Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XVIII Number 7, July 2010
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, July 22, 7:30 PM. Monthly Meeting
at Caltech Y, which is located off San Pasqual
between Hill and Holliston, south side. You will
see two curving walls forming a gate to a path--
our building is just beyond. Help us plan future
actions on Sudan, the 'War on Terror', death
penalty and more.
Tuesday, August 10, 7:30 PM. Letter
writing meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner
of Hill and California in Pasadena. This
informal gathering is a great way for
newcomers to get acquainted with Amnesty!
During the summer we are outside on the lawn
next to the Athenaeum.
Sunday, August 15, 6:30PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion group. This
month we read "The Girl who Played With
Fire" by Steig Larsson.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi everyone
Hot enough for you?!! We're trying to be good
citizens (and save money) and not overuse our
air-con, so we have fans everywhere, but I'm still
sweatingÉ.hopefully it will be cooler next week.
Its summer and we always read a mystery in
August for the book group. Don't know about the
rest of you, but I haven't been able to put down
the series of 3 books written by our August
author, Steig Larsson. I just finished the 3rd book
in the series, "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's
Nest" a few days ago, reading in bed until after
midnight! We saw the first movie, Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo, and are looking forward to seeing
the 2nd one based on our August book!
Group 22 members Laura and Ted Brown, myself,
Robert, and Yuny Parada attended the forum at
All Saints Church June 28, "First do no Harm",
about medical professionals participation in
torture. See Laura's article about the event in this
newsletter.
Enjoy your summer activities, whatever they may
be. We are driving to Oregon next month to see
Shakespeare in Ashland and Rob's family in
Corvallis.
Con carino,
Kathy
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders@blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday, August 15, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Boulevard
In Pasadena
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Source: www.stieglarsson.com/Life-and-work
Background
Stieg's grandfather, an inspiring role model
Stieg Larsson was born in Vasterbotten in
northern Sweden in 1954. At the time of his birth,
his parents were too young and too poor to keep
him, so he was raised by his grandparents in a
small village in the north of Sweden. Stieg's
grandfather, Severin Bostrom, became the male
role model for the young Stieg. Severin was
strongly anti-fascist [and during the Second
World War he was imprisoned in the work camp
in Storsien for his anti-Nazi opinions]*. Had he
been Danish, he would no doubt have been
placed in a German Concentration Camp. The
fate of his grandfather deeply affected and
shaped Stieg's character. He wanted to protect
equal rights and fight for democracy and freedom
of speech in order to prevent history, and what
happened to his grand father, from repeating
itself.
* Stieg's father, Erland Larsson, says to
stieglarsson.com that nobody in the family can
confirm the information about the camp.
Youth, left-wing movement and far travels
When Stieg was nine years old, his grandfather
died and he moved to live with his parents and
his younger brother. Stieg was given a typewriter
for his 12th birthday, and he spent most nights of
his youth staying up writing, keeping his family
awake with the drumming sound. At 18 years of
age he met Eva Gabrielsson at an anti-Vietnam
War meeting in Umea. Eva was to become his life
long companion. With some short exceptions,
mainly due to the fact that Stieg was sometimes
too obsessed with his work, they lived together
until Stiegs death the 9th November 2004. After
his military service, Stieg travelled in Africa and
has been described as "an early backpacker". He
rarely had enough money on his travels, in an
interview with Norra Vasterbotten in 2006, his
father describes how he had to work as a
dishwasher and sell his clothes to afford a ticket
home from Algeria.
Stieg Larsson was also interested in Science
Fiction. Among other things was he the chairman
of the Scandinavian science fiction society and
published two magazines.
A life under constant threat
During the last 15 years of his life, he and his life
companion Eva Gabrielsson lived under constant
threat from right-wing violence. When a labor-
union leader was murdered in his home by neo-
Nazis in 1999, the police discovered photos of
and information about the couple in the
murderer's apartment. So it was not without
reason that the couple took precautionary
measures. They were never seen together outside
the house, they moved mirrors in the hall and they
always kept the blinds down. Those are just a
few examples. Stieg was an expert in the area,
and wrote a book of instructions on how
journalists should respond to threats for the
Swedish Union of Journalists ("Overleva
Deadline", 2000).
