Home > Programs
> Democracy
Now! > Fri., Jan. 6, 2006
Democracy Now!
ATTN: ALL STATIONS
From: Democracy Now!
Re: Rundown 1-6-06
PRSS Channel: A67.7
Human Rights Watch Calls on Bush to Cut Aid To Israel Over
Expansion of Illegal Settlements
An Imperial President? Bush Claims Right To Ignore New Law
Banning Torture
Juan Gonzalez Hails the New York City Transit Strike as Success;
Union Fought Off City Attempts to Redo Pension Plan
Human Rights Watch Calls on Bush to Cut Aid To Israel
Over Expansion of Illegal Settlements
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to the operating
room Friday morning for his second emergency surgery after
a medical scan revealed fresh bleeding in the brain. We speak
with Human Rights Watch, which is calling for the United States
to cut back its multi-billion dollar foreign aid to Israel.
[includes rush
transcript]
Sharon suffered a massive stroke and brain hemorrhage Wednesday
night and has since been in an induced coma. Before the surgery,
doctors said they were planning to keep Sharon sedated and
on a respirator until at least Sunday, to give him a chance
to recover.
The Israeli newspaper Haarretz reports Sharon’s doctors
have acknowledged he "probably suffered irreversible
brain damage that would preclude his ever resuming office."
Sharon’s deputy, Ehud Olmert, has taken over as caretaker
prime minister. In Washington, President Bush hailed Ariel
Sharon Thursday and expressed hope for his recovery.
Sharon has been one of the most dominant political figures
in Israel’s history. He has been involved in each of
Israel’s major wars dating back to its founding in 1948
and is seen as the father of the settlement movement. As Prime
Minister, Sharon oversaw the continued building of the West
Bank separation wall and Israel’s disengagement from
the Gaza Strip. While leaders around the world hailed Sharon’s
tenure, there has also been intense criticism of his policies.
Israel is the largest annual recipient of US foreign aid,
with direct assistance and loans exceeding $5 billion dollars
in 2005.
Last month, Human Rights Watch called on the Bush administration
to cut back foreign aid to Israel. In a letter to President
Bush, the group’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson
asked President Bush to deduct from Israel’s foreign
aid assistance the amount it spends on expansion of settlements
and the separation wall in the West Bank. The organization
says their request marks the first time a major human-rights
group has asked for an actual cut in direct aid to Israel.
Whitson also wrote a letter to Senator Hilary Clinton in November
asking her to reconsider her position in support of the Wall.
- Sarah Leah Whitson, joins us in our firehouse studio.
She is the Executive Director of the Middle East and North
Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
Read the HRW letters:
An Imperial President? Bush Claims Right To Ignore
New Law Banning Torture
Five years after President Bush joked, "If this were
a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just
so long as I’m the dictator,” we look at the growing
controversy over presidential power and how it relates to
many of today’s biggest stories: the Senate ban on torture,
the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, domestic
surveillance and the jailing of U.S. citizens as enemy combatants.
Earlier this week three influential Republicans Senators condemned
Bush for claiming he has the authority to ignore a new law
banning the torture of prisoners during interrogations.
Three influential Republicans Senators are condemning President
Bush for claiming he has the authority to ignore a new law
banning the torture of prisoners during interrogations. Bush
signed the torture ban just last week. But he also quietly
issued what is known as a signing statement in which he lays
out his interpretation of the new law. In this document Bush
declared that he will view the interrogation limits in the
context of his broader powers to protect national security.
Legal experts say this means Bush believes he can waive the
anti-torture restrictions. This is not sitting well with some
Republican Senators, including John Warner, who chairs the
Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain and Lindsey Graham.
Graham told the Boston Globe, "I do not believe that
any political figure in the country has the ability to set
aside any law of armed conflict that we have adopted or treaties
that we have ratified."
This marks the latest example of a growing divide between
Congress and the White House over the extent of the president’s
power. This question has factored into the debates on a number
of key issues: the president’s order for the National
Security Agency to conduct domestic spying operations without
legally required warrants; the administration’s covert
program of kidnapping wanted individuals overseas known as
extraordinary rendition; the president’s policy of detaining
U.S. citizens without charges claiming they are enemy combatants;
and the president’s declaration that the Geneva Conventions
do not apply to suspected members of Al Qaeda. Last month
President Bush defended bypassing the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance or FISA Court to directly order the NSA to eavesdrop
on phone and email conversations inside the country.
- President Bush: "We use FISA still -- you're referring
to the FISA court in your question -- of course, we use
FISAs. But FISA is for long-term monitoring. What is needed
in order to protect the American people is the ability to
move quickly to detect. Now, having suggested this idea,
I then, obviously, went to the question, is it legal to
do so? I am -- I swore to uphold the laws. Do I have the
legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely."
Vice President Dick Cheney and others have long defended
such executive power. Cheney told reporters earlier this week
""I believe in a strong, robust executive authority,
and I think that the world we live in demands it."
Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, legal experts within the
Justice Department have claimed the president has near imperial
powers. Shortly after the attacks Justice Department attorney
John Yoo wrote that Congress could not place "limits
on the president’s determinations as to any terrorist
threat, the amount of military force to be used in response,
or the method, timing and nature of the response." Yoo
went on to write "These decisions under our Constitution,
are for the president alone to make."
At the time Yoo was the deputy assistant attorney general
in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.
He is now a law professor at the University of California,
Berkeley.
But on several occasions the courts have expressed reservations
about the president seizing such powers.
Last year Sandra Day O’Connor said "A state of
war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to
the rights of the nation’s citizens."
As for President Bush he once suggested in jest that it would
be easier if he were a dictator. This is what the President-elect
said five years ago during his first visit to Capitol Hill
following the 2000 election.
- President Bush: “If this were a dictatorship, it’d
be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the
dictator."
Today we are going to examine the issue of presidential powers
with two guests:
- David Golove, New York University law professor who specializes
in executive power issues.
- Scott Horton, chairman of the International Law Committee
of the New York City Bar Association and adjunct Professor
at Columbia University.
Juan Gonzalez Hails the New York City Transit Strike
as Success; Union Fought Off City Attempts to Redo Pension
Plan
Last month, 33,000 New York City transit workers went on
strike, shutting down the country's largest public transportation
system for the first time in 25 years. Pension plan demands
were a central issue in the negotiations. Democracy Now! co-host
Juan Gonzalez discusses the results of the negotiations and
how they can impact workers nationwide. [includes rush
transcript]
- Juan Gonzalez, Democracy Now! co-host, New York Daily
News columnist
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
