Flashpoints Feb 13: ISMs Kristen Schurr witness in Bethlehem; Greg Palast speaks : Indybay

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Israeli Soldiers Conduct Palestinian Torture Lottery

Thursday, Feb 13, 2003 - Start Audio

-00:00

Dennis Bernstein: introduction: journalist Greg Palast about the Bush family business ties to Al Qaeda; and about what really happened in the 2000 Florida election.. Israeli colonizers carrying out midnight raids in Bethlehem..
-00:50

-05:37

Dennis: Israeli colonizers carrying out midnight raids in Bethlehem.. Jeeps and APCs roll in every night.. Israel destroying houses, arresting people.. now w Kristen Schurr of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).. Kristen:I've been in Bethlehem for the last two days, regularly I live in the Gaza Strip.. here further abductions, 9-10 people taken every night.. about the midnight raids, in the same house I am in now, 30 soldiers stormed in, pulled all the people out, came in and smashed everything, took measurements of the house, and told the peole they were coming back to demolish the home.. the family now homeless, afraid to return.. now shooting on the other side of camp.. loudspeakers shouting *CURFEW*.. to stay in your house is an act of resistance, to leave your house is an act of resistance.. in Gaza, the residents of Rafah Camp attacked.. shooting at anyone that moves.. here in Bethlehem, the soldiers calling out, saying, 'if we see you we will kill you'.. everyone is scared.. 12 jeeps in one area of the camp, people awake all night.. UNRWA talking about one million Palestinians starving to death in case of Iraq war.. building 60,000 small buildings in Jordan, transfer, kidnapping Palestinians and forcibly expelling them.. Dennis: the impact on the children?.. Kristen: right next to the house I'm in, I watched TV with a woman, whose husband was exiled after the Church of the Nativity.. the kids watching him on TV, kissing the TV.. a photo of him on the wall.. the kids were up all night, because of the soldiers circling around and all the noise.. kids in Manger Square, nothing to do, trying to turn over a demolished car.. they eat a lot of junk food.. a 60% rate of bedwetting, they are growing up terrified.. the parents can do nothing for their children.. one family, a new baby in the house, afraid what kind of life she will have.. people afraid of Iraq war.. TV shows Israel buying batteries and.. here kids play in the street.. fields plowed through by Israeli bulldozers.. the Israelis take the most fertile ground.. about the little alleyways in refugee campss, infrequent garbage pickup, people resorting to burning their trash, the kids playing in all this, there is nothing for them here.
-10:50 music break 'Trab' (meaning terror in Arabic) by Cheb Mami.
-11:20 Dennis: British journalist and author,

Greg Palast called 'the greatest investigative reporter of our time'.. Greg: I'm not trying to the greatest, but the most annoying;-).. Dennis: the Bush family connection to al Qaeda?.. Greg: about a story I wrote for the BBC, blacked out in the U.S.. American intelligence officials told me they were not allowed to investigate the bin Laden family before 9/11.. Why? the bin Ladens loaned the Bushes a lot of money, and saved their business.. and how do we know that Saddam has Weapons of Mass Destruction?.. because the Saudis gave 7 Billion dollars to Saddam to build a bomb.. in the 1980's.. George Bush Sn... the US provided the bomb parts to him.. Dennis: who won the Gulf War?.. Greg: the victory goes to Chevron.. we were told we were going to restore the democracy of Kuwait.. what we have now is a dictatorship every bit as brutal as Saddam's.. about George the First doing a big favor for Chevron vis-a-vis Kuwait, and Chevron then dumped half million dollars into the Republican election campaign.. Dennis: about a war for oil?.. about Hugo Chavez and Venezuala?.. Greg: I went to Caracus and interviewed Chavez and the men who kidnapped him.. the US press bound and gagged, completely taken the line that Chavez is unpopular.. why Venezuela?.. where is the big pool of untapped oil, that could offset burning oil fields in Iraq?.. Venezuela the key player in OPEC, so US trying to seize control of Venezuela.. even pro war Thomas Freidmann of the NY Times saying, 'hey it is about oil, why not come out and admit it?'.. a Fatwa issued against US citizens by Al Qaeda.. but not by Saddam.. because GW cannot face down a real threat (Osama), he is focusing instead on Saddam.. like a Three Card Monte player.. about the June 1999 meeting in Paris of major Saudi financiers, arms dealers and Al Qaeda.. why isn't the US investigating it?.. well, who was at that meeting?.. it includes people very close to the Bush family, deeply involved in oil business.. that doesn't mean Bush told Osama to attack NY.. but..... about the Khobal Towers bombing.. you can't investigate Al Qeada unless you follow the money.. and that leads to Bush's business partners..
-25:00

Dennis: excerpts from Greg Palast's new documentary, Counting On Democracy, about how Bush stole the US 2000 election.. [end of today's review].. Pacifia Network pledge drive, Please Support Free Speech Radio, make a donation today.. call 510-848-5732 or 800-439-5732
-59:00 Dennis: wrapup
-59:46 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003 - Start Audio

-xx:xx Dennis Bernstein: introduction: Barbara Lubin and Jeff Mackler, in studio to tell you about the massive peace marches and rallies this weekend.. this is National Poetry Against War Day, and we have poets, Aurora Levins Morales, and Deena Metzger to read and comment..
-00:00 Robert Knight and the Knight Report.. Robert:

Osama bin.. rides again.. Belgium ruling on war crimes: Sharon can be prosecuted after he leaves office.. IEAE rules against North Korea.. CIA chief says NK may have missiles that could reach the US.. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness project scrubbed by Congress.
-05:37 Dennis: mass marches and rallies around the globe this weekend..

