Dr. Robert Fitrakis finally gets the confirmation from the Columbus Dispatch about what he has been saying all along. Vote switching has its day.

 

Below is the link to the Vblog: 

Shadow Of Afghanistan

November 14, 2007 Community Leaders Forum
Discussion of “Shadow of Afghanistan”

Bob Fitrakis will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the currently running Drexel Gateway movie “Shadow of Afghanistan.” Free. 7pm.

Location: First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd., Columbus 43214
Phone: 296-6304
Email: earlword@yahoo.com
Website: http://www.shadowofafghanistan.com/

The November 15 Third Thursday Theater night film has changed:

Instead of “The War Tapes” (which we could not get permission to show)
we will play: “Shadow of Afghanistan”

The War Tapes

http://thewartapes.com/about/

Don’t miss the next FREE Third Thursday Theater Night
Sponsored by the Free Press and the Drexel Gateway

November 15 at 7pm (with discussion to follow)
Featuring: “The War Tapes”

Drexel Gateway – 1550 N. High St., screening room, contact the Free Press 253-2571, truth@freepress.org

Trailer

http://www.shadowofafghanistan.com/Shadowtrailer.mov

Site

http://www.shadowofafghanistan.com/

An epic story of Afghanistan, SHADOW OF AFGHANISTAN, will open for a special 1-week Academy Award qualifilying engagement at the Drexel Gateway Theater on Friday, November 9th. The Gateway is one of 14 cities in the U.S., including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle and Atlanta.

Filmed for over 20 years in Afghanistan by Oscar-nominated filmmakers Jim Burroughs and Suzanne Bauman, the movie covers the Soviet occupation; the exile of two million refugees maimed by Soviet mines; a violent civil war; the fatal alliance of the Taliban with al-Qaeda; and finally the invasion by forces lead by the United States. The story is seen through the eyes of a Afghan warrior, Wakil Akbarzai as he describes the struggle to serve a country that is continually being pulled apart by civil war and strife. The film also features a detailed view of the incredible dangers of covering and filming the continuous war in Afghanistan.

Shadow Of Afghanistan, will play for one week only at the Drexel Gateway Theater, 1550 N. High St. starting Friday, November 9. For more information including showtimes, call the Drexel Gateway at (614) 545-2255 or visit http://www.drexel.net/

Print this out and show it at the ticket counter to get in for only $5! $5 COUPON FREE PRESS READER

Published October 29, 2007

Podcasting Truth T o Power

Saturday, October 13 from 6:30pm-midnight
Free Press office, 1000 E. Main St., parking in rear, overflow at
Salvation Army next door

Every month we have music, art, refreshments, and networking with the
progressive community. This month, the salon is sponsored by the Ohio
Patient Network (working to legalize medical marijuana). Plus, we’ll
have a visit by John Judge, former Special Assistant to US Rep. Cynthia
McKinney, who is in town to speak about the Real Democracy Project. We
will also catch everyone up on central Ohio’s community radio project,
the upcoming Citizen’s Grassroots Congress (Oct. 20), and Green
candidates running in Ohio elections this year.

Hope to see you there!

253-2571 or truth@freepress.org

Bob Fitrakis & Suzanne Patzer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z50uZkHHels

John Judge on Investigations to Impeachment

 

 

 

from
http://www.buckeyestateblog.com

Kent Prosecutor Drops Littering Charge Against Anti-War Activist
Submitted by Jerid on Fri, 09/07/2007 – 2:01pm.
It’s about damn time.

KENT, Ohio (AP) — A prosecutor agreed to drop a littering charge against an anti-war activist who placed an “Impeach Bush” placard in a public garden, the second time a charge has been dropped in the case.

Police had originally issued a ticket to Kevin Egler in July on a charge of unlawfully advertising in a public place, a violation that carries a $125 fine.

But Kent Law Director Jim Silver moved to dismiss the case last month and said Egler would be charged instead with littering, which carries a possible two-month jail penalty.

Silver declined to say Thursday why he was dropping the littering charge.

The decision saves the city $100,000 in legal fees it would have been forced to spend had Egler been convicted and then appealed, said Bob Fitrakis, a lawyer for Egler.

