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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

href=”http://voiceofdetroit.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Muammar-Qaddafi-speech-Sept-11.jpg”>

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi speaks to the Libyan people and the world Sept. 1

Since six months fighting the major world aggressor armies alone, with Russia and other powerful nations falling into the banker elite gulag, Libya and African hero Muammar Qaddafi cannot be defeated in spite of crimes against humanity on an unimaginable scale being committed by NATO and allies.

(Rush translation posted on   http://www.mathaba.net/news/libya)

“In the name of Allah the Merciful, first of all I greet you for Eid Alfitr,  Mubarak, and I read the Qur’an for the ones who are martyred, the ones who gave their blood for our land and the ones who are still giving their blood for Libya to prevent it from being colonized by France, or taken by traitors or any other crusader. We will fight and we will make them spend and spend and spend their money until they are gone. I tell you the colonizers will be defeated and so will the traitors. Traitors and agents can’t continue existing here because they don’t have the ability and they don’t have supporters, they are colonizers’ agents and the Libyan people won’t accept colonizers; no one respects them.

Now NATO is getting defeated and they still want to stay here, but they don’t have the Power of the People on their sides, they don’t have the women on their sides, the Libyan people want to rule themselves by themselves.
 
Martyrdom won’t be forgotten, the tribes who lost their sons won’t forget this, you [crusaders] want to rule the Libyan people? The Libyan people will not surrender and will not accept to be governed like animals. There are too many problems between the traitors and NATO; the crusaders and traitors will be defeated to soon. You have to continue resistance, Tripoli you have to continue resistance in every area, attack their checkpoints like they attack us. Every tribe should control an area in Tripoli and so should the youth. Make checkpoints in the streets. Don’t fear them, you are millions so attack them from everywhere.
 
Who can control the armed Alnwahi Alrabaa? Who can control the Warshfanaa tribe? They never can. Who can control the armed Ben Walled? Who can control the armed Sirte? Now that all tribes are armed, Ben Waled, Sirte, Sabha, Aljfarah, Misurata, who isn’t armed? Our brothers in Barqa (east), who can contol the Ben Waled or the Almashashia Tribe? Without permission of these tribes no one can move forward, you are armed so make it hell for them.

Of course the enemy has advanced technology. They don’t want you to listen to my voice and they bombed our TV and phone lines. They thought with that they would silence my voice, but they failed, we will fight them in every city and village, we are not afraid!
They fear my voice, to only hear me is already dangerous to the colonizers, if we communicate with tribes that’s dangerous to the colonizers and the agents, but this all proves that the enemy is weak. If they weren’t weak they wouldn’t have bombed our TV and they would have allowed us to communicate with each other. They are afraid of our tribes to be in touch with each other; this all proves that they are weak and they only want you to watch their TV channels, which also proves that they are weak.

Why does it scare them when Libyan people are listening to my voice? Because they are weak and afraid. This is a trick, all you are listening to are lies, it’s false. Let this war be as long as necessary till we win. They can’t rule Libya because we are armed. They have to surrender in front of the Libyan people. They don’t have anything, only agents. The colonizers will not be here forever, this will be finished soon. NATO won’t protect those agents forever; they want you to be afraid because they are afraid themselves, because they can’t breathe. They cut off all communications because they can’t breathe, they made this plan to steal our oil and to occupy our Land, so don’t surrender to those agents.”

Uploaded by huey3manTV on Sep 1, 2011

By Lizzie Phelan, Independent Journalist

 Axis of Logic

Saturday, Sep 3, 2011 

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_63691.shtml

Lizzie Phelan on RT news earlier in her time in Tripoli

Editor’s Comment: Lizzie Phelan is one of the few independent journalists who weathered the storm of the US/NATO bombing of Tripoli and their mercenaries’ invasion of the city. She was reporting from inside the Rixos Hotel and then moved nearby to the Hotel Corinthia, still amidst raging gun battles between government forces and the NATO mercenaries. She escaped Libya in a fishing boat which took her and others to Malta earlier this week. Today, she gives her first report since leaving Libya. We are indebted to Lizzie and other independent journalists whose work removed the mask of the corporate media and their paymasters. We look forward to more of her reports based on the months that she covered the war from inside Libya.

– Les Blough, Editor Axis of Logic  

Amidst all the media furor about the fall of Tripoli from the grasp of the Libyan government, it’s not easy to get a clear picture of what things look like under their new rulers. Upon being released from five days of entrapment in the Rixos hotel with 35 other foreign journalists, it was hard to believe that the streets I was driving through were the same ones I had become familiar with during the month I had spent in the capital.

