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Former Pres. George W. Bush, who put Sean Cox on the federal bench, is also a member of the international cartel The Carlyle Group, parent company of Synagro; Cox cites the Synagro scandal at DWSD as one of the reasons for its takeover

FROM “MONEY TRAILS TO THE FEDERAL BENCH” 

Michigan: U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox 

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan

Nominated: September 10, 2004 | Confirmed: June 8, 2006

Summary: Cox contributed $2,000 to Bush in December 2003 while he was a state judge. Cox gave $790 in statecampaign contributions after his nomination, including $500 to the campaign of his brother, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, according to state records. He also gave nearly $5,500 in federal contributions to Republicans between 1993-2002, including $3,000 to former Sen. Spencer Abraham.

Sean Cox is the brother of former Michigan AG Mike Cox, who was the only Republican to OPENLY endorse the racist anti-affirmative aciton Proposal 2 (although others supported it behind closed doors); he used his office to ensure its placement on the ballot

Chronology:

• Sept. 10, 2004: Bush nominates Cox.

• Oct. 25, 2004: Local Republican committee receives $200 from Cox.

• Feb. 14, 2005: Bush re-nominates Cox.

• April 4, 2005: Local Republican committee receives $90 from Cox.

• Dec. 1, 2005: Cox’s brother, Michigan’s attorney general, receives $500 from Cox.

 FROM RIGHT WING WATCH: 

ustice Antonin Scalia signs copy of U.S. Constitution at Federalist Society Lawyers Convention in 2008

Sean Cox is a member of the ultra-right-wing Federalist Society. 

Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies

Established: 1982 by a group of right-wing law students President/Executive Director: Eugene Meyer
Board of Directors: National Co-Chairmen Prof. Steven Calabresi and David M. MacIntosh, Directors Prof. Gary Lawson, and Eugene B. Meyer, Hon. T. Kenneth Cribb (President of Collegiate Network), and Mr. Brent O. Hatch, treasurer.
Membership: The FS Lawyers Division has 25,000 legal professionals; Student Division has more than 5,000 law students at 145 law schools; 60 metropolitan lawyers’ chapters; 15 nationwide practice groups; and a new Faculty Division with unpublished membership numbers.
Finances: $5,450,536 (total revenue for 2004)
Grants: Since 1985, The Federalist Society has received over $12 million in grants from conservative foundations, such as the Earhart, Bradley, Simon, and Olin Foundations, as well as the Carthage, Koch, and Scaife Foundations.
Publications: Several e-mail newsletters on different topics, a quarterly law journal, a “Conservative and Libertarian Pre-Law Reading List,” and various reports on legal issues.

Read the latest news on the Federalist Society on the group’s Right Wing Watch index page

NAACP March against racist Proposal 2, an example of initiatives supported by the Federalist Society

Principal Issues

• The Federalist Society hopes to transform the American legal system by developing and promoting far-right positions and influencing who will become judges, top government officials, and decision-makers. FS is “dedicated to reforming the current legal order.”
• The Federalist Society is a well established network of right-wing lawyers, politicians, pundits, and judges.
• Many members of the Federalist Society advocate a rollback of civil rights measures, reproductive choice, labor and employment regulations, and environmental protections.
  In Federalist Society’s guide to forming and running a chapter of the society, FS says it “creates an informal network of people with shared views which can provide assistance in job placement.”
• The Federalist Society has 15 different “practice groups” that focus on particular legal issues, such as civil rights and labor and employment law.
• Read PFAW Foundation’s detailed report, The Federalist Society: From Obscurity to Power [PDF file]. 

Its members include, among numerous others:

Federalist Society Members in the Bush Administration [partial list]

• Former Attorney General John Ashcroft
• Former Secretary of the Department of Energy Spencer Abraham
• Former Solicitor of Labor Eugene Scalia (Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s son)

Federal Judicial Nominees

• Samuel Alito, confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court
• John Roberts, confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court
• 

  Michael Chertoff

  Michael Chertoff, confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, currently Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

• Henry Saad, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [withdrawn]
• Susan Neilson, confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Deborah Cook, confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Jeffrey Sutton, confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Other High-Profile Federalist Society Members [partial list]

• Justice Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court
• Senator Orrin Hatch(R-Utah)
• Charles Murray, controversial author who asserted that some races are inherently less intelligent than others
• Don Hodel, former Christian Coalition president
• Former Michigan Governor John Engler
• Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan; currently head of the Michigan Department of Human Services, which is about to slash 15,000 families from the public assistance rolls, and is steadily kidnapping poor children, particularly in the Black and Latin communities, from their families for profit through Child Protective Services.

  

  Maura Corrigan and Rick Snyder plotting to kidnap more poor babies and starve the rest

Some of the many Detroiters who answered Councilwoman JoAnn Watson's call to deluge the Council with demands to stop Judge Sean Cox's takeover of DWSD

Union announces it will file for intervener status to oppose Judge Cox’s attack on DWSD 

By Diane Bukowski

 September 14, 2011 

DETROIT – Residents packed the City Council chambers Sept. 14 to demand that its members act aggressively to stop U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox’s move to seize Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), announced Sept. 9. (Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/09/12/911-in-detroit%e2%80%94terrorist-judge-cox-strikes-water-department/ to read about Cox’s attack.) 

Chris Griffiths demands that City Council take action against water takeover

The Council held a closed session to consult with attorneys Sept. 7 on the matter and is expected to hold more. Councilwoman JoAnn Watson and others have demanded that the Council hire its own attorney to file suit, in light of Mayor Dave Bing’s ongoing collusion with both Cox and retired Judge John Feikens in carving up the Department. 

Tom Barrow, who exposed blatant fraud as a candidate in the 2008 mayoral election and has now formed the group Citizens for Detroit’s future to challenge this November’s election on the City Charter, boomed out a challenge to the Council. 

Former mayoral candidate Tom Barrow, who opposed privatization of city assets and jobs

“A Republican judge using an embedded Republican facilitator sitting in the Mayor’s office has taken our water department, which we own and control,” Barrow said.

“This Council must act to file its own lawsuit. I  urge this body to stand up . Cox is not himself above the law. Recall how they took our Cobo Hall and once they got it they took every minority vendor out of Cobo Hall. Councilpersons, Council president, you are our last hope. Fight back resist  or we will as a city will be left to die.”

Whether the Council will vote to do so immediately is questionable. Cox designated Council President Charles Pugh and President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, along with one Water Board member, to conduct a 60-day study to address DWSD’s alleged failure to adhere to federal Clean Water Act requirements, or face a “more intrusive remedy.” 

Local 207 President John Riehl, center, with attorney George Washington at right and Secretary-Treasurer Mike Mulholland, at earlier press conference announcing lawsuit against Synagro contract

John Riehl, president of Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), represents the majority of DWSD workers. 

“We plan to file for intervenor status in federal court,” Riehl said. “We will be glad to meet with the Council to let them know what we know about problems in the department, and how to resolve them. We support the Council’s move to retain its own attorney to fight this heinous attack.” 

Feikens earlier denied the union’s attempt to intervene in the case, but Riehl said Cox has now directly involved the unions, since he has ordered complete abrogation of DWSD union contracts. 

