From the Elder Abuse blog:

http://elder-abuse-cyberray.blogspot.com/2010/06/justice-probate-style-judge-john-l.html

Monday, June 28, 2010

Justice 'Probate Style' Judge John L. Phillips Gets Some!

posted by Vincent Nunes Mon, 06/28/2010 - 9:07am

Justice has not been served in the case of my dearly departed friend, the Honorable Judge John L. Phillips, known to all as the Kung-Fu Judge. Upon learning of his candidacy in 2001, Brooklyn D.A. Joe Hynes filed an ex-parte (secret action) to seal up all of Judge Phillips' assets. Twelve apartment buildings and two movie Theatres were part of the millionaire judges' empire. The Court then appointed Hynes former Chief of Staff, Harvey Greenberg, as Judge Phillips' "Guardian."

The transcript of the proceeding to condemn Judge Phillips is chilling. The reason presented to the court for a guardian was a videotape presented by a prosecutor from the Brooklyn DA's office, Steven Kramer, who conducted a raid on Judge Phillips home along with three confederates. A.D.A. Kramer produced a videotape of the raid at the hearing, and the chief piece of evidence to appoint a guardian was that Judge Phillips had "campaign posters" in his house. These facts are not in dispute. I've read the transcript.

Judge Phillips was then remanded to a nursing home...in the BRONX, and the race for District Attorney was over.

All of Judge Phillips' properties were sold for pennies-on-the-dollar. Then the judges' home mysteriously burned to the ground, obfuscating any records he had been keeping. The guardians neglected to pay the insurance. Six years later, the once museum-like four story brownstone at 155 Herkimer Street still sits in the heart of Bed-Stuy as a boarded up shell. A monument to the tragic end of the Kung-Fu Judge.

Now, the undisputed facts, according to the IRS, are that between the years of 2000 and 2007, four separate guardians sold $10 million dollars of Judge Phillips' property and failed to pay or file any taxes. The IRS now wants $3 million in unpaid taxes from Judge Phillips' estate. The only item left in the estate is the Slave Theatre, which is worth close to 3 million dollars. The four guardians, all attorneys, are:

1. Harvey Greenberg (former chief Assistant District Attorney to D.A. Hynes);

2. Frank Livotti

3. Raymond Jones

4. Emani Taylor

The sale of Phillips' properties was absolutely unlawful and illegal, so why not rescind those sales, restore those properties to the estate of John L. Phillips, and transfer the burden of those unpaid taxes to those four "guardians" who fattened themselves on the fat of Judge Phillips' properties? I would liken those "guardians" to the many suitors of Penelope, Odysseus' estranged wife in the Odyssey, while Poseidon kept the hero away from home.

I'm proud to announce that attorney John Kennedy O'Hara has a $10 million lawsuit pending against the nursing home that held Judge Phillips hostage on the orders of DA Hynes. O'Hara also met with federal agents from the IRS last week concerning a criminal probe regarding Phillips' properties, and those four guardians who "forgot" to pay the taxes on the 10 million dollars.

The undisputed facts of the case: Judge John L. Phillips, died homeless and broke. He owned 12 apartment buildings and 2 movie theatres. The Brooklyn D.A. seized his assets because Judge Phillips was planning to run against him in 2001. D.A. Hynes got the courts to appoint his former chief of staff as a guardian. All 4 guardians sold all of Judge Phillips' buildings, and kept the money. These facts are not in dispute. I've read the court documents.

The New York Times, New York Post, Brooklyn Paper, and The New York Sun ran a series of articles. In addition, Christopher Ketcham wrote an excellent article in the Brooklyn Rail, and AARP Bulletin.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/03/express/the-slave-auctions-and-the-end-of-the-kung-fu-judge

I mentioned the Odyssey earlier. It seems that Hynes, playing the part of Poseidon, was successful in his campaign to kill our hero, Judge John L. Phillips, and the suitors have all but eaten his property. Can John Kennedy O'Hara, playing the part of Telemachus, bring some modicum of justice to the estate of Judge Phillips?

May we see justice served to the legacy of Judge John L. Phillips, the Kung-Fu Judge of Brooklyn, beloved by his tenants, his friends, and this writer.

Source=>>RoomEightNewYorkPolitics

at 6/28/2010 10:51:00 PM

Should cops not be fired for any reasons?

The leaders of the police/judicial workers union would like to make that so.

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Connecticut

East Hampton's Dismissal Of Police Chief Causes Statewide Stir
By BILL LEUKHARDT, bleukhardt@courant.com The Hartford Courant

9:55 p.m. EDT, June 24, 2010

EAST HAMPTON — —
Police chiefs across Connecticut are voicing concern that East Hampton violated state labor laws by the sudden layoff Tuesday of veteran police Chief Matthew Reimondo for what the town manager says are budgetary reasons.

Lisa Maruzo-Bolduc, president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, said Thursday, "I've received calls from chiefs across the state. We're concerned that this might violate just cause statutes, which are in place to insulate police chiefs from political interference."

Maruzo-Bolduc, who is also chief of the Willimantic Police Department, called Reimondo's removal "unprecedented."

