Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 18 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Mark Burton es el abogado del revolucionario colombiano Ricardo Palmera. Palmera es un preso político de los EE.UU., que actualmente permanece en la prisión de súper-máxima seguridad en Florence, Colorado. Mark Burton es una de las pocas personas que puede visitar y comunicarse con Palmera. Hay una campaña por la libertad de Ricardo Palmera para que pueda participar en las conversaciones de paz en Colombia, que suceden en Cuba. Ricardo Palmera es conocido popularmente como Simón Trinidad en Colombia. Para obtener más información, consulte www.FreeRicardoPalmera.org.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Samidoun -Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Professor Al-Arian is a Palestinian American civil rights and Palestine solidarity activist who was indicted in 2003 and put on trial for aiding the Palestinian resistance organization Islamic Jihad. At the time of his arrest U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft held a press conference announcing the professor’s arrest to the nation. In the U.S. war on terror, Sami Al-Arian was the big test case. The U.S. government spent more than ten years spying on Al-Arian and intercepting more than 400,000 phone calls. However the U.S. prosecutors could not get a guilty verdict from jurors on any of the 17 charges. After spending two years in jail while on trial and faced with another trial and more years away from his family, Al-Arian made a plea deal, agreeing to leave the country and going into political exile. Then U.S. prosecutors tried to use their power to punish Al-Arian. Instead of letting professor Al-Arian serve time and leave the country as agreed in negotiations, U.S. prosecutors demanded Al-Arian testify at a federal grand jury in Virginia, which he refused to do based on his agreement with the government. He then was charged with contempt and jailed. Since 2008 he has lived under house arrest and in 2014 the charges against him were dropped. He was deported in early February and now lives in Turkey.

Mark Burton is the lawyer for Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera. Palmera is a political prisoner of the U.S., currently held in the Florence, Colorado supermax prison. Mark Burton is one of the few people allowed to visit and communicate with him. There is a campaign to Free Ricardo Palmera so he can take part in ongoing Colombian peace talks happening in Cuba. Ricardo Palmera is popularly known as Simón Trinidad in Colombia. For more information see www.FreeRicardoPalmera.org.

Doral, FL- In spite of pouring rain, nearly 70 people took to the streets near Miami, Jan. 11 demanding the immediate closure of the U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay. The march took place on the 13th anniversary since the prison doors at Guantanamo Bay Detention center first opened. Protesters marched for over a mile on the busy streets of South Florida’s industrial district until they arrived at the gates of U.S. Southern Command, the headquarters and control center for Guantanamo Bay.

Salt Lake City, UT – Activists rallied in front of the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building on Nov. 16, as part of a national week of action in support of Palestinian American leader Rasmea Odeh. Participants were urged to write letters of support to Rasmea Odeh, now in Saint Clair County Jail, Port Huron, Michigan. Supporters are also making donations to her defense fund. Information can be found at stopfbi.net.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Nov. 18 statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee.

Detroit, MI – The jury in the case of Rasmea Odeh returned a guilty verdict after less than two hours of deliberation this morning, Nov. 10. They accepted the charge against her for “unlawful procurement of citizenship.” In her application for citizenship a decade ago, she failed to disclose that she was a political prisoner in Israel 45 years ago, convicted after soldiers raped and tortured her into a confession.

Durham, NC — Protesters gathered at a busy intersection outside the Durham Public Library, Nov 4, to show solidarity with Rasmea Odeh. The action coincided with the opening of Odeh’s trial in Detroit.