Last DWSD Director Pamela Turner

Riehl told VOD earlier that despite Cox’s claims to the contrary, the Water Department is currently hiring dozens of new workers, including plant operators, to increase its capacity to comply with the Clean Water Act, and is functioning very well, even without a director. He said federal oversight of the department deliberately set it up to fail by cutting staff, not filling vacancies, and alienating capable administrators such as its last director, Pamela Turner, who ended up resigning.

Local 207 has long fought the decimation of the department, meeting constantly with City Council and submitting lengthy analyses and recommendations. 

(Below is video of part of the meeting taken by Kojo, whose YouTube channel is at BBCUFI.)

“We oppose any decision by Cox to take away control and ownership of DWSD,” Dempsey Addison, president of the Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said. “That’s 5,000 city jobs at stake, 5,000 members who pay into our pension system. If we lose the Water Department, our bond ratings will go down the toilet and we will no longer be able to borrow money for the rest of the city.” 

 DWSD, which is an enterprise agency separate from the City’s general fund, has always had stellar bond ratings on Wall Street, until recent controversy over the takeover caused the ratings agencies to drop them slightly. Meanwhile, the city itself has been consigned to junk bond ratings for some time.  

Raphael Robinson (center) tells Council DWSD can produce city's electricity too, as Cecily McClellan (r) listens

APTE Vice-President Cecily McClellan told the Council, “The Water Department has been under federal oversight for 34 years. It is ludicrous and disingenuous to believe that a 60-day study will do something that has not been done in that time. If we lose the water department, we will lose the city as a whole. The suburbs want the department’s revenues, its jobs and its contracts. But we need them, we OWN the Water Department, we PAID for it.” 

Raphael Robinson, a DWSD professional retiree, said he trained Water Department operators and currently is an advisor for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the American Water Works Association. 

DWSD North Service Center Booster Station

“DWSD produces one of the best products in the world,” Robinson said. “Its employees are some of the best trained in the world. Its huge systems of booster pumps and lifts at plants all the way to Port Huron are also capable of generating electricity, not only for the department but for the surrounding residential areas.  We can sell electricity to DTE rather than pay them for it.” 

Lynna Kaucheck, of the national organization Food & Water Watch, and also a member of the People’s Water Board, said regionalization of DWSD as planned under Cox’s proposals, is the first step to complete privatization.

Lynna Kauchek of the national organization Food and Water Watch (right) joins other speakers to demand action against water takeover

“We have found that a human necessity like water is far better owned and controlled by a public entity, not money-hungry private corporations,” Kauchek said.

Tyrone Travis called Cox’s move nothing but “ethnic cleansing” or “negro removal.” 

“State genocide can only be fought outside the box, not within the system,” he said. “That was shown in India, China, Russia and in Birmingham, Alabama during the civil rights movement. We have got to get out to the neighborhoods to mobilize the people.” 

Mayor Dave Bing announces "Consent Agreement" under Judge Cox Feb. 11, 2011 giving away Detroit control of Water Board, as Macomb County Water Commissioner Anthony Marocco, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, and Oakland County Water Commissioner John McCulloch chomp at the bit for revenues, contracts and jobs

DEMONSTRATION TO STOP DWSD TAKEOVER IN FRONT OF WATER BOARD BUILDING SEPT. 7, 2011

 Watson wants Detroiters to pack council chambers Sept. 13;

Other fightback campaigns in the works 

By Diane Bukowski 

September 11, 2011

U.S. District Court Judge Sean Cox

DETROIT – U.S. District Court Judge Sean F. Cox hit Detroit’s water customers and workers with his own 9/11 terror attack Sept. 9. He wrested away the city’s most valuable asset, its Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), in order to turn it over to suburban-based corporate interests lock, stock and barrel, without a cent of compensation to the City of Detroit. 

Cox’s order anticipates complete separation of the appointed Board of Water Commissioners (BOWC) from Detroit’s government. Meanwhile, it overrides the CityCharter and Home Rule under the state constitution, negates Civil Service provisions, and abrogates DWSD union contracts. (Click on DWSD Cox order 9 9 11  to read entire order.) 

Instead of facing final approval by the Detroit City Council, water rates and contracts would be determined solely by a supermajority of the seven-member BOWC. The supermajority provision, included in a February Consent Agreement, gives veto power to the BOWC’s three representatives chosen by Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. 

Protesters at Feb. 23 mass rally in Lansing

Cox set a cursory 60-day period for Mayor Dave Bing, City Council President Charles Pugh, President Pro-Tem Gary Brown, and one Water Board member to devise a plan to remedy the department’s alleged failures to comply with the Clean Water Act, that meets HIS satisfaction, or face a “more intrusive remedy.” 

“In [devising the plan], they shall not be constrained by any local Charter or ordinance provisions, or by the provisions of union or other contracts,” Cox said. “If these local officials fail to devise and propose a workable solution to remedy the underlying causes of the serious and recurrent violations of the Clean Water Act in this case, this Court will directly order a more intrusive remedy.” 

Cox ordered the city officials to report back to him by Nov. 4. 

Members of the community and water department workers have reacted with furor. 

Councilwoman JoAnn Watson calls for fightback against water takeover Sept. 10

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson said the Council is meeting in closed session Tues. Sept. 13 at 9 a.m. to discuss Cox’s order with attorneys. She asked Detroiters to pack council chambers at 10 a.m. to insist during public comment that the Council fight the order in court and elsewhere. 

“Somebody has decided they don’t want Black folks in control of the city,” Watson said. “They don’t want us to have self-determination, local control, or local power. The water department is Detroit’s most significant asset other than its people. It can’t be handed away or negotiated away. The suburbs already have county representatives on the board, that is enough of an olive branch. They should not demand nor receive ownership of our water.” 

Mike Mulholland, Secretary-Treasurer of DWSD’s largest union local, AFSCME 207, said, “They want our water because in the wake of global warming water is becoming a scarce resource, it is like gold.” 

AFSCME Local 207 officers Mike Mulholland and Lekita Thomas; Thomas said white Homrich contractors repeatedly use the "n" word at DWSD facilties

He said the union wants the City Council to hold a public hearing on the takeover to mobilize the community. One way to fight back, he said, would be a mass worker-community occupation of the Water Board building similar to that conducted by teen mother students at Catherine Ferguson Academy in February. That takeover received world-wide support. 

“Detroiters have built, paid for, maintained, and operated their public water system for nearly 200 years and currently provide about four million people with some of the best quality tap water in the country, if not the world,” Lynna Kaucheck of Food and Water Watch said during a protest at the Water Board building on Randolph Sept.7. “Our national research shows that such takeovers and privatization have on the average led to a fifteen percent increase in water rates per year, while service has declined.” 

The 60-day period in Cox’s order appears to be a concession to legal precedents he cites, which set minimal limits on federal overrides of local control. Macomb County proposed the “more intrusive remedy” of complete separation of DWSD in a motion Aug. 8 in response to Detroit’s motion to end federal oversight of DWSD. 