Sunday in San Francisco, Saturday most everywhere else.. The World Stands Against Washington.. now w Jeff Mackler and Barbara Lubin

in studio.. Dennis: a bloody, bloody time in Palestine.. Barbara: while the world watches Iraq and Bush.. Palestinians under curfew, can't leave their home, kids can't go to school, not one Palestinian allowed into Israel to work in the last four days.. the UN running out of money to help Palestine.. our Middle East Childrens Alliance (MECA) is working with the Center for Disease Control.. sending three people to Palestine to study child nutrition.. unbelievable numbers of homes being demolished.. 10-12 homes a day in Hebron, and shops too.. and this great crazy wall being built, in the best Palestinian farmland, taking the farmland away from the Palestinians and putting it into Israel.. people afraid of transfer, but this transfer has been happening for the last two and a half years.. 10,000 Palestinian men and boys being held in the desert in prison.. Israel taking all the leaders, activists.. and the people being squeezed economically, so that those that can leave, are leaving for whereever they can go.. Dennis: anyway to 'delink' Iraq and Palestine?.. Barbara: without a just resolution of the Palestinian injuries, there will always be struggle in that part of the world.. and it is hard to look at the collusion of Israel with the US.. I believe in my heart, if the people in this country, had ten years ago or four years ago, stood up and spoke up for the Palestinians, the US wouldn't be marching into Iraq again.. Dennis: these mass murderers in Washington.. Jeff: we will have tens of millions of people across the globe in the street this weekend.. NY expecting 500,000 people.. people saying we don't accept this war.. we are not going to allow this government to commit more murder.. saying they intend to drop more bombs on Iraq than in the Gulf War, which they said was more than in Vietnam.. Robert Knight: I am here.. and there will also be a peace rally in Anarctica.. in NY, the a federal prosecutor lobbied against a march.. police studying how to break up the huge crowd into granular mobs.. Dennis: how will all those people get to the park?.. Robert: they will march:), and will be protests at the UN, other places.. we'll be there too, but quite difficult to secure communications, but we will do it, because we are Pacifica.. Dennis: our broadcast starts Saturday at 8AM.. Jeff: Our Sunday march in SF sponsoring by four big organizations.. speakers will include pro-Palestinians, pro-Israelis, Barbara Lee, Cecil Williams, Labor Council, .. we have rented two cranes, and a sound system where everyone can hear.. two simultaneous rallies, one at the Embarcadero 11AM- and Civic Center 1PM-.. Barbara: and on the 15th a big rally at the State Capitol.. I'll be there.. info on SF Sunday: 415-824-8730
-23:50 music break
-25:21 Dennis:

a couple weeks ago, Laura Bush canceled a White House poetry reading celebrating the poetry of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickensen, Walt Whitman, claiming poetry and politics don't mix.. "Deena

now w poet, Deena Metzger, author of Entering Ghost River, healing story teller.. and w poet Aurora Levins Morales, a Puerto Rican / Jewish activist, Flashpoints poet in residence.. Deena: it is exactly the poets who must speak out.. we have to learn how to stand by the word.. Aurora: the Bush family may be God's gift to "Deena

organizers.. I doubt anything could have gotten poets to mobilize so quickly, a lovely trumpet call.. Dennis: trying to organize poets, is like herding cats.. Deena, about your Eleventh Hour Stories.. Deena: the reason we Americans support Bush, is we don't know anything about war.. but who does?.. Vietnam vets for one.. survivors of Hiroshima for another.. Dennis: about the covering up of 'Guernica' in the UN when Powell gave his speech the other day.. Aurora: a painting by Picasso of one of the first bombing of civilian areas, banned in Spain for a while, Powell couldn't stand the comparison.. after 9/11 I been calling people like Barbara Lubin, and asking what king of poetry do you need for your events, and taking assignments.. Deena: about Sam ^^^^ invited to the White House.. I feel that the way to stop this war, is a consciousness to develope across the globe, for people who know what suffering is to speak out.. this is the invitation: (she reads).. Deena reads one of her Eleventh Hour Stories.. Aurora: wow, a very powerful story.. one of the ways I've been able to write about what is going on in Israel Palestine.. she reads: What Speaks?.. now reads another, called Memorial.. Deena: I am holding onto radical hope, that this war will not happen.. something unprecedented is happening in the world.. it will make a difference.. I call on Spirit to be with us, to work through us.. Aurora: I ossilate between great fear and great hope.. 'they have more death than we, but we have more life than they'..
-54:32 Marvelous Mary Bishop: wrapup
-55:07 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart