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> Wed., Oct. 4, 2006
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Bush Administration Unwilling to Hold Talks with North Korea
Report Indicates Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda Are Fighting Proxy
War for U.S. in Somalia
The Return of Death Squads in El Salvador
FCC Holds Hearing in Los Angeles on Media Consolidation
Minimum Wage Increase Follows Candidates to the Ballots
FSRN Headlines
BUSH SIGNS DHS SPENDING BILL
President Bush signed an appropriations bill today that provides
the Department of Homeland Security with $34.8 billion in
discretionary funds. According to a statement released by
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, the Secure Border
Initiative has been funded at an unprecedented level, including
funding for "an additional 1,500 border patrol agents,
6,700 detention beds and $1.2 billion for border fencing,
vehicle barriers, technology and tactical infrastructure".
The government of Mexico had sent a diplomatic letter to the
White House on Monday, requesting that Bush veto legislation
to expand the construction of the wall along the common border.
DHS DATA MINING
The Dept of Homeland Security appropriations bill also allots
money for a data mining project which members of Congress
have asked the DHS's Inspector General to investigate. The
so-called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight
and Semantic Enhancement program - also known as ADVISE -
has raised questions among lawmakers about oversight of the
data mining program and its impacts on privacy rights. The
ADVISE program has been compared to a proposed Defense Department
project known as Total Information Awareness.
UPDATE FROM OAXACA
In Oaxaca, civil society groups and members of non-governmental
organizations have set up a peace camp in the esplanade a
UNESCO World Heritage site in downtown Oaxaca City to call
national and international attention to an impending military
and police offensive. Meanwhile, striking school teachers
and members of Oaxaca's popular movement have traveled once
again to Mexico City to dialogue with the Secretary of the
Interior. Vladimir Flores has the latest.
The delegations from Oaxaca had originally been called to
Mexico City for a forum to include business leaders, civil
society representatives, and Governor Ulises Ruiz. Earlier
this week, President Fox warned of serious consequences if
an agreement is not reached. But the Popular Assembly of the
People of Oaxaca and teachers decided in separate meetings
last night not to attend today's forum, but to instead request
alternative negotiations with the Interior Secretary to demand
a stop to the militarization of the state. This Oaxaca City
nursery school teacher, who did not want to give her name,
spoke about the general tension in the protest encampments
in light of military overflights and troop movements within
the state. (AUDIO teacher) "Yes, we're scared... but
we don't care - because if the federal police come in or the
Marines come in like they are already saying ... let them
come. It doesn't matter because if they come and they attack
us or carry out some strong act of provocation against us
- this is only going to get bigger. If they don't resolve
this, it's going to grow and there will be problems. We are
not going to just accept whatever they do to us. It's going
to extend further, to the national level." Many in Oaxaca
are nervous that the federal government may intervene with
force as early as tonight.
SRI LANKAN PEACE TALKS
The government of Sri Lanka today agreed to resume peace talks
with the Tamil Tiger rebels. This comes as increased violence
has threatened to drag the country back into a full-scale
civil war. The talks are scheduled to take place in Geneva
at the end of the month.
MORE ATTACKS IN NIGERIA
Seven people, including five foreign oil workers, were abducted
last night and two security guards were killed in the Niger
Delta region during two more attacks launched by militants.
Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
Three of the abducted oil workers are from Britain, while
the other two are from Indonesia and Romania. They were abducted
in Akwa Ibom State during a raid on a residential compound
which belongs to the American oil company, Exxon Mobil. The
attack coincided with another one in nearby Rivers State,
where militants abducted two soldiers guarding an oil installation.
Both attacks come only one night after militants killed five
soldiers escorting a convoy of supply boats belonging to the
Anglo-Dutch Oil Company, Shell Petroleum. The latest round
of violence shows the growing insecurity in the Niger Delta.
The region has one of the largest crude oil reserves in the
world. For Free Speech Radio News, this is Sam Olukoya in
Lagos.
