Wednesday, December 18, 2013

On NSA Spying, Civil Liberties, and Our Constitutional Rights


Judge Rules Against NSA Spying; Congress Should Do the Same
by John Nichols
December 16, 2013
The Nation

 
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Civil liberties advocates on the left and the right have argued for many years—but especially in the aftermath of revelations this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden—that spying by the National Security Agency disregards privacy protections outlined in the Fourth Amendment and is surely unconstitutional. Indeed, as the American Civil Liberties Union has argued, the NSA’s “unconstitutional surveillance” represents “a grave danger to American democracy.”

Now, a federal judge has recognized the constitutional concerns.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval,” wrote US District Judge Richard Leon.

Judge Leon’s decision, which will surely be appealed, focuses attention on legal challenges to the spying program. But it also serves as a reminder that Congress can and should act to defend privacy rights.

“The ruling underscores what I have argued for years: The bulk collection of Americans’ phone records conflicts with Americans’ privacy rights under the U.S. Constitution and has failed to make us safer,” says Senator Mark Udall, D-Colorado, a supporter of legislation to end the bulk collection program. “We can protect our national security without trampling our constitutional liberties.”

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said: “Judge Leon’s ruling hits the nail on the head.  It makes clear that bulk phone records collection is intrusive digital surveillance and not simply inoffensive data collection as some have said. The court noted that this metadata can be used for ‘repetitive, surreptitious surveillance of a citizen’s private goings on,’ that creates a mosaic of personal information and is likely unconstitutional. This ruling dismisses the use of an outdated Supreme Court decision affecting rotary phones as a defense for the technologically advanced collection of millions of Americans’ records. It clearly underscores the need to adopt meaningful surveillance reforms that prohibit the bulk collection of Americans’ records.”

The senators had reason to be enthusiastic about Judge Leon determination that legal challenges to the massive surveillance program are valid. So valid, in fact, that he issued a preliminary injunction against the program. The judge suspended the order, however, in order to allow a Justice Department appeal.

But Judge Leon was blunt regarding the strength of the challenge that was brought after Snowden revealed details of the agency’s spying in The Guardian.

"I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison... would be aghast," the judge wrote with regard to the NSA program for surveillance of cell phone records,

“The court concludes that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the government’s bulk collection and querying of phone record metadata, that they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourth Amendment claim and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent…relief,” Judge Leon wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by Larry Klayman, a former Reagan administration lawyer who now leads the conservative Freedom Watch group.

The case is one of several that have been working their way through the federal courts since Snowden disclosed details of the NSA program.

Legal challenges to NSA spying are not new, and they have failed in the past.

Challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the law that permits the government to wiretap US citizens communicating with people overseas—Amnesty International and other human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists fought a case all the way to the US Supreme Court in 2012. In February 2013, however, the Justices ruled 5-4 that the challengers lacked standing because they could not prove they had been the victims of wiretapping and other privacy violations.

The Justice Department has continued to argue that plaintiffs in lawsuits against the spying program lack standing because they cannot prove their records were examined. But Judge Leon suggested that the old calculus that afforded police agencies great leeway when it came to monitoring communications has clearly changed.

Suggesting that the NSA has relied on “almost-Orwellian technology,” wrote Judge Leon, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia bench. “The relationship between the police and the phone company (as imagined by the courts decades ago)…is nothing compared to the relationship that has apparently evolved over the last seven years between the government and telecom companies.”

The judge concluded, “It’s one thing to say that people expect phone companies to occasionally provide information to law enforcement; it is quite another to suggest that our citizens expect all phone companies to operate what is effectively a joint intelligence-gathering operation with the government.”

This case will continue in the courts, as will others.

But it is also in Congress. A left-right coalition that extends from Congressmen Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican, to Congressman John Conyers, a progressive Democrat, has raised repeated challenges to the NSA spying regimen.

Now, Congress needs to step up to what Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Florida, refers to as “the spying-industrial complex.”

A number of members are ready. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded to Judge Leon's ruling by saying: “In my view, the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner. Today’s ruling is an important first step toward reining in this agency but we must go further. I will be working as hard as I can to pass the strongest legislation possible to end the abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies.”

