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Human Rights & Civil Liberties

Human Rights & Civil Liberties

Behind Obama's wavering on terror trials, critics see politics

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 14:03 — Dave Culver

The Jan. 19 special election of Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., demonstrated to skittish Democrats that the decision to prosecute the suspected Christmas Day underwear bomber in civilian court was a polarizing campaign issue.

David Lightman and Marisa Taylor, McClatchy Newspapers

As the White House reconsiders the decision to prosecute the five alleged plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in civilian court, the likely change of course seems designed to protect vulnerable Democrats in Congress more than it is to improve the chances for conviction.

With public dissatisfaction with the Obama administration at record levels, some Democrats see trying the alleged terrorists in military court as a way of blunting the issue and helping to preserve the party's large majorities in the House and Senate.

The Jan. 19 special election of Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., demonstrated to skittish Democrats that the decision to prosecute the suspected Christmas Day underwear bomber in civilian court was a polarizing campaign issue.

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Sealing in the Palestinians: The Story of the Most Controversial Border Wall in the World

Sat, 03/13/2010 - 13:05 — Dave Culver
  • The following is an excerpt from A Wall in Palestine by Rene Backmann (Picador, 2010), which lays bare an international human rights controversy.
  • Mr. Netanyahu, tear down that wall.

AlterNet

Submitted by Evergreene Digest Contributing Editor Ken Mitchell


Who invented the wall? Who came up with the idea for it? "Maybe it was me," Dany Tirza says half-jokingly as he weaves his car through Gilo morning traffic. Adjacent to the southern neighborhoods of Jerusalem, this truly "new" city of thirty-seven thousand people, which dominates the nearby Palestinian enclaves of Bethlehem and Beit Jala, is considered by the Israelis to be a natural extension of the Holy City. In fact, Gilo was built on the outskirts of "Greater Jerusalem," as it was redefined by Israel in 1967 after the Six-Day War, on approximately seven thousand acres of annexed Palestinian land. But Gilo is on the Palestinian side of the "Green Line," which, since 1949, separates the State of Israel from the present- day West Bank. Thus, it is a settlement, one of twelve built by Israel since 1967 at the periphery of Greater Jerusalem.

The Return of the Thugs in Honduras (and Their American Apologists!)

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 13:01 — Dave Culver


  • Payback time for questioning the Honduran coup and the shady November elections. Payback time, death squad style.
  • The Bodies Are Still Piling Up in Honduras
  • Informal Empire: The Case of Honduras

James Cavallaro, HumanRights.Change.org

Yesterday (March 9) , the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) issued a statement denouncing a wave of attacks against those who resisted the June 2009 military coup d’etat. According to the Commission, this past month, a series of kidnappings, murders and sexual assaults have targeted leaders of the resistance movement. The hemisphere’s leading inter-governmental, human rights investigatory body wrote, “it appears that sons and daughters of leaders of the Resistance Front are being killed, kidnapped, attacked, and threatened as a strategy to silence the activists.”

What’s happening? Well, the evidence fairly clearly suggests this: now that international attention has turned away from Honduras, authoritarian politicians and their henchmen are crushing their opponents. Payback time for questioning the Honduran coup and the shady November elections. Payback time, death squad style.

SC may gut programs for 26,000 disabled residents

Wed, 03/03/2010 - 12:16 — Dave Culver


  • Shutting down everything but federally required residential care is "the most draconian kind of thing I've heard," said Andrew J. Imparato, chief executive of the American Association of People with Disabilities
  • SC politician's 'stray animals' welfare remark called 'immoral'

Jim Davenport, Associated Press

Lawmakers are considering cutting all services for nearly 26,000 people with disabilities as South Carolina tries to plug a $560 million budget hole.
Parents say the proposed cuts to day care programs and other services would force them to give up much-needed jobs to stay home and care for their young and adult children.

Andrew J. Imparato, chief executive of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said he is hearing horror stories about budget cuts around the country, but South Carolina is the most extreme example. Shutting down everything but federally required residential care is "the most draconian kind of thing I've heard," he said.

Lawmakers say they have little choice. They are trying to close a shortfall in next year's budget in a heavily Republican state where tax increases are not considered a viable option.