A-Infos (en) [AFIB] Three Recent Columns by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Tom Burghardt <tburghardt@igc.apc.org>]

 ________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
 ________________________________________________

        |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        |||                                           |||
        |||             A  N  T  I  F  A              |||
        |||                                           |||
        |||   I  N  F  O  -  B  U  L  L  E  T  I  N   |||
        |||                   _____                   |||
        |||                                           |||
        |||  * News * Analysis * Research * Action *  |||
        |||                                           |||
        |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
        |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
                              *****
 
||/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\|/\||/\||  
|| * --  SPECIAL  -- *    May 14, 1998    * --  EDITION  -- * ||
||\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/||\/||
               
 
                       * SPECIAL EDITION *
 
                              * * *
_________________________________________________________________
 
             THREE RECENT COLUMNS BY MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
_________________________________________________________________
 
                              * * *
_________________________________________________________________
 
                    WHITEWASH IN GREENE COUNTY
_________________________________________________________________
 
                        By Mumia Abu-Jamal
                      Column Written 5/4/98 
                  Source: Mumia, Mumia@aol.com
                    - Sunday, 10 May 1998 -
 
     "There's an atmosphere created by (prison officials) in
     which this kind of thing has been going on for years. The
     attitude is, you're in Greene County now, boy," -- Randy
     Gauger, PA Prison Society, Fayette-Greene Chapter, (PGH.
     Post-Gazette, 4/26/98)
 
                              * * *
 
     A hand cuffed man is bludgeoned, and a nightstick is jammed
into his mouth, knocking out a god tooth. Into the bloody
spittle, a state prison guard dips his finger and traces the
letters "KKK." Welcome to Greene County's State Correctional
Institution at Waynesburg, Southwestern Pennsylvania.
 
     The above account is taken from news articles on a lawsuit
filed by Antonio Noguerol about a beating he sustained in June
1996.
 
     Attorney Rita Murillo wrote, of that, and other beatings
sustained by her client, that this was not a case of
self-defense, but, "they were calculated, systematic and sadistic
assaults, administered for the purpose of summarily punishing Mr.
Noguerol for perceived insolence, and were done to make an
example of a `problem' inmate in order to maintain discipline."
(PGH. Post-Gazette, 4/26/98)
 
     Anticipating the release of a series of articles exposing a
campaign of brutality and torture at Greene, the DOC beat the
pack announcing an "investigation" of an estimated 4 guards at
the high-tech hell, using select videotapes to see if any inmates
were improperly treated. Not surprisingly, the brutal abuse of
Noguerol was not among the taped cases. Indeed, the DOC rushed to
announce to a compliant media that the tapes only showed bumps,
shoves and pushes. Not to worry.
 
     According to locally published reports, several former
staffers, who dared question beatings and false institutional
misconduct filings, were ushered out of the joint, and fired.
Linda Welling, a former unit manager of the prison, and Bob
Debord, a former counselor, charged they were threatened with
violence for daring to question the repressive status quo. After
their charges hit the airwaves Greene's warden was demoted and
transferred to a smaller, medium security facility.
 
     Under set theory, if one determines the perimeters of a set
(or the elements which it will include), one can determine the
outcome. The State Corrections' Dept., by virtually ignoring the
most serious cases of brutality, has already determined the
outcome of the "investigation." Oh, there will be a few
sacrifices, a few transfers, a few examples of departmental
discipline, but nothing substantive will change, or if it
changes, it will be for the worse.
 
     The prison will remain a place of approved brutality, and
staffers, terrified of the loss of jobs and pensions (not to
mention threats of violence), will see and not see, hear and not
hear, and engage in the chilling crime of silent acquiescence.
 
     For Greene was, and is, a creation of the state's political
will, with terrorism merely a tool of state policy. Here, judges
dare not rule against the repressive status quo, for judges too,
must bow to the dictates of state policy.
 
     Copyright 1998 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All Rights Reserved.
 
                              * * *
_________________________________________________________________
 
                THE ILLUSION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
_________________________________________________________________
 
                         By Mumia Abu-Jamal
                    Source: Mumia, Mumia@aol.com
                      - Monday, 11 May 1998 -
 
     In sum, stare decisis, [or the doctrine of letting the prior
     decision of law stand] while integral to the language of
     legal discourse and the mystique of legal reasoning, serves
     a primarily ideological rather than functional role. Nor is
     there any more validity to the notion of legal reasoning
     when the source of law is constitutional or statutory
     provision or the language of an agreement. Courts determine
     the meaning and applicability of the pertinent language;
     similar arguments and distinctions are available; and the
     ultimate basis is a social and political judgment. -- Law is
     simply politics by other means.
 
     -- David Kairys, Esq., The Politics of Law (1982)
 
                              * * *
 
     The very term, 'International Law', evokes in us a sense of
calm, arising from the near certainty that an umbrella of law
shields and protects us from the raging downpour of chaos. So
often have we heard the words, that it now echoes in
consciousness, as a thing unquestioned. Indeed, it is a 'thing'
to us, a living reality that, like pornography, may be difficult
to describe, but you know it when you see it. Or do you?
 
     The late, revered Malcolm X taught that history is best
equipped to reward our research, so let us look to history.
 
     Over a million ethnic Armenians were annihilated under
Turkey's Ittihad Party, and millions of Jews were massacred under
Germany's Nazi party. These historic horrors arose in a world
where the Geneva Conventions (of 1864 and 1906) and the Hague
Conventions (of 1899 and 1907) forbade war crimes, protected the
prisoners of war, and ordered protection and respect for
civilians and private property.
 
