Former Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Conahan, along with another former judge, was accused of shutting down the county’s juvenile detention center and then receiving more than $2 million from for-profit detention facilities as part of a “kids for cash” scheme, according to The Citizens’ Voice.
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People online were really not impressed by Conahan’s inclusion in Biden’s massive list.
“Wow. I think Biden’s commuting the sentence of this disgraced Pa judge is a big mistake. I covered this in my Pa media days. He was one of 2 judges receiving $$ to sentence kids to lengthy sentences in a for-profit juvenile prison,” wroteThe Washington Post’s Heather Long in a post on X. “He ruined a lot of kids’ lives.”
Steven Donziger speaks at a “Free Donziger” rally held in front of the Manhattan Court House in New York City on October 1, 2021. (Photo: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“We are deeply concerned about the chilling effect this case will have on all advocates working on behalf of other frontline communities, victims of human rights violations, and those seeking environmental justice.”
More than 30 Democratic members of Congress on Wednesday called on outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden to pardon environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who endured nearly 1,000 days in prison and house arrest after successfully representing Ecuadoreans harmed by Big Oil’s pollution of the Amazon rainforest.
In a letter to Biden led by Rep. Jim McGovern, (D-Mass.), 33 House and Senate Democrats plus Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont noted the “troubling legal irregularities” in Donziger’s case, which have been “criticized as unconstitutional or illegal by three federal judges, 68 Nobel laureates, and five high-level jurists from the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations.”
Donziger represented a group of Ecuadorean farmers and Indigenous people in a 1990s lawsuit against Texaco—which was later acquired by Chevron—over the oil company’s deliberate dumping of billions of gallons of carcinogenic waste into the Amazon. He played a key role in winning a $9.5 billion settlement against Chevron in Ecuadorian courts.
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However, Chevron fought Donziger in the U.S. court system, and when the attorney refused to disclose privileged client information to the company, federal District Judge Lewis Kaplan—who was invested in Chevron—held him in misdemeanor contempt of court. Loretta Preska, Kaplan’s handpicked judge to preside over Donziger’s contempt trial, is affiliated with the Chevron-funded Federalist Society.
Donziger’s case drew worldwide attention and solidarity, with human rights experts and free speech groups joining progressive U.S. lawmakers in demanding his release. He was released in April 2022 after 993 days in prison and house arrest.
“Donziger is the only lawyer in U.S. history to be subject to any period of detention on a misdemeanor contempt of court charge,” the 34 lawmakers wrote. “We believe that the legal case against Mr. Donziger, as well as the excessively harsh nature of the punishment against him, are directly tied to his prior work against Chevron. We do not make this accusation lightly or without evidentiary support.”
The legislators warned:
Notwithstanding the personal hardship, this unprecedented legal process has imposed on Mr. Donziger and his family, we are deeply concerned about the chilling effect this case will have on all advocates working on behalf of other frontline communities, victims of human rights violations, and those seeking environmental justice. Those who try to help vulnerable communities will feel as though tactics of intimidation—at the hands of powerful corporate interests, and, most troublingly, the U.S. courts—can succeed in stifling robust legal representation when it is needed most. This is a dangerous signal to send.
“Pardoning Mr. Donziger,” the lawmakers added, “would send a powerful message to the world that billion-dollar corporations cannot act with impunity against lawyers and their clients who defend the public interest.”
The lawmakers join more than 100 environmental and human rights groups that have urged Biden to pardon Donziger.
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In an April opinion piece published by Common Dreams, Donziger contended that “I need this pardon because I am the only person in U.S. history to be privately prosecuted by a corporation.”
“More specifically, the government (via a pro-corporate judge) gave a giant oil company (Chevron) the power to prosecute and lock up its leading critic,” he continued. “As a result of this unprecedented and frightening private prosecution, I still cannot travel out of the country and I have been prohibited from meeting with clients I have represented for over three decades. Nor can I practice law, maintain a bank account, or earn a livelihood.”
“No matter where one stands on the political spectrum,” Donziger added, “we should all be able to agree that what happened to me should not happen to anybody in any country that adheres to the rule of law.”
