Texas Death Row Prisoner Reginald Blanton Executed

Reginald Blanton

In Texas, death row prisoner Reginald Blanton was executed Tuesday night. He was twenty-eight years old. Blanton was convicted for a 2000 robbery-slaying but maintained his innocence until his death. There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime. Defense attorneys say prosecutors relied on coerced testimony and may have unfairly excluded blacks from the jury pool.


FBI Accused of Authorizing Racial Profiling
The FBI is coming under scrutiny for recently disclosed policies that critics say legitimate racial profiling in its operations. The policies are contained in the FBI’s “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide,” which was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. According to the New York Times, the manual lays out a “low threshold” to open probes of a person or group deemed to pose a potential security threat. It also cites ethnicity or religion as a legitimate factor in determining persons or groups to investigate. The manual explicitly instructs agents not to engage in racial profiling, but allows for factoring in “specific and relevant ethnic behavior” and calls for “identifying] locations of concentrated ethnic communities.” Farhana Khera, of the group Muslim Advocates, said, “We think the FBI should be focused on following actual leads rather than putting entire communities under the microscope.”


Ethiopia Appeals for Emergency Food Aid
Ethiopia is appealing for $175 million in emergency food aid amidst the worst drought to hit eastern Africa in ten years. Ethiopia says some 6.2 million people are in dire need of assistance. Humanitarian advocates say the appeal underscores the severity of Ethiopia’s food crisis twenty-five years after the 1984 famine that killed one million people. In addition to emergency aid, Paul Smith-Lomas of Oxfam said that richer nations should allow Africa to become more self-sufficient in producing food.
Paul Smith-Lomas: “When an emergency appeal like this comes out, the donors must respond, and people do need food. But we also think that longer-term funding is needed, too. Now, there are ways in which you can do a certain amount of both. If more money for emergency food aid was invested inside the region, then we could be recycling the economy far more. We could be promoting local agricultural investment far more than buying grain from somewhere on the other side of the world.”


International Day of Climate Action Marked in 181 Nations
Activists across the globe rallied on Saturday to call on world leaders to take strong measures at the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen. In an international day of action, people in 181 nations organized more than 5,200 events. The main organizing group 350.org called Saturday the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history. The events centered on the number 350. Scientists say 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are currently at 387 parts per million. Around the shore of the Dead Sea, Israeli activists made a giant 3, Palestinians a huge 5, and Jordanians a 0. In the Maldives, protesters took part in an underwater protest to raise awareness of how rising sea levels might affect the island nation. In Ethiopia, some 15,000 people gathered in a massive rally on Friday calling for a strong international climate change treaty. Gopal Dayaneni of the Movement Generation spoke on Saturday at a rally in San Francisco

Gopal Dayaneni: “The story of the solution to our problems begins with the communities on the ground, on the front lines of the root causes of this problem: the communities in Richmond who are fighting Chevron, the communities in Appalachia who are fighting coal, the communities in Alberta who are fighting tar sands, indigenous peoples all over this planet fighting to protect their forests and their livelihoods, fisherfolk all over this planet fighting industrial trolling. Those communities on the front lines of this struggle are the source of our solutions.”
Greenpeace field organizer Lauren Thorpe also spoke in San Francisco.

Lauren Thorpe: “We are going to have more hurricanes, more forest fires, and if we don’t do anything, the sea levels will actually rise. So this movement today is calling for those solutions to global warming that will prevent that from happening. And it’s a doable thing, but we have to act now, and we have to act fast. And we need the solutions that are at the actual scale of the problem, so we need strong, bold leadership from our president.”


October Deadliest Month of Afghan War for US Troops
October is the deadliest for the US military of the eight-year Afghan war. At least fifty-five US troops have died this month, surpassing the previous record of fifty-one set in August.


Obama Administration Opposes UN Call for Lifting Cuba Embargo
The UN General Assembly has voted to call for an end to the US embargo on Cuba for the eighteenth consecutive year. The non-binding measure drew support from 187 countries, with the US joined only by Israel and Palau in opposition. Addressing the assembly before the vote, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla criticized the Obama administration for extending the embargo.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla: “Since the election of President Obama, there has not been any change in the implementation of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. The blockade remains intact. It continues to be an absurd policy that causes scarcities and suffering. It is a mass, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights. The international community cannot nor should not accept that those who govern in Washington feel they have the authority to implement coercive economic measures and extraterritorial laws against sovereign states.”

After Parilla spoke, the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, defended the Obama administration’s support for continuing the embargo.

