Customer Reviews:
Wonderful View On Apartheid.......2006-01-24
Steve Biko definately showed his views on black conciouseness in this book. This really proved that he was a wonderful and brilliant man. I am definately glad that I read this.
cry freedom.......2001-07-06
i think steve biko was a man of right he is so wonderful and when i read the book and wached the video i was tuched by the words that donnaled woods had used i have his book under my bed and i pray evey night that i can be just like steve biko i wish that the people that did that to him should have died strate away and go toHELL. i would love to have seen him and tell him HE HAS MAKE A DIFFERENT I LOVE STEVE BIKO PEACE OUT TO THE BLACK
A brilliant understanding of oppression.......2000-04-26
This book is an excellent source for seeing the experience of apartheid from which the theory of black consciousness emerged. Biko lucidly articulates both the people and the regime he found himself in conflict with, and parallel's between his appraisal and his idea's are made clear. A must read for anyone who wants to get a full understanding of black consciousness.
Book Description
Aldo Moro's kidnapping and violent death in 1978 shocked Italy as no other event has during the entire history of the Republic. It had much the same effect in Italy as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had in the United States, with both cases giving rise to endless conspiracy theories. The dominant Christian Democratic leader for twenty years, Moro had embodied the country's peculiar religious politics, its values as well as its practices. He was perceived as the most exemplary representative of the Catholic political tradition in Italy. The Red Brigades who killed him thought that in striking Moro they would cause the collapse of the capitalist establishment and clear the way for a Marxist-Leninist revolution.
In his thorough account of the long and anguished quest for justice in the Moro murder case, Richard Drake provides a detailed portrait of the tragedy and its aftermath as complex symbols of a turbulent age in Italian history. Since Moro's murder, documents from two parliamentary inquiries and four sets of trials explain the historical and political process and illuminate two enduring themes in Italian history. First, the records contain a wealth of examples bearing on the nation's longstanding culture of ideological extremism and violence. Second, Moro's story reveals much about the inner workings of democracy Italian style, including the roles of the United States and the Mafia. These insights are especially valuable today in understanding why the Italian establishment is in a state of collapse.
The Moro case also explores the worldwide problem of terrorism. In great detail, the case reveals the mentality, the tactics, and the strategy of the Red Brigades and related groups. Moro's fate has a universal poignancy, with aspects of a classical Greek tragedy. Drake provides a full historical account of how the Italian people have come to terms with this tragedy.
Book Description
Reba Freeman has loved two men in her life. Her current husband, Carl, has supported her through their twenty-year marriage and given her all the material wealth a suburban wife could hope for. Reba is comfortable, if not necessarily content, in her life with Carl and their blossoming teenage daughter, Marisa, until she learns that her first love and first husband, Joseph Thomas, has been detained by the World Court of Human Rights.
Joseph, a peaceful, gifted Liberian student, had dreams of returning to his native land and educating his people for the betterment of his country. Reba respected his strength and wanted to support his cause, but didn't accompany Joseph to Liberia after graduation due to mysterious circumstances. Now, twenty years later, she must decide if finding out what has happened to her first husband is worth the risk of losing Carl and turning her comfortable world inside out.
Alternating between present-day action and a series of flashbacks, Accident of Birth creates an intricate tapestry of suspense, drama, and romance, while also looking at the moral and cultural differences between African Americans and Africans. Neff boldly exposes the rift between American comforts and the traumas of the world we choose to ignore, creating a moving and memorable story of courage and hope that readers will talk about for a long time.
Customer Reviews:
Love is Life.......2005-10-22
"Reba, a marriage is only happy when out of two minds comes a single future. A man and a woman may love each other very much. But they must also share a sense of purpose and a similar vision. They must be happy with the way their lives unfold together, and satisfied with the manner in which they live." Heather Neff captured my life in these sentences. Her book is a realistic portrayal of the circumstances life can pound into out hearts. She has created two characters who feel not only how to love, but how to live when living doesn't seem worth it. She has molded a story that reminds the reader f how hard the truth can truly be. Her characters will remind you of people in your life and you will relate to what she is saying. I think anyone who has ever given up someone or something in order to 'do what is right', must read this book. I can assure you, you will finish the book in less than two days-you won't want to put it down. READ this book.
