Desde Mi Altura: Free the Cuban 5 Event

Posted on 2009/09/19 by denverabc

Desde Mi Altura: Free the Cuban 5 Event
Tuesday, Sept. 22 5pm
5th Floor of Norlin Library
University of Colorado at Boulder Campus

Event includes…

Exclusive art exhibit of Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban 5.

A reading by local poet Ara Cruz of Antonio Guerrero’s Poetry

Audio statement of solidarity by political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal

Speech by Gloria La Riva, national coordinator of the Free the Cuban 5
Committee

Food and drink will be provided

Free and open to the public

Antonio Guerrero is one of five Cubans unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government for protecting their homeland from attacks by Miami-based terrorists. He is in Florence federal prison in Colorado. Antonio has become an accomplished artist since his imprisonment. His exhibit is an opportunity to gain insight to a beautiful and talented man, maintaining dignity in the face of injustice.

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Pittsburgh: 100-200 prisoners being released to make room for G20 protest arrestees

Posted on 2009/09/19 by denverabc

tear em down
In what could be considered a pre-emptive victory for those traveling to Pittsburgh to confront the G20, police officials have felt it necessary to release up to 200 prisoners from local jails preceding the protests and the arrests they may produce. Any time that anarchists and other seeking prison abolition can force the state to release prisoners, it’s definitely a positive and surprising outcome, whether the results are intentional or not.

Of course, the state’s logic is that they are just making room for 200 additional people to enter the clutches of the state’s judicial system…

From Pittsburgh corporate news:

Channel 4 Action News has confirmed that a select number of nonviolent inmates will be released from the Allegheny County Jail in order to make room for possible arrests during the G-20 economic summit.

The Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas is looking at inmates who are nearing their parole or whose bails may have been set too high, said Allegheny County Director of Communications Kevin Evanto.

The number of inmates released will be between 100 and 200, Evanto said.

There is no word when the bulk of the releases are set to begin.

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Obama seeks to extend provisions of Patriot Act

Posted on 2009/09/18 by denverabc

From NBC News:

Barack ObamaThe Obama Administration wants to extend controversial provisions of the Patriot Act, including federal snoops’ ability to conduct roving wiretaps, access business records and monitor so-called “lone wolf” terrorists.

The stance could anger civil rights groups and critics on both the right and left who have encouraged President Obama to scrap the post-Sept. 11 law, which they feel infringes on the rights of citizens. As a candidate, Obama, a former professor of Constitutional law,said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability.

From 2004 to 2007, the business records provision was used 220 times, usually in combination with requests for phone records. The lone wolf provision was created to conduct surveillance on suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups. It has never been used. The roving wiretaps provision is aimed at allowing investigators to monitor calls by suspects who change their cell phones, without investigators having to go back to court for a new court authorization. That provision has been used an average of 22 times a year, officials said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing next week on the Patriot Act.

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Denver: Money running out for construction of new “Justice” Center

Posted on 2009/09/17 by denverabc

Internal view of new Justice Center courtroomThe money budgeted for the construction of the new Denver Justice Center is quickly running out, and the city is planning to tap a different bond fund to help cover more than $3 million in unexpected project costs.

On Wednesday, members of the Denver City Council’s safety committee learned that the Justice Center already has spent close to 80 percent of its budget, with $347.7 million out of $441.3 million gone. Another $54.6 millon is spoken for, leaving a balance of $38.9 million.

As of last month, work on the new courthouse was 73 percent complete, with 80 percent of the construction of the new jail done, according to the city’s Web site tracking the Justice’s Center’s progress. The jail will open next April, and the courthouse will be ready next August.

Much of the funding — 85.6 percent, or $377.8 million — for the Justice Center project came from a bond issue approved by voters in 2005. The majority of the money has been spent in the past two years as construction work ramped up on the facility in downtown Denver.

The project also includes the costs for a new post office and parking garage (completed in June 2007) and the demolition of an old building at the Denver County Jail site off of Smith Road, replacing it with a 256-bed housing unit.

However, $3.1 million in additional costs have cropped up. A video visitation system at the jail will cost $1.35 million more than budgeted, and the city is scrambling to cover the loss of $1.74 million from a regional service fund that was supposed to pay for the demolition the building at the Smith Road site.

The city is tapping into a different bond fund to cover the $3.1 million. In 1998, Denver issued a bond to build three police stations, and that fund has $3.6 million left over.

Full Story

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Legal Update on Political Prisoner Veronza Bowers

Posted on 2009/09/17 by denverabc

From Political Prisoner News:

Veronza BowersDear Friends & Family of Veronza,

This may be the real thing!

I am writing at this time to update you on Veronza’s case, now in front of Atlanta Federal District Court Judge Charles Moye who will decide whether to adopt the Report and Recommendation from Magistrate Judge Susan Cole. Her Report and Recommendation called for Veronza’s release from prison, a resounding victory for him in his struggle for mandatory parole. We are hoping for a favorable decision from Judge Moye – one that could occur at any moment. If the court orders Veronza’s release, the government has the option to appeal. If there is an appeal, it may be possible for Veronza to be released on bail while that appeal is pending.