Meanwhile, Reimondo said Thursday that he has hired Leon Rosenblatt, the West Hartford lawyer who helped Cromwell's police chief retain his job after a political dust-up in 2008. Reimondo says he is going to fight his dismissal.

The law enforcement veteran — Reimondo has been on the East Hampton force for 25 years, the last 12 as chief — disputes Town Manager Jeffrey O'Keefe's contention that Reimondo's layoff is to save the town money. Reimondo says his removal is retaliation for turning over to the town attorney sexual harassment complaints made by three female town employees against O'Keefe.

Rosenblatt said Thursday that O'Keefe and the town council erred by not having the proceedings to cut the job in an open meeting, as is Reimondo's right under state law. Rosenblatt said the meeting that stripped Reimondo of his position was therefore illegal and must be held again.

O'Keefe said he cut the budget for the $99,000-a-year chief's job as part of a reorganization of the 17-member department to bring it more into line with departments in surrounding towns, which have no chief. The savings will help the town, which he said faces a potential budget shortfall because of declining revenue during the national recession.

The council voted in an open meeting Tuesday on a severance offer to Reimondo — reportedly six months of pay. Reimondo said he would not accept it. He is now home and not working because the layoff was effective immediately.

The sudden elimination of the police chief position has been a major news story in the state since Tuesday. On Thursday afternoon, O'Keefe issued a statement, clarifying what he said are inaccuracies in reporting.

Reimondo was not fired; rather his position was cut as part of a restructuring of the town police department, O'Keefe said. The decision to cut the post was solely his, O'Keefe added, and a result of his professional responsibility to control town finances.

He said the town may look into creating a director of public safety in the future to oversee police, fire and ambulance services, which would make "a lot more sense than just having a chief of police." But that issue would be a town policy decision to be made by the council, he said.

He also said that Reimondo was given the opportunity to have a public meeting Tuesday but declined. O'Keefe said he expects Reimondo to "invoke his right" for a re-opened hearing.

Also Thursday, Martha Perego, director of ethics for the 9,000-member International City/County Management Association in Washington, D.C., said situations involving charges of retaliation make it imperative for professional managers to be careful when eliminating jobs.

"It is absolute that lots of local governments are looking for ways to save money by consolidation, cuts and other means," Perego said. "Almost every state is facing significant financial problems, which means less money for local governments."

Speaking in general terms after reading a news account of the East Hampton situation, Perego said managers can make job cuts if the move is in the best interest of the town. But trimming a job to "get rid of a thorn in your side" is unethical and can cause problems that can land both sides in civil court, she said.

Reimondo has said his layoff is a result of harassment complaints brought by three female town employees against O'Keefe. Reimondo received the complaints and turned them over to town attorney Jean D'Aquila for review. An investigation by a lawyer hired by the town for that probe could find no evidence to support the claims, and town officials say they consider the case closed.

Rosenblatt said the town needs to establish grounds to terminate the chief and that the reorganization of the police department is "phony" because the towns that O'Keefe is using as models have resident state troopers and constables.

In the Cromwell case in February 2008, First Selectman Jeremy Shingleton fired veteran police Chief Anthony Salvatore for refusing his order to get rid of the department captain, the second in command.

After two days, Shingleton changed the firing into a suspension. Salvatore, who hired Rosenblatt to help him, was able to return to work within a week. The captain remained on the job and the issue subsided.

.

Copyright © 2010, The Hartford Courant

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There will be no need for lawyers and police can do as they please in the new US Police State if McCain and Lieberman get the legislation they propose to pass:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/06/mccainlieberman-snatch-grab-legislation.html

Will the need for lawyers in US be eliminated?

Connecticut US Senator Joseph Lieberman and Arizona US Senator John McCain want to set a new precedent with their legislation. To make the citizens in the US "safer", anyone can be arrested for anything, anytime, with no charges lodged and no release date. This is to be done in secret.
[more info]

An analysis of the courts

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2bc_1277461623

Automated Index of US Judicial Corruption Proposed by Human Rights Alert (NGO)

CLOSE [X]

Los Angeles, June 24 – in paper [1] filed for peer review in high level international computer science conference, Joseph Zernik, PhD and Human Rights Alert (NGO) proposed that if public access was provided, as required by First Amendment rights, to judicial records, now concealed by the courts, it would be possible to construct an “automated Index of Judicial Corruption”. The paper reviewed the US federal courts computers systems, PACER & CM/ECF, which were installed over the past decade through a large-scale project by the judiciary, with insufficient public oversight. The paper claimed that the systems were invalid, since they established new, unpublished court procedures, since they denied public access to judicial records, which were public records by law, and since they established invalid procedures for authentication of judicial records. The paper concluded that the systems were key to enabling precipitous deterioration in integrity of the US courts over the past decade.

The paper concluded:

The transition to digital administration entailed a sea change in procedures of the US courts. The transition took place over a relatively short time, and was independently executed by the US judiciary, with insufficient public and legal accountability. The transition resulted in precipitous deterioration in integrity of the courts, which undermined the safeguard of human rights and enforcement by regulatory agencies in the United States. Conditions that were generated as result are unprecedented in democratic societies in the Modern era. They are employed for deprivation of rights of the people, and to benefit those in government and large corporations.

The proposed solution should involve publicly accountable validation (certified, functional logic verification) of case management systems of the courts, system transparency, and ongoing data mining – a civic duty, and prerequisite for integrity of the courts in the digital era. Although the current report documented conditions at the US courts, similar risks are faced by other nations as well. The international computing/informatics community should assume a leading role in protection of rights and the democratic nature of society in the digital era.
###

Contact:
Joseph Zernik, PhD
Human Rights Alert (NGO)
jz12345@earthlink.net

LINKS:
[1] 10-06-24 zernik paper2 data mining of online records of the networked us courts
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33520631/

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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/

High Court Injustice

By Stephen Lendman

Excerpt from OpEdNews.com:

It also criminalizes opponents of US laws in violation of constitutional protections, the Patriot Act and others post-9/11 most prominent, ones making America a police state, supported by High Court complicity. In addition, charity is now a crime, when given to bogusly designated terrorist organizations or any individuals or groups against American imperialism, making them enemies of the state, the Dallas-based Holy Land Foundation Charity (HLF) an example, the largest US Muslim charity until the Bush administration shut it down.

On December 4, 2001, the Treasury Department declared HLF a terrorist group, froze its assets, falsely claimed they were used to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas, when, in fact, they provided vital aid to needy, impoverished families in Occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Bosnia, Albania, Checknya, Turkey, and US cities, HLF explaining:

"We gave:

-- books, not bombs;

-- bread, not bullets;

-- smiles, not scars;

-- toys, not tanks;

-- peace, not terror;

-- liberty, not poverty;

-- hope, not despair;

-- love, not hate; (and)

-- life, not death."

It got its five principles long prison terms, the daughter of former CEO Shukri Abu-Baker, Zaira, interviewed on the Progressive Radio News Hour on June 13, this writer now exchanging emails with her father at Terre Haute federal prison's Communications Management Unit, segregating Muslims from the general prison population, treating them more harshly, no matter that most there are innocent, Shukri one of the most prominent and honorable.

Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Press Release on the High Court Decision

On June 21, CCR headlined "Supreme Court Ruling Criminalizes Speech in Material Support Law Case," saying:

In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the first case against the Patriot Act, supporting free speech rights over bogus national security concerns, the Court ruling criminalizes "many groups and individuals providing peaceful advocacy....including President Carter for training all parties in fair election practices in Lebanon." He submitted an amicus brief opposing Holder's position. [source]

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* * * *

[click here] for:

Police Union Assassins

Good Lawyers end up as political prisoners?

http://ronkayela.com/2010/05/prisoner-of-conscience-richard.html

Prisoner of Conscience: Richard I. Fine

By

Ron Kaye

on May 31, 2010 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (23) | TrackBacks (0)

I wasn't prepared for what I encountered when I met Richard I. Fine for the first time.

Here was a distinguished and brilliant 70-year-old attorney who was disbarred and locked up in the LA County Men's Central Jail downtown 15 months ago without charge, without bail, without the judiciary or the leadership of LA or the civil liberties community rallying to cause.

Fine is an anti-tax crusader who has exposed one scandal after another involving abuses of the public's money by those elected to public office, and saved taxpayers more than $1 billion along the way.

He ran afoul of the law revealing that LA County Superior Court judges were being paid more than $40,000 a year under the table by the Board of Supervisors without reporting these payments on their financial disclosure forms and the potential for a conflict of interest with regard to cases involving the County of Los Angeles.

He filed writ after writ in one county case after another questioning the integrity of judges getting these secret payments and their right to try cases involving their hidden benefactor.

He was proven right and when he was, the legislature with the governor's signature legalized these payments and exonerating the judges for their past illegalities, and the legal fraternity took away his license to practice law because he was making a nuisance of himself.

And then the judges delivered the final blow intended to silence him.

The particular judge was David Yaffe, a jurist well known for his erratic legal rulings and occasional fits of rage in the courtroom.

Yaffe held Fine in contempt of court in March 2009 for refusing to answer detailed questions about his personal finances in a case involving a well-connected developer's highly questionable project in Marina del Rey

Richard I. Fine was led out of court in handcuffs and booked into the county jail where he has been ever since.

I've written and done interviews on the case which has been closely followed by Leslie Dutton's Full Disclosure Network and attracted followers who share the outrage over his jailing. CNN's recent extensive report on Fine's case has given it a higher profile.

It was my first visit to the Men's Central Jail downtown. It gave me the jitters.

The cold indifference of the Twin Towers hit me when I entered the courtyard and scanned for signs of where to go.

I saw two rows of benches against the wall to my left with dozens of people sitting on them, mostly poor or working class, mostly Latinos. The one exception was a nervous white guy in a cheap suit. It turned he was a Brit with an expired passport, probably an illegal immigrant. He was having a hard time getting past the deputies.

I took a seat on the benches and waited for most of an hour until our group was called. Then, I stood in line as three deputies went individually through each visitor's identification and paperwork and sent them to the appropriate line to spend a15 minutes or so chatting with their friend or family member.

It was all impersonal and professional. I was told Fine was in the infirmary which led me around a corner, far from the long lines of men, women and children paying a visit to a loved one locked up on a holiday weekend.

