Mumia Update

by Stephen Lendman

Mumia Abu-Jamal is perhaps the world's best known political prisoner - framed for a Philadelphia police officer killing he had nothing to do with.

Authorities wanted him silenced. He once said "(t)he state would rather give me an uzi than a microphone." Comments like the following explain why he's a captive in prison hell - no longer on death row but being killed by neglect:

"Do you see law and order," he asked? "There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is the illusion of security."

"It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to."

He calls television "the window of illusion." Corporate media "prime (the public) like pumps to support wars on rumors, innuendo, legends and lies."

He's been brutalized in captivity - nearly three decades in solitary confinement before a federal appeals court ruled he was unconstitutionally sentenced to death.

He’s lawlessly imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit. He'll likely perish inside prison walls - a testimony to US ruthlessness, a police state masquerading as a democracy.

Free Mumia.com explained how he's being slowly killed by "medical neglect and malpractice."

Despite no history of diabetes, he went into diabetic shock on March 30 - hospitalized only for two days, then returned to prison very ill.

"(O)nly massive pressure will prevent his death," his web site says. He's now 61 years old.

On May 28, key organizer in the movement to free Mumia, Suzanne Ross, visited him for several hours.

She explained how he's doing, saying:

"Mumia seemed much better able to handle a four hour visit than he had been when I last saw him, and had I not had to leave, it would have been an even longer visit."

He's wheelchair-bound. His swollen feet and legs make it painful to stand. Yet he walks at least 30 minutes daily.

Despite considerable weight loss, he looked much better than when Ross saw him weeks earlier. He gained some weight but remains abnormally thin.

In April, his skin was discolored and painfully itchy. The extreme discomfort mostly cleared up.

He "spoke energetically and his mood was very positive. He spoke of how close to death he had been," Ross explained.

International outrage save him, he believes. He continues expressing gratitude for the support he's gotten for so long.

He needs professional care impossible to get in prison - especially from authorities wanting him dead.

He "spoke of the extraordinary kindness and gentleness of the inmates who help him with ordinary activities such as bathing in the infirmary."

He needs therapeutic baths for his skin problem. He's off diabetic medication, but his sugar level indicates poor medical care caused his diabetic crisis.

"Once the medication was discontinued he seems to have recovered significantly from that aspect of his illness," Ross said.

A biopsy he took was negative - with a "BIG CAUTION" as all  reports he gets "are based on the prison doctors' oral diagnoses" from hospital reports neither Mumia, his wife, lawyers or consulting doctors have access to.

So it's impossible for his personal physicians to advise on what treatment he needs.

Ross calls withholding them "outrageous and in violation of the Department of Corrections own regulations…"

It's dangerous to Mumia's health. His lawyers are challenging this latest outrage.

Mumia progressed from the depths of his illnesses, but has a long way to go for restored health and vigor, Ross explained.

"We still have no diagnosis of the diabetic picture, no diagnosis of the skin problem, and no diagnosis of the extremely swollen feet and legs.  And, we have no hospital records," she said.

"Most important, Mumia remains in prison where he cannot fully recover nor get the kind of care he needs.  He never should have been in prison in the first place, but he surely should be released now," Ross stresses.

He's one of thousands of political prisoners languishing unjustly in America's gulag - a symbol of police state viciousness.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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