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Fmr. Democratic Senator and Presidential Candidate Gary Hart:
“Both Houses of Congress Belong to the President’s
Party”
South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition from Native
Americans
Fmr. Democratic Senator and Presidential Candidate
Gary Hart: “Both Houses of Congress Belong to the President’s
Party”
Gary Hart, the former Colorado senator and two-time democratic
presidential candidate, joins us in our firehouse studio.
He was the youngest member of the Church Committee that investigated
illegal wiretapping, CIA assassination plots and other abuses
of governmental power. He also met with Condoleezza Rice five
days before 9/11 and warned her of a terrorist attack.
The Canadian headlines read, "Hart predicts a terrorist
attack" - that’s Gary Hart, the former Colorado
senator and two-time democratic presidential candidate who
co-chaired the U.S. Commission on National Security with former
Republican senator Warren Rudman. Hart had given his speech
in Montreal. Interestingly enough, he was addressing the Air
Transportation Association.
He then flew to Washington and met with Condoleezza Rice
in the White House. He issued the same warning. It was September
6, 2001. Rice said she’d talk to the Vice President.
Five days later, four planes were hijacked. Three ripped into
the Pentagon and world trade towers. 3,000 people died.
The crackdown that followed was familiar to Hart. A quarter
of a century earlier in 1975, Gary Hart was the youngest member
of the Church Committee - named for the late senator Frank
Church - which investigated the Vietnam era crackdown on dissent,
CIA assassination plots and other abuses of governmental power--
The Nixon administration infiltrated peace groups. COINTELPRO
targeted activists. Anti-war activists were monitored.
Newspapers were in on it too. For decades, newspapers were
paid off, reporters used as cover for government spying.
Gary Hart was on the committee that investigated it all -
which among other things led to laws against domestic spying
and the establishment of the FISA courts-the foreign intelligence
surveillance courts.
The former senator has written a new book. It’s called
"The Shield and the Cloak." Gary Hart joins us today
in our firehouse studio.
- Gary Hart, former Colorado senator and two-time democratic
presidential candidate.
South Dakota Abortion Ban Draws Fiery Opposition
from Native Americans
Cecilia Fire Thunder, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe
in South Dakota, recently made waves when she said a clinic
on the Pine Ridge reservation could provide abortions if South
Dakota’s new abortion ban goes into effect. The ban
is set to go into effect July 1st. It would prohibit all abortions
except to save the life of the mother – with no exceptions
for rape or incest. Under the law doctors will face up to
five years in prison and a five thousand dollar fine for performing
an abortion. Fire Thunder said earlier last week she would
“personally establish a Planned Parenthood Clinic on
my own land." She later said she would support a clinic
being set up on any reservation in South Dakota.
According to Fire Thunder, the state law would not apply
to Indian lands because of tribal sovereignty. In a press
release Friday, Planned Parenthood expressed gratitude, but
said they didn’t have the resources to open a reservation
clinic. South Dakota is home to 8 tribes, and has one of the
largest Native American populations of any state.
Currently only one clinic in the state performs abortions:
the Planned Parenthood clinic in Sioux Falls at the extreme
eastern part of the state. Doctors from Minnesota come to
the clinic eight days a month. Native American women who live
in the Western part of South Dakota must either travel more
than four hundred miles to Sioux Falls or to an area of Nebraska,
which lies almost 300 miles southeast of the Pine Ridge reservation.
The South Dakota Campaign For Healthy Families is aiming
to collect enough signatures to bring the abortion question
to a statewide referendum in November. Both pro-choice and
anti-abortion groups claim they are ready to bring the issue
to a vote.
Indian Country Today reported that if the law takes effect,
Native American women will be impacted in greater numbers
than any other group. According to national statistics, Native
women are sexually assaulted at a rate 3.5 times higher than
all other racial groups.
- Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned
Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.
Related Links:
South Dakota Campaign
for Healthy Families
Indian
Country Today: South Dakota's Abortion Ban has Sweeping Implications
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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