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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
In Surprise Decision, Federal Judges Block FCC Media Ownership
Rules
With Occupation Costs Soaring, U.S. Set to Go Back To U.N.
Asking For Unprecedented Resolution
Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver GW Another
Election?
A Tortured Path to Justice
Under Pressure from Corporations, Ashcroft Threatens to Overturn
a 200 Year-Old Law Used to Fight Human Rights Abusers and
War Criminals
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:06-8:15 In Surprise Decision, Federal Judges Block
FCC Media Ownership Rules
INTRO: Court ruling marks major setback to the FCC and Michael
Powell; the regulations were to go into effect today. This
comes as the major networks launch new pro-FCC lobbying effort.
Their message? "America Says: Don't Get Between Me And
My TV."
In a major setback to the Federal Communications Commission
and its chairman Michael Powell, a federal appeals court yesterday
blocked the implementation of the FCC’s new media ownership
rules. The regulations which are expected to lead to greater
media consolidation were to go into effect today.
The request of the stay was sought by the Prometheus Radio
Project, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group for low power
radio stations.
Dissident FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said: "The
court has done what the commission should have done in the
first place.”
The decision came as the owners of the television networks
CBS, NBC and Fox have joined efforts in a high profile lobbying
effort to persuade Congress not to overturn the media ownership
regulations recently approved by the Federal Communications
Commission.
According to the Wall Street Journal the networks are attempting
to send the message to Washington that voters don't care who
owns their local television station and that voters oppose
governments regulation.
The campaign is centered around the slogan, "America
Says: Don't Get Between Me And My TV." The networks are
running ads this week in the Washington-based papers, The
Hill and Roll Call, which are primarily read by Senators,
House representatives and their staffs.
During the run-up to the FCC vote, more than two million
letters, emails and faxes were sent to the FCC. Almost all
of them opposed the weakening of the nation's media ownership
regulations.
- Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project.
He successfully argued before the Third U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in Philadelphia Wednesday. We spoke to him shortly
after the Court handed down a stay.
Link: www.mediaaccess.org
8:15-8:25 With Occupation Costs Soaring, U.S. Set
to Go Back To U.N. Asking For Unprecedented Resolution
INTRO: As the Pentagon outlines Washington’s failed
Iraq plans, the White House plans to ask Congress for $60-$70
billion more for Iraq and is seeking a UN approval to force
other nations to contribute troops and funds.
The Washington Post is reporting that the White House is
seeking $60-70 billion more from Congress to cover the cost
of the reconstruction and occupation of Iraq. The Post reports
the request will be an acknowledgement by the administration
that it “vastly underestimated” the cost of war.
This comes as the U.S. prepares to officially ask for a United
Nations resolution on Iraq to help urge other countries to
supply troops and money to the occupation.
According to the Post, the U.S. resolution would be unprecedented
in UN history. It would seek the creation of a UN-mandated
multinational force to operate in a country where the UN does
not have political control.
Secretary of State Colin Powell yesterday lobbied for the
resolution. He said quote "With the resolution, you're
essentially putting the Security Council into the game."
A secret internal report by the Joint Chiefs of Staff criticizes
the Bush administration for failing to adequately plan for
the reconstruction and policing of Iraq after the fall of
Saddam Hussein and for failing to predict a guerilla war would
emerge.
The report titled “Operation Iraqi Freedom Strategic
Lessons Learned" was obtained by the Washington Times.
The report also shows that President Bush approved the war
plans last August, the month before the U.S. approached the
UN Security Council for a war mandate. And the Washington
Times reports that the U.S. kept in close contact with Israel
over the war plans. A meeting to discuss the invasion was
held in mid-February with “key Israeli leaders”
according to the report.
- Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington DC, specializing in Middle East and United
Nations issues. She is the author of the book “Before
and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis.”
Link: www.ips-dc.org
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:25-8:35 Will Bush Backers Manipulate Votes to Deliver
GW Another Election?
INTRO: As millions of voters prepare to use electronic voting
machines for the first time we take a look at the companies
selling these machines and their ties to the Bush administration.
We speak with reporter Julie Carr Smyth and author Bev Harris.
Russian dictator Joseph Stalin once said: “Those who
cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide
everything.”
Well, as millions of American voters prepare to use electronic
voting machines for the first time in the, questions about
who owns these vote-counting machines are rife.
One company, Diebold Inc., has been shown to have strong
Republican ties, specifically to the Bush administration.
