----- Original Message ----- From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2000 6:45 PM Subject: [Cuba SI] WW:US shelters Haiti Death Squads. Pam Africa. Becker from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject: WW: US shelters Haiti Death Squads. Pam Africa. Becker Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://wwpublish.com:8080/Lists/wwnews/List.html> Sender: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) Precedence: list X-Original-Message-ID: <01fd01c02ae6$18ee77e0$0a00a8c0@linux> From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [WW] U.S. shelters Haitian death squads Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 5, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- More attacks on vote count U.S. SHELTERS HAITIAN DEATH SQUADS By G. Dunkel Over 100 supporters of the Tonton Macoute death squads held a public meeting in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 10 to promote former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier as a candidate in Haiti's November presidential election. Toto Constant, wanted in Haiti for complicity in the murders of 3,000 people, lives the peaceful life of a real-estate broker in Queens. Still the United States complains that Haiti's May 21 parliamentary elections were "flawed" even as it shelters some of the most vicious fascists Haiti has ever known. The Macoutes are a fascist organization that engaged in torture and murder to repress Haiti's people during the decades long Duvalier family dictatorship. Both the New York Daily News and Newsday gave prominent coverage to the Macoute meeting. The gathering was widely seen as a maneuver by Duvalier supporters to influence the elections, rather than a serious bid for Duvalier's return, which would almost surely ignite a civil war. During Duvalier's rule and that of his father, over 40,000 Haitians were killed by the Macoutes and billions were stolen from the national treasury, without the U.S. government saying more than "tsk-tsk." Constant was the head of FRAPH, an organization set up by the Haitian Army to do the work of the Macoutes during the 1991-1994 coup against Aristide. Constant has admitted that while heading FRAPH he was also on the CIA payroll. WORKERS, PEASANTS BACK ARISTIDE Last spring's elections saw 18 of 19 contested seats go to Ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party. Since Aristide's political strength is based on his support among the impoverished workers and peasants, Washington would prefer to see his opponents win. All summer the United States conducted a political pressure campaign to force the Haitian election board to count the May 21 vote the way it feels it should be counted, not as Haitian authorities consider proper. The U.S. State Department says it does not consider this to be interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, but rather "promoting democracy." The rule in Haiti is that a candidate needs 50 percent plus one vote to be declared the winner without a runoff election. The way this is calculated by the Haitian board of elections is to take the votes of the top four candidates, add them up and see if one of the top four has 50 percent plus one. The U.S. position is that they have to count the votes of all the candidates. There were between 15 and 25 candidates for each seat. Washington's position would have meant 10 runoffs out of 19 seats. Generally, the people knocked out of the runoffs by this rule would have been U.S. backed candidates. The opposition wouldn't have won many, if any, more seats. It would have cost more, let the U.S. meddle more and frustrated the people with having to go to the polls again and again. Both the United States and Canada, Haiti's two largest foreign aid donors, threatened to cut off assistance if the vote was not recounted. The Organization of American States sent a mission to Haiti in early September to add further pressure for a recount. The OAS failed to change the tally. So U.S. Ambassador to the OAS Luis Lauredo announced Sept. 5 that Washington will send all development aid to private organizations, not to Haiti's government. The United States also threatened to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in pending loans from international financial institutions. Forwarding the aid to private groups allows Washington to claim that it has not cut off aid to the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. At the same time it puts tremendous financial pressure on Haiti. New York's Haitian community responded strongly Sept. 7. Hundreds turned out for a street protest to support Haitian sovereignty from foreign interference while President Ren� Pr�val gave his address to the United Nations Millennium Summit. The increase in world oil costs has hit Haiti hard, abruptly raising prices for many goods. The sudden spike of inflation, together with U.S. financial and political pressure, will make the situation in Haiti even more unstable. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ********* from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject: WW: Pam Africa legal briefs. Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://wwpublish.com:8080/Lists/wwnews/List.html> Sender: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) Precedence: list X-Original-Message-ID: <01d501c02ae5$253b6220$0a00a8c0@linux> From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [WW] Pam Africa calls for action on legal briefs Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 5, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- PAM AFRICA CALLS FOR ACTION ON LEGAL BRIEFS By Betsey Piette Philadelphia An emergency meeting was held in Philadelphia Sept. 23 to bring Mumia Abu-Jamal's supporters up to date on recent developments in his legal case. On Aug. 7 Federal District Court Judge William H. Yohn Jr. denied four amicus curiae, or "friend of the court," briefs filed in support of Abu-Jamal. The decision was without legal precedent and of great significance, according to Pam Africa of International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal. She said the briefs addressed legal issues crucial to Abu-Jamal's pending review for a new trial. Africa said that Yohn had not commented when two amicus briefs were filed earlier this year. One of the briefs was filed on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, National Conference of Black Lawyers and other attorneys' groups. The other was issued jointly by the NAACP and the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union. But it was a different matter when 22 members of British Parliament and the Los Angeles-based Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation submitted two more briefs this summer. 'REVERSE MUMIA'S CONVICTION' The last two briefs cut straight to the court's denial of Abu-Jamal's right to self-representation in his 1982 trial, where he was sentenced to death for the killing of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. Supporters of the award-winning journalist and former Black Panther say the racist Philadelphia Police Department framed him. The Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation brief also presented evidence, previously unknown to Abu-Jamal and his supporters, of a conspiracy between court-appointed defense attorney Anthony Jackson, Judge Albert Sabo and Prosecutor Joseph McGill. The brief called for Abu-Jamal's conviction to be reversed. In refusing the briefs, Yohn said, "I will deny the petitions as unnecessary and unhelpful, without comment on the merits of the arguments raised or the merits of the petitioner's underlying claims." "He says he didn't look at them, even though these briefs suddenly seemed to require action," noted Marlene Kamish, an attorney for the Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation, at the Sept. 23 meeting. "Yohn can't say he looked at a brief raising the issues of the denial of Mumia's right to self-representation and Jackson's conspiracy and say it wasn't important, and have this stand up," she explained. Kamish said several U.S. Supreme Court decisions had overturned convictions when the Sixth Amendment right of self-representation was violated. She went on to explain that an essential element of any trial is an adversarial relationship between the defense attorney and the prosecutor. "It's this conflict that is supposed to allow the truth to come out. When you don't have this, you don't have a trial." DEFENSE COLLABORATION CHARGED Kamish described transcripts of discussions between Jackson, Sabo and McGill in the judge's chambers, where they discussed how to get a conviction that would be protected from appeal. These transcripts were the basis of the Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation brief. The transcripts also show that Jackson discussed Abu-Jamal's defense strategy with the prosecutor and the judge, in clear violation of attorney/client privilege, Kamish said. The court's refusal to allow Abu-Jamal to represent himself or to have John Africa as a lay advisor in the courtroom was addressed in the British Parliament members' brief. Kamish explained that five months before his own trial, then- reporter Abu-Jamal had seen MOVE Organization founder Africa effectively defend himself in federal court and walk out a free man. When he was in a battle for his own life, Abu- Jamal fought for the right to have someone he trusted sit with him to assist his defense. Sabo denied Abu-Jamal's request to have Africa's assistance. Instead he appointed Jackson to sit at the defendant's table and eventually let him take over the case, despite Abu- Jamal's repeated objections. "It's often said that the problem is that Jackson was ineffective," noted Pam Africa. "But actually he was very effective--only for the prosecution, not for the defense." Africa and Kamish said Jackson gave no opening statement on Abu-Jamal's behalf. He failed to subpoena key witnesses, including Police Officer Wakshul, whose testimony could have refuted the prosecution's phony "confession" story. He failed to present any character witnesses during the sentencing phase that resulted in the death sentence. CHARACTER WITNESSES The Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation brief also presented compelling testimony from Abu-Jamal's 1995 Post Conviction Relief Appeal hearings. At that time the defense, now headed by renowned civil rights attorney Leonard