her parents had followed Mumia’s case since 1981 and that she was overjoyed that Mumia was alive and in general population despite Pennsylvania’s bloodthirsty pursuit of his execution. We told her that on April 24 we were going to launch the fight that would win Mumia’s release: that on that day we were going to Occupy the Justice Department in Washington DC. She told us that because she recently survived cancer she now believed in possibility, and that since Mumia was now in general population she could see how we could win. She sent us off with the line from Laverne and Shirley’s theme song – “never heard the word impossible!”- gave us her number, and asked us to sign her up for the fight.

We’re still taking it all in. The journey has been humbling and humanizing, and we are re-energized and re-inspired!! In the words of City Lights editor, Greg Ruggiero:” Short Term Goal: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!”

–Johanna Fernandez

sbrooklynabcf

NOTE- As of 2/5/2012 Oso Blanco's supporters are asking that calls me directed to
SMU Louisiana rather than Louisburg. Please note the updated contact info below.

In October, Cherokee political prisoner Byron Shane of Chubbuck (also known as Oso
Blanco and Yona Unega) was preparing for a federal transfer from USP Lewisburg to
FCI Oakdale, Louisiana, Special Management Unit (SMU). Lewisburg staff were well
aware of the vital tribal documents included in his property which were packed out
intact by Mr. Vey on October 4, 2011.

This transfer was canceled.There was a lot of delay and confusion in getting Oso
Blanco's property returned to him. Property came back from Oakdale, Louisiana and
was unpacked on January 13, 2012. Oso Blanco's address book was torn in two. Vital
documents that had been inserted inside and held with a rubber band were missing.
Other items were missing. Generally the property was ransacked in a manner well
beyond simple negligence or sloppiness but rather, showing clear signs deliberate
destruction.

*Missing documents include the following:

*Copy of old original blue card
(Cherokee citizenship enrollment official document)

*New original blue card

*Eagle permit
(us federal fish and wildlife recognition of a member of a federally recognized
tribe allowed to possess eagle feathers for traditional spiritual purposes)

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

This latest example of vindictive abuse from the Bureau of Prisons is part of a
long-term pattern of targeted harassment Oso Blanco his refusal to cooperate with
political incarceration by the United States as he does not recognize the us as
having any legitimate power over him as a sovereign Cherokee.

This latest round of harassment in the form of ransacked and stolen property comes
as retribution for his filing on the basis of the US having no plenary powers over
indigenous nations as articulated by Steven T Newcomb in his article, "No Plenary
Power Over Indian Nations".

Oso Blanco has asserted his sovereignty as a Cherokee not subject to bogus
criminalization so his captors have responded by trying to erase the documentation
that proves his Cherokee citizenship.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

On Monday, February 6th, starting at 9am Eastern time, call Oakdale
and demand that inmate Byron Shane Chubbuck (#07909-051)'s missing property be
recovered and returned to him intact.

Call FCI Oakdale at 318-335-4070 and ask for Warden Joseph P Young's office.

Alternately ask for the Receiving and Discharge (R&D) Department or the Security
Investigative Section (SIS) of the Special Management Unit (SMU).

Email sbrooklynabcf [at] riseup [dot] net to let us know how calls are going and/or
comment on posts.

After calling or making a commitment to call yourself, forward, repaste,repost,
facebook, tweet, text, talk, and/or make flyers to hand out.

Oso Blanco also asks that you take a moment to read Steve Newcomb's "No Plenary
Powers Over Indian Nations"

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/ict_sbc/no-plenary-power-over-indian-nations

Read more about Oso Blanco here:

http://www.osoblanco.org/

http://www.abcf.net/prisoners/chubbuck.htm

Activists say hospital overwhelmed in flashpoint city after government
forces deploy tanks and mortars.

04 Feb 2012 Al Jazeera

Hundreds of people have been killed or injured in a major army offensive
in the central Syrian city of Homs, activists say.

Activists talking to Al Jazeera on Saturday said the army had used tanks,
mortars and machine guns in the assault on the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood,
which began on Friday night and continued overnight.

Al Jazeera's Mysa Khalaf, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon,
said sources in Syria told her bombardment of the area started after the
opposition Free Syrian Army attacked Syrian army checkpoints and killed
about 10 soldiers.

"Since then, it seems that Khaldiyeh has been under constant bombardment,"
she said."Several buildings have been destroyed.

"I've been told that the main public hospital is completely overwhelmed
and people have set up makeshift clinics in mosques. They are running low
on supplies of blood."


As reports of the violence spread, angry protesters stormed the Syrian
embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and staged demonstrations outside
the embassies in the UK and the US, demanding an end to the deaths.

Stones were thrown at the building during the demonstration in London.

'Random bombarding'

Hadi al-Abdallah, an activist in Homs, told Al Jazeera that army defectors
had captured 19 members of the security forces earlier in the day.

Activists said government forces were targeting the neighbourhoods of Bab
Tadmour, Bab Dreib, and Karm el-Shami simultaneously, as the military
campaign in Khaldiyeh intensified.

Video purportedly showing a building on fire in al-Inshaat neighbourhood
was posted online, after activists said the area was also shelled by
government forces.

"There has been non-stop bombardment in Bab Amr [neighbourhood of Homs]
... They've been bombarding Bab Amr and Khaldiyeh non-stop with mortar
bombs and tank shells ... it's just random bombarding on rooftops," Danny
Abdul Dayem, an activist, told Al Jazeera early on Saturday.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 14 soldiers were
killed in clashes with opposition fighters and that five army defectors
had lost their lives.

The group cited witnesses saying 217 people had been killed in Homs, 138
of them in Khaldiyeh.

The opposition Syrian National Council decried Saturday's violence as a
"horrific massacre".

"The Syrian National Council calls on everyone around the world to speak
up and do something to stop the bloodshed of innocent Syrians," it said in
a statement.

Homs is one of the flashpoint cities in Syria's uprising, and some areas,
including Khaldiyeh, have become strongholds of the armed opposition.

The official SANA news agency blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the
violence, and reported that media reports were "distortion [and]
falsification".

UN vote

In a bid to halt the escalating violence, diplomats at the UN Security
Council in New York have for days been debating a draft resolution
condemning human rights violations in Syria.


Al Jazeera meets activists in Homs who are defying bullets to document
violence

A vote on the latest draft was expected as the council was due to meet in
New York on Saturday.

On Friday, a senior US state department official said his country was
"cautiously optimistic" that Syria's ally, Russia, would support the
resolution.

