Julian Heicklen Expatriates

May 23, 2012 by Free Concord · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Civil Disobedience, Court, Free Concord, International, Issues, Jailed Activist, National, News, Outreach

News has broken today that fully informed jury activist Julian Heicklen has fled the country to avoid a pending warrant out of Santa Ana, California, where he is wanted yet again for distributing educational fliers on the rights of jurors. On May 22, Julian is said to have been granted Israeli citizenship at customs. It is unclear whether the eighty year old pamphleteering pioneer plans on returning to the United States. Freedoms Phoenix has the story.

http://freedomsphoenix.com/Article/112245-2012-05-23-julian-heicklen-flees-united-states.htm

Pending: Coverage from the NATO Protests in Chicago

May 19, 2012 by Free Concord · 7 Comments
Filed under: Copwatch, Free Concord, Free Press, International, National, News, Occupy NH, Photos, Police

After a 27 hour journey with activists from around Massachusetts and New Hampshire, early yesterday morning we arrived in the windy city. Expending almost every battery for the recording devices that I own, there is now upwards of 14 gigabytes of video, image, and audio files waiting to be processed. Throughout the day I filmed scenes from a scheduled rally in Daley plaza (where a cell phone jamming device was being used), an unpermitted march throughout downtown Chicago, and an evening assembly in Grant park. The Chicago Tribune has published photos from Friday’s festivities. Today crowds are expected to continue swelling. Here’s a juxtaposition preview of some of the coverage you’ll soon be seeing at Free Concord. The first image was a much more common sight than the second.

This post originally published at freeconcord.org.

Medea Benjamin Dragged From Press Conference During Drone Killings Monologue

May 6, 2012 by Free Concord · 3 Comments
Filed under: Civil Disobedience, Free Concord, International, Issues, National, New Hampshire, News, Video

It’s a surprise to learn that Medea Benjamin was allowed into a press conference marking the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s mysterious execution. ‘Counterterrorism Advisor’ John Brennan spoke about US military operations overseas, including the use of drones to kill suspected combatants, at the April 30 event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in DC. Medea (whom you may remember from the Jefferson Dance Party) stood and interrupted the official’s speech and spoke out on behalf of innocent victims of increasingly advanced US militarism. The venue was reasonable enough to not ask that she be arrested after police dragged her from the room. Linked you can read Medea’s account of the event, and see the courageous interruption below:

NH News

Today Dave Ridley published an illustrated weekly audio broadcast from Ron Paul on the current state of US foreign intervention. Read more

Free Concord interviews Jack Cole of LEAP at Extravaganja 2012

May 2, 2012 by Free Concord · 1 Comment
Filed under: Data, Free Concord, International, Issues, National, Outreach, Police, Video

From freeconcord.org:

While visiting the 21st annual Extravaganja festival in Amherst, Massachusetts, I had the chance to meet a long-time advocate for a peace declaration in the war on drugs. Jack Cole is one of the founding members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who worked in undercover narcotics for a great portion of his police career. Though he had known for years while working in the field that he was actively harming communities by perpetuating an unnecessary war, it was some time before he decided to make speaking out against the war a major part of his life. Since doing so, he has found it difficult to, in good conscience, not continue to work hard to maintain the momentum LEAP has been building in opposition to prohibition policy.

In this interview, Jack overviews the surprising success LEAP has had since its formation in March 2002. Now spanning 86 countries, LEAP is beginning to have even more active duty criminal justice officials, as early on their public membership was almost exclusively retired individuals. Jack also gets into how the drug war is greatly decreasing the effectiveness of more imperative criminal justice functions because of the ease of fishing in the drug war.

Many thanks to Jack Cole and his fellow spokesmen for LEAP, who undertake the important task of disseminating unpopular truths. See the 13-minute interview embedded below.

Chen Guangcheng Escapes House Arrest

April 27, 2012 by Free Concord · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Corruption, Free Concord, International, Jailed Activist, News

From freeconcord.org:

http://freeconcord.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/chen_guangcheng.jpg

Chen Guangchen (left) after his escape, with Hu Jia

Detained human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped the custody of local government officials who had been keeping him under house arrest since 2010. Chen is known as a lawyer who worked to expose forced abortions and sterilizations among 7,000 women in rural China.

While drawing attention to the human rights abuses in 2006, he was brought up on bogus charges of “deliberately destroying property” and “disrupting traffic”. After serving a four year prison sentence, he was confined to his home, where guards kept constant watch to prevent him from communicating with the outside world. Actor Christian Bale attempted to visit the activist in December of last year with a CNN film crew in tow, and was forcibly blocked from the property.

