[Sosfbay-discuss] "Fighting Back" California

[Andrea Dorey]

Curt and all,

Note that a number of hosts on listener-supported KPFA 94.1 FM have  
been conducting telephone interviews with Lynne Stewart on their  
shows; Lynne promotes the Tour and mentions, in particular, Michael  
Ratner and his great significance in past campaigns.  Amy Goodman of  
Democracy Now! on KPFA has tracked Lynne's predicaments for the last  
year.

KPFA, with all its flaws, is still the premier media source for  
independent/progressive news--unless you miss the mainstream media's  
"if it bleeds, it leads and if it thinks, it stinks," a great quote  
from Ralph Nader.

An interesting local listener-supporter challenger is KKUP 91.5 FM  
who is now running a marathon, and has been around for 30 years!  I  
heard Annie and the Vets live on KKUP yesterday at 9 AM, singing  
"Pipeline" and "Smart Bombs and Stupid Leaders," among others.
Andrea

On Feb 17, 2007, at 1:56 PM, Curt wrote:

>
>
>
> Dear Friends of Lynne Stewart,
>
>
> Below you will find the  complete schedule of Lynne Stewart’s  21- 
> event, six-day Northern California tour. Michael Ratner, Jeff  
> Mackler and Pam Africa will accompany Lynne for the first three  
> days, February 23-25 during which time the tour will include major  
> meetings and receptions in San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin and Palo  
> Alto, all lisited below.
>
> Lynne will also be visiting Sacramento, Fresno and Santa Rosa as  
> well at three area law schools and many other events.
>
> We are counting on you to support the tour by sending this email to  
> your email lists, friends and by joining us to meet Lynne and and  
> wish her well as she prepares to appeal her “conspiracy to aid and  
> abet terrorism” conviction and to oppose the prosecution’s effort  
> to challenge the 28-month jail sentence imposed by Judge John  
> Koeltl. Government officials are seeking to impose the original 30- 
> year sentence recommended by the U.S. Probation Department.
>
> If you are unable to attend any of the events below, your  
> solidarity check to the Lynne Stewart Justice Fund is appreciated.  
> Please mail it to: 298 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.
>
> We have also included an article on the tour for your information  
> and distribution.
>
>
> In solidarity,
>
> Jeff Mackler, West Coast Coordinator, Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
>
>
>
> Tour Schedule Feb. 23-28, 2007
> Michael Ratner, Lynne Stewart, Pam Africa, Barbara Lubin, Jeff Mackler
>
> (For details on all events, admission costs, or requests for  
> additional meetings call 415-255-1085. Michael Ratner will join the  
> tour for Feb. 23-25 events only.)
>
> Friday, Feb. 23:
> 10:45 am Oakland Press Conference, John Burris Law Offices 12:45 -  
> 1:45 pm, Boalt Law School at UC Berkeley 2:30 pm KPFA interview  
> 5:30 pm San Francisco Reception (Women’s Bldg. See below.)
> 7:30 pm SF Mass Rally, Women’s Bldg., 3543 18th  St. (between  
> Valencia & Guerrero (near 16th St. BART).
>
> Saturday, Feb. 24:
> 10 am Prison Radio SF Reception at Noelle Hanrahan’s house  
> 415-648-4505
> 2 pm Marin Rally, College of Marin, Student Services Center  
> (Cafeteria) 835 College Ave., Kentfield 415-302-9440
> 5:30 pm Berkeley Reception, Middle East Children’s Alliance, 901  
> Parker at 7th, Berkeley, 510-548-0542
> 7:30 pm Berkeley Mass Rally, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School,  
> 1781 Rose at Grant (near North Berkeley BART).
>
> Sunday, Feb. 25:
> 1:00 pm, Palo Alto Reception, Fireside Room, Unitarian Church (See  
> below).
> 2:00 pm Mass Rally, Unitarian Universalist Church, 505 E.  
> Charleston Rd., near Middlefield, Palo Alto, 650-326-8837,  
> peaceandjustice.org
>
> Monday, Feb. 26:
> 7:50 am: KPFA interview with Ralph Schoenman
> 10:30 am Gray Panther Reception, SF,  415-552-8800
> 12:30 pm, University of SF Law School, Fulton at  Stanyon, Kendrick  
> Hall, 646-729-4303
> 5:00 pm Press Conference, Fresno
> 5:30 pm Fresno Reception
> 7:00 pm Fresno Rally, Mennonite Community Church, corner of Olive &  
> Willow. 559-255-9492; maria.telesco at sbcglobal.net
>
> Tuesday, Feb 27:
> 5:30 pm: Reception, wine and cheese, Santa Rosa Peace and Justice  
> Center, 467Sebastopol
> Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-575-8902, $20.00
> 7:00 pm Public meeting with Lynne Stewart and Jeff Mackler, New  
> College of California, North Bay Campus, 99 - 6th Street, Santa  
> Rosa (only a few minutes away from the Center), 707-568-0112, $10.00
> Additional sponsors are the P&J Center, Free Mind Media, and Purple  
> Berets.
>
> Wednesday, Feb. 28:
> 12:00 Noon, UC Davis School of Law, Moot Courtroom, 734-972-1036
> 5:30 pm Sacramento Reception, 403 21st Street, Sacramento,  
> 916-369-5510 jekeltner at aol.com
>
> Michael Ratner, Lynne Stewart,
> Pam Africa, Jeff Mackler, Barbara Lubin
> “Fighting Back” California tour for civil liberties
>
> “Fighting Back: No one shall be tortured, falsely imprisoned, or  
> denied basic democratic rights” is the theme of the upcoming  
> February 23-28, 2007 San Francisco Bay Area tour of Michael Ratner,  
> Lynne Stewart, Pam Africa and Jeff Mackler.
>
> Sponsored by and a benefit for the Northern California-based  
> Mobilization Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Lynne Stewart Defense  
> Committee, the tour includes some eighteen meetings, rallies,  
> receptions and media events. (See tour schedule on this page).  
> Winning new support for justice and freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal and  
> Lynne Stewart and defending basic civil liberties that are under  