     In World War I, the Ittihad-sparked genocide against
Armenians was so widespread that years later, none other than
Adolph Hitler would tell his generals, "our strength is in our
quickness and our brutality." He asked, tellingly, "Who still
talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?" (Fr.
Simpson, C.  The Splendid Blond Beast, Common Courage Pr., 1995).
 
     International law, it turns out, is the creation of the
ruling class elites, on behalf of elites. Millions of so-called
"stateless peoples" (like Jews of WWII or Armenians of WWI) were
sacrificed to the national interests of the 'International
Community', who saw them as expendable. Author Christopher
Simpson quotes a bigoted US diplomat for his feelings on the two
peoples: The US High Commissioner to Turkey was Admiral Mark L.
Bristol, a man with a reputation as a bigot and determined
advocate of US alliance with Mustafa Kemal [Attaturk]. "The
Armenians," Bristol wrote, "are a race like the Jews - they have
little or no national spirit and poor moral character" (33).
 
     Years later, US Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, when
faced with a growing movement in the state department to press
German elites for complicity in the crimes against humanity,
would protect the elites. Simpson writes: Lansing strongly
objected to any introduction of the concept of "laws of humanity"
and to trials of foreign leaders before any foreign or
international court. International law, he contended, regulated
relations among nations; it had no jurisdiction over what a state
chooses to do to its own people (25).
 
     In the end, it didn't matter what was written on paper, in
the glazed texts of lawbooks, nor in scripted treaties.
International law bowed to national (economic) interests, and the
weak fell before the strong. Here was the grim historical
blueprint for Bosnia, for Rwanda, and for genocides to come.
 
     Copyright 1998 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All Rights Reserved.
 
                              * * *
_________________________________________________________________
 
                       DEMOCRATIC TYRANNY
_________________________________________________________________
 
                       By Mumia Abu-Jamal
                     Column Written 5/2/98
                 Source: Mumia, Mumia@aol.com
                  - Wednesday, 12 May 1998 -
 
     A "freedom fighter" is one of your own people who fights for
     your independence. A "terrorist" is a foreigner who fights
     for independence for his people.
 
     -- Amos Kenan (Israeli Journalist) The Nation
 
                              * * *
 
     Imagine, if you will, a nation of secret trials, or one
where evidence is a secret whisper that the defendant may never
hear nor read, nor ever even hope to challenge. Imagine.
 
     What nation comes to mind?
 
     Peru, with her infamous hooded judges?
 
     War-wracked Bosnia-Herzegovina, with her concentration camps
and death squads? Imagine that this nation of secret proceedings
sits neither in Latin America, nor in Eastern Europe; neither in
Africa, nor in Asia.
 
     It is the United States of America, where a man named Nassir
Ahmed tries to fight a phantasm, a monstrous legal machinery that
is the offspring of the so-called Anti-Terrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). This law, signed into the law
books by President Clinton, a former professor of Constitutional
Law, denies immigrants like Ahmed the very fundament of a
hearing: denial of the opportunity to hear and challenge evidence
against a person.  
 
     Ahmed, who dared pray at the community mosque of the blind
Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman, may be forced to leave his American
home of the last eight years where his three daughters have lived
all of their young lives. He faces deportation.
 
     It should be deeply shocking to us all that secret,
untranscripted trials are taking place in this country; it should
be a source of great shame that a court rules on a person based
upon such secret evidence; and it should stir us to outrage that
courts deny these secrets to one's lawyers, urging them to file
appeals to challenge evidence that they have never seen. In such
context, what can a "trial" mean? What of "evidence?"
 
     For Mr. Ahmed, they must seem empty, English words, that
actually mean nothing at all. How can any Constitutional scholar
(not to mention, Rhodes Scholar) dare put his signature on any
law that legalizes secret proceedings, secret evidence whispered
to a judge, and untranscripted, unrecorded hearings? How can any
judge dare to sit in such a proceeding?
 
     How can we dare not raise our voices in protest at this
outrage, if not for Nassir Ahmed, then for our very selves?
 
     Such a "law" commits terrorism against the letter and spirit
of the Constitution.
 
                              * * *
 
                    ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN (AFIB)
                        750 La Playa # 730
                  San Francisco, California 94121
                     E-Mail: tburghardt@igc.org
 
                                *
 
     On PeaceNet visit ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN on pol.right.antifa
     or by gopher --> gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:7021/11/europe
     Via the Web  --> http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff/afib.html
 
                                *
 
                     ANTI-FASCIST FORUM (AFF)
     Antifa Info-Bulletin is a member of the Anti-Fascist Forum
     network. AFF is an info-group which collects and
     disseminates information, research and analysis on fascist
     activity and anti-fascist resistance. More info: 
                    E-mail: aff@burn.ucsd.edu 
                  Web: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aff
 
     +:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
     +:        A N T I F A   I N F O - B U L L E T I N        +:
     :+                                                       :+
     +:          NEWS * ANALYSIS * RESEARCH * ACTION          +:
     :+                                                       :+
     +:     RESISTING FASCISM    *  BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY!   +:
     +:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
 
          ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++
   ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++
  ++++ see: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++


	***A-INFOS DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE***

A-Infos disclaims responsibility for the information in this message.


			********
		The A-Infos News Service
			********
		COMMANDS: majordomo@tao.ca
		REPLIES: a-infos-d@tao.ca
		HELP: a-infos-org@tao.ca
		WWW: http://www.ainfos.ca/
		INFO: http://www.ainfos.ca/org