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Violence, Confusion, Fear: Problems Mount Surrounding Scheduled
Jan 30th Iraqi Elections
"Free the 6th Amendment, The Right to Counsel":
Attorney Lynne Stewart Blasts Gv't. Terror Case Against Her
Alberto Gonzales' Role in Torture Memos Like "Mafia
Lawyer Whose Job it is to Help the Don Stay Out of Jail"
Violence, Confusion, Fear: Problems Mount Surrounding
Scheduled Jan 30th Iraqi Elections
As the scheduled Jan. 30 date for elections in Iraq steadily
approaches, we speak with California State University professor
As'as AbuKhalil about the mounting problems surrounding the
vote.
Jordan is hosting a meeting of Iraq's neighbors today to
rally support for Iraqi elections on the scheduled date of
January 30th. Representatives from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait
and Syria are expected to attend. Iran's foreign minister
is boycotting the meeting in protest at comments by Jordan's
King Abdullah who has accused Tehran of meddling in Iraq and
trying to create a Shia sphere of influence in the region.
Representatives from Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain and the UN are
also expected.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki said Amman wants all
the nations present to issue a "clear message" to
Iraqis that they should vote in the poll.
But as the scheduled date for elections in Iraq steadily
approaches, chances that the vote will actually take place
on Jan. 30 seem to be diminishing.
Earlier this week, Adnan Pachahci, a senior Sunni politician,
reiterated his call for a postponement of the elections in
an article in the Washington Post. Iraqi defense minister
Hazem al-Shaalan also mentioned the possibility of postponing
the elections and has traveled to Cairo to formally request
the Egyptian government to encourage Iraqi Sunnis to participate
in the elections.
Iraqi president Ghazi Al-Yawar is also raising strong doubts
about the vote and called on the UN to step in, saying that
the UN "should really step up for their responsibilities
and obligations by saying whether [the election] is possible
or not."
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called President Bush this week
to discuss the problems with the vote. Allawi is a staunch
advocate for holding the vote on the scheduled Jan. 30 date
but The New York Times reports that many in Washington interpreted
the call "as an effort to test the waters, and to determine
if Mr. Bush would brook a delay."
- As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California
State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of several
books on the Middle East, his latest is "The Battle
for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power."
He runs a new blog called "The
Angry Arab News Service."
"Free the 6th Amendment, The Right to Counsel":
Attorney Lynne Stewart Blasts Gv't. Terror Case Against Her
The defense continues closing arguments in the trial of
civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart. She is accused of conspiring
to assist terrorists in a case that is being watched closely
by lawyers around the country. She faces up to 45 years in
prison. Lynne Stewart joins us in our firehouse studio. [includes
rush
transcript]
Closing arguments in the trial of human rights lawyer Lynne
Stewart continued yesterday in a packed New York courthouse
just blocks from our firehouse studio.
Stewart is accused of being part of an international conspiracy
to provide support to terrorists, of conspiring to defraud
the United States and making false statements. She is being
tried with two co-defendants, the Arabic translator Mohammed
Yousry and a Staten Island resident Ahmed Abdel Sattar.
But the focus of the trial centers on a man already in jail,
the Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the blind sheikh
who is serving a life sentence on terror-related charges.
While he is still in jail, the government is accusing Stewart,
who is the sheikh's attorney and her two co-defendants of
conspiring to sneak messages into the sheikh and then to sneak
his words out. Most notably the government claims the three
conspired to release a press release announcing that the sheik
no longer supported a cease fire in 2000 between the militant
Islamic Group and the Egyptian government.
The case is being closely watched by defense attorneys around
the country who fear the government aims to limit their freedom
to fight for unpopular clients.
The 6-month trial featured very few witnesses as the government's
case was based primarily on transcripts from more than 85,000
secretly recorded audio and video clips of meetings between
Stewart and her client as well as the home phone of Ahmed
Abdel Sattar. If convicted, Stewart faces up to 45 years in
prison.
Stewart is being defended by the acclaimed attorney Michael
Tigar who is best known for representing Terry Nichols during
the Oklahoma City bombing case.
On the first day of his closing arguments, Tigar said the
case against Stewart was a "house of cards," and
that prosecutors presented no evidence that Stewart knew of
any conspiracy or even if one existed. He argued that Stewart
is being prosecuted on hyped-up terror charges to destroy
her career of defending unpopular clients.
Tigar said "If a lawyer is sworn to represent someone
who is despised and neglected and hated, it is a mark of pride
and badge of honor to pay attention to that client's needs."
- Lynne Stewart, human rights attorney, arrested in April,
2002 on charges that she helped her client Sheik Omar Abdel
Rahman deliver messages from his Minnesota prison cell to
his followers in Egypt.
Alberto Gonzales' Role in Torture Memos Like "Mafia
Lawyer Whose Job it is to Help the Don Stay Out of Jail"
Senate hearings begin today on the nomination of the White
House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, as attorney general. He faces
tough questions on the torture of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Cuba. We speak with journalist Mark Danner of the New
Yorker, author of the new book, Torture and Truth: America,
Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror. [includes rush
transcript]
The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings today
on the confirmation of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales
as the next attorney general of the United States.
In a New
York Times Op-Ed today, journalist Mark Danner of the
New Yorker and the author of the new book, "Torture and
Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror" writes:
"At least since Watergate, Americans have come to take
for granted a certain story line of scandal, in which revelation
is followed by investigation, adjudication and expiation.
Together, Congress and the courts investigate high-level wrongdoing
and place it in a carefully constructed narrative, in which
crimes are charted, malfeasance is explicated and punishment
is apportioned as the final step in the journey back to order,
justice and propriety.
"When Alberto Gonzales takes his seat before the Senate
Judiciary Committee today for hearings to confirm whether
he will become attorney general of the United States, Americans
will bid farewell to that comforting story line. The senators
are likely to give full legitimacy to a path that the Bush
administration set the country on more than three years ago,
a path that has transformed the United States from a country
that condemned torture and forbade its use to one that practices
torture routinely. Through a process of redefinition largely
overseen by Mr. Gonzales himself, a practice that was once
a clear and abhorrent violation of the law has become in effect
the law of the land."
- Mark Danner,
New Yorker staff writer and frequent contributor to the
New York Review of Books. He is also the author of the new
book "Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the
War on Terror."
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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