The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.8           March 1, 1999 
 
 
In Brief  

Appeals court tries to roll back reading of `Miranda'


rights

A federal appeals court in Virginia ruled February 9 that police can take a "confession" from an arrested person and submit it in a court of law without reading the accused their "Miranda" rights. Under the 1966 Supreme Court ruling Miranda v. Arizona, police are required to inform anyone they detain of their right to remain silent, to an attorney, and that any statements made thereafter can be used as evidence in court. If a person is not clearly informed of those rights any statements in police custody are supposed to be invalid.

Before the Miranda ruling, judges had discretion to decide whether statements to police were "voluntary." In 1968, Congress passed a law that in essence undermined Miranda, codifying the pre-1966 standards. This law, which had never been enforced, was resurrected by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as the basis for its recent ruling.

U.S. jets fly near Russian islands
Seven U.S. war planes performed unannounced military exercises on February 12 in close proximity to the Russian islands of Komandorskije - less than 400 miles off the mainland. The U.S. pilots, who carried out similar flights February 7, remained in neutral air space. Moscow's federal border patrol, noting how close the plane were to Russian territory, sent guards to monitor the path of the planes.

Finland: strike shuts airport
Air traffic controllers in Finland reached their 12th day on strike February 12, unable to settle a pay dispute with the aviation board. The Helsinki airport was reported to be closed on February 13, with international charter flights moved to Tampere or Turku airports in western Finland. Nearly all regular international flights were canceled.

France: farmers protest austerity
Hundreds of farmers in France, furious at the "reforms" being shoved down their throats by the French government, occupied and ransacked the offices of Environment Minister Dominique Voynet in early February. This latest action is one of the many that have occurred over the last three months. So- called reform measures - aimed at competing with other capitalist rival countries in the European Union - include: cutting farm subsidies for milk by 15 percent, cereal by 20 percent, and beef by 30 percent, as well as taxing pesticides. Cops arrested hundreds of farmers, most of whom were later released.

Thai farmers begin mass sit-ins
Pressing the demand for a five-year moratorium on $10 billion of debt owed to the government bank and loan sharks, more than 10,000 working farmers began a sit-in February 5 on parade grounds in central Bangkok. Demonstrators have projected up to 40,000 more farmers will join the action against Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. Another demand of the farmers is for an immediate rehabilitation of the collapsed farm sector. Farmers have been hit hard by the devaluation of the Thai currency, the sharp drop in prices they receive for their produce, and a prolonged drought. The Thai government has agreed to some relief but rejects the proposal for a moratorium.

INS arrests man on drug charges
A thousand people rallied in front of Queens Country Courthouse in New York, February 12 to denounce the treatment of Rev. Frank Almonte.

A legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, Almonte could face up to seven years in prison on criminal drug charges and deportation for bringing a steroid appetite enhancer for his son, prescribed by a doctor in the Dominican Republic, back to the United States. Almonte was taken into Federal custody under the 1996 immigration law that allows for the detention and deportation of any legal immigrant who has been charged or convicted of a drug-related crime.

Bomb `suspect' is denied rights
The U.S. government is preventing Wadih el Hage from calling his imam at a mosque in Texas. El Hage has been imprisoned in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York for months after being accused in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. El Hage served as a secretary in a company owned by Osama bin Laden, who Washington blames for the bombing. Prosecuting attorneys accuse el Hage of being bin Laden's "front man."

The government is invoking a rule that restricts the mail, visits, phone calls, and media contact of el Hage and other inmates held under similar accusations. Washington claims they are preventing el Hage from contacting imam, Moataz Al- Hallak - a leader of the Islamic Society in Arlington, Texas -because of ambiguous "specific concerns." They imply the mosque has some role in the bombing, which Al-Hallak denies.

Men who beat Black soldier plead guilty
Five men accused of the May 30, 1998, brutal beating of Carlos Colbert, a Marine who is Black, plead guilty January 14. Jessie Lawson, one of the five, admitted to administering brass-knuckle blows to Colbert that are believed to have broken his neck and rendered him a quadriplegic. Investigators say witnesses who attended a party where the beating took place say Lawson and Robert Rio yelling "white power" and other racist remarks while stomping Colbert. Lawson plea bargained for a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison. The other four men, Trenton Solis, Jed Jones, Robert Rio, and Steve Newark negotiated a year in jail and five years probation. Charges of torture and aggravated mayhem, which carry life sentences, where dropped.

Brian Taylor

 
 
 
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