The latest draft does not explicitly call on Assad to step down or mention
an arms embargo or sanctions, though it "fully supports" an Arab League
plan to facilitate a democratic transition.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, the official said: "From our
perspective, this meets the objective of supporting the demands of the
Syrian people and the Arab League ... providing a peaceful Syrian-led
political path forward."

In its statement, the SNC demanded that Russia "clearly condemn the regime
and hold it responsible for the massacres".

Activists in Homs have been calling for foreign intervention to stop the
violence there.

"We want any kind of intervention by any kind of troops. We want anyone to
help us. Our Free Syrian Army only has Kalashnikovs, has machine guns.
Some RPGs, some rockets" Dayem told Al Jazeera.

"They cannot fight the whole Syrian army, that has tanks, that has planes.
We want anyone to come in and help us.

"Civilians are dying, women are dying, kids are dying. Why isn't anyone
doing anything about this? No-one is helping us."

Commemorating Hama

On Friday, thousands of protesters took to the streets across Syria to
commemorate the 1982 massacre in the city of Hama, ordered by late
President Hafez al-Assad, that killed tens of thousands.

"While we commemorate Hama massacres, the son [President Bashar al-Assad]
is imitating his father," Burhan Ghallioun, the head of the Syrian
National Council, the main opposition bloc, told Al Jazeera.

The whole city [Homs] is being targeted by heavy weaponry. The hospitals
are in siege by the regime tanks. They want the injured to become dead."


Syrian activists: 200 dead in government assault

By ZEINA KARAM | Associated Press – Feb. 3, 2012

BEIRUT (AP) — In a barrage of mortar shells, Syrian forces killed 200
people and wounded hundreds in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the
bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said
Saturday.

The assault in Homs, which has been one of the main flashpoints of
opposition during the uprising, comes as the U.N. Security Council
prepares to vote on a draft resolution backing an Arab call for President
Bashar Assad to give up power.

Telephone calls to Homs were not going through, but residents of nearby
areas described a hellish night of shelling.

"Homs is on fire," said one opposition activist in a quieter area near the
city, who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisal. "All sides
are attacking each other and the number of casualties is more than anyone
can count," he said.

The government denied the assault. Syrian TV said the reports were part of
a "hysterical campaign of incitement by the armed groups" against Syria,
meant to be exploited at the Security Council.

It claimed that corpses shown in amateur videos posted online — bodies
that activists said were victims of the assault — were purportedly of
people kidnapped by "terrorist armed groups" who filmed them to portray
them as victims of the alleged shelling.

Two main opposition groups, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights and the Local Coordination Committees, said the death toll in Homs
was more than 200 people and included women and children in mortar
shelling that began late Friday. More than half of the killings — about
140 — were reported in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

"This is the worst attack of the uprising, since the uprising began in
March until now," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Observatory,
which tracks violence through contacts on the ground.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

It was not immediately clear what precipitated the attack, but there have
been reports that army defectors set up checkpoints in the area and were
trying to consolidate control.

Unconfirmed reports also said gunmen, possibly army defectors, had
attacked a military checkpoint in Khaldiyeh, captured 17 of its members,
prompting intense clashes with the military.

Homs is known to shelter a large number of army defectors known as the
Free Syrian Army.

The LCC called on residents of Homs and surrounding areas to support the
people of Khaldiyeh and nearby Bayada by donating blood and housing
families fleeing from the bombing.

It called for sit-ins in front of all Syrian embassies and consulates in
capitals across the world.

In Kuwait, demonstrators stormed into the Syrian Embassy compound on
Saturday, breaking windows and hoisting the flag of the opposition,
witnesses there said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to talk to the media.

They said there were no serious injuries at the embassy, where protesters
ripped down the Syrian flag. Police later cleared the area and blocked
roads.

There was also reports of protesters storming the Syrian Embassy in Cairo
and starting a fire.

Earlier on Friday, deadly clashes erupted between government troops and
rebels in suburbs of the Syrian capital and villages in the south,
sparking fighting that killed at least 23 people, including nine soldiers,
activists said.

Assad is trying to crush the revolt with a sweeping crackdown that has so
far claimed thousands of lives, but neither the government nor the
protesters are backing down and clashes between the military and an
increasingly bold and armed opposition has meant many parts of the country
have seen relentless violence.

The U.N. Security Council will meet Saturday morning to take up a
much-negotiated resolution on Syria, said a diplomat for a Western nation
that sits on the council.

The diplomat spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to be quoted by the media.

The move toward a vote came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton spoke by telephone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in
an effort to overcome Russian opposition to any statement that explicitly
calls for regime change or a military intervention in Syria.

The U.S. and its partners have ruled out military action but want the
global body to endorse an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand
power over to Syria's vice president.

Russia's deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, said Friday that Moscow
could not support the resolution in its current form. But he expressed
optimism that an agreement could be reached, according to state news
agency RIA Novosti.

Assad's regime has been intensifying an assault against army defectors and
protesters. The U.N. said weeks ago that more than 5,400 people have been
killed in violence since March. Hundreds more have been killed since that
tally was announced.

___

AP writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut, Anita Snow at the United
Nations and Hussein al-Qatari in Kuwait City contributed to this report.

This is an URGENT ACTION ALERT asking for a solidarity call-in to
demand an investigation into abuses in the Secure Housing Unit of
Wabash Valley Correctional Facility and to protest the recent torture
of our comrade Shaka Shakur. We are asking people to make calls,
starting at 830am EDT on Monday February 6th through 430pm EDT Tuesday the 7th.

Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC: (317)
232-5711, fax (317) 233-1474,
blemmon@idoc.in.gov
Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility:
(812) 398-5050 ext 4102., fax
(812) 398-5032,
rbrown@idoc.in.gov
Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:
(317) 232-2247, fax
(317) 232-5728,
jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov

The SHU is Indiana's most repressive Super Max Prison, and is modeled
after the infamous Pelican Bay SHU. It holds many of Indiana's most
political prisoners in extreme isolation and sensory deprivation,
many of them people of color. It is a prison within a prison, in the
rural south of the state, and is imbedded with extreme racism and
white supremacist organizing.

In August of 2011, prisoners there staged a multi-day protest aimed
at ending the state-wide lockdown that happened in response to a
white supremacist gang member being murdered. Prisoners in the SHU
weren't allowed access to recreation, showers, hygiene products
(including water) for their cells, and eventually had the power and
water shut off completely. The protest was successful in regaining
the basic necessities of life, but now it seems the administration is
out to get those with a history of no-comproise struggle against
their conditions.

On Saturday the 21st of January, our comrade Shaka was forcefully
removed from his windowless cell, subjected to numerous invasive and
humiliating searches and eventually moved to an isolated part of the prison.

