VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

By Diane Bukowski 

Aug. 27, 2011

DETROIT – The story told by former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney during her appearance in Detroit Aug. 27 was agonizing, appalling and  rage-inspiring. 

It is the story of Libya under Moammar Gadhafi and the socialist Jamahiriya, and the imperialist campaign to wipe it from the face of the earth. 

Group "Siaire and Reign" performed at beginning of meeting

Under Gadhafi’s revolutionary administration, established in 1969, McKinney explained, Libya has guaranteed and paid for housing, health care, education and utilities for all its citizens out of its vast oil wealth. At the same time, it has opened its borders to workers and students from across Africa and the world to share in its peoples’ good fortune. Shop owners have also migrated there, she said, sending aid home to their families. 

“Libya is the wealthiest country in Africa,” McKinney said. “The quality of life there was good—the best in all of Africa. Now that tremendous wealth is being squandered and reduced to rubble by bombs we pay for. Not only is it war on Libya, it is war on all of Africa. Libya began the discussion of an African currency backed by 144 tons of gold. Libya has no debt, while the US is virtually bankrupt, with $60 trillion in obligations according to David Walker, former comptroller.” 

She said Libya therefore represented a threat to the Western world. 

“Not only did Libya advocate an Africa-wide currency that would separate the French economy from its parasitic relationship to the African states, they proposed building a one million person army so that Africa could stand on its own. Moammar Gadhafi announced he had set $90 billion aside for the creation of a United States of Africa. Moammar Gadhafi and Libya came to the rescue of the people of Northern Ireland as well as Nelson Mandela and the people of South Africa. The attack on Libya is an attack on all of us.” 

Audience member thanks Cynthia McKinney for standing up for the people of Libya

For these reasons, McKinney said, the U.S, the U.K., France and Italy with NATO launched their brutal war against the Libyan people, which currently has the streets and hospitals of Tripoli running red with the blood of civilians, especially Black Libyans and immigrant African workers. Their intent is to destroy every vestige of Libya’s achievements in the most brutal way possible. 

“People of African descent have a right to be able to live on this planet in dignity,” McKinney said, citing the message of the Pan-African Conference held in Libya in January.“If you can’t live in dignity, then come back home to Africa. That was the message–come back home to Africa, to Libya.” 

McKinney said at the time of the conference, the imperialist powers had just lifted economic sanctions against Libya. 

“Libya was in a building frenzy—they were building high rises all over the country because in the socialist Jamahiriya housing is a human right, therefore the government provides housing to everybody,” McKinney said. 

Speaker from audience

“Education under the socialist Jamahiriya is a human right. Whatever your talents are, Libya will pay for your education at Al Fateh University, which I visited after it was bombed . . . or the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, which a Libyan national who has been with us on this tour was attending. Also health care is a human right and if a Libyan national has an ailment and there is problem with treatment in Libya, then government will fly that person and family members to whatever country that has the expertise that is needed. . . . .Electricity is also free of charge. Can you imagine not having a utility bill?” 

McKinney said the Libyan U-Mass student told her he received an allowance of 2500 dinars a month, his portion of revenue-sharing from the country’s oil wealth. In addition to his tuition, the Libyan government was paying for his living expenses and that of his family. McKinney said he has just discovered that these payments are now suspended due to the war. 

Imperialist banks froze at least $50 billion in Libyan assets, $30 billion in the U.S. at the direction of President Barack Obama. The plundered wealth of the Libyan people is now being handed over to the so-called Transitional National Council of the counterrevolutionaries, who are led by the CIA and NATO. 

Audience gives McKinney a standing ovation

McKinney said her observations of Libya in January and during a previous trip led her to establish the Dignity Delegation of independent journalists, which left June 1 to tour the country with her, at the outset of the U.S.-NATO bombing campaign. She and some of those on the tour have now spoken in 36 cities across the U.S. 

“They were charged to do what journalists do, go there, hit the ground running, interview people, videotape, write stories and tell the truth,” McKinney said. They included Wayne Madsen (http://www.waynemadsenreport.com ), Jocelyn Barnes of DC TV in the District of Columbia, who shot most of the video, and a South African journalist from Channel 4 in Capetown, South Africa. 

“I was an eyewitness to NATO’s war crimes,” McKinney said. “They are targeting the civilian population, which is denied food, fuel and medicine under a naval blockade, even as the bombs are falling. Targeting civilian populations is a war crime. They also targeted Moammar Gadhafi for assassination. Targeted assassination is illegal under any aspect of international law.” 

Admiral Samuel Locklear

She said U.S. Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, and  Commander of the Allied Joint Force Command based in Naples, Italy, admitted that part of the NATO mission is to murder Gadhafi. 

She said just during the week of the Aug. 27 meeting, 3,000 Libyan civilians in Tripoli alone.had been killed by bombs and ground forces, including Westerners.

“But what I also saw there was a spirit of resistance,” McKinney said. “The residential compound of Moammar Gadhafi, Bab Al-Azizia, was bombed every night. When I was there, people would go there at nighttime and have a party, with drums and dancers. They camped out there increasingly as people’s homes were bombed by NATO, setting up a tent city. Every night when NATO bombed they knew they were bombing unarmed civilians. Bab Al-Azizia now is rubble.” 

She said the tent city included migrant workers who refused to go back to their home countries in solidarity with the Libyan people. 

McKinney said a worker from Cameroon she met at the tent city called her three days ago. 

Blacks killed in Libya by terrorist counterrevolutionaries Aug. 27

“He was in tears,” McKinney recounted. “He said ‘My skin is Black, my children are Black, my wife is Black—they are going to kill us.’ People are being targeted, threatened, intimidated, killed and lynched because of the color of skin. Can you imagine the ethnic cleansing of people of dark skin in Africa? About 58 percent of people in Libya look like me. What does it mean when the Voice of America writes a story about “New Libya More Arab, Less African?”  (To see VOA story with photos go to http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/decapua-libya-au-arab-laegue-25aug11-128388573.html. Also  “The deadly face of racism revealed by the NATO led war in Libya as Black Africans are being slaughtered,” from the Sierra Leone Telegraph. http://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/articles/100576.htm

McKinney said she visited the family of one of the dark-skinned Libyans murdered by the counterrevolutionaries. 

“They were called on their loved one’s cell phone and told ‘we have your loved one—watch what we do to him on Al Jazeera,’ and the family witnessed the torture and murder of their loved one.” 

McKinney said the damage to Libya’s infrastructure from NATO bombs is immense. 

“I tasted the grit of bunker-buster bombs, when NATO bombed during day, morning, afternoon, evening, night, eight to nine times a day. The clouds were not white, the sky was not blue, but an off-black color because so many bombs had been dropped that dust particles were hanging suspended in the air. Lib;yan scientists have now determined it to be depleted uranium. 

But to demonstrate the determination of the Libyan people to fight back, McKinney showed a video sent to her by a Libyan national she met during the Dignity Delegation’s tour in Texas.

The video (below) shows house to house fighting and gunfire in the streets Aug. 27, the day of the Detroit meeting.

Libyan war. Gaddafi supporters battling with Rebels Abu Salim suburbs Tripoli Today 27/08/11

 “What you just witnessed was sent to me from a Libyan national whose skin is dark just like mine, who is a businessman here in the U.S.,” McKinney said. “He joined us in Houston Texas for our truth tour.  He made a statement tha the people of Libya would fight house by house, inch by inch, bullet by bullet, body by body to defend their country. That young man is now one of those volunteers who feel so deeply about their country that they have gone back to defend the integrity and sovereignty of Libya. What we saw on that film is going to take place for a long, long time to come.”

Even a video from the Western media backs up her assertion. Filmed at the same time as the one above, it says Gadhafi is still in Tripoli leading Libyan forces against the counter-revolutionaries, utilizing a system of tunnels built under the capital to prevent his capture.

 McKinney said corporate media in the U.S. and world-wide are directly complicit in the slaughter in Libya. 

Walter Fauntroy

“I just received a phone call from a friend and supporter, a fellow peace lover who lives in Canada. He literally started crying on the telephone. He was crying because his best friend is being held in a hotel that is controlled by rebels—the NATO allies. The gentleman’s best friend committed the crime of being an alternative journalist who went to Libya to tell us the truth.” 