The previously bustling roads with families rushing around toing and froing from the beach and getting ready for the meal to break the fast were empty, the green flags replaced by rebel ones, and the sparse checkpoints previously run by male and female volunteers, ie residents with Kalashnikovs, had been replaced by checkpoints every 100 or so meters, manned by tanks and exclusively male fighters holding sophisticated weapons supplied by the world’s most powerful military force, NATO.

The proud young black Libyans protecting their neighbourhoods were gone. Later we would see the images of them being rounded up and put on pickup trucks, a sight that in the previous months had been confined to places like Benghazi and Misrata. These are the victims of the claim that Gaddafi had hired mercenaries from the African continent, a claim which has been profusely rejected by human rights organisations as lacking any evidence. But in the new Libya they are some of the first – along with those from the largest tribes, Wafalla, Washafana, Zlitan and Tarhouna – suspected to be supporting the Muammar Gaddafi, a crime punishable by death and much worse.

Moammar Gadhafi with African leaders who support the Libyan Jamahiriya

The Red Cross convoy transporting us pulled into the Corinthia hotel. When I had stayed there on a previous trip just a month before, just two or three armed guards manned the entrance. This time it was overrun with men wielding weapons sent from NATO and Qatar and just a handful of swamped and exhausted staff remained.

Later, I saw some Libyan faces I recognised, their eyes looked filled with trauma. “How are you?” I asked one, “he is still in our hearts” she responded. Later when we had more time to talk in privacy she broke down, apologising as she cried. She said it was impossible to talk to anyone, “Libya is like our mother, but we can’t talk to our mother anymore”. A Wafalla woman from the tribe’s area of Beni Walid – she knew that she and her family could be rounded up at any second, simply because of the Wafalla’s steadfast backing of what they call their “guide” – Muammar Gaddafi. She told me,

“Beni Walid people have always been very proud, generous, humble and dignified people. Under that [the rebel] flag of King Idris, we had to kiss the feet of the king before we could say a word to him, we have gone back to those times.”

She was one of the many who warned me to keep my head down and get out as soon as possible. I had been one of the few reporters that focused on the effects of NATO’s bombing campaign in the country and had tried to highlight the million marches and mass tribal conferences in favour of the Libyan government that indicated it was not quite as unpopular within Libya as it had been portrayed to be.

I had also tried to expose the links of the rebels to Al Qaeda, which NATO was on the other hand fighting in places like Afghanistan. Since the admission by the rebels that the assassination of former rebel commander Abd al Fatah Younis was carried out by Al Qaeda-linked groups within their ranks, the presence of the extremists threatened to become clearer as the then Libyan government prepared to release files and phone recordings exposing Al Qaeda’s involvement in the crisis and how the west had worked with them.

But following the fall of Tripoli only unflinching acceptance of the new Libya would guarantee your safety, my Wafalla friend urged me to get home and speak about what was happening.

With fighting still raging on the roads out of the country, and them being particularly unsafe for anyone without rebel protection my only prospect of getting home was via the Mediterranean.

For days this was a very slim prospect – the commotion between the rebels that would frequently break out in the Corinthia hotel over who was the real authority, extended not just to the harbor via which I needed to escape, but to much of the city. For four days other foreigners and I would be told every few hours we would be leaving, only for the person who had given the go ahead in the harbor to disappear and be replaced.

With so many different groups, like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya and those loyal to the defectors from Gaddafi’s government, the western forces now openly on the ground seemed out of their depth.

On my second day in the Corinthia, three butch British guys strutted around insisting they were now in charge of the security of the hotel. One of them told me he had come over from Kabul, which was “getting a lot worse”. “Do you think this is going to become like Kabul?” I asked, “It’s very likely, with so many different groups fighting for power”, he replied.

Meanwhile the cost in lives lost in the fall of Tripoli has received little investigation. The last concrete figures came from the then existing Ministry of Health on the second day of fighting in Tripoli which put the death toll in 12 hours in the capital alone at 1,300 with 900 injured. The Ministry reported that in the previous day over 300 had been murdered and 500 injured. This surpasses the 1,400 massacred during the two week onslaught by Israel’s Operation Cast Lead on Gaza which sparked outrage worldwide.

