Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Tues., Mar. 30, 2004
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 3-30-04
PRSS Channel: A67.7
EXCLUSIVE: Brother of USS Cole Victim Speaks Out
Confronting Bush's Brain: Immigrant Rights Groups Protest
at Karl Rove's House
University Students Say No To Paying For Their Own Surveillance
EXCLUSIVE: Brother of USS Cole Victim Speaks Out
In a Democracy Now! exclusive we speak with Anton Gunn,
brother of Cherone Louis Gunn, one of the 17 US servicemen
killed in the Oct. 12, 2000 attack on the USS Cole. In his
first extensive interview, Anton Gunn says, "There's
no doubt in my mind that 9/11 could have been fully thwarted."
He discusses the investigation of the Cole attack and his
frustrating dealings with FBI.
The Commission investigating the Sept. 11th attacks last
week wrapped up two days of high-profile hearings in Washington.
The public hearings grabbed headlines across the country
and continued to dominate the airwaves over the weekend as
a political firestorm brewed over former counterterrorism
chief Richard Clarke's testimony and National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice's refusal to give one.
In the wake of the controversy over the handling of the war
on terror by both the Clinton and Bush administrations, a
lesser-known terrorist attack 11 months before 9/11 is once
again in the news - The USS Cole.
On Oct. 12, 2000 a small boat filled with C4 explosives motored
alongside a U.S. destroyer, the USS Cole, which was fuelling
up of the coast of Yemen. Two men aboard the small craft waved
at the larger vessel, then blew themselves up. Seventeen American
sailors died, and thirty-nine others were seriously wounded.
In an interview on Meet the Press last Sunday, NBC's Tim
Russert questioned former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke
about the Cole.
- Richard Clarke on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert
March 28, 2004.
Today, in a Democracy Now! exclusive, we are joined by Anton
Gunn, his brother Cherone Louis Gunn was one of the 17 Americans
killed aboard the Cole. He was just 22 years old.
- Anton Gunn, executive director of South
Carolina Fair Share, a nonpartisan membership organization
made up of low and moderate income South Carolinians concerned
with consumer and progressive social change issues.
Also, see transcript
here
Confronting Bush's Brain: Immigrant Rights Groups
Protest at Karl Rove's House
Several hundred protesters arrived at the home of Karl Rove,
Bush's top political adviser, on Sunday afternoon to call
for educational opportunities for immigrants. We speak with
an activist who led the protest and who spoke with Rove after
he agreed to meet with two members of the demonstration.
One week after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took
to the streets to protest the first anniversary of the Iraq
invasion, several hundred people protested in Washington DC
this weekend to call for educational opportunities for immigrants.
The protesters took the streets on Sunday afternoon. But
they didn't march down Pennsylvania Avenue or the Mall, instead
- they went to Karl Rove's house.
Rove is President Bush's top political adviser and is best
known as the driving force behind Bush's taking of the presidency.
Several hundred protesters arrived at Rove's house in school
buses on Sunday afternoon calling for Bush to advocate the
Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known
as DREAM. The bill would permit immigrants who have lived
in the United States for at least five years to apply for
legal resident status once they graduate from high school.
- Emira Palacios, is Co-Chairperson of National
People's Action, a 33-year-old multi-racial, ethnic,
inter-generational non-partisan coalition of hundreds of
local community organizations. She led the protest this
weekend at the home of Karl Rove, President Bush's Senior
Policy Advisor.
Also, see transcript
here
University Students Say No To Paying For Their Own
Surveillance
Foreign and U.S. students are opposing a new university
fee that funds a government tracking system to watch them,
known as SEVIS - basically charging students for their own
surveillance. We speak with students at two universities who
have taken direct, grassroots actions to oppose the fee.
Past Democracy Now! coverage on the SEVIS program:
Foreign students in the United States last year became the
latest target in the Department of Homeland Security's widening
hunt for so-called "potential terrorists."
A new monitoring system called the Student and Exchange Visitor
Information System, or SEVIS, took full effect last August
in colleges and universities around the country.
Under SEVIS, foreign students are required to enter personal
information into a computer-based system that is then cross-checked
against other government databases by federal agents in Washington.
But that's not all. Some universities have gone so far as
to add an extra fee for foreign students to fund the SEVIS
program. So not only are foreign students being watched. They
are being charged for their own surveillance.
Well, students across the country have taken direct, grassroots
actions against payment of the SEVIS fee. We go first to the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst where students have
refused to pay the $65 fee to the university. Joining us on
the phone from Amherst is George Liu, an international phD
student from China. He is an International Organizer with
the Graduate Employee Organization, a union of graduate employees
which is leading the protest against payment of the SEVIS
fee.
- George Liu, an international PhD student from China at
the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is an International
Organizer with the Graduate
Employee Organization, a union of graduate employees
which is leading the protest against payment of the SEVIS
fee.
- Mike Quieto, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin.
He is the former co-president of the Teaching
Assistants' Association at the university which led
the successful campaign last year opposing having international
students pay SEVIS fees.
Also, see transcript
here
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.
|
Listen
to the show
Help
whole
show