She said former U.S. Rep. Walter Fauntroy and other independent journalists are also at the hotel, where gunfire was heard. 

“One individual who is a representative of the mainstream corporate media in the US tried to turn this alternative journalist over to the rebels. What has brought us to this point in Tripoli is that fact that embedded in the media under the guise of journalism are members of  the press from various NATO countries who have been transmitting information for targeting purposes to NATO.”

Pres. Barack Obama, Commander-in-Chief

McKinney said President Obama’s role as commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces operating with NATO against Libya is creating problems abroad. Previously, Pres. George Bush’s Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began calling African migrants to Libya “mercenaries,”setting the stage for the current racist purge in Libya. 

“Now people are blaming us because we have allowed the policies of the imperium to take place in black face. If we don’t stop the war machine it will run right over us all.  No war is an acceptable war for us to fight.” 

But McKinney was upbeat in describing the potential for resistance against the war on Libya and the war on Black and poor people at home. 

“Something is happening in our country because many cities began to react to our tour,” McKinney observed. “With little notice people’s organizations came together in each city, and there has been standing room only at every one of our events.  We the people will make a new and better America. We’re here to kickstart the revolution. What we are trying to create is a better United States. We know that our war-mongering government does not represent the peace-loving people of the U.S.” 

Also speaking during the meeting were Debbie Johnson, of Workers World Party, who chaired it, Mark Fancher of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Association, Fred Vitale of the Green Party, and Abiyomi Azikiwe of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice. Several of their talks are included along with the video of McKinney’s speech below, taken by Lou Novak.

Below is the last video known to have been broadcast by Lizzie Phelan Aug. 25, 2011, one of the independent journalists McKinney referred to, whose lives have been threatened by CIA plants in the western media. All of Lizzie Phelan’s outlets, her WordPress site called “Lizzie’s Liberation,” and her Facebook and Twitter pages, have been shut down, clearly by forces who did not want her broadcasting the truth from Tripoli.

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Kenneth Jr. and Ondrell Harding as children with mom Denika Chatman. This loving family has been demonized and threatened by police and in the media ever since two San Francisco officers, recently identified as Matthew Lopez and Richard Hastings, shot him in the back as he ran from them, killed him and, with their guns drawn, allowing no one to aid or comfort him, watched him bleed to death in Hunters Point in front of a crowd of witnesses.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, murdered by Detroit police, no charges brought to date

VOD ed: The police terror that is being visited on the family of Kenneth Harding, Jr., who was murdered in San Francisco by police July 16, over a transit fare, is reminiscent of what is happening to the family of Detroit’s Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7. The Jones family has been forced to move to undisclosed locations because of death threats, while Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy covertly threatens to charge Aiyana’s father Charles Jones in the killing of Je’rean Blake a week previously. Chauncey Owens, currently charged in that incident, was supposed to receive a reduced sentence for implicating Jones, but his sentencing has been postponed twice. It is now set for Oct. 31, 2011. Likewise, after falsely accusing Kenneth Harding, Jr. of being implicated in an earlier shooting in Seattle, police have now targeted his brother Ondrell for another killing.

August 24, 2011

Interview with Denika Chatman, mother of Kenneth Harding, Jr., murdered by SF cops July 16, by Minister of Information JR Valrey 

San Francisco cops over Kenneth Harding Jr. as he lies dying without aid

This is the transcript of an interview broadcast on Hard Knock Radio Aug. 15on KPFA 94.1FM; it starts 43:37 minutes in. Interview transcript published in the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper.

JR: You are listening to the Minister of Information JR on Hard Knock Radio. Today we are talking to Denika Chatman, mother of Kenneth Harding, who was murdered July 16 in Hunters Point over a $2 transfer for Muni. Denika, how are you?

DC: I’m hanging in there. Thank you for asking.

JR: Can you tell us a little about your son Kenneth Harding? How old was he and what was he like?

Kenneth Harding Jr.s family members grieve at conference

DC: Kenny was 19; he would have been 20 on Aug. 5. The kind of person he was: He’s been in church all his life, he loved his mother, he loved his brother and he loved his baby sister, and to me he was a very giving person – not selfish at all. He had a very open heart and he would do whatever it took to try and help somebody. He was always bringing somebody home that needed help.

JR: Can you talk about July 16? What happened July 16 and how did you hear about it?

DC: Actually, I didn’t hear about it until July 17, when I saw a news report on the Seattle news and they stated that a 19-year-old male had been in a fatal shoot-out with San Francisco police, and somewhere within my heart it felt like it was my son. So I had called my aunt and asked her if she could call out there and find out if it was him or not, and she was asking me why would I think that it was Kenny.

Kenneth Harding Jr. shortly before his death

I got a phone call from him on Friday and he told me, “You see the area code; you see where I’m at. Don’t trip; I’m fixing to take care of my music and I’ll be right back.” And I told him, you know, “Kenny, what are you doing?” And he said, “Mom, don’t trip. I promise you I’m coming right back. I just gotta take care of this.”

And that was the last time I talked to him and when my aunt fcalled back, she asked me to confirm any of his tattoos, which he had “love” on one hand and “hate” on the other. And so she called back to the mortuary – or to the ME (medical examiner), I should say – and they verified that it was him and they had also ran his fingerprints through FBI, and he also had his state ID in his pocket, so they knew it was him as well. And after that I got a phone call from the ME.

JR: You know, how do you feel about how they tried to characterize your son and you and your family as a whole in the media when the police shot your son over a $2 Muni transfer?

Aftermath of teen's death on streets of Hunters Point in San Francisco

DC: Well, first of all, I don’t think that they knew he would have a mother who would run to his rescue, and on top of that an intelligent mother, and I think they thought it would go unheard of – wasn’t anybody going to speak up and say anything. But I didn’t come by myself; I came with strong Black powerful leaders.

JR: Can you talk a little bit about how they accused your son Kenny of one thing, being involved in an attempted murder and all, then they accused your other son of something like that and then released him and they were very quiet about it. I wouldn’t even have known that they released him had I not worked at the San Francisco Bay View newspaper.

Police arrested 35 for protesting murder of Kenneth Harding, Jr.

DC: That’s fine. They didn’t start implicating Kenny in the young lady’s death until he was dead and the Thursday after his death I received a call from a Seattle detective. He wanted to know if I had any questions in regards to Kenny and I told them that they set us up to be targets and put me and my family out there as if he had something to do with this. And I told them, “Excuse me, I know damn well my son didn’t have anything to do with the young lady’s death.”

I wept for her; I grieve for her family. However, we didn’t have anything to do with that. The detective told me that they had Kenny and another boy and two other girls on aerial video, who I know from the corner store down the street, so they know he was in that area that night; and what he stated was, he wanted to know if they had stayed or if they had left before the shooting.

Ondrell Harding

My point to him was, “You guys sit up here and make up targets like this and all you wanted to do was ask my son if they stayed around during the shooting. Common sense would tell you that, if there was a shooting, no – he didn’t stick around. He ran; you know what I mean. So you guys set us up like this and put us out here like this to be targets for anyone to think that he had something to do with it.”

And he wants to tell me it wasn’t the police, it was the media. And I’m like, you guys work hand in hand, you know; one feeds the other. And then as far as my older son (Ondrell), with the other – I’m not even going to say killing; it was a death that occurred. And what had happened is that the man – his name was Anthony, who died – he’s my daughter’s father’s best friend. He called my kids nephews; they called him uncle. (VOD ed.: click on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/ondrell-harding-kenneth-harding-brother-arrested_n_911546.html to read about this case.)

My son had been living over there for months before I even moved back here from California. And I just moved back here from Vallejo in April because I knew Kenny was going to be getting out and he was going to need a place to be released to and he was going to need his mom. So my oldest son, he still remained living over there. He helped them a lot; he took care of them, he paid their rent, he made sure that Anthony and his wife and his son ate everyday. So what it is is a tragedy.