The outlines for legislative action have already been presented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that work on privacy issues.

“Congress should not be indifferent to the government’s accumulation of vast quantities of sensitive information about American’s lives,” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU’s deputy legal counsel told the House Judiciary Committee in July. “This Committee in particular has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the government’s efforts to protect the country do not compromise the freedoms that make the country worth protecting.”

Jaffer told the committee,

Because the problem Congress confronts today has many roots, there is no single solution to it. But there are a number of things that Congress should do right away:

• It should amend Sections 215 and 702 to expressly prohibit suspicionless or “dragnet” monitoring or tracking of Americans’ communications.

• It should require the executive to release basic information about the government’s use of foreign-intelligence-surveillance authorities, including those relating to pen registers and national security letters. The executive should be required to disclose, for each year: how many times each of these provisions was used, how many individuals’ privacy was implicated by the government’s use of each provision, and, with respect to any dragnet, generalized, or bulk surveillance program, the types of information that were collected.

• Congress should also require the publication of FISA court opinions that evaluate the meaning, scope, or constitutionality of the foreign-intelligence laws. The ACLU recently filed a motion before the FISA court arguing that the publication of these opinions is required by the First Amendment, but Congress need not wait for the FISA court to act. Congress has the authority and the obligation to ensure that Americans are not governed by a system of secret law.

•  Finally, Congress—and this Committee in particular—should hold additional hearings to consider further amendments to FISA, including amendments to make FISC proceedings more transparent.

Members of Congress, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, have moved on a number of these fronts. Now it is time for concerted action.

The Congress does not have to wait for the legal wrangling to be resolved. It can, and should, act in defense of civil liberties.

http://www.thenation.com/article/177649/spying-lying?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email+Nation+-+20131219#

How the Government Misled the Supreme Court on Warrantless Wiretapping
 

The Snowden revelations have vindicated The Nation and the ACLU. When will the government correct the record and stop the abuses?

by Jameel Jaffer and Patrick C. Toomey
December 18, 2013


This article appears in the January 6-13, 2014 edition of The Nation.
Surveillance cameras are visible near the U.S.Capitol in Washington Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo)


Early in 2013, before Edward Snowden’s revelations, the Supreme Court turned aside a challenge by this magazine and other organizations to a 2008 law that permitted the National Security Agency to conduct dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international communications. The plaintiffs claimed that the law was unconstitutional, but the government argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue their challenge because they had failed to show that the law would be used to intercept their communications. In a 5-4 vote, the Court agreed with the government.

Over the past six months, we’ve learned a great deal about the way the NSA has been using and abusing its surveillance powers, including the powers that were at issue in the Supreme Court case, Clapper v. Amnesty. And we’ve learned something else as well: that the government’s representations to the Court were incomplete in some respects and altogether false in others.

The law that the plaintiffs challenged in Clapper, the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), authorizes mass acquisition of Americans’ international communications for foreign-intelligence purposes. It is the same law, we now know, the government relies on when it compels Google, Facebook and other companies to turn over customer e-mails, text and video chats, and photographs as part of the NSA’s PRISM program.

But long before PRISM came to light, the plaintiffs in Clapper argued that the FAA permitted the NSA to read Americans’ e-mails and listen in on their phone calls without a warrant, violating the Constitution. Rather than seriously engage this argument, the government contended that the plaintiffs had no business being in court at all. The dragnet surveillance described by the plaintiffs, it said, was mere “speculation” and “conjecture.”

The government also assured the courts that dismissing the plaintiffs’ challenge would not forever insulate the law from court review. The solicitor general told the Supreme Court that while the plaintiffs could not show that their communications had been intercepted, another group could: criminal defendants who were prosecuted based on evidence acquired under the surveillance law. These defendants, the government said, would be notified that they had been monitored by the NSA—and they would be able to challenge the law’s constitutionality. When the Supreme Court ruled against the plaintiffs in Clapper, Justice Samuel Alito repeated almost verbatim the government’s assurance that such defendants would receive notice.

