Flashpoints Nov 14: Vieques update; National Conference on Civil Rights; DU

Thursday, Nov 14, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: a former woman political prisoner and two Puerto Rican women activists talk about Vieques.. about this weekend's National Conference on Civil Rights at UC Berkeley.. the truth about military use of depleted uranium
-00:55 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: Virginia executes Pakistani former CIA agent.. commutation refused.. the executed was illegally abducted from Pakistan.. terrorist threat increases as result.. $1,500,000,000 today loaned to Pakistan for its support for the US war on terrorism.. the illusion of democratic rule weakened.. Argentina announces default on $95B in loans.. a third of Israel citizens live in poverty inspite of generous US aid.. Sharon says military to stay in Nablus for weeks.. code name: Night of Darkness.. in Ivory Coast rebels reject peace plan.. curfew in the capitol.. US House approves *Homeland Security*.. total information control.. Watergate felon John Poindexter now the the head snoop on Americans.. William Safire in todays NY Times wrote: every credit card purchase you make with, every bank deposit, every email you send will land in a government database, passport application, your whole lifetime paper trail
-07:00 Leslie Kean: people of Vieques continue to struggle to get the US Navy to stop bombing them.. now w Professor Deborah Santana of Mills College, Linda Evans, a former US political prisoner, and Nilda Medina, PR activist.. Nilda: people are organizing.. Deborah: the war on Iraq being used as an excuse for the Navy to hold on to Vieques.. Nilda: the people in Vieques see clouds of dust going into the mangroves.. they think it is to fight mosquitoes.. but the workers without any protection.. came out with disease.. then we realized it was depleted uranium.. Freedom of Information Act request.. napalm and chemical weapons used.. Deborah: the Navy has admitted to.. using agent Orange.. photos of tanks with holes in them.. (depleted uranium).. now w Linda Evans of the Center for Third World Organizing in Oakland.. spent 16 years in federal prison.. sentence commuted by Clinton in 2001.. Linda: the continuum continues.. now people are once again using the word 'imperialism' and recognizing modern fascism.. 'empire building' is term in favor.. about why Linda landed in prison.. the 8 actions she took.. co-defendent Marilyn Buck is still in prison.. how many political prisoners in the US?.. in Vieques hundreds of prisoners.. on the mainland many more, for different acts of resistance.. Linda: I have come out of prison recognizing we need to build a mass movement.. to engage our minds and imagination in new ways of struggle.. hundreds of thousands of people in the streets in Europe.. we need to look to them for leadership.. Event: Nidla and Linda and more at 'Sparks Fly-12', solidarity with women political prisoners, Sunday 4PM, Montclair Womens Cultural Arts Club, 1650 Mountain Blvd, info 415-824-3250, entertainers as well as speakers.. Nilda: we learned the importance of reacting peacefully.. we are asking for peace.. we can't ask with violence.. to teach the correct way to act (dharma).. the US Navy does not know what to do with us.. we're human shields.. we are there to stop the bombing.. our people may die protesting in the bombing area.. but God is with us.. nothing bad has happened to anyone of us.. we try to teach the Navy the way of peace.. they react with violence.
-25:40 Dennis: depleted uranium a highly toxic by-product.. one billion pounds of DU waste from the US nuclear energy program.. a factor in a variety of illnesses.. in vets from the Gulf War.. now w Dan Fahey, independent researcher.. Dan: DU is created by the uranium enrichment process.. the most highly radioactive uranium used in.. the leftover uranium is DU.. used by the military to make shells.. extremely dense.. used in armor piercing.. when shot at a high velocity will penetrate tanks.. used by US aircraft and tanks shooting at tanks.. use since expanded.. in Kosovo and in Bosnia shot only by aircraft.. about the dangers.. DU hazard is not in the stored shell, but when it is fired and hits a target, turns into dust.. hazard to soldiers and civilians in contact with the target or the area.. chemical toxicity due to its being a heavy metal.. causes cancer, nuerological problems, reproductive damage.. now many studies done.. more studies needed.. how have veterans been affected? one study, a small study looked at 50 vets the last ten years.. vets inside tanks that were hit by DU rounds.. .. civilians, especially children, affected.. more info: www.NGWRC.org
-38:17 Leslie Kean: Event: this weekend the National Conference on Civil Rights with emphasis on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.. registration Friday night UC Berkeley's Valley Life Sciences Building (map).. starting 6:30PM; info: click here or call 415-695-7745 or visit FreeMumia.org Leslie: now w organizers, Terry Bisson, Jeff Mackler, and on the phone, attorney Lynn Stewart.. Jeff: about the conference.. speakers, Amy Goodman, ILWU, Michael Franti, a representative from Cuba, Greg Wilholt, the ALCU, the NLG, Peltier Defence Committee, Earth First, many others.. more info; 415-695-7745 or visit FreeMumia.org.. Terry: about the biography I'm writing about Mumia.. more to him than just a crusading journalist.. a goofy kid, pretty wild, but a leader.. a national figure in the Black Panther Party at age 15.. Jeff: updates Mumia's case.. in state court.. the confession of Arnold Beverly.. court said innocence is no defence.. two other witnesses refute key police testimony.. and the court stenographer heard the judge say "I'm going to help them fry that nigger".. video made by one judge teaching prosecutors how exclude black jurors..
-48:25 Leslie: now w Lynne Stewart on the phone.. Lynne: I have been accused of conspiring to aid a terrorist organization on account of a press release I made on behalf of a client of mine, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (sp?).. a blind Egyptian cleric.. he was convicted of terrorism.. I was spied upon by the government.. our legally protected conversations taped.. the government has undermined the entire criminal justice system.. our trial date about a year from now.. we're travelling around, educating people.. Lynne: I'm speaking at the conference this weekend.. important for you to come out.. the media not giving us any help, but being together helps
-55:00 Leslie Kean: wrapup
-55:30 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2002 - Start Audio
-00:00 Dennis Bernstein: introduction: US and Britain want to redraw the map of the Middle East.. Israel continues to steal Palestinian Arab land.. Rainforest Action Network targets CitiGroup.
-00:48 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert: without conditions and unreservedly Iraq agrees to the new UN resolution in spite of "the evil it contains"; Bush pledges 'zero tolerance'.. Pakistani dictator creates a parlimentary figleaf.. CIA shooter, Mark Warner's execution protested by Pakistan.. Amnesty International.. 2 year old Palestinian boy killed in Gaza.. tanks and helicopters sweep into Nablus and Tulkarm.. Kofi Annan says Israel must give back stolen Arab land.. notes farmers shot dead, and reiterates support for Israel.. Helen Thomas speaks at MIT, says no other presidents ever wanted to go to war, Bush's preemptive war policy validates Japans attack on Pearl Harbor
-06:00 Dennis: in recent years Israel has stepped up its theft of Palestinian land.. now w Huwaida Arraf of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).. Huwaida: about the 'security fence' that Israel is building.. not being built along the internationally accepted 'green line'.. twice as high and as long as the infamous Berlin Wall.. will isolate and divide the most fertile Palestinian farmland.. bulldozers uprooting hundreds of trees in this little town.. 600 durnams to be taken for the wall.. 9000 more isolated.. 7 water wells.. Israel saying there will a gate you can go through.. permits, checkpoints.. red tape.. depressing to see hundred year old olive trees uprooted.. the farmers trying to replant them.. we have to live together.. Israel is sowing hatred.. some villages will be completely surrounded by an 25 foot high wall, with watchtowers.. horrendous, where your occupier has such total control.. in actuality imprisoned.. about the impact on families, and the fear here.. people here say how can this be happening.. farming communities.. worked on the land all their lives.. five men had heart attacks seeing 100 year old olive trees uprooted.. we can't get the mainstream media to focus on what is happening.. a hopeless feeling.. CATERPILLAR CORP BULLDOZERS.. people were on the land, protests.. blocking the bulldozers.. in less than 7 hours, another big action.. laying in front of bulldozers.. will chain ourselves to trees.. WE JUST WANT THE TRUTH TO BE KNOWN.. ISRAEL'S PLAN TO CUT US OFF FROM OUR LAND AND WATER.