Scene of Seattle homicide for which Ondrell Harding was at first accused, but has now been released without charges; his mother says police continue to harrass him

He loved us; we loved him. Now we can’t even see about their family because of what occurred. And what happened was – I can’t get into the specifics – but all I know is they had received the autopsy report back in 24 minutes, so they knew my son had nothing to do with his death, but they still wanted to put us through this.  They raided my home with three different SWAT teams; they put “armed and dangerous” in the computer for my son to give them the right to shoot to kill him.

On top of that, the detective threatened my son’s life, telling me to my face that it’s a shame what happened to my son in California, but it would be a bigger shame if the same thing occurred here. So at that point I was just really through; I couldn’t believe how he was actually sitting here threatening my son’s life. And I know that that’s why they brought the SWAT team out was so that they could kill him.

But outside of that, we hired an attorney, had him take him in. They never filed any charges; they released him with no pending charges. And it’s a shame because we’re going through so much out here for nothing because of what occurred to my youngest son out there in California.

SF Bayview publisher Willie Ratcliff, Denika Chatman and Kenneth Roy

JR: For those of you who are just tuning in, we are talking to Denika Chatman, the mother of Kenneth Harding, who was murdered July 16 in Hunters Point over a $2 bus transfer. I am the Minister of Information JR as we continue this conversation. Ms. Denika, can you tell us what is going on with your son Kenneth’s body right now? Can you talk a little bit about the funds you need, what you need them for and what’s going on?

DC: Basically, we have collected half – I still have a balance owing of $1,680. We have set up a donation account through any Wells Fargo Bank. All you need to do is let them know it is a Washington account and it’s for Kenneth Harding Jr. if you would like to make any donations. However, we’ve been mostly having all payments forwarded to Bonney-Watson Mortuary, just so that there is no question about where the funds are going or what it’s for.

We also have a memorial Facebook page set up as well, and it’s at Facebook under Kenneth Harding Jr. and you can receive all the information there as well. I appreciate all the support and love and care and just giving nature of everyone this has affected, everyone who has just stepped up to be there to support us, all the community from Bayview, all the activists, the NAACP, Rev. Brown, the president in (San Francisco) California.

We have the full support of the Nation of Islam and I would like to thank the Honorable Louis Farrakhan for sending someone out here to Seattle to find us. And we have also been under their protective custody. They have been watching out for us and making sure no harm comes to us as well.

They have also organized a community town hall meeting for Kenny just to set the record straight for all the naysayers and onlookers because me and my son get a lot of backlash now when we leave the house and go into public from other people’s ignorance. And they don’t even think that if he were actually a murderer or had killed somebody, you wouldn’t even be seeing him right now.

And another record I would like to set straight is how they posted and stated that Kenny was a rapist and had messed with a 14-year-old girl and pimping and pandering. What the news doesn’t tell you is that Kenny was 17 at the time all of this took place and that the court had subpoenaed and received the online conversations on MySpace between him and her and found the conversations where she was lying about her age.

And, if Kenny was a rapist, he would have been required to register as a sex offender, OK? And outside of that, if he was pimping and pandering, he would still be locked up – he’d be doing five to 10. He got a reduced sentence because of the proof of the conversations that took place online and because she offered and he accepted.

JR: Right on. You were just listening to the voice of Denika Chatman, the mother of Kenneth Harding, here on the Block Report with the Minister of Information JR. If you would like to get more information about Kenneth Harding, you can go to sfbayview.com.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR, Bay View associate editor, at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.

Attorney Allison Folmar (third from left), Maryanne Godboldo, Mubarak Hakim and Penny Godboldo and some of their many supporters celebrate Judge Ronald Giles’ ruling outside 36th District Court Aug. 29, 2011

 Judge Giles: “We are talking about a person’s constitutional rights, including liberty”

Channel 7 exposes illegality of Wayne County Juvenile Court practice of rubber-stamping judge’s signature to take children

By Diane Bukowski

Aug. 29, 2011

36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles

DETROIT—Thirty-Sixth District Court Judge Ronald Giles today emphatically dismissed all criminal charges against Maryanne Godboldo, who refused  to turn her 13-year-old daughter Ariana over to police officers during a 12-hour stand-off at her home March 24. His ruling came at the conclusion of Godboldo’s two-part preliminary exam on numerous felony charges. 

“There are two main issues here,” Giles said. “First, the [court] order in and of itself. The order has to do more than look official. We are talking about a person’s constitutional rights including the right to liberty, subjecting them to an order that is grossly inadequate and incorrect. The mistakes on it are numerous as identified by CPS [Child Protective Services] worker Mia Wenk herself. It is ridiculous to go in to remove in this court’s opinion somebody’s children based on THIS order. It does not even express any situation where we have exigent circumstances where it says the child is at risk. There was no imminent threat of death or severe physical harm. Therefore I am going to quash this order and everything thereafter is null and void. It is the fruit of the poisonous tree.” 

Giles held an  evidentiary hearing on the order prior to the first part of Godboldo’s preliminary exam July 25, but held his ruling in abeyance. 

Rukiyah Shabazz declares: MY CHILD DOES NOT BELONG TO THE STATE1

Even if the court did find the order valid, Giles said, “I have no evidence on this record that this defendant discharged that firearm. It could have been either one of the individuals in the house. Therefore this court dismisses all charges.” 

Police brought a Special Response Team with assault weapons, armored cars and helicopters to Godboldo’s home on Linwood near Blaine to take Ariana after officers first on the scene claimed they heard a gunshot in the home. Wenk had called 911 to summon police to the scene because she wanted Ariana on a dangerous psychotropic drug, Risperdal.   

In a court where at least 95 percent of defendants are bound over to circuit court, many hailed Giles’ ruling as extremely courageous. 

Attorney Allison Folmar, also a mother of a young daughter, speaks to media with her client Maryanne Godboldo at her side; Attorney Roger Farinha is behind them

An emotional cry rang out from Godboldo’s supporters and dozens followed her outside weeping and hugging her with joy, as she and Ariana’s father Mubarak Hakim linked hands. 

“The judge did the right thing, and I had wonderful attorneys beside me, along with my supporters,” Godboldo said. “I thank you all and especially Judge Giles, and I thank the people of Detroit.”

Later, she said, “Ariana was the one who suffered the most in this situation. She was taken from me and abused sexually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was five weeks that I lost with my daughter, I couldn’t eat and I couldn’t sleep, but now I have her back am I am able to once again take even better care of her.”

Godboldo told VOD earlier that Ariana has been “her entire life,” ever since her birth.

Attorneys Byron Pitts and Allison Folmar after first part of Godboldo's preliminary exam July 25

Godboldo had faced “one count of Discharge of a Weapon in a Dwelling, three counts of Felonious Assault, three counts of Resisting and Obstructing an Officer, and a Felony Firearm count,” charges carrying up to at least eight years in prison. Attorneys Allison Folmar and Byron Pitts represented her on the charges. 

“We thank Judge Giles for standing solely on the Constitution and looking solely at the law,” Folmar said outside. 

 “Maryanne Godboldo has been an upstanding citizen of her community all her life. She has lived at the same address and had the same phone number for 40 years. She had to endure not only the unlawful taking of her child but these criminal charges as well. This sends a message to Detroit Police that when you come to someone’s house you have to be legal. Unfortunately the police department did not know their own policy.”  

Like his supervisor Lt. Michael Neid, P.O. Kevin Simpson also has a military background

On July 25, Pitts showed a policy from the DPD manual regarding the service of civil orders to Police Officer Kevin Simpson, who with his partner Thomas Trewhella responded to Wenk’s 911 call. The policy states clearly that is it not the job of the DPS to serve civil orders. Wenk had testified that she wanted a police car there because Ariana needed to be “caged.” 

Simpson then admitted police were not performing their proper duties during the stand-off. 

Pitts and Folmar both have pointed out that even the Michigan appeals court order currently criminalizing resistance to police officers in the case of unlawful arrests says that the officers must be “in the performance of their duties.”  

On Aug. 29, Assistant Prosecutor Lora Weingarden called civilian Deputy Chief Michael Falvo, an attorney, to the stand to counter Simpson’s admission. Falvo said it has been common police practice since the 1970’s to accompany CPS. However, Judge Giles would not agree to Weingarden’s request to admit him as an expert witness, saying that only he as judge can rule on legal matters in his court. 

