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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
NASA Pushes Ahead With Nukes In Space While New Report
Predicts More Space Shuttle Accidents Could Occur
Karl Grossman, author of the "The Wrong Stuff: The
Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" reviews
NASA’s report on the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion
and his concerns over NASA’s plans for nukes in space.
Protesters Greet Cheney On His Trip to Rumsfeld’s
Home In Taos, New Mexico
Scores protest the meeting of the Vice President and Defense
Secretary at Rumsfeld’s vacation home in Taos. Meanwhile
the Seattle Post Intelligencer calls for Rumsfeld’s
firing.
U.S. Rounds Up Immigrants For Another Mass Deportation,
a DN! Debate Between Immigrant Advocates & the INS
Last week the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
chartered a flight to deport over 20 immigrants including
nine Palestinians. The deputy director of BICE, the agency
formerly known as the INS, defends its practices in a debate
with Ann Benson of the Washington Defenders Association Immigration
Project and Subhash Kateel with Families for Freedom in New
York City.
Former Jerusalem Post Columnist Discusses Why He
Was Forced Out of the Paper & the Israeli Media’s
Shift to the Right
Professor David Newman wrote for the Post for six years
before being forced out. He talks about his recent departure
and the latest attacks in Gaza on Palestinians.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:15 NASA Pushes Ahead With Nukes In Space
While New Report Predicts More Space Shuttle Accidents Could
Occur
Intro: Karl Grossman, author of the "The Wrong Stuff:
The Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" reviews
NASA's report on the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion
and his concerns over NASA's plans for nukes in space
A report on the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia predicted
that NASA would suffer similar tragedies killing more astronauts
if it did not transform its quote "broken safety culture.
The report focused on both the physical errors that caused
Columbia to explode on its on Feb. 1 mission as well as the
work culture at NASA.
The explosion that killed seven marked the second time in
20 years that a Space Shuttle blew up.
Investigators determined NASA's engineering had grown
careless, its safety system was flawed, and communication
within the agency was muddled. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe
was also cited for creating the problematic culture.
The review board determined the Space Shuttle's problems
stemmed from a problem during the liftoff when a 1.7 pound
piece of foam insulation fell off hitting the shuttle's
wing at 500 miles per hour causing some damage.
The investigators found the culture at NASA where policies
and managers were seldom critiqued led to the agency being
unable to make possible fixes after the problem occurred on
liftoff. Among other things it was reported the Agency never
obtained pictures of the space shuttle Columbia in orbit that
may have displayed the extent of the damage. Lower-level engineers
requested such photo, but the requests were ignored or blocked.
The report read "Management decisions made during Columbia's
final flight reflect missed opportunities, blocked or ineffective
communications channels, flawed analysis, and ineffective
leadership." It went on to say Perhaps most striking
is the fact that management . . . displayed no interest in
understanding a problem and its implications."
Unless fundamental changes are put forward the board warned
"the scene is set for another accident." However
the board did not call for the permanent end to space shuttle
flights if NASA followed 15 recommendations.
The board did recommend the government should spend more
money on NASA but one analyst told the New York Times, "The
problem is, the program is worthless. It doesn't involve anything
worth dying for."
- Karl Grossman, the author of "The Wrong Stuff: The
Space Program's Nuclear Threat To Our Planet" and is
a professor of journalism at the State University of New
York/College at Old Westbury.
8:15-8:20 Protests Erupt Outside Cheney's Visit
to Rumsfeld's Home In Taos, New Mexico
Intro: Scores protest the meeting of the Vice President
and Defense Secretary at Rumsfeld's vacation home in
Taos. Meanwhile the Seattle Post Intelligencer calls for Rumsfeld's
firing.
It's time to fire Rumsfeld
That was the headline to an editorial by the Seattle Post
Intelligencer that appeared in the paper on Sunday.
The paper's editorial board wrote:
The United States has more serious problems in Iraq than
President Bush could have imagined when he declared major
combat at an end. Before he faces more surprises, the nation's
first MBA president should take management action.
Relieve Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary.
The editorial went on to say
The president needs a Defense Department in which professional
views about what military force levels hold sway, change can
occur without perpetual turmoil and military planning avoids
undermining diplomacy. None of that is likely under the domineering
Rumsfeld.
The Post Intelligencer may have become the first major paper
in the country to call for Rumsfeld's ouster.