After heavy bombing and attacks by Apaches in Tripoli’s poorest neighborhood and one of the last areas to fall, Abu Saleem, eye witnesses reported seeing masses of bodies covering the streets. A relative of one of those feared to be amongst the carnage visited the local hospital where he said just one doctor and two nurses were left. Like masses of the capital’s workers, many hospital staff had fled, were in hiding or perhaps dead. When he asked to see the bodies, the guards told him there were none – his family fears they have been dumped in mass graves in locations that may for a long time be unknown.

This bloodbath does not fit into the narrative of a “free Libya” in which civilians are “protected”, but in such an atmosphere charged with the hunger for control at any cost, it is near impossible for those on the ground to be honest about the images before their eyes, while they remain in rebel held territory.

One young armed rebel donning the French flag on his fatigues creeped up behind me and asked me where I was from. “London” I replied, “Ah Cameron, we love Cameron,” he beamed. I forced a smile; to even criticize my own prime minister would betray disloyalty to Libya’s new rulers.

In the harbor as we looked at the ship that had been waiting to be relieved of its supplies and replaced with passengers, an Italian commented that it was like “a kid running a university” as the new people in charge worked out how to operate the cranes and other machinery necessary to keep the ships coming and going.

We were told that ship may not be able to leave for another five to ten days and the only option for exit by sea was a 20 yard long fishing boat for 12 people lacking most safety equipment, like diving gear.

43 of us prepared to board. The rebel then in charge of monitoring our boat checked our identification repeatedly over four hours insisting that no Russians, Serbians or Ukrainians would be allowed to leave. Neither would a Cuban and Ecuadorian citizen. Their countries relations had been too good with Muammar Gaddafi during the crisis.

Finally at about midnight, we were all allowed on, except for one Russian man.

As the sounds of tanks and firefights and the smell of death that filled the air grew more and more distant, I remembered the peaceful, welcoming and safe city I had driven into.

Lizzie Phelan is an independent journalist and commentator who reported from Tripoli during NATO’s bombing campaign and takeover of the capital. She can be contacted at phelanlizzie@gmail.com

Source: Axis of Logic (received from Lizzie Phelan via e-mail.)

Killer cop Joseph Weekley, a/k/a "Brain," as featured on "The First 48" website

Weekley’s “rights don’t trump the right of the public and the press” in Aiyana Jones death, says Judge Daphne Means-Curtis 

By Diane Bukowski 

Sept. 1, 2011 

DETROIT – Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Daphne Means Curtis today struck down Detroit police officer Joseph Weekley’s motion to keep secret all material in the civil suit brought against him by the parents of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, until after the case concludes. 

Weekley shot the seven-year-old child to death on May 16, 2011, while cameras from the reality TV show The First 48 were rolling. 

Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, at birthday party with other children who were in her home when police attacked last year

The judge ordered that only Weekley’s own deposition will be kept from public view due to the possibility of criminal charges, and because he will likely take the Fifth Amendment anyway if deposed. 

“The defendant wants too much,” Judge Means-Curtis said. “His rights don’t trump the right of the public and the press to materials that normally would be a matter of public record . . . .It is my intent that there be no gag order, except for the Weekley deposition. The rest of discovery will go forward in this case.” 

Weekley’s attorneys Kenneth Lewis and Randall Brown, of Plunkett & Cooney, had sought to deny public access to everything in the case, including the depositions of at least 20 other police officers involved, videotapes, transcripts, and interrogatories.

Detroit police officer Kata-Ante Taylor

One of the police officers on the witness list is Kata-Ante Taylor, who shot 18-year-old Artrell Dickerson to death as he ran from him after a friend’s funeral at the Cantrell Funeral Home on Mack in Detroit, in 2008. (Click on http://michigancitizen.com/police-executed-teen-at-funeral-say-witnesses-p4173-1.htm.) No charges have ever been brought in that case either.

Attorney Jonathan Marko of Geoffrey Fieger’s law firm, who represents Charles Jones and Dominika Stanley, Aiyana’s parents, said during the hearing that Fieger does have a videotape related to the events of May 16. It was not clear which videotape it is, since attorneys for the producers of “The First 48” have refused to turn over their tape. However, Marko said he would provide a copy to the defense the following day. 

Curtis ordered that Marko schedule depositions of the police officers immediately, prior to depositions of Stanley-Jones family members by the defense. Lewis and Brown refused to allow Weekley’s deposition five times over the last year, then filed for the protective order after Means-Curtis ruled in March that he must be deposed whether or not a criminal investigation had concluded. 