Weingarden then brought up another section of the DPD manual allowing deviance from policies in “rare” instances. 

On Pitts’ cross-exam, Falvo admitted that officers must report deviations to their superiors, which had not been done in this case. Pitts pointed out that the manual expressly forbids forcible entry into a house in rare instances where DPD might assist other agencies. 

Asst. Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Maria Miller, spokesperson for Prosecutor Kym Worthy, at first released a statement saying the office was “considering” an appeal.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

Shortly afterwards, she said, “He [Judge Giles} ruled that the Juvenile Court order to remove Godboldo’s daughter was not valid.  However, Judge Lynne Pierce, Wayne County Third Circuit Court Judge in Family Court, held a lengthy hearing and determined the court order was valid. Judge Giles also ruled that there was insufficient evidence produced to show that the defendant fired a gun at law enforcement authorities. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office objected to the Court’s rulings and will appeal the dismissal.”

During the custody hearing before Pierce, a court supervisor testified that it is routine procedure for probation officers to rubber stamp Family Court Chief Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s signature on court orders to remove children, although they have no legal authority to do so. Smith never even sees the documents involved. (For full details on this matter, click on VOD story at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/03/another-shock-no-judge-authorized-ariana-godboldos-removal/  )

 Even Maura Corrigan, appointed as Director of Human Services under Gov. Rick Snyder, recently said “only judges” can authorize CPS’ removal of children. (Click on Maura Corrigan statement to read Corrigan’s statement.) 

Gail Bagalle, at left, of the Save Our Children Coalition, which advocates for foster care, with Judge Lynne Pierce at right

Roger Farinha, attorney for Ariana’s father Mubarak Hakim, said the criminal court finding will affect the ongoing civil custody case, which is scheduled for another hearing in front of Pierce Sept. 29.

 On Aug, 9, a jury found that Ariana should remain under state custody based in part on Pierce’s repeated rulings that the order was a valid court order, despite testimony by court supervisor Vikki Kapanowski testified that three probation officers rubber stamp Family Court Chief Judge Leslie Kim Smith’s signature to child removal documents which never go before the judge.

“We repeatedly asked Judge Pierce to wait until the criminal case was over before allowing introduction of evidence [relating to the stand-off],” Farinha said. Farinha and Attorney Wanda Evans, who represented Hakim and Godboldo in the custody case, argued that testimony from police officers at that hearing would prejudice the jury, since Godboldo would have to take the Fifth Amendment regarding the events of March 24.

“The statute says a judge cannot have probation officers perform her duties,” Farinha said. “The file stamp on the order was not valid, the seal was not valid. We are pursuing appeals of the jury finding and Pierce’s orders.” (See story on appeal shortly to come.)

Detroit police officer William Blake of Tactical Mobile Unit

Weingarten argued that her office had proven that Godboldo fired a gun during the stand-off. However, it came out during the exam July 25 that no evidence technicians were ever called to the scene. Police Officer William Blake, of the Tactical Mobile Unit which backed up the assault team, said he saw a “bullet hole” in the ceiling of the inside stairwell leading to the kitchen, but on cross-exam by Pitts, he admitted he had never reported seeing that bullet hole in his initial CRISNET report, or in a May report to the prosecutor’s office.

Officers testified they found a gun and bullets in the house, but never linked them directly to Godboldo through physical evidence. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Deborah Thomas, who acted as a mediator during the stand-off and was called as a prosecution witness, testified that  Godboldo told her only that “a weapon was discharged” during the stand-off.

No evidence technicians were called to the scene in a timely fashion. On Aug. 9, a unit of “Crime Scene” Detroit police officers with a search warrant came to the home belatedly and jiggled a pen around in a hole in the kitchen door they apparently claimed was a bullet hole. Professor Eric Lambert, chair of Wayne State University’s Department of Criminal Justice, told VOD however that the search was extremely belated and could be subject to challenge in court.

Weingarten never raised the search during the Aug. 29 hearing.

As this article went to press, Godboldo’s supporters held their weekly Monday meeting at 6 p.m. at Hartford Memorial Church, where she and her sister are active members. They vowed to continue the battle against Worthy’s appeal and to return Ariana to her mother’s custody.

MARYANNE GODBOLDO, MUBARAK HAKIM, AND ARIANA GODBOLDO-HAKIM HAVE RECEIVED WORLD-WIDE SUPPORT IN THEIR CASES. VOD READER PORTIA COMMENTED EARLY ON:

Fuhrer Hitler

“The main problem is ‘the best interests of the child’ was the slogan used by Hitler and his SS in Germany. Said the Fuhrer, “When an opponent declares: ‘I will not come over to your side, I calmly say ‘your child belongs to me already.’ Who are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing but this new community.’”

This sums it all up. Bless those who now support this family, as it could be your family tomorrow.”

The Justice 4 Maryanne Committee’s website is at http://www.justice4maryanne .  

Below is Channel 7 reporter Heather Catallo’s excellent report on the unlawfulness of seizing children based on orders signed by probation officers, and never reviewed by a judge. VOICE OF DETROIT broke this story Aug. 8.

To Donate online:

Donate securely through our online donation page.

*Thank you to everyone who supported our rally on April 2nd! We raised just over $3,000. However, our work is NOT over!* 

“Free Ariana NOW!” Petition on Change.org

Please View and Sign our Petition

http://www.change.org/petitions/free-ariana-now 

Black Libyan executed by U.S./NATO led counterrevolutionary forces

VOD ED: Reuters claims Black Libyans shown executed by counterrevolutionaries led by US/NATO came from other parts of Africa; in fact, 50 percent of Libyans are Black and have been targeted and lynched for months by racist “rebels”  

 (AP)  TRIPOLI, Libya — The bodies are scattered around a grassy square next to Moammar Gadhafi’s compound of Bab al-Aziziya. Prone on grassy lots as if napping, sprawled in tents. Some have had their wrists bound by plastic ties.

The identities of the dead are unclear but they are in all likelihood activists that set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with Gadhafi outside his compound in defiance of the NATO bombing campaign.

It is impossible to know who killed them, but the discoveries raise the disturbing specter of mass killings of noncombatants, detainees and the wounded.

President Barack Obama: Bush #2 Mission Accomplished

Between Bab al-Aziziya, seized by rebels on Tuesday, and the Gadhafi stronghold neighborhood of Abu Salim, where fighting raged Thursday, AP reporters saw about two dozen bodies Thursday. Five or six were in a tents erected on a traffic circle that housed the activists and were decorated with the flags of many African nations.

One had an IV in his arm, and another body was completely charred, its legs missing.

At least a dozen other bodies were found in a grassy area and a canal nearby. Several of the dead had been shot in the head, with their hands tied behind their backs. A body in a doctor’s green hospital gown was found in the canal. The bodies were bloated.

One of the dead had a strip of cloth in bright green, the national color of Gadhafi’s Libya, tied around his wrist. The man was darker skinned than most Libyans.”

REBEL TERROR: CIVILIANS, INDEPENDENT REPORTERS AND ACTIVIST RISK LEVELS RISE

27 Saturday Aug 2011

Posted by Alexandra in LIBYA, URGENT APPEAL

Rebel Assassins Terrorizing Libyans

By Stephen Lendman

In his new article headlined, “9/11 After A Decade: Have We Learned Anything?” Paul Craig Roberts said:

“Today Americans are unsafe, not because of terrorists and domestic extremists, but because they have lost their civil liberties and no protection from unaccountable government power.”

So have millions under occupation and/or attack by US/NATO forces, terrorizing them in the name of “democracy” to “set them free.”

America is a global terror state. For decades, it’s menaced humanity’s survival by imperial wars for wealth and power, not liberation or democratic values. All US administrations reviled them, notably Obama’s, including at home.

Under him, “unaccountable government power” terrorizes globally.

It’s a truism that where large energy reserves exist, America has imperial plans to control them. Libya is now ground zero. US-led NATO assassins invaded to menace, intimidate, kill, plunder, and cause out-of-control chaos, notably in Tripoli, the struggle’s current epicenter.

