Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Thur., Mar. 31, 2005
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 3-31-05
PRSS Channel: A67.7
John Bolton In His Own Words: Bush's UN Ambassador Nominee
Condemns United Nations
Ex-Bush Official Warns the Administration: Don't Rush on
the Road to Damascus
Nat Hentoff: Terri Schiavo Suffered From "Longest Public
Execution in American History."
John Bolton In His Own Words: Bush's UN Ambassador
Nominee Condemns United Nations
Democracy Now! airs rare footage of John Bolton speaking
on Feb. 3, 1994 in New York criticizing the United Nations.
"The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories,"
Bolton said. "If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make
a bit of difference." Meanwhile, 59 former diplomats
have written an open letter criticizing his nomination. [includes
rush
transcript]
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that every Democrat on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee plans to reject John
Bolton's nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations.
This would mark the first time that committee Democrats unanimously
opposed a diplomatic selection by President Bush. It could
also put Bush's nomination in peril if any Republicans defected
to vote against Bolton. Several groups opposed to Bolton have
launched campaigns to urge Republican Lincoln Chafee of Rhode
Island to vote against his nomination. Chafee is the most
moderate Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.
Meanwhile, a group of former U.S. diplomats and other high
level officials have called for the Senate to reject John
Bolton's nomination to become the next U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations. 59 former diplomats and other officials
have signed an open letter outlining their views to Senator
Richard Lugar. Lugar is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee which will hold hearings on Bolton's nomination
on April 7. Bolton has been one of the fiercest critics of
the United Nations within the Bush administration. The letter
to Senator Lugar states that Bolton "is the wrong man
for this position" and cites Bolton's insistence that
the U.N. is valuable only when it directly serves the United
States- as cause for concern. That view, they stated, would
undermine negotiation efforts with other diplomats at the
U.N. At the announcement of Bolton's nomination on March 7th,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described him as "a
tough-minded diplomat" with "a proven track record
of effective multilateralism."
We are joined in the studio by one of the people who signed
the letter to Senator Lugar, Spurgeon Keeny. We are also joined
by Don Kraus who is the Executive Vice President of Citizens
for Global Solutions. They have just released footage of John
Bolton from more than 10 years ago where he was speaking at
an event called the "Global Structures Convocation,"
held on February 3, 1994 in New York.
- John Bolton, speaking in New York on Feb. 3, 1994 in
New York.
- Spurgeon Keeny Jr., former deputy director of the U.S
Arms Control and Disarmament agency under President Carter
1976-1981. He was one of the 59 who signed a letter to Senator
Lugar urging the rejection of John Bolton as U.S Ambassador
to the U.N.
- Don Kraus, Executive Vice President of Citizens for Global
Solutions. The organization recently launched the website
StopBolton.org.
Ex-Bush Official Warns the Administration: Don't
Rush on the Road to Damascus
We talk to Flynt Leverett who served as President Bush's
senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security
Council from March 2002 to March 2003. [includes rush
transcript]
We turn now to the Middle East. Tensions continue in Lebanon
after a series of explosions amidst the ongoing political
instability sparked by the assassination of former Prime Minister
Rafiq Hariri earlier this year. The Bush administration, meanwhile,
continues to amplify its rhetoric against Syria. And this
policy is drawing fire from some former senior members of
Bush's foreign policy team. In a recent Op-Ed in The New York
Times called "Don't Rush on the Road to Damascus,"
our next guest writes, "Does the Bush administration
understand that for the foreseeable future, any political
order in Lebanon that reflects, as the White House put it,
the "country's diversity," will include an important
role for Hezbollah? Does the administration feel confident
about containing Hezbollah without on-the-ground Syrian management
and with the group's sole external guide an increasingly hard-line
Iran? Even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's national security
adviser recently said that an overly precipitous Syrian withdrawal
from Lebanon could pose a threat to Israel."
The Op-Ed continues, "The sudden end of the regime headed
by Bashar al-Assad would not necessarily advance American
interests. Syrian society is at least as fractious as Iraq's
or Lebanon's. The most likely near-term consequence of Mr.
Assad's departure would be chaos; the most likely political
order to emerge from that chaos would be heavily Islamist.
In the end, the most promising (if gradual) course for promoting
reform in Syria is to engage and empower Mr. Assad, not to
isolate and overthrow him."
Those are the words of our next guest, Flynt Leverett. He
was the senior director for Middle East affairs at the National
Security Council from March 2002 to March 2003. He was involved
in developing President Bush's positions on the Israeli-Palestinian
situation, and advised the president and National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice on relations with Egypt, Israel,
Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia,
and Syria.
Prior to joining the National Security Council, Leverett
was a Middle East and counterterrorism expert on the State
Department's Policy Planning Staff. Before that he was the
senior CIA analyst on Syria and Middle East affairs. Leverett
is currently a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle
East Policy at the Brookings Institution and author of the
forthcoming book- Inheriting Syria.
- Flynt Leverett, former member of President Bush's National
Security Council. He is a former CIA analyst and Middle
East specialist. He is now a visiting fellow at the Saban
Center for Middle East studies at the Brookings Institution
in Washington. He is author of the forthcoming book "Inheriting
Syria: Bashar's Trial By Fire."
Nat Hentoff: Terri Schiavo Suffered From "Longest
Public Execution in American History."
Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff and law professor Jamin
Raskin discuss the case of Terri Schiavo, who died today (shortly
after we went off the air). Two weeks ago courts order the
removal of the feeding tube of the brain-damaged woman sparking
a national debate. In a new column Hentoff wrote, "For
all the world to see, a 41-year-old woman, who has committed
no crime, will die of dehydration and starvation in the longest
public execution in American history." [includes rush
transcript]
Terri Schiavo has just died after going two weeks without
any nutrition or hydration and her parent's legal options
are virtually gone. Yesterday, they faced another setback
when the U.S. Supreme court for the 6th time denied their
request for an emergency order allowing her feeding tube to
be reinserted while they further appealed the case. Earlier
in the day, a federal appeals court turned down their latest
effort to have their case reviewed and the feeding tube reinserted.
One of the judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote
in a separate opinion that he believed that the special law
hastily passed by Congress on March 21and immediately signed
by President Bush, allowing Schiavo's parents to seek federal
review is unconstitutional and violates the principal of separation
of powers.
It is the first time in the long legal drama that any judge
has described the Schiavo legislation in such terms. Judge
Stanley Birch wrote, "It is my judgment that despite
sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive
branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably
at odds with our Founding Fathers" blueprint for the
governance of a free people - our Constitution." Judge
Birch added that the courts "are without jurisdiction
in this case."
In recent days, a number of progressive figures have come
out in one way or another against the removal of Terri Schiavo's
feeding tube and the denial of water. Among them, the Rev.
Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader. We are joined on the phone
by long time Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff. In his latest
piece in the Village Voice, he calls the Terri Schaivo case
judicial murder and the longest public execution in history.
We are joined now by Nat Hentoff and American University law
Professor Jamin Raskin.
- Nat Hentoff, author of the "The War on the Bill
of Rights and the Gathering Resistance" and syndicated
columnist who frequently writes on First Amendment issues
for the Village Voice, Editor & Publisher and other
publications. His latest column is "Terri
Schiavo: Judicial Murder"
- Jamin Raskin, professor of Law at American University.
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