Well yesterday in Taos, New Mexico a group of protesters
with a similar message. gathered outside Rumsfeld's house
where the Defense Secretary was meeting with Vice President
Dick Cheney. We talked to one of the organizers yesterday.
- Mariel Nanasi, organizer with Action Coalition of Taos;
Outside Donald Rumsfeld Home
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:50 U.S. Rounds Up Immigrants For Another
Mass Deportation, a DN! Debate Between Immigrant Advocates
& the INS
Last week the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
chartered a flight last week to deport over 20 immigrants
including nine Palestinians. The deputy director of BICE,
the agency formerly known as the INS, defends its practices
in a debate with Ann Benson of the Washington Defenders Association
Immigration Project and Subhash Kateel with Families for Freedom
in New York City
In the past two years, non-immigrant residents in the US
from more than twenty countries targeted for special registration
have faced the specter of indefinite detention and possible
deportation. When non-citizens go before an immigration judge,
the court is not required to appoint legal representation;
80-90% of them end up without lawyers and so are unable to
contest deportation orders that may not be warranted. Detainees
generally face deportation because of visa violations or criminal
charges and are sent back to their countries of origin‹if
those countries accept them.
The situation of Palestinian detainees is unique in that
they are a stateless people and so have no home country authorized
to take them in. The US Departments of Justice and Homeland
Security have worked out a deal, however, with Israel, Jordon,
and Egypt to facilitate return of Palestinian deportees to
the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is also
facing pressure to permit deportees to be sent to refugee
camps. Immigrant rights groups say the US should not deport
Palestinians to an area wracked by violence.
Last Tuesday, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
deported nine Palestinians from a detention facility outside
Buffalo, New York on a chartered a plane along with Egyptians
and Jordanians. 54-year-old Palestinian Munir Lami, who is
blind and diabetic, was among those deported‹he had
served time in prison for welfare fraud and a visa violation
but was released until July because BICE apparently did not
have sufficient documentation to deport him. Upon arriving
in Jordon last week, he was placed in a prison without the
knowledge of his family for several days. Lami has lived in
the United States for 16 years and has raised 9 children and
8 grandchildren here.
- Subhash Kateel, organizers with Families for Freedom
in New York City
- Ann Benson, directing attorney with Washington Defenders
Association Immigration Project who provides legal assistance
to criminal defense attorneys who represent immigrants accused
of crimes and immigration lawyers defending immigrants against
deportation because of their criminal convictions
www.defensenet.org
- David Venturella, Deputy Director for Detention and Removal
Operations at the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
www.bice.gov
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:50-8:58 Former Jerusalem Post Columnist Discusses
Why He Was Forced Out of the Paper & the Israeli Media's
Shift to the Right
Intro: Professor David Newman wrote for the Post for six
years before being forced out. He talks about his recent departure
and the latest attacks in Gaza on Palestinians.
Israeli forces killed a 65-year-old Palestinian and wounded
20 others in a failed attempt to assassinate three members
of Hamas in Gaza. Four children were among the injured including
an eight year old who remains in critical condition. The BBC
reported it was the third strike on Hamas in the last five
days.
Israel has threatened to quote "liquidate" all
members of Hamas following last week's bus bombing that
killed 21 in Jerusalem.
Tuesday's combined strikes by air and sea were targeting
Hamas commander, Khaled Massoud, who Israel alleges to have
organized mortar strikes against Israeli towns.
Today Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called on militant
groups to reinstate a ceasefire they formally ended last week
after the assassination of a Hamas leader.
This comes at a time of increasing tension between Arafat
and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas who held emergency
cabinet talks in the Gaza Strip.
The Associated Press reports Arafat asked the legislature
to convene Monday for a vote of confidence on Abbas. And there
is some speculation Abbas might lose the vote.
In other news yesterday, Israeli undercover troops stormed
a Nablus hospital before dawn yesterday and snatched two wounded
Palestinian militant members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
from their beds in the intensive care unit.
We are joined now by David Newman, professor of political
geography at Ben Gurion University. He is also a former columnist
at the Jerusalem Post where he says he pressured to leave
after six years for his political views.
- David Newman, professor of political geography at Ben
Gurion University. He is a former columnist for the Jerusalem
Post.
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Nell
Geiser, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
Elizabeth Press, and Parvez Sharma. Mike Di Filippo is our
music maestro and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.]
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