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Students Arrested at Powell Speech Protest Accuse Police
of Racial Profiling
LA Times Fires Longtime Progressive Columnist Robert Scheer
Did Former Marine Jimmy Massey Lie About U.S. Military Atrocities
in Iraq? A Debate Between Massey and Embedded Reporter Ron
Harris
Students Arrested at Powell Speech Protest Accuse
Police of Racial Profiling
Police arrested eight people Friday night at the San Francisco
Bay Area's De Anza College while protesting against a visit
by Colin Powell. Six of the eight arrested were Muslims. Students
are accusing police of using racial profiling and excessive
force while arresting activists during the demonstrations.
[includes rush
transcript]
Last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke
at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. Anti-war protestors
came out in force disrupting Powell's speech at the Flint
Center auditorium and protesting outside the building as well.
Confrontations occurred with the police and arrests were made.
While the majority of those who engaged in confrontation were
white, most of the people arrested were people of color.
- Aman Mehrzai, student at De Anza College.
LA Times Fires Longtime Progressive Columnist Robert
Scheer
The Los Angeles Times newspaper last week announced that
it was firing longtime columnist Robert Scheer. Scheer has
been at the Times for 30 years and was one of the most progressive
voices at the paper. In recent years, his columns took on
the Bush Administration and its justifications for the invasion
of Iraq. [includes rush
transcript]
Last week, the Los Angeles Times Newspaper announced that
it was firing longtime columnist Robert Scheer. Scheer has
been at the Times for 30 years and was one of the most progressive
voices at the paper. In recent years, his columns took on
the Bush Administration and its justifications for the invasion
of Iraq. Scheer believes that his firing was because of ideological
reasons.
In a posting at the Huffington Post blog, he wrote "The
publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation
to me, has privately told people that he hated every word
that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the
lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Fortunately sixty percent of Americans now get the point but
only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been
killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My
only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher."
The Times also fired Michael Ramirez, a Pulitzer-Prize winning
conservative staff cartoonist.
- Robert Scheer, former columnist with the Los Angeles
Times. He is author of "The Five Biggest Lies Bush
Told Us About Iraq" and he is co-host of a weekly syndicated
radio show along with with Arianna Huffington, Matt Miller
and Tony Blankley.
- Website: www.robertscheer.com
Did Former Marine Jimmy Massey Lie About U.S. Military
Atrocities in Iraq? A Debate Between Massey and Embedded Reporter
Ron Harris
Did former U.S, marine Jimmy Massey lie or exaggerate about
killing civilians in Iraq to the media? Ron Harris, a reporter
embedded with Massey's battalion says Massey's claims are
not credible. We host a debate with Massey and Harris. [includes
rush transcript]
Jimmy Massey is a 12-year veteran of the U.S Marine Corps
who participated in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Before going
to war, Massey was a Marine recruiter and boot camp drill
instructor. But his experiences in Iraq caused him to have
a change of heart. After he was honorably discharged in December
of 2003 he vehemently spoke out against the war, and help
found Iraq Veterans Against the War. Massey also confessed
to participating in and witnessing atrocities while in Iraq
and these accounts were published in newspapers and magazines
across the country.
Massey also made international headlines in December of 2004
when he testified on behalf of war resister Jeremy Hinzman
at a refugee hearing in Canada. At the time, Massey told Canada's
Immigration and Refugee Board "I do know that we killed
innocent civilians." He then recounted how US forces
once fired up to 500 rounds of ammunition into four cars filled
with civilians after they failed to stop at a checkpoint.
On the next day, he said he witnessed Marines shooting dead
four unarmed Iraqi demonstrators. Massey has written an autobiography
titled "Kill, Kill, Kill" that was recently published
in France.
Earlier this month, Ron Harris a reporter at the St. Louis
Dispatch who was embedded with the Marines, wrote a series
of articles
claiming that Massey lied or exaggerated his claims. Harris
writes that statements from Massey's fellow Marines, Massey's
own conflicting accounts and the five journalists who were
embedded with Massey's unit, discredit his allegations.
Following the article by Ron Harris, the editorial page editor
of the Sacramento Bee - one of the first newspapers to publish
Massey's story in May 2004 - says they should have looked
more into the credibility of the story. David
Holwerk writes, "We should have done more to check
the truth of Massey's charges before deciding whether to publish
them" he goes on to write that running the story, "raises
serious questions about The Bee's performance."
Meanwhile, columnist Michelle
Malkin writes, "Jimmy was Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan
and John Kerry all wrapped up into one tidy, soundbite-friendly
package -- a poster boy for peace topped off by a military
uniform and tattoos to boot. But like a lot of the agitators
who pose as well-meaning, good-faith peace activists, Jimmy
Massey was something else: A complete fraud."
Massey has responded with an
article posted on the Web. He sticks by his account of
atrocities in Iraq and accuses Ron Harris of retaliating against
him for calling attention to what he says was his inaccurate
reporting while embedded in Iraq.
- Jimmy Massey, former Marine staff sergeant who was honorably
discharged in December 2003 after serving in Iraq. He has
written a rebuttal to Harris' article titled "Is
Ron Harris Telling the Truth?"
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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