The Trial of Splitting-the-Sky: The YouTube Videos

Tony Hall, Professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge, writes:

Hi Kevin.

Here’s an effort at a brief overview with a point of entry to the 28 YouTubes we made in our Bush-STS-McKinney-Clark events. Put it to whatever use you so wish (or not). Thanks for being the number one media interpreter of our action.

Ramsey Clark Comes To Calgary to Help in the Case of Splitting The Sky versus George W. Bush: An Introduction to a New Series of You Tubes
By Anthony J. Hall
Professor of Globalization Studies and
Co-Founder of Our Own CBC (Citizens’ Broadcasting Cooperative)

20 June, 2010

In these You Tubes, Our Own CBC presents the record of a major public event addressing the unaccountable lawlessness of the organized criminals who presently control the world’s dominant machinery of military and psychological warfare. There is a long history of imperial conquest behind the concentration in a single superpower of so much military power to kill, maim and intimidate— so much power to manipulate human perceptions through psychological warfare that demonizes and dehumanizes the real, imagined, or constructed enemies of American empire.

The continuing saga of imperial warfare is presently justified by a founding fable constructed to justify the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim aggressions of the 9/11 Wars. The importance of these fourteen You Tubes lies in the contemporary significance of the broad-ranging discussion they contain. It lies in the willingness of the speakers to address with eloquence the most pressing issues of war and peace, law and lawlessness, punishment and impunity, truth and deception.

The event features the contributions of Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General of the United States under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. At age 82 this legendary American jurist traveled (economy class) to Calgary in order to advocate for his old friend and client, Splitting The Sky. STS, or John Boncore as he was christened by his Italian father, is the Native activist and Attica Brother who attempted a citizen’s arrest of George W. Bush in Calgary. The former Attorney-General first represented John Boncore in an appeal of the conviction for what happened on the day that would change the life of the nineteen-year-old Italian-Indian forever. STS makes it absolutely clear that he would not be a free man today had not Ramsey Clark been able to push back the violent force of the incarcerating state. Because of the dogged persistence and integrity of Mr. Clark’s legal representation, the Mohawk activist was able to leave behind him 16 years in custody and move beyond the contested narrative concerning what did or did not happen at Attica Prison on that fateful day in 1971 when the institution’s inmates briefly took control of the jail.

In an important segment of the You Tubes Mr. Clark describes his understanding of the Attica prison debacle and the subsequent growth of the penal system in the United States. Today this lucrative penal empire incarcerates about 3,000,000 US citizens in a privatized complex of businesses that derives higher levels of profit from processes that criminalize Blacks and other minorities at disproportionately high rates.

The veteran of Attica, the Mohawk Warriors and the American Indian Movement attempted to dramatize the need to arrest the world’s most notorious credibly accused war criminal on March 17, 2009 when the former US president gave his first public address as a private citizen at the Telus Convention Centre in downtown Calgary. Rather than attempting to arrest the man who so obviously meets the criteria of criminality as spelled out even in Canada’s own Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (2000), the Calgary Police Force chose to place the rule of political expediency above the rule of law. Rather than adhere to the Nuremberg Principles by enforcing Canadian law together with the universal jurisdiction of international law on the man who repeatedly sanctioned with his signature the vast and prolific war crimes of the Bush regime, local law enforcement officials chose to arrest and incarcerate STS for Obstructing Justice.

The trial of Splitting The Sky took place on March 8 and 9 of 2010. Where the Crown had four witnesses to press its case against STS, STS was denied his repeated request in open court to have Cynthia McKinney and I serve as witnesses in his defense. Just as the trial was being shut down in the Calgary Court House by Judge Manfed Delong, Cynthia McKinney was being detained by Immigration Officials at the Calgary Airport. When this long-serving Congresswoman for a constituency in Georgia was finally allowed to enter Canada, she spoke at the University of Calgary along with Splitting the Sky and I on a podium where together we addressed many fundamental issues of war and peace, life and death. In the process I introduced the citizens’ process that will lead to the articulation of the Calgary Principles for the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity Through the Enforcement of Laws Prohibiting Aggressive Warfare.

(See Cynthia McKinney-STS series at:)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzDuXTFOR8g

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emO-EuF3-9Y

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMHiD8PWYzg

Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iga_3f1kiWU

Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L88fXyYtLMw

Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ9UxPSxtaA

Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y-_VFXS540

Part 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocqf0sTsW8

Part 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsXdA606DY8

Part 10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dAp4kk5RZ0

Part 11: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV3AnyxcWEo

Part 12: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYhwbwpjxQA

Part 13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2h5nteKLvA

Part 14:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wUl_wUDSGY

The series of fourteen You Tubes with Ramsay Clark can be seen as a kind of sequel to the fourteen You Tubes with Cynthia McKinney. In the verdict handed down the day following Ramsey Clark’s address to the group at the University of Calgary, STS was found to be guilty as charged but eligible for a “conditional discharge.” STS can avoid a permanent criminal record on the condition that he report to a probation officer for one year and that he pay $1,000 to a charity of his choice. STS intends to seek permission from his probation officer to make the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth the recipient of his charitable donation ordered by Judge Delong. Ramsey Clark made legal history in Calgary when he spoke as a witness in the proceedings of the case that some have dubbed Splitting The Sky versus George W. Bush. In his address to the court Mr. Clark emphasized the importance of STS’s voice in the United States on social justice issues. He spoke of how he and STS have spoken together frequently on the same public podiums in the peace movement. Mr. Clark closed his presentation by indicating that he “loved” STS “like a son.”

Anthony J. Hall is Professor of Globalization Studies at the University of Lethbridge. His new book, Earth into Property: Colonization, Decolonization, and Capitalism is to be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in September. Earth into Property is the second volume of The Bowl with One Spoon. Volume One of the Bowl project is entitled The American Empire and the Fourth World.

(See Ramsay Clark-STS series at:)

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA3IP7N3XyY

Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRTaldLqZJA&annotation_id=annotation_493172&feature=iv

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_hHFiUGcTU&annotation_id=annotation_65422&feature=iv

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2p5mI-s6Vw&annotation_id=annotation_684529&feature=iv

Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6aCYbhdEPI&annotation_id=annotation_114064&feature=iv

Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWMQkRSeKhw&annotation_id=annotation_979179&feature=iv

Part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHbZMvhBaE&annotation_id=annotation_515524&feature=iv

Part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PMDvo9tBJE&annotation_id=annotation_142742&feature=iv

Part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAv-tbVp4EI&annotation_id=annotation_282255&feature=iv

Part 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gWAYqROOik&annotation_id=annotation_996469&feature=iv

Part 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sLG_tVMhmY&feature=related