Weinglass, presented several character witnesses, including late Pennsylvania State Representative David P. Richardson, whose testimony should have been grounds for a reversal of the death sentence. The witnesses all said they had been willing to testify in 1982, but Jackson never called on them. So credible was their testimony about Abu-Jamal's compassionate and non-violent nature that the district attorney in the appeals hearing conceded it was "not characteristic" of Abu-Jamal to have committed murder. Kamish explained that there are no grounds to seek the death penalty when the defendant has no prior conviction and is shown to have value to other people, relationships and ties in the community and a non-violent character. Sabo, who also presided over the 1995 appeal, "unreasonably and erroneously" ruled that the mitigation evidence at the PCRA hearing was "irrelevant," Kamish said, even though the prosecution conceded its relevance. In 1982 Sabo engineered a Black woman juror's removal with Jackson's and McGill's collaboration. That juror was the only one selected by Abu-Jamal during the two days when he was allowed to act as his own counsel. Sabo replaced the woman with a white male who became jury foreman, although the man admitted three times that he couldn't be impartial. When Jackson tried to exercise a peremptory challenge, Sabo denied it, saying, "I select him." Kamish said, "He had no right whatsoever to put this man on. Sabo stacked the jury." Africa and Kamish urged Abu-Jamal's supporters to read all four amicus briefs and the writ of habeas corpus presented by Weinglass. An appeal of Yohn's ruling is underway. The briefs are available on the Web site www.mumia2000.org, along with instructions on how to support the appeal effort. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ************ from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject:WW: Becker acquitted at Protest Trial Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://wwpublish.com:8080/Lists/wwnews/List.html> Sender: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) Precedence: list X-Original-Message-ID: <01dd01c02ae5$4b810d40$0a00a8c0@linux> From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [WW] Becker acquitted at protest trial Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2000 Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 5, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- Washington BECKER ACQUITTED AT PROTEST TRIAL By Workers World Washington bureau In an important legal ruling, International Action Center Co- Director Brian Becker was acquitted of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Sept. 25. Becker had faced 90 days in jail for charges stemming from the mass police arrests of demonstrators in Washington last April 15. That demonstration was called by the IAC to demand "Shut down the prison-industrial complex" on the day prior to the planned protests to "Shut down the International Monetary Fund and World Bank" April 16-17. Attorney Mark Goldstone defended Becker. Goldstone, who represented many of the defendants from the April 15-17 arrests, said to a group of supporters after the trial, "This was an important victory because the court recognized that what was at stake was the First Amendment right to demonstrate. "This has national implications because it is precisely this right which we have seen was under attack in Seattle and at the demonstrations at Philadelphia and Los Angeles in front of the Republican and Democratic conventions," Goldstone said. Becker was acquitted in a ruling by Associate Judge Harim Puig-Lugo of the Superior Court. Puig-Lugo ruled that the government had failed to prove its case that the demonstrators on April 15 and Becker in particular had engaged in an "unlawful assembly." On April 15 police illegally closed a whole downtown block in Washington and arrested 678 demonstrators, tourists, shoppers and passers-by in what has been described as the largest act of preventive detention in recent decades in the United States. "We were arrested in a planned act of preventive detention by the police," Becker told Workers World. "They wanted to put us in jail not because we were breaking a law but because they wanted to clear the streets prior to the IMF/World Bank meeting." While many of the cases stemming from the April 15 demonstration were later dismissed, the Washington district attorney proceeded with the trial against Becker, who is one of the named plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit charging that the cops and government conspired to violate the protesters' constitutional rights. "We believe they proceeded with this trial because they wanted to get a conviction to defend themselves against the class-action lawsuit for the unlawful arrests of more than 1,300 people that weekend," Becker charged. Readers who want to participate in the class-action lawsuit defending the rights of those arrested April 15-17, as a witness or potential plaintiff, should go to the Web site www.justiceonline.org/a16. - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) " JC -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. 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