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"You Cannot Break the Human Spirit": Israeli Nuclear
Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu Released After 18 Years
Major Bomb Attacks Across Iraq; Leaked CPA Memo Warns of
Civil War
Supreme Court Grills Gov't Over Guantanamo Bay Detentions
Sen. Kennedy Blasts Wolfowitz For Giving "Disingenuous"
Testimony on Iraq
B-Boy in Baghdad: KPFK Producer Jerry Quickley On Alternative
Media Coverage in Iraq
"You Cannot Break the Human Spirit": Israeli
Nuclear Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu Released After 18 Years
On the morning that Mordechai Vanunu is released from prison
after serving 18 years for revealing to the world that Israel
had a nuclear arsenal, we go to Ashkelon to speak with his
adoptive parents and a coordinator of the US Campaign to Free
Mordecai Vanunu.
Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu was released from
prison this morning in Israel after serving 18 years for revealing
to the world that the country had a nuclear arsenal. For more
than 11 of those 18 years, Vanunu was kept in solitary confinement.
He walked out of the Shikma prison in the coastal town of
Ashkelon flashing a peace sign and waved to cheering supporters.
At an impromptu press conference, Vanunu said he was proud
of what he did and described what he called "very cruel
and barbaric treatment" at the hands of Israeli intelligence
and the military.
Vanunu said Israel's Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security
services tried to rob him of his sanity by keeping him in
solitary confinement for nearly 12 years. He said his message
to these forces was "You didn't succeed to break me,
you didn't succeed to make me crazy." He said his case
was proof that "you cannot break the human spirit."
Now that he has been released from prison, Vanunu faces what
his supporters call draconian restrictions placed on him by
the Israeli government. The restrictions derive from emergency
rules inherited by Israel from the 1940s British mandate over
Palestine. Among them:
Vanunu will have to register to live in an Israeli city of
his choice, he will have to give notice to the authorities
if he wishes to travel to another city, he will not be allowed
to leave Israel for 6 months, a rule that could be extended
indefinitely. Vanunu is forbidden to contact foreigners either
by phone or in person and he will not be allowed to go within
100 meters of any embassy, visit any port of entry, come within
300 meters of any international boundary and he may not be
allowed to worship in a church of his choice.
Here is some of what Vanunu said today right after he walked
out of Shikma prison.
- Mordechai Vanunu, Israel's nuclear whistleblower speaking
to the press just minutes after he was released from his
18-year prison sentence.
Mordechai Vanunu worked as a nuclear technician at Dimona,
Israel's secret nuclear installation from 1976 to 1985. He
worked there at a time when Israel was insisting it would
not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle
East. What Vanunu discovered is that Israel was secretly developing
an extensive nuclear program, hiding its existence from the
Israeli people and parliament, and the world.
The Dimona facility where Vanunu worked harbored an underground
plutonium separation plant operated in strictest secrecy.
As the years went by Vanunu grew increasingly troubled as
he realized his work was part of Israel's nuclear bomb program.
In 1985, before leaving Dimona, he took extensive photographs
inside the factory.
Traveling through Asia with the film in his backpack, Vanunu
made his way to Sydney, Australia, where he converted to Christianity
and joined an Anglican church social justice community where
he shared the story of his nuclear background. The London
Sunday Times, learned of his story and sent a reporter to
Sydney. The newspaper then flew Vanunu to England, where his
photos and facts were further checked by British scientists
familiar with nuclear weapons. Vanunu's story, published October
5, 1986, gave the world its first authoritative confirmation
that Israel had become a major nuclear weapons power, with
material for as many as 200 nuclear warheads of advanced design.
But days before the story was published, on September 30,
1986, Vanunu was lured to Rome by a female Mossad agent, where
he was kidnapped, drugged and put on an Israeli cargo vessel.
In Israel, he was charged with treason and espionage. His
trial was conducted in total secrecy and he was sentenced
to 18 years in prison.
- Mary Eoloff, Mordechai Vanunu's adoptive parent
Major Bomb Attacks Across Iraq; Leaked CPA Memo Warns
of Civil War
Hours after three car bombs explode in Basra killing 68
people and wounding more than 230, an explosion rocks the
Saudi capital of Riyadh. We hear from political science professor
As'ad AbuKhalil on the increasing violence in the Middle East
and we speak with independent reporter Jason Vest who obtained
a Coalition Provision Authority memo that warns the U.S. occupation
of Iraq will likely lead to civil war. [includes
rush transcript]
A major spate of bombings has rocked cities across Iraq today.
The death tolls continue to rise.
In the southern city of Basra, three car bombs exploded in
front of Iraqi police stations killing up to 68 people and
wounding more than 230. The BBC is reporting that two school
buses were hit in the blasts and many of the casualties are
Iraqi schoolchildren. Meanwhile, there was a major mortar
attack at the Abu Ghraib prison outside of Baghdad. There
are reports that more 22 Iraqis were killed, while more than
90 others were wounded.
