Kafkaesque

Julian Assange: ‘Bradley Manning’s Apology Was Extracted By Force’

"The United States government should be apologizing to Pfc. Bradley Manning, rather than the other way around, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement Wednesday. Assange said Manning's apology had been coerced by abuse. 'Mr. Manning's apology is a statement extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. It took three years and millions of dollars to extract two minutes of tactical remorse from this brave soldier,' he said. 'As over 100,000 signatories of his Nobel Peace Prize nomination attest, Bradley Manning has changed the world for the better.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJulian Assange: ‘Bradley Manning’s Apology Was Extracted By Force’

Pfc. Bradley Manning Unsworn Statement during Sentencing Trial

"I did not truly appreciate the broader effects of my actions. Those effects are clearer to me now through both self-reflection during my confinement in its various forms and through the merits and sentencing testimony that I have seen here. I am sorry for the unintended consequences of my actions. When I made these decisions I believed I was gonna help people, not hurt people. The last few years have been a learning experience. I look back at my decisions and wonder, 'How on earth could I, a junior analyst, possibly believe I could change the world for the better over the decisions of those with the proper authority?'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPfc. Bradley Manning Unsworn Statement during Sentencing Trial

Why does America have such a big prison population?

"America has around 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of its prisoners. Roughly one in every 107 American adults is behind bars, a rate nearly five times that of Britain, seven times that of France and 24 times that of India. Its prison population has more than tripled since 1980. The growth rate has been even faster in the federal prison system: from around 24,000—its level, more or less, from the 1940s until the early 1980s—to more than 219,000 today. Probably the biggest driver of this growth has been ever-harsher drug penalties." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy does America have such a big prison population?

John Grisham: After Guantánamo, Another Injustice

"Nabil has not been the only 'mistake' in our war on terror. Hundreds of other Arabs have been sent to Gitmo, chewed up by the system there, never charged and eventually transferred back to their home countries. There have been no apologies, no official statements of regret, no compensation, nothing of the sort. The United States was dead wrong, but no one can admit it. In Nabil’s case, the United States military and intelligence agents relied on corrupt informants who were raking in American cash, or even worse, jailhouse snitches who swapped false stories for candy bars, porn and sometimes just a break from their own beatings." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJohn Grisham: After Guantánamo, Another Injustice

Obamacare: “Let’s Just Make Sure It’s Not A Third World Experience”

"We begin today by checking our premises: In order to imagine something working forever, it must begin to work in the first place. When asked last Friday about what the future holds for the Affordable Care Act, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, 'What we’ve done with Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but we’re far from having something that’s going to work forever.' The law takes full effect Jan. 1, 2014, and the online exchanges launch on Oct. 1, 2013. But lofty expectations are being played down as logistical problems become worse and worse." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObamacare: “Let’s Just Make Sure It’s Not A Third World Experience”

Topless activist Phoenix Feeley goes on hunger strike in New Jersey jail

"Phoenix Feeley, a New York resident, is serving the sentence in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution for refusing to pay $816 in fines in connection with her 2008 arrest at a beach in Spring Lake where she was sunbathing topless in violation of a town ordinance in an act of civil disobedience. Feeley is a member of GoTopless, an organization that is campaigning for the right of women to go topless in public on the basis of gender equality. New Jersey is one of about a dozen states in the country with ambiguous topless laws. Three states – Indiana, Utah and Tennessee – have outright bans on women going shirtless in public." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTopless activist Phoenix Feeley goes on hunger strike in New Jersey jail

Not Speedy + Not Public = Not Legal

"Colonel Denise Lind, 'judge' of the court martial of PFC Bradley Manning, infamously and illegally ruled that the US government could proceed with its show trial despite the fact that it had held Manning for more than four times the absolute legal maximum time prior to arraigning him. Then she infamously and illegally ruled that the government could change the charges and introduce new witnesses after both prosecution and defense had rested. Now, she has infamously and illegally overruled the defense’s objections to the use of illegal secret testimony against Manning. Question: If Manning isn’t allowed to violate the law, why is Lind?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNot Speedy + Not Public = Not Legal

Greek police report riot at immigrant detention camp

"Riot police were dispatched on Saturday to put down a riot at Greece’s main migrant detention camp where detainees hurled stones at officers and set fire to their living quarters, authorities said. Television footage showed fires blazing at the Amygdaleza detention camp outside Athens, where some 1,200 mainly Asian migrants are kept under police guard. Amygdaleza is one of several detention camps set up since last year to assist in the repatriation of thousands of undocumented migrants. The police spokesman said rioting began when the detainees were told that their maximum stay in the camp would be extended to 18 months from a year previously." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGreek police report riot at immigrant detention camp

Holder to propose curtailing mandatory minimum drug sentences

"The Justice Department plans to change how it prosecutes some non-violent drug offenders, so they would no longer face mandatory minimum prison sentences, in an overhaul of federal prison policy that Attorney General Eric Holder will unveil on Monday. The United States imprisons a higher percentage of its population than other large countries, largely because of anti-drug laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s. Holder will also reveal a plan to create a slate of local guidelines to determine if cases should be subject to federal charges." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHolder to propose curtailing mandatory minimum drug sentences

Help Thy Neighbor and Go Straight to Prison

"The federal government, at a time when it is cutting education spending, is preparing to spend $415,000 over the next 15 years to imprison a man for innocently possessing seven shotgun shells while trying to help a widow in the neighborhood. And, under the law, there is no early release: Young will spend the full 15 years in prison. This case captures what is wrong with our 'justice' system: We have invested in mass incarceration in ways that are crushingly expensive, break up families and are often simply cruel. With less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the United States has almost one-quarter of the world’s prisoners." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHelp Thy Neighbor and Go Straight to Prison