His property was thoroughly searched, x-rayed, replaced and then
searched again. He was placed in a 2ft x 3ft holding cell with only a
toilet, stripped down to his boxers. Guards on duty said this order
came directly from the Superintendent, Richard Brown. He was given
water every 4 hours and was only allowed to flush the toilet after a
thorough search of its contents.

Shaka immediately began a hunger strike, refusing all food and water
from this point on, until his release from this holding cell back to
his isolation cell. He maintained this hunger strike, even though the
conditions severely aggravated a herniated disk and kidney condition.
He remained in excruciating pain, in the 2x3ft holding cell until
Wednesday morning (4 days later), with no medical attention.

He was released back to his cell and started to take food and liquids
again on Wednesday, but his property remains gone. Political
writings, books, magazines, legal resources, family photos, even his
glasses. It is all presumed to be destroyed, as the prison officials
have not presented him with a confiscated property form.

He has been on the SHU for nearly a decade, with the quasi-official
designation of Administrative Segregation. He's has a clean conduct
record while there, but the state has refused to transfer him to
population. Now they're trying to kill him.

We're asking for solidarity calls and actions aimed at getting the
abuses on the SHU stopped, on getting Shaka off the unit before he's
murdered by the State.

This is not the first time such a call has been made. Recently,
Indiana based groups such as Decarcerate Monroe County, The City of
Bloomington Human Rights Commission and The Progressive Faculty
Coalition at Indiana University have called for an investigation into
white supremacist organizing amongst guards in the SHU at Wabash
Valley. The state has thus far dismissed such claims, and has made no
effort towards explaining their complicity in such organizing.

Please call the following IDOC administrators. Please engage in
solidarity actions. Please tell Shaka you stand with him!

Bruce Lemmon, Commissioner IDOC:
(317) 232-5711, fax
(317) 233-1474,
blemmon@idoc.in.gov
Call him to express horror at the actions of the Superintendent and
Staff of Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at the treatment of
Shaka and to demand adequate medical treatment and review of his
continued placement in isolation. Demand an investigation into
practices of torture and denial of basic human necessities in the
SHU. Express your outrage at the continued complicity of IDOC
administrators in the known white supremacist organizing amongst
guards at Wabash Valley.

Richard Brown, Superintendent Wabash Valley Correctional Facility:
(812) 398-5050 ext 4102., fax
(812) 398-5032,
rbrown@idoc.in.gov
Call him to express outrage at his treatment of Shaka, his orders to
hold him for days on end without medical care in a holding cell, and
demand the return of all of his property undamaged.

Jack Hendrix, Director of IDOC Classifications:
(317) 232-2247, fax
(317) 232-5728,
jdhendrix@idoc.in.gov
Call him to demand Shaka's immediate release from Administrative
Segregation and housing on the SHU. Shaka has many years of clear
conduct and yet the IDOC refuses to release him to general
population. His housing on the SHU is leading to extremely dangerous
health and safety conditions for him.

Write to Shaka and let him know you're behind him:
Shaka Shakur #135647
WVCF
PO Box 1111
Carlisle, IN
47838

For more information or for more background information on recent
events in the SHU, contact
indianaprisonersolidarity@gmail.com

ELP Information Bulletin (3rd Feb 2012)

Dear friends,

The following information appears on the Support Kellie and Victor website. If anyone has an address for Victor please contact ELP as soon as possible. Thursday, February 2, 2012

Victor sentenced to 5 years in prison. Kellie decides to plead not guilty and go to trial.

Today, District Judge Duane Hoffmeyer sentenced Victor to 5 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in Woodbury County District Court to releasing an animal from an animal facility and attempted third-degree burglary. In addition to the 5 year prison sentence, Judge Hoffmeyer ordered Victor to pay $8,757 in restitution to Steve Krage, the mink farm's owner.

Victor had agreed to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement, but the odd thing is that no sentence had been spelled out prior to this morning. The ultimate decision of the length of the sentence was left up to Judge Hoffmeyer. Originally, Victor's lawyer felt that this was a
better direction to take instead of trial in which Victor would have been facing a maximum sentence of 13 years and could have been sentenced to the full duration of that time if found guilty by the jury.

The Judge told the court room that the decision was difficult because Victor is so young and has a clean slate (no prior criminal record).

The Judge Hoffmeyer was rather tough today in his deliberation stating, "In the length it takes to drive up here, you had numerous opportunities to ask yourself, 'What are we doing?' ...
and you still kept on coming."

Judge Hoffmeyer said he would be open to reconsidering his sentencing order at some point.
"That's certainly on the table," he said.

It was reported by the Sioux City Journal that Kellie, Victor's wife, was sitting in the gallery behind her husband, and Kellie gasped when Judge Hoffmeyer announced his sentence.

Kellie was also scheduled to be sentenced today at 1:00 pm in which she was planning on pleading guilty, but after a short conversation with her attorney, her lawyer asked to speak with
Judge Hoffmeyer and Assistant Woodbury County Attorney Drew Bockenstedt in the judge's chambers. When they returned to the courtroom, Judge Hoffmeyer opened the hearing and said he understood that Marshall did not wish to plead guilty.

Kellie is scheduled for trial March 6th 2012. Donations for legal fees are now needed more than ever!

++++++ Earth Liberation Prisoners
BM Box 2407LondonWC1N 3XX England

Feb. 2, 2012 wcax.com

WILLISTON, Vt. - Vermont State police are confronting a prisoner prank and investigating who's behind it. Inmates tasked with making decals of the official state seal for state police cruisers took some liberties with the design. And troopers are not happy about it.

Police, troopers, cops, the fuzz, and pigs; police officers are called a lot of names. Inmates apparently decided to use their creative sides, making sure that pigs made their way into the state seal for the first time since it was first designed more than three centuries ago.

Hundreds of cruisers patrol Vermont with the state seal standing out on both front doors. The seal was originally designed by Ira Allen in the 1770s. There's a tree, mountains and a cow to honor dairy farming in Vermont.

Four years ago the state wanted more decals for cruisers, giving the job to the prison print shop in Windsor. Inmates were supposed to load the state crest image in as given to them, but someone decided to make a major change-- payback perhaps.

In the new decal, one of the spots on the cow is actually a pig. Pig is a derogatory term for police. A state trooper in Southern Vermont just noticed the altered artwork.

"And I apologize to them," Vt. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said. "I think it's really unfortunate that somebody took it upon themselves to reach out and do this to them."

Pallito says the decals were recently put on cruisers. As many as 30 have the prankster pigs.

"We'll have to make sure we do a better job of quality assurance in the future to make sure this doesn't happen again," Pallito said.

