Take Action
Indefinite Detention Without Charge or Trial?
It's un-American, unjust, and it won't make us safer, but the National Defense Authorization Act gives the president the authority to indefinitely detain suspected terrorists without charge or trial.
That's right, the president need only accuse a person of being linked to al Qaeda or any other terrorist group hostile to the U.S. or to any of our "coalition partners" to command the military to haul them in. Without charging them of a crime, or bothering with a trial.
The House has already passed the bill, the Senate will vote soon, and President Obama will either sign or veto the bill
Call and email your Senators to tell them to vote NO on NDAA.
Click here to tell President Obama to veto the NDAA.
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"Why are y’all gearing up like this is war?"
-- Sgt. Shamar Thomas, a U.S. marine, confronting police at Occupy Wall Street in New York (10/15/11).
On October 25, police in Oakland, California, armed with lethal and so-called less-lethal weapons, dressed in riot gear, protected by helmets, shields and bullet proof vests, responded to unarmed protesters with tear gas, ‘flash bang’ grenades and ‘bean bag rounds’, resulting in the critical injury of one protester, Scott Olsen. Olsen, an Iraq War Vet who did two tours of duty in Iraq without injury, is recovering in the hospital, but the attack on him has brought necessary attention to police use of ‘less lethal’ weapons during protests.
DDF immediately issued a press release condemning the actions of the Oakland police and calling on police departments across the country to immediately pledge to stop using less-lethal weapons including rubber bullets, bean bags, tear gas, baton rounds or concussive (flash bang) grenades against unarmed and peaceful protesters. Use of these weapons can seriously injure protesters, and make a volatile situation more dangerous for both protesters and police.
Click here to sign our petition against disproportionate police force against protesters!
You love your technology, but did you know that it's all fair game for government snooping -- without a warrant? That means documents in the "cloud", pictures on your mobile phone, emails, even your phone's gps data... and that's a whole lot of information!
The government's power to read your email, access your private photos stored online and track your daily movements is defined in a 1986 law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The privacy protections of ECPA have not been updated since 1986. They say that the government can access your communications and surveil you without getting a warrant from a judge. Isn't it time for privacy to catch up with technology? DDF has joined with Center for Democracy and Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU and dozens of other civil liberties groups in a petition campaign. The petition says:
The government should be required to go to a judge and get a warrant before it can read our email, access private photographs and documents we store online, or track our location using our mobile phones. Please support legislation that would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) to require warrants for this sensitive information and to require the government to report publicly on the use of its surveillance powers.
Join the call to get Congress to reform ECPA by signing the petition here.
Stop Team B!
A Commission to
Study "Domestic Radicalization"?
A measure attached to the Intelligence Authorization Bill (passed
by the House on September 9) will create a Counterterrorism Competitive
Analysis Commission, or a 'Team B' of outsiders tasked with second-guessing
Intelligence analysts. Many readers will remember the original 'Team
B', created during the cold war by our good buddies Dick Cheney and
Don Rumsfeld, who thought CIA analysts were too soft on the Soviet
Union. They needed a commission that could validate their view that
Moscow was militarily dominant, so they created the commission, got
the answers they wanted, publicized the findings and drove up the
military budget. Problem is, that 'Team B' got it wrong.
Fast-forward to the war on terror, and an Administration that Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) thinks is soft on terror, or more specifically, soft on American Muslims. He needs a commission to provide an official platform and credibility for his views and those of the entire Islamaphobia industry. The language of the amendment obscures Wolf's agenda, stripping it of all reference to Islam, asserting instead that "terrorism and domestic radicalization represent evolving and dynamic threats to the United States."
A coalition of civil liberties and civil rights groups has written to Senator Feinstein asking her to cut the measure out of the Intelligence Bill. See the letter here.
Call Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, at 202-224-1700. Ask her to scrap the Wolf amendment (technically, Section 310 of the Intelligence Authorization Bill).
Talking points:
- The Wolf amendment is all about political and religious ideology,
which is protected by the Constitution. Government efforts to fight
terrorism should focus on criminal behavior, not constitutionally
protected beliefs.
- Representative Wolf's fear-mongering agenda and attempts to vilify
Muslims should not be given an official platform
- We don't need a "Team B" of political appointees to second
guess professional U.S. Intelligence analysts
If your Senator is on the
Senate Intelligence Committee, please call their office also. You
can reach all offices by calling the Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121
Democrats: Feinstein, Rockefeller, Wyden, Mikulski, Nelson, Conrad,
Warner
Repubublicans: Chambliss, Snowe, Burr, Risch, Coats, Blunt, Rubio
Support the Irvine 11!
Public speakers get interrupted all the time. Usually the hecklers get carted off, maybe they spend the night in jail, and that is usually it. But when 11 Muslim students disrupted a talk by Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. at the University of California Irvine, authorities came down hard. The students were arrested and threatened with expulsion; the Muslim Student Union (the group that organized the protest) was suspended for a semester and put on probation for two years. The Orange County District Attorney charged the Irvine 11 with conspiracy to disrupt a meeting, which could mean six months in jail.
The protest occurred on February 8, 2010, so the D.A. has pursued this case for a year and a half. It is expected that the trial will last about a year. A bit much, isn’t it?
The trial started on August 29 with jury selection. Opening arguments are expected to begin on September 7.
Here is how you can support the Irvine 11:
1. Attend the Trial
We need as many people are possible to attend the trial. It's vital for the community to come out in solidarity with the Irvine 11 and their family members. A lot of media is attending the trial on a daily basis so we need to show them that we care about the cause.
To make it easier on the attendees, we have two daily shifts from 8:30am - 12:00pm and 1:30pm - 5pm. However, we encourage people to attend both shifts and attend multiple trial dates. We are estimating that the actual trial will take place from September 7th to September 23rd. If any unexpected changes occur, we will be sure to update all attendees via email the night before.
You can sign up here: http://www.irvine11.com/attend-the-trial/
2. Raise Awareness via Social Media
Over the past year, we've seen the power of social media to mobilize change and educate people about social causes. We encourage Irvine 11 supporters to use social media as a platform to inform others about the Irvine 11 and ask others to attend the trial.
Change your Facebook
picture
- In order to raise awareness about the case, please change your facebook
picture to the Irvine 11 flyer attached to this email. We want to
be united community and this is one way to draw attention to the cause
and stand in solidarity with the Irvine 11.
Update your Facebook/Twitter/Google
+ with Irvine 11 Updates
- Write your own personalized messages in support of the Irvine 11
and encourage people to attend the trial.
- We will be posting up daily updates on the Irvine 11 facebook and
twitter so please be sure to repost them onto your own profiles.
3. Donate
The Muslim Legal Fund of America is still collecting donations to pay for the Irvine 11 legal fees. Please donate here: http://www.irvine11.com/donate-to-the-legal-fund/
4. Write Op-Ed Letters and respond to comments on Irvine 11 Media Coverage
We encourage supporters to write opinion articles and letter to the editor about the Irvine 11 case. If you'd like us to review your articles or would like a list of media outlets to submit your letters to, please email us at info@irvine11.com.
There are also a lot of negative and ignorant comments about the Irvine 11 on articles published about the case. Please take the time to respond to these comments to show support for the 11.