Steve Seckler, Chairman and Founder IMG

Federal oversight involving hundreds of plans and studies has existed for 34 years, resulting in billions in private contracts and cost overruns, and billions more in bond debt to finance the contracts. It has led to the deliberate dismantling, privatization and attrition of the DWSD workforce despite constant union objections, on the advice of private consultants like the Infrastructure Management Group IMG), handsomely paid for out of DWSD revenues. IMG is an ardent advocate of privatization of water utilities.

U.S. District Court Judge John Feikens originated the DWSD consent decree in 1977. He kept tailoring it to benefit outsiders, even appointing a “Business Leadership Group (BLG)” composed of Bing, DTE CEO Anthony Earley, DWSD contractor James Nicholson of PVS Chemicals, and others with money to gain from lucrative DWSD contracts and privatization. 

Under Feikens’ oversight and that of Mayors Kwame Kilpatrick and Dave Bing, up to 40,000 Detroit families have faced water shut-offs every year, ironically leading to a conclusion by former DWSD Director Victor Mercado, now under federal indictment, that the “demand” for water had dropped. 

Atty. David Ottenwess, DWSD Special Master and Cox campaign contributor

 But Feikens continually stressed that he would not exercise federal authority to take absolute control of the department away from Detroit, which Cox has just done. 

Cox has appointed his long-time associate Attorney David Ottenwess as “Special Master” during the current period of federal oversight. Ottenwess’ only qualifications appear to be that he heads a law firm that defends hospitals and doctors from malpractice lawsuits, and contributed handsomely to Cox’s campaign for Circuit Court in 1996. Another major contributor was the peripatetic James Nicholson of the BLG, also a major contributor to Kilpatrick’s second campaign.

The City of Detroit had proposed to replace federal oversight with a July 8 Consent Order with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for federal oversight, but Cox denied the city’s motion, claiming DWSD had again breached Clean Water Act requirements. 

DWSD workers Andrew Daniels-El holds city charter at Call Em Out meeting Jan. 28, 2009

He repeatedly laid the blame almost exclusively on city personnel and purchasing practices, including union contracts, City Council approval of rates, and set-asides for minority-owned businesses. He cited a litany of reports, including a 2008 IMG report. 

“The report found several problems in terms of human resources and staffing,” Cox said. “IMG noted that there is ‘an alarmingly low number of certified operators for the size and complexity of the DWSD wastewater treatment plant, which is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the country.’ (Id. at 8). 

“It also found that civil service rules and union rules and agreements compound the problems with recruiting and retaining qualified staff. (Id. at 10-11). It stated that“[i]n terms of governance, City Council maintains control over all employment matters. All employees of DWSD, with the exception of the Director and Deputy Director, fall under the City of Detroit Civil Service. Job descriptions, pay rates and classifications are all subject to input and approval by the Civil Service Commission (CSC),” and “[a]ny changes to job descriptions must also be reviewed by unions.” (Id.) Because of these constraints, the DWSD has “limited control over who gets hired, what they get paid and job classification revisions.” 

Henry Ford, a known Nazi sympathizer, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle July 30, 1938, his 75 birthday

Cox cited a 2009 “Consensus Action Report” by the Engineering Society of Detroit, whose members have included such major corporate profiteers as Alex Dow, Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, Albert Kahn, Keith Crain, and C. Richard Wagoner, Jr. 

Cox says, “In addressing practices in purchasing, the Consensus Action Report noted “[t]he often  eedless labyrinth of process and procedures required to award a significant contract.” (Id. at 9). It further stated, “[i]n a word, the City’s Purchasing Department was in the dark, after the fact and out of the loop regarding much of DWSD’s purchasing activities leading to formalistic and bureaucratic procedures that treated symptoms and not causes.” (Id.). It further stated that “bidding procedures introduce problems, as well. There are significant difficulties in obtaining clearances and certifications, and the number of levels of management approval needlessly burdens the process. What appeared missing was a management communication and process linkage that could address the inefficiencies and hurdles to the timely and cost-effective purchase of the staffing, parts and capital needs of DWSD and WWTP.” (Id.).

Detroit youth at Lansing rally demand jobs and businesses for their people

 Clearances and certifications include guarantees that contractors have paid their city taxes and do not discriminate in their work force practices. Cox further condemns the existence of City Council approval of all contracts over $25,000, as well as city emphasis on the hiring of Detroit-based and “minority-owned” companies. (See article below on the recent scurrilous, racist Fox 2 News attack on the Black-owned Bankston Construction, combined with glorification of the white-owned behemoth Homrich Corporation, which lost a water contract to Bankston.) 

As this article went to press, union and community officials were still devising strategies on how to deal with Cox’s order. The order, reached early on Sept. 8, was not announced until the end of the day Sept. 9, and received minimal press coverage as a result. 

STAY TUNED TO VOD FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS. For further information, contact:

AFSCME Local 207: 313-965-1601, 313-919-5011, 313-995-5691

Lynna Kaucheck, Food & Water Watch: Cell: (586) 556-8805, Email: lkaucheck@fwwatch.org

Posted: 2011/09/09
From: Mathaba

By Dennis South

The Libyan people, gathered in their popular congresses and committees, are the Jamahiriya founded by Muammar Qaddafi, and are the legal de jure and de facto government of Libya. They still control the vast majority of Libya unlike what the Hilary Clinton media and NATO would have you believe.

There are no longer any independent journalists in Libya other than those working for and reporting to Mathaba under difficult conditions with communications being monitored by NATO which is seeking via its ground forces to eliminate those reporting the truth.

The popular masses, endured 6 months of non-stop bombing by NATO and now also ground invasion forces of Al-Qaida along side British SAS with water supplies cut off, super markets in Sirte bombed along with the Friday prayers on Eid, massacres with thousands dead, all unreported in the world media.

In spite of these most cowardly forms of trying to enforce an entire population of over 6 million to surrender and accept the NATO-led heretics of Al-Qaida and other extremists as the “new government” of Libya, directed by Hilary Clinton and the U.S. State Department, the popular masses still control the vast majority of Libya with the foreign forces and puppets limited to Benghazi and some parts of Tripoli.

Where NATO has not shut down communications the citizens are terrorized by the vicious armed thugs who help themselves to peoples homes and plunder, rape and steal.  Now, information comes in in bits and pieces, occasionally.  Before, when there were a wide variety of sources of information coming from inside Libya, we had heavy corroboration.  That is not the case now but little has changed: the enemy forces control not even Tripoli which is why meetings of the foreign puppet masters still take place in Paris.

Reports from Mathaba, Syrian radio, the Leader himself, Dr. Ibrahim, are the most reliable. There is much that will be coming to light in the coming weeks and months which will shock the world, or those who care, and the scale of the suffering caused by the NATO and its rebels to a population which enjoyed the purest form of democracy in the world, which allowed them to assign themselves all the benefits that control of national resources allows: free health care, free education, free housing, free electricity and more besides.

Ownership of government by the people, by the people themselves being the government by way of legislative people’s conferences and executive elected people’s committees, allowed Libyans to attain the highest standard of living in all Africa and higher than Russia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. They even had enough to spare $32 billion for a $42 billion project to free the entire continent of Africa from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, with that money now stolen by the U.S.