State police aren't laughing either. In a statement, Maj. Bill Sheets said "While some may find humor in the decal modifications, the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers."

Pallito expects the bill to replace the offending swine will run about $800.

The more you look at the decal the more you may see. We've heard from people who say in addition to the pig, there may also be a silhouette of a naked women underneath the cow.

As far as catching the inmate or person who did this, Pallito says it could be difficult because there is a lot of turnover in jail.

By: NotiCel/CyberNews
February 2, 2012

The Civil Rights Commission (CDC by its Spanish
initials) revealed today its report which
concludes that the death of Machetero leader
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was “illegal” and that the
investigations of his death conducted by the U.S.
Office of Inspector General and the Puerto Rico
Department of Justice omitted important information and testimony.

On Thursday, members of the Caribbean and Latin
American Coordinating Committee of Puerto Rico
made public the CDC's report about the death of
Ojeda Ríos at the hands of FBI agents at his home
in Hormigueros on September 23, 2005.

Liliana Laboy, one of the organization's
spokespeople, indicated that the report contains
information that wasn't included in the OIG or
Justice Department reports and also emphasized
the federal authorities' refusal to collaborate with the investigations.

"This report (CDC) contains worthwhile
information and testimony that hadn't come to
light previously. It's notable, in this
investigation as well as in the Puerto Rico
Department of Justice's investigation, that
federal authorities refused to cooperate and
allow the examination of several employees and
former employees who participated, and thus had
responsibility for the murder," said Laboy.

The spokesperson also stated that the report
points out facts that prove that the intention of
the federal agents was not to arrest Ojeda Ríos
and that thus what happened was "an illegal death."

"The report points out facts that prove the lack
of intention to arrest Ojeda and concludes that
an illegal death was committed in other words, a murder," stated Laboy.

For his part, Luis F. Abreu, the Machetero
leader's attorney, stated that the CDC report
details four particular aspects about the events
that took place at Ojeda Ríos’ home in
Hormigueros, including: the nature and amount of
the force used by the federal agents against
Ojeda Ríos, the availability of adequate medical
attention, media access, and the role of the
government of the Free Associated State.

As for the involvement of the Puerto Rican
government in the case, Abreu condemned the fact
that it was the administration of then Governor
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá that notified federal
authorities of Filiberto Ojeda Ríos’ whereabouts,
in exchange for a designation of funds to combat terrorism.

Although Abreu recognized the importance of the
CDC report in terms of its content, he said he
was not satisfied because the report doesn't
clearly establish the crass violation of rights implicated by the murder.

Laboy stressed that in light of this new report,
the United States and Puerto Rican governments
should reopen the case to make criminally
responsible the agent who shot Ojeda Ríos, as
well as Luis Fraticelli and José Figueroa Sancha,
who directed the federal operation.

Laboy stated that the Civil Rights Commission
sent them a simple communication on Wednesday
indicating that the report on the death of
Machetero leader Filiberto Ojeda Ríos had been
sent to the Governor and the Legislature, and
that it was under the consideration of the State
Electoral Commission's Board of Advertising
Examiners pending authorization for its
publication, according to Electoral Law
requirements during the electoral season.

The report was ready in March of 2011.

San Francisco, California: International Day of Solidarity with
Leonard Peltier. AIM-WEST will hold a Leonard Peltier rally on
MONDAY, February 6th starting at the Federal courthouse on Mission
and 7th in San Francisco at 11 am and will leave at 11:30 am for a
short walk to the Federal Building on Golden Gate St. for a noon time
rally from 12:00-1:00 p.m.

We will have prayer, sage, drum and song, open microphone, speakers
and announcements. The rally will be held to remind the public that
the USA is warehousing political prisoners and that we haven't
forgotten the date of Leonard's arrest in Canada (Feb. 6, 1976).

http://www.aimwest.info/
415-577-1492

Jan. 31, 2012

The Zurich Office of Corrections denied the conditional release of Marco
Camenisch. The 60 years old eco-anarchist prisoner is incarcerated since
20 years. At present, he's in the prison of Lenzburg, Switzerland.

This January he went on a limited hunger strike to protest against the
annual 'World Economic Forum' in Davos - a disgusting gathering of
self-declared business and world leaders, culture industry wankers like
Bono, and assorted rich arseholes. Two anarchist prisoners joined Marco's
protest: Silvia Guerini (prison of Hindelbank) and Luca 'Billy' Bernasconi
(prison of Regensdorf).

This year Marco Camenisch has served 2/3 of his prison sentence. As a rule
prisoners in Switzerland are entitled to an early release on parole after
serving 2/3; Marco is not.

There should be a 'hearing' on his parole in February. But the Zurich
Office of Corrections informed his lawyer, they wouldn't ask Marco any
questions at all - they simply wouldn't release him. End of the story. The
'hearing' is but a farce. Marco will stay behind bars because he doesn't
renounce. He remains steadfast in his political beliefs.

5 years ago a public prosecutor, Ulrich Weder, a member of Swiss Labour
(SP), tried to get Marco sentenced to indefinite incarceration. Asked for
his reasons, Weder said: But why, that's an anarchist! Furthermore the
Zurich Office of Corrections refused Marco's prison leave several times
for no other than political reasons. In preparation for parole, every
prisoner is entitled to a prison leave; again, Marco is not.

We ask everybody to take appropriate action in solidarity with Marco
Camenisch!

And write an email to the Zurich Office of Corrections and let them know
what you think of them: info-juv@ji.zh.ch or info-bvd@ji.zh.ch - there are
fax machines too: +41 43 259 84 40 or +41 43 259 84 41

Victory to the prisoners!

Friends and supporters of Marco Camenisch, 2/1/2012
Conact: knast-soli (at) riseup (point) net

More info: www.rhi-sri.org (mostly German and Italian) &
www.informa-azione.info (Italian)

Please write to Marco: Marco Camenisch, PF 45, CH-5600 Lenzburg, Switzerland
(Don't forget to write down a sender)

***
Who is Marco Camenisch?

In the late 1970s Marco Camenisch (b. 1952) was a militant of the popular
movement against nuclear power stations. He was arrested in 1980 and
subsequently got a 10 year prison sentence for attacks against the Swiss
nuclear industry. Luckily, he was able to escape. In 1989 corporate media
and Swiss secret services accused him of murdering a border police
officer. Marco rejectetd these claims. In 1991 he was arrested again, this
time in Italy, and convicted for acts of sabotage against the nuclear
industry. In 2002 he was extradited to Switzerland and sentenced to an
additional 18 years of prison based on a dubious murder charge (the border
copper). Though afterwards, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court declared the
sentence inadmissible. In 2007 it was reduced to 8 years. As late as 2018
they must release him. Marco describes himself as a green anarchist. He is
a very active and sincere supporter of left and progressive social
movements; also, he took part in numerous protests behind bars.