On August 16, Michel Chossudovsky’s article headlined, “The Pentagon’s ‘Salvador Option:’ The Deployment of Death Squads in Iraq and Syria,” saying:

Reports suggest the use of “thousands of Islamist ‘freedom fighters,’ reminiscent of the enlistment of Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war)” against Soviet Russia in Afghanistan.

Chossudovsky wrote about possible plans “to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house,” train, and send them to Syria.

Thousands of similar elements are in Libya.

Counterrevolutionaries armed and led by US, Britain, NATO

On August 20, independent journalist Thierry Meyssan said NATO debarked large numbers of jihadi forces with heavy weapons on Tripoli’s coast. Special forces led them. Violence and mass killing followed. It still rages, slaughtering hundreds, perhaps thousands, and wounding many more.

On August 26, London Independent writers Kim Sengupta and Portia Walker headlined, “Bodies pile up as search for Gaddafi intensifies,” saying:

“Fierce fighting and wild rumors (spread) as hunt gathers pace.” So far, there’s “no sign of an end to the conflict as” battles rage.

On August 26, London Guardian writer Simon Jenkins headlined, “Libya is not an advertisement for intervention,” saying:

Hospital worker in Tripoli shows bodies of civilians and Gadhafi supporters

“Several claims….made about NATO’s involvement (have) little basis in reality,” including:

(1) Preventing a Benghazi massacre. It “was NATO propaganda.”

In fact, mass killing only began when NATO arrived and hasn’t stopped.

(2) Replacing Gaddafi to protect civilians and install a more democratic regime.

NATO plans occupation and puppet leaders taking orders from Washington, as well as plundering Libya for profit.

(3) “(N)o foreign troops on the ground” will be used.

“This NATO pledge was mendacious….British (and other Western) ground troops were extensively deployed in Libya,” arriving before conflict began last winter.

(4) “Britain was not taking sides in a foreign civil war.”

Arada neighborhood in Tripoli after recent NATO air strikes

In fact, Washington, Britain, and other NATO countries partnered to oust Gaddafi. Insurgents, supported by air power, were recruited to do it. Western interests “most emphatically decided the fate of the Libyan people. (They) brought anarchy in the place of order….(They can’t) disown the consequences.”

From the start, Western leaders knew if they “toppled Gaddafi (they) would own the place. It was no good saying they “learn(ed) from Iraq. The lesson of Iraq was, don’t do it in the first place.”

Libya, in fact, is replicating it. NATO’s Operation Mermaid Dawn hoped to end it in Tripoli. “Mermaid” is Tripoli’s nickname. On August 20, it was launched from Sarim Street’s Ben Nabi mosque after Iftar, the breaking Ramadan’s fast.

Insurgents used mosque loud speakers to broadcast chants to Tripoli residents. NATO carpet bombing and strafing preceded and accompanied it to clear their way to advance unimpeded after initial loyalist counterattacks.

Activated sleeper cells around the city joined the fighting. Weapons were shipped in weeks in advance. Text messages urged residents to join insurgents. Battles raged. They still do. Likely protracted conflict will cause thousands of deaths and injuries, as well as destruction across Tripoli and other parts of Libya, besides the horrendous past six months’ toll.

Green Square July 7 filled by one million Libyans supporting their government

The Big Lie accompanies the campaign, including a Potemkin village replica of Tripoli’s Green Square and Gaddafi compound in Doha, Qatar.

It was used to create fabricated scenes of euphoria, aired by Al Jazeera, an imperial co-conspirator. In fact, it was an elaborate hoax to convince residents Tripoli was in rebel hands. Perhaps seizure of Gaddafi’s compound was also exaggerated, reminiscent of Orson Welles’ famous 1938 War of the Worlds radio drama.

The hoax heard around the world sounded real enough to make millions think aliens had landed. Angry about public gullibility, Welles reportedly said, “If they’ll believe everything, I’m going to give them something (really) unbelievable to believe.”

Victim of counterrevolutionary attack

Misinformation and the art of surprise work well enough to convince people of most anything. It’s especially effective tactically in wars. The jury is out on if it’ll work this time, given strong loyalist opposition to NATO occupation.

All along, the pretext used to intervene was to “protect civilians and civilian populated areas from threat of attack,” as stipulated under the General Assembly’s 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, adopting the responsibility to protect (RtoP).

A previous article explained paragraph 138, stating each nation must “protect (its) population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.”

Paragraph 139 delegates responsibility to the UN “to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, in accordance with Chapters VI and VIII of the Charter, to help protect populations from” these crimes.

Military force isn’t authorized, and the UN Charter prohibits it for humanitarian interventions. As a result, justifying it under RtoP is illegal. Doing so amounts to committing war crimes to prevent them.

The UN Charter’s Chapter VI calls for peaceful conflict resolutions. If they fail, Chapter VII authorizes the Security Council to impose boycotts, embargoes, blockades and severance of diplomatic ties – not war.

As a result, Washington’s led NATO intervention is naked aggression, supplemented by paramilitary assassins, terrorizing Tripoli residents and other Libyans they attacked, murdering Gaddafi loyalists.

After entering Tripoli, AP and Reuters reported massacres of his supporters near his compound, AP saying:

“The bodies are scattered around a grassy square next to (Gaddafi’s) Bab al-Aziziya (compound). Prone on grassy lots as if napping, (they’re) sprawled in tents. Some have had their wrists bound by plastic ties. The identity of the dead are unclear but they are in all likelihood activists that set up an impromptu tent city in solidarity with (Gaddafi) outside his compound in defiance of the NATO bombings.”

AP noted “the disturbing specter of mass killings of noncombatants, detainees and the wounded.” Some were “shot in the head, with their hands tied behind their backs. A body in a doctor’s green hospital gown was found in the canal. The bodies were bloated.”

Reuters reported 30 bodies “riddled with bullets….Five of the dead were at a field hospital nearby, with one in an ambulance strapped to a gurney with an intravenous drip still in his arm.” Two other bodies “were charred beyond recognition.”

The London Telegraph interviewed a surgeon saying hundreds were “coming in within the first few hours (of fighting). It was like a vision from hell. Missile injuries were the worst. The damage they do to the human body is shocking to see, even for someone like me who is used to dealing with injuries.”

He said most casualties were civilians. Tripoli’s three main hospitals are full of them. Unable to handle the volume, many suffer in agony or die untreated. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) warned of a medical catastrophe. Already there’s a human one wrought by NATO and their rebel assassins on the pretext of humanitarian intervention.

What’s involved, of course, is planned colonization, occupation and plunder of Libya’s wealth and natural resources, including its Great Man-Made River (GMMR). Gaddafi rightfully called it the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” consisting of the largest global underground network of pipes and aqueducts, distributing water from an ocean-sized aquifer.

Along with free education, healthcare, housing assistance and other social benefits, Gaddafi supplied it to Libyans. NATO wants it privatized to make it costly or unaffordable henceforth, along with charging for everything formerly gotten free.

The opening comments of a previous article bear repeating, saying:

The US/UK/French-led war on Libya will be remembered as one of history’s greatest crimes. It violates the letter and spirit of international law and America’s Constitution.

The Nuremberg Tribunal’s Chief Justice Robert Jackson called naked aggression “the supreme international crime against peace….so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate (its) being ignored, because it cannot survive….being repeated.”

Post-WW II, it got worse, highlighted by what Washington, its NATO partners, and rebel assassins are doing across Libya. At the same time, they scandalously avoid calling it war, when, in fact, it’s that and more in the worst sense.

Make no mistake. For months, Libyans have been slaughtered and terrorized by vicious war criminals headquartered in Washington, London and Paris.

Unaccountable, they plan more conflicts across the region for total dominance at the expense of thousands more lost lives, as well as unspeakable human misery. It doesn’t get any worse than that.

A Final Comment: Journalists targeted by US/NATO led assassins

A morning email alert said the following:

Canadian independent journalist Mahdi Nazamroaya

“Although journalists reporting from the Rixos Al Nasr Hotel in Tripoli were relocated to the Corinthia Hotel, also in Tripoli, on Wednesday August 24, in an effort to increase their safety, independent journalist and Canadian citizen Mahdi Nazamroaya continues to express grave concerns for his life. Mr. Nazemroaya told friends on Thursday that his safety was now even more at risk with armed groups entering the Corinthia hotel. Mr. Nazemroaya is unable to leave the hotel.