He reportedly escaped on April 22, and made his way to Beijing, where he released a 15 minute video announcing his safe escape and making requests of Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao. His video statement focuses on urging Wen to investigate the unlawful nature of his detention and the intimidation and physical force used against his supporters, as well as calling for an investigation into corruption at all levels. Read more

New Trifold: The Philosophy of Liberty

March 29, 2012 by Ian · 13 Comments
Filed under: Announcement, International, National, Outreach, Personal Freedom, Shire Society, ToDo, Your Evolution

Perhaps you’ve seen the excellent youtube animation, “The Philosophy of Liberty” and really wished it was available in paper form? Your wish has come true. Now you can easily put the Philosophy of Liberty into people’s hands and at the same time promote the Shire Society. This flyer is suitable for distribution internationally.

Just download our new trifold and send it off to your favorite printer! Thanks to Meg McLain for the always-spiffy design work.

Get it here:
Inside
Outside

See more downloadable and printable outreach tools here.

Peaceful Resistance News – March 26, 2012

March 26, 2012 by DerrickJ · 8 Comments
Filed under: International, News, Radio News, Video

Fr33 Agents Radio News for Monday, March 26, 2012

Stories this week include:

Agent @derrick J reports from FreeKeene in the Shire:
George Clooney Prevents Genocide

Agent @eddiefree reports from the District of Criminals:
Ban To Stop Left-Handed People From Marrying Introduced Into NH Bill

Agent @talleytv reports from FreeKeene in the Shire:
“Chaulkupy” the Police in Richmond, VA

Link to more podcasts here.

Army Pulls Prior Coverage of Alleged Spree Killer Soldier

March 19, 2012 by Free Concord · 6 Comments
Filed under: Free Concord, Free Press, International, National, News

: Robert Bales

A soldier accused of having gone on an unauthorized killing spree in an Afghan village was identified by the military yesterday. On the night of March 12, 2012, it is alleged that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales sneaked out of Camp Belambay in the Kandahar province and gunned down 16 civilians in their homes, nine of whom were children. The 38 year old soldier was on his fourth tour since enlisting after 9/11/2001, and is noted to have suffered at least two injuries on duty. One of the injuries resulted in a concussion, though no brain damage was detected after a military health screening. He was identified after being flown to the United States to await trial in the Fort Leavenworth detention center.

The Army had an article posted on their site which had quoted Bales after a January 2007 battle in Iraq. The detached description of combat feels as though it could have been penned by Matthew Modine’s character Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket. The article, dated February 9, 2009, vanished from servers at army.mil days ago. A cached copy provided an archived version of the story, which thanks to the power of the internet did not disappear. One of the more circulated quotes from Bales in the article is the following, “I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that.”

In the interest of combating censorship, below is the full text of the Don Kramer’s original article, since removed from the army’s public information site. Read more

Fr33 Agents Video News Debut

March 17, 2012 by DerrickJ · 2 Comments
Filed under: International, Video

Fr33 Agents Radio News is now producing video accompaniment for their episodes. This is the first episode. Enjoy and subscribe for more updates on the growing peaceful evolution happening around the globe!

Obama Pressures Yemen to Keep Journalist in Prison

March 16, 2012 by Free Concord · 6 Comments
Filed under: Corruption, Free Concord, Free Press, International, Issues, Jailed Activist, National, News, Thuggery

From freeconcord.org:

Abdulelah Haider Shaye

Abdulelah Haider Shaye is a name most in the western world aren’t familiar with, and Barack Obama would like to keep it that way. Shaye is a Yemeni independent journalist who was covering the impact of military activities in Yemen. He was daring enough to interview some of the most wanted men in the world. Anwar Al-Awlaki met for an interview with Shaye which later broadcast on Al-Jazeera, prior to it becoming known that Awlaki was the first US citizen added to a CIA kill list. In the same month that the interview was aired, Shaye took the initiative to investigate a missile attack claimed by the Yemeni government to have been orchestrated by their military. It was December of 2009 when the village of Majala was targeted as the alleged site of an Al-Qaeda training camp. After the bombing, Shaye traveled to the area and took the pictures which were broadcast by news media around the globe. His report revealed remnants of tomahawk cruise missiles and cluster bombs. Neither of these weapons being in the Yemeni national arsenal, the Made in the USA stamp emblazoned on the debris revealed the true source of the attack. The pentagon refused to comment on the photos and Yemeni officials denied all involvement by the US government. Wikileaks later published a US diplomatic cable which documented Yemeni officials admitting to lying to their parliament about US military coordination. Fourteen women and twenty-one children were killed in the strike (the number of males killed is not known, and assuredly all are automatically assumed to be Al-Qaeda terrorists). The Majala bombing was the first of what would be an ongoing deadly string of aerial assaults by the US military in association with Yemeni state militants. Read more