Outrageous court decision - trial looms ahead January 29, 2012 Fight Back! News
Carlos Montes (on right) before Jan. 24 court appearance. (Fight Back! News/Staff)

Los Angeles, CA - “In the interests of justice this case should be dismissed,” said attorney Jorge Gonzales, lawyer for veteran Chicano leader Carlos Montes, in Los Angeles Superior Court, Jan. 24. Minutes later, though, Judge Lomeli sided with the prosecution, refusing to dismiss the six trumped up felony charges against Montes, on the grounds of insufficient evidence, setting the stage for a trial later this year. The court room was filled with supporters of Montes who wanted to see the charges dropped.

"This proves what we believed all along," said Eric Gardner, a member of the LA Committee to Stop FBI Repression, “The government is going to use all means at its disposal to try and get Carlos - and other anti-war and solidarity activists around the country - behind bars."

Before Montes’ court appearance, activists gathered outside the court building demanding that the charges, which carry up to 18 years in prison, be dismissed. The protesters ranged from long time political activists to street vendors from Central America who Montes is working with to fight police harassment and racist discrimination.

The prosecution has told the press that they want Montes to spend at least five years in jail.

Speaking in front of the court house, Mick Kelly, a spokesperson the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, whose Minneapolis home was also raided by the FBI stated, “On May 17, 2011, the L.A. Sheriff Department - acting at the behest of the FBI - raided Montes’s home. The pretext was phony violations of the firearm code. These alleged violations have no basis in reality whatsoever. At issue in this case are the civil liberties of all us who are standing up against war and injustice.”

The May 17 raid, by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and members of the FBI, took place at 5:00 a.m. The L.A. County Sheriff’s SWAT team and Emergency Operations Bureau agents armed with automatic weapons broke down the door to Montes' home while he slept. They seized computers, cell phones, current and historical political documents and left Montes' home in shambles. Montes could have been killed.

Kelly continued, “Carlos Montes is one of the 24 anti-war and international solidarity activists who have been hit by FBI and grand jury repression since Sept. 24, 2010. Like many of the others who have been caught up in this witch hunt, Montes was one of the organizers of the massive protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention. And like the others, he has spoken out tirelessly against U.S intervention abroad and oppression here at home.

“Carlos Montes is a hero who has devoted his entire life to making this world a better place. In the 1960s he was a founder and leader of the Brown Berets, the historic East L.A. walkouts and the Chicano Moratorium. He is an important leader in the movement for immigrant rights and has worked to defend public education. Montes is an example of a community leader who serves the people and builds the people’s struggle for justice,” stated Kelly.

Outrageous decision

Montes' defense challenged the state’s claim that he has a felony record from his 1969 arrest for leading a student strike demanding Chicano Studies and Black Studies at East L.A. College. This is important. That the legal record does not support the claim of a past felony should rule out the District Attorney going ahead with this case. The government is alleging that it was a crime for Montes to buy several guns at a local sporting goods store, because of the nonexistent felony record.

The prosecution is basing their evidence on a 42 year old incident, where during this student strike and rally, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department invaded the East L.A. college campus, beating and arresting student protesters. During the turmoil, Montes was arrested and charged with assaulting a sheriff’s deputy.

"This case is not about old records," says Charla Schlueter of the LA Committee to Stop FBI Repression, "The FBI is dredging up a case over four decades old because of Carlos' involvement in the anti-war, immigrant rights and international solidarity movements today. They don't like that he is part of a movement that challenges U.S. imperialism."

Next court appearance

The next court date is Feb. 8. Montes says his legal team will continue the discovery process on the sheriffs to get ready for trial.

“The government knows its case against Carlos Montes is weak,” said Mick Kelly. “So they have made up a lie that Montes admitted to a felony record while he was being held in squad car after the raid on his home.” The point of the discovery motion is to get to the bottom of this false allegation.

See the L.A. Committee’s web site at http://www.stopfbila.net/index.html for further details on time and location for an emergency meeting to defend Carlos Montes in Los Angeles on Saturday, Feb. 11.

Montes states that he is looking forward to a jury trial and that he is confident that a jury of his peers will find him not guilty.

Dear comrades,

We would like to inform you that on February 8th, 2012, there will be a renewed trial against four members of the Serbian Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative (ASI), as well as two unaffiliated Belgrade anarchists, as part of the fabricated legal case of the Belgrade Six (BG6).

The six Belgrade libertarians have been accused of inciting, assisting in and executing an attack on the Greek Embassy in Belgrade at the end of August 2009, in solidarity with a hunger-striking Greek political prisoner at the time (Thodoros Iliopoulos). Soon after the attack on the embassy, BG6 (Tadej Kurepa, Ratibor Trivunac, Ivan Savic, Ivan Vulovic, Nikola Mitrovic and Sanja Dojkic) were arrested and held in custody for the next six months charged with ‘international terrorism’.

Thanks to a mass mobilization of support, both globally and locally, they were released early before their trial date. In June 2010, they were finally fully acquitted at a High Court in Belgrade, which decided that there is no basis for a guilty verdict on any of the charges.

The prosecution filed a complaint, but the Court of Appeals failed to respond until a moment when suitable political reasons emerged. Only days after antimilitarist protests against the NATO summit that took place in Belgrade in June 2011, at which Ratibor Trivunac was arrested, the Court of Appeals granted the prosecution’s complaint and ruled on a renewed case against BG6.

Currently, there are criminal proceedings against seven members of the Belgrade local group of ASI and they are all politically motivated.

The renewal of the case against the BG6 can only be seen as the continuation of state repression against those who stand up to pillage and exploitation. Bearing in mind that Serbia is a peripheral banana-state, ruled by a layer of compradorial bourgeoisie, it has been shown that in this phase of the struggle, the greatest force against the state repressive apparatus is INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY.

Therefore, we are calling all comrades and compañeras, anarcho-syndicalists, revolutionary syndicalists and class struggle anarchists everywhere to join in an international day of solidarity with BG6, organized on February 6th globally in front of the embassies, consulates and cultural institutions of the Republic of Serbia. The protests should carry a clear demand for the ending of all legal proceedings against the Belgrade libertarians and the dropping of fabricated charges.

The freedom of our comrades depends largely on the activities of the international libertarian movement, and we are convinced that international solidarity will once again show its strength.

Freedom now to the BG6 and all prosecuted comrades!
Death to the State and capitalism!

