Jeremy Scahill, author of Dirty Wars, interviewed by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman & Juan González

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Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Civil Rights

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  • Wave of Restrictive Voting Laws Prompts Federal Probes, Grassroots Activism Ahead of 2012 Elections

    U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is vowing to ensure the protection of voting rights in more than a dozen states that have recently enacted controversial laws. Supporters of the laws, backed largely by Republicans, say they are meant to stamp out voter fraud. "When people move on their fears, they make bad law," says NAACP CEO Ben Jealous, co-author of a new report that argues the new laws amount to a coordinated and comprehensive assault...
    Dec 15, 2011 | Story

  • House-Senate Revise Indefinite Detention Bill in Bid to Avoid White House Veto, But Fears Remain

    The House is expected to vote today on a massive $662 billion defense bill that could usher in a radical expansion of indefinite detention under the U.S. government. A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act would authorize the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial. The measure would effectively extend the definition of what is considered the U.S. military’s battlefield...
    Dec 14, 2011 | Story
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    Occupy Wall Street Camps in Los Angeles, Philadelphia Dismantled in Massive Police Raids

    Some 1,000 police officers raided the Occupy Los Angeles encampment in a park outside City Hall overnight, arresting scores of people and evicting what has been the largest Occupy camp in the country. Meanwhile, Occupy Philadelphia protesters vacated their encampment this morning after more than a thousand police moved in and warned them of mass arrests. We get eyewitness updates on both raids from National Lawyers Guild legal observer Ken Montenegro...
    Nov 30, 2011 | Story
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    Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper on Paramilitary Policing From WTO to Occupy Wall Street

    We host a discussion on policing and the Occupy Wall Street movement with Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which helped organize calls among police chiefs on how to respond to the Occupy protests, and with Norm Stamper, the former police chief of Seattle, who recently wrote an article for The Nation magazine titled "Paramilitary Policing from Seattle to Occupy Wall Street." "Trust me, the police do...
    Nov 17, 2011 | Story
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    Occupy Wall Street Evicted in Late Night Raid; Lawyers Secure Injunction to Reopen Zuccotti Park

    Nearly two months into Occupy Wall Street, New York City police have carried out a major crackdown on the protesters’ Lower Manhattan encampment, dismantling tents, confiscating belongings, and arresting more than 70 people. At around 1 a.m. local time, police officers in riot gear circled Zuccotti Park—renamed Liberty Plaza by the protesters—ordering them to leave. Although most people complied, a group of around 200 to 300 people refused,...
    Nov 15, 2011 | Story
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    Inside Occupy Wall Street Raid: Eyewitnesses Describe Arrests, Beatings as Police Dismantle Camp

    The Democracy Now! team rushed down to Zuccotti Park in the middle of the night to report on the police crackdown on Occupy Wall Street. We were there until the early hours of the morning, witnessing the arrests in the streets in Lower Manhattan and the dismantling of the encampment — and the hauling away protesters’ belongings. "They can’t pull wool over our eyes. They can’t put nothing in our eyes that’s going...
    Nov 15, 2011 | Story
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    Top Aide to Oakland Mayor Resigns over Occupy Raid: Mayors, Police Are Doing Wall Street's Business

    The raid in New York City came one day after police officers cleared the Occupy Oakland encampment in California and arrested 32 people. Two prominent members of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan’s team have resigned over the past day. Hours before Monday’s raid, legal adviser to the mayor’s office, Dan Siegel, resigned to protest the city’s crackdown on the Occupy movement. Last night, Deputy Oakland Mayor Sharon Cornu also stepped...
    Nov 15, 2011 | Story
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    Colleagues of Slain Kansas Abortion Doctor George Tiller Continue His Fight for Reproductive Rights

    A federal judge has blocked the impact of one of the laws aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood, ordering Kansas to restore federal family planning funds to a clinic that claims it suffered "collateral damage" from the law because it would be forced to close, leaving 650 mostly low-income patients without access to reproductive healthcare services. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, and the unaffiliated Dodge City clinic,...
    Oct 19, 2011 | Story
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    "News for All the People": Juan González & Joseph Torres on the Epic Story of Race & the U.S. Media

    After seven years of research, the groundbreaking new book, "News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media," examines how the media has played a pivotal role in perpetuating racist views in the United States. It recalls lives of the unsung pioneering black, Latino, Native American and Asian-American journalists who challenged the worst racial aspects of the white-owned media. It also tells the untold story of...
    Oct 13, 2011 | Story
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    Rev. Jesse Jackson Honors the Late Civil Rights Stalwarts Fred Shuttlesworth and Derrick Bell

    This week, the civil rights movement lost two of its torchbearers. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth died at the age 89, and Derrick Bell died at the age of 80. Rev. Shuttlesworth led the struggle to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the last of the civil rights movement’s "Big Three," founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy. A legal...
    Oct 07, 2011 | Story