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> Thur., May 27, 2004
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Ashcroft Announces “Targeted Interviews”
Kissinger Records Released: Proof of Role in Allende’s
Assassination?
FARC 40th Anniversary
Sudanese refugees speak to FSRN
Washington Grocery Workers Negotiate for Better Contract
FSRN Headlines
Pentagon officials announced they are seeking to deny some
prisoners in Iraq protection under the Geneva Convention.
Adam Sharon reports from D.C.
Yesterday, Free Speech Radio News reported that Amnesty International
called the Bush administrations handling of the so-called
war on terror is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan categorically
dismisses those charges. McClellan said people in Afghanistan
and Iraq “did not have the kinds of protections that
we're used to in the United States, and now they do.”
U-S military officials have reportedly agreed to a tentative
offer with the Iraqi fighters in Najaf, hoping to end some
of the fiercest resistance to the occupation. David Enders
has more from Baghdad.
Key UN Security council nations, led by the Chinese are calling
on the U.S. and England to hand over more power to an Iraqi
interim government. Susan Wood reports from the United Nations.
Attorney General John Ascroft has exceeded his authority
by trying to dissolve Oregon’s state assisted suicide
law according to a federal appeals court decision. Robert
Jefferson from KBOO in Portland has more.
[top]
Ashcroft Announces “Targeted Interviews”
- 4:14
In response to so called intelligence indicating al-Qaeda
is poised to strike within the U.S., Attorney General John
Ashcroft announced that law enforcement officials will resume
interviewing selected people, likely from the middle eastern
community. This is the third batch of targeted interviews
since Bush's War on Terror began, and as Mitch Jeserich reports,
immigrant rights advocates worry that instead of finding terrorists,
it will be immigrants with visa violations who will be detained
and deported.
[top]
Kissinger Records Released: Proof of Role in Allende’s
Assassination? - 2:27
Newly released documents may provide answers to whether
Henry Kissinger committed perjury. A National Archives release
of Kissinger’s phone transcripts provides clues to US
involvement with General Augusto Pinochet’s regime in
Chile. Karen Mitchell reports from DC.
[top]
FARC 40th Anniversary - 5:10
Colombia’s armed forces have gone on heightened alert
as today marks the 40th anniversary of the country’s
largest rebel group – the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia, the FARC. This Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group,
of approximately 18,000 combatants is the oldest in the Americas.
It operates a large part of Colombia’s cocaine business
on various levels and is still a military force to be reckoned
with. Authorities are blaming the FARC and their anniversary
for the violence during this past week. Bombs have been detonated
in several parts of the country, including a disco-tech in
northwestern Colombia, killing at least 13 people and wounding
more than 100. From Bogotá Nicole Karsin takes a look
at the FARC and where they’re going.
[top]
Sudanese refugees speak to FSRN - 3:20
Warring factions in Sudan signed a peace agreement yesterday
ending more than twenty years of civil war, a war that has
led to more than two million deaths and displaced millions
of people. But signatories to that peace agreement are accused
of playing a role in another crisis going on in the western
Darfur region of the country, where reports are surfacing
of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Thousands
of the Sudanese refugees who escaped the violence are currently
in the United States. FSRN's Catherine Komp reports they are
joining a growing number of human rights organizations in
calling for an immediate end to the abuses.
[top]
Washington Grocery Workers Negotiate for Better Contract
- 5:17
Negotiators are off to a rocky start in their effort to
agree on a new contract for union grocery workers in the Northwest
with four corporate food chains. The bitter southern California
strike and lock out has sent an ominous tone for a contract
that traditionally defines pay and benefits for up to 25,000
workers at supermarket chains across Western Washington. The
United Food and Commercial Workers say proposals to cut health
care payments and lower wages for new workers are draconian
and will fundamentally alter grocery work. The union offered
a counterproposal this week. Meanwhile rallies on behalf of
the workers have become a regular part of the negotiating
landscape. Martha Baskin has our story.
[top]
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