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Events

Saturday 11-Sep

Robert Scheer: The Great American Stickup

Sunday 19-Sep

Paul George: Iran and the Bomb - What's the Real Story?

Monday 20-Sep

Paul George: Iran and the Bomb - What's the Real Story?

Saturday 25-Sep

Robert Fisk: Lies, Misreporting, and Catastrophe in the Middle East

Friday 08-Oct

Reese Erlich: Conversations with Terrorists

PPJC TV Broadcasts

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2/21/06 - The Life and Death of Public Records

Terry Allen
In These Times

Buried in a 2004 law on terrorism is text that could bar public access to birth and death certificates for up to 100 years.

2/21/06 - No Child Left Un-recruited

Aviva Ariel
WireTap

Establishing an 'opt-in' military recruitment policy in schools is the only way to prevent students from unknowingly releasing their private information to the army.

2/21/06 - U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review

SCOTT SHANE
New York Times

In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have been removing from public access thousands of historical documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians.

2/20/06 - Privacy Guardian Is Still a Paper Tiger

By Richard B. Schmitt
The Los Angeles Times

Monday 20 February 2006

<b><i>A year after its creation, the White House civil liberties board has yet to do a single day of work.</b></i>

Washington - For Americans troubled by the prospect of federal agents eavesdropping on their phone conversations or combing through their Internet records, there is good news: A little-known board exists in the White House whose purpose is to ensure that privacy and civil liberties are protected in the fight against terrorism.

Someday, it might actually meet.

Initially proposed by the bipartisan commission that investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was created by the intelligence overhaul that President Bush signed into law in December 2004.

More than a year later, it exists only on paper.

Foot-dragging, debate over its budget and powers, and concern over the qualifications of some of its members - one was treasurer of Bush's first campaign for Texas governor - has kept the board from doing a single day of work.

Bob Herbert: The Torturers Win

By BOB HERBERT
NY Times Op-Ed 2/20/06

Justice? Surely you jest.

Terrible things were done to Maher Arar, and his extreme suffering was set in motion by the United States government. With the awful facts of his case carefully documented, he tried to sue for damages. But last week a federal judge waved the facts aside and told Mr. Arar, in effect, to get lost.

We're in a new world now and the all-powerful U.S. government apparently has free rein to ruin innocent lives without even a nod in the direction of due process or fair play. Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who, according to all evidence, has led an exemplary life, was seized and shackled by U.S. authorities at Kennedy Airport in 2002, and then shipped off to Syria, his native country, where he was held in a dungeon for the better part of a year. He was tormented physically and psychologically, and at times tortured.

The underground cell was tiny, about the size of a grave. According to court papers, "The cell was damp and cold, contained very little light and was infested with rats, which would enter the cell through a small aperture in the ceiling. Cats would urinate on Arar through the aperture, and sanitary facilities were nonexistent."

2/18/06 - Spying Probe No, Patriot Act Yes

David Stout
The New York Times

The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush's domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being.

2/18/06 - The Enemy

William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t

They called it "Cyber Storm," and it was a war-game exercise run last week by the Department of Homeland Security. The war game had nothing to do with testing the security of our shipping ports, borders, infrastructure or airports. "Cyber Storm" was testing the government's ability to withstand an onslaught of information and protest from bloggers and online activists.

2/18/06 - We Must Defend Our Nation's Principles

Barbara Lee
t r u t h o u t

When I cast the lone vote against the September 14, 2001, Use of Force Resolution, I believed, as I do today, that Congress had no business authorizing an unspecified war against an unspecified enemy for an unspecified period of time, and I was worried that the over-broad authority of the resolution was vulnerable to abuse.

2/18/06 - Brazil: Carandiru Ruling � a Shock to the Human Rights Community

Amnesty International
Press Release

Brazil�s criminal justice system has failed to uphold international human rights standards, allowing grave human rights violations to go unpunished, said Amnesty International after S�o Paulo�s state Supreme Court annulled Col. Ubiratan Guimar�es� conviction and absolved him of responsibility for the 1992 massacre in the Carandiru prison.

2/18/06 - California Enacts Resolution Critical of PATRIOT Act

Nancy Talanian
Bill of Rights Defense Committee

On Thursday, February 16, the California Senate voted 23-10 in favor of Senate Joint Resolution 10 relative to the USA PATRIOT Act, making California the 404th government entity and the largest of eight states to have done so. The other seven are Alaska, Colorado, Hawai�i, Idaho, Maine, Montana, and Vermont. Beginning in 2002, eleven California counties and 53 cities have passed resolutions. The combined populations of states and communities that have enacted resolutions is now nearly 87 million�roughly one in three U.S. residents. The California Assembly passed the resolution on January 3, 2006.

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