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Patriot Act Two Passed by Senate Intelligence Committee
White House Environmental Chief Cooney Watered Down Climate
Reports
MOSAIC: World News From The Middle East
Patriot Act Two Passed by Senate Intelligence Committee
The controversial USA PATRIOT Act was passed in the wake
of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Despite the protests of
civil libertarians and immigrant rights groups, the Act may
now be made permanent and expanded to allow for surveillance
without judicial approval. We host a debate.
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted 11 to 4 in a closed
door session on Tuesday to approve an expansion of the USA
PATRIOT Act.
The new measure would make permanent eight provisions of
the Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year. It
would also increase government surveillance powers by granting
investigators access to an individual's business records and
allowing wiretaps and searches without a demonstrated link
to terrorism or a federal judge's permission.
The legislation must still be considered by the Senate Judiciary
Committee, the full Senate and the House before it becomes
law.
- Harvey Eisenberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District
of Maryland. He recently co-authored an editorial in the
Balitmore Sun supporting the PATRIOT Act.
- David Cole, professor at Georgetown Law School and author
of "Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional
Freedom in the War on Terrorism." He has an article
in The Nation magazine last month titled "The
Missing Patriot Debate."
White House Environmental Chief Cooney Watered Down
Climate Reports
The New York Times reported that a White House official
who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse
gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in
ways that play down links between such emissions and global
warming. The official -- Philip Cooney -- is chief of staff
for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Before
coming to the White House in 2001, he was a lobbyist at the
American Petroleum Institute. We speak with Greenpeace and
the Sierra Club. [includes rush
transcript - partial]
On Tuesday, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair met at the White House in anticipation of the G8 summit
in Scotland next month. Blair came to Washington with the
goal of persuading Bush to increase efforts to address global
climate change and curb greenhouse gases. So far, Bush has
refused, calling only for voluntary measures to slow growth
emissions through 2012. In 2001, President Bush withdrew U.S
support for the Kyoto climate change agreement claiming that
it would hurt the nation's economy. At Tuesday's news conference,
Bush defended his strategy to combat climate change:
"In terms of climate change, I've always said it's a
serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with. And my
administration isn't waiting around to deal with the issue,
we're acting. I don't know if you're aware of this, but we
lead the world when it comes to dollars spent, millions of
dollars spent on research about climate change. We want to
know more about it. It's easier to solve a problem when you
know a lot about it. And if you look at the statistics, you'll
find the United States has taken the lead on this research."
That was president Bush speaking at Tuesdays press conference.
Yesterday, The New York Times reported that a White House
official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits
on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate
reports in ways that play down links between such emissions
and global warming. The official -- Philip Cooney -- is chief
of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Before coming to the White House in 2001, he was a lobbyist
at the American Petroleum Institute.
The Bush administration today defended Cooney's participation.
At his morning briefing for reporters, White House press secretary
Scott McClellan, said Cooney's reports were "scientifically
sound." And the Guardian of London reported yesterday
that the environmental group Greenpeace obtained documents
which showed that President Bush's global climate policy was
heavily influenced by ExxonMobil and other oil companies.
The article states that in briefing papers given to U.S under
secretary of State Paula Dobriansky between 2001 and 2004,
“the administration is found thanking Exxon executives
for the company's “active involvement” in helping
to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice
on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable.”
- Eric Larsen, Arctic Explorer just returned from an expedition
that was cut short by the effects of global warming
- Lonnie Dupre, Arctic Explorer with Greenpeace
MOSAIC: World News From The Middle East
While channels like al Jazeera are known to many Americans,
very few have ever watched a single minute of al Jazeera or
other Arabic-language broadcasts. There is a place people
can turn daily to judge for themselves how the news is delivered
in the Middle East. We speak with Jamal Dajani, producer of
the program MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East, winner
of the presigious Peabody Award.
Since September 11 and the launch of the Bush administration's
so-called war on terror, another war has been fought worldwide.
That is the information war. Never before in history have
there been so many media outlets in the world. The global
domination of massive networks like the BBC and CNN has been
challenged by networks like the Arabic language satellite
channels al Jazeera, al Arabiya and others which reach tens
of millions of homes across the world. These networks paint
a very different picture of what is happening in Iraq, Palestine,
Israel, Afghanistan.
Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela has spearheaded an
effort to create a latin American network modeled after al
Jazeera called Telesur, while al Jazeera is preparing to launch
an english-language network. While channels like al Jazeera
are known to many Americans, very few have ever watched a
single minute of al Jazeera or other Arabic-language broadcasts.
Even still, many government officials and media pundits have
somehow managed to develop strong opinions on the channel.
There is a place people can turn daily to judge for themselves
how the news is delivered in the Middle East. We are joined
in the studio by Jamal Dajani. He is a producer of the program
MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East. MOSAIC is a daily
show on our partner network LinkTV that compiles television
news reports from throughout the Middle East. This year, MOSAIC
won one of journailism's highest honors - the Peabody award.
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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