Thanks to Snowden, we now know that the government’s arguments were misleading or worse. First, we know that the NSA is engaged in dragnet surveillance under the very law the plaintiffs challenged. The agency uses that law to monitor Americans’ communications with foreign-intelligence targets abroad—targets who may be journalists, academics or lawyers. A leaked copy of NSA procedures shows that the agency also conducts keyword searches of virtually all Americans’ international communications. As The New York Times reported in August, the NSA examines the contents of almost all text-based communications entering or leaving the country.

While the government’s claims about dragnet surveillance were misleading, its claims about the “notice” provided to criminal defendants were simply false. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Clapper, the government has conceded that at the time the case was argued, in October—and for the five years preceding—it did not provide notice to criminal defendants who had been monitored under the surveillance law.

The ACLU, as well as three members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called on the solicitor general to correct the record in the Supreme Court, but thus far the government has failed to do so.

The government will not be able to insulate the law from constitutional review forever. Recent disclosures have finally forced the government to provide criminal defendants with notice of surveillance under the 2008 law—the notice that the government should have been providing all along. Those defendants will now have a chance to challenge the law in court.

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Their cases will raise issues of significance for all Americans, and it’s crucial that judges scrutinize the government’s claims in them more searchingly than they have in the past. The Snowden revelations have been a watershed, exposing practices that the public—and the courts—should have known about long ago. The outcome in Clapper, which hinged on a single vote, might have been different had the Supreme Court known then what we all know now.

In December, Federal District Court Judge Richard Leon invalidated the NSA’s call-tracking program in a careful ruling that treated the government’s arguments respectfully but skeptically. Other judges should follow Leon’s lead. For too long, the extraordinary deference accorded to national security officials has allowed misleading claims to stand uncorrected, and abusive and unconstitutional practices to flourish.

Read Next: With all the NSA spying revelations, it's hard to believe that President Barack Obama was once a constitutional lawyer. David K. Shipler wonders what happened to that man.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Greg Palast On the New Racist Mythology Distorting Nelson Mandela's Legacy

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Panopticon-Review/342702882479366

All,

What follows is a very important and yet temporary "last word" (for now that is) on the real truth about Nelson Mandela and his profound legacy, his (and our) many enemies, and our own collective responsibility for extending and expanding that precious and crucial legacy into the future. Greg Palast is to be commended on the intellectual clarity and critical honesty of his incisive analysis here...I could not agree more with his general assessment...Stay tuned...

Kofi

Nelson Mandela in his Mandela & Tambo law office in the 1950s. (Photo: JurgenSchadeberg / Mandiba A to Z: the Many Faces of Nelson Mandela)

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/20614-the-mandela-barbie

The Mandela Barbie
Friday, 13 December 2013
By Greg Palast, Truthout | Op-Ed


I can't take it anymore. All week, I've watched Nelson Mandela reduced to a Barbie doll. From Fox News to the Bush family, the politicians and media mavens who body-blocked the anti-Apartheid Movement and were happy to keep Mandela behind bars, now get to dress his image up in any silly outfit they choose.

Poor Mandela. When he's not a doll, he's a statue. He joins Martin Luther King as another bronzed monument whose use is to tell us that apartheid is now "defeated" - to quote the ridiculous headline in the Times.

It's more nauseating than hypocrisy and ignorance. The Mandela Barbie is dressed to serve a new version of racism, Apartheid 2.0, worsening both in South Africa - and in the USA.

The ruling class creates commemorative dolls and statues of revolutionary leaders as a way to tell us their cause is won, so go home. For example, just months ago, the US Supreme Court overturned the Voting Rights Act, Dr. King's greatest accomplishment, on the specious claim that, "Blatantly discriminatory evasions are rare," and Jim Crow voting practices are now "eradicated."

"Eradicated?" On what planet? The latest move by Florida Republicans to purge 181,000 voters of color - like the stench from the shantytowns of Cape Town - makes clear that neither Jim Crow nor Apartheid has been defeated. They're just in temporary retreat.

Nevertheless, our betters in the USA and Europe have declared that King slew segregation, Mandela defeated apartheid; and therefore, the new victims of racial injustice should just shut the f$#! up and stop whining.