Two-way mirrored windows with a small slot at the bottom surrounded what I assumed was the guards' room. I could hardly hear the deputy's muffled words but handed over my license and then a loud slam allowed the iron-barred gate to open and I went up the elevator to another room with two-way mirrors and eight or so caged glass booths with telephones so visitor and inmate can talk.

Fine knew I was coming and as we talked, we found our lives had cross paths at the University of Chicago when he was a law student and I was an undergrad and in Cleveland when I was a reporter and he was an attorney trying a price-fixing case against GM and Ford. We live just a couple of miles apart in the Valley.

As we talked about his career and his case, he kept emphasizing there's always a humorous side to every story. I watched his eyes and the expressions on his face as he rattled off the details of his, citing the state laws by number that were being violated, reciting with precise memory the language of the legal writs he has filed in an effort to win his freedom.

To no avail, his case has gone through the state courts all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court which set the maximum for coercive detention for contempt of court at five days in the case of LA Times reporter Bill Farr.

Finally, I asked the question I had come to ask: Why didn't he just give in and provide his financial information so he could walk out a free man?

Fine laughed at his predicament. He faces a life sentence unless Judge Yaffe relents or another court intervenes or he faces a life of being hounded financially by the attorneys of the Marina del Rey developer.

Yet, he is in remarkable spirits, a warrior with passion for a cause he believes is more important than his situation. He chooses to stay in jail and fight the injustice of how illegal conduct is being protected while the man who exposed it is feeling the full power of the law to lock up any of us if we stand up too strongly and too well for our beliefs.

As I walked back through the courtyard to my car, I thought about what crimes all the other prisoners were locked up for, of all the friends and family who cared enough to come to visit.

And I thought that Richard I. Fine is a prisoner of conscience who fought the law and the law won, at least so far.

I thought about the outrage of it, how anyone's sense of justice should be aroused that this could be taking place in our city, that a citizen who hasn't committed a crime, only offended the judiciary with his well-documented charges of corruption, should be locked up behind bars for what could amount to a death sentence.

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http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15154493

Supreme Court rules against jailed lawyer Richard Fine

Issuing a final ruling in the case, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday denied Tarzana tax attorney Richard I. Fine's request to be released from Men's Central Jail, where he has been held for failing to divulge information on his personal assets.

Fine, a 70-year-old former taxpayer advocate attorney who claims he's a "political prisoner," has spent 14 months in jail.

A former Beverly Hills attorney who once worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, Fine has been held in solitary confinement since early 2009 after he refused to pay $46,329 or release details of personal finances.

At the time, Fine was handling a case on behalf of Marina del Rey residents and Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe found him in contempt of court and ordered him held until he divulges the information.

"We are deeply disappointed in the outcome of this," said Victoria Fine, Fine's daughter who is a journalist and editor at The Huffington Post. "It's scary to me that the justice system at all levels doesn't see the inherent flaws in the system and is choosing not to correct them."

In his Supreme Court brief, Fine alleged his confinement is retaliation for exposing Los Angeles County's practice of paying judges an annual bonus of $57,000 in addition to their state salary of $179,000 - providing local judges with salaries higher than the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who earns $218,000 annually.

Since the county began paying the judges the the extra benefits in the late 1980s, Fine wrote the county has won "virtually all lawsuits" decided by the judges.

An appellate court in San Diego ruled in late 2008 that the payments were unconstitutional, but the state Legislature subsequently passed a bill authorizing the payments and granting retroactive immunity from criminal prosecution for all involved government officials.

In a telephone interview late last week, Fine said if the Supreme Court denied his release that it would mean the "entire judicial system in the United States is lost."

"It means it's acceptable for judges to accept bribes and acceptable for judges to judge their own actions," Fine said.

A Superior Court spokeswoman said the court had no comment on the Supreme Court's ruling.

The high court's ruling came only hours after CNN aired a story about Fine's plight. In a blog entry, CNN Special Investigations Unit reporter Abbie Boudreau noted the "dapper Beverly Hills attorney known for his bow tie" is "not a criminal."

"What will happen if Fine refuses to cooperate, and Judge Yaffe doesn't put an end to this?" Boudreau asked. "Could this go on for another year, or maybe even more? At what point does `coercive confinement' become nothing more than an indefinite jail sentence?"




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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-from-darren-wolfe.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2007/03/disbarred-massachusetts-attorney.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2008/11/taxpayer-paid-liars-cheats-and-thugs.html

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http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2007/05/operation-paper-paper-clip.html

http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/05/west-nile.html

[click here] for:

"Hanging: it concentrates the mind wonderfully"

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/2010/01/corporate-thugs.html

Citizen Spies and Domestic Spying

Companion post to go with the below, click:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-from-darren-wolfe.html

CNN-NYC Mayor Bloomberg Announces The Cell Phone Stazi


Text with video:
artbell — January 18, 2007 — US Planning to Recruit One in 24 Americans as Citizen Spies
By Ritt Goldstein
Sunday Morning Herald | SMH.com.au

Monday, 15 July, 2002

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".