Writing as a relaxation
The situation created a contrast between Stieg's
work at Expo and his night-time novel writing. He
regarded his writing of detective novels as
relaxing. Keeping track of loose ends, characters
and made up conspiracies posed no problem
since it was, after all, fiction and no one would
threaten either Eva or himself because of it.
BOOK REVIEW FROM THE NEW YORK
TIMES JULY 16, 2009
"SUSPECTED, PURSUED. INNOCENT?
Lisbeth Salander, the angry punk hacker in Stieg
Larsson's 2008 best seller, "The Girl With the
Dragon Tattoo," was one of the most original and
memorable heroines to surface in a recent thriller:
picture Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft endowed with
Mr. Spock's intense braininess and Scarlett
O'Hara's spunky instinct for survival. She and
the middle-aged, down-on-his-luck reporter
Mikael Blomkvist made quite the odd couple, and
their chemistry fueled that earlier novel, driving it
through its hurried, contrived ending.
Now Salander is back in "The Girl Who Played
With Fire" in an even more central role. This time
she is less detective than quarry, as she becomes
the chief suspect in three murders. Hunted by the
police and enemies from her past, she goes
underground, while Blomkvist, one of the few
people to believe in her innocence, races to find
her - and clues to the real killer.
Though this novel lacks the sexual and romantic
tension that helped spark "Dragon Tattoo" -
Salander and Blomkvist share few scenes here -
it boasts an intricate, puzzle like story line that
attests to Mr. Larsson's improved plotting
abilities, a story line that simultaneously moves
backward into Salander's traumatic past, even as
it accelerates toward its startling and violent
conclusion.
The three people murdered are Nils Erik Bjurman,
a lawyer and Salander's guardian, who once
brutally raped her; Dag Svensson, a writer
finishing an explosive article about the sex trade
for Blomkvist's magazine (an article that
threatens to ruin the reputations of several
policemen, five lawyers, a prosecutor, a judge and
three journalists); and Svensson's girlfriend and
researcher, Mia Johansson. In his last conversation
with Blomkvist, Svensson mentioned he had a
new lead on a mysterious gangster, known as
Zala, whom he wanted to track down before his
article went to press.
Like many thriller writers, Mr. Larsson - who
died in 2004, shortly after turning in this novel,
"Dragon Tattoo" and a third companion volume
- is overly fond of coincidence, and this is
certainly the case here. Salander has just come
back from a year of traveling: she had left
Stockholm after falling in love with Blomkvist,
who had taken up with another woman, and was
furious with herself for falling prey to an emotion
that goes against her image of herself as
unsentimental and tough as nails.
Upon returning, she hacks into Blomkvist's
computer to check up on him and discovers an e-
mail message from Svensson mentioning Zala,
who just happens to be a dreaded figure from her
own past. Hours before Svensson and Johansson
are found dead - by Blomkvist, of all people -
Salander pays them a surprise visit, determined
to find out what they know about Zala. The
police discover her fingerprints on the gun used to
kill them - a gun, we learn, that belonged to her
former guardian, Bjurman, who is later found
dead in his apartment, naked and draped over
his bed.
By cutting cinematically from one set of
characters to another, Mr. Larsson builds
suspense, while tracking the progress of several
simultaneous investigations: the campaign of a
likable criminal inspector named Bublanski and
his team to track down Salander, whom they
regard as their chief suspect; Blomkvist's quest to
exonerate Salander and find the real killer, who
he suspects must have had something at stake in
the pending publication of Svensson's exposŽ; the
efforts of a private security investigator named
Armansky, who once employed Salander, to track
down her whereabouts; and Salander's own
crusade to find Zala, exact revenge and finally
come to terms with the horrors of her childhood.