The Man Who Walked Beside Mandela
 

To replace the plastic and metal Mandelas with flesh and blood, I spoke to Danny Schechter. Schechter knew Mandela personally, and more deeply, than any other American journalist. "One of the great reporters of our generation, Schechter produced South Africa Now, a weekly program for PBS Television stations, from 1988-91, bringing Mandela's case to Americans dumbed and numbed on by Ronald Reagan's red-baiting.

Schechter has just completed the difficult job of making the official documentary companion to the Hollywood version of Mandela's life, Long Walk to Freedom.

The fictional movie is about triumph and forgiveness. Schechter's documentary, Inside Mandela, has this aplenty, but knowing Mandela, Schechter includes Mandela's anger, despair and his pained legacy: a corroded South Africa still ruled by a brutal economic apartheid. Today, the average white family has five times the income of a black family. Welcome to "freedom."

The US and European press have focused on Mandela's saintly ability to abjure bitterness and all desire for revenge, and for his Christ-like forgiving of his captors. This is to reassure us all that "good" revolutionaries are ones who don't hold anyone to account for murder, plunder and blood-drenched horror - or demand compensation. That's Mandela in his Mahatma Gandhi doll outfit - turning the other cheek, kissing his prison wardens.

Schechter doesn't play with dolls. He knew Mandela the man - and Mandela as one among a group of revolutionary leaders.

Mandela's circle knew this: You can't forgive those you defeat until you defeat them.

And, despite the hoo-hah, Mandela didn't defeat apartheid with "nice" alone. In the 1980s, says Schechter, South African whites faced this reality: The Cubans who defeated South African troops in neighboring Angola were ready to move into South Africa. The Vietnamese who had defeated the mighty USA were advising Mandela's military force.

And so, while Mandela held out a hand in forgiveness - in his other hand he held Umkhonto we Sizwe,a spear to apartheid's heart. And Mandela's comrades tied a noose: an international embargo, leaky though it was, that lay siege to South Africa's economy.

Seeing the writing on the wall (and envisioning their blood on the floor), the white-owned gold and diamond cartels, Anglo-American and DeBeers, backed by the World Bank, came to Mandela with a bargain: black Africans could have voting power . . . but not economic power.

Mandela chose to shake hands with this devil and accept the continuation of economic apartheid. In return for safeguarding the diamond and gold interests and protecting white ownership of land, mines and businesses, he was allowed the presidency, or at least the office and title.
It is a bargain that ate at Mandela's heart. He was faced with the direct threat of an embargo of capital, and taking note of the beating endured by his Cuban allies over resource nationalization, Mandela swallowed the poison with a forced grin. Yes, a new South African black middle class has been handed a slice of the mineral pie, but that just changes the color of the hand holding the whip.

The 1% Rainbow

In the end, all revolutions are about one thing: the 99% versus the 1%. Time and history can change the hue of the aristocrat, but not their greed, against which Mandela appeared nearly powerless.

So was Mandela's life a waste, his bio-pic a fraud? Not at all. No man is a revolution.

We have much to learn from Mandela's long view of history, his much-lauded pacific warm-heartedness as well as his much-concealed cold and cruel resolve. The crack in the prison wall of apartheid, the end of racial warfare, if not yet racial peace, is a real accomplishment of Mandela - and his comrade revolutionaries - most of whose names will never be cast in bronze.

Reading Schechters' new book Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela (as Mandela is known to Black South Africans) and seeing Schechter's un-Hollywood film, you can take away one strong impression: From Moses to Martin to Mandela, our prophets never reach the Promised Land.

That is for us still to accomplish. The journey is long. Start walking.

GREG PALAST

Forensic economist Greg Palast, author of The New York Times best-seller Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, is a Puffin Foundation Fellow for Investigative Reporting. His film of investigative reports for BBC-TV, Vultures & Vote Rustlers, was released this week on DVD. www.GregPalast.com.


