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Navy Sailor Charged As "Deserter and Fugitive"
After Refusing Iraq Deployment
African Ecologist & Activist Wangari Maathai Awarded
2004 Nobel Peace Prize
Palestinian Presidential Candidate Mustafa Barghouti Beaten
by Soldiers Blasts "Fascist" Israeli Oppression
Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?
Navy Sailor Charged As "Deserter and Fugitive"
After Refusing Iraq Deployment
We speak with Navy sailor Pablo Paredes, who the military
is calling a deserter and a fugitive after he refused to board
his ship in San Diego as it prepared to ship out for the Persian
Gulf. He joins us from California where he is now underground.
[includes rush
transcript]
Today we'll speak with a Navy sailor who the military is
calling a deserter and a fugitive. He could be arrested at
any moment by the military or another law enforcement agency.
On Monday, Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes refused to
board his ship in San Diego as it prepared to ship out for
the Persian Gulf. Remarkably, Paredes sat on the ship's pier
as his fellow sailors boarded. For nearly two hours, he spoke
to reporters explaining why he was refusing to board. Paredes
told the journalists he was young and naive when he joined
the Navy and "never imagined, in a million years, we
would go to war with somebody who had done nothing to us."
He says he fully expected to be arrested that day on the pier.
But the arrest never happened.
A Navy spokesman said the 23 year-old from the Bronx, New
York wasn't taken into custody because he hadn't violated
any regulations. Navy procedures stipulate that an officer
can't be listed as missing until an official roll has been
called aboard ship. Paredes believes he wasn't detained because
of the media presence. On Sunday, he had called newspapers
and radio and TV stations to announce his anti-deployment
intentions. But shortly after he left the pier that day, he
was classified as a "deserter and fugitive." He
is now underground. In a moment, we are going to be joined
live by Pablo Paredes. But first, we turn to an interview
Paredes gave shortly after he refused to board the ship.
- Pablo Paredes, speaking to us on the line from San Diego.
African Ecologist & Activist Wangari Maathai
Awarded 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
Wangari Maathai is the first African woman and first environmentalist
to receive the prestigious award. We'll hear an excerpt from
her acceptance speech delivered today on International Human
Rights Day. [includes rush
transcript]
Today is International Human Rights Day. Every year on December
10, people around the world commemorate the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations
General Assembly in 1948.
And in Oslo today Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004.
She is the first African woman and first environmentalist
to receive the prestigious award.
Wangari Maathai rose to international fame for campaigns
against government-backed forest clearances in Kenya in the
late 1980s and 1990s.
She once said of the forest clearances "It's a matter
of life and death for this country. The Kenyan forests are
facing extinction and it is a man-made problem."
In 1992 riot police clubbed her and three other women unconscious
in central Nairobi during a demonstration. She has been tear
gassed, threatened with death by anonymous callers, and once
thrown into jail overnight for leading protests.
The Nobel Prize Committee honored Maathai today for her campaign
to save Africa's forests and for standing at the "front
of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic
and cultural development in Kenya and in Africa."
At her acceptance speech today Maathai called on people around
the world to plant trees at Easter as a symbol of renewal
and to protect the planet.
- Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner speaking
in Oslo.
Palestinian Presidential Candidate Mustafa Barghouti
Beaten by Soldiers Blasts "Fascist" Israeli Oppression
Palestinian Presidential Candidate Mustafa Barghouti says
he was detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint
in the West Bank. We go to Ramallah to speak with Barghouti
shortly after the incident.
In less than a month, voters in Palestine will head to the
polls in the first presidential elections since the death
of Yasser Arafat last month. Yesterday, one of the candidates
alleged he was detained and beaten by Israeli soldiers at
a checkpoint between Jenin and Nablus. The candidate was Dr.
Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National
Initiative and President of the Palestinian Medical Relief
Committee. Shortly after the incident, I reached Mustafa Barghouti
at his office in Ramallah. I began by asking him to explain
what happened.
- Mustafa Barghouti, Palestinian presidential candidate.
He is Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative
and President of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committee.
Was The 2004 Election Legitimate?
Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee host a public
hearing on the 2004 elections addressing allegations of widespread
problems, irregularities and, possibly, tampering with the
voting process, in the key state of Ohio. We speak with one
John Bonifaz of the National Voting Institute who testified
at the hearing. [includes rush
transcript]
While the Democratic and Republican parties seem to have
moved on from the controversial November presidential elections,
there is a group of Americans that have not. They have held
rallies and hearings in Ohio. They have launched email and
letter writing campaigns, they have filed lawsuits and challenges.
And this week, they took their case to Capitol Hill. On Wednesday,
Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee hosted a public
hearing on the 2004 elections. At issue were the allegations
that there were widespread problems, irregularities and, possibly,
tampering with the voting process, particularly in the key
state of Ohio. On Monday, President Bush was reported to have
officially secured his election after Ohio's Republican secretary
of state Kenneth Blackwell certified the victory by a margin
of some 119,000 votes. Blackwell is also chair of the Bush-Cheney
campaign in Ohio.
Next Monday, the Electoral College is scheduled to meet,
despite the recount sought by third party candidates, David
Cobb of the Green Party and Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian
Party. Those efforts could begin as early as next week. On
January 6, the electoral college will officially convene to
certify the election results nationwide. Meanwhile, John Kerry
has been strikingly silent on the controversy in Ohio and
has refused to spend any of the $51 million still in his campaign
war chest that could be used to fund recount efforts. On Wednesday,
he issued a statement responding to the hearing in Washington
DC, saying he supports an investigation into reported problems
"not because it would change the outcome of the election
but because Americans have to believe that their votes are
counted in our democracy."
- Excerpt of hearing on Ohio voting irregularities hearing,
December 8, 2004.
- John Bonifaz, General Counsel of the National
Voting Institute and counsel for the Green Party recount
efforts in Ohio. He was one of the witnesses who testified
at the hearing on voting irregularities in Ohio on Wednesday.
He joins us on the line from Boston.
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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