Education is Political.......2005-01-23
ACCIDENT OF BIRTH by Heather Neff is not just a story of a romance between an African-American woman and a Liberian man; it is also a story of political unrest in Liberia. When Reba Freeman attends a fictional historical and religious Christian college in Baltimore, Maryland, she meets and falls in love with Joseph Vai Thomas. Joseph is majoring in Education with hopes of returning to his country to form a school to educate his villagers. What begins as typical college lust quickly spirals into a passion-filled romance with consequences neither Reba nor Joseph can imagine. Something so egregious occurs that Joseph runs back to his native land and Reba is left to wallow in her sorrows in the United States.
Twenty years later Reba is married with one child and living in an affluent Northern Virginia suburb. She also works for the Office for the Placement of Permanent Refugees. Joseph is imprisoned for crimes against humanity in Switzerland. Upon learning of his fate Reba uses her professional training to locate him, but her unresolved feelings wreak havoc in her household.
Neff expertly takes the story from present day to the past and back again as she allows the reader to become fully enveloped in Reba and Joseph's courtship and its affect on her family and friends. Utilizing settings such as the Baltimore-Washington metro area, Detroit, Reba's birthplace, and the cities of Monrovia and Taylorville, Liberia, we get a visual sense the characters' surroundings. We are treated with lessons of the political and educational climate in both the United States and Liberia and finally, the relationships and misunderstandings among African-Americans and Africans. Neff allows her characters to grow and change through the course of the novel with detailed accounts as to how and why. Excellent work, highly recommended and could serve as a basis for a truly educational discussion.
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
An Engaging Book Of Social Importance.......2004-12-05
Accident of Birth is a compelling drama about Reba, a woman caught between two loves. Her present husband Carl and her ex husband.
A story about holding on then realizing you have to let go and move forward. When her ex husband is held for crimes against humanity Reba is compelled to help him, putting a strain on her marriage to Carl, but Reba needs closure. This is a great book club discussion book because of the many issues it represents. The relationship between Africans and African Americans, the difference in traditions and customs. This makes you painfully aware of the social standards in America and the need for understanding and tolerance. The unjust treatment of people simply from an accident of birth. I was left satisfied, with an ache and a smile.
An engaging book of social importance. A powerful read.
Reviewed by:
Dawnny
Product Description
Fact vs. Fiction about 9/11 What if the official version of events on 9/11 could be disproven solely on the basis of physics, mathematical equations, scientific formulas, physical evidence, and expert testimony without the use of a single conspiracy theory? Might this dramatically alter your perspective on 9-11 and the war and security policies that are based on it? That is exactly how 9-11 on Trial disproves the governments official story which it happens to be using to suspend our normal, peaceful, constitutional American way of life. Did you know that never before nor since 9/11 has a steel building ever collapsed due to fire? Yet on 9-11, three of them supposedly did just that in seven hours with WTC 7 not even being hit by an airliner. All three steel-frame buildings hit the ground at free-fall speed physically impossible unless all resistance beneath was blown away by controlled demolition. Even the government admitted in their final FEMA report that The heat produced by burning jet fuel does not by itself appear to have been sufficient to initiate the structural collapse. How to explain the pools of molten steel which were found bubbling 70 feet beneath the towers five weeks after 9-11? A temperature of 5,182 F is needed to melt steel yet the estimated heat of the fires in the WTC was only between 300 F and 500 F, and jet fuel can only reach a maximum temperature of 1,517 F in ideal conditions. 9/11 on Trial is the final answer to obfuscation, intimidation and disinformation, because it is clarity itself.
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- Great Adventure With Canadian Background!!!!!!!
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Through Love's Trials
Julie Coulter Bellon
Manufacturer: Spring Creek Book Company
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ASIN: 193289814X |
Book Description
Kenneth King, a successful Arizona attorney, finds himself facing the most difficult trial of his life—and it's not in a courtroom. He's asked to deliver a mysterious disk to Emma James an attorney in Utah, but as soon as Kenneth agrees to it, his life is turned upside down. His home is broken into, he's shot at, and an attorney at his firm is murdered. Is he next?
Kenneth contacts Emma, and is drawn to her immediately, but she is a strong-willed single mother who doesn't want anything to do with the disk—or with him. However, when Emma suffers a brutal assault that is possibly linked to the disk, Emma's father, an agent in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service steps in to help Kenneth protect her and find out who wants them dead.
The tension builds as Kenneth and Emma find themselves in a race against time to stop an attack on North America's defenses. Will the Canadian government be able to help them before the United States is attacked? Will Kenneth and Emma let down their defenses enough to make it through love's trials?
Customer Reviews:
Great Adventure With Canadian Background!!!!!!!.......2005-09-08
I thoroughly enjoyed this breath of Canadian fresh air. I was sent this book by Julie herself as a BD gift and I had never read her 2 books as yet, but she is a gifted writer, wish this little gem of a novel would have been longer, as I felt the intrigue was way too short and wanted more. The ending in the courtroom was the perfect humourous ending to a great first novel. I also liked the down-to-earth characters. I highly recommend this new author. If you like clean novels, this is for you. I'm looking forward to lots more from Julie!!!!!!
Amazon.com
Stephen Jones, the chief defense counsel for Timothy McVeigh, the first of two men convicted in the tragic 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, lays out a case that McVeigh and Terry Nichols, also convicted in the bombing, did not act alone. In his attempt to defend McVeigh, Jones traveled the globe to turn up every possible scrap of information that might lead him to the "others unknown" cited by the grand jury that heard evidence in the bombing case. Some of the evidence is compelling, including the severed leg that did not match any of the victims; Jones is convinced it belonged to "John Doe number two," an unidentified man credited with planting the bomb in the Murrah Office Building. Jones also lays out a very strong argument that Terry Nichols was in touch with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists in the Philippines and that he asked them to help him build a bomb. But Jones's refusal to break his attorney-client privilege by discussing anything that McVeigh said to him forces the author to walk a tightrope, revealing nothing about his client's role in the bombing while trying to outline the potential involvement of others.
Non-conspiracy buffs may find it far-fetched that the United States government would want to cover up information about the possible involvement of Muslim fundamentalists or white supremacists in the bombing, but Jones has two arguments to support the idea. First, he suggests, the government was trying to cover its tracks for not having heeded various danger signs before the bombing took place. In addition, this was too big and too horrible a crime to go unpunished; it had to be closed without question and with no suspects left at large. For those who are persuaded by Jones's arguments, the chilling question remains: when--and where--will the "others unknown" strike next? --Linda Killian
Book Description
In this startling book, the state-appointed chief defense counsel for Timothy McVeigh argues that to assume that the bombing of the Murrah Office Building in Oklahoma City was merely the work of two "mad bombers" is to ignore the real meaning of the most serious episode of terrorism in American history. Others Unknown does not merely reconstruct the trial. Stephen Jones had access to a vast amount of research material and possesses an insider's understanding of the behind-the-scenes politics shaping the case. His decision to reveal in this book what was not presented at trial was made out of a firm conviction that it is in the national interest to do so. The true story of the Oklahoma City bombing has not yet been told, and to misunderstand what happened on that April morning is to take the unacceptable risk that a similar tragedy may occur again. Stephen Jones reveals the evidence and theories that didn't make it to trial: that the plot may have involved more than two people; that the government may have known about the bombing in advance; and that it may have covered up evidence.