The appeal for a Donziger pardon comes amid a wave of eleventh-hour pleas from lawmakers for Biden to grant clemency to figures ranging from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier—often described as the nation’s longest-jailed political prisoner—and federal death row inmates including Billie Jerome Allen, who advocates say was wrongly convicted of murder.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators with their hands painted the colour of blood hold a demonstration to call for a ceasefire in Gaza as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, United States on December 11, 2024 [Celal Güneş/Anadolu Agency]
A group of pro-Palestinian protestors repeatedly disrupted Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony, Wednesday, before a House of Representatives panel on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Anadolu Agency reports.
One protester shouted: “Bloody Blinken” and “Butcher of Gaza” as Blinken began his remarks.
A second demonstrator, holding a sign that read: “Stop Bombing Kids”, yelled: “Stop killing kids in Gaza” and “I don’t know how you can sleep at night when you’re killing so many kids in tents.” The protester was arrested and removed from the chamber.
Blinken continued his testimony, despite the disruptions.
The US, Israel’s primary supporter, provides nearly 70 per cent of its weapons, along with significant diplomatic backing. The support has drawn growing criticism amid the escalating civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip from Israel’s ongoing military onslaught.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 44,800 people, mostly women and children, since a 7 October, 2023 attack by the Palestinian Resistance group, Hamas.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last month for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence chief, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on Gaza.
F-15 fighters escort a U.S. B-52 bomber in this August 31, 2021 photo. (Photo: Japan Air Self-Defense Force/U.S. Indo-Pacific Command/flickr/cc)
“The Western press are waxing lyrical about the new Syria being born—but not a word on the U.S. and Israeli bombs falling from the sky,” said Yanis Varoufakis.A-10 ground attack aircraft
U.S. military forces launched dozens of airstrikes on more than 75 Islamic State targets in Syria on Sunday after the fall of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid ongoing Israeli and Turkish attacks on the war-torn Middle Eastern nation.
According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), warplanes including B-52 bombers, F-15 fighters, and A-10 ground attack aircraft “conducted dozens of precision airstrikes targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in central Syria.”
CENTCOM called the strikes “part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS in order to prevent the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria.”
The U.S., “together with allies and partners in the region, will continue to carry out operations to degrade ISIS operational capabilities even during this dynamic period in Syria,” CENTCOM added.
“The Biden administration ordering ongoing airstrikes is a disappointing sign that they have no intent on reversing their deadly policy of interventionism.”
Responding Monday to the latest attacks on Syria by U.S. forces, Danaka Katovich, national co-director of the peace group CodePink, told Common Dreams: “We condemn the U.S. airstrikes in Syria. The U.S. has sowed chaos in Syria and the entire region for years and the Biden administration ordering ongoing airstrikes is a disappointing sign that they have no intent on reversing their deadly policy of interventionism.”
U.S. and coalition forces have killed and maimed at least tens of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis during the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations as part of the anti-ISIS campaign and wider so-called War on Terror.
Commenting on the dearth of coverage of the strikes by the corporate media, prominent Greek leftist Yanis Varoufakissaid on social media that “the Western press are waxing lyrical about the new Syria being born—but not a word on the U.S. and Israeli bombs falling from the sky.”
“Is there no bottom to the moral void of the Western press?” he added.
Sunday’s U.S. strikes came as al-Assad and relatives fled to Russia—where they have been granted asylum—amid the fall of the capital, Damascus, to rebel forces.
Also on Sunday, Israeli forces seized more territory in Syria’s Golan Heights and ordered residents of five villages to “stay home and not go out until further notice” if they want to remain safe. Israel conquered the western two-thirds of the Golan Heights in 1967 and has unlawfully occupied it ever since. In 1981, Israel illegally annexed the occupied lands.
“We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza—said in a video posted on social media.
Numerous Israelis celebrated the seizure on social media, while others cautioned against boasting about what is almost certainly an illegal conquest.
Meanwhile in northern Syria, Turkish airstrikes in support of Syrian National Army rebels—who are battling U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters in and around the Kurdish-controlled city of Manbij—reportedly killed numerous civilians along with dozens of militants.
In what it called a “horrific massacre,” the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday that 11 civilians from the same family, including women and six children, were killed in a Turkish drone strike on the SDF-controlled village of Al-Mustariha in northern Raqqa Governate.
Israel carried out multiple airstrikes against the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday, December 8, after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: Screenshot
The resignation and fleeing of Bashar al-Assad inaugurates a new chapter in the region that has been facing constant US and Israeli aggression for decades.