The International Secretariat of ASI

You may also read a, b, c

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Thursday, February 2, 2012

By NAYABA ARINDE Amsterdam News

"Getting Mumia moved into general population is a victory, but the real victory-and what we are working toward-is to bring him home. We are steadily working on that," said Pam Africa from Philadelphia's MOVE organization.

While supporters mull over the victory of getting Mumia Abu-Jamal off death row and into the general population of the medium-security facility SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa., it is as Abu-Jamal himself said: "One step. We have one more to go."

For almost two months, the worldwide army of supporters of the iconic "political prisoner" waited for news about the Mahanoy prison authority's ultimatum that Abu-Jamal must cut his decades-old locks in order to enter general population.

The movement, being what it is, refuses to be predictable but is always strategic. And so, after having endured nine years in solitary confinement in protest and refusing to cut his hair, Abu-Jamal decided to trim his hair to the shoulder-length requirement and indeed come out of solitary.

"We pick our battles," said Africa, speaking to the AmNews at the 16th annual Political Prisoner Dinner held at 1199SEIU's Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Center in Midtown on Saturday. "They had him for nine years in the Restrictive Housing Unit-we got him out of solitary confinement in just seven weeks this time around."

The development came in the wake of prosecutor Seth Williams' decision seven weeks ago that he would no longer pursue the death penalty against Abu-Jamal 10 years after federal Judge William H. Yohn originally overturned his death sentence.

Speaking to Noelle Hanrahan of PrisonRadio.org on Sunday, Abu-Jamal declared, "You know, it's back to the drawing board, as the old saying goes. We have to work and take the next step, which is, of course, not this. So that's the job that has to be done.

"I trust we will do it," he said. "I believe we will do it. Give my love to everybody and tell them I'm thankful for all of our people. They've made one step. We have one more to go. On the move."

Supporters were thrilled that he was able to hug his wife for the very first time in 30 years earlier this week.

"The ideal is to get him home and out of the prison, where he never should have been to begin with," said Herman Ferguson, 91, a former political prisoner and prisoner in exile in Guyana. "Mumia is in prison for a crime they know he did not commit. The real victory would be to get him out of there altogether."

A former Black Panther and journalist, Abu-Jamal has always maintained his innocence and has said that it was his political convictions and writing that really had him convicted and sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of officer.

Meanwhile, for years, witnesses have recanted their initial "coerced" statements against Abu-Jamal, and an alleged mafia hitman, Arnold Beverly, has even admitted to shooting the officer.

At the dinner on Saturday were families like those of Russell Shoats and Sekou Odinga, who went in to prison as young men and remain behind the wall as grandparents.

Supporters and family members call them political prisoners because they believe that the only reason they are in prison is because of their political beliefs or membership in organizations like the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, MOVE or even Malcolm X's Organization of Afro-American Unity.

"We have to remain forever vigilant for Mumia," said Iyaluua Ferguson, wife of Herman Ferguson. "In many ways, they have greater access to him now, and we have to make sure that they understand that nothing can happen to him."

"John Africa taught us that you never allow the government to misuse your religion against you," said Pam Africa.

"The desire of this government is to keep Mumia in restrictive housing under its tortuous conditions-where he is subjected to body searches and has to sleep under blinking lights so you have no idea what time it is, where they tried to block his communication, where he couldn't do the radio. For nine years, he was in a worse hell than death row-in restrictive housing. They just knew the position would be the same."

Surrounded by the families and supporters of political prisoners, Africa continued proudly, "Mumia has proven his point. He is strong in his religion. He is strong in his beliefs. He is still fighting for all life, and we will not allow the government to use his religion against him. Long live strategic revolution!"

Feb 2, 2012 Committee to Stop FBI Repression
The Northern Illinois Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas stated that the “investigation is continuing” into the case of the anti-war and international solidarity activists hit with FBI raids and grand jury repression. Barry Jonas is known for his leading role in prosecuting the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation while he was trial attorney for the Department of Justice Counter-terrorism Section.

This confirms what the U.S. Attorney’s office related some months ago—they are preparing multiple indictments of multiple activists. The FBI raided seven homes and the government subpoenaed 23 international solidarity activists to a Chicago grand jury over a year ago. The anti-war activists refused to appear at the secretive grand jury and launched a campaign against political repression. The U.S. government is threatening to imprison anti-war activists on the grounds of “material support for terrorism.”

The confirmation of the ongoing investigation came during a January 24, 2012 phone call between Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas and attorney Bruch Nestor, who represents some of the political activists.

Nestor initially contacted Minneapolis Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter to view some of the sealed documents in the case. The grand jury proceedings against the anti-war activists are secret. The vast majority of documents relating to their case are under seal, meaning the targeted activists or their attorneys cannot view them. Assistant U.S. Attorney Winter helped to oversee the Sept. 24, 2010 raids and in recent months represented the government on the issue of returning property seized in the raids. Winter told Nestor to contact Chicago Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas.

Jonas told Nestor the documents would remain secret "pending completion of the investigation."

Barry Jonas is responsible for railroading the Holy Land leaders. Jonas views solidarity with Palestine as a crime deserving long-term imprisonment. He is willing to pull every dirty trick available to him to obtain convictions. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. Its efforts were geared towards providing humanitarian aid to help the people of Palestine and other countries. In 2001 its offices were raided. Three years later, five people associated with the charity were indicted. The first trial ended with a hung jury. The second trial ended with convictions. The five defendants received sentences that range from 15 to 65 years in prison.

The trial included secret witnesses - the defense never got to find out who the witnesses were - the use of hearsay evidence, and the introduction of evidence that had nothing to do with the defendants in the case, such as showing a video from Palestine of protesters burning an American flag, as a means to prejudice the jury.

As lead prosecutor, Barry Jonas played a key role in all this. He is now working under Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who runs the federal grand jury attacking anti-war and international solidarity activists.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression urges all supporters of peace with justice to sign the pledge to take action (http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/pledge-of-resistance) in the event that international solidarity activists are indicted. In a closely related case, the FBI directed the LA Sheriff to raid the home of veteran Chicano leader Carlos Montes. Carlos Montes is now facing trial and imprisonment on six felony charges relating back to a student protest that happened 42 years ago.

