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08 December 2010 By Stephen
Lendman After the annual Thanksgiving Day
turkey "pardoning" travesty, Obama granted nine
executive pardons, a December 3 White House press
release announcing them by name, date of sentencing,
and offense committed. They date from Russell James
Dixon's June 23, 1960 two years probation for a felony
liquor law violation to Scoey Lathaniel Morris' May
21, 1999 three years probation and $1,200 restitution
for passing counterfeit obligations or securities. The others were for: -- minor illicit drug related
charges; -- illegal possession of
government property; -- conspiracy to defraud the US
by making false statements to the FDA; -- mutilation of coins; -- adultery; and -- passing bad checks. Besides one bad conduct military
discharge/24 months confinement sentence, another
imprisonment for one year/one day, and one 30 day
jailing, the others involved probation (five years
maximum), and/or fines. All were minor offenses,
hardly warranting pardons, especially compared to what
demands executive exoneration and restitution but
never comes. They involve gross criminal
injustice, falsely imprisoning innocent people, some
for murders they didn't commit, hundreds of others for
political advantage, and two or more times involving
human rights lawyers for defending unpopular clients
too vigorously. Prominent examples are listed below. On December 3, New York Times
writer Charlie Savage headlined, "In a First for Obama,
Nine Pardons Are Granted," saying: "For the first time since taking
office nearly two years ago, President Obama exercised
his clemency powers on Friday by granting pardons to
nine people." White House spokesman Reid
Cherlin said: "The president was moved by the
strength of the applicants' post-conviction efforts at
atonement, as well as their superior citizenship and
individual achievements in the years since their
convictions." In fact, he engaged in holiday
season political grandstanding for people he neither
knew of or cared about, compared to responsible action
not taken. Previously he denied hundreds of
commutation petitions and dozens requesting pardons,
many for deserving victims. Why these now are
unrelated to justice, what this or most past
executives never considered. Dozens of previous articles
addressed wrongfully imprisoned victims, mostly men,
several women, and two human rights lawyers - Lynne
Stewart and Paul Bergrin. Both defended unpopular
clients too vigorously. As a result, they were
targeted and railroaded for doing their job honorably,
heroically, and effectively. Mumia Abu-Jamal was falsely
sentenced to death for a 1981 murder he didn't commit.
He remains on death row. In 1977, Leonard Peltier, an
innocent man, got two life sentences for the deaths of
two FBI agents during a 1975 Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation incident. Sami Al-Arian, a prominent Muslim
scholar/activist, was targeted for supporting equity
and justice for oppressed Palestinians and other
democratic value/social justice issues. Ramsey Muniz, a prominent Latino
activist, was framed on bogus drug charges, given life
without parole in 1994. Oscar Lopez Rivera was imprisoned
for supporting Puerto Rican independence, sentenced to
70 years in 1981. A memorable line from Joseph
Heller's "Catch-22" explains much, saying: Clevinger "was guilty, of course,
or he would have not been accused, and since the only
way to prove it was to find him guilty, it was (the
prosecutor's) patriotic duty to do so." In other words, guilty by
accusation, jurors intimidated to convict, justice
always denied. Most false imprisonments targeted
Muslims for their faith, ethnicity, prominence,
political activism, and/or charity - for political
advantage to incite fear, maintain war on terror
hysteria, and enlist popular support for imperial
adventurism, rampaging out-of-control globally and
increasingly at home repressively against anyone
challenging state policy. Other false imprisonments
victimized environmental, animal rights, Black,
Latino, and other civil and human rights activists. All are innocent. None guilty.
None should be imprisoned. All should be
unconditionally pardoned with public apologies and
full restitution. Some deserve Presidential Medal of
Freedom or other honors, not hard prison time, often
involving long-term isolation and grotesque abuses,
including torture, rape, and other forms of
mistreatment. In contrast, nearly always,
undeserving notables get presidential honors, most
recently on November 17. In a White House ceremony, 15
Medals of Freedom were awarded to: -- GHW Bush, an unindicted war
criminal; -- billionaire Warren Buffett,
recently saying: "There's class warfare, all
right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's
making war, and we're winning." In his case, Forbes magazine, in
2010, listed him the world's third-ranked billionaire,
his net worth an estimated $47 billion. -- German Chancellor Angela
Merkel, a released WikiLeaks diplomatic cable calling
her weak, saying she's "risk averse and rarely
creative;" -- former AFL-CIO president John
Sweeney, notable for selling out rank and file members
for privilege, power, and a seat at the table with
corporate CEOs; -- two retired sports figures,
Bill Russell and Stan Musial; plus -- poet Maya Angelou, cellist Yo
Yo Ma, holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein, John
H. Adams (co-NRDC founder), former Irish ambassador
Jean Kennedy Smith, Rep. John Lewis, civil rights
activist Sylvia Mendez, and Tom Little, an optometrist
killed in Afghanistan. Except for perhaps Mendez and
Angelou, none deserve Medal of Freedom honoring, the
nation's highest civilian award, recognizing
individuals who've made: "an especially meritorious
contribution to the security or national interests of
the United States, world peace, cultural or other
significant public or private endeavors." Waging war, making billions,
selling out workers, ill governing, dunking
basketballs or hitting home runs hardly qualify,
unlike a lifetime commitment to democratic values,
universal equity and social justice. US governments flaunt these
principles at home and abroad, including wrongfully
imprisoning innocent victims while, at the same time,
honoring some of our worst and undeserving - a record
of shame and disgrace, Obama perpetuating it, mocking
justice by his December 3 pardons and Medal of Freedom
awards. Stephen Lendman lives in
Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and
listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished
guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the
Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central
time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/. |
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