Comrade Qasem: We want dignity, freedom and self determination
The liberated prisoner Comrade Woroud Qasem called urgently for a popular movement to take action on behalf of Palestinian prisoners in the jails of the occupation, to uphold unity and resistance, and to unite to confront the occupation. In an interview on August 14, 2012 with the Voice of the People radio, she said “We are one people, with so many martyrs who have fallen in the cause of freedom for our land. We do not want chairs with no power, we want to live in dignity, freedom and self-determination. We have suffered from division for too long and must become one hand so as to prevent the enemy from exploiting the division.”
She said she was shocked to be released, saying she was accustomed to the manipulations of the occupation, and had been promised release more than one time only to then be told it would not happen, saying that this was an attempt to manipulate prisoners’ feelings and emotions. She said that all of the practices and policies of the Zionist occupation could not kill the will of Palestinian prisoners and that those who have been patient for many years can retain their patience again and again.
She said that her feelings at the moment of freedom were indescribable, and she wanted each prisoner to experience those feelings, and the joy of welcome by her family and community. “I did not believe that they were releasing me,” she said, “but when I left the door of the prison, and saw my family there, I felt I had actually been freed. It was a very strange feeling after long years of captivity, and the indescribable joy of seeing my father and mother, my sister, who had been denied visits for an entire year, and my brother and his children, who had been denied permission to visit.”
Comrade Qasem said that the prisoners remaining in the occupation jails suffer from extremely difficult circumstances, harsh measures of repression, and attacks on prisoners in units targeted for raids. She also called for action to save the life of prisoner Lena Jarboni, who is suffering from a serious health condition due to inflammation of the gallbladder because of medical neglect, saying that the occupation prisons deal with prisoners as guinea pigs and that Lena Jarboni was scheduled to receive surgery, which has now been cancelled.
Stand up for Political Prisoner Robert Seth Hayes!
Revolutionary greetings, dear comrades, friends and supporters.
This is Robert Seth Hayes, a former member of the Black Panther Party and a Black Liberation Army combatant. Still incarcerated, yet still progressing, I am determined to have closure to an era of Civil Rights struggles. To those of you who have been partners in solidarity, I extend my arms to enfold you. Let the vibration of my beating heart surround and comfort you. And may my spirit ever illuminate as a light along the path, as you continue your journey of making history. Greetings of profound respect. To all the Sisters and Brothers new to this all inclusive struggle: welcome, thank you, your support and attention are sorely needed.
In June of 2012 I will return to the New York State parole board, and again apply for release. After being originally incarcerated in 1973, I first came up for parole in 1998, and have continued to receive two year hits since then. At present, we are again engaged in fund raising mode for our new legal strategy and have our work cut out for us. We are our own liberators, so we again ask you for assistance.
June of 2012 is the next date where we will again meet our opposition and enter the fight for freedom. We have already accomplished much, but the battle resumes and again we must be prepared.
Please assist us with whatever funds you can contribute in this on going fight to free all PP/POW’s.
Please send contributions for the Legal Defense Fund for Robert Seth Hayes to our director: Nate Buckley, 438 Massachusetts avenue, Buffalo, NY 14213.
If you wish to send a letter to the parole commissioners requesting my release and asking them to bring closure to both our fallen freedom fighters and our communities as a whole, send your letters c/o Cheryl L. Kates, P.C., Attorney At Law, PO Box 734, Victor NY 14564.
Your efforts are honored and appreciated. Stay Strong.
Know that your love and support provides support and strengthens my and others determination to prevail.
As a political prisoner and prisoner of war, I extend to you much love and admiration, from the many who are confined, but who remain still at the heart of the struggle. Much love to you!
With honor and respect, love and solidarity,
Robert Seth Hayes
Plymouth, Massachusetts (Occupied Wampanoag territory): 42nd National Day of Mourning, November 24, 2011.
Photos by redguard
Fake terror plots, paid informants: tactics of FBI entrapment
David Williams did not have an easy life. He moved to Newburgh, a gritty, impoverished town on the banks of the Hudson an hour or so north of New York, at just 10 years old. For a young, black American boy with a father in jail, trouble was everywhere.
Williams also made bad choices. He ended up going to jail for dealing drugs. When he came out in 2007 he tried to go straight, but money was tight and his brother, Lord, needed cash for a liver transplant. Life is hard in Newburgh if you are poor, have a drug rap and need cash quickly.
His aunt, Alicia McWilliams, was honest about the tough streets her nephew was dealing with. “Newburgh is a hard place,” she said. So it was perhaps no surprise that in May, 2009, David Williams was arrested again and hit with a 25-year jail sentence. But it was not for drugs offences. Or any other common crime. Instead Williams and three other struggling local men beset by drug, criminal and mental health issues were convicted of an Islamic terrorist plot to blow up Jewish synagogues and shoot down military jets with missiles.
Even more shocking was that the organisation, money, weapons and motivation for this plot did not come from real Islamic terrorists. It came from the FBI, and an informant paid to pose as a terrorist mastermind paying big bucks for help in carrying out an attack. For McWilliams, her own government had actually cajoled and paid her beloved nephew into being a terrorist, created a fake plot and then jailed him for it. “I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone,” she told the Guardian.
Lawyers for the so-called Newburgh Four have now launched an appeal that will be held early next year. Advocates hope the case offers the best chance of exposing the issue of FBI “entrapment” in terror cases. “We have as close to a legal entrapment case as I have ever seen,” said Susanne Brody, who represents another Newburgh defendant, Onta Williams.
Leonard Peltier moved to Florida
Sept. 14 - According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier has been moved from Oklahoma City to the U.S. Penitentiary at Coleman, Florida.
The United States Penitentiary I in Coleman is a high security facility located in central Florida approximately 50 miles northwest of Orlando, 60 miles northeast of Tampa, and 35 miles south of Ocala.
LEONARD PELTIER #89637-132
USP COLEMAN I
U.S. PENITENTIARY
P.O. BOX 1033
COLEMAN, FL 33521
This is nearly 2,000 miles from Leonard’s Nation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, in North Dakota! Tell the Federal Bureau of Prisons that the only acceptable transfer is one to a medium security facility in close proximity to (within a 500-mile radius of) his family and Nation. Ideally, Leonard should be moved to the medium security facility at Oxford, WI.
Dr. Thomas Kane, Acting Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
320 1st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20534
Phone: (202) 307-3250 (Director); (202) 307-3198 (Switchboard)
Fax: (202) 514-6620
i might actually do this. i would want a birthday card if i was in fucking prison.
Here are the names & addresses for those who can’t read the pic. You can Google the names if you need to know more about the individuals (because to be honest, I can barely read that text and don’t have the spoons right now to try to get it all).
Steve James Murphy
#39013-177
FCI Beaumont Medium
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 26040
Beaumont, TX 77720
September 3, 1966 (better late than not at all, I say)Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
USP Lewisburg
US Penitentiary
PO Box 1000
Lewisburg, PA 17837
September 12, 1944Sekou Kambui (W. Turk)
#113058
Box 56 SCC (B1-21)
Elmore, AL 36025-0056
September 6, 1948Sean Swain
#243205
Mansfield Correctional Institution
PO Box 788
Mansfield, OH 44901
September 12, 1969Brian McCarvill
#11037967
Snake River Correctional Institution
777 Stanton Blvd
Ontario, Oregon 97914-8335
September 27, 1952
(Source: xthugwife)
