Thursday, June 28, 2012

Free The Angola 3

Examining the horrific and tortuous case of the Angola 3 with special guest and former Angola 3 political prisoner, Bro. Robert King.


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Bro. Robert writes: "My name is Robert H. King, a.k.a. Robert King Wilkerson. I am the only freed member of the Angola 3. Along with my comrades Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace we were targeted for our activism as members of the Black Panther Party.

After 31 years in Angola prison in Louisiana, 29 spent years in solitary confinement, I was released in February 2001. Since that time I have been described as an author, a candy maker, a former political prisoner and an activist. However, I just see myself as a person trying to make a difference. My life’s focus is to campaign against abuses in the criminal justice system and for the freedom of Herman and Albert, who are now serving their 40th year in solitary confinement. I may be free from Angola, but Angola will never be free of me…". 40 years ago, deep in rural Louisiana, three young black men were silenced for trying to expose continued segregation, systematic corruption, and horrific abuse in the biggest prison in the US, an 18,000 acre former slave plantation called Angola.

These men are known as the Angola 3, Robert Hillary King (born Robert King Wilkerson), Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace. While inside prison, contact with members of the Black Panthers led to the creation of a prison chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1971. The men then organized prisoners to build a movement within the walls to desegregate the prison, to end systematic rape and violence, for better living conditions, and worked as jailhouse lawyers helping prisoners file legal papers. They organized multiple strikes and sit-ins and called for investigations into a host of inhumane practices commonplace in what was then the “bloodiest prison in the South.” Eager to put an end to outside scrutiny, prison officials began punishing inmates they saw as troublemakers. At the height of this unprecedented institutional chaos, Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King were charged with murders they did not commit and thrown into 6x9 foot solitary cells.

Herman and Albert remain in solitary, continuing to fight for their freedom, over 40 years later. Both men, whose sentences for their original crimes have long since passed, suffer from a range of different medical issues. Amnesty International is calling on the Louisiana authorities to end the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Woodfox and Wallace, and to remove them immediately from solitary confinement.
Please go to http://www.kingsfreelines.com/ and http://angola3news.blogspot.com/ to take action and receive ongoing updates on supporting the release of these political prisoners.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Free Jalil Abdul Muntaqim

Political Prisoner radio show will feature the case of Jalil Abdul Muntaqim with special guests Robert Boyle, an attorney working with Bro. Jalil's case, and Brooke Reynolds, a supporter.


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Jalil Abdul Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom) was born October 18, 1951, in Oakland, CA. Jalil participated in NAACP youth organizing and became a leading member of the Black Student Union, often touring in "speak-outs. " After the assassination of Dr. King, Jalil was recruited into the Black Panther Party by school friends.

At the age of 19, Jalil, a high school graduate and social worker, was captured along with Albert “Nuh” Washington in a midnight shoot-out with San Francisco police. Nearly two years later, Herman Bell was arrested in New Orleans and together these men became known as the New York Three. All three men were specifically named in COINTELPRO documents as members of the black liberation movement who had to be "neutralized."

 In 1976, Jalil launched the National Prisoners Campaign to petition the U.N to recognize the existence of U.S. political prisoners, which was submitted in Geneva, Switzerland after which the UN International Commission of Jurists concluded that political prisoners did in fact exist in the United States. In 1997 Jalil initiated the Jericho Movement for amnesty for all US political prisoners on the basis of international law. Jalil has also filed numerous lawsuits on behalf of prisoners and earned a BS in Psychology and a BA in Sociology in 1994.

Jalil has become a father and a grandfather and practices organizing and advocacy, for which he has been repeatedly punished through physical abuse, formal discipline, and numerous prison transfers. Jalil and Herman are now two of the longest held political prisoners in the US, having served over 30 years. On April 28, 2000, Albert Nuh Washington passed away after a long, painful battle with liver cancer. More info on Jalil Muntaqim is available at http://www.freejalil.com/ and the Jericho Movement is at http://thejerichomovement.com/.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Free Leonard Peltier

David Hill is a member of the Choctaw Nation from Oklahoma and joined the American Indian Movement in the early 1970's. Over his 40 years of dedication and commitment to Native American Rights he has been involved in numerous protests and demonstrations including the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' main office in Washington D.C. and WOUNDED KNEE in 1973.


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David has organized communities and created opportunities for people across the Americas and Canada, focusing on health, housing, employment, economic development, and education for all Indian people. He has also worked consistently in various leadership positions within organizations to gain freedom for Leonard Peltier.The philosophy of self-determination upon which David lives by is deeply rooted in traditional spirituality, culture, language and history. Currently he is teaching traditional spirituality and martial arts to youth.

