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> Thu., Aug. 21, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Immigration Heating Up Again on Capitol Hill
30th Anniversary of Orlando Letelier’s Assassination
Judge Overturns Bush’s Roadless Rules
West Papuan Activist Caution Australia-Indonesia Security
Treaty
NATO’s Commander Reports to Senate Foreign Relations
Committee on Afghanistan
Critics Say Maoists Intimidating Schools in Nepal
FSRN Headlines
CIVILIAN DEATHS IN IRAQ
The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq has documented that more
6500 Iraqi civilians were violently killed during the months
of July and August - with over 5000 killed in Baghdad alone.
The most recent report released by the human rights office
of the UN mission in Iraq lists gruesome cases of torture
of Iraqi detainees. Signs of torture on detainee's bodies
include: broken bones, wounds to the head and genitals, and
burns caused by cigarettes and electric shocks. Baghdad's
Medico-legal Institute reports having received bodies bearing
signs of severe torture, including chemical burns, missing
eyes, and wounds caused by electric drills and nails.
DETAINEE TREATMENT GUIDELINES
Meanwhile, the US House Judiciary Committee has approved the
White House's guidelines on detainee treatment. The Administration's
language would alter the US interpretation of the Geneva Conventions
and make outlawed interrogation practices retroactively legal.
MAHAR ARAR
Canadian Mahar Arar, who says he was tortured as a terrorist
suspect after his 2002 deportation to Syria, wants an apology
from the US for its roll in his case. FSRN's Alison Benjamin
has more.
MARCH FROM OAXACA TO MEXICO CITY
Teachers and activists in Oaxaca, Mexico today began to march
on foot from the state's capital to Mexico City. Vladimir
Flores reports from Oaxaca City.
EVICTION IN ARGENTINA
Police in Argentina today violently evicted families taking
over land for a housing project in Buenos Aires. Marie Trigona
has more.
[top]
Immigration Heating Up Again on Capitol Hill (2:53)
Immigration has once again become the topic of discussion
in Washington. The Department of Homeland Security announced
that Boeing won a major contract for border technology. And
in Congress, both the House and the Senate are attempting
to tighten control of the border. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell
reports.
[top]
30th Anniversary of Orlando Letelier’s Assassination
(3:35)
30 years ago today, on the 21st of September 1976, Orlando
Letelier, a former member of Chilean socialist President Salvador
Allende’s government, was assassinated. Letelier and
his colleague at the Institute for Policy Studies, Ronnie
Karpen-Moffitt, were car bombed in the streets of Washington,
D.C. by Chilean agents working under dictator General Augusto
Pinochet. Letelier served under Allende until the 1973 U.S-backed
coup staged by Pinochet resulted in the death of Allende and
the ouster of his government. After the coup, Letelier was
arrested and tortured. Upon his release in 1974, he and his
family moved to Washington D.C., where he was killed in what
was the first international political assassination on U.S.
soil. Kristy Li Puma Herrera with Selina Musuta report on
the 30th anniversary of Letelier and Moffitt’s deaths.
[top]
Judge Overturns Bush’s Roadless Rules
(3:47)
A federal judge in San Francisco threw out the Bush Administration’s
rules for managing roadless national forest land yesterday,
and re-instated the long-contested Clinton-era roadless rule.
The Clinton rule effectively bans logging, mining and road
building on 58.5-million acres of forest service land –
about one-third of the national forest land base. Leigh Robartes
reports.
[top]
West Papuan Activist Caution Australia-Indonesia
Security Treaty (4:20)
Australia's relationship with its close neighbor Indonesia
- both past and present – is being examined by two West
Papuan independence activists who are currently in Australia.
Willem Zonggonau and Clemens Runawery are both former West
Papuan politicians who have been living in exile to neighboring
Papua New Guinea since 1970. They're currently in Australia
to protest against a planned security treaty with Indonesia,
which they say will have a devastating impact on their homeland's
ongoing independence movement. FSRN’s Erica Vowles has
this story.
[top]
NATO’s Commander Reports to Senate Foreign
Relations Committee on Afghanistan (2:05)
Several key Senate Democrats signaled today that they fully
back operations in Afghanistan by the US and its allies. Yanmei
Xie reports from the hearing room, where NATO’s top
commander testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee.
[top]
Critics Say Maoists Intimidating Schools in Nepal
(3:18)
The end of royal autocracy in Nepal in April promised democracy,
whetting hopes that people's fundamental human rights, including
those of children, would be guaranteed. But some say that
progress on human rights is reversing, citing Maoist rebels
are the worst violators of these rights. Maoists ordered hundreds
of schools in Kathmandu and nearby towns to send their students
to a 3-day convention this week of the Maoist-led Nepal National
Independent Students Union Revolutionary. Student’s
non-attendance could have meant dire consequences for the
school’s management. PC Dubey reports from Nepal, there
the government has turned a blind eye to the activities.
[top]
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