Civil liberties groups have already warned that, with the passage earlier this year of the Patriot Act, there is potential for abusive, large-scale investigations of US citizens.

As with the Patriot Act, TIPS is being pursued as part of the so-called war against terrorism. It is a Department of Justice project.

Highlighting the scope of the surveillance network, TIPS volunteers are being recruited primarily from among those whose work provides access to homes, businesses or transport systems. Letter carriers, utility employees, truck drivers and train conductors are among those named as targeted recruits.

A pilot program, described on the government Web site www.citizencorps.gov, is scheduled to start next month in 10 cities, with 1 million informants participating in the first stage. Assuming the program is initiated in the 10 largest US cities, that will be 1 million informants for a total population of almost 24 million, or one in 24 people.

Historically, informant systems have been the tools of non-democratic states. According to a 1992 report by Harvard University's Project on Justice, the accuracy of informant reports is problematic, with some informants having embellished the truth, and others suspected of having fabricated their reports.

Present Justice Department procedures mean that informant reports will enter databases for future reference and/or action. The information will then be broadly available within the department, related agencies and local police forces. The targeted individual will remain unaware of the existence of the report and of its contents.

The Patriot Act already provides for a person's home to be searched without that person being informed that a search was ever performed, or of any surveillance devices that were implanted.

At state and local levels the TIPS program will be co-ordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which

was given sweeping new powers, including internment, as part of the Reagan Administration's national security initiatives. Many key figures of the Reagan era are part of the Bush Administration.

The creation of a US "shadow government", operating in secret, was another Reagan national security initiative.

Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He has lived in Sweden since 1997, seeking political asylum there, saying he was the victim of life-threatening assaults in retaliation for his accountability efforts. His application has been supported by the European Parliament, five of Sweden's seven big political parties, clergy, and Amnesty and other rights groups.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

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The Secret Government


Text with video:
Wrayer — September 30, 2006 — It aired on PBS in 1987 and is as good as anything on the tape (must see). Moyers is a very respected TV journalist who also worked for Lyndon B. Johnson and has a very professional approach. He interviews many different people involved with the CIA and other government agencies. His documentary gives quite an overview of what has actually happened in the last 50 years regarding the CIA and the cold war (including Iran, Guatamala, Cuba, Viet Nam and Chile). He features such people as Ralph McGeehee and Phil Retinger (both former CIA agents), Rear Admiral Gene La Rocque (Ret. U.S.N.), Theodore Bissell (active in the CIA at the time), Sen. Frank Church and many others. Moyers is so very credible. The full video "The Secret Government" is 90 minutes - this segment is edited by Frank Dorrel to 20 minutes.

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Klaus Barbie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikolaus 'Klaus' Barbie (October 25, 1913 – September 25, 1991) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (rank approximately equivalent to army captain), Gestapo member and war criminal. He was known as the Butcher of Lyon.

Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 War crimes 3 CIA and Bolivia 3.1 Che Guevara 4 Trial 5 In popular culture 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Klaus Barbie was born in Bad Godesberg, today part of Bonn, Germany. Barbie was born to a Roman Catholic family.^{[citation needed]} His parents were both teachers.^{[citation needed]} Until 1923 he went to the school where his father taught. Afterward, he attended a boarding school in Trier. In 1925, his whole family moved to Trier. In 1933, Barbie's father and brother both died. The death of his abusive, alcoholic father derailed plans for young Barbie to study theology or otherwise become an academic, as his peers had expected. While unemployed, Barbie was drafted into the Nazi labor service - Reichsarbeitsdienst.

In September 1935, he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the special security branch service of the SS that acted as the intelligence-gathering arm of the Nazi Party. Soon he was sent to serve in Amsterdam in the German occupied Netherlands. In 1942, he was sent to Dijon and in November of the same year he was sent to Lyon, where he became the head of the local Gestapo.

[edit] War crimes

He first set up camp at Hôtel Terminus in Lyon. It was his time as head of the Gestapo of Lyon that earned him the name Butcher of Lyon. Evidence suggests that he personally tortured prisoners and is responsible for the deaths of up to 4,000 people.^[1] The most infamous case is the arrest and torture of Jean Moulin, one of the highest-ranking members of the French Resistance. In April 1944, Barbie ordered the deportation to Auschwitz of a group of 44 Jewish children from an orphanage at Izieu. After his surgery in Lyon, Klaus Barbie rejoined the SIPO-SD of Lyon in Bruyeres-in-Vosges France where he was also responsible for a massacre in Rehaupal in September 1944.