The planned departure of a boat which would have brought journalists and migrants outside of Libya was delayed and the transfer of journalists to the boat in all safety remains uncertain.

The Canadian Government has yet to act to ensure that Mr. Nazemroaya is repatriated to his home country despite having ties with the Hongarian embassy in Tripoli. Friends and family continue to demand that the government take concrete action to ensure that Mr. Nazemroaya is escorted back to safety.

Mr. Nazemroaya is a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa where he also held a research assistant position.”

For further information:
Mireille Gervais
Director, Student Appeal Centre, Student Federation of the University of Ottawa

The lives of other trapped independent journalists are also at risk, including Lizzie Phelan, Franklin Lamb, Thierry Meyssan, Mathieu Ozanon and JulienTeil, because they’re unprotected at the rebel-held Corinthia Hotel.

Thierry Meyssan

As a result, assuring their safe passage out of Libya is urgent. So far, a chartered ship can’t dock because of fighting. The longer it’s delayed, the greater the risk. Further updates will follow.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net .

BY PAUL LEE 

Two contractors for Corby Energy Services of Bellville, Mich., remove the DTE street light from in front of my home at 150 Massachusetts, Highland Park, on Aug. 19, 2011. It took all of seven minutes to complete.

The citywide removal of street lights was done under the euphemistic name “Highland Park Lighting Improvement Project,” which was careful to downplay the fact that the lights on the STREETS, as opposed to SOME of those at the intersections, would NOT be replaced.

When the bulbs were removed last week, the contractors were followed by a private investigator, wearing a police badge, apparently because DTE was concerned about the reaction of residents — most of whom know little or nothing about this program.

DTE and the mayor have justified the removal on the basis of a debt-forgiveness and cost-saving arrangement. When I asked city native and former city Emergency Financial Manager Arthur Blackwell, whose mother lives a few doors from me, about the arrangement, he replied, “It’s a great deal,” particularly in light of the city’s population loss.

However, most residents are only learning about this program as the lights are being removed, and many are concerned about the possible ramifications on safety, particularly of our children and older residents. Below is a report on this by WWJ-TV (CBS), Detroit:

Street Light Upgrades Leaving Residents In The Dark

August 16, 2011 6:17 AM

HIGHLAND PARK (WWJ) — Highland Park residents say the lack of street lights in their city leaves them fearing for their safety.

Reporting live from Rhode Island Street, WWJ’s City Beat Reporter Vickie Thomas found it pretty dark there in the early-morning hours. The street lights and many others throughout the block had already been turned off and they would not be coming back on.

“The residential streets have no lights, but the intersections have lights now,” resident Diane Parren told Vickie. “They just recently did that so it’s still a major concern because the fear is still there.”

Crews are in the process of installing new, more efficient lights at intersections, so one light will replace about six of the old street lights. Intersections and main roads, such as Woodward Avenue, will stay lit.

“My concern is for my mom,” said Parren. “She’s older and with the street lights being out, it’s sort of confining her to the house. She doesn’t come out after dark, and she’s concerned — as I am — about the neighborhood and things that could happen in the night…”

Mark Hackshaw, president of the Highland Park Business Association, isn’t happy about it either and is also concerned.

“The membership is very concerned and the residents of the community are very concerned, for all of the obvious reasons,” said Hackshaw.

Elene Robinson, a write-in candidate for mayor said the city should use solar lighting.

“I don’t understand how a city so small hasn’t applied for government money to be focusing on bringing solar to the municipal building and to our street lights,” said Robinson.

Mayor Hubert Yopp says the city owed DTE Energy $4 million and the new plan puts the city back in the black with the utility. The city’s monthly bill will go from about $62,000 down to about $10,000. (VOD: DEFINITELY PUTS THE CITY IN THE DARK! INCREDIBLE!)

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/08/16/street-light-upgrades-leaving-resident…

NEW: See also the report by Curt Guyette in “The Metro Times”:

http://metrotimes.com/news/highland-dark-1.1192555

Legislation Would Limit Cash Assistance to 48 Months: MyFoxDETROIT.com

•  As many as 14,000 families face life-time cut-off of cash benefits, food stamps and health insurance Oct. 1 as Senate votes on immediate effect of HB 4409-4410
• MARCH IN DETROIT THURS. AUG. 25 CADILLAC PLACE

Gov. Rick-tator Snyder faces mass protest in Benton Harbor at Blossom-Time Parade/Photo by Brett Jellinek

By Diane Bukowski 

Aug. 24, 2011 

DETROIT—As this article goes to press, the Michigan Senate is voting to give immediate effect to two bills that will cut the last life-line to housing, food, and medical care that as many as 14,000 families in Michigan have effective Oct. 1. The bills will then go to Gov. Rick(tator) Snyder for the final blow of the guillotine, his signature. 

Clinton initiated national "welfare reform" that led to Michigan cut-off

“The four-year time limitation is part of TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families), the welfare “reform” bill that was passed in 1996 under the administration of Bill Clinton,” Marian Kramer of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO) wrote in an earlier article posted on VOD at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/07/14/michigan-to-throw-12600-families-off-welfare-who-will-be-next/ . “However, it was left up to the states as to when they would implement this part of the bill. Some states rushed to implement it and others tended to leave the time limitation alone.” 

Kramer explained further, “Come October 1, 12,600 families will be cut off the rolls. The family unit will also lose their insurance and their food stamps. Then every month, more people will be eliminated. If you have been on welfare for say three years, you only have one year left.”

The MWRO is asking everyone affected, and all of those who support them, to come out to the Resurrection March described above. They are also working to organize a National March on Washington as part of the Assembly to End Poverty, to be held June 30, 2012. (See flier at end of article.) 

Families on TANF received the following letter from Michigan’s Dept. of Human Services Director Maura Corrigan Aug. 9.

“Where will those 12,000 people go the next day? Where are they going to go to get food? State Sen. Morris Hood (D-Detroit) asked on July 13, when the Senate passed the original legislation described in the VOD link above. 

Detroit homeless shelter; currently famlies in these shelters still receive food stamps and health care from the state, but many will be cut-off Oct. 1, and more not currently in shelters will flood them as they lose their housing

“They have fallen upon hard times because of the economy and loss of jobs. It still begs the question of what’s going to happen to them the next day. Just imagine yourself sitting there with your children, your wife, your family, and a parent you are taking care of with no food on the table. You have babies crying because they are hungry and don’t have any food. What is a man or a woman sitting at that table going to say to their children when they say they are hungry? What are you going to say? Well, you are just going to have to go without because I don’t have the resources. . . . .”

Michigan State Sen. Morris Hood III

To those who are not on assistance, Hood said, “You are only one paycheck from being in that same situation. You are only one mishap in your life from being in that situation. In the twinkling of an eye your life can change. Think about it, you may be in that situation. What are you going to do and what are you going to say to your children?”

Many have forgotten, however, that it was Governor Jennifer Granholm who signed the original legislation leading to the current bills in December, 2006, after she had pledged on the campaign trail not to do so. (Click on http://blogpublic.lib.msu.edu/index.php/granholm-signs-off-on-various-bills-making-them-law-and-vetoes-others?blog=5 for source of citation below.)

Then Gov. Jennifer Granholm with Andy Dillon, now Snyder's chief hatchet man as state treasurer, and his youngest daughter Teagan in 2004 in Dearborn Heights; his family won't suffer.

She signed “The measure to limit Michigan welfare recipients to four years of cash assistance, with several exceptions, starting in October 2007. The measure also sets up penalties for recipients who dont comply with work or educational requirements. Recipients could apply for a fifth year of cash assistance if they havent been sanctioned and the job market is down.”

Republican legislators only added draconian provisions this year that further penalize poor and working people, as described in the VOD story link in the second paragraph of this article.

Granholm’s role, and that of Clinton in 1996, make it clear that the battle for the very lives of poor and working people in Michigan is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. They have conspired since the Clinton era to bring about the further chaos, devastation and suffering that is about to happen in Michigan this October.

