Jericho movement!

I went to a really awesome discussion + documentary last night which spurred me on to a study day today and i have been listening to audio broadcasts on blackwater and speeches from death row inmates. I feel very inspired at the moment, so here is some cool stuff I have been learning!

The jericho movement is a movement to free the 100 + political prisoners in the U.S. www.thejerichomovement.com (it tells it way better than me) The discussion was about 8 of them. Formerly part of the black panther movement of the 60's they were framed in the killing of a policeman in San Fransisco. referred to now as the SF8. With out evidence, witnesses, or a murder weapon they were charged with murder. 3 of them were tortured which produced confessions. the case was later thrown out due to the fact that it is against U.S law to use evidence from coerced testimony. Sooo, fast forward 30 years: in 2003 the same men (6 of them) were tracked down and the trial is again being pursued. The murder of the police officer. they were only recently let out on bail after spending a year+ in prison. (these are senior citizens) The prosecution has yet to introduce any new evidence and a grand jury has thrown out the case 4 (5?) times and they have yet to receive an indictment. The two other "SF8" framed for the san fransisco cop murder did end up in prison after being set up a second time in New York. They have been in jail for 35 years. The main witness who testified against them recanted on public television saying he had been tortured by the police.

The attorney for the SF8 was at the discussion and she brought up how Barack Obama said he might negotiate with Cuba if Raul Castro freed the political prisoners. But what Castro should respond with is he will only deal with America if we free the more than 100 political prisoners that we are holding. The documentary that goes with the 'Free the SF8 movement' links the repression of social justice movements and torture (then) to the war on terror - now to show that this is not a new phenomena, and the tactics are alamingly similar. They talked about how the FBI tried to get them to testify against eachother, but instead it has built the movement to go around the country and talk about how the government is trying to discredit them with evidence that wasn't admissable 30 years ago but might now be because of the war on terror.

other tidbits from my audio lectures of today...

Colombia: about 50% of the military aid is spent on contracts for DynCorp - private defense contractors. - Part of the current negotiations with Bolivia for its Counternarcotics aid proram was that they have to hire out DynCorp for a percentage of its military operations. (although now on hold because bolivia expelled US ambassador) excellent... - Blackwater and Dyncorp and an Israeli defense contract firm were sent to New Orleans in the wake of Hurrican Katrina because Bush had deployed the National Guard to Iraq. This is illegal on so many levels. (military not allowed to patrol u.S cities much less private defense corporations) - there are more than 300 private defense contract firms operating in Iraq. - at the time of research, the average Blackwater employee made more than Gen. Petraeus

audio lectures are awesome!! - also watched the documentary "paying the price" on UN sanctions on Iraq under Clinton and how devestating that was. 500,000 children under the age of 5 died. (by film maker John Pilger)