Customer Reviews:
An Important Analysis.......2004-02-08
Stephen Jones blends an insightful analysis of the events that have transpired since April 19, 1995 and the date of McVeigh's execution in Terre Haute, Indiana based on two important premises: The government investigation was incomplete and McVeigh did not receive a fair trial. This is as much a book for law students as it is for conspiracy artists. Jones' southern charm comes forth in his capacity as author yet his role as defense lawyer never escapes the reader. Jones covers his bases much of the time, pointing out early in the prologue that he would not have been able to write this detailed account of his conversations with McVeigh had McVeigh's appellate team attacked his capacity as a lawyer during McVeigh's trial.
This book is far from sensational and actually is closer to a calm, reasoned look at both McVeigh as a person and United States v. McVeigh as a trial set in perhaps the most bizarre and compromising circumstances in the past fifty years. This book perfectly suits any law school course involving mass destruction or suits any university course concerning political dissent or even the political science of law.
Good on the facts but needs to go deeper.......2002-01-03
Others Unknown put into print what the majority of thinking Americans sensed about the Oklahoma City Bombing.
There had to be more people involved.
It all started with the FBI drawings of mystery man number 3, who was described by no more than 3 people to have been with McVeigh. He looked Middle Eastern. Hmmm, nope no terrorist acts would ever occur on American soil right. Then the second little facts that weren't put to light, the bomb making materials that they had receipts for would never have been enough to do that sort of damage. And on it goes.
The interesting thing is that Stephen Jones (the author and McVeighs attorney) even points the finger at Osama Bin Laden back in 1998. Hello is anybody listening. Hindsight is great, but I think we all knew there was more than meets the eye about this ordeal.
The weakest part of the book is that MR. Jones never delves deep enough into why the government cover-up. He barely scratches the surface, but I think that is the real mystery. Why was the government not screaming that we know there was at least one other person involved and we need to find him? Is it simply that Bill Clinton didn't want to rock the boat? Could it have been that he was trying to create a legacy for himself, other than ????gate (you fill in the scandal)? Did he think naming an Arab as a suspect might destroy peace talks with Israel and Palestine? These are all only conjectures but the book should have hit these issues harder.
Overall a good book, especially for the ignorant Americans who are spoon-fed their daily dose of propaganda from CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, Etc., and think its news.
The Government Given Way to "Power, Venality, and Display".......2001-07-31
Stephen Jones, the lead counsel for Timothy McVeigh, writes an engrossing book that is not only about his client's case, but gives equal treatment about a nefarious government reminescent of Rome of the Roman Empire. In his writings Jones not only presents many deficiencies in the Federal government's case against McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing, but also paints the picture of a government agency completely hell-bent on "winning." Jones, in advocating for his client, contends that the prosecution's case was incomplete and circumstantial; exculpatory evidence was either withheld or stalled that could have helped in giving McVeigh a fair trial.
In his analysis, Jones does raise enough doubt in McVeigh's "direct" involvement in the bombing, and more that one can of worms is opened. For example, an extra leg is found in the Murrah Building rubble that does not belong to any victim. Additionally, several red flags that are discovered by Jones and his team may imply that the bombing was planned from abroad. For example, how can only two men plan and execute such a bombing of such magnitude, something said to be impossible by bomb experts in other countries where this kind of thing is routine? Jones questions Terry Nichols' ignorance of the OKC bombing plans. Nichols made several trips and many telephone calls to the Philippines, a hotbed of terrorist activity -- that's never taken seriously in connecting Nichols, much less in mitigating McVeigh.
Jones' book is also his own biography foray into a high profile case that transformed his life and his beliefs about U.S. justice. His book, as he writes, is not meant to cash in on this case, but to expose the truth. Jones believes McVeigh should have been found not guilty (Read especially the acknowledgements!), and portrays his client as a man, not the demon characterized by the press. Although Jones does not offer why McVeigh was involved at all, this would seem to be covered by attorney-client privilege. Despite this, whether or not Jones convinces the general public of the facts that McVeigh did not receive a fair trial and that the government successfully hid the truth is left for the reader.
