Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Jun 21st, 2010
Will Potter discusses the prison-within-a-prison Communications Management Units (CMUs) designed to silence non-violent activist prisoners, and why the erosion of individual rights (even of prisoners) negatively affects us all.
Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on May 11th, 2010
Andy Stepanian of the SHAC 7 speaks out against secretive prisons called Communication Management Units.
Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Apr 16th, 2010
This week we learned that the government has proposed making secretive prisons for “domestic terrorists,” which have been operating for 3 years on U.S. soil, permanent.
In this video Rachel Meeropol and Alexis Agathocleous, attorneys at the Center for Constitutional Rights, discuss the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Communications Management Units, or CMUs:
Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Apr 14th, 2010
Secretive political prisons for “domestic terrorists” called Communications Management Units have been operating for more than three years on U.S. soil. Last week the federal Bureau of Prisons quietly submitted a proposal to make the experimental units permanent: a process that, by law, should have occurred before they were ever opened.
As a quick introduction, there [...]
Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Oct 2nd, 2009
Jeff “Free” Luers was released from prison early today after a Lane County Circuit Court Judge signed a supplemental judgment granting him an additional 30 percent reduction in his total incarceration time. In 2001, Luers was sentenced to 22 years, 8 months in prison for burning three SUVs in the name of defending the environment. [...]
Posted in Activists Arrested, Federal Terrorism Laws, Legal Issues, Legislation, Prisoner Support on Sep 30th, 2009
Four animal rights activists are facing charges under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act for chanting, demonstrating with masks covering their faces, and chalking defamatory slogans on the sidewalk. If convicted, the “AETA 4,”—Joseph Buddenburg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope, and Adriana Stumpo—could be sentenced to 5-10 years in prison.
The AETA 4 case is a startling example [...]
Posted in Activists Arrested, Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Jun 25th, 2009
This morning Andy Stepanian and I were on Democracy Now talking about secretive political prisons called Communications Management Units. Stepanian is believed to be the first inmate ever released from one of the secretive facilities; he is one of the SHAC 7, a group of animal rights activists convicted of “animal enterprise terrorism” for running [...]
Posted in Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Jun 9th, 2009
The Huffington Post has published a letter from Daniel McGowan about his transfer to a Communication Management Unit without notice, without explanation, and without due process for appeal. [Here is some background on Communication Management Units, if you are unfamiliar.]
Here’s an excerpt from Daniel McGowan’s essay on the Huffington Post:
Many of the men here (both [...]
Posted in Activists Arrested, Legal Issues, Prisoner Support on Apr 17th, 2009
I was on Democracy Now this morning talking about my investigation of Communication Management Units, secretive prison facilities housing inmates of being tied to “terrorism” groups. They overwhelmingly include Muslim inmates, along with at least two animal rights and environmental activists. Here’s the video from the segment.
It was really an honor to be on the [...]
Posted in Federal Terrorism Laws, Legislation, Prisoner Support on Mar 18th, 2009
Two federal Green Scare prisoners, Jonathan Paul and Daniel McGowan.I have sat through so many sentencing hearings for environmentalists and animal rights activists when the judges and prosecutors have noted, and even applauded, how activists are not like “typical” defendants. By this, they mean that the defendants have solid education backgrounds (some even pursuing law [...]
The War on Terrorism has come home. Corporations and politicians are labeling activists "eco-terrorists" and national security threats. Think red-baiting, with a green twist. Here you'll find original reporting and analysis of the Green Scare, and history repeating itself.