Tag Archives: social justice

​’Big Day… for Justice’: US Jury Finds Contractor CACI Liable for Abu Ghraib Torture ​

“This victory is a shining light for everyone who has been oppressed and a strong warning to any company or contractor practicing different forms of torture and abuse,” said one of the Iraqi plaintiffs.

By Brett Wilkins Published 11-12-2024 by Common Dreams

U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith uses a dog to torture a terrified Iraqi detainee at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
 (Photo: U.S. Army)

In a landmark verdict cheered by human rights defenders around the world, a federal jury in Virginia found a U.S. military contractor liable for the torture of three prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison during the invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early 2000s.

The jury ordered CACI Premier Technology to pay each of the three Iraqi plaintiffs $3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million in punitive damages, for a total of $42 million. It is the first time that a civilian contractor has been found legally responsible for abusing Abu Ghraib detainees.

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US House Urged to Stop Bill Enabling Trump to Attack Nonprofits

“The bill could usher in repression on a massive scale,” one critic warned.

By Jessica Corbett Published 11-11-2024 by Common Dreams

Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/CC

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote soon on legislation that would further empower President-elect Donald Trump, who won a new term last week after fear-mongering about the so-called “enemy from within” and vowing to “root out” people he described as “radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Nonprofits and rights advocates are sounding the alarm about H.R. 9495, or the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act. The bill would provide tax relief for U.S. nationals and their spouses who are unlawfully or wrongfully detained or held hostage abroad but also includes legislation to terminate the tax-exempt status of “terrorist-supporting” groups.

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After $16 Billion Election, Nonprofit Tracking Money in Politics Lays Off 1/3 of Staff

“This is an absolutely devastating development on the precipice of the next administration,” said one journalist.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-8-2024 by Common Dreams

Image: OpenSecrets

Journalists and other critics of how money influences U.S. politics expressed alarm and disappointment in response to Friday reporting that shortly after the nation’s latest election, the research nonprofit OpenSecrets had to lay off a third of its staff.

Citing a current staffer, Politico‘s Daniel Lippman revealed that OpenSecrets “laid off 10 employees yesterday due to financial difficulties” and “much of the research team were among the casualties, which constituted around a third of the group’s total headcount.”

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Trump’s Project 2025 is already underway in Argentina, and it’s terrifying

If you can bear to see how Trump would implement Project 2025, look to Argentina – a lab for the global far right

By Diana Cariboni. Published 11-7-2024 by openDemocracy

Argentine president Javier Milei. Photo: Mídia NINJA/CC

As the world absorbs the shockwave of Donald Trump’s win in the US presidential election, the playbook for his second term, designed by a handful of right-wing extremists, is already underway in Argentina.

Project 2025 is set out in a nearly 900-page ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise’, produced by the Heritage Foundation, a rightwing US think tank, as a ready reckoner for the incoming Trump administration. It details authoritarian tactics that exist in various parts of the world, from attacking public education to dismantling policies to tackle climate change to restricting the rights of women, LGBTIQ+ people, migrants, workers and Black people. But if there is one country already trying some of Project 2025’s most extreme policies to weaken the state and render the enjoyment of rights obsolete, it is Argentina.

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Trump’s Planned Immigrant Purge Sends Stagnant Private Prison Stocks Soaring

“The GEO Group was built for this unique moment… and the opportunity that it will bring,” said the firm’s chair.

By Brett Wilkins Published 11-8-2024 by Common Dreams

Attendees hold signs reading “Mass Deportation Now!” during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 17, 2024 Photo: Radley Balko/Bluesky

The chairperson of a leading U.S. private prison corporation on Thursday gushed over the “unprecedented opportunity” presented by the prospect of Republican President-elect Donald Trump delivering on his campaign promise to begin the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants on his first day in office.

As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Trump’s campaign confirmed that “the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants” ever is set to start immediately after the former president returns to the White House on January 20.

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In Tiny State of Maine, a Big Election Day Win Against Dark Money in Politics

“Our greatest hope is to restore people’s faith in our democracy and increase participation across the board,” said the chair of the campaign behind the measure likely bound for the U.S. Supreme Court.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-6-2024 by Common Dreams

A sign in Maine promotes Question 1, which aims to get big money out of politics. (Photo: Maine Citizens to End Super PACs/Facebook)

As billionaire-backed Republicans dominated U.S. elections on Tuesday, voters in Maine—among the top 10 states in terms of smallest populations—overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to limit political spending, an initiative that could reach the country’s top court.

Maine Question 1 targets super political action committees (PACs), dark money groups that, for the most part, are barred from directly contributing or coordinating with a candidate but can raise and spend unlimited amounts of funds.

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Netanyahu Replaces Fired Israeli Defense Minister With ‘Another Genocidal Lunatic’

“Israel just doubled down on prolonging its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza,” said one observer.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 11-5-2024 by Common Dreams

Then-Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz signs a document on August 23, 2023. (Photo: Israel Katz/Facebook)

Palestine defenders on Tuesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of swapping one “genocidal lunatic” for another after the right-wing leader fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and replaced him with Israel Katz, who was serving as foreign minister.

“Israel just doubled down on prolonging its genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza,” journalist and genocide scholar Samira Mohyeddin said on social media following Netanyahu’s moves.

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What poll watchers can − and can’t − do on Election Day

By Mollie J. Cohen and Geoffrey D. Sheagley. Published 11-4-2024 by The Conversation

Screenshot: WOWT

When most people think of their experience of voting in person, they may remember other voters at the polls, or the hardworking election officials checking people in and helping people submit their ballots. But in many elections, a third group is often present: poll watchers.

Poll watchers are ordinary citizens who volunteer to observe elections on behalf of an organization. Many of them do so on behalf of a specific political party. Other volunteers are nonpartisan poll watchers; they observe the action at polling places on behalf of nonpartisan organizations, including domestic groups and international election watchdogs such as the Carter Center or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

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‘Unacceptable,’ Advocates Say as COP16 Ends Without Biodiversity Fund Deal

“Biodiversity finance remains stalled after a deafening absence of credible finance pledges from wealthy governments and unprecedented corporate lobbying,” said one campaigner.

By Julia Conley. Published 11-2-2024 by Common Dreams

COP16 President and Minister of Environment Susana Muhamad of Colombia speaks at COP16, the international biodiversity conference. Photo: COP16

Officials at the international biodiversity conference that began in October were forced on Saturday to suspend talks without reaching an agreement on a key issue of the summit—a detailed finance plan for a dedicated biodiversity fund—after the meeting went into overtime and delegates began leaving.

The failure to reach an agreement on biodiversity finance was denounced by the head of environmental group Greenpeace’s delegation at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which took place over two weeks in Cali, Colombia.

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For one survivor, the 1920 Election Day massacre in Florida was ‘the night the devil got loose’

By Jerald Podair, Lawrence University. Published 11-1-2024 by The Conversation

A historical marker memorializing July Perry’s lynching Screenshot: YouTube

Mose Norman, a Black registered voter, was ready to cast his ballot for presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.

But when he arrived at his polling place on Election Day, Nov. 2, 1920, in the orange grove town of Ocoee, Florida, near Orlando, Norman was turned away by white election officials because of supposed unpaid poll taxes. His name and the names of hundreds of other registered Black voters had been removed from the rolls by white poll workers.

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