Eye opener........2001-04-12
This spring I enrolled in PSCI 398 Domestic Terrisom. As part of my outside reading, I came across this book. I found that it was very informative and offered a new insight into what happend in Oklahoma City. Though I read this book on my own time, it gave me lots of good ideas on how to explore the question that plagued my class "What is domestic terriosm?" This books explains why everyone including the guilty deserve a defense.
Mea culpa for Tim McVeigh's lawyer.......2000-10-08
In trying to justify his defense of Tim McVeigh, which needs no defense, since we all know everyone is entitled to a good defense no matter what the crime, Stephen Jones tries to convince us that Tim McVeigh may not be guilty of bombing the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, or at least that there are a number of others involved.
His main defense consists of trying to convince the reader that certain eye witnesses do not agree with each other on important sightings of McVeigh, but you don't have to know much about legal proceedings to know how unreliable eye witnesses can be. Another strong pillar of his defense is the finding of an unidentifiable leg in the bomb debris. A leg that apparently belongs to none of the known victims. Presumably, the owner walked away on his remaining leg and never showed up at any hospital in the area. Presumably, the medical examiners trying to patch up numerous body parts got it all right and could not have made a mistake.
On top of that, Jones was a party to fake confession of McVeigh's that was designed to confuse far right milita units who might be talked to admitting things they knew about, since Tim had already taken credit for the bombing. This little subterfuge backfired on the defense when the Dallas Morning Times illegally learned about it and proceeded to tell the world about the confession, not realizing it was fake.
But like all murder trials, you can't help but feel the accused is guilty when he won't take the stand in his own defense. McVeigh taking the stand was never even considered as far as I can determine from this account of the story. And since McVeigh would rather go to his death, and Nichols to life in prison, rather than incriminate anyone else, one can only conclude they are truly guilty.
Nevertheless, I recommend this book to all buffs of courtroom trials and conspiracy buffs who can probably have a lot of fun with it.
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Show Trial Under Lenin: The Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Moscow 1922 (Studies in Social History)
M. Jansen
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 9024726980 |
Book Description
"9-11 on Trial" proves, in a dramatized courtroom setting, that the government's official version of events regarding the collapse of the World Trade Center towers is a complete and total fabrication. By using physics, scientific equations, mathematical formulas, the laws of nature, physical evidence, and expert testimony, we shred the government's version of events beyond repair.
Customer Reviews:
Flattening the Pancake Theory.......2007-03-28
Victor Thorn's book "9-11 on Trial" flattens the pancake theory of the World Trade Center tragedies that has become the current equivalent of the magic bullet theory regarding the assassination of President Kennedy, vulnerable but being promoted by powerful political forces because some kind of answer was needed.
Thorn uses the approach of a tough prosecutor in a courtroom in crafting this work that offers a different speeding bullet every chapter. The prosecution theories are developed in a question and answer format based on information culled from 48 listed sources.
The pancake theory has been presented by believers in the conventional government theory that was further buttressed by the Official 9/11 Commission Report, which critics denounced for its failure to interview critics of the government's view and accompanying failure to look beyond superficial alleged supportive evidence.
A theory was needed to embrace a rapid-fire collapse of skyscrapers resulting from crashing airplanes and resultant fires in the impacted buildings. The pancake theory loomed as a chain reaction choice explaining how the buildings collapsed.
Thorn flattens the pancake theory by pointing out some convincing facts about the construction and composition of the World Trade Center buildings. For one thing, there did not appear to be significant fire damage to bring the buildings down. It is pointed out that a Madrid skyscraper had endured after days of burning without collapsing. So did buildings in Los Angeles and Philadelphia following hours of fire damage.
Firemen on the scene at the WTC were quoted as stating that the fires were not of particularly significant strength while one telltale photo was taken of a woman waving out the window from one of the buildings amid fire activity.
Another significant argument refuting the pancake theory resides in the potent composition of buildings constructed to endure in the wake of the sternest tests from nature and other elements. The strongly reinforced concrete and sturdy layers of steel made the buildings invulnerable to destruction in the manner described.