And just west of the Iraqi capital, the battle for Fallujah
has escalated significantly over the past 24 hours. Dozens
of Iraqi resistance fighters attacked US troops with guns
and grenades mounting a massive barrage of rocket-propelled
grenades and small-arms fire. An unconfirmed report said six
civilians were killed in the fighting.
This comes as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that
talks with locals might not produce a peaceful outcome in
Fallujah.
Meanwhile, a car bomb blew off the front of a security office
building in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh today. Reuters
reports at 10 people were killed in the blast and the death
toll is expected to rise.
As the situation in the Middle East grows ever more violent,
the Bush administration continues to characterize the bloodshed
as a minor hiccup on the path to a "free and democratic"
Iraq.
But according to a newly-leaked Coalition Provisional Authority
memo written by a US government official, the occupation of
Iraq has created an environment rife with corruption and sectarianism
likely to result in civil war.
The memo, obtained by independent reporter Jason Vest details
political corruption among American-appointed Iraqi politicians,
the flow of Iranian money into the country, and the proliferation
of militias and dependence of Interim Governing Council members
on them.
- As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California
State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC,
Berkeley. He is the author of several books including "Bin
Laden, Islam, and America's New "War on Terrorism."
He runs a new blog called "The Angry Arab News Service"
at angryarab.blogspot.com.
- Jason Vest, senior correspondent for The American Prospect
and a contributing editor to The Village Voice and In These
Times. His latest article in the Village Voice is titled
"Fables
of the Reconstruction."
Supreme Court Grills Gov't Over Guantanamo Bay Detentions
The Supreme Court heard the first arguments Tuesday on whether
the more than 600 foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
have a right to plead their case before a judge. We hear excerpts
of the hearing and speak with the Center for Constitutional
Rights' Michael Ratner.
The Supreme Court took up its first challenge to President
Bush's powers in executing the so-called war on terror yesterday
as it weighed whether the more than 600 foreigners held at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a right to plead their case before
a judge.
At yesterday's hearing, a majority of the justices sounded
skeptical of the administration's claim that the president
alone has control over the fate of the Guantanamo prisoners.
It was the first of three cases to be heard this month that
will test whether the president can label certain prisoners
as "unlawful enemy combatants" and deny them all
rights under the law. Next week, the court will consider whether
the president can order the military to capture and hold without
a trial two U.S. citizens who he says are enemy fighters.
One of them was captured in Afghanistan, the other was arrested
in Chicago.
Yesterday's argument focused on foreigners who were picked
up in Afghanistan or Pakistan in 2001 and shipped to the U.S.
Naval Base in occupied Guantanamo, Cuba. They have been held
in solitary confinement and questioned repeatedly. They have
been denied the right to speak with their families or lawyers,
and they have not had a formal hearing at which they could
challenge the basis for being held. The administration has
maintained that these Guantanamo detainees do not deserve
to be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention,
since they did not fight as soldiers in a conventional army.
At the hearing, retired Judge John Gibbons argued on behalf
of the Guantanamo detainees. U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson
defended the Bush administration. A decision is expected in
late June. In a rare move, the Supreme Court released the
audio recording of yesterday's hearing.
Excerpts of Supreme Court hearing:
- Attorney John Gibbons, opening remarks before the Supreme
Court.
- Solicitor General Theodore Olson, arguing on behalf of
the U.S. Government. Opening remarks before the Supreme
Court and questioned Justice John Paul Stephens.
- Attorney John Gibbons argues whether the U.S. courts
had jurisdicaiton over detainees being held at Guantanamo
Bay, the U.S. naval base located on the island Cuba.
- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bryer takes issue with
the government's claim that the executive body could detain
individuals with no judicial oversight. His comments are
followed by a rebuttal from Olson and questions from Justices
Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
- Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional
Rights.
Sen. Kennedy Blasts Wolfowitz For Giving "Disingenuous"
Testimony on Iraq
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's assereted at a
hearing of the Armed Services Committee that Saddam Hussein
was a brutal dictator who had to be deposed. Sen. Edward Kennedy
interrupted Wolfowitz's statement calling his testimony "somewhat
disingenuous." We hear an excerpt.
Senior Bush administration officials came under harsh questioning
yesterday at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The hearing was among a host of question-and-answer face-offs
Congress scheduled for administration officials amid increased
anxiety on Capitol Hill about the course of the Iraq invasion
and occupation.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of the key architects
of the invasion of Iraq, began with a half-hour statement
focusing mostly on administration claims about the abuses
of Iraqis under Saddam's rule.
- Sen. Edward Kennedy questions Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfiwtz at the Senate Armed Services Committee on
April 20, 2004.
B-Boy in Baghdad: KPFK Producer Jerry Quickley On
Alternative Media Coverage in Iraq
We speak with Jerry Quickley, a renowned performance poet
and the host of the popular Pacifica Radio show, Beneath the
Surface on KPFK. He was in Iraq twice last year most recently
in the fall doing independent reporting and shooting a documentary
about the Iraq conflict and war from a hip hop perspective
called B-Boy in Baghdad.
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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