Dr. Cornel West on Poverty Tour in Detroit Aug. 8/Photo by Diane Bukowski

“In the name of deregulating markets, that leaves poor people socially neglected, economically abandoned, poor people have been demonized, poverty has been demonized,” Dr. Cornel West told Detroiters Aug. 8 during The National Poverty Tour he co-sponsored along with Tavis Smiley. “The line in the sand is between the greedy oligarchs and the working and poor people.”

Smiley directly criticized the debt ceiling legislation signed by President Barack Obama earlier this month.

“We have a piece of legislation that did not extend unemployment, did not close corporate loopholes, did not raise revenue on the rich or lucky,” Smiley said.

Tavis Smiley speaks in Detroit Aug. 8; Councilwoman JoAnn Watson sponsored the Poverty Tour's appearance.

“Corporate America got away scott free again, Wall Street got away scott free again. When these cuts [additonal cuts included in the debt ceiling legislation on TOP OF Michigan’s TANF cut-off]  start to kick in, this is going to get ugly. As bad as it is right now, it’s going to get worse if we don’t find the courage annd the conviction and the commitment to speak truth about this suffering.”

Poverty Tour audience speakers including (center) Maureen Taylor, of MWRO, and Deborah Williams, of the Justice 4 Maryanne Godboldo Coalition

The large majority of people who came to hear Dr. West and Smiley in the Erma Henderson auditorium Aug. 8 were supportive and anxious to describe the travails they are facing as the budget ax, and the economic crisis created by the banks and big business, comes down on their heads.

But a small portion of those present, the most vocal of which was Ernest Johnson, formerly a high-paid executive with no assigned duties under Democratic Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, disrupted the meeting continually. They purported to support President Obama because he is Black and a Democrat, and to focus energy on the elections in November, 2012, instead of building the mass movement of the people that Dr. West and Smiley called for.

Below is the flier for the National March on Washington which Kramer told the crowd Aug. 8 will help build that movement.                                                                         

 The call to action says The Assemby to End Poverty “is a coalition of 450 individuals and organizations throughout the United States. Its website is at http://www.oneclassonecause.org or it can be reached locally at 313-964-0618.

Monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C.

People also marched on Washington last week-end for the unveiling of a monument commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was not only a leader of the civil rights movement, he was planning a national Poor People’s March on Washington when he was assassinated in 1968. He had also joined forces with the movement against the war in Vietnam, just as people today must assemble en masse to oppose all U.S. wars abroad, which are draining the country’s resources. At the forefront now is the horrendous U.S./CIA/NATO assault on the people of Libya, described in the stories below.

Audience at Poverty Tour event in Detroit Aug. 8 gives standing ovation to Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley

LIBYA’S GADDAFI SAYS RETREAT FROM BAB AL-AZIZYA TACTICAL MOVE 

English.news.cn   2011-08-24 07:54:29 

TRIPOLI, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) — Embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said early Wednesday that the withdrawal from the Bab al- Azizya compound in the capital of Tripoli was a tactical move, local al-Orouba TV reported. 

Gaddafi, whose whereabouts remain unknown, said the compound was leveled to the ground by as many as 64 NATO airstrikes, the TV said, adding the defiant leader vowed death or victory in fight against the “aggression.” 

Libyan rebels Tuesday captured Muammar Gaddafi’s Bab al-Azizya compound after heavy fighting and looted an armory inside the vast barracks, while the whereabouts of the embattled Libyan leader and his sons remain unknown to the moment. 

Meanwhile, rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) head Mustafa Abdul Jalil told a French TV on Wednesday that some 400 people were killed and 2,000 others injured in three days in clashes between the government forces and the rebel troops in Tripoli.

 Jalil added some 600 government troops were captured.

VOD:  Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/24/gadhafi-forces-overcome-natocia-backed-counter-revolutionaries/ and http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/24/u-s-liable-for-civilian-deaths-in-libya/ for earlier reports that thousands of Libyan civilians have been killed in NATO air strikes on Tripoli.

LIBYA: NATO PSYOPS COLLAPSES. GADDAFI PREVAILS AGAIN.

23 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by Alexandra

By Tony Cartalucci

Update: You can’t make this up – the International Criminal Court (ICC) now claims it never confirmed that Qaddafi’s son Saif Al-Islam was captured. Here is the Telegraph article quoting ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as having indeed confirmed his capture. Here is a farcical Reuters report now claiming such a confirmation was never claimed. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo should resign, so should editors at both the Telegraph and Reuters and a myriad of other media agencies complicit in spreading this willful and malicious propaganda. Continue reading →

WHITE HOUSE AND PENTAGON EVACUATED; PENTAGON NOW DEEMED SAFE FOR "RE-OCCUPATION" (of Libya, Yemen, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, which country?)

VOD: IS IT THE WRATH OF ALLAH IN RETRIBUTION FOR U.S. WAR CRIMES?

 (CBS/AP) 

WASHINGTON – A 5.9 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., shook much of Washington, D.C., and was felt as far north as Rhode Island and New York City.

The quake sent hundreds of people spilling into the street a block from the White House, with other buildings evacuated in North Carolina and tremors felt as far away as New York City.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was 3.7 miles deep. Shaking was felt at the White House and all over the East Coast, as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. Parts of the Pentagon, White House and Capitol were evacuated. The quake was in Mineral, Va., in Louisa County. The Pentagon was later deemed safe for reoccupation. (VOD: of which country or countries?) 

Not too big

Huffington Post

Today 2:41 PM 5.9 Magnitude Earthquake In D.C.

From the D.C. Alert system:

“United States Geological Survey reports an earthquake in the Metropolitan Area registering at 5.9 on the Richter Scale. Small aftershocks reported. As safety measure if experiencing please take cover under a desk, table, bed or door frames. Stay clear of windows and other glass. Please stay put. If you are outdoors find areas clear of buildings. Stay tuned to radio and tv news updates.”

Today 2:45 PM ‘Muffled Thud’ Heard Outside Eisenhower Executive Office Building

HuffPost’s Howard Fineman reports:

The quake produced an odd muffled thud outside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House. The old granite 19th century pile of the “Old EOB” is under renovation, and the tremors evidently shook metal scaffolding that girds the north face of the building to the point where passersby could hear what sounded like construction material falling from one part of the facade to another.

Today 2:56 PM U.S. Geological Survey Spokeswoman: Stay Indoors

HuffPost’s Dan Froomkin reports: If you’re outside right now, you might want to come back in. Leslie Gordon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey, said that people are safer inside a modern building than they are standing outside where things could fall on them.

“The biggest danger in an earthquake is something falling on top of you,” she said. “Our advice to start with is the duck, cover and hold, and not run out of a building into a street.” If you are outside, “you need to look around and think: What’s going to fall on top of my head? If you’re standing right on the side of a building and glass could fall on you, that’s not a good idea.” (VOD: DUH!)

Today 3:04 PM HHS Chief Kathleen Sebelius Forced To Conduct Conference Call Outside

HuffPosts Joy Resmovits reports: A Washington, D.C., Health and Human Services Building was evacuated, forcing HHS chief Kathleen Sebelius to conduct a conference call with reporters and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan from a noisy street corner. “We’re here on the sidewalk, waiting for our building to be secured,” Sebelius said, over sirens, after she finished describing the new criteria for the early childhood version of Race to the Top, a federal education grant competition. (VOD: DEFINITELY THE WRATH OF ALLAH FOR DESTROYING U.S. PUBLIC EDUCATION)

The U.S. Education Department’s building was deemed safe. “This is my first earthquake, so it’s quite an experience,” Duncan said. “But everyone’s fine.”

Today 2:59 PM National Operations Center Remained Operational

HuffPost’s Andrea Stone reports: An official at the Department of Homeland Security, speaking on background, said that “out of an abundance of caution, individuals did leave the building, however the National Operations Center remained operational through the event.” (VOD: DARNNIT! WHICH ANTI-WAR ACTIVIST ARE THEY GOING TO OPERATE ON NEXT?)

