What is Black Power? When, where, how, and why did it emerge? Taking a look at the Civil Rights movement in the broader context of a Black Liberation Movement, we must examine the concept of Black Power, and look to the revolutionary philosophers of action who both articulated the concept, and actively sought to mobilize and manifest it in the form of empowering communities and creating alternatives. With the ideas and actions of Stokely Carmichael, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton and Angela Davis – among many many others! – we see a profoundly complex, indigenous, grassroots and globally-connected revolutionary movement emerge in the United States in the 1960s, led by young, black leaders, male and female, speaking out against the racism, imperialism, exploitation and domination of the American empire at home and abroad, historically and presently, from Harlem to Haiti to Hanoi.

The Black Panther Party was a particularly active component of the black power movement, organizing free breakfasts, medical care, and education for ghetto residents and children. So threatening to the power structure was the Black Power movement, that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover once declared the free breakfast program to be the “greatest internal threat to the United States.” A look at the Black Power movement helps us understand why it was so threatening back then, and why it’s important to remember today.

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Investigation Shows Agency Used Contract to Censor Whistleblowers

The following press release was issued today by my attorneys and the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC). For the full release visit their website at http://www.whistleblowers.org

Washington, D.C. April 10, 2012. Today, the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) revealed that the FBI required employees to sign employment contracts that are illegal under Federal law. The NWC launched the investigation in response to a nearly yearlong campaign by the FBI to prevent the publication of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds’ new book, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story. Read more È

What Will Happen Today?

A hearing is scheduled today in a federal district court in New York City in a 9/11 case still winding its way through the court system.  The case was brought by thousands of relatives of people killed on 9/11, as well as insurance companies exposed to heavy losses.  The case was originally brought against defendants including members of the Saudi royal family and the Saudi government.  The plaintiffs are seeking to have the government of Saudi Arabia reinstated as a defendant, after it had previously been insulated under theories of sovereign immunity. 

Today’s hearing deals with issues relating to affidavits filed a few weeks ago by two former United States Senators in the case.  The material reportedly in these affidavits raises important questions about the integrity of the government’s 9/11 investigation. The affidavits came from Robert Graham, a former 18 year Senator from Florida, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and chairman of the Congressional Joint Inquiry, along with Robert Kerrey, former Senator from Nebraska and a member of the 9/11 Commission.  Read more È

Banking on Washington

Kenneth Wainstein earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia in 1984, and went on to receive a law degree from the University of California-Berkeley in 1988.  He began working for the U.S. Justice Department in 1989 as an assistant U.S. attorney, with his work including narcotics and public corruption cases.  He served nine years in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington D.C. beginning in 1992, where he rose in rank to become the “Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney.�

In April 2001, Wainstein filled a vacancy and served as Interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.  Four months later, in August 2001, at a time of heightened importance for interdepartmental communication in counterterrorism efforts, he became the director of the Executive Office for US Attorneys at the Justice Department.  This office provided oversight and organizational services for U.S. Attorneys around the country.

During 2001, John Ashcroft was serving as the Attorney General of the United States, being appointed to that position in December 2000 by new President George W. Bush.  Ashcroft then served as Attorney General for the next four years.  At the FBI, within the Department of Justice, turnover was taking place at senior levels during 2001.  Louis Freeh served as Director of the FBI from 1993 until late June, 2001.  Thomas Pickard served as Acting Director of the FBI from June 25, 2001 to September 4, 2001, when Robert Mueller succeeded him. Read more È

… but this started before 9/11 and with a direct link to 9/11

Just finished reading the latest on CIA-Balochistan, and had to write a quick post and share.

ISLAMABAD: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), led by David Petraeus the former Commander, US Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), has a strategic, multidimensional interest in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province. In March 2011, The Peninsula, Qatar’s leading English language daily, revealed that the “CIA is indulging in heavy recruitment of local people as agents (each being paid $500 a month) in Balochistan to locate members of the Quetta Shura, a term used by the Americans for Mullah Omar-led Taliban commanders.�

Over the long term, the CIA has an interest in keeping the strategically important Port of Gwadar out of China’s influence. Over the short to medium term, the CIA also has an interest in supporting Jundallah, also known as People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), a violent organization that claims to be “fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.�

…

The ‘issue’ of Balochistan is an extremely important one; however, I am not sure of the ‘real’ reasons behind the timing for and the sudden intense reportage and US congressional activities on this region lately. Read more È

Rep. Jean Schmidt to Reveal the Sources Who Have Been Paying her Legal Expenses!

Yesterday the Court of Appeals in Ohio issued a decision in the ongoing legal battle between Rep. Jean Schmidt and David Krikorian. Based on the news release by Krikorian’s attorney, Christopher Finney, the Court of Appeals is releasing its decision on the interlocutory appeal that Jean Schmidt filed trying to (i) force the trial court to accept Bruce Fein as Schmidt’s attorney (who is not licensed in Ohio) in the case and (ii) force her to reveal who is paying her attorneys fees as part of the common pleas court case. In that decision, they deny each of Jean Schmidt’s appeals, and reject each argument she made:

This decision is a significant “win” for David Krikorian in that the decisions of Judge Kessler at the trial court have been sustained, and the appeals of Ms. Schmidt have been shown to be without merit. Read more È

The New FBI Trick to Keep the Public in the Dark

The Freedom of Information Act is intended to be one of the American citizens’ key checks against the fraud and corruption that inevitably happens in the corridors of power when information can be hidden behind a secrecy classification. One agency of the government that has been notoriously uncooperative with the spirit and the letter of the FOIA law, however, is the FBI. Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau has zealously guarded some of its key documents and acted to stonewall those seeking access to sensitive records, which are said to include scandalous details of some of the highest ranking political figures of the past century and explosive details of some of the Bureau’s biggest investigations.

This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett examining some of the methods and loopholes that the FBI has used over the years to protect key documents from Freedom of Information requests and hide information from the public, bringing to light the new trick- “blackballing� as part of the Bureau’s standard operating procedure and the troubling question about the nature of governmental secrecy raised by this process.

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*The Transcript for this video is available at Corbett Report: Click Here

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The Government’s Pretexts for Arresting Virtually Anyone

The US government has developed massive surveillance capabilities to monitor communications, travel and financial transactions in this country and abroad. But, even the government cannot monitor everything Americans do—not directly, anyway.  Thus, it created the Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program to enlist your friendly local businesses as spies for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The CAT program, funded by the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program (SLATT) is described as a “tool to engage members of the local community in the fight against terrorism.� The program interprets “local community� to mean businesses, and only registered businesses may access the program’s flyers listing “potential indicators� of terrorist activity.

Each flyer is designed for a particular kind of business. For example, this list was prepared for owners of internet cafes. Unquestionably, someone planning a terrorist attack has engaged in one or more of the “suspiciousâ€� activities on that list. But so, too, have most of the estimated 289 million computer users in this country. Read more È