Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Wed., Oct. 12, 2005
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 10-12-05
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Exclusive Interview: Murray Waas On How Dick Cheney's Top
Aide 'Scooter' Libby Misled Federal Prosecutors in the CIA
Leak Case
Community Activist Calls New Orleans Police Beating "Typical
Behavior"
Jennifer Harbury on Why Guatemalan Villagers Refuse Military
Aid in Mudslide, Remembering Decades of Torture and Massacres
Sister Dianna Ortiz Details Her Abduction and Torture by
U.S.-Backed Guatemalan Military
Exclusive Interview: Murray Waas On How Dick Cheney's
Top Aide 'Scooter' Libby Misled Federal Prosecutors in the
CIA Leak Case
As speculation grows that Libby and Karl Rove could be indicted,
we speak with Waas on his new expose that Libby never told
prosecutors that in June 2003 he spoke with New York Times
reporter Judith Miller about CIA operative Valerie Plame and
her husband Ambassador Joseph Wilson, a critic of the Iraq
war. Miller will testify once again today about their conversations.
[includes rush
transcript]
Speculation is growing in Washington that Vice President
Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby
and President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove could soon be indicted
by a federal prosecutor investigating the outing of CIA agent
Valerie Plame.
Investigative Journalist Murray Waas is reporting in the
National
Journal that Libby failed to tell the grand jury about
a discussion he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller
in June 2003 - weeks before Plame's name first appeared in
the press. Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald only learned
of the discussion after Miller announced last week that she
had discovered a set of notes on the conversation. Fitzgerald,
who has been investigating the case for nearly two years,
has now asked Miller to testify again today before the grand
jury.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Fitzgerald's pursuit
now suggests he might be investigating not a narrow case on
the leaking of the agent's name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy.
The Journal reports at least part of the outcome likely hangs
on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House
Iraq Group which was set up to sell the Iraq war to the American
public. Libby and Rove were instrumental in the group. Plame's
name was leaked only after her husband, Ambassador Joseph
Wilson, publicly revealed that the Bush administration had
lied when it claimed Iraq was trying to purchase enriched
uranium from the country of Niger in order to build nuclear
weapons. Wilson has long accused the White House of outing
his wife as an agent in an effort to smear him.
- Murray Waas, investigative journalist who writes for
a number of publications. Among them, American Prospect
magazine and Salon.com. He has broken a number of stories
on the saga of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
He maintains a blog at WhateverAlready.blogspot.com.
His latest story is:
Community Activist Calls New Orleans Police Beating
"Typical Behavior"
Three New Orleans police officers plead not guilty to assaulting
African-American Robert Davis in the French Quarter, caught
on videotape by journalists. We speak with longtime New Orleans
activist Malcolm Suber who has led the struggle against police
brutality in the city for more than 25 years. [includes rush
transcript]
On Monday, three white New Orleans police officers pleaded
not guilty to assaulting a 64 year-old African-American man
and beating up a journalist. On Saturday, the police began
hitting Robert Davis in the French Quarter. They hit Davis
at least four times in the head and he was dragged to the
ground when another officer kneed him in the back. He was
bleeding profusely from the head. The incident was caught
on tape by a crew from the Associated Press. Once the police
realized they were being videotaped they ordered the AP to
stop filming. When the AP producer held up his press credentials,
an officer grabbed him, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed
him in the stomach and started screaming at him to leave the
scene. Robert Davis was then arrested and charged with public
intoxication, battering an officer and resisting arrest. Davis
and his lawyer refuted the charges and Davis also said that
he hadn’t had a drink in 25 years.
Yesterday, Davis told his version of events to the press.
He said that had been walking to buy a pack of cigarettes
when he approached a mounted police officer to ask about curfews
in the city. Davis is a retired teacher who had returned to
New Orleans over the weekend from Atlanta to inspect six of
his family’s properties that had been damaged or destroyed
in Hurricane Katrina. The police officers have been suspended
without pay and a trial has been set for January. Justice
Department officials said they will review the results of
an FBI civil rights investigation to determine whether to
pursue federal civil rights charges.