As Israeli forces advanced into the Golan buffer zone and initiated airstrikes on targets in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a video published on X that the collapse of Assad’s government on Sunday, December 8, “is a direct result of our forceful action against Hezbollah and Iran, Assad’s main supporters.” Meanwhile, images circulated across social media of members of the armed opposition groups led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) taking control over Damascus, invading the Iranian embassy in the capital and tearing down posters of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani.
The dramatic events took place after groups led by HTS launched a surprise offensive on November 27, against Syrian government forces in the Aleppo governorate. HTS is led by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the former leader of Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch Al-Nusra front which rebranded as HTS. In the following 12 days, the groups, some of which are backed by the United States, Turkey, and covertly Israel, quickly advanced and gained control of key Syrian cities with little resistance until reaching the capital Damascus on December 8.
The fall of Assad’s government has sent a shock wave across the region and the world. The Syrian government had been engaged in a protracted civil war since 2011, which eventually saw armed opposition groups, including ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates, take control over large swathes of territory. The United States officially intervened in the conflict in 2014, carrying out extensive airstrikes as well as territorial deployment alongside Kurdish forces in the north, which continues to this day. Syria’s allies including Russia, Iran, and Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, played a central role in the military campaign to regain control over the majority of Syrian territory and defeat the Islamic State and other terrorist groups. Importantly, the coalition of armed opposition groups retained control over the Idlib governorate, from where they evidently regrouped to launch their latest offensive.
Analysts, and even Netanyahu himself, have pointed out that the timing of this offensive was no coincidence. The HTS-led offensive began on the same day that a ceasefire deal was reached between a significantly-weakened Hezbollah and Israel. The critical support Syria received in its fight against opposition groups in the last decade, was significantly reduced as its partners and allies have been engaged in their own arduous wars and conflicts.
Lebanese American journalist Rania Khalek wrote on December 5, “There is a feeling that all the forces against Syria – Turkey, the US, Israel, etc – have joined forces to attack the resistance axis at one of its weakest moments, taking advantage of the last year plus of genocide in Gaza, destruction in Lebanon and Russia being bogged down in Ukraine. All this while US sanctions and bad governance hollowed out what was left of the Syrian state and its remaining institutions. Everyone fears even darker days ahead.”
Additionally, with Israel’s advance on the Golan buffer zone, many now fear that it will seek to advance its annexation goals for the Golan Heights.
In a 2018 article written by Nour Samaha for The Intercept, she warned that, taking advantage of the war, Israel at the time was “expanding its influence and control deeper into opposition-held southern Syria.” Samaha argued that this advance through NGOs and backing opposition groups was partially in response to Israel’s anxiety about “increasing Iranian influence in Syria and Hezbollah’s presence close to its northern border”, but also ultimately part of its “aim of cementing Israel’s hold on the Golan Heights.” She reported at the time that there was an increase in Israeli settlement activity within the Occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli forces stated the deployment to the buffer zone was “to ensure the safety of the communities of the Golan Heights and the citizens of Israel. We emphasize that the IDF is not interfering with the internal events in Syria.”
Meanwhile, Israel continues to carry out airstrikes on Syria’s capital targeting strategic sites such as ammunition and weapons depots and the Mezzeh airbase, reportedly to prevent the sites from falling into the hands of the new government.
Iran, the foremost ally of the Assad government, responded to the developments in Syria during a cabinet session on Sunday, December 8. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated, “We stress the importance of preserving Syria’s unity and sovereignty, with its people deciding the country’s future and political system. We emphasize the importance of dialogue among all segments of Syrian society to reach an understanding, and we hope for an end to military confrontations.” The head of state added that Iran condemns Israel’s “violation of Syrian territory and calls on all parties and countries in the region to be vigilant against its aims.”
The country also condemned the incursion into its embassy in Damascus.
US President Joe Biden speaking in a press conference held at the White House, praised the government takeover by HTS as a “fundamental act of justice” but also that “the fall of the Assad regime in Syria is also a moment of risk and uncertainty.”
In 2017, the US had declared that it considers HTS a “designated terrorist org”. The US Embassy in Syria posted an image of HTS leader al-Julani, who himself had been declared a global terrorist as early as 2013, and stated “we remain committed to bringing leading AQS figures in HTS to justice”, offering a USD 10 million reward for his capture.
