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Kiriakou writes: "Covid-19 is raging through US prison systems at every level � federal, state, and local � at a rate far higher than in the general population. To make matters worse, many prisoners are forbidden from cleaning and disinfecting their cells."

Jailed whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner. (image: Courage to Resist)
Jailed whistleblower Reality Leigh Winner. (image: Courage to Resist)


The Government's Weapon Against Reality Winner: COVID-19

By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News

27 July 20

 

ovid-19 is raging through US prison systems at every level � federal, state, and local � at a rate far higher than in the general population. To make matters worse, many prisoners are forbidden from cleaning and disinfecting their cells. Whistleblower Marty Gottesfeld has written that as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic hit FCI Terre Haute, where he is being held, prison authorities stopped providing soap and shampoo and forbade prisoners from using detergent to clean their laundry. No explanation was given. Similarly, NSA whistleblower Reality Winner reported to her family that she and other prisoners at the federal women�s prison at Carswell, Texas, are not permitted to clean their cells. Five hundred women � nearly 50 percent of all prisoners at Carswell � have been infected. Winner is one of them.

Kevin Gosztola at Shadowproof is reporting information directly from Winner�s family. Neither he nor any other journalist has been in direct contact with Winner. But the Bureau of Prisons is treating her like she is violating Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy on contact with the media. And that punishment is manifesting itself in her being forbidden to keep her cell clean. Crazy, right?

Gosztola says that one prison guard taunted Winner by telling her, �I just wanted to congratulate you on your positive results.� That�s how Winner found out she was positive for Covid-19. And the guard immediately forbade her from cleaning and disinfecting her cell. A week ago, this same guard tried to have Winner thrown into solitary confinement just so that she would be unable to speak to her attorney, who had requested a meeting.�

Gosztola says that, for a prisoner, �cleaning the little amount of space that they can call their own gives them some sense of control, and in a pandemic, that means being able to disinfect and dramatically slow the spread of the virus. But in a system where facility personnel want prisoners to remain dependent on them, staff can impose their authority by refusing to permit cleaning �� It�s an act of cruelty.

And Brittany Winner, Reality�s sister, says the present situation is even worse. Winner�s bunkmate tested positive for Covid-19 and was removed from the unit. (Most inmates who test positive have been sent to solitary confinement, rather than to the prison�s medical unit to try to slow the spread of the disease.) Instead, prisoners at Carswell have been taken to the medical unit, where other prisoners receive chemotherapy, dialysis, and other treatments. You can guess what happened next. Covid-19 patients, guards, or others dragged the disease into the unit and infected prisoners who were already fighting for their lives. In a normal situation, this would likely be depraved indifference. It would be manslaughter if a patient were to die.

This horror is not relegated to only the women�s prison in Carswell. It�s happening in prisons and jails across the country. In the prison where I was incarcerated after blowing the whistle on the CIA�s torture program, FCI Loretto, one of the prisoners in my housing unit, four cells down from mine, tested positive for tuberculosis. We could hear his hacking cough 24 hours a day. He went to the medical unit, where he tested positive. Another prisoner, who was a physician in on a Medicare fraud case, told the guards that the positive prisoner had to be isolated to protect the rest of us. They told him to mind his own business. So the rest of us made our own makeshift masks our of tee shirts and underwear. That seemed to work. By the end of my sentence six or so months later, nobody else had tested positive. But at least we were able to clear our cells, wash our hands, and use detergent to clean our clothes.

This anti-health, anti-prisoner policy is not unique to FCI Terre Haute or FMC Carswell. It�s a policy across the Bureau of Prisons. According to Prison Legal News magazine, the BOP has dragged its feet in allowing prisoners to be released under the federal compassionate release program. At the same time, prisoners are 5.5 times more likely to be infected with Covid-19 than the general population and nearly twice as likely to die.�

The whole situation reminds me of World War Z: �Mother Nature is a serial killer. No one�s better. Or more creative.�



John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act - a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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+46 # Seadog 2015-01-27 16:55
We all know that less then NOTHING will be done to reign in the BIGS. In fact, just the opposite, the BIGS won't be happy till were all peasants again.
 
 
+5 # ericlipps 2015-01-28 05:46
Again? What are we now?

All right, technically not peasants, since peasants were, and are, agricultural or pastoral, not urban. But close enough.
 
 
+5 # HowardMH 2015-01-28 11:01
Did you see where the Koch brothers have already collected $889 Million to spend on the 2016 election. That is TWICE what the Publicans spent on the 2012 election. Talk about the tail wagging the dog -- and the carnage is just beginning.
 
