Daniel McGowan to Return to Halfway House
Yesterday, I described what happened to Daniel McGowan, the environmental activist who posted on HuffPo about his treatment in a Communication Management Unit; shortly after that post, the Marshalls detained him at his halfway house.
HuffPo has an update. First, the Bureau of Prisons is reviewing whether it was appropriate to detain McGowan.
The jailing of environmental activist Daniel McGowan is under review, a Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) official said Friday morning.
McGowan, who pleaded guilty to arson linked to the Earth Liberation Front in 2006, was serving out the final months of his seven-year sentence in a Brooklyn halfway house when he was jailed by federal marshals Thursday morning, allegedly for writing a commentary on The Huffington Post critical of a harshly restricted federal prison unit in which he had spent time.
Tracy Rivers, a residential reentry manager for the BOP in New York, told HuffPost Friday morning, “We are reviewing this case to determine if the actions that were taken were appropriate.”
And in an update, they say he will be returned to the halfway house.
Daniel McGowan may soon leave jail. His attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Rachel Meerpool, told HuffPost Friday afternoon that, “We have been told by the BOP that he will be sent back to the halfway house today.”
Daniel McGowan may soon leave jail. His attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Rachel Meerpool, told HuffPost Friday afternoon that, “We have been told by the BOP that he will be sent back to the halfway house today.”
Who made the decision to detain him?
“Oops, our bad.” (Silently: “but we made our point, didn’t we … tee hee.”)
@JTMinIA: I suspect if it hadn’t gotten more media attention they might have kept him. What did they think, HuffPo wouldn’t cover it?
@emptywheel: Yes, I know he posted on HuffPo, but I’m still surprised it got any attention. After all, from what I’ve read, he wasn’t showing any side-boob when he was arrested.
tee hee
OT
Mark Zuckerberg’s first website with creepy yellow all seeing eye
via neatorama
Good news about McGowan.
OT —
Link to the earliest I’ve ever come across of Obama talking about cuts to SocSec — video from April of 2006.
Via DCblogger at Corrente in Run, Don’t Walk, to your Senators’ and Rep’s District Office.
@jawbone: Did you know he was the only D.C. elected(meaning from the House, Senate or even someone from Dubya’s office) that showed up there that day? Interesting since most of them worship Pete Peterson.
In addition to securing independent review of McGowan’s unlawful arrest and detention, McGowan’s counsel should be pursuing his right to compensation in accordance with CCPR Article 9 clause 5. Without consistent restitution for state crimes of this nature, America’s BOP gulag will continue to silence and intimidate prisoners of conscience. As long as McGowan is treated like Ken Saro-Wiwa, the US government has to be treated like Nigeria or any other third-world basket case.
just a week or so ago on this blog a reader posted a link to an article about retiring-after-this-term Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin assisting in bringing Drones to the Battle Creek Michigan National Guard base.
well, the State of Michigan is just one step away from deploying those Drones to surveil the residents of Michigan.
witness:
Michigan State Police helicopter to make regular patrols in West Michigan
Are Michigan State Police helicopter patrols over West Michigan Big Brother in the sky?
http://www.google.com/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=michigan+%2B+helicopter+patrols&ncl=dVhW3ovQaYXJ0XMe7W0IuBAr6eA8M&cf=all&scoring=d
and when the inevitable budget / money / manpower crunch hits these Michigan State Police helicopter patrols, guess what the very next step is going to be???
and we didn’t know that there was a “severe crime wave” in West Michigan. maybe if the mainstream news media would do a little of that “journalism” thing, we would know that. or maybe we would discover that the “severe crime wave” is a just a smoke screen to go Big Brother.