Another point intelligently raised is that the telltale damage at ground level is consistent with explosive detonation rather than fire. Respected Protestant clergyman Reverend Robert Schuller commented in an interview after visiting Ground Zero that he observed tremendous amounts of dust on the ground. This is consistent with decimation by explosion rather than piles of charred rubble, which would have resulted had fire been the cause of the buildings' collapse.
Numerous comments from on the scene witnesses ranging from first responders to occupants of the destroyed buildings who escaped to safety, as well as nearby bystanders, described explosions. Loud sounds were repeatedly heard prior to the collapse of the buildings.
Fox News could hardly be considered a critic of the Bush Administration's 9/11 position. A Fox 5 News commentator on the scene nonetheless delivered the following spontaneous comment while videotaping a large white cloud of smoke billowing near the base of the South Tower.
The commentator exclaimed:
"There is an explosion at the base of the building ... white smoke from the bottom ... something has happened at the base of the building ... then, another explosion. Another building in the World Trade Center Complex."
Teresa Veliz, manager of a software development company located at the World Trade Center, revealed, " ... There were explosions going off everywhere. I was convinced that there were bombs planted all over the place and someone was sitting at a control panel pushing detonator buttons ..."
These are only two of many sources quoted within the pages of a revealing book that should serve as a wakeup call to America for the need of an independent investigation into the causes of the 9/11 tragedies.
Classic Example of Public Intelligence.......2007-03-03
This is yet another of the many excellent books from Pregressive Press, with lots of details and lots of common sense.
My only regret is that despite the many excellent blogs and websites surrounding the 9-11 lies and deceptions, there is still no single sense-making facility that could "rack and stack" specific individuals like Dick Cheney, Rudy Guliani, and Larry Silverstein such that the public could demand, and get, indictments and grand jurys and everything else.
911 was an inside job! .......2006-09-15
911 was an inside job!
The author tells the truth, 911 was an inside job and our government is evil. I hope more people read this book so they can resist this terrorist government. God bless Victor!
Shows Tip of the Iceberg of Public Corruption.......2006-06-28
The trial style of this book can seem dry, at first. Every chapter represents different type of testimony/evidence. It has a thorough bibliography. After reading every chapter of this book one overwhelmingly understands that the mass murder of 3000 people at the World Trade Center was an inside job that was covered up by our own government.
There was never any governmental crime scene investigation. Indeed the evidence seemed to disappear about as fast as the buildings came down.
The recent newfound evidence of thermate by BYU Professor Jones and the realization by scholars all over the country that the odds against the veracity of the official version of events is about a trillion to one makes me strongly feel that this book serves a very important function as an introductory primer as to the extent that the corrupt influences in this country (actually a worldwide power) will go to attain their evil goals.
This book demonstrates why and how the major media dish put propaganda on behalf of these influences and that it behooves all Americans to develop their own independent sources of news information so one can increase their wisdom and knowledge.
Decent Overview of 9-11.......2006-01-23
I have been a 9-11 doubter since around November 2001 and have absorbed nearly everything I could find on the subject. It goes without saying that 9-11 was an inside job and if you do enough truth searching you will see just about every kind of theory out there. One does have to be able to weed out a lot of junk. That being said this is a good book to add to your 9-11 library.
I came across this book while reading a message board. When I ordered it I did not know that Thorn had a beef with nearly every other 9-11 doubter out there. Something about this is very fishy to me. I believe that Thorn has a solid enough message to not have to denegrate others to get his point across. He should just let his work stand on its on merit and stop HATIN' or the true patriot movement is no better than the dems and reps.
Book Description
The 9/11 attacks were not the first operations by foreign terrorists on American soil. In 1942, during World War II, eight Germans landed on our shores bent on sabotage. Caught before they could carry out their missions, under FDR's presidential proclamation they were hauled before a secret military tribunal and found guilty. After the Supreme Court's emergency session upheld the tribunal's authority, six of the men were executed.