RELATED STORIES

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Mandela's Greatness May Be Assured - But Not His Legacy
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Mandela and Arafat
By Dr James J Zogby, Arab American Institute | Op-Ed

Monday, December 16, 2013

THE LATE GREAT TONY WILLIAMS (1945-1997), Drummer, Composer, and Bandleader extraordinaire

TONY WILLIAMS
(b. December 12, 1945--d. February 23, 1997)

All,

THE LATE GREAT TONY WILLIAMS (1945-1997), Drummer, Composer, and Bandleader extraordinaire and one of the finest and most gifted artists in the entire history of black creative music PERIOD. The day this man died at 51 (!) following a minor routine gall bladder operation on February 23, 1997 I cried like a baby because I had just missed seeing him again at the (old) Yoshi's Jazz club in Oakland, CA. in November of 1996 when I told my wife for some idiotic reason that we would catch him and his quintet the "next time he was in town." A huge regrettable mistake on my part that I've always kicked myself about because I loved Tony's music and consummate artistry so much (and of course I still do--now more than ever). The following absolutely magisterial concert took place at the Blue Note club in the West Village in New York in 1989. This is IMO one of the greatest Jazz quintets in history and the finest since the legendary, iconic Mile Davis Quintet of 1963-1968 (that also featured Tony Williams of course on drums!).

Kofi

PERSONNEL:

Tony Williams: Drums
Mulgrew Miller: Piano
Wallace Roney: Trumpet
Bill Pierce: Tenor and Soprano saxophones
Ira Coleman: Bass

 TONY WILLIAMS (L)  & WALLACE RONEY



TONY WILLIAMS PLAYS:
(with Miles Davis):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VfeFZoRUDU



"Gingerbread Boy" (composition by Jimmy Heath). Miles Davis Quinter Live in concert in Germany November 8, 1967
 

PERSONNEL:

Miles Davis: Trumpet
Wayne Shorter: Tenor Saxophone
Ron Carter: Bass
Herbie Hancock: Piano
Tony Williams Drums

TONY WILLIAMS IN 1992
2 Solos IN Tribute to Miles Davis:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1H7CTsMV7w



TONY WILLIAMS IN 1986:
"Eye of the Hurricane"  (composition by Herbie Hancock)

Live in Concert at Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival in Japan


PERSONNEL:

Joe Henderson: Tenor saxophone
Herbie Hancock: Piano
Ron Carter: Bass
Freddie Hubbard: Trumpet
Tony Williams:  Drums


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb54a3zihxY



Tony Williams Quintet in concert in 1991

"Sister Cheryl" (composition by Tony Williams):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_1qPgWmd4

 

Tony Williams Solo in Japanese concert from 1987:
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzkZ8Ikr9L4&list=PL3ADDF832E0777BA7



Tony Williams Drum Clinic 1985 pt.1/3:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFCJs_WvsG4



Tony Williams    (drummer and composer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information:


Birth name Anthony Tillmon Williams
Born December 12, 1945
Chicago, Illinois, US
Origin Boston, Massachusetts, US
Died February 23, 1997 (aged 51)
Genres Jazz, post-bop, jazz fusion
Occupations Musician, composer, producer and bandleader
Instruments Drums
Years active 1961–1997
Associated acts Miles Davis, The Tony Williams Lifetime, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean, Alan Dawson, V.S.O.P., Public Image Ltd.
Anthony Tillmon "Tony" Williams (December 12, 1945 – February 23, 1997) was an American jazz drummer.
Widely regarded as one of the most important and influential jazz drummers to come to prominence in the 1960s, Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis and was a pioneer of jazz fusion.[1]

Contents:

1 Biography
2 Technique
3 Discography
3.1 As leader
3.2 As sideman
4 References
Biography[edit]

Williams was born in Chicago and grew up in Boston. He was of African, Portuguese, and Chinese descent.[2] He began studies with drummer Alan Dawson at an early age, and began playing professionally at the age of 13 with saxophonist Sam Rivers. Saxophonist Jackie McLean hired Williams when he was 16. At 17 Williams found considerable fame with Miles Davis, joining a group that was later dubbed Davis's Second Great Quintet. Williams was a vital element of the group, called by Davis in his autobiography "the center that the group's sound revolved around."[3] His inventive playing helped redefine the role of jazz rhythm section through the use of polyrhythms and metric modulation (transitioning between mathematically related tempos and/or time signatures).

Williams was an integral participant in the early- to mid-1960s avant-garde movement, playing on such classics as Jackie McLean's One Step Beyond, Grachan Moncur III's Evolution and Some Other Stuff, Sam Rivers's Fuchsia Swing Song, Andrew Hill's Point of Departure, and Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch. His first album as a leader, 1964's Life Time, was also in the avant-garde vein. Many of these progressive albums are considered among the greatest jazz recordings of all time.[citation needed]

In 1969, he formed a trio, The Tony Williams Lifetime, with John McLaughlin on guitar, and Larry Young on organ. Lifetime was a pioneering band of the fusion movement, a combination of rock, R&B, and jazz. Their first album, Emergency!, was largely rejected by the jazz community at the time of its release. Today, Emergency! is considered by many to be a fusion classic.[citation needed] His second fusion recording, also on Polydor Records, was Turn It Over, which was more of a statement of the current events of the period and was even more progressive and louder, with the addition of rock bassist and singer Jack Bruce.

After McLaughlin and Bruce's departure, and several more albums, Lifetime disbanded. In 1975, Williams put together a band he called "The New Tony Williams Lifetime", featuring bassist Tony Newton, pianist Alan Pasqua, and English guitarist Allan Holdsworth, which recorded two albums for Columbia Records, Believe It and Million Dollar Legs.

In mid-1976, Williams was a part of a reunion of sorts with his old Davis band compatriots: pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Davis was in the midst of a six-year hiatus and was replaced by Freddie Hubbard. The record was later released as V.S.O.P. and was highly instrumental in increasing the popularity of acoustic jazz.[citation needed] The group went on to tour and record for several years, releasing a series of live albums under the name "V.S.O.P." or "The V.S.O.P. Quintet".

In 1979, Williams, McLaughlin and bassist Jaco Pastorius united for a one-time performance at the Havana Jazz Festival. This trio came to be known as the Trio of Doom, and a recording of their performance was released in 2007. It opens with a powerful drum improvisation by Williams, followed by McLaughlin's "Dark Prince" and Pastorius' "Continuum", Williams' original composition "Para Oriente" and McLaughlin's "Are You the One?"

With the group Fuse One, Williams released two albums in 1980 and 1982.[4] In 1985, he recorded an album for Blue Note Records entitled Foreign Intrigue, which featured the playing of pianist Mulgrew Miller and trumpeter Wallace Roney. Later that year he formed a quintet with Miller, Roney, saxophonist Bill Pierce, and bassist Charnett Moffett (later Ira Coleman). This band played Williams' compositions almost exclusively (the Lennon–McCartney song "Blackbird", the standard "Poinciana", and the Freddie Hubbard blues "Birdlike" being the exceptions) and toured and recorded throughout the remainder of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. This rhythm section also recorded as a trio.
Williams also played drums for the band Public Image Limited, fronted by former Sex Pistols singer John Lydon, on their 1986 release album/cassette/compact disc (the album title varied depending on the format). He played on the songs "FFF", "Rise" (a modest hit), and "Home". Bass guitarist Bill Laswell co-wrote those three songs with Lydon. The other drummer on that album was Ginger Baker, who had played in Cream with Bruce.

Williams lived and taught in the San Francisco Bay Area until his death from a heart attack following routine gall bladder surgery. One of his final recordings was The Last Wave by the trio known as Arcana, a release organized by Laswell.
Technique[edit]

Williams played traditional grip as well as other American and European grips.

Discography

As leader

1964: Life Time (Blue Note)
1965: Spring (Blue Note)
1969: Emergency! (Polydor)
1970: Turn It Over (Verve)
1971: Ego (Polydor)
1972: The Old Bum's Rush (Polydor)
1975: Believe It (Columbia)
1975, 1976 The Collection (Columbia)
1976: Million Dollar Legs (Columbia)
1979: The Joy of Flying (Columbia)
1980: Play or Die (P.S. Productions) – with Tom Grant and Patrick O'Hearn[5]
1982: Third Plane (Carrere) – with Ron Carter and Herbie Hancock
1985: Foreign Intrigue (Blue Note)
1986: Civilization (Blue Note)
1986, 1988: Angel Street (Blue Note)
1989: Native Heart (Blue Note)
1991: The Story of Neptune (Blue Note)
1992: Tokyo Live (Blue Note)
1993: Unmasked (Atlantic)
1996: Wilderness (Ark 21)
1996: Young at Heart (Columbia)

