Legal Activists of Color: We Will Not Be Silent: Movement Grows to Challenge Racial Profiling at Airports

For Immediate Release August 31, 2006

Ninth Circuit Grants Bail for Jailed Journalist Josh Wolf

Lawyers Guild Hopeful, Strong Free Speech Decision Possible

Contact Carlos Villarreal at 415-285-5067 x 10 or Dan Siegel at 510-839-1200 x 4

SAN FRANCISCO - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted bail today to Josh Wolf - the independent journalist and blogger who was jailed August 1st for refusing to turn over video footage to a federal grand jury.

Press Conference

Friday, September 1 at 1 p.m.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit Building

95 Seventh Street in San Francisco

Speakers: Josh Wolf, Attorney Dan Siegel of Siegel & Yee, Carlos Villarreal of the National Lawyers Guild

Since Wolf's jailing a number of organizations besides the National Lawyers Guild have voiced support for Wolf and condemnation of the Federal Government. This month the Society For Professional Journalists made a donation of $30,000 to his defense. The ACLU and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press have both filed amicus curiae on behalf of Wolf. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, led by Ross Mirkarimi and Tom Ammiano, also adopted a resolution this month urging the passage of a Federal Shield Law and condemning the federal government's actions in the Wolf case. The resolution charges that the grand jury is an "attempt to circumvent the local judicial system," since the crime being investigated involves an alleged attack on a San Francisco police car.

"This provides some vindication and we are cautiously optimistic about what the Ninth Circuit will ultimately decide," said Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area. "We are hopeful that the justices are going to consider the importance of a free and independent media, especially when journalists are covering free speech activities."

Josh Wolf was ordered in contempt by Federal Judge William Alsup on August 1st. The US Attorney's Office, led by Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Finigan, wants Wolf to testify before a federal grand jury and hand over a video tape of a protest that occurred in San Francisco's Mission District last July.

Court documents and past news articles can be found at http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org

Questions and comments may be sent to claude@freedomarchives.org

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Courtesy MoveOn

... make sure that America remembers Katrina.

1. Watch "When the Levees Broke" on HBO. Spike Lee has put together a beautiful documentary that captures the full experience of Katrina in a gripping and powerful way-you don't want to miss it. It's screening on HBO tonight and all this month, and since a lot of folks who want to see it don't have HBO, ColorofChange is encouraging folks to watch together. If you can help someone who doesn't have HBO see it click here. And if you don't have HBO, you may be able to find folks hosting screenings here.

2. Write a letter to the editor. The administration's media tour is designed to whitewash the government's terrible response to this disaster. Let's not let them get away with it. The opinion pages are the most popular pages in the newspaper-if they're flooded with our letters, we can help shape public opinion. (There are some talking points below.) Click here to get started.

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Democracy Now!

Hurricane Katrina, One Year Later: Democracy Now! Looks Back to the Days After the Disaster

New Orleans activists and residents have condemned the federal government's refusal to re-open the city's public housing projects and point out that while tourist areas are being developed, affordable housing is not being built. Many of those who have been unable to return home are poor and African American. We speak with lifelong New Orleans resident and civil rights lawyer, Tracie Washington.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/29/1416200&mode=thread&tid=25

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Shocking Lancet Study: 8,000 Murders, 35,000 Rapes and Sexual Assaults in Haiti During U.S.-Backed Coup Regime After Aristide Ouster

A shocking new report in the British medical journal the Lancet on human rights abuses in Haiti finds that 8,000 people were murdered and 35,000 women and girls raped during the U.S.-backed coup regime that followed Jean Bertrand Aristide. Those responsible included Haitian police, United Nations peacekeepers and anti-Lavalas gangs. We speak with the co-authors of the report.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144231

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/01/1338241

We Will Not Be Silent: Movement Grows to Challenge Racial Profiling at Airports

"We Will Not Be Silent" T-shirts

...Now, more and more people are putting on We Will Not Be Silent T-shirts in solidarity when they travel...

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"I Am Not Willing To Kill Or Be Killed For Something I Don't Believe In" - AWOL Soldier Refuses to Return to Iraq

We hear from a soldier who is refusing to fight in Iraq. Mark Wilkerson has been AWOL for more than a year and is turning himself in at Fort Hood in Texas today. In a taped video statement he says, "I am not willing to kill or be killed for something I don't believe in. My morals said going to Iraq was not the right thing to do." I was not going to live a life of violence."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/31/144247

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truthout

The Courage to Say No to War

A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez

08.31.06

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courtesy Detention Watch Network

http://detentionwatchnetwork.org/

September 7th Mass Mobilization! DWN Needs Your Help!

On Thursday, September 7th, there will be a mass East Coast mobilization in Washington, DC to challenge current attacks on immigrants. People are coming from 17 states along the Eastern seaboard. DWN is participating and making this a major network initiative. For this reason, DWN will have a speaker, Barbara Facey, a US citizen who's husband was deported, at the mobilization to make our issues part of the larger debate.

WHEN: Thursday, September 7, 2006 3:30:00pm

WHERE: On the National Mall in Washington, DC between 3rd and 4th Streets about halfway down the field on the side closest to Madison Drive directly across the street from the National Gallery of Art. Look for our big white banner that says, "End Cruel Deportation Laws! Keep Our Families Together and Our Communities Strong!" That's us!

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courtesy ACLU

http://www.aclu.org/

Tell Congress "Enough." Stop Illegal Spying on Americans

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www.wweek.com/editorial/3243/7938

wweek.com

Terror-fying The Greens:

Did investigators use post-9/11 warrantless wiretaps to bust accused

eco-saboteurs?

BY ANGELA VALDEZ

A federal judge in Eugene wants to know whether the government used

warrantless wiretaps to investigate a group of radical environmentalists

charged with committing more than a dozen acts of sabotage in Oregon and

the West between 1996 and 2001...

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Sign Up for email alerts at: http://www.starbucksunion.org Please Forward

Wednesday, August 30, 2006, Associated Press

Starbucks workers' union expands to Chicago

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1860980,00.html

US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds

· Millions of dollars given to opposition, claim critics

· Venezuelan groups' details hidden from list

Duncan Campbell

Wednesday August 30, 2006

The Guardian

The US government has been accused of trying to undermine the Chávez government in Venezuela by funding anonymous groups via its main international aid agency...