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Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat 1929-2004: From Guerilla
Fighter to Nobel Prize Winner
Fmr. Asst. UN Secretary General Hans Von Sponeck on Iraq
and Palestine
Israel Re-Arrests Nuclear Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
Gonzales Nominated as Attorney General: "Bush Took His
Personal Lawyer and Made Him Lawyer to the Nation"
Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat 1929-2004: From
Guerilla Fighter to Nobel Prize Winner
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died overnight in a Paris
military hospital ending his 40-year struggle for statehood
for the Palestinian people. Arafat was one of the most recognizable
figures on the world stage; a man who rose from a guerilla
icon to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat named no
successor and his death brings with it what many observers
believe will be a fierce fight over who will take charge of
the struggle Arafat led for 4 decades. When word of Arafat's
death was announced shortly after 4:30 am, thousands of Palestinians
poured into the streets of Gaza and other cities to mourn.
Egypt will host the first half of a two-part state funeral
in the capital Cairo, involving foreign delegations. From
Egypt, Arafat's body will be flown to Ramallah where Palestinians
will see their lifelong leader buried on the grounds of the
battered Muqata compound in which he spent his final years.
Already, the battle for succession is raging. Mahmoud Abbas
has been elected chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Rawhi Fattouh was named interim president of the governing
Palestinian Authority. He is in charge of organizing elections
within the next 60 days. But as the Palestinian leadership
moves to establish a temporary, collective leadership council,
there are widespread concerns over how power will be delegated
or taken in Palestine.
For decades Yasser Arafat was the embodiment of the Palestinian
cause and the symbol of resistance against Israeli occupation.
He was born in on August 4, 1929. He has always claimed he
was born in Jerusalem but many biographers say he was actually
born in Cairo.
In 1959, he co-founded Fatah, the Movement of the Liberation
of Palestine and ten years later he was voted chairman of
the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
After being expelled from Jordan he moved to the Lebanese
capital of Beirut. In 1974, Arafat made a dramatic entrance
on the international diplomatic stage. Addressing the United
Nations General Assembly in New York, he told delegates that
he had come "bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's
gun - do not let the olive branch fall from my hand".
In 1982, Israel launched its brutal invasion of Beirut to
drive out the PLO. Arafat moved to the North African state
of Tunisia. In 1987, the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising,
broke out in Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. In 1991,
Arafat married Suha Tawil, a Palestinian from a prominent
Christian family, with whom he had one daughter.
In 1993, he signed the Oslo peace accords with Israel's Prime
Minister, Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn. He returned
to Palestine in July 1994 after 26 years in exile and was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Rabin and foreign
minister Shimon Peres.
The second Intifada was launched in the West Bank and Gaza
in 2000, following the collapse of the Oslo peace process.
In December 2001 - the Israeli government, led by Arafat's
old adversary Ariel Sharon - confined him to his West Bank
headquarters. He left the Ramallah compound for the first
time two weeks ago when he fell ill and was airlifted to Paris.
It was the last time he would see his homeland alive.
- Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary general of the Palestinian
National Initiative, President of the Palestinian Medical
Relief Committee.
- Lamis Andoni, independent journalist who has been covering
the Middle East for 20 years. She has reported for the Christian
Science Monitor, the Financial Times and the main newspapers
in Jordan. She joins us on the line now from Amman.
Fmr. Asst. UN Secretary General Hans Von Sponeck
on Iraq and Palestine
Hans Von Sponeck, the former Assistant Secretary General
of the United Nations, joins us in our firehouse studio to
discuss the situation in Iraq and Palestine. In the late 1990s,
Von Sponeck was the coordinator of the United Nations Humanitarian
Mission in Iraq.
- Hans Von Sponeck, former Assistant Secretary General
of the United Nations. In the late 1990s, he was the coordinator
of the United Nations Humanitarian Mission in Iraq.
Israel Re-Arrests Nuclear Whistleblower Mordechai
Vanunu
Israeli police re-arrested nuclear whistleblower Mordechai
Vanunu seven months after he was released from an 18-year
jail term for leaking secrets about Israel's nuclear program.
He was arrested for allegedly passing on classified information
to unnamed international parties.
As the world's attention focused on the death of Yasser Arafat,
Israeli police re-arrested nuclear whistleblower Mordechai
Vanunu early this morning. Police also searched his room in
East Jerusalem and confiscated documents and other materials.
The arrest comes seven months after he was released from an
18-year jail term for leaking secrets about Israel's nuclear
program. The Guardian of London reports Israeli police arrested
him for allegedly passing on classified information to unnamed
international parties.
Since his release Mordechai Vanunu has been barred from speaking
with foreign journalists. But he has broken this ban with
a handful of news organizations including Democracy Now. Early
in the morning of August 18 I reached Mordechai Vanunu in
East Jerusalem and spoke to him for an hour. It was his first
broadcast interview with the U.S. media.
- Modechai Vanunu, interviewed on Democracy Now, August
18, 2004.
Gonzales Nominated as Attorney General: "Bush
Took His Personal Lawyer and Made Him Lawyer to the Nation"
President Bush has nominated White House counsel Alberto
Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general. We
take a look at Gonzales' record with Karen Greenberg New York
University School of Law and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI).
President Bush has nominated White House counsel Alberto
Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general.
Several groups have already announced opposition to Gonzales
including the Center for Constitutional Rights, People for
the American Way and Human Rights First. Gonzales helped pave
the legal groundwork that led to the torture of detainees
at Abu Ghraib. In 2002 he claimed in a memo that that the
war on terrorism renders obsolete portions of the Geneva Conventions.
He has been extremely close to Bush over the past decade.
As governor of Texas, Bush appointed him to be gubernatorial
counsel, Texas Secretary of State and to serve on the Texas
Supreme Court. When Bush became president, he chose Gonzales
as his presidential counsel. And now Gonzales appears set
to become attorney general.
If his nomination is approved by the Senate, Gonzales will
become the country's highest ranking Latino official ever.
He addressed reporters in the White House after President
Bush announced his nomination.
- Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General Nominee speaking in
the The Roosevelt Room on November 11, 2004.
- Karen Greenberg, executive director of New York University
School of Law's Center for Law and Security. She recently
co-edited a three-volume collection that examines the evolution
of the Bush Administration's policy of torture in the questioning
of prisoners.
- Rep. John Conyers, Congressmember from Detroit. He is
the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and
one of the authors of a letter to the General Accounting
Office calling for an investigation into the November 2
elections.
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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