As sideman

With Geri Allen
Twenty One (1994)
With Arcana
The Last Wave (1995)
Arc of the Testimony (1997)
With Chet Baker
You Can't Go Home Again (1972)
The Best Thing for You (1977)
Chet Baker / Wolfgang Lackerschmid (1979)
With George Cables
Phantom of the City (1985)
With Ron Carter
Third Plane (1978)
Etudes (1982)
With Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke (1974)
With Miles Davis
Seven Steps to Heaven (1963)
Miles Davis in Europe (1963)
Four & More (1964)
My Funny Valentine (1964)
Miles in Tokyo (1964)
Miles in Berlin (1964)
E.S.P. (1965)
The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel (1965)
Miles Smiles (1966)
Directions (1967, 1968)
Sorcerer (1967)
Nefertiti (1967)
Water Babies (1967, 1968)
Circle in the Round (1967, 1968)
Miles in the Sky (1968)
The Complete Miles Davis–Gil Evans Studio Recordings – four takes of "Falling Water" (1968)
Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968)
In a Silent Way (1969)
Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 (2012)
With Eric Dolphy
Out to Lunch (1964)
With Kenny Dorham
Una Mas (1963)
With Gil Evans
The Gil Evans Orchestra Plays the Music of Jimi Hendrix – track 8, "Little Wing" (1975)
With Tommy Flanagan
The Trio (1983)
With Hal Galper
Now Hear This (1977)
With Stan Getz
Captain Marvel (1972)
With Dexter Gordon
Round Midnight (1986)
With Herbie Hancock
My Point of View (1963)
Empyrean Isles (1964)
Maiden Voyage (1965)
V.S.O.P. (1976)
V.S.O.P.: The Quintet (1977)
V.S.O.P.: Tempest in the Colosseum (1977)
Herbie Hancock Trio (1977)
Sunlight (1978)
V.S.O.P.: Live Under the Sky (1979)
Herbie Hancock Trio (1982)
Mr. Hands (1982)
Quartet (1982)
Town Hall Concert (1985)
Future2Future
With Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Wallace Roney
A Tribute to Miles (1992)
With Jonas Hellborg and the Soldier String Quartet
The Word (1991)
With Joe Henderson
Relaxin' at Camarillo (1979)
With Andrew Hill
Point of Departure (1964)
With Terumasa Hino
May Dance (1977)
With Allan Holdsworth
Atavachron – track 5 (1986)
With Michael Mantler
Movies (1977)
With Ray Manzarek
The Golden Scarab (1973)
With Branford Marsalis
Renaissance (1987)
With Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis (1981)
With John McLaughlin
Johnny McLaughlin: Electric Guitarist (1978)
With Jackie McLean
Vertigo (1963)
One Step Beyond (1963)
New Wine In Old Bottles (1978)
With Marcus Miller
The Sun Don't Lie (1990–92)
With Mulgrew Miller
The Countdown (1988)
With Grachan Moncur III
Evolution (Blue Note, 1963)
Some Other Stuff (Blue Note, 1964)
With Jaco Pastorius and John McLaughlin
Trio of Doom (1979)
With Michel Petrucciani
Marvellous (1994)
With Public Image Limited
Album (1985)
With Don Pullen
New Beginnings (Blue Note, 1988)
With Sam Rivers
Fuchsia Swing Song (Blue Note, 1964)
With Sonny Rollins
Easy Living (1977)
Don't Stop the Carnival (1978)
No Problem (1981)
With Wallace Roney
Verses (1987)
With Travis Shook
Travis Shook (1993)
With Wayne Shorter
The Soothsayer (1965)
With McCoy Tyner
Supertrios (1977)
Counterpoints (1978)
With Sadao Watanabe
I'm Old Fashioned (1976)
With Weather Report
Mr. Gone (1978)
References[edit]

Jump up ^ Yanow, Scott. "Allmusic website". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
Jump up ^ "Tony Williams Interview 1995". Retrieved 27 March 2012.
Jump up ^ Miles The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Picador, 1989, p. 254.
Jump up ^ "Allmusic Fuse One Discography". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
Jump up ^ "Tony Williams* - Play or Die (Vinyl, LP, Album) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2011-10-31.