[edit] CIA and Bolivia

In 1947, Barbie became an agent for the 66th Detachment of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC).^[2] In 1951, he fled to Juan Peron's Argentina with the help of a ratline organized by U.S. intelligence services^[3] and the Ustashi Roman Catholic priest Krunoslav Draganović. Asked by Barbie why he was going out of his way to help him escape, Draganovic responded, "We have to maintain a sort of moral reserve on which we can draw in the future."^[4] He then emigrated to Bolivia, where he lived under the alias Klaus Altmann. Testimony of Italian insurgent Stefano Delle Chiaie before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism suggests that Barbie took part in the "Cocaine Coup" of Luis García Meza Tejada, when the regime forced its way to power in Bolivia in 1980.^[5]

Barbie was also reported to have worked as an officer for Bolivian intelligence and helped plan concentration camps, and formulate torture and repression techniquies for anti-government rebels while Bolivia was under a violent dictatorship.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Che Guevara

The 2007 documentary My Enemy's Enemy, directed by Oscar-winning British director Kevin Macdonald, raises the possibility that Barbie helped the CIA orchestrate the 1967 capture and execution of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in Bolivia.^[6] In 1966 a disguised Guevara arrived in Bolivia to organise the overthrow of its military dictatorship, and according to the film, the CIA turned to Barbie for his first-hand knowledge of counter-guerrilla warfare.^[6] During World War II Barbie had attempted to crush the French Resistance and was responsible for the death of its celebrated leader Jean Moulin.^[6]

According to Alvaro de Castro, a longtime confidant of Barbie interviewed for the film:

"He (Barbie) met Major Shelton, the commander of the unit from the US. (Barbie) no doubt gave him advice on how to fight this guerrilla war. He used the expertise gained doing this kind of work in World War Two. They made the most of the fact that he had this experience."^[6]

De Castro adds that Barbie "had little respect for Che Guevara", viewing him as "a pitiful adventurer."^[6] In the film, journalist Kai Hermann remarks that "He (Barbie) always boasted - though I cannot prove it - that it was he who devised the strategy for murdering Che Guevara."^[6]

[edit] Trial

Barbie was identified in Bolivia as early as 1971 by the Klarsfelds (Nazi hunters), but it was only on January 19, 1983, that the newly elected government of Hernán Siles Zuazo arrested and extradited him to France.

In 1984, Barbie was put on trial for crimes committed while he was in charge of the Gestapo in Lyon between 1942 and 1944. The trial started on May 11, 1987, in Lyon — a jury trial before the Rhône Cour d'assises. In a rare move, the court allowed the trial to be filmed because of its historical value. Also, a special court room with seating for an audience of about 700 was constructed.^[7] The head prosecutor was Pierre Truche. At the trial Barbie received support not only from Nazi apologists like François Genoud, but also from leftist lawyer Jacques Vergès.

Quite likely under Vergès' direction, Barbie caused sensations on the first days of the trial: he gave his name as Klaus Altmann (the name he had used while in Bolivia) and, claiming that his extradition was technically illegal, made the request to be excused from the trial and return to his cell at St Joseph prison. This was granted though he was brought back on the 26th of May to face some of his accusers, during which he stated that he had "nothing to say".

Vergès had a reputation for attacking the French political system, particularly in the French colonial empire. His strategy at the trial was to use it to expose war crimes committed by France since 1945. Indeed, many of the charges against Barbie were dropped, thanks to legislation that had protected people accused of crimes under the Vichy regime and in French Algeria. Vergès further argued that Barbie's actions were no worse than the ordinary actions of colonialists worldwide, and that his trial was selective prosecution. During his trial, Barbie famously stated that: "When I stand before the throne of God I shall be judged innocent".

On July 4, 1987, Barbie was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity, and died in jail in Lyon of leukemia four years later, at the age of 77.

[edit] In popular culture

Barbie is memorably referred to in the film Rat Race, when the Jewish Pear family stops at the "Barbie Museum", thinking it to be a museum of Barbie dolls. They arrive, shocked at its true subject and threatening staff of neo-nazis, who attempt to portray Klaus Barbie as a "loving husband, devoted father, wine connoisseur, and three-time ballroom dancing champion." Following their awkward departure, the Pear family finds their van destroyed and subsequently steals one of the museum's relics, Adolf Hitler's staff car.

Barbie is also referred to in the song "Sheriff Fatman" by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine from their 1989 album 101 Damnations.

In 1986, Barbie's exposure and deportation story was adapted into a TV movie starring Tom Conti, Farrah Fawcett and Geraldine Page.

The location of Klaus Barbie is offered to the Mossad by the CIA in the spy series The Company.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie gets life". BBC. 3 July 1987. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/3/newsid_2492000/2492285.stm. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
2. ^ Wolfe, Robert (19 Sept 2001). "Analysis of the Investigative Records Repository file of Klaus Barbie". Interagency Working Group. http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/barbie-irr-file.html. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
3. ^ Terkel, Studs (1985). The Good War. Ballantine. ISBN 0345325680.
4. ^ Falcoff, Mark (9 Nov 1998). "Peron’s Nazi Ties". TIME Magazine 152 (19). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/1998/int/981109/latin_america.perons_na30a.html.
5. ^ "Hearing of Stefano Delle Chiaie on before the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Terrorism headed by President Giovanni Pellegrino" (in Italian). 22 July 1997. http://www.parlamento.it/bicam/terror/stenografici/steno26.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-01.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Barbie "Boasted of Hunting Down Che" by David Smith, The Observer, December 23, 2007
7. ^ Barbet Schroeder (director) Jacques Vergès (subject) Klaus Barbie (subject). (2007). L'avocat de la terreur. France: La Sofica Uni Etoile 3. Documentary; English title: “Terror’s Advocate”.