And additional over $100 billion from the Libyan Sovereign Wealth fund has also been stolen, and Libya had 144 tons of gold reserves and was calling for payments for oil in gold and not worthless debt-printed U.S. dollar bank notes, as well as sponsoring the creation of an Africa-wide gold dinar and “Afro” currency.

These, argue analysts, are some of the real reasons for the war against Libya, with Sarkozy having said that Muammar Qaddafi and Libya’s plans created a threat to the “financial security” of the international community — the international community being the phrase used as always for the banking elite, not the world community of people of all nations.

However, precisely because of the strength of Libya and her people who carry defensive arms — at least one million are armed with AK-47 Kalashnikovs for the event of any invasion — it has taken NATO six months of non-stop bombing and ongoing, in what will go down in military history as the most heroic and under reported war of all time, in which the world’s largest armies have failed to achieve their objectives.

Prime objective of NATO and her ground troop rebels and mercenaries, has been and remains, the elimination of Muammar Qaddafi — a rare visionary who has lived to see his dream come true of empowering the people so that they control government, wealth and arms. Another vision he has is of the United States of Africa, free from want, hunger, need and the plunder and meddling of outsiders.

That dream looks set to be achieved, with the inevitable collapse of the bankrupt west which is leading the grab for African wealth by attempting to control its strongest point of defense — Libya — and the rise to popularity not only within Africa where Qaddafi was already a legend in every remote village, but throughout the world, where people are discovering the truth about Libya and sharing it.

The Qaddafi’s ideology and movement, has given birth to people’s conferences worldwide, and new initiatives to bring to account those who have committed crimes against humanity. The media war being waged by showing a few thousand rebels in often faked settings, may fool many people, but those with intelligence have seen through the obvious lies and cannot be fooled again.

A report by Eugene Gajvoronsky which appeared in Russian confirms what we have been reporting all along, that the Libyan Jamahiriya remains and controls the majority of Libya, and that the Libyan army and defense forces too remain intact as well as the resistance led by Muammar Qaddafi and some of his sons, and notable his daughter Aisha, who is a soldier leading committed to destroying Al-Qaida.

Below follows a very rough rushed translation of the Russian report:

Tripoli: There is fighting, using artillary, in the northwestern suburbs.  In Salah Edden, three NATO-rebel jeeps were destroyed with 6 artillery shells.  Progress is being made in the southern suburb area of Azzawiya by the heavily armed soliders of Khamis al-Gaddafi.

Bani Walid: After failing to convince sheikhs and tribal elders of Bani Walid to surrender, the rats decided to not attack the city at this time.  The defenders of Bani Walid are confident in their abilities, and are determined to fight against the colonial coalition [NATO] to the end.

There have been as many as 7 different conflicting reports about the number of NATO-rebel that have attempted to besiege Bani Walid.  It has also been learned that yesterday, there was an unsuccessful attack on the city by the NATO-rebel alliance, which resulted in the destruction of hundreds of NATO-rebel by the defenders of Bani Walid.

A NATO-rebel convoy called was ambushed, and 14 NATO-rebels were killed. 

Sirte: The bombing of Sirte is non-stop. The sources of food in the city have been bombed by NATO. The remote city is besieged with only men being allowed out who are then shot or imprisoned, with women and families forced back. This is an incredible war crime taking place to starve and thirst and entire town and bomb it from the air along with missiles and sound bombs. Where is the international outcry, and where is the media coverage of this siege. It is also reported that hundreds of people were massacred in bombing of the Eid prayers at the end of Ramadan. The entire city is being made to pay the price of slow painful death for refusing to give up their democracy as well as their loyalty to Muammar Qaddafi who originates from this place.

There is fighting in Azzawiya.  ITAR-TASS gave a report on the atrocities that are being committed by the NATO-rebels in this city.  It is claimed that the Libyan Defense Forces used tactical SCUD missiles against NATO-rebel forces in Misrata.

Benghazi: It is worthy to highlight what is going on in Benghazi.  Social chaos exists between four centers of power in Cyrenaica (the east of Libya): The Obeid tribe, the Haruba tribe, the Islamist gangs and the Middle Eastern mercenaries (from Qatar, Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt, etc).  It appears that this chaos has reached a critical mass.  There are reports of clashes between different factions of the NATO-rebels there, and even the use of NATO air power against the NATO-rebels of Benghazi.

It is possible that the tribes of Cyrenaica have decided that it is time to liberate all of Libya, and to join the union of tribes that support the Libyan Jamahiriya.  The wind of change is thus blowing in favor of Muammar Qaddafi and the Jamahiriya.

Algeria: Algeria is going to send humanitarian aid to Libya.  Syrian and Algerian computer hackers attacked the website of the Al-Jazeera television station which has been subservient to the Emir of Qatar where it is based, the Emir being a rent-boy prostitute of Hilary Clinton according to detractors of the dictator.  The governments of Mali and Niger are concerned about the appearance of armed men who might destablizie their areas, while Africa gears up to send support for Libya to repulse the NATO-led Al-Qaida.

In the last 72 hours, the Libyan Armed Forces killed at least 128 rebels and 25 vehicles, including 2 tanks, the report said.  According to various estimates, from 70 to 80 percent of Libyan territory is under the control of the Libyan Armed Forces and the tribes that are loyal to Colonel Gaddafi, the report concluded.

The original article is here. 

About Dennis South

I have been serving, for 43 years, the cause of helping to create a new, balanced and peaceful world.

View all posts by Dennis South →

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http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya

Posted: 2011/09/07
From: Mathaba

by Karen Marlow

The “triumphant” rebels [in Libya] have been targeting supposed loyalists in the territories they control. There have been reports of the mass abuse of Black people, who are suspected of being mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa on Gaddafi’s payroll.

Among the victims are nationals from Chad, Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria, many of whom came to Libya as guest workers and had no chance to flee when the violence erupted in the country.

“Anyone with dark skin, they say he’s a mercenary,” the Emirate newspaper The National cites a local resident as saying.

Some reports claim hundreds of Black people have been rounded up, arrested or even summarily executed in the first days after Tripoli was captured.

Meanwhile Lizzie Phelan reports that any area known to have supported or supports Gaddafi has reportedly been bombed or been subjected to homes and apartments being burned and looted. And even the mainstream media has been unable to ignore the systematic targeting and lynching of anyone with Black skin. It is widely known that Gaddafi’s opponents deeply loathed his rhetoric and policies in support of Black Africa.

With Sirte, Sabha and Beni Walid being amongst the last areas still flying the green flag high, the rebels claim to be giving these a deadline before they resort to a “military response”, implying that in the meantime, a non-military avenue will be pursued. Yet again, the media fail to highlight the hypocrisy that the rebels’ ally, NATO, has been openly bombing these areas.

As in Zlitan, Zawiya and elsewhere, the same atrocities as those committed in Tripoli, are being carried out in Beni Walid and Sirte . . .

 So the ethnic cleansing of Blacks in Libya continues. NATO-Backed Libya “Rebels” are clearly terrorists and racist… the mainstream media is already engaging in widespread damage control in an attempt to mitigate the fallout of the reality of the situation in Libya and the withering NATO-sponsored narrative of post-Gaddafi Libya.They are called “Africans and Black Libyans”, “Sub-Saharan mercenaries”.