-15:48 music break Dennis: according to sources in the British government.. US and Britain advocating redrawing the map of the Middle East.. welcome Flashpoints reporter, Sasha Lilly author of New Age of Empire.. Sasha: quoting the Rand Corporation presentation.. "taking the Saudi out of Arabia.. seizing the oil fields, and the holy sites of Mecca and Medina.. Iraq as the tactical pivot, Saudi Arabia as the strategic pivot, Egypt as the prize".. Scottish MP George Galloway says this plan is circulating at the highest levels in Londdon and Washington, DC.. partitioning.. George: the Iraqi war aims are much wider than the excuses given.. if free elections were held in Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden would win in a landslide.. the US wants to withdraw from most of Saudi Arabia, and redraw the boundaries.. most of the Muslims who live in the oil fields.. Saudi Arabia cannot let the US use its bases for an attack on Iraq.. the populace would rise up in anger.. like the Shah in Persia, the house of Saud will come crashing down.. the US and Britain thinking of fallback positions.. if they invade Iraq and install a puppet government, they can replace Saudi Arabia with Iraq.. Bush and Blair will not back down.. but it may go wrong.. the chicken hawks, always ready to fight to the last drop of someone else's blood.. the cost will be severe.
-25:20 Sasha: hawks in the US pushing for.. National Security Strategy.. Wolfowitz.. yelling at a Saudi diplomat that 'the gloves were off'.. a broad neo-conservative.. encourage Israel to attack Lebanon and Syria.. close ties to Turkey.. weapons contracts.. imperial non-Arab.. AEI.. Hudson Institute.. advocates ousting the Saudis.. Dennis Ross.. military and conservative media.. American Enterprise Institute.. 'Saudi Arabia and Terrorism' conference.. Institute for Middle East Policy.. David Price Jones.. Max Singer presentation.. a Muslim republic... Conrad Black, Hollinger Incorporated.. Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post.. Spectator.. advocates 'tear up that map.. now w Nassir Aruri. professor of Political Science at the University at Massachusetts in Dartmouth.. Nassir: a lot of literature coming out.. of Israel.. close coordination thinktanks in Israel and the US, Richard Perle.. about the *need* to reshape the Middle East.. done twice the last century already.. Iraq boundaries.. Palestine.. Hashimite dynasty.. 1958 in Iraq.. King Hussein's brother.. the so-called Iraqi opposition.. regime change.. unify Jordan and Iraq.. another scenario.. Iraq, with Turkey and Israel would then be the three pillars for the US.. what of the rest?.. Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia.. not many in the Arab world would shed tears for the regime in Syria.. Syria cooperating with the US.. most Arabs have no great love for Al-Quada, but don't want Syria helping Israel and the US.. Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad.. a growing literature out of Israel that Sharon wants to cleanse Palestine of the Palestinians.. under the cover of war on Iraq.. not an easy task, 3,000,000 people.. to Jordan.. but Jordan taking steps to stem the current flow of Palestinian refugees who cannot take the inhuman conditions.. but in war conditions? could Jordan stop it.. will there be resistance from Iraq to an invasion?.. Iraq is not Afghanistan.. Sasha: about Iran?.. Nassir: looking back to Bush I.. Iran identified as the 'real enemy'.. Bush now says containment has failed.. the key word is 'instability' in the Middle East.. America.. no longer leery of instability.. not like in the cold war.. this is changing.. the Arab leaders don't get it yet, they think if they cry 'instability', someone in Washington will lose sleep.. we're seeing a drastic revision of American foreign policy.. the Reagan Doctrine, the Carter Doctrine both going, going, gone..
-46:00 music break
-46:57 Dennis: in Wednesday's NY Times, an ad says 'someone is using your CitiGroup card without your permission.. with images of smokestacks, clearcutting.. paid for by RainForest Action Network.. now w Michael Bruin and Sarah Riggs.. Michael: CitiGroup the most environmental destructive bank, funding oil, timber projects.. fueling the chainsaws.. Sarah: they do actually have an 'enviromental' unit.. greenwashing.. PR.. about the ad.. (describes).. we're asking people to cut their credit card and sent it back to CitiCorp.. Dennis: Citi says you're speading false information.. Michael: not true.. most American want their last remaining old growth preserved.. even Citi top competitor has agreed to withdraw funding for old growth timbering.. but not Citi.. the only thing they are doing is looking at their own.. Sanford (Sandy) Weill the CEO, under heat recently for his own corporate scandals.. involved in all the other scandals.. also their own enviromental crimes.. at a shareholder meeting.. Sandy confronted time after time.. Actions you can take: check out our website.. write a letter of protest to CitiGroup.. cut your Citi card up and sent it to Sandy
-55:13 Mary Bishop: wrapup
-55:53 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

The War Prayer, (satire) by Mark Twain: "..help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst.. We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.". (read more)