> severe attack today are the central objectives of the six-day tour.  
> Lynne Stewart, 67, free on bail pending her appeal of a McCarthy- 
> era type post-911 conviction on charges of “conspiracy to aid and  
> abet terrorism,” was granted permission to travel to California by  
> presiding District Court Judge John Koeltl. Koeltl shocked more  
> than one legal observer by sentencing Stewart, a
> lifelongcivil rights and political prisoner attorney, to 28 months  
> in prison in the face of Probation Department and prosecution  
> recommendations that she be sentenced to thirty years.
>
> Stewart’s crime? She was the lead attorney defending the blind  
> Egyptian cleric, Shiek Omar Abdel Rachman, who was convicted of  
> conspiracy charges to blow up federal monuments. Former U.S.  
> Attorney General Ramsey Clark and American-Arab Anti-Discrinimation  
> Committee head Abdeen Jabarra, were Stewart’s co-counsels. In the  
> course of her defense effort, in a case where the Wall Street  
> Journal argued that Rachman was innocent, Stewart issued a public  
> press release to Reuters News Agency indicating her client’s views  
> on the policies of the Egyptian government that was then murdering  
> Rachman’s imprisoned Islamic co-thinkers. Federal prosecutors  
> contend that a Bureau of Prison regulation (Special Administrative  
> Measure) prohibited Abdel Rachman contact with outside groups. The  
> government is appealing Koeltl’s relatively short sentence while  
> Stewart is appealing her conviction.
>
> Michael Ratner, president of the New York-based Center for  
> Constitutional Rights, will join the tour for its major Feb. 23-25  
> events in San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin and Palo Alto. Ratner won  
> an historic law suit against the Bush Administration when the U.S.  
> Supreme Court ruled last year that Guantanamo, Cuba detainees,  
> imprisoned and tortured by government interrogators, must be  
> afforded access to U.S. federal courts, that is, granted the right  
> to habeas corpus. This
> victory was essentially nullified soon after when a bi-partisan  
> Congress passed legislation legitimizing torture, but under a new  
> name. The same legislation effectively denied detainees access to  
> federal courts. The Bush Administration had originally argued  
> before the court that detainees had no rights in U.S. Courts  
> because Guantanamo, Cuba was not a U.S. possession. The more astute  
> Supreme Court rejected this contention, thus reaffirming U.S.  
> colonial rule over
> Guantanamo.
>
> Ratner is currently in a battle to use the German court system to  
> file war crimes/torture charges against Donald Rumsfeld, U.S.  
> Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and some eight other U.S.  
> officials responsible for torture in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and  
> elsewhere.
>
> Pam Africa is the central national leader of the political defense  
> of Mumia-Abu-Jamal, the award-winning and innocent African-American  
> journalist on Pennsylvania’s death row for the past 25 years.  
> Jamal’s case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the  
> Third Circuit, with the State of Pennsylvania seeking its third  
> order for Mumia’s execution by lethal injection. In 1982,
> in a trial that has been condemned by groups ranging from Amnesty  
> International and the NAACP to the European Parliament and the  
> presidents of France and South Africa, Jamal was falsely convicted  
> of murdering a Philadelphia policeman. His defense team, headed by  
> attorney Robert R. Bryan, await oral arguments before the court in  
> a major battle that could lead to a new trial and Mumia’s freedom.  
> The possibility of winning a new trial, based on numerous  
> constitutional violations and racist conduct on the part of the  
> presiding Judge and state prosecutor, has rattled the nation’s top  
> lawmakers. In December 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives  
> effectively intervened in the judicial proceedings against Mumia by  
> passing a resolution, with only 33 votes in opposition, to condemn  
> the French city of St. Denis for naming a street after Jamal. The  
> resolution, initiated by two Pennsylvania congresspersons, was more
> intended to pressure the appeals court as it prepares for the final  
> deliberative processes in Mumia’s case, than it was to change the  
> view of St. Denis officials. The latter have visited the U.S. on  
> Mumia’s behalf on several occasions and have rejected the  
> congressional request, pointing to both the racist nature of the  
> legal proceedings against Mumia and to the heinous U.S. death penalty.
>
> Jeff Mackler, tour organizer and director of the West Coast Lynne  
> Stewart Defense Committee and the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu- 
> Jamal is a major spokesperson for both defense efforts and has  
> written widely on both cases.
>
> Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of the Middle East Children’s  
> Alliance will also speak at tour meetings. Lubin is a national  
> leader in the defense of Palestinian rights.
>
> In addition to the immediate Bay Area counties the tour will take the
> participants to Frenso, Santa Rosa and Sacramento as well as to  
> some five area law schools.
>
> The tour is co-sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild, the  
> Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Middle East Children’s  
> Alliance, Vanguard Public Foundation, the Marin Peace and Justice  
> Coalition, and Pacifica Radio Station KPFA. For further information  
> call: 415-255-1085
>
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