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> Fri., Feb. 6, 2004
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Today's lead stories:
Bush Announces Iraq Intelligence Investigation Team
UN to Send Assessment Team to Iraq
Press Freedom Under Question in Britain
4th Anniversary of Police Invasion During UNAM Strike
Wall Street Grocery Worker Protests
FSRN Headlines
Pentagon Dumps Internet Voting
The Pentagon has decided to dump their internet voting system
for military personnel and overseas civilians. A panel of
experts reported last week hackers could break into the system
and potentially change election results. Overseas voters will
be able to test out the system in elections this year.
UN Meets on Liberia
United Nations officials are leading the reconstruction of
another war-ravaged nation – Liberia. Secretary General
Kofi Annan is critical of nations and media coverage focused
on Iraq while there is so much work to be done globally. Haider
Rizvi reports from the UN.
Bhopal Activist Home in TX
An activist for justice in Bhopal is back home today after
an 8 day hunger strike in a Victoria Texas jail cell. From
KPFT in Houston, Erika MacDonald reports.
FTAA Protestors Sue Miami
Activists and civil liberties advocates denounced an internal
review done by the Miami Police of the department’s
handling of the November 2003 Free Trade of the Americas conference.
A coalition of protestors filed suit against the city for
the officials alleged roll in their brutalization. Mitch Perry
has more.
Venezuelans Celebrate Rebellion
This week, Venezuelans took to the streets to celebrate the
12th anniversary of the February 4th rebellion. The march
elevated Hugo Chavez onto the national stage and eventually
to become president. According to William Comocado, an activist
who just returned from Venezuela, the rebellion was an empowering
moment for the population that at the time was highly critical
of their corrupt government and what he called 40 years of
a pseudo-democracy. Comocado says the signs are on the wall
indicating the Bush administration is preparing to overthrow
Chavez.
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Bush Announces Iraq Intelligence Investigation Team
(4:13)
Today President George Bush announced 7 of the 9 members
who will serve on a commission to investigate what happened
to pre invasion intelligence that dubiously painted Iraq as
having weapons of mass destruction. The co-chairs of the committee
are former Democratic Governor of Virginia Chuck Robb and
Republican former US Court of Appeals Judge Laurence Silberman.
Bush said the commission will look at intelligence efforts
relating to weapons of mass destruction and other 21st century
threats. He said the commission will compare what the Iraqi
Survey Groups learns with the intelligence presented before
the invasion. Bush made no mention of examining how the White
House used the information. The deadline for the commissions
report is March 31st of next year, far after the elections.
Mitch Jeserich has more.
[top]
UN to Send Assessment Team to Iraq (3:17)
The United Nations may be sending a team to Iraq as early
as today to assess the feasibility of holding nationwide elections
by the end of May. The Bush administration favors a system
of hand-picked caucuses to select members of a provisional
Iraqi government, but Shiite clerics have objected to the
plan and called for direct elections. Publicly, the administration
is sticking to its July 1st timetable for what it says will
be a transfer of sovereignty. But UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan has questioned that deadline, and published reports
indicate the administration may be considering major changes
to its plan. Susan Wood has more from the UN.
[top]
Press Freedom Under Question in Britain
(3:23)
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today
released a report harshly criticizing the "abject failure"
of the Pentagon to adequately explain why journalists died
on the April 8th attack by United States military on a Baghdad
hotel filled with foreign journalists. The IFJ also declared
that the one year anniversary of the attack, April 8 of this
year, will be a day of mourning and protest over the killings
of journalists. The IFJ says the lack of investigation raises
serious questions about press freedom, among other issues.
Meanwhile in Britain, press freedom is also being hotly debated
as a result of the recent Hutton Inquiry report, which attacked
the BBC for it’s reporting, management and editorial
controls. FSRN’s Naomi Fowler reports.
[top]
4th Anniversary of Police Invasion During UNAM Strike
(4:10)
Today marks the fourth year since Mexican federal police
ended the longest student strike in the history of Latin America.
The strike began in April of 1999 in response to unconstitutional
attempts to charge tuition at Mexico's Autonomous National
University - the hemisphere's oldest and largest institution
of higher education. In the early morning hours of February
6, 2000 - hundreds of police took the central campus, surrounded
the auditorium where the General Strike Council held assemblies,
and arrested over 700 students. In Mexico City, Vladimir Flores
speaks to students who remember that day – because students
are concerned about retribution from the university and law
enforcement they asked not to be identified by their real
names in this report. FSRN Editorial guarantees the authenticity
of the students quoted.
[top]
Wall Street Grocery Worker Protests (3:52)
The picket lines that have greeted shoppers outside southern
California grocery stores since October spread to Wall Street
yesterday. The United Food and Commercial Workers and other
unions rallied outside the New York Stock Exchange, calling
on supermarket chains to give up their bid to squeeze hundreds
of millions of dollars of labor costs from grocery employees.
Pressure is mounting on the Albertsons, Kroger, and Safeway
supermarket chains, which have lost market share and a combined
billion dollars in sales since the strike and lockout began.
John Hamilton reports from New York's financial district.
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