What an absolute abuse of prosecutorial discretion. Sure, the sign shenanigans was against the law, but the amount of effort the prosecutor Jim Silver put into this one was ridiculous, and the costs were ghastly. If the city had a massive problem with anti-war activists disrupting the park regulations, then, then, then the suit might’ve been warranted in terms of social harm. However, Silver’s shenanigans sounded more like just a lone prosecutor getting his political jollies out of his office.

9/11 Press For Truth

9/11

“Probably one of the greatest documentaries to be produced because
everybody — from a 90 year old man to a 4 year old child, from a PhD
to no education — will understand it and because it has no hidden
agenda.”
-Dick Gregory, social satirist

“Phenomenal! Stunning! Unbelievable! It’s so well done…”
-Randi Rhodes, Air America

Out of the grieving thousands left behind on September 11th, a small
group of activist families emerged to demand answers. In 9/11 Press For
Truth, six of them (including three of the famous “Jersey Girls”) tell
for the first time the powerful story of how they took on the powers in
Washington—and won!—compelling an investigation, only to subsequently
watch the 9/11 Commission fail in answering most of their questions.

Friday, Sept. 7
Doors open 6:30pm, movie showing at 7pm
Free Press office: 1000 E. Main St., parking in rear, overflow at
Salvation Army next door
253-2571, truth@freepress.org

 

 

 

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

By Bob Fitrakis

At the time of its announced closure, Antioch College, perhaps America’s most progressive and well-known peace college, had a few visible capitalist hawks on its Board of Trustees.

Bruce P. Bedford, one of only three Trustees not a former alum, had been appointed to the board of Arlington, Virginia company GlobeSecNine in 2005. The company is described by a representative of investment corporation Bear Sterns as having “a unique set of experiences in special forces, classified operations, transportation security and military operations.” One can only speculate why the nation’s longest-standing anti-imperialist education institution would appoint a trustee with extensive ties to the military and security industrial complexes.

Business Wire on May 4, 2005 described GlobeSecNine as follows: “GlobeSecNine invests in companies providing U.S. defense, security, global trade management and supply chain solutions to the public and private sectors, and has a strategic alliance with The Scowcroft Group, a business advisory firm headed by former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft.”

Bedford served on the GlobeSecNine board of advisors with Scowcroft and co-founder of the CIA Counter-Terrorism Center Fred Turco. Others affiliated with the company are tied directly to the prison industrial complex and the anti-liberal “war on drugs,” for example Jack Lawn, former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who serves on the board of directors.

On July 3, 2007, Michael Alexander’s name was removed from the list of Antioch trustees. Two days earlier, he had been sworn in as president of Lasell College in Newton Massachusetts. There has been speculation that Antioch’s campus would make a great retirement community, much like the one at Lasell, known as Lasell Village, “a state-of-the-art eldercare community with the first-of-its-kind built in educational component.”

In 1998 Alexander founded AverStar, where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and did business primarily with NASA and the Defense Department. In 2000, Alexander’s AverStar defense company merged with the Titan corporation.

In March 2005, Titan pled guilty and paid the largest penalty under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in history for bribery and filing false tax returns.

L-3 Communications acquired the Titan Corporation on July 29, 2005. As their corporate website described the company, it “is a leading provider of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, secure communications systems, aircraft modernization, training and government services. The company is a leading merchant supplier of a broad array of high technology products, including guidance and navigation, sensors, scanners, fuzes, data links, propulsion systems, simulators, avionics, electro optics, satellite communications, electrical power equipment, encryption, signal intelligence, antennas and microwave components. L-3 also supports a variety of Homeland Security initiatives with products and services. Its customers include the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, selected U.S. Government intelligence agencies and aerospace prime contractors.”

The L-3 Communications Titan Group brags that 8000 of its 10,000 employees have “security clearances” and that they are a leading provider of C4ISR, Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance – “developing and supporting the systems of today and tomorrow for the United States and Allied Militaries and defense-related agencies in order for them to carry out their assigned missions,” according to their website.

While Antioch board members Bedford and Alexander cozied up with U.S. intelligence and Homeland Security, students at the university sponsored a national teach-in to expose the atrocities of Guantanamo Bay on October 5, 2006.

How a college targeted by the FBI and its notorious COINTELPRO operation during the Cold War as a “vanguard of the New Left” managed to place two “spook”-connected trustees on their board is a mystery worth exploring.