Feb 1, 2012 Athens Indymedia

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The national meeting of the Jericho Amnesty Movement to free all
political prisoners will take place in Los Angeles CA this year, on
the Sat. and Sunday of the presidents' day weekend, at the Southern
CA Library for Social Studies and Research, 6120 S. Vermont Ave. On
Saturday afternoon, Jericho will be presenting at the Occupy Los
Angeles General Assembly at a themed GA on Black History Month, at
4:00 PM on the west steps of City Hall, Spring St. between Temple
and First St. At 7 PM, there will be a political/cultural event at
the So Cal Library, featuring Danza Cuauhtemoc, theater by Jihad
Abdulmumit, music and hip-hop/spoken word. Dinner will be available
for an additional contribution. On Sunday from 10 Am-5 PM, there will
be a regional meeting at the Library, 6120 S. Vermont, focusing on
building support to free political prisoners held in CA and on the
west coast.

For more information, contact

jerichoamnestylosangeles@gmail.com or call 323-901-4269.

February 1, 2012 Solitary Watch
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

The number of inmates held in solitary confinement in the United States has been notoriously difficult to determine. Most states do not publish the relevant data, and many do not even collect it. Attempts to come up with a figure have been denounced as imperfect, based on state-by-state variances and shortcomings in data-gathering and in conceptions of what constitutes solitary confinement.

A widely accepted 2005 study found that some 25,000 prisoners were being held in supermax prisons around the country. And in the last year, that figure seems to dominate in the mainstream press. The Washington Post, in a recent front-page article on solitary confinement in Virginia, noted that “44 states…use solitary confinement,” and cited an “estimated 25,000 people in solitary in the nation’s state and federal prisons.” The problem here is that the 25,000 figure (as well as the 44) applies to supermax prisons only. It does not claim to account for the tens of thousands of additional prisoners held in the Secure Housing Units, Restricted Housing Units, Special Management Units and other isolation cells in prisons and jails around the country. Yet it is being cited as a total for the nation’s overall use of solitary confinement.

An alternative figure does, however, exist–and while it may not be perfect, we believe it more accurately reflects the total number of prisoners held in isolated confinement on any given day. A census of state and federal prisoners is conducted every five years by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. The most recent census for which data are available is 2005. It found 81,622 inmates were being held in “restricted housing.” This number was recently cited by the Vera Institute of Justice‘s Segregation Reduction Project. The 80,000 figure has also been used by National Geographic and The New Yorker, among others.

An earlier version of this number, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’s 2000 census, was cited by the widely respected Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, convened by Vera. The Commission further broke the figure down to show types of ”restricted housing.” In 2000, the BJS found 80,870 inmates in some form of segregation, including 36,499 in administrative segregation, 33,586 in disciplinary segregation, and 10,765 in protective custody. The Commission noted that the 2000 figures represented a 40 percent increase over 1995, when 57,591 inmates were in segregation. During the same period of time, the overall prison population grew by 28 percent. (See page 56 of the Commission’s 2006 report, Confronting Confinement).

The census uses the term “restricted housing,” which clearly includes segregation units outside of supermax prisons. Since it captures where prisoners are housed on a given day (June 30, 2005), it is meant to include both long-term or indefinite isolation (years or decades) as well as shorter stints in solitary (weeks or months). It may include a small number of prisoners who are held in 23-hour lockdown in double cells, a practice popular in some states. (For this reason, some advocates prefer the term “isolated confinement” to “solitary confinement”). The number is based on self-reporting by wardens and state corrections departments, so it may reflect some errors and inconsistencies. But prison officials are not, as a rule, known for their tendency to overrreport the number of inmates they hold in solitary.

It is also worth noting that the census figures do not include prisoners in solitary confinement in juvenile facilities, immigrant detention centers, or local jails; if they did they would certainly be higher. We know that New York’s jails alone contain 990 isolation cells, according to the New York City Department of Corrections.

A survey of available data from a handful of states also suggest that the 80,000 figure is likely low, rather than high. Just eight states and the federal government hold some 44,000 prisoners in isolated confinement.

• In 2010, a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons told CNN that there were about 11,150 federal inmates being held in “special housing.” ADX Florence holds approximately 400 of these inmates in ultra-isolation.
• In California in 2011, Scott Kernan, Undersecretary of Operations of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, testified before the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee that approximately 3,000 inmates were held in California’s Security Housing Units, including over 1,100 at the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU alone. A 2009 report from California’s Inspector General found 8,878 inmates in Administrative Segregation Units. This means that, all told, there are close to 11,000 prisoners in solitary confinement in California.
• As reported by the Houston Chronicle based on figures from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, in 2011 there were over 5,205 inmates in long-term isolation in administrative segregation, and approximately 4,000 more serving shorter terms in solitary for disciplinary violations–for a total of more than 9,000.
• According to a 2003 report by the Correctional Association, New York state had approximately 5,000 inmates in disciplinary lockdown in 2003.
• At the end of 2011, Pennyslvania Department of Corrections reported that 2,406 inmates were held in segregation in the state’s Restrictive Housing Units.
• A 2011 study carried out in Colorado by independent researchers funded by the National Institute of Corrections found that nearly 1,500 inmates, or 7% of the prison population, were in administrative segregation and a further 670 in disciplinary segregation–for a total of more than 2,100.
• In Virginia, according to a 2012 article in the Washington Post, there were 1,800 inmates in solitary confinement, 500 of whom are held at the supermax Red Onion State Prison.
• A 2007 report by the American Friends Service Committee found 1,623 inmates held in isolation in Arizona’s SHUs.
• In a 2008 report to the state legislature, the Michigan Department of Corrections said that that the daily average number of inmates held in administrative segregation in FY 2007-08 was 1,294.

In our opinion, the most accurate possible description of how many prisoners are solitary confinement in the United States would go something like this: “Based on available data, there are at least 80,000 prisoners in isolated confinement on any given day in America’s prisons and jails, including some 25,000 in long-term solitary in supermax prisons.”

Research for this article was provided by Sal Rodriguez.

From: "bayou"
Date: Wed, February 1, 2012

From the Tacoma Chapter of the LPDOC

THE NORTHWEST UNITED IN SOLIDARITY!

LEONARD PELTIER WAS FROM THE NORTHWEST. Leonard had been living in
Seattle and was a member of Northwest AIM. He had been involved in a
number of local struggles including the occupation of Fort Lawton. When
the traditional Oglala Lakota people were suffering under a reign of
terror after Wounded Knee II, over 66 of them murdered, many more
wounded, villages shot up and so on. Northwest AIM answered a plea by
Oglala Lakota Elders and help them survive. On the very day in which a
part of Oglala Lakota was being illegally signed away to the U.S.
government, the FBI attacked the Northwest AIM encampment and a
firefight took place.