THREATS IN THE WAKE OF LANDMARK HUMAN RIGHTS CONVICTION IN
ARGENTINA
After 17 days of searching, Buenos Aires provincial police
have hit a dead end in the hunt for a missing 77-year-old
witness whose gripping testimony of torture helped convict
a former police officer in the first junta trial since the
scrapping of an amnesty law. FSRN's Marie Trigona has more
from Buenos Aires.
No one has seen or heard from Julio Jorge Lopez since September
18, when he was last seen in his home in La Plata, 40 kilometers
from Buenos Aires. He went missing just hours before he was
slated to hear the conviction of a former police investigator
who was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against
humanity in the 1976-1983 dictatorship. Since Lopez's disappearance,
over 11 judges, the Buenos Aires Human Rights secretariat,
and the president of human rights group, Grandmothers of Plaza
de Mayo, have received threats. Most of the torture survivors
testifying in the ongoing trials against former figures from
the military dictatorship have entered witness protection
programs. Meanwhile, human rights organizations are pressing
for direct access to information into the provincial police's
investigation on the whereabouts of Lopez. The Association
of Ex-detainees and HIJOS (children of the disappeared) are
pointing to the provincial police with ties to the 1976-1983
military dictatorship for the kidnaping of Lopez. Human rights
groups will hold an exposure protest outside the Buenos Aires
provincial offices this evening. For Free Speech Radio News,
I'm Marie Trigona in Buenos Aires.
[top]
Bush Administration Unwilling to Hold Talks with
North Korea (4:20)
The international community has delicately responded to
North Korea’s threat to test a nuclear weapon. Some
experts say bi-lateral talks between North Korea and the US
could help tensions – but that’s a move the US
has rejected. As Washington Editor Leigh Ann Caldwell reports,
this would not be the first time the Bush Administration has
opted out of direct talks with an adversary.
[top]
Report Indicates Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda Are Fighting
Proxy War for U.S. in Somalia (5:45)
A new report by the influential London-based newsletter
"Africa Confidential" has alleged that Uganda, Ethiopia
and Kenya, with technical support from U.S. security firm
Select Armor, which is funded by the U.S. administration,
are being used to fight a proxy war in Somalia. Ethiopia,
a key U.S. ally, is reported to have already sent troops to
Baidoa in support of the weak Somali interim administration.
The U.S. has already been reported to have been the key backer
of a militia - the anti terror alliance that was ejected from
Mogadishu by the Islamists. FSRN’s Joshua Kyalimpa reports.
[top]
The Return of Death Squads in El Salvador
(4:00)
El Salvador’s notorious Death Squads have recently
reemerged to spread terror and murder. Death Squads are illegal
groups, active during and after the country’s civil
war in the 1980s, that targeted human rights defenders. They
were made up by elements of the army and police, but out of
the control of recognized institutions. Civil rights organizations
are demanding an investigation and an end to what they say
are the injustices that began with the civil war – pointing
out that Death Squads were granted legal protection and were
therefore never prosecuted for their crimes. The Salvadoran
government has remained silent, even amid an increase in murders
attributed to a group calling itself La Sombra Negra, or The
Black Shadow – a Death Squad active in the northeast
state of San Miguel. Ricardo Martinez reports from El Salvador
on the popular call to investigate today’s Death Squads.
[top]
FCC Holds Hearing in Los Angeles on Media Consolidation
(1:30)
The issue of increased media consolidation came under scrutiny
yesterday, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
held a hearing on the topic in Los Angeles. The FCC is reviewing
several broadcast ownership rules for the first time since
2003, when it relaxed many of the regulations concerning ownership
– including allowing one company to own both a newspaper
and a television station in one market. Many speakers attending
the hearing oppose the result, citing a lack of diversity.
Representative Maxine Waters.
[top]
Minimum Wage Increase Follows Candidates to the Ballots
(3:40)
Congress adjourned last week and will not reconvene until
after the November election. With many bills left behind in
Washington DC collecting dust, the issue of the mum wage increase
is following lawmakers to the ballot. FSRN’s Yanmei
Xie takes a look at the issue.
[top]
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