 
+30 # fredboy 2015-01-27 17:15
How can you tame your owner?
 
 
+3 # HowardMH 2015-01-28 11:04
How here is a suggestion that I still think will be a great start:

The American Spring will start when there are thousands of really, really pissed off people at the Capital all at the same time raising some serious hell against the Lunatics, and idiots absolutely nothing is ever, ever going to happen to these totally bought and paid for by the richest 50 people in the world that are becoming more and more powerful with each passing rigged election thanks to the stupid people.

So, scream, yell, chant, stomp your feet, and beat your drums so the media can show it on the evening news, while all of those who can actually do anything about it are home counting their donation money and laughing all the way to the bank.
 
 
+19 # Art947 2015-01-27 18:32
It is time to collect names! Madame DeFarge would be in her glory if we gave all these "bankers" "judges" "political leaders" etc. the rewards that they really deserved!
 
 
+3 # runningtab 2015-01-27 20:05
 
 
-11 # WestWinds 2015-01-27 19:14
You want my gut response? Here it is:
" So what?" I'm sick of worrying about the Middle Class. These are the doctors, lawyers, dentists and vets who pad our bills, refuse services if you don't go along to get along with whatever nonsense they have in mind. I should worry that they can't invest with Wall Street? Oh, boo-hoo!

And what about the working classes? No one gives a whit about them. What about the people living below the poverty level? What about the people who don't trust these "Middle Class" investors so don't go to them and are suffering with a choice between no dental care or some corporate crazy dentist???

Don't talk to me about the Middle Classes; they're doing just fine if all they have to worry about are their investments and their portfolio. As far as I am concerned, the Middle Classes (who don't lift a finger for anyone but themselves,) can stuff it. And the sooner they get into financial trouble, the sooner this country is going to wise up and get rid of anything that remotely looks like supply side, trickle down screw over!
 
 
+7 # Shorey13 2015-01-27 20:11
Right on, West Winds!!! You took the words right out of my mouth. What is the "middle class" anyway? People making $80-100,000 a year? They are not suffering at all. When I was growing up (I'm 75), there was a real middle class, including factory workers, white collar clerks and typists, etc. When I was a stockbroker (from 1966-1970) we were told not to call on corporate and bank officers, "because they didn't make enough money to be able to fool around in the Stock Market. Even the doctors and lawyers were hardly worth our time. We were chasing "old money" and entrepreneurs, who were used to taking risks.

Nothing is more annoying to me than all these politicians (especially Obama) who keep whining about the "poor" middle class. We need to convince Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to start a new party, one that promises to look out for the really poor and those who are now working part time or for minimum wages, and folks over 50 who lost their jobs in the last Great REcession and can't even get an interview for a new job.
 
 
+3 # WestWinds 2015-01-28 01:15
[quote name="Shorey13"]

--- Thank you, Shorey13. How come you get it and ten other people who marked me down didn't? I guess it's because you are an informed consumer.

I think the Middle Class is a pseudo event these days. Two reasons the politicians go on and on about the Middle Class are (1) So they don't have to talk about the poverty they are intentionally visiting upon the poor with their "austerity" program, and (2) they want to keep the Middle Class with them as tacit lackeys who will vote for them and send them campaign contributions.

The fact that ten people out of eleven don't get it tells me we are in SERIOUS trouble. People just refuse to let go of the fairy tale.
 
 
+8 # xflowers 2015-01-28 04:02
I think the term, "middle class," as currently used by our politicians, now refers to nearly everyone. You can't talk about the "poor" anymore because the term has become so unfashionable that even the poor won't use it. And these days even people most of us would refer to as "rich," deny that they are. Alas, the top 1% aside, everyone is the middle class.
 
 
+1 # WestWinds 2015-01-28 10:10
Quoting xflowers:
I think the term, "middle class," as currently used by our politicians, now refers to nearly everyone. You can't talk about the "poor" anymore because the term has become so unfashionable that even the poor won't use it. And these days even people most of us would refer to as "rich," deny that they are. Alas, the top 1% aside, everyone is the middle class.


--- This is precisely what I mean. People are in denial that we have the "Middle Class" who are the bottom of the upper class, and then we have a very large base who comprise the poor that the politicians don't even talk about because in this fascist state, the poor are a commodity; cheap labor, and you can't make money off of cheap labor if you have to consider they need a liveable wage to live on.
 