- Malcolm Suber, Longtime New Orleans community activist
who has led the struggle against police brutality in the
city for more than 25 years. He is also a member of the
People’s Hurricane Relief Committee
Jennifer Harbury on Why Guatemalan Villagers Refuse
Military Aid in Mudslide, Remembering Decades of Torture and
Massacres
The death toll in Guatemala has mounted to 2,000 after mudslides
buried whole villages caused by the torrential rains of Hurricane
Stan. Although desperately in need of aid, villagers in Panabaj
are refusing military assistance because of painful memories
of a 1990 military massacre. We speak with human rights lawyer
Jennifer Harbury about this haunting past, whose Mayan husband
was killed by a Guatemalan officer on the CIA payroll. [includes
rush
transcript]
The death toll from devastating mudslides in Guatemala has
reportedly topped 2,000 as rescuers called off their search
for hundreds of people buried for six days under solidifying
mud. The official death toll remains at 652, but authorities
have now raised the number of homes in the country that were
damaged, destroyed or threatened by new rain fall to 200,000
- and the final number of dead is expected to rise dramatically.
Many of those killed were buried alive when heavy rains following
Hurricane Stan let loose an avalanche of mud, rocks and trees.
Meanwhile, the threat of hunger and disease looms in many
communities whose crops have been destroyed and water sources
compromised.
Guatemalan President Oscar Berger visited the disaster zone
in Panabaj Tuesday accompanied by Indian rights activist and
Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu. Berger promised
that new housing and land would be provided away from the
devastated area, which has been declared both a mass grave
and a contamination zone. The government has been widely criticized
for responding too slowly to the tragedy. In Panabaj, villagers
were reportedly refusing to allow the Guatemalan army in because
of haunting memories of a 1990 massacre by the military. Much
of the region remains fearful of the Guatemalan military after
36 years of fighting that ended in 1996. During that time,
Guatemala’s U.S backed state forces and allied paramilitary
groups were responsible for the torture and murder of up to
200,000 people. Declassified US intelligence documents have
shown that the CIA maintained close ties to the Guatemalan
army throughout much of the 1980s and that U.S. officials
were aware that the Guatemalan army and its paramilitary allies
were massacring thousands of Mayan villagers. To talk more
about the US role in Guatemala we are joined from Boston by
human rights lawyer, Jennifer Harbury. Her husband, a Mayan
guerrilla commander known as Commandante Everardo, was killed
in the early 1990s by a Guatemalen officer on the CIA payroll.
- Jennifer Harbury, Director of the Unitarian Universalist
Service Committee’s Stop
Torture Permanently campaign. She is a human rights
lawyer, author of "Searching for Everardo: A Story
of Love, War & the CIA in Guatemala" and the new
book "Truth, Torture and the American Way: The History
and Consequences of U.S. Involvement in Torture"
Sister Dianna Ortiz Details Her Abduction and Torture
by U.S.-Backed Guatemalan Military
Sister Dianna Ortiz speaks about her abduction and torture
by security forces in Guatemala in 1989, when she worked as
a missionary among indigenous peoples. She testifies for a
mock trial of Bush administration officials for breaking laws
on torture held during the “Call for Justice Weekend”
in September. [includes rush
transcript]
The Call for Justice Weekend took place in September, organized
by the Unitarian Universalists Service Committee. The weekend
featured workshops, panel discussions and testimony by torture
survivors from the Middle East, Latin America and the U.S.
One of the featured events was a mock trial of Bush administration
officials for breaking U.S and international laws regarding
torture. Participants in the trial included Jennifer Harbury,
who testified about her husband, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Mairead Maguire of Ireland and Sister Dianna Ortiz.
In 1989, Sister Ortiz was abducted by security forces while
working as a missionary among indigenous people in Guatemala.
She was taken to a secret prison in the capital center and
brutally tortured. She was questioned by Professor Margaret
Montoya who is an attorney and longtime civil rights activist
who teaches at the University of New Mexico.
- Dianna Ortiz, A Catholic nun who was abducted and tortured
by security forces while working as a missionary in Guatemala.
- More information on Call for Justice
Weekend Mock Trial Cast.
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