[edit] Further reading

• Hilberg, Raul (1982). "Barbie (SS, Lyon)" (in German). Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden (110 ed.). Olle & Wolter. p. 453. ISBN 978-3883954318. OCLC 10125090. Case No. 77, Fn 908 KsD Lyon IV-B (gez. Ostubaf. Barbie) an BdS, Paris IV-B, 6. April 1944, RF-1235.
• Goni, Uki (2002). The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina. Granta Books. ISBN 978-1862074033. A chapter in this book also follows how top Nazis made their way to Argentina and Latin America.
• Bower, Tom (1984). Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons. New York: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0394533599.
• U.S. Samurais in Bruyeres Klaus Barbie found in the Vosges Mountains in Bruyeres after his surgery in Lyon. Barbie rejoins his unit the SIPO-SD of Lyon there and was responsible of the Massacre of Rehaupal in September 1944|year=1993 |publisher=Editions du CPL [1][2]

FBI Pre-Crime "Investigations"

If you go out to a protest, will you have officials knocking on your door soon after? If you protest Israeli official policies in the US, do you increase your chances of being visited at home by the FBI, Homeland Security, State Police, CIA, NSA, IRS, or others trying to intimidate you out of your supposed right of Free Speech?

Text included with below youtube.com video:
SocialJusticeNOW — June 12, 2010 — The Joint Terrorism Task Force Division of the FBI Visits an Austin Peace Activist to Question About Pre-Crimes! On April 21, 2010, two agents of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) came to my house to talk to me, a part time peace volunteer for Palestine. After verifying that they really were with the FBI, I asked them to wait. I shut my door, took a deep breath, and grabbed my video camera. I want to thank Jeffry Zavala for:
* Helping me remain anonymous in this video
* For creating something to help you if the FBI ever knocks on your door to question you about pre-crimes,
* For helping me to tell others about my number one cause: Promoting the "One-State" Solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, instead of the apartheid-like "Two-State" scenario.

For more information about what to do if you FBI knocks on your door go to: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8578721/Wha...

and

http://aclu.org

This is a ZGraphix production.
http://zgraphix.org
Produced by Jeffry Zavala.

The FBI Knocked on My Door! - Official Version

TONY BLAIR'S WIFE CLEARED OF JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT

[source of below]

TONY BLAIR'S WIFE CLEARED OF JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT

TYRANNY WHEN JUDGES JUDGE JUDGES

Cherie Booth QC has been cleared of allegations of judicial misconduct.

Here's today's statement from the Office for Judicial Complaints.

After receiving a number of complaints about comments reportedly made by Cherie Booth QC in her capacity as a Recorder, in connection with the trial of Shamso Miah, the Office for Judicial Complaints investigated the matter in accordance with the Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2006 (as amended). That investigation has concluded and found that Recorder Booth's observations did not constitute judicial misconduct. The Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice have considered the conclusions of the investigation and agree that no disciplinary action is necessary.

It was reported in February that the former prime minister's wife told Miah that she would suspend his prison sentence because he was a "religious man". Miah, a devout Muslim, had been convicted of breaking a man's jaw with two punches after a dispute in a bank queue in East Ham, London. The 25-year-old had gone to the bank from a local mosque. Miss Booth appeared to indicate that she was taking into account Miah's religious beliefs as she opted for a lenient sentence. "I am going to suspend this sentence for the period of two years based on the fact you are a religious person and have not been in trouble before," she told him at Inner London Crown Court.

"You caused a mild fracture to the jaw of a member of the public standing in a queue at Lloyds Bank. You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour." The National Secular Society had lodged an official protest with the Office for Judicial Complaints, claiming that Miss Booth was effectively discriminating against atheists.

SOURCE

Law License to Steal?

[source of below]

Probate Judge Violates Ethics Code

Thanks to Barbara Morris for sending in the story!

Hours before releasing a combative order that approved the draining of an 88-year-old widow's life savings, a Maricopa County probate judge sent a draft copy of her ruling to the attorneys who stood to benefit – a violation of the judges' ethics code.

One of those attorneys responded to the March e-mail and even suggested several changes that were incorporated into Pro-Tem Judge Lindsay Ellis' 21-page ruling.

“I could not be happier,” attorney Brenda Church replied, upon getting the proposed order.

I guess not. Church's bill for $333,000 was among nearly $800,000 worth about to be approved by Ellis.

Three other attorneys – Lauren Garner and Jerome Elwell who were working for the Sun Valley Group, and Brian Theut, the old lady's guardian ad litem – also received Ellis' draft ruling. None of them reported Ellis to the Commission on Judicial Conduct or notified the attorneys representing Marie Long and her sisters of the improper “ex-parte” communication. Such contacts are a violation of the Arizona Code of Judicial Conduct.

Presiding Probate Judge Karen O'Connor, who last year twice rejected requests to disqualify Ellis from the case due to bias, has ordered a hearing into the matter, which came to light late last week.

Ellis and the lawyers in on the tête-à-tête couldn't be reached for comment Monday. The attorneys excluded from Ellis' sneak peek -- the ones advocating for the old lady -- were stunned that Ellis would be so blatant in her favoritism.