As he did in "Dragon Tattoo," Mr. Larsson - a
former journalist and magazine editor - mixes
precise, reportorial descriptions with lurid
melodramatics lifted straight from the stock
horror and thriller cupboard. He gives us an
immediate sense of the sleek, yuppified world
inhabited by Blomkvist and his married business
associate and sometime lover, Erika Berger and
the daily rigors of publishing a monthly magazine.
He gives us a detailed, "CSI"-type understanding
of the investigative methods employed by the
police and the computer pyrotechnics performed
by Salander. At the same time Mr. Larsson has
his characters talk in portentous tones of things
like "All the Evil." And he gives us two cartoony
James Bondian villains: a hulking blond giant,
incapable of feeling pain, and his evil, physically
disfigured master, who happens to be a former
Soviet agent with ties to the underworld.
The ending of "The Girl Who Played With Fire"
- like the revelation about Salander's past,
which gives the book its title - comes straight out
of a horror movie: it's gory, harrowing and
operatically over the top. The reason it works is
the same reason that "Dragon Tattoo" worked:
Mr. Larsson's two central characters, Salander
and Blomkvist, transcend their genre and
insinuate themselves in the reader's mind through
their oddball individuality, their professional
competence and, surprisingly, their emotional
vulnerability.
PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
GAO ZHISHENG
by Joyce Wolf
Group 22 continues to work on the case of human
rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (pronounced Gow
Jir-sheng). Detained by the Chinese authorities in
February 2009, he was missing for over a year
before he reappeared for a month in March. He
vanished again on April 20. The Washington Post
published an editorial about him on July 9, saying
"He took on sensitive cases most other lawyers
avoided, even asserting the rights of detained
Falun Gong members to judicial review. As a
result of his activism, he has been kidnapped,
tortured and disappeared."
(http://tinyurl.com/28z5bpt)
The Epoch Times wrote an article on July 9 about
Gao's second disappearance. "Gao's family said
that Gao has been missing for nearly three
months now and no one knows where he is.
... Gao's family did not understand what was
going on, but they thought Gao was detained
somewhere." (http://tinyurl.com/2dp2zv7)
This month let's write again to the Director of the
Beijing Public Security Bureau. Here is a sample
letter that you can use as a guide. Postage is 98
cents.
MA Zhenchuan Juzhang
Beijingshi Gong'anju
9 Qianmen Dongdajie
Dongchengqu
Beijingshi 100740
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Dear Director,
I am deeply concerned about Gao Zhisheng,
a Beijing-based human rights lawyer
who was detained in Shaanxi Province on
February 4, 2009. His current whereabouts has
been unknown since April 20, 2010.
A highly respected lawyer, Gao Zhisheng has
represented a number of human rights defenders,
including members of the spiritual group Falun
Gong. His law license was revoked in 2005, and in
December 2006 he received a suspended three-
year prison sentence for "inciting subversion."
According to Gao, he was tortured during the
period of detention before his trial. I respectfully
urge that the authorities open a full and impartial
investigation into allegations that Gao Zhisheng
suffered ill-treatment in detention, including
beatings and inadequate access to medical
treatment, and bring those responsible to justice.
Thank you for your attention to this important
matter.
[your name and address]
"FIRST, DO NO HARM"
BY LAURA G. BROWN, AI GROUP 22 MEMBER
All Saints Church hosted a panel discussion June
28 about physicians' involvement in torture before
about 50 people. John Bradshaw, Director of
Policy for Physicians for Human Rights (PHR),
spoke first on the theme that health professionals
are bound by ethics to never participate in
torture, though some do. Following him was
David Gangsei, Ph.D., who spoke about
psychological abuses, and an ACLU attorney
whose client was detained and tortured in Dubai
at the behest of the U.S.