Antioch resides in the shadow of the Wright Patterson Air Force Base and its legendary Foreign Technologies Division that reverse engineers weapons systems from other nations. Its larger neighbor to the west, Ohio State University, has long been tied up with the CIA’s favorite nonprofit institution, Battelle, and was one of the 30 or so universities involved in the MK Ultra mind control LSD experiments in the 1960s.

The Dayton Daily News is reporting that a $5 million accounting error caused the radical college to close. Others have pointed to the long-standing rumors of intelligence ties to the Antioch Europe in Transition study program.

If the CIA or U.S. intelligence services were involved in the subversion of America’s most anti-imperialist and pro-peace college, it wouldn’t be the first time that the progressive college campuses have been infiltrated. The CIA subverted the National Student Association in the late 50s and early 60s. The agency also has been accused of subverting everything from fraternities to Fullbright scholars to Peace Corps workers.

The role of these trustees must be heavily scrutinized. Antioch alumni should be ashamed to allow their college to die until they get to the bottom of this spooky mystery.

Bob Fitrakis is the author of The Fitrakis Files: Spooks, Nukes, and Nazis, on the role of the CIA in Ohio politics.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

James Ewinger, Plain Dealer Reporter (Cleveland, OH)

Kent – A soft-spoken teacher posted the words “Impeach Bush” in a public garden, and Kent police cast him as an outlaw.

Today Kevin Egler is fighting that in Kent Municipal Court, and the case is emerging as a free-speech issue of interest well beyond the boundaries of placid Portage County.

Police ticketed Egler for unlawfully advertising in a public place because he put up a free-standing sign near the intersection of Haymarket Parkway and Willow and Main streets.

Egler said the officer who cited him July 25 asked: “Why don’t you put the signs in your own yard?” Egler said his response was that he’s a taxpayer and views the public space very much as his yard.

At 45, Egler is too young to have experienced the heyday of anti-war activity in Kent. He was only 8 when Ohio National Guardsmen shot and killed four Kent State University students during a campus protest on May 4, 1970. He went to the university a decade later, putting out an underground newspaper and acquiring an accounting degree.

Egler and about a dozen friends and associates have placed hundreds of anti-war messages around Ohio and neighboring states over the past 10 months. He said the effort is fueled by the notion that President Bush’s military response after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was both illegal and immoral.

The ticket in Kent represents the first serious legal challenge to the campaign, Egler said. (He said he was ticketed for littering in Columbus after a sign he placed on a bridge blew over.)

Egler said that when he was stopped in Kent, he asked the police officer how his sign differed from Realtors posting signs on public property saying “This way to the house for sale.” He said the officer asked, “You don’t know the difference?” but never explained what it might be.

Columbus attorney Bob Fitrakis, Egler’s lawyer, said there is a difference: The real estate sign is commercial speech, and Egler’s sign is political. Commercial messages do not have anywhere near the legal protections that political speech does, he said.

Fitrakis does extensive legal work on First Amendment issues and is the publisher of the nationally recognized online publication freepress.org. He said this is the first Ohio case of its kind that he has heard of, because most prosecutions for political signs occur when someone defaces a building with paint or graffiti, but not a free-standing, easily removable sign. Until now.

But Ohio politicians – including judges running for re-election – get a great deal of latitude when it comes to posting their campaign signs, and Fitrakis said he is not aware of any instance in which a mainstream politician has been hunted down and prosecuted for the act.

Kent Safety Director William Lillich said similar tickets have been issued there, but he is not sure whether they involved commercial or political messages. He said candidates have been contacted and told to move inappropriately placed campaign signs.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jewinger@plaind.com, 216-999-3905

 

Original At:

http://tinyurl.com/2nkjoe
 

Saturday, August 11, 2007
Free Press Second Saturday Salon
6pm-midnight. Meet new friends in the progressive community! Have a meeting during the salon with a small group! Give a presentation on a social justice issus. Food, drinks, music, art, political discourse or just socializing time with progressive friends. Music by Marvin the Robot.
Location:Free Press office, 1000 E. Main St., in Columbus Compact building, parking lot in rear, overflow in Salvation Army parking lot next door.
Phone:253-2571, 224-1082
Email:truth@freepress.org