One prisoner, Ahmed Ali, had burns across his face, neck, and arm. He said he had come from Chad two years ago to work. ”When the rebels entered Tripoli, some guys came and burned down my house,” he said. ”They brought me here,” he said, adding that he’d received no medical care in the six days since his arrest.

Reports say the victims include Black Libyans, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Kenyans, and other citizens of sub-Saharan Africa;  no fewer than 20 Black men were found dead outside Col. Gaddafi’s compound after Libyan rebels entered Tripoli. Their hands were tied behind their backs and some of them had been shot in the head.

On the road south out of Tripoli, about 200 black people were also said to be hiding in a small encampment made of two small outbuildings shielded by a small wall and a metal door.

Amnesty International said “it was told” that between one third and half of those detained were from sub-Saharan Africa.

The Green Charter Movement has however called upon people world wide to leave Amnesty International because it has itself committed crimes against humanity by ignoring what is happening in Libya. Its publication “Human Rights Defender” issued in Australia and covering the 3 months of June-August 2011, Volume 30 Number 2, in all its 24 pages does not even mention the word Libya ONCE.

Instead Amnesty International, which styles itself as a “human rights defender”, praises itself throughout the pages, clearly designed to attract more membership and money, and also praises Australia in regard to Black Original Australians (so-called Aborigines) without even mentioning ONCE that Northern Territory, where most Original Australians live, does not even have a democratic government but is still ruled directly by the white colonial outpost in Canberra.

Africans in Australia are not even allowed to go and visit the Original Australians, who reside on “reservations” which require permits for visitors to be issued by the white authorities who attempt to keep these communities isolated from Black people around the world.

The most major human rights violations are taking place in the current new theater of war in Libya, raging since March and uninterrupted until now, and yet Amnesty International’s “Human Rights Defender” magazine does not even MENTION Libya even a single word in the entire publication covering the months June, July and August, where massacres and horrific torture and abuses have taken place as witnessed across the Internet and by news networks, yet Amnesty International chooses to ignore all this.

If you know anyone who is a member of Amnesty International, please tell them they are a fool. Amnesty International is clearly a demonic “gate-keeper” organization designed to attract white liberals with a conscience and take their money while doing nothing to help Black people, whereas the one society on earth, the Libyan Jamahiriya, where Black people had full rights, is being destroyed in front of our eyes, Amnesty International looks the other way.

Support us so that we can wage a full information war against this evil organization of pretenders, donate today, and support the new grass-roots www.worldcrimes.org initiative, where Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other fake human rights organizations will be held to account, along with fake news media Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya, BBC, and fake social media networks such as Twitter which knowingly allow false rumors to spread from fake accounts, as well as NATO and other terrorist organizations.

Edward and daughter Shay during visit several years ago

Friends of Voice of Detroit:

Edward Sanders (featured in the article above) is a long-time friend of mine whose story I have covered often in the pages of the Michigan Citizen and in the Voice of Detroit (see articles citing Edward’s case at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/06/voice-of-juvenile-defendants/ and http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/06/15/dpd-msp-and-worthy-guilty-in-crime-lab-cases-says-peoples-task-force/), as part of the campaign to abolish juvenile life without parole in Michigan and the U.S., one of only two countries in the world that allows this barbaric practice.

VOD is asking that you sign a petition (at end of article) on his behalf, requesting his transfer from Kinross Corretional Facility in the upper peninsula of Michigan, for his safety. Over 75 people have already signed, and we are shooting for at least 100 before sending it to Warden Thomas Mackie.

His life was nearly taken by another prisoner on July 11, 2011, a prisoner who never should have been placed in Edward’s Level 2 facility at Kinross. The attacker has been transferred to Marquette, a Level 5 facility, but Edward is still not safe. 

It is unclear why his attacker was placed at Kinross in the first place. Previous to this attack, Kinross denied Edward mail from the Voice of Detroit consisting of printouts of VOD articles (since this newspaper is only published on-line). Some of those articles cited Edward’s unjust imprisonment and advocacy for others like him. 

In an Aug. 25 letter to Thomas Mackie, Deputy Warden at Kinross, Edward wrote: 

“While in my assigned room in E-Unit (ECF), on July 11, 2011, shortly after 9:15 p.m. count rounds were made by unit staff, I was viciously attacked by one of my roommates. Inmate Dudley, my attacker, is huge, weighing at least 340 lbs. I weigh 164 lbs. During the attack, Dudley stabbed or sliced me repeatedly with a sharp object and beat me about the head and face—as I lay pinned under him on the floor at his feet. Unable to get past Dudley to leave the room for safety and with no immediate sign of staff help coming, I was forced to escape my attacker by jumping out of my first floor unit window. Thereafter, I immediately re-entered E-Unit, reported to staff that I needed medical assistance. My wounds required 34 stitches to close. Plus, there are other permanent disfigurements on my face, nose and emotions. 

Edward after the attack July 11, 2011; prison reports say blood drenched him head to toe

I hereby request compensation where: 

1. Under the circumstances, KCF staff failed to exercise the degree of attention, knowledge and judgment required for my protection from a predator and/or extremely violent inmate.
2. Inmate Dudley is a known violent sexual predator. He has a prior conviction for CSC. Plus, in C-Unit, he attacked a young inmate (5’5” and 135 lbs.). He has received numerous tickets at this facility for DDO’s, drugs, and fighting—amongst other major misconducts.
3. Inmate Dudley has been in and out of administrative segregation at least four times in the past year, and had numerous violent altercations with other roommates. I was subjected to that violent nightmare—attacked with a dangerous weapon and beaten. 

MDOC Policy Directive, 03.03.130 states, “Facility staff shall identify prisoners who are assaultive or predatory. Such prisoners shall be placed at the level of security necessary to control such behavior. A prisoner shall be placed in a single occupancy cell when necessary to ensure the safety of the prisoner or others. 

KCF staff’s failure to properly classify inmate Dudley to his correct security level—due to his particularly violent and clearly documented recent behavior—deprived me of my basic human need of reasonable safety. Compounded by facility’s reliance on multiple-bedding in housing unit practices, KCF staff demonstrated deliberate indifference to my safety and health when they knew or should have known they were placing me in an unsafe living condition by housing me with a dangerous prisoner known to be aggressive and violent. 

In conclusion, I respectfully submit below my compensation request. Please compensate me fully for my physical and emotional injuries, where the abovementioned facts are a violation of my Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment. The brutal attack I survived was both horribly cruel and easily preventable.” 

Sanders goes on to ask for compensation for his TV, which his attacker destroyed, rescission of the misconduct charge HE received although the attack was unprovoked (he has never received a misconduct charge at Kinross and has a virtually spotless record otherwise), and monetary damages.  He has filed a grievance and a request for a re-hearing on the misconduct charge. As part of the process to support him, I am obtaining copies of his and Dudley’s central office files through the Freedom of Information Act.

Edward is also asking for an immediate transfer to a Wayne County region prison, with a stipulation for a two-man room or cell housing. 

