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RedditDr. Sami Al-Arian could die in jail. The Palestinian computer professor is withering away in a North Carolina medical prison, where he was moved on day 24 of a hunger strike he began January 22 [see Alexander Cockburn, "The Persecution of Sami Al-Arian," March 19]. In December 2005 a Florida jury declined to convict Al-Arian of any alleged terrorist activities despite an exhaustive six-month trial that cost the Justice Department an estimated $50 million. So the government has punished him through other means. Last April Al-Arian pled guilty to one charge (a deal he said he accepted only to end the suffering of his family), and the government pledged to release him and let him leave the country. But a judge recently jailed him on contempt charges for refusing to testify in another case--precisely the scenario his plea agreement was supposed to protect him from. The Justice Department must keep its word to Al-Arian and release him. If not, it is responsible for his fate.
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Sarah Palin's Frontier Justice
Patricia J. Williams: Her appeal to a certain sector of the electorate lies in her willingness to take the law in her own hands--and use public power as a personal weapon.
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Send Karl Rove to Jail
Brave New Films : This sounds like a dream, doesn't it? Well, it's not. We have a unique opportunity right now to send Karl Rove to jail, but only if we take immediate action.
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More Meddling at Gitmo
Ross Tuttle: New evidence sheds light on the inappropriate and corrupting influence of Brig. General Thomas Hartmann on the military commissions process.
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The Ongoing Persecution of Sami Al-Arian
Alexander Cockburn: The US government's shameful auto-da-fé of Sami Al-Arian enters a new phase.
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Bugliosi v. Bush
Brett Story: The famed prosecutor wants to see the President tried for murder in an American courtroom.
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Polygamists' Kids in Their Own Private Gitmo
Richard Wexler: A mass detention. Vague legal charges. Emotional abuse. Hostile overseers. This isn't Guantánamo--it's Texas. And the victims are children the state wants to protect.
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Washington at War
The Petraeus hearings reveal a political class--Democrats and Republicans--trapped in concentric circles of imperial myopia.
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Noted.
Sarah Palin, pit bull in lipstick; Amy Goodman behind bars.
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Tale of Two Conventions
Populist politics in Denver; an elaborate fraud in St. Paul.
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Noted.
Dems and the Constitution, dispatches from Denver, journos rescue our correspondent in Georgia.
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The Biden Bid
It could have been worse--a lot worse.
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We'll Take It From Here
Eight years ago, the people gave the GOP the keys to the country. It's time to take them back.
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Noted.
The I-word, back on the table; Fannie Lou Hamer and the Democrats.
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For a New Economics
The tepid platform Democrats will adopt in Denver isn't a new social contract, but it does go places Republicans never will. Let's hope Obama does better.
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