Diebold is one of the companies vying to sell electronic voting
machines in Ohio.
A recent article by Julie Carr Smyth in The Cleveland Plain
Dealer reported that the head of Diebold is also a top fundraiser
for President Bush's re-election. In a recent fund-raising
letter Diebold's chief executive Walden O'Dell said he is
"committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes
to the president next year."
In July, O’Dell invited Vice President Dick Cheney
to his house for a fundraiser which ended up raising $500,000
for Cheney.
On a trip to Ohio, President Bush visited one of Diebold’s
board members - W.R. Timken - who took him on a tour of the
company. Timken, is a “Pioneer” - the name given
to wealthy Bush benefactors.
And a study of the contributions made to Diebold by its employees
revealed an unusual pattern: Hundreds of thousands of dollars
were being funneled to a few Republican candidates with very
little to any other party.
In Illinois, Populex is the company that is creating the
electronic voting system for the state. It was recently revealed
that Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group fame is now advising
Populex. The Carlyle Group is a Defense Contractor often called
the "Ex-President's Club" because of partners and
advisors on their payroll, including George Bush Sr.
- Julie Carr Smyth, state government reporter for the Cleveland
Plain Dealer. She has been reporting on electronic voting
machines for the past few months.
- Bev Harris, author of Black Box Voting: Ballot-Tampering
in the 21st Century, who uncovered the public internet site
where Diebold’s source code was posted.
Link: www.blackboxvoting.org
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:35- 8:45 A Tortured Path to Justice
INTRO: We take a look at the case of a torture-victim from
El Salvador who confronted two former Salvadoran generals
living in the U.S. He won a watershed victory last summer
when a jury ruled that the two generals held "command
responsibility" over abuses by the military. We speak
with an investigative journalist who covered the story.
Could your neighbors be war criminals?
Well over the years hundreds of human rights violators from
around the world have found their way into the United States.
Many of them settling in the same communities as their former
victims.
According to a recent report by Amnesty International, as
many as 1,000 human-rights violators from around the world
live in the U.S.
But unlike former Nazis--who for decades have been subject
to a concerted federal effort to find and deport them--most
retired torturers have little to fear from the U.S. government.
Until now.
In December 1980, investigators pulled four bodies from a
shallow grave along a remote road in El Salvador. They were
the bodies of three American nuns and a lay worker who had
come to El Salvador to minister to the poor.
The women had been abducted, raped, and killed by members
of El Salvador's national guard. The murders made headlines
around the world.
Thirteen years later, a truth commission established by
El Salvador's new civilian government issued a report naming
dozens of top officials responsible for atrocities during
the late 1970s and early '80s. High on its list were two generals,
Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova.
The truth commission hadn't been able to interview Garcia
and Vides Casanova - they had settled in Florida in 1989,
having come to the United States on legal, U.S. Embassy-issued
visas.
In 1999, relatives of the churchwomen filed a lawsuit against
Garcia and Vides Casanova, but the men successfully argued
that they could not be held responsible for the actions of
rogue subordinates.
By last summer, however, the generals' luck had run out.
They were in court again, facing claims from three victims
of military abuses, including a doctor, Juan Romagoza, who
had been tortured in the Salvadoran national guard's headquarters.
A jury concluded that Garcia and Vides Casanova held "command
responsibility" over the crimes. They were ordered to
pay their victims $54.6 million.
- Joshua Philips, investigative journalist and author of
a recent piece in the Washington Post Magazine detailing
the case of Juan Romagoza, an El Salvadoran refugee who
won a case last year against two Generals guilty of war
crimes in El Salvador’s dirty war.
8:45-8:58 Under Pressure from Corporations, Ashcroft
Threatens to Overturn a 200 Year-Old Law Used to Fight Human
Rights Abusers and War Criminals
INTRO: We host a debate between Daniel Griswold of the Center
for Trade Policy Studies and international human rights lawyer
Michael Ratner.
Earlier this year the Justice Department launched an effort
to overturn the 200-year-old Alien Tort Claims Act.
The Justice Department claims the Act was never meant to
target U.S. corporations for their trade practices overseas.
Advocates of free trade argue the Act threatens U.S. economic
and security interests. Meanwhile human rights advocates view
the act as one of the most effective tools to target human
rights abusers and war criminals.
- Daniel Griswold, associate director of the Center for
Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.
- Michael Ratner, International Human Rights Lawyer and
President of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
and Elizabeth Press. 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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