The Voice of Detroit fully supports Edward in this matter.

Please take a minute to sign the petition below, created through SignOn.org, to help get Edward transferred for his safety, while we continue the battle for his ultimate release and that of hundreds of others like him. Thank you so much, in the struggle, Diane Bukowski, editor, Voice of Detroit

Subject: Justice for Edward Sanders    (please forward widely)
 
Hi,
 
Edward Sanders #141545 has been incarcerated in Michigan’s state prisons since 1975, when he was 17, sentenced to life without parole. (He was not the shooter in his case.) He has a bachelor’s degree, legal skills and assists others spiritually. His prison record is virtually unblemished.  In July, 2011, he was nearly killed at Kinross prison by another prisoner known for his history of repeated violent assaults on prisoners he is housed with. It is time for Michigan to grant clemency to Edward; meanwhile he must be transferred back to Wayne County with a stipulation for a 2 man room or cell housing.
 
So I created a petition to Thomas Mackie, Deputy Warden, Kinross Correctional Facility and Governor Rick Snyder, which says:
 
“Immediately transfer Edward Sanders, MDOC #141545, from Kinross Correctional Facility to a Wayne County, Michigan prison in partial compensation for the unprovoked brutal attack which nearly took his life July 11, 2011, due to the negligence of prison authorities.”

Will you sign this petition? Click here:
 
http://signon.org/sign/justice-for-edward-sanders?source=c.em.cp&r_by=527375
 
Thanks!

Questions may be directed to myself, Diane Bukowski, at 313-825-6126 or email diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.

Edward (r) with family and friends in his youth before he was sentenced to life without parole

Families of juvenile lifers, and of victims, campaigned in Michigan’s legislature in 2006 to give their loved ones a second chance

KEY MICHIGAN JLWOP CASE REMAINS ALIVE AS STATE APPEALS

STATE HAS 2^ND HIGHEST RASE OF JUVENILE LIFERS IN COUNTRY, SPENDS $2 BILLION ON PRISONS, WHILE CUTTING 15,000 FAMILIES OFF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY FAILS TO TAKE UP SB 9

(VOD Ed. note: This is a revision of the original VOD article which inadvertently ignored the juvenile lifers’ motion to keep all nine plaintiffs in the case, and an update with regard to the California bill.)

By Diane Bukowski

USDC Judge John Corbett O'Meara

DETROIT—U.S. District Court Judge John Corbett O’Meara denied the state of Michigan’s motion to dismiss a key lawsuit to allow nine juvenile lifers to be considered for parole July 15, a partial victory for the plaintiffs.

He is now considering motions from the juvenile lifers and the state for reconsideration, from opposing standpoints.

Judge O’Meara’s full decision can be read by clicking on Hill decision.

Keith Maxey was 16 years old in 2007 when he went to prison; he was not the shooter.

Many juvenile lifers, those sentenced to die in prison for crimes committed when they were under the age of 18, and their advocates hailed parts of O’Meara’ ruling in what is now known as Hill v. Snyder (click on Hill v. Granholm complaint to read original suit).

While striking eight of the nine plaintiffs, all but Keith Maxey, who was sentenced in 2007, from the case on statute of limitation issues, the judge left alive key elements relating to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Graham v. Florida.

In that case, the nation’s highest court ruled that it is unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life without parole in non-homicide cases.

Terrance Graham; his case is key to juvenile offenders' fight for fair sentencing

O’Meara ruled that Michigan’s claims that the Graham v. Florida decision barred any consideration of claims by juvenile lifers involved in homicide cases did not hold water.

“Defendants [the state] suggest that the Court ‘effectively reaffirmed’ the constitutionality of life without parole sentences for juvenile homicide offenders. The Graham court did not expressly consider that issue, however, and much of its reasoning could be read to call into question the constitutionality of such sentences,” O’Meara said.

He also cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which outlawed the death penalty for those who were juveniles when their crimes were committed, as another example of a ruling recognizing that the treatment of juvenile offenders should be differentiated from those who are mature. 

Simmons, whose death sentence was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court

Later, he denied a motion by the National Organization of Victims of Juvenile Lifers to file an amicus brief in the case after they missed the deadline. 

Attorney Deborah LaBelle of the Michigan American Civil Liberties Union, co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the case, said O’Meara’s decision is a “first step.”

“By ignoring a child’s potential for rehabilitation and denying judges and juries any discretion, the state doles out unforgiving sentences that violate basic fairness and human rights principles.” LaBelle said. “This decision is the first step toward correcting this fundamental injustice” 

Lead plaintiff Henry Hill

The ACLU, however, filed a “motion for partial re-hearing or reconsideration” of O’Meara’s ruling July 28. It argues that the suit should be kept alive for all nine plaintiffs despite O’Meara’s finding upholding the state’s statute of limitations claims for eight of them.

“First, prior to Graham v. Florida, 130 S. CT. 2011 (2010), plaintiffs did not have a viable Eighth Amendment claim,” the ACLU wrote. “Graham changed the Eighth Amendment  legal landscape . . . Plaintiffs allege that Michigan’s statutory scheme violates the Eighth Amendment by failing to recognize the lesser culpability of juveniles. . . . Second, Defendants continue to deny Plaintiffs access to the Parole Board on a regular basis by ongoing implementation of an unconstitutional statute, thereby sontinuously violating their constitutional rights.”

Edward Sanders has been in prison since 1975 at the age of

The ACLU cited the state parole board’s refusal on Oct. 21, 2010, to hear lead plaintiff Henry Hill’s request for parole eligibility and lifer review.

Edward Sanders, who has been in prison since 1975, convicted of first-degree murder at the age of 17, but not as the shooter, earned his bachelor’s degree in Michigan’s prisons while college education was still part of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) curriculum. He has studied law and acted as a “jail-house lawyer” for many years since. 

“The District opinion came out just about as I viewed it—hold on to just one plaintiff which is what is needed,” Sanders said. “. . . Everything the court said about Graham v. Florida reads very much on point . . .  The defendants have nothing to appeal. They would not want to take this to any appeals court and have it upheld.”

Timothy Kincaid has been in prison since 1978, when he was 17

Sanders said ongoing legal proceedings in the suit would “allow defense and appeals attorneys around the state to use this discovery and expert reports. This may move Michigan lawmakers sooner or later Allah willing.”

Despite Sanders’ assessment, however, the state filed a “motion for certification of interlocutory appeal and request for stay pending appeal” July 28, meaning they want to take the case to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court if O’Meara certifies their request.”

The state essentially claims that it has the right to contest O’Meara’s assessment of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions at a higher court level.

Charles Lewis was 16 when he was sentenced to LWOP in 1976

Attorney Kimberly Thomas, writing about Graham v. Florida in the Michigan Bar Journal, noted that Michigan stands out among other states for its recalcitrance on the juvenile life without parole issue.

