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Military Families Join Hundreds of Thousands of Anti-War
Protesters Rallying in Washington
Actor Jessica Lange Speaks Out at Anti-War Protest in DC
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark Calls For Impeachment
of President Bush
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) on the Iraq War and Hurricane
Katrina
Palestinian-American Poet Suheir Hammad: “Of Refuge
and Language”
Loiusiana Native at Anti-War Protest: “Do Not Allow
the Rebuilding of Lives in the Gulf Coast to Be Another Profit”
NBA Player Etan Thomas Censures Bush Administration, Outlines
Impact on Poor
FBI Shoots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto
Ojeda Rios
Dozens of Peace Activists Arrested During Protest at Pentagon
Military Families Join Hundreds of Thousands of Anti-War
Protesters Rallying in Washington
The anti-war rally and march on Saturday drew hundreds of
military families and veterans. We hear two speakers: Cindy
Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq last year, and Anne Roesler,
from Military Families Speak Out.
Between 100,000 and 300,0000 people took to the streets of
Washington D.C. on Saturday to protest the ongoing war and
occupation of Iraq. It was the largest anti-war protest in
the nation's capital since the invasion and the first in a
decade that federal officials allowed to go past the White
House. The day began with a rally and march and ended with
11 hours of rock, rap, folk music and speeches which lasted
until early Sunday morning. Protests were also held in other
U.S. cities and around the world including London, Rome, Toronto
and San Francisco. The D.C. march drew veteran anti-war protestors
and those who had never before attended a protest. It also
drew more than 250 military families, hundreds of veterans,
and even a few active-duty Army soldiers just home from overseas.
We go now to some of the speeches from Saturday's march. We
begin with Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last
year. Last month she helped invigorate the anti-war movement
by staging a month-long vigil outside President Bush's estate
in Crawford Texas. She spoke shortly before the march began
on Saturday.
- Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Families for Peace
- Anne Roesler, Military Families Speak Out
Actor Jessica Lange Speaks Out at Anti-War Protest
in DC
Jessica Lange speaks before the crowd of protesters gathered
to demonstrate against the war in Iraq in the nation's capital.
Actor Jessica Lange was among the celebrities who spoke out
against the war at Saturday's demonstration in Washington
D.C. She responded to a statement President Bush made last
Thursday about the anti-war movement. He said "I recognize
their good intentions, however I think their position is wrong.
Withdrawing our troops would make our world more dangerous."
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark Calls For
Impeachment of President Bush
Clark, who launched the website votetoimpeach.org, accused
President Bush of high crimes for misleading the nation over
the war and for helping to overthrow Jean Bertrand-Aristide,
the democratically-elected president of Haiti.
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) on the Iraq War and
Hurricane Katrina
Cynthia McKinney opened the pre-march rally critiquing President
Bush for his response to Hurricane Katrina and for the ongoing
occupation of Iraq.
- Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA)
Palestinian-American Poet Suheir Hammad: “Of
Refuge and Language”
Def Jam poet Suheir Hammad reads her new poem on Hurricane
Katrina: “Evacuated as if criminal // Rescued by neighbors
// Shot by soldiers // Adamant they belong // The rest of
the world can now see // What I have seen // Do not look away
// The rest of the world lives here too // In America”
Suheir Hammad read her poem “Of Refuge and Language”
at the pre-march rally:
I do not wish
To place words in living mouths
Or bury the dead dishonorably
I am not deaf to cries escaping shelters
That citizens are not refugees
Refugees are not Americans
I will not use language
One way or another
To accommodate my comfort
I will not look away
All I know is this
No peoples ever choose to claim status of dispossessed
No peoples want pity above compassion
No enslaved peoples ever called themselves slaves
What do we pledge allegiance to?
A government that leaves its old
To die of thirst surrounded by water
Is a foreign government
People who are streaming
Illiterate into paperwork
Have long ago been abandoned
I think of coded language
And all that words carry on their backs
I think of how it is always the poor
Who are tagged and boxed with labels
Not of their own choosing
I think of my grandparents
And how some called them refugees
Others called them non-existent
They called themselves landless
Which means homeless
Before the hurricane
No tents were prepared for the fleeing
Because Americans do not live in tents
Tents are for Haiti for Bosnia for Rwanda
Refugees are the rest of the world
Those left to defend their human decency
Against conditions the rich keep their animals from
Those who have too many children
Those who always have open hands and empty bellies
Those whose numbers are massive
Those who seek refuge
From nature’s currents and man’s resources
Those who are forgotten in the mean times
Those who remember
Ahmad from Guinea makes my falafel sandwich and says
So this is your country
Yes Amadou this my country
And these my people
Evacuated as if criminal
Rescued by neighbors
Shot by soldiers
Adamant they belong
The rest of the world can now see
What I have seen
Do not look away
The rest of the world lives here too
In America
Loiusiana Native at Anti-War Protest: “Do Not
Allow the Rebuilding of Lives in the Gulf Coast to Be Another
Profit”
Colette Pichon Battle speaks at the massive anti-war protest
in D.C. Battle is from Slidell, Louisiana and makes the connection
between the response to Hurricane Katrina and the reconstruction
process, and the war in Iraq.
Colette Pichon Battle speaks out against the unfair policies
of the rebuilding process in Louisiana that work against natives
of the communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. She calls
for more aid and support in rebuilding Louisiana.
- Colette Pichon Battle, the Louisiana Network.
NBA Player Etan Thomas Censures Bush Administration,
Outlines Impact on Poor
NBA player Etan Thomas of the Washington Wizards speaks
at the rally on the dire impact of the current administration's
policies on the poor, from health care to the death penalty
to the war in Iraq and more.
FBI Shoots Dead Puerto Rican Nationalist Leader Filiberto
Ojeda Rios
For the past four decades Filiberto Ojeda Rios had been
a leading figure in the fight for Puerto Rican independence
and against U.S. colonial rule. He was wanted by the FBI for
his role in a 1983 bank heist. [includes rush
transcript]
Longtime Puerto Rican nationalist leader Filiberto Ojeda
Rios has been killed by the FBI. The shooting occurred Friday
after FBI agents surrounded a house where he was staying.
According to an autopsy, Rios bleed to death after being hit
with a single bullet. Officials didn’t enter his home
until Saturday, many hours after he was shot.
The FBI claimed the 72-year-old Ojeda Rios fired first but
independence activists accused the FBI of assassinating him.
For the past four decades Ojeda Rios had been a leading figure
in the fight for Puerto Rican independence and against U.S.
colonial rule.
In 1967 he founded and led the Armed Revolutionary Independence
Movement. He was later a key organizer with the FALN, the
Armed Forces of National Liberation and then the Boricua Popular
Army, also known as the Los Macheteros.
The FBI considered Ojeda Rios a wanted fugitive because of
his ties to a $7 million bank robbery in 1983 in Connecticut.
He had been living underground for 15 years.
On Friday night, 500 supporters of independence protested
the shooting by blocking one of the main roads in San Juan.
Here in New York, a protest is scheduled for today at 5 p.m.
at 26 Federal Plaza.
Earlier this morning I spoke with political analyst and radio
host Juan-Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua in Puerto Rico and asked
him to lay out what happened.
- Juan-Manuel Garcia-Passalacqua, Puerto Rican political
analyst and radio host.
Dozens of Peace Activists Arrested During Protest
at Pentagon
We get a breaking report from peace activist Frida Berrigan
who is at the Pentagon, where she has just been arrested along
with roughly 40 others while demonstrating.
- Frida Berrigan, Arms Trade Resource Center, World Policy
Institute
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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