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Fmr. NSA Chief General Michael Hayden Nominated to Replace
Porter Goss as CIA Director
COPE Telecom Bill Affects Net Neutrality, Local Cable Franchises
and Funding for Public Access
Part II...Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from
Hawaii to Iraq
Fmr. NSA Chief General Michael Hayden Nominated to
Replace Porter Goss as CIA Director
Porter Goss resigns as director of the CIA. Four star general
Michael Hayden has been nominated to head the civilian agency.
As head of the National Security Agency, Hayden oversaw the
warrantless domestic spy program, which many say is illegal.
We speak with former CIA analyst Larry Johnson and Newsweek
investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff. [includes rush
transcript]
On Friday, CIA director Porter Goss abruptly resigned after
less than two years on the job. President Bush made the announcement
at the Oval Office sitting next to Goss and Director of National
Intelligence John Negroponte. Goss spoke after the President
made the announcement.
- Porter Goss, outgoing CIA director.
Both the President and Goss have kept quiet about the reasons
behind Goss's resignation. When a CNN reporter asked him about
it on Saturday as we was leaving his home, Goss said only
"it is one of those mysteries." But The Washington
Post quoted anonymous senior administration officials saying
that Bush lost confidence in Goss early on and it had been
decided months ago that he would be replaced. Goss who is
a former congressman from Florida, had also come under increasing
pressure as allegations arose that he and a top aide, Kyle
"Dusty" Foggo, may have attended poker parties where
bribes and prostitutes were provided to now jailed congressman
Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Foggo is the Executive
Director of the Agency and is under internal review. He also
may be indicted by the FBI for his role in the Cunningham
scandal. After Goss's announcement Foggo told his colleagues
that he would resign next week.
This morning, President Bush nominated General Michael Hayden
to replace Porter Goss. Hayden is the deputy director of National
Intelligence and the former director of the National Security
Agency. It's expected that Hayden would face a contentions
confirmation process over the administration's domestic spying
program, which is run by the NSA. Here is Hayden speaking
at a rare news conference in January defending the spying
program. He was questioned by Knight Ridder reporter Jonathan
Landay.
- Michael Hayden, press conference January 23, 2006.
For the record, the Fourth Amendment is: "The right
of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall
not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable
cause, supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing
the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized."
To talk more with us about the Goss resignation and the Hayden
appointment, we are joined by two guests:
- Larry Johnson, former CIA agent and former Fox News contributor.
- Michael Isikoff, investigative correspondent for Newsweek.
COPE Telecom Bill Affects Net Neutrality, Local Cable
Franchises and Funding for Public Access
The House is expected to vote this week on the Communications
Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006. We take
a look at the various aspects of the bill with University
of Illinois professor and Free Press co-founder Robert McChesney.
[includes rush
transcript]
This week, the House is expected to vote on Communications
Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006. The COPE
bill would permit phone and cable companies to operate Internet
and other digital communications service as private networks,
free of policy safeguards or governmental oversight. The bill
would effectively end what is known as "net neutrality"
which is the concept that that everyone, everywhere, should
have free, universal and non-discriminatory access to all
the Internet has to offer. The COPE bill would permit Internet
service providers like AOL to charge fees for almost every
online transaction and to prioritize emails based on the senders'
willingness to pay.
Another provision of the bill would cut back the obligation
of cable TV companies to devote channels to public access
and fund the facilities to run them. And the COPE bill would
replace local cable franchises with national franchises. The
companies contend that this will create competition and lower
fees but consumer groups and activists are concerned that
it will take control and oversight away from local government
as well as cut channel capacity for public, educational and
governmental access channels or PEGs. The COPE Act would also
permit providers to not provide service to low-income communities
that they believe would be less profitable to serve.
- Robert McChesney, professor at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign and co-founder of Free
Press. He is author of several books including "Tragedy
and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections,
and Destroy Democracy" and "The Future of Media:
Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century."
Part II...Overthrow: America's Century of Regime
Change from Hawaii to Iraq
Author Stephen Kinzer discusses his book, "Overthrow:
America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq."
In it, Kinzer writes that over 110 years, the United States
has deployed its power to gain access to natural resources,
stifle dissent and control the nationalism of newly independent
states or political movements. [includes rush
transcript]
We play Part II of our interview with former New York Times
foreign correspondent, Steve Kinzer. Kinzer's new book is
titled, "Overthrow: America"s Century of Regime
Change from Hawaii to Iraq." In it, he examines how the
United States has thwarted independence movements in Cuba,
Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Nicaragua; staged covert
actions and coups d'etat in Iran, Guatemala, South Vietnam
and Chile; and invaded Grenada, Panama and Afghanistan and
Iraq.
Kinzer argues that over 110 years, the United States has
deployed its power to gain access to natural resources, stifle
dissent and control the nationalism of newly independent states
or political movements. I interviewed Kinzer in Chicago last
month. This is Part II of our conversation.
- Stephen Kinzer, author of "Overthrow: America's
Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq." He is
a former New York Times foreign correspondent and author
of several books, including "All the Shah's Men"
and "Bitter Fruit."
Click
for Part I of Interview with Stephen Kinzer
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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