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Battle Over Judicial Nominees, Filibuster Heats Up in Senate
Washington Retains Strong Ties With Uzbekistan Despite Notorious
Human Rights Record
Indigenous Community in Colombia Fears Start of "Dirty
War"
Battle Over Judicial Nominees, Filibuster Heats Up
in Senate
The battle over the filibuster continues to heat up in the
U.S senate as the nomination of Texas Supreme Court justice
Priscilla Owen comes under debate. Racial politics also entered
the debate over the nomination of Janice Brown. We speak with
Christy Harvey of the Center for American Progress and Jeffrey
Johnson of People For The American Way. [includes rush
transcript]
The battle over the filibuster continues to heat up in the
U.S senate. Yesterday, the Senate opened what was expected
to be several days of debate on the nomination of Priscilla
Owen - a Texas Supreme Court justice Bush first nominated
to the U.S. Court of Appeals four years ago. Republicans have
been threatening to change the rules of the Senate in order
to bar Democrats from using a filibuster to block a vote on
Bush's judicial nominees. They have charged that Democrats
are abusing the rule to block ten of the president's nominees
to the federal bench. But the Democrats have countered that
the minority party has a right to prevent votes on a president's
judicial candidates. Yesterday, Senate Democratic Leader Harry
Reid accused Bush of trying to "re-write the Constitution
and reinvent reality" in order to install ultra-conservatives
on the federal bench.
Racial politics took center-stage yesterday as well. Senate
Majority leader Bill Frist attended a news conference with
an organization of conservative African-American pastors who
called for a yes-or no-vote on African-American judicial nominee
Janice Rogers Brown. The Congressional Black Caucus also held
a news conference where they released a letter to Senate Majority
leader Bill Frist arguing that his call for a ban on judicial
filibusters "would be particularly offensive to people
of color." The chairman of the caucus, Representative
Melvin Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, recalled the time
when Southern senators used the same parliamentary tactic,
the filibuster, to block civil rights laws. He said, "how
ironic it would be to allow a rule change that would once
again thwart progress of African-Americans."
The Senate was been negotiating a compromise that would allow
the confirmation of some of Bush's nominees. If no compromise
is reached, Frist is preparing to introduce the ban against
the filibuster next week. Senate Democratic leader, Harry
Reid has promised to retaliate by blocking Republican legislation.
Washington Retains Strong Ties With Uzbekistan Despite
Notorious Human Rights Record
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has rejected calls for an
international inquiry into a bloody crackdown on protesters
in the town of Andijan last week that left up to 750 dead.
Washington has close links with Uzbekistan despite the country's
notorious human rights record. We speak with a researcher
with Human Rights Watch, the editorial director of Antiwar.com
and we go to Andijan to get a report from the ground.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has rejected calls for an
international inquiry into a bloody crackdown on protesters
in the town of Andijan last week. Human rights groups say
as many as 750 people were killed, while the government claims
just over 150 died.
The bloodshed took place last Friday in eastern Uzbekistan
when between 60 and 100 armed men stormed the local prison
to free 23 businessman believed to be unjustly accused of
religious extremism. They also released some 2,000 other prisoners.
Thousands of demonstrators then assembled in Andijan's town
square to protest Karimov's repressive government. Soldiers
soon arrived and opened fire on the crowd, shooting indiscriminately.
Even the local police begged the soldiers to stop shooting.
In the end hundreds of bodies -- including those of women
and children -- filled the square. A mass of survivors fled
the square towards the border of Kyrgyzstan where witnesses
say Uzbek troops fired on them once more. Some reports put
the final death toll as high as 750.
Uzbekistan is one of the Bush administration's closet allies
in Central Asia despite the country's notorious human rights
record. The US has an airbase in the south of the country
which provides logistical support to operations in Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the head of US Central Command - General John
Abizaid - said that operations were being scaled back at the
base as a "prudent move." But he said this was not
intended to be a political message of disapproval to President
Karimov.
Torture and police brutality are widespread in Uzbekistan.
The country has no independent political parties, no free
and fair elections, and no independent news media.
Uzbekistan is also believed to be one of the destination
countries for what is known as "extraordinary rendition"
where detainees are transferred by the US to countries known
to practice torture.
Last year Human Rights Watch released a 319-page report detailing
the use of torture by Uzbekistan's security services. It said
the government was carrying out a campaign of torture and
intimidation against Muslims that had seen 7,000 people imprisoned,
and documented at least 10 deaths, including one man who was
boiled to death in 2002.
- Peter Boehm, freelance journalist. He has reported from
Uzbekistan for the Christian Science Monitor and the Independent
of London.
Indigenous Community in Colombia Fears Start of "Dirty
War"
A large indigenous community in Colombia is predicting that
a so-called dirty war could break out in an area that has
been at the forefront of non-violent resistance to the government
of the pro-US regime of President Uribe. We speak with the
former mayor of Toribio and a surgeon and human rights activist
from Toribio.
The political situation in numerous countries in Latin America
has been heating up in recent weeks. Many predict that a large-scale
revolt could take hold in the poorest nation on the continent,
Bolivia, and bring down the government of the US-backed president
Carlos Mesa. At the center of that struggle is the issue of
control of the country's natural resources. Bolivia is more
than 60 percent indigenous and the resistance to the government
is fiercely opposed to privatization and neoliberal policies
and trade agreements.
Meanwhile, a large indigenous community in Colombia is predicting
that a so-called dirty war could break out in an area that
has been at the forefront of non-violent resistance to the
government of the pro-US regime of President Uribe. Currently,
Colombia receives more military aid from the US than any other
country in the hemisphere under the guise of fighting a so-called
war on drugs.
The community is called Cauca and it represents one of the
largest indigenous agrarian reform movements on the continent.
Its leaders say their community serves as a powerful example
of popular peaceful transformation in the midst of war. Last
September, tens of thousands of people from the region marched
on Cali in a mass protest against Uribe, sparking a broader
national nonviolent opposition to his government. They are
opposed to devastating free trade agreements with the US,
as well as the massive military aid. They are also opposed
to the FARC, who they call authoritarian.
The Cauca region is a key area near the Atlantic Ocean and
has gold, oil and gas. This April, the FARC came into the
Cauca community of Toribio and killed a child, injured 20
people and basically razed the community to the ground. That
in turn provided cover for the government to send in its forces
to "secure" the area; in other words occupy it.
Now, the leaders of Toribio say they fear a dirty war is beginning
that could produce further massacres. Some of the leaders
of the community have traveled to the United States to try
and avert what they fear could be a major outbreak of violence.
- Ezequiel Vitonas, former mayor of Toribio, Colombia.
He is currently an Elder Councellor of the Association of
Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca.
- Manuel Rozental, a surgeon and human rights activist
from Toribio, Colombia who represents the community and
its struggles internationally.
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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