Today 2:59 PM Pieces Have Reportedly Fallen from D.C. National Cathedral

Pieces have reportedly fallen from the National Cathedral in DC, structural assessment underway – via @walkeje http://bit.ly/ndy3Bk  (VOD: told you, the wrath of Allah)

Today 2:51 PM FAA Grounds Flights

Today 2:44 PM Today’s Virginia Earthquake Matches Record

Today 2:43 PM Washington Metrorail Stays Open

HuffPost’s Dan Froomkin reports: Washington’s mostly underground Metrorail system is staying open after the earthquake. “Trains are running,” a Metro spokesman said. There are significant delays, however, he said, as trains are traveling at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour until a systemwide track inspection is complete. (VOD: GOTTA KEEP THOSE TRAINS RUNNING, AS MUSSOLINI SAID!)

Espinoza family with supporters outside Family Court July 27: (l to r) Luis III, 13, father Luis with Leonardo, 3, Cornell Squires, Gavino, 9, mother Cecilia, Pedro, 12, and Mabel Love

Espinoza family caught in tangled CPS, court web

By Diane Bukowski

August 23, 2011

DETROIT – In a shocking development Aug. 3, Family Court referee Mona Youssef ordered Cecilia Espinoza out of her home and away from her five children, while ordering the return of her six-year-old daughter Genoveva to the home. All five children are to be cared for by their father Luis Espinoza pending trial, set for September 27.

Friends of the family who have talked to the children since have said they are upset and crying for their mother, as the father struggles to see that they are fed and ready for school at Bennett Elementary in September, while working as an auto mechanic.

Cornell Squires supports Justice for Aiyana Jones at press conference May 16, 2011, first anniversary of child's murder by cop

“Leonardo [three years old] doesn’t understand,” said Cornell Squires of We the People, which was formed to assist families victimized by Child Protective Services and other human and civil rights violations. “He thinks his mother doesn’t love him anymore and cries for her. He won’t eat and has lost weight. Genoveva wakes up at night crying for her mother. Gavino and Pedro don’t understand why their mother can’t come home.”

Some of the court documents in the case obtained by Squires bear the rubber-stamped signature of Judge Leslie Kim Smith, Chief Judge of the Third Circuit’s Family Court division.

Third Judicial Chief Judges Leslie Kim Smith and Virgil Smith with DHS director Maura Corrigan, who oversees CPS

During a hearing in the case of Ariana Godboldo-Hakim, Court supervisor Vikki Kapanowski testified that those signatures are stamped by probation officers under her supervision, who are not authorized to order the removal of children and are not attorneys. Judge Smith never sees the documents. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/03/another-shock-no-judge-authorized-ariana-godboldos-removal/ for full story.)

The Espinozas’ oldest sons, Luis III, 13, and Pedro, 12, were in court with their parents for the Aug. 3 hearing. They were asked to leave the court during the hearing, supposedly for the sake of sequestration of witnesses. However, the parents’ court-appointed attorneys Edward Hill (for father) and Rick Unger (for mother), did not call them to the stand.

Luis’ testimony in particular was crucial to the case. Genoveva was taken from the home by her grandmother Consuelo Meade on June 19, Father’s Day, after she sustained a black eye while the mother and grandmother were visiting Meade’s husband’s grave. Meade afterwards refused to let her return. She filed a CPS complaint July 8, claiming it was her mother who gave her the black eye.

“My mother wasn’t even home,” Luis III told VOD after the hearing. As his father prepared dinner that day, Genoveva had crawled under her bed, a common activity for her. When she was unable to get out because the bed is so low to the floor, Luis III lifted it off her. It was then he saw her black eye, apparently sustained in her struggle to get in and out.

Her mother told VOD that when she came home, Genoveva said she had given her the black eye, but Meade told her that wasn’t possible because they were gone.

Hill told VOD that the boys “will testify later on.” Court-appointed attorneys are paid by the state on a per-hearing basis. It was Unger who brought up the proposal for the mother to leave the home out of the blue after she testified that she had never hit or otherwise mistreated Genoveva.

“My own mother beat me all the time when I was growing up,” Cecilia Espinoza told this reporter previously, referring to Meade, who adopted her as a child in Mexico. “I swore I would never lay a hand on any of my own children. I discipline them by assigning them chores or withholding things they like for a period of time.”

During the hearing, Referee Youssef allowed Assistant State Attorney General Richard Karoub to admit into evidence five undated photos of Genoveva, allegedly taken by Meade and her niece Rebecca Gutierrez, which purported to show a black eye along with some bruises on the child’s arms and chest. Along with the photos, Karoub introduced written affidavits from Meade and Gutierrez. Neither was present during the hearing to face cross-examination.

Unger and Hill both objected to introduction of the exhibits as unauthenticated, saying there was no evidence Meade and Gutierrez could not be present to attest to the photos.

By the time Meade made her CPS complaint, there was no evidence of any injury to Genoveva. She was taken to Children’s Hospital July 13, where doctors verified that she was in good health with no marks or bruises.

CPS worker Shanitra Bowman testified that she got the photos from Meade July 12 and that Genoveva told her directly that her mother had hit her. By that time, Genoveva had been living with Meade in her luxurious condominium in Warren for three weeks.

On cross-exam, Bowman admitted that no one else from Genoveva’s family, including the other children, told her they saw her mother give her the black eye, although she interviewed them all.

“Didn’t it strike you as strange that the grandmother didn’t report this to CPS right away?” Unger asked Bowman.

“There was some concern,” Bowman responded.

“You are aware that there is stress in the relationship between the mother and grandmother,” Unger said. “When you interviewed the other children, did they offer you an explanation that was consistent with the mother’s?”

Bowman responded that their explanations were consistent with the mother’s “second” explanation. She said the boys told her that their mother was not home when the injury occurred.

Hill called Luis Espinoza to the stand to testify that he and his wife had made repeated phone calls to Meade to have their child returned. Karoub objected to his testimony, saying the state “is not arguing abandonment at this stage,” but that “it may come out at trial.”

Cecilia Espinoza testified at length as reported in VOD’s earlier interview with her (click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/08/03/espinoza-family-fights-for-their-five-young-children/ for full story.)

“Genoveva tries to blame things on other people,” Ms. Espinoza said. “She’s just playing, we don’t take it seriously.”

She said she and her husband allowed Meade to take Genoveva for a couple of days, but then could not get her returned. On June 26, she said, Meade brought one son, Gavino, home from swimming and Genoveva was with them. However, she said, when Genoveva tried to whisper something in her mother’s ear, Meade grabbed her arm and took her back. When they showed up for a family picnic on Belle Isle, Ms. Espinoza said the same thing happened.

On cross exam by Karoub, she said Genoveva had no bruising anywhere when she saw her briefly on June 26. She said Genoveva told her after first claiming that she (Cecilia) had hit her, “I hit my eye when I got under the bed.” She said Genoveva “rocks back and forth” to get under the bed.

She testified the children’s paternal grandmother in Mexico cared for the four oldest including Genoveva in Mexico for three and one-half years, due to the extreme poverty she and her husband were experiencing.

She said they came back on Feb. 2, 2009, and that Genoveva was still in diapers at the time due to differing child-rearing practices. She said that Genoveva sometimes wets her pants deliberately now when she does not get her way. Ms. Espinoza said she had an appointment to take her to a doctor about the problem but prior to that, Meade had removed her.

She told Karoub, “I never struck my child. I was whipped [by Meade]. Knowing my mother, she brainwashes kids.”

Youssef asked Hill, “Is your client [the father] willing and able to care for all the children if I order the mother out of the home?”

Unger objected, “Is it the right thing to do? This would be very traumatic. There is no medical evidence to suggest abuse. The people who took the pictures are conveniently not here. You can do things to a photo to make it look different. The grandmother clearly has an agenda, she wants to keep the child. There is no history of abuse. I ask you to dismiss the case. However, my client places the well-being of her child above all else and will voluntarily leave the home if necessary.”

Youssef so ordered, but said that Ms. Espinoza can see her children with CPS supervision. However, since that time, Squires said, Ms. Espinoza’s case worker has not answered repeated calls to set up visitation, and she has not seen her children since Aug. 3.

To contact We the People, call Cornell Squires at 313-460-3175