Charges dropped against “ringleaders” of RNC protests

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 15— As the trials of activists arrested during summer protests against the Republican National Convention (RNC) heat up, two accused “ringleaders” saw one case withdrawn by the prosecution and most of the charges dismissed in another case. John Sellers of the Ruckus Society and Terrence McGuckin of the Philadelphia Direct Action Group were charged with a combined total of twenty-one misdemeanors. As the results of this trial indicate, the City of Philadelphia severely overreacted to the events surrounding the RNC held this Summer.

“Both during and after the day of mass arrests, the police tracked down people who they perceived as leaders and arrested them,” says McGuckin, arrested and charged with seven misdemeanors. Included in his numerous charges was “possession of an instrument of a crime,” a charge he incurred for carrying a cell phone. McGuckin was originally given a $500,000 bail.

“Activists were given fraudulent charges not for the tactics that they employed, but for the message that they brought to the street,” says Sellers. “Questioning the institutional racism of the US justice system is more of a threat than non-violently blocking a street.” Sellers was charged with fourteen misdemeanors which also included “possession of an instrument of a crime.” Sellers was originally given a $1 million bail.

Both defendants adamantly defended their role as peaceful, nonviolent activists that use direct action to demand social change. It was no surprise to them or the nearly 400 people arrested August 1 that the city of Philadelphia would crack down on those calling for an end to the criminal injustice system. During the RNC, protesters ironically became victims of the same system they were attempting to change.

As the fourth week of trials begin, the vast majority of cases continue to be thrown out of court due to weak prosecution. Case after case is either being dismissed, acquitted or withdrawn. After nearly thirty cases have been tried, only a handful of those arrested have been convicted. Of those convicted, all are appealing their verdict and demanding a jury trial — their right under Pennsylvania’s constitution. Surprisingly, the City of Philadelphia continues to shell out money to try hundreds of cases, which historically don’t even see the inside of a courtroom.

The courts have proven defendants’ claim of over-charging. Activists have won nearly 80% of the misdemeanor cases that have gone to trial. Half of those who have been charged with felonies have had them discharged, dropped or remanded to misdemeanors during pretrial hearings. “This is a war on dissent,” says Sellers’ lawyer, Lawrence Krasner. “There is no substance behind these charges, and they make no more sense than the unconstitutional bails.”

Overreaction to mass demonstrations against economic injustice in cities such as Seattle, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia has become a national trend. Philadelphia spent over $5 million on law enforcement during the RNC. This outrageous expenditure of tax dollars resulted in police outnumbering activists by ten-to-one. The targeting of individuals for who they are and what they stand for is becoming a tactic increasingly used by law enforcement nationally. This sends a chilling message to those wishing to voice opposition to the status quo.

Earlier this month, protesters won a victory as Philadelphia Municipal Court Judge James DeLeon ruled in favor of the defense on a motion for selective prosecution. The argument posed by R2K lawyers related the historical and contemporary consequences of civil disobedience to what occurred during the RNC. DeLeon’s ruling resulted in the dismissal of five cases for activists from the School of the Americas Watch organization, setting a precedent for future cases.

Source: R2K Legal Collective: www.r2kphilly.org

Bush family linked to Nazis

Sarasota, Florida, Nov. 11— The president of the Florida Holocaust Museum said Saturday that George W. Bush’s grandfather derived a portion of his personal fortune through his affiliation with a Nazi-controlled bank.

John Loftus, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s Nazi War Crimes Unit, said his research found that Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a principal in the Union Banking Corp. in Manhattan in the late 1930s and the 1940s.

Leading Nazi industrialists secretly owned the bank at that time, Loftus said, and were moving money into it through a second bank in Holland even after the United States declared war on Germany. The bank was liquidated in 1951, Loftus said, and Bush’s grandfather and great-grandfather received $1.5 million from the bank as part of that dissolution.

“That’s where the Bush family fortune came from: It came from the Third Reich,” Loftus said.

Loftus made his remarks during a speech as part of the Sarasota Reading Festival. The author of “Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis and the Swiss Banks,” Loftus documented the Swiss bank accounts that harbored funds confiscated from Holocaust victims and the participation of Italian priests in smuggling Nazi war criminals to safe haven in Canada, Central and South America, and the United States after the war.

Although he said he had a file of paperwork linking the bank and Prescott Bush to Nazi money, Loftus did not provide that documentation Saturday.

Loftus pointed out that the Bush family would not be the only American political dynasty to have ties to the “wrong side of World War II.” The Rockefellers had financial connections to Nazi Germany, he said.

Loftus also reminded his audience that John F. Kennedy’s father, an avowed isolationist and former ambassador to Great Britain, profited during the 1930s and ’40s from Nazi stocks that he owned.

