Home > Programs
> FSRN
> Tue., Nov. 22, 2005
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
Thanks to FSRN.org
for making the daily programs available to Pacifica.org
Today's lead stories:
Jose Padilla Indicted
Growing Call for Iraq Withdrawal
Iraqi Immigrants in Jordan Feeling Unwanted
Hissene Habre’s Victims Seek His Extradition to Chad
Forest Recovery and Research Act in the Wake of Hurricane
Katrina
Louisiana State Legislature Cuts Public Services
FSRN Headlines
London's daily mirror broke an explosive story today: the
paper says transcripts of conversations between u.s. president
george bush and british prime minister tony blair in april
2004 show bush wanted to bomb the headquarter offices of arab
satellite television station al jazeera. Al Jazeera's facilities
have been hit by U.S. forces before: In 2001 Al Jazeera's
office in Kabul suffered a direct hit during the U.S. invasion
of Afghanistan; In November 2002, the same office was destroyed
by a US missile. In April 2003, an Aljazeera journalist died
when the station's Baghdad office was struck by a US bomb.
In all cases, U.S. officials claimed the destruction was accidental.
But the daily Mirror story casts fresh doubt on those claims.
Blair reportedly talked Bush out of the plan to bomb the station's
headquarters in Qatar. Now Blair's former defence minister,
Peter Kilfoyle, is challenging Downing Street to publish the
transcripts of Blair's conversations with Bush. .
At a peace conference sponsored by the Arab League and backed
by the United States, leaders of Iraq's Kurdish, Shiite, and
Sunni factions agreed to call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
From Cairo, Charles Levinson has more:
In Germany, conservative Angela Merkel takes power today
as the country's first female chancellor and its first leader
to grow up behind the Iron Curtain. Merkel will lead Germany—which
boasts the largest economy in the European Union--at the head
of an unlikely governing coalition between the left-wing social
Democratic Party and her own conservative Christian Democratic
Union. Merkel is expected to pursue a foreign policy more
supportive of the United States, but she had to make serious
compromises on her domestic agenda to secure election. Cabinet
posts are split evenly between the two parties, and one of
the only domestic policies they have agreed on is increasing
taxes. In a sign of rocky times to come, 50 out of the 448
lawmaker who make up Merkel's coalition voted against her.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has hinted strongly today
that his government is ready to build a new generation of
nuclear power stations. From London, Naomi Fowler reports:
Chile's Supreme Court has upheld the arrest of former Peruvian
president Alberto Fujimori, who's wanted in his country on
charges ranging from human rights abuses to corruption. Jorge
Garretón has more.
In Israel, the outgoing housing Minister has approved the
construction of more illegal housing units in the country's
largest West Bank settlement. Manar Jibrin has more:
The Housing Authority of New Orleans is drawing increasing
fire for keeping close to 60,000 residents of public and subsidized
housing away from their homes. Jenka Soderberg reports from
New Orleans:
[top]
Jose Padilla Indicted (1:42)
Federal authorities indicted Jose Padilla today, for "providing
- and conspiring to provide - material support to terrorists,
and conspiring to murder individuals who are overseas."
The charges for which Padilla has been indicted are not based
on the same charges that have kept him incarcerated as an
enemy combatant for the past three years. At a press conference
this morning US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales responded
to a question regarding this discrepancy in charges.
[top]
Growing Call for Iraq Withdrawal (3:17)
As we reported in the headlines, Iraq’s 3 major political
factions have called for the US to set up a time table for
when US troops will be withdrawn from Iraq. As the debate
on withdrawal intensifies domestically, some anti-war activists
are beginning to question why only three lawmakers in the
House of Representatives voted for the resolution calling
for withdrawal. Washington Editor Mitch Jeserich asks one
major anti-war group about its views on the current debate
in Congress and what it plans to do during this political
upheaval.
[top]
Iraqi Immigrants in Jordan Feeling Unwanted
(3:17)
Jordanian Public Sector State Minister, Taysir Samadi, said
that Jordan has provided Iraqis with training programs in
a range of fields, and that the country has put all its expertise
in administrative reform at the Iraqi’s disposal. The
announcement was made at a time when Iraqis are feeling unwanted
in Jordan after three Iraqi nationals carried out bombings
in Amman this month that killed 60 people. FSRN’s Oula
Farawati has more
[top]
Hissene Habre’s Victims Seek His Extradition
to Chad (4:06)
Human rights groups are pressing for the extradition of
Chad’s former President Hissene Habre, days before a
Senegalese court is to rule on whether to accept to hand him
over. Habre has found peaceful refuge in Senegal for the past
fifteen years, after a Chadian court charged him with the
murder of 40,000 people. The victim’s families, some
of whom are Senegalese, see the fate of the man the international
press has dubbed “The African Pinochet”, in the
hands of the Senegalese court, as some lobby groups are working
to counter his extradition. FSRN’s Ndiaga Seck reports
from Senegal.
[top]
Forest Recovery and Research Act in the Wake of Hurricane
Katrina (3:43)
Representative Greg Walden of Oregon has introduced the
Forest Recovery and Research Act, which is designed to expedite
the recovery of timber from public lands after “devastating
events” such as fire, insect infestation, blow-downs
or hurricanes. Environmentalists fear the bill will be another
strike to public participation in forestry decision, resulting
in more clear-cutting, with little chance of review. They
also say the bill’s supporters are using the tragedy
of Katrina to convince the public the bill needs to be passed
quickly in response to an emergency. Leigh Robartes has more.
[top]
Louisiana State Legislature Cuts Public Services
(2:52)
The Louisiana legislature cut $600 million from the current
year’s budget today. Much of these cuts are from health
care and education, and critics say that the move sets a precedent
for vastly reduced public services. Christian Roselund has
more from New Orleans.
[top]
|
Listen
to the show 
Help
stream
download