 Peter Clark is the International Chapter Coordinator for the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense (LPDOC) Committee and Wanbli Tate is a representative of the American Indian Movement.

Leonard Peltier is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Dakota/Lakota Nations who has been unjustly imprisoned since 1976, now having spent over 36 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was a participant in the American Indian Movement, which was targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO program. While assisting the Oglala Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, two undercover FBI agents entered the campground and a tragic shoot-out occurred on June 26, 1975. On February 6, 1976, Peltier was charged with the deaths of the agents and railroaded to trial. Prosecutors and federal agents manufactured evidence against him (including the so-called "murder weapon"); hid proof of his innocence; presented false testimony obtained through torturous interrogation techniques; ignored court orders; and lied to the jury. People are commonly set free due to a single constitutional violation, but Peltier—faced with a staggering number of constitutional violations—has yet to receive equal justice.

Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Leonard is a beautiful artist, humanitarian, and author of the powerful memoir, "My Life is a Sun Dance," and has won several human rights awards, including the North Star Frederick Douglas Award, Humanist of the Year Award, and the International Human Rights Prize. For more info on Leonard Peltier and to support his freedom campaign, please visit http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/index1.htm

Free Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin formerly H. Rap Brown




Guest: Sis. Karima Al-Amin is an attorney at law and the wife of political prisoner Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. In addition to her private practice, Mrs. Al-Amin continues to work with attorneys in appealing her husband’s conviction and in working on his civil lawsuits challenging First Amendment and religious violations. Mrs. Al-Amin is a member of several legal and community organizations, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), the Clarkston Business Association, and the Georgia Association of Muslim Lawyers (GAML). Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, became involved in the civil/human rights movement as early as 1962 and as a result of his activism, speech-making, and 1967 election as Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the U.S. made him a target of COINTELPRO.

On April 11, 1968, the “Rap Brown” Federal Anti-Riot Act against dissent was passed, making it illegal to travel from one state to another, write a letter, make a telephone call, or speak on radio or television with the “intent” to encourage any person to participate in a riot. Imam Al-Amin traveled from 1976 through 2000 to conferences and conventions worldwide and served on boards of major Islamic organizations, continued to work to improve communities in the inner cities of the United States, and served as a broker of peace treaties with street organizations.

Imam Al-Amin was sentenced to life without parole in March 2002, is held in tortuous solitary confinement, and continues to appeal his GA conviction as he maintains his innocence of the murder and assault of two Fulton County Georgia deputies. More info is available at http://freeimamjamil.org. iPetition: Move Imam Jamil Al-Amin/H. Rap Brown Back to Georgia

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Free Oscar López Rivera

Vicente “ Panama ” Alba previously served as a member of the local advisory board of the Free Speech Community sponsored by WBAI, founded the Latino committee within the station, and participated as a member of the nationwide Justice & Unity movement fighting for inclusion of the diverse voiceless communities and many other organizations.


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A former member of the Young Lords Party, Mr. Alba became a political prisoner as the first person arrested in the United States with alleged ties to Fuerzas Amadas de Liberación Nacional (FALN) in 1977. He spent six months in jail before being released on bail and was acquitted five years later. Mr. Alba has been awarded a fellowship by the Charles H. Revson Foundation and is presently writing his autobiography.

Former Puerto Rican political prisoner Ricardo Jiménez was arrested with 11 others on April 4, 1980, in their attempt to achieve independence for Puerto Rico. He was given a 90-year federal sentence for seditious conspiracy and other charges relating to the act of attempting to overthrow the Government of the United States in Puerto Rico. Ricardo was finally released from prison on September 10, 1999, after President Bill Clinton extended him clemency. As of 2011, Jiménez lives in Chicago and works as an HIV/AIDS counselor for the Latino HIV/AIDS support agency, Vida/SIDA, a project of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, arrested in 1981, is serving a sentence of 70 years for seditious conspiracy, for his commitment to the independence of Puerto Rico. He was not accused or convicted of causing harm or taking a life. Oscar is 67 years of age and has served over 30 years behind bars, including over 12 years in torturous condi­tions of total isolation and sensory deprivation. In 1999, President Clinton offered to commute Oscar’s sentence on the condition that he serve an ad­ditional 10 years of clear conduct in prison before being eligible for release. Oscar did not accept the president’s offer, as the of­fer did not include all the Puerto Rican political prisoners at that time. Under the president’s offer, he would have been re­leased in Sept. of 2009. The conditions of Clinton’s 1999 offer to commute Oscar’s sen­tence have been fulfilled. Info on his freedom campaign is available at http://boricuahumanrights.org/category/oscar-lopez-rivera-2/.