Bradshaw's focus was PHR's June 2010 report,
which says little is being done to stop the use of
torture as standard practice. President Obama's
policy is one of "looking forward, not backward",
Bradshaw said, which translates to no
prosecution for past or current authors of torture
policies, in violation of international law.
The report's most shocking revelation is that
health professionals, including doctors who
worked for the CIA, did experiments on
prisoners, took notes about how much pain
victims could withstand, and used the results to
make torture techniques more effective. The CIA
dubbed its new, improved near-drowning
"Waterboarding 2.0."
Psychologist David Gangsei relayed that
psychological torture, so-called "Torture Light",
is becoming more popular because it doesn't leave
marks. One strategy is to make prisoners listen to
the screams of people being beaten and to tell
them: "That's going to happen to your wife; that's
going to happen to your child." Bradshaw added
that there's no proof that psychological or
physical torture elicits accurate information, and
that a technique known as "rapport building", or
gaining the confidence of the prisoner, works best.
Ed Bacon, All Saints Rector, said torture's toll
isn't limited to the victims, but that the
perpetrators also become damaged and are prone
to depression and suicide. He agreed with an
audience member that it is a good idea to present
a positive model of the United States which we
would like to have - a nation which stands for
principles like the Bill of Rights and the value of
each human life.
Event organizer Virginia Classick had two actions
for participants. People could sign on to the PHR
complaint to the Office of Human Research
Protections of Health & Human Services, and
send postcards to Congress asking them to
guarantee Red Cross access to all
detainees. These can be completed online at
www.nrcat.org/OHRP and at www.nrcat.org,
click on Torture Awareness Month.
DEATH PENALTY UPDATE
BY STEVI CARROLL
Troy Davis
June 22, 2010, Lucas, Candy and I joined people
from the ACLU and Amnesty gathered at the Los
Angeles City Hall. While the group was relatively
small - fewer than 30 I think - its members knew
they stood with people throughout the world who
were in turn standing publicly in their blue "I AM
TROY DAVIS" T-Shirts.
To see video of events for Troy Davis in
Savannah, Georgia and London, England, go to
Savannah:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpi
d1184614610?bctid=101554585001
London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=del1Tc5Qn
zs&feature=PlayList&p=5F343BDF4C5AC7AD&
playnext_from=PL&index=0
An evidentiary hearing for Troy Davis' case was
held in Savannah, Georgia on June 23, 2010. Both
the Attorney General's brief and Troy Davis' brief
were filed in the U. S. District Court in Savannah
on July 7, 2010. Amnesty's "Archive for the
'Death Penalty' Category" says,
(http://blog.amnestyusa.org/category/deathpenalty/)
"The Troy Davis case is buried in doubts.
Doubts from the witnesses whose recantations
were are the heart of last month's hearing, doubts
from jurors..., doubts from a former Georgia
Supreme Court Justice who originally upheld his
conviction, and even - with over 130 exonerations
from death row since the 1970s - doubts about
the reliability of the criminal justice system itself."
A verdict in the case may be soon and may be
followed by further action by the U. S. Supreme
Court.
Gaile Owens
In a few months, I thought I would be reporting
the execution of Gaile Owens since she was
scheduled to die September 28, 2010. July 14,
2010, Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen
commuted her death sentence to life in prison. As
the story of her abuse at the hands of her
husband - whom she had killed - became public,
many Nashvillians worked for her case to be
reconsidered. She now may be eligible for parole
by Spring of 2012. For an article as this case, go to
http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2010/0
7/tennessee-governor-commutes-sentence-
of.html.
Stay of execution:
Ivan Teleguz
Execution reprieve:
Jonathan Green
(http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/A
PStories/stories/D9GLR2300.html)
Executions:
July
1 Michael Perry - Texas
13 William Garner - Ohio
"For centuries the death penalty, often
accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been
trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists."
Albert Camus,
Resistance, Rebellion and Death
MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UAs 29
POC 6
Total 35
To add your letters to the total contact:
lwkamp@gmail.com.
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code 5-62
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com