The first two AIM members to go on trial, and were found not guilty
for reason of self-defense, were from the northwest. The one AIM member
who died upon that day, Joe Stuntz Killsright was from Port Angeles. We
of the Northwest need to let everyone know that we will not forget and
that we will stand strong for our own. Leonard is in prison for the
people and we need to be out here for him!
On Feb. 4, 2012, this coming Saturday, is the INTERNATIONAL DAY IN
SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, we here in the northwest, Portland,
Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle and other towns in unity, have organized a
Regional Leonard Peltier Clemency March and Rally in Tacoma. We need
the help of all of you to make this a strong statement that northwest
people stand with Leonard in solidarity. Everyone of you is important.

Please northwest people join with us as we join with people around the
world. The Northwest region of the U.S. (Tacoma, Portland, Olympia,
Seattle and other towns united together) march in Tacoma, WA; Toronto
and Vancouver; Canada; Binghamton, UK; Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg,
Germany; Brussels and Antwerp Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; Boulder, CO,
San Jose, CA; Gullup, NM; Los Angeles, CA; Albuquerque, NM; San
Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; Fresno, CA; Buffalo, NY; Macon and
Decatur, GA; and other places.

This is the most important march and rally so far in the northwest for
Leonard. If you have marched with us before, please join us again. If
you have ever thought about supporting Leonard, now is the time to do
it. Please join us, please bring your family and friends. Thank you.

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make
a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
NW REGIONAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 4, 2012, TACOMA, WA.

12:00 NOON: MARCH FOR JUSTICE Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave.
between E. 35th & E. Fairbanks. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and
head east)
1:00 PM: RALLY FOR JUSTICE U.S. Federal Court House, 1717-Pacific Ave.

PLEASE POST, SHARE AND LIKE ON FACEBOOK:
Please share
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER NW MARCH AND RALLY:
FEB. 4, TACOMA. 12:00 NOON: MARCH FOR JUSTICE Portland Ave. Park (on
Portland Ave. between E. 35th & E. Fairbanks. Take Portland Ave. exit
off I-5 and head east)
1:00 PM: RALLY FOR JUSTICE U.S. Federal Court House, 1717-Pacific Ave.

SPEAKERS:
Co-MCs
Matilaja: Yuâ Pik Eskimo from Mountain Village Alaska. Member of N.W.
AIM since 1973, Friend of Leonard Peltier for 38 odd years and member
of Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Steve Hapy: Long time Leonard Peltier and Native struggles activist,
Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Leonard Peltier Honor Song:
AIM Warrior Society Drum
Opening:
Dorothy Ackerman: Lakota Elder
Drum:
Albert Combs and Coastal Hand Drum Singers
Welcoming:
Deeahop Conway, Puyallup Tribal member, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Leonard's case and up-date;
Arthur J. Miller: Northwest Regional Organizer LPDOC, Tacoma Chapter
LPDOC, long time union member and human rights activist
Keynote Speaker:
Ramona Bennett: Puyallup Tribal Elder, Life long friend of Leonard
Peltier, Grand Mother, Great Grand Mother
Chester Earl: Puyallup Tribal member
Zoltan Grossman: Evergreen State College faculty in Geography and Native
Studies, in Olympia. former board member of Midwest Treaty Network in
Wisconsin.
Decolonization:
Claudia Serrato
Unity:
Michael One Road: Portland Chapter LPDOC
Closing words:
David Duenas: Puyallup Tribal Member

Feb. 4, 2012 Regional March in Tacoma Facebook event pages please sign
that you are coming and please invite your friends.
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/163763897043790/
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/179938242097693/

RESOLUTIONS FOR CLEMENCY: Leonard needs resolutions for clemency from
Tribes, Unions, Human Rights Organizations and others. See a sample
resolution at:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/resolution.htm

For donations: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier
Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to:
Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at:
http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc
Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at:
nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC, P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464.
bayou@blarg.net

ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,

NORTHWEST PHONE AND E-MAIL ZAP, FEBRUARY 6 TO 10, 2012
White House Comments Line - 202-456-1111; 202-456-1112
E-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Message: Northwest people support clemency for Leonard Peltier

It is important to keep phone calls, e-mails, and letters going to the
White House during the clemency campaign. But we want to make sure that
it is very clear that the northwest supports clemency for Leonard
Peltier, so we have called for a phone and e-mail Zap (a phone Zap is
when a lot of people call around the same time), the week after the
regional march and rally. Please northwest folks show your support of
Leonard Peltier. Thank you.

Jan. 29, 2012 325 No State

From culmine, translated by war on society:

Zerman Elias was arrested on September 22nd after having thrown a molotov
cocktail at a gas-projecting truck of the riot police. This action was
within the context of revolt after a student march. Zerman is arrested by
three bastards of the carbineros [military police] who were dressed as
demonstrators and after the attack tackled the comrade.

Zerman was interrogated by “intelligence” agents and they questioned him
about persons, inviting him the whole time to collaborate in order to save
his skin, but the compa disdained the dialogue with the bastards and kept
silent without even giving his name.

We remember that Power made much allusion to the origin of the comrade,
for having been born in the territory dominated by the Bolivian State. In
a clear xenophobic and racist play, spreading the message that immigrants
should be calm to not be imprisoned and extradited.

The day of Tuesday February 27 the abbreviated trial against the compa
will be held, for the charges of “public disorder,” “possession of
incendiary device” and “damages” against a police vehicle.

The case of us three due to not having prior criminal records, at the
moment of being eventually sentenced we will not return to prison and will
remain on “guarded freedom” [probation] for the length of the sentence, as
is the case with the compa Francisco Moreno.

We have say it before, we do not recognize their tribunals nor their
judges that come to sermonize to us. We are proud of who we are and they
will never see us kiss the boot of repentance. They can dictate sentences
to try to domesticate our will, but they will only waste their time. Like
the rivers in periods of rain, the more they try to control them, the
cause exceeds all limits and continues its course because it is wild.

We make a call to international solidarity, since Power seeks to punish a
common praxis that all of us warriors spread across the world have. Forms
of solidarity are many, each individuality or collectivity will see which
it decides to employ, from banners to graffiti and from the rock against
the window to the heat of the molotov.

May our enemy know that it is not so easy to come and judge a comrade, and
may no one feel alone. That is the invitation, to all the indomitables who
we do not know, but who have been a pleasant accompaniment in these months
of captivity. Your texts and gestures that arrive from distant and nearby
lands are for us strength and joy that remind us that we are not alone.

Never defeated, never repentant!
Solidarity with all the prisoners of war!
Strength to the fugitive comrades!

Group of Political Prisoners of the Struggle in the Streets
Gonzalo Zapata
Cristóbal Franke
Zerman Elias

PS: As part of this call to international solidarity for Tuesday February
7, Cristobal and Gonzalo will do a voluntary fast for the duration of the
day.