US Ambassador Susan Rice: “It is erroneous to charge that US sanctions are the cause of deprivation among the Cuban people. The US maintains no restriction on humanitarian aid to Cuba. In fact, the US is a major source of humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people and the largest provider of food to Cuba…Mr. President, because it does not reflect current realities, my delegation will vote against this resolution. At the same time, the United States will continue to work to expand opportunities for the people of Cuba to empower themselves through access to information and resources.”


Illinois Prosecutors Seek Records of Students Investigating Wrongful Convictions
The New York Times is reporting prosecutors in Illinois have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabi, expense reports and email messages of journalism students at Northwestern University. The request targets students who are part of the Medill Innocence Project that has helped lead to the release of eleven prisoners who were wrongfully convicted. Prosecutors are focusing on the students who conducted a three-year investigation into Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of fatally shooting a security guard in 1978. A judge is now reviewing McKinney’s case. As part of its review, lawyers in the Cook County state attorney’s office say that in their quest for justice in the old case, they need every pertinent piece of information about the students’ three-year investigation. But Northwestern is challenging the request, saying it is ridiculously overreaching, irrelevant to McKinney’s case, in violation of the state’s protections for journalists and a breach of federal privacy statutes.


Lawmakers Denounce Calls to Probe Islamic Group for Intern Spying
In Washington, a group of lawmakers representing three minority caucuses is denouncing a Republican proposal to investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, on allegations it’s sending spies into congressional offices. Four Republican lawmakers called for the probe after a recent book called Muslim Mafia accused CAIR of planting spies posing as congressional interns. The only verified intern spying to come out of the book is that of the co-author’s son, who posed as a convert to Islam and worked as an intern in CAIR’s Washington offices. Speaking on the House floor, Congress member Keith Ellison of Minnesota read a statement from the Congressional TriCaucus.

Rep. Keith Ellison: “These charges smack of America 60 years ago, where lists of ‘un-American’ agitators were identified. We should be affirming the importance of diversity and tolerance for all interns and staff who serve in Congress, without suspicion of being identified as spies. The idea that we should investigate Muslim interns as spies is a blow to the very principle of religious freedom that our Founding Fathers cherished so dearly.”


Thousands March on Banking Meeting in Chicago
In Chicago, thousands of people marched on a gathering of the American Bankers Association Tuesday. The march capped the last day of the Showdown in Chicago, organized by a coalition of union and community organizations to protest the Wall Street bailout. Chicago public healthcare worker Angenita Tanner was among those to address the crowd.
Angenita Tanner: The banks have not held up their end of the bargain. Foreclosures are at a record level. Small business lending is down. Unemployment is at a twenty-six-year high, and banks are spending millions of our dollars fighting against financial reform. The banks have not met the conditions of their $17.8 trillion loan from taxpayers. So they are in default, and we want our money back!"


Activists Protest Mercenary Trade Association Meeting
The International Peace Operations Association is holding its annual conference in Washington this week. The trade association represents mercenary groups and private military contractors, including DynCorp and Triple Canopy. A coalition of activist groups, including CODEPINK, Split This Rock, Africa Action and the Hip Hop Caucus, held a protest Tuesday to counter the mercenary conference.

Independent journalist Jeremy Scahill: “While these merchants of death are meeting in Washington, DC, human rights activists and other concerned people are going to be gathering to protest these mercenaries. And we’re not only going to be addressing the use of mercenaries in Afghanistan and Iraq, which we know well is continuing unabated, but also the use of mercenary forces on the African continent, which is a story that basically never makes it into the corporate media. There are mercenaries that, once again, are operating in the Congo, in Somalia, in the conflict in Ethiopia and Eritrea. And so, we’re gathering to try to shut down this whole privatized war apparatus and to raise awareness of this Bush administration policy that the Obama administration is continuing and escalating.”


Obama Declares Swine Flu National Emergency
President Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency. The emergency declaration allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive federal rules for hospitals, permitting them to set up alternate treatment sites for H1N1 patients, such as schools, community centers or even tents. Demand for the H1N1 vaccine continues to outstrip supply. Nationwide, only 11 million doses have been distributed, not the 120 million federal health officials had expected to have by now.


NYC Mayor Bloomberg Breaks Campaign Finance Records
The New York Times is reporting New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has spent more of his own money in pursuit of public office than any other individual in US history. Newly released campaign records show Bloomberg has spent $85 million so far on his latest re-election campaign and is on pace to spend as much as $140 million before the election on November 3. That means Bloomberg, in his three bids for mayor, will have easily burned through more than $250 million. In the current race, Bloomberg has spent at least fourteen times more than his Democratic rival, William Thompson.