“This scrutiny should be a signal to Michigan to examine its own jurisprudence on juveniles receiving sentences of life without parole,” Thomas said. “Michigan has the second-highest number of persons serving sentences of life without parole for offenses committed when they were 17 years old or younger. Michigan’s constitution, article 1, §16, provides broader protection than the federal constitution under its analogous ban on “cruel or unusual punishment.” Further . . . .in many cases, juveniles sentenced to life without parole in Michigan will never have a judge assess anything about their individual culpability, maturity, or relative role in the offense.”

Even the Detroit Free Press, in articles by editorial writer Jeff Gerritt, has repeatedly campaigned for the elimination of Michigan laws allowing children to be sentenced to die in prison.

Hundreds of protesters confronted Gov. Rick"tator" Snyder in Benton Harbor earlier this year.

Michigan plans to spend $2 billion a year on its prison system beginning Oct. 1 under Governor Rick Snyder, $11 million more than last year. At the same time, 15,000 families, including children and babies, will be cut from state assistance effective Oct. 1, supposedly saving $75 million a year, leaving them to starve in the streets.

 Snyder did not see fit to comply with a plan laid out in a March, 2011 symposium that would cut $500 million from the prison budget. The symposium, “Finding the Path to a $1.5 Billion Corrections Budget,” was not a gathering of wild-eyed radicals, but instead a joint effort of the generally conservative Citizens Research Council, the Center for Michigan, and the Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Spending.

Snyder can parole juvenile lifers instead of cutting 15,000 families off public assistance Oct. 1; families, children and their advocates have been protesting this action every Thursday at 12 noon in "Resurrection Marches" outside Cadillac Place in Detroit, where the state's local offices are located.

According to the Center for Michigan, there are 18 reasons for cutting Michigan’s prison budget. Click on http://www.thecenterformichigan.net/18-reasons-michigans-prison-costs-cannot-be-ignored/ .

Damion Todd is another plaintiff in Hill V. Snyder

It cites the first five as follows: “1) Inflation-adjusted prison expenses are up 10-fold since 1973; 2) The prison system has grown from 2 percent of state general fund budget to 23 percent since 1973. 3) For many reasons, other states are finding far more strategic, and future-oriented investments for their tax dollars. For example, for every dollar Michigan spends on universities, we spend $1.19 on prisons. For every dollar Minnesota spends on universities, it spends 17 cents on prisons. 4) Since 1973, Michigan’s prison population has grown 474 percent, much faster than the crime rate. 5) The average stay in a Michigan prison was 28 months in 1981. By 2005, it had grown to 44 months.”

Plaintiff Jennifer Pruitt was 16 when she got JLWOP, was not the killer

Many states have already outlawed juvenile life without parole sentences, or have no one serving them, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Commendably, twelve states either forbid JLWOP or presently have no such juvenile offenders that we know of serving that sentence,” says HRW. “The states that currently prohibit JLWOP are: Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, and Oregon. The states where there are no people known to be serving JLWOP are: Maine, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, and West Virginia. There is also no one known to be serving a JLWOP sentence in the District of Columbia. The federal government does sentence youth to LWOP—there are currently at least 36 people serving JLWOP in federal prison.”

Plaintiff Bobby Hines of Detroit

Altogether, according to The Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, ONE-HALF of states in the country either have abolished JLWOP or have less than 10 individuals serving these sentences (http://jjpl.org/new/?page_id=428).

According to HRW, there were 2,750 individuals serving juvenile life without parole as of 2009.

The map below, by the national ACLU, shows their distribution by state as of 2007. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Louisiana and California have the highest numbers and rates, with Michigan running second in total numbers, and barely third in per capita rate.

 

 

CALIFORNIA ATTEMPT TO ABOLISH JLWOP DELAYED

California State Senator Leland Yee

On Sept. 12, the California State Assembly failed to take up Senator Leland Yee’s Senate Bill 9, which would have brought California in line with the rest of the world by ending life without parole (LWOP) sentences for children.

“I am confident we had the 41 votes for passage, but disappointingly the Assembly failed to take up this important measure,” said Yee. “The neuroscience is clear – brain maturation continues well through adolescence and thus impulse control, planning, and critical thinking skills are not yet fully developed. SB 9 reflected that science and provided the opportunity for compassion and rehabilitation that we should exercise with minors. The bill was an incredibly modest proposal that respected victims, international law, and the fact that children have a greater capacity for rehabilitation than adults. We cannot give up on our kids or this bill.”

Michigan plaintiff Bosie Smith-El's case involved self-defense

The Huffington Post reported at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/juveniles-life-in-prison-sb9_n_929648.html,  “According to the bill, defendants who were sentenced to life with no parole for a crime committed as a minor would be eligible to apply for a lesser sentence of 25 years to life. 

“If the bill passes, an eligible defendant would need to first serve 15 years before submitting a statement of remorse, as well as evidence supporting work towards rehabilitation. Defendants would have three opportunities to apply. If accepted, a case would then be reviewed and considered for a lesser sentence. As a minimum, defendants would need to serve at least 25 years total, with no exceptions. But the bill would give some defendants the opportunity to someday live outside of prison.”

Michigan plaintiff Jamal Tipton

Prosecutors here in Michigan, including Wayne County’s Kym Worthy, and Oakland County’s Jessica Cooper, testified against earlier bills that were even more stringent than California’s. Those bills died in session despite the round-the-clock efforts of the Second Chance coalition of juvenile lifers’ families as well as some victims.

But San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón testified in support of SB9 at a hearing, saying, “I recognize the ability of young people to reform their behavior and rehabilitated as they mature. SB 9 holds youth responsible for their actions. It creates a rigorous system of check and balances, and provides a limited chance for young offender to prove they have changed – both to a judge and to a parole board.”

Michigan plaintiff Kevin BoydMichigan plaintiff

Here in Michigan, the hopes of over 350 individuals serving JLWOP, having been repeatedly thwarted at the legislative level, by county prosecutors such as Worthy and Cooper, and by state courts, now rest to a great degree on the speedy progress of Hill v. Snyder in the federal court.

VOD will provide updates as this case progresses.

For previous VOD articles on this issue, click on

Michigan plaintiff Matthew Bentley sentenced to JLWOP at 14

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/04/23/aclu-argues-against-michigan%e2%80%99s-no-parole-law/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/03/06/voice-of-juvenile-defendants/ 

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2010/11/24/aclu-lawsuit-challenges-life-without-parole-for-michigan-juveniles/

NATO backed rebels killing during prayer of Eid al-Fitr

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim at a press conference in Tripoli, Libya

Click on link below to read Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim’s update on the people’s battle against NATO and the counterrevolutioniaries, given Sept. 5, 2011.

http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628540 

LIBYA: NO NATO REBELS’ VICTORY; BIG NATO PSY-OPS, INCLUDING UN HAND-OUTS 

Deborah Dupre

Human Rights Examiner

September 3, 2011 – Like this? Subscribe to get instant updates.

The imperialist geopolitical agenda for Libya supported by U.N. intervention and “NATO Rebels,” include destruction so extreme, many Libyan have become refugees attempting to flee while the U.N. humanitarian coordinator warned of critical shortages of drinking water, food, fuel, and medicine; World Health Organization (WHO) ensured vaccines and other medical supplies for all Libyans with €100 million ($142 million) released by the U.N. sanctions committee; and WHO with Libyan authorities are prioritizing items for the nation according to the UN News Center Friday, but human rights defender, journalist Don DeBar told the Examiner late Saturday that Libyans are regaining their nation amid the ongoing psychological operation.