 
+9 # Kimberly999 2015-01-27 22:00
I would confuse the "middle class" with the median income. It is a different measurement. Earning more than $112,000. puts you in the top 10%, the bottom 50% earn $32,000 or less. Earning $66,000. puts you in the top 25%. The median income is skewed by the 1% who make over $355,000. annually and the .01% who are multimillionair es. 1/6th of our population is on food stamps.
 
 
+1 # WestWinds 2015-01-28 10:13
Quoting Kimberly999:
I would confuse the "middle class" with the median income. It is a different measurement. Earning more than $112,000. puts you in the top 10%, the bottom 50% earn $32,000 or less. Earning $66,000. puts you in the top 25%. The median income is skewed by the 1% who make over $355,000. annually and the .01% who are multimillionaires. 1/6th of our population is on food stamps.


--- You are still talking about earners. What about people on SSI? What about retirees (all of the Boomers) on less that 5K a year? What about all of the jobless on (or who have gone through) unemployment benefits? What about our Native American people?

To only look at the earners is like George W. Bush not putting all the war debt into the deficit; it's fuzzy math.
 
 
+7 # JSRaleigh 2015-01-27 23:16
If they crash the economy again don't bother bailing them out. Just line 'em all up against the WALL on Wall Street and shoot the b**tards.
 
 
+3 # harleysch 2015-01-28 01:04
Note at the very end, as he is presenting his solution, Dr. Reich mentions Glass Steagall. This is the crucial first step to "tame" Wall Street -- though it would be far better to just shut it down! Many readers of RSN argue that you could never get it passed through a Republican Congress. Well, part of the problem is that the "Democratic" President opposes restoring Glass Steagall, and is on the side of Wall Street, as was evident again, when he sided with Jamie Dimon in repealing the one measure in Dodd Frank worth a damn.

Hopefully, before the speculative bubble blows out, sending us into chaos, we can move even a corrupt and stupified Congress into action, beginning with Glass Steagall.

This is a fight which must be fought!
 
 
+12 # WestWinds 2015-01-28 01:25
Quoting harleysch:
"...This is a fight which must be fought!


--- Alan Grayson is thinking of running for Marco Rubio's Senate seat. If he wins, then we'd have Warren, Sanders and Grayson on key committees in the Senate and maybe we can get some traction toward ending the strangle hold money has over the Congress and the country. I hope people will get behind Grayson for this important seat. (I live in FL and would LOVE to see a Progressive win.)
 
 
0 # Dale 2015-01-28 08:45
This saving the middle class theme reveals how farm the Democrats have drifted from the reality of class society. We have a Pres that speaks to the interests of a Middle Class that no longer exists as such,
Some elements elevated to be Zombie Handymen,
The bulk propelled into the abyss,
Clutching fearfully at lost privilege.
We have a Pres who does not have the term Working Class in his vocabulary,
Though they be the great majority. The most progressive among the Party of the Loyal Servants of Power, Ms. Thornton and Mr. Sanders, spew the Middle Class lament as well. The Middle Class Society never was and has little bearing on todays class realities.
It is workers who are being more and more exploited and oppressed, with large and increasing numbers forced into the bloated underclass of immiserated peoples.
 
 
+1 # Robbee 2015-01-28 14:38
if banks saw it in their self interest, they could be upstanding corporate citizens. they could protect our society, our economy from recession and jobs loss they cause by gambles they take with our money - nobody's stopping them!

if banks were professional fiduciaries, they would regulate themselves. since they choose not to do so, they are stuck with regs and regulators other professionals deem standard safety checks

rather than hissy fit, banks who dislike regs or following them should propose other regs that fit the purpose

banks are the bart simpsons of our lousy jobs economy - they didn't do it, nobody saw them do it, we can't prove nothin'

banks are "under assault by regulators" only because their inability to self-regulate demands it
 
 
0 # Robbee 2015-01-28 14:38
if banks saw it in their self interest, they could be upstanding corporate citizens. they could protect our society, our economy from recession and jobs loss they cause by gambles they take with our money - nobody's stopping them!

if banks were professional fiduciaries, they would regulate themselves. since they choose not to do so, they are stuck with regs and regulators other professionals deem standard safety checks

rather than hissy fit, banks who dislike regs or following them should propose other regs that fit the purpose

banks are the bart simpsons of our lousy jobs economy - they didn't do it, nobody saw them do it, we can't prove nothin'

banks are "under assault by regulators" only because their inability to self-regulate demands it
 

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