Auto Dealers Win Exemption from Consumer Agency Mandate
The investigative news website ProPublica is reporting meanwhile that intense lobbying has stripped the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency of powers to oversee the nation’s auto dealers. The House Financial Services Committee voted to establish the agency last week. But the panel overwhelmingly approved an amendment to remove auto dealers from the agency’s purview. That effectively means that while financial firms that provide auto loans will be regulated by the agency, that regulation would stop when the loans reach the dealers.


US Officials to Travel to Honduras
Senior US officials will travel to Honduras this week to press ousted President Manuel Zelaya and the country’s coup leaders to break a stalemate in a four-month-old political crisis. This marks the first time since the coup that the Obama administration has taken a leading role in pressuring the leaders of the de facto government to restore democratic order in Honduras. On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with both Zelaya and Honduras’s de facto leader, Roberto Micheletti. Officials said Clinton told the two leaders that there was “increasing frustration” over the deteriorating situation in Honduras. Clinton is said to have reserved her toughest comments for Micheletti, because the United States believes he has been “the most difficult.”


Fidel Castro’s Sister Admits She Spied for CIA
In other news from the region, Fidel and Raul Castro’s sister has admitted she spied on her brothers for the CIA in the 1960s. Juanita Castro disclosed her role as a spy in a new memoir. Juanita initially hailed the Cuban revolution but later became disillusioned by the actions of her brothers.


Dems to Probe CIA for Misleading Congress
Democratic lawmakers have opened a probe into whether the CIA has illegally misled Congress on intelligence activities. Democratic Congress members Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Anna Eshoo of California say the CIA has misled Congress at least five times since 2001 on cases including the torture of prisoners, the shooting down of an airplane over Peru, and the Bush administration’s secret assassination program. The CIA may have violated the National Security Act of 1947, which says Congress must be kept “fully and currently informed” about all intelligence operations.


Obama Signs Record $680B War Bill, Extends Military Commissions
President Obama has signed into law the $680 billion National Defense Authorization Act, the largest military spending bill of its kind. The bill includes funding for the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and modifies the military commissions system at Guantanamo Bay. The changes include new restrictions on hearsay and coerced testimony, although without barring them completely. The law also increases prisoners’ access to evidence and witnesses. But civil liberties advocates say it still falls far short of adhering to international law and the Geneva Conventions. Children could still be tried as war criminals, and terror suspects—now known as “unprivileged enemy belligerents”—could be tried for offenses not traditionally considered “war crimes.” Jameel Jaffer of the American Civil Liberties Union said, “Closing the [Guantanamo Bay] prison will have little meaning if the administration leaves in place the policies that the prison has come to represent.” At the signing ceremony, Obama said the measure had trimmed excessive military spending.

President Obama: “I have always rejected the notion that we have to waste billions of dollars of taxpayer money to keep this nation secure. In fact, I think that wasting these dollars makes us less secure. And that’s why we have passed a defense bill that eliminates some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense process—reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops, and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.”

Despite Obama’s praise, the bill included several military spending projects he had opposed, including $560 million for a new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine the Pentagon had rejected. Overall, the bill increases spending $24 billion from the last fiscal year. The bill also includes a law expanding the definition of hate crimes to cover those targeted because of their sexual orientation, granting new protections to lesbian, gay and transgender people under federal law. The measure was named after Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming university student who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence, and left to die in 1998.


Record AfPak Drone Attacks Under Obama May Violate International Law
Investigative reporter Jane Mayer of The New Yorker magazine revealed last week the number of US drone strikes in Pakistan has risen dramatically under President Obama. During his first nine-and-a-half months in office, Obama authorized at least forty-one CIA missile strikes in Pakistan, a rate of approximately one bombing a week. That’s as many drone attacks as President Bush sanctioned in his final three years in office. The attacks have killed between 326 and 538 people, that’s according to Jane Mayer. She writes, quote, “there is no longer any doubt that targeted killing has become official US policy.”

One of the most high-profile critics of the US drone program has been the United Nations human rights envoy, Philip Alston. On Tuesday, he said the US government’s use of Predator drones may violate international law. Alston is the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions. He raised the issue in a report to the UN General Assembly’s Human Rights Committee Tuesday and said the US should explain the legal basis for using unmanned drones for targeted killings. Alston also presented a critical report on the drone program in June to the UN Human Rights Council, but, he says, US representatives ignored his concerns.

© Copyright 2006 SeeingBlack.com

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