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Democracy Now!
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From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 9-09-03
PRSS Channel: A67.7
8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Protest Planned Against Ashcroft’s NYC Visit as Part
of Nationwide Tour to Defend Patriot Act
Jailed African American Webmaster Sherman Austin Moved Into
Isolation After Receiving White Supremacist Death Threats
Conscientious Objector Sentenced to Six Months in Jail
“Guarding the Oil Underworld in Iraq” –
U.S. Hires Private Security Firm in Iraq; WTO Protesters Head
to Cancun
Supreme Court Appears Splits On Overturning New Campaign
Finance Law
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:20 Protest Planned Against Ashcroft’s
NYC Visit as Part of Nationwide Tour to Defend Patriot Act
INTRO: Attorney General John Ashcroft attends a closed meeting
with law enforcement officials to defend the Patriot Act against
mounting claims that it undermines civil liberties. We host
a debate between the New York Civil Liberties Union and the
Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Attorney General John Ashcroft will arrive in New York City
today to attend a closed meeting with law enforcement officials
to build support for the controversial USA Patriot Act.
The visit is part of Ashcroft's 16-city tour to defend the
Patriot Act against mounting claims that it undermines civil
liberties. The invitation-only sessions are closed to the
public and are attended only by government employees and selected
members of the press.
Protesters have shadowed Ashcroft’s appearance at every
stop denouncing him and the law he helped create.
Passed 45 days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Patriot Act
is a massive overhaul of government security procedures. Among
other things, the 340-page law grants federal investigators
authority to seek roving wiretaps for people and to conduct
property searches and delay notifying the owner.
It also allows the detention of foreigners suspected of terrorism
for up to seven days without being charged and expanded the
definitions of terrorism.
Since then the Patriot Act has come under intense criticism.
In July the House voted 309 to 118 to overturn key provisions
the Act.
Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have filed
lawsuits seeking disclosure of how the law is being applied.
The suits also challenge provisions that permit "sneak-and-peek"
searches and secret scrutiny of people's library records by
the FBI.
The fight isn't just in Washington or the courts.
More than 150 communities across the country and three states
have issued symbolic resolutions opposing the Patriot Act.
- Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil
Liberties Union, which is organizing a Bill of Rights Defense
Campaign against the Patriot Act.
Link: www.nyclu.org
- Jack Martin, spokesman for the Federation for American
Immigration Reform (FAIR).
Link: www.fairus.org
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:25 Jailed African American Webmaster Sherman
Austin Moved Into Isolation After Receiving White Supremacist
Death Threats
INTRO: Austin began a yearlong prison term last week. Federal
officials charged that he had illegally distributed information
about how to build Molotov cocktails on his website. We speak
with his mother Jennifer Martin.
Sherman Austin - the 20 year-old Webmaster of a California-based
site called raisethefist.com who began a yearlong prison term
last week has been moved into protective custody at the San
Bernardino Central Detention Center. The guards moved Sherman
into isolation because of death threats against him by white
supremacists.
Austin was arrested over 18 months ago. Federal officials
charged that he had illegally distributed information about
how to build Molotov cocktails and "Drano bombs"
on his web site.
He was charged under a 1997 law that made it illegal to publish
such instructions with the intent that readers commit "a
federal crime of violence."
- Jennifer Martin, mother of Sherman Austin, the 20-year-old
African American webmaster of the site raisethefist.com
who began serving a one-year jail sentence last week. Martin
is a leading a campaign for Sherman to be moved from a county
detention center to federal detention immediately because
he has been receiving death threats from several white supremacists
groups.
Link: www.raisethefist.com
8:25-8:35 Conscientious Objector Sentenced to Six
Months in Jail
INTRO: 21 year-old U.S. Marine reservist Stephen Funk was
found guilty of unauthorized absence for refusing to report
to his unit during the Iraq war. We speak with his lawyer
Stephen Collier.
The first American conscientious objector from the Iraq invasion
was sentenced to six months in jail by a military jury on
Saturday.
21 year-old Stephen Funk was found guilty of unauthorized
absence for refusing to report to his unit during the Iraq
war.
He is the only one of 28 Marine conscientious objectors to
the Iraq war to face prosecution. The military says that was
because he was the only one who did not report for duty making
it a simple case of desertion. But 21 year-old Funk says he
was the target of unfair prosecution because he was a conscientious
objector who spoke at antiwar rallies.
Funk also informed the military he was gay, but the presiding
military judge forbade that from being an issue in the court-martial.
In addition to the six-month jail sentence, Funk will also
receive a bad conduct discharge from the military.
- Stephen Collier, lawyer for Stephen Funk the 20 year-old
Marine reservist in California who declared himself a conscientious
objector.
8:35–8:45 “Guarding the Oil Underworld
in Iraq” – U.S. Hires Private Security Firm in
Iraq; WTO Protesters Head to Cancun
INTRO: We go to Cancun, Mexico to hear from Pratap Chatterjee
of CorpWatch.org on a private security firm recently contracted
by the U.S. to train 6,500 Iraqis to guard oil pipelines in
Iraq and the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting.
A private security firm is being contracted in Iraq to train
6,500 Iraqis to guard oil pipelines, wellheads, and refineries
as well as water and electrical facilities. This comes after
a recent attack on an oil pipeline in northern Iraq.
Private security firms in oil-rich regions have long been
accused of complicity in human rights violations in countries
like Columbia, Nigeria and Angola.
A recent article Corpwatch’s Pratap Chatterjee “Guarding
the Oil Underworld in Iraq” outlines Erinys’ blurred
relationship with the Coalition Provision Authority.
Pratap Chatterjee joins us today from Cancun, Mexico where
the ministers from the World Trade Oraganization’s 146
member states are meeting. Thousands of people are heading
to Cancun to protest the meeting. The demonstrators will be
demanding comprehensive reforms to an international trade
system that has failed to improve the social and economic
conditions for millions around the globe.
8:45-8:46 One Minute Music Break
8:46-8:58 Supreme Court Appears Splits On Overturning
New Campaign Finance Law
INTRO: In a special summer session, the nation's high court
heard arguments on the constitutionality of the law regulating
soft money donations from corporations and labor unions. Democracy
hosts a debate between Common Cause and the Cato Institute.
The Supreme Court appears split on the constitutionality
of the new campaign finance law that bans unregulated soft
money from corporations and labor unions. In the first special
summer session in three decades, the court yesterday heard
four hours of debate.
The law laws are being challenged by a coalition of groups
include the National Rifle Association and the American Civil
Liberties Union. According to the Washington Post, the court
appears to be split and the decision will likely rest on Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor.
Those that appeared unsympathetic to the law were Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence
Thomas. Among the attorneys arguing against the ban were Whitewater
independent counsel Kenneth Starr.
- Roger Pilon, Vice President for Legal Affairs for the
CATO Institute. He is the founder and director of Cato's
Center for Constitutional Studies and worked in the Reagan
administration.
Link: www.cato.org
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, Jeremy Scahill, Parvez Sharma, Sharif Abdel 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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