“The whole justice system is based on making sure there is no appearance of impropriety and it's a fair tribunal and a fair system,” said attorney Pat Gitre, who represents Marie's sisters. “Marie Long never had a fair tribunal and Marie Long never had a chance.”

What Marie Long did have, once upon a time before she entered probate court, was $1.3 million in assets. After a stroke in 2005, she fell under the protective eye of probate, a place where a cozy group of fiduciaries and attorneys are appointed to help vulnerable people but also manage to help themselves to a sizable pile of cash unless a judge stops it.

In Marie's case, no judge stopped it. Over the next four years, Sun Valley, which served as Marie's guardian, and the various probate attorneys collected $900,000 in guardian, care and legal fees until last year, when Marie was tapped out.

Sun Valley and the probate attorneys have contended the bills were high because Marie's sisters interfered in her care and her lawyers peppered the court with motions.

If they peppered the court, perhaps it was because nobody was listening – to them, at least.

Jon Kitchel, the court-appointed attorney for Marie, began begging Ellis to do something in November 2008 when he discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal and guardian fees were going out the door. Kitchel and Gitre filed motion after motion asking the judge to stop the bleeding before Marie was sucked dry but Ellis didn't do a thing.

In September, they asked O'Connor, the presiding probate judge, to remove Ellis, saying she “has consistently ignored or refused to rule upon many motions and petitions filed on behalf of Marie Long … but at the same time, ruled on expedited motions filed by SVG and Trustee.”

O'Connor found no problem with Ellis' handling of the case and she rapped Kitchel and Gitre for filing a 41-page motion outlining their complaints when the limit is 15 pages.

By the end of the year, Marie was declared indigent and put on the welfare rolls. Still, there was a slim hope that she could recoup some of her funds. Though the money had already been spent, probate rules require that a judge approve the fees. Commissioner Ellis retired at the end of 2009, but she hung on to the case, becoming a pro-tem judge so she could rule on the fees.

On the morning of March 15, a judicial assistant e-mailed Ellis' proposed ruling to the four attorneys representing the trustee, Sun Valley and the attorney serving as Marie's guardian ad litem.

“Good morning,” wrote Robyn Brown, Ellis' former assistant who now works for Presiding Probate Commissioner Rick Nothwehr. “This minute entry will probably be issued today but Commissioner Ellis asked me to send the draft to you.”

Church, who represents the trustee who had control of Marie's money, e-mailed several suggested factual changes and announced her happiness with what Ellis was about to do.

In her fiery ruling, filed the next morning, Ellis approved the fees that put Marie Long into the poorhouse as “reasonable” and basically attacked Kitchel, Gitre and a third attorney, Dan Raynak, saying their “venomous” and “hateful” attacks forced the other side to defend themselves. With Marie's money, of course.

In all, Ellis approved nearly $800,000 from Marie's accounts, rubber stamping about half of the bills so as not to “unduly burden” Sun Valley, Church and Theut with a second hearing. (Another $120,000 in fees are pending before another commissioner.)

Nobody blew the whistle on Ellis' select private preview of her planned ruling. Then suddenly, late last week Church notified everyone involved in the case of the two-month-old exchange.

The revelation has startled some in the probate community, starting with Marie's attorney, who recalled Ellis' decision not to force Sun Valley, Church and the others to defend hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees they charged Marie.

“As though Sun Valley has been the one impoverished by the process and put on welfare and put in a nursing home…,” Kitchel said. “Marie's been put on welfare. She's living in a room that approximately 8 feet by 12 feet. She's the one in a hospital bed where there is barely room for a chair.”

Judges and lawyers were surprised that a judge would break the rule barring communication with one side in a contested case.

“It's a huge rule for judges,” said one judge, who spoke on condition that he not be named. “You're supposed to be the neutral detached magistrate, not favoring one side or another.”

Meantime, probate attorneys outside the clubby set reacted with amazement that probate's extracurricular activity has come to light, just a week before a Supreme Court panel convenes to review probate.

“I've had suspicions for a long time that this was going on. I just have never been able to prove it,” said probate attorney Tom Asimou. “I don't think we need a Supreme Court Commission. I think we need a federal grand jury.”

Editor's note: Roberts' sister, Appellate Court Judge Ann Timmer, is chairing a committee to review Probate Court practices. The Republic is disclosing the relationship to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest.

(Column published May 18, 2010, The Arizona Republic)

Source=>>Here

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http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-expose-corrupt-courts-blog.html

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Bribing Judges, is it now just an "open" secret?

The idea to post the below, came from a comment left in a post here on this blog, the link immediately above.

Deval Patrick 2010 - Running for Re-Corruption


Text with video:
JusticeMass — May 31, 2010 — A montage to Deval Patrick and his cronies making a mockery of the justice system in Massachusetts. He's running for re-election. Research and think before you vote.

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Author Barbara C. Johnson may say it best here:
http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/2010/05/barbara-c-johnson.html

She is a former candidate for Massachusetts Governor and is a disbarred attorney. She tried to expose judicial corruption in Massachusetts and the nation, judges retaliated.

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I like reading Connecticut Attorney Norm Pattis' opinions:
http://normpattis.blogspot.com/2010/06/getting-government-we-deserve.html