Atty. Kenneth Lewis of Plunkett & Cooney

The defense only recently sought depositions of the child’s family members and other witnesses, including that of Chauncey Owens, her aunt’s fiancé. Owens is currently in the Wayne County Jail awaiting sentencing for the killing of  Je’Rean Blake, 17, two days prior to the police assault on the Jones home. 

Police said they were looking for Owens, who lived in the upstairs flat, when they lobbed an incendiary grenade through the living room window of the lower flat and opened fire on entry, killing the child.

 Lewis became verbally combative after the hearing, when asked whether Weekley wants to depose Owens to divert attention to Charles Jones, Aiyana’s father. 

Court records show that Owens never said Jones gave him a gun to kill Blake, despite media reports to the contrary. Owens’ sentencing has now been postponed twice, until Oct. 31, pending his statement to “truthfully” disclose who gave him the gun. Prior to his guilty plea, his attorneys had repeatedly sought to throw out his confession, alleging that it was taken under extreme duress. (See VOD story at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2011/05/23/owens-never-said-aiyana-jones%e2%80%99-dad-gave-him-gun-used-in-teen%e2%80%99s-killing/). 

Owens’ court records also include his statements to police and psychiatrists that he was in the upstairs flat when Aiyana was killed, meaning he did not witness her shooting. 

“We want to hear it out of his mouth,” Lewis said. “Have you heard it out of his mouth?” 

State police conduct investigation at Jones home last year

Lewis refused to disclose how much his law firm is being paid by the City of Detroit to defend Weekley, but VOD has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the city for that public information. 

Judge Means-Curtis addressed the issue of the unusual length of the supposed investigation of the child’s shooting death during the hearing. 

“The Michigan State Police turned over the results of their investigation in March,” Means-Curtis said. “There is still no indication from the Wayne County Prosecutor as to who if anyone will be charged in connection with the death of seven-year-old Aiyana Jones.” 

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

She said she based her order to depose Weekley on her belief that the criminal investigation “would surely” have concluded by this time. Lewis said in court filings that it is likely the State Police requested a warrant for Charles Jones, not Weekley. 

Asked after the hearing whether he believed a criminal investigation was still ongoing, Marko said, “Do you?” 

“I know the family wants the criminal investigation to conclude as soon as possible and we hope the prosecutor’s office will move it along quickly and judiciously,” he said. 

Roberto Guzman of the People’s Task Force to Defend the Wrongfully Convicted was less tactful.

“Investigation on top of investigation,” he reacted. “A code word used by her [Kym Worthy] simply to deny justice.  This is going nowhere and that’s exactly what she wants.  I mean, come on.  Even Congressional investigations into scandals like Iran Contra, Watergate and more did not take this damn long!  It is offensive what we know is going on here – a deliberate denial at justice.”

Tashi Kiya protests outside Water Board Bldg. on Randolph

Detroit is under attack! Authorities from Oakland and Macomb Counties have asked Federal Judge Sean Cox to take the Water & Sewerage Department away from Detroit and convert it to a stand-alone entity which they can control. This will lead to massive privatization of the entire system. We can and we must defeat this latest assault on the nation’s largest black community. Everyone that believes in equality and democratic rights must say, “Hell no!” We will not allow Detroit to be stripped of its assets and jobs like we were an abandoned building being stripped of its metal. 

In July 2011, the Water Department requested that Judge Cox (brother of former Republican state Attorney General Mike Cox) release the department from control of the federal courts, a situation in effect since 1977. So Oakland and Macomb counties submitted legal responses asking the judge to legally separate the Water Board from the City of Detroit, specifically “overriding, as necessary conflicting provisions in the Charter, ordinances, city polices and labor contracts.” Since Judge Cox has effective control over the Department, this poses a real threat to Detroit beyond the many undemocratic rip offs, takeovers and takeaways to which Detroit is frequently subjected. 

Last year, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing diluted Detroit’s control of the department by giving up the right to appoint all the members of the Water Board of Commissioners, now Oakland and Macomb politicians hope to push their advantage by taking the Board away from Detroit without compensation. Bing and the City Council must oppose this thievery or lose whatever credibility they may have left in the community. 

The organizations and individuals sponsoring this press conference are announcing our intention to organize, fight and defeat this blatantly racist attack on Detroit’s assets and future. We urge all those who believe in basic democracy and fairness to join us.

 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

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.

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