[Peace-discuss] Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners?

[David Johnson]

 <http://blackagendareport.com/> Description: Black Agenda Report 

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Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners? 

Submitted by Glen Ford on Tue, 03/22/2016 - 23:49

*	 

"The United States is holding scores of political prisoners, many of them
captured in the 1960s and 70s."

President Obama knew it was impolitic to play his hypocritical human rights
game while in the presence of Cuban President Raul Castro, in Havana, this
week. So Obama had one of his kiss-up White House reporters do the sneak
attack for him. CNN's Jim Acosta, the son of a Cuban exile, asked President
Castro why his country kept political prisoners. Castro replied, "
<http://journal-isms.com/2016/03/what-political-prisoners-castro-asks-cnns-j
im-acosta/> What political prisoners?" and asked Acosta to provide a list of
such people. It was an awkward moment - not diplomatic at all - but Obama
was clearly enjoying it. And, well he might, because neither Jim Acosta nor
any of the other corporate mouthpieces in the White House press corps would
dare, or even think, to ask a U.S. president about the plight of American
political prisoners.

The U.S. media traveling with Obama have easy access to all sorts of lists
of Cubans who are supposedly in prison for opposition to the their
government - although even Amnesty International says that the Cubans
released their
<http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-dissident-idUSKCN0RT2O920150929>
last political prisoner, back in September.

The United States, on the other hand, is still holding scores of political
prisoners, many of them captured in the 1960s and 70s. Their numbers are
decreasing only because they are dying of old age - accelerated by the
inhuman conditions and practices of the world's largest prison system. If
the corporate media were really concerned about political prisoners, they
could go to the web site of the Jericho Movement and see the pictures of
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/prisoners> 50 of them. Eighteen were
members of the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/acoli-sundiata-squire> Black
Panther Party, the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/shoats-russell-maroon> Black
Liberation Army or the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/azania-zolo> Republic of New
Africa, including
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/abu-jamal-mumia> Mumia Abu Jamal,
whose life hangs by a thread because the State of Pennsylvania refuses to
treat his Hepatitis C. Black Panther
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/fitzgerald-romaine-chip> Romaine
"Chip" Fitzgerald has been incarcerated since 1969. There are men and women
from the  <http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/africa-michael-davis>
MOVE organization, all with the last name "
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/africa-debbie-sims> Africa,"
whose children were killed and their home bombed by the Philadelphia police.
There are  <http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/luis-v-rodriguez>
Native American activists from the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/chubbuck-byron-shane-oso-blanco>
First Nation group and American Indian Movement, including
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/peltier-leonard> Leonard Peltier,
who has been behind bars since 1976. There are white
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/dunne-bill> Class war,
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/gilbert-david> Anti-imperialist
and  <http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hammond-jeremy> Anarchist
Hacker political prisoners, and,
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/mason-mariusmarie> Marie Mason, a
white Earth Liberation Front woman and Black female community activist
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/powell-rev-joy> Rev. Joy Powell.

No Truce in This War

There are prisoners who became political after they were imprisoned - which
is why they are
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/lake-richard-mafundi> still
there. There are
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hernandez-alvaro-luna> Chicano
political prisoners and the great Puerto Rican independence fighter,
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/l%C3%B3pez-rivera-oscar> Oscar
Lopez Rivera. There is the former H. Rap Brown, who's doing life without
parole as
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/al-amin-jamil-abdullah> Imam
Jamil Al-Amin. There are members of the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/ford-patrice-lumumba> Portland 7
and the  <http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hanif-shabazz-bey>
Virgin Island 5 and the
<http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/laaman-jaan-karl> Ohio 7. There
is the brilliant  <http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/shakur-mutulu>
Mutulu Shakur, father of Tupac Shakur, who the feds say masterminded the
escape and exile to Cuba of
<https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvoiceofdetroit.net%2Fwp-c
ontent%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F05%2FAssata-Shakur.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvoic
eofdetroit.net%2F2013%2F05%2F05%2Fassata-shakur-understanding-the-politics-b
ehind-the-fbis-new-attack%2Fassata-shakur%2F&docid=s18j-7GTZ99H6M&tbnid=0-fs
XC75KCE4YM%3A&w=639&h=481&ei=y_3xVpaLA8rVeITVmJAN> Assata Shakur. If Obama
could somehow get her back behind bars in the U.S., he'd claim she wasn't a
political prisoner, either.

The Jericho Movement's pictures do not include lots of other political
prisoners, like Rev. Edward Pinkney, who's serving up to ten years in prison
for
<http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/13/why-is-rev-edward-pinkney-in-prison-
another-case-of-political-persecution/> non-violently standing up for the
people of Benton Harbor, Michigan.

President Obama this week told the Cuban people, "I Have Come Here To Bury
The Last Remnant Of The Cold War." But he won't end the long war against
Black people in the United States, a war that has sent millions to prison
under a political policy of mass Black Incarceration. In that sense, they
are all political prisoners.

 

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