Don DeBar, WBAIX radio

“The war is far from over,” DeBar told Dupré in an exclusive Skype interview Saturday, soon after he had received direct communications from Libya.

Abuses abound since NATO-led rebel attacks began

“Our lives are under threat here,” Pastor Anthony Ojieseri, 32, a Nigerian said with sad eyes as he led an open air Church service in one of many of the nation’s makeshift refugee camps according to The Telegraph on Saturday. “Rather than staying here I would rather risk my life at sea in one of these old boats with a chance of getting out.”

Nigerian refugees queue for food at a disused army base and port in Janzoor, outside Tripoli

Ignoring U.N.’s warning that it is illegal to assassinate Colonel Muammar Gadhaffi, “NATO Rebels’,” (as the NATO backed rebels are called in Libya) ultimatum for his surrender continues. 

“A massacre, a genocide, a razing of a town to the ground” has occured over the past few days in Gadhaffi’s hometown, Sirte according to Pravda.Ru..

“Their crime? None. The only way NATO terrorists can take the town is if they kill everyone.” 

A man expresses his anger at the NATO bombing of sites in Libya during a rally in the Gaddafi hometown of Sirte

According to Pravda, Gadhaffi’s hometown is under siege from NATO with so far in the 4 days plus campaign, “over 1,400 civilians have been killed.” 

“A thousand people alone were killed in a bombing by NATO aircraft during the prayer of Eid al-Fitr on this Tuesday morning (31st).” 

“The believers were killed by 12 rockets within a few minutes,” reported Pravda, furthering, “NATO has not cared the least that this has been Ramadan for Muslim believers.” 

(VOD: Below is report on mass graves into which troops loyal to the Libyan government have been thrown after atrocities.)

After the U.N. helping prompt the insurrection, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Gadhaffi’s arrest, and the NATO security force offered a 1M pounds cash bounty dead or alive for the Colonel, Panos Moumtzis, Libya’s U.N. humanitarian coordinator announced Friday while many Libyans attempt fleeing NATO bombs, rapes and other human rights abuses, that the U.N. has taken 11 million bottles of water and will take 600 metric tons of food and 100 million euros worth of medicine to Libya.

 (VOD: AS SEEN IN VIDEO ABOVE, NATO HAS DESTROYED PARTS OF LIBYA’S GREAT MAN-MADE RIVER PLANTS WHICH SUPPLIED WATER TO THE LIBYAN PEOPLE. Click on http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=628492 to read more about this wonder of the world, which NATO is now demolishing.)

“This country has a lot of resources and we view the humanitarian needs as short-term,” he said. 

Libyan boy carries bottled water in wake of NATO destruction of water plants; image reminiscent of Detroit water shut-offs

The humanitarian crisis will last as long as NATO continues to destroy the once thriving nation, according to independent journalists, a situation neighboring countries are also battling.

Italy and southern France, burdened with the Libyan refugee crisis, have established checkpoints at their common border where Libyans, many of whom are youth now without parents, are being pulled from the lines, observed by Dupré this spring. As the Telegraph highlighted Saturday, the real victims are Libyan families and young men who end up in Zanzour.

“They know they are risking their lives by going to sea – two hundred died in one sinking alone in 2009 off Libya – but the prospect of life in Europe is a tantalising one.” 

Most of those stuck in the port had held good jobs in Libya that was thriving until the NATO-led “rebel uprising” in February. “Many interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph lost all their possessions in the fighting, and, in some cases, family members.”

Not all Libyans, however, are fleeing. Many are organized to defend their nation against the NATO invasion. Furthermore, they are experiencing victories according to DeBar, as reporter Lizzie Phelan in Libya until recently escaping, had explained was being planned and was possible.

Libyans understand what too few Americans do: Deep geopolitical agenda to occupy its nation under guise of “Libyan rebellion”

Recently reporting from Libya and now in New York, WBAIX  radio host, journalist Don DeBar asserts what numerous other independent journalists are reporting, including those recently targeted for killing in Libya. These reporters concur that, as a matter of upholding human rights of Libyans and Americans, the geopolitical agenda driving the “NATO rebel” war on Libyans needs to be recognized.

“The first and foremost fundamental geopolitical consideration is that the US and EU are determined to take direct control of Africa’s resources,” DeBar said Friday. Among those resources are its oil, one among many aspects of which mainstream media continues failing to report, thus painting Gadhaffi as worthy of U.S. “targeted killing.” Unlike the U.S. government leadership, Gadhaffi ensured that Libyans reap personal benefit from their nation’s oil in the form of monthly stipends, in the thousands of dollars, according to DeBar.

Top deep geopolitical analyst Ian Crane plus other seasoned independent journalists including DeBar are increasingly reporting what is so contrary to mainstream media reports, that subsequently, the Libyan war has been been called a “media war,” propaganda against best interest of human rights of Libyans and Americans. 

U.S. media, including many “alternative news” sources have not aired the massive Libyan protests to what locals call the “NATO Rebels,” as highlighted by DeBar recently. (Watch “1Million+ Libyan Civilians Protest Against NATO And Its Rebels Attacks 01 07 11 (1) In Libya,”) 

DeBar told Press TV  that truth about the invasion of Libya, facts, have “not made the media in the west at all – including on programs like Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera which is carried on progressive radio networks.”

In the article, “Hillary Clinton mocked: Gadhaffi Goodwill glamour daughter,” this writer highlighted the woman slated to some day replace Col. Gadhaffi, his glamorous lawyer daughter and Goodwill Ambassador, Aisha Gadhaffi is battling against AIDS and violence against women plus her personal battle of losing her infant daughter killed in US led bombing. Aisha Gadhaffi is hailed as a major present leader in the Libyan’s struggle against NATO forces, as seen in Tripoli on April 14, and documented in “Aisha Gaddafi visiting Bab El Aziziz in Tripoli, Libya 14 Apr 2011, Youtube,”

Continue reading →

Michael Harris, incarcerated at Kinross Correctional Facility

FROM DESHON HARRIS SEPT. 4, 2011

I would  like to inform you that my brother, Michael D. Harris, ( on behalf of all Michigan prisoners who have been wrongly accused and convicted) , who is currently incarcerated in the Michigan prison system is trying to start an internet rally on 06September2011 @ 12pm regarding that the Detroit Police Crime Laboratory as well as the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory-Lansing falsification of DNA and ballistics in hundreds of cases over a 30 year span and wrongly accusing and convicting innocent men. He is asking that all parties concerned log onto their computers and contact these news services to ask for an investigation regarding these atrocities of injustice. Thank you very much for your time and patience concerning this matter. The rally will be aimed at asking for thorough investigations from these particular investigation agencies: http://www.primetime.com, http://www.today.com, http://www.ac360.com, http://www.48hour.com and http://www.dateline.com respectively. Once again thank you for your time and patience concerning this matter.

Michael Harris is a founder of the People's Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, shown in earlier protest outside Pros. Kym Worthy's office