Alistair Sparks on Wiretapping and Torture, Under Apartheid and Bush

Today we spend the hour with legendary South African editor and reporter, Allister Sparks on wiretapping and torture. He knew it well in apartheid South Africa. He talks about what it means for the U.S. today. And what does Jack Abramoff have to do with South Africa? In the 1980s, he was head of the pro-apartheid International Freedom Foundation in Washington. His counterpart in South Africa: Craig Williamson. Sparks sat on the Truth and Reconciliation hearings next to the man who lost his wife and daughter to a letter bomb that Williamson was involved in sending.

Allister Sparks gained fame as editor of South Africa's Rand Daily Mail in the late 1970s where he helped bring down a South African Prime Minister. He also helped expose the death of anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko at the hands of South Africa's security forces. In 1995, South African president Nelson Mandela appointed Sparks to the Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Sparks also founded the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism which has trained over 13,000 journalists from the African continent. He has written three books on South Africa, "The Mind of South Africa," "Tomorrow is Another Country," and "Beyond the Miracle."

I had a chance to sit down with Allister Sparks earlier this month in Doha, Qatar for an extended interview.

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/23/1454239