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Freedom of the Press Under Attack: Government Begins Tracking
Phone Calls of Journalists
Militarizing the Border: Bush Calls For 6,000 National Guard
Troops to Deploy to U.S.-Mexican Border
Hundreds Gather in Duncan Oklahoma to Protest Outside Halliburton
Shareholder Meeting
Freedom of the Press Under Attack: Government Begins
Tracking Phone Calls of Journalists
ABC News reported on Monday that a senior federal law enforcement
had revealed that the government is now tracking phone calls
made by journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post
and ABC News. We speak with Brian Ross, chief investigative
reporter at ABC News. [includes rush
transcript]
On Monday, ABC News reported the government is tracking the
phone numbers dialed from major news organizations in an effort
to root out confidential government sources that speak to
reporters. The media groups include the New York Times, the
Washington Post, and ABC News itself. Government leaks have
led to front-page stories detailing the Bush administration’s
spy program and the CIA’s network of secret prisons
in Eastern Europe. The leaks have greatly angered Bush administration
officials.
This revelation comes on the heels of last week’s disclosure
that three of the country’s largest telecom companies
handed over millions of phone call records to help the National
Security Agency build the world’s largest database,
comes a new revelation.
We’re joined now by the ABC News reporter who broke
this story – someone who may well be a target of this
new phase of government monitoring himself. Brian Ross is
the Chief Investigative reporter for ABC News. He joins us
on the line from New York.
- Brian Ross, Chief Investigative Correspondent for ABC
News.
Militarizing the Border: Bush Calls For 6,000 National
Guard Troops to Deploy to U.S.-Mexican Border
President Bush spoke on national tv night and called for
6,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to the U.S.-Mexican
border. We looking at the growing militarization of the border
and the role private contractors, like Halliburton, are playing.
President Bush made a rare prime-time address Monday night
to outline his administration’s plan for one of the
country’s most contentious and impassioned political
issues – immigration and border control. It was the
President’s most detailed statement on the subject since
a recent surge of record-breaking demonstrations brought the
plight of the country’s estimated 12 million undocumented
workers to increased national and international attention.
In his speech, the President outlined what he called a “middle
ground approach.” Bush reiterated his call for a temporary
guest worker program he promised would put undocumented workers
on a path to citizenship if they agreed to meet certain requirements,
including the payment of fines. But the President also outlined
a series of enforcement measures including the deployment
of 6,000 National Guard members to the border and the expansion
of detention centers for those caught entering the country
illegally. The President also called for the creation of an
identification card system that would collect digitized fingerprints
of undocumented workers.
- President Bush, speaking on May 15, 2006 from the White
House.
Bush insisted his government is not going to militarize the
southern border with Mexico. But critics say the President’s
measures, including deployment of the National Guard, are
just the latest in a militarization process that began years
before Bush even took office.
- Fernando Garcia, Director of the Border Network for Human
Rights in El Paso, Texas.
- Timothy Dunn, Professor of Sociology at Salisbury University
in Maryland. He is Author of "The Militarization of
the U.S.-Mexico Border: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine
Comes Home."
- Joseph Nevins, a Professor of Geography at Vassar College.
He is author of a number of books including “Operation
Gatekeeper: The Rise of the Illegal Alien and the Making
of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary”. He is currently working
on a book about migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico boundary.
He joins us on the line from Omaha, Nebraska.
- Joe Richey, investigative journalist who’s covered
Homeland Security’s Border Protection programs for
Alternet and FreeSpeech TV.
Hundreds Gather in Duncan Oklahoma to Protest Outside
Halliburton Shareholder Meeting
We go to Oklahoma to speak with Corpwatch’s Pratap
Chatterjee about his new report "Hurricane Halliburton:
Conflict, Climate Change and Catastrophe." We also speak
with Nigerian attorney Michael Keania Karikpo who represents
Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria.
Hundreds of people are converging in a small Oklahoma town
this week for the annual meeting of one the country”s
most controversial companies. Not all of them are shareholders,
however. Instead, the annual meeting of oil gas and services
giant Halliburton will be met with scores of activists making
the trip from near and far.
Halliburton – which was once headed by Vice President
Dick Cheney -- has drawn widespread attention for its close
ties to the Bush administration and its no-bid government
contracts in places like Iraq and New Orleans. That attention
has only magnified with a series of well-publicized accusations
of mismanagement, corruption and sheer incompetence, in places
like Iraq, Iran and Nigeria. All while it’s continued
to pull in record-breaking profits – $2.4 billion last
year.
Although the previous three shareholder’s meetings
have been held in Houston, Wednesday’s meeting is tucked
away in the little town of Duncan, over three-hundred miles
away. Halliburton says it made the moves to honor its Oklahoma
roots. Critics say the company is attempting to hide from
its critics.
Well today we’re joined from Oklahoma City by two of
these critics who’ve made the trip to Oklahoma.
- Michael Keania Karikpo, lawyer from Port Harcourt, Nigeria,
where accusations of bribery and corruption against Halliburton
date back several years. Michael Keania Karikpo represents
Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria), a member of the Friends
of the Earth International network.
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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