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The Oklahoma City Bombing Ten Years Later
Colin Powell's Former Chief Of Staff Calls John Bolton An
"Abysmal" Pick To Be UN Ambassador
New York District Attorney Forced to Drop Charges in High-Profile
Arrest Case from GOP Convention
The Oklahoma City Bombing Ten Years Later
Bud Welch joins us from Oklahoma City to talk about the
April 19, 1995 bombing that killed 168 including his 23-year-old
daughter Julie. Welch made headlines for opposing the execution
of Timothy McVeigh. [includes rush
transcript]
Today is the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred
P Murrah Federal Bulding in Oklahoma City. There are memorial
commemorations there and in other cities across the country.
In all, some 168 people were killed that day; 19 of them children—many
of whom died as they played in their day care center. Two
men were convicted in the attack—Timothy McVeigh, who
was executed a few years ago and Terry Nichols who remains
in prison. At the time, the Oklahoma City bombing was considered
to be the worst terror attack in history on US soil. To look
back on that day, we go now to Oklahoma City. We are joined
on the phone by Bud Welch, whose 23-year-old daughter Julie
was killed in Oklahoma City 10 years ago today. He is speaking
to us from the memorial service.
- Bud Welch, his 23-year old daughter Julie was killed
in the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building on
April 19, 1995.
Colin Powell's Former Chief Of Staff Calls John Bolton
An "Abysmal" Pick To Be UN Ambassador
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote
on Bolton's nomination as early as today. We talk to Steve
Clemons of the TheWashingtonNote.com and John Nichols of The
Nation about a series of allegations concerning Bolton abusing
his authority at the State Department and Bolton's role in
securing George W. Bush's victory during the 2000 Florida
recount. [includes rush
transcript]
A vote on the nomination of John Bolton to serve as President
Bush"s ambassador to the United Nations is scheduled
for today. The New York Times reports the top Democrat on
the Committee -- Joseph Biden of Delaware –- is planning
to ask the vote be delayed. A series of new allegations of
Bolton abusing his power at the State Department have emerged
since the committee last met. Much of the two-days of hearings
last week focused on allegations that Bolton threatened intelligence
analysts who disagreed with him and sought to have them removed
after they challenged his claims about security threats posed
by various countries. Since then, reports have emerged that
-- during his time at the State Department -- Bolton often
blocked then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and, on one occasion,
his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information
vital to U.S. strategies on Iran. Powell was not among a group
of five Republican former secretaries of state who sent the
committee a letter that endorsed Bolton"s nomination.
On Monday, Powell’s former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson
spoke out in opposition to Bolton. He told the New York Times
"He is incapable of listening to people and taking into
account their views. He would be an abysmal ambassador."
During last week’s hearings, Bolton acknowledged making
10 requests, over four years, for names of U.S. officials
whose conversations with foreigners were monitored by the
National Security Agency.
Every Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
is expected to vote against Bolton. If one Republican joins
them, Bolton’s confirmation will be blocked. Republican
Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island has said he is uncommitted,
and over the weekend, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska said
he had some reservations. But the panel’s Republican
chairman, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, said he expects
all 10 Republicans ultimately to vote in favor of the nomination.
- Steven Clemons, publisher of the popular political blog,
TheWashingtonNote.com.
He is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation where
he co-directs the American Strategy Program. For seven years,
Clemons served as Executive Director of the Japan America
Society of Southern California and co-founded the Japan
Policy Research Institute with Chalmers Johnson.
Another aspect of Bolton’s career that has been largely
overlooked in the corporate media is his role in the 2000
presidential recount. John Nichols of The Nation magazine
posted this in his blog "The Online Beat" last week:
"Bolton was one of the pack of lawyers for the Republican
presidential ticket who repeatedly sought to shut down recounts
of the ballots from Florida counties before those counts revealed
that Gore had actually won the state’s electoral votes
and the presidency.
"The December 9 [2000] intervention was Bolton’s
last and most significant blow against the democratic process."
John Nichols joins us on line now from Madison, Wisconsin.
- John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation
Magazine and author of the The Online Beat on The Nation
website.
New York District Attorney Forced to Drop Charges
in High-Profile Arrest Case from GOP Convention
The DA's office is expected to drop charges today against
Joshua Banno -- an Arizona college student who was arrested
seven months ago during the Republican National Convention.
The DA is dropping the charges after photographs emerged showing
Banno could not have been involved in the crime. He had been
facing seven years in jail. [includes rush
transcript]
The City of New York has been forced to drop all charges
against an activist accused of committing several serious
crimes stemming from his participation in the protests at
last year”s Republican National Convention. Twenty-one
year-old Josh Banno said from the beginning that he was innocent
of all charges against him. On the day of the half-million
person march at the RNC, a large papier-mache dragon was set
on fire near Madison Square Garden and police allege that
at least one of their officers was injured. Police arrested
Banno, accusing him of setting the fire and jailed him for
six days. His bail was originally set at $200,000. He faced
a series of charges including reckless endangerment and assaulting
a police officer. The police charged that Banno had matches
and an oven mitt in his pockets when he was arrested. The
charges forced Banno to move to New York to work on his defense
and his mother had to refinance her house and take a leave
from her job. But as the case neared trial, Banno”s
defense team obtained time-sequence photographs taken by a
news photographer that showed Banno could not have set the
fire. Well Josh Banno joins us in our studio today just blocks
away from the courthouse where the charges against him are
set to be dismissed. We are also joined by his attorney, Sabrina
Shroff. She is a member of the National Lawyers Guild.
- Joshua Banno, Arizona college student arrested during
the Republican National Convention.
- Sabrina Shroff, attorney for Joshua Banno and a member
of National Lawyers Guild.
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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