Louis Fisher chronicles the capture, trial, and punishment of the Nazi saboteurs in order to examine the extent to which procedural rights are suspended in time of war. One of America's leading constitutional scholars, Fisher analyzes the political, legal, and administrative context of the Supreme Court decision Ex parte Quirin (1942), reconstructing a rush to judgment that has striking relevance to current events.
Fisher contends that the Germans' constitutional right to a civil trial was hijacked by an ill-conceived concentration of power within the presidency, overriding essential checks from the Supreme Court, Congress, and the office of the Judge Advocate General. He reveals that the trials were conducted in secret not to preserve national security but rather to shield the government's chief investigators and sentencing decisions from public scrutiny and criticism. Thus, the FBI's bogus claim to have nabbed the saboteurs entirely on their own was allowed to stand, while the saboteurs' death sentences were initially kept hidden from public view. Fisher also takes issue with the Bush administration's mistaken citing of Ex parte Quirin as an "apt precedent" for trying suspected al Qaeda terrorists.
Concisely designed for students and general readers, this newly abridged and updated edition provides a cautionary tale as our nation struggles to balance individual rights and national security, as seen most clearly in the recent Supreme Court decisions relating to Yaser Esam Hamdi, Jose Padilla, and the "detainees" at Guantanamo.
This book is part of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.
Customer Reviews:
highly relevant, esp. to legal scholars.......2005-10-04
The previous review is right on; I would add that this book is succinct, and the prose is clear and laypersons should find it understandable. Indeed, laypeople might want to understand the problems that this 60-year-old case poses to our society now. The 9/11 attack and the subsequent Bush Administration order creating special military tribunals -- "military commissions" of the type that tried the 1942 saboteurs -- has inspired several new books on this incident. Mr. Fisher's book distinguishes itself in focusing on the legal importance of this case -- that became the Supreme Court's Ex Parte Quirin ruling. Quirin is still important case law in questions of special tribunals and wartime detention of enemy suspects. Further, and Mr. Fisher brings this out, the Bush Administration's tribunal system seems to be patterned on FDR's.
I recommend this and Louis Fisher's 2005 work, Military Tribunals and Presidential Power to those interested in post-9/11 legal issues.
Were Nazi saboteurs mistreated?.......2003-05-22
REVIEWED BY PHILIP GOLD http://www.washtimes.com/books/
The Congressional Research Service, part of the Library of Congress, is filled with people who do fine work. Among the best is Louis Fisher, legal scholar and CRS senior specialist in Separation of Powers. Mr. Fisher combines a plain, effective style with a mature analytic sense. The result has been over three decades of books and studies that - blessings upon the taxpayer - actually inform and affect the real world. "Nazi Saboteurs on Trial," which Mr. Fisher intends as a prelude to his definitive history of American military tribunals, is only the latest example.
This short, meticulously researched monograph assesses one of the stranger legal escapades of World War II. The facts of the case are not in question. What matters is how the military and civilian court systems performed, the interaction of the executive and judicial branches, and whether that episode should or could serve as precedent for the trial of terrorists and other "unlawful combatants" by military means.
Mr. Fisher's answer: While such types do not and should not enjoy automatic access to the U.S. civilian court system and its protections, the use of military tribunals raises questions that cannot and should not be ignored.
The facts of the case are these.
In the 1941 "Sebold Affair," the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with the help of William Sebold, a German turned American counterspy, rolled up over 30 Nazi agents. Adolf Hitler, perturbed, demanded that English-speaking saboteurs be dispatched to America, there to smash factories and railroads and Jewish-owned department stores, spread panic, and generally make themselves a nuisance. German intelligence, the Abwehr, didn't think much of the idea, but deemed it prudent to keep the Fuhrer happy.
