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Does Israel's Assassination of Hamas Founder Yassin Make
Israelis Safer?
Is the U.S. Trying to Expel Aristide From the Hemisphere?
"The White House Has Played Cover-Up" - Former
9/11 Commission Member Max Cleland Blasts Bush
Does Israel's Assassination of Hamas Founder Yassin
Make Israelis Safer?
Protests and riots erupted across the Occupied Territories
and the Arab world accompanied by calls for revenge following
Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
We go to Gaza to hear from the former attorney general of
Gaza and we speak with a university professor who has studied
the timing and effects Israel's assassination policy.
Protests and riots erupted across the Occupied Territories
and the Arab world yesterday following Israel's assassination
of Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Tens of thousands of mourners flooded the streets in Gaza
for the funeral procession in the largest gathering in Gaza
city in a decade. Mourners carried billowing Hamas flags and
vowed revenge as two Israeli helicopters flew overhead and
the sky was blackened from the smoke of burning tyres.
Protesters also took to the streets in Cairo, Greece, Jordan,
Pakistan, and Iraq.
The assassination, which was ordered by Israeli prime minister
Ariel Sharon, was opposed by some top Israeli officials including
the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, Avi Dichter
who said the attack will lead to revenge attacks in the short
run. This according to a report on Israel's Channel Two TV.
The killing was widely condemned by international leaders.
This is British foreign minister Jack Straw:
- British Foreign Minister Jack Straw speaking March 22,
2004.
In France, foreign minister Dominique de Villepin also condemned
the attack:
- French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin speaking
March 22, 2004.
The White House called the attack deeply troubling, but did
not condemn it. Press secretary Scott Mcclellan spoke to reporters
yesterday:
- White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan speaking
March 22, 2004.
After the assassination, Israel bolstered security at its
embassies around the world. The Israeli army was put on high
alert and sealed off the Gaza Strip, closed fortified checkpoints
that cut it into three, and closed off West Bank cities.
Haaretz is reporting that at least five Palestinians, including
a 13-year-old boy, were killed and dozens injured, in clashes
with Israeli forces during the day on Monday.
- Steve Niva, professor of international politics at Evergreen
State College in Washington state. He has written extensively
on Israel's assassination policy and Palestinian suicide
bombings and is currently working on a book on the subject.
- Fayez Abu Rahmeh, a retired lawyer and former attorney
general of Gaza.
Is the U.S. Trying to Expel Aristide From the Hemisphere?
Nigeria yesterday agreed to a request by Caricom to grant
President Aristide temporary asylum one week after his historic
return to the Caribbean in defiance of the Bush administration.
We speak with Randall Robinson who was part of the delegation
that accompanied President Aristide from the Central African
Republic to Jamaica.
One week after his historic return to the Caribbean, President
Aristide is once again facing possible expulsion from the
Western Hemisphere. Aristide said he was taken by force from
Haiti to the Central African Republic in what he calls a US-orchestrated
coup.
Yesterday, Nigeria agreed to a request by the 15-nation Caribbean
community (Caricom) leaders to grant Aristide temporary asylum.
It has not been confirmed what prompted the request by Caricom,
but one thing is certain: Aristide's return to the Caribbean
was a trip the Bush administration clearly did not want to
happen. In very public statements, the most senior US officials
said bluntly that they did not want Aristide in the Western
Hemisphere.
The US-installed Prime Minister of Haiti, Gerard Latortue,
recalled Haiti's ambassador to Jamaica, in protest of that
country's welcoming of Aristide. Latortue also halted Haiti's
participation in Caricom. Caricom has called for an independent
investigation into the circumstances of Aristide's removal
from Haiti.
At least three Caricom leaders yesterday signalled their
unwillingness to sit with Latortue unless he repudiated his
recent attacks on the Community and distances himself from
the armed gangs who helped overthrow Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Latortue yesterday hailed the leaders of the gangs as "freedom
fighters."
At this time, President Aristide his Haitian-American wife
Mildred remain in Jamaica with their two young daughters,
in defiance of the United States.
- Randall Robinson, a close friend of the Aristides. Last
week he was part of the delegation that accompanied President
Aristide from the Central African Republic to Jamaica. He
is also the founder of TransAfrica and the author of several
books. He joins us on the line from his home in St. Kitts
in the Caribbean.
"The White House Has Played Cover-Up" -
Former 9/11 Commission Member Max Cleland Blasts Bush
The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks
is holding public hearings today with testimony by top Bush
administration officials. We speak with former commission
member Max Cleland who was the chief critic of the White House's
lack of cooperation in the investigation.
Today, the independent commission investigating the Sept.
11 attacks is holding public hearings with testimony by Secretary
of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
as well as their counterparts in the Clinton administration,
Madeleine Albright and William Cohen. Tomorrow testimony will
be given by CIA Director George Tenet; Samuel Berger, former
assistant to Clinton for national security affairs; and Richard
Clarke. National Security adviser Condoleeza Rice has refused
to testify publicly.
Yesterday, a group of Democratic senators released a letter
sent to the White House, asking President Bush to compel Rice
to testify at the hearing. Rice has met with the panel in
private, but aides have said she believes it would set a bad
precedent for her to testify publicly.
Meanwhile, a pair of public interest groups, The 9-11 Family
Steering Committee and 9-11 Citizens Watch, have called for
the resignation of the director of the independent 9-11 commission,
Philip Zelikow.
The calls for resignation come after former counterterrorism
czar Richard Clarke revealed that Zelikow participated in
Bush administration briefings on al Qaeda prior to Sept. 11.
To talk about the commission, we are joined by one of its
former members, former Georgia senator Max Cleland. After
his appointment to the commission in 2002, Cleland became
the chief critic of the White House stonewalling over releasing
documents and lack of cooperation.
In October last year, Cleland said the Bush administration
was purposely stalling the investigation because of the 2004
election. Cleland said, "As each day goes by, we learn
that this government knew a whole lot more about these terrorists
before Sept. 11 than it has ever admitted."
In November, after the White House set conditions for the
examination of documents Cleland said, "If this decision
stands, I, as a member of the commission, cannot look any
American in the eye, especially family members of victims,
and say the commission had full access. This investigation
is now compromised."
In December 2003, Cleland stepped down from the commission
to become a member of the board of directors of the Export-Import
Bank of the United States.
- Max Cleland, former Georgia senator. In 2002, he was
appointed to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States. In December 2003, he stepped down
from the commission to become a member of the board of directors
of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
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 Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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