“No one today blames the Democrats because Jack Kennedy’s father bought Nazi stocks,” Loftus said. Still, he said, it is important to understand these historical connections for what they tell us about politics today. The World War II experience points out how easy it was then – and remains today — to hide money in multinational funds.

That money flows into American politics today, he said, from “a series of multinational corporations behaving like pirates. They don’t care about ideology; they care about money.”

Loftus’ speech left many in tears.

“I am absolutely shocked,” said Nancy Krauss of Punta Gorda. “I wish this would have come out before the election. My husband voted for Bush. I don’t think he would have voted for him if he would have known.”

Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Amnesty International to sue CIA for hiding information

Washington, DC, Nov. 13— President Clinton must order an investigation into the allegations of US complicity with Colombian death squads that were recently reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer and El Nuevo Herald, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) said today. These allegations parallel a similar investigation AIUSA began in 1994. AIUSA’s investigation has been hampered by the withholding of information on these death squads by US agencies.

“US agencies such as the CIA are unlawfully withholding information about death squads with whom they have allegedly worked,” said Carlos M. Salinas, Acting Director of Government Relations, who is leading AIUSA’s inquiry. “Since President Clinton approved sending $1.3 billion in aid to Colombia, and since he waived the modest human rights conditions that Congress had placed on the aid, ordering an Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) investigation is the least he could do.”

The death squad in question is PEPES, People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar, the notorious leader of the Medellin drug cartel. In 1993, this group set out to systematically attack and destroy anyone associated with Pablo Escobar. Once Escobar was killed, PEPES was transformed into a nationwide paramilitary network that continues to account for the vast majority of political killings in Colombia.

Colombia continues to suffer a human rights emergency, with more than 3,000 people extrajudicially executed or “disappeared,” mostly at the hands of paramilitary groups that work closely with the Colombian Army.

Amnesty International USA filed a Freedom of Information Act request in 1996 with various US intelligence and defense agencies seeking information on the PEPES death squad. Some of the requests were denied in full, while others were only partially met.

Source: Amnesty International USA: www.amnesty.org

Protests lower Gap stock value

By Shawn Gaynor

Stock prices at the Gap hit an all time low of 18 ½ dollars per share this month as the clothing giant continues to draw public outrage over its use of sweatshop labor. The stock which peaked at 53 1/8 in early spring tumbled during the IMF/World Bank protests in Washington DC, dropping over 13 dollars a share. According to the New York Times, the Gap (owning Gap, Gap Kids, Banana Republic, and Old Navy) is this year’s fashion retail victim and has performed worse then all other “specialty clothing” retailers. The student anti-sweatshop movement has targeted Gap on college campuses across the country, undermining the “hip” image of the Gap in an industry where “hip” is everything. Although the holiday season shopping has seen Gap stock rising again into the low twenties, analysts do not expect the stock to bounce back strongly from its 65% loss in value. According to Global Exchange, Gap workers around the world make as little as 11 cents an hour and work 12 hours a day, often 7 days a week.

NAACP delivers voter complaints

By Michael J. Sniffen

Washington, DC, Nov. 16— On Thursday, the NAACP gave the Justice Department a transcript of complaints by black voters about the presidential election voting in south Florida.

About a dozen witnesses testified Saturday at a public hearing in Miami organized by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“We have come to southern Florida to help establish a public record,” said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. “It’s clear that in the absence of this process, that might not take place.” Mfume promised to bring the complaints to the attention of the Justice Department.

Barbara Arwine, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, DC, told of receiving complaints that some voters were given ballots on which the presidential choice had already been punched.

Fumiko Robinson said many of the elderly people she helped carry to the polls in Broward County were turned away after officials said their names were not on voter lists at their polling places. They were told to come back later to try and work things out, but many were discouraged and told her they weren’t going back.

Source: Associated Press

ABC sells talkshow content

Nov. 20— Blurring the lines ever further between programming and advertising, ABC’s The View recently agreed to turn eight shows into paid infomercials for Campbell’s Soup.

Co-host Barbara Walters, one of ABC’s most prominent news personalities, joined her colleagues in introducing pro-Campbell’s themes into the talkshow’s discussions, with Walters asking in one show, “Didn’t we grow up...eating Campbell’s Soup?” Her colleagues responded by breaking into a chorus of the “M’m! M’m! Good!” jingle. In addition to developing special soup segments, The View assured Campbell’s that “hosts would try to weave a soup message into their regular on-air banter” (Wall Street Journal, 11/14/00).

Product placement on talkshows isn’t new, but Disney-owned ABC may be breaking new ground in having one of the country’s best-known journalists shill for soup. ABC claims this kind of shameless hucksterism is OK because The View is an entertainment show, and Walters is “able to wear many hats” (Wall Street Journal, 11/14/00).

Source: Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR): www.fair.org