So they went out and recruited the original Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight: eight Germans who had lived in the United States (two of them naturalized citizens), but had returned to Germany in the '30s for various reasons. None was the brightest tree in the forest; group cohesion and mutual trust might be described as negative, at best. Still, the eight were given a few weeks' training, then toted aboard two submarines.
In June, 1942, one group landed in New Jersey, the other in Florida. They came ashore in German uniforms, which would give them combatant status in case of immediate capture. They then changed into civvies, buried their tradecraft, and walked off with not much more than their ample moneybelts and orders to win one for the Fuhrer.
They were apprehended quickly, mostly because one of their number, George Dasch, called the FBI to let them know they'd arrived. Perhaps none of the men intended actually to commit any sabotage. None did. But that didn't keep six of them from the electric chair that August, and two others from life sentences.
Justice, such as it was, came swiftly and questionably. President Franklin Roosevelt, taking a grim special interest in the case, determined to try them by secret military tribunal. He appointed the members and decreed himself the sole reviewing authority. Further, the tribunal would not be a standard court martial, governed by the Articles of War and other legislation. It would be an ad hoc commission, governed by the "laws of war" (a nebulous category) and empowered to make such procedural changes as it deemed expedient.
Among them: Although civilian and military courts could not impose the death penalty for actual acts of sabotage, this tribunal could, and did, for acts that were never committed, and may never have been intended.
Clearly, this setup raised numerous questions regarding the separation of powers, military jurisdiction in time of war, and of fundamental fairness. One of the defense attorneys petitioned the Supreme Court, which effectually evaded the issue until after the executions, then issued its opinion in Ex Parte Quirin - a document that did nothing for the luster of the Court, then or since.
In essence, concludes Mr. Fisher, the Supreme Court functioned as "an arm of the executive." It reaffirmed that enemy combatants have no constitutional right of access to civilian courts; that the two citizens had forfeited their citizenship by taking up arms; and that when they took off their uniforms, they became "illegal combatants" who could have been shot out of hand, but who were graciously afforded a trial.
Finally, the Court held that it could not assess the trial itself, since that was secret.
In sum, a mixed set of precedents, ranging from common sense to dereliction of duty. And the question arises - will we be able to learn from the affair to make the handling and disposition of terrorists and other "illegal combatants" both more effective and more just?
Or will we be fortunate even to do as well?
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Terrorism on Trial
Michael P. Scharf
Manufacturer: Carolina Academic Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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General
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| Professional & Technical
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ASIN: 0890894396 |
Book Description
Prior to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, by far the worst case of air terrorism committed over Western soil was the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988. It took investigators three years to piece together what happened and who was responsible. It took another eight years of shuttle diplomacy to bring the accused Libyan intelligence officers to trial before a Scottish court set up on a retired U.S. airbase known as Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. On January 31, 2001, the Scottish Court issued a mixed verdict, finding one of the accused Libyan agents guilty of the bombing of Pan Am 103 and the murder of 270 people. The verdict, however, left more questions than it answered, since it did not implicate those higher up in the Libyan government, nor did it rule out the possible involvement of other rogue states and terrorist groups in the bombing.
This book recounts the extraordinary detective story and tale of international diplomatic intrigue which led to the unusual trial at Camp Zeist. This is followed by a narrative of the trial, which highlights the prosecution's missteps, controversial rulings from the bench, and shocking revelations from key witnesses. The author is an international law professor who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won a National Book Award. As counsel to the U.S. State Department's Counter-Terrorism Bureau during the Pan Am 103 investigation, and Attorney Adviser for U.N. Affairs when international sanctions were imposed on Libya, the author fills the pages of the book with his own unique insights as well as information gleaned from hundreds of hours of interviews with his former State Department colleagues, high-level U.N. officials, and members of the prosecution and defense teams. In disclosing the full story behind the Lockerbie trial, this book reveals how the interest in obtaining truth and justice at times took a backseat to foreign policy and political concerns. The book also explores whether state-sponsored terrorism is best dealt with through criminal prosecution or through military force and sanctions -- a question that is at the forefront of the new war on terrorism.
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