The legal team is working hard preparing “declarations” to be filed with the court if and when the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendations are adopted. These declarations are intended to establish Veronza’s eligibility and qualifications for release on bail. The legal team believes Judge Moye’s decision may require a showing that Veronza has adequate financial resources and support needed for him to be successful in adapting to life outside of prison walls.

For this reason, we are once again asking for your help – hopefully for the last time!

Please consider contributing to a fund we have established to assist Veronza during this critical transition. Any contribution no matter how small would be greatly appreciated and help to assure the judge that Veronza will not be a burden and ultimately be able to stand on his own. As in the past, every penny will be used 100% on Veronza’s behalf and exclusively to assist his reentry to society.

Time is important, so please send your pledge or contribution to “The Veronza, Jr Legal Defense Fund” to:

Maynard Garfield, 2500 Barton Creek Blvd., Apt. 1509, Austin, TX 78735

JUSTICE WILL BE DONE WHEN THOSE WHO HAVE NOT BEEN VIOLATED BY THE SYSTEM ARE AS OUTRAGED AS THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN VIOLATED BY THE SYSTEM!

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Rebel Diaz “Golpe (Todo Somos HIJOS)”

Posted on 2009/09/17 by denverabc

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNdkcJ2cKRo]

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DENVER: Belgrade 5 Solidarity Picket at Serbian Consulate Wednesday @ Noon

Posted on 2009/09/16 by denverabc

There will be an emergency demonstration outside the Serbian Consulate at 999 18th Street (18th Street and Champa) on Wednesday September 16th at noon.

Please come if you can!

Belgrade 5The Belgrade 5 are Serbian anarchists that are facing charges of terrorism. The five, Tadej Kurep, Ivan Vulović, Sanja Dojkić, Ratibor Trivunac and Nikola Mitrovic, are activists in or associates of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative, the Serbian section of the International Workers’ Association (IWA).

The arrests are allegedly related to a direct action which took place at the Greek Embassy on Aug. 25. Negligible damage was done; a crack in one window, a tiny burn mark on the facade and a circled-A graffiti on the embassy as a act of symbolic solidarity with Greek hunger-striker Thodoros Iliopoulos. The prosecutor however imagines this as an act of “international terrorism” and would like to charge our comrades with such. If the state allows such charges to be pressed, they could be facing 3-15 years in prison.

As it is, the five were arrested, harrassed and are to be held in custody for at least one month while the case is organized.

Although one of the accused, General Secretary of the IWA Ratibor Trivunac clearly and publically declared that he knew nothing of the action, he was arrested. It is not the first time that authorities have come after him or his comrades for no other reason than the fact that they are radical critics of the state.

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War on “Terror”: “Hundreds of FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects”

Posted on 2009/09/15 by denverabc

The New York Daily News reports “Hundreds of FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects” in relation to a massive probe that revealed a potential terrorist cell based in Colorado. The probe resulted in a raid on several Queens, New York apartments. An unnamed former counterterrorism official told the Daily News “The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys planning another 9/11. This is not some … FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing.”

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly Told reporters that the investigation had “substance.”

9News Denver adds that the FBI’s joint terrorism task force has been in Denver searching for links to a suspected extremist who recently traveled to New York. They have not located the individual at the center of the investigation, but did find a document about bomb-making in an apartment.

Update: The Denver Post reports that the target of the FBI search in Denver is named Najibullah. The New York Post describes the man as “a Queens-born man in his late 20s who has an Afghani father,” and adds that he “had been under surveillance by the FBI in Denver, where he lives.” According to ABC News, Najibullah was recently allowed to fly back to Denver from New York under “close surveillance.”

Full Story at Huffington Post

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Mumia Abu Jamal: Exporting Democracy

Posted on 2009/09/15 by denverabc

Mumia Abu Jamal

Mumia Abu Jamal’s radio commentaries for September 13, 2009:
Exporting Democracy
Circles of Sameness

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Anti-Imperialist Prisoner of War Jaan Laaman’s RDTW Reportback

Posted on 2009/09/15 by denverabc

Jaan LaamanHere in USP Tucson, we had a morning run — 33 brothers , Black, white, Latino (Cubano,Boricua, Mexicano, Nica), one wheelchair Boston and a few old heads who walked some and ran some, rolled, walked and Ran Down the Walls here in the Sonoran desert. We had a few words before we took off as one large group, reminding everyone that as we ran many many others behind other walls were running, as well as people in 12 cities across the country – separated by miles and walls, but united in our efforts for Justice and Freedom. WE also said a few words about this being Leonard (Peltier’s) birthday and the 15 year hit the parole board recently gave him – we ran for him and for all of us. Everyone took some inspiration in this unity and solidarity